The Equine Scrolls: SkyFiM

by FireOfTheNorth

Rating: teen
Tags: Original Character, Adventure, Crossover, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 413276

The Alicorn Empire has broken apart, the dragons are returning, and war looms on the Horizon. It is in times like these that heroes are needed. The unicorn Sapphire never wanted to be a hero, but destiny never asks what one wants.[Skyrim Crossover]

Note on Introduction, Note on Elder Age, and Prologue in description below. Please read before diving in.
[Warning: There may be spoilers in the comments. Read at your own risk.]

In a time long before Equestria was discovered, the Alicorn Empire ruled the region known only as the Northlands. Life was good, until the Alicorn Empire broke apart, and pony turned against pony. In this volatile time, the unicorn Sapphire must learn to survive in the territory of Horizon and beyond, and discover her true potential. For a storm is coming, carried by dragon wings, that threatens to wipe out ponykind’s way of life. The Equine Scrolls: SkyFiM, explores a long-forgotten land much like Tamriel from the Elder Scrolls in a time period similar to the time of The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. Only this time, in this world, the stakes are much greater.

Book 1
Act I: An Unfamiliar Land (Chapters 1-9)
Act II: A Hero's Call (Chapters 10-20)
Act III: Saving Steadfast (Chapters 21-26)
Act IV: The Search For Power (Chapters 27-32)
Act V: To End a Dragon (Chapters 33-45)
Book 2
Act VI: Elements of Legend (Chapters 46-54)
Act VII: War That Brings Peace (Chapters 55-69)
Act VIII: Child of Darkness (Chapters 70- 79)
Act IX: To Make an End (Chapters 80 - 87)

Map of the Northlands
Map of Northlands (with all markers)

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Note on "pre-Chapters": The story itself begins in the Prologue, though reading it is not necessary to understand the story; it just provides the events immediately before the main storyline. The Introduction is a brief description of the world the story is set in and the main events that shaped it. For a more thorough description of the Northlands and its culture consult the Note on the Elder Age. It is not a required read to understand the story, but it explains the religion, governments, and cultures of the different pony factions at the time, as well as the differences in the acquisition of cutie-marks in more detail.

Published 2013-12-23 23:20:02 UTC
Last updated 2016-03-09 04:19:47 UTC

Note on the Elder Age

A Note on the Elder Age

The world of ponies was very different during the long-forgotten part of their history known only as the Elder Age. It was a brutal and ruthless time, when ponies were torn apart by hatred and danger lurked on every path. Throughout the four eras of the Elder Age, society changed little in comparison to the great upheavals that would take place in later ages. Thus, the setting was far different than modern Equestrian society. Four of the major differences are highlighted here, concerning religion, society, government, and the acquisition of cutie-marks.

I.
On Religion

During the Elder Age, a pantheon of gods and goddesses existed that would later be forgotten by ponykind. The Eight Equines were the first collection that existed. The Eight Equines were formed over many years from ponies that had ascended to a higher state, all of them previously unicorns or pegasi. These godlike alicorns were not technically deities, only ponies much more powerful that the common breed that existed across the Northlands. Nevertheless, many ponies chose to worship them, building shrines to them both in towns and in the wilderness in between. The Equines themselves admitted that they were not gods, but did not discourage the worship heaped upon them by the masses. Their dwelling place, the realm of Aetherius, a city made of clouds and silver, and believed to be the final resting place of the souls of unicorns, did nothing to dispel the rumors of their godhood.

At the end of the Second Era and the beginning of the Third, the pantheon was changed with the addition of Talhooves, an earth pony who managed to drive the dragons from the Northlands, and became the first Alicorn Emperor. When he died, he experienced a transformation that allowed him to join the Eight Equines in Aetherius, and the Nine Equines were created. However, for centuries the pegasi (who had lost greatly in the wars Talhooves led when he inhabited the world) contested his place as the Ninth Equine, and finally got their wish at the end of the Great War. With the signing of the White-Gold Concordat, worship of Talhooves was banned throughout the Unicorn Empire, inciting the Earth Ponies of Horizon to rebellion over the removal of their patron deity.

But not all ponies worshipped the Nine (or Eight) Equines. Some chose to follow the Draconequus of The Beyond, a practice both repulsed and banned. The followers of the Draconequus cults are forced to practice their religion either in secret, or far outside of towns. A fairly new organization, the Vigilants of Steedarr, seeks to destroy Draconequus worship wherever they find it.

II.
On Society

The Elder Age was a time of transition for the society of ponykind. The matriarchal society of Equestria was not yet in place during the Elder Age, but became prevalent after the exodus into Equestria. Instead, each of the three pony races had a separate society.

The unicorns held to the ancient patriarchal society of previous ages. As a result, throughout the Alicorn Empire before its fall, and in the province of Unicornica afterwards, stallions were seen as the superior gender. The emperorship would always be passed down to a male descendent, and all the emperor’s advisors, and the counts that governed the land, were stallions.

In sharp contrast, the pegasi had already adopted a matriarchal society by the end of the Elder Age. Their belief in the superiority of the mare was another thing that drove a wedge between the Pegasari Dominion and the Unicorn Empire. As a result of their beliefs, the majority of high-ranking military officials, and almost all government officials in the Dominion were mares.

The third race, the earth ponies, embraced neither side’s societal patterns. Instead, earth pony beliefs held that mares and stallions were equal, both able to act out equivalent duties. This is evident in both the Horizon military (where about an equal number of mares and stallions can be found holding each rank) and their government (where the number of male and female Jarls is roughly the same.)

III.
On Government

As opposed to modern Equestria, which is ruled by a set of Alicorn Princesses, at the tail end of the Elder Age, there was no one government uniting the three pony races. The Alicorn Empire had long served that purpose, but with the death of Mystica, ponykind was no longer united. The three races each held their own, and very different governments.

The unicorns held with the old imperial monarchy even after the fall of the Alicorn Empire. From the Imperial City, the Unicorn Emperor ruled the province of Unicornica, and attempted to hold the province of Horizon in line. The government of the Unicorn Empire resembled that of the Alicorn Empire immensely. The Unicorn Emperor had absolute control over the Empire, so long as the Equine Council agreed he wasn’t overstepping his bounds. The Equine Council was formed of the counts of Unicornica (who ruled the eight counties of the province) and the Jarls of Horizon who still remained loyal to the Emperor. After listening to the ruling of the Equine Council, the Emperor would make his decisions in the best interest of the Empire.

The pegasi of the Pegasari Dominion held with a completely different government. After overthrowing the monarchy during the nation’s founding, the military came to be the governing body of the country. Service in the military forms the backbone of pegasi society and the country is ruled by a military council. In an emergency, the Pegasari High Commander can even suspend freedom temporarily.

Horizon’s government, while currently in turmoil, has remained the same for thousands of years. The territory is broken into nine Holds, each controlled by a Jarl who rules several small towns and the land in between from the Hold capital. The Jarls remain in a state of constant distrust with their neighbors, but banded together to keep their land from falling to foreign control. A High King or High Queen selected from among the Jarls rules the land. At the end of the Elder Age, Horizon was involved in a civil war sparked by the assassination of the High King by Jarl Stormcloud. Stormcloud and his followers control roughly half the territory and have seceded from the Unicorn Empire. The other half of the land is loyal to the Empire, and combats the Stormclouds at every chance. Both sides are pushing for complete control of Horizon, but have reached a stalemate.

IV.
On Cutie-Marks

In the Elder Age, even the most constant event throughout a pony’s life, the acquisition of the mysterious and elusive cutie-mark, was different than the Modern Age. Being a much more brutal time, even young foals had little time to search for their purpose in life while trying to survive and help support the family. In this age, the cutie-mark appeared much later in a pony’s life. Once a pony reached a certain age, they would try out apprenticeships with different ponies in the town in an attempt to discover their special talents, and their cutie-mark. The acquisition of a cutie-mark was a turning point in a pony’s life, the point at which they would begin to be considered an adult. Most ponies would not receive their cutie-marks in their foalhood, but rather in their later teenage years (16-17.) Anypony who hadn’t received their cutie-mark by that point were usually shunned as social outcasts and expected to amount to no more than beggars.

Prologue: A Dark and Stormy Night

Prologue: A Dark and Stormy Night
“You’re not supposed to be here!”

Nopony took the Pale Pass anymore.

I kept reminding myself of that fact as I crept through the mud in the dark. Every so often a lightning strike would illuminate the night, allowing me to see where I needed to place my hooves to avoid being washed away. I was certainly leaving an easy to follow trail in the damp and spongy earth, but there was no better time to make my escape than tonight.

The storm that sprung up so suddenly reeked of pegasi mischief, but it was the perfect cover I needed. Anypony who ventured out into this downpour had to be either crazy or incredibly stupid. Or, like me, were trying to get away with something illegal. This rain would surely keep the town guards indoors, curled up around their fire with “confiscated” bottles of wine. Much to my pleasure I saw Dunnard as I stole through Kvatch, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. And if he was in town, nopony was guarding the entrance to our local mountain pass.

I gathered all the supplies I could and embarked into the tempest. Sure enough, the pass was unguarded and offered a direct escape into the Horizon province. It would be as good a place as any to start a new life. And, being engulfed in civil war, they could probably use as many capable fighters as possible. And I believed I at least had enough experience in combat to make a decent living.

A particularly nasty gust of wind blew the frigid drops into my face. Each felt like an icy miniature knife cutting into my flesh. I pulled the hood of my cloak closer around me. Enchanted to resist both water and cold, it had been doing an admirable job of keeping me warm and dry so far. But, somehow the rain would always find a way to enter through the one place it didn’t cover.

I almost stumbled down a steep embankment when an eerie wailing sound cut through the storm. Could it be that the myths about ghosts haunting this pass were true? I realized that it was only the wind blowing through the twisted branches of dead trees. But I understood why nopony wanted to use this pass anymore. Besides leading to a land currently embroiled in war, the wailing of the wind in the dead branches had given way to an innumerable amount of myths about ghosts.

The wavering light of a torch came into view in the distance. I had completely forgotten that there was a guard at the other end of the pass as well. But I had come this far and I wasn’t turning back now.

As I got closer I could see that the torch wasn’t being held or levitated, but was mounted in a bracket at the checkpoint. There was nopony to be seen around, but I wasn’t taking any chances and crept into the brush as I passed the circle of torchlight.

Just in the nick of time too, as I crouched in the undergrowth the sound of several hooves reached my ears. I hid in the grass as best I could and waited for them to pass.

“I’m not going through that pass,” I heard the gruff voice of a stallion say.

“Keep your voice down, Bereloth,” a mare’s voice whispered in the darkness, “Do you want to alert the Imperials to our presence?”

“Have you all forgotten what they say about this pass?” Bereloth spoke more quietly, but not by much, “How it’s haunted by the tortured souls of the soldiers who died here!”

“I’ve been through this pass before,” a charismatic stallion’s voice with a thick Horizon accent said, “It’s not haunted, but if you are afraid to continue, you can go back and turn yourself over to the Imperials Bereloth.”

“Of course not, my Jarl,” Bereloth said, “I will follow.”

Hoofsteps resumed on the path, but were quickly interrupted by the whooshing of arrows. Somepony cried out at the same time I heard an arrow bury itself in flesh.

“Imperial ambush!” the Jarl cried out, accompanied by the ringing of steel as swords were drawn.

I couldn’t see anything from my hiding place but the shifting shadows cast by ponies running around frantically in front of the torch. The clashing of steel on steel filled the air as the group met resistance. The bodies of armor-clad ponies rushed past me, mere hooflengths from my hiding place.

As I turned to try to wriggle away from the fight I caught the glimpse of a unicorn in Imperial Legion armor. Her hoof came down on my head and the world went black.

Chapter 2: Nothing is Ever Free

Chapter II: Nothing Is Ever Free
“Everything’s for sale. And I do mean everything.
Why, if I had a sister, I’d sell her in a second.”

After Bereloth took off, I consulted my map. I could see where Hoofgen was, and I knew I was near Hoofgen, but other than that, I had no idea where I was. Riverwood, however, was extremely close. Bereloth had offered me a chance to stay there, at some place called the Riverwood Trader. It was the best place to start. But how I was to get there, I had no clue.

A path ran between Hoofgen and Riverwood, so I figured the best course to take would be to head west until I found the path. The sun had not yet reached its zenith, so I set out with its warmth shining on my hindquarters.

Though Horizon lay mostly to the south of Unicornica, it was surprisingly more frigid. Somewhere I had read it had something to do with the multitude of mountains or something, but I hadn’t paid it much mind. All I knew was that I felt lucky to have this fur-lined armor.

No snow was falling here, but I felt a chill in the air nonetheless. I wouldn’t relish exploring the more frigid regions of the earth pony homeland.

It was easy travelling, the hills here sloping slightly downwards. I would be on my way to Riverwood in no time. That is, if I hadn’t been delayed.

I would’ve been caught completely unaware by the wolves if their howling hadn’t alerted me. I barely had my war axe unsheathed before one came charging out of the timber at me. A quick slash at its throat stopped it cold.

Three more ran up to me, forming a rough circle. I launched a ball of fire at one, but it was too quick and jumped to the side before turning toward me. It lunged at me with its claws as I stabbed it in the back with my axe.

I bucked it in the chest before it could bite me, sending it flying. When it came back at me, I bashed it in the nose before sinking my axe into the top of its head.

Another jumped at me, growling, but stayed out of the reach of my axe. I jumped back as it gave a swipe of its claws at my forelegs. Jumping back forward, I slashed at its side. Giving a whine, it died.

The last one jumped on my back while I was preoccupied with its companion. Snarling, it sank its teeth into my shoulder. I gave a cry and threw the beast off. As it ran back at me, I sank my war axe’s blade into the side of its face.

Now that I was safe for the moment, I tended to my injured shoulder. His teeth had sunk in, but not too deep. Even so, the blood was staining my light gray coat a dark red. I drank down a potion of minor healing I had picked up at the Imperial garrison and the wound healed itself up.

Giving a shiver to dispel the unearthly feeling of healing, I wiped my blade off in the grass. Looking up, I saw I was not alone.

Through the trees I could see a forest green earth pony. Strapped to his front was an apparatus that would let him hold and fire a bow while keeping his hooves free. Held in his teeth was an arrow that was drawn back to point at me.

“What do ya think you're doin’?” he asked with a thick Horizon accent, “I hunt these woods.”

“I’m not hunting,” I said, trying to keep the pony with the ability to end my life calm, “These wolves just attacked me. You can have them if you want.”

“Yer not from around here, are you?” he asked, lowering his bow.

“No,” I said, “I’m from Unicornica.”

“An Imperial?” he asked raising his bow back up.

“No,” I said, “I was captured by the Imperials. They were going to execute me at Hoofgen. I just escaped from there.”

“Escaped from the Imperial garrison a’ Hoofgen?” he asked skeptically, “A wee pony like yerself?”

“Well, there was a dragon attack,” I said. It was the truth, and the truth would just have to be good enough.

“Dragons, eh?” he laughed, dropping his bow completely, “All right, have it your way stranger. I won’t get in the way of wherever yer goin’”

“Do you know how to get to Riverwood?” I asked the hunter-pony.

“Path’s right past that big pine back there,” he said, motioning over his shoulder, “Just follow it north along the river.”

“Thanks,” I said, taking off in the direction he pointed out.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

The hunter-pony hadn’t led me astray. The path was just past the tree and down a steep embankment. Following the path, I soon found myself walking along a gently flowing river. In the shimmering water, I could see salmon swimming around.

It was so tranquil as I walked along the path. Butterflies flapped through the air around me. A deer took off at my approach, disappearing into the woods. Unfortunately, the tranquility was not to last.

As I rounded a bend I heard the ring of a sword being pulled from its sheath. Pulling out my war axe, I searched for the source. Three Imperial soldiers were standing down the path with a Stormcloud prisoner. Two of the soldiers charged me, swords drawn.

“Die, Stormcloud scum!” one of them yelled.

What? Why would they think I was a Stormcloud? Oh, right, the armor.

I threw up my axe just in time to stop her blade from hitting my head. Giving a twist I knocked her sword away and swung my axe at her. It hit her shoulder, but glanced off her armor. Swinging her sword around, she knocked my axe away from her.

I was forced to jump back as her sword came back up toward me. Her next swing came close to decapitating me, but I had plenty of time to block with my war axe. I smashed my axe against her sword repeatedly until her block was broken and I sank my blade into her neck.

I noticed the Stormcloud prisoner had attacked the soldier left guarding him. He smashed in the guard’s skull and began to cut his bonds with his sword. But, where was the other soldier?

I jumped to avoid his slash from behind, but still took a cut on my hindleg. I bucked at him to buy time before swinging around. I wrapped a bandage around my wound before levitating my war axe back up.

Wiping the blood from his nose where I’d kicked him, he leapt at me swinging his sword. I blocked with my axe, and twisted the sword out of his magical grasp. I buried the blade of my axe between his forelegs. Choking blood out through his mouth, he fell to the ground as I pulled the axe out.

I felt the blade of a sword against the back of my neck. What was this? I thought all the Imperial soldiers were dead. I turned my head slightly to see the blade was held by the Stormcloud prisoner I had freed.

“You’re no Stormcloud, unicorn,” he spat out, “You dishonor this uniform.”

I spun my war axe around and knocked the sword away from me. The impact jarred his mouth, but didn’t hurt him. He grunted angrily as I spun around.

Leaving me no time to explain myself, he slashed the sword at my forelegs. I jumped up and swung my axe at his head. He ducked, but tried to sweep my legs out from under me again. This time I jumped and landed on his sword, pinning it to the ground. As he tried to pull it out, I buried the axe in his forehead.

I picked up the sword and examined it. I already had an Imperial sword, but it was still a nice weapon, and probably worth a good amount of coin. I sheathed it and put it in my saddlebags. I also looked over the bodies of the dead soldiers and found a small amount of gold coins and a few healing potions. One even had a jeweled amulet on I would be able to sell for a few coins.

I pulled the bodies off the road and into the brush before continuing along the path. Hopefully I would be able to make it to Riverwood without any more interruptions.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

The entrance to Riverwood looked surprisingly like the entrance to Hoofgen. Except that there was no gate built into the walkway over the road, and no guards were walking on it. It seemed to be a peaceful town. Ponies trotted around greeting their neighbors as chickens walked freely in the streets.

It wasn’t a large town, not even as big as Hoofgen. The main street (and only street) was lined on both sides with a smithy, an inn, a trading post, and small houses. Off the main street and against the river there was a lumber mill.

“Welcome traveler,” somepony called out to me.

I waved back in greeting and continued through the town. Ponies sure were friendly here.

“Stormcloud scum,” another said, spitting at my hooves.

Well, some ponies were friendly. I had to get out of this Stormcloud armor before it got me in trouble.

“A dragon!” I heard somepony yell out.

Oh no. The dragon had come to Riverwood now! I looked up at the skies, but they were clear.

“I tell you, I saw a dragon!” I heard the pony call out again.

“Get back inside mother,” a buck said, pushing his elderly mother, who was making the racket about the dragon, inside their home.

Without wanting to seem like a crazy pony, I walked on and said nothing. The hunter back in the woods already thought I was crazy for believing in dragons, I didn’t need the whole town of Riverwood thinking the same thing.

It wasn’t hard to find the Riverwood Trader. A great big wooden sign with the name hung out front. It was also the largest (and only two-story) building in the town. Tentatively, I pushed the door open.

“Hello?” I asked; hoping somepony was here.

“Welcome to the Riverwood Trader,” a lively stallion said, emerging from the back room, “Anything I can help you with, my friend?”

Now I had to admit, I wasn’t sure exactly what I was doing at this point. Bereloth had said to stop here if I ever wanted to stay the night, but it was barely past noon. I settled with getting whatever I could.

“Supplies, directions, I’m not sure,” I admitted, “Bereloth told me I could stay here if I wanted.”

“Bereloth?” a slightly less lively mare said, emerging from the back room to join the stallion, “You’ve seen my son? Is he all right? We haven’t received word from him in a fortnight.”

“He was fine when we parted ways,” I explained, rather uncomfortably, to these strangers, “We escaped from Hoofgen together.”

“Escaped?” the mare asked.

“The Imperials were going to execute us, but a dragon attacked the town first.”

“A dragon?” the stallion asked skeptically.

“I know it’s crazy,” I said, “But it really happened.”

“By Buckatosh, it’s really happening,” he said, “The prophecies were right.”

“Prophecies?” I asked.

In response, he pulled a book down from a shelf behind the counter. As he opened it up, I realized it was the same book that was in my saddlebags. The Book of the Dragonborn.

“And the Scrolls have foretold, of black wings in the cold,” he read.

“That when brothers wage war come unfurled,” his wife continued.

“Alduin, Bane of Kings, ancient shadow unbound.”

“With a hunger to swallow the world.”

Okay, I still didn’t get it, even after their chant. He must’ve seen my expression, for he began to explain.

“Alduin, the world-eater, the most powerful dragon ever, has returned. If he is not stopped, he will consume everything.”

That certainly didn’t sound good. But what could I, just one pony, do about it? Bereloth’s parents had already decided that for me.

“Here,” the mare said, tossing me a set of proper saddlebags with some food and a few potions already in them, “You must warn the Jarl about this threat.”

“Jarl who?” I asked as I put my belongings in these new saddlebags.

“Jarl Valor’s Blade in Whitetrot,” she explained, “Tell him Eruthar sent you. He’ll believe me.”

“How do I get there?” I asked, a bit alarmed that events were spiraling out of my control.

“Follow the road north-west out onto the plains. You can’t miss it, it’s a big city on a hill.”

“But,” the stallion said, looking me up and down, “We may want to get you some different armor first.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

That’s how I found myself setting out yet again in the same day for someplace I had no idea how to get to. Sure, it couldn’t be too hard to get to Whitetrot, the road was clearly marked, but I didn’t why I was doing this in the first place.

Sure, I was in debt to Bereloth, both for him saving me in Hoofgen, and for him offering me lodgings. And this dragon was a pretty big deal. After all, it was the first dragon seen in the Northlands since the reign of Talhooves. And if what Bereloth’s father said was correct, this particular dragon meant to devour all of the known world. But that still didn’t explain why I was hiking through the wilderness to warn the Jarl.

My whole plan for leaving Unicornica involved laying low here in Horizon, where ponies wouldn’t recognize I was a blank flank. Approaching the Jarl of Whitetrot certainly didn’t seem like laying low.

As I left the mountains and entered the plains, I caught sight of the great city. Just as Eruthar had said, it was built on the only hill for leagues around. A multitude of buildings were clustered within the protective wall, climbing up right to the base of the palace that topped the mound.

As I climbed down into the plains, I found I was not alone on the path. Two unicorns wearing fine clothing were trotting at a leisurely pace, flanked by two Imperial soldiers.

“I don’t know why she can’t have her wedding in the Imperial City,” the mare complained, “Instead she makes us travel out here to the backside of the world.”

“She’s Golden Bullion,” the stallion said, “She does it because she can.”

“The least she could do is provide passage on a ship to get here,” the mare responded, “Or not expect us to arrive so early and wait for the preparations to be finished.”

“Look on the bright side,” the stallion said, “She’ll have to provide days, if not weeks of free food and lodgings for us, along with nightly parties.”

I paid them no mind and passed by, getting looks from the soldiers, but nothing more. At the Riverwood Trader I had traded in my Stormcloud armor for a set of simple leather armor. Now I wouldn’t be attacked by Imperial soldiers and insulted by Imperial supporters. I had also sold one of my swords and the jeweled amulet for a small amount of coin. The gold pieces were a comforting weight in my saddlebags.

As I passed small farms, the great city grew larger. It was certainly an impressive sight, not near as big as the Imperial City, but huge for a city in a province like Horizon. Just to reach the main gate I would have to cross through two others under the eyes of watchful guards and zigzag up the hill. Whitetrot looked like a city prepared for war, but it looked like no fighting had come to it in centuries.

“Halt,” the guard at the gate called out as I made for the entrance, “What is your business in Whitetrot?”

“I’ve come to speak to the Jarl,” I said, though I was still blurry on my motives for it.

“Oh, sure,” the guard said mockingly, “Everypony who wants to can speak to the Jarl.”

“I have to,” I said, pushing onward, “I’ve come to warn him about a dragon attack at Hoofgen.”

“A dragon attack? Really?” the guard laughed, “And you have to speak to the Jarl about it? Fine, where’s you summons?”

“Summons?”

“Not everypony gets to come before the Jarl. Show me your summons and you can enter.”

I looked at my hooves. I had no summons; Eruthar had said nothing about me needing one.

“That’s what I thought,” the guard said, “Keep out of our city, troublemaker. You know, Hoofgen is Jarl Sibli’s territory. Maybe you’re some kind of Foalkreath spy come to kill the Jarl.”

A spy I was not, but this guard didn’t trust me any farther than he could see me, so it looked like I wouldn’t be getting into this city at all. What a disappointment. Hanging my head, I headed back to Riverwood.

“Psst,” I heard somepony say as I turned to leave.

Or, not somepony. The person who had caught my attention and was now waving me over was a zebra. I had always been wary of zebras back in Unicornica. They had a reputation for being thieves. You were likely to find your coin purse a few coins lighter after getting close to them. But I had nothing to lose now, not with a guard so close, so I walked over to the little encampment she was standing in.

She was not alone. Among the little tents and cookfires were several zebras, all dressed for traveling. She motioned me to sit down as I got close. Careful to keep my distance, but not seem rude, I complied.

“Sar’van could not help but overhear, you have great need to get in there.”

“Yes,” I said hesitantly.

I didn’t know much I could trust this zebra who spoke in third person and in rhyme.

“A summons you’ll need, to get inside. Sar’van knows of one, who help can provide.”

“Yes,” I said.

“A pony in Foalkreath, authority can bend. But not for anyone, no, just for a friend.”

“Sar’van knows him well, her friends he will see. But first, you must do something for me.”

“What is it?” I asked.

I wasn’t going to lock into this zebra’s scheme if I didn’t know exactly what she wanted in return.

“Bandits at Fell Rock have stolen from me. Retrieve my trinkets, and the inside of Whitetrot you’ll see.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Fell Rock wasn’t far from Whitetrot, just a short trot west. It turned out to be a cave built into an actual rock. A campfire burned outside the cave entrance and two ponies stood around it.

I got as close as I could before fitting an arrow to the string of my bow. Pulling it back, I released and let it fly. It missed both of them, knocking against the rock behind them. They both pulled out their weapons and investigated the noise.

As I approached to sink my axe into the back of one, my tail brushed up against the cooking spit. The lid toppled off a pot and alerted the bandits to my presence. The first one came at me with a war axe extremely similar to mine. I blocked, and twisted it out of her mouth easily before swinging my axe into her neck.

Pulling it out, I jumped back to avoid the swing of a warhammer at my feet. Shooting fire at the bandit I swung my war axe at his head. Even engulfed in flames he managed to back off and pull his warhammer out of the ground. He aimed another swing at my head and I ducked down. As the heavy weapon flew over my ears, I slashed at his hooves with my axe. Giving a grunt of pain, he dropped the warhammer, allowing me to bury my axe in his chest.

An arrow whistled past my head as I entered the cave. I hid behind a protrusion of rock and waited for the shooter to reveal themselves. A red mare with a sword in her mouth came charging around the corner.

I knocked her sword away from my neck as she aimed a slash at it. She swung again and this time I blocked, catching her sword between the blade and haft of my axe. I tried to disarm her, but she was faster and flicked my axe out of my magical grasp.

I pulled my Imperial sword out of my saddlebags and held it up just in time as she brought her own sword down at my head. Sparks flew as the blades met and I pushed her away. Spinning the sword around, I aimed a slash at her side. She blocked, but I pulled back and spun the sword back around at her other side.

She jumped back, but the blade nicked flesh. Unfortunately, I had forgotten about the archer also in the tunnel with us. I remembered her presence as an arrow buried itself in my flank, right where my cutie-mark would be if I had one. Seeking to finish up my fight with the sword-mare as soon as possible, I swung as hard as I could, breaking through her block and cutting her throat open.

I retrieved my war axe and cantered down the tunnel. Unwisely, the archer was standing right in my path. I charged her and took another arrow to my shoulder, but I plowed into her knocking her to the ground. My axe came down on her neck and the dirt floor was stained with her blood.

I retrieved the arrows from her quiver and pushed into the cavern she had been guarding. Only one bandit was left. A towering buck with a nasty-looking scar running down his face. Giving a war cry, he charged me, a battleaxe held in his teeth.

I jumped out of the way as his first swung came at me. I also dodged the second before blocking the third with my sword. As he pulled back for another swing, I slashed at him, cutting a gash in the front of his chest. His next swing got lodged in a wooden bench as I jumped out of the way and I took advantage of it to sink my sword into the back of his neck.

Now that the fighting was over, I tended to my wounds. Pulling the arrows out, I drank down a healing potion. The skin reformed over the holes with a slight tingling. Now I could have a look around.

There wasn’t much down in the cavern. A few bedrolls were set out for the bandits to sleep in. Somepony had left their boots behind, next to the fire burning brightly. Warmth and light radiated from it, filling the whole chamber. A few pots of stew hung over it, simmering.

The chest against the wall was what caught my attention. It was locked, but luckily the last bandit I had killed had the key on his body. With a satisfying click, the chest opened.

Inside I found a heavy coin purse filled with gold, a few amethysts, a steel dagger, and the sack of Sar’van’s “trinkets.” They turned out to be exquisite silver and gold necklaces and rings studded with gems. I could easily take these and make a fortune, maybe enough to pay my way into Whitetrot. But I had taken this job from Sar’van and I intended to finish it. No backing out now. I did, however, take the rest of the loot in the chest for myself.

With my saddlebags considerably heavier (after taking some bandit armor as well) I left the cave and headed back to Whitetrot.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

“Sar’van is glad these have returned. A friendship with her, you now have earned.”

Sar’van was understandably overjoyed to have her (extremely valuable) jewelry returned to her. I only wished she’d stop fawning over it and help me get into the city she was camped beside.

“Of course you wish to enter Whitetrot. With Sar’van’s help, there is no way you cannot.”

It was like she could read my mind. Freaky.

“A friend I know can get you inside. In his work he takes great pride.”

“A forger he is, and I think you will find, he can make any document look genuine.”

“Berefs is his name, and he can be found, living in Foalkreath, on the east end of town.”

“Search for him high, search for him low, search for the pony with a coat white as snow.”

“Take this trinket, and upon presentation, he will know he can trust you without hesitation.”

She slipped a necklace over my head. It had once been a silver amulet, but the silver had cracked and tarnished and the jewel in the center had fallen (or been pried) out. But, if this would get me in with Berefs, I wasn’t going to refuse it.

“Thanks for the help,” I said, getting up off the ground.

I’d had about enough sing-song riddles for the day. But, as I prepared to leave, I asked her one more question.

“If Berefs can get anypony in, how come you’re outside the city?”

“Alas, the ponies do not trust our kind, so outside of walls is where we do our living and dying,” she said, her ears drooping.

“That’s terrible,” I said.

“Perhaps if others of your kind thought the same, we could put to an end our days of shame.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

After a thankfully uneventful trot, I made it to Riverwood. Calciar (Bereloth’s father) and Eruthar welcomed me to stay the night. In the morning, I would set out for Foalkreath.

There were two ways to Foalkreath from Whitetrot. The shorter one ran through Riverwood and curved around the east side of the mountains dividing the holds. The longer one curved west around Lake Fillynalta. I chose the shorter path. Plus, the upside was that I had somewhere to stay the night on this journey.

I munched an apple and some goat cheese out on the Riverwood Trader’s balcony as I watched the sun set over the mountains. As it dropped, I noticed some crumbling ruins on the mountains to the west. How had I missed that before?

“What is that?” I asked Eruthar as she joined me on the balcony.

“That,” she said, “Is Blank Flanks Barrow.”

I knew that my armor covered my rump, but my tail automatically swished in front of it anyway, hiding the shame of my missing cutie-mark. Force of habit, I guessed. Eruthar didn’t seem to notice and she continued to talk.

“Legend has it that a long time ago, there used to be another town built right here where Riverwood is. Its name is long forgotten, overshadowed by the name of the one who came from here.”

“Calcion the Vengeful,” she shuddered a bit as she said the name, “He was an earth pony who grew up in the village. Unfortunately, he never received his cutie-mark and was shunned from the town.”

I felt this pony’s pain.

“He grew extremely bitter and hateful toward his former neighbors, and sought to destroy them. In his desperation, he sold his soul to the dragons, gaining great power, but losing the very essence of being a pony. Under the dragons’ protection and influence, he returned to the town and burned it to the ground. Then he erected a fortress above the valley to watch over and make sure no town was ever built here again. Blank Flanks Barrow was his fortress, and later his tomb. He lies entombed there even today.”

It was just some old myth ponies had passed down over the years, but still I felt a connection. I too had been ashamed and shunned (but maybe not as strongly) because of my lack of a cutie-mark. But I would never go to extremes and kill the ponies that shunned me, would I? Blowing my pale golden mane out of my eyes, I trotted back into the Riverwood Trader and lay down to sleep.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Not much took place on my journey to Foalkreath. I encountered a few mudcrabs (which seemed prevalent anywhere in the Northlands where there was water.) They were only a minor annoyance, and easily dealt with. A few slashes from my war axe cut through their shells.

As I passed through the woods between Riverwood and Hoofgen, I thought I caught a glimpse of the hunter-pony I had seen the day before. As I began to near Foalkreath, I tried to shoot a deer off in the distance. Apparently their pelts were valuable for smithing and their antlers were valuable for alchemy. It didn’t matter, as I failed to hit the deer. I would have to practice shooting sometime. Axes and swords were fine for close range, but I would prefer to not have my adversaries get too close to me.

In no time at all, I found myself in sight of Foalkreath. For a hold capital, I was surprised how small it was. Why, it wasn’t even that much larger than Riverwood.

But, unlike Riverwood, there were actually guards atop the walkways running over the path. And guards in Imperial armor at that. Apparently the Empire was serious about keeping this town on their side.

Sar’van had said Berefs lived on the east end of town, but I had no idea which house was his. To search him out, I headed to the local tavern, Dead Pony’s Drink. Charming name.

It wasn’t hard to locate him within the building. The snow white pony was sitting at a table across a roaring fire. And he was really, really white. Even his mane and tail were pure white, making him stand out among his drab surroundings.

“Berefs?” I asked, sliding into the bench across the table from him.

“Lovely day, isn’t it?” he asked, draining a tankard of ale.

“Um, I guess,” I said, not sure what he was playing at.

“That’s a lovely necklace you’ve got there,” he said, pointing at the ruined amulet Sar’van had given me.

Now I saw what he was doing. He was letting me know he knew what I wanted without alerting anypony else. He was good.

“Wait a bit before following me out,” he whispered to me before rising and leaving the tavern.

I was left sitting at the table alone. The tavern was pretty empty, but that was to be expected in the middle of the day. Of course the town drunk wobbled unsteadily across the room and a tough-looking buck stood behind the bar counter.

“Can I get you something to drink, stranger?” a strawberry-coated mare asked me.

“Oh, no thanks,” I said, “I don’t drink.”

“You must just be here for the music then,” she said.

I looked across the room to where she was staring. A scruffy-looking buck was holding a lute in his hooves, strumming the strings slowly. He didn’t seem to be particularly good, but he wasn’t terrible either.

I figured I’d probably waited long enough and got up to find Berefs.

“Here’s a song you’ll probably like,” the minstrel buck said to me as I walked past him.

I stopped to listen as he began to sing.

“We drink to our youth, for the days come and gone.”
“For the Age of Aggression, is just about done.”
“We’ll drive out the Stormclouds and restore what we own.”
“With our blood and our steel we will take back our home.”
“Down with Jarl Stormcloud, the killer of kings.”
“On the day of your death we will drink and we’ll sing.”
“We’re the true colts of Horizon and we fight all our lives.”
“And when Sovngarde beckons, every one of us dies.”

The drunk began to slow clap as the minstrel finished his song. I found myself clapping as well. It was a good performance, even I had to admit that. He had a beautiful voice when he sang.

“Glad you enjoyed it,” he said, giving a slight bow.

Before he could start another song and keep me longer, I exited the Dead Pony’s Drink. As a pony with a wagon full of cabbages clattered by, I looked down the path to the east. I just barely caught a glimpse of Berefs standing outside the farthest house before he ducked inside.

The door was unlocked, and I pushed it open to enter the tiny house. Berefs’s dwelling was a small, single room house. A table dominated the center of the room, and past a dead fireplace there was a bed pushed into the corner.

“I see you know Sar’van,” I heard Berefs say.

I turned to see him sitting in a chair beside the door.

“Yes,” I said.

“So, why is it she’s sent me to you?” he asked, looking me up and down.

“I need summons to see Jarl Valor’s Blade,” I stated bluntly. No use beating around the bush.

“The Jarl of Whitetrot!” Berefs said incredulously.

“Can you do it?” I asked.

“Can I do it?” he said, looking wounded, “You insult me. Of course I can. But for this I’ll need to forge the Jarl’s steward’s signature. Protocus’s signature is not an easy one to forge. It’ll take time. And gold.”

I was afraid it would cost me a small fortune of gold to have this done. After all, if Berefs was caught he would either face life in prison, an execution, or a hefty fine I doubted he could pay. But I had a plan to hopefully get out of paying. I hadn’t had to pay Sar’van anything to get this far after all.

“Are there any tasks you need done I could do as payment?” I asked.

“A trade, huh?” he asked, rubbing his chin, “I suppose there is something I could use help with.”

“Yes?”

“There’s a pony if Foalkreath who owes me a large sum of money, 200 coins. She refuses to pay up. Maybe you can ‘convince’ her it’s in her best interest to pay.”

“I’ll try.”

“Her name’s Sunny Skies. She works as assistant to Jarl Sibli. Her house is on the west end of town, but you should be able to find her in the Jarl’s longhouse. I’ll get to work on that summons, and if you get me that money from her, it’s all yours.”

“Sounds like a deal,” I said, and left Berefs’s house.

How hard could it be to convince Sunny Skies to pay up? I trotted down the path past the patrolling Imperial soldiers to the Jarl’s longhouse. It was much easier to get in to see the Jarl here than in Whitetrot. I entered his residence unhindered.

I found Sunny Skies almost immediately, mostly because the Jarl greeted her by name. I stood in the shadows and tried to remain inconspicuous until the Jarl finished his business with her and sent her off. I followed the yellow mare as she entered another room of the Jarl’s longhouse.

“Sunny Skies,” I said as I entered the room, interrupting her scribbling in a ledger.

“What do you want?” she asked, raising an eyebrow in suspicion.

“Berefs sent me,” I said, “He said you had a . . . disagreement concerning some gold?”

“What do you know about it?” she asked, stiffening.

“Well, I know you owe him 200 gold coins, so it was probably something pretty important you had him forge for you. He’d like to be paid for the trouble he went to.”

“And what’s he going to do about it? Force me to pay? Call the guards on me? He can’t. He’d be admitting to forgery and they’d throw him in a cell. So you can go back to Berefs and tell him that he won’t try to get his money again or I’ll see to it that he’s arrested.”

Disgruntled, I turned to go. I had failed. Looked like I’d either have to pay to get into Whitetrot or I wouldn’t get in at all. As I was about to leave, I noticed something I hadn’t before.

Hanging out of Sunny Skies’s cloak was a dull metal amulet. The trinket hanging from the end was shaped like a dragon, the image of Talhooves. It must’ve fallen out during her outburst about Berefs.

“That’s a nice necklace you have,” I said, my back to her, “What’s the punishment for Talhooves worship again?”

“You wouldn’t,” she said, tucking it back in her cloak as I turned around, “You couldn’t.”

“You would,” she said as she saw there was no joke in my eyes.

“Fine, take your gold and go,” she said, throwing a coin purse at me, “I don’t want to ever see you again.”

Tucking Berefs’s gold in my saddlebags, I left the Jarl’s longhouse. A quick trot later, I was back in Berefs’s house, except that it was empty. I sat down and waited for him to return. As time dragged on, I began to grow impatient with the buck. Just where in Foalkreath could he have gone?

I nearly fell off my chair as his wardrobe’s doors opened by themselves. Shortly after, Berefs emerged from among the cloaks.

“Done already?” he asked.

In reply, I floated the bag of gold over to him.

“Well done,” he said, “Your summons should be done within the hour.”

Mysteriously, he trotted back into his wardrobe and closed the doors. I really didn’t care what was going on. I was finally going to get into Whitetrot.

Level Up
Health: 110 Stamina: 110 Magicka: 100
New Perk: Second Best [Light Weapons] -- After staggering an opponent with a power attack, your next strike does double damage.
Gear added: Leather Saddlebags -- Carrying capacity is increased by 20.
Friendship gained: Sar’van -- Leader of Sar’van’s caravan, Sar’van is a traveling zebra merchant with a wide array of goods for sale and a bounty of contacts across Horizon.
Friendship gained: Berefs -- A forger in Foalkreath, Berefs can forge any document needed to get in anywhere.
New Quest: For the Jarl’s Ears Only -- Warn Jarl Valor’s Blade about the dragon attack on Hoofgen.

Chapter 3: Whitetrot

Chapter III: Whitetrot
“And they said, ‘Show me the Power of Talhooves!!’”

“Everything appears to be in order,” the guard at Whitetrot’s gate said as he reviewed my (falsified) summons.

Thankfully, it was a different guard than the one who had questioned me the day before. At least, I thought it was a different guard. They all looked the same in their armor. This one didn’t seem suspicious of me, though.

“Go on in,” he said, motioning to the gate, “I’ll spread the word to let you in and out of the city whenever you wish.”

I pushed through the massive gates into the great fortress-city of Whitetrot. I was awed by the immensity of it all. I had never seen so many buildings in one place except for in the Imperial City. But in Horizon, I had certainly never seen anything like this.

Ponies bustled about from one store to another. Foals galloped around, playing a game of tag and weaving between their elders’ legs. I could hear vendors in a market hocking their wares in the distance and the clanging of a forge nearby. It was all so much to take in. But, exploring would have to wait. Right now I had something more important to do.

Climbing the stone stairs that led up the hill, I left the market district, and entered a new tier composed mainly of houses. I followed the path through the city to the city center.

A large, dead tree was in the center of the district, surrounded by houses and a temple. Up another flight of stone stairs was an imposing looking structure decorated in traditional earth pony style. Past a statue of Talhooves was another, longer flight of stairs leading up to the Jarl’s palace. At least, I assumed it was his palace. I saw no other purpose the massive, multi-leveled structure at the height of the city could have.

The amount of guards I passed increased as I neared the highest point in the city. Crossing a bridge over a pond, I made it to the massive gates of the palace. The guards didn’t seem inclined to stop me as I pushed open the doors, so I trotted right in.

The interior of the palace was rustic, but cheery. A massive fire burned in a pit in the center of the room, filling the great hall with light. Past the fire and the meal tables, Jarl Valor’s Blade sat upon a throne carved from ancient wood.

Near him a pony scribbled down orders on a piece of parchment. I assumed this was the steward, who I knew to be named Protocus. On the other side of the Jarl was a pegasus! What was a pegasus doing here? But, after I looked again, I noticed the dappled spots in her coat where the armor didn’t cover, and her smaller than average wings. She was a dappled pegasus from Morrowhinny.

“Halt,” she ordered in a commanding tone, jumping down the steps leading up the Jarl with a little boost from her wings.

“Why are you here?” she asked, eyeing me as a hawk might eye prey.

“I’m here to speak to the Jarl,” I said.

“And what business do you have with the Jarl?”

I didn’t even think about pulling out my forged summons. The pony who had supposedly signed it was standing right here and would unmask me as a fraud if I did. It would just have to be the truth.

“I’m here to warn him about dragon attacks,” I said, steeling myself for the pegasus’s mocking.

“Do you think this is a joke?” she exploded, “Nopony gets near the Jarl unless I say so, and you’re not endearing yourself to me right now!”

“What is it, Darkfeather?” the Jarl asked, his Horizon accent prominent.

“Just a crazy pony who wants to speak to you,” she said over her shoulder, “I’ll get her out of here.”

“No, let her forward,” the Jarl said as Darkfeather made to push me back.

The pegasus gave me an annoyed look as I passed her on my way to the Jarl.

“You’ve obviously come far,” he said, “Judging by what I heard of your voice, from Unicornica. Now, tell me what you came so far to say.”

“There was a dragon attack on Hoofgen,” I said, “I was there. Eruthar in Riverwood told me to come here and warn you about it.”

“See, my Jarl,” Darkfeather said, also approaching his throne, “Nonsense. There hasn’t been a dragon in the Northlands for thousands of years.”

“You saw this dragon?” the Jarl asked.

“With my own eyes. Hoofgen is no more.”

“Don’t tell me you actually believe her,” Darkfeather said.

“And why not?” the Jarl said to her, “She claims Eruthar sent her. She’s a steady individual. She wouldn’t send a warning unless she believed and thought it necessary. And dragons have come here before.”

He pointed over his head. Craning my neck, I saw a massive skull mounted on the wall over his throne. It could only belong to one thing: a dragon.

“If any dragon attacks my hold, it will meet the same fate as Razorak, the dragon my ancestor Oman One-Eye imprisoned in this very fortress. It’s called Dragonsreach for a reason. Send troops to Rearikstead and Riverwood. If that dragon rears its ugly head again, we’ll be ready for it.”

“I’ll notify the soldiers,” Darkfeather said, preparing to run off.

“But my Jarl,” Protocus objected, cutting into the conversation, “That could provoke Jarl Sibli and Jarl Glamus to open war!”

“I don’t care,” the Jarl stated, putting his hoof down, “I’d rather go to war with two holds that see my people burn from inaction.”

Protocus didn’t seem happy with the Jarl’s decision, but didn’t object any more. Darkfeather, though still appearing to believe I was crazy was nearly jumping up and down in anticipation of sending the troops out. With a nod from the Jarl, she bounded off half running, half flapping out of Dragonsreach.

That just left me with no idea what to do next. I had come this far for Eruthar and Calciar. And now I had no plans. The entire province was open for me to explore.

“You there,” the Jarl said, speaking to me, “I didn’t catch your name.”

“Sapphire,” I said, turning my attention back to Valor’s Blade.

“Thank you for the warning, Sapphire,” he said, “I’d like you to speak to my court wizard about this dragon attack. Tell him everything you can about it so he can find a way to counter it.”

I said nothing, which I guess the Jarl took as acceptance of what he said, for he pointed off to a room attached to the great hall, where I would assumedly find the court wizard.

He appeared to be in. A black unicorn with a violently red mane was wrapped in mage’s robes and standing behind a desk covered in books and crystals. He mumbled to himself as he magically sorted through a mess of papers covered in strange runes.

“Hello?” I said hesitantly, not wanting to interrupt whatever it was he was doing.

“Hm, what?” he said, looking up from his papers, “Oh, what do you want?”

“The Jarl sent me,” I said, “I was at Hoofgen when a dragon attacked.”

“A dragon attack?” he said, raising an eyebrow, “Not likely, but then again, possible. It’s right here in black and white after all.”

I saw on his table he also had out a copy of the Book of the Dragonborn open to the page Calciar and Eruthar had read the prophecy from. As for the other pages he had, I had no clue what they said.

“The Jarl said he wanted me to tell you about the attack so you could find some way to defeat a dragon,” I said when it appeared I was losing his focus.

“Yes, yes,” he said, “But I’m terribly busy right now.”

What did he expect me to do? Just stand around until he was finished with whatever it was he was doing?

“If you want to make yourself useful,” he said, looking up, “I have a few things you can do.”

“Yes,” I said, groaning inside. More favors.

“Take these to Aromia at the alchemy shop,” he said, levitating a basket of what looked like roots, “And when you’re done with that, I have a book I loaned out you can retrieve.”

“Where’s the book?” I asked as I took the roots.

“I loaned it to a friend of mine, Serendipity. She lives on the east end of the hold. Right here,” he said, pointing out a spot on the map of Horizon displayed on his wall.

“Could you mark it on my map?” I asked, floating out my map of Horizon with my quill and inkwell.

“How ingenious,” he said as he marked the position, “More ponies should carry maps. It would make giving directions so much easier.”

“What’s your name?” I asked as I stowed my map away.

“Faniar Fire-stone,” he said, returning to his papers.

“And why are you called that?” I asked.

“My unicorn name was Firestone, because of my red mane,” he said, looking up in an annoyed manner, “But I later changed it to fit in better in Horizon. Why, what’s yours?”

“Sapphire,” I said as he glared at me.

“Well, Sapphire,” he said, “I’d get done and be ready to help you much quicker if you got out of my mane and delivered those ingredients and retrieved my book.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

“Welcome to Aromia’s Alchemical Amalgams,” the pale blue earth pony behind the counter of the alchemy shop said.

“Alchemical Amalgams, huh?” I said.

“Yes, in other words, potions. You see, an amalgam is-”

“A mixture or combination of different elements,” I finished.

“That’s right,” she said, blinking in astonishment.

All that reading paid off.

“Faniar wanted me to give these to you,” I said, holding out the basket.

“Canis roots!” she said in delight, “Wherever did he find them?”

I shrugged, and looked around the shop as she took the roots. Some strange things sat on the shelves, like small bowls of glowing powder, whole eyeballs, and plants of every shape, size, and color.

“How does alchemy work?” I asked curiously.

There had been an alchemist or two in Kvatch, but I had never taken the time to ask them how their art was supposed to work.

“So glad you asked,” Aromia said, bounding over to my side, “First, you need an alchemy lab. Everything you’ll need is on the workbench. Ponies used to have to carry around the separate pieces, but somepony finally figured out this way was easier. But, back to alchemy.”

“First, you’ll need to grind up your ingredients and combine them. Then add a little water and send them through these pipes. Bottle them up in a phial here and you’re done.”

“How do I know what the potion will do?”

“Try it out, you’ll know what it does.”

Great, I had to subject my own body to mystery mixes just to find out their effects. I’d have to be careful not to make any poisons. Looks like even alchemy could be a dangerous venture.

I left Aromia’s shop, but I wasn’t ready to head out and get Faniar’s book back yet. Instead, I wanted to take a look around Whitetrot. Exiting Aromia’s Alchemical Amalgams, I found myself in an outdoor market.

Vendors called out for the ponies passing through to buy their wares. They were selling mostly food, and I still had some from raiding the house in Hoofgen, so I paid them no mind as I passed through.

Making my way toward the gate, I stopped at the smithy.

“Welcome to Warmare’s,” a brown mare out front said, setting aside the sword she was working on when she noticed I was admiring her forge, “Something I can help you with?”

“Could you teach me how to smith?” I asked.

There had been no blacksmiths in Kvatch, so I had never had a chance to try my hoof at making weapons and armor. But I had always been interested in trying, and here was my chance.

“Sure,” she said, “It’s not hard. Let me show you how to work the forge.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

My lesson in smithing had been profitable. I was only moderately good at it, but I had still been able to make myself an iron helmet and an iron dagger. Why she had insisted I make a dagger and not a sword, I had no idea, but she had said making iron daggers was crucial to learning how to be a better smith.

As soon as I’d finished at Warmare’s, I left Whitetrot and headed for Serendipity’s Farm. It really was on the far east of the hold, but I managed to make it before nightfall. The farm wasn’t much more than a small house with a field outside for growing alchemy ingredients and some food.

Trying to be polite, I knocked on the door. When nopony answered, I knocked louder. There was still no response, so I pushed the (unlocked) door open.

“Hello?” I asked, hoping I wasn’t inconveniencing Serendipity.

The place was a mess. Chairs were tipped over, books were thrown off the shelves, and piles of clothes spilled from wardrobes. But the most shocking part was the message written on the wall in pony blood.

We don’t need Unicorns
We don’t need Magic

Cut in the wood next to it was a crude drawing of a cloud with twin lightning bolts emerging from the base. A storm cloud if I ever saw one. Stormclouds had done this.

I had no idea the earth pony rebel group was so hostile toward unicorns. Could I trust Bereloth? Could I trust Eruthar and Calciar? Were they just waiting to kill me in my sleep?

No, I had to believe I could trust them. Bereloth had saved me in Hoofgen, after all. And then he had offered me a free place to sleep. But these ponies wouldn’t be so kind.

They hadn’t killed Serendipity, not here at least. There was no body. But, a blood trail did lead across the floor and out the smashed back door. I took out my war axe and followed it. The blood was already dry and I probably couldn’t catch up to them before Serendipity died, but I would make them pay anyway.

As I followed the trail over rocks and through trees my mind told me I was exiting Whitetrot Hold and had entered Easttrot, the realm of Jarl Stormcloud. I pushed the thought that he was behind this from my mind as I followed the drops of blood. Finally, I found the end of it.

The splatters of Serendipity’s blood passed a cluster of buildings and into a cave with a sign naming it “Ditchwater Mine.” As I slowly entered the mine, I heard the rowdy voices of ponies coming from farther in. I crawled into the main cavern of the mine, where many torches flickered, and beheld the horrifying scene.

Eight earth ponies stood around a single unicorn whose turquoise coat had been stained with her own blood. One of the earth ponies hit her across the face as I watched. Blood dripped into her eyes from a gash above her eyebrow. Her horn flickered and the wound closed up just enough that blood no longer poured from it.

“We’ll see if your magic can fix this!” a pony with a knife said, gutting a gash along Serendipity’s ribs.

She cried out as the flesh tore apart and the bleeding began in earnest. Her horn began to glow and the wound started to close up. She couldn’t finish her spell as another of the earth ponies hit her in the head, breaking her concentration. Far too much blood fell from her side before she managed to fully repair the wound. It was beginning to pool on the floor beneath her.

“How about we do something to you your magic can’t fix?” a scarred buck said, walking around to behind her with a knife, “Aren’t short tails in style in the Imperial City?”

Stomping on the end of her tail with his hoof, her jerked up with his knife and cut it off barely past her hindquarters. She screamed and tears mingled with the blood on her face. This had to end.

I pulled out my bow and prayed to the Equines my shot would be true. My first arrow hit a skinny green buck in the back of the neck. He choked on the shaft and fell to the floor. None of the other ponies seemed to notice.

My next shot was meant for the buck tormenting Serendipity and threatening to cut her ear off, but it went wide. A pink mare screamed as the shaft bore through her eye. The other six ponies turned to look at me. But I was hiding as best I could, and they didn’t find me until I foolishly shot another arrow that bounced off the wall.

“Another unicorn!” a pitch black mare yelled, pulling a curved knife from the sheath at her side.

Standing up, I pulled out both my war axe and my sword. The first two ponies fell with my weapons stabbed into their necks. The third one was smart enough to grab a shield, but I easily broke her block and sank my axe into her forehead. The next one blocked the swipe of my war axe, but not my sword, and I took his hooves out from under him before stabbing the blade into his bewildered face.

The black mare with the knife managed to get a cut across the armor on my chest, but it made her vulnerable to a strike on the back of her neck that instantly killed her, her spine cracking under the blow.

The scarred buck was last. He had traded his knife for a warhammer. The end of the heavy weapon smashed into the ground next to me. Placing my hoof on the shaft, I cracked his teeth as he tried to pick the warhammer back up. Spitting out the remains of his teeth, He jumped at me. The blade of my Imperial sword ran him through as he landed on it.

Sliding him off, I cleaned my blades before tending to Serendipity.

“Who are you?” she asked as I wrapped her multiple wounds in bandages.

“Sapphire,” I said, pulling the last bandage tight.

“How did you know to find me here?”

“I didn’t. Faniar sent me to retrieve a book you borrowed from him. When I saw you’d been taken I came looking for you.”

I looked around the cave. I sure hoped the Stormcloud banner didn’t mean what I thought. If these were Stormcloud soldiers, I was going to be sick.

But, they weren’t dressed like Stormcloud soldiers, just poor miners. The mystery was soon solved. Littering the floor of the mine were phials, some empty, and some still partially filled with Skooma, the super-addictive drug made from the moonsugar grown in the zebra homeland. These weren’t Stormcloud soldiers, they were just Stormcloud supporters who got high on Skooma and made a terrible mistake.

“I think his book’s over there,” Serendipity said, pointing to a stack near the fire, “They were going to burn all my magic related books.”

I sifted through the pile before I realized I had no idea which one was Faniar’s.

“Here,” she said, pulling a green one out of the stack and floating it over to me.

“Magical Mystery Cures,” I read the title aloud, “Magical remedies that shouldn’t work, but do.”

“What’s this,” I asked as she floated another book over to me.

“A gift,” she said, “For saving my life.”

The cover featured a flaming hoof and had a simple title: Sparks. I opened it and flipped to the first page. The letters suddenly began to glow and jump off the page at me. The pages began to flip by themselves, moving faster and faster until lightning began to jump across them. Eventually, the pages caught fire and the book was consumed, disappearing in a puff of smoke. In just a few seconds, I had learned everything there was to know about a spell: Sparks.

“What was that?” I asked Serendipity.

“A spell tome,” she said, “You’re just learned how to cast the Sparks spell without having to practice.”

“Amazing,” I said quietly.

“Well, how about you try it out.”

I complied, and sent a bolt of lightning across the cavern, lighting a bucket on fire. I was going to like this.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

When we emerged from Ditchwater Mine, twilight had fallen across Horizon. Serendipity was more than happy to let me sleep in her house after saving her life. I dozed off as she put the place back in order. When I awoke she had removed all traces of the miners’ desecration. A picture hung over the mark on the wall and the bloodstains had been washed away.

Serendipity dozed in a chair near the fireplace. Not wanting to wake her, I quietly stole out of the house.

Following the paths, I quickly made it back to Whitetrot.

“What took you so long?” Faniar asked grumpily as I returned his book to him.

“Well,” I said, not amused by his impatience, “When I got to Serendipity’s Farm, I found she’d been kidnapped.”

Kidnapped?” Faniar said, showing genuine concern, “Is she all right?”

“Yes, I went and rescued her. Sorry I took so long.”

“I apologize for snapping at you,” he said, “But the Jarl’s been hounding me about this dragon threat. He thinks I’ll be able to find some ‘magical sword of dragon-slaying’ or something.”

“And before you ask,” he said as I opened my mouth, “It doesn’t exist.”

“Is there anything else you need?” I asked him.

The Jarl had said to help him out with finding ways to combat dragons. Any way I could, I would help.

“Actually, yes,” he said, “A ‘reliable contact’ of mine has found something that may help us combat the dragons. It’s called a dragonstone, and it was made by the ancient earth ponies for keeping the dragons’ records. She’s managed to track it to an ancient ruin.”

“So, what do you want me to do?”

“Enter the ruin, and retrieve the dragonstone.”

“Doesn’t sound too hard,” I said, “Where is it?”

“Have you ever heard of Blank Flanks Barrow?”

Level Up
Health: 120 Stamina: 110 Magicka: 100
New Perk: A Fighting Chance [Light Weapons] -- Attacks with Light Weapons are now 20% swifter and cost 20% less stamina.
New Spell learned: Sparks -- You can now cast bolts of lightning with your unicorn magic that does damage to an opponent’s Health and Magicka.
Friendship gained: Serendipity – A practicing mage and alchemist, Serendipity will always be happy to teach you a thing or two about how to use magic.
New Quest: Ruins of the Past -- Enter Blank Flanks Barrow and retrieve the Dragonstone for Faniar.

Author's Note

For those who have read this far and have also played Skyrim, it may be obvious that so far I have followed fairly closely to the main quest. Rest assured that this story will not just be a retelling of events already in the game, though a few of the main plot threads will appear from time to time. For the first five chapters, I will be following the first few quests in the main questline, because I found that they do a good job of introducing the world and events going on. After that, the story will take off on its own in new directions.

Also, if you have any questions or feedback regarding the story or the world I'm creating through it, feel free to message me or leave it in the comments. I would love to hear them and will respond to any questions as soon as possible.

Chapter 4: Blank Flanks Barrow

Chapter IV: Blank Flanks Barrow
”The ancient earth ponies of Horizon worshipped the dragons, and were cursed for it.”

Blank Flanks Barrow.

That was where I was now headed. Faniar had said his reliable source had tracked the dragonstone there. But didn’t that make sense? After all, the dragonstone (as far as I understood it) was a record made for dragons and kept by ponies for safekeeping. And the pony who’d built Blank Flanks Barrow had served the dragons.

Calcion the Vengeful. A blank flank, like me. Only, he had taken things too far. He’d killed everypony who he’d ever known and burnt his home to the ground. That wouldn’t happen with me. But I was still reluctant to enter the tomb of a pony who had.

“Well, who else could’ve taken it?” I heard Calciar say as I entered the Riverwood Trader.

“Now, honey, she’s never given us any reason not to trust her,” Eruthar said.

“Well, I think it’s a pretty big coincidence that it disappears right after she stays here.”

“Why don’t you ask her about it yourself?” Eruthar said as she entered the main room and saw me standing there.

“Ah, Sapphire,” Calciar said, emerging from the back room with a forced smile, “Could I speak to you a moment?”

“Sure,” I said, not sure what this was about.

“Did you . . . take anything from the store last time you were here?”

“Other than what I bought and what you gave me, no.”

“Well, I’ve lost something immensely valuable to me, and it disappeared right after you stayed here.”

“Wait, are you saying I stole it?”

“I’m just saying it was here before you were here, and after it was gone.”

“I wouldn’t take anything from you! Why would you think that?”

“Calciar,” Eruthar said, hitting him on the shoulder, “Can’t you see she’s telling the truth? She wouldn’t steal from us.”

“Okay, I’m sorry for accusing you,” he apologized, “It’s just I don’t know how it could have disappeared.”

“What is it anyway?” I asked.

“A golden dragon claw fashioned by the ancient earth ponies as part of their dragon cult. It was the most prized artifact I had in my collection. I don’t know who could’ve stolen it.”

“You must have some clue. Have any ponies you don’t know come through here?”

“Plenty, mostly guards from Whitetrot come to protect the town. But it couldn’t be any of them.”

“I’ll take a look around and see if I can find it,” I said.

“Thank you so much. I don’t know how I ever doubted you.”

I took my leave of Calciar and Eruthar and left their shop. Whoever had taken their golden claw couldn’t have gone far. At least, I hoped not. If my search took me too far from Riverwood, I would have to give up. I still had Blank Flanks Barrow to search.

A light snow was falling on the valley as I looked through the town for anything suspicious. True to his word, Jarl Valor’s Blade had sent soldiers here to protect the town. They patrolled the walkways over the gates and walked through the village, searching for suspicious activity.

I tried to find any ponies who hadn’t been here the two other times I had. I didn’t have a very good memory of who exactly lived here, but I didn’t think I saw any strange ponies. Well, other than the guards.

But, behind the lumber mill, I did notice something strange. Stuffed somewhat haphazardly behind a pile of chopped wood was a bundle of clothes. Pulling them out, I saw they were a Whitetrot guard’s uniform. As I turned them over, a folded piece of parchment fell out. I levitated it and began to read.

Yorl,
Here is the set of Whitetrot armor you will need for your mission. With it you should be able to enter and exit Riverwood without arousing suspicion. Dispose of it as soon as you can afterwards. Once you have pulled off the theft, rendezvous with me at the bandit camp in Blank Flanks Barrow. Present my amulet and you will be allowed passage. Don’t even think about coming without the claw.
-L.

I looked up at the ruin on the mountainside as I finished reading. It appeared my quests both converged on the same place. Nothing could now stop me from reaching Blank Flanks Barrow.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

The wind howled more violently as I neared the peaks of the mountains. I blinked the snow out of my eyes as it inevitably found its way in. I found myself wishing I had bought armor with a fur lining to keep me warm.

An arrow whistled past my ear and brought my attention back to the moment. I soon found the source of the projectile. A bandit with a bow was standing on the battlements of an ancient watchtower guarding the path to Blank Flanks Barrow. Well, the note had said the Barrow was now a bandit hole.

A blast of lightning fried the archer and allowed me to proceed. A dark blue mare emerged from the tower, swinging a sword at me with her mouth. As my lightning missed her and skittered across her sword, I brought up my war axe to block.

Her swing came down harder than I’d expected and pushed me back. I brought my axe up again and blocked her next attack. Knocking her sword aside with my next swing, I spun my weapon around and sank the blade into her eye. As I yanked it out, she went flying backwards, dying as her blood ran down her face.

Steam rose from the snow next to me as a fireball burned into the drift. While I had been fighting the sword-mare, a mage had emerged from the tower. The rust red unicorn sent another fireball my way and I dodged. I galloped up as fast as I could before he could cast again and swung my sword into his neck as hard as I could. He fell, staining the snow with blood, as the wide gash opened up.

As I looked around, I was confident there were no more bandits in the immediate area, so I cleaned my weapons and started back up the path.

Ancient and broken rocks bearing strange runes became more prevalent next to the path as I neared the Barrow. At last, I came in sight of the arches adorning the entrance. The entryway was a large half-circle carved out of the mountain, and arches of a matching size continued out away from it all the way to the cliff’s edge.

On the edge, a carved dragon head large enough for a pony to stand on extruded from the rock. From atop the dragon’s head, I could see the entire valley. My mind flashed to Calcion the Vengeful, and how he must’ve once stood in this very spot overlooking the ruins of his home.

Three bandits stood near the entrance. My arrow went wide, hitting the wall behind them, but it created enough of a distraction that I could gallop up and take out one of them before they were on to me.

Both came at me at the same time, one holding a sword in his mouth, the other levitating a mace. I blocked his sword with my own sword and her mace with my war axe as they both swung at me. The metal on metal clangs echoed off the cliffs as the multiple weapons slammed into each other.

Hooking my war axe around the mace, I sent it slamming into the snow. As the mare retrieved it, I swung my sword around at the other bandit. He was too quick, and blocked every attack I threw at him, even when I swiped both weapons at him at once. But, his block finally fell and I managed to get my war axe in his throat.

It was stuck and I didn’t have time to yank it out before the mare came at me with her mace again. I blocked with my sword and shot flames into her face. Batting at the fire, she backed up, but didn’t lower her guard. My sword clanged against her mace as it knocked it once more into the snow. I plunged the Imperial sword into her gut as she backed away.

Retrieving my axe, I approached the heavy stone doors decorated with carvings of dragons. Pushing my shoulder against the door, I slowly forced it open.

I found myself in what had once been a great hall in ages long since passed. It must have once been far grander than it was now. The ancient stone pillars supporting the roof were broken and cracked, and some had entirely fallen away, allowing pieces of the ceiling to come raining down on the floor below.

Near the middle of the room, a campfire burned. Four bandits sat around it on chests no doubt containing their ill-gotten wares. Two more ponies were also in the room, an earth pony in plain-looking clothes and a pegasus swathed in a black robe.

I crept closer and hid behind a fallen piece of the ceiling, getting a better look at my collection of adversaries. The bandits were all pretty natural, all earth ponies except for one, a unicorn wearing better armor who I took to be the leader.

But the pegasus stood out. He acted aloof, as if he were infinitely better than everypony else in the room. As he stretched his wings, I saw that, unlike the rest of his pale blue coat, they were dyed black. He was a Blackwing, an agent of the Pegasari Dominion. But, what was he doing in a bandit hole in Horizon?

“Did you bring it?” he asked in a silky tone, looking at the out-of-place earth pony.

“Of course, Lightning Strike,” he said, reaching into his saddlebags, “Did you think I’d disappoint you? I’m the best thief in Horizon.”

“Well, we’ll see about that,” Lightning Strike (the pegasus) said skeptically.

I’d figured out that the pegasus must’ve been the mysterious “L” who’d signed the orders I’d found outside Riverwood. And the earth pony was Yorl. My suspicions were confirmed as he produced a golden claw from his saddlebags.

I only caught a glimpse of it as Yorl drew it back when Lightning reached out to take it.

“Uh, uh, uh,” Yorl said, “Payment first.”

If the pegasus got his hooves on that claw he could easily fly through one of the holes in the ceiling and be gone forever. I had to stop this deal from taking place.

Fitting an arrow to my bow, I fired it into the back of one of the bandits’ heads. She slumped over into the fire, sending sparks flying and distracting Lightning and Yorl. The dumbfounded pegasus dropped his bag of coins in the process.

I fired another arrow, this time at the pegasus, but he flicked his wings up and shattered my projectile with blades he had kept well hidden in his feathers. As he launched himself up into the air, I was forced to use my bow to block the attack of a bandit with a war axe. Her strike shattered my bow, but I was able to pull out my own war axe in time to keep her from decapitating me. Kicking her legs out from under her, I stabbed my axe into her side before yanking her own axe away and burying it in her face.

The next bandit came at me from behind, trotting around a pillar. Torching him with flames, I moved in for the kill. His mace never touched me, as my sword slashed through his face and knocked it to the ground.

A burning pain lanced across my left flank as the bandit leader managed to get a hit on me with one of his swords. I spun around and blocked his other sword with my war axe. Spinning them both in cruel arcs, he advanced on me. My axe knocked the first away, but the second neared my neck, nearly slicing off a bit of my mane.

I blasted him with a lightning bolt and he writhed uncontrollably. I took advantage of the moment to knock one of his swords away with my own. His other sword fell away under my flurry of blows as he crawled backwards on the ground. Lifting my sword above my head, I stabbed it into his chest, feeling the jolt as it hit the stone under him.

I didn’t have time to pull it out of him as Lightning bowled into me. I found myself pressed up against a pillar, his hooves pinning me there while his wing-blades hovered near my throat. My sword was still stuck in the bandit chief and I had dropped my war axe when he ran into me. I was weaponless and defenseless as he stared into my eyes.

“I don’t know who you think you are,” he said, “But you’ve caused more trouble than you know. Now I have to chase down that accursed lowlife thief just to get that artifact back. Blackwings don’t have a reputation for being patient.”

“Why did you want it anyway?” I asked.

I figured it wouldn’t hurt to find out what I had risked my life for since I was going to die anyway.

“That doesn’t concern you,” he said snarkily, “You won’t ever see it again.”

He turned out to be very wrong, for I had remembered I wasn’t completely unarmed. He coughed on his blood and released me as I stabbed my iron dagger into his throat. I guess making iron daggers was important after all.

Pushing his body off me, I drank a healing potion to repair the wound done to my flank. It knitted itself back up, still blank, but whole again. I retrieved my weapons and headed deeper into the Barrow, but not before looting the chests the bandits were sitting on. I had plenty of time to track down Yorl and find the dragonstone. It wasn’t like he could escape out the back, this fortress had but one entrance. My looting gained me a few more potions, some gold, a new bow, and a new book to read: A Brief History of the Empire; Vol. I. Confident I had taken everything I needed, I headed through the door leading out of the great hall.

Torches flickered as I descended into the mountain. Somepony had taken the time to place them, but for what purpose, I had no clue.

All that seemed irrelevant as a giant rat jumped out at me. At least, I thought it was a giant rat. We had plenty of them in Unicornica, but this rat was much uglier, its fur rough and its skin flaking away. I quickly killed it with a strike from my war axe.

Suddenly, the torches stopped. I pulled one out of its wall mounting and carried it along with me. I would have preferred not to walk through the dark at all, but I had no choice. I had descended quite a bit into the Barrow and there was still no sign of Yorl and the golden claw, or of the dragonstone.

I stopped for a moment as my hoof touched something sticky. Investigating, I saw that it was spider web. Swinging the torch around, I saw the passageway I was about to enter was coated with it. I had no intentions of going down there and confronting Frostbite spiders.

As I moved to back away, I heard a groan come from down the passage.

“Hello?” I said hesitantly.

“Please, somepony help me!” I heard Yorl call.

Looked like I’d be going down the spider-tunnel after all. If I wanted to get the golden claw back, anyway. Keeping my sword up in case of a trap, I followed the path through the spider webs. When I thought I’d never find the end, I discovered Yorl all wrapped up in a web.

“Look out!” he called, and I swung my sword around just in time.

The light of my torch was reflected in the multiple eyes of a massive spider standing behind me. I stabbed my sword into the middle of its bloated head, causing it to hiss menacingly. My sword was caught when it pulled back, so I let it go and shot fire at the spider instead. It hissed all the louder as it burned, but finally fell to the floor. I yanked my sword out of the smoking corpse and turned back to Yorl.

“Well, cut me down,” he said.

“Golden claw,” I demanded.

“Why do you want it?” he asked.

“You stole it,” I said, “From a friend of mine.”

“Okay,” he said, “You can have it back. But you’ll have to cut me down first.”

Hoping he wouldn’t just stab me in the back the moment he was down, I cut the strands holding him in place. Heavily, he fell to the ground as the last one was cut. Before he could run off, I held my sword to his neck and motioned for him to turn over the golden claw.

“You just don’t get it, do you?” he asked, “Not you, not that Blackwing agent, not anypony. This claw isn’t just some priceless trinket or ancient artifact. It’s a key. A key that will open up the depths of this Barrow.”

“Why would I want to do that?” I asked, not taking my sword away from his neck.

“Everything in this Barrow worth taking has been looted over the years,” he explained, “Except for the very lowest vault, because nopony could ever get it open. This will open it; it will unlock the door to treasures.”

That did sound enticing. And maybe the dragonstone was down there too. After all, it had certainly never been removed from the Barrow.

“Okay,” I said, pulling my sword back, “We’ll open up the lowest vault. But I’ll take the golden claw when it’s done.”

“Sounds good to me,” Yorl said, jumping to his hooves, “I don’t need that thing anyway.”

He picked up a torch and headed into the dark.

“This way,” he called, “It’s just down here.”

I followed him, but kept my sword at the ready. I wouldn’t let myself trust this thief.

He led me down through twisting passageways through the fortress. Finally, we reached the mausoleum. Passing through another set of thick stone doors, we entered the place where the ancient earth ponies had been buried.

Dropping our torches, we passed between the walls of dead. Braziers holding purplish fire burned every so far, illuminating the halls of the dead. The light from the magical flames cast unearthly shadows on the mummified faces of long-dead earth ponies.

As we passed into the next chamber, I heard a rustling sound. I looked toward the source and was astonished when I saw one of the corpses climbing out of its hole in the wall. It fixed its glowing eyes upon me and pulled out a jagged and ancient sword.

As if in a dream-state, I pulled my sword up to block. Ancient steel met modern and sparks flew. Pushing the sword back, I swung my own around and cut through the tendons in the zombie’s neck. The light died in its eyes as it fell to the ground, giving a raspy groan.

“What are you doing?” Yorl asked, turning around, “Oh, what in Arkhay’s name is going on!?”

“I don’t know,” I said, “This corpse just tried to kill me!”

“How is this possible?” Yorl said, mostly to himself.

More groaning and raspy breathing came from up ahead.

“It appears we’ve disturbed the dead,” he said quietly.

He pulled out a curved knife and trotted ahead. I picked up the sword the zombie had dropped and followed.

More of the undead ponies waited for us in the next chamber. With my Imperial sword I stabbed one in the heart, and cut open the head of another with my ancient earth pony sword. Yorl killed the third with his knife, stabbing it into the corpse’s glowing eye.

The next chamber was empty, for the moment, but I wasn’t taking any chances. As quietly as I could, I ran my sword over the throat of each of the corpses lining the walls. My sword slipped as I cut the last one and I ended up slicing through its foreleg instead. It gave a shriek as its glowing eyes popped open, and I smashed it in the face with my war axe.

Stirring came from the next chamber. I rushed in to find six corpses climbing out of their tombs. I shot a blast of fire at one group, engulfing them in flames, and charged another with my war axe held high.

As the burning undead charged around, I sank my war axe into one of the others’ heads. Pulling it out, I turned on the next one, who also had a war axe, albeit an older and more elaborately decorated one than mine. Our blades clashed and hooked together several times before I managed to throw it from the corpse’s mouth. My axe sank nearly to the hilt as it buried itself in the undead pony’s chest.

The third one had a greatsword, which I blocked with both of my own swords. Sparks rained down on me. Tucking one of my swords away, I shot a bolt of lightning into the zombie’s face. Snarling, it backed up and its eyes flickered eerily. I aimed a slash at its foreleg, my sword easily cutting through the rotting flesh and disconnecting the hoof. It fell to one knee as I stabbed my sword into the side of its head.

Two of the other zombies had burned out, their charred carcasses resting on the ground. The other one ran around, cursing in whatever ancient language earth ponies had once used, before leaving the room. As it ran out, it tripped and fell in the pool of oil soaking the hallway stretching off in the distance. The oil ignited and flames licked up the walls to where it dripped out through crevices in the ceiling.

I held Yorl back and hid around the doorframe as the flames lit the corpses in the hall on fire. Hiding in the chamber filled with twice-dead ponies, we listened to the screams as the undead in the next room met their fiery ends.

When the noises stopped, we entered the room and searched their charred bodies. The undead had apparently all been buried with small amounts of gold. The coins weren’t like any I had ever seen before, but gold was gold. After looting the bodies of the undead (some were even carrying potions) we continued into the Barrow.

The path of burnt floor stretched out quite a ways before it turned off into another tunnel. I followed Yorl as he entered an expansive room more in the style of the fortress above than of the tombs below.

Pillars carved in the likenesses of dragons curved up the walls and held up the ceiling. The wall at the far end of the room was dominated by a set of circular stone rings covered in runes and nestled within each other. The walls on either side held identical murals carved out of the rock.

I realized as I followed them, that they were the story of Calcion the Vengeful. The first showed him as he left his hometown, hatred burning in his eyes as his neighbors drove him away. The second showed him approaching a dragon, seeking great power only they could give. The next showed Calcion in all his fury, a wickedly jagged sword held in his grasp, and fire burning both around him and in his eyes. The next mural showed his town, burning to the ground as he cut down anypony who tried to escape his wrath. The final mural showed him enthroned in Blank Flanks Barrow at the height of his power, looking down on the valley with a fierce hatred burning in his eyes.

I was almost too caught up in the murals to notice the two corpses of ponies seated on thrones at the room’s end rise from their slumber. Luckily, I did notice.

Both pulled out a greatsword shimmering with blue fire. One came for me, and the other for Yorl. He would have to take care of himself.

My Imperial sword crackled as the undead pony’s blade came down on it. I pulled out the sword I had picked up off the zombie and slashed at the corpse’s legs. Giving a hiss, it backed away. Could ponies hiss? Well, I guess they could if they had been dead for thousands of years.

The next time the zombie swung its greatsword at my head, I ducked and the blade smashed into the mural behind me, right into Calcion’s face. Bits of stone fell into my mane as I crawled across the floor. I slashed my sword at the back of the zombie’s neck as I jumped to my hooves. A gash opened up, but it didn’t kill the creature.

It swung around at me, the blade whistling over my head. Ducking down, I stabbed my ancient earth pony sword up into its chest. It fell forward heavily on the blade and dropped its own sword to the stone floor. Pulling the sword out and wiping the dark, thick blood off, I searched for the other one.

Yorl was surprisingly still alive, though he had a nasty looking cut on his side. The zombie pursuing him had several nicks in its armor, but was otherwise fine. Yorl backed into a corner as it advanced on him and raised its sword for a killing blow.

I charged up and jumped onto the undead pony’s back. It growled and tried to swing its greatsword at me. I held on for dear life and pulled out my war axe. Repeatedly, I slammed it into the back of the zombie’s head until its skull split open.

“Thanks,” Yorl said as the zombie collapsed under me.

I passed a potion to him for the gash on his side, closing it up before we went any farther.

“How do we get past this?” I asked as I approached the circular pattern at the end of the room that was obviously some kind of door.

“Like I said,” Yorl said, pulling out the golden claw, “It’s a key.”

Peering closely at the claw’s palm, he rotated the rings around until he was satisfied with their positions. When he appeared certain the rings were correct, he inserted the tips of the claw into the three holes on the center circle. Giving a push and a twist, the door began to sink into the floor with the sound of grinding stone.

Yorl removed the golden claw from the door before it sank all the way into the ground and threw it to me. Nearly hopping up and down with anticipation, he rushed into the room that was now open to us.

A huge natural cavern was past the circular opening. Waterfalls ran down the walls and glowing fungus illuminated the huge open area. All except for the far end, where a monument of stone had been constructed. A gigantic wall decorated with dragons rose up behind a raised platform holding two grand chests and an ornately decorated sarcophagus.

I walked through the shallow underground river as Yorl rushed up to the platform. Pulling out some lockpicks, he pried open one of the chests. It occurred to me that this may not be entirely safe just a moment before the lid of the sarcophagus burst off, sending pieces of stone raining down.

Another of the zombies, this one in fantastically well-preserved armor, emerged from its tomb. As I tried to call out a warning to Yorl, the zombie ran him through with wickedly jagged sword. Throwing Yorl’s body away, he looked down at me, hatred burning in his eyes. It was Calcion the Vengeful.

Of course, the lowest, most well-guarded, and most ornate tomb in the Barrow would belong to the pony who’d built it. Somehow, someway, Calcion was alive again. Whether it was the dragon magic he had sold his soul for, or he was just too immensely powerful to stay dead, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that he was back, and it looked like he wanted to kill me.

He jumped off his raised platform and slammed into the ground, his sword glowing as he did. Pointing it at me, he shot a bolt of lightning from its tip. I narrowly dodged it and splashed in the river. The dragons had granted him power indeed if he could use unicorn magic.

I barely brought up my Imperial sword in time to block as he slashed down at me. Keeping my sword held above me, I tried to backpedal out of the water. He brought his sword down again, this time shattering the blade of mine. As he slashed at me again, I rolled out of the river. His sword hit the water and sent lightning dancing through it, including into his body.

I managed to shoot two arrows into his neck before he pulled his sword out and swung around on me. I shot a blast of flame at him as I pulled out my ancient earth pony sword. The flames dissipated around him as his eyes glowed brighter. He charged me, his head lowered.

Two cruelly curved horns topped his helmet and the tip of one jabbed into my chest as he rammed me. Sinking it in deeper, he pushed me up the wall. I slashed my sword at his back, but it just bounced off his armor. Twisting it around, I was able to aim a little higher and make a cut in the back of his neck.

He growled and dropped me to the floor. Blood flowed freely from my wound, which was just below my heart. I cast a quick healing spell to stop the bleeding and raised my sword up to deflect Calcion’s next blow.

He continued to rain down blows on my sword, but it was ancient earth pony too, like his, and seemed extremely sturdy. When he raised it a high as he could for a power attack, I rolled out of the way. As his sword came down, mine went up and slammed into his throat. I continued to cut at it until his head rolled off his shoulders. Giving a final groan, the bright blue light in his eyes died.

I staggered a bit before drinking down a healing potion to finish healing up my wound. I picked up Calcion’s sword and examined it. It was really a fine sword, and apparently enchanted to shock opponents. I took the sheath off Calcion’s body and added it to my collection of weapons, to replace my broken Imperial sword.

Now that he was dead, I could explore. I made my way up to where Yorl had fallen. When he’d died, the heavy bag of coins Lightning had given him had rolled out. A little guiltily, I added them to my saddlebags.

I popped open the chest Yorl had been looking at. Inside, I found an ancient earth pony shield, some potions, some gold, a flawless ruby, and the dragonstone. At least, I assumed it was the dragonstone. It was a stone slab covered in crude runes, what else could it be?

As I prepared to go, I took a look at the wall that reared up behind Calcion’s resting place. The bottom part of it was covered with runes like the ones decorating the Barrow and the dragonstone. A particular cluster stood out for me. And I mean they literally stood out.

A single word burned with blue fire. I heard chanting in my head as thoughts that were not my own entered it. Every possible application of the word I learned in a moment. I knew everything there was to know about force. Or, as I knew it as now:

~FUS~

Level Up
Health: 120 Stamina: 110 Magicka: 110
New Perk: Early Destroyer [Destruction] -- Novice-level Destruction spells can now be cast for half Magicka.
Unique Item added: Calcion’s Cleaver -- The sword of Calcion the Vengeful was forged by the earth pony smiths of old, is extremely resilient, and can cast lightning from its tip. Does additional damage when wielded by a blank flank.
Word of Power learned: FUS -- Force; Unrelenting Force – Your Voice is raw power, pushing aside anything — or anyone — who stands in your path.
New Quest: Language of the Dragons -- You have learned your first word of power in Draconic. Now you must discover what you can do with it.

Chapter 5: Legends Arise

Chapter V: Legends Arise
“By the Equines, I never would’ve believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes!”

I rubbed my eyes as the ethereal lettering faded away. What had just happened, I had no clue, but the afterthoughts of every meaning of FUS hovered in my mind. Like reading a spell tome, I had just learned something without having to do anything at all. Only, this time I had no idea what I had learned.

I didn’t feel any different, but even so, the knowledge of FUS was burned into my brain. Bits and pieces of the thoughts and sensations I had experienced flitted to the surface of my mind every so often, but became less frequent and began to dull as time went on. Still, I was acutely aware the thoughts were still there, buried somewhere my waking thoughts couldn’t reach.

As FUS hid itself in my mind, I took another look around Calcion’s final resting place. My search was fruitful, as I found a secret tunnel behind one of the waterfalls. Following it, I emerged on the north face of the mountains. I could see Whitetrot off in the distance, sticking out of the flatlands. The dragonstone weighed me down, but I had somewhere else to go before I brought Faniar his ancient rock. I turned east, toward Riverwood.

I was so glad I didn’t have to trek back through Blank Flanks Barrow, I was taken unaware by a pack of wolves.

My war axe sank into the first one’s head as it jumped at me. Throwing it off, I spun around at the next one, my axe chopping through its throat. The next two I torched with my fire spell, and finished off the last one with a strike to the back, crippling it. Cleaning my weapons, I continued on to Riverwood.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

“Wherever did you find it?” Calciar exclaimed as I presented him with his golden claw.

After the wolf attack, the journey to Riverwood had been thankfully uneventful. All I had were the “crazy-thoughts-that-were-not-my-own-concerning-FUS” to keep me company. They were getting less potent, but still my mind seemed unwillingly drawn back to them.

“Blank Flanks Barrow,” I told him as he stroked the claw, “A thief hired by the Blackwings took it there.”

“The Blackwings?” he asked, looking unnerved.

“Yeah,” I said, “So maybe you should keep it extra safe.”

“Against the Blackwings? I doubt anything’s safe from them. But thanks anyway. Here’s 50 gold for your efforts,” he said, throwing the small bag of coins across the table.

“50 gold?” I asked, levitating the money.

“Yes,” he said, putting away the claw.

“Only 50?”

“Why, what were you expecting?”

“Something a little closer to the claw’s value.”

“Well, I gave you 50-”

“It’s worth at least ten times that!”

“Look, what if I throw in a set of armor too, yours is looking a little worse for wear.”

“I guess,” I said, settling for his deal.

I was still getting robbed, but I didn’t want to hurt my friendship with Calciar any more than I already had with my outburst. Besides, I would be selling the various items I’d picked up in Blank Flanks Barrow in Whitetrot.

With my new iron armor on, I headed out into Riverwood. The tiny town was quiet. The ponies here were able to live their lives like they always had, without fear. Even with the guards patrolling the town, nothing seemed to have changed.

“Dragon!” I heard the elderly pony near the edge of town yell.

It was the same pony who had called out the same thing the day I had first arrived in Riverwood.

“Mother, get back inside,” her son said again, “There’s no dragon.”

He was so very wrong.

A roar shook the trees around the town, and the ringing of metal on metal ended as the blacksmith stopped his work. With the thunderous flap of wings, a dragon swooped over the town. But it paid Riverwood no mind and continued on north, toward Whitetrot.

I had the get the dragonstone to Whitetrot now. While it still existed.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

When I made it to Whitetrot everypony was surprisingly calm. Apparently the dragon hadn’t come here after all. Not wanting to cause a panic, I kept the news of the dragon to myself.

I rushed to Dragonsreach as fast as I could. I vaguely noticed the blacksmith waving to me as I passed her by. A Priest of Talhooves had arrived in the city while I was gone and had set up a shrine in front of the statue of his favored deity. I paid no mind to his preaching as I climbed the steps beside him.

The guards gave me strange looks as I rushed into the keep, but let me pass. I finally made it to Faniar’s study, out of breath (Why was Dragonsreach so high?) He was rearranging the papers covered in runes (which I now saw where the same ones in the Barrow) when I trotted in.

“Back so soon?” he asked as I caught my breath.

“Yes,” I nodded, “I got you your dragonstone.”

“Excellent,” he said as I floated it out, “It wasn’t too much trouble, was it?”

“Actually, yes,” I admitted, “First off, bandits live in the Barrow, and secondly, the dead didn’t seem to want to stay dead.”

“Wait,” he said, placing the dragonstone on his table, “Are you saying the ancient dead of Horizon are alive again?”

“I guess,” I said, wondering at the significance.

“Those that served the dragons were cursed to never rest,” he said, his hoof to his muzzle, “Draugr, we call them. It means ‘Restless Ones’ in ancient earth pony. They used to roam the catacombs of Horizon, but since the disappearance of the dragons they’ve been still. If the Draugr live again, then the dragons must truly be returning.”

“What are you going to do with the dragonstone?” I asked.

“Translate it from draconic to the common speech. Then we’ll see what secrets the dragons held, and how we can use it against them.”

“Sounds great,” I said, heading toward the door, “If you don’t need my help anymore, I’ll be taking off.”

“Before you go,” he said, floating a book over, “Take this, and speak to the Jarl about any other rewards he may have for you.”

I took a look at the tome Faniar had given me. Upon the front was a soaring eagle with the title shimmering below it: Healing Hooves. I tucked it in my saddlebags to read later.

“Hold on,” Faniar said, as I turned to leave the room, “Where’d you get that?”

He was pointing at the sword at my side, the one I had picked up after the fight with Calcion.

“The Barrow,” I said, pulling it out of its sheath, “I took it from Calcion after I killed him.”

“Calcion the Vengeful?!” he asked incredulously, taking the sword to admire.

“Yeah,” I said, “He had the dragonstone.”

“Calcion’s Cleaver,” he said reverently, “Forged by the great steel-smiths in the Skyforge here in Whitetrot when the Skyforge was the only thing on this hill. Enchanted with great power for his war on his home, and augmented with dragon magic. This is a magnificent sword you carry.”

“Would you consider parting with it?” he asked when he finished ogling the blade.

“I don’t think so,” I said, taking the sword back and sheathing it.

“Of course,” he said sadly, “It would be extremely difficult to put an appropriate price on such a unique blade anyway.”

Looking longingly at the sword one last time, Faniar returned to translating the dragonstone. I left his study and trotted back into the main hall, approaching the throne of Jarl Valor’s Blade.

“What is it I can help you with?” the Jarl asked as I neared him.

“I’ve finished my business with Faniar,” I stated, “He said that you would have payment for my services.”

“Of course,” the Jarl said, turning to Protocus, “Steward, give this mare 100 gold and the Boots of Inexhaustibility from my armory.”

“Right away my Jarl,” he said, calling up another pony and sending her off to fetch my reward.

While I waited, I heard the sound of the great hall’s doors opening, followed by hoofsteps of great haste. A dull green earth pony wearing the lightest of armors decorated with Whitetrot’s crest (a pony head) galloped up the steps to the Jarl, sweat glistening in her coat.

“I bring a message from the Western Watchtower,” she forced out as she tried to steady her breathing.

“Calm down courier,” Darkfeather demanded, “You look as if you’ve just seen a dragon.”

“I have,” the courier said quickly.

“I believe the time for that expression has passed,” the Jarl said to Darkfeather.

“A dragon has been sighted flying in the western end of the hold,” the courier said, her breathing returning to normal, “Captain Burns requests assistance.”

“And we will send it,” the Jarl said, “Darkfeather, round up a platoon of soldiers and head out to the watchtower. Be ready for a dragon attack, but don’t provoke it. Sapphire, I would appreciate it if you would accompany them. You know more about dragon attacks than anypony else here, maybe even Faniar.”

I didn’t reply at once, but I took the gold and boots provided by the Jarl. I didn’t know how much help I would be. Let’s be honest, I really didn’t know much more about dragon attacks than the average pony. My advice would be to avoid them, but if Valor’s Blade thought I could be of at least some help, I would go along and try.

“Ready?” I asked Darkfeather as I pulled my helmet on.

She gave a grin and gallop-hopped out of Dragonsreach to round up the troops.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Was it odd for a pony to wear boots? Apparently not in Horizon. I had thought they’d be uncomfortable things, but I actually quite enjoyed wearing them. In fact, they seemed to make my step lighter and I didn’t tire of walking all the way to the Western Watchtower. Boots of Inexhaustibility indeed. They were aptly named.

“How did a dappled pegasus end up working for a Horizon Jarl?” I asked Darkfeather as we trekked across the hold.

“When the Red Mountain of Morrowhinny exploded, displacing my kindred, the Jarl led a rescue mission to help get us dappled pegasi out. Of course, that was many years ago when he was Captain, not yet a Jarl.”

“But, there were many who did not wish us to be saved. A fight broke out between those that wanted to eliminate the burden we presented, and those that truly cared for our lives. Valor’s Blade saved me from being killed. And I’ve been by his side, serving him ever since.”

“Why don’t you fly?” I asked as the watchtower came in sight.

“You don’t know much about dappled pegasi, do you?” she said.

I shook my head.

“Not surprising, it’s not a subject most ponies are comfortable discussing. Especially the ‘pure pegasi’ of the Dominion that we once called kin.”

“Thousands of years ago, our ancestors were dissatisfied with the Featherrest Isles. They sought after a different kind of land, a land they found in Morrowhinny. But, over time, the land changed us. The odd magic of the realm dappled out coats. Seldom did we fly in Morrowhinny, and our wings shrank. Now the most flying we can do is short assisted hops.”

I nodded to show I understood.

“Of course, even if I could fly, I would need to stay down here to keep all these earth ponies out of trouble,” she said, gesturing to the Whitetrot soldiers with us.

When we reached the watchtower there was still no sign of the dragon. But I was sure it was around somewhere. I was also fairly certain it was the same dragon I had seen fly over Riverwood. But not the same one from Hoofgen. Now that I thought about it, the two dragons were different. But, there were still at least two dragons out there, if not more. I tried not to think about how many more.

“Thanks for the assistance,” a rust-red pony with a caramel mane in Whitetrot officer’s armor (Captain Burns, probably) said, “That dragon’s hiding now, but he’ll be back.”

I sure hoped so. Otherwise I would’ve come out here for nothing. What was I thinking? Why would I want a dragon to attack? I had no idea how to fight it.

Unfortunately, my wish came true. A roar sounded across the plains. Light glinted off the dragon’s scales as it glided toward the watchtower. Archers atop the tower began to fire as it came in range. Most of their arrows bounced off the dragon’s thick hide, but some found their way through cracks in its scales and stuck.

It launched a fireball at the tower before swooping away. I was blown off my hooves as the ball of flame impacted with the tower. The top swayed precariously as the middle of the tower was blown out. With the sound of crashing stone, the tower collapsed.

I crawled away from the rubble raining down. The screams of soldiers caught beneath the remains of the tower drifted out through the pile of stone. The flames burning on the ground flickered as the dragon swooped overhead, sending wind blowing across the wreckage.

Pushing myself to my hooves, I pulled out Calcion’s Cleaver. If that dragon got too close, I wanted to be able to hit it with the only weapon I thought would be able to hurt it. As it swooped back around the smoking remains of the tower, I hid myself behind a block of stone. Giving a fearsome roar, the dragon belched flame across the ground, charring the stone I was behind, but thankfully leaving me unscathed.

I inched my way around to the other side as the dragon passed over me. From my new vantage point, I caught sight of Darkfeather, her wing pinned beneath a fallen stone. I galloped up to her before the dragon could turn back around.

“Leave me!” she ordered, straining to pull her wing out as the dragon came around and caught sight of her.

Grabbing her around her neck, I pulled with all my strength. Finally, with our might combined, she was freed. The feathers at the end of her wing popped out and her wing began bleeding, but she was free from the rock. We rolled out of the way as the dragon roasted the spot we had just been in.

We took shelter behind a pile of rocks, out of the dragon’s sight.

“You didn’t have to do that, you know,” Darkfeather said, smoothing out her remaining feathers.

“I know,” I stated, pulling out the spell tome Faniar had given me.

Popping it open, I let the pages fly past faster than my eyes could follow until the book was consumed in magical energy. I focused my new spell on Darkfeather’s wing, pouring magic into closing up the wound and sprouting new feathers.

“And you really didn’t have to do that,” she said, giving me a stern look, “But I’m glad you did.”

I shrugged and searched for the dragon. It was flying over a group of Whitetrot soldiers on the other side of the tower’s remains. They were quickly fried into ash as the dragon blasted them with fire. I pulled out a potion of fire resistance I had picked up in Blank Flanks Barrow and drank it down.

A slight shimmer covered my body as I strode out into the open. I fired a blast of lightning at the dragon, striking it in the head. Shaking sparks out of its eyes, the dragon swooped in for a landing. Dust billowed into the air as it landed heavily on the ground in front of me. I shot another blast of lightning at it before rolling out of the way of its fire breath.

I ducked behind a rock and hid from the beast. I was knocked to the ground as the rock flipped over my head, pushed by the dragon’s wing. The flames licked at me as I ran, but I was encased in a cloak of inflammability.

The dragon turned away from me, roaring in anger, as one of Darkfeather’s blades hit next to its eye. Giving a jump assisted by her wings, she escaped the dragon’s flames. The dragon took a step toward where she had run, spreading its wings. I thrust my Cleaver in the air as one of them passed over me.

A gash was torn in the membrane of its wing as my sword sliced through it. Hot blood reeking of sulfur rained down around me. The dragon jerked its wing away with a roar of pain. Lightning lanced through the wing as the sword pulled out, sending it twitching uncontrollably and throwing the dragon off its balance as it turned at me.

I ran, ducking behind a rock, as the dragon blew flame at me. It flicked the rock away with its wing, sending it roaring in agony again. More fire erupted from the dragon’s maw, engulfing me. Thankfully, my potion hadn’t run out, but my magical cloak was beginning to flicker. It died the same time the dragon’s flames did.

I jumped back out of range as it snapped at me. The sharp, wickedly curved teeth closed dangerously close to me face. Turning tail, I ran, looking back only to see the dragon had a new target. Captain Burns had grabbed onto the creature’s tail and was slashing furiously at it. It couldn’t quite twist its head around all the way and took to thrashing its tail around to throw her off.

Finally Burns was forced to let go, and went flying though the air before rolling across the ground. As she moved to pick up her sword, the dragon stomped on it. As she tried desperately to back up, the dragon, snapped her up in its jaws. Giving a few chomps to crack her armor, it threw her in the air and swallowed her. Pony blood dripped from its jaws as it turned toward me.

It turned away as Darkfeather slid under it, aiming a slash at its underbelly. Her sword hardly pierced its scales, but it infuriated it to no end. As it shot fire in her direction, I galloped toward the dragon.

“How crazy is this?” my mind asked as I neared the beast and time seemed to slow, “Galloping toward certain death. Dragons are meant to be avoided, not assaulted. You’re going to end up like Captain Burns!”

It was crazy, but I was the only one left who could attack at the moment. Other than me and Darkfeather, the field seemed to be empty of living ponies, and she was running for her life. Even if I could only distract the beast long enough for her to kill it, it would be worth it.

“You came to Horizon to hide,” my mind reminded me, “If you’re going to throw your life away carelessly, why did you come here in the first place? You could have better stayed behind in Unicornica and eked out a life as a beggar.”

I silenced the little pony in my head and jumped at the dragon, landing on its neck, just behind the head. It appeared to notice something was wrong, as it turned away from pursuing Darkfeather and tried to throw me off. I clung to a spike with all my strength as I was tossed and turned. Finally the dragon gave up on bucking me off and tried to swipe at me with its tail.

I dodged the tail best I could as it swung over my head. At least the dragon was being somewhat still now. Swinging Calcion’s Cleaver around, I swung at the top of the dragon’s head. Scales flew off as I slashed at the dragon with a dragon sword. I found it to be a bit ironic that it was being damaged by a weapon made by its own kind.

It continued to try to throw me off to no avail. Eventually my sword cut through to flesh. Bringing it up, I stabbed through into the dragon’s brain. Sparks danced over its head as lightning passed from the tip through the dragon’s skull. Giving a shudder, it fell down and died.

Still atop its head, I pulled the sword out. It was stained with hot, sticky dragon blood. Jumping off the dead dragon’s head, I wiped the blade off in the grass, causing it to wilt. Once I was satisfied it was clean enough, I put it back in its scabbard.

A crackling came from behind me. Turning, I saw the dragon’s carcass had caught fire. Flames of every color in the rainbow danced across its flesh. I backed up to avoid the blaze, though I felt no heat coming from it.

As its flesh was consumed, leaving only bones, streams of light began to flow off its body. I backed up quicker now as the lights began to head toward me. The streams of light began to flow around my body in elegant patterns. I was too dumbfounded to be too afraid. I just hoped this last spiteful act from the dragon would be painless.

Suddenly, thoughts flew through my mind. Memories, pictures, and sounds that were not my own. In seconds, I relieved the extremely long life of the dragon I had just killed. I couldn’t catch much, but I felt them flowing into my memories, melding with them, much like FUS had done.

Speaking of FUS, the thoughts were back, much stronger now. Everything I had learned about FUS and everything this dragon had learned about it were combined, strengthening my knowledge. I felt like I would explode with my awareness of FUS if I didn’t do something about it.

“What was that?” Darkfeather asked, trotting up to me.

“I don’t know,” I said, though my thoughts were still turned to FUS, “I think I just experienced that dragon’s memories.”

“Well,” Darkfeather said, “It’s dead at least. Looks like you were right.”

I barely heard her. The thoughts on FUS were still swirling through my mind. My head seemed filled with them. They threatened to destroy me if I didn’t let them out.

I yelled involuntarily.

The voice of my shout was so great, I could see it as it passed by Darkfeather, startling her. It continued on until it hit the skeleton of the dragon, sending its head flipping up in the air before slamming back down.

“Whoa,” Darkfeather said, “Watch it! I didn’t know you had the Voice.”

“The what now?” I said, my head finally clear of the FUS-thoughts.

“The Voice,” she said, “Gifted earth ponies of legend could do Shouts, like what you just did. I didn’t know unicorns could have the Voice.”

“I don’t understand,” I said, rubbing my head, the Shout had just happened.

“You should speak to the Greymanes about it, they’ll know more.”

I said again.

“Maybe until then you should avoid Shouting,” Darkfeather said as she staggered when my Shout passed her.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I held off on the Shouting on the way back to Whitetrot. It wasn’t too hard. The urges to ponder FUS had faded away completely. Apparently my mind had decided I now fully understood it if I was able to project force with only my voice.

The sun had sunk behind the mountains by the time we reached Whitetrot. The stars glimmered in the crystal clear sky over Horizon. The town was silent but for a few barking dogs as we made our way past the burning braziers and up the stairs to Dragonsreach.

“What news from the Western Watch?” the Jarl asked as we approached his throne.

“The dragon lies dead,” Darkfeather announced, “Amid the ruins of the watchtower and the bodies of everypony there but us two.”

“How many ponies did we lose?” the Jarl asked.

“Nearly twenty.”

“The time for mourning will come later. Now we must be glad. A dragon has been stopped within our lands. We have shown the dragons that ponies are not as weak as they may think.”

“Most of the credit belongs to this pony here,” Darkfeather said, pushing me forward, “She was the one who killed the beast.”

Uncomfortably, I stood before the Jarl. I didn’t want this attention, and I hadn’t done that much.

“It appears, Sapphire, that you have become invaluable to our hold,” Jarl Valor’s Blade said, dismounting his throne, “And for that, I name you Champion of Whitetrot, and Thane of this great city.”

“Thane?” I asked, unfamiliar with the word.

“It is the highest title I can bestow upon anypony within my hold. As Thane, you will be highly respected wherever you may go. And everypony will recognize you as a representative of Whitetrot, and by extension, me. In addition, I present you with the residence of Breezehome within the city and the Axe of Whitetrot, weapon of my realm.”

As he finished his explanation, Protocus stepped forward and presented me with my new war axe and the key to my new house. I took them reverently, still feeling like I didn’t deserve any of it.

“I don’t know what to say,” I said to the Jarl, “Thank you.”

“You’ve earned it,” he said, putting his hoof on my shoulder.

Thane of Whitetrot. It did have a nice ring to it. And Whitetrot was one of the nicer places I had been to. I could certainly get used to living here.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

After a feast thrown by Jarl Valor’s Blade, I made my way down to my new house. Breezehome was built in the market district next to Warmare’s. It was just a short trot from my front door to any of the shops in Whitetrot.

Turns out, Breezehome had been the house of Captain Burns before me. I felt strange, moving into the house of a pony on the day she had died, but I needed a place to sleep for the night. She had a few things sitting out in the house, but it seemed mostly unlived in. Apparently she had preferred living on watch over staying in an actual house.

Protocus informed me that all her possessions would be removed in the morning. Only the furniture would be left. Thankfully, that included the bed I snuggled into. As I lay down to sleep, I thought about the strange turn of events that had befallen me.

I had been in Horizon three days now, and I had a home, several friends, and I was a Thane. Also, I apparently had “The Voice.” I would have to find where the Greymanes lived sometime and visit them. And, I had also killed a dragon.

Pretty good for a worthless blank flank. Almost too good. I checked my flanks before I went down to sleep but they were still blank. No cutie-mark for me. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

I was awakened in the morning by the sound of the blacksmith hard at work next door. Rising, I strapped on my armor (but not the helmet,) Calcion’s Cleaver, and the Axe of Whitetrot. Strapping my saddlebags to my sides, I went shopping.

And by shopping, I meant selling some of the things I had picked up. My gems were sold, as was my old leather armor. I also sold the Draugr sword I had picked up in Blank Flanks Barrow for a good amount of gold (though I feared it wasn’t even close to the actual value.) I then used the gold I’d gained to buy a steel sword and mace at Warmare’s.

As I left the blacksmith shop with my increased arsenal, I saw the guards at the gate were blocking the path of a pony with a coat so brown it was nearly black. He pushed past them and galloped up into the city, heading straight for Dragonsreach. As Thane, I figured it was my duty to help the city guards and followed him.

The only armor he wore was light, deep blue, and marked with a symbol I hadn’t seen before. A shield with two curled ram’s horns. He got farther away as we entered the city center and he shot past the dead tree. He was a fast pony, made for running.

Pushing the Priest of Talhooves out of the way, he ascended the stairs to Dragonsreach. The guards called for him to stop, but he continued to run. Jumping the last two guards, he slammed into the great halls doors, pushing them wide open.

He reached the throne of Jarl Valor’s Blade as I made it to the fire. Or, he would have reached the Jarl’s throne if Darkfeather hadn’t tackled him.

“Darkfeather, get off of him,” the Jarl demanded.

“He is from Marekarth,” she said, though she obeyed, “No doubt Jarl Glamus is declaring war for the fortification of Rearikstead.”

“No,” the courier said, rising to his hooves, “Jarl Glamus requests aid.”

“Aid?” Protocus asked incredulously, looking up from his scrolls.

“Yes,” the courier replied, “A dragon has attacked Marekarth and we have need of your soldiers. Jarl Glamus needs your help.”

Jarl Valor’s Blade looked thoughtful for a moment before replying.

“And Whitetrot will send it,” he announced, “Who better to send then the Champion of Whitetrot?”

Of course he meant me. Looked like I would be off again. Marekarth awaited.

Level Up
Health: 130 Stamina: 110 Magicka: 110
New Perk: Good Ol’ Fashioned Shteel [Smithing] -- You can now smith steel weapons and armor at forges.
Appointed as Thane: Whitetrot Hold
Unique Item added: Boots of Inexhaustibility -- Enchanted to reduce stamina drain, these boots will allow you to run for hours without tiring.
Unique Item added: Axe of Whitetrot – The Axe of Whitetrot is a priceless weapon forged by the city’s smiths. In addition to being enchanted with fire damage, it shows off your status as Thane.
Residence acquired: Breezehome -- Although it is a small home, it is situated in an ideal place in Whitetrot and provides a place to sleep and store your belongings.
New Spell learned: Healing Hooves -- This spell allows you to heal the wounds of any other pony so long as you are near them.
Friendship gained: Faniar Fire-stone -- The court wizard of Whitetrot, Faniar can teach you a variety of spells as well as how to be a competent enchanter.
Friendship gained: Darkfeather -- This dappled pegasus is sworn to protect Jarl Valor’s Blade’s life, but will be willing to help you so long as it doesn’t interfere with her duties.
Dragon Soul collected
New Quest: Trouble in the West -- Travel to Marekarth and save it from a dragon attack.

Chapter 6: Marekarth

Chapter VI: Marekarth
“The Karth belongs to the Cloven Hoof!”

Marekarth.

There wasn’t much I knew about the great city in Horizon’s west. It was run by Jarl Glamus, that much I had picked up. I also knew it was nestled in the nearly impassable mountains that ringed the western border of the province. Nothing could prepare me for it.

The only paths to the city ran through the mountains from the north through Karthpasture and the south through Foalkreath. The Foalkreath path seemed more logical to me, being far shorter, but Jarl Valor’s Blade didn’t want to risk infuriating Jarl Sibli, so he sent his soldiers to the north.

I took the more reasonable route, allowing me to pass through Riverwood as well, and made it to Marekarth before the sun had set over the jagged mountains. Thankfully, my journey was uneventful, and I encountered no beasts or bandits as I followed the mountain paths to the valley the city was built in.

My breath was taken away as I came within sight of it. At the end of the valley, Marekarth was constructed in a natural hollow. A waterfall poured off the cliffs behind it and ran through the city.

Extremely different than Whitetrot, Marekarth was not constructed of timber. In fact, my first glance revealed no wood had been used in its construction at all. Marekarth was built from stone almost (but not quite) as ancient as Blank Flanks Barrow.

The stone was bare and lifeless, but decorated all over with exquisite bronze-work. Bronze domes capped the extraordinarily decorated building at the city center as well as a soaring watchtower. Some of it was tarnished, but much if it still shone with its original luster.

An ancient minotaur city if I ever saw one. And it appeared to be on fire.

Smoke and flames billowed up from within the city and pony screams floated on the wind. A dark emerald dragon gave a roar as it swooped over the city, drowning it in yet another gout of flame.

I galloped toward the city gates as fast as I could. The burnt corpses of guards littered the roadway as I passed by. I paid them no mind and kept my thoughts focused on the dragon laying waste to the city.

“What does it want?” somepony whimpered as I passed a mostly intact shelter near the gate.

Killing the dragon was important, but rushing in unprepared could be disastrous. Whatever this surviving pony could tell me would be helpful. Turning aside from the gate, I trotted into the small, stone building.

“Who are you?” a gold-brown mare asked as she scuttled back into the building.

“Sapphire, Thane of Whitetrot,” I introduced myself before I stopped to think about how announcing an alliance with the Jarl of another hold could affect my predicament.

“I’m here to slay the dragon,” I added hesitantly.

“Slay the dragon?” the mare asked, “You?”

“Yes,” I replied in an annoyed manner.

“Our best soldiers couldn’t kill the dragon, what makes you think you can?”

“I’ve already killed one before,” I sighed, regretting starting this conversation, “And you’ll be able to tell me anything you know about it that I can use as an advantage.”

“You killed a dragon?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes,” I replied, “Now what do you know about this dragon.”

“Not much,” she said, giving a shrug, “It showed up last night and attacked the town for a few hours before leaving. It was gone all morning so we thought it was safe to come out, but then it came back and it seems to want to level the city.”

“Anything helpful you know about it?” I asked.

“Sorry, that’s all I’ve got.”

“Stay put and lie low until it’s dead or gone,” I said, giving a frustrated sigh.

Stepping out of the shelter, I approached the heavy bronze gates of the city and pushed them open.

I nearly choked on the noxious fumes as I entered what was left of the city square. Sulfur mixed with the smell of charred pony flesh. I forced myself not to gag as I walked through the smoke.

Through the haze I could see the dragon as it swooped over the city, landing atop the watchtower and cracking the dome. As I made my way up through the city, I saw the dragon reach into the tower with its head and throw a screaming archer to her death.

The path to the upper level of the city was complex, forcing me to crisscross several walkways and zigzag up walls. At last I made it to the upper level, where I could see several ponies in Marekarth guard armor standing outside of ornately decorated bronze doors built into the mountain’s face. It appeared to be a last stand outside of the Jarl’s palace.

As I climbed the last steps the dragon gave a roar and leaped off the watchtower, giving a spin before landing in front of the guards. A blast of flame burned about half of them into cinders, but the others circled around to attack the dragon’s sides. Spreading its wings, the dragon threw the remaining guards away, smashing them against walls and throwing them over balconies. It looked like it would be up to me.

Pulling out Calcion’s Cleaver, I charged the dragon. The sword smashed against the side of its head at the same time my Sparks spell hit it in the eye. Scales snapped off as the dragon threw back its head, giving a roar that shook the city. I barely rolled away in time as it swept its head toward me.

Opening its maw, it released a wave of flames at me. I managed to dodge the worst of the blast, but some of the flames found their way through the chinks in my armor, blistering my flesh. I cried out in pain as the armor rubbed against the raw patches, but kept moving.

The dragon swept a spiny claw at me, but I was well clear, and took advantage of the dragon’s foolishness to slash at it with my sword. The dragon drew back its claw and growled in barely suppressed pain. More flames followed me, which I easily dodged.

“FUS,” my mind told me, but I had no time to act on the thought as the dragon snapped at me.

My sword glanced off the dragon’s tooth and I nearly lost my magical grip on it. Even an ancient dragon sword couldn’t hurt a dragon’s fangs, apparently. I aimed a quick slash at the dragon’s neck before rolling out of the way of its flames.

“FUS,” my mind told me again, which was becoming really annoying. I silenced the little pony in my head as the dragon’s wing smashed into me.

I rolled and tumbled across the age-worn stone until I came to a stop just before the edge of the ledge. The ground shook as the dragon approached. I directed a blast of fire into its face as it grew closer.

Of course, the flames did nothing to the fireproof lizard other than to infuriate it, but it bought me enough time to force myself to my hooves and retrieve Calcion’s Cleaver. Galloping around the dragon, I cut through its wing. Hot sticky blood splashed from the wound onto me, causing my armor to smoke menacingly and my burns to become even more agitated.

I directed my Shout at the dragon as it turned toward me.

The air rushed out from me and smashed into the dragon’s head, snapping it up unnaturally. Scales peeled off and I thought I heard bones crunching. The dragon looked dumfounded, and then even angrier. I directed another Shout at it.

“Fus!” I yelled, but no force slammed into the dragon’s face.

Apparently I couldn’t do it again so soon. My head felt strangely empty as I grasped for the FUS-thoughts to fashion a Shout. I had to roll aside to keep the dragon from turning me to ash, but eventually the thoughts and memories reformed into something I could recognize.

The dragon reeled once again as FUS pounded into it. But this time the dragon was prepared. Seconds after my shout hit it, its tail whipped around and threw me across the courtyard. I heard a bone snap as I slammed against a wall.

I grimaced as pain lanced up my right hindleg. Looking up, I saw I was near the door to the large structure in the center of town. Limping, I pulled the door open and jumped through before the dragon scorched the exterior wall.

I cast a quick healing spell to reset the bones in my leg. A couple healing potions repaired the rest of the damage, including my burns, bruises, and the various nicks and scrapes I had gotten in the fight. Now that I was back in fighting condition, I took a look around as I caught my breath.

Candles flickered in alcoves throughout the silent hall. At the other end of the building were several rows of benches filled with ponies in prayer, probably for the deliverance of their town. Past them a priestess stood in front of a shrine to Difillya. It appeared I had found Marekarth’s temple.

“How did you get here?” the priestess asked as she noticed my presence.

My answer was cut off as the dragon’s claws scraped across the roof. Frightened whinnies broke out and the priestess tried to calm the assembled ponies. I heard pleas for help to all the Equines (including Talhooves.)

Utter panic broke out and the ponies stampeded to the front of the temple as the dragon broke through the ceiling. Through the screams, pieces of stone and tarnished bronze rained down. I galloped through the chaos and out the door.

Once outside, I fired an arrow at the dragon. It continued tearing at the temple as my arrows bounced off, having no effect. Giving up on my bow, I pulled out Calcion’s Cleaver.

“Hey you!” I yelled at the dragon, lifting the sword over my head. Hopefully I could draw it away from the townsponies.

Lightning jumped from the tip of the sword and slammed into the dragon. The lightning bolt burned across its side and up its neck, shattering and melting the scales. Giving a roar of pain and fury, it jumped off the temple and flapped straight at me.

Pulling out my Axe of Whitetrot to augment Calcion’s Cleaver, I brought them both up as the dragon approached. Jumping to the side, I cut both my blades into its wing, tearing, electrocuting, and lighting the wing on fire.

I ducked to avoid the dragon’s tail as it swept over me. I held my sword up as it swung back. I met substantial resistance as the blade impacted, but I fought to maintain my magical grip on my weapon. Scales cracked and flesh gave way. At last the bone snapped under the force of the blade and the end of the dragon’s tail was sliced off.

I didn’t have much of a chance to celebrate as its wing hit me over the back of the head, scraping my face across the stone. Spitting blood, I got to my hooves and picked my sword up from where it had fallen. One of my ribs snapped as the dragon’s head slammed into me.

When my rolling came to a stop, the dragon was standing over me. Pulling out my iron axe, I slammed it into the dragon’s eye. It growled and pulled back, dripping its foul-smelling blood everywhere. Standing up, I launched a Shout at its face.

It recoiled, but apparently had had enough fighting with me. It opened its jaw as wide as it could and lunged forward at me. As the mouth enveloped me, I stabbed Calcion’s Cleaver up through the roof of the dragon’s mouth and into its brain.

Giving a groan, wisps of smoke drifted out of the dragon’s throat as it died. Rolling to the side, I barely managed to avoid being crushed by the dragon’s corpse.

Using a rag, I cleaned my sword as the dragon was consumed in flames. Once again, unearthly streams of light departed the dragon’s body and surrounded me. All its memories suddenly became mine. As the images faded from my sight, I saw several ponies standing in front of me, staring incredulously at the dragon.

Upon closer inspection, I could see that the majority of the ponies were dressed in the armor of Marekarth guards. Apparently not all of them had been outside fighting the dragon. The few ponies that weren’t guards were wearing ornate robes and jeweled amulets. It looked to be Jarl Glamus and his entourage.

“You,” a chocolaty-brown earth pony in a crown I took to be Jarl Glamus said, “You killed this dragon?”

“Yes,” I said, approaching the skeleton.

My old war axe was destroyed, but I was able to salvage several jewels and a hefty amount of gold coins from what had once been the dragon’s stomach.

“How did you do this?” the Jarl asked, “Who are you?”

“I’m Sapphire,” I said, “Jarl Valor’s Blade sent me to help.”

“Thank you Sapphire. You saved our city. If there’s anything we can do to help you, name it.”

“Well,” I said, looking up at the darkening sky, “I could use a place to stay tonight.”

“Take your pick,” he said, motioning at the door to the palace behind him, “Any room is yours, except for mine of course.”

Giving the Jarl my thanks, I entered Marekarth’s palace. After walking around a bit, I discovered it wasn’t so much a palace as an elaborately decorated minotaur fortress converted for pony use. It was odd walking through bronze-coated halls designed for bipedal creatures that stood twice an average pony’s height.

I finally found a vacant room lavishly decorated in rustic earth pony style. Setting down my saddlebags I reset my ribs and healed all my wounds. I had barely finished when a Marekarth courier invited me for a feast that night in the grand hall.

At the meal, Jarl Glamus seemed to have an inexhaustible list of questions to ask me, from how I had killed the dragon outside, to where I had come from. While he seemed enthusiastic, his other guests gave me the feeling that a unicorn like me was unwelcome among so many earth ponies.

After I had stayed as long as I felt comfortable, I excused myself to my room. I wasn’t ready to sleep, so I pondered my next steps. Where was I to go from here? Back to Whitetrot to wait for couriers to bring me news of dragon attacks? Would I rise in fame until somepony was sure to notice I was a blank flank and I’d lose everything? Or should I go to the Greymanes, and learn more about how to use my “Voice”? I wasn’t sure.

Before I went to sleep, I started reading the book I’d gotten back in Blank Flanks Barrow: A Brief History of the Empire; Vol. I. The first chapter detailed the early life of Talhooves, when he was just an earth pony living in Horizon. I knew he would later go on to found the Alicorn Empire, but for now I just contented myself with learning about his foalhood in ancient Windhorn. It was so much easier to focus on the past than the future.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

When I awoke the next morning, I left the bronze halls of the palace and explored the city. After walking around a few times, I had familiarized myself with the layout of the city enough that I no longer found the twisted and overlapping walkways confusing.

The town seemed fairly empty as I explored, no doubt due to the recent dragon attack. But enough ponies had survived to start rebuilding. Most of the work was focused on the temple, but crews of ponies helped to clear rubble from the city square, too. It wasn’t long before it was clear and a market was set up and doing business.

I was just selling off the last of the rubies I’d taken from the dragon’s skeleton when the mare I was doing business with gasped like she’d seen a ghost and ducked behind her stand. I turned, hoping to the Equines that it wasn’t another dragon. Not so soon.

Instead, I saw a band of scruffy-looking figures standing just inside the city gate. They were about the size of ponies, but their coats were scraggly and unkempt, the hooves were split down the middle, and horns sprouted from each of their heads.

Not dragons, goats.

“Down with ty-y-y-y-y-yrants!” one bleated out, pulling out a rough sword.

All the goats were wearing cobbled-together armor and pulled their weapons in unison.

“The Cloven Hoof is in the city!” somepony yelled, and a bell rang out soon after.

Marekarth guards charged down the myriad walkways and stairs to attack the pack of goats now moving toward the market stalls. And me.

I pulled my steel sword out as one charged me, but the goat never made it to me. His head was separated from his shoulders by a guard with a greatsword. The rest of the guards fell upon the remaining goats. Though they continued to fight, they were far outnumbered and outmatched. Eventually, every goat in the square was dead.

“Filthy creatures,” one of the guards said, kicking a goat’s body as she walked away.

The goat she kicked coughed up blood and its chest began to slowly rise and fall again, but she didn’t seem to notice. Once all the guards had left, I gingerly tiptoed through the bodies until I came to the one that was still alive.

“You ponies . . . will never learn,” it forced out softly as it noticed me standing over it, “This land . . . isn’t yours. It belongs . . . to the Cloven Hoof . . . and you will pay dearly-y-y for your treachery-y-y-y.”

“Treachery?” I asked the dying goat.

“A unicorn?” he said, pushing his eyes open, “Maybe you’ll believe the truth. How these earth ponies have abused us, betrayed us. How they-y-y-y . . .”

His eyes went glassy and his breathing stopped before he could tell me what the earth ponies had done. Or at least, what he wanted me to believe the earth ponies had done. The town seemed nice enough, and the goats were the one’s who’d attacked it. It was probably nothing, but I still felt the urge to get to the bottom of it.

I returned to the market stall I had been at before and finished my business with the mare. She seemed pretty shaken up by the intrusion of the goats into the town, and gave me more gold for my jewels than she probably would’ve in other circumstances, but I wasn’t going to complain.

“What was with those goats?” I asked her as she shakily stowed her goods away.

“That’s the Cloven Hoof,” she said, “Uncivilized goats live in the mountains all through the Karth. All they ever do is attack towns and caravans, killing respectable ponies for some twisted belief that just because they lived here first, they own the place.”

That made a little more sense out of what the goat had said about the land belonging to them, but I had to agree with this earth pony that killing ponies wasn’t the way to solve the problem. Still, it seemed like there was more to it than this. Taking land wasn’t exactly a betrayal, was it?
I decided to ask somepony else. A buck at the inn had pretty much the same answer for me as the mare outside. As did the blacksmith, the owner of the trading company and his son, a bread salesman, and the Priestess of Difillya.

As I prepared to leave the temple, I found my way blocked by two burly Marekarth guards.

“The Jarl wishes to speak to you,” one said in a rather menacingly manner.

“Sure, why didn’t he just ask?” I said, trying to dispel the tension.

It didn’t work. The two guards escorted me out of the temple and into Jarl Glamus’s great hall. The Jarl sent everypony out when he saw I had arrived. Lastly, the two guards that’d brought me in stepped out of the hall and closed the heavy bronze doors, leaving me alone with the Jarl and extremely nervous.

“Come closer,” he commanded, “Or do you expect us to carry out a conversation by shouting across the room?”

With sweat rolling down my neck, I obeyed and trotted up until I was standing in front of a stone, bronze, and obsidian throne meant for a much larger creature than a pony. From the elevated seat, the Jarl was able to look down on me.

“So, I understand you have some questions,” he said.

I nodded.

“Well, fire away!” he said, lounging back and flashing a smile.

This wasn’t at all what I had expected from the somber tone of his guards and his frantic haste to rush everypony else off.

“Well,” I said, swallowing hard to dispel the lump in my throat, “I want to know about the Cloven Hoof.”

“I figured as much,” the Jarl said, “My guards say you’ve been asking all around town about them, stirring up quite a bit of panic.”

“Panic?”

“Yes, you see, everypony in Marekarth knows the Cloven Hoof is a threat. But to be reminded of it constantly can drive anypony insane. That’s why I felt it was necessary to answer whatever questions you may have before you inadvertently cause any more trouble with your questioning.”
“What if I still have questions after this?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I can assure you, you won’t. I’m sure I’ll be able to answer any questions you have about the Cloven Hoof. Now, like I said before, fire away.”

“Well, who are they exactly?”

“They are the goats native to the Karth who disagree with our settlement of their homeland. But, instead of discussing it like civilized beings, they launch attacks on camps, mines, towns, traders, any pony settlement they can find. And do they take over the places they capture? No, they kill every pony they find and leave.”

“Marekarth is the prize for them. Centuries ago, it was their capital, back when they had some sort of steady civilization. And they want it back extremely badly. Now, with this dragon attack just following an outbreak of disease, there’re less ponies living here than ever before. And I fear the Cloven Hoof will take advantage of it to take the city. Those goats at the gate were only the first to come.”

“I heard something about the earth ponies here . . . betraying the Cloven Hoof at some point,” I said, hoping to hide where I’d gotten the information, “What’s with that.”

“I don’t know where you heard that,” the Jarl said, stiffening slightly, “I hope not from any of my citizens, but the only betrayal we’ve committed against them is one made up from centuries of bitterness after Marekarth was taken fairly.”

“I think that’s all I need to know,” I said.

“Good,” the Jarl replied, “And remember, if you have any more questions about this, come to me. We don’t need the townsponies worrying more than they have to.”

I nodded my understanding and left the great hall, passing by the burly guards on my way out.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Tightening the straps on my saddlebags, I prepared to leave Marekarth. I had restocked on healing potions and food for my journey and intended to return to Whitetrot. Maybe Jarl Valor’s Blade would have something for me to do. And, if not, I could settle into Breezehome and build a life for myself in Horizon. I hoped to make it to Foalkreath before nightfall. Hopefully Berefs would allow me to stay with him, otherwise I’d be forced to lodge at the Dead Pony’s Drink.

“Psst,” somepony tried to catch my attention as I neared the city gates.

Turning around, I caught a glimpse of a powder blue earth pony mare motioning for me to come closer. As I began to trot in her direction, she slipped through a door built into the mountain.

Once she had disappeared, I stopped. Why was I following this pony, anyhow? I was supposed to be on my way to Foalkreath. If I didn’t leave soon, it would be dark by the time I reached the town. My curiosity finally got the better of me, and I trotted after the mare.

The building she had ducked into turned out to be an alchemy shop. Dried plants hung from hooks in the ceiling. A pony-built alchemy lab looked out of place among the minotaur decorations. The pony who’d motioned me in was standing behind a sales counter covered in phials filled with powder. If she had just called me in to buy something, I was going to be extremely angry.

“You, you’re the one who was asking about the Cloven Hoof, right?” she asked as I approached.

“Yeah,” I said, “Only unicorn in Marekarth. I shouldn’t be hard to miss.”

“Oh, that’s not true,” she said, waggling her hoof at me, “There are a few unicorns and pegasi who live here, but they only come out to do their business at night, to avoid the die-hard Stormcloud supporters.”

“Really,” I said worriedly. Were there more ponies here like the ones that had kidnapped Serenity?

“But that’s not what I wanted to talk about,” the mare said, “Like me, you seem to think there’s more to this Cloven Hoof situation than the Jarl lets on.”

“Who are you, anyway?”

“Name’s Sanius,” the mare said, extending a hoof, “Yours?”

“Sapphire.”

“The Jarl’s hiding something, I know it,” Sanius said, “Maybe with your help, Sapphire, I can figure out what.”

“What makes you think the Jarl’s hiding something?”

“I’ve heard guards talking about a ‘Hall of Forbidden Records’. There wouldn’t be forbidden records if the Jarl wasn’t hiding something.”

“Where is the Hall of Forbidden Records?”

“As far as I can figure out, beneath the Hall of Records in the center of the city, below the Temple of Difillya. Of course, we’ll have to search for it at night, when we can be sure nopony will be using the Hall of Records.”

“So . . . what do you need me for?”

“Who knows how many records we’ll have to sift through before we find what we’re looking for? Two sets of eyes can do it much quicker.”

“All right,” I said, “When do you want to do this?”

“Meet me two hours after sunset, outside the Hall of Records.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Two hours had passed since the sun had disappeared over the mountains. Looking up, I could see bright waves of light flowing through the sky over the spires of Marekarth. The city was nearly silent.

After the sun had set, everypony returned to their homes. Then, just as Sanius had said, the town’s horned and winged inhabitants had cautiously exited their homes and quickly made their way to the few shops still open. Then, as swiftly as they had emerged, they disappeared back into their homes until tomorrow night.

It seemed a terribly lonely and depressing existence, being only able to come out at night. If things were this bad here, what were they like in Windhorn, the heart of Jarl Stormcloud’s rebellion? Especially since this was an Imperial city. A guard in Imperial Legion armor would walk by from time to time, but I soon realized it was the same guard. The Emperor must’ve trusted this town extremely if he had only sent one guard to fortify it.

I nearly jumped when Sanius emerged from the shadows beside me, wearing a black cloak.

“Ready?” she asked.

I nodded and pushed open the door to the Hall of Records.

At this time of night, the city’s center for storing books and scrolls was completely deserted. Candles mounted on the walls had burned down to stubs, giving off an eerie, flickering light. Several books lay open on tables, but otherwise it seemed the Hall was unused even in daytime hours.

Sanius began to search for anything suspicious and I did the same. A few books and scrolls had earned the right to be displayed on pedestals. A copy of the Marekarth Charter and the White-Gold Concordat sat side by side, no doubt irking the city’s Stormcloud supporters.

I circled the library three times and still found nothing that would indicate a Hall of Forbidden Records lay beneath our hooves. I was getting frustrated and knocked a stack of Minotauran Inquiries off the heavy stone table in the center of the room.

As the heavy books fell, they dragged the ornate tapestry draped over the table off. With the covering gone, I could see an out of place groove cut around three sides of the table’s top. Bending down, I followed the grooves as they ran down the side of the table and converged on a latch on the floor.

“Hey Sanius, look at this,” I said, calling her over.

“You found it!” she exclaimed when she saw what I’d discovered.

Depressing the latch with my magic, I unhinged the table, revealing a ladder leading down. Levitating a candlestick, I climbed down into the Hall of Forbidden Records. Sanius soon joined me in the tiny room.

It was nowhere near as large as the Hall of Records above us, and only a few scrolls were placed in the nooks along the walls. I pulled a cobweb-covered one out and started to read.

With the destruction of the Red Mountain of Morrowhinny, there is no suitable site to destroy the records housed in this hall. I have tasked my court wizard with discovering a new way to dispose of these heinous documents, but until such a method is found, all forbidden records must remain stored here. Nopony must ever find this place. The guard shall be doubled.
-Jarl Eranus, 4E 4

That explained what all the forbidden documents were doing here, but it mentioned nothing about the Cloven Hoof. I pulled out another document to investigate.

Two more documents yielded no more information about the Cloven Hoof, only banned reports on the Minotaur ruins deep within the mountains. Finally, I found one that seemed helpful.

Treaty of Marekarth
Signed 21st of Last Seed, 4E 173

In exchange for assistance in the Great War against the Pegasari Dominion, the Jarl of Marekarth will accept all goats, formerly known as Cloven Hoof Rebels, as lawful citizens of the Karth. In addition, the goats of the territory will be permitted to live in and among pony citizens in both Marekarth and Karthpasture. This is the final and unbreakable decision of Jarl Hanus and will be upheld even in the case of his death.

Signed, Jarl Hanus of Marekarth
Signed, Ivon Strong-horn, King of the Cloven Hoof

“This is it!” I called out, “The Treaty of Marekarth!”

Sanius moved in closer to take a look.

“The Jarl of Marekarth agreed to let the Cloven Hoof live in Marekarth if they fought in the Great War,” I explained, “But then he went back on his promise and shut them out.”

“Well, no wonder the goats are mad,” Sanius said, “They do have a right to live here.”

“Yes,” I nodded my agreement, “Everypony needs to know about this. We have to-”

“-do nothing.” A gruff voice finished for me.

I turned around to see one of the burly Marekarth guards standing behind me along with three others. How did they get down here without us hearing? My wondering was put to a stop as his hoof came down on my head and I blacked out.

Level Up
Health: 130 Stamina: 110 Magicka: 120
New Perk: Blades of Fury [Light Weapons] -- When using a weapon with a blade (sword, war axe, or knife) you can swing 20% faster.
Dragon Soul collected
New Quest: Nopony Escapes from Doompit Mine -- Escape from Doompit Mine

Chapter 7: A Prisoner for Curiosity

Chapter VII: A Prisoner for Curiosity
“Nopony escapes from Doompit Mine!”

I awoke with a pounding pain in my head. Opening my eyes revealed the inside of a burlap bag. Fighting through my head pain, I focused enough to pull the sack off with my magic. I gritted my teeth in pain as the dried blood on my forehead held it in place, but forced myself to pull it all the way off. A slight trickle of fresh blood ran down my face, but I could see again.

I immediately regretted taking off the bag. By the dim light of poorly-made torches, I could see I was lying on the stone floor of a tunnel. Metal bars cut off the tunnel in the direction I was looking, and rolling over showed me the same thing on the other side. Echoing off the walls, I could hear the sound of pickaxes cutting into the stone.

How had I gotten here? Blurrily, recollection of the events the night before came to me. Breaking into the Hall of Records. Discovering the Hall of Forbidden Records. The Marekarth Treaty. And finally, the guard pony knocking me out. But this place didn’t look like a prison. At least, not like the prison in Kvatch.

“Get up, prisoner!” an earth pony mare in Marekarth guard armor said as she opened the door behind me.

I tried to push myself to my hooves, but apparently I wasn’t fast enough. The guard kicked me in the ribs, causing me to go sprawling again. I tried to get up again with the same result. My third try I was successful in getting up before she kicked me again. I stood and faced her, letting my contempt show.

It appeared I was in some sort of prison. She had called me a prisoner, at least. And all my possessions had been taken from me. My weapons, my armor, my saddlebags, my potions, all gone. Now I had nothing, not even any clothes on my back.

“What is this place?” I asked, trying to stay alert in case she kicked at me again.

“You’re in Doompit Mine,” she mocked, “Where Marekarth’s prisoners mine silver until their sentence is up, or they die of exhaustion. In your case, I’m betting on the latter, since you’re sentence is for life.”

“What?” I exclaimed.

“That’s right,” the guard laughed, “You’re going to be here forever.”

I stood frozen in shock as I saw my life crumbling around me. In prison mining silver forever. This wasn’t at all what I set out to do when I left Unicornica.

“Hey, it’s not like you had somewhere else to be blank flank!” the guard mocked.

I turned to her with rage in my eyes.

“Now get to work,” she said, throwing a pickaxe at me, “Your sentence starts now.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

By the end of the day I was extremely tired and sore. Muscles I didn’t even know I had screamed out with aches and pains. I was too tired to do anything but fall heavily onto the thin bedroll provided for me and close my eyes.

My life was in shambles. I had gone from a respected hero to a prisoner in less than a day. Now I had to mine silver for Marekarth until I died. And based on the state of my body after just one day, it wouldn’t take long.

At least the guards had left me alone after sending me into the mines. And the prisoners didn’t seem inclined to beat me to a pulp either. In fact, they didn’t seem like hardened criminals at all. About half of them were ponies, with an out of the ordinary sprinkling of unicorns and pegasi thrown in. The other half of the prisoners were goats, no doubt captured in raids on Cloven Hoof camps.

Everyone went about their business as if there were no barriers between the races. None of the guards were willing to come down among us prisoners, so an ugly buck with a scar across his face, a fellow prisoner, was in charge of making sure everyone worked. But I noticed that he took it a little easier on a few of the prisoners, his friends probably.

As I lay on my bedroll, pondering the day, my new life, and trying to ignore the aches and pains, I suddenly became aware that the background chatter of my fellow prisoners had gone silent. I didn’t even have time to open my eyes before I received a sharp kick in the ribs.

“Get up,” I heard the voice of the guard who had mocked me in the morning.

I stood up to find her sword held menacingly over me. Two other guards held out swords to keep the other prisoners back.

“What do you want with me?” I asked, my voice catching in my throat.

“Follow me,” she said, sheathing her sword.

Obediently, I followed, acutely aware of the swords pointed at me. The guards led me out of the tunnels of the mine and into the crisp, cool air of the Horizon night. I looked longingly down through the city toward the gate. If I got a running start, I wondered if I could make it and disappear into the wilderness. But I would still be weaponless, and the guards weren’t giving me any opportunities to escape.

Soon, I found myself in front of the doors to the Marekarth palace. The guards led me inside and through the winding hallways until they herded me into an unmarked room, shutting the door behind me.

I appeared to be alone so I took a moment to look around. Of all the rooms in Marekarth’s palace, other than the great hall, this room was the most exquisitely decorated. A king-sized bed obviously added after ponies moved in dominated the room and a shield bearing Marekarth’s seal hung over it. I was starting to get a bad feeling about where I was.

My fears were confirmed as the door on the other side of the room swung open. Jarl Glamus strode into his bedchamber, staring me down as he took a seat next to a writing desk.

“Come now, take a seat,” he said, motioning toward a nearby chair, “No need to live like savages.”

Showing my contempt, I fell into a nearby chair.

“So, how are you liking your stay in Doompit Mine?” he asked.

I refused to answer, keeping my muzzle clamped shut.

“Giving me the silent treatment, eh?” he said, “Very well, just listen then.”

“Now, you probably think I’m in the wrong after reading that dusty old document, but I assure you I’m not. This land belongs to ponies. All ponies, including unicorns like yourself. The Alicorn Empire proved that. All of the Northlands was united under a pony banner, and the land had peace.”

“But now these upstart races want to take back land given to ponies by the Equines, who I might add, are all ponies. Zebras, Griffins, Goats. They all think they can rule themselves, but time is only proving they cannot. The Zebra homeland of Darkpass, after it left the Empire, has been torn apart by civil war and it’s crumbling into chaos. The Griffins have only a floating city built ages ago and scattered tribal strongholds to call home. And the Goats, they live like savages in tribal camps and raid the homes of us civilized ponies. No, only ponies deserve to rule.”

“The Treaty of Marekarth was never meant to be followed. I know that, my father knew it, and his father knew it. And he signed the treaty himself! Ponies must rule, and the lesser races must follow. The real crime was giving the goats the illusion that they could have the land in the first place. But most ponies don’t see it that way. So the truth had to be covered up, for the good of all.”

“I never wanted to send you to Doompit Mine, Sapphire. You’re something special, a pony who can overcome any odds if you put your mind to it. But you forced my hoof by unearthing those documents.”

“So, I can go if I don’t tell anypony about them?” I piped up.

“It’s hardly that simple anymore,” he replied, “I’ll have to trust you, and you’ve already betrayed my trust once by looking for those documents in the first place.”

“So, what? You called me here to tell me you’re sorry about dooming me to mine until I die, but there’s nothing you’re willing to do about it!”

“No, I came to offer you a path out.”

“Go on,” I said, crossing my stiff and sore forelegs.

“As I see it,” he said, “You have two options.”

“Door number one: You stay in Doompit Mine and continue to unearth silver until you either die of exhaustion or old age.”

“Door number two: You help me find out where the Cloven Hoof’s main settlement is.”

The sick jerk. He knew he had me boxed in. Of course I would have to pick the latter option. Anything beat going back down into the mines to die.

“How am I supposed to do that?” I asked.

“I happen to have a very special goat as my prisoner in Doompit Mine. Ivon Strong-horn, King of the Cloven Hoof. And he’s planning a breakout.”

“How do you know this?”

“My court wizard has become extremely skilled at using a spell to hear through walls. It’s how we found you in the Hall of Records, after all.”

“Anyway, he plans to escape, though I’m not quite sure how. Whatever way he chooses, he’ll surely head straight back to his capital. I need you to get in with him, close enough that he’ll agree to let you escape with him. Then, once you’ve found out where his main base is, send me a message and I’ll respond accordingly.”

“When you’re done, I’ll pardon you of all crimes and your possessions will be returned to you, along with a hefty reward. What do you say? Are you in?”

It didn’t seem like I had much choice in the matter, but I made a show of thinking it over anyway, just to aggravate the Jarl.

“All right, I’m in,” I said.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

In the Jarl’s quarters, agreeing to help had seemed the best course of action. But, back in Doompit Mine, I realized I had no idea how to get close to the King of the Cloven Hoof. None of the other prisoners seemed to know anything about where he was being kept, and if they did, they weren’t willing to share the information with me.

I tried to strike up friendships with some of the Cloven Hoof prisoners, but all I gained were annoyed bleats and orders from the mine overseer to talk less and work more. So I put my back into mining silver to be sent across the Empire, the buyers never realizing how it had been obtained.

The work was no less exhausting than the day before, in fact even more so. But I was too sore and numb to notice as much. And I had a hope, however how slim, of escape.

A whole day passed of work in the mines and I was still no closer to the Cloven Hoof’s leader, or to escape. Another day passed in much the same way. My quest was starting to seem impossible as I lay down to sleep. If the Cloven Hoof was planning an escape, surely they would be prepared to leave extremely soon. And if I didn’t get in on it before it happened, I would be stuck mining silver for the rest of my life.

A gruff grunt broke me out of my shallow slumber. I looked up to see the scarred mine overseer standing over me. Instinctively, I reached for my pickaxe with my magic. It wasn’t technically a weapon, but could be used for defense in a pinch.

“Come with me,” he grunted.

Intrigued, I followed him as he turned away, keeping my pickaxe handy in case it was a trap. Most of the other prisoners were asleep as we walked through the sleeping quarters, but the few that were awake didn’t seem surprised by my departure, they just followed me with weary eyes as I exited the cavern.

The buck led me through the winding tunnels until we were back in the central cavern, in front of a rusted gate in the wall he spent a large portion of the day standing in front of. Pulling a key from a hiding place in the wall, he unlatched the gate and swung it open, motioning for me to walk in.

I felt uncomfortable heading down a strange pathway alone with this imposing buck who could easily overpower me. Except that I had a secret weapon he didn’t know about. Confident I could fend him off with my Shout, I headed into the tunnel.

The tunnel seemed to be barely used, yet fresh, bright torches burned at regular intervals. Finally, past a sharp bend, the tunnel ended abruptly with a small cavern. Behind a writing desk sat a goat with larger than usual horns that curved around the back of his head. Around him were four other goats, and one unicorn like myself.

“Thank you, Malcius,” the goat behind the desk said, “You may go now.”

As the buck next to me turned and left, my heart began to lift as the realization hit me. I had found Ivon Strong-horn! All my questioning had paid off, I was finally in the same room as the Cloven Hoof’s leader. Now I just had to earn his trust and escape.

“Sapphire, correct?” Ivon asked, fixing me with his stare.

I nodded that he was correct.

“You’ve been extremely friendly to my subjects here, and I hear extremely inquisitive about the Cloven Hoof outside of the mines. So I’ll just come to the point. What is your interest in the Cloven Hoof?”

“Can I join?” I asked, trying to keep my desperation from showing, and beneath it, the scheme to trick him.

“One does not simply join the Cloven Hoof. It represents the many scattered goat clans who have been abused by ponykind for generations and are ready to strike back. But, I believe you may be able to help us. And one day, maybe you can be folded into the honorary herd like Topaz here.” He motioned to the unicorn standing beside him.

“He provided us with a plan for escape, and I believe you can help us with the means.”

“How?” I asked.

“If you are willing,” he said, pulling out a pitch black phial, “I need you to poison the guard captain tomorrow night. It will ascertain we will not be impeded in our bid for escape.”

“How are we going to escape?” I asked, making sure he knew I wasn’t going to be left out of the jailbreak.

“Don’t worry about it,” Ivon said, “Poison the guard and return here when you’re finished. Will you do it?”

In reply, I took the phial from him with my magic.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

The next day passed swiftly as I looked forward to the escape that night. I was only in my bedroll for a few minutes before I got up to poison the prison guard. Creeping through the abandoned tunnels, I finally found myself in front of the bars I had woken up behind just a few days before.

It gave me a sick satisfaction to see the guard on duty tonight was the same one that had beaten me when I’d first entered the mine. I hovered the phial of poison through the bars and over to her table. I managed to finish pouring the poison into her tankard of mead moments before she picked it up and took a drink.

The moment she slumped over in her chair I took off galloping as fast as I could to let Ivon know the deed was done.

“Excellent,” the Cloven Hoof’s leader said after my report, “Round up all those loyal to us. We escape tonight!”

A few minutes later, a disorderly collection of goats and a few ponies filled Ivon Strong-horn’s cavern. Clearing his throat, he jumped on top of his desk with a nimble grace and addressed the assembly before him.

“All of you may be here in Doompit Mine for different reasons,” he began, “But you all want the same thing. Justice! The ponies of Marekarth have mistreated each and every one of you! The Cloven Hoof seeks to put them straight. And if they think they can contain us here, they are wrong! No one has ever escaped from Doompit Mine before. That all changes tonight!”

Jumping off of his desk, he grabbed a heavy hammer for smashing open rocks and slammed it into a wall Topaz had marked. With the sound of falling stone, the wall gave way to a dark, smooth-walled passage.

“This is our chance!” Ivon yelled, grabbing a torch and charging into the tunnel.

I found myself pushed along in the mass of bodies and swept into the tunnel. The darkness suddenly vanished as lights burst up on their own within crystals mounted on the walls. Steam hissed from bronze pipes stretching along the walls and the clanking of machinery emanated from the depths of the passage.

The ever-present bronze-work and the higher than usual ceilings led me to believe we were in another part of the Minotaur city that Marekarth was built in. I soon found myself pushed up to the front, trotting along next to Topaz.

“What is this place?” I asked him.

“The Minotauran city of Nuzel-zum,” he replied, “Marekarth is only built on the outworks. The majority of the city stretches deep into the mountains. As an expert in Minotauran culture and ruins, I chose these to explore. But some of my discoveries caused the Jarl alarm, and he had me thrown into Doompit Mine, to keep my discoveries from leaking out.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“That the automated defenses the minotaurs left in this city are still very much active.”

Up ahead, a grated section of the wall lifted up.

“Speaking of which . . .” Topaz commented.

Out of the new opening in the wall rolled the most ridiculous thing I had ever seen. A bronze sphere let the automaton make contact with the ground and move freely. Mounted atop the sphere was a thick bronze post leading up to a smaller, gem-studded sphere. Protruding from the main post were two spindly posts that acted as arms and ended in sharpened bronze blades.

The gems flashing a variety of colors that made the machine look angry, it rolled forward toward Ivon, its blades spinning menacingly. As the Minotauran automaton neared him, he ducked his head down and rammed the lower sphere with his formidable horns.

The sound of bending metal filled the air as the lower sphere crumpled under his attack. But the machine wasn’t dead yet (if machines even could die.) It aimed a swing with one of its sword-arms at the back of Ivon’s exposed neck.

Levitating the pickaxe I now wore as a makeshift weapon, I blocked the automaton’s swing, twisting its arm out of shape. As the blade of the sword-arm fell to the floor, I smashed the end of the pick into the thing’s “head”, shattering the array of gems that served as eyes. Giving a metallic groan and hissing steam, it toppled over into a wreck on the floor.

“Thanks,” Ivon said as I retrieved the automaton’s sword to use as a weapon, “I guess we’d better watch out for these things.”

Around the next corner, two more of the automatons were patrolling. But, they hadn’t seemed to have noticed us yet. A blast of lightning from my horn changed all that. The lightning strike shattered the gemstone “eyes” of one and it fell to the floor, leaking steam.

The other one was not happy (if these things even had feelings) to see its partner dead. It rolled full speed at us, spinning its blades. I blasted it with fire moments before it smashed into my scavenged sword.

Sliding backwards from the force of its blow, I held my block and pushed back. Then, suddenly, I released, throwing the machine off balance. As it tried to compensate, I smashed my sword into the back of its head. Steam poured through the bent and out of place seams, but the automaton still swung around on me.

As I blocked its first swing, I saw Ivon charging out of the corner of my eye. He slammed into the machine’s base just as I blocked its other sword. It desperately tried to spin itself away in time, but eventually failed and fell to the ground. Ivon smashed his cloven hoof into the array of gems, shattering them and crushing the automaton’s head. A sad whistle escaped from the machine, but the light in the gems died, signaling its demise.

Levitating my Minotauran sword, I continued deeper into the ruin. Topaz would point out what passage to go down intermittently. Some of the goats and ponies had started picking up discarded Minotauran weapons to defend themselves. They came in handy when the ambush fell upon us in a grand cavern.

Ten of the ancient machines came pouring from holes in the walls, five on each side. I held my sword ready and easily blocked the first strike that came at me. The second, however, bypassed my block and nicked me across the flank. The sensation of blood dripping down my leg empowered me to smash in the face of my attacker. Small pieces of diamond fell to the floor as the machine met its end.

I cast a quick healing spell to seal my wound and turned to look for a new adversary. One of the automatons was attempting to attack a group of unarmed goats not too far away. I shot a lightning bolt in its direction, but it didn’t destroy it like the one in the passageway before. However, it did temporarily stun the machine long enough for the goats to ram it into a mess of twisted bronze.

Nearby, Ivon rammed another automaton into submission, finishing it off with a scavenged blade held in his mouth. Hissing steam, another of the machines moved away from a group of goats it had slaughtered and came towards me. I shot a gout of flame at it, which seemed to do little more than cause more steam to escape the machine. I ducked down and slid under its spinning blades as it charged me.

Spinning my blade around, I stabbed it into the mechanism controlling the arms. With a flash of sparks, they ground to a halt and the machine was thrown off balance. It quickly regained control and spun around at me. As it swung a blade at me, I smashed my sword into its arm just above the blade. The metal twisted and the blade fell to the floor, but it continued to swing its other weapon around at me.

I ducked down and the blade sliced over my head, just above my horn. I shot lightning up at it as it passed over. The arm locked up as lightning arced over it. Rising and levitating my blade above my head, I slammed it down on the machine’s head. Bronze bent and gems shattered as the brains of the machine split in half. Wires and a particularly large crystal spilled out onto the ground.

Almost immediately after I succeeded in destroying the machine, a second one came wheeling toward me. Snatching up another fallen sword, I blocked both of the automaton’s blades. I blocked as it swung again, then again. I was too busy blocking to get a strike in myself. Eventually, my guard slipped and one of my blades was knocked from my magical grasp. Even before it hit the polished stone floor, I shot the automaton full on in the face with a blast of lightning. It sputtered and sparked before losing its balance and falling over in a heap.

The last Minotauran automaton was overwhelmed by a group of goats and ponies and the great hall became silent except for the hissing of steam and the clanking of machinery. Quite a few goats and ponies had fallen to the mechanical attack, but a significant amount remained standing and ready to continue.

“How much farther, Topaz?” Ivon asked, limping up to the caramel unicorn.

“Not too far,” he assured the Cloven Hoof king distractedly as he leaned over the automaton with the smashed open head.

“As suspected,” he said, lifting the oversized crystal that had been at the center of the machine’s mind, “They run on soul gems. But how?”

“Focus, Topaz,” Ivon said as I healed the cut on his leg, “Which way?”

“Of course,” he said, snapping out of his meditations and tucking the soul gem away in his saddlebags, “The exterior exit should be just a few chambers down.”

He took off down one of the multiple passageways leading off of the main hall. Ivon followed him, I followed Ivon, and the rest of the Cloven Hoof supporters followed me. Through the twisting, turning passages Topaz seemed always certain of where he was going, even though I was lost in minutes.

Eventually we passed through all the rooms with walls covered in bronze-work and bronze piping and came to a large entrance foyer. A double staircase with handrails designed for bipeds curved down toward a grand set of bronze doors. A few goats and ponies charged ahead, sensing freedom was close. As the base of the steps, a cacophony of grinding metal and hissing steam erupted from between the stairs.

A massive automaton stood up on twin bronze legs covered in gears and piping. The legs supported an overlarge upper body that sprouted two sturdy arms that ended in bladed hands and had crossbows mounted to the forearms. Atop the body was a bronze head fashioned in the shape of a Minotaur’s face, with glowing rubies for eyes and twin steam pipes for horns.

Letting off a blast of steam, the machine took a step out of its hiding place and fired crossbow bolts the size of pony legs into the eager escapees. Its bladed hands grasped at the screaming, backpedaling Cloven Hoof members who were next down the stairs. Several were torn apart by the powerful claws, but the rest managed to retreat to the top of the stairs where Ivon was rallying his troops.

From the top of the stairs, I fired a lightning bolt at the machine’s head. It struck straight on and lightning skittered over the Minotauran mask, but the automaton seemed unfazed. I sent another blast at it as it turned and made to ascend the steps. The bronze on the faceplate tarnished and one of the ruby eyes shattered, but it kept coming.

I ducked down as a crossbow bolt shot over my head, smashing into the ornate bronze-work the Minotaurs had placed on the walls centuries before. Just when I thought I was safe, another bolt smashed through the railing I was hiding behind, spearing the goat cowering next to me. I rolled aside as a bolt smashed through where I was hiding a moment before.

The automaton was now nearly halfway up the stairs, taking steady and cautious steps. But now I was completely exposed, with nowhere to hide. I pulled an ornamental Minotauran shield from its place on the wall and held it up just in time to reflect the machine’s deadly bolt. The shield vibrated and threatened to fall from my magical grasp, but held true.

I deflected another two bolts, holding the overlarge shield between myself and the automaton. As it paused at the top of the stairs, I took a risk and threw the shield at the machine’s face. It bounced off the horns, twisting one out of place, but managed to stun the thing momentarily. It was far from dead, but I wasn’t finished.

The force of my shout pushed the automaton over the lip of the top step. Comically, it fell backwards, unable to stop its tumble down the stairs. Gears and bits of bronze bounced off as the machine fell to the bottom.

Retrieving my shield, I held it up to block before the automaton stood back up. Several crossbow bolts went flying my way, but I blocked them easily. In my mind, I could feel my knowledge of FUS beginning to form back together. I only needed a few moments more.

Without warning, the automaton opened up its chest and shot a blast of fire at me. I was taken unaware, and the flames scorched the ends of my mane and tail. But luckily I was far enough away that no harm was done to my flesh.

I noticed my throw with the shield had pinched one of the steam horns shut and the other was belching even more steam to compensate. The huffing of steam came irregularly and the machine moved a little more irregularly, so I figured something had broken inside of it. Either that, or cutting off the release of steam was doing irreparable harm to its interior.

I decided to test my theory by throwing my shield at the automaton before jumping aside to avoid the flurry of crossbow bolts. But, I was saddened to see that, instead of striking the machine’s other horn, it caught the shield in midair. Tossing the shield aside, it started back up the stairs.

Unfortunately, this time it wasn’t going to give me an opportunity to knock it back down. Crossbow bolt came continuously my way, giving me no chance to Shout it. As it reached the top of the stairs, it opened its chest to fry the remaining Cloven Hoof assembled above the staircases.

Out of nowhere, Ivon rammed into the back of the automaton’s leg, twisting it out of shape and causing it to lose its balance.

“Now, Sapphire!” he yelled before jumping aside.

The automaton once again stumbled falling down the stairs. It grasped feebly at the handrail, tearing it apart as it fell. By the time it halted its fall at the stairs’ base, I was already closing in on the mech.

As it rose up, I jumped onto its back, bracing my hooves on the intricate pipe-work. Pulling out my sword, I stabbed it into the machine’s neck. Steam hissed and metal snapped, but the automaton seemed unaffected.

It did, however, notice something was wrong and began flailing wildly as it attempted to throw me off. As I pulled my sword back to slam into its head, I was forced to hold on for my life, and the sword flew out of my magical grasp. All I had now were my hooves, my magic, and my Shout.

I directed a blast of fire at the intact steam horn, melting it closed. A steam cloud hissed out from the machine and the metal casing began to grow hot to the touch. It locked up as pressure built inside of it. Bracing myself on pipes that were rapidly heating up, I Shouted straight at the back of the automaton’s head.

The head snapped off and a geyser of steam shot up, nearly scalding me. I was forced to jump off as the machine toppled to the ground. Rolling to soften the fall, I landed near the shield I had picked up earlier. Levitating it to examine the condition, I strapped it to my back.

“That was amazing!” Topaz rushed up, congratulating me on my victory over the monstrosity, “I don’t know of anypony who’s taken down a Minotauran death-clanker before!”

“Well done,” Ivon said, stretching out and smiling, “The Cloven Hoof can always use a fighter like you. Would you accompany us home?”

I could barely contain my excitement. The leader of the Cloven Hoof was asking me personally to come with him. Everything was working out perfectly. I tried to push the thoughts of what had to come next far from my mind.

“I’d love to,” I said.

Without another word, Ivon pushed open the grand doors to reveal a mountain pass stretching off into the night. I was on my way.

Level Up
Health: 130 Stamina: 120 Magicka: 120
New Perk: Honeyed Words [Speech] -- You now have a significantly higher chance of convincing somepony to see your point of view. Your persuasion attempts will rarely fail.
Faction joined: Cloven Hoof -- An organization of goats in the Karth, the Cloven Hoof is devoted to taking revenge for the “Marekarth Treason” in any way necessary.
New Quest: Daggers in the Dark -- Obtain the Cloven Hoof’s trust, then report the whereabouts of their main settlement to Jarl Glamus’s soldiers.

Chapter 8: Into the Wilderness

Chapter VIII: Into the Wilderness
“You want to know who the Cloven Hoof are? We are the people who must pillage our own lands. Burn our own ground. We are the scourge of the earth ponies. The axe that falls in the dark. The scream before the gods claim your soul. We are the true children of the Karth.”

After leaving the ruins of Nuzel-zum, we traveled past Marekarth, crossing the road just out of sight of the guards. From there we followed the Karth River north, deeper and deeper into the woods. Though obviously exhausted, the Doompit Mine escapees continued without rest through the night until we found ourselves stopped by a goat sentry just as the sun peeked over the horizon.

“The Karth belongs to the Cloven Hoof!” he bleated out, “All ponies are unwelcome in these la-a-a-a-ands!”

Some of the ponies in the company, including Topaz began to whinny nervously. To have come so far and then be turned back, it was heartbreaking.

“Peace,” Ivon Strong-horn said, emerging from the crowd of bodies.

He conversed with the guard in the goats’ bleating language until realization dawned on the soldier’s hairy face.

“Let all know the King has returned!” Ivon announced in Equine.

The guard rushed off, dropping his spear in his haste. Standing tall, Ivon led the travel-weary prisoners forward into the brush. The trees pressed close and branches scraped at my sides. The only light in the natural tunnel we passed through turned dim and green as it was filtered through the thick foliage.

I got the distinct feeling that this place was ancient, that the trees here had lived for centuries. The trees towered higher as we delved deeper into the old forest. Soon our passage was flanked by moss and vine-covered stone. The rock parted as we entered an open valley nestled among the mountains.

The valley was filled with a grove of trees. Small cookfires burned among the trees and goat children played, running around the massive trunks. Other goats fulfilled different tasks: cooking, smithing, even jewelry-making. I had never seen so many goats in my life. Surely this was the Cloven Hoof’s main settlement!

But leaving immediately would seem suspicious, not to mention I didn’t have a firm grasp on exactly where this place was. So I followed Ivon along with the other former prisoners until we neared the center of the grove, where the ancient trees towered higher than anywhere else, and their branches intertwined to form natural walkways.

“All hail Ivon Strong-horn!” a goat in the pieced-together armor of the Cloven Hoof (but not the guard from before) cried out, “King of the Cloven Hoof!”

Goats came running from every direction to greet the leader they thought they’d lost. I soon lost sight of him among the hairy, bleating bodies. I found myself shoved off to the side with the other ponies from the mines. As the crowd began to thin out, I became aware of the ring of soldiers closing around all who were not goats.

“What of these ponies M’Lord?” a milky white goat with a serrated sword asked, “Shall we execute?”

I backed off in shock. The goats would kill us after we’d helped free their leader? Well, they weren’t taking me without a fight. I pulled the Minotauran shield and sword from my back, ready for a fight.

“No! Of course not!” Ivon chastised the guard, “In my time in the ponies’ prison, I learned that not all of them have cruel hearts and wish us ill. These are our friends, and they will be treated as such. Quick, they have had a long journey. Hasten to find them suitable bedding.”

Another goat led us up rickety staircases until we found ourselves in the crowns of the trees. Whole rooms were carved out of the ancient trunks, and our guide soon brought us to a dimly-lit cavern in the wood packed with rough bedrolls. They were a far cry from actual beds, but vastly superior to our bedding in Doompit Mine. I fell asleep immediately and snoozed through the entire morning.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

When I awoke, I had a quick lunch that the goats at the cookfires graciously offered up and then set out to explore the Cloven Hoof camp. I found that this settlement was a city in its own right. The central cluster of trees was the Cloven Hoof’s head of government, and the rest of the goat nation lived in lean-tos and in the surrounding trees.

Whole families lived here, not just Cloven Hoof soldiers. Merchants, artisans, blacksmiths, and apothecaries all lived together with their children in the secluded valley. It was loud and lively, and though it was almost entirely outdoors, it felt like I was in a city that was founded centuries before.

“Impressive for a bunch of unorganized savages, huh?” Ivon Strong-horn’s voice came from just to my right.

I turned to see him walking up with Topaz at his side, rapidly scribbling down everything he saw on a piece of parchment.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” I admitted honestly.

Ivon was now wearing a crown made of ancient wood and leaves obviously enchanted to last forever. The branches twisted and curled in an elaborate pattern until they locked behind his massive horns.

“The earth ponies underestimate us,” he said, staring out at the goats living their lives across the clearing, “That is our advantage. We must strike as swift as shadows and disappear even more quickly. So long as they do not see us as a major organized threat, they make only token gestures to stop us. While we remain hidden, we remain safe.”

“What is this place?” I asked, looking around at the city as a few kids ran past me, absorbed in a game of tag.

“This,” Ivon replied with a pause, “Is Caprika Redoubt, the ancient holy land of the goats, and our capital since the Cloven Hoof was formed almost a century ago.”

I soaked in the city as Ivon stood silently by and Topaz continued to scribble observations down.

“But, I came to speak with you for a different reason,” the Cloven Hoof’s leader said, “You as well Topaz.”

The caramel-coated unicorn looked up from his writings to pay attention.

“Walk with me,” the King ordered, trotting off toward the central tree.

Confused, I followed the monarch as we passed back through Caprika Redoubt to the center of the grove.

“Every member of the Cloven Hoof must pull their own weight,” he announced as we climbed the staircase that encircled the central tree, “I gladly welcome all the ponies that followed me here into my herd, but I have been troubled with how to integrate them into our society.”

“In short, I have a job for you two,” Ivon came to his point as we reached his throne room.

Composed of intertwined branches in the crown of the tree, the seat of the Cloven Hoof’s government was magnificent. The King took a seat in a polished wooden throne, flanked on either side by important looking goats. Though plentiful light poured in through the roof and walls, composed almost entirely of leaves, a brazier burned with green fire near the throne.

“Tomorrow a caravan of supplies and weapons for Jarl Glamus will be traveling from Karthpasture to Marekarth. If you are willing, I would have you assist my soldiers in the attack.”

“What?” Topaz said, “Excuse me sir, but I’m a scholar, not a soldier. You can’t expect me to be of any use in an attack?”

“Did you not claim to be skilled at persuasion while we were in Doompit Mine?” Ivon asked, “Your job will be to convince the caravan to stop, making it easier for my soldiers to attack. After all, a pair of ponies will have a better chance at it than a horde of goats.”

Thoughts were swirling through my mind. Attack innocent ponies? Was this the only way to earn the King’s trust? After all, though he said he trusted us ponies, I had noticed certain goats following my moves, ensuring I didn’t run off to betray them. Which was just what I intended to do even though it made me sick to my stomach.

“I’ll do it,” I said, swallowing my regrets and objections.

“Topaz?” Ivon asked, turning toward the fidgeting unicorn.

“All right,” he said finally, “I’ll go along too.”

“Excellent,” the Cloven Hoof King said, clapping his hooves together, “Send the order.”

The goat standing next to him rolled up a scroll and tossed it into the brazier. With a flare of flames, the scroll was gone, vanished into a cloud of green smoke that flew off on the wind.

“Amazing,” Topaz said, trotting closer to the green flames, “You’ve recreated the Minotauran Inferno Communications System.”

“The what?” I asked.

“The ancient Minotaurs could send reports and other messages to each other by burning them in braziers like this one. All you need is one to send and receive messages in seconds instead of hours or days.”

It was certainly interesting, but none of it was relevant to the current situation. I was more worried about the caravan we were supposed to ambush.

“When is this attack on the caravan going to take place?” I asked.

“Midday tomorrow,” Ivon replied, “Meet the guide at the gate at sunrise. He’ll direct you to the camp nearest to the path.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I let out another deep sigh and tapped my hoof impatiently. Topaz was late. The shaggy brown goat that was supposed to lead us also seemed impatient to get going. At last, Topaz came trotting up the path to where we were standing.

His saddlebags were stuffed with scrolls and books. Where he had gotten actual books here baffled me, and I had to admit I envied him a bit. But, they were still highly impractical for our mission.

“What are you doing with all that?” I asked as he neared. By the look on his face, our guide seemed to share my feelings.

“Playing the part,” he said cryptically, “If I came highly armed like you they’d never buy our ploy.”

I rolled my eyes (though I hated to admit he had an extremely valid point) and followed our guide, who had already started to leave the valley.

“Just think about it,” he said enthusiastically, trotting beside me, “I’ll play the part of a scholar, which I am, and you’ll be the mercenary escorting me, which I assume you are.”

“Mercenary?” I asked.

“Sorry,” Topaz said, backing off, “I just figured . . .”

I thought about it. I really wasn’t sure exactly what I was supposed to be. I had been so many things in the past few days since I’d entered Horizon. Refugee, prisoner of war, escapee, outcast, vigilante, extortionist, liberator, explorer, hero, Thane, savior, prisoner of curiosity, spy. It was all so confusing. I supposed mercenary really wasn’t much of a stretch for me anymore.

“So, what are you then?” Topaz asked, trying to redeem himself.

“I don’t know, myself,” I admitted sadly.

On the way to the Cloven Hoof camp, Topaz and I talked. And I told him everything. Well, almost everything.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

The goats at Overlook, having received a message from the King via flame communication, welcomed us into their camp. As they prepared their weapons for the upcoming ambush, Topaz and I sat aside from the main group and planned out our deception.

As he had suggested, he would be a scholar doing research in the area and I would be his bodyguard (explaining his packs of scrolls and my sword and shield.) Then we would ask for a supply trade and, if that failed, directions. Either way, hopefully we would stall the caravan long enough for the Cloven Hoof to get into position.

When the time came for the ambush we were thoroughly prepared. Topaz and I traveled through the woods and entered the path a ways from the ambush site. Then, we ambled along in the direction the caravan would be coming from, making small talk to pass the time, and trying to look natural.

As we neared the ambush site, the train of wagons came around the corner, emerging from the trees. Now was the time for us to play our parts.

“Good day!” Topaz called out as we neared the wagons.

The pony pulling the lead wagon ignored him and the guard beside him frowned. It didn’t look like this was going to be easy.

“I was just wondering if you would like to trade any supplies?” Topaz asked, trotting alongside the wagon-pulling pony.

“We don’t have anything to trade with you,” wagon-puller finally responded, “All this is going to Marekarth.”

“Oh, surely you must have food or something to trade. Let’s see-” Topaz reached out with his magic to lift the covering off the wagon.

In a flash, the guard-pony had her sword poised over Topaz’s head.

“If you want to keep your horn, I wouldn’t do that,” she said.

“All right, all right,” he said, cutting off his magic, “But surely you must have something to trade with?”

“Even if we did,” the guard said, sliding her sword back into its sheath, “What would you give us for it?”

“Well,” he said, rummaging around in his saddlebags, “I have some very interesting books-”

“We don’t want your magic books, unicorn” she said, spitting at his hooves as if even saying the word sickened her, “And we don’t need your kind in our land.”

Things were rapidly going downhill. I never expected such vehement anti-unicorn sentiment in a Hold loyal to the Empire. Apparently Ivon had thought about how, though we were both ponies, we were unicorns, and not exactly welcome here.

And where were the Cloven Hoof soldiers? I had to find some way to stall the caravan, and also get Topaz and I out of this jam.

“Look,” I said, “We don’t want any problems.”

“If you didn’t want any problems,” the guard said, “You should’ve stayed in Unicornica.”

She waved for the wagon train to stop, and the rest of the guards trotted up to join her. This certainly didn’t look good for Topaz and me. Behind the assembled guards I could see a few goats slip out of the brush and sneak over to behind the rear wagon.

At last, they were beginning the ambush. I didn’t know how much longer we could stall the caravan. Topaz backed up nervously as the assembled guards drew their weapons.

As I pulled out my Minotauran sword and shield, a volley of arrows flew from the woods, some sticking in the guards, but most striking the ponies strapped to the wagons. Based on how fast they fell over dead, I had to assume the arrows had been poisoned.

More goats poured from the woods, attacking the guards with their rugged wilderness weapons. Topaz fled the fight (he had no weapons, after all) and the guards not trying to fight off goats focused their attacks on me.

I used my shield to block the first strike of the mare who Topaz had been talking to. The shock of the strike vibrated up my leg, but I held on to the shield and aimed a swing at the mare’s legs. She jumped back to avoid it, but she wasn’t quick enough to avoid the blast of flame I shot at her.

As she rolled in the dust to put out the fire, another guard, this one with a mace, charged me. The strike rang off my shield, but before I could strike back, he aimed another swing at me. The mace glanced off the edge of my shield as I barely managed to block. His next strike I didn’t manage to block at all.

My ribs cracked under the stress as his mace smashed into my side. Breathing became difficult and I barely blocked his next strike. As soon as his mace struck my shield, I swung my sword around and buried it in his forehead.

Throwing him off my sword, I found myself once more under attack by the leading mare. She had managed to put out the fire, and she did not look happy. My shield managed to block her first strike, but the pain in my side kept me from blocking her second one. The blade sliced across my foreleg and red blood flowed in a trickle down my front.

Swinging my Minotauran sword around, I knocked her blade aside before she could cut off my head. Twisting my sword around, I knocked hers aside again, and buried my blade in her neck.

But, she was far from the only pony trying to kill me. There were too many of them, and I needed some time to heal and refocus. Concentrating, I directed a Shout at the group.

The guards went flying, rolling across the ground, and into the scuffle with the Cloven Hoof. Hopefully it would buy me a little time. Wrapping up my foreleg in a bandage to staunch the blood flow, I reset my ribs and cast a healing spell on the wound. I drank a minor healing potion for extra measure to help knit up my insides.

Taking a few practice breaths to ensure everything was back to normal, I headed back into the fray. Most of the guards had already been taken out by the overwhelming Cloven Hoof. All the ponies pulling the wagons had died in the first attack. All that was left were a few guards already engaged in fighting the goat soldiers.

However, I did notice they had missed somepony. A tail stuck out from behind the rear wagon. Not waiting for a surprise attack to come from the pony, I went after them myself. Levitating both my sword and shield, I charged around the wagon.

I stopped in my tracks when I saw the pony I was going after was just a little filly. Why, she was just a foal! What was she doing here? Her tears dripped onto the dead mare she was desperately clinging to (her mother, perhaps?)

I sheathed my sword, not knowing what else to do. Glancing over the wagon, I could see the fight was about over, anyway. The foal backed away as I moved to comfort her.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be all right,” I told her, even though I didn’t see how.

“You killed them!” she said, sliding under the wagon, “Why’d you kill them?”

I had no answer for her. Why had I killed them? They were part of a caravan I was ambushing. But why was I ambushing a caravan in the first place? I wasn’t a criminal.

I’d killed these ponies because I was trying to gain the Cloven Hoof’s trust. I was trying to gain the Cloven Hoof’s trust so I could turn them over to Jarl Glamus. I was going to turn them over to Jarl Glamus so he would pardon me and I would be free again.

But was that enough justification to kill innocent ponies? It was all so convoluted, it made my head hurt. Not to mention the fact that this caravan’s guards were about to attack me anyway. But, I wouldn’t have been here if I hadn’t been trying to gain the trust of the Cloven Hoof so I could betray them so I could be free again. Everything was so turned around.

I almost didn’t notice the Cloven Hoof soldiers come around the wagon; I was so caught up in my philosophical questioning. The foal squirmed deeper under the wagon and fought to silence her sobbing. I was torn between what to do. I couldn’t take the foal with us; the Cloven Hoof would never allow it. But I certainly couldn’t kill her, that wasn’t even an option. For the moment, I did nothing.

“What will be done with these supplies?” Topaz asked, appearing beside me.

“We’ll burn them,” the goats’ leader, and the only one in the group that spoke Equine said.

One of the goats came forward with a torch. All I could think about was the foal beneath the wagon.

“Why destroy them?” I asked before the goat reached the wagon, “Why not take the supplies?”

“We have no need of them,” the Cloven Hoof captain said, “In this way, we will deprive our enemies of them.”

He waved for the torch-bearer to continue. I bit my lip as he set fire to the wagon. Flames licked over the supplies in the back and crept down the sides and through the crackling wood.

Just when I was getting seriously worried the foal would be burned alive, she zipped out screaming and hid between Topaz’s legs. He looked down in amazement, and then glanced over at me. His eyes seemed to ask why she’d chosen him instead of me. But I already knew why. He hadn’t killed anypony today. All the foal could see me as was a monster.

“Get it!” the Cloven Hoof captain ordered and several goats moved to take the foal.

“Just hold on a second,” Topaz said, “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Our mission is to destroy this caravan,” the captain said, “And everypony in it. Every pony.”

“You can’t be serious,” I blurted out, “It’s a foal for Buckatosh’s sake!”

“Our orders are very clear,” the captain said, frowning, “No survivors. What else can we do?”

“Take her back to camp?” Topaz suggested, “Raise her there?”

“Out of the question. It’ll run off and reveal our location. It has to die.”

Without warning, the captain grabbed a spear from one of his soldiers and threw it. The point slashed through the bottom of Topaz’s bulging saddlebags and into the foal’s body. She gave a quiet yelp before dropping to the ground, her blood staining the path. Topaz looked just as shocked as I felt.

“They started this madness,” the captain said, walking off into the forest with his soldiers, “Never forget that.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Numbly, Topaz and I made our way back to Caprika Redoubt, taking turns supporting each other. The shock was still evident in the haunted look of his eyes all the way back. I imagine I didn’t look much better. Killing a foal, it just wasn’t right. And it sickened me to the core.

On the other hoof, it gave me a greater conviction for what I had to do. If stuff like this was going on regularly, Jarl Glamus was right to want the Cloven Hoof wiped out. And I could help him do it. If I could just pull myself together.

As we entered the valley, I realized I no longer had my shield. I must’ve dropped it at some point, it was hard to remember. Not like it mattered now. I had some things to say to Ivon Strong-horn. I wouldn’t be part of any more slaughters, not after seeing the damage I’d done at the caravan.

Ivon had other plans.

“Ah, perfect. Just in time!” he exclaimed as Topaz and I trotted into his throne room.

“Something happened during the attack we need to talk to you about,” Topaz spoke first.

“Nothing I don’t already know,” he said, motioning to the brazier near his throne.

“If you wish to discuss it in detail, it can wait until later,” he said, exuding barely contained enthusiasm, “I’ve got a new job I need you to do immediately.”

“My informants have just reported to me that Jarl Glamus will be staying in Karthpasture tonight and meeting with his guard captain,” he spilled out, seemingly oblivious to how shook up we were, “I need you to sneak into the town and spy on them. Find out what their next plans are.”

“How are we supposed to get to Karthpasture by tonight?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s not far,” he said, “I took the liberty of packing some saddlebags of supplies for you, including a map. Just don’t get caught with it.”

“Well, that’s about it,” he continued, “You’d better be on your way immediately.”

Despite Topaz’s and my objections, the guards pushed us out of the throne room.

“What just happened?” Topaz asked, giving me a puzzled look.

“I don’t know,” I said, “But he’ll still have to answer our questions later. Looks like we’re going to Karthpasture now.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

“How’d you end up in Marekarth?” I asked Topaz as twilight was falling. We still had a little ways to go, and some small talk was better than never-ending silence.

“Well, I used to live in Unicornica,” he said, “Brumare to be exact. I was always fascinated by the Minotaurs. Well, what foal wouldn’t be? They’re a long-vanished race that we know hardly anything about, except that they had a much better grasp on technology than any of us other races.”

“But, there aren’t many Minotauran ruins in Unicornica. Apparently they didn’t favor our climate. So, after my initial studies in the Imperial City, I set out to explore any intact ruin I could find. I studied all the ruins in Unicornica. Well, all five of them. But they’ve been explored over and over for centuries, and they weren’t very intact in the first place. The ruins in Morrowhinny are the same way, except they’re mostly intact. Or, they were before the Red Mountain exploded.”

“That’s where Horizon comes in. The ruins here have barely been explored. It’s virgin territory! I learned more in my time in Nuzel-zum than in all my time working in Unicornica! But, Jarl Glamus didn’t like me stirring up the Minotauran defenders, so he had me thrown in Doompit Mine.”

“He likes to do that, doesn’t he?” I asked jokingly.

“Oh, yes,” Topaz replied, “It’s quite an easy way of getting rid of ‘troublemakers’ and making himself rich at the same time. Plus, the mines were rumored to be inescapable. Ha! I guess they can’t say that anymore.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, “If they even admit we escaped. Not likely.”

“So, what’s your story, Sapphire?” Topaz asked.

“Well, I had trouble in Unicornica for obvious reasons,” I said, certain he could connect the dots without me drawing attention to my blank flank, “So I came to Horizon. Since I’ve been here I survived an execution, explored a Draugr ruin, killed two dragons, and escaped from an inescapable prison.”

“Wow,” Topaz said, “How long have you been here?”

“Ten days,” I said, finding it hard to believe myself.

“My, you’ve been busy,” he said, “So you said you fought dragons?”

An arrow interrupted my response to him. Whistling out of the trees, it stuck in his foreleg. I whirled around to see several ponies charging down a steep embankment. I pulled out my sword, but hesitated. Was I doing the right thing? The image of the foal kept running through my mind. How did I know these were bad ponies?

“Give us all your gold and we’ll spare you,” the leader said.

Nope, not good ponies, definitely bandits. I spun my sword around, hoping to scare them off, but the leader just laughed.

“All right, the hard way then,” she said, “Get ‘em!”

The bandits came charging out of the trees, wielding all kinds of weaponry. One with a mace came at me first. I was able to block her strike with my sword, but it wasn’t easy. I tried to flip it out of her grip, like I knew I could with a war axe, but my blade just slipped off the head and swung out wide.

She whirled her mace at me, but I blocked, and this time I managed to spin my sword around and strike the mace handle with the flat. It fell from her mouth and my sword impaled her forehead a moment later.

By my count, there were five more bandits. Topaz had raised a shield around himself, blocking a bandit with a greatsword for now. One with a war axe charged me. I easily blocked and twisted the axe out of her grasp. Grabbing it for myself with my magic, I swung my sword into her neck.

Two bandits came at me at the same time. One held a sword in his teeth, and the other levitated a battleaxe. The sword I blocked with my new war axe, and my Minotauran sword took the strike of the battleaxe. I focused the swings of my sword on the battleaxe mare, while attempting to block the strikes of the other bandit.

Eventually, her defenses slipped, and I managed to slash her forelegs. She released her magical grip on her weapon as she attempted to heal, and I stabbed my sword up between her forelegs, into her heart. She locked up and slipped to the ground as I pulled the sword out.

With my sword and war axe combined, I easily broke through the sword bandit’s defenses. My war axe found the side of his head and ended his life. Shaking the blood off my weapons, and the image on the foal’s face as she died from my head, I searched for the remaining two bandits.

Topaz’s shield crackled, and then broke. The buck attacking him aimed a swing at his chest as he backpedaled across the ground. His greatsword only cut a shallow gash as I bowled into him, blades swinging. He threw me off, but I was satisfied to see I had gotten a few hits on him. Scratches across his back and a nick in his ear dripped hot, red blood.

I picked myself up off the ground as he charged me. I threw up both my sword and my war axe to block his greatsword swipe. Again, he swung at me, and again I blocked. His third swing smashed the blade of my war axe, leaving me with a sword and a stick. Dropping the war axe’s hilt, I blasted a lightning bolt at the buck to buy time.

Sooner than I would’ve liked, he was back, and my block was barely quick enough. My attempt to block his next swing failed. His sword cut across my shoulder, slicing tendons and muscle. I screamed in pain as my injury cried out. As he raised the greatsword over me for the killing strike, I pooled my thoughts together for a last attack.

He went flying backward, landing on his greatsword. When he didn’t get back up, I assumed he was dead. It took three healing potions and a spell to fix the damage, but in a few moments I was back to normal.

But, there was still one bandit left, the leader. I searched the path, and finally my eyes locked on her.

“Topaz!” I called out, but it was too late.

Her warhammer came down heavily on his head. Sickeningly, his skull crunched under the impact and he was dead in an instant. Then, the bandit leader brought the hammer down again, further ruining his body.

I saw red as I charged her. Shock registered on her face as my blades slammed into her, hacking through her armor and into her body. Amazingly, while she fell beneath my blades, I felt no guilt like I had when I’d killed the other bandits. The image of the dying foal’s face in my mind had been replaced by Topaz’s.

After I was certain she was dead, I stopped my furious attack. Tears streaked my face as I dug the hole for Topaz’s body and rolled him in, burying him with his books. It wasn’t fair, for him to die like this. He wouldn’t even have been here if we hadn’t been assisting the Cloven Hoof in their mission to wipe out ponykind.

Drying my eyes, I left the makeshift grave, pushing on for Karthpasture, more certain now of what I had to do.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Thunder rolled over the mountains and through the night. The moon was hidden momentarily, plunging Horizon into darkness. I stubbed my hoof on a rock in the inky blackness. Stumbling through the brush, I found myself on the outskirts of Karthpasture.

The settlement barely had any right to be called a town at all. As the moon shone down again, I could see the town consisted of a guard barracks and a few odd buildings. Small farms spread out into the rocky terrain. But, it had to be Karthpasture.

Many guards patrolled the town, far more than there should’ve been in such a small settlement. Part of it I attributed to the guard barracks that dominated the town, and the other part I assumed was due to Jarl Glamus’s presence.

It was late at night, and I crept through the sleeping town undetected. There wasn’t far to go, and I easily avoided the circles of light cast by the guards’ torches. As I neared the guard barracks I stopped to wonder why I was sneaking around in the first place. If I was going to speak to Jarl Glamus, I could just walk in.

Straightening up and emerging from the tall grass in front of the barracks, I startled the guards on duty at the front door. Trying to look confident, I strode forward toward the door.

“Hold it right there,” one of the guards said as they both crossed their spears over the doorway, blocking me from entering.

“I’m here to speak with Jarl Glamus,” I announced.

“I don’t know what you’re up to, but I’m sure the Jarl doesn’t want to be disturbed by a unicorn so late at night,” one of the guards said, hefting her spear and pointing it in my direction.

“Tell him Sapphire’s here to see him,” I said, hoping my name would convince the Jarl to let me in.

“What difference does it make?” the guard said, moving closer with her spear.

“Just tell him!” I demanded.

I hadn’t come this far just to be turned back now.

“Then, if he says he doesn’t want to see me, I’ll be on my way.”

The guard looked ready to run me off, but her companion took my advice and entered the barracks. A few seconds later, he emerged.

“You may enter,” he announced.

A shocked expression seemed plastered on the first guard’s face as I trotted past her. The guard at the door pointed me toward the room Glamus was in as I entered the barracks.

“We cannot leave Marekarth so unprotected,” his guard captain was explaining as I walked in, “If we stretch our forces too thin, we’ll be unsuccessful on every front.”

“Well,” Glamus said, noticing me, “That was certainly quick. I have to admit, I never expected you to escape through the Minotauran ruins. No doubt the work of that unicorn scholar. Cobalt, or something. Anyway, I trust you aren’t foolish enough to have come here without the information I need.”

“I know where Caprika Redoubt, their capital, is,” I said.

“Excellent,” Glamus said, clapping his hooves together, “Faeros, prepare your guard to depart in the morning. We will crush this Caprika Redoubt, and with it, the Cloven Hoof forever.”

His guard captain, Faeros, trotted off to prepare the troops. I was left alone in the room with Jarl Glamus.

“I believe you promised me my gear back?” I said.

“Of course,” the Jarl said, rising from his chair, “And you shall receive it once you have led us to Caprika Redoubt. No sooner.”

“But-” I started to object.

“My, but it’s late,” Glamus exaggerated a yawn, “Best get some sleep. It’s a big day tomorrow.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

The Marekarth guards stamped their hooves and snorted steam in the cool morning air. I had gotten a decent rest in the guard barracks, though the foal’s face had started to haunt my dreams. Now, I was going to make amends for that incident.

Following me through the deep brush were Captain Faeros and Jarl Glamus, and behind them the entire Karth guard. Today, I would end the pointless conflict between ponies and goats in the Karth. Hopefully, with Caprika Redoubt destroyed, the Cloven Hoof would fall apart, and the goats would stop attacking and massacring innocent ponies.

The first Cloven Hoof guard fell with an arrow through his throat. As we stepped over the body, I noticed it was the same one that had rejoiced at Ivon’s return just days ago and rushed to tell the others. I felt a twinge of regret in my stomach, but it was too late to back out now.

“Right through there’s the valley,” I told Faeros and Glamus, motioning at the entrance to the pass.

“Excellent,” Glamus said, “Captain Faeros, lead your soldiers proudly. Today we extinguish the Cloven Hoof threat once and for all. Wipe them out and burn it to the ground. Leave none alive.”

“Leave none alive?”

“It’s not just a military camp,” I told Glamus, “It’s a whole city, with families, and foals!”

“Not foals,” Glamus replied coolly, “Kids. Children of goats, that will grow up to be goats and spill the blood of even more of my subjects. Wipe them out Captain, so that we never have to deal with this again.”

“Move out!” Faeros ordered, leading his soldiers into the valley.

Glamus followed, and I found myself trotting beside him, trying to convince him to reconsider. It was like speaking to a mountain. He refused to turn away from the ruinous path he had chosen. I pleaded with him to let the kids live, but still he refused.

Finally, the Karth soldiers poured into Caprika Redoubt. Screams rang across the secluded valley as goats fell to the sword on all sides. True to Glamus’s orders, the soldiers killed all they found, be it a soldier, a worker, or a frightened kid.

Next to Glamus just within the valley, I watched in horror as the massacre continued. Goat blood stained the ground as the pony soldiers poured over the valley. Other ponies hurled torches burning with magical fire high into the trees. The ancient trees wailed and twisted as the flames licked hungrily at their branches.

“As promised,” Glamus said, turning away from the death and destruction long enough to see my saddlebags placed on my back, “All your possessions, as well as a little something extra.”

As he strode off, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the dying goats. This was all my fault. I had done this! All the death and destruction I was seeing had been my own doing. I had to focus on something else.

Forcing myself to look away, I looked through my saddlebags. Everything appeared to be there, as well as a heavy coin purse near the top. I pulled it out and floated it in front of my eyes.

It shook in my grasp and a few coins spilled out as I watched the destruction unfolding below. This was my reward for seeing so many die. The image of the foal dying in my head was gone, replaced by the multitude of images of goats dying, because I wanted my freedom.

My vision blurred and I dropped the bag, sending the coins spilling across the ground.

And I ran.

Level Up
Health: 140 Stamina: 120 Magicka: 120
New Perk: Magical Medicinal Mending [Restoration] -- All Adept-level Restoration spells can now be cast for half Magicka.
New Quest: Lost and Lonely -- Find your way out of the Karth and find a cause to devote yourself to.

Chapter 9: Alliances

Chapter IX: Alliances
“Long live the Emperor! Long live the Empire!”

After the massacre at Caprika Redoubt I fled into the mountains and the forests of the brutal and unforgiving Karth. When I finally came to my senses, I found I was hopelessly lost. But, what did it matter? How could I return to society knowing what I’d done?

So, I wandered aimlessly through the forest. Twice I spotted deer in the distance, but I couldn’t bring myself to even try to kill them. I had enough blood on my hooves. Eventually, I found myself staring at an imposing cliff face.

Sheer rock stretched up almost to the clouds. Scanning the cliff face, I could see a narrow walk-way like ledge zigzagged up to a landing high above the forest floor. Looking up, I could barely make out what looked like buildings bristling over the edge.

Suddenly, I found a strong set of claws clamped around my forelegs, and I was lifted high into the air. At first I thought a dragon had snatched me up, but the claws holding me resembled an eagle’s more than a dragon’s. Twisting my head around, I got a better look at the creature holding me. It was far smaller than a dragon, and covered in feathers, not scales. A griffin.

She lifted me higher and higher, flapping her powerful wings, before she burst over the lip of the cliff and deposited me on the edge. I found myself on the edge of a griffin settlement, with no way down.

With no fear of falling to their deaths, the griffins had built their town right up to the edge of the cliff. Some of the hut-like buildings even protruded over the edge, hanging out over the lofty drop. However, only a few buildings were built near the cliff’s edge. The majority of the huts were contained within a wooden barrier.

Griffin guards perched atop the fence, stretching their wings and preening themselves to pass the time. A few griffins emerged from their huts, frowning at my sudden intrusion into their secluded settlement.

The griffin that had snatched me up landed heavily next to me and seized hold of my foreleg before I could bolt. Dragging me along, she led me through the fence and into the settlement. It’s not like I could run. Any attempt at escape would end in a fall to my death.

My trip through the griffin stronghold ended at a large and elaborate longhouse. It was decorated in depictions of griffins, not too different from traditional earth pony decorations. The inside was nothing like any other building in Horizon.

A fire burned in a pit in the center, the smoke escaping through a hole in the longhouse’s roof. Around the fire were six gigantic nests. In each nest lounged a griffin in ornate armor, no one set the same.

“Another Imperial spy!” my griffin escort proclaimed, thrusting me toward the fire.

I barely stopped myself in time to keep my nose from touching the red-hot embers. Snorting smoke out of my nose, I fell back on my hindquarters, away from the fire.

“You see, father,” the griffin continued, speaking to an elder griffin, “They will never stop their attacks on us. Not until we stand up to them.”

“And what is the decision of the Council?” the elder griffin said, motioning around the circle of griffins.

“We can take no actions against the Unicorn Empire at this time,” one of the other griffins said, “Any attempt would end in disaster and the certain destruction of our people.”

The jaw of the griffin who’d escorted me in seemed to drop to the floor.

“You know this is wrong,” she said, turning to her father, “Every day the Empire gets closer to wiping us out. No stronghold has been as hard hit as Uragbashar, you know that. We will be the first to fall. We must fight before that happens!”

“Nagrissa,” he said, “You long for battle, and your heart is in the right place. But your head? Any attack on the Imperials would be suicide, surely you must realize that? We will survive the way griffins always have. We will survive here.”

Nagrissa looked at the ground like a scolded child. The griffins had seemingly forgotten about my presence during their meeting.

“The Council has, however, decided the time has come to send an ultimatum to the Empire.”

Nagrissa perked up upon hearing that.

“We will send a messenger to Seclusion to let General Cuirass know that if the Imperials do not cease attacking our strongholds, then we will retaliate,” another of the griffins said, “In a way, it is fortunate you brought this Imperial before us today. She can carry the message to her masters.”

So, maybe they hadn’t forgotten about me. And they wanted me to go to Seclusion and speak to General Silver Cuirass. Not exactly easy when I had no idea where I was and I wasn’t exactly on friendly terms with the Legion. After all, last time I’d been around them, they’d tried to cut my head off.

“Masters?” I asked, finding my voice.

“Yes, the officers in charge of the Imperial Legion,” one of the griffins responded.

“But, I’m not an Imperial,” I tried to explain.

“You are a unicorn.”

“But that doesn’t mean I’m an Imperial.”

“But you are a unicorn?” another of the griffins questioned.

“Not all unicorns are Imperial soldiers!” I burst out.

“Nagrissa,” her father said, looking up at her, “You said this was an Imperial spy?”

“I may have been wrong,” she said, “She was a unicorn snooping around beneath the city. What was I to think?”

“She’s of no use to us now,” her father said, “Throw her back.”

“Wait!” I called, pleading for my life as Nagrissa grabbed hold of me again to pull me from the longhouse, “I’m not an Imperial soldier, but I still might be able to help you!”

“Go on,” the griffin leader said, raising a claw to halt Nagrissa.

“You need me to speak to General Cuirass. I can do that, just give me a chance! I’ve met him before, and yes, being a unicorn I have a better chance of getting in to see him.”

It was a long shot, and the chance I would actually get to speak to General Cuirass was unbelievably slim, but anything was preferable to being thrown off a cliff. The griffin leader seemed to think my proposition over a minute before replying.

“Very well, we will give you a chance to make yourself useful.”

“Thank you,” I said, pulling free of Nagrissa’s grip, glad I wasn’t going to be thrown to my death, “What do I need to do?”

“You must travel to Seclusion and negotiate a peace between the Imperial Legion and the Griffin Tribes of Horizon.”

“All right,” I said, “Just point the way and I’ll be off.”

“Oh, I intend to do much more than just point the way,” the griffin leader said, steepling his talons, “Nagrissa will accompany you to Seclusion and help negotiate a peace suitable for both our races.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I approached the city gates of Seclusion. Built on the side of the mountains in the far north of Horizon, Seclusion was the capital of the province. At least, according to the Imperials it was. Marekarth was technically also an Imperial city, but the absence of Imperial soldiers made it easy to forget. Not so with Seclusion. In fact, there appeared to be more Legion guards stationed outside the city than Seclusion’s own guards.

None of them paid me any mind as I neared the massive wooden doors, swung open to let travelers in. Of course, it would have been completely different if I had a half-lion, half-eagle the size of two ponies walking beside me. It was difficult, but I’d finally managed to convince Nagrissa that it would be easier for me to enter the city alone. She was currently waiting perched high in a tree far down the path from Seclusion. If all went well, I would return to retrieve her later. And if it didn’t go well, she’d probably do something foolish like attack the city.

“Get her!” somepony yelled as I entered Seclusion and I nearly jumped out of my skin. How did they recognize me?

But, after I opened my eyes, I realized it wasn’t me the townsponies were trying to catch. A small filly galloped toward the city’s entrance, and the executioner’s block set up just inside. A crowd had assembled to watch the execution and one of the unicorns in it moved to block the frantic filly.

She kicked and struggled as her body was encased in a pale blue glow and she was levitated back to her mother.

“I want to see Uncle Derrick!” she pleaded, but her mother refused to respond and carried her into a shop on the main square.

Now my attention turned toward the execution the crowd of ponies had assembled to see. How could anypony want to watch anything so horrendous? I certainly didn’t, and started to leave the square.

“Derrick,” the executioner called out, and I stopped at the mention of the name, “You have been charged and found guilty of high treason against the Empire and the true government of Horizon. What do you have to say in your defense?”

The beige pony standing with his hooves bound stood unmoving for a few seconds. Then, after mumbling something, he spoke up.

“Only that I did what any red-blooded earth pony would! We all know the traditions of our land! Jarl Stormcloud followed those traditions when he challenged High King Shade to a duel! You charge me with helping him escape, but anypony has the right to leave the city, especially if they are rightful High King!”

“Silence these lies!” an Imperial officer behind the executioner demanded.

The executioner happily obliged, and thumped Derrick in the back of the head, putting an end to his ranting. Positioning him over the cutting stone, the executioner lifted her axe high. I looked away as it came down.

Pushing away from the crowd of cheering ponies, I headed deeper into the city. I passed taverns, shops, homes, and a market before I realized I had no idea where I could find General Cuirass. Why, for all I knew, he wasn’t in Seclusion at all. I finally decided to ask.

“Excuse me,” I asked a passing Legion soldier, hoping it wasn’t one who was present at Hoofgen, “Where can I find General Silver Cuirass?”

“Oh, looking to join up?” he said.

“Um, sort of,” I said.

“You can find him up in the old fortress, Castle Dour,” he said, pointing the way up to an ancient stone fortress that formed the heart of the city.

“Thanks,” I said, trotting off in the direction he had pointed.

“You won’t regret joining up,” he called after me as I left.

I felt a little bad now that I wasn’t going to actually join the Legion. Maybe I could, if they’d have me. I didn’t know their recruitment policies, but I doubted they’d overlook my blank flank.

Before I knew it, I was in the courtyard of Castle Dour, where Legion troops were practicing combat with a variety of weapons. I passed them all by and headed for the particularly sturdy looking door with the Empire’s banner fluttering over it.

“Hold it right there!” an Imperial soldier challenged as I approached the door.

“I need to get in to see General Silver Cuirass,” I stated bluntly.

“On what business?” the guard asked.

“I have an important message from the Griffins,” I said honestly, hoping it would be enough.

“Griffins, huh?” one said, making a show of rubbing his chin, “I don’t know . . .”

“Oh, for Zenitrot’s sake!” his companion standing on the other side of the door said, “Let her pass. She’s obviously no Stormcloud.”

“I don’t know . . .” the first said, touching my horn, “Could be fake. Wouldn’t put it past ol’ Stormy.”

“By Steedarr!” the second exclaimed, “Do you always have to be so difficult? Let her through already!”

Begrudgingly, the first guard stepped aside.

“It’s not like there’s much else to do,” he complained as I entered the castle, “With the War going on I don’t see why we’re here of all places.”

The rest of the conversation was cut off from me as the door slammed shut. It was fairly dark inside Castle Dour. It had obviously not been built for comfort. The walls seemed to threaten to close in at any moment, and sputtering torches provided the only illumination.

Following them, I eventually found my way to a large room, perhaps a great hall at one time. A long table stretched down the room, but only a small portion of it had food. The rest was covered in maps. Maps of the Empire, of Horizon, of separate holds, separate cities, even the entire Northlands. Clustered around the maps were several ponies bustling around in Imperial armor.

It wasn’t hard to pick out General Cuirass. Even in the dim light his General’s armor shone. He had to polish the thing every night. His helmet was off, and a coppery mane streaked with silver from the stress of the War flowed down over his caramel coat. Hesitantly, I approached him.

“Um, General Cuirass,” I said, tapping on his shoulder and trying to catch his attention.

“Hm, what?” he said, turning around.

“Wait a minute,” he said when he saw me, “I know you.”

Great. Now I was going to die. The executioner was ready and everything.

“Glad you got out of Hoofgen, kinsman,” he said, surprising me.

“And yet,” he said, looking over his shoulder at his maps, “Jarl Stormcloud also managed to escape, and has been causing us no end of troubles.”

I stood there awkwardly for a moment, shifting my hooves while I waited for the General to turn back to me.

“We’ve lost so many good ponies,” he said, more to himself before turning his attention back to me, “We can always use more. Have you come to enlist?”

“Afraid not,” I said, “You see, I was sent here by the Griffins-”

“Griffins!” the General said, his expression turning stormy.

“Yes,” I said, plowing ahead, “They sent me here to negotiate peace with the Empire.”

“If they wanted peace with the Empire,” General Cuirass said, trotting over to a map of Horizon, “Then they’d stop settling in our territories and just stay in Griffinium!”

“They want the violence between us and them to stop,” I said, pursuing him, “That’s why they sent me!”

“Or better yet,” he continued on with his thought, seemingly not even hearing me, “Let the thrice-blasted Dominion have them!”

As he finished his outburst he threw a knife with his magic into a map of the Featherrest Isles, the blade burying itself in Pegasor, the Dominion’s capital. I followed the General, determined to persuade him.

“This is a last attempt,” I said, trying to keep up as he kept up a brisk trot around the table, snagging an apple with his magic as he did, “If you don’t agree to something, anything, they’ll start an all-out war.”

“Ha! Why not just add them to the list of enemies? The pegasi, the Stormclouds, what are a few griffins?”

“They’re coming in earnest to negotiate peace,” I said, jumping in front of him, “A griffin came with me, and she won’t leave without a reply. Please reconsider!”

“There’s nothing I can do. There is nothing the griffins could possibly offer that I could accept.”

He stepped around me, trotting up to a map covered in tiny flags of different colors. Now I was really in a predicament. If I returned to the griffins with an answer like that it would lead to all-out war, not to mention I’d probably be torn apart. But if I didn’t return, Nagrissa would either attack Seclusion herself or come back with a griffin army. There was no good ending for either side.

“Unless,” General Cuirass said, causing my heart to leap, “Maybe there is one thing.”

I turned around to see him levitating a tiny red flag.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

“Dawnstar?” Uragbashar’s chieftain asked once Nagrissa and I had returned to the stronghold.

“Yes,” I nodded, “General Cuirass has agreed to stop attacks on griffin strongholds if you agree to use your warriors to help him take the city.”

After sorting through the details with the General, I’d left Seclusion to speak with Nagrissa. She had agreed that it seemed to be a fair deal, so we proceeded on to Uragbashar. Now it was up to the Griffin Council to decide whether the deal was satisfactory.

“What interest do the Imperials have in Dawnstar?” the chieftain asked.

“It’s currently loyal to the Stormclouds,” I explained.

I was met by the blank stares of a dozen eagle eyes.

“The Stormcloud rebels and the Unicorn Empire are currently at war,” I explained, “The Stormclouds want Horizon to be free and the Imperials don’t. You don’t get out much, do you?”

“We prefer to stay within the safety of our strongholds, where the earth ponies wouldn’t bother us,” one of the chieftains said.

“These unicorns are completely different,” another said, “They refuse to give us peace, and now they want us to help them?”

“It is a good deal,” another of the chieftains said, “We give them nothing but our time and strength. And, if they keep their word, we won’t have to worry about their attacks anymore. Once they see us on the battlefield, they will realize they don’t want war with us.”

“But if they don’t keep their promise then we are weakened and they will know our strategies as well!” another retorted.

The griffins continued to bicker until Nagrissa’s father, the Uragbashar chieftain stood.

“Uragbashar will send its warriors to fight,” he announced, “And if we are the only ones to do so, then we will be the only ones with which the Imperials will keep their deal, of this I will make sure.”

“The Griffin Tribes have always stood together!” one of the chieftains gasped, “You would abandon your race for the sake of your own tribe?”

“If you refuse to see what is reasonable and best, then I would be glad to disown you as part of our race. Or will you fly with me?”

He thrust his claw up in the air, scraping the ceiling of the longhouse. One by one, the other griffins copied his pose.

“At Dawnstar we shall fight,” he announced.

“So Malaquill has willed!” the chieftains yelled as one.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Frost crunched underhoof as I snuck through the pines of Horizon. Nagrissa flapped above me, rolling her eyes at the noise I was making. But I was certain a little bit of crushed ice wouldn’t alert the whole town of Dawnstar to our presence.

Being airborne, the griffins had mobilized their soldiers remarkably fast. I found myself shaken awake in the middle of the night, and ordered to prepare for the attack. It was for the best, all I could see in my dreams was the destruction of Caprika Redoubt.

Now, barely before dawn, as colorful streams of light played across Horizon’s crystal-clear sky, we were closing in on Dawnstar from all sides. The trees soon gave way to a snowy expanse broken only by the occasional rock and a well-worn hoofpath.

Behind a rocky expanse, I could see the buildings of Dawnstar, warm lights glowing in the windows. Above the town a stone fortress reared up toward the heavens, but it looked beaten down and no lights shone from its windows. Up against the town a rocky shore gave way to an ice-packed sea, with a trio of ships in the distance.

“Imperial flags on those masts,” Nagrissa commented, “The Imperials will know if the job’s been done.”

I looked back at the town. It seemed peaceful and defenseless but for a few guards walking around. The Imperial Legion needed help from the Griffins to take this town? They could have better taken advantage of the deal for an attack on Windhorn, where there would most certainly be a furious battle. But, this was the deal they had struck, and the Griffins were willing to honor it. I just prayed General Cuirass would keep his promise, for his sake and mine.

“May Malaquill cause their blades to rust and their hearts to stop,” I heard Nagrissa say, and the rest of the nearby griffins echoed her.

This was the second time now I had heard that name. Malaquill, spoken as if regarding a deity. I tried to remember who Malaquill was, some sort of Draconequus Prince if I remembered my studies. Whatever it/he/she was, it was irrelevant. The Griffins were beginning their attack.

As they shot forward through the air, I galloped across the snow. Each of the town’s guards fell as a ball of feathers and claws slammed into them, smashing them into the ground. I slowed to a trot as I neared the town.

What was I doing here? This deal was with the Griffins, how had I gotten dragged into this? This wasn’t my fight, it wasn’t my war, this wasn’t even my home. Maybe if I just left now, nopony would notice and I could head back to Whitetrot and live a peaceful life, where I wasn’t forced to kill or be killed.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t given a choice. I cried out in pain as an arrow slammed into my shoulder, burying itself deep in the muscle. Why didn’t I have my armor on? I ducked behind a rock to avoid more arrows, cursing myself for my carelessness. Removing the arrow and casting a healing spell on the wound, I pulled on my armor. There was no getting out of this fight now.

As I was still pulling Calcion’s Cleaver from its sheath, a pony jumped over the rock I was hiding behind. Throwing up my sword, I cut a deep slash across his underbelly. He rolled over twice, staining the snow with his blood before coming to a stop. As I stood, I noticed he was wearing Stormcloud armor, not Dawnstar guard armor. Where had this Stormcloud soldier come from?

Peeking over my rock, I saw far more ponies in the town than had been there before. The griffins were being taken by surprise as Stormcloud soldiers poured from an opening in the nearby cliff. They did a good job of defending themselves at first, but soon the sheer numbers got to them and they were forced to fly up into the air to avoid being taken down. Some of the griffins, especially the older ones, weren’t able to take off in time and fell to the Stormclouds’ blows.

I hadn’t known these griffins very long, but I still felt some connection to them. And seeing them fall made me want to rush in and help them, even if this wasn’t my fight. Knowing every second I hesitated another griffin might fall, I made my decision and rushed toward Dawnstar.

Two Stormclouds galloped up to intercept me as I neared the town. I sent a fireball toward the first one, forcing him to dodge out of the way. The second continued on and I slid to a stop as our blades met. Quickly she pulled her war axe back and swung it back around toward the side of my head. Pulling out my own war axe I blocked her swing and slashed at her forelegs with my sword. She jumped back well away from my blade, but small arcs of lightning jumped from the ancient earth pony blade anyway.

As the lightning struck her forelegs she fell forward into a kneeling position. I swung my war axe around at her head, but she managed to get her own axe up in time. But this time as I swung my sword around she wasn’t able to jump out of the way. Calcion’s Cleaver sank into her neck and her war axe fell from her mouth as she collapsed into the displaced snow.

I felt a blade slide between the plates of my armor as I backed up. The other Stormcloud had recovered from the fireball I’d sent at him and had managed to sneak up on me during my fight with his companion. I frantically cast a healing spell as he pulled his sword out, but had to stop before it was fully mended. My vision blurred and I could feel my wound open up again as I dodged a swing with his sword that would’ve decapitated me.

I shakily regained my footing as I backed away, keeping the Stormcloud in my vision. Before I had the chance to cast another healing spell or drink one of my potions he lunged at me again. I barely managed to dodge in time, my blade hardly even glancing off of his. He swung again and this time my sword was nearly knocked from my magical grasp. His next swing succeeded, sending Calcion’s Cleaver spinning through the air, burying itself in the snow out of reach.

With a triumphant grin on his face the Stormcloud strode toward me. My thoughts were swimming, but I fought to focus them just enough.

The triumph on his face turned to surprise as my shout sent him flying back. Now that I finally had a moment I pulled a healing potion from my saddlebag and stitched the partially sealed wound on my side back up. The red spots left my vision and my mind cleared simultaneously, putting me back in the fight.

Though still registering shock from my Voice attack, the Stormcloud buck charged me again, sword held firmly between his teeth. There was no time for me to retrieve Calcion’s Cleaver so I shot a bolt of lightning at him while drawing out my Minotaur sword. My energy blast connected with his sword, sending sparks shooting into his mouth. Violently he spat out his sword, which still arced with lightning. My bronze sword came down on his head, nothing to stop it. As he collapsed to the ground I retrieved my blades and cleaned them off in the snow.

The clash of steel rang through the morning air as the Griffins and Stormclouds continued to do battle. In the fight I had gotten far closer to the town. Now I was nearly among the buildings. As I passed the broken-down snow-covered ruins of what had once been a house I came nearly face to face with a wounded Stormcloud mare.

She looked surprised at my presence here with all the griffins. The opportune thing to do would have been to run her through then and there, but her hindleg was bleeding profusely and she seemed to be fleeing the battle anyway so I decided to move on.

As I attempted to dodge around her she came back to the moment and swung at me with her mace, striking me in my own hindleg. I felt bone crack and I was sent tumbling through the snow. Now wasn’t that just gratitude for you?

By the time I reoriented myself, keeping my weight off of my hindleg, she was already running at me as fast as her injury allowed. Unslinging my bow and fitting an arrow to the string I sent the projectile flying at her.

My first shot whizzed past her head, slicing a shallow cut in her neck. I strung another arrow as she kept coming, getting dangerously close. My second arrow flew true, burying itself in her chest and piercing her heart. She slid to a stop in the snow right before my hooves.

Wrapping my wounds and healing them as best I could I retrieved my arrows and turned back toward the town. It seemed the griffins had recovered from their earlier difficulties and were now pushing the last Stormclouds toward the waterfront. I rushed forward to help, sending a blast of lightning or an arrow wherever it was needed.

Soon the last Stormcloud fell, his body rolling into the frigid waters. Moments later boats sent from the three Imperial ships docked nearby. The sun was just beginning to peek over the eastern mountains as the unicorns stepped out into the town.

Flanked by two Legionnaires, General Cuirass trotted forward, surveying the town. It was impossible to read his expression as he observed the fallen Stormclouds and the Griffins that were flocking to assemble together. I prayed to Marea he would keep his deal.

“I only ever ordered the attacks on the Griffins,” the General announced, his voice magically augmented so all could hear, “Because they, like the Stormclouds, did not seem to have the Empire’s best interests at heart.”

Some of the griffins fidgeted nervously, flexing their wings to reveal the blades hidden in their feathers. They weren’t at all sure the General would keep his bargain and were ready for any treachery. I noticed that slowly and subtly they were arranging themselves into a defensive circle, with the injured among them in the middle.

“I’m still not certain about the Griffins,” Cuirass continued, “But at least they have proved today that they don’t mean the Empire any intentional harm. You have my word that from now on no more attacks will be launched on your homes. The Griffins are free to live in Horizon.”

“As if we weren’t free to live here already,” Nagrissa flapped over to whisper to me.

I did have to admit she had a point, but I was just too relieved everything had worked out to consider it at the moment. Besides, my thoughts were interrupted as two Imperial soldiers approached General Cuirass dragging an elderly earth pony in ornate robes between them.

As the griffins began to disperse, regrouping into clans, I lost sight of what was going on. Pushing my way past the mass of feathers and emerald armor I finally got near enough to overhear the conversation between Cuirass and the elder mare.

“Deala the Aged,” Cuirass said, looking down on the earth pony who had been forced to the ground, “You’ve caused a fair amount of trouble for the Empire. And turning your back on the Emperor, very unwise.”

“He turned his back on us first,” she retorted, “when he signed the White-Gold Concordat with those pegasi. Abandoning Talhooves is the same as abandoning Horizon.”

“And forfeiting your loyalty to the Empire is the same as forfeiting your life,” Cuirass replied, drawing his sword.

He was going to kill her! And I couldn’t just watch it happen. Struggling through the crowd of griffins I pushed my way out of the group.

“Wait!” I yelled as Cuirass raised his sword up for the death blow.

The General stood still, but his attention shifted to me, as did all the other gathered Imperial soldiers, their eyes asking for an explanation.

“Why does she need to die?” I spoke quickly, thinking on my hooves, “Dawnstar has returned to the Empire. The town is yours. She can’t cause you any more trouble.”

The General looked thoughtful, then turned to look at the cowering elder lying in the snow.

“Enough blood has been shed on your account,” Cuirass said, sheathing his sword, “Be gone from The Pale, Deala, you will never rule here again.”

As the General turned away from her, she broke loose from the guards restraining her and hobbled off in the direction of the sunrise as fast as she could.

“That took a lot of courage,” Cuirass said, addressing me, “And, you were right, her death would have accomplished nothing but to make us out to be the tyrants the Stormclouds claim we are. The Legion could use more level-headed ponies like you. If you’re interested, I could make the arrangements.”

“Thanks,” I said, “But I think I’ll pass.”

I’d had enough killing for now. All I wanted to do was return to Whitetrot and have some peace.

“Well, if you ever change your mind, come see me in Castle Dour.”

I nodded, and the General trotted off to consult with his officers.

“That was some gutsy move,” Nagrissa said, flapping up behind me, “You’re not half bad for a pony.”

“Thanks,” I said, “I think.”

“If you ever need a favor,” she said, “You know where to find me.”

Giving a wink, she flapped off to join her father and the rest of the griffins. Letting out a deep breath I pulled out my map of Horizon and plotted a path to the south. I’d prevented a war with the Griffins and saved an older pony’s life today. I was feeling pretty good about myself for the first time in days. Without further ado, I set out for Whitetrot.

Level Up
Health: 140 Stamina: 120 Magicka: 130
New Perk: Hooves of Fire [Destruction] -- Flame-based destruction spells cost 20% less Magicka to cast.
Fame gained: Imperial Legion -- The premier fighting force of the Unicorn Empire, the Legion is composed mostly of unicorns, though the Horizon faction contains a large number of pro-Imperial earth ponies.
Friendship gained: Nagrissa -- A brash and strong-headed griffin of the Uragbashar tribe, Nagrissa is an accomplished fighter both on the ground and in aerial combat.
New Quest: I’m Comin’ Home -- Return to Whitetrot to rest up and reconsider your goals.

Author's Note

Here ends Part 1, wherein Sapphire entered Horizon and became acquainted with its ways as she searched for her purpose.

In other words, I've made it through the introduction chapters so you can look forward to some more plot-building chapters coming up in the near future.

Thanks for reading and, as always, comments and messages regarding the story are welcome.

Chapter 10: The Call

Chapter X: The Call
“By all I hold holy . . . a Shout! Like the Greymanes on their mountain!”

“Welcome back Thane!” a Whitetrot guard greeted me as I entered the city.

I waved back a greeting in reply. It felt good to finally return here after the roundabout journey I’d had. Out of all the places I’d been to in my brief stint in Horizon, this was the only one that I really felt I could call home. Of course, it helped that I had a house in the city.

Breezehome was bare when I entered, all the belongings of the pony that had preceded me removed in my absence, but most of the furniture had been left. I was placing a book on the bookcase when a rumble crashed across the sky, shaking my house.

Was another dragon coming? I supposed it wasn’t unlikely. After all, I hadn’t seen one since Marekarth and that was days earlier. But I thought I could pick out words in the blast, though none spoken by ponies. I rushed outside to see what was going on, my sword and Axe of Whitetrot still strapped on.

Quite a few of the townsponies were outside looking up at the sky, especially to the east. I turned to look in that direction too, at a particularly formidable mountain. The clouds that veiled it seemed broken, as if something had passed through them recently. They billowed out of the way for seemingly no reason. Seconds later the blast hit the town.

“““SHE~WHO~WIELDS~THE~VOICE~MUST~COME!!!”””
“““TO~THE~MOUNTAIN’S~PEAK~TO ~MASTER~THE~THU’UM!!!”””

Shaking my head did nothing to dispel the ringing in my ears after the voice ended. I looked up in wonder as the clouds around the mountain began to close back up on their own. The mysterious rhyme had come from the mountain, that much was certain.

“What does it mean?” somepony asked, mirroring my thoughts.

More voices chimed in and I found the questions being directed toward me! Like I knew more about it than the ponies who’d lived here their whole lives. But I was Thane of Whitetrot and I guess some responsibilities came with that, among it being somepony the hold’s citizens could look up to. But that didn’t change the fact that I had no answers for them.

“I don’t know either,” I finally said when I got a break between questions, “But I’ll go speak to the Jarl right now and find out what’s going on.”

The townsponies made a path so that I could climb through the city and some of them followed along, eager to hear what the Jarl had to say. I met Darkfeather just outside the Hall of the Dead heading in the other direction.

“Where are you headed to?” I asked her as she quickly swung around, using her wings for balance and trotted up beside me.

“To retrieve you,” she said, “The Jarl wishes to speak with you immediately. Good thing I didn’t have to go far to find you.”

“Great,” I said, “I was on my way there anyways.”

“So what do you think is going on?” I asked her as we began to climb the stone stairs to Dragonsreach.

“I have to admit I’m baffled,” she said with a concerned look in her eyes, “The Greymanes haven’t summoned a pony to their mountain since they expelled Jarl Stormcloud decades ago.”

I had no idea who the Greymanes were or what their connections with Jarl Stormcloud were, but as the doors to Dragonsreach opened I felt like I was getting swept into something much larger than myself, not for the first time since entering Horizon.

“They said the same thing both times,” Faniar was saying to the Jarl as I entered the Great Hall, “Once in Draconic, so far as I can tell, and once in Equine.”

“Ah, Sapphire just the pony I wanted to see,” the Jarl said as I approached, “Glad you’re finally back.”

“This is uncanny!” Faniar exclaimed, flipping rapidly through the book he was levitating, “This summons is almost exactly identical to the one used to call Talhooves to the mountain nearly 500 years ago!”

“Thanks,” I answered the Jarl, ignoring Faniar’s interruption, “So what’s going on?”

“I take it you heard the call from the Crest of the World?”

“Kind of impossible not to,” I said, “But what was it?”

“The Greymanes have made a summons, calling a pony to their mountain, something that has not happened for a very long time.”

“The Greymanes?” I asked, hoping the Jarl would forgive my ignorance as a newcomer.

I had heard of the Greymanes once before, from Darkfeather when she told me I had the Voice. And the Greymanes’ summons had mentioned the Voice too. But I still had no idea who they were.

“Of course,” the Jarl said, “I suppose you’ve never heard of the Greymanes. Then again, not many ponies in Horizon outside of the central holds know much about them either.”

“The Greymanes are a mysterious order of monks who live atop the Crest of the World, isolated from the rest of the Northlands,” Faniar explained, “Within their monastery of High Hoofgar they study Shouts, and hone their Voices to be the most powerful in the world. Other than that, nopony knows much about them. They’re very secretive, only allowing certain individuals to enter. But they haven’t allowed anypony to enter High Hoofgar since they expelled Jarl Stormcloud.”

“Why?”

“Nopony knows. Stormcloud isn’t telling and nopony gets to speak to the Greymanes these days. Maybe you’ll have better luck than the rest of us.”

“Why?” I asked again.

“You are going to High Hoofgar, aren’t you?” Faniar asked, looking up from his book to meet my eyes, “It’s very unwise to ignore a direct summons from the Greymanes.”

“Me?”

“Of course, do you know anypony else around here using Shouts that the Greymanes could possibly be calling?”

“Well . . .” I said, thinking about it.

As far as I knew, I was the only one (besides Jarl Stormcloud apparently) who could use Shouts. But how did the Greymanes find out so quickly? It was only a week ago that I’d first learned to Shout, and they were barricaded up in their monastery.

It wasn’t unreasonable to assume that the summons was meant for me. Yet, I was becoming wary of how much attention I was getting here in Horizon. If I rose any higher in prominence, it could only increase the chance that my secret would be revealed and I would be sent home in shame.

These Greymanes seemed pretty important, yet secretive. Maybe I would be able to hide within High Hoofgar and learn some Shouts at the same time. I had to admit, I was still intrigued by the concept and wanted to know exactly what I could do with this newfound “Voice” of mine.

“All right,” I said at last, “I’ll do it. What’s the quickest way to High Hoofgar?”

“Well,” Faniar said, "Unless you want to climb straight up the mountainside, the best path is to climb the 7000 steps, starting in Ivarsteed.”

“Then I guess that’s where I’m going,” I said, departing from Dragonsreach.

“May the Equines watch over your battles, friend,” Valor’s Blade called as I left.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Soon I had my saddlebags packed and I was ready to leave Whitetrot once again without even a single night of sleep. By the time I reached Splitten it would be dark and I would probably have to stay in an inn. Thankfully, I had a few more gold coins thanks to a courier that had arrived before I left with a gift from the Jarl. After consulting my map of Horizon, I had decided the best route to Ivarsteed would be through Riverwood and Hoofgen before looping back around at Splitten. The only alternative would be to pass through Windhorn, which I didn’t think was very wise after attacking the Stormcloud town of Dawnstar.

My actions in the northern town also made me nervous as I entered Riverwood. Bereloth was a Stormcloud and I had the feeling his parents wouldn’t be too happy to find out I’d helped in an Imperial attack. But, I was intent in patching up my relationship with them. After all, the last time I had spoken to Calciar I was rather rude and I owed him an apology.

Eruthar was behind the counter when I entered the Riverwood Trader, arguing with one of the Whitetrot soldiers about the price of a potion he was attempting to buy. I patiently waited until they agreed on a price before approaching her.

“Sapphire!” she exclaimed, “I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“I’ve been . . . busy,” I said, omitting the specifics of my activities.

“Well, it’s good to see you again.”

“Likewise,” I replied.

Calciar didn’t appear to be around, and he was really the one I wanted to speak to anyway. Hoping he would appear soon, I decided to buy something in a play for time. I picked out a book from the shelf behind Eruthar, “Minotauran Inquiries, Vol. I.” As I was working out a price Calciar trotted into the room.

“Calciar,” I said, flipping some coins across the counter at Eruthar, “I feel like we left on the wrong hoof last time and I just wanted to apologize-”

“No need,” he said, cutting me off, “Water under the bridge.”

“But I was so rude and demanding,” I said, surprised at his reaction, “I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”

“No need. You weren’t in the wrong. I was cheating you with that paltry reward. That’s not something friends should do to each other. That is, if you’re still willing to be friends after I’ve been such a numbskull. First accusing you of stealing the claw and then giving you such a pathetic reward for its return.”

“Of course we can remain friends,” I said, shocked that things were turning out the opposite way I’d imagined.

“What brings you through our humble little town anyway?” he asked, changing the subject.

“I’m on my way to High Hoofgar to study with the Greymanes.”

“You’re the one the Greymanes called?” Eruthar exclaimed, “And the pony we’ve heard about who’s been slaying dragons and using Shouts?”

“I suppose so,” I said, blushing.

“Imagine that! So much has happened since we last met. I suppose you don’t have time to catch up right now, being on your way to see the Greymanes.”

“Probably not,” I said, “I hear they don’t like to be kept waiting.”

“Well, you’ll have to stop by sometime and tell us all about it,” Calciar said, tossing a coin purse into my saddlebags, “And take the book for free, as our gift.”

A smile on my face, I left the Riverwood Trader and stepped back out into Horizon.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Even as Talhooves struck down the final marauder, a voice rang out from the nearby mountain.
“He who wields the voice must come, to the mountain’s peak to master the Thu’um.”
Talhooves looked up in surprise. The Greymanes, the mysterious monks atop the Crest of the World were calling for him. So far as he’d known the Greymanes hadn’t taken a student for years. But, they were not to be ignored. Cleaning his sword the young stallion set off to seek his destiny.

As I trotted along the mountain paths of Horizon I was levitating A Brief History of the Empire, Vol. I in front of me, reading it as I went. I had made it through Talhooves’s early life and I was now getting to his rise to fame and his training, which he had apparently received from the ponies I was heading to meet. So far as I could tell, this book contained mainly the story of Talhooves, and not much else about the Empire. But that was alright with me. A book was still a book. Flipping the page to the next chapter I continued reading.

Through the howling snow, Talhooves climbed the 7000 steps to the Greymanes’ home, beset on every side by frigid windigos. By the time he reached the ancient monastery, frost coated his mane from his battles.

My reading was suddenly interrupted as an arrow pierced my book. Returning to the real world I ducked behind a rock and carefully removed the arrow. Levitating my own bow I peeked around the rock. I was surprised to find I was already outside Hoofgen, or whatever was left of it. The wall had collapsed in places and most of the buildings were burned down, but the fortress seemed mostly intact.

Through the gaps in the wall I could see bandits galloping through the remains of the town. After so many ponies had died here, how dare they loot through it and use it as a base. I was angry, really angry!

Pulling back an arrow, I shot it at the bandit atop the wall that had shot at me earlier. The shaft buried itself in her forehead and she dropped instantly. Shooting a bolt of lightning at the other archer on the wall, I charged forward.

The massive city gates had collapsed, allowing me to gallop straight into the town. Drawing Calcion’s Cleaver I struck down the first bandit before he was able to register that I was upon him. I shot a blast of fire at a nearby group of three bandits, hitting one of them.

The other two came at me, one with a warhammer, the other with a mace. The mare with the mace reached me first, and I easily blocked her swing with my sword. I was forced to pull away quicker than I liked, however, to dodge the stallion’s warhammer swing.

As the mace came back at me, I blocked with my war axe. I sword my swung around at the buck’s flank. Encumbered by his heavy weapon, he wasn’t able to dodge in time and I cut a deep gash through his cutie-mark, sparks shooting over his body from the enchanted blade. He fell twitching on the ground and I finished him off with a slash across the chest before turning back to the bandit with the mace.

Now that it was one on one, she was outmatched. She had only one weapon whereas I had two, both enchanted. As I swung both at her, she made a difficult split-second decision and blocked my sword, allowing my war axe to sink into her flesh. Flames shot from the blade, engulfing her. I turned away as she went up in smoke.

My weapons were suddenly knocked from my grasp as I was bowled into by another bandit. Judging by the fresh burns over his side, he was the bandit of the group I had torched before. He landed heavily on top of me, pinning me to the ground. Whatever weapon he’d had before he’d lost, but he pulled a dagger from a sheath at his side with his teeth.

I couldn’t move, but focusing my magic I pushed back up on the blade as he tried to bring it down on my neck. But my magic wasn’t quite strong enough and slowly the blade inched its way closer. He gave a wet gurgle as I stabbed my own dagger into his side. Slowly I was able to push his dagger back as he lost strength. As the light faded from his eyes, I rolled his body off of me.

I reached for my sword, but was forced to roll away as a bolt of lightning struck near my hoof. The bandit leader here was apparently a unicorn, and I got a glimpse of her as I rolled to safety. A block of the fortress provided enough cover that I could levitate my weapons back over to me. Running around it, I found her much closer than I expected her to be.

Not even bothering with weapons at the moment, I shot fire and lightning at her simultaneously. A shimmering orb burst up around her, blocking my magical attacks. She chuckled to herself as she levitated a bow and shot an arrow at me. I dodged it (barely) and quickly focused my thoughts.

The Shout took her unaware and burst right through her ward, sending her sprawling into the execution block. Spinning Calcion’s Cleaver around, I charged her. Lightning sparked across the blade as it impacted with the shield she brought up at the last minute. Spinning it around, I knocked the shield from her magical grasp before sinking it into her body. Light flickered around her as she tried to bring up a shield too late. Finally, the glow around her horn ceased as she died.

Cleaning my weapons, I took a look around. No more bandits seemed to be in sight, so I left the ghost town and continued on the path to Splitten.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

The city came in sight as the sun was sinking behind the western mountains. Splitten was built on and spilled over the edge of a large lake I was forced to travel around. As I neared the southern gate a guard with crossed swords on his armor raised a hoof to stop me.

“Hold it right there,” he demanded, drawing a sword.

I obeyed, too tired to argue. All I could think about was getting to sleep in a real bed in whatever Splitten had that passed as an inn. The last sleep I’d had was in Uragbashar and I’d been awaked far earlier for the attack on Dawnstar than I would’ve liked.

“No entry at night without paying the visitor’s tax,” he declared, proffering a hoof, “100 gold.”

Did he think I was born yesterday? In all of the Northlands I knew of no city that would charge ponies to enter, especially after dark when they would be guaranteed to stay in an inn and pour gold into the town’s economy anyway.

“Are you . . . trying to extort me?” I asked.

“If you don’t want to enter, fine. Stay outside and brave the elements.”

“I can’t imagine the Jarl would be happy to hear about this,” I commented.

“Ha!” he laughed, “And how would she find out when you can’t enter the city?”

“Well, let’s think about it,” I said, “I could either go around to another gate where there’s a guard who’s not a thief, or I could wait until morning, after all, you said the visitor’s tax only had to be paid at night.”

“Fine, fine, go on in,” he said, moving aside to let me pass.

“Thank you,” I said as I passed him.

He just frowned back at me as I pushed open the gate. The first thing I noticed upon entering Splitten was that the buildings weren’t scattered like in Whitetrot, but shoved tight against each other. The sound of lapping water told me that there was also a waterway running through the town.

Because of the close proximity of the buildings I didn’t see anypony nearby until a group suddenly bowled into me out of an alley. I found myself sprawled in the street, another pony atop me. Several more tripped over me in their rush and it just kept snowballing until the street was filled with ponies on the ground.

As I pushed myself up I heard shouts and armored hoofsteps closing in. Splitten guards galloped in from all directions.

“Lay your weapons down now!” they demanded.

Many of the ponies around me grumbled, but obeyed. I just stood there, unsure of what was going on. The guards trotted up and began binding the hooves of the ponies around me.

“You’re under arrest, Thieves Guild scum! It’s the dungeons for you!”

“Wait!” I protested as a guard approached me, “I’m not part of them! This is all a mistake!”

“A likely story,” the guard said, moving to bind my hooves, “You’ve got enough going against you being a unicorn; don’t make this any harder on yourself.”

“You,” I said, seeing the guard from outside the city now standing just inside the gate, “Tell them I’m not with them!”

“Quiet, prisoner,” he said, his eyes showing the smile he didn’t dare show on the outside.

No!” I protested as they bound my hooves.

I really didn’t want to hurt anypony here, much less guards, but I couldn’t go to prison. With my magic I reached for a weapon.

“She’s trying to use magic!” I heard somepony call from behind me.

Moments later the handle of a weapon came down on the back of my head . . . hard. I saw stars for a split second before the world went dark.

Level Up
Health: 140 Stamina: 120 Magicka: 140
New Perk: Griffin Eyes [Archery] -- Your range and accuracy when using a bow is significantly increased.
New Quest: Friends in Lower Places -- Escape prison and learn more about the Thieves Guild.

Chapter 11: The Thieves Guild

Chapter XI: The Thieves Guild
“Let me guess, somepony stole your sweetroll.”

I awoke with a fierce pounding in my head. Not surprising since I’d been knocked unconscious the night before. Why did that seem to keep happening to me? I groaned and rolled over, knocking against iron bars. True to the guards’ words, I appeared to be in Splitten’s prison. I pried my eyes open to see a turquoise mare with a coppery mane sitting against the wall across from me.

“Awake?” she asked.

I nodded and rolled onto my hooves.

“You got taken in with us last night,” she said, “But I don’t recognize you.”

“I’m Sapphire,” I replied, looking around, “How long are they gonna keep us here?”

“Seeing as how we’re being held as suspected Thieves Guild members, probably forever.”

“Forever!”

“Well, that’s what they plan,” she said nonchalantly, “Unless you’d like to leave?”

“Leave? How?” I asked suspiciously.

“Just be ready to move when the guards change, or not,” she said, giving a shrug, “Doesn’t matter either way to me so long as you don’t tell anypony how I escaped.”

“You are part of the Thieves Guild,” I said, connecting the dots now that my head was clearing.

“But of course,” the mare replied, raising an eyebrow, “Which makes it even more important that I get out of here. Are you coming or not?”

I thought about it. I didn’t think I could trust a guild of thieves, but I also couldn’t stay here. I was supposed to be on my way to the Greymanes, and I didn’t think they’d be very likely to come retrieve me. I didn’t really want to be involved with criminals, but then again, so far as Splitten’s guards were concerned I already was one.

Before I knew it, the Splitten guard outside the bars stood up and trotted out. The turquoise mare trotted over to the wall, and pressed her hoof against a seemingly random stone. With surprisingly little noise, a portion of the wall swung away and she ducked through. With a slight hesitation I jumped through the gap as well.
The stone swung silently shut behind me, nearly catching my tail. I found myself in a dark, damp passageway. Soft hooffalls broke the silence as other ponies that had previously been in cells joined us. The mare who’d been in the same cell as me led the way, her mane glowing softly in the dark.

After a minute she came to a stop and pried a stone out of the wall. Pulling a lockpick from her tail she proceeded to pick the lock on the evidence chest just on the other side of the wall. Within seconds she’d cracked the lock and began throwing back items from the chest. I paid close attention, levitating my belongings over to myself as they were thrown, before any of the thieves grabbed them.

Soon I had all my belongings back. At the sound of approaching hoofsteps, the turquoise mare eased the evidence chest closed, relocking it before replacing the stone in the wall. Beckoning for us to follow, she led the way down the tunnel.

“By the Equines!” I heard a guard’s voice as we made our escape, “How is this possible?”

Deeper and deeper we went under Splitten. At one point, our guide grabbed a torch from a sconce in the wall to light our way, but I still had no idea where we were or where we were going. After some time, the paths began to branch and we appeared to be trotting through the city’s sewer system.

At long last we left the cramped and confining tunnels and entered an open cavern. A lake dominated the space beneath the domed ceiling, but nearly a third of the area was solid stone where a makeshift tavern and forge were set up. Several ponies in rough, many-pocketed leather armor sat around tables and looked up from their conversations as we trotted in.

Our group of seven stopped abruptly as an orange unicorn stallion came running up. Held in his magical grasp was a bow with an arrow already fitted to the string, and it was pointed at me.

“What have you done Serif!” he said, speaking to the turquoise mare, “You can’t bring somepony from outside the Guild here!”

“Relax Malif,” she replied, rolling her eyes, “Vespers won’t care.”

“But what if she tells the guards where to find us, or worse, the Legion? She can’t be allowed to live now that she’s seen this place.”

“Oh please,” Serif said, pushing Malif’s bow away, “We’re not the Dark Brotherhoof. We don’t go around killing ponies just because they’ve seen our ‘secret hideout.’”

I breathed a sigh of relief as Malif backed down, dropping his bow. I didn’t know any of these ponies and they were thieves, but at least Serif seemed decent enough, standing up for me.

“Well, we’ll just see what Vespers has to say about this,” Malif grumbled.

“What I have to say about what?” a ghoulish voice spoke.

Both Serif and Malif jumped slightly as they noticed a pitch black earth pony standing nearby. His snow-white mane was slicked back nearly flat against his head and he bore a dour expression on his face. Like the rest of the Thieves Guild members, he wore leather armor, but his was tanned so dark it was nearly as black as his coat and it was covered in various places with runes and symbols unfamiliar to me.

“Ah, Vespers,” Malif said, regaining his composure, “I was just telling Serif what a poor choice it was to bring a non-Guildmember here.”

“Indeed,” Vespers replied in his emotionless voice, “But while I must agree with you there, I do not agree with your suggested course of action. Killing is for the Dark Brotherhoof, not for members of a guild such as ours.”

“Yes, but what do you propose we do then?”

“Hmm,” Vespers said, picking me out from the ponies he obviously recognized as part of his guild, “If we allow you to leave, will you tell anypony about this place?”

“No,” I replied, still fearing for my life even though I’d been assured they wouldn’t kill me.

“Yet, I see hesitation in your eyes,” Vespers replied in his monotone, meeting my gaze with his pale gray eyes, “Doubt maybe, that keeping this secret is the right thing to do?”

“Well, yes,” I admitted. It seemed I could hide no secrets from this odd stallion.

“It’s just that- You’re thieves.”

“Of course,” he replied coolly, “And?”

“Well, you steal from innocent ponies, cause incalculable financial harm.”

“I understand. You think we are no more than an organized group of cowardly and petty thieves like the Empire makes us out to be.”

I nodded, a bit confused at where Vespers was going.

“I assure you we are much more than that. We hold our members to a very strict standard. We take only from those who can afford to lose it, ponies with more than enough. We do the job governments know is necessary, but refuse to take up for fear of becoming unpopular. We make sure that the poor are cared for. Ask any beggar or anypony who’s encountered hard times in Splitten about how they’ve found a gift from the Guild just when they needed it. And yes, that service comes at the expense of the wealthy, but they have plenty to spare. We are much, much more than common thieves.”

“All right,” I said, still not completely sure their motives were entirely noble, but beginning to believe that they weren’t all bad.

“You are free to leave whenever you wish,” Vespers announced, “The exit is just on the other side of the cistern. Follow the tunnels straight out into Splitten.”

“Thanks,” I said, turning to leave.

“Before you go,” his voice followed me, and I turned to see him standing right beside me, “I’m curious where it is you are headed. Though you are a unicorn like Malif, you are not from around here like him. What business do you have in Horizon?”

“I’m heading to High Hoofgar through Ivarsteed,” I said, figuring it couldn’t hurt to tell the truth, “The Greymanes have summoned me.”

“The Greymanes summoned somepony to their mountain?” Vespers asked with a raised eyebrow, “Unlikely, though I suppose not impossible. Ivarsteed you said?”

“Yes,” I replied suspiciously.

“You know, I’ve been itching to send one of the Guild to Ivarsteed for years. But I’ve needed every one of them here. There’s something there I’m just itching to get my hooves on again.”

“Again?” I asked, intrigued now.

“Yes, something that was stolen from us that I would steal back if I could.”

“What?”

“The Gray Fox’s Cowl. When the Thieves Guild was exterminated in Unicornica, the Gray Fox came to us, beaten and dying. He entrusted his cowl into our care, a gift from Nocte herself, the Mare of Shadows. But as the Guild declined even in Horizon, we lost most of our bases of operation, and with them the Gray Cowl was lost, stolen.

“I would’ve sent somepony to retrieve it, but all my efforts have been focused on keeping the Splitten Guild from falling like so many others. If you would retrieve the cowl while you’re in Ivarsteed it would mean a great deal to everypony in the Guild and you would be rewarded greatly.”

“I’ll think about it,” I replied.

It seemed to be a reasonable and noble enough cause, but for a guild of thieves? I still wasn’t convinced they were entirely altruistic in their thieving.

“I appreciate your consideration,” Vespers said, “If you do decide to help us out I have reason to believe it was a member of the innkeeper’s family that stole the cowl, so most likely you will be able to find it in the town’s inn.”

Vespers then trotted off without saying another word.

“Gives me the creeps,” Serif spoke to me once he was well out of earshot, “But he’s the best leader I’ve ever seen.”

I watched as he left the cavern, exiting through a door between the tavern and smithy.

“C’mon then,” she said after a minute, “Let’s get you some supplies for your journey.”

“Oh, not necessary,” I protested.

“Nonsense,” she said, pushing me along, “It’s not like we’re going to charge you for them. We’re not the Merchant’s Guild.”

Figuring resistance would be futile, I let her lead the way to the supply rooms.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

After getting new arrows, food, potions, and bandages, I was ready to leave the Ragged Flagon (what the Thieves Guild called their hideout.) Sneaking out of Splitten turned out to be easy enough. None of the same guards from the night before appeared to be on duty today. But, just to be safe, I exited through a different gate than the one I’d come in.

The trip to Ivarsteed was mostly uneventful, at least until I passed around Lake Hornrich. As my map told me I was nearing Ivarsteed, I heard a roar come from the trees beside the path. Turning to find the source, I found myself facing the largest bear I’d ever seen. Rising up to its full height, it gave another roar before slamming back down on the path, cracking a rock with the force.

With no time to draw a weapon, I shot a blast of fire at the bear’s nose. It quickly batted at the flames with its paws, quenching them, and roared all the louder. Knowing I was no match for this beast, I turned tail and galloped as fast as I could up the path toward Ivarsteed. The bear followed, its steps getting louder as it gained on me.

I quickly ducked to the side as the path turned and the bear slammed into a tree, roaring with mingled pain and anger. It bought me a little time, but not near as much as I’d hoped and soon I heard it gaining on me once again.

Just when I thought I’d be forced to turn and fight, or else come up with some other way to outsmart the beast, a small cluster of buildings came in sight. Ivarsteed, or at least I hoped it was. I cried out for help as I got within shouting distance of the town. Some of the guards at least seemed to have heard me, for they turned my way and started galloping to intercept the bear.

I could hear it just behind me now. I wasn’t going to make it to the town in time. A small stone bridge crossed a river before the town and as soon as my hooves touched the stone I altered my path. Grabbing hold of the edge of the bridge, I catapulted myself into the icy waters of the river.

Sliding to a stop, the bear turned and began to climb over the edge of the bridge. I focused my thoughts and propelled a shout at it before it could jump.

I Shouted.

The bear went tumbling backwards just as the town’s guards arrived on the bridge. With the bear on its back they were easily able to kill it before it could do any harm. As they finished up, I dragged myself out of the freezing water, dripping wet.

“Well, that’s one way to make an entrance, I suppose,” a guard said, approaching me.

“Th-thanks,” I said, my teeth chattering.

“Let’s get you dried off,” she replied, leading me into town, “Back there, what you used on that bear, was that a Shout?”

I nodded confirmation. I was trying to pay attention to what the guard was saying, but I was also drinking in the sights of Ivarsteed. It was a tiny town, about the size of Riverwood. Only a few houses, an inn, and a water mill proved a town was even here at all. My eyes were also drawn to the impressive mountain it sat right at the base of. The Crest of the World soared into the sky, the top obscured by clouds.

“Very impressive,” the guard continued as she led me into the inn and sat me down by the fire, “I’ve never seen anypony Shout before. You must be the one the Greymanes called!”

“You’ve heard about the summons?” I asked, warmth returning to my body.

“Heard about it?” she said, “I heard it. Kind of hard not to, being so close to the mountain.”

“Oh, of course,” I said, embarrassed I hadn’t considered that.

“Plus, the only reason anypony comes through this town is to climb the 7000 stairs. I don’t know why they insist on so many guards here. It’s not like we have any strategic purpose in the war. I doubt the Imperials would take the time to capture a little town like this.”

Apparently Ivarsteed was loyal to the Stormcloud cause, which made sense because their mother city of Splitten certainly was. After all, there wouldn’t have been so many soldiers stationed in Kvatch if it wasn’t so close to Splitten. Kvatch. I wondered if anypony missed me.

“No,” I thought, shaking my head, “I have to focus on the future, and forget about the past.”

“Well, I’d better get back out there,” the guard said, heading for the door, “Talhooves knows this place can’t even protect itself from bunny rabbits without every guard ready.”

As the door slammed shut, I took a look around the inn as I finished drying off. Nopony else seemed to be here, except for a bard sleeping atop her drums, snoring softly. I could see no sign of the innkeeper. Warily, I approached the counter.

A small bell sat atop it, but nopony came when it was rung. The bard shifted slightly in her sleep, but quickly returned to her dreams. Hesitantly, I stepped around the counter, looking for any clue as to the Gray Fox’s Cowl’s whereabouts.

If I could find it quickly, without much trouble, or alerting anypony, I would take it. I knew enough history to know that, though the Gray Fox had been declared a myth by the Imperial government, he had really existed, and been part of the Thieves Guild. So Vespers’s story wasn’t implausible and, if true, the Cowl really did belong to them.

All that was behind the counter were money boxes and crates of wine and mead. I didn’t intend to steal money from the innkeeper, and I definitely didn’t intend to get drunk, so I moved on. Behind the counter was a set of doors, most likely leading to the inn’s private quarters.

When I tried it, I found it was locked, but that was no problem. Serif had given me a few lockpicks before I’d left and shown me how to use them. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to at least know how to open locked chests I came across in ruins. This would be the only time I picked a door to steal something. After breaking two picks, the lock clicked satisfyingly and the doors swung open.

They did indeed lead to the private quarters of the innkeeper. All appeared abandoned, so I stepped inside. I saw no sign of the Cowl, but it obviously wouldn’t be left out in the open. I looked through the dressers and opened the chest beside the bed, but the artifact I was searching for was still nowhere to be found.

It looked like Vespers was wrong. The innkeeper hadn’t stolen the Cowl. Either that or this was all just a set up to get me caught. Knowing that any minute the innkeeper could return and I’d be caught red-hoofed, I headed for the exit.

As I neared the door I suddenly stopped. My last hoofstep had echoed suspiciously. Testing my theory, I knocked my hoof against the floor again. Kneeling down, I pried up the floorboard with my magic to reveal a hollow space. In it was something wrapped in an old cloth. Pulling the cloth away I found myself holding a dark gray leather mask stylized to look like a fox’s head. It was the Gray Fox’s Cowl for sure!

Stuffing it in my saddlebags, I quickly replaced the floorboard and relocked the door. I was just coming back around the counter as the door to the outside swung open. A burly gray earth pony with a scruffy brown mane trotted in.

“Can I help you?” he asked gruffly, slamming the door behind him.

“I just came in to warm up,” I said, hoping he didn’t look too closely at my saddlebags. I hadn’t buried the Cowl very deep.

“You’re not going to pay for a room?” he asked suspiciously.

“No, I’m on my way up the mountain to see the Greymanes,” I answered.

“Hm, that’ll be ten gold for using my fire then,” he said rudely.

“What?” I asked incredulously.

“Ten gold,” he repeated as if I were brain-dead, “For the fire.”

“That’s ridiculous!”

“You don’t like it, you shouldn’t have come in here.”

I suddenly didn’t feel so bad about stealing from him.

“Or, you could do me a favor,” he said, glowering over the counter.

“What?” I asked suspiciously.

“There’s a basket of food for the Greymanes outside. Take it up to them.”

“That’s it?”

“Don’t even try any funny business. If that basket doesn’t make it to the top I’ll know. And I will find you and make you pay.”

“Alright then,” I said, leaving the inn.

I could feel his eyes boring into my back all the way as I crossed the bridge to the beginning of the 7000 steps.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

7000 steps was a long, long way to walk. I trotted higher and higher, following the scattered markers along the path. Soon I could see Horizon stretched out in all directions. In the distance I could make out Whitetrot rearing up on the plain far below. As I climbed higher and higher, I began to wonder exactly how high the Greymanes lived on this mountain. Were they at the very peak of the Crest of the World?

An icy whinny broke me out of my wonderings. I drew my sword, but nopony seemed to be around. I was about to sheath it and move on when suddenly a pale blue creature with a vaguely horse-like shape slammed into me.

I quickly felt my body temperature dropping and frost began to form on my coat. I swung my sword around at the creature, striking it in the side. The blade did little to no damage, passing through as if the creature was made of liquid, but lightning shot from it, causing the thing to convulse violently and pull away.

As it circled back around, I had a chance to get a better look at it. It looked to be made of some kind of fog. The front half of the creature was horse-shaped, but the back trailed off in the breeze. There was only one thing it could be: a windigo. They were very rarely sighted in the far north of Unicornica, but here in Horizon’s more frigid climate they were far more common. And the “A Brief History of the Empire Vol. I” I had been reading the day before did mention Talhooves fighting windigos on his way up to see the Greymanes.

The windigo swooped back at me and I formulated a plan. Conventional weapons would be next to useless on it, and my enchanted weapons would only be moderately effective, so I put away my sword and shot the fiercest blast of fire I could conjure at the creature. Unable to stop, it ran right into my flames, screaming as it melted and fizzled out. Small shards of ice tinkled to the ground at my hooves near an expanding pool of water. Carefully I picked up a few of its teeth (which I’d heard could be useful in alchemy) and continued on up the mountain.

I passed another marker leading the way to High Hoofgar as I turned the bend. I’d lost track of how many I’d passed now. I had to be there any minute now. It felt like I’d climbed way more than 7000 steps. Another windigo swooped at me as I neared a narrow canyon, but this time I was ready. Flames burned up the windigo in instants, leaving only miniscule evidence that it had even existed.

As I stooped down to look for more teeth, a roar echoed through the canyon. Snow shifted and fell in heaps from the very force of it. I looked up to see a ferocious lion with bat wings and a scorpion’s tail standing at the end of the canyon. The manticore had a thicker coat than any I’d seen before, and it was also a creamy white to match the snow of Horizon. As I took a step back it charged me.

Drawing my bow, I shot two arrows into the creature’s nose before it closed the distance with me. I leapt to the side at the last moment and it charged on, sliding in the snow as it attempted to turn. Gathering my thoughts, I projected my voice into a Shout.

The manticore flinched, but was barely affected and came running at me again, this time flapping its wings to gain a height advantage. I shot a bolt of lightning at it and drew my sword. Calcion’s Cleaver swung through the air, striking one of the manticore’s legs and sending lighting coursing through the beast’s body.

I rolled to the side to prevent being crushed and shot fire at it. It roared with fury and charged toward me. Drawing my war axe as well, I prepared myself for the manticore’s attack. Striking its paw with my sword and its stinger with my axe, I succeeded. I wasn’t able to bring them back around, however, in time to avoid the next swipe of its paw.

My armor twisted as the claws struck my chest, nearly cutting my neck. I went flying, rolling to a stop near the cliff face. Once more the manticore came running at me and I forced myself to stand, leaving the snow bloody. I managed to retrieve Calcion’s Cleaver before it closed the distance and I did something the manticore did not expect.

Instead of running out of the way, I jumped toward the beast. As I thrust my sword up, it was driven in all the way to the hilt by the force of the manticore’s last leap. It groaned as the life left it, and collapsed to the ground. I pulled my sword from the manticore’s chest, the blade steaming, and cleaned it before binding my wounds and downing a minor healing potion.

Still sore from the fight, I continued on. As I emerged from the canyon and turned around the cliff, a marble palace came into sight. It was High Hoofgar for sure. I hobbled up the steps and checked to make sure the basket of food for the Greymanes hadn’t been hurt in my battles.

I was about to knock on the door when it opened on its own. Standing immediately inside was an earth-brown earth pony swathed in dark blue robes. His mane was completely silver-grey, as was his well-kept beard.

“Sapphire of Kvatch,” he addressed me, “We’ve been expecting you.”

Level Up
Health: 150 Stamina: 120 Magicka: 140
New Perk: Equine Anatomy Expert [Light Weapons] -- Due to your knowledge of equine anatomy, your attacks can be more efficiently placed, doing 20% more damage.
Unique Item added: Gray Fox’s Cowl -- A gift from Nocte to the Thieves Guild, the Cowl of the Gray Fox erases the identity of the wearer, making them completely invisible to the law.
New Quest: Masters of the Voice -- Learn from the Greymanes how to wield and control Shouts.

Chapter 12: A Lesson Atop the World

Chapter XII: A Lesson Atop the World
“Louder . . . yay.”
“Louder! . . . yay.”
“LOUDER! . . . yay!”

“You know who I am?” I asked the pony standing before me.

“But of course,” he said, “We make a point to know all we can about a pony before we take the step of summoning them to our monastery.”

“But . . . how? Do you ever leave here?”

“Of course not,” he said, frowning, “Ours is a life of seclusion and meditation. News of the outside world we receive through visions, when we see them. However, those are few and far between. But, from time to time the Equines speak to our master Paarthurnax and we learn what is most important through him.”

I nodded my understanding. They didn’t seem to be willing to divulge too many of their secrets just yet. I would have to bide my time and do what I came here to do: learn.

“Are you ready to begin your training?” the Greymane asked, meeting my eyes with his intense stare.

“I thought you’d never ask,” I said, and stepped inside High Hoofgar.

The interior of the monastery seemed bare in comparison to the outside. Instead of polished marble, the walls were rough-cut stone. Torches burned at infrequent intervals, causing the building to appear almost gloomy. It certainly seemed that, in addition to a life of seclusion, the Greymanes lived a life of minimalism.

Raising a mallet, the pony who’d let me in rang a gong, whose peal reverberated through the monastery. Soon three other ponies, all wearing identical blue robes, trotted slowly into the room.

Two were mares, one with an orange coat and the other pale green, and the other was a snow-white stallion. All of them had manes as grey as steel, obviously the remainder of the Greymanes. Along with the pony who’d let me in, they formed a circle around the edges of the room.

“These are the Masters of our order,” the brown stallion said, motioning toward the other assembled Greymanes, “Master Yorri, Master Midnight-Flame, and Master Summer’s Dawn.”

“Pleased to meet you,” I said, bowing to these great ponies.

They bowed slightly back but made no response.

“Forgive them if they do not speak,” the brown pony spoke again, “After so long of dedicated study of the Voice, they cannot speak without using it, and are liable to tear you apart if they speak. Of our order, only myself and Paarthurnax have mastered the Thu’um fully enough to be able to converse in normal tones.”

“And you are?”

“Master Night-Sparkle; speaker, seer, and scribe for the Greymanes.”

“And what of Paarthurnax? When can I meet him?”

“We shall see,” Night-Sparkle said, “Very few ponies are allowed to see the Grand Master. Time will tell if you are worthy.”

“Before we begin,” he continued as I levitated my saddlebags off, setting them aside on the floor, “Let us see what you have already learned. Let us taste of your Thu’um.”

“Um, okay,” I said, focusing my thoughts best I could.

I sent among the Greymanes, though they barely staggered.

“Excellent!” Night-Sparkle praised, “You show good control of your Voice. How long have you been practicing?”

“About a week and a half,” I said, thinking back. Could that really have been it?

“Surely you jest,” Night-Sparkle replied, “Learning to use Words of Power takes years of study for even the most skilled pony.”

“No,” I said, “I first learned about FUS ten days ago. But I didn’t know how to use it until after I killed that dragon-”

“You learned this from killing a dragon?”

“Yeah, I just sort of experienced all its memories when it died. Why?”

“Hmm,” Night-Sparkle said, rubbing his beard, “Something like this hasn’t happened in centuries.”

“What hasn’t happened?” I asked frantically, though Night-Sparkle seemed to be lost in thought.

“To absorb a dragon’s soul,” he responded at last, “The last individual to do so was Talhooves.”

“I absorbed its soul?” I asked, horrified.

“Well, not exactly,” Night-Sparkle said, coming out of his trance to reassure me. “You absorbed and experienced its collective memories. Dragons are able to do this, as are a few gifted individuals known as Dovahkiin, or Dragonborn, blessed by the Equines with the soul of a dragon. Emperor Talhooves’ line was especially rich with dragon blood.”

“You think I’m one of these . . . Dovahkiin?”

“I know of no other way to explain what you’ve told us. I wonder, if it wouldn’t be too much of a bother, if I could have a look at your cutie-mark?”

My spirits sank instantly. It always came down to that, didn’t it? What was I to do? I could refuse his request and keep my secret, but they might grow suspicious, and lying never got anypony anywhere (or so my mother said.) But if I told them I was a blank flank would they still allow me to train with them? Or would I be sent down the mountain in disgrace, my dreams shattered?

“I don’t . . . have one,” I said, cringing inside as the truth spilled out. Even if this meant the end of my training, no relationship founded on lies could last long anyway.

Deep yet muffled whispers passed between the Greymanes, shaking the monastery as they spoke. Night-Sparkle continued to stare me down, a bushy eyebrow raised. I could almost see the wheels in his head turning. I reached out for my saddlebags, preparing to leave.

“Very interesting,” Night-Sparkle said, breaking the tense silence, “Dragonborn you may not be, but still a pony of your raw skill hasn’t appeared in as long as the Greymanes can collectively remember. And who knows if we could also learn knowledge of the Voice through the slaying of dragons like you? There hasn’t been a dragon in the Northlands for centuries, nor would we ponies of peace choose to slay one if we had the chance.”

My saddlebags continued to levitate in midair as I tried to decide what he was saying.

“Are you ready to begin in earnest with your training?” Night-Sparkle asked, looking sidelong at my floating possessions.

“Of course,” I said, dropping my saddlebags back to the floor.

“You have already learned FUS, or force in the dragon tongue,” Night-Sparkle began the lesson, “So we shall teach you the rest of the Unrelenting Force Shout that it begins. Each Shout, or Thu’um, is made up of three words in the dragon language. With each word uttered, your Thu’um grows stronger, but also requires more concentration to muster.”

“When you utter FUS alone, your voice is raw power, pushing out in all directions. For it to be truly effective, it must be focused. It requires balance, or RO. Master Yorri will demonstrate for you.”

The pale green mare stepped forward, pulling back the hood of her robe. She steadied herself, breathing deeply, before starting.

she shouted, her pose only growing more rigid as she uttered the word in the dragon tongue.

On the floor where she had directed her shout, letters in draconic seemed to stand out. Just like back in Blank Flanks Barrow the word stood out in blue fire, the meanings of the word flooding into my brain. Everything a pony could ever learn about balance, I suddenly knew.

But yet, I lacked the knowledge of application, just like before. The thoughts of RO bubbled to the surface of my mind. It felt like my mind was catching fire as something locked within was suddenly released. I found memories not my own, draconic memories, flying before my eyes. I recognized the dragon I had killed at Marekarth, and I saw every time it had used RO throughout its vast lifetime all in an instant.

Once again, it felt like I would explode if I didn’t let the words out, so I did.

<>

My Shout shook the monastery, a fiercely compressed dagger of force cutting through the air. Luckily nopony was in the way of the Shout and all it did was slam into a wall, cracking it slightly.

“Amazing,” Night-Sparkle mused, “Learned in an instant.”

“I just saw the memories of the second dragon I killed,” I spoke between heavy breaths, trying to calm my breathing to normal.

“One word for every soul; that seems about right,” he said, lost in his own world again.

Once I had regained my composure, I waited for Night-Sparkle to return to reality.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said, snapping back, “Nopony has ever mastered a Shout so quickly. I suppose we should continue with the training.”

“You now know two of the words that make up Unrelenting Force. Master Midnight-Flame will teach the final word. Now that your Thu’um is powerful and direct, we shall make it stronger, with the draconic word for push.”

The white stallion stepped out of the circle and projected his Voice toward the ground just like Yorri had before him.

Once more the ethereal letters stood out, their meaning burned into my eyes and my brain. Push, or DAH as I knew it now, was fully comprehensible in instants. No memories flooded through my mind this time though, and I was fully aware of the bizarre emptiness in my thoughts.

“Well,” Night-Sparkle said expectantly, “Can you Shout?”

“I don’t think so,” I said, shaking my head, “But I’ll give it a try.”

<> I shouted, but “Dah” came out in plain speech.

“I’ve only killed two dragons,” I explained as Night-Sparkle looked toward the other Greymanes.

“Normally I would tell you to meditate on the meaning of DAH,” Night-Sparkle said, “But due to your unique abilities, we may be able to try something else. If you’re up for it, of course.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“Master Midnight-Flame may be able to share his memories with you, everything he knows about DAH, but if your mind isn’t ready there’s a chance it could either kill you or leave you mindless.”

“I’d like to try,” I said, swallowing hard.

I could feel the emptiness in my mind eating away at me, and hopefully this would fill that gap.

“Clear your mind of all but DAH,” Night-Sparkle said as I closed my eyes.

It wasn’t difficult. All I could think about was DAH, the thoughts threatening to consume me. With a slight crackling sound, as if something was burning, images appeared before my eyes. Memories flashed by in rapid succession. Bits and pieces of Midnight-Flame’s life passed into my mind, becoming my own. Within a minute, I’d learned everything I needed about DAH.

As the flow of memories cut off, I let my Shout out.

<<>>

Force, balance, and push combined perfectly. Or, at least mostly perfectly. The knowledge I’d received from Midnight-Flame seemed shallow compared to what I’d learned from the dragons. Because of his pony mind? I wasn’t sure; I’d have to think on it.

“Excellent,” Master Night-Sparkle praised, “A nearly flawless Thu’um. Though I would suggest meditation to polish it up a bit.”

“Yeah,” I nodded, “What next?”

“I think that is enough training for today,” Night-Sparkle announced, “We shall resume in the morning, if you are up for the task. Make yourself at home in any of the unoccupied cells and enjoy a restful meditation and sleep.”

I nodded, rubbing my head. I hadn’t realized it, but learning that much that fast was giving me a headache. I retired to one of the rooms in the monastery, stripping off my armor and laying it beside my saddlebags. After contemplating DAH, I drifted off into a deep sleep.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I awoke to find Night-Sparkle standing next to my bed. The room was still pitch-black but for the circle of light coming from the candle held in his mouth.

“What is it?” I asked, “It’s not morning already, is it?”

“No,” he said, setting the candle down, “The Equines have revealed to Paarthurnax that you must leave on a quest for us. We have long attempted to find the War Horn of our founder, Jurgen Sky-whinny, but nopony has been willing to search it out for us. The Equines have revealed that you alone will be successful in finding it, but you must leave immediately. Time is of the essence. The horn has already nearly passed out of our grasp.”

“Where do I start?” I asked, pulling on my armor and rubbing sleep from my eyes.

“The Companions of Whitetrot,” he said, “They too have been seeking it, and they may know where it is.”

Placing my saddlebags on my back, I followed Night-Sparkle through the winding hallways of High Hoofgar until we reached the entrance.

“May Talhooves guide your steps and Pyne guard your path, bringing you back safe to us,” he called after me as I trotted down the mountain.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

In the darkness, I carefully descended the 7000 steps until I was back in Ivarsteed. Splitten came in sight just as the sun was rising, and the brilliantly colored lights that waved across the night sky began to fade. At the changing of the guard, I managed to sneak through the gate.

Nopony seemed to recognize me, so I guess the prison break from yesterday was old news already. At least, I didn’t see any more guards than normal out on patrol. Making my way down to the waterway, I followed the subterranean tunnels until I arrived at the Ragged Flagon.

“Back so soon?” Serif asked as I neared the bar.

“Yeah,” I said, “The Greymanes needed me to retrieve something for them. Just thought I’d stop by and return this first.”

With a flourish, I pulled the Gray Fox’s Cowl from my saddlebags. Admittedly it would’ve looked a lot cooler if it hadn’t got tangled up with my potions and sent them spilling across the floor. But Serif seemed impressed all the same.

“You actually found it!” she nearly squeed in delight.

“By the sixteen realms of the Beyond,” Malif said, turning to look, “It really is the Cowl!”

“A thousand thanks the Thieves Guild owes you for this,” Vespers’s voice spoke suddenly from behind me, “We are in your eternal debt.”

“It wasn’t really that hard,” I said, blushing.

“Nevertheless, we are grateful the Cowl has been returned to its rightful place,” Vespers said, taking it from me, “Malif will provide you with your reward. And if you ever wish to join the Guild, we would be more than happy to accept you.”

As Vespers stalked off, Malif went to retrieve something from a locked chest.

“You really should join the Guild you know,” Serif spoke to me, “We could always use a good pony, especially in times like these.”

“Thanks,” I said, waving off her offer, “But I’m a little busy right now.”

Malif dropped a heavy bag of coins into my saddlebags, a few hundred gold at least by the weight.

“Well, if you’ve ever got time, you’re always welcome back,” Serif said as I left the Ragged Flagon.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

The journey to Whitetrot passed quickly, my thoughts focused on my goal. If I hoped to learn more from the Greymanes I would have to retrieve the horn of Jurgen Sky-whinny for them. And my quest would have to start with the Companions.

I’d heard them mentioned once or twice in passing while I was in Whitetrot, but I hadn’t gotten any solid information on them. A bit foolish of me, I supposed, especially being Thane of the city they were based out of. But, once I entered the city the townsponies were happy to point me in the direction of their headquarters.

The mead hall they were based out of sat near the top of the hill Whitetrot was built on, nearly as high up as Dragonsreach. It had a name that was easy to pronounce but ridiculously impossible to spell: Jorrvaskr. I suspected ancient earth pony influences. Indeed, my suspicions were confirmed when I came in sight of the structure.

Built of ancient wood and stone, it was adorned with symbols so archaic and vague I suspected even the Companions themselves couldn’t understand them. I wouldn’t have been surprised if this was the first building the ancient earth ponies had constructed when they’d arrived in the Northlands.

From the front, it seemed to be deserted, though I could hear the clash of steel coming from behind the building. Hesitantly, I pushed open the ornately carved doors with my hoof.

The inside of Jorrvaskr was dark compared to the brilliant sunlight of outside. Two beds of coals surrounded by tables provided the only illumination in the ancient mead hall. Dozens of earth ponies garbed in armor of the past filled the place. How I was supposed to find somepony who knew where the war horn was, I had no clue. I decided to just ask the next Companion that passed by.

“Excuse me,” I spoke to a deep red mare.

She didn’t respond, but she did stop and turn to look at me, so I guess I had her attention.

“I’m looking for the War Horn of Jurgen Sky-whinny,” I began to speak, “Do you have any idea where I could find it?”

“Jurgen Sky-whinny?” she said condescendingly, “You’re probably here to speak to Steadfast, aren’t you?”

“Um, I guess,” I said, unsure who she was talking about.

“You can probably find him down in the archive room, seems like he’s always in there. But don’t encourage him too much in his fool’s errand.”

“Thanks,” I said as she trotted off.

I wasn’t sure what just happened, but at least I had a lead now. I trotted downstairs, into the foundations of Jorrvaskr, searching for the archive room. After walking up and down the hall a few times, I finally found it. It was filled with cracked and ancient scrolls stacked from the floor to the ceiling and completely empty but for an earth pony with a brown coat and a pitch-black mane.

“Steadfast?” I asked as I entered.

“Yes?” he said, looking up, apparently surprised to see somepony else.

“I was told you’re the pony to speak to about the war horn of Jurgen Sky-whinny.”

“They sent you down here to tell me to give up, didn’t they,” he responded fiercely, “They think it’s impossible to find, but I know they’re wrong.”

I just stood there, dumbfounded. Apparently this pony had gotten a lot of flak from the other Companions if he responded so harshly to anypony even mentioning the horn.

“New recruit?” he asked, turning back to the scroll he was studying.

“No,” I said, “Actually, I’m looking for the war horn too.”

“Really?” he asked, giving me a skeptical look, “Why?”

“Well, I’m supposed to find it for the Greymanes, and I was told this was where I should start looking.”

“All right,” he said, giving me a smile, “It seems we have common purpose.”

“What’s your interest in the horn?” I asked, trotting around the table to stand beside him.

“I guess you could call it my personal quest,” he said, obviously thrilled to be able to talk about it to somepony, “I’ve been searching for the horn for a few years now, since I decided it should be my final task to complete to become a full Companion. The others, they thought it was impossible, but not me. I knew I could find it if I just dug deep enough.”

“Did you find it?” I asked.

“Well, no,” he said, “But I’ve just discovered where it is. It’s your lucky day, I’m ready to leave right away and you’re free to come along. Who knows what kind of opposition we’ll face to acquire the horn.”

“Where is it?” I asked, looking at the rough map outlined on a yellowed scroll, the words written in a speech long since forgotten.

“Right here,” he said, pointing to a spot on a corresponding map of Horizon, “The ancient earth pony ruin of Hoovestengrav.”

“What are we waiting for?” I said, “Let’s get going.”

Level Up
Health: 150 Stamina: 130 Magicka: 140
New Perk: Silent Hooves [Sneak] -- While sneaking, you are significantly harder to detect. This, of course, does not keep your followers from rushing into danger and blowing your cover.
Word of Power learned: RO -- Balance; Unrelenting Force – Combined with FUS, RO makes your Unrelenting Force Shout much more steady and direct.
Word of Power learned: DAH -- Push; Unrelenting Force – Combined with FUS and RO, DAH completes and strengthens your Unrelenting Force Shout.
New Quest: Digging in the Depths of the Past -- Enter the Draugr ruin of Hoovestengrav with Steadfast and retrieve the War Horn of Jurgen Sky-whinny.

Chapter 13: The Unquiet Dead

Chapter XIII: The Unquiet Dead
“I’d like to tell y’all the terrifying tale of the prissy ghost who drove everypony crazy with her unnecessary neatness!”

“So,” Steadfast said as we walked through the rugged wilderness of Horizon, “I guess I never got your name before.”

“Sapphire,” I replied quickly, turning back to the map I was levitating and trying to figure out how far away Hoovestengrav was.

“So Sapphire,” Steadfast continued to talk, “What’s your story?”

“What’s that?” I asked distractedly, still trying to focus on the map.

“Well, where are you from? Winterhorn? Seclusion? I know they have a higher unicorn population than most towns in Horizon.”

“Actually,” I said, giving up on reading the map and tucking it away in my saddlebags, “I’m from Unicornica, Kvatch to be exact.”

“Then . . . why’d you come to Horizon?”

I sighed. I guess this buck wasn’t going to give up until he got my life’s story out of me.

“Let’s just say I had my reasons for leaving Kvatch,” I said, hoping that would end the discussion.

“You mentioned you’re on a quest for the Greymanes?” he asked, taking my hint and changing the subject.

“Yes,” I replied simply.

“Well, how do you know them? Have you really been to High Hoofgar? What’s it like?” he bombarded me with questions.

“I’m the one they called a couple days ago,” I answered.

“Oh!” he said, putting things together in his mind, “Oh, you’re her. I heard Whitetrot had a new Thane and she could use the Voice, but I had no idea that was you.”

“You don’t get out of that archive room too much, do you?” I asked.

“I get out plenty,” he said, looking wounded, “In fact, I probably spend more time exploring Horizon than I do back home in Whitetrot.”

“I know how that feels,” I said. I’d barely gotten a chance to live in my new home since I’d acquired it.

“Practically since I joined the Companions I’ve been searching for that horn. I can’t believe I’m going to finally find it today!”

“What makes you so sure it’s here?” I asked.

“I’ve been following the path of Jurgen Sky-whinny in his last days,” he explained, “Contrary to popular belief, he didn’t die up on High Hoofgar. No, he disappeared while on a pilgrimage across Horizon to visit the tombs of the ancient earth ponies, and find a suitable place for himself to be laid down to rest. I’ve eliminated every other possibility. It has to be Hoovestengrav!”

I deeply hoped he was right. Before he had a chance to ask me more about my past, I decided it was my turn to ask the questions.

“Why’d you choose to search for the horn anyway?” I asked.

“Everypony else said it’s impossible to find, but I knew it wasn’t and I’m going to prove it.”

“Yes,” I said, “But why an interest in the horn in the first place? After all, you’re a member of the Companions, a guild of fighters, and Jurgen Sky-whinny founded the Greymanes, an order of pacifist monks.”

“Jurgen wasn’t always a pacifist,” he explained. “In fact, he was one of the greatest warriors Horizon had ever seen and a prominent member of the Companions. He led the campaigns against the Minotaurs and Dappled Pegasi of Morrowhinny during the War of Succession in the First Era.”

“It was only after his army was annihilated at Red Mountain that he converted to pacifism and founded the Greymanes. Tales of his battles are legendary and still told by the Companions today. Finding the very horn he used in his military campaigns would grant me great prestige in the Companions.”

“Don’t worry,” he said, mistaking my digesting of what he’d just said as uncertainty. “You can bring the horn to the Greymanes once I present it to the Companions. I only need to prove I found it, then I don’t need it anymore.”

“Oh, no, I trust you,” I said, “I was just thinking about what you said.”

“There it is!” Steadfast exclaimed as we pushed through a wall of trees.

I saw nothing spectacular at first, at least nothing like Blank Flanks Barrow. As I took a closer look, I noticed some of the weathered stones poking up from the ground may have been markers for a path at some point. Steadfast galloped up in haste to the top of a shallow hill.

Getting closer, I saw the hill was in fact made of old stone, grown over with plant life. I stood atop the perfect circle of stone as Steadfast looked around for some way in.

“This is it all right,” he said, comparing the runes inscribed on the stone to the markers on the ancient map of Horizon he’d brought from Jorrvaskr, “But how are we supposed to get-”

The stone beneath his hooves suddenly gave way, dropping him through.

“Steadfast?” I called, galloping up to the hole to make sure he was all right.

“Have a torch?” he asked mischievously, poking his head up above the lip of stone.

“Well, that’s one way to find a way in,” I said, passing him one of the torches from my saddlebags.

Lighting it, he trotted down into Hoovestengrav and I followed. The stone he’d fallen through must’ve been an old trap door, for it dropped me right at the top of a staircase that spiraled around the interior of the ruin. The floor was only a short distance down, providing someplace to stand and take a look around.

The interior of the ruin seemed to be no more than the cramped circular room we were standing in but for a plain wooden door set into the wall. Approaching it, I gave a tug on the handle.

“Rats, its locked,” I said, when the door refused to budge.

I was starting to pull my lockpicks out when Steadfast slammed his warhammer into the door, turning it to splinters.

“After you,” he said, pointing to the jagged opening he’d created.

I tried to appear annoyed and resist the urge to laugh as I trotted through, levitating pieces of wood out of my way as I went. The glow from my horn provided very little light, but luckily Steadfast had attached the torch to a notch in his armor and it provided ample illumination to see where we were going.

I drew out Calcion’s Cleaver as the sound of shuffling came from farther down the tunnels. Turning a corner, I found a pair of icy blue eyes staring into mine. Instinctively, I swung my sword around, burying it in the rotten flesh. The Draugr gave out a growl as the blade cut through, sending sparks flying over its flesh. As I pulled my sword out, I was forced to swing my axe around into the neck of another undead earth pony.

Another Draugr came running at me, a sword clutched it its mouth. Before it got too close, Steadfast came flying out of nowhere, slamming his warhammer down onto the Draugr’s head, turning it to pulp. Sorting through the bodies, I came up with a few gold and a potion or two before moving on.

Steadfast put out his torch as we moved into the next chamber. There was enough light being cast from the strange purple-fire braziers now. I’d noticed already that the layout of this particular ruin was nothing like Blank Flanks Barrow. Hoovestengrav seemed, so far at least, to be entirely catacombs. Sarcophagi lined the walls as we passed deeper into the ruin.

Noticing Draugr swarming the tunnel up ahead, I motioned for Steadfast to hold up. Putting my sword away, I overcharged my horn, sending the largest fireball I could hurtling at the undead. It hit true and, in the cramped hallway, they were all afire in seconds.

I drew my sword back out and Steadfast held his warhammer at the ready as some of the flaming Draugr came charging us. I felt the heat of the flames as the first one attacked me. I blocked with my sword, pushing back to keep the zombie at a distance. Building power in my horn, I sent a bolt of lightning into its forehead. Its eyes rolled up and it dropped to the floor, permanently dead.

Steadfast was attempting to fight two at once, swinging his warhammer at one and bucking at the other, so I rushed over to lend him a hoof. The Draugr I swung for saw me coming, however, and I was forced to jump back to avoid the flames as it turned toward me.

My war axe out as well now, I swung both my blades toward the Draugr. It nimbly blocked both of them and forced me to back up. Rethinking my strategy, I swung at its legs and its head simultaneously. Unexpectedly, it blocked neither of my blades, choosing instead to lunge forward into the gap I had unwittingly created and swung its war axe up into my chest.

Breathing became difficult as I felt the blade cut through my armor, sticking in my flesh. Both my swings had struck true, however, cutting off the Draugr at the knees and leaving an ichor-bleeding gash in its forehead. It was severely crippled and I swung my sword back at it to finish it off. Somehow, it still managed to block, and twist my sword out of my grasp.

Unleashing the full fury of my magic, I sent a lightning bolt lancing into the Draugr. As it writhed with the buildup of electricity, I slammed my war axe into its head, finally killing it. As I moved to retrieve my sword I found a Draugr standing next to me with a battleaxe raised to take off my head.

Steadfast’s war axe smashed into its side, cracking ribs and sending the undead pony sprawling across the floor. He charged up and finished it before it could get up again.

As he finished up with the Draugr, I clenched my teeth and magically pulled the jagged metal from my wound. I bandaged my front up before the blood could flow too freely and downed a minor healing potion to repair the worst of the damage.

“Ready to move on?” Steadfast asked as he helped me to my hooves.

I nodded and retrieved Calcion’s Cleaver. The tunnel ahead was clear now but for inert and charred Draugr corpses. We passed through easily, before coming to an open cavern. The tunnel actually emerged onto a stone bridge that crossed above the cavern’s floor, leading to a doorway on the other side. Only two Draugr stood on the bridge, but there were quite a few below.

<> I shouted at the Draugr, knocking them off the bridge, and snapping the neck of one of them in the process.

The Draugr below growled as their compatriots tumbled onto them. I pulled out my bow and began shooting arrows down into the crowd, having no difficulty hitting my targets. Steadfast squeezed past me on the narrow bridge and smashed in the head of a Draugr that was approaching us from the tunnel entrance at the other end of the room.

I continued to shoot arrows into the Draugr until I reached for another and found I was all out. The remaining Draugr below were milling toward one end of the room, the reason soon becoming obvious.

They were dead, but not stupid, and they’d figured out where I was shooting from. Scraping came from the tunnel entrance as the horde lumbered up the stairs. Steadfast took the first few out, but was forced to retreat as the numbers became overwhelming. I began to build magic in my horn as more and more Draugr swarmed onto the bridge.

“Get down!” I yelled at Steadfast as he nearly backed into me.

He obeyed without question, dropping to the floor immediately. Releasing the magic in my horn, I sent a blast of flame toward the Draugr. The flames spread quickly, and those that didn’t die from the flames died from the fall as they flailed about. When the last of the Draugr fell to their doom I cut off the magic, my horn smoking slightly.

“Impressive,” was all Steadfast had to say before charging off toward the open doorway at the end of the bridge.

I carefully made my way over the Draugr bodies, picking arrows out and retrieving loot where I could. By the time we made it through the room below, my quiver was half full of arrows, my coin purse was significantly heavier, and my potion supply was expanded.

The next room was significantly larger than the one we’d come from, with vaulted ceilings and a dual line of pillars. Oddly tinted light continued to be provided by the braziers of purple flame alone, giving the room an ominous feel.

At both ends of the room were an ornately carved stone throne in which sat a mummified corpse. But, being in a Draugr ruin, I knew not to trust corpses to stay dead. Pulling my bow out, I let an arrow fly into the nearest Draugr. Giving a gurgle as the arrow buried itself in its chest, it opened its icy blue eyes and fixed its gaze on me. Across the room the other one did the same.

“Looks like one for each of us,” Steadfast observed.

“Seems that way,” I replied, stunned that he could be so flippant in such a situation.

Each Draugr drew a battleaxe shimmering with blue flame and leapt off their thrones. I charged the one I had already sunk an arrow into, Calcion’s Cleaver held in my magical grasp. As I got close enough, I shot a lightning bolt at the Draugr, but it swung its battleaxe around and blocked it! My magic was absorbed by the blade, though sparks flew down the shaft as the energy dissipated.

Continuing my charge, I slammed my Draugr sword into the Draugr’s battleaxe. It slid back, but held its block. Growling, it shoved me away with more strength than a corpse should’ve had. I stumbled back and rebalanced just in time to block the Draugr’s swing at me. Blue flame trickled from the Draugr’s blade onto mine.

I forced Calcion’s Cleaver forward, pushing against the battleaxe’s blade. Arcs of lighting traveled up the sword, heating it hot enough that it began to cut into the Draugr’s weapon. At last my blade cut through, slicing off the top of the Draugr’s battleaxe and cutting its ear off as it sailed on. I jumped out of the way as the remainder of the Draugr’s weapon came down at me.

It paused for a moment to reach up and touch where its ear had been before swinging its battleaxe back at me. I ducked and brought my sword up to block. Sparks flew as the two weapons met, but this time Calcion’s Cleaver didn’t light. Fire from the Draugr’s blade began to coat it. Luckily I was holding it in my magic and, though I could feel the heat radiating off of it, it wasn’t able to physically burn me.

I slid my sword down the battleaxe until I was able to notch it under the blade, giving me leverage. I attempted to twist the weapon out of the Draugr’s grip, but it was holding very tightly with its teeth, and actually managed to pull back, swinging its battleaxe up in an arc as it did. I felt my grip on Calcion’s Cleaver fade as it got farther from me and began to move faster. As the Draugr brought its battleaxe all the way up, the sword went sailing from my grasp.

Bringing its battleaxe up over me, the Draugr moved in for the kill.

<<>>

The Draugr went flying back, slamming into the wall, its battleaxe falling useless beside it. I shot a gout of flame into its face as it reached for it, sending it shrieking back in pain. Grabbing Calcion’s Cleaver as I ran, I charged the Draugr. My sword smashed into its side, slicing through skin, muscle, bones, and organs that had stopped functioning centuries ago. The icy blue light in its eyes died as I pulled my sword out.

Turning to the sound of raspy breathing, I saw Steadfast was still locked in battle with the other Draugr, though his was now moving with a pronounced limp due to the fact that several of its legs had been smashed by his hammer. It spit out its battleaxe as he slammed his warhammer into its side. Swinging the hammer around, he brought it down on its head hard, smashing it to the ground.

“Shall we continue?” he asked, picking Draugr bits off his weapon of choice.

“After you,” I said, gesturing toward the end of the hall, cleaning ichor from my sword.

Steadfast charged forward into the next room and I followed, staying close behind and alert for signs of danger. After a fairly uneventful hallway where the Draugr in the crypts thankfully stayed dead, we entered a wide circular shaft carved from the stone and ice. Narrow walkways crisscrossed the shaft, which appeared to go down quite a ways. Looking over the edge, I could see Draugr patrolling the walkways below.

Pulling out my bow, I sent an arrow shooting toward one of the sentries. It missed, glancing off the path next to it, but provided enough distraction that I was able to hit it with my next shot. Sliding off the path, it fell for an excessive amount of time before I heard the thump echo up the shaft.

Trotting down the walkway, I took aim at another Draugr. I sent my arrow sailing down, burying itself in the undead creature’s eyes. It too fell to the side and I moved on, killing two more of them before the others began to figure out what was going on. I ducked back as a rusty arrow went sailing past my horn. Picking out the archer, I shot a bolt of lightning at it, frying the Draugr where it stood.

Moving down to the next level, I made sure no more archers were in sight and lined up a shot on a Draugr looking for me. I fired the arrow, but it missed the Draugr as Steadfast’s warhammer knocked it from the walkway, throwing its crumpled body into the abyss.

“You’ll have to be quicker than that,” he called up the shaft, his voice echoing.

It quickly became a race as to whether I could shoot the Draugr with an arrow first, or if Steadfast could reach it with his warhammer. In this manner we proceeded deeper and deeper into the ruin. At last I could see the exit, barred with a heavy steel grate and guarded by a Draugr in more well-kept armor than the rest.

<> the Draugr Shouted up at me.

I stepped back to avoid it only to find that I was standing on a weak point of the walkway. Pieces had fallen away over the years, and it began to crack simply under my weight. When the Shout hit it, it broke through completely.

I suddenly found myself in freefall, plummeting downward with the crumbling walkway. The Draugr shot another Shout at me, missing completely as I fell. Below me I could see another walkway rapidly approaching. I would splatter against the ancient stone at this speed!

<<>> I yelled downward, hoping it would slow my fall.

Instead, my Shout ripped apart the walkway. Was this whole place just waiting to fall apart? Either way, I now had nowhere to land even if I could slow down enough to land safely. Still, I tried a last-ditch effort, willing to do anything to keep from plummeting to my death.

I knew some of the more powerful unicorns were able to levitate themselves. I didn’t have anywhere near that level of skill, but hopefully my panic would help motivate my magic. I found myself encased in the pale blue glow from my horn as I tried, but I wasn’t able to slow myself at all. I closed my eyes as I fell through the gap in the lower walkway I had created, unwilling to see my end.

My fall came to a sudden stop as I felt a pair of hooves grab me. I looked up to see Steadfast straining to lift me onto the walkway. I reached up to help him pull me over the lip of crumbling rock.

“Thanks,” I huffed out when my hooves were finally on a solid surface again.

“Hey, what’re friends for?” he asked, wiping away the sweat of his exertion.

<> the Draugr below Shouted up before I had a chance to respond.

Steadfast pushed me forward toward the safety of the wall opening where the bridge ended. Not that I needed any encouragement, what with the rock falling away beneath my hooves again. The last of the bridge crumbled away into the abyss as Steadfast entered the tunnel.

I charged down the stairs as fast as I could and galloped across the final bridge, the Draugr dead ahead. As it opened its rotten maw to Shout again, I blasted lightning down its throat. It gagged, smoke curling from its mouth, and stared me down. Pulling its greatsword from its back, it moved into a blocking stance.

As I neared, I shot a blast of fire at its forehoofs, causing it to stamp back at the sight of the flames. I launched myself into the air, swinging Calcion’s Cleaver around and knocking the sword from the zombie’s mouth. As I landed behind it, I gave a strong buck with my hindlegs. Shocked, the Draugr went sailing over the edge, falling to its death below.

“Remind me not to get on your bad side,” Steadfast said, trotting up behind me and peering over the edge.

The metal grate that barred the entryway slid upward with entirely unnecessary clanking as I tripped the lever on the other side with my magic. A long hallway stretched into the distance, lined on both sides with sarcophagi carved in typical earth pony fashion. The purplish flames lit the way as we passed deeper into the crypt.

Just when I began to think the tunnel would never end, we came upon a grand opening in the rock. It looked just like the door to the inner crypt of Blank Flanks Barrow, except that there was no door in the opening. Apparently somepony had been down here before.

As we entered the massive chamber on the other side, I saw that this was indeed the case. A line of sarcophagi trailed down the center of the room, climbing up several raised tiers. At the very top tier was an extremely ancient-looking sarcophagus that matched the rest of the ruin, but the other tombs in the line became gradually more modern as they neared the entry door. Apparently other ponies besides the Draugr had decided later that they wanted to be buried down here as well.

“Jurgen Sky-whinny’s should be here somewhere,” Steadfast said, searching the room.

Before he was able to even start examining the tombs, the sarcophagus at the top of the room burst open in a shower of broken clay and bronze. The Draugr within rose from its slumber, blue lightning sparking down the back of its neck in a sick semblance of a mane. With the shriek of ancient steel, it drew a greatsword half a length longer than usual from its sheath and jumped from the tomb.

The “eek” a stallion like Steadfast gave would’ve been hilarious in any other situation, but all the humor was sucked from the room by the Draugr overlord looming over us. I shot a blast of fire at the Draugr while it was still surveying the room, but it thrust its sword into the flame just as it was about to hit it. The flames seemed to be sucked up by the sword, traveling the length of the blade before dissipating in a thin cloud of smoke.

The Draugr galloped down the stairs, heading straight for Steadfast. He pulled his warhammer out just in time to stop the greatsword’s thrust toward his neck. While the Draugr tried to break Steadfast’s block, I shot a bolt of lightning at its head. The blue sparks traveling over its head had died down, but they burst up with renewed vigor as my magic hit them. I cut of the flow of magic as the lightning traveled back at me, nearly frying my horn and leaving bits of my mane charred.

So, it looked like magic was out.

I climbed up the tiers as fast as I could to try and reach the Draugr before it overpowered Steadfast. When he proved to be unmovable, the Draugr reared back and swung its sword at my companion again. He brought up the shield strapped to his foreleg to block while simultaneously smashing his warhammer into the Draugr’s knee.

Ancient bone cracked, but the zombie didn’t seem to care. It pulled its sword back even farther this time. Blue lightning skittered up the blade as it swung around at Steadfast. He blocked with his warhammer, but the force of the impact sent him flying back, tumbling over the coffins down the room’s center.

The Draugr jumped onto one, smashing the lid and the remains within. Steadfast remained on the ground, his warhammer thrown to the side, but I was finally close enough to get a strike at the undead earth pony.

My Draugr sword came slicing down into its flank, cutting easily through the rotten flesh. Calcion’s Cleaver seemed to sing with glee as it separated flesh, sending lightning through the zombie’s body. Giving a shriek, the Draugr spun around on me. Using the Axe of Whitetrot, I blocked the greatsword and swung the Cleaver back at the Draugr’s forelegs.

I soon realized I had greatly underestimated this Draugr’s strength as my war axe began to give way to the strike. Calcion’s Cleaver managed to nearly sever one of the Draugr’s forelegs, but I was forced to refrain from striking again, and instead had to bring the sword back up to help block the greatsword.

Slowly I slid across the stone floor as the undead pony pushed me back. A quick glance over my shoulder showed I would soon be pinned against the wall. There was no way I could overcome this Draugr with physical strength, so I’d just have to outsmart it.

<<>> I Shouted, sending the Draugr flying backwards.

As it picked itself back up onto its hooves, I charged, hoping I could take advantage of the momentary confusion.

it Shouted and flames burst from the Draugr’s mouth.

I pulled up short, my hooves sliding to keep from being burned alive. Great, now this pony could breathe fire too!

The greatsword swung around at me once again, and once again I blocked, with my sword this time. Holding it back with the Cleaver, I swung the Axe of Whitetrot into its chest, hoping I’d rupture some vital organ. Instead, all I succeeded in doing was getting my blade stuck as the Draugr reared back.

Sparks flew as its blade struck Calcion’s Cleaver again. I found myself being forced backwards, but I wasn’t about to let that happen again. Levitating one of the nearby urns, I smashed it against the Draugr’s head to break its concentration. It snarled and let up on its sword just the slightest, but it was just enough that I was able to push back with all my might, knocking the Draugr backwards.

it Shouted back, forcing me to keep my distance.

I smashed another urn against its head, tearing its ear off, but it shrugged it off and charged towards me anyway. I brought my sword up to block, but it anticipated that and swung its greatsword around, knocking the Cleaver from my grasp.

Bringing its sword around, it slashed at me. I jumped backwards to avoid the whistling blade, but it still grazed my foreleg. Where the blade struck I felt an intense burning, as if some dark magic was trying to enter the wound. I tried to ignore the pain and focus on the situation, fixing my eyes on the Draugr.

I backed up as fast as I could, levitating and throwing everything I could at the Draugr as it advanced, but it was no use. It continued to come until I was backed up into an alcove and it was within striking range.

It suddenly gave a shriek as I heard bone crunch. As it twisted its body around, I could see Steadfast had rejoined the fight and smashed his warhammer onto the Draugr’s spine. The zombie’s body was now horribly maimed and twisted, but it spun around to face Steadfast anyway.

In fact, it moved so quickly, it took him by surprise, its greatsword slicing into his side and throwing him across the chamber. The pain in my foreleg came back to me and I couldn’t imagine what agony Steadfast was in now, if he was even still alive. But the Draugr was distracted at the moment and I seized the opportunity.

Pulling my mace from my saddlebags, I slammed it into the Draugr’s jaw, breaking its teeth and knocking the greatsword from its grasp. Another swing caved in the side of its head, and the last took off its jaw.

The sparks over its body died with the unholy light in its eyes. Stepping over the mangled corpse, I ran over to where Steadfast was lying on the floor. His eyes were clamped shut, but his blood-soaked chest was still rising and falling slightly, so there was hope. Calling upon my magic, I used my Healing Hooves spell to stitch up his wound. It resisted healing at first, no doubt due to whatever magic that Draugr’s sword was enchanted with, but the wound finally closed up as I felt the last of my energy reserves empty.

“Did we kill it?” Steadfast asked as he sat up.

“Yeah,” I said, applying a bandage over the cut on my foreleg and drinking a healing potion to fix it up.

Steadfast stood, stretching to test the repaired flesh of his side. Apparently satisfied that it would hold, he trotted over to the dead Draugr and gave it a kick in the head. Shaking my head at his last senseless act of revenge, I too stood up and took a look around the room.

“Jurgen Sky-whinny’s tomb has got to be here somewhere,” I thought out loud, examining the line of sarcophagi.

However, all but the most recent coffins seemed to be inscribed in Draconic, and while I recognized a word or two here and there, I wasn’t able to make any sense of what was written as a whole. I was just beginning to give up hope when Steadfast called me over to where he was standing.

“I think this is it,” he said, comparing the inscription on the sarcophagus he was facing to a translation of Jurgen’s name into Draconic he’d made on a piece of parchment.

I lent him a hoof to push the heavy cover off, which was surprisingly loose. Inside was the skeleton of an earth pony, along with a crumbling journal and an exquisite greatsword. But sadly, no horn. I pulled the journal out, pages crumbling to dust as I flipped it open.

“I was sure it would be here,” said a very disappointed Steadfast, “Maybe we’ve got the wrong tomb?”

“No,” I said sadly, looking through the journal, “This was Jurgen Sky-whinny all right.”

“Why wouldn’t he be buried with his war horn?” Steadfast puzzled aloud, “After all, he brought his sword to be buried with.”

I tossed him the journal to look through and began to explore the rest of the final crypt. I’d been so hopeful that it would be here, I was nearly as disappointed as Steadfast. I tipped over pots and opened urns, seeking the horn. I wasn’t going to give up so easily.

The scattering of chests near the top of the chamber looked promising at first, but after picking them, all they revealed were gold, precious gems, and ancient clothes. Something I would’ve been overjoyed to see at any other time, but right now I was on a mission and only one thing could make me happy.

The wall the provided a backdrop for the chamber was covered in carved dragons, and bore an inscription in Draconic, just like back in Blank Flanks Barrow. As I drew closer, a word once again stood out for me. This time I was prepared as my mind was bombarded in the span of a second with thoughts and ideas that would take a lifetime to learn. In a moment, I was suddenly a master of everything related to the ability to fade. Everywhere my mind held the Equine word was now replaced with its Draconic counterpart.

~FEIM~

Another Word of Power learned, it turned out this mission hadn’t been a complete bust, but I was still lacking the very thing I’d come here for.

“Hey!” Steadfast called up excitedly, “I think I know where the horn is!”

“Where?” I asked eagerly, trotting rapidly down the stairs to where he was standing.

In response he lifted up a lyre and sheets of song lyrics that somepony had stashed in one of the chamber’s alcoves.

“The Bards College,” he said in an annoyed manner, “They beat us.”

Level Up
Health: 150 Stamina: 140 Magicka: 140
New Perk: Steady Hooves [Lockpicking] -- You will break lockpicks much less often so long as you take your time.
Word of Power learned: FEIM -- Fade; Become Ethereal – Your Thu’um reaches out to the Void, changing your form into one that cannot harm, or be harmed.
Follower gained: Steadfast -- A Companion in training, Steadfast is a competent earth pony warrior whose chosen weapon is a warhammer. As loyal and dependable as they come, Steadfast will not hesitate to follow you into danger, or risk his own life for your safety.
Unique Item added: Jurgen Sky-whinny’s Blade of the North -- This Greatsword forged for the great warrior-turned monk is enchanted to turn an opponent’s blood as cold as the homeland of the one is was forged for.
New Quest: How About a Song? -- Travel to the Bards College in Seclusion to reclaim Jurgen Sky-whinny’s war horn.

Chapter 14: A Foray into the Foreign

Chapter XIV: A Foray into the Foreign
“I can’t understand why anypony would want to join the Imperial Legion. Soldiers only appreciate one thing, and it isn’t music.”

The Bards College.

I imagined I could see it as I looked at Seclusion in the distance. In truth, I had no idea which of the many rooftops poking over the wall belonged to the College, but it felt good to be able to visualize my objective, even if it was still a long way off. Just like in Blank Flanks Barrow, Hoovestengrav had a back exit that let out onto a rock ledge quite a distance from the entrance.

Standing atop the stone, I could see over the short frozen expanse between our exit and Seclusion. The tundra ahead was dotted with spindly trees and crisscrossed with rivers of frozen slurry. But nothing was going to stop Steadfast and me from getting to the College.

Luckily, we were able to find a path rather quickly that would guide us through the swamps to our objective. We had to ford a few icy rivers, but in the end we were able to make it safely to Seclusion with no mishaps.

Thankfully, this time nopony was being executed as I entered the city. I breathed a sigh of relief as I passed the empty execution block. A few helpful ponies directed us to the Bards College, which was in the far back of the city, nearly butted up against the Blue Palace, where Jarl Radiance lived. It was a good thing I’d been given directions. Other than the overly large courtyard where ponies sat playing various instruments, it looked nearly identical to all the other nearby buildings.

“Good day!” an earth pony playing the drums called out as we approached the College’s entrance, “Here to apply to the College?”

“Not really,” I replied, “We’re here to speak to whoever’s in charge. Where can we find them?”

“Headmistress Concerto is inside. If she’s not in her office, she’s probably in the library with Dean A Cappella.”

“Thanks,” I waved my thanks for the help and headed into the College.

Inside it was eerily calm, with soft music overlapping from throughout the building. My hoofsteps seemed overloud in such a quiet place. Steadfast, however, seemed unaffected, stomping along contently beside me. I rolled my eyes at his carelessness, but I guess it really wasn’t hurting anypony.

One of the bards, though she looked frustrated at being interrupted in her flute practice, was kind enough to point us in the direction of the library. The library wasn’t much, holding less than a dozen shelves of books and scrolls, but it looked cozy, with comfortable-looking chairs to sit in and a cheery fireplace.

In the middle of the room, two ponies were talking. One was an elderly purple unicorn stallion with a small beard wearing a royal scarlet robe. The other was a grey earth pony mare with a jet black mane, and judging by her multicolored and exquisite robe, she was the headmistress.

“Excellent Dean,” she finished her conversation as we entered the room, “I’ll let the students know immediately. I’m sure they won’t reject increased studies in light of such a momentous occasion.”

The stallion turned to rearranging the scrolls on the shelves and the headmistress moved to leave the room, nearly bumping into Steadfast and me.

“Oh, pardon me,” she apologized, “What have we got here? Have you come to apply to my college?”

“Not exactly,” Steadfast answered, “We’ve come for the War Horn of Jurgen Sky-whinny.”

The headmistress’s brow furrowed at the mention of the horn.

“I see,” she said, “Walk with me.”

Stepping between us, she trotted out of the library and into the college’s halls. I glanced over at Steadfast before taking off after her.

“What interest have you in Jurgen’s horn?” she asked, looking over her shoulder at us.

“Well, we’ve both been searching for it,” I explained, “Him to bring it to the Companions, and me to bring it to the Greymanes.”

Her eyebrow raised a bit at the mention of the Greymanes, but I still got the feeling that she didn’t intend to part with the horn.

“Tell me,” she said, “Why should the Companions or the Greymanes receive this horn instead of the Bards College?”

“Jurgen was a prominent Companion,” Steadfast blurted out, “His battles and his horn are legendary.”

“And he was the pony who founded the Greymanes,” I offered up.

“And the horn is a musical instrument of historical significance,” Headmistress Concerto retorted, “Something the Bards College is devoted to preserving and collecting.”

“But the Greymanes sent me to get this horn because the Equines commanded it,” I pleaded.

“And this is my personal quest to become a Companion,” Steadfast added, though he still looked a bit surprised at my revelation regarding the Equines.

“Please reconsider,” I said.

“As Headmistress of this college, it is my job to do what’s in its best interest. And right now that means keeping the horn. Besides, the planning has already begun for the ceremony of its unveiling. If you’ll excuse me, I have a party to plan. I’m sorry you made the trip for nothing.”

“Wait!” I called as she began to walk off, “There must be something we can do to change your mind.”

“Hm,” she said, raising a hoof to her muzzle, “You do seem the adventurous types. I may have a job for you after all.”

“Yes?” Steadfast said, eagerly anticipating some way to get his hooves on the horn. I have to admit, I felt the same.

“Have you ever heard of Treble the Lightning-hoofed?” she asked.

Steadfast and I both shook our heads.

“Not surprising,” Concerto continued, “He was the founder of the Bards College and arguably the greatest bard who ever lived. The instruments he crafted were the best and, combined with his skill, the music he produced was legendary. Rumor has it he could rout entire armies with the wonder of his music.”

“This is great,” Steadfast interrupted, “But where do we come in?”

“Treble’s greatest work, his master lute, has been lost for centuries. However, according to one of my contacts, it was recently found. I need you two to retrieve it.”

It seemed simple enough, but if this task was important enough to warrant her giving up Jurgen’s horn in exchange, there had to be a catch.

“Where is the lute?” I asked as we stepped into the headmistress’s office.

“Windrake Cavern,” she declared, pointing at a point on the map on her desk with a baton.

As I leaned in for a closer look at the map, I noticed only the northern coast of Horizon was covered, along with the northern sea and the southern portion of the expansive archipelago that made up the Featherrest Isles. The point her baton was pointing to wasn’t in Horizon at all, but one of the islands off the coast.

“You want us to go into the Pegasari Dominion?” I asked incredulously.

“I never said the job was easy,” she defended, “If it was, I would just have one of my bards do it. But relations with the Dominion are strained to say the least. No, you’re the best bet I have. If you can do this, you have my personal guarantee that Jurgen Sky-whinny’s horn will be returned to you immediately.”

“And your festival?” I asked.

“With Treble’s Master Lute in our possession, we’ll have much more to celebrate.”

“What do you think?” I asked Steadfast, turning to him.

“I don’t know how we’re going to pull this off,” he admitted, “But I don’t see another way.”

“We’ll be back with your lute as soon as we can,” I told Concerto before departing her office.

Wandering back through the Bards College, we emerged on the surface again, thrust into the glorious sunlight.

“I hope you have a better plan than swimming there,” Steadfast said as we trotted down Seclusion’s main street.

“Oh yes,” I said, looking to the mountains that curved south, “A much better plan.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I tried to keep my eyes open as the wind rushed past. Looking down, I could see the choppy, ice-filled waves of the northern sea far below. Above me was Nagrissa, flying just below the cloud cover, with me held in her claws. Slightly to my right, another griffin held Steadfast, who looked very squeamish to be so high up.

Sneaking into pegasi lands would’ve been impossible with just Steadfast and me on hoof, requiring us to take a boat that would be seen miles away. Luckily, Nagrissa had offered to help me out if I ever needed a favor, and it seemed just the time to cash it in. The pegasi wouldn’t be suspecting us to come from the air, in an area where they had complete air superiority.

Now we just had to find Windrake Cavern. According to Concerto’s map, it was on the southern edge of an island to the west of the pegasus city of Twilight, but that island was of no small size, and the cavern could be anywhere along the shoreline.

“I think I found your target,” Nagrissa called down as the shoreline grew closer.

I squinted into the distance, trying to get a glimpse of whatever it was that gave Nagrissa that idea. Gradually, what I could only assume was Windrake Cavern came into sight. A gaping rent gouged the cliff open, but it wasn’t merely a deserted cave. Built outside the cave entrance, and it appeared within as well, was a sprawling stone complex. Docks extended out into a harbor where several ships were docked. Flying from the mast of the largest was a banner bearing an eye with wings as dark as night. The symbol of the Blackwings.

“What is that?” Steadfast called over to me.

“Blackwing fortress it seems,” I said, hoping he could hear me over the wind.

“When we get back, I’m going to have a few choice words for that bard.”

It did seem like we had been duped into diving into something we were unprepared for. Concerto had never told us the Blackwings would be involved in this. I sincerely doubted they would like us just walking into their fortress unannounced.

“I’ll drop you off behind that bluff,” Nagrissa announced, veering away from the Blackwing fortress, “But no closer.”

“Thanks for the lift,” I called up after she had dropped us off and taken off into the skies again.

“What’s the plan?” Steadfast asked, giving his warhammer a few practice swings.

I took a look at the fortress before us before turning back to reply.

“I’m thinking we sneak in and out as fast as we can,” I said, “I don’t want to take on the whole base.”

“I’ve never fought a Blackwing before,” Steadfast said, almost longingly.

“I fought one,” I said, “Once . . . I nearly died.”

“You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you Sapphire,” Steadfast said, giving me a look, “Y’know, when we get through with this, you’re going to have to sit down and tell me your whole story.”

“Fine,” I agreed hesitantly. I was warming up to Steadfast, but there was no way I was going to tell him everything about myself, least of all the reason I’d come to Horizon in the first place.

“So, I guess it’s stealth then,” he said, sheathing his weapon sadly.

I wasn’t sure which of us had more experience in sneaking, but Steadfast seemed to be waiting for me, so I led the way. Staying to the shadows of the cliffs, we made our way along to the cave entrance. As we got closer, I could make out the individual shapes of black-winged pegasi flapping around the perimeter of their fortress.

By the time we reached the high stone wall that blocked us from entering the cave, thunder was beginning to rumble across the sky.

“We’d better get in and get out quickly,” Steadfast whispered to me, “Looks like the pegasi have a big storm planned.”

I nodded and, seeing no way to scale the wall, snuck along it toward the main complex. Several close calls later, we made it to one of the entrance doors. Luckily nopony was guarding it, so I cautiously opened it to let us in.

The floorboards squeaked disturbingly beneath my iron boots, so I removed them and went barehoofed. Following my lead, Steadfast did the same. Luckily for us, the coming storm must’ve had the pegasi busy, with even the Blackwings conscripted into helping the weather crews. The base seemed nearly abandoned.

Rushing through the halls, I stepped right into a room with scrolls lining the walls. Turning to the side, I saw our first Blackwing since entering. She was busy looking through some scrolls and hadn’t noticed us yet, but her ears pricked up upon my entrance. I was quickly yanked back through the doorway as Steadfast grabbed hold of my tail.

“Skybreacher, is that you?” I heard the Blackwing’s voice come through the doorway.

Steadfast and I pressed ourselves into the walls to avoid being seen. The only sound that could be heard from the other room was the falling of papers, no doubt disturbed by the wind from the pegasus’s wings as she took off. Both Steadfast and I remained absolutely still as the pegasus moved about. Slowly, a muzzle inched through the doorway near the top. The pegasus continued to slowly flap forward, her inverted head passing through the doorway.

With a quick twist, Steadfast bucked at the Blackwing with his hindlegs, making contact with the top of her head. Her eyes rolled up into her head and her wings stopped beating, causing her to fall. I jumped out and caught her just before she hit the ground. Cautiously, I examined her. She was still breathing, but she was definitely unconscious.

“What do we do with her now?” I asked Steadfast, “We can’t just leave her lying in the hallway.”

“Hm,” Steadfast said, taking her from me and slinging her across his back.

“I’ve got it!” he exclaimed as he looked into the records room, “Open up that cabinet.”

I gasped as I opened the ornate wooden doors. Inside the cabinet was not just enough room to fit the unconscious Blackwing, but several Blackwing robes.

“The Equines are smiling upon us today,” Steadfast whispered as I pulled the robes out.

Tying the Blackwing’s hooves and wings and gagging her mouth, we lifted her into the cabinet and shut the door. Steadfast and I both hurriedly pulled the Blackwing garb over our own.

“This isn’t going to work,” he said, examining himself.

“And why not?” I asked.

“These robes have wing holes, but we have no wings.”

“Here,” I said, thinking on the fly, “Throw a cloak over your back and bunch it up over where your wings should be. Hopefully with the storm coming outside, they won’t question it.”

Steadfast and I both threw a cloak over our Blackwing robes and continued through the fortress. A few passages later we came upon a dining hall. It was empty but for two pegasi playing some kind of game at one of the tables. They didn’t attempt to stop us as we passed through; in fact, one of them waved at us.

We encountered Blackwings a few more times, but most seemed in too much of a hurry or didn’t care to examine us closely enough to realize we were imposters. Before we knew it, we were finally in Windrake Cavern. After a short jaunt across the stone floor of the cave, we came to another, smaller stone structure built within the cave. Only part of it actually seemed to be pony built. The building butted right up against the cave wall and probably extended into the tunnels beyond.

Sneaking a peek inside, I could see that there was nopony in sight. Opening the door, Steadfast and I entered the building. Books on excavation data lined wooden shelves within. The outer building was clearly the Blackwing armory and barracks, but this one appeared to be a research outpost. Sitting on the abandoned desks were weather team conscription letters, giving a clue as to where these Blackwings had gone.

Silently, Steadfast and I passed through the hallways, entering the cave tunnels they linked up with. It wasn’t long before we were able to hear a voice coming from up ahead.

“Cloudchaser gets weather duty,” I heard a stallion’s voice complain, “But what do I have to do? Guard a bunch of dumb instruments.”

Following the promising whining, Steadfast and I made it to the room the Blackwing was sitting in. He looked very unhappy in the middle of a cluster of crates and display cases.

“What are you here for?” he asked, raising his spear, “Is the storm prepared already?”

“No,” I said, thinking up an excuse for our presence, “We’re here to replace you.”

“Replace me?”

“We’ll take over here; you’re needed on weather duty.”

“Great!” he said, leaping to his hooves, “Do you have a form of what I need to do?”

I hadn’t thought of that. While I was biting my lip thinking of a cover, Steadfast smashed a vase over his head.

“Too many questions,” he said, giving a shrug.

Tying up this pony too, we shoved him into a crate before looking around at the artifacts in the room. Quite a few instruments were labeled as belonging to Treble the Lightning-hoofed, but we were searching for a very particular one. Steadfast found the Master Lute first, locked in a display case he proceeded to smash open.

Wrapping the instrument in leather, I tucked it in my saddlebags, and we walked out of the building. Fearing we’d be caught at any moment, we made our way back through the cave to the main fortress. We nearly galloped through the halls in our bid to escape. Turning a corner, we ran right into a Blackwing, sending all three of us flying.

“You really should watch where you’re going . . .” the Blackwing trailed off as she looked at the top of my head.

In the collision, my hood had been thrown back and my horn exposed. Now she knew we were imposters. I pulled out my knife, hoping I would get lucky and assassinate her immediately. Instead, Steadfast’s hammer smashed into her skull, crushing it against the wall.

“What did you do?” I asked breathlessly, staring at the mutilated Blackwing on the floor.

“I improvised,” he said, concealing his warhammer within his robes, “We’d best get out of here now.”

I nodded and turned away from the gruesome sight, following Steadfast as he led the way back through the Blackwing fort. Cold rain began to pelt us as we exited the building, searching for a way to get back to Horizon.

Somepony screamed from within the building, and shortly after I heard a bell ringing. Our presence had been discovered.

“There’s no way the griffins will be able to fly in to pick us up in this,” Steadfast said as the rain began to come down harder.

“But neither will the pegasi,” I said, talking to myself.

“What’s that?” Steadfast asked.

“I think I have an idea,” I said, galloping off toward the shoreline.

As the wind blew harder and the rain grew colder, I slid across the docks in the harbor. Running down one, I shot a quick blast of fire at wherever I saw a rope holding the docked ship in place. At last I made it to the front of the ship, where Inquisitor was emblazoned on the side. Burning the last rope, I motioned for Steadfast to climb the rapidly shifting ramp.

I followed him onto the empty ship that was already beginning to shift in the choppy waters without its mooring lines holding it in place. I began undoing ropes as I made my way to the wheel.

“Wait,” Steadfast called over the wind, “Your plan is to get away by stealing a Blackwing ship?”

“Yeah, is there a problem?”

“Have you ever sailed a ship before?”

“No . . . but I’ve read a lot about sailing.”

“Why does that not reassure me?”

“Just undo the lines holding the sails in place, all right? We have to get moving before the Blackwings catch us.”

Though he didn’t seem completely sure I’d be able to pilot this ship, he began undoing the lines, opening the sails all the way. The viscous north wind filled them instantly, driving the ship forward.

We were beginning to pull out of the harbor, but shouts from behind alerted me that our theft wasn’t going unnoticed. Turning around, I saw several Blackwings struggling against the weather to reach the ship. I pulled my war axe out, in case it came to fighting, but I hoped it wouldn’t. As they neared the ship they began to bunch up, intent on punching into me. I seized the opportunity.

<<>>

I sent them all tumbling back into the icy waters as our ship surged forward. Through the howling gale, in the dark, we began the journey back to Horizon.

Level Up
Health: 150 Stamina: 140 Magicka: 150
New Perk: Sometimes We All Need to Be Shown a Little Kindness [Restoration] -- Any Restoration spell cast on somepony else does twice the healing for half the Magicka.
Unique Item added: Treble Lighting-hoofed’s Master Lute -- An exquisite instrument crafted by the greatest bard of all time, the Master Lute is priceless, as is the music played from it.
New Quest: Time to Face the Music -- Return Treble’s Master Lute to the Bards College in Seclusion

Chapter 15: The City of Kings

Chapter XV: The City of Kings
“Magic, shmagic. Boo!”

Through the night I continued to steer the boat as best I could through the choppy waters. I had no real idea of where I was going; I just followed the winds south and tried not to hit any islands or the coastline. The rain began to let up as morning dawned, the bright sunlight piercing the dissipating clouds.

In the distance I could see a walled town just inland. Twisting the wheel, I steered us toward the mouth of the river it seemed to be built along. A few other masts sprouted up over the hills between us and the town so I had to believe there was a harbor there.

“Town in sight,” I called down to where Steadfast was adjusting the sails, “I just hope it’s an earth pony one.”

“It’s all right,” he yelled back, “That’s Windhorn, capital of the Stormcloud rebellion.”

I had mixed feelings about the Stormclouds. First of all, they seemed to be extremely racist toward pegasi and unicorns alike. But Bereloth had seemed decent enough, at least in the short time I’d known him. If more Stormclouds were like him we wouldn’t have any trouble in Windhorn. Besides, it was too late to turn back now and search for another town to dock in.

Shakily, I guided the Inquisitor up the river, trying not to smash us to pieces on the banks. As we neared the Windhorn harbor, I could see ponies rushing along the city’s wall and the docks. A few jumped off into the icy waters and began swimming toward our ship. I didn’t think anything of it until a dripping wet pony climbed onto the deck and drew her sword.

“Surrender the vessel!” she demanded, though she appeared to be addressing Steadfast, who was busy realigning the sails.

“Back away from the wheel,” a stallion who had just climbed aboard demanded of me.

“But, I’m trying to guide the ship into port,” I started to explain.

“I’ll take over from here,” he stated, leaving no room for argument.

Two other Stormclouds pulled me away from the wheel and the stallion took my place. With expertise, he directed his crew to guide the ship smoothly up to the docks, where it was secured in place.

“Ship secured captain, no crew belowdecks,” an earth pony mare announced, trotting up to the stallion at the wheel, “What should we do with the prisoners?”

“Take them to the Jarl, let him decide,” the stallion said, sizing up the ship.

“Prisoners?” I asked, but I was herded away before I could get a response.

Though Steadfast struggled against his captors, eventually he gave up and let himself be led along with me. Under the careful watch of Stormcloud soldiers, we were led off the Inquisitor and along the docks. I noticed as we crossed the main stone dock to the city that the ponies doing most of the grunt work had bat wings folded across their backs and averted their eyes and cowered at the glares of the Stormclouds. Before I could get a closer look, I was shoved forward roughly.

“Don’t bother with them,” my guard said, “They’re below even you, unicorn.”

It looked like avoiding racism here was unlikely. I traveled the rest of the way into the city in silence, trying to avoid doing anything to provoke the soldiers guarding me. After climbing a long stone stairway cut from the solid rock, we were able to enter the ancient city.

Though I didn’t want to argue with my captors, I couldn’t resist looking around as we trotted through Windhorn. I had thought that Whitetrot was an intensely stereotypical earth pony town, but it was nothing compared to here. In fact, the architecture that made up the city seemed almost identical to what I’d seen in Blank Flanks Barrow and Hoovestengrav.

This city was the birthplace of earth pony culture, and they certainly seemed to be flaunting it. At crossroads, tucked into corners, and built into the walls themselves were monuments to earth pony historical figures, from Ysgroomar to King Oman One-Eye. Wandering through this city, I would’ve been able to experience thousands of years of history.

Sadly, I wouldn’t be able to do that, at least not immediately. Roughly, I was escorted toward the palace at the north edge of the town, built slightly up the slope of a steep hill so that it looked down over the rest of the town. We were led past a statue of an earth pony smashing a cowering pegasus with a warhammer before being pushed through the massive doors of the keep.

Once inside, we entered the great hall immediately. A deep blue carpet stretched the length of the room, flanked on either sides by long tables covered in food. From the vaulted ceilings tapestries hung, all depicting a stylized cloud with twin lightning bolts extending from its underside. Set high in the walls were stained glass windows depicting powerful earth ponies striking down unicorns, pegasi, zebras, griffins, and pretty much every other race.

At the far end of the hall was a rough throne hewn from a single block of stone. On it sat a deep blue earth pony clad in the furs of Horizon, a simple crown upon his head. I had seen him only once before, but I could never forget who he was.

“Jarl Stormcloud,” one of our escorts proclaimed as we neared the rulers’ throne, “We captured these two trying to sail a Blackwing ship into the harbor.”

“Blackwings, huh?” the Jarl replied, frowning at us, “Well you’re pretty poor Blackwings indeed if you were captured so easily. Or maybe your plan was to be captured and taken to me. I see my soldiers were too inept to relieve you of your weapons.”

The guard standing beside me suddenly jumped in shock and moved to remove my several blades from me.

“No point now, is there?” Stormcloud called for the guard to halt, “They’re already within the Palace of Kings, before my very throne. But do take care not to make the same mistake in the future.”

“Yes my Jarl,” the soldier replied, visibly shaken.

“And now about you two,” the Jarl said, turning back toward Steadfast and me, “You don’t look like Blackwings, and not just by your mannerisms. A unicorn and earth pony Blackwing? Impossible.”

“So, who are you then? Tell me a tale, and it had better be good enough to convince me you’re not just another trick thrown at me by those accursed pegasi!”

“Well,” I started to speak, “We stole that ship from the Blackwings to escape from-”

“You stole from the Blackwings?” the Jarl interrupted me, “Just the two of you? You must be legendary warriors then. I don’t know; I have trouble believing that.”

“But it’s the truth!” Steadfast burst out, “We broke into one of their bases in the Featherrest Isles and escaped in the storm!”

“Let me get this straight. You not only were able to defeat Blackwings and take their ship, but you did it from within their homeland? Very unlikely.”

“It’s the truth, I tell you!” Steadfast fumed, “I swear on the Shards of Wingrend, Ysgroomar’s mighty blade, that it is!”

“A Companion?” Stormcloud said, shocked, “Of course, I should have seen it before. What brought you to the cursed Isles, kinsman?”

“My personal quest,” he replied proudly, “Sapphire here was helping me.”

“That I can respect and understand, and bringing down a Blackwing ship in addition is something to be proud of. You may go, return to Whitetrot and your shield-siblings. Hopefully someday Jarl Valor’s Blade will see reason and you can assist in the liberation of Horizon.”

“Thank you,” I said and turned to leave, but I found my path blocked by a guard’s spear.

“Not you, unicorn,” Stormcloud said, “I don’t yet know of your motivations. You may be working for the Empire.”

“No,” I pleaded, “I left the Empire. I came to Horizon. I’m Thane of Whitetrot!”

“If that’s true, they must be giving it out to anypony these days,” the Jarl laughed, “Has Valor’s Blade lost his mind?”

“I’m not a spy!” I insisted, “I just want to leave.”

“You can leave after you’ve been through thorough questioning,” the Jarl stated, his face hardening, “Take her away!”

The Stormcloud soldiers around me began to push me away from the throne and toward one of the side corridors, though I struggled against them.

“Hey!” Steadfast called, pushing through them and coming to my side, “What’s the big idea? She’s done nothing wrong.”

“That is yet to be decided,” Stormcloud replied, “Until then she will stay here. You, however, may go.”

“No way!” Steadfast fought back with a passion I hadn’t expected, “If you’re going to take my friend away, you’re going to have to take me too!”

I had to admit, I was thoroughly surprised at how hard Steadfast was fighting for me. After all, we’d barely known each other for a day and already he considered me to be a good enough friend that he’d rather go to prison with me than let us be separated. Maybe our adventures together had been a deeply bonding experience? I realized I would probably do the same thing for him, for my friend.

“I had hoped not to include you in this,” the Jarl sighed, “But so be it. Take them both away.”

“Report from the Split shows Imperial troop movements within Foalkreath Hold, my Jarl,” I heard a familiar voice say as Steadfast and I were led away.

“Bereloth?” I asked hopefully.

“Sapphire?” I heard his questioning reply.

“Wait,” the Jarl said, “Bereloth, you know this mare?”

“Of course,” he said, pushing the guards around me aside, “She was at Hoofgen with us, about to be executed too, and I escaped with her. She helped me fight through the keep.”

“This is the truth?” Stormcloud asked hesitantly.

“Yes, all of it,” I spoke, “Bereloth and I fought together to escape from that dragon.”

“Well,” the Jarl said thoughtfully, “Bereloth is one of my most trusted soldiers, and a true son of Horizon. I suppose if you are willing to vouch for her-”

“I am,” Bereloth interrupted before he could finish.

“Very well then, you are free to go. Maybe someday you will be willing to fight alongside us again, for our cause, and Horizon’s freedom.”

Eager to get out before the Jarl changed his mind, I sidestepped around the guards and set my sights on the exit. In my haste, I ran right into an elderly mare, knocking her to the ground.

“Sorry about that,” I said, helping her up.

“I’m sure it was just an acciden-” she began to say before she turned to look at me and her face went pale.

“You!” she yelled, throwing off my helping hoof, “How dare you come here after what you’ve done!”

“What is the matter now, Deala?” Jarl Stormcloud asked.

Deala, my mind flew, connecting the dots. This was Deala the Aged, the pony I had just helped oust from power a few days earlier. She did not seem to be taking it well at all.

“Jarl Stormcloud, why have you let an Imperial set hoof in here!” she continued to rant.

“Now see here,” Bereloth stepped forward, “Sapphire’s no Imperial. Well, she is an Imperial Unicorn, but she’s no Imperial soldier. She helped me fight my way through and killed Imperial soldiers just a fortnight ago.”

“Well, things have certainly changed since then,” Deala fought back, “Just three days ago she was part of the Imperial attack on Dawnstar that drove me from my Hold. She was there alongside General Cuirass when he banished me.”

“Do you deny this?” Jarl Stormcloud looked at me, seeming a bit confused, “Did you help the Imperials attack Dawnstar?”

“Well, yes,” I started to say, “But I had no choice.”

“Seize her!” the Jarl ordered, and his guards grabbed hold of me once again.

Deala smirked as I was brought back before the Jarl’s throne. Just when I thought I was free, I was going to be sent to the Windhorn dungeons anyway. Looked like things couldn’t get any worse. I was so very wrong.

“For conspiring with the Imperials and assisting in an attack that cost us one of our precious holds, I hereby sentence you to be executed in full view of the public as an example,” the Jarl passed his judgment.

“Executed?” I gasped.

“Jarl, is this necessary?” Bereloth asked.

“Hold your tongue,” Stormcloud shot back, “I’ve made my final decision. I’m afraid both Jarl Deala’s words and her own have incriminated her for a crime that cannot be forgiven. Nothing will sway me in this judgment.”

Off-tune humming suddenly came echoing down one of the corridors that led away from the great hall. The guards all turned to listen and seemed to forget about their duty to execute me. Maybe if I could just slip away . . .

A look at the guards showed I could probably slip away unnoticed, but what about Steadfast? I couldn’t leave him behind, even if he probably wouldn’t be executed. I decided to wait and see if another opportunity came up to escape. I still had all my gear, after all.

“I’m really not in the mood for this right now,” I heard Jarl Stormcloud mumble as the humming grew louder, accompanied by an odd springing sound.

A pale green earth pony suddenly bounced into the room. In fact, so high and springy were her jumps, her hooves had to be made of coiled springs. Her violently pink mane was done up in the most ridiculous style imaginable, with bows of every shape, size, and color sprinkled in, contrasting sharply with the crisp and formal military uniform she wore.

“Hi Stormy!” she chimed, jumping on top of the Jarl’s throne and inverting herself to stare him in the eyes, “Looks like I got here just in time!”

“Actually, Zest,” he said, pushing her face away from his own, “Now’s not really a good time.”

“Silly Stormy,” she said, ruffling up his mane, “Don’t you know it’s always a good time when I’m around.”

The Jarl growled as he smoothed his mane back into place and Zest somersaulted off his throne.

“Now, let’s see what we have here,” she said, rubbing her chin, “Embellishment? Entrepreneurship? Exposition? No.”

“Wait!” she gasped, “Execution?”

“However did you guess,” the Jarl said, looking rather annoyed.

“Just a hunch,” she replied with a shrug, “But I just gotta warn you Stormy, executing innocent ponies is bad for business.”

“Innocent?!” the Jarl spat out, “She helped General Cuirass and his accursed Empire take Dawnstar, driving Deala from her home and denying us a much-needed port!”

“Dawnstar? That’s the town that makes those delicious mudcrab pies. And of course I remember Deala,” Zest said, bounding over to the elderly former Jarl, “Who could forget a face like this?”

“Do you have anything useful to say today?” the Jarl asked, “I have a city to keep, after all.”

“I can’t say I have anything useful to tell you, or at least not anything you’d consider useful, but I think Deala does.”

“What?” the older mare objected, “I don’t think so.”

“How about you tell him the whole story about what happened at Dawnstar?”

“What are you talking about?” Deala spat back a bit too suddenly, “There’s nothing to tell!”

“Oh, come on, it’s a very touching story,” Zest said, bouncing around, “And even at your age, I don’t think you’re forgetful enough that you don’t recall what happened just a few days ago.”

“Deala, what is she talking about?” Jarl Stormcloud asked, looking more concerned now.

“Nothing, she’s just crazy,” Deala replied.

“Did you tell me everything about the attack on Dawnstar?”

“Of course.”

“Do you swear to Talhooves that you did not withhold anything?”

“I don’t think that’s necessary-”

“Do you?” Stormcloud demanded, rising from his throne.

“All right!” Deala broke down, “General Cuirass was going to execute me before she stopped him.”

“Truly?” the Jarl asked, looking my way.

“Ooh, tell him about the griffins!” Zest exclaimed.

“Griffins?” Stormcloud asked, “Yes Deala, you said that the Imperials were aided by griffins, but not why.”

“I was captured by them,” I explained, “The only way they’d agree to let me go was if I helped work out a deal between them and the Empire, which involved the invasion of Dawnstar.”

“I see,” the Jarl said, giving a deep sigh, “I suppose, given this new information, I will have to allow you to leave. The execution’s off.”

“What?!” Deala protested.

“She convinced General Cuirass to spare your life, and now I am sparing hers,” Stormcloud declared, his eyes making clear there was no room for questions, “A life for a life, but if you wish to remain in my good graces Sapphire, you’ll remain free of Imperials from now on.”

“I knew you’d make the right choice,” Zest said, wrapping a hoof around the monarch, “You’ve got a good heart under that stony exterior, Stormy.”

“How did you know all that?” I asked the odd mare.

“Just a guess, I suppose,” she said with a shrug, “Either that or I’m psychic. Let me guess what you’re thinking, and don’t think about elephants.”

“What?” I said, confused.

“Are you thinking about elephants?” she asked urgently, jumping up close and staring me in the eyes.

“Well, yes,” I admitted, “but only because-”

“I guess that settles it then,” Zest said, backing off, “I really am psychic.”

“Um . . .”

“Ooh, pie! My favorite!” she exclaimed suddenly, jumping onto the table and snatching up the pie from in front of a shocked noblepony who was about to eat.

“She’s a bit . . . odd,” the Jarl commented as Zest ran down to the end of the table before jumping off and gobbling up the pie in midair, “But she has her uses, as I think you’ll agree.”

“Right . . .” I said, not sure of what else I could say to the Jarl who had just sentenced me to prison, then freed me, then sentenced me to death before freeing me again.

In the end, I decided the best thing to do was just walk away. Nopony moved to stop me, and the Jarl’s court seemed to be returning to normal. Deala huffed off, giving me dirty looks as she went, and Bereloth ventured a smile at me before returning to report to the Jarl.

“So . . .” Steadfast said, trotting up beside me, “What other secrets are you keeping?”

“They’re not secrets,” I responded, “Just . . . things I don’t consider to be that important.”

“Well, whenever you get around to telling me your story, don’t leave out any unimportant parts, all right?”

“Deal,” I agreed wearily.

With the rate things were progressing, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to tell somepony exactly what was going on in my life, and Steadfast seemed a willing and trustworthy confidant.

Exiting the Palace of Kings, Steadfast and I made our way down the stone streets of Windhorn. On our way through the town, we encountered more than one street with guards posted near signs that read “No Pegasi Beyond this Point.” Looked like racism was rampant in the Stormcloud capitol. Eventually we found the inn at the center of town, rising above the other nearby buildings.

I stepped inside, eager for some sleep before we left for Seclusion. Paying the innkeep a hefty sum in gold, I headed for my room while Steadfast headed for his. Before we parted ways, we agreed to meet up in a few hours to leave. To get to the room I was assigned, I had to pass through the common area.

“Here’s a song everypony should be familiar with,” I heard the bard say as I passed through.

The song she began to sing was familiar to my ears; it was the same song I had heard in Foalkreath, except the words were different. I stopped to listen to the mare sing.

“We drink to our youth, for the days come and gone.”
“For the Age of Oppression, is just about done.”
“We’ll drive out the Empire, and restore what we own.”
“With our blood and our steel we will take back our home.”
“All hail Jarl Stormcloud, you are the High King.”
“In your great honor we drink and we sing.”
“We’re the true colts of Horizon, and we fight all our lives.”
“And when Sovngarde beckons, every one of us dies.”

Some of the ponies in the room began to clap, especially the Stormcloud soldiers present. Evidently this song was the Stormcloud counterpart to the Imperial one I’d heard in Foalkreath, but which came first? Too tired to really care that much, I made my way to my room, stripped out of my armor, and went to sleep.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Having not had a long or deep sleep at High Hoofgar the day before, I understandably ended up oversleeping. Once Steadfast woke me up, we made our way to Seclusion, and the Bards College.

“You actually did it,” Concerto said with awe as she admired the Master Lute.

“I believe we had an agreement,” Steadfast said and I pulled back the lute as she moved to touch it.

“Of course,” she said, “I’ll have Dean Timbre retrieve the horn for you immediately.”

In a few minutes we made the exchange, the masterfully crafted wooden lute for the ornately carved bone horn. I let Steadfast admire Jurgen Sky-whinny’s horn for a minute before tucking it away in my saddlebags.

“Inform the students of this latest development,” Concerto told Dean Timbre before turning her attention back to us, “You did a remarkable job. I don’t suppose you would like to work for the College again?”

“Maybe some other time,” I said, looking at Steadfast who nodded his agreement, “We’ve got somewhere to be.”

“Oh, well all right,” Concerto said, looking disappointed, “But if you ever need some work, just come see me.”

“Will do,” I said, leaving the room.

“So, what’s the plan now?” Steadfast asked as we emerged from the College with the prize we’d both been searching for.

“Whitetrot,” I said, “You can present the horn to the Companions before I need to take it to the Greymanes. They’re not going anywhere. They can wait.”

A young earth pony came running toward us as we headed down the path toward Castle Dour.

“Are you Sapphire, Thane of Whitetrot?” he asked as he reached us.

“Yes,” I replied curiously.

“Jarl Radiance the Fair has requested your presence in the Blue Palace,” he said, pointing back the way we had come to the imposing structure on the edge of the city.

“What for?” I asked.

“She did not say, only that it was important I find you and deliver this message once you entered the city.”

Giving a shrug toward Steadfast, I turned around and headed toward the Blue Palace, the residence of Seclusion’s Jarl, apparently. Past the Bards College and fancy houses I trotted, until I passed beneath the wall leading to the palace. Imperial guards moved aside to let me pass as I entered the palace.

Inside, the palace was exquisite, complete with tiled floors and ornately carved walls lined with potted flowers. Compared to Castle Dour, this place was a paradise. It was no wonder the Jarl chose to reside here and left the old fortress to the Legion.

Up a set of sweeping spiral stairs, I found myself in the Jarl’s throne room. Banners of the Imperial Legion and Seclusion’s seal, a howling wolf, decorated the room. Banquets set out on tables where nobleponies dined. At the end of the room were two thrones, a tall dark one that sat empty, and a shorter lighter one, where a cream-colored mare dressed in gowns of state sat.

It was no wonder her title was Radiance the Fair, she was absolutely beautiful, but her beauty seemed to be only a shadow of what it could be. Deep sadness surrounded her, and I could see it in her eyes. Upon seeing me enter, she allowed a small smile to crack her dour exterior and the room lit up instantly.

“Ah, Sapphire, Thane of Whitetrot and slayer of dragons,” she spoke in melodic tones, “Thank you for coming.”

“My pleasure, Jarl,” I replied, hoping I was using correct manners when speaking to Horizon royalty, “Now if you don’t mind me asking, why did you want to speak to me?”

“Word of your deeds has spread across Horizon, though slowly, until reaching my ears. They say you know how to kill dragons, and I think everypony in Horizon knows by now the dragons are returning. Your skills will be much desired in the coming days I think.”

“Now, Jarl Valor’s Blade has wisely kept you close to him by making you Thane of his city, but I hope you will not hesitate to help the other holds when they call upon you. There are too few ponies with the skill to slay dragons in this land. But, perhaps you can teach others to do what you have done? The soldiers of Hoofingar Hold are willing and ready to hear any advice you may have for them, as does the Imperial Legion that resides within my city.”

“I would be happy to help in any way I can,” I told the Jarl.

However, other than being able to use the Voice, I didn’t think I possessed any special skills in slaying dragons. In my opinion, my last two victories had been the result of a mixture of quick-thinking, strategy, and a good bit of luck. But, like I had told the Jarl, I would offer anything I could.

“Good,” she said, giving a sigh, “I’m sure General Cuirass will be happy to hear that. Of course, I’m sure he would be happy to have somepony like you employed in his Legion too. Unofficially, of course; he’d have to understand how busy your life must be that you cannot devote every single moment to service in the Imperial military.”

“I don’t know,” I said.

I was still really undecided in the whole Horizon Civil War. I hadn’t had particularly good experiences with either side.

“Of course you needn’t decide right away,” Radiance reassured me, “But remember this. Jarl Stormcloud is nothing but a cruel tyrant dedicated to subjecting Horizon to his will. He has no right to the High King’s throne, especially after murdering my husband King Shade in cold blood.”

As she recounted her husband’s death, her formerly happy mood seemed to fade away, replaced by the sorrow that had surrounded her when I had first entered her court. I didn’t know what to say in reply. Thankfully, I didn’t have to as a courier rushed into the room and up the Radiance’s throne.

“News from Dragon Bridge,” he panted out, “A dragon is attacking!”

“Well, I suppose it was only a matter of time,” Radiance said sadly, before turning back to where Steadfast and I were standing, “I’m afraid you will have to lecture my guards some other time. I need you to help Dragon Bridge, if you’re willing.”

I looked back at Steadfast before turning back to the Jarl.

“Just point the way.”

Level Up
Health: 160 Stamina: 140 Magicka: 150
New Perk: Horse Sense [Speech] -- Your ability to assess the value of items is impeccable, and as such you receive noticeably improved prices when bartering.
Unique Item added: The Horn of Jurgen Sky-whinny -- This war horn of the great earth pony warrior and later pacifist monk can summon the spirits of Jurgen’s dead army to fight at your side.
Fame added: The Bards College -- This school in Seclusion has taught most of the bards throughout the land of Horizon and continues to promote the spread of music and the preservation of history through it.
New Quest: Dragon on the Bridge -- Travel to Dragon Bridge and vanquish the dragon there.

Chapter 16: Bridges and Swamps

Chapter XVI: Bridges and Swamps
“Few enough reasons to pass through Marethal before the war started.”

If there was any place in Horizon where it would’ve been ironic for a dragon to attack, it would’ve been the tiny town of Dragon Bridge. After all, it had dragon in the name! Who’d thought that was a good idea? Apparently nopony had been concerned that the dragons would return someday, except for whoever had written the Book of the Dragonborn, which I still hadn’t gotten around to reading.

As we neared the town I could hear the roars and see pillars of smoke drifting up over the tree line. I was afraid of what we’d find when we actually made it to Dragon Bridge.

“So, you’ve fought one of these before, right?” Steadfast asked nervously.

“Two actually,” I replied, though I probably felt just as nervous as him.

“Any tips?”

“Don’t get eaten, don’t catch on fire, don’t let it land on you.”

“Helpful.”

“I kinda learn on the fly.”

There was no more time for chit-chat as Dragon Bridge came in sight. The town seemed mostly intact, at least. Only a few of the thatched roof houses were on fire and I only counted one building that had been smashed to pieces.

Hoofingar’s soldiers seemed to have been ready to defend the town, though only a few remained alive and bodies lay everywhere. Among them were the bodies of unicorns wearing a variant of Imperial armor I’d never seen before. A few of them also remained to fight, shooting fireballs and lighting up at the menace that threatened the town.

The dragon itself was perched atop one of the larger buildings in town, spewing flames at the gathered ponies below. This one was a mottled gray, and seemed about a half a size larger than the ones I’d fought before. I swallowed nervously before galloping forward, my bow out and ready.

The dragon hadn’t seemed to have seen us new arrivals to the fight yet, so I took advantage of our momentary advantage and snuck around one of the other houses until I was behind the dragon. I pulled an arrow from my quiver, steadied my breathing, and lined up a shot on the dragon. It was right on track for its head, but it flared its wings at the last second, and the metal tip sheared through the membrane instead.

“WHAT IS THIS??” it bellowed, craning its neck around for a moment, “MORE MORTALS COME TO BE MORSELS??”

It quickly turned back to the larger group of ponies and sent a Shout down to scatter them. As it turned toward Steadfast and me, I galloped off to another shelter, hopefully a less flammable one. I hoped Steadfast would follow my lead, but find somewhere else so we could divide the dragon’s attention.

I jumped behind a rock, and was relieved to see Steadfast do the same. The dragon gave a quick jump and landed heavily, shaking the ground. As it began to approach Steadfast’s hideout, I charged the magic in my horn. As it grew close enough, I jumped out into the open and shot a blast of lightning into the dragon’s face.

The bolt hit it in the eye and it cringed in pain, sparks arcing up its head. Its eyes shut against the pain, it sent a blast of fire in my general direction, lighting trees into pillars of flame. Though my tail was singed a bit, I managed to avoid most of the fire, ducking around to a new hiding place.

As the dragon searched for me, Steadfast jumped out and charged in, slamming his warhammer into the dragon’s wing. Even from the distance I was at, I could hear the ancient bone crack. Growling, the dragon swatted at Steadfast with a foreleg and sent him flying, crashing through the roof of a house that was thankfully not on fire.

No chance to check if he was okay, I pulled out my bow and shot an arrow at the dragon. Unfortunately, it just bounced off its spines and alerted it to my position in the process.

<<>> the dragon Shouted, shattering the rock I was hiding behind.

Cut in a dozen places, I ran, chips of rock falling out of my mane in the process. I reached the scorched center of town and quickly chugged down a potion of minor healing to fix my collection of wounds. The dragon soon caught up, smashing through a building to get at me. I drew out Calcion’s Cleaver, ready to fight the beast up close and personal.

As it prepared to spew fire at me, it was suddenly hit in the side of the head with a blast of ice. One of the unicorns from before, though burned, had survived and was fighting back. A few more of them as well as Hoofingar guards trickled into the square, ready to fight for their home.

The dragon seemed a bit confused as they all charged in at once, before giving a wicked grin and roasting the first wave in a single blast. The sickening small of charred flesh met my nose, and I recoiled before forcing myself to get back in and finish the fight.

The guards were overwhelmed, falling left and right. As soon as I had a clear shot, I did the only worthwhile thing I could think to.

<<>>

The force of my Shout sent the dragon’s head whipping back, slamming into an anvil. But though I had broken spikes off its head with my attack, it was still mostly unharmed. And now, seeing I had the Voice, it seemed to label me as the most important target. It lunged toward me, knocking aside guards in the process.

Holding Calcion’s Cleaver in front of me, I waited until the last moment before jumping forward and sliding under the charging dragon. As I slid, I brought my sword up into the dragon’s underbelly. Sparks flew for a moment as metal met scales, but eventually my blade cut into flesh, and tore through the dragon.

Feeling the pain, the dragon suddenly took off, flapping its massive wings heedless of broken bones to get enough lift to disengage my sword. I was dragged across the cobblestones a bit, bumping along until the dragon blade broke free.

The dragon obtained just enough lift to land atop another building, its claws tearing the roof to pieces in its haste to spin around toward me. I found myself rolling to the side as flames threatened to end my life. Before I could get up, the dragon leapt from its perch and landed on the ground, looming over me. As it moved in for the kill, it flared its wings up and I saw an opportunity.

<<>>

My Shout slammed into the dragon’s wing, filling it with wind and causing it to spin over, rolling onto its back. As I crawled to my hooves, I kept an eye on the dragon as it struggled to flip back over.

Steadfast suddenly came out of nowhere, smashing the dragon in the throat with his warhammer. He was a little worse for wear, filled with splinters, but he was alive! How much longer that would last had yet to be proven as the dragon struck back, flipping over and pinning Steadfast beneath it.

Charging in to save my friend, I slashed Calcion’s Cleaver into the side of the dragon’s neck, pouring flames from my horn onto what I assumed was an ear. I was able to distract it just long enough that Steadfast could wriggle free. I suddenly pulled back as the dragon turned toward me, but it was too late. I was hit full on with the blast of its Shout.

<<>>

I was sent flying, tumbling end over end across the cobblestones, until I finally came to a stop at the edge of town. Looking up from the spot I’d come to lay, I could see a stone dragon head looming over me. Craning my neck, I could see the head was part of a much larger structure, a bridge to be exact, that spanned the length of a deep canyon.

I had no more time to ponder the purpose behind the town’s name as I heard the dragon give a deafening roar. Flapping its wings, it rose high into the sky before it came careening back down at me. Leaping to my hooves, I tried to run out of the way, seeking the shelter the structure of the bridge provided.

The dragon carried on, smashing through the stone supports to get at me, heedless of the damage it was doing to itself. It landed heavily on the stone bridge, which cracked and shifted beneath it. Chucks of stone fell around me as I tried to keep balance and remain safe from the dragon.

Surveying my environment, I could see the path to the far side of the bridge was now blocked. The only way I’d be getting off this thing was through the dragon. I charged forward, my sword held in front of me. As the dragon lunged at me, I sidestepped and drew my blade across its face. Thrashing around, it knocked me into one of the bridge’s crumbling pillars. I pulled myself forward as the stone went careening into the icy river below.

Again and again, I slashed my sword into the dragon’s side as it tried to crane its neck around at me. Shaking me off, it twisted around rapidly, its tail knocking away more supports. I sent a blast of lightning at its face before jumping off and running for the end of the bridge.

My run came to an abrupt halt as the dragon pinned my tail to the ground. I struggled against its grip, but I was trapped, unable to escape. I began to slide backwards, both from the collapsing bridge and the dragon pulling me in. I twisted around onto my back, ready to stab my sword through the roof of its mouth if it tried to eat me.

A blur of brown shot over me and landed atop the dragon’s head. Steadfast raised his warhammer high above his head before smashing it down into the dragon’s skull. Bone crunched and shattered, and the dragon’s skull caved in. Its grip on me diminished enough that I was able to pull free and gallop to the bridge’s end. When my hooves were back on solid ground, I turned back to the collapsing bridge.

Through all the falling stone I couldn’t see Steadfast or the dragon. I feared the worst as the dust settled and my friend was still nowhere to be seen. Rushing forward, I searched the wreckage until I found him wedged under a large chunk of the bridge. He had made it most of the way and not fallen into the river at least, which was more than could be said of the dragon.

Exerting my magic, I strained to lift the stone off of him, but it was just too heavy. Suddenly, other colors of magic joined my own and the stone began to budge. I turned to see a few of the beaten unicorns from before, lending their strength to help me. Once the stone was off, I pulled Steadfast out and began tending to his broken body.

He was still alive, if barely. I reset any of his bones that had gone out of place before casting Healing Hooves on him. Under my magic, his wounds began to mend until his breathing picked up, causing him to cough.

“Did we get it?” he asked when he stopped coughing.

“Yes,” I replied, laughing, just happy that my friend was alive.

“Is it dead? For good?” one of the unicorns asked, peering over the ledge.

I cast a quick healing spell on myself before joining them at the edge. Admittedly, it was hard to tell. There was no sign of a body within the rushing waters. Either the dragon was dead and had been carried away, or it was just hiding and nursing its wounds.

The other unicorns jumped back as jets of colorful flame suddenly spouted from the water, but I stood my ground, taking this as confirmation of the dragon’s death. The tendrils of fire continued upwards, intent on converging on me. I shut my eyes and braced myself for the rush of memories that was sure to come.

Sure enough, images of this dragon’s life began to flash across my vision faster than I could follow. But with each that passed, I could feel my knowledge of FEIM grow in my mind. By the time the stream of consciousness had stopped, I had fully tapped into the application knowledge for the Shout I had learned in Hoovestengrav.

I Shouted without hesitation.

My vision wavered for a moment, but everything else remained the same. To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t sure exactly what it was my Shout had done. But judging by the gasps of the unicorns and other townsponies who had begun to trickle in, it had done something.

I looked down at my hooves to find I could see right through them. Stunned, I looked at the new appearance of my body, which had taken on a spectral form. Though my outline still glowed slightly, I was for all intensive purposes transparent.

“Whoa, that’s weird,” Steadfast said, waving his foreleg through me.

Everything suddenly jumped back to the way it was and I took on my true corporeal form again. I had learned a new Shout to go along with Unrelenting Force, but how I was to use it was still questionable. One thing I knew was that if the ancient earth ponies had considered it important enough to preserve, it had to have some use. And I could always ask the Greymanes about it.

“Who . . . who are you?” one of the townsponies, an auburn pegasus, asked.

“Me?” I said, still hoping to avoid attention, “Oh, I’m nopony special.”

“But you killed that dragon!” the pegasus insisted.

“And what you did back there,” one of the unicorns said from behind me, “In all my days serving in the Ponytus Oculatus, I’ve never seen any magic like that.”

“She has the Voice,” an elderly earth pony mare stepped in, “The ancient power of the great earth pony warriors. These are strange times we live in if the Equines have granted them to a unicorn.”

“Listen,” I said, “I don’t know how I know how to use the Voice, it just comes naturally to me. And as for the dragon, I was just trying to help like anypony would.”

“It seems that the Equines have picked a fitting vessel for their power,” the mare continued, seemingly heedless of my response, “For you have saved us all.”

“I told you already,” I protested, “I was just doing what was necessary, what was the right thing to do.”

“You have saved Dragon Bridge, well not the dragon bridge,” she said, cracking a smile, “But our town. We are eternally in your debt.”

“That’s really not necessary,” I protested, blushing as they began to bow.

“How can we repay you?” another pony in the crowd asked.

Sighing as I realized there was no turning down their adoration, I accepted the situation. I took a look behind me at the wreck of the bridge.

“There is one thing you could do,” I said.

“Yes!” the auburn pegasus responded, so exited she began hovering.

“Could I get some new directions on how to get to Whitetrot?” I said, gesturing to the bridge, “I don’t think this path will work.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

“You know, that really was something back there,” Steadfast said as we trudged through the Marethal swamps, our alternate route.

“Oh stop, not you too,” I said, “Besides, you’ve seen me use the Voice before.”

“But bringing down that dragon? And the grace with which you took their praise? It’s no wonder the townsponies adore you.”

I just sighed and shook my head. It appeared there would be no reasoning with him on this. Maybe if we lived long enough to fight a few more dragons, the awe would wear off for him. Sure it seemed impressive, but I saw nothing glorious in a fight that brought about unnecessary destruction.

“A mare like you, why’d you ever leave home?” he asked.

I stopped in my tracks and breathed heavily to control my feelings. It had been an innocent question, but thoughts of my home brought no joy to me, only feelings of sadness and anger. And I didn’t know if I was really ready to spill the beans on my past yet.

“Hey,” Steadfast said, trotting up and putting a hoof on my shoulder, “Sorry, I know you don’t like to talk about your past. And if you’re not ready that’s fine. But someday when you are, just know I’m willing to listen.”

“No,” I said, feeling surer now that it was time to get it out, “You of all ponies deserve to know. We’ve known each other for little more than a day, but I feel we’re becoming really close friends, and before we go any farther you need to know who it is you’re traveling with.”

“The reason I left Unicornica,” I began, “It’s because I-I’m a blank flank, a nopony. No cutie-mark to speak of here. I left to escape that life, to get a fresh start, to find a life where I wouldn’t be constantly looked down upon.”

Steadfast just stood there, taking it in. It was hard to tell exactly what he thought.

“Listen, I understand if you don’t want to be friends anymore-”

“Are you crazy!” he cut me off, “Of course I want to remain friends with you!”

“Really?”

“Yes! And don’t worry that you don’t have your cutie-mark yet. I mean, look what you’ve been able to do without knowing your destiny! And I don’t even know the half of it yet! Why, you’ve probably accomplished more in the past few weeks than most ponies do in their lifetime. You’re not a nopony, don’t you ever think that.”

“Not having a cutie-mark hasn’t stopped you so far, and it won’t so long as you don’t let it. Besides, it’s not like a picture on your flank controls your destiny. I mean, look at mine!”

I did, and though I had seen it before, I had never thought about it. Permanently part of his coat was an illustration of a hammer and anvil.

“My special talent is smithing, but did that stop me from joining the Companions and becoming a warrior? Of course not. You can’t let your cutie-mark or lack of a cutie-mark define you. You have to define yourself, and make your own destiny.”

“Thanks,” I told Steadfast, my spirits lifted by his rough, yet inspirational speech, “Thanks for everything, your support, your reassurance, everything.”

“Hey, what are friends for?” he asked.

“More than I ever imagined,” I replied, wrapping him in a hug, gifting him with a rare display of physical affection.

Though I’d taken him by surprise, he quickly recovered and returned my hug. He tapped me on the shoulder as I was about to pull away.

“I think maybe you should turn around,” he said, his stare fixed on something behind me.

I quickly let go of Steadfast and looked behind me. Rising up out of Marethal’s putrid swamp water were three scaly tendrils that towered up above us, each ending in a spiny head.

“A hydra,” I gasped in awe.

The books I’d read on dangerous creatures really hadn’t done them justice. But, hydras mostly lived in the Bat-pony homeland of Bracken-Swamp, what was one doing in Horizon?

“You have hydras here?” I asked Steadfast, slowly backing away.

“Maybe one or two,” he said, also backing away from the towering creature gazing down on us with six eyes, “I’ve heard stories, but I didn’t think they were true.”

The hydra would wait no longer for us to discuss its presence. Giving a bloodcurdling screech with all three heads, it lunged at us.

I was lucky, only one head came my way. I easily jumped out of the way in enough time, and the hydra got a mouthful of mud and grime instead of pony flesh. I blasted fire at the head as it recovered, scorching its scales and getting through to burn the flesh beneath.

His warhammer gripped in his mouth, Steadfast hammered away at the two heads that had pursued him, giving them nasty wounds before they drew back. We regrouped as all three heads rose up above to get a better vantage point. With the sucking of mud and swamp water, the creature began to pull its massive body from the swamp, slamming a heavy claw down on the land.

Steadfast and I ran as it heaved itself up, keeping to what little shelter the skeletal trees of the swamp provided. The hydra managed to make it up onto the land and soon caught up with us, forcing us to fight it again. This time Steadfast got the one head, and I got two.

<<>> I Shouted at the head I had burned previously, sending it whipping out of the way so I would only have to deal with one head.

I pulled out the Axe of Whitetrot and Calcion’s Cleaver as it got closer. Once it was in range I swung my war axe into its face, burning the flesh as it cut. My sword came next, stabbing it in the eye and sending sparks into its brain. The head convulsed a bit before it was out for the count, just dead weight for the hydra to carry around.

The charred head had recovered by this point and came swinging at me to get revenge on the other head I had killed. I jumped as it tried to chomp me, getting the height I needed for a killing stroke. I whipped out Calcion’s Cleaver as I fell, cutting straight through the hydra’s neck. The head rolled away as I landed heavily on the ground.

I turned to help Steadfast where he was holding back the final head’s snapping jaws, but turned back when I heard a rustle behind me. The neck of the head I had severed was convulsing, and I watched in horror as it split into two necks, a fresh head sprouting at the end of each one.

“Note to self: don’t cut their heads off.”

I dodged the first head’s swing at me, but was forced to jump nearly into the mouth of the second one. I took advantage of the situation to stab my sword up through the roof of its mouth, into its brain. Unfortunately, that opened me up to an attack from the other head, which came swiftly.

The head suddenly jerked back as Steadfast jumped atop it. Taking a quick glance over to where he had been standing a moment ago, I saw the hydra’s neck ended in a pile of mush. Pulling my sword out, I focused on the final remaining head.

Steadfast was doing a pretty good job of keeping it busy by holding on to the back of the head, so I pulled out my bow and tried to follow the beast’s wild thrashings. Many of my shots went wide, but some managed to sink into the hydra’s flesh, enraging it more. I really hoped Steadfast didn’t get thrown off, or that a stray arrow hit him, but so far the Equines were smiling on us.

One final arrow pierced the hydra’s eye, sinking into its final brain and killing it. The beast’s body collapsed, and the head fell to the ground, sending Steadfast rolling into the swamp. Cleaning my blades along the way, I trotted over to where he had fallen in and helped him out.

“Y’know,” he said, “This is gonna be some story to tell.”

“I’m so happy we’re traveling together,” I told him with a laugh.

“Me too,” he said, “But can we at least try to avoid life or death situations from now until we get to Whitetrot?”

“It’s a deal,” I said, patting him on his soggy back.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Steadfast was all dried off by the time we got to Whitetrot. As we travelled, we traded stories, both of events recent and in our foalhoods. I found myself opening up to him as I hadn’t to anypony since I had entered Horizon. It really was good to finally have somepony I could pour out my past to, and who was willing hear it.

As we entered the city, I removed Jurgen’s war horn from my saddlebags and passed it over to Steadfast. Now was the time for him to present it to the Companions and become one of them himself. It was going to be a pretty big day for him, and I wished him the best.

He entered Jorrvaskr triumphantly, the horn hanging around his neck. A few of the Companions turned to look at him as he pranced through the mead hall. Surprise registered in their eyes as they realized what exactly he had brought back with him. I followed at a distance as I watched my friend approach a table set aside from the others.

“You told me it was pointless when I proclaimed my personal quest years ago,” Steadfast addressed the Circle, composed of the Companions’ leaders, “I’ve never been happier to stand before you today and present the relic you thought I was wasting my life searching for. Behold Jurgen Sky-whinny’s war horn!”

A tap on the shoulder distracted me from my friends’ acceptance into the Companions. Behind me stood a courier wearing the uniform of Whitetrot.

“Excuse me Thane Sapphire,” the courier said, “But Faniar Fire-stone wishes to speak with you in Dragonsreach.”

“Right now?” I asked, looking back over at Steadfast.

“He seemed very excited and wanted you to come immediately.”

I gave a sigh before turning away toward Jorrvaskr’s door.

“All right then.”

Leaving Jorrvaskr, I climbed the steps to Dragonsreach. Faniar would need a pretty good explanation to excuse pulling me away from Steadfast’s confirmation and the party that was sure to follow. Bursting into the keep, I made my way as swiftly as possible to Faniar’s study.

“What did you want to speak to me about?” I asked as I entered the room.

It was messier than usual, with books stacked all over the desks, chairs, even the floor. Papers covered in scribbles of draconic were hanging everywhere, and the large map of Horizon on his wall had markers stabbed all through it. Faniar himself rushed around the room, levitating half a dozen books and papers, and just as many quills, scratching down notes on everything.

“It’s fantastic, amazing, I’ve never seen anything like it!” he babbled, a smile stretched across his face.

“What?” I asked, becoming curious of what could make this normally calm stallion so excited.

“That dragonstone you brought me was invaluable!” he exclaimed, “It told the location of every dragon burial site in Horizon!”

“And that helps how?”

“It also contained an intriguing prophecy that leads me to suspect the dragons weren’t just gone, they were dead, and now something’s bringing them back.”

“How is that even possible?”

“I don’t know. It’s just a theory, and the only way to prove it is to get out to one of those burial sites and see if I’m right.”

As Faniar began to rush around the room stuffing things into his saddlebags, suddenly Steadfast trotted into the room.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“What are you doing here?” I asked him, “I thought you were being accepted into the Companions?”

“It’s done. I’m a Companion now and forever,” he reached into his saddlebags, “Here’s Jurgen’s horn for you to bring to the Greymanes, just as promised.”

“I hope I’ll still see you around sometimes,” I said, breaking the silence that had begun to drag on.

“Try all the time,” he said, “Where are we going next?”

“You’re . . . coming with me? But what about the Companions?”

“Just because I’m a member doesn’t mean I’m tied down to Jorrvaskr. I’m free to adventure wherever, and with whomever I want.”

“That’s great. I’m glad you’re coming along.”

“So,” he asked again, “Where are we going?”

“We’re going to find ourselves a dragon,” Faniar said, slamming the dragonstone down onto his desk.

Level Up
Health: 160 Stamina: 140 Magicka: 160
New Perk: Sturdy Stance [Blocking] -- Blocking now absorbs twice as much damage and stagger is significantly reduced.
Dragon Soul collected
New Quest: Empty Tombs -- Accompany Faniar to investigate the ancient dragon barrows of Horizon.

Chapter 19: Warriors Old and New

Chapter XIX: Warriors Old and New
“That armor reeks of death. Have you been grave robbing?”

After leaving Chilled Hearth Barrow, Steadfast and I traveled around the Crest of the World to Whitetrot. My intention was to resupply, rest up, and head back out. Chilled Hearth Barrow was just the first of the Draugr ruins I intended to explore, but I wouldn’t be able to find more alone. If anypony knew where to find the resting places of the Draugr, Faniar would.

That was my plan, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to enact it immediately.

As I entered the town my concentration was broken by a deafening roar. In the setting sun I could make out the silhouette of a rapidly approaching dragon. When it reached the town, it landed atop Dragonsreach and let out a roar of challenge.

All my plans were put on hold as I rushed toward the keep. Whitetrot’s guards were shooting arrows at the dragon already, but most were bouncing uselessly off its thick hide. With a blast of fire, it roasted the nearest guards, forcing the others to retreat.

<<>> I Shouted when I was close enough.

The dragon flinched back as my Shout hit it, nearly losing its grip on the roof. It turned toward me with anger in its eyes and blew a stream of fire at me. As I jumped out of the way, landing in one of the shallow pools leading down the hill from Dragonsreach, the dragon flapped back up into the sky.

I crawled from the pool dripping wet and headed down the hill, trying to get a better view of the dragon as it climbed. I pulled out my bow and fired a few arrows up at the dragon, but it was impossible to tell if they hit or not.

The dragon suddenly reached the top of its climb and went rocketing down. I continued to fire arrows at the dragon as it came, striking it several times. At the last moment it propped its wings open and landed in the upper town square, smashing the tree in the center into splinters. The townsponies that had left their homes to see what was going on quickly returned to them, hoping they would be safe.

the dragon Shouted, sending out a stream of ice that froze everything it touched.

I shot fire at the blast as it neared me, but the Shout was just too powerful and it began to creep around my improvised defense. I felt my body temperature drop and frost began to form in my mane. The ice was suddenly cut off and my fire made it through. Steadfast had smashed the dragon’s tail with his warhammer and was continuing his charge, slamming his weapon into the dragon’s side.

It snapped at him as he ran past, but the dragon’s jaws failed to close upon my friend. As he ran past me I distracted the dragon, shooting lightning into its eyes. It turned away from Steadfast and back towards me.

<> I Shouted, quickly closing the gap with the great lizard.

Grabbing what I assumed was its ear, I swung myself up onto its head, holding on with all my might. It thrashed around and I could feel my grip slipping, but I held on until it gave up. Well, it gave up on shaking me off at least; it didn’t give up on getting rid of me.

My stomach lurched as the dragon suddenly lifted off the ground, flapping up into the sky. When it seemed satisfied with the height it was at, it suddenly flipped over, leaving me suspended over Whitetrot. Using my magic, I blasted the dragon’s wings with fire, seriously damaging them and hoping the dragon would be forced to land. Instead, it stubbornly stayed in the air and gave a quick whip of its neck, throwing me toward the town below.

I may have screamed as I fell through the air, watching Whitetrot grow closer to me at an alarming rate. I had nearly fallen all the way to the square when suddenly my direction changed. I was hit by a pony who launched herself from the nearby temple and glided me down to the ground as best she could on her stubby wings.

“Thanks for the rescue,” I told Darkfeather when our roll came to a stop.

“Don’t mention it,” she said, “But I have to say, you’re all kinds of crazy for not letting go sooner.”

“Where’s the dragon at?” I asked.

No sooner had I said that than the great lizard smashed into the temple, the tattered remains of its wings still smoking. Smashing through what remained of the building, it came toward me, anger burning in its eyes. I readied Calcion’s Cleaver as it came, prepared to end this before Whitetrot took even more damage.

As it ran toward me, knocking everything in its path out of the way, I ran toward it. It opened its mouth to spew fire at me, but its jaw was suddenly snapped shut as Steadfast brought his warhammer down on the dragon’s nose. As its jaw slammed into the ground, I took advantage of the opportunity and jumped into the air, stabbing my sword into the dragon’s brain. Lightning arced over is forehead, lighting up the night as the beast died.

I was still trying to pull my blade out when the dragon combusted and the memories flooded into my mind. Foremost among them were thoughts of Pyne, and how the very mention of her in the dragon tongue could calm the fiercest of wild animals. I saw through the dragon’s eyes how I could control nature itself and subject the wildlife to my will.

I Shouted, and all the nearby animals - chickens and a few rabbits - turned to look at me, settling into a state of calm.

“Another one,” Darkfeather commented, trotting up, “How many does that make for you now?”

“Five,” I answered.

“Well, I’m sure the Jarl will want to know his champion has returned, and saved the hold from another dragon at that. We should get up to Dragonsreach.”

Steadfast and I followed the dappled pegasus up the hill and past the burnt corpses of the guards, which were being brought away to the Hall of the Dead. Pushing the grand doors open, we entered the keep. Jarl Valor’s Blade was standing near his throne, giving orders to his guard as we approached.

“Round up every stallion and mare fit to bear arms,” he ordered, “We have to stop this menace from destroying the town.”

“No need milord,” Darkfeather said as we approached the Jarl, “The dragon lies dead, and though the Temple of Pyne lies in ruin, we are victorious.”

“There will be casualties in any battle,” Valor’s Blade commented, “But I am glad today’s were not too severe to heal from. It appears you have returned to our city just in time Sapphire. My choice in making you Thane was justified; of this I have no doubt.”

“Thank you Jarl,” I answered.

“Now, I think you had best see Faniar,” he said, “He’s been awaiting your return for days now.”

I followed the Jarl’s advice and trotted over to Faniar’s study. Apparently, his research had stretched into the night, as he was still there even though the sun had set.

“Sapphire, Steadfast,” he said as we entered, looking up momentarily from his notes, “So glad you made it back. Any news from the Greymanes on this dragon threat?”

“No,” I answered, “I don’t think they care much about what goes on outside of their monastery to be honest, which is one of the reasons I left.”

“That’s a pity. I thought for sure out of everypony in the Northlands, they’d have some clue as to what was going on.”

“Me too, but it they do, they’re not sharing it. Basically, my plan now is to search Draugr ruins for Words of Power and clues as to how Alduin was defeated in the first place. Do you know where any are?”

“Well, you’ve certainly come to the right place,” Faniar answered, “I’ve been working on cataloguing every Draugr ruin in Horizon. Now I finally have a reason to use it.”

Levitating his papers out of the way, he shuffled through the books buried beneath them on his desk until he found the one he was looking for. He paged through a rough, leather-bound journal until he was satisfied with his page choice.

“Here’s one that looks promising,” he said, marking the location on my map, “Ironhoof Barrow. It’s on the east edge of the Pale, near the north coast.”

“Thanks Faniar,” I said.

“Have you seen that Blade we met again since the dragon barrow?” Faniar asked as I began to leave.

“No, have you?”

“Not yet,” he said, shaking his head, “But I got to thinking, and I think I recognized her. You know how I sent you into Blank Flanks Barrow because I had a reliable source that told me it could be found there?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, I think that was Scarlet Shores. Of course, she went by a different name and she looked a bit different, but I’m almost certain it was her.”

“Makes sense, I guess,” Steadfast said, “She was looking into the dragons just like us.”

“But why all the secrecy, I wonder,” I said, “Something tells me there’s more to that mare than she wants us to know.”

“Whatever it is,” Faniar said, “I’m sure she won’t reveal it until she chooses to. Right now, you should focus on Ironhoof Barrow. And be sure to let me know what you find there.”

After promising Faniar that I would, Steadfast and I left Dragonsreach and headed down to Breezehome for the night. Ironhoof Barrow could wait until the morning.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Faniar’s mark on my map of Horizon guided us right to the barrow. Up a set of aged steps, the entrance to Ironhoof Barrow was built right into the side of the steep hills of the coast. An abandoned cookfire and tent near the entrance told us we weren’t the only living ponies to come here. I was hoping it wasn’t bandits, but I didn’t have high hopes for what we’d find within the ruin.

The entrance was through the gaping stone mouth of a dragon’s head whose nose had fallen off ages ago. I still got a shiver as I passed through, though. It just didn’t seem right to be walking into a dragon’s mouth. Of course, that was probably the effect whoever had built this place had wanted it to have on intruders. I pressed on, keeping alert for Draugr.

This ruin was unlike any other I had been in. It was obviously set up to be a fortress first and a tomb second, unlike the previous ones I’d been in. The closest resemblance had been Blank Flanks Barrow, but even that had a significant portion of it devoted to preserving the dead. This was a palace in comparison, a later construction by a more powerful Draugr lord than Calcion.

The first corridor provided all the explanation needed for the building’s purpose. All carvings on the walls were focused on the subject of the destruction of the pegasi. Looking back, I could see even the doorway centered around it, the dragon’s head facing north toward the pegasi homeland in the distance. From what I’d seen in Windhorn, Jarl Stormcloud would be comfortable here.

Past the entry hallway was a grand hall with tables and chairs carved from stone. A twin staircase led down into the room, and other hallways led off deeper into Ironhoof Barrow.

“Where are all the Draugr?” Steadfast asked, “I’m getting a little anxious not seeing them.”

“I know what you mean,” I said, lowering my sword, “Maybe they’re staying down in the crypt.”

As we walked through the great hall, I heard a rustling coming from the passageways leading off. It looked like the Draugr weren’t content to stay down in the depths of the ruin after all.

I Shouted at the first one that approached me, freezing its front half solid.

Five more remained, two on one side and three on the other. Jumping over the stone table, I swung my sword at one with a war axe. It quickly brought the axe up to block me and sparks flew as the blades met. I swung my sword back around to the other side of its head where it once again blocked me. Pulling out my Axe of Whitetrot, I swung it around at the Draugr’s legs. Cutting it off at the knees with my axe, I finished it off with a sword strike to the head.

I brought my axe up to block as another Draugr swung a sword at me. It was suddenly knocked to the side as another Draugr slammed into it, thrown through the air by Steadfast’s warhammer strike. I glanced over as he continued to spin around, pushing back another Draugr with his weapon.

My helmet rang as I missed the swing by the Draugr with the sword that had gotten back up. It hissed at me as I pushed it back with my own sword, nicking its side as I did. My war axe sliced through its foreleg as I swung it around, enraging the zombie further. It jumped toward me, the sword held in its mouth. I swung Calcion’s Cleaver around as hard as I could, actually shattering the Draugr’s blade as it impacted. A war axe to its neck finished it off.

The sound of shattering ice reached my ears, and I saw the Draugr I had partially frozen had broken free, though bits of ice still clung to its rotten flesh in places. Past where it stood, still shaking off the cold, I could see Steadfast was desperately trying to push back a Draugr with a greatsword.

<<>> I Shouted, sending the frozen Draugr flying across the room and knocking the other away from Steadfast.

I jumped over the tables as the corpses both rose to their hooves, injured but still alive. As they strode toward Steadfast, my friend swung his warhammer around, smashing the first Draugr into the second and crushing the life from them both.

“Happy?” I asked him.

“Eh,” he said, giving a shrug, “At least they’re not just waiting to jump out at us anymore.”

“Come on,” I said, “Let’s see if we can get to the bottom of this place without too much trouble.”

Deeper into Ironhoof Barrow we delved, passing through the throne room and chambers of whatever pony had reigned here. A few Draugr wandered the hallways, but they were easily dealt with. Eventually, we reached the crypt far below the fortress.

Opening the heavy iron door, I found myself looking down a passage filled with Draugr mumbling in their ancient tongue. Thinking quickly, I shot a brief blast of fire at the ropes securing jugs of oil to the ceiling. The oil was sent plummeting into the crowd of walking corpses, igniting them in seconds. I slammed the door shut both to block out their screams of agony and to keep them from charging into the room Steadfast and I were in.
When the screams died down, I opened the door and stepped gingerly over the burnt corpses. The corridor was literally packed before, and navigating through the maze was not easy. Finally, I made it through and passed through the door at the end.

I found myself standing on a bridge carved from ancient stone stretching over a chasm carved out of the mountain. Looking down the chasm, I could see an elaborately carved door at the end and a line of brightly burning braziers lighting the way down. The chasm was also occupied, patrolled by Draugr guarding the remains of their master.

Pulling out my bow, I started shooting arrows down into the Draugr, picking them off wherever I could. I turned around and looked down the chasm behind me as I heard a Draugr hiss out its last breath. Steadfast had made his way down below and was smashing down the Draugr as he went. I continued to use my bow, picking off the zombies whenever they got too close for my friend to handle them, until the floor was mostly cleared.

Stowing my bow, I headed down to help Steadfast take out the last few personally. One with a mace came running toward me, and I blocked its swing with my war axe. As it maneuvered its mace to try to hit me again, I blasted it with fire. My war axe sliced up into the Draugr’s chest and through its armor, ending its life.

Another fell to Steadfast’s warhammer, and yet another to my sword as we charged toward the door. At the end, three Draugr with pikes charged us, their weapons lowered and ready to spear us through.

<<>> I Shouted, sending all of them flying into the door, dead in an instant.

Pushing them aside, Steadfast and I swung the heavy doors open. The hallway beyond was decorated on either side by matching carvings, leading down to a door made of concentric rings at the end, just like in Blank Flanks Barrow.

As I walked down the passage, I observed the carvings in the flickering light of the multiple braziers. The first few centered around an earth pony stallion who was obviously a natural born leader and commander. I followed his journey as he fought in many battles, eventually becoming wounded and losing an eye. Further down the passage he was depicted as defeating even a dragon, and imprisoning it in his fortress, which I recognized as Dragonsreach. Eventually, he seized the kingship for his own, before his death and burial here.

When I reached the end of the room, I saw an elderly pegasus stallion lying dead near the door, a shattered lute near him. A bard scholar if I ever saw one. He had been felled by a Draugr blade when they had awoken, but I was curious as to why a bard would be down here in the first place.

A journal was tucked haphazardly into his cloak, and I carefully pulled it out, searching for a clue. Flipping through it, I turned to the last page with writing on it.

9th of Frostfall, 201 4E

I’ve found it at last! Buried deep in Ironhoof Barrow were the lost verses detailing King Oman One-Eye’s reign. Even in death, the tyrant couldn’t let the truth be known about him, entrapping the bard who dared detail it in his tomb, along with the verses he despised. But now I’ve finally got it, and the full story will be known. Everything, including how Razorak’s lies corrupted the king, turned him into the tyrant he was, and granted him his godlike powers, will be laid bare. Oh, Headmistress Concerto will be so pleased to hear this, she may even push up the Burning of King Oman Festival so we can celebrate with this corrected piece of history.

10th of Frostfall, 201 4E

King Oman’s defenders, they’re alive! I tried to get to the surface, but they pushed me back. I was able to heal myself up best I could, and I’ve hidden in the lower catacombs, but I fear they’ll find me soon. Oh, this verse has gotten me in just as much trouble as the bard who wrote it. I’ve hidden it in this journal, hopefully so someday, somepony else will find it. I’ve also resealed the lowest crypt, keeping King Oman himself contained. The Silver Claw I’ll keep on my person as well, so the Draugr can’t let him free. I hear them banging on the door now. Will this be my last day?

By the looks of things, the Draugr had made it through and killed this bard. I flipped to the next page of the journal, where a few aged sheets of lyrics fell out. Carefully, I tucked them back in and stowed the journal in my saddlebags. If they were important enough that this pony gave his life for them, I intended to protect them as well.

Digging into his robes, I finally managed to locate the Silver Claw he spoke of in the journal. It looked almost exactly like Calciar’s Golden Claw except it was, well, silver. I levitated it over to the nearby doorway and fitted the claws into their slots, pressing the central panel in.

Surprisingly, nothing happened. I scratched my head in confusion as I tried to remember how Yorl had opened the door in Blank Flanks Barrow. Spinning around the claw with my magic, I caught a glimpse of runes on the palm. Looking closely, I could see they were three pictures of animals, corresponding to the three rings around the door. Rotating the rings until they matched up with the pictures on the claw, I tried to open the door again.

With the grinding of ancient stone, the door slid down into the floor. Beyond the opening was a throne room identical to the one above. However, while the one above was empty, a Draugr sat still and lifeless in the throne at the end of this one. Pulling out my bow, I fired an arrow into the corpse.

Giving a growl, the Draugr stood up, blue fire burning in one of its eyes. Judging by the crown on its head and the one good eye, this was King Oman One-Eye we were facing. From beside his throne he lifted a double-sided battleaxe and cantered down the room at us.

<<>> I Shouted, throwing the Draugr king back.

Hissing with anger, he got back up and came at us again, undeterred. Steadfast rushed forward, meeting battleaxe with warhammer. Again and again the two weapons clashed, until Steadfast got a hit on the Draugr king, caving in the armor on his chest. Oman continued to fight, however, taking the momentary disadvantage Steadfast was at to swing his battleaxe around, slicing through the back of his hindleg.

I threw my earth pony friend a healing potion as he staggered back and rushed forward to stop Oman’s next swing with my sword. Two Draugr weapons met, and the ancient king turned his head to face me. With a kick, he knocked me back, but I kept a firm magical grasp on Calcion’s Cleaver.

The undead earth pony charged toward me, his battleaxe raised. As he swung at me, I jumped out of the way, slicing into his side with my sword. He halted his charge, swinging back around to face me. His battleaxe came with, striking me in the side of the head. My helmet took most of the damage, but I felt blood run down the side of my face where the metal had broken through.

My vision swam for a moment, but I fought through it and raised my sword to block Oman’s next strike. Steadfast, now fully healed, ran up and smashed his warhammer into the zombie’s hindleg, cracking the fragile bone. Oman quickly tossed his battleaxe up in the air.

<<>> he Shouted, sending me flying back.

As I stood, I saw him catch his battleaxe and swing it around at Steadfast. Taken off guard, he barely managed to block the swing. Oman continued to swing at Steadfast, forcing him back. I galloped as fast as I could toward the king, focusing on a Shout in my mind.

I Shouted, my breath freezing the Draugr’s hindlegs to the floor.

Unable to advance any farther, he was forced to use his battleaxe to block as Steadfast went on the offensive. He struggled against the ice, but it would hold for another minute at least, enough time to finish him off. I jumped into the air, my sword ready to slice through the Draugr’s neck, when I was suddenly hit by the backswing of Oman’s battleaxe.

I went sliding across the floor, my armor maimed where he had hit it, my coat quickly growing wet with blood. I had no time to heal myself up as I saw Oman pull one of his hindlegs free of the ice and lurch forward, catching Steadfast by surprise, and nicking his cheek.

Staggering to my hooves, I rushed forward, intent on reaching Oman before he killed my friend. Pushing Steadfast back, he turned to look at me as I jumped over him again.

<<>> I Shouted, knocking his head against the ground.

There was no resistance as I brought my sword down on his neck. Calcion’s Cleaver seemed to squeal in delight as it sliced into the ancient flesh, killing the undead king for good. I dropped my sword, dripping with thick Draugr blood, and tended to my injuries. A healing spell reset my side, but a bandage would have to do for my head. I found I was dangerously low on healing potions.

“That was a close one,” Steadfast said, bandaging up his own wounds.

“Yeah,” I said, “We really need to start avoiding life-threatening situations.”

“Oh, where’s the fun in that?” Steadfast laughed.

“It makes life an adventure at least,” I admitted as I cleaned my blade and trotted over to Oman’s throne.

The throne wasn’t really what interested me; it was what was behind it that held my attention. An inscription in draconic was carved into the wall behind the throne. As I approached, one of the words began to stand out to me.

With blue fire it burned, and knowledge rushed into my mind. I soon learned everything there was to know about spirits and the realm they inhabited. I experienced the life of a pony whose soul was bound to this world, unable to depart into the afterlife. I understood what it meant to be a spirit and learned more and more until the word was burned into my mind.

~ZII~

When the word finally faded from my mind and was left bubbling in the depths, I headed over to the nearby doorway. Up a flight of stairs was a crude stone door that slid aside with a press of a button set into the wall. The cold wind of Horizon blew in, and the sound of swordfighting drifted in with it. Stepping outside, I could see several dozen ponies down below engaged in combat to the death.

“The Stormclouds and Imperials,” Steadfast commented, looking down on the clashing armies, “Looks like General Cuirass is making a push for Winterhorn.”

“We should go,” I said, “This isn’t our fight.”

“Maybe not today,” Steadfast said as we crept down the mountain, “But some day this war will affect us all.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Trekking south from Ironhoof Barrow, Steadfast and I returned to the city of Whitetrot well before dark. After selling the Silver Claw for a heavy coin purse of gold, and then using it to buy more potions, we headed up to the keep. Faniar, though busy, was eager to hear about our adventure.

“Oman One-Eye? Really?” he asked after we told him whose tomb it was.

“Yeah, or what was left of him,” Steadfast said.

“I knew it was the fortress of a powerful Draugr lord, but Jarl Valor’s Blade’s great ancestor? I’m sure he’ll want to send his own expedition to explore it, now that it’s clear of Draugr. He was maybe one of the most well known of Horizon’s kings, and not just because he managed to capture and contain a dragon here.”

“He may want to be careful,” Steadfast warned, “The Pale is hot territory right now. We almost ran right into an Imperial-Stormcloud battle.”

“Right, there is that,” Faniar replied, “But, I suppose you’re looking for another Draugr ruin?”

“Yes,” I said, “One near Seclusion, if possible. We found a dead bard in the Barrow, and he had some things on him the Bard College would be interested in having back.”

“Seclusion, huh,” Faniar said, pulling out his journal of Draugr ruins, “Let’s see what we have in Hoofingar.”

“Ah, yes. This is perfect,” he said, marking a location on my map, “Volsteed is built in the mountains to the west of Seclusion, and it’s recorded as a fairly extensive ruin.”

“Thanks Faniar,” I said, turning to go, “We’ll tell you all about it when we get back.”

As we left Dragonsreach, I took a look at the sun’s position in the sky. We probably wouldn’t be able to make it all the way to Seclusion before nightfall, but we might be able to make it to Dawnstar or Marethal. As we trotted down the stairs to the keep, a courier dashed up them before stopping before us.

“I have a letter for a Mistress Sapphire,” the courier announced, producing a letter from her saddlebags.

“That’s me,” I said, taking the letter curiously.

After delivering the message, the courier trotted off without a word, no doubt ready to deliver the rest of Whitetrot’s mail. Curiously, I slit the letter open and read it.

To Thane Sapphire and Companion Steadfast,

I have been observing the two of you closely both before and after our meeting at the Mino-Zulft Foothills Barrow. I believe we are both after the same things, and working together would be to the benefit of us all. If you are interested in learning how the dragons have managed to return and want to help put a stop to it, meet me at the Sleeping Bison Inn in Riverwood. Ask the barkeep for the attic room and we can work together to save the Northlands.

-Scarlet Shores

“So, what’s it say?” Steadfast asked when I finished reading the message.

“That Blade wants to meet up again,” I told him, passing the letter over, “What do you think?”

“I say we do it,” he replied, “Or at least hear what she has to say. It can’t hurt, and maybe she has a better idea than we do of what’s going on.”

“All right,” I said, “I guess we’re going to Riverwood.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

After a short trot where nothing happened except a few wolf attacks, we made it to Riverwood. It was easy to find the Sleeping Bison Inn, right next to the Riverwood Trader, and one of the few non-residences in town. It felt odd to ask for a room when it was only late afternoon, but the letter had said to, so I did it.

“Excuse me,” I asked the barkeep who looked up grumpily, “Could I rent the attic room?”

“Sure thing,” he replied, cocking an eyebrow, but passing a key over the bar, “The stairway’s just back through the door behind me.”

I took the key and trotted around behind the counter. I was sure something was going on here. He had given us the key to an attic room, but the Sleeping Bison Inn only had one floor. As I passed into the back room, I could see just what was going on.

Another door greeted me, one that I was able to unlock with the key given me. Opening it revealed a staircase leading down instead of up. Steadfast and I stepped down into the inn’s basement, listening for Scarlet Shores.

“Glad you received my message,” she said as we entered the room built beneath the inn.

Down here, she had an entire armory. Weapon racks lined the walls as well as shelves filled with potions. In the center of the room was a table with a map of the Northlands, tiny flags stuck all over it. Scarlet Shores stood behind the table, her strange armor on a mannequin instead of on her.

“Are you ready to get to the bottom of this dragon menace, and stop it for good?” she asked.

“Sure,” I replied, “But how?”

“Are you familiar with the Blackwings?” she asked.

“You could say that,” Steadfast said, smiling at me.

“I think they’re behind the dragons coming back, or if not, at least they know something about it.”

“What makes you think that?” Steadfast asked.

“They’ve been sending agents into Draugr ruins for the past few months. What other purpose could they have?”

“No offense, but maybe they’re just doing the same thing as us,” Steadfast commented, “Trying to figure out what the hay’s going on.”

“The Blackwings never do anything without an ulterior motive,” Scarlet Shores insisted, “They justify their presence here in Horizon as policing Talhooves worship, but their true purpose is to wipe out the rest of the Blades. Plus, they started investigating the ruins weeks before the dragons showed up. It’s much more than simple curiosity that drives them.”

“All right,” I said, “Maybe the Blackwings are behind the dragon attacks after all. What’s your plan to find out?”

“You’re going to sneak into their embassy,” Scarlet Shores announced, a mischievous gleam in her eye.

Level Up
Health: 170 Stamina: 150 Magicka: 170
New Perk: Horizon Haute Couture [Heavy Armor] -- You are comfortable enough in your armor that you are no longer encumbered or slowed by it.
Unique Item added: King Oman’s Verse -- These lost verses detail the time of King Oman One-Eye, whose records have been distorted over time. These pages are much sought after by the Bards College, who would pay dearly for them.
Dragon Soul collected
Word of Power learned: ZII -- Spirit; Become Ethereal – Combined with FEIM, ZII increases the time and effectiveness of your spirit form.
New Quest: Party Crashers -- Break into the Blackwing Embassy and learn what the pegasi know about the dragons.

Chapter 20: Embassy Infiltration

Chapter XX: Embassy Infiltration
“The Unicorn Empire, in its wisdom, has come to recognize Talhooves worship as a barbaric remnant of a bygone age.”

“You want us to do what?” I asked, utterly shocked at Scarlet’s suggestion.

“It’s easy,” the Blade explained, “You’ll sneak into the Blackwing Embassy near Seclusion, snoop around until you find what we need, and then get out.”

“You’re coming too, right?” Steadfast asked.

“Too risky,” she answered, “The Blackwings already know what I look like, and they’ll be searching for me, but they don’t recognize you yet.”

“I don’t know,” I said, “How are we even supposed to get into a fortress of highly trained killer pegasi, much less sneak through it?”

“Ambassador Stratus is holding a party tomorrow night,” Scarlet explained, “She’s invited ponies from all over Horizon to attend. I have contacts in Seclusion that can get you on the guest list under false names. Then, when the party is going on, slip away to Stratus’s study and do a little snooping.”

“All right,” I said, “I guess we can help you with this. I just hope we’re able to find something that makes this all worthwhile.”

“Who are we supposed to meet in Seclusion?” Steadfast asked.

“There’s a dappled pegasus who spends most of his time in Seclusion’s tavern. Goes by the name of Bruinin,” Scarlet explained, “He’ll be serving drinks at the party, even though he’s no friend of the Blackwings. Talk to him, and he’ll let you know everything you need to know about the mission.”

“Great,” I said, “We should be able to make it in plenty of time if we leave tomorrow morning.”

“Now all we need is somewhere to sleep tonight,” Steadfast said, pointing up toward the inn above us.

“No worries,” Scarlet said, “I can take care of that.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

The next day we made our way to Seclusion and the tavern built just within the gates. The Skeever Hole, it was called, but it seemed in significantly better shape than any other tavern I’d seen. Why, there wasn’t even a hint of one of those disgusting giant rats.

It wasn’t hard to find our contact. Sitting in a secluded table in the back was the only dappled pegasus in the place. He shifted to let us in as we approached.

“Thank the Twilight Guardian,” he said as we sat down, “I was starting to think you wouldn’t come.”

“Bruinin,” I said, “We were told you’d tell us everything we needed to know about the embassy.”

“Oh, I know it all,” he assured us, “And I’ll get you on the guest list as Winter Dusk; remember the name.”

“And me?” Steadfast asked.

“I wasn’t told there’d be two,” Bruinin protested, “It’ll probably be best if you stay back anyway. Less ponies there are, the less chance you’ll get caught.”

“Oh, no,” Steadfast argued back, “There’s no way I’m letting a friend of mine go in there surrounded by Blackwings alone.”

“Listen,” Bruinin said, “It’s just not a good idea.”

“You’re not listening to me,” Steadfast put his hoof down, “If she’s going, I’m going with her.”

“Fine, fine,” Bruinin backed down, “But if anything goes wrong, don’t blame me, Skychaser.”

“Skychaser?” Steadfast asked.

“Yeah, do you want to be on the guest list or not? Because if not, there’s no way you’re getting in.”

“What can we expect inside?” I asked Bruinin.

“Well, considering it’s a party, the main building will most likely have minimal guards, just enough to keep Stratus safe if the party guests get rowdy. The rest of the complex will most likely be heavily patrolled, however. Luckily, its design was made to benefit pegasi, so you’ll easily be able to sneak around to Stratus’s study so long as you keep out of sight.”

“Now, you can’t enter the embassy heavily armed and armored. I can get party clothes for you to wear, but any weapons I’ll have to sneak in for you. I’ll probably be able to sneak in a few potions too if things go south. Still, if that happens it’s probably best to just get out of there.”

“We have a few Blackwing uniforms, actually,” I recalled, rifling through my saddlebags.

“That’s great,” Bruinin seemed surprised, “I’ll try to sneak these in for you too. Anything that can help you blend in is perfect. What weapons do I need to sneak in?”

I thought a moment before unstrapping Calcion’s Cleaver and floating it over to the dappled pegasus. Steadfast pulled out his warhammer and slid it across the table.

“A warhammer? Are you kidding me?” Bruinin commented, “There’s no way I can sneak this in. It’s gotta be smaller.”

“Here,” I said, pulling a steel mace from my saddlebags, “You can borrow my mace, Steadfast. It’s the closest thing I have to a warhammer.”

“I guess it’ll have to do,” he said, picking it up in his mouth and giving it a practice swing.

“Anything else you can leave in the chest in my room,” he said, motioning toward a door at the back of the tavern, “I’ll be back in a moment with your party clothes and falsified invitations.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

“I feel ridiculous,” Steadfast complained as we trotted up the path toward the Blackwing Embassy, “These clothes were meant for a court jester.”

“Oh, stop it,” I replied, “I think you look quite dashing.”

“Really?”

“Oh, yes, I’m sure all the mares in Horizon think so.”

“Really?”

“Yes, if they were blind.”

“Oh, ha ha,” he pretended to laugh, “You can joke about it because you got clothes actually from this century.”

The party clothes Bruinin had gotten us had come straight from Bits and Pieces, Seclusion’s one and only clothing store. They were of a semi-casual style that was supposedly what pegasi chose to wear at such events. They weren’t bad; in fact the craftsmanship was marvelous. Still, they just didn’t look right on a born warrior like Steadfast.

He was forced to stop his complaining, however, and put on his best noble-pony act as we neared the Blackwing Embassy. Imposing stone walls surrounded the complex, though the entryway was lit cheerily. Several wagons were parked out front, the ponies hired to pull them gathered around swapping stories and playing games now that their rich bosses were inside.

A pegasus in full-on, gold-plated Blackwing armor halted us as we neared the doorway. I passed our invitations on to her, hoping she wouldn’t catch on to the fact that they were fake.

“Winter Dusk and Skychasher,” the guard said, scrutinizing the parchment, “Enjoy the party.”

Giving a slight bow, I passed the guard and entered the embassy. An ecstatic pegasus obviously in charge of planning the party led us down the hall and into the main reception room. I caught a glimpse of Bruinin at the bar as we passed by, but he waved us on, not wanting to seem suspicious. Once we were in the reception room, our guide rushed off to greet other guests.

I surveyed the crowd of very important ponies. The vast majority were from Horizon, and that meant the vast majority were earth ponies, though there was a liberal sprinkling of pegasi and unicorns throughout. Luckily, Steadfast and I didn’t stick out at all.

“Falling Skies!” an earth pony with a simple crown and fur robes greeted another near us, “It’s been too long.”

“Always a pleasure, Sibli,” the other replied, “Do you think the other loyal Imperial Jarls will show?”

“I doubt it,” the first replied, who I now recognized was the Jarl of Foalkreath, “Radiance never leaves the Blue Palace anymore, and I heard Glamus had some trouble with the Cloven Hoof.”

“Him and those goats,” Falling Skies said, “Will he never give up on his war?”

“Probably not, it’ll be the death of him. So, how are things in Marethal?”

“Oh, you know how it is, the Equines hate Hjaaltrot. Just the other day some of my soldiers found a dead hydra lying in the middle of the path.”

I had no time to listen to the rest of the conversation, as I suddenly found a golden-coated unicorn mare trying to get my attention.

“Well, hello there,” she said, shaking my hoof rather vigorously, “I don’t believe we’ve ever met before.”

“I’m Winter Dusk,” I bluffed, “And this is Skychaser.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Steadfast said, also shaking her hoof, “Your name is?”

“Why, Golden Bullion of course,” she said, acting wounded, “Surely you’ve heard of me. You’d have to leave the Northlands to find somepony who didn’t know who I am.”

“You’re head of the East Empire Company,” I said, thinking back to what I already knew and what I had overheard from those two travelers I had passed on my way to Whitetrot, “Aren’t you to be married soon?”

“Oh, yes,” she said, blushing, “As soon as things settle down here in Horizon a bit, Francis and I here are to be married.”

She motioned to the granite-grey earth pony standing beside her who gave us a nod.

“Francis Ironshod?” Steadfast asked, “Heir to the Ironshod Shipping Empire? Why, your marriage would form the largest shipping conglomerate that’s ever existed.”

“Yes, and we’re so pleased about that, aren’t we Francis?”

“Yes, of course dear,” he replied, though he didn’t seem quite as enthused about it as her.

Our conversation was suddenly cut off by the clinking of glass. Everypony in the room turned to look at the mare that had called our attention. Dressed in party attire with a distinctly Blackwing style to it was a pegasus whose coat was entirely pitch-black, no need for her to dye her wings. Her mane was a mess of coppery curls streaked with grey that cascaded down her neck.

“Thank you for all coming here tonight,” the pony who was obviously Ambassador Stratus announced, “I hope you enjoy the festivities provided by the Pegasari Dominion. It is always a pleasure to work with such fine ponies such as yourselves, and I look forward to continuing that in the coming year. Together we can work to bring peace and justice to the Northlands, stamping out the unholy worship of Talhooves and restoring the rightful order. That is all, enjoy the rest of the evening.”

Everypony slowly went back to their celebrating as Stratus finished her speech. Golden Bullion had found somepony else to talk to, so Steadfast and I were left standing alone again. Looking over at the bar, I could see Bruinin was motioning for us to come over. Signaling Steadfast, I began to casually make my way to the bar.

“All right,” Bruinin said when we made it over, “The coast should be clear now. Just down the hall to my right there’s a door marked for staff only. Come on though to the kitchens. Your gear’s in the pantry.”

“Thanks,” Steadfast said, “And we’ll be back for drinks.”

“Back for drinks?” I asked as we trotted down the hall.

“Sure,” he replied, “Assuming the party’s still going by the time we’re done.”

I rolled my eyes and led the way to the kitchens. They were bustling with activity as the chefs worked to prepare food for the party guests. Apparently, they had no will to stop two of the guests from entering their pantry, or to stop the two Blackwings that left it.

“All right,” I told Steadfast as we exited back out into the hallway, “Let’s get through here as quickly and quietly as possible.”

“What?” he said, “I’m the master of subtlety. Besides, how much racket can I cause with this potato masher you gave me for a weapon?”

“I hope we don’t have to use our weapons at all,” I said, making sure my hood covered my horn, “Unless we run into other Blackwings.”

“Then they could be a problem,” Steadfast said, pointing down the hall at two of the approaching Pegasari agents.

“Hey,” one said, “Don’t think you’re going to get away with this.”

“Well, I-” I tried to think of an excuse for what we were doing, but none came to mind.

“You’re not on party detail,” the Blackwing berated, “Get out there and patrol the courtyard, now!”

“Yes ma’am,” I stuttered out before heading down the hallway toward the courtyard.

“You handled that well,” Steadfast commented sarcastically.

“I thought we were dead,” I admitted honestly, “Let’s just get this over with.”

When we exited into the courtyard, a light snow was falling, sprinkling the ground with white powder. Multiple buildings stretched out into the distance, real Blackwings patrolling the area between them. I saw what Bruinin meant when he said it would be relatively easy to sneak through without being detected, but this place was a maze.

“Which one’s Stratus’s study?” I asked, looking out at the different structures.

“I don’t know,” Steadfast answered, “Pick one, I guess.”

Luckily for us, the clouds mostly blocked out the moon, making sneaking around easier. Keeping close to the wall, and in the shadows, we sneaked around to a pathway that would lead us to the first building. A Blackwing challenged us as we reached the outer pathway.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing over here?”

Seeing nopony else nearby, I quickly stabbed my sword into the pegasus’s chest before she could react. Steadfast held a hoof over her mouth to silence her scream as her life faded away. Rolling her into the ivy and out of sight, we crept down the walkway, skirting the perimeter of the compound.

We reached the place where the path split off to the nearby building without bumping into any more Blackwings. However, as we were preparing to sneak out to the building, one landed in front of us. We clung to the shadows even more so as the mare looked around, folding her wings across her back.

I slowly let out a breath I hadn’t known I’d been holding, hoping to stay quiet enough she wouldn’t notice us crouched just around the corner. When she didn’t seem to be moving anytime soon, Steadfast crept out into the open, keeping out of her sight. Creeping up behind her, he smacked her on the head with the mace I had given him.

Grabbing her body as it fell, I pulled her out of sight. Concealing her body in one of the wall’s alcoves, we moved on. It was a risky venture trotting down the path. On the other end of the compound where it stopped, a Blackwing was standing guard. For the moment, he was facing a different direction, but if he turned around we would be seen for sure.

Having my bow would have been really helpful at the moment, but taking the guard out would probably alert others, so it was probably for the best I didn’t have it. Turning away from the guard and down the last stretch toward the target building, we found ourselves facing a stallion in Blackwing robes standing in the doorway. Giving up on sneaking around, I strode toward the lone sentry.

“We need to enter,” I told him as we approached.

“Why?” he asked, eyeing us suspiciously.

In reply, Steadfast crushed his head against the door with his mace as I stabbed him through with my sword. As I watched to make sure no other sentries could see us, Steadfast rolled his body off the path and into the bushes. Carefully, I pushed open the building’s door.

Inside was a sitting room adorned in the fashion of the Pegasari Dominion. Across the room stood a single Blackwing peering through a doorway. As quietly as I could, I crept up toward him, my sword ready. My heart almost stopped as the floor creaked beneath my hoof and the Blackwing pricked his ears up.

He spun around toward me, but I was faster, stabbing my sword up into his chest. He gave a slight gurgle as he died that I barely managed to silence. Carefully, I kept him from falling out into the hallway and pushed him into a cabinet.

“Everything all right over there, Nimbus?” I heard another Blackwing ask from down the hall.

I motioned for Steadfast to conceal himself behind a pot on one side of the doorway, and I did the same across the way. I stood there, my muscles tensed and ready to pounce as the near-silent wingbeats came closer. As soon as her muzzle protruded through the doorway, Steadfast jumped out, his mace swinging up and knocking her head against the ceiling.

She fell from the air, stunned but still conscious. I jumped forward and caught her before she crashed into the floor, readying my sword to take her out. My blade slashed her throat, but not before she was able to flare her wings, sending blades flying out everywhere. One slashed through my cheek as it passed by. I quickly downed a healing potion Bruinin had smuggled in for us, and pulled her blades from the woodwork before stowing her in the same cabinet as the other Blackwing.

Creeping out into the hallway, I made sure the coast was clear. There didn’t seem to be any other Blackwings here, at least on this floor, so Steadfast and I roamed freely. Though we searched every room, none of them seemed to be Stratus’s study. In fact, most of them seemed to be sleeping quarters for Blackwing officers and visiting dignitaries. But our goal was Ambassador Stratus’s study, so we moved on.

The second floor appeared more promising, but there was still a chance of Blackwings roaming it, so we took it easy climbing the stairs. Sure enough, at the top of the stairs was a Blackwing standing guard. There was no way we could enter without her catching us, so I abandoned stealth and jumped through the gap, hoping there wouldn’t be a second one nearby.

Surprise was on my side, and I was able to slash through the Blackwing’s chest before she was able to pull back. Steadfast followed up with a smack to the side of her head as she attempted to draw a sword. I ducked as she flared her wings, avoiding the blades. Swinging my sword up, I slashed through her wing, keeping her from gaining an aerial advantage. Steadfast finished her off with a slam of his mace knocking her head into the floor.

“Aerius?” another Blackwing asked, rushing into the room before we could conceal ourselves, “What’s going on in here?”

<> I Shouted, hoping the walls would muffle it as I closed on the Blackwing.

I swung my sword at him, but he brought his own out to block me, pushing me back. Steadfast came around the side, and tried to knock his blade from his mouth, but he was pushed off as the Blackwing flared his wings, revealing hidden blades. The pegasus went on the offensive, forcing me to back off and continue blocking.

Leaping through the air, Steadfast brought his mace down on the pegasus’s blade, shattering it. Now he was confined to his wing blades. Spitting his sword’s hilt from his mouth, he began to call for reinforcements. Steadfast ended that, smashing his jaw with his mace.

Taking advantage of the temporary stunned state he was in, I brought my sword down toward his back. My swing came to a halt as he brought his wing blades up to block. Steadfast’s mace impacted with his face again, and I was able to pull my sword free and slice it around toward the Blackwing’s neck.

At last, he fell to the ground. The rest of the building seemed to be abandoned, but I took a quick peek into the next few rooms to be sure. When the coast seemed clear, I returned to help Steadfast hide the bodies as best I could. It wasn’t easy to find a place to hide two dead pegasi that were pretty thoroughly injured, but finally we found a few chests they would fit in.

The Blackwings taken care of, we took a better look at what was up on the second floor of the building. Turned out, there wasn’t much more than a few better bedrooms and a kitchen. Stratus’s study wasn’t here.

“Onto the next one then?” Steadfast asked.

“Looks like it,” I said, “But at the rate we’re going through Blackwings, we’ll be caught soon.”

“Then we’d better do this fast.”

Sneaking back downstairs, we exited the building on the opposite side we had come in. Thankfully, there was no guard outside this door. Carefully, we sneaked down the walled-in paths. I held back Steadfast as we reached a turn. Just around the corner, I could hear a Blackwing had landed. Quickly spinning around the corner, I stabbed Calcion’s Cleaver into her back and pulled her around with me. Rolling the body beneath a bench, we continued on.

The next building was smaller than the previous one, but it was built in a more impressive style. A guard waited both outside the door on the first floor and the balcony on the second. By now, the snow was beginning to pile up, making it a bit harder to sneak around. Hopefully nopony would see our tracks in the snow before we got away.

As best we could, we made our way down the path to the building. When we came in range, Steadfast suddenly jumped up and brought his mace down on the guard’s helmet, crushing it. I joined him in helping prop up the dead guard and pressed into the doorway as far as possible. The guard on the balcony flapped down to investigate. As soon as she appeared, I swung my sword up through her neck, causing her to drop into the snow.

We pushed the bodies into the bushes beside the door and concealed the blood stains as best we could. With the snow, it was becoming harder to keep our presence unnoticed. Magically grabbing the handle, I slowly opened the door to the building and crept inside.

The bottom floor consisted of a single sitting room with a staircase at the far end. One Blackwing stood guard near the center of the room. As we stepped inside, she turned to face us.

“The study is restricted,” she announced, “Who gave you permission to enter here?”

It looked like we had found the right place. With a swing of sword and mace, Steadfast and I both took her out. After dragging her body behind the desk a secretary would normally sit at, we headed up the gilded staircase.

The upper floor of the building certainly seemed to be Stratus’s study. An ornate desk stood in the back of the room, shelves filled with books surrounding it. On the wall was posted a large map of the Northlands, landmarks marked out in precise letters. A ceremonial Pegasari sword sat on top of her desk, along with a few stacks of papers.

“Keep watch,” I told Steadfast before trotting around to behind the desk and surveying the bookshelves.

How was I supposed to find what I needed when there were so many books here? It’s not like any were labeled as plots to release Alduin. After looking over Stratus’s collection of books, my eyes turned to the one bookcase that was locked. No doubt that was where I would find anything Stratus didn’t want seen. Taking out a few lockpicks Bruinin had stuck in my uniform, I fiddled with the lock until it popped open.

The case was filled with dossiers covering just about everything. I pulled out the few most promising ones to flip through. The first one I cracked open was labeled Jarl Stormcloud and the Horizon Rebellion. I turned to the last page with writing and began to read.

22nd of Frostfall, 4E 200

UPDATE: Dawnstar has been regained by the Imperials. After a long stalemate, the tides are beginning to turn in Horizon. Current predictions show the Empire could regain the province sooner than expected with lesser casualties. Jarl Stormcloud may not have the resolve or horsepower to continue the war into a second year. Recommend additional supplies be dropped to the rebels to draw out the fighting and weaken both the Empire and the Stormclouds.

I couldn’t believe what I had read. The Blackwings, determined to stamp out Talhooves worship, were actually helping Stormcloud in his rebellion? And then there was that talk of weakening the Empire and the Stormclouds. They really wanted this war in Horizon to go on. After all, the longer it did, the weaker the Dominion’s rival powers would get. Scarlet Shores was right; the Blackwings had an ulterior motive for everything. Speaking of Scarlet, the next dossier I had pulled had her name on it.

26th of Frostfall, 4E 200

UPDATE: Blades agent Scarlet Shores seen out and about in Easttrot hold, but agents lost her trail past the Crest of the World. She is believed to be hiding out in the Riverwood area, but just where has not been pinned down yet. Recommend sending new Blackwing agent to the area. Undercover non-pegasus advised.

Well, that was certainly news I would need to tell Scarlet. They were closing in on her hideout, and sending an undercover agent at that. She would need to find somewhere else to hide instead of the Sleeping Bison Inn.

“Uh, Sapphire,” Steadfast whispered.

“Just a moment,” I said. There was just one more book I had to go through quickly, labeled Dragon Threat.

31st of Frostfall, 4E 200

The dragon situation has gotten direr in Horizon. The great lizards are spreading, and may even begin to cross the borders into the Featherrest Isles and Unicornica. It is unknown how or why the dragons have returned in the first place, but I wouldn’t put it past the Blades to have stirred things up in their reckless exploration of the ancient dragon barrows. Things are more serious than we thought and I have dispatched additional agents to all known Draugr ruins that show promise. We will find who has released the dragons on the Northlands, and we will bring them to justice for the glory of the Dominion.

So this whole trip was a bust. The Blackwings knew even less about the dragons than I did. And they were just as paranoid about the Blades as the Blades were about them. There had to be something else in this book, something helpful.

“Sapphire,” Steadfast said again.

“In a second,” I said, flipping rapidly through the dossier.

“Don’t do anything too suddenly, or your friend will lose his head,” I heard a very distinctive voice say.

Looking up, I saw the room was filled with Blackwing agents in heavy armor, their swords drawn and ready. In front was Ambassador Stratus, holding the sword to Steadfast’s neck herself. My heart dropped into my stomach.

We were caught.

Level Up
Health: 170 Stamina: 160 Magicka: 170
New Perk: Pick a Lock, Any Lock [Lockpicking] -- All levels of locks are now significantly easier to pick.
New Quest: Captured -- Find out what Ambassador Stratus wants from you, and find a way to overcome it.

Author's Note

Here ends Part 2, wherein Sapphire learned how to use the gift of the Voice, and gained a Steadfast friend and Companion.

Act 3 will be coming soon, and though a bit shorter than the first two acts, it will introduce a few new things I hope you'll enjoy.

Thanks for reading and, as always, comments and questions regarding the story are welcome.

Chapter 21: A New Contract

Chapter XXI: A New Contract
“The Empire exists because we allow it to exist.”

“So, Summer Dusk,” Stratus said, pushing Steadfast back to be held by the Blackwings behind her, “Or should I call you Sapphire?”

“What’s it matter?” I said, my sword out, not willing to let the ambassador get too close.

“Well, you certainly seem like a curious pony,” she said, flipping the books on the table closed with her wings, “Too bad the consequence of too much curiosity is often death.”

“Maybe for you,” I said, trying to portray confidence I didn’t have.

“Oh, please,” she said, “Do put away the sword before somepony gets hurt. I don’t want to kill you, otherwise you’d already be dead.”

“Then what do you want?” I asked, reluctantly dropping my sword.

“The real question here is what you want. What is it you were searching for here, Sapphire?”

“I want to know why the dragons are returning,” I answered honestly, “And I want to stop it.”

“And you thought we were behind it? Let me guess, that Blade Scarlet Shores put you up to this? It’s not your fault really, for falling for her trap. All she wants is revenge on the Blackwings; it’s blinded her to all else. But whether you really knew what you were doing or nor, there will be consequences.”

“Like what?”

“Well, you can see them for yourself. Because you decided to deceive me and rob me, your friend here was captured. And he will remain my prisoner until you meet my terms.”

“What terms?”

“There’s something I need done. Something I unfortunately have been unable to accomplish with my own agents. If you do it for me, I will release your friend, no strings attached.”

“What do you need done?”

“There’s a certain . . . agent of ours that went rogue a few years back. She went by the name of Mephalda the Meek. Of course, being a Blackwing, she was highly trained in the art of disappearing, and . . .”

“Even you can’t find her.”

“Correct. We believe she fled to Horizon, but we have no idea where she is. Obviously, we can’t have a rogue agent on the loose.”

“And you want me to find her?”

“I want you to kill her.”

“What?”

“She’s too dangerous to be left alive. Why, who knows how many ponies already she’s killed since she’s come here. She’s a trained killer, the best we ever had, and she won’t hesitate to kill anypony, mare or stallion, foal or elder.”

“You want me to locate and kill a highly trained psychopathic killer?” I asked.

“Precisely,” Stratus replied with a cruel smile.

“That’s insane! It’s impossible! There’s no way I could accomplish that!”

“Then your friend dies immediately. If you want him released alive, you will return with the head of Mephalda within a fortnight. If not, his head will roll instead. Not negotiable.”

“A fortnight?” I asked incredulously, “I don’t even know where to start! There’s no way I can do this!”

“There is only one piece of information I can provide that may help you,” Stratus said, “We believe the Thieves Guild may be hiding her, but we haven’t been able to infiltrate them so we can’t know for sure.”

“Well, thanks for the help,” I spat back sarcastically, “I guess I’ll be going then.”

The Blackwings moved aside as I stormed for the door.

“I promise I’ll get you out of here,” I told Steadfast as I passed him, though I had no idea how I would do it.

“I know you will,” he replied with full faith in me.

“And remember,” Stratus called after me as I left, “Time is of the essence.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I stormed down the mountain, filled with anger. I was so mad at Stratus for holding Steadfast prisoner. So mad at myself for letting us get caught. So mad at Scarlet for suggesting this insane plan in the first place. Needless to say, when I arrived at the Skeever Hole to retrieve the rest of my gear, I was not happy to see her in the room.

“So, how’d it go?” she asked.

“Not good,” I replied, trying to keep my temper in check, “The Blackwings know nothing about the dragons, they’re closing in on your hideout in Riverwood, and Steadfast’s been captured.”

“I was so certain they were behind the return,” was all she said.

“Weren’t you listening?” I exploded, “They have my friend, and now to get him back I have to track down a rogue Blackwing agent nopony’s seen in years and assassinate her!”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Scarlet said, “In all likelihood, your friend’s dead already anyway. You’ll just have to move on. You win some, you lose some.”

“No!” I fought back, “I’m tired of being the loser! All my life I’ve been losing. He’s the only true friend I ever had, and now he’s gone. I’ve got no choice but to do anything to get him back!”

“Well then,” Scarlet said, “I’m going to help.”

“I think you’ve helped enough,” I replied angrily, “If it wasn’t for your plan, and your obsession with the Blackwings, I wouldn’t be in this mess.”

All my gear back in my saddlebags and my armor slipped on, I prepared to leave.

“Listen Scarlet,” I said, reigning my anger back in, “I know you never meant this to happen, and I know you want to help fix it, but this is something I have to do on my own. Just take care of Steadfast’s things. I’ll be back for them, with him.”

Saying nothing more, I departed the Skeever Hole and headed out into Seclusion’s night. My only lead was the Thieves Guild, so I was headed for Splitten. Nothing was going to stand in my way.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

A whole day slipped away as I travelled, the first of the fourteen I had to save my friend. I entered Splitten at nightfall, but the guards allowed me to pass this time. I wasn’t in the mood for another extortion attempt anyway.

My last escapade here had apparently been forgotten, as none of the guards so much as paused as I passed them. There weren’t that many guards I passed on the way to the Ratway, Splitten’s network of subterranean tunnels, but still, it was odd they didn’t recognize me. I entered the Ratway as sneakily as possible and made my way to the Ragged Flagon, trying to remember the path I had taken last time.

I was nearly there when I heard voices and the stamp of heavy boots on stone coming from up ahead. Torchlight caused shadows to flicker across the walls as I got closer. Peering around a corner, I could see a whole host of guards wearing Splitten’s colors were marching through the Ratway.

“We’re getting close,” I could hear the leader say from up front as I followed along, “I can feel it. Today we finally put an end to the Thieves Guild threat.”

Well, the head guard had one thing right at least. They were getting dangerously close to the Ragged Flagon. I was a bit torn on whether I wanted them to end the Thieves Guild though. On one hoof, they were a group of thieves and criminals, but on the other hoof they seemed decent enough ponies that would only steal from the insanely wealthy and corrupt, and only enough that wouldn’t be sorely missed. Plus, I needed them to tell me where Mephalda was hiding. In the end, keeping these guards from finding the Guild won out.

I counted up twelve in all, including the leader. There was no way I could fight them all before they reached the Flagon, but I could at least trim them down a little. As they took a turn at one of the many crossroads, I seized my chance. Just before the last one disappeared around the corner, I launched myself forward, knocking him into a branching tunnel. Striking him swiftly with my blade, I left his body and moved on, following the rest of the guards.

We were getting dangerously close to the Ragged Flagon before I had another chance. I picked off a mare in the back as they turned a corner, throwing her into a room off to the side. With my magic, I quickly gagged her mouth with a rag before she could call for help. I tackled her to the ground, choking the life from her until she fell over limp.

With the sound of a door creaking open, I jumped to my hooves and pursued the remaining guards down the passage. They had just opened the door leading to the cistern. The Ragged Flagon was discovered.

“We’ve done it,” the leader whispered, “Split up and let’s take these thieves out for good.”

They split into two groups and began to make their way around the cistern silently. I tailed one group and waited until they were about halfway across before I struck.

<<>> I Shouted, knocking four of them into the cistern and announcing our presence to any Thieves Guild members.

One guard remained near me, and she drew her mace and charged toward me. Drawing my war axe, I blocked her swing. As she swung it at me again, I spun my axe around, hooking the blade over the mace’s handle. With a twist, I threw it from her grip and cut through her chest with my axe.

The other guards were beginning to climb from the water now, but Thieves Guild members were also now running to help. Across the cistern, they were already engaging the other group of guards. I brought my sword and war axe both up to block as two guards attacked me with their own swords.

Blocking their swings, I was forced back toward the Ragged Flagon. Luckily, that helped close the distance with the Thieves Guild reinforcements. One of the guards I was fighting was forced to disengage me to fight back against Serif, who swung a long, thin knife at him. She dispatched him with a few quick slashes and moved on to the next one.

With only one guard fighting me, I went on the offensive, swinging both my blades to force her back. At last my sword broke through her defense and cut her across her foreleg. As she kneeled down in pain, my axe sliced across her neck. She fell over into the water of the cistern, dying it red with her blood.

The last guard on this side of the water rushed toward me, but suddenly fell down in front of me as an arrow buried itself in his forehead. I looked over my shoulder to see Malif standing behind me, his bow floating in front of him. All the guards now defeated, most of the Thieves Guild members began to return to the Ragged Flagon, though a few stayed behind to clean up the bodies.

“Whew! That was really something, wasn’t it?” Serif said in her usual enthusiastic tone, trotting up next to me.

“That was too close,” Malif answered her question in his usual gloomy tone, “Guards have never gotten this close to finding the Flagon before. It’s almost as if somepony led them down here.”

Malif fixed me with a stare as he finished.

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous,” Serif defended me, “Sapphire didn’t lead them down here. In fact, if she hadn’t alerted us, we would’ve been taken completely off guard. And we could use all the help we can get, being so low on horsepower right now.”

Looking around the Flagon, I could see there were indeed quite a few less ponies than I had seen before here.

“Where is everypony?” I asked.

“Vespers took a few Guildmembers with him on a trip to Foalkreath last night,” Serif answered, “They haven’t returned yet, though.”

“So, besides taking on the Splitten guard,” she continued, “What brings you down here again? Looking for another job?”

“Not really,” I answered, “In fact, I need you to help me find somepony. A former Blackwing agent named Mephalda.”

“Mephalda?” Serif asked, “Yes, I think I’ve heard Vespers mention her once or twice. You’d have to ask him when he gets back.”

“So, what am I supposed to do until then?”

“I don’t know. You could come along on a heist we were planning before those guards showed up.”

“I don’t think so,” I said, “I’m in kind of a hurry to find Mephalda.”

“Why do you need to find her so badly?” Malif asked.

“The Blackwings have taken a friend of mine hostage,” I admitted sadly, “If I want him back, I need to find Mephalda.”

“Oh, I wish we could help,” Serif said sincerely, “But Vespers is the only one in the Guild who would know how.”

“However,” she said, perking up again, “I think this heist we’ve been planning might be just up your alley. You see, Jarl Aria has a certain artifact in her keep that we received word the Blackwings are looking for. The Pegasari agents are no more our friends then the Legion, so our plan is to steal the artifact, both to teach Aria a lesson and to spite the Blackwings in one blow. What do you say?”

I normally wasn’t a vengeful pony, but right now I was willing to do anything to get back at the Blackwings, in however petty a way. They may have had Steadfast hostage, but they were going to pay for that. The sooner I could make them feel the hurt, the better.

“All right,” I agreed, “What do we need to do?”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

A few minutes later, I found myself sneaking through the Ratway toward Splitten’s Keep along with Serif and two other thieves. Before leaving, Serif had gotten me some of their many-pocketed light leather armor. Though I wasn’t a full member of the Guild, they couldn’t have me giving us away with the clanking of my heavy steel armor. Swiftly and silently, we moved through the tunnels until we were right below the keep.

Serif climbed a ladder set into the wall and took a look around where she had emerged before waving the rest of us up. At the top of the ladder was a cramped compartment with a secret panel that opened onto one of the keep’s hallways. Nopony was currently in the hallway, so we filed out and sneaked down the passage, following Serif.

The keep seemed empty of guards, and we didn’t see a single one until we neared the Jarl’s bedchambers. A single guard was posted outside the door, guarding Splitten’s head of state. Pulling a small stone from one of the pouches on her armor, Serif threw it down the passage, knocking it against a pot. As the guard investigated the sound, we rushed down the hall to the Jarl’s quarters. Serif and I entered the room as the other two thieves waited to ambush the guard when she returned.

We searched the room as quietly as possible, careful not to wake Jarl Aria, who was sleeping in the bed in the center of the room. The Jarl had quite a collection of priceless artifacts and trinkets in her room, but I had no clue which was the one we were planning to steal.

“What are we looking for?” I whispered to Serif.

“An emerald ornament in the shape of a dragon’s claw,” she answered, returning to her searching.

“Here it is,” I called her over when I found it, locked within a display case.

Rushing over, Serif quickly picked the lock and pulled the claw from the case. Tucking it away in her armor, the turquoise mare led the way out of the room. Shutting the door behind us, we met up with the other thieves, who had knocked the guard unconscious, and retreated back into the tunnels.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Serif said, pulling the jewel encrusted claw out and tossing it to me, “It’s pretty enough, but I wonder why the Blackwings wanted it so badly.”

“This isn’t just another ornament,” I said, rotating it around in my magic and inspecting the draconic runes inscribed on the palm, “This claw is a key that opens the lower crypt of some Draugr ruin. I’ve seen this kind of thing before.”

“Keep it,” Serif told me, “Maybe it’ll be useful some day.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, we didn’t steal from the Jarl for the money; we did it to teach her to respect us again.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“The Thieves Guild once spanned the whole of the Empire. Now we’re all that’s left, a small group of thieves hiding out in Splitten’s sewers. We used to own this town, but even that’s changed. Jarl Aria is doing anything she can to wipe us out, and she just might be able to do it. Of all the corrupt and insanely wealthy ponies in this land, she’s the worst. She already owns over half the town, but she uses her wealth and power for her own benefit alone. She feasts in her keep while the city starves just outside her walls. If we don’t stand up to her, nopony will.”

I nodded my understanding as I tucked the Emerald Claw away. Perhaps it would be useful later in my excursions into the Draugr ruins. At the moment, though, only one goal was at the forefront of my mind. I had to find Mephalda and get Steadfast back.

“I take it the job went well,” Vespers’s eerie voice greeted us as we entered the Ragged Flagon, “And I see Sapphire has also returned to our ranks.”

“Not for long,” I answered, “I just need your help to find an ex-Blackwing named Mephalda.”

“Mephalda the Meek?” Vespers asked, cocking an eyebrow, “I hope you don’t plan on doing anything foolish like killing her. She may seem defenseless, but she’s killed hundreds, if not thousands of the Blackwing’s enemies. It would take an army to bring her down.”

“Do you know where she is?” I asked. Though his description of her was a bit unsettling, I still intended to go through with it.

“I do not,” he responded simply, “She is under Dark Brotherhoof protection. It is them you would have to ask if you wish to find her.”

“Well, how do I find the Dark Brotherhoof?” I asked, disappointed.

“That is something I cannot help you with,” Vespers replied, “If you wish to tangle with Dark Brotherhoof assassins, that’s your business. While the Guild and the Brotherhoof maintain a weak contact, for mutual support, I cannot get you in to see them.”

“Very well,” I said, turning to leave.

If the Guild couldn’t help me, I would have to find the Dark Brotherhoof myself. The only problem was I had no idea how to do it.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

My only lead had dried up. The Thieves Guild wasn’t hiding Mephalda, the Dark Brotherhoof was. And I had no idea how to contact them. I had been denied sleep the night before, what with the events at the Blackwing Embassy, and my mind was clouded from sleep deprivation. I decided I would get some rest in Splitten’s inn and think of a new plan in the morning.

Even though it was the middle of the night, I didn’t go to sleep immediately after paying for my room. Tired as I was, I just couldn’t sleep and ordered a meal instead. As I waited for it to arrive, I couldn’t help but overhear the conversation of two of the local ponies chatting at the bar.

“Did you hear about what happened with that foal Cloverdust?” a mare wearing the gear of a hunter asked her companion.

“Didn’t he escape from the orphanage?” the fisher-stallion next to her said, “Wasn’t here long; must’ve sprung out first chance he got.”

“That’s right. Well, there’s a rumor circling around that he returned to his home, where he lived before his parents died.”

“In Windhorn?”

“Yeah, but that’s not all. They say he’s trying to summon the Dark Brotherhoof!”

My ears pricked up at the mention of the order I was seeking.

“Excuse me, did you mention the Dark Brotherhoof?” I asked, turning around in my chair.

“Yes, I can’t believe it either,” the mare answered, “I just wish I knew who a foal has a reason to call out an assassination on. I’d hate to be them. The Brotherhoof will come, that’s for sure.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. I once again had a lead. All I had to do was find this Cloverdust, and then I could find the Dark Brotherhoof. Soon Mephalda would be dead, and Steadfast would be free. Cloverdust was my new target, and I would find him no matter what.

Level Up
Health: 180 Stamina: 160 Magicka: 170
New Perk: Quick Healer [Restoration] -- All Restoration spells cast on yourself now heal wounds twice as quickly.
New Quest: The Joys of Youth -- Find Cloverdust to get in touch with the Dark Brotherhoof.

Chapter 22: The City of Stormcloud

Chapter XXII: The City of Stormcloud
“When I grow up, I’m gonna be an assassin!”

After resting up for a few hours in Splitten, I left for Windhorn, following a path that kept close to the mountain range separating Horizon from Unicornica. Soon I was in the capital of Jarl Stormcloud’s rebellion. The Inquisitor was still docked in the harbor as I approached, though it now flew the flag of the Stormclouds.

The guards gave me suspicious looks as I entered, but none stopped me, so I guess they may have remembered me from the last time. Of course, then I was led through the city under guard. As I wandered the stone streets, I realized I had no idea where Cloverdust was in this town. Surely word of his return had spread though, right?

The first few ponies I asked seemed unwilling to talk about it, despite my prodding. I received several warnings that a unicorn shouldn’t be so curious in this city. Eventually, I found myself in a poorer part of town where the buildings stood immediately next to each other, and loomed over the poorly-lit streets.

In the center of the district was a small, cramped square dominated by a towering statue of an earth pony wielding a battleaxe against a cowering dappled pegasus. “Jurgen Sky-whinny, Hero of the Morrowhinny Invasion” the inscription read. Nopony seemed to be around, but a shop nearby was open, so I entered to get directions.

“What business brings you here?” the shopkeeper, an elderly dappled pegasus asked grouchily as I entered.

“Do you always greet ponies like that when they enter your shop?” I asked.

“Only strangers,” he answered, “Nopony comes to the Winged Quarter by chance.”

“The Winged Quarter?”

“These slums. This is where my people must live, as decreed by Jarl Stormcloud. But, what can we do when not even our own kin are willing to welcome us to the Featherrest Isles?”

“That’s terrible!” I said. I had no idea that Jarl Stormcloud’s racist policies went as far as isolating an entire race in the slums.

“We’ll get by,” he replied, “We survived Red Mountain, we’ll survive this. So, what brings you here, unicorn.”

“I’m looking for the home of Cloverdust,” I told him.

“Ah, yes, that little lad who’s family died in that horrible fire,” he recalled, “I heard tell he’d returned, but I didn’t know if I could believe it or not.”

“So . . .” I prompted him for a location.

“Oh, right. The house is just up the road through the north passage out of the district. It’ll be the first one you see, top of the hill. You can’t miss it.”

“Thanks,” I said, waving to the kindly old pegasus before departing his shop.

I took another look at the statue before moving on. Obviously it was a reminder of who was in charge in this city. I sure hoped things would get better for the ponies here. I winged a silent prayer for it to the Equines before moving on.

Sure enough, just as the shopkeeper had told me, I couldn’t miss Cloverdust’s house. Immediately after the “No Pegasi Beyond This Point” signs was a towering home of dark black stone. The wind whistled eerily through the windows, whose glass was gone. Scorch marks bore testament to the fire that had killed the foal’s parents.

It was like approaching a ghost house as I trotted up. Any moment I expected some spook to jump out at me. At last I found the door, but it was locked. Before I tried picking it, I read the note nailed into the singed wood.

This property and all its premises are hereby restricted due to the practice of the Black Sacrament within these walls. Any trespassers will be subject to questioning and interrogation if necessary.
-Vigilants of Steedarr, Horizon Division

I’d heard of the Vigilants of Steedarr, but only briefly. They were a fairly new organization, devoted to the Equine Steedarr. Their purpose, as best I understood it, was to stamp out Draconequus worship, vampires, werewolves, and anything else they considered unnatural and unholy. Cloverdust, or at least somepony, had done something here that violated that.

Cloverdust surely wasn’t here anymore, if he ever really was. To find him, I’d need some help tracking him down. Maybe he was somewhere else in Windhorn. I knew one pony who would know for sure, though I was hesitant to approach him.

Working up my courage, I approached the top of the hill and the Palace of Kings. If anypony would know what was going on in this city, it would be its Jarl. Surprisingly, nopony stopped me as I approached Stormcloud’s throne, though the nearby guards tensed, ready to jump into action.

“Jarl Stormcloud,” I addressed him first, bowing.
“So, you have returned,” the Jarl replied, “Sapphire, was it? Decide to join up with the Stormclouds?”

“Not today,” I told him, “I actually came to ask for your help.”

“Help in what?” he asked, perplexed.

“I need help locating Cloverdust. I heard he had returned here.”

“And he did. But he was taken away by the Vigilants of Steedarr only yesterday.”

“Where?”

“To the Hall of the Vigilant, I presume.”

“Where is that?” I asked him.

“I’ll tell you,” he said, and I could see a plan forming in his mind, “But first you must do something for me.”

“What do you need?” I asked. No matter what, I would do it if it helped me save Steadfast.

“Dawnstar is in Imperial hooves,” he said matter-of-factly, “They will try for Winterhorn next. And, once it falls, Earthhaven will be completely defenseless.”

“Earthhaven?” I asked.

“Yes, my city,” he gestured around him, “Though you probably know it as Windhorn. What most don’t know is that this city was once called Earthhaven, until a unicorn invasion millennia ago. The conquerors saw fit to rename it after themselves, and their name remained even after it was taken back. But now Horizon will be free, and its ancient capital will be known by its proper name.”

“All right,” I said, thinking he was taking this a bit far, “So you were saying?”

“We need another line of defense, and I believe Fort Trotsdown will be the perfect place to station my soldiers. Built south of Winterhorn, it provides a defense that overlooks the route the Imperials will surely take to reach this city. However, the fort has been abandoned for years and has become inhabited with bandits. Clear them out for me, and I’ll share the location of the Hall of the Vigilant with you.”

I didn’t see as I had much choice. But, at least this task wasn’t too difficult. Clearing out bandits was better than leading an attack on a city, in any case.

“I accept,” I told the Jarl.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

As I neared Fort Trotsdown, I could see why Jarl Stormcloud wanted it. Just as he had said, it looked right over the path, providing its defenders with a view for leagues and an ability to stop anypony passing through. I had to stop for a moment and puzzle out how to get up to the fort, which was built into the mountain’s face, before I realized the only entrance was up top. I would be forced to climb a long, looping path up the nearby foothills to reach the gate.

As I climbed, it seemed to me that the fort was abandoned. I saw no sign of bandit activity whatsoever. Could Jarl Stormcloud have been wrong? I pulled out my bow as I neared the fort anyway, just in case.

It proved to be a good idea, as an arrow suddenly flew past me, sticking between the rough stones of the path. Drawing an arrow off my own back, I searched the fort for the source, but saw nothing. Another arrow suddenly came flying at me from a slit in one of the fort’s towers. There was no way I could shoot somepony through one of those, so I dropped my bow and sprinted toward the fort.

The large wooden gates were open and I ran between them, passing the fort’s walls. Inside, I found two bandits trying to ambush me, one from each side. I sent a blast of flame at one, forcing him to back off, and drew Calcion’s Cleaver to fight the other.

Sparks flew as our blades met, sword to sword. She pulled away and swept her sword down toward my legs. I countered, twisting her blade and forcing her back. I swung my sword around at her head, but she blocked. My blade went off course and flew upward, nicking her ear.

Swinging her blade at me, she pushed me back. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught her companion charging toward me and stopped him with a quick buck. As he went flying back, I used the momentum of pushing off his chest to propel me forward. The mare I was fighting was unable to block my charge, and I broke through, sweeping my sword through her chest.

I turned to see her companion preparing to charge me again, his warhammer held in a magical grasp. I brought Calcion’s Cleaver up to block the majority of the swing’s force, but I was still pushed back a little. Pulling out the Axe of Whitetrot, I was able to get a swing at his body while still blocking with my sword.

He pulled back, putting a bit of distance between us and preparing his warhammer for another strike. This time I was ready for it, blocking and notching my sword under his hammer’s head to keep him from bringing it down and farther. Simultaneously, I swung my war axe around in a wide loop, cutting it through his neck, cauterizing the wound instantly as the blade burst into flame.

As he fell to the ground, three more bandits emerged from the fort’s keep, apparently alerted that a battle was going on outside. Three were just too many for all at once, so I decided to thin them out a bit.

<<>>

All three of the bandits went flying back, one knocking against a fence. As the first to recover galloped toward me, knife in teeth, I shot a blast of lightning into him, sending him flying back and into a wall, never to get up again.

By then, an earth pony mare had also recovered, and was rushing me with a war axe grasped in her mouth. I blocked with my own, and we engaged in a deadly ballet of blades. She was incredible skilled with her weapon, and it served her well, keeping me on my hooves as I struggled to block.

Our blades suddenly locked as they hooked beneath each other. She had the faster reflexes, and the advantage of being physically attached to her weapon, and she threw mine out of my magical grasp with a twist of her head. As she did, however, she opened herself up to an attack from my sword, which came down swiftly and heavily on her neck.

As she fell to the ground, the bandit I had knocked against the fence launched herself at me. The spear in her mouth was a bit unwieldy, but its reach kept me at a distance. As she thrust the point toward me I jumped to the side and slashed through the spear with my Cleaver. She was next, run through by the blade.

As I trotted over to retrieve my war axe, I suddenly experienced a lancing pain through the back of my head, and my helmet was thrown off. Putting my hoof to the back of my head, I found a long gash carved by a sword had opened up. I cast a quick healing spell to fix it as I searched for my attacker.

I ducked down quickly as a green blur passed over my head. A pegasus bandit with a sword in his teeth paused for a moment to glare down at me before swooping toward me again. I held my sword up and blocked this time as the winged menace rocketed at me.

He was forced to pull to a stop and engage me as I swung my sword at him. He easily blocked my strikes, having a significant height advantage. Whenever my strikes came close to him, he would just flap out of range before coming back in. Soon I was covered in minor nicks and he was completely unharmed, and I was sick of it.

I Shouted and he turned to ice, frozen by my breath, and dropped to the ground.

I plunged my sword into the frozen block of a pony, sending lightning arcing through him. Seeing as nopony else had emerged to fight me, I made my way to the keep’s doors and let myself in.

Inside the keep, things were quiet for the most part, though I could hear bandits rushing around farther in, no doubt getting ready to fight or stashing away their spoils. I wasn’t about to walk into a trap or an ambush, so I made my way down the stone halls quietly and carefully.

I was about to enter a larger room, probably intended for dining, when I stopped myself. Several bandits were inside: a unicorn, two earth ponies, a zebra, and a pegasus hovering near the ceiling. Not willing to fight another aerial opponent, I pulled out my bow and lined up a shot on the pegasus. My arrow flew true, striking her in the chest, and causing her to fall to her death below.

The other four bandits were taken off guard by her fall and pulled out their weapons to search for me. Before I could be detected, I quickly rushed into the room and cut through an earth pony with a battleaxe. My approach was not silent by a long shot, and the other three bandits turned on me at once.

I shot a trail of fire at the other earth pony as she tried to attack me with a mace. She was burned badly, but still got close enough to swing at me. The Axe of Whitetrot blocked, knocking her back. A second blast of fire finished her off.

I jumped to the side as a stream of fire jetted at me. The unicorn’s horn was still glowing with magic as I turned to face him. I blasted lightning at him, but it bounced pointlessly off a ward he conjured up. It looked like I would be facing a magician here with more spells than the average bandit.

As he shot his own lightning bolt at me, I blocked with Calcion’s Cleaver. The blade hungrily accepted the energy before sending it back at the bandit.

<> I Shouted, quickly closing the gap with him.

His wards offered no protection from a quick sword swipe. He fell to the floor dead, a gash through his neck.

Only the zebra remained, and I could see she had thrown the majority of her armor off and was wielding no weapons. What was her plan, to face me unarmed, with her hooves alone? Apparently so, I realized as she launched herself toward me.

As I swung my sword around, she clamped her hooves around it, twisting it from my grasp. She followed up with a quick kick to my side, denting in my armor and cracking my ribs. Perhaps she didn’t need a weapon after all.

I shot a bolt of lightning at her as she approached again, and though it impacted and I could see it pained her, she kept coming. This time her hoof came down on my hindleg, snapping the bone. The agony was so intense I collapsed to the floor. As she loomed over me, I quickly pulled my steel sword from my saddlebags, taking the zebra by surprise and slicing through her side.

As she reeled back, I staggered to my three good hooves. A blast of fire kept her at a distance long enough for me to collect my thoughts.

I Shouted before she could dodge.

My steel sword slashed through her frozen body, but I made sure she was dead before I collapsed to the floor. Painstakingly, I reset the bone in my leg and my ribs before downing a few healing potions. Once I was healed enough to concentrate again, I fixed my wounds up the rest of the way with a healing spell.

Before moving on, I searched the bodies for any useful items. I came away with a particularly good find with the unicorn, a spell tome entitled Conjure Flame Atronach. I cracked open the cover and allowed the book to combust, teaching me the spell in seconds. I now knew how to summon a guardian composed entirely of fire, which could be useful in the future. After a last look around, I headed deeper into the fort, toward wherever the bandit leader was holed up.

Two more bandits I encountered on the way, but they were easily dispatched with a single sword swipe. Climbing stairs to the next floors, I eventually reached the inner keep. Heavy doors were supposed to keep intruders out, but they were flung wide open, as if inviting me in. As I approached them, however, four more bandits spewed out, ready to defend their leader.

I jumped into the fray, killing the first instantly with a strike from Calcion’s Cleaver, and a second a moment after with a slash from the Axe of Whitetrot. The other two closed in from the sides, but I blocked both their strikes with my twin weapons. As my war axe slashed through one, I dropped it and focused my magic on blasting lightning into the other, who was blocking my sword. The whole affair took only a few seconds.

Quickly cleaning off my blades, I entered the inner keep. Chests filled with ill-gotten wares were piled up everywhere, and the bandit chief stood among them. She was a bat-pony, her velvety wings folded across her back and her tufted ears standing at attention. She drew a long, curved blade as I entered, launching into the air as if anticipating the fight to come.

I sent lightning blast after lightning blast up at her, scorching the ceiling, but she deftly avoided them. When I gave up on hitting her with my magic, she took the chance to strike, swooping down at me. Her blade glanced off my own as I blocked. Circling around, she came at me again, and again I blocked. The next time she swooped down, I was ready, and filled her path with fire.

She tumbled to the floor, smoking as holes burned through her thin wings. I tried to rush forward as she was down, but she quickly recovered and was back on her hooves, ready to defend herself. I swung my sword at her, but she deftly avoided it, stabbing past my blade and piercing my armor in the shoulder-joint.

<<>> I Shouted, pushing her back and staggering her.

I rushed forward as she was down, this time reaching her before she could get up. However, she still managed to get her sword up to block. But now that she was on the ground, she was vulnerable to my magic. My lightning pierced her body, causing her to convulse and drop her sword. I pressed my blade to her throat as she continued to twitch, ending her life.

With the bandit chief dead, I bandaged my wounds and headed for the fort’s exit. As I entered the courtyard, the twanging of a bow reminded me that I had not killed quite everypony yet. I turned toward the tower, where the archer was concealed. As I watched, another arrow flew from the fort, but not at me.

I turned to see what she was shooting at, only to witness a dragon slamming into the tower, knocking it apart and killing the archer inside. Flapping its wings to stay aloft and digging its claws into what was left of the tower to stay in place, the great lizard turned to look at me.

Releasing the tower, it swooped toward me, filling the fort’s courtyard with fire. Desperately, I pressed myself against the wall to avoid the flames. I pulled out my bow as the dragon circled around for another pass, firing two arrows into it before I was forced to retreat again. The next time it circled around, I was able to stick four in the beast.

Realizing it was becoming a pincushion, the dragon stopped its aerial attacks and landed heavily in the courtyard. With nowhere to run, I realized the only thing to do was directly engage the dragon.

<> I Shouted, rushing forward.

The dragon never knew what hit it as I slashed Calcion’s Cleaver across its nose. With another slash, I took out one of its angry eyes. Roaring in pain, it knocked me aside with its head, sending me skidding across the courtyard.

I rolled to the side to avoid a blast of fire, almost getting backed into a corner before the stream stopped. As I leapt to my hooves, the dragon jumped forward, propelling itself along with a quick beat of its wings. Its jaws snapped at me and I jumped back. It was trying to eat me!

My Draugr sword slashed through its nose again, and I ran back as the dragon snapped at me again. I shot a blast of lightning at the dragon’s face, but the majority of the energy dispersed across the scales, just making it mad.

As I continued to retreat from the lizard, I realized I had been backed against a wall. There was nowhere to run as the beast suddenly grabbed me in its jaws. Razor sharp teeth pierced my armor like it was cheap parchment, tearing through my flesh and organs. I gave a cry of pain as the teeth cut into me.

Fighting the pain, I kept my magic active, if just barely, and forced Calcion’s Cleaver into the dragon’s mouth. With a final thrust of energy, I forced the blade up into the dragon’s brain. Thankfully, the dragon lived just long enough to let out a scream of pain, releasing me from its jaws, before it died.

Quite a few bandages and healing potions later, I was able to stand again, though not without wincing. The dragon began to combust as I pulled my blade from its mouth, and I embraced the memories as they flowed into me.

The dragon’s life and all its experiences were mine, though my mind tended to focus on when the dragon had focused on spirits, and even practiced turning itself into the spirit form. I had the distinct feeling that, combined with FEIM, the draconic word for spirit, ZII, would allow me to take on a better ethereal form.

<> I Shouted, and my body took on the eerie see-through quality of a ghost.

When I returned to my regular form, I felt oddly rejuvenated, as if my brief bout of spirit-ness had healed me. Checking my wounds, I found they were far more healed than before I had Shouted. I filed away the new Shout I had learned, and turned myself toward the fort’s exit.

I was headed back east, toward Windhorn (or Earthhaven as Jarl Stormcloud insisted on calling it.)

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

“So, the fort’s all cleared out?” Stormcloud asked as I stood before his throne in the Palace of Kings.

“Yes,” I answered, “Though you’ll need to remove the bandits’ bodies and the dragon skeleton yourself.”

“Well, that’ll do I suppose,” he said, “You’ve earned the location of the Hall of the Vigilant.”

“Though, I must ask,” he added after marking the location on my map, “Why do you need to find Cloverdust so badly?”

“I’d rather not say,” I replied, both because it involved the Dark Brotherhoof, and because it was fairly complicated.

“I see,” the Jarl said, looking troubled, “But I may as well warn you before you get your hopes up, the Vigilants will most likely not let you in to see Cloverdust. They don’t allow anypony in to see their convicts. In fact, they’ll most likely try to lock you up too if you ask about him.”

“We’ll see,” I said before leaving.

The Vigilants would have to let me in, one way or another. If that meant fighting through them to get to this foal, then so be it. He was my only hope at seeing Steadfast again. And to get Steadfast back, I would take on the whole Empire if necessary.

Level Up
Health: 180 Stamina: 170 Magicka: 170
New Perk: A Shot in the Dark [Archery] -- Sneak attacks with bows now do 3 times critical damage.
New Spell learned: Conjure Flame Atronach -- You can now use your unicorn magic to conjure up a guardian composed entirely of flame that will fight on your behalf.
Dragon Soul collected
New Quest: A Vigil to Break -- Get in to see Cloverdust at the Hall of the Vigilant, one way or another.

Chapter 23: Cloverdust

Chapter XXIII: Cloverdust
“We love you Sage, thank you for your kindness.”

According to Jarl Stormcloud, the Hall of the Vigilant was located in the south of The Pale, Dawnstar’s hold. It was already late when I had returned to Windhorn, and the Hall was several hours travel away, so I stayed over the night and departed for the mountain lodge in the morning.

A light snow was falling as I neared the Hall of the Vigilant. Up the rolling hills I climbed until I neared the rustic lodge. From the outside, it appeared to be no more than a large inn, nearly identical to other ones I’d seen in Horizon. Before I could enter the building, I had to pass by an imposing statue of Steedarr, the Equine of mercy. I was in the right place, all right.

“Welcome traveler,” a cream-colored unicorn stallion in pale blue robes approached me, “May I help you?”

“Yes, I’d like to enter the Hall of the Vigilant,” I answered.

“You would like to become a member?” he asked.

“No, I just need to enter.”

“Well, I’m afraid only those who have pledged themselves to Steedarr, and have pledged to uphold justice and mercy, and wipe out the unnatural blights that plague our land may enter. You are, of course, welcome to pray at Steedarr’s shrine for guidance, as many a pilgrim has.”

“Thank you,” I told him, “But I just need to speak to one pony who I believe is here. Perhaps if I cannot enter, you could send him out?”

“Who is it you wish to speak with?”

“A foal named Cloverdust. I understand he was taken here a few days ago.”

“And what business do you have with him?” the Vigilant asked, growing suddenly wary of me, “Are you perhaps in league with the dark curse he performed.”

“No,” I said, “I just wanted to speak with him.”

“It can’t be done,” he proclaimed, “He is charged with performing the Black Sacrament and will be punished as he deserves. You will leave now if you don’t wish to join him.”

I could see his horn had begun to glow, along with the weapon nearly concealed beneath his robes. I took his advice and left, but I wouldn’t give up on getting into this place. Approaching the front door was just my first plan. Being denied entry, it was now time to enact the second.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

After heading down the path and out of sight, I carefully began to climb the rocky heights alongside it. Slowly and steadily, I navigated the mountains, keeping the Hall of the Vigilant in sight until I was right above it. Cautiously, I made my way down the cliff face behind the Hall, careful to not be seen.

Once I dropped to the level of the cliff the Hall was built on, I quickly darted behind one of the several pines sprouting up behind the lodge. Taking a peek around the trunk, I could see a small garden stretched between me and the Hall of the Vigilant. A few Vigilants were tending it, shrouded in their robes, but armed nonetheless.

It would be near impossible to cross while the Vigilants were still there without attracting attention. If only there was some way I could turn myself invisible. I could Shout myself into a spectral form, but I had no idea if ghosts were considered unnatural or not. In the end, I settled on trying out the “Conjure Flame Atronach” spell I had learned in Fort Trotsdown.

It sapped a great deal of my magical energy, but I was able to cast the spell, directing it a little ways away from me. At the point I had focused on, a dervish of flame suddenly sprang up, throwing sparks in all directions. From the firestorm, a creature with the distinct shape of a pony sprang up, though it was composed entirely of flame.

Fire burned up the whole of its body, a dull red but for a jet of yellow for a tail and flickering range of orange for a mane. The center of its face seemed carved out, and there the flames were less stable, flickering back and forth without a set shape. The fire within the gap in its face burned brighter as it faced the Vigilants before trotting off.

The two ponies tending the garden looked up at my atronach in amazement before jumping to their hooves and drawing their swords. Charging across the carefully tended rows of vegetables, they began to pursue the creature I’d summoned. As if it knew what my intentions were for it, the flame creature led the Vigilants on a chase away from the door, not striking back, only leading them away.

With the garden clear, I was easily able to cross to the Hall and its back door. With a single lockpick I was able to unlock the door. Slowly, I pushed it open, peering through the crack to make sure no Vigilants were nearby. When I was sure the coast was clear I slipped in.

Before making my way through the mountains, I had removed my steel armor, hiding it in some scraggly bushes. Now I was wearing the leather armor the Thieves Guild had given me. Besides being lightweight and making next to no noise, it was enchanted to soften the sound of my hoofsteps, making me an unheard phantom.

Carefully, I crept through the halls. I had no idea where Cloverdust was, but I suspected it was nowhere nice, the dungeons perhaps, if the Hall of the Vigilant had them. As I trotted deeper into the Hall, a door opened suddenly next to me, and a robed earth pony mare emerged.

In a moment she would see me. Thinking quickly, I knocked her over the head with the butt of my war axe. I barely caught her as she fell over unconscious. Looking through the door she had emerged from, I saw it led to a bedroom. I dragged her body in, laying her in bed. She should be safe here, and when she awoke, maybe she would think it was just a dream.

After checking to make sure the hall was clear, I snuck back out of the room. After slinking down the passage, I was forced to stop at the end as a horde of Vigilants passed by the final doorway. After they had passed, I snuck through and followed them.

By the time I caught up, they had entered a large central room in the Hall, one where the entire second floor had been removed to make room for the massive statue that dominated the room. The Equine Steedarr stood, his wings outstretched and a sword grasped in his magic. His targets stood across the room, statues of the three things the Vigilants hated most.

First was a vampire, a snarling pony with dripping fangs and piercing eyes, wings sprouting from its back much like a bat-pony’s. Second was a Draconequus, one of the many and varied serpent-like creatures with unimaginable power that ruled the Beyond. Lastly was a werewolf in mid-form, the pony still recognizable as matted fur grew from its back and sharp teeth protruded from a muzzle resembling the nose of a wolf more than that of a pony.

The Vigilants had laid down mats in front of the shrine to Steedarr and were bowing before it as I entered the room. Swiftly I passed through, careful not to interrupt their ceremony nor draw attention to myself. I took one last look at the grotesque statues pressed against the wall before moving on.

Down another short passage, I found myself standing outside the Hall of the Vigilant’s kitchens. Two Vigilants were cleaning up after the midday meal, blocking my progress. While their backs were turned, I quickly crawled into the room, keeping low to the floor. I pressed myself up against a counter, out of their sight before they could notice my presence.

I kept my war axe ready, and as one of them passed my hiding spot, I hit him over the head. Before he even hit the floor, I jumped up quickly and focused my magic. Across the kitchen, the other Vigilant found one of her pans turn against her, knocking her unconscious. Locking them both up in the pantry, I moved on, silent as a mouse.

I was passing down the hall beyond the kitchens when two Vigilants suddenly turned the corner up ahead. A nearby door was open, and I ducked inside before they could see me.

Inside the room was an assortment of weapons arranged neatly on racks, along with a table stacked with pamphlets. In its center was a map of Horizon, tiny colored flags marking who knew what. As the voices of the two Vigilants grew closer, I ducked under the table, hiding in the shadows.

“You should have arrested her when you had the chance,” I heard the fist pony say as she entered.

I got a good look at her as she neared the table, a blood red pegasus in more elaborate robes than the rest of the Vigilants. Her companion was the cream-colored unicorn I had spoken to outside.

“I don’t think she means to be a threat,” he said, “We can’t assume her intentions in wanting to speak to him were ignoble.”

“Our job is to put an end to anything evil, for Steedarr’s glory,” the mare responded, “We can’t assume she’s innocent either. I want you to find her and bring her in for questioning.”

“But she could be anywhere by now,” the unicorn protested.

“She can’t have gone far. Round up some of the new acolytes and search the valley from the Hjaaltrot swamps to Winterhorn. Don’t return until she is found.”

“Yes ma’am,” the unicorn replied, leaving the room.

The pegasus stood around for a while, looking through some of the books arranged neatly on the shelves lining the walls. After making a few notes in one, she too left the room. I waited a minute to make sure she wasn’t coming back before crawling out from under the table.

Now I had a totally new problem. There was no doubt in my mind that the conversation I had just overheard had to do with me. Having Vigilants searching for me wasn’t at all what I needed right now. But I had other matters to deal with first.

Since I was already in this room, I decided to have a look around. Most of the books on the shelves were just journals, records of the deeds the Vigilants had done over their time here. Many were also notes on ponies throughout Horizon they were watching for suspected crimes.

The maces set in racks along each wall were interesting, especially because they were all inscribed with a set of fancy runes and the symbol of Steedarr. A nearby note told me they were sanctified weapons specially made for dealing damage to the Draconequi and their foul Changeling servants.

Another door was set into the wall across from the entrance door. The lock was hard to pick, but after a few tries, I got it. Opening it revealed a flight of stairs. As quietly as I could, I climbed down them, shutting the door softly behind me.

Down I went, until the walls turned from wood to stone. Taking a turn at the bottom, I found myself looking down a hallway with prison cells set into the walls on either side. They were mostly empty, though a few prisoners sat in the cells. All were currently sleeping, so I passed through easily, though I watched my step to avoid making unnecessary noises that could wake them.

At the end of the hall was a large, wide open room with doorways leading to cells all around its perimeter. The room itself was filled with torture devices of all shapes and sizes. Some even looked as though they had been used recently. My stomach turned as I thought of what was being done here. Steeling myself, I carried on. I still had a job to finish here.

I had no sooner entered the room than I was forced to duck back out. Two Vigilants emerged from the doors to the right and left, conducting their rounds. As they moved on to trot down the next set of passages, I jumped out and snuck over to the nearest one. Hitting her over the head, I turned around and snuck up on the other one before knocking her out as well.

Running up and down the passages, I searched for Cloverdust until I finally found an orange-coated earth pony colt locked in a cell. At first he cowered away as I neared his cell, but then he looked closer with a puzzled expression.

“Are you Cloverdust?” I asked him quietly through the bars.

“Yeah,” he exclaimed with joy, a little too loud for my comfort, “You actually came!”

“Quiet, kid,” I told him as I pulled out my lockpicks and began to work on his cell door.

“Nopony believed me, but I knew you’d come,” he continued talking, regardless of my warning, “So, does this mean you’ll take the job?”

“We’ll talk more later,” I promised him as the door squeaked open, “Right now we need to get out of here. Do you think you can run fast enough to keep up with me?”

“I don’t think so,” he said, hobbling out, “They broke my leg.”

I thought for a moment before picking him up with my magic and depositing him on my back.

“Hold on tight,” I told him, but added as an afterthought, “Just don’t pull my mane.”

Once he had looped his forelegs around my neck, I made my way back to the torture chamber. Cloverdust shuddered and hid behind me as we passed through; no doubt remembering what had been done to him here. Carefully I climbed the stairs and entered the room above.

As I trotted out into the hallway I bumped right into a Vigilant, sending him reeling. I knocked him over the head before he could get up, but I hadn’t noticed the other robed pony standing down the hall.

“Intruder!” he yelled, rushing off to warn the other Vigilants, “Escaping prisoners!”

I ran in the opposite direction. Frantically I galloped down the halls as Cloverdust held on for dear life. Whenever I ran into a Vigilant, I turned the other way. I certainly had no plans to kill anypony here, and there was no way I could do nonlethal takedowns with so many and a foal on my back.

I had lost all sense of where I was by the time I galloped into a large room filled with tables. At the other end was a set of doors I had seen the other side of in my first attempt to get in. It was the exit. Unfortunately, a dozen or more Vigilants stood in front of it, their weapons drawn.

<<>> I knocked them out of the way.

Pushing the doors open with my magic, I galloped out into the open air, snow falling around me. Widening the distance between myself and the Vigilants, I galloped past the statue of Steedarr and down the mountain path, stopping only to grab my heavy armor. Pursued by perhaps a hundred ponies, I galloped away from the Hall of the Vigilant, Cloverdust clinging tightly to my back.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

By nightfall, I had reached Whitetrot, and the Vigilants seemed to have given up pursuit. Once we were safe in Breezehome, I bandaged up the colt’s leg the best I could before questioning him.

“Why did the Vigilants take you?” I asked him, initiating the conversation.

“I performed the Black Sacrament, and now you’re here!” he answered.

“Why did you do it?”

“To summon the Dark Brotherhoof. Looks like I did it right after all. I was worried for a minute.”

“How do you contact the Brotherhoof?” I asked him, not getting the answers I wanted.

“Like I said, the Black Sacrament. The Nightmare must’ve heard my plea, and now you can perform my assassination.”

“Assassination?” I asked, shocked.

“Yeah,” he said, yawning and curling up on the floor, “On that nasty orphanage mother Sage in Splitten.”

“I’m not with the Brotherhoof,” I tried to explain to him as he nodded off, “I’m just trying to find them.”

Any further prods to get answers were useless. The colt was sound asleep. Giving a sigh, I headed off to my room. It was apparent he knew absolutely nothing about finding the Brotherhoof, but at least he had given me some information that might help. He’d called assassins to kill the orphanage mother in Splitten. Maybe I could head them off there before they killed her. For the night, however, I slept, intent on fleshing out my plan in the morning.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

The next day, Cloverdust woke me up, wondering if I had killed Sage yet. As best I could I explained the situation to him. I would go to Splitten, and he would come with me, but not all the way. I had an idea of where to leave him where he’d be in good hooves.

Before leaving Whitetrot, I headed over to Warmare’s to give my armor much-needed repairs. I figured there was no way the Brotherhoof would attempt to kill Sage during the day anyway, so I still had a few hours. I also had to travel much more slowly with Cloverdust along with me, especially since he kept getting distracted all the time. Finally we made it to Riverwood, where I dropped him off with Calciar and Eruthar at the Riverwood Trader.

After that, I was able to make my way swiftly to Splitten, arriving in the late afternoon. The orphanage was locked when I found it, but I didn’t intend to just walk through the front door anyway. I would need a place to hide if I was going to catch these assassins.

Sneaking around the back, I was able to climb the rampant ivy growing up the wall. From the roof I had a view across Splitten, the keep towering up at one end of the city, a temple nearby also poking above the houses. Wooden buildings in need of good repairs stretched between the rugged stone walls, the waterway splitting right through the center.

Figuring I’d done enough sightseeing, I climbed across the thatched roof, keeping out of sight of both townsponies and patrolling guards. Finding a window, I was able to pop it open and climb into a dusty attic. There was barely enough space to fit between the roof and the first floor’s ceiling, but I managed, worming my way through until I reached a place where the attic stopped and the room below was visible.

Nothing was going on at the moment, and there were no assassins in sight, so I settled down to wait. As time dragged on, I wondered if the assassins would be showing up today at all. Sage was alive at the moment, I had checked to make sure, but it never occurred to me that perhaps I would have to wait days for the assassins to make an attempt at killing her.

I was broken out of my musings by the sound of pots and pans crashing across the floor. I looked down to see a little filly struggling to pick them up with her magic.

“What is the meaning of this?” I heard an older voice say, accompanied by the sound of hoofsteps entering the room.

“Why, you clumsy little oaf!” the elderly earth pony mare revealed herself, storming into the room, “What have you done?”

“I-I’m sorry Sage,” the filly stuttered, still trying to pick the pots back up, “It was an a-accident.”

“You are an accident,” Sage yelled, “You’ll get an extra beating tonight for this.”

Reaching into her cloak, the elderly mare produced a thick wooden block with a padded handle for her to hold in her mouth. The filly who had dropped the pans gave up on picking them back up and cowered to the ground, trying to slink away. I watched in horror as the orphanage mother brought the beating stick down on the defenseless foal. Again and again she beat her into the ground, until I heard bones crack.

At this moment, I would really not have cared if the assassins got away with killing this miserable old mare. But no assassins appeared, and the foal was getting seriously injured. I couldn’t just stand by and let this happen, so I crawled out of my hiding place and dropped to the floor below.

“Stop it!” I yelled at Sage, ripping the beating stick from her grasp with my magic.

“I don’t know how you got in here,” the elderly mare said, turning to face me, “But this is none of your business. Get out of here.”

“No,” I said, “I’m not going to let you do this to little foals. You’re not going to get away with this.”

“Do you think so?” she laughed, “I’m a close friend of the Jarl; she’ll do nothing to me.”

“Then I’ll find someone else who cares.”

“Well, we can’t have that, now can we?” she said, drawing a knife on me.

I was so caught off guard, I barely had time to draw my sword before she attacked me. As she jabbed her knife at me, I knocked it away with Calcion’s Cleaver. I similarly swatted away her next slash with my sword. The next one I wasn’t so lucky on, and she stabbed me in the shoulder.

Instinctively, I stabbed my sword up into her body. Her grip on her knife refused to release and it pulled out of my shoulder as she slumped over dead. Repulsed, I pulled my sword out of her.

“You – you killed her,” the little filly said, staggering to her hooves.

“I-I . . .” I tried to explain, but no words came out.

“Cloverdust really did it,” she exclaimed, running up to hug my leg, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“What’s going on in here?” another mare asked, trotting into the room, though she seemed more frightened than angry.

She gasped as she saw Sage lying dead at my hooves.

“Murder!” she yelled, running away, “There’s been a murder!”

Quickly, I shook the filly off my leg and darted out of the orphanage. Through Splitten’s streets I galloped, trying to avoid the guards. I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief as I left the city and nopony had caught me. Still, I had no doubt they’d be after me soon, so I kept moving.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I’d had no luck catching the Dark Brotherhoof assassin, and there was no way they’d come to do their job now that I’d done it for them. The only idea I had now was to return to Windhorn and see what it was Cloverdust had done in his home to summon the Brotherhoof in the first place. The sun was beginning to set as I left Splitten, so I decided to stop in the tiny town of Shor’s Stone on my way. As I was renting a room in the only inn in town, a breathless courier ran up to me.

“Got a letter for you,” she said, passing a slip of paper to me before rushing off.

“Thanks,” I called as she left.

In my room, after I had taken my armor off for the night, I opened the letter. There was nothing on the parchment except a hoofmark of black ink and two words: “We know.” I turned it over and over in the air, but there was no mark to indicate who it was from. Perplexed, I set the mysterious letter aside and went to sleep. I would figure things out in the morning.

Level Up
Health: 180 Stamina: 180 Magicka: 170
New Perk: Light on Your Hooves [Sneak] -- When sneaking your hoofsteps are silent and you will never set off pressure plates.
New Quest: Brothers of Darkness -- Locate the Dark Brotherhoof and enlist their help in finding Mephalda.

Chapter 24: A League of Assassins

Chapter XXIV: A League of Assassins
“Sweet Nightmare, sweet Nightmare, send your foal unto me, that the sins of the unworthy may be baptized in blood and fear.”

When I woke up, I was lost for a minute in remembering exactly where I was. I recalled I had gone to bed in Shor’s Stone, but that’s certainly not where I was now. I appeared to be lying on a bed in a one-room shack. Looking around, I realized I had absolutely no idea just where I was.

“Sleep well?” a voice startled me out of my wonderings.

I bolted straight upright and searched for the voice’s source. At last I found her, a lavender pegasus in black leather armor perched in the rafters.

“Who are you?” I asked, still working on waking up.

“I am Merrifeather,” she divulged freely, “Head of the Dark Brotherhoof.”

I rolled out of bed and onto my hooves quickly, grabbing my sword from my saddlebags, which lay nearby. I knew I should’ve been pleased to hear this, after searching for them with no success yet, but at the moment I was too afraid she was sent to kill me.

“Relax,” she said, still unmoving on her perch, “I don’t want you dead. If I did, why would I have had you brought from your room in Shor’s Stone only to lay you down here, unharmed?”

“Where is here?” I asked.

“A small shack in the Hjaaltrot swamps north of Marethal,” she answered, surprisingly forthcoming with information.”

“So, what does the Dark Brotherhoof want with me?” I asked.

“Well, you’ve been searching us out; we want to know why. Also, we’ve been watching you, and we saw what you did with Sage. It was, by all rights, a Dark Brotherhoof kill, which you stole, after all.”

“I wasn’t going to let her beat that poor foal-” I started to defend myself.

“Indeed not,” Merrifeather said, “And that’s just what drew our attention to you and made us consider you for membership.”

“Oh no,” I said, “I wasn’t trying to find you because I wanted to join. I don’t have any intention of killing innocent ponies.”

“Nor do we,” the pegasus replied plainly, “The ponies we assassinate are far from innocent, as I think you will agree based on your own experience. We aren’t common swords for hire that will go around slicing the throat of just anypony. We have morals too. Much like our brothers in the Thieves Guild, we too are misunderstood. The ponies we kill are corrupt, beyond saving. We punish those who would never receive punishment otherwise. What would have happened if you had brought your case regarding Sage before Splitten’s Jarl?”

“She claimed she was a close friend of the Jarl,” I replied, seeing where she was going, “Nothing would have been done.”

“But, now she has received her punishment; a punishment she deserved, but our corrupt society would never have given her. All our assassination contracts must first pass through the Nightmare. An ancient and wise leader, she decides which cases are to be taken, and which are to be ignored. Where there is a genuine need for punishment, we pursue. Petty arguments and cries for vengeance we do not. We are assassins, not murderers.”

“Right,” I said, starting to see where she was coming from, “But really, the only reason I was trying to find the Dark Brotherhoof was to ask you a question.”

“Your question can come later,” Merrifeather said, “If you choose to enter the Brotherhoof, there is a contract you must fulfill. Your task is to assassinate Captain Faeros of the Marekarth guard. Return to this shack when you are finished if you wish to join with us.”

Before I could try to ask where Mephalda was, the pegasus swooped down and out the door. I was so close and still so far away from my goal. If I wanted any answers from the Dark Brotherhoof, it looked like I would have to perform at least one more assassination for them.

At least I had been given a task that would be a little easier for me. I remembered Captain Faeros from the attack on Caprika Redoubt. I could already guess why he’d been sentenced to death.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Everything Merrifeather had told me was true, at least regarding my location. The trek to Marekarth took a large portion of the day, but not as long as if I’d had to depart from Shor’s Stone.

The city seemed just as I’d remembered it, except that the damage from the dragon attack was beginning to heal. Food grew in the scorched fields outside the city walls, and within them workers were busy repairing the ancient Minotaur buildings.

I tried to remain inconspicuous, but several ponies remembered me from my last time here, when I had saved the city, and waved as I passed by. It was nice to be recognized for my deeds and overcome my last memories of this place, but it would be difficult to kill Captain Faeros without being detected if everypony knew I was here.

As I entered the Jarl’s palace, I slipped into the shadows, becoming invisible. After waiting for a guard to pass, I snuck up behind and followed him, keeping out of sight until I could pass down one of the branching hallways. Truth be told, I wasn’t sure exactly where Captain Faeros’s room was, but I was going to find it.

All the rooms I searched came up empty, just the quarters of nobles in Jarl Glamus’s court. I needed a new plan. Keeping to back passages, I slunk around until I found myself outside the back entrance to the kitchens. Carefully, I peeked around the corner to get a good look at the room.

The kitchen was large and expansive, large enough to feed full grown Minotaurs, and now to keep Jarl Glamus and his court fed. Yet, at the moment there were only four ponies present. Hoping to pass through, I snuck into the kitchen, keeping out of sight. What I got instead from listening in was far better.

“It’s your turn to feed the dogs,” one of the ponies on the staff complained, “I did it yesterday.”

“Then you can feed them again today,” another said, “I need to bring Captain Faeros his soup. You know how he gets when it’s not delivered on time. He’s anxious enough as it is.”

“Why can’t he just eat at mealtimes with everypony else?”

“He doesn’t like coming out in public anymore. Have you seen him lately?”

“No.”

“Well, I’ll spare you the sight. Feed the hounds.”

Sprinting around the kitchens as stealthily as possible, I was able to catch up with the pony carrying Captain Faeros his soup. Through the tunnels she trotted until she got to the end of one of the most secluded passage. I hid in an alcove as best I could as she brought the Captain his soup, showing me the door to his room. When she had gone, I trotted up to the door and quietly pushed it open.

“I said I didn’t want to be disturbed-” Captain Faeros started to say as I entered before he stopped and took a good look at me, “Oh, it’s you.”

“Were you expecting me?” I asked, trotting a little closer.

“Not you specifically, but I guess it seems fitting,” he said, rising from his bed.

Now that he was out from under the covers, I was able to get a good look at him. Three-fourths of his body was covered in terrible burns and blisters. As he moved, many of them cracked, and he winced with the pain.

“The attack on Caprika Redoubt was a disaster,” he explained, “The trees there were truly alive, like in the old tales. They didn’t take kindly to us setting them aflame. They fought back. Half the Marekarth guard was wiped out in the attack. Another third died of their injuries later. I survived, but this isn’t living. These magical burns will never heal.”

“So, why did you seem to be expecting me?” I asked him, bringing him back on topic and drawing attention away from his horrible injuries.

“I assume you’re with the Dark Brotherhoof, here to end my life?”

“How did you know?”

“Because I’m the one who called out the hit on myself.”

“You did?” I asked, astonished.

“It wasn’t right what Jarl Glamus and I did,” he confessed, “Killing all those goats the way we did, and we were punished for it, but not enough. I don’t deserve to live, nor do I desire to. Put an end to my suffering; it seems almost fitting that you do it, as if the Equines planned this out.”

“What about Jarl Glamus?” I asked him as I approached, Calcion’s Cleaver out.

“I’d perform the Black Sacrament on him too, but he’s too necessary to the Empire and to this city. Without him, Marekarth would fall to the Cloven Hoof or the Stormclouds in weeks.”

“Just get it over with,” he said, bowing his head, “I’m ready to die.”

Shakily, I raised my sword, ready to fulfill his wish. Looking away, I quickly brought it down, slaying the guard captain. I looked down at him, and his burned face seemed almost peaceful. He had paid for his crimes and enlisted me to enact the punishment. I wasn’t thrilled to have done it, but I had all the same, and he had known what was coming. I carefully placed his body back in his bed before leaving.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

After killing Captain Faeros, I made my way back to the Dark Brotherhoof shack in Hjaaltrot’s swamps, stopping over to sleep the next morning in Dragon Bridge. When I made it back to the shack, I found Merrifeather there, perched in the rafters again.

“It’s done,” I told her, craning my neck to look up at where she was lying casually.

“Very good,” she proclaimed, “You are ready to join the Dark Brotherhoof. Follow me to the Sanctuary.”

Before I could speak another word or ask about Mephalda, she swooped down from the rafters and out the door. I followed, trying not to lose her. She was already in the air when I emerged from the shack and began to fly south when she saw I was outside. I followed her, trying to keep up as she flew through the air.

Through the whole day she continued to fly, and I followed along on the ground. Several times I thought I had lost her, only to have her double back and lead me on again. The worst part of the trip was the silence. Since she was up in the air and I was landbound, it made it impossible to talk to her or ask about Mephalda. I’d given up on asking her until she was ready, anyway. It seemed she wouldn’t give me a chance to ask, I would just have to wait.

Dusk was falling by the time we neared Foalkreath. At last, Merrifeather flapped down and joined me on the path. She smiled a bit when I didn’t immediately try to ask her about Mephalda. Perhaps it had been a test in patience?

“Soon we will enter the Dark Brotherhoof Sanctuary,” she said, “Once inside, I will show you around, then you may feel free to ask us whatever it is you so desperately needed to.”

Yes, it was a test in patience.

“You have proven you are worthy to join the Brotherhoof,” she went on, “But before we enter the Sanctuary, I must know you are willing. Are you ready to join us and help us in our quest to punish injustice where the system does not, to take the lives of ponies at the request of the Nightmare?”

I had to think on this. After all, joining the Dark Brotherhoof was not something someone did lightly. I really needed to get in, so I could find Mephalda and save Steadfast. But, once I was in, would they let me out? My responsibilities so far to other organizations had been minimal. I could come and go freely as Thane of Whitetrot, as student under the Greymanes, and with the Thieves Guild. Would the Dark Brotherhoof be more demanding of me?

“Before I do,” I said, deciding to ask questions before committing, “I need to know to what extent my commitment will be. Will I need to stay in the Sanctuary when not out on assassinations?”

“All our members are free to come and go as they please,” Merrifeather explained, “So long as it does not endanger the others.”

“Then I’m ready,” I said, intent on entering the Sanctuary and the Dark Brotherhoof.

If everything Merrifeather had told me was true, and at least so far it seemed to be, the Dark Brotherhoof was not a band of ruthless cutthroats. Much like the Thieves Guild, they had a nobler purpose than most realized, and while I still didn’t much care for the thought of assassinating ponies, I wouldn’t mind quite so much being a part of it.

“Very well,” the pegasus at my side said, trotting off the path and through the trees.

At a point where the land suddenly jutted a bit above the surrounding hills, a hollow was carved into the rock. Within it was a carving of a skull the size of a full-grown pony. As Merrifeather approached it, she pressed her hoof into a hoof-shaped mark on its forehead. The mark glowed red briefly, as did the eyes of the skull, before the carving slid up and away, revealing a tunnel leading down.

She led the way in, and I followed after her, the skull falling shut behind me and sealing us in. The tunnel was rough, and lit with flickering candles, providing an eerie feeling as we sank into the depths of the earth. At the end, it let out into a large cave, a chandelier hanging from the ceiling above filling the space with light.

Much like in the Ragged Flagon, several ponies lounged around here, absorbed in varying tasks, though these ponies wore the same black armor as Merrifeather. There was a forge here, as well as some tables for dining. Across a shallow pond there was a wall decorated with dragons and draconic runes I would have to check out later.

“My brothers!” Merrifeather announced, drawing the attention of everypony in the room, “A new member has joined us today. Welcome Sapphire into the fold and guide her as she assists us in acting out the Nightmare’s wishes.”

I received a greeting from a few of the assassins, but mostly just perfunctory nods in my direction.

“You must forgive us for not applauding,” a scruffy pale gray earth pony stallion said, rising from a nearby table, “The Dark Brotherhoof tends to attract the quiet type.”

“The name’s Prominence,” he said, offering a hairy hoof to shake, “And before you ask; yes, I’m a werewolf.”

He was certainly forthcoming about it, and though I wasn’t entirely comfortable being near a skin-changer, I shook his hoof anyway, not wanting to be rude.

“I’ll let you get acquainted with some of your Dark Brothers, and we can talk later,” Merrifeather said, flapping off.

“So, where’re you from then, Sapphire?” Prominence asked, “Seclusion? Winterhorn?”

“Kvatch actually,” I answered.

“Ah, from Unicornica itself,” he said, “I’ve been there once or twice, when we still had a Sanctuary there.”

“There isn’t one anymore?” I asked.

I’d read about the Legion’s raids on the Dark Brotherhoof, but with this sanctuary still in existence here, and well hidden, I wondered if maybe there was at least one still in Unicornica.

“No, it was wiped out over a century ago,” Prominence explained, “Now this is all we have.”

“A century?” I asked, finding it hard to believe that this pony had been alive back then.

“Yes, my werewolf blood has given me increased longevity,” he explained, “Not as significant as, say, a vampire’s, but I would never go down that path. I am a servant of the Nightmare, not of the night.”

“You keep mentioning the Nightmare,” I said, “Who is she?”

I had heard horror stories regarding the Nightmare. She was believed to be the dark mother of the Dark Brotherhoof, and rumored to feast on foals. Personally, I felt it to be more a way to make children behave that to be an actual legend, but now I had somepony who might know the truth to ask.

“The Nightmare is the head of our order,” he said proudly, “It is to her that ponies perform the Black Sacrament to summon Dark Brotherhoof assistance. And it is her that decides which causes to accept and which to decline. Millennia ago, she was just a normal pony, but when she pledged herself to the Void, she became much more. She can hear the pleas of the oppressed, and she can see nearly everything.”

“Have you ever seen her?” I asked.

“Oh no,” he admitted, “Though she is here, a mummified corpse contained within an elaborate coffin. But only the Listener is allowed to see and speak to the Nightmare, a privilege he guards zealously.”

“Who’s the Listener?” I asked Prominence.

“I am,” came a dark voice over my shoulder instead.

I turned around to see a pitch black earth pony standing behind me. His coat and mane were so dark, they seemed to swallow the light around him. His eyes, in contrast, burned bright red with an all-consuming fire. The very feeling of death and despair seemed to radiate from him.

“I am Shadowmere,” he announced, his voice chilling the blood in my veins, “Eternal Listener for the Dark Brotherhoof.”

“So, you speak to the Nightmare?” I asked, forcing my tongue to work again.

“I Listen,” he replied, “For I am the Listener. I relay the Nightmare’s orders to the Brotherhoof, as I have for millennia.”

“We will see how you fare,” he said after sizing me up, “You seem . . . different from the rest.”

Without another word, he stalked off down one of the tunnels, his gaze causing more than one shiver as he walked past the other assassins.

“Cheery, isn’t he,” Prominence joked once he was well out of hearing range, “But he’s invaluable, the only pony who can hear what the Nightmare says. Also, he’s probably the most feared and greatest assassin who ever lived.”

“He said he’s been around for millennia,” I noted, “Is he a vampire?”

I wouldn’t have trouble believing it if it were true.

“No, he’s just deathless, a truly timeless assassin, though that does make him a bit hard to speak to,” Prominence said as he led me over to some other assassins, “Hemlock here is though, aren’t you Hem?”

The mare at the table turned around to face us. He coat was a supremely drab yellow, as if all the color had been sucked out of it. Two bat wings sprouted on her back, which she moved to keep her balance as she spun around. Her eyes peered deep into my own, the pupils split.

“I told you Prominence,” she hissed, and I could see her fanged teeth as she did, “Don’t call me Hem.”

“Sorry,” he apologized, though I could see he wasn’t sincere, “I just thought I’d introduce you to Sapphire, our newest recruit.”

“Yes, welcome,” Hemlock said, smiling at me, which I found a bit unnerving, “I suppose Merrifeather has not gotten you your gear yet?”

“No, actually,” I said.

“I will be right back with it,” she said, her voice oddly monotone as she stood and trotted away from us.

“So, are all of you . . .” I began to ask Prominence, trying to think of a more fitting term than outcasts.

“Monsters?” he asked.

That wasn’t really what I was thinking at all, though it seemed that was exactly what they would be considered to be. I started to protest him putting words into my mouth, trying to explain that wasn’t what I meant, but he cut me off.

“It’s all right,” he said, “And no, we’re not all like Hemlock and myself. There’s only one other vampire here, the rest are all normal ponies. Well, as normal as they come when they’re in the Brotherhoof. Come, I’ll introduce you to some.”

Following the stallion, I ended up near the Brotherhoof’s forge. Working it was a blue-gray pony with bat wings. At first I took her to be another vampire, but her lack of fangs and pallid complexion convinced me she was just a regular bat-pony.

“This is Flies-through-Darkness,” Prominence introduced her to me, “She makes all the weapons for the Dark Brotherhoof.”

“Pleased to meet you,” she said, pulling off a pair of goggles she had used while working the forge before shaking my hoof, “I’ll bet you need a blade.”

“Oh, that’s all right,” I protested as she headed over to a chest near her forge, “I have several swords.”

“Swords are all right,” she scoffed, returning with a dagger, “If you’re in a battle, but for quick and quiet assassinations, you can’t do better than a Fell Blade.”

I took the dagger from her and examined it with my magic. It was a masterfully crafted blade, sharp and slender. I could see how easily it would be able to slip through any armor silently and easily, yet still have the length to pierce a victim’s heart.

“Thank you,” I told her, placing the dagger in my saddlebags.

“Here in the Brotherhoof, we take care of each other,” she said, before going back to her forge.

“Now, there’s at least one more pony here you’ll need to know,” Prominence said, guiding me elsewhere in the Sanctuary.

A short distance off the main cave was a small room carved out of the rock. In it was a table where a map of Horizon was staked down, multicolored pins jabbed throughout the province. Behind the table sat a sky blue unicorn paging through a record book.

“Sapphire, this is Lapis,” he said, gesturing to the unicorn.

“You need a job,” he said, putting his book down, “I’m your guy. The Nightmare may speak only to Shadowmere, but once he knows the jobs, I’m the one who decides who gets them.”

“Are you ready for a job?” Merrifeather asked, flapping into the room.

“Oh, I don’t know,” I said.

“Oh sure you are,” the pegasus insisted, “And it can’t hurt to at least get one. You can always do them on your own time.”

“Well, all right,” I caved.

“Perfect,” she exclaimed, “Lapis, set her up with an easy one to start out with.”

“All right,” he said, flipping through his records book and consulting the map every so often, “There’s a farm worker in Rearikstead who’s been stealing gold from his boss. And, he killed one of the other workers who was on to him. Name’s Narius: earth pony stallion.”

“Great,” Merrifeather said, draping a wing over me, “May as well get some rest tonight. You can take care of that in the morning.”

“So, what was it you needed to ask me?” she asked as she led the way to the sleeping quarters.

“Vespers in the Thieves Guild told me that the Dark Brotherhoof was helping hide an ex-Blackwing named Mephalda the Meek,” I told her, “I need to find her.”

“Well, I won’t deny she’s under our protection,” Merrifeather said with a frown, “But I can’t tell you where she is, at least not yet.”

“Why not?” I asked, starting to get a little worried. Time was running out for Steadfast.

“I’d love to trust you with this,” she said, “But as you’re a new member, I can’t exactly trust you with this kind of top-level information. After a few jobs, when you’ve proven you plan to stick around, I’ll be happy to tell you. I’ll even lead you to her if you want.”

“All right,” I said, agreeing that this seemed sensible, “I’d better get some sleep.”

I slept in the Dark Brotherhoof Sanctuary that night, resting up in preparation for the assassinations I would no doubt have to do to build up their trust in me. Six days would have passed by the time the sun rose in the morning. The time I had to save Steadfast was nearly half over.

Level Up
Health: 190 Stamina: 180 Magicka: 170
New Perk: Skilled Summoner [Conjuration] -- All Novice-level Conjuration spells can be cast for half Magicka.
Gear added: Fell Blade -- This ideal weapon for silent assassinations is crafted by Flies-through-Darkness and is only available to members of the Dark Brotherhoof.
New Quest: A Deadly Job -- Perform assassinations for the Dark Brotherhoof to gain their trust.

Chapter 25: Unwilling Assassin

Chapter XXV: Unwilling Assassin
“What is life’s greatest illusion?”

Rearikstead was my destination, where Narius was waiting for me. Like Riverwood, Rearikstead was ruled by Jarl Valor’s Blade from Whitetrot, except it was at the far west of the hold. Fortunately, its location was not far from Foalkreath, and I was there in just a few hours.

Similar to Riverwood, there wasn’t much to the town. An inn stood near the center, and a few homesteads stood around it, farms stretching out behind them. A windmill turned slowly in the wind near the edge of town, grinding grain.

It was a quiet town, with only a few ponies trotting around on their business. More were out in the fields, harvesting the last of the crop from among the fallen snow. Already the snow was beginning to thaw, but a true winter would be upon Horizon soon.

With so few ponies here, I had to find a way to find where Narius was without drawing attention to myself. Asking straight out was out of the question, as they would know exactly who had killed him as soon as he turned up dead. Hoping to overhear something, I trotted into the local inn.

It was mostly empty except for the barkeep, a few workers, Imperial soldiers, and a bard. Narius didn’t seem to be here, but I could be patient. It wouldn’t do to blow things now. While I waited for any clue to come my way, I listened to the bard, who had begun a song.

“Oh, there once was a hero named Ragnar the Red.”
“Who went trotting to Whitetrot from old Rearikstead.”
“And the braggart did swagger and brandish his blade.”
“As he told of bold battles and gold he had made.”
“But then he went silent did Ragnar the Red.”
“When he met the shield-mare Matilda who said.”
“You talk and you lie and you drink all our mead.”
“Now I think it’s high time that you lie down and bleed.”
“And then there came clashing and slashing of steel.”
“As the brave mare Matilda charged in full of zeal.”
“And the braggart named Ragnar was boastful no more.”
“As his ugly red head rolled around on the floor!”

Several of the ponies in the inn began to applaud and I joined in. It had been a grim song, but a comedic one as well. The bard was also a talented singer; I wondered if she had studied at the Bards College.

My musing was interrupted as a dark green earth pony slammed open the door and strutted in like he owned the place. A few of the workers looked up in contempt as he approached the bar.

“A bottle of mead, my fine mare,” he said to the barkeep, leaning over the counter.

“Aren’t you supposed to be working, Narius?” the barkeep responded, looking annoyed, “Fellstar won’t be happy to find out you came in here again.”

“Oh, relax,” he blew her concern off, “He won’t fire me.”

“He just might if I tell him about your little agreement with the merchants in Whitetrot.”

“How do you know about that?” he demanded, leaning further over the counter.

As stealthily as possible, I moved closer to hear what they were saying.

“I have friends,” the barkeep replied, “Something you’ve never been able to acquire for obvious reasons.”

“Listen,” Narius threatened her, “I’d keep my muzzle shut about what you know if I were you, unless you want to end up like Caris.”

I quickly turned around in my seat to avoid his gaze as he spun around. Everypony in the inn was looking at him by this point, some being not so subtle about trying to listen in.

“What?” he asked, “Am I not allowed to have a private conversation with my marefriend?”

“I am not your marefriend,” the barkeep lost her temper, “And here’s your mead.”

Uncorking the top, she splashed the bottle in his face. Enraged and dripping wet, Narius stormed off. I waited a minute before rising from my seat. After all, there was no immediate hurry, since I now knew what he looked like and could easily find him again. Trying not to draw attention to myself, I followed him out.

It felt foolish slinking around in broad daylight, so I casually followed him as he made his way toward one of the nearby farm houses. As he neared one with a placard bearing a star over the door, an older earth pony stallion trotted out to meet him, papers clutched in his teeth. Once I was in hearing range, I pulled out my map of Horizon and pretended to study it, intent on being inconspicuous.

“Are you sure this is correct?” the older stallion, Fellstar I was guessing, asked.

“Exactly,” Narius replied, “I took them to market and counted them myself.”

“I could’ve sworn I sent you off with 13 sacks of potatoes, but this invoice is only for 10.”

“What can I say? Maybe you counted wrong?”

“Again? I don’t know, maybe I should get somepony else to count. This isn’t the first time I’ve gotten an invoice for less than what I thought I sent.”

“I would be happy to do it for you,” Narius volunteered, oozing false charm.

“Hmm, I guess so,” Fellstar said, glancing up at the sun, “Listen, I need you to change the bags in the mill in a few minutes. The current one should be nearly full.”

“Of course sir,” Narius said.

After Fellstar went back inside, the younger stallion trotted off in the opposite direction of the mill. This could work to my advantage. Stowing away my map, I made my way over to the windmill.

The bag was indeed nearly full of flour. I was careful not to upset it as I climbed the stone walls, finding hoofholds as I went. Finally, I was perched up above the grind wheel, the mechanisms of the windmill turning around me. Now, all I had to do was wait.

Narius did not come in the next few minutes, nor even the next half hour. By the time he did arrive the bag of flour was overflowing. Cursing under his breath, he replaced it and set to work cleaning the mess.

As he did, I dropped down silently behind him, my hooves making no noise as they hit the ground thanks to the Dark Brotherhoof armor Hemlock had brought me the night before. Keeping out of his sight, I approached the stallion, the Fell Blade grasped in my magic.

I placed my hoof over his mouth the same time as I slid the dagger between his ribs. He struggled a bit before the life drained from his body. Cleaning my dagger, I set him down on the ground and finished cleaning up the mess he had made. Fellstar wouldn’t have to deal with miscounted shipments anymore, that was for sure.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I returned to the Dark Brotherhoof Sanctuary as quickly as possible. Before somepony could snag me, I decided to check out the dragon wall they had built there I hadn’t been able to get a close look at it the night before. As I drew closer, a word began to stand out from the rest, just as I had hoped. I learned in a moment everything there was to know about killing, and weakening your opponent. Of course, in my mind the word for kill had been replaced everywhere by its draconic counterpart.

~KRII~

“Hey,” Merrifeather said, seeing I’d returned and swooping down to where I was standing, “How’d it go?”

“It went great,” I said, honestly, “Narius is dead.”

“Well, it’s a start,” she said, “How about we head over to Lapis and see if he had another job for you?”

Since I was apparently still not trusted enough to learn Mephalda’s location, I agreed. Following the lavender pegasus, we made our way to Lapis’s room.

“Narius dead?” he asked, looking up briefly from his book.

Levitating a quill, he scratched through a line in the records as I nodded to him.

“Good,” he said, “Now let me guess: you want another one?”

“Of course you do,” he went on before I could respond, and went on flipping through his record book, finally settling on a page, “There’s a ship captain currently docked in Whitetrot. She’s a unicorn, and she’s been involved in a bit of piracy.”

“A bit?” I asked.

“She’s sunk two ships and raided them, killing all the crew. Of course, she passes herself off as the cap’n of a simple merchant vessel, The Daring. Captain Allesandra. Think you’ve got this one?”

“I’ll sure try,” I answered.

“That’s the spirit,” Lapis said, wishing me well before I departed.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Though the trip to and from Rearikstead had been quick, it took me the rest of the day to reach Windhorn. The guards here now recognized me, or at least they recognized I wasn’t a spy or traitor, and I got no trouble from them. But this was still Jarl Stormcloud’s city, I reminded myself, and one slip up could mean my head.

My dark armor was more suited for the night, and I stalked, nearly invisible through the shadows of the city as I made my way to the dock entrance, remembering the path from memory from when I had been marched up it under armed guard. Speaking of which, there seemed to be far more Stormcloud soldiers in the city than there had been in my previous visits. Jarl Stormcloud appeared to be nervous; the war must not be going well.

For the moment, however, that was none of my concern. I had to get to the port and find Captain Allesandra of The Daring. At last, I exited the city onto the cold stone docks just outside the walls.

All was quiet and deserted as I made my way toward the docked ships, except for a few bat-ponies working in what little light the sun still provided. I passed through the rows of ships, avoiding guards and picking out the names on their sides. I could see Jarl Stormcloud still had the Inquisitor, and it was still docked here. I wondered if these ships ever left port.

At last I found The Daring, docked about midway through. After waiting for the guard to pass, I clambered up the ramp and onto the ship’s deck. Slowly the ship rocked back and forth in the waters as I made my way across the abandoned deck and into the ship itself.

Inside was a sailor near the door who was supposed to be keeping watch, but had instead fallen asleep, no doubt helped by the liquids that had previously filled the empty bottles scattered around her. Sneaking by her, I passed into the next room of the ship.

Hanging all around were hammocks in which the sailors were sleeping. Sure, The Daring appeared from the outside to be a merchant ship, but these ponies were cutthroats of the seas if I ever saw any. Carefully, I passed through the maze of sleeping ponies to the door at the far end.

It was locked, but luckily I had brought my lockpicks along. As quietly as I could, I twisted them in the lock until the pick snapped from the exertion. One of the sailors moaned in his sleep and rolled over, and I ducked into the shadows behind some barrels. When it became apparent he wasn’t getting up, I returned to the door and twisted my lockpicks again until the lock popped open.

Silently I passed inside, shutting the door gently behind me. Inside was the captain’s cabin. Sea charts and maps lay out on the table at the foot of the bed. Behind it, sweeping glass windows looked out on Windhorn’s harbor. In the bed itself lay my target, Captain Allesandra, sound asleep. Placing a pillow over her face to muffle a scream if it came, I quickly slit her throat, looking away as I did. The whole affair was over in seconds.

I let myself back out the way I had come, relocking the door and sneaking under and through the maze of sailors. When I got out of The Daring, it was full-on night. I was about to sneak down to the docks again, when a roar broke the night.

Looking up, I saw swaths of stars blotted out by a dark shadow, before the creature flew past the moon. The silhouette was that of a dragon, all right. I jumped off The Daring as quickly as possible, rolling across the dock. I drew my sword, really wishing I hadn’t left my steel armor back in the Sanctuary.

The dragon swooped across the harbor, sending out a blast of fire that lit up almost every boat docked there. Flames from the burning ships turned night into day as I searched for the lizard. At last it landed, clinging to the splintered mast of a nearby fishing boat.

<<>> I Shouted, knocking its head into the mast as it prepared to send out another jet of flame.

The dragon turned at me, fire reflected in its eyes. I pulled out my bow, realizing my sword was useless unless the dragon chose to come down, and fired arrows at the wyrm. Most bounced away, but some stuck, piercing its hide. Enraged, the dragon hopped from mast to mast, nearing me.

I retreated until the dragon suddenly slipped in its hops, impaling its wings on the masts of the Inquisitor. Yelling and blowing fire everywhere, the dragon thrashed around, tearing the masts and its wings to pieces before crashing to the ship’s deck.

I drew my sword and climbed the plank to the ship best I could, what with the dragon shifting the boat’s position as it tried to right itself. As I slashed at the dragon’s snout, it knocked me aside, sending me rolling across the deck. Standing, I found no splinters had pierced my hardy Dark Brotherhoof armor, but there were still pieces lodged in my mane and tail.

I would have to worry about grooming later, as I dashed to the side to avoid being roasted alive. Getting momentarily out of the dragon’s way, I focused my magic and conjured up a flame atronach. Absorbing the nearby fire to bolster its own strength, my thrall charged the dragon, breathing fire and scorching the beast’s scales.

While the dragon was busy with my atronach, I rushed around behind it and began firing arrows into the back of its head. I didn’t want to get any closer than I had to. My light armor had proven durable enough to take on splinters, but I wasn’t about to test it with dragon teeth.

The dragon caught on to what I was doing and turned toward me, only to be hit in the side of the face with a fireball from my atronach. The dragon very suddenly brought down one of its wings on the atronach, burning a hole through the membrane, but snuffing my creation in the process. It now had its whole, undivided attention on me.

I charged in, Calcion’s Cleaver drawn, and ducked down at the last moment. Sliding under the dragon, I dragged my sword through its neck, chipping off scales in a line as I went. The dragon suddenly heaved up and my sword came free. In a moment, I realized that it intended to squish me. Running faster, I jumped through a trapdoor into the ship just before it brought its considerable bulk down.

The ceiling creaked and cracked over me, but it held. The light from my horn was just enough to see by as I navigated through the ship. First, I got as far away as I could from where I knew the dragon was. This proved to be a wise move, as it smashed through moments after I cleared the area.

Flames licked through the cracks in the ceiling as the dragon raked the surface with flames. Things went quiet for a moment, unsettling me before the dragon smashed one of its claws though the deck, intent on crushing me. A second time it did the same thing. The third time I was ready.

I Shouted, my breath becoming frost and freezing the dragon’s leg to the deck.

As it struggled to pull free, I jammed Calcion’s Cleaver up through its scales. Pulses of light flashed beneath the surface of the ice as lightning pulsed through the dragon’s flesh. With one last great heave, the beast pulled its claw free, along with a large portion of the deck.

Peering through the hole it had created, it sent a blast of fire through. I ran to the outer edges of the deck as flames billowed to fill the space. I quickly drank a potion of fire resistance moments before the wave hit me. I felt my protective field beginning to waver as at last the fire died down.

The deck above my head was suddenly torn off. Running around below, I avoided fire as best I could while also avoiding the dragon’s destruction of my cover. Near the place I had first jumped in, I spotted a trapdoor beneath the wreckage. Moving aside the shattered wood with my magic, I jumped through just as the dragon tried to blast me with fire again.

Dropping down below, I found myself surrounded by barrels. The dragon rampaged above, but for the moment I was unreachable. I cracked open one of the barrels to see what was inside. They were filled with a black powder used for firing cannons. With the dragon breathing fire up top, this was the last place I wanted to be. Or was it?

Weaving between the barrels, I ran across the deck, popping open the upper hatches wherever I could. The dragon roared up top, following along behind me, causing the ceiling to creak from the stress. As I reached the last hatch, I jumped up onto the same deck as the dragon.

His jaws snapped at me, but made no purchase. Enraged, the beast sent out a trail of fire spilling across the deck and down below. I threw myself through a window and out into the harbor as the powder below caught fire.

A deafening explosion split the air, tearing both the Inquisitor and the dragon apart. Chunks of flaming wood and dragon flesh rained down around me as I swam through the frigid waters to the docks.

As I stood by a fire, warming up and drying off, the dragon’s memories flew into my mind. Like before, I experienced everything, this time with a focus on how to apply KRII to harm an opponent without ever touching them, using my Voice to weaken them and ready them for death.

I shivered on the dock as the bat-ponies from the docks went to work putting out the fire, assisted by sailors who had been on their ships and those from Windhorn who had come running when they heard the dragon attack. Some Stormcloud soldiers also chipped in to fight the fire that would devastate their home port.

“That was some timing,” I heard a voice say from behind me.

I spun around to see Bereloth standing there.

“Do you just know when a dragon’s going to attack?” he asked, amused.

“No,” I answered, “It was a complete coincidence.”

“Well, we can thank Talhooves for coincidences like this,” he said, “You undoubtedly saved the town. How many dragons is this now?”

“Seven,” I answered, counting them up in my head.

“Well, I’m sure Jarl Stormcloud will want to hear all about this, and grant you some lodgings tonight,” he said, leading me towards the city.

He was correct, and after I had told Stormcloud of my dragon conquests, he allowed me to sleep in his palace. I was told it was the first time in years a unicorn was able to sleep in the Palace of Kings as a guest.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

“Captain Allesandra is dead,” I reported to Lapis back in the Dark Brotherhoof Sanctuary.

“Yes, word travels fast,” he replied, “It was really a mystery to everyone how she died in the midst of that dragon attack.”

“So, we have a dragon-slayer on our hooves,” Shadowmere said, stalking into the room, “I’ve not seen one in many, many years. Does the dragon blood flow through your veins, Sapphire?”

“I don’t think so,” I said, “At least not according to the Greymanes.”

“Pity, I had hoped to meet another Dragonborn someday. Still, what do those foolish younglings know, with their perceived wisdom.”

“Well, you’ve done it,” Merrifeather said, joining us in a room that was quickly becoming crowded, “That was a good kill, clean and quiet. I think you’ve earned my trust.”

“What are you talking about?” Shadowmere asked, concern flashing in his eyes.

“She wishes to find Mephalda,” the pegasus explained.

“No,” he protested, “That is a secret that must not be shared. She is under our protection, and I will not have us do anything to endanger her.”

“We’re hiding her,” Merrifeather emphasized, “She’s quite able to take care of herself. Even for the entire Imperial Legion it would be difficult to take her down.”

“Perhaps, but even those defended by a legion are vulnerable to an assassin’s strike.”

“Not Mephalda. She knows all the tricks; she can sense life within miles. There’s no way anypony would be able to sneak up on her.”

This was looking less and less promising all the time.

“Fine, you may disclose her location,” Shadowmere yielded, “But if anything happens to that mare, it will fall on your head.”

Aggravated, the stallion stalked out of the room.

“Don’t mind him,” Merrifeather told me, “Shadowmere is paranoid due to centuries of being hunted. Now, can I see your map?”

I obeyed and pulled it out for her. She proceeded to mark Mephalda’s location on it as “Hidden Glade.”

“Mephalda lives in seclusion up in a small valley in the mountains here on the border with Unicornica,” she explained, adding additional marks, “The only way up is through this pass.”

I thanked her for the directions and headed off, plotting a course to Shor’s Stone, the closest town. After all my efforts, I was finally within sight of my goal. I had less than a week left before Stratus would kill Steadfast. Now only Mephalda stood in my way.

Level Up
Health: 190 Stamina: 180 Magicka: 180
New Perk: Quick Draw [Archery] -- You can now draw out and draw back your bow with extraordinary speed.
Word of Power learned: KRII -- Kill; Marked for Death – Speak, and let your Voice herald doom, as an opponent’s armor and lifeforce are weakened.
Dragon Soul collected
New Quest: To Kill an Assassin -- Find Mephalda and kill her, bringing her head to Ambassador Stratus.

Chapter 26: Mephalda

Chapter XXVI: Mephalda
“Innocence, my brother.”

At long last, I had Mephalda’s location. Setting off immediately, I stopped for the night in Shor’s Stone before heading into the mountains. Following the path Merrifeather had drawn on my map, I ascended through narrow gaps and along twisting trails. Often, I had to inch my way along a narrow ledge to move on, but nothing would stop me from my goal.

At last I caught sight of greenery ahead through the gap in the stone. Carefully, I entered and found myself in a forest. Looking back, I saw only harsh landscape behind me, but this was paradise in comparison.

And this “tiny” mountain valley was much larger than I had assumed it would be. Carefully climbing a tree, I looked across the treetops stretching into the distance. The valley was secluded all right. Mountains rose up on all sides, allowing no entrance except through the path I had followed or from above.

There was, however, a gap in the trees in the center of the valley that I could see. In it, a tiny cottage stood, though no smoke rose from its chimney. I couldn’t see much else from where I was, so I climbed down.

Careful not to disturb the undergrowth, I stalked between the trees toward the clearing. I had my bow ready in front of me, arrow fitted to the string in case something jumped out at me. Squirrels flitted through the trees overhead, but nothing sinister appeared.

At last, the trees came to a halt. I crouched down in the undergrowth and took a look at the clearing. I could see the cottage better now, as well as the small patio that had been built out front. A pot of tea sat out on the small table. As of yet, I couldn’t see if anypony was in the cottage or not. I would have to take a closer look.

Just as I began to get up, a pony trotted out of the cottage without a care in the world. She was a pegasus, with a pale yellow coat and a long slate grey mane hanging over one of her eyes. Could this be Mephalda? There was really nopony else it could be, right?

I brought up my bow and lined up the shot. Hopefully I could catch her by surprise and wouldn’t have to fight her straight out. She was a Blackwing after all, and a famously skilled one at that.

I was prepared to fire, when she suddenly moved out of the way. Could she have seen me? There was no way! No, the reason she had moved was to meet a few rabbits that were bounding toward her.

I watched as they chattered away and she seemed to talk back, apparently understanding them. A few hopped away and came back a moment later carrying a bird. The pegasus took a quick look at it before swooping into the house and emerging a moment later with her saddlebags on. The bird, apparently, had a broken wing, and she bound it, even dripping a drop of healing potion into the bird’s beak to help it heal faster.

As she held it in her hoof, unmoving, I saw the perfect opportunity to take her out. I lined up my bow, but for some reason I just stood there, the bow unmoving in my magic. I was having trouble believing that this was Mephalda, that this was a psychopathic killer. She just didn’t seem the type.

“Come on Sapphire!” my mind yelled at me, “Just release the string and you can free Steadfast!”

My mind was right. To get Steadfast back, I had to kill Mephalda. But, this didn’t feel right; it felt too much like murder. I must’ve held my bow in place for a minute or more before I dropped it with a sigh. I just couldn’t do it.

Stowing it away, I continued to stare out at where the pegasus was standing. There was no way this couldn’t be Mephalda. But maybe she wasn’t exactly what I’d been led to believe?

“Hello,” I called, stepping out from among the trees, hoping I wasn’t wrong.

The pegasus gave a gasp and ducked behind her table.

“Who, who is it?” she asked timidly.

“I’m Sapphire,” I told her, trotting closer, but making sure I could still retreat into the woods if things went sour, “Are you Mephalda?”

“Yes,” she said, peering over the table suspiciously.

“Can I . . . talk to you?” I asked.

“Hmm, I guess,” she said, standing up, “I don’t get many pony visitors here.”

“What do you mean?” I asked her as I sat down in the chair she motioned to.

“Well, most of my visitors are just the forest animals,” she said, sitting down across from me, “I don’t get visits from ponies very often.”

“I see,” I said, taking a cup of tea as she poured it for me.

I’d never really had much of a taste for tea, it was more of a pegasus thing, but it would have been rude to refuse.

“How did you find me here?” she asked as she blew off her own tea.

“The Dark Brotherhoof told me where to find you,” I replied.

“They told you?” she responded, looking alarmed.

“Don’t worry,” I told her, “Your secret’s safe with me.”

“Of course,” she said, “I just hope they don’t tell anypony else. I suppose you already know there are plenty of ponies out there who would like to kill me.”

“Why is that?” I asked her, determined to find out the truth.

“I defected from the Blackwings,” she replied, “I hated the things they made me do. I hated killing innocent ponies so much that I left, and they couldn’t stop me. After all, they trained me how to be invisible. For once in my life, I used that skill for good instead of evil.”

“If you hated it so much, why’d you join the Blackwings in the first place?”

“I didn’t have a choice. I never had a taste for killing, but that’s what they forced me to do. When I was just a filly, still deciding what I wanted to do, I was attacked one night by a band of thugs. I defended myself, that’s all, but when it was all over, my life was ruined. I was so good at killing them, I got this.”

She stood and showed me her cutie-mark, a razor-sharp dagger.

“After that, they thought I was perfect to be a Blackwing. I was taken away and trained, and it turned out I was really good at killing, though I hated doing it. Still, the Pegasari Dominion’s word is absolute, and I was trained by the best in the Blackwings until I became a honed killing machine. I’ve killed so many ponies, ponies with families who were looking forward to the next day but never saw it because the Dominion had distaste for them.”

“Do you know how many ponies I’ve killed? 2183. I counted, and each and every one of their faces haunt me. That look they get when they realize it’s all over, that I’m sending them out of this world, the pleading question of ‘Why?’ evident in their eyes; it’s burned permanently into my mind.”

“I had to get out. There was no way I could live with myself if I kept it up. So, I used the skills they taught me and I ran away, leaving that life behind. I ran from them for several years, moving from one place to another, always one step ahead. But I didn’t want to live in constant fear of an assassin one day catching me. So, I made a deal with the Dark Brotherhoof and they shared the location of this valley with me, allowing me to hide here.”

I was silent as I digested what she had told me. She’d poured her entire life’s story out to me, and now I understood what she’d been through. All the stories about Mephalda were true, she was a killing machine. But, those stories left out that she had no desire to what she did. She was a victim of her cutie-mark, just as I was a victim of the absence of mine. We were alike in a way.

“So, why did you come here?” Mephalda asked, “I assume you didn’t come all this way for a social call.”

I rolled my options over in my mind until I came up with the best one. Or at least the best one where I could live with myself. Honesty would be my policy, no matter what the consequences.

“Actually,” I told her, “I’m supposed to kill you.”

“What?” she said, recoiling.

“I just can’t though,” I told her, “You don’t deserve to die; at least I don’t think so. The Blackwings, they’ve got a friend of mine, Steadfast, captive. And unless I deliver them your head in the next five days, they’re going to kill him.”

“That is a problem,” Mephalda said, calmed down over my announcement to kill her already, “Is there another way?”

“I can’t think of one,” I said, “And I’m running out of time.”

“I know how this will end,” I told her as she thought, “If I try to kill you I’ll surely die first, and then Steadfast will die as well.”

“You seem a decent pony,” she said, “I’d hate to kill you.”

“You seem a decent pony as well,” I responded, “I’d hate to die.”

We thought silently for a while, both of us trying to think of a way out of this. What was left of my tea was cold by the time I began to draw out my sword.

“I suppose we’d better get this over with,” I said, sadly.

“Yes,” Mephalda said before perking up, “Unless?”

“Yes?” I asked, happily sliding my sword back into its sheath.

“Maybe the time for running is over,” the pegasus said, “Maybe it is time I stood up to my old masters, showed them I’m not scared of them anymore.”

“What do you propose?” I asked.

“We attack the embassy,” she replied, leaving me speechless.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

In the mountains near Seclusion, Mephalda and I looked down on the Blackwing Embassy in the moonlight. After hearing Mephalda’s plan, I agreed. I would try anything to save Steadfast without having to kill the mare currently standing next to me. It had taken almost all day to reach it, but Mephalda was fine with that. It would be easier to assault the complex below us in the dark.

The plan was simple: get into the complex, take down any Blackwings in our way, find where they were keeping Steadfast, and get him out. Along the way we’d cripple the Blackwings so badly they wouldn’t think about coming after us.

While we observed the embassy, Ambassador Stratus left with a whole contingent of guards, thinning down the security significantly. Guards still patrolled in the dim conditions, but they were more spread out now. It was the perfect time to strike.

Mephalda flew me in over the wall, dropping me immediately behind a Blackwing guard. He never knew what hit him as Calcion’s Cleaver ripped through his armor and the body within. Pushing him aside, I galloped at the next Blackwing I could see. She pulled a sword from its sheath as well as deploying her wing blades.

I sent a blast of flame ahead of me as I neared her, disconcerting her and allowing me to close the distance without being chopped apart. The first thing I did was slice at her wings, cutting through the feathers and knocking her blades out of action. I brought my sword up to block as she swung at me with her own.

Sweeping my sword around, I aimed at her legs, but she countered. Flicking away my sword, she jabbed at my chest. Pulling out the Axe of Whitetrot, I batted her sword away, hooking it with the blade as I did.

I had difficulty keeping a grip on my axe as she spun it around, sliding her sword through the gap between the haft and blade, coming within striking range of me. Pulling my war axe away, I blocked her with my sword. While I had her in a block, I shot a blast of lightning at her chest, knocking her back. As she staggered, I broke through her block and sank my sword into her neck.

Turning to search for another target, I saw the courtyard was filled with dead Blackwings, feathered shafts sticking out of them. I looked up to see Mephalda quickly fit another arrow to her bow and shoot a final Blackwing off the top of one of the buildings. She was right; she really did have a talent for killing.

“Where do you think they have Steadfast?” I asked her as she flapped down to join me, apparently having cleared the grounds of Blackwings.

“Probably the dungeons and torture rooms,” she said, “This way.”

Our fight in the courtyard had not gone unnoticed, and that became obvious as Blackwings spilled out of the entry building, where Stratus had hosted her party. Mephalda stopped leading the way to the dungeons and began to fire arrows into the pegasi that charged us.

I charged into the fray, not at all afraid that Mephalda would hit me with a spare arrow. She was the best. Calcion’s Cleaver slashed through one Blackwing before she even noticed what was going on, too busy dodging arrows. The next one I encountered, however, had noticed my approach and was already ready for close quarters combat when I reached him.

I slashed at his head, but he brought up a tough shield strapped to his foreleg to block. Not even the ancient earth pony sword pierced his cover. He shoved me back with the shield before hopping into the air and coming down at me with a sword grasped in his mouth.

I Shouted at him, shocking him as his wings began to seize up.

He fell to the ground at my hooves, but was still able to block my strikes. I got a little too close, and with a kick he knocked my legs out from under me. Now I was on the ground, and he was above, as he jumped to his hooves. I blocked with my sword best I could, but his repeated strikes were beginning to wear me down.

I focused my magic and cast a spell just behind him. In a moment, his head was engulfed in flames. He spun away from me to face the flame atronach I’d conjured up. Again it breathed fire at him, which he directed away from himself with his shield.

I seized the opportunity and rose up, plunging Calcion’s Cleaver through his back and into his heart. As he tried to grasp at my sword, the atronach gave him one last roasting. My sword slid out of him as he collapsed forward.

My atronach began to direct its attention to the sky now, shooting flame at a pegasus that was dodging Mephalda’s shots. A bit of her tail caught fire from the blast and she dodged rapidly to put it out. The Blackwing quickly dodged out of Mephalda’s way and went swooping down over a tree, knocking all the snow off and onto my atronach. A slight fizzle and a puff of steam accompanied its death as it was snuffed out. While the Blackwing was resuming her climb, Mephalda lined up a shot and put an arrow right through her neck.

“So,” I said, “The dungeons?”

Mephalda led the way, saying nothing but keeping her bow strung and ready the whole time. At last we reached a large and imposing structure near the edge of the complex. Mephalda swooped in, kicking in the door, and I followed. Three Blackwings were standing around inside, and one fell immediately as Mephalda steadied herself and fired an arrow through her forehead. Another one tackled her and the third began to run for it.

“Catch him,” Mephalda said to me, engaged in combat with the other pegasus, “He’ll kill the prisoners!”

I ran down the hall after the Blackwing that had gotten away. He was pulling up the door to the dungeons below as I caught up with him. Whirling around, he extended the blades on his wings and pulled a staff off his back. Without warning, a blast of lightning shot from the tip of the staff past my left ear.

If this staff was letting a pegasus do magic similar to my own, there was going to be a problem. I approached cautiously at first, but after two more close calls with the magic blasts, I charged him sword swinging. He extended his own blades, but I was ready for him.

<<>> I sent him rolling down into the dungeons below.

I jumped down after him, managing to slice Calcion’s Cleaver through his staff before he could use it again. He kicked me aside, and flicked his wings around until his blades went flying, striking somepony in the cell behind me. I had no time to check if it was Steadfast or not as the stallion came flying towards me.

I brought Calcion’s Cleaver up to block his wing blades, even shattering a few before pushing him back. Undeterred, he flipped around in the air before slicing at me again. I rolled out of the way this time, jumping to my hooves to avoid becoming a target.

Seeing his wing blades alone weren’t very effective, he picked up a spiked hammer from one of the torture benches and charged me with it. I blocked, barely, and the next time his weapon came down it smashed one of my hindlegs. Screaming in agony, I forced myself to build my thoughts together.

I Shouted.

He staggered back, as if hit by a great blow. The color seemed to drain out of his face as he was wracked with pain from the inside. The look on his face was one of unbelief as I stabbed Calcion’s Cleaver through his chest, now easily piercing the Blackwing armor. I bandaged and healed my hindleg as he staggered around, finally giving in to death and falling over.

Pushing myself to my hooves, I trotted over to the cell with the dead prisoner. I sighed with relief as I saw the pony within was a red-coated unicorn, not Steadfast at all.

“Was this your friend?” Mephalda asked, flapping up silently behind me.

“No,” I said, “But, if he’s not here, where is he?”

“There’s only one other place he could be,” Mephalda said, “If it really exists.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s possible that Stratus has a personal dungeon beneath her study.”

“Well, what’re we waiting for?” I asked.

It was deathly silent as we passed through the Blackwing Embassy. Pincushioned pegasi lay everywhere. The door to what Mephalda identified as the barracks opened and she shot an arrow into the pony that exited. Either she was the only one left, or the others were too scared, as no more emerged from the building.

Stratus’s study was right where we had left it. I remembered just over a week ago when Steadfast and I were trying to break into this place, where we had been subsequently trapped. Mephalda slowly cracked the door open, but nopony appeared to be inside, so we entered.

“The entrance would have to be somewhere private,” she mused quietly to herself.

“Aha!” she exclaimed after we had searched for a bit.

I joined her where she had apparently found something in the small booth a receptionist would sit in. Flicking a small lever beneath the counter caused the floor of the tiny room to tip up, revealing a staircase leading down.

Mephalda flapped down first, silently, and I followed, trying to make as little noise as possible. After a bit of a drop, we made it into a lower floor. Across the room, I could see Steadfast was locked up in a cell. Unfortunately, a Blackwing stood guard between us and him.

Mephalda fitted an arrow into her bow and fired it, but it just barely missed the crack in the Blackwing’s armor as she turned, noticing our presence. Without hesitation, she flared her wings, flicking blades toward Steadfast. Rapidly firing arrows, Mephalda deflected most of the blades from ever hitting him.

Sliding beneath my pegasus companion, I approached the Blackwing guard. She drew a blade from her side as I got too close for her comfort, and I was hard pressed to hold her off. As she fought me, though, she also had to contend with the arrows Mephalda was shooting at her.

When one stuck in her eye, I blasted fire at her, breaking free of the fight for a moment. She came at me anyway and slashed for my neck. I blocked with my sword, but she quickly slid her blade down toward my chest. I blocked that too, but I was forced to give up ground, getting backed into a corner.

As my rump brushed up against the wall and I ran out of space, the mare flicked my sword out of my grip. She raised her blade to strike, and was about to slice my throat when an arrow suddenly shot through her neck. Choking on her own blood, she fell backwards.

“Took you long enough,” Steadfast joked as I unlocked his cell with keys I retrieved from the dead Blackwing, “I was beginning to get worried you wouldn’t show up.”

“Me, leave you to die? I don’t think so,” I said, embracing my earth pony friend.

“So, who’s this then?” he asked, gesturing to Mephalda who standing quietly at the other end of the room.

“Mephalda the Meek,” I answered.

“The pony you were supposed to kill?” he asked, “Well, I have to congratulate you. I knew you’d break their rules, but I didn’t know you’d do the exact opposite of what the Blackwings wanted you to.”

“So, will you be coming with us too?” Steadfast asked Mephalda.

“Oh, well, I don’t know. I suppose, if that’s all right with you?” she responded, living up to her name.

“Of course,” I said, welcoming her, “I’d be happy to have you with us.”

“Great,” Steadfast said, “But now that that’s squared away, shouldn’t we get out of here?”

“Head on out,” Mephalda said, looking around the room, “I’ll be with you in a minute.”

We had no clue what she was playing at, but Steadfast and I headed out anyway. No Blackwing harassed us on our way through the courtyard, probably because they were all dead. We waited for a few minutes, our breaths puffing in the cold night air before Mephalda came flying out of Stratus’s study.

“We’d better get clear,” she said cryptically, lifting first myself, and then Steadfast over the wall.

“Clear of what?” Steadfast asked as we trotted up into the mountains overlooking the embassy.

“The entire complex is built on top of black powder,” she explained, “If it’s ever in danger, the ambassador can destroy it and any sensitive information by detonating it. That’s what I just did.

Just as she finished explaining, the embassy suddenly exploded. Walls and buildings were torn to pieces in moments. Flaming stone rained down everywhere. The Blackwing Embassy had been completely and totally wiped off the map.

The three of us laid back on the mountainside and watched as it burned to embers, all of us happy to see it gone.

Level Up
Health: 190 Stamina: 180 Magicka: 190
New Perk: Armor Expert [Light Weapons] -- You are highly skilled at finding the cracks and weaknesses in armor and can exploit them to do critical damage on an armored opponent more often.
Follower gained: Mephalda the Meek -- An ex-Blackwing, Mephalda is an expert shot with a bow and is also a competent alchemist, brewing her own potions. She may be quiet and shy in mannerisms, but on the battlefield she is as fierce as can be, but only when necessary.
Infamy gained: Blackwings -- The most highly trained agents of the Pegasari Dominion, the Blackwings patrol Horizon to root out Talhooves worship, as well as secretly identify political opponents and covertly influence the Civil War.
New Quest: Back in the Saddle -- Return to the Skeever Hole in Seclusion to retrieve Steadfast’s equipment and get him up to date.

Author's Note

Here ends Part 3, wherein Sapphire tangled with thieves and assassins to free Steadfast from the Blackwings, and gained another companion in the most unlikely place

Thanks for reading and, as always, comments and questions are welcome!

Chapter 27: A Descent Into Madness

Chapter XXVII: A Descent into Madness
“Make sense? What fun is there in making sense?”

After the Blackwing Embassy had burned to the ground, we headed down the mountain to Seclusion. Dawn was nearly upon us as we entered the Skeever Hole, but I didn’t think Bruinin would mind us using his room. After resting up, Steadfast retrieved his armor, which was still there, and we left the little tavern.

There was no sign of Bruinin or Scarlet Shores, which was too bad because I felt I owed the latter an apology for my outburst the last time we had met. Now that Steadfast was safe, it seemed like things weren’t as bad as I had imagined.

“So, what’s the plan now?” Steadfast asked as we trotted through the town.

“Well, there’s still Volsteed,” I told him, “Faniar wanted us to check it out. But I think we should return this to the Bards College first.”

I pulled the journal from my saddlebags where the missing lines of King Oman’s Verse were stashed. Mephalda was fully up to speed; I had explained my whole story to her the night before, with Steadfast cutting in from time to time. Oddly, I’d had quite an easy time opening up to the mare, maybe because she had shared her life story first.

As we passed through Seclusion, several ponies greeted me as I walked past. I was beginning to become known. I wasn’t yet decided if that was a good or bad thing. There were no ponies practicing their instruments outside the Bards College today, the weather was too brisk for that. Luckily, since they were all inside, it wasn’t hard to get directions to Headmistress Concerto.

“Ah, you again,” she said as I knocked on the doorway of her office and entered, “And I see you’ve gained another companion. Come for a job, or do you wish to master the musical arts?”

“Neither,” I answered, sliding the journal across her desk.

“What is this?” she asked, beginning to flip through it.

“A journal from one of your bards exploring Ironhoof Barrow,” I answered as she paged through the entries, “He was killed, but not before he found King Oman’s Verse.”

“Surely you jest,” she said, but flipped to the back and pulled the age-weathered pages out, “These are the lost lines of King Oman’s Verse. We’ve been searching for these for years. Of course, it’s become more important to find them now that Radiance the Fair has struck down our request to host the Burning of King Oman Festival.”
“Why’s that?” I asked.

“King Oman One-Eye was a tyrant and we celebrate his death every year by burning him in effigy. But, due to King Shade’s recent death, Radiance does not wish to allow a festival that celebrates the death of a king. We’ve been trying to convince her of the historical significance of the event, but so far she hasn’t budged in her position. Maybe these new lines will convince her how important it is to keep the story alive.”

“Here, for your trouble,” she said, tossing me a coin purse, “And if you wouldn’t mind, could you bring a message to Jarl Radiance asking for another chance at hosting the festival?”

“Of course,” I said. After all, we had plenty of time to explore Volsteed.

“Excellent,” she said, “I’ll take this to Deans Stretto and Timbre immediately and have them restore the sheets. I can’t thank you enough for this.”

With a light heart, I departed the Bards College and headed to the Blue Palace just a short distance away. As I entered the fancy accommodations, I noticed two ponies in Imperial Legion armor standing guard outside one of the doorways. Though I was curious about the change, I still had a message to deliver to the Jarl.

“Ah, Sapphire,” Jarl Radiance greeted me as I neared her throne, “I see you have returned to my city. I would like to pass on the thanks of the ponies in Dragon Bridge whom you saved last time you left here. Hopefully, this time you will have a chance to speak to my guards and the Legion about how to take down a dragon on their own.”

“I will,” I assured her, “But I’m actually here with a message from Headmistress Concerto of the Bards College.”

I explained how I had found King Oman’s verse and how excited Concerto was to have it. I also explained best I could how important she thought this was to keep Horizon’s history alive. The whole time I spoke, Jarl Radiance listened, occasionally glancing at the empty throne next to hers with longing in her eyes.

“Well, I shall have to consider it,” she said, “Tell Concerto that I may allow the Festival to be hosted if I find this new discovery to be as important as she claims. Before I make my final judgment, I will have to hear it.”

“Of course,” I started to say, but was cut off by a scream from elsewhere in the palace.

A few minutes later, a sobbing servant was led up the stairs by the two Imperial guards I’d seen earlier. Jarl Radiance passed her a hoofkerchief and waited for her to regain her composure.

“It’s happened again,” the servant said breathlessly when she finally got a hold of herself.

“Oh dear,” Jarl Radiance whispered softly.

“Arnice and I were just cleaning,” the servant continued, “One moment she was beside me, and the next she was gone.”

“I won’t have this happen again,” Radiance said, strength building in her voice, “Seal off the Pegasusius Wing, nopony enters for any reason.”

“What’s going on?” Steadfast asked.

“Ponies are disappearing,” Radiance answered, “Five in all now, and they were all in the Pegasusius Wing when it happened. It’s as if a curse has fallen across the place. We have no idea why they continue to disappear, and until we do we can’t risk sending anypony else in.”

“We could go,” Steadfast said to me.

I wasn’t so sure. An odd force that inexplicably caused ponies to disappear? It just wasn’t natural. I wasn’t exactly comfortable with going in and possibly disappearing, but with Steadfast and Mephalda with me, nothing could go too wrong. Right?

“We could take a look,” I told Radiance.

“Be careful,” her steward, a stallion with a violently red coat and mane warned, “As the Jarl said, five ponies have disappeared already. We’d hate for it to be six.”

“Understood,” I said, and the three of us headed out of the throne room.

The Imperial guards had returned to their posts by the time we reached the door to the Pegasusius Wing, but moved aside to let us pass. Inside, it seemed to be just another wing of the palace. It was very dim, the only light coming through shuttered windows, and it was silent as a tomb.

“What happened here?” Mephalda whispered.

It was certainly eerie. Though it looked just like the rest of the palace, it didn’t feel the same. A fell presence seemed to haunt the interconnected rooms. It must’ve been this way for at least some time, as the rooms didn’t look lived in, just meticulously cleaned and cared for.

“Pegasusius the Mad,” I whispered, looking at a large portrait of the former emperor, “This wing’s named after him.”

“He was crazy,” Mephalda whispered back, glancing around furtively, “No wonder this place is so eerie.”

“I don’t know,” I said as we neared a set of bedchambers, “Nothing looks out of the ordinary. I don’t see how ponies are disappearing in here.”

As we entered the bedchambers, a flash of multicolored light suddenly burst up in front of my eyes, and I fell out of reality.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Blinking the afterimages away, I tried to get a focus on where I was. As soon as things came into focus, I immediately shut my eyes before opening them again. The world around me was completely impossible, yet here I was.

I was standing in what appeared to be a secluded forest glen, but the trees were all wrong. They were pines like what would be found in Horizon, but they were the most fantastical colors, and the range of sizes was far beyond what could be found in reality.

Around me, the land curved up and down irregularly, at slopes nopony could climb. In the distance, I could see the whole landscape begin to curve upwards, eventually wrapping all the way around over my head to the other side. Looking up, I could see a whole valley with mountains and a lake. The sight was dizzying and disorientating, and I forced myself to look down.

A faint purplish mist seemed to billow erratically throughout the glen, defying all logic. A rabbit the size of a house suddenly emerged from it, and I was forced to step back to avoid being squashed. I peered after it as it disappeared into the mist.

I didn’t like this one bit. Nothing here made any sense at all; add to that the fact that I was all alone. I was alone, I realized. Wherever I was, Steadfast and Mephalda hadn’t followed me through.

With a flash of light and a faint popping sound, something appeared in front of me, dispelling the mist momentarily.

“Ah, another one so soon?” the creature bellowed.

“Who are you?” I asked, staggering backwards.

The creature before me had a vaguely ponyish look to its face, but the rest of it was completely wrong. Two horns, one from a deer, the other from a goat sprouted from its head. Its mane was that of a donkey’s, as was the neck it grew from, which attached to a stretched out torso that turned to a dragon’s tail, giving the creature a serpentine appearance overall. Two arms grew from just below its neckline, one ending in an eagle claw, the other in a lion’s paw. The legs it stood on were similarly mismatched, one from a goat and the other from a dragon and both a pegasus and a bat wing fluttered on its back. An oddly colored suit split down the middle was the only clothes the creature was wearing.

“I think it’d be obvious,” he (at least I assumed it was a he) said, slithering around behind me, “Have you no knowledge of me, the highest Draconequus prince of all?”

So, that was it. He was a Draconequus, one of the otherworldly creatures of beyond. Still, he didn’t resemble any Draconequus I remembered.

“Which one are you?” I asked, “You don’t look like any Draconequus I know.”

“Not a Draconequus?” he said, looking offended, “I am the only true Draconequus! It is our very nature to be chaotic, and we are the living embodiment of it. Of course, we can take on any form we desire.”

He demonstrated, flipping rapidly through different appearances. It was hard keeping up as he twisted into unimaginable shapes and mimicked almost anything, even stationary objects.

“But the other Draconequi, they don’t remember. They’ve chosen to shape personas for themselves, and have become so devoted to them, they can’t even change back to their true form any longer. This is how I truly look, how all Draconequi truly look.”

“All right,” I said, not wanting to upset this being with nearly limitless power, “But which one are you then?”

“I am the master of all, the greatest of all, the most powerful Draconequus in The Beyond. I’m Discord! Lord of Chaos, and Prince of Madness!”

Lightning crackled, though I saw no clouds it could come from. Chaotic indeed.

“And you, puny mortal,” Discord said, flicking my horn with a claw, “Are now trapped here with me for eternity.”

“Where are we even?” I asked, looking around at the landscape, “Is this The Beyond?”

“Hardly,” Discord scoffed, flipping acrobatically through the air and jumping from tree to tree, “It’s been nearly impossible to open a direct link to your world from The Beyond since Empress Mystica sealed the gates all those years ago. No, this is just Pegasusius the Mad’s mind.”

“His mind?” I asked incredulously.

“Quite,” the Draconequus replied, changing the trees to quills with the snap of a claw, “His mind provides a stable link between your world and my own realm.”

“But, Pegasusius the Mad’s been dead for centuries!” I protested.

“And?”

It made no sense, but then again, Discord’s entire purpose seemed to be to avoid making sense wherever possible.

“You’re overthinking things,” he told me, suddenly appearing behind me and pinching my cheek, “We can’t have that, not here.”

“In Pegasusius the Mad’s mind?”

“Yes.”

“This is where the ponies in the Pegasusius Wing go when they disappear?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Yes.”

“What?”

“You’ve got to take my advice and stop thinking about it,” he said, popping open his head and removing his brain, throwing it aside, “See how much fun chaos can be when you don’t think.”

“Just one question. Tell me why you keep taking ponies from the Pegasusius wing.”

“Oh, all right,” he said, leaning back on one of his tree-sized quills until it acted like a hammock, “You mortals are so fun to play with, always fighting to make sense of things when there’s no sense to make. My Changeling servants aren’t nearly as entertaining, and after a while even the mortal residents of my realm grow dull. Here I have a fresh pool to choose from, new ponies to antagonize.”

“Wait,” I called as he began to fly off.

“Tut tut, only one question, remember?” he said, pulling a question mark from one of his suit’s pockets before collapsing it into a hotcake and throwing it out across the valley.

“You shouldn’t be doing this,” I told him, “Dragging innocent ponies away from their homes and trapping them here.”

“And who’s going to stop me?” he said, climbing down a staircase that suddenly existed and craning down his neck so we were eye to eye, “You? Ooh, I’m so scared.”

“Well,” I said, thinking of a new strategy, “If you don’t stop, they’re going to block up the Pegasusius Wing, and then you’ll never be able to take ponies from there again. Your source of playmates will be dried up.”

“I can expand. You don’t know the power I have, and ponies are weak!”

“Not as weak as you think,” I told him.

“Hmm,” he said, stroking his goatee, “I suppose maybe you’re not as weak as I suspected, not falling for the madness yet, but what makes you think other ponies are like you?”

I had no response to that. Sure, we were a hardy bunch, but what part of me thought ponykind could stand up to a Draconequus?

“Tell you what,” Discord said, “I’ll make you a deal. All the ponies I’ve taken from the Northlands are here, you just have to find them. If you can convince them to leave, I’ll allow them and you to go, and I’ll never take anypony from the Pegasusius Wing again.”

“And if I can’t?”

“Well, you’ll be wandering Pegasusius’s mind until you either die, give up, or succumb to the madness, in which case I may take you all the way to the Shivering Isles and show you some real chaos.”

“How do I know you’ll keep your word?” I asked.

“Oh, I will. Scout’s honor,” he said, making a gesture with one of his hands, “I’ve made many deals before, and I’ve won every one of them. I don’t expect that to end now, pitting my wits against a mortal.”

“Now, you’d best get started,” the mad Draconequus said, drawing a pink parasol out from nowhere, “You’ve got five ponies to convince there’s still a world waiting for them out there. You’d better hurry before the chaos sets in, I always get a bit bored this time in the afternoon and liven things up a bit.”

“It’s morning,” I protested.

“Hmm, we’ll see,” he said, popping the parasol open as the clouds suddenly appearing overhead began to rain chocolate milk.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I was thoroughly soaked through with chocolate in no time. To shield myself from the worst of the storm, I tried cutting off the leaf of a giant clover, but somehow it seemed to rain harder under my makeshift umbrella. The purple fog certainly didn’t help in my wandering at all. It obscured and altered my view of the landscape ahead, twisting it into unimaginable shapes and distances, causing me to lose my way more than once.

I was climbing nearly vertically up a hill with a giant mushroom growing on top, when I heard a noise only a pony could be making. At least, I hoped it was a pony making it. I climbed the rest of the hill until I found an earth pony mare huddled under the mushroom, crying in distress.

“I don’t want to go,” I heard her say, rocking back and forth.

“Hello,” I spoke to her, trying to get her attention.

“I don’t want to go,” she said again, though this time she turned around to look at me.

“Go where?” I asked her.

“I don’t want to go.”

“Go where?”

“I don’t want to go.”

“Why,” I asked her, altering my approach.

“I was cleaning,” she said, “With Night-breeze in the Pegasusius Wing. The light came, but I don’t want to go.”

“Arnice?” I asked her, remembering her name from back in the Blue Palace.

“I don’t . . . want to go,” she said, but her ears perked up at the mention of her name.

“You’re Arnice, right?” I said, “You came from Seclusion. You work in the Blue Palace.”

“I don’t want to go.”

“But do you want to go back?” I asked her.

“Yes,” she said, softly, trembling.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“I want to go!”

Suddenly she disappeared from in front of me. I heard clapping coming from behind me and turned around to see the mushroom’s stalk was Discord.

“Bravo,” he said, taking the cap off his head and dipping it in a pool of chocolate milk before eating it in a single bite, “You’ve gotten the one that’s been here less than an hour to go back. You could give up now, you know.”

“Why? Are you scared?” I asked, acting more confident than I felt.

“How amusing,” he said, his face breaking into an impossible smile, “You have four more ponies to convince, ponies who have been here, subjected to constant madness and chaos for days. There’s no way you can do it.”

“We’ll see,” I said, trotting down the hill and echoing his statement from before.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

It was impossible to track the passage of time as I traveled through the unnatural landscape. There was no sun in the sky, mostly because there was no sky, yet light illuminated Pegasusius’s mind anyway. Leaving the hills behind suddenly, I found myself looking across a vast plain of crystal.

Lights pulsed beneath the surface as I trotted across, and it felt strangely cool to the hoof and slippery, as if it were ice. I was about halfway across when suddenly the crystal exploded up around me. I galloped toward the far shore, weaving to avoid the shards of crystal that were sent flying up in the air and came raining down around me.

I managed to make it to the far end of the crystal plain with only minor scratches and stopped to catch my breath. The entire plain had broken apart by now, and the crystal was beginning to melt, swirling down into the hole created. There would be no going back that way.

Turning around, I moved on, and pushed aside a pair of oversized jungle fronds, entering a small hollow between the hills. Purple mist billowed near the edges, but in the center was a stallion in a chef’s hat rushing around a kitchen. All the counters, tables, cabinets, and equipment for a kitchen surrounded him, though he was outside.

“Hello,” I greeted him.

“I can’t talk now,” he replied, “I’m busy preparing the Jarl’s meal.”

“What Jarl?” I asked, looking around.

“Jarl Radiance,” he explained, rushing around to tend to his food, “It’s nearly time for breakfast.”

“Jarl Radiance is in Seclusion,” I tried to explain to him.

“Right,” he replied, rushing back to a counter to quickly chop up some carrots.

“How are you going to get it to her when you’re here?” I asked him.

“The throne room’s right over there,” he said, pointing off toward a gap in the multi-colored hills.

Curious if he was right, I trotted over to the gap in the hills. All that lay beyond was a dizzying drop off a cliff.

“There’s nothing over there,” I told him.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he replied, “You think I don’t know my way around the Blue Palace?”

“You think this is the Blue Palace?”

“Oh, I know it is. Of course, it took me some time to realize it. Who’d have thought the only way to get here was through the Pegasusius Wing. All that time I spent thinking I was really there, only to find it was all a trick. This is the Blue Palace.”

“No it’s not,” I argued, “The real Blue Palace is back there. This, this is the trick.”

“Oh no, I thought so too at first. Then I realized how false that other world was. This is where I belong.”

“Come back with me,” I tried to persuade him, “I’m sure Jarl Radiance, the real Jarl Radiance misses you. Come back to reality.”

“This is reality,” he insisted.

“No,” I said, grabbing him to stop him from continuing his cooking, “This is the mind of a madpony. You were passing through the Pegasusius Wing when you arrived here, correct?”

“Yes,” he said, and I could see the memories resurfacing in his mind.

“And you saw a flash, right?”

“Yes, and I was freed from that false world.”

“No, this is the false world. You fell into it. Think about all you’ve done in the real world. Could it really all have been a trick?”

“No,” he said, “That was real. My wife, my foal. Oh, how could I have doubted their existence! I want to go home!”

He suddenly disappeared from in front of me. The cabinets previously floating in the air attached to invisible walls suddenly fell down with a crash.

“Oh, you could’ve waited a bit to send him home,” I heard Discord’s voice behind me.

Spinning around, I saw him emerge from the gap in the hills the chef had thought the throne room was through. He was dressed up like Jarl Radiance, but flicked the costume away with the snap of his fingers as he approached.

“I was really looking forward to that meal.”

“Worried yet?” I asked him.

“Hardly. You’ve managed to free the two I’ve had the weakest grip on. Impressive, yes, but hardly anything to write home about, which you of course can’t do. Oh, as stubborn as you are, I’ll quite enjoy the pranks I’ll play on you when it’s all over.”

“I don’t think so,” I said, trotting away.

“You’ll give in to the chaos,” Discord said before I passed out of earshot, “It’s only illogical.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I huffed purple smoke from my lungs as I passed through a landscape so contorted and twisted I soon lost track of up and down. In the midst of the maze, I could see another of the ponies lost in Pegasusius the Mad’s mind. Above (below?) me an Imperial soldier was running around erratically, cutting down an army of flutes sticking out of the ground around him.

“What’s going on?” I asked him, hoping to work up a conversation I could steer toward getting back to reality.

“It was an ambush,” he said, continuing to chop apart the instruments around him, “The Stormclouds wiped out my entire unit, but I won’t let them get me.”

“I think you’re safe from the Stormclouds now,” I told him.

“How can you say that when they’re all around me?”

He paid no attention to me, continuing to chop down the flutes around him. Apparently, he thought they were Stormcloud soldiers.

<<>> I Shouted, knocking down the rest of them.

Looking around, he saw no more attackers. Sheathing his sword, he continued to look around fearfully, as if he expected another attack any moment.

“So, where were you when you were attacked?” I asked him.

“That’s easy, I . . . um,” he answered, looking unsure.

“Think,” I commanded him, “How did you get here?”

“Wait,” he said, “I wasn’t with my unit when I was attacked. I was . . . investigating the Pegasusius Wing in the Blue Palace. A couple ponies went missing and I was sent to look for them.”

“Exactly,” I said, “You’re not fighting Stormclouds, this is all a trick.”

He looked around, eyes wide open as if finally seeing what was really around him for the first time. When he realized in full what was going on, he disappeared from in front of me. Discord didn’t appear this time to taunt me. Maybe he was finally getting concerned, who could say. It didn’t bother me that he chose to not show up.

I was over halfway finished. Only two more ponies and I would be free. Without another moment wasted, I set out to find them.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Over the ridiculously undulating hills, I traveled until I found a series of stones floating in the air, making a staircase of sorts to an unnaturally large piece of land with a windmill atop it floating in the sky. Climbing the stone steps, I found the fourth pony on the highest piece of land.

She was dressed in royal gowns, with a crown upon her head. She rose from a rough stone throne, a scepter with her head at the top grasped in her hoof as I approached. I stopped as she drew a sword from its scabbard and pointed it at me.

“Halt,” she commanded, “For what purpose do you enter the realm of Cassia? Be you friend or foe?”

“Friend, I guess,” I said.

“And why do you approach my throne?”

“To . . . take you away.”

“Aha, a kidnapper! Well, I’ll have you know that even if you managed to kidnap me, my empire would survive.”

“Empire?” I asked, “Who do you think you are?”

“I am the Empress Cassia the First,” she said with pride, “All this land is under my dominion. Now be gone with you. Trespassers in my empire will be hung first, tried later.”

“Right,” I said, “But are you aware that your ‘empire’ is really Pegasusius the Mad’s mind? This is all fake, that you belong back in Seclusion.”

“What is this Seclusion?” she asked, “I’ve never heard of such a place, but would very much like to conquer it.”

“No,” I tried to explain, “It’s where you’re from, and it’s ruled by Jarl Radiance the Fair.”

“Well, I shall have to kill her too then to expand my empire.”

I groaned with frustration. Apparently, this one wouldn’t be convinced to return to reality with simple memory, she was too far gone. But, maybe I could try something else. In teaching me Shouts, the Greymanes had shared their memories with me. If I could duplicate the feat, I could share my own memories of Seclusion to jog her mind.

I concentrated on all my memories of Jarl Radiance’s city. I drew energy from both my magic, and the energy reserves I drew upon to Shout. Focusing, I projected my memories into a powerful blast of energy that struck Cassius.

As my memories flew into her, I swear I could see them flashing by in her eyes. As my mind attack finished, she opened her eyes wide with realization.

“Oh, I need to get back to Jarl Radiance!” she exclaimed, dropping her scepter and sword.

Not paying attention to where she was running, she plummeted right off the edge of the floating island. I tried to catch her, but it was too late and she fell through the air. Thankfully, she disappeared just before hitting the ground below.

“Cheater,” Discord accused me.

“How am I a cheater?” I questioned the Draconequus, facing where he lay on one of the windmill’s blades.

“Using your own memories to convince them to return. Clever, but not very sporting.”

“What do you care about being sporting?”

“Why, I do so love games. Of course, my favorites involve life or death situations. Fair warning, you’ve been playing this game alone so far, and I think it’s time you got an active opponent.”

“What do you mean by that?” I asked him, but he just smiled, and caused his whole body to fade away with a snap of his fingers until only the smile was left.

His teeth vanished the same time the floating section of land I was on ceased to float. I held on for dear life as it plummeted to the ground, exploding into bits of gravel that fluttered away on butterfly-like wings. The windmill didn’t disintegrate as nicely, and I was forced to dodge its spinning blades as it fell toward me. I had a feeling I wouldn’t like Discord’s games.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

At last, I caught a glimpse of the final pony. A mare in servants’ attire was running around like mad near the lake I had seen in the sky in my first moments here. Confidently, I approached her.

She hunched low to the ground as I got near, her mane bristling, and she barked at me. Running a few more laps, she stopped to scratch behind her ears. Clearly she thought she was a dog. There would be no reasoning with this pony at all, so I moved right onto the move I had used on the last one.

A cat suddenly ran between the mare and I, jumping into the lake. She followed, and as soon as she touched the water, it began to swirl around, draining through a hole in the lake’s bottom. I spotted Discord standing nearby, filing at his claws.

“Discord, that’s not fair!” I protested.

“Who said anything about being fair?” he said, grinning and throwing up his arms in mock surprise.

Before the mare got too far away, I jumped through the hole after her. Tucking my body in, I streamlined myself to soar more quickly through the tunnels. It was a mess down below, with tubes twisting all through and around each other. At least it wasn’t completely dark; gems lined the walls and gave off a mesmerizing glow.

I began to build my makeshift spell again as I spotted the mare ahead of me. I just had to get close enough to send the memories to her. Suddenly, we burst into the light, flung high in the air. I was still going up as she came down and quickly cast the spell as we passed in midair.

“Wha- where am I?” she asked, before suddenly popping out of existence.

Now that that was taken care of, I was the only pony here and I could soon return home. Of course, that was assuming Discord kept his word and I survived the fall I was about to endure. Oddly, I didn’t fall at all, just hung in the air as if gravity had no power over me.

“Here, let me help you with that,” Discord offered, flashing into existence next to me.

With a pat on my head, he knocked me out of the sky. Instead of hitting the ground and splattering, I bounced off a mushroom. I bounced throughout a field of the massive fungi before I finally came to rest on solid land.

“Would’ve thought?” Discord said, resting on a cloud above me, “I actually lost.”

“Now you’ll let me go?” I asked.

“Of course,” he said, teleporting down to stand in front of me, “I’m a Draconequus of my word.”

“You’ve been quite a worthy opponent; I’ll have to keep an eye on you,” he said, literally pulling one of his eyes from its socket and impaling it on my horn.

“Now, once you send me back, you won’t take any more ponies from the Pegasusius Wing, correct?”

“Of course.”

“You promise?”

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” he said, literally acting out the entire rhyme, complete with cupcake.

“What?” I asked, befuddled.

“Ciao!” he exclaimed before snapping his fingers together.

The ground crumbled beneath me, and I found myself falling with no end in sight.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

When I opened my eyes, I was back in the bedchambers of the Pegasusius Wing, lying on the floor. Both Steadfast and Mephalda were nearby.

“Oh my goodness,” the pegasus said, helping me up, “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” I said, attempting to stand on my own four hooves without help, “Just a little disoriented. Were you guys waiting for me the whole time?”

“You were only gone a few minutes,” Steadfast said, looking at me funny.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Mephalda said, “Shortly after you disappeared, other ponies started appearing only a minute or so apart. Why?”

“Well, it seemed like nearly a whole day passed for me.”

“Where were you?” she asked.

“You’d never believe me if I told you,” I said, laughing.

Level Up
Health: 200 Stamina: 180 Magicka: 190
New Perk: Staremaster [Speech] -- So long as you maintain eye contact with somepony, your persuasion attempts will never fail.
New Quest: The Dragon Cult -- Enter Volsteed and discover the Word of Power and dark secrets hidden in its depths.

Chapter 28: Power of the Dragons

Chapter XXVIII: Power of the Dragons
“You know what the problem is with Horizon these days? Everypony is obsessed with death.”

Volsteed.

Faniar hadn’t said much about the ruin, and nopony in Seclusion seemed to know anything either. All I got out of them was that it was a massive fortress of the ruin, Seclusion’s equivalent to Riverwood’s Blank Flanks Barrow.

Standing before the weathered stone structure rearing out of the mountainside, it seemed quite a bit larger than Blank Flanks in fact. Stone arches led to the entryway, several collapsed over the endless years that had passed since their construction. The ones that hadn’t collapsed had rearing carvings of heads both equine and draconic built upon the inner curve. An odd feeling awoke in me as I passed beneath, as if the multitude of eyes could see right through to my soul. I got the distinct impression that if any of the carved heads asked me a question, I would be compelled to answer with the truth.

At last the three of us made it through the arches, and I found I was not the only one who shivered as the feeling passed. It quickly returned, however, as we neared the doors, where a dragon head reared up on either side, staring down anypony who approached the entryway. Forging ahead, I shoved open the heavy stone doors engraved with ancient earth pony runes.

“What was that?” Steadfast asked once we were safely inside.

“I don’t know,” I replied, trying to shake the effects from my mind unsuccessfully.

“A dark enchantment lies over this place,” Mephalda whispered, just barely audible.

Indeed, I could feel it. Though I had never been particularly excellent at magic, I could feel the spells pulsing through this ruin. Luckily, it was now much duller than outside, but my horn still buzzed from the raw magic flowing from deeper in.

“Will you be all right?” Mephalda asked, seeing that the spells were still affecting me.

“I’ll be fine,” I said, hoping I was right, “Let’s just get through here as quickly as possible.”

“All right then,” Steadfast said, drawing out his warhammer, “Time to wake up the dead.”

As we trotted past the initial entry hall, I began to see a similarity with Seclusion’s Castle Dour. Had they been built at the same time, or had one been modeled off the other? I allowed the question to drop from my mind as we entered a passageway whose far door was guarded by two Draugr.
A shot from Mephalda’s bow instantly dropped one of them. The other looked down on its fallen companion, making a gruff wheezing sound. With a blast of lightning from my horn, I knocked the second Draugr against the wall. Electricity still arced over its body as we reached the door.

Pushing it open, we trotted onto a balcony overlooking a banquet hall. Below us, Draugr trotted around, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they were dead. Many sat down before the tables, awaiting food they couldn’t possibly eat. Many were dressed in ragged robes that must’ve once been gowns of state.

I realized I was looking down upon a court taken from ancient earth pony days. Entombed in stone for centuries, the courtiers had recently awoken and resumed their lives as if no time had passed at all. I continued to watch as servants rushed about, bringing the remains of what had ceased to be food years ago to the assembled lords.

“Hello?” Steadfast said, waving a hoof in front of my face and snapping me out of my daze, “Are we going to take on these Draugr or not?”

“Oh,” I said, pulling out my sword, though I was saddened to end this living history lesson, “I guess so.”

“Why?” Mephalda asked, earning a look from Steadfast, “These Draugr aren’t threatening us, they’re just going about their lives.”

“They’re dead,” the stallion of the group pointed out.

“True, but why should we disturb their rest?”

“She has a point,” I said, causing Steadfast to shift his focus to me, “But we should keep our weapons ready in case the guards prove not to be as innocent.”

Mephalda nodded in agreement, and Steadfast begrudgingly conceded to our point of view. We crept along the balcony, careful to keep out of sight of the zombies assembled below. As we reached the far wall, I reached out to open the rough wooden door, only to have it flung open from the inside.

Standing just inside was a Draugr servant with a tray of mugs balanced on its back. Seeing us, it rushed back inside, dropping the tray in the process.

“Tirah gein ko dein!” the Draugr yelled as it rushed down the passage.

Quickly, we rushed after, hoping to get out of sight before any guards appeared. Unfortunately, we came face to face with a number of them as we rounded a corner.

“Wah grah! Sovngarde saraan!” the one at the head yelled in its raspy voice, drawing out a sword.

I brought Calcion’s Cleaver up to block, and the two ancient swords met. I had a bit of an advantage, however, as my sword suddenly began to shoot lightning from its tip, shocking the Draugr until it fell against the wall, thin tendrils of smoke radiating off its rotten hide.

My ear twitched as an arrow shot past it, fired from Mephalda’s bow. Her aim was true, impacting a Draugr right in the center of the forehead and sending it stumbling back into the others. Those that hadn’t been knocked over by their companion came rushing forward. I directed a slash across the chest of one with my war axe as Steadfast knocked another to the side.

Two Draugr wielding greatswords advanced. As one swung at Steadfast, he blocked using his warhammer’s shaft. Using both my war axe and my sword, I blocked the other. Pulling my sword back, I kept up the block with my war axe and aimed a swing toward the Draugr’s neck. As my weapon left the Draugr blade, I was suddenly forced back. Reapplying my sword to the block, I was able to stop the greatsword from drawing any nearer to me.

Both my weapons were needed to hold this Draugr back. I would have to rely on something else to defeat it. It would’ve been convenient if Mephalda could simply shoot the zombie, but she was busy holding off the rest that filled the tunnel.

Luckily, with my magic I didn’t need to be physically attached to my weapons. The same did not apply for the Draugr I was fighting. Holding back the greatsword with sheer willpower, I slowly advanced. At last, I was nearly touching the blade with my nose. Bending down, I swiftly swept out the Draugr’s forelegs with one of my own.

The block was broken as the undead pony crashed to the floor. My weapons free again, I swung my war axe down at the fallen zombie. The Draugr reacted, lodging the greatsword’s blade beneath the axe’s. Quickly shifting its head, it threw the axe from my magical grip. As it did so, it was forced to pull the greatsword away from its body, allowing me to strike with Calcion’s Cleaver.

Tugging my sword from the lifeless body, I blocked a strike with a mace from another Draugr guard. Pulling my sword back, I aimed a swipe at its side. My blade nicked the rotten flesh as the Draugr moved out of the way, smacking its mace against my helmet. As the steel collapsed into the side of my head, my vision blurred. Swinging through the fog, I was able to cut down the Draugr with a swipe through the neck.

Tenderly pulling my helmet off my head, I massaged my temple. It would bruise, and I’d have a nasty bump, but there was no permanent damage as far as I could tell. My helmet, however, refused to go back on my head without causing pain, so I stowed it in my saddlebags to repair later. As I retrieved my war axe from the wall, Mephalda shot an arrow into the last Draugr, right before Steadfast crushed it into the ground.

“That one counts as mine,” Steadfast protested, looking down at the corpse that may or may not have been dead before he attacked it.

In reply, Mephalda simply gave a shrug before retrieving her arrows from the bodies. Once she had finished, we passed through the tunnels until we entered the banquet hall through a lower door. Once again, I was struck by how similar this place was to Castle Dour. I could almost visualize the tables covered in General Cuirass’s maps, his Legates pacing around urgently.

The servants had made themselves scarce by the time we entered the expansive hall. Only the nobleponies of the past still filled the room. Most of them were cowering behind the tables, chairs, and each other. A few began to rise unsteadily as we entered. Four wearing long-rusted crowns began to take cautious steps toward us. The one at the front looked around with uncertainty before speaking.

“Fah Drog Voldehorse!” it croaked out before drawing a sword from under its ragged robes.

Its three fellows followed suit, advancing as one with blades ready to impale us. Mephalda flapped up into the air, readying her bow. One toward the back fell, choking on an arrow that pierced its neck. The rest advanced at a quicker pace now, closing the distance in moments. Steadfast swung his warhammer up in a long arc, shattering the jaw of one of the Draugr lords before slamming it back down on its head.

The one at the front advanced on me, blue fire burning in its eyes. I countered its sword slash with Calcion’s Cleaver, sending sparks flying as the blades slid against each other. It swung around again, this time toward my flank, and I flicked my blade beneath its sword, sending it flying off its target. I jumped back as a slash came toward my throat. Before the Draugr could counter, I slammed the Cleaver into its side.

The blade bounced off with a loud thunk, easily slicing through the tattered robes, but not whatever armor the Draugr had beneath. I had counted on my swing killing the Draugr in one fell swoop, and had left myself open. The Draugr took advantage of it, swinging at my neck.

I jumped out of the way, shooting fire from my horn as the blade came at me, slicing a gouge in my neck. I quickly wrapped a bandage around the wound to slow the bleeding, and cast a healing spell to seal the gash. Even so, I had lost a good deal of blood, and was feeling a bit light-headed. Everything snapped back into focus as I brought my sword up to block the Draugr’s next swing.

My flames had burned off the royal robes, revealing the shining steel armor beneath. It shone as if it had been forged days ago, hardly tarnished by age and clearly enchanted. Still, it wasn’t invulnerable; I could see the break where I had cut through with Calcion’s Cleaver.

I Shouted, marking my opponent for death.

The effects were almost instantaneous. The Draugr’s face suddenly contorted as if it were experiencing brutal internal pain. Its armor, which had been so pristine a moment ago, suddenly began to experience the aging effects of centuries. While the Draugr was distracted, I slashed through the decaying armor with the Cleaver. The blue light faded from its eyes as it crumpled up on the floor.

No more Draugr in the room seemed willing to fight us. The rest were all cowering as far away from us as possible. Unexplainably, I found myself feeling sorry for these living corpses. Did they even know they were dead? Had this undeath been forced on them, or had they accepted it willingly? Questions like these flooded my mind.

“What of them?” Steadfast asked, gesturing with his warhammer at the undead nobleponies.

Mephalda looked at me expectantly, seeing what I would do.

“We’ll leave them in peace,” I announced, “I don’t think they’ll threaten us unless we attack first.”

I was proved to be correct, as the nobleponies did nothing but cower against the wall as we passed. Passing through the kitchens, the servants scattered as well. After wandering around through the labyrinth of tunnels that made up the keep, we finally found one corridor that was different from the rest. It opened onto a grand entryway complete with a towering stone door decorated with swirls of gold. Unfortunately, there were a few Draugr guarding the door.

I Shouted, sending a wave of ice over the undead guardians.

It didn’t cover all of them, and a few managed to break free only to be shot down with arrows from Mephalda’s bow. I knocked one down with a slash over the head from my sword as it got too close. With the Draugr dispatched, we hurried down to the massive doors, which Steadfast helped me to open.

I couldn’t believe the view that met my eyes. The doors opened up onto a huge cavern carved into the mountain. Natural light slanted down here and there, but the majority of the illumination came from a tall tower in the middle of the cavern topped with a giant brazier filled with purple fire. Mirrors directed the light below, where the real wonder existed.

Within the cavern was an entire Draugr town. Rough stone buildings covered the ground, and cobblestone roadways snaked between them. Draugr trotted about conducting business just like normal, living ponies. Looking closer, I could see the building pattern was almost identical to Seclusion’s layout. I would definitely have to ask Jarl Radiance about that when we returned. It was just too similar for it to be a coincidence.

Of course, it wasn’t exactly the same. The tower in the center was different, for instance. Also, on the other side of the town, built into the far wall was a massive stone structure covered in statues of dragons, which I could only assume was some kind of temple.

“Well, what do you think? The tower, or the temple?” Steadfast asked, apparently coming to the same conclusion as me, “Where’s a word wall more likely to be?”

“I don’t really know,” I admitted, “I guess we’ll just have to check both.”

“I have an idea,” I barely caught Mephalda say.

I nodded for her to go on.

“You two head to the temple,” she said, “I can fly up and check out the tower.”

“Sounds good to me,” I told her.

“So,” Steadfast said as she flapped off, “Time to crush some Draugr?”

“Hopefully not,” I said, looking down on the walking corpses, “Most of them seem to be townsponies. If we leave them be, they shouldn’t hurt us. Of course, if we run into any guards, it’ll be a different matter entirely.”

Cautiously, we made our way down from the keep. A long flight of stone stairs had originally led down, but they were worn and chunks of the ceiling had fallen, smashing large portions out. The Draugr looked at us curiously as we entered the streets, as if not sure what to make of us. We were trespassers here in the realm of the dead, but I hoped our presence would go unnoticed.

We would have no such luck. As we passed a blacksmith hammering ancient steel, realization seemed to dawn in the zombie’s eyes. Leaping to its hooves, it rushed toward an oversized bell in the center of the plaza we were in and began to ring it urgently. The other Draugr all turned to the source of the noise, and also seemed to catch on to the situation.

The townspony Draugr rushed into their homes as a column of their heavily armed kin marched into the square. As one, they all drew their weapons. These Draugr were different than any I’d encountered before. They were well-trained, skilled, and they all bore a mysterious crest upon their armor that had somehow managed to survive long after the armor itself had rusted away.

“Fah Drog Voldehorse!” the lead Draugr shouted, echoing what the noble back in the keep had said.

The call was soon taken up by the other Draugr, who began to advance on Steadfast and me. It didn’t look good. There were at least twenty of the Draugr and only two of us. I conjured a Flame Atronach to increase our chances of success, but three to twenty was still not very good odds.

<<>>

The first row of Draugr went stumbling back from my Shout, knocking over the row behind them. As the Draugr were temporarily held up, I shot lightning toward the ranks farther back. My flame atronach joined in, roasting the Draugr in front before they could recover. Between my atronach’s attack and my own, we had taken out eight of the undead. Three to twelve was better odds, but still not ideal. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a choice.

Steadfast charged in, swinging his warhammer into one of the recovering Draugr in the second row, smashing its head against the head of its neighbor. Ten were left, and that number dropped to nine as I sank my war axe into one’s head, lighting it on fire.

The flame atronach took out two more as we advanced. The next Draugr I faced had a pike clenched firmly in its teeth and blocked every swing I took at it. I drew out Calcion’s Cleaver and swiped out its forelegs as it blocked a high swing of my war axe. I blasted it with fire from my horn as it collapsed.

Steadfast dropped another of the Draugr with his warhammer, smashing the rusted armor to pieces and crushing the flesh beneath. As I blocked the sword of another, my earth pony companion rushed in and finished it off from the back. Another of the Draugr fell to my flame atronach before it was sliced through with a sword. Falling into two halves, it soon disintegrated to ashes, leaving nothing more than a pile of soot behind.

Three more Draugr remained. I charged the one that had killed my atronach as Steadfast swung his warhammer in the direction of the other two. This Draugr had slightly better armor than the others, as well as a much better sword. It was obviously one of the captains, and it knew its swordplay well.

I was forced to stay light on my hooves as the zombie directed a flurry of slashes at me. Even with two weapons, it was hard to keep from being hit. After a few close calls, my war axe suddenly became lodged beneath the Draugr’s blade. Not wasting any time, the Draugr sent my axe flying away from me, out of reach.

I continued to parry with Calcion’s Cleaver, sweat beading on my brow. Sparks of lightning flew from my blade down the Draugr’s, but it seemed unaffected by it. The fight came to a close as the undead soldier managed to catch its blade beneath my own and flip my ancient earth pony sword away.

As it loomed over me, prepared for the killing blow, an arrow suddenly sprouted out of its neck, followed by two more in quick succession. I was forced to roll out of the way to keep the Draugr’s now still corpse from landing on me. Looking up, I could see Mephalda slowly flapping her way down.

“I can’t leave you two alone for a minute, can I?” she teased.

“Anything up there?” I asked about the tower as I retrieved my weapons.

“Just more Draugr,” she replied as she settled down onto the stone beside me, “Nothing that looked like a rune wall.”

“Then I guess we move on to the temple,” Steadfast said as he looted the Draugr bodies.

I nodded my agreement and joined him in retrieving the assorted coins and jewels the undead earth ponies had on their corpses. When we’d finished, we made our way through the town as quietly as possible. Most of the Draugr townsponies had retreated into their dwellings after the attack in the plaza, but occasionally we saw one peeking through the windows, or rushing out of sight down an alley.

Only a few guards appeared during our journey, and they were easily defeated by the three of us combined. Still, I noticed these guards all also bore the mysterious crest the previous ones had, and were better organized even in small groups. My pondering on the meaning continued until we finally reached the temple at the far end of the cavern.

A long stone staircase led up to the massive doors, bisected down the middle with statues of ponies and dragons. On either side of the climb were rows of statues with accusing eyes much like the heads on the arches outside the ruin. I focused on the stairs as we passed through, though I could still feel their gazes boring into my head. The air absolutely buzzed with magic, and I could feel the pulses getting stronger. We must’ve been nearing the epicenter.

At the top of the stairs was the looming face of the temple, two stone doors stretching up toward the roof of the cavern. Above the doors was a thick stone arch with massive draconic letters engraved on it. As I peered up, the letters seemed to morph, soon becoming recognizable Equine runes, as if they wanted to be read. Finally the twisting of the letters ceased, and I could easily read the massive inscription.

TEMPLE OF LORD VOLDEHORSE
AND THE DISCIPLES OF IMPARTIAL JUSTICE

Well, that explained who this “Voldehorse” the Draugr kept referencing was. Apparently a great Draugr lord and priest, much like Calcion the Vengeful. We’d have to be extra careful to avoid disturbing him. Judging by the size and extravagance of Volsteed, he would probably be several times more powerful than even the overlord of Blank Flanks Barrow.

I tried to ignore the mounting magical pressure within my skull as I pushed the stone door open. Surprisingly, it swung inward silently and with little force applied to it. I realized it was probably enchanted. Anything magical having to do with Draugr couldn’t be good.

Before entering, I peered around the interior of the cathedral-like structure, seeing what was waiting for us. The temple interior was a single room, with expertly hewn stone walls stretching far into the distance. Braziers holding purple fire lit up the far edge of the temple as if it were day, but the path to it was lit haphazardly, allowing shadows to pool alarmingly in the places the light didn’t reach.

Typical temple benches stretched from the entryway to about halfway through the building. Past the benches, the floor suddenly fell out, leaving only a narrow bridge stretching to where the floor continued near the far end of the room. I couldn’t make out much in the distance except for a towering statue of a dragon.

As I stepped over the threshold of the door, I found the magical pressure on me increase significantly, causing me to nearly fall down under the sudden increase in arcane power.

“Are you sure you’re going to be all right?” Mephalda asked.

“Yeah,” I said, struggling back to my hooves, “It just caught me off guard is all.”

She didn’t seem to believe me, but she didn’t push the matter any further. It was obvious to everypony that the magic of the place was affecting me most of all, probably due to my unicorn status. All I knew was that we needed to get through this place as quickly as possible.

We passed the perfectly preserved temple benches without incident and were soon crossing the bridge. I only looked down once and instantly regretted it. The bottom was lost in inky blackness, making it impossible to determine exactly how far down it was.

The far end of the room was taken up mostly by the rearing statue of the dragon. Looking up at it, I swear I could see a very pony-like expression of condemnation in its eyes. Diverting my attention downward, I could see a raised set of seats behind a semicircular stone wall. All in all, it had the disturbing appearance of a courtroom. Seven seats protruded above the wall, and only one of them was empty. The rest all held earth ponies clad in ornate robes sitting in decay. Twelve points of bright blue light suddenly burst up as the Draugr awoke.

“Jahriil Drog Voldehorse!” they all shouted in unison, drawing matching ancient earth pony swords.

They disappeared for a moment behind their seats before they reappeared on the same level as Steadfast, Mephalda, and I. As one they advanced on us, their swords held in their teeth, ready for combat. One fell before it could even get close to us as Mephalda shot arrow after arrow through its eyes. As it fell, the others all broke into a gallop, one charging Mephalda, two charging me, and the remaining two charging Steadfast.

I Shouted, freezing one of the ancient earth ponies in place.

I blocked the other’s swing with Calcion’s Cleaver. As the two blades ground against each other, lightning shot from the Cleaver’s tip, burning a line into the ceiling of the temple. I shot flames at the Draugr before our blades parted, but it moved out of the way before the fire hit it.

Swinging my sword back around, I aimed at the Draugr’s neck. Quickly, it reacted to my attack, spinning its own blade up to knock mine away. It blocked again as I aimed at its legs. I backed away from the Draugr priest, preparing to change my strategy when I heard the cracking of ice.

Glancing to the side, I saw the Draugr I’d frozen in place was beginning to break free. I quickly poured my magical energy into conjuring a flame atronach, before turning my attention back to the nearer Draugr. Its blade came swinging down at my head, and I managed to stop it just moments before impact.

Pushing the Draugr’s blade away, I swung my own around and into its neck. It pulled back, hissing, before any permanent damage could be done, however. It jumped toward me, sword raised, but I easily blocked and pushed the Draugr back. As it prepared itself to charge me again, my flame atronach stepped in and bathed it in fire. The burnt corpse fell to the floor, lifeless once more.

My flame atronach suddenly burst into spark and ash as the formerly frozen Draugr cut through it with its sword. My flame atronach had not been standing idly by; the second Draugr bore marks of fresh burns, but they seemed to be hardly fazing it.

“Voldehorse aak zey!” it said as it turned its gaze toward me.

Its blade burst into flame as it swung around at me. I ducked, but could feel the heat pass over my head. With Calcion’s Cleaver, I blocked the next swing, and bands of magical fire and lightning momentarily intertwined. A magical explosion expanded out from where our weapons met, and both the Draugr and I were thrown backwards, afflicted with a number of small burns.

I Shouted as it prepared to charge me again.

The robes on its back molded, and the flesh of its chest seemed to twist in agony as my Shout sealed its death. Even so, it managed to block my next swing, not moving, but not allowing me to get within range for a finishing strike. I wasn’t sure how long the effects of the Shout would last, and I wasn’t willing to wait around to find out.

I hooked the Axe of Whitetrot around one of the Draugr’s forelegs and pulled it out from under itself, causing it to fall to the ground. With repeated strikes of Calcion’s Cleaver, I was able to knock the Draugr’s blade from its mouth. I impaled the zombie in the chest as it lunged up at me, teeth snapping.

Steadfast was still fighting a last remaining Draugr, while Mephalda assisted, shooting arrows into the corpse to cripple it. I added my own help, bathing the Draugr in magical flames. At last, the final “Disciple of Voldehorse” died.

Casting a few healing spells, I patched myself and my teammates up before I went exploring. Behind the massive dragon statue was what we had come here for. A word wall towered up against the back of the temple, and I eagerly approached, welcoming the glowing blue text and the stream of knowledge that accompanied it. In moments I experienced a tempest from the inside, and learned all there was to know about one. But instead of tempest, I know knew it as the dragons did.

~KEST~

As the thoughts finished sinking into my mind, an unnerving sound came from behind me. Spinning around, I could see cracks rapidly forming on the statue of the dragon. I rushed around to where Steadfast and Mephalda were to get a better look at what was happening.

The cracks were spreading out rapidly from the dragon’s open mouth, which was now glowing with an unholy magical light. The cracks themselves also began to glow, and the stone shifted as something within tried to push its way out. At last the ancient stone gave, and the dragon’s chest exploded outward.

I shielded my eyes with my foreleg from the falling debris, which rained down around the three of us. Pulling it away, I saw dragon statue had been completely annihilated. Where the stomach had once been, an earth pony in long, flowing, and exceedingly ornate robes levitated.

I couldn’t believe my eyes as the Draugr settled to the ground. It gazed at all of us with its cold unfeeling eyes, before sending a blast of fire lancing out at me. The fire in itself wasn’t remarkable; the Draugr simply had a staff, one of the ways earth ponies could cast magic without horns. This staff seemed to be pure gold, and carved in the likeness of a dragon, but that wasn’t the most alarming part.

The staff was floating to the side of the Draugr, surrounded by a sickly green magical aura. Looking closely, I could see an amulet carved in the shape of a dragon’s head was draped around the Draugr’s neck, also glowing a sickly green. Somehow, the dragons had given this earth pony the ability to use magic, real unicorn magic.

Voldehorse (who I assumed this powerful Draugr wizard was, seeing no other alternative) shot another blast of fire at me before I came to my senses and returned fire. As I blasted a lightning bolt at him, he lashed out with his own lightning. The bolts met in midair, and massive energy discharges arced out from the point of contact.

Arrows began to sprout out of Voldehorse’s neck as Mephalda took to the air and proceeded to shoot at him. Keeping his focus on me, the Dragon Priest waved his staff through the air, the dragon at the tip belching fire. Steadfast ran around from the back as we kept him distracted, moving in for a strike with his warhammer.

With a swift kick, Voldehorse bucked my earth pony companion across the room. Suddenly he cut off the flow of lightning, allowing my own spell to push through. Still, my blast didn’t strike him, instead burning the spot he had been standing moments before. He rapidly galloped toward me, and I barely had the strength after the magical encounter to levitate Calcion’s Cleaver.

His staff met my blade, and he directed the fire toward me. I struggled to push him back, and the flames blasted right beside my head. None of them struck my flesh directly, but the heat singed my flesh, and I thought my mane had caught fire. Voldehorse gagged as one of Mephalda’s arrows cut through his throat, and his focus shifted to her.

I took the opportunity to push him away, and bat out the flames licking at my head. I would need a manecut to even things out, but at least I hadn’t lost too much of my hair to the fire. As Voldehorse shot fire and lightning simultaneously at Mephalda, I swung Calcion’s Cleaver at the back of his neck.

Unfortunately, he had somehow sensed my move, and I found my sword encased by a green glow of magic over my own. I struggled to wrench my weapon free from Voldehorse’s grip without allowing it to strike myself. It seemed futile until Steadfast came out of nowhere, warhammer swinging, and knocked the Dragon Priest to the side.

Anger burning in his eyes, Voldehorse grabbed Steadfast’s warhammer from him and threw it to the side. Swinging his staff around, he pointed the business end right at my friend. A plan suddenly hatched in my mind, and without thinking it through, I executed it.

<> I Shouted as I rushed toward the two combatants.

I pushed Steadfast out of the way just as my body took on the appearance of a ghost. Flames meant for my friend passed harmlessly through my new ethereal body. Voldehorse cut off the stream of fire when he noticed it was doing no damage to me. Like this, it was impossible for me to be harmed, but the downside was that I couldn’t harm the Dragon Priest either, something that irked me when I was so close to him.

As I felt the effects begin to dull, I backed out of the range of his staff. I hadn’t done any harm to the ancient earth pony, but I had saved Steadfast, and also bought him enough time to retrieve his warhammer and attack Voldehorse again.

Bones gave in the Draugr’s legs as Steadfast’s weapon slammed into them. This time, he didn’t wait around to be disarmed again. As soon as the priest turned toward him, he ran.

In my retreat, I had ended up near one of the larger chunks of what had been the dragon statue minutes before. Climbing atop it, I took advantage of my new level of height. I leapt from my perch toward the Draugr, who had his back to me at the moment. He was just beginning to turn my way when my sword impaled him through his back. The blade protruded from his chest, and he stumbled around for a moment before falling over dead, his dark heart no longer beating.

His staff clattered to the floor as the flow of magic was cut off. Cautiously, I approached his body, hoping he was really, truly dead this time. I pulled off the dragon amulet and threw it away anyway, just to be safe.

As I did so, another amulet fell out of his robes. It was a simple amulet, no more than a square jewel placed in a silver fitting. The jewel at the amulet’s heart was a drab and dull orange, as if the color had been leached out of it, or was hidden deep within. It had no obvious purpose, at least none I could figure out by observing it.

Yet, I took it from Voldehorse’s body anyway. I could feel power emanating from it, though I wasn’t sure exactly what it would do if worn. As I placed it over my neck, I felt the overpowering presence of magic. The magic from the amulet was different, however, than the magic that had been pressing down on me since we had entered Volsteed. The magic of this place was cold and heartless, but the amulet’s magic was warm and comforting. I felt instantly refreshed, as if a great burden had been lifted off my shoulders.

“What’ve you got there?” Mephalda asked, noticing me admiring the amulet I’d acquired.

“Not sure,” I admitted, “But if Voldehorse found it worth his while to wear, I guess I should too.”

“So, what now?” Steadfast asked, trotting up to the two of us.

The amulet had relieved my weariness, but I knew that this was only an artificial sensation. In truth, I hadn’t slept in two days, and my mind was beginning to complain.

“We’ll go back to Faniar,” I announced, “But first we need to stop in Seclusion. There’s a bed somewhere there calling my name.”

Level Up
Health: 200 Stamina: 180 Magicka: 200
New Perk: Shocking Combination [Destruction] -- Dual-casting lightning based spells will overcharge the spell for triple damage.
Unique Item added: Mysterious Amulet -- The amulet from Voldehorse’s body provides a strange raw power that cannot be easily explained. The only noticeable effect is a reduction of weariness and an increase in hope for the wearer.
Word of Power learned: KEST -- Tempest; Whirlwind Sprint – Combined with WULD and NAH, KEST increases the speed at which you are propelled using Whirlwind Sprint to that of a tempest.
New Quest: Another Day, Another Dungeon -- Return to Faniar and learn the location of another Draugr ruin.

Chapter 29: Beak and Claw

Chapter XXIX: Beak and Claw
“I’ve got nothing against Griffins. But that stronghold they’ve got to the southeast is an affront to my people.”

I was on a boat rocking back and forth slowly in fairly calm waters. The sky was a dark red, lit so by the setting sun. I was not alone on the boat; in fact, I was surrounded by a vast mass of ponies pressed up against me. As I tried to get a little more space, the entire crowd shifted and I heard screams in the distance as ponies went overboard. Yet, nopony moved to help them, they just grumbled, the waves of their protestations sweeping over me.

Something was definitely wrong. I looked around the crowd surrounding me, trying unsuccessfully to keep from knocking anypony else overboard. I stood stock still when my eyes suddenly focused on a pony directly in front of me. She was a Stormcloud soldier, but there was no way she could possibly be standing in front of me. She should’ve been dead, a wide gash cutting across her throat, yet she stood before me clearly alive.

As I looked around, I could see everypony on the boat had sustained a fatal injury, marking them as walking dead. Near the back of the boat, I could see a badly-burned stallion I recognized as Captain Faeros. My heart plunged into my stomach as I suddenly realized what else all these ponies had in common. Stormclouds and Imperial soldiers, bandits and Blackwings, these were all ponies I had killed.

I was surrounded by everypony I’d killed since I’d come to Horizon. I felt I was going to be sick as I spun around surveying the vast crowd of casualties around me. The wind began to pick up and storm clouds swirled overhead. The boat began to rock more violently, knocking my victims off in crowds until only I remained on the blood-slickened deck. Around me the sea was now also stained with blood, vast waves of the red liquid tossing the boat around in the tempest.

“Murderer~” the wind hissed at me, accusing me of my crimes.

“No!” I protested, shouting up at the sky, “I-I’m not a bad pony!”

“Liar~” the wind responded and the squall’s ferocity increased.

“I’ve saved lives!” I called up at the thickening clouds as I struggled to keep my balance, “And I’ve only killed ponies who deserved it!”

“Who are you to decide who is worthy of life and who is worthy of death?~”

I had no comeback for that accusation. Shocked, I didn’t even move as a colossal wave of blood crashed into the boat, capsizing and smashing it into splinters. For a moment I was in the air before splashing down in the sea of blood from ponies I’d killed. It filled my lungs as I was sucked under, drowning me in moments.

~~ ~~ ~~

I bolted upright in my bed, throwing the sweat-drenched covers off. I let my eyes adjust as my breathing slowed back to normal. At first I didn’t recognize where I was, but I refused to let panic take hold of me, and soon I was able to place the room around me. I was in a back room of the Skeever Hole, the room in which I had prepared for the Blackwing Embassy job over a week earlier.

In a bed nearby Steadfast was snoring, blissfully asleep. In the dark I could also make out the silhouette of Mephalda staring at me with soft, compassionate eyes.

“Bad dreams?” she whispered, flapping over to me.

“Yeah,” I croaked out before clearing my throat, “How’d you know.”

“I can’t sleep either,” she admitted, “I guess the attack on the Blackwing Embassy’s taking a toll on you too.”

“That makes no sense,” I said, “That was days ago.”

“Sometimes it takes time for the shock to hit you. I learned that long ago,” Mephalda replied, staring off into space, “But it will hit you eventually. At least, I always experienced the guilt. I don’t know if I can say the same for my former co-workers.”

“But did they have to die?” I asked, “I can’t help thinking that we could’ve saved Steadfast without killing them.”

“I know. The thought’s occurred to me too. I was just so angry at the time, I thought there wasn’t another way. I guess that proves I really am the killer they wanted me to be.”

“And I killed innocent ponies,” I said, shaking.

“Innocent?” Mephalda said, turning to look at me, “I can assure you there’s not a single Blackwing in Horizon who hasn’t killed somepony. They don’t send their recruits out of the Featherrest Isles until they’ve wetted their blade. And they’d locked the place down after Steadfast’s and your infiltration. The chances we could’ve made it to him without killing anypony was incredibly slim at best.”

“But I still killed them.”

“Yes, but you regret it?”

I nodded.

“Well, that’s the first step toward putting it behind you. You can’t live in the past, you’ve got to focus on the future and keep from making the same mistakes again.”

I nodded my agreement. After all, the reason I was here in Horizon in the first place was to put the past behind me and move on. I had moved on after the horrible massacre at Caprika Redoubt, I could get through this too.

I had been so lost in my thoughts, I hadn’t even noticed Mephalda move in for an embrace. I hesitated a moment before giving in and wrapping my forelegs around her.

“Huh . . . what?” Steadfast said, bolting awake as Mephalda nudged him in the side.

Blinking sleep from his eyes, he surveyed the room before joining in the group hug to comfort me.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

By the time morning came, I was feeling much better. The terrors of the night before had retreated to the corners of my mind. I was just fastening on my armor when there was a knock on the door.

“Come on in,” I called, pulling on my Boots of Inexhaustibility.

The stallion who pushed open the door was the same courier who had summoned me to the Blue Palace weeks earlier to speak with the Jarl.

“Sapphire, there’s someone outside to see you,” he said.

“Well, let them in then.”

“No,” he said, shaking his head, “She’s just outside the city gate, waiting for you.”

“Well, why doesn’t she come in?”

“Griffins aren’t allowed within Seclusion.”

That got my interest. What would a griffin be doing looking for me? Was it Nagrissa, come to see if Steadfast and I had survived the attack on Windrake Cavern? I quickly finished putting on my armor, weapons, and saddlebags, and rushed out to meet her.

The guards outside the city gates looked a bit nervous standing so close to a griffin, but so far they still had their weapons sheathed. The griffin before me wasn’t Nagrissa; she was smaller, and the feathers on her head had a slight bluish tint to them. I recognized her as one of the other tribes that had joined up for the attack on Dawnstar. I was still at a loss as to why she was here, though.

“You are Sapphire?” she asked me with in heavily accented Equine and flapped towards me as soon as I passed the city gates.

“Yes, and this is Steadfast and Mephalda,” I replied, motioning to my companions who had joined me outside the Skeever Hole, “How can we help you.”

“You are friend to Griffins? You are dragonslayer?” she asked, stepping closer.

“Right on both counts. Why?” I said, fearing I already knew why.

“Grashnikh needs your help. Dragon has come. Village burning.”

“Why didn’t you say so?” Steadfast said, “Lead the way.”

I nodded in agreement, but the griffin before us shook her head.

“No, we will fly.”

I began to protest that there was no way she could carry both me and Steadfast, but before I could I found myself hefted up onto her back and Steadfast was snatched up where he stood. My heart jumped in my chest for a moment as she launched into the air, but somehow she managed to get us off the ground. This griffin was certainly stronger than she looked. Mephalda soon joined us in the air, flapping alongside as we shot south.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Grashnikh, as it turned out, was built in the mountains that formed the southern border of Horizon, just to the southeast of Marekarth. There was no dragon to be seen as we approached, but wisps of smoke trailed up from what was left of the Stronghold. There wasn’t really much left of the Stronghold at all, only a few charred beams of what must’ve once been the longhouse remained standing.

Erin, the Griffin carrying us, gasped as we grew closer. Apparently when she had left it either hadn’t been as bad, or she hadn’t had a chance to look back on the wreckage. I had to admit, things didn’t look promising. The only sign of Griffins below were bones the flesh had burned clean off of and scattered feathers fluttering in the breeze.

“I’m sorry,” Mephalda said quietly, flapping closer to lay a hoof on Erin’s shoulder.

“No,” she said, batting it away, “This not over yet. Tribe go to sacred place.”

“Where?” I asked.

In reply, Erin climbed over the mountains the Stronghold had been built against. Weaving between towering peaks, she at last fell through the cloud layer. Down below, I could see a small valley nestled amongst the rearing cliffs. A large crevasse in the mountains back the way we had come led me to believe there was a tunnel of some sort connecting this valley and what had once been Grashnikh.

Erin had been right; the Griffins weren’t all dead after all. Small lionesque shapes dotted the valley below, and a few even flapped up to meet us. After Erin landed, I quickly jumped off. I wasn’t a pegasus, and solid ground suited me more than being suspended in the air. Steadfast practically kissed the ground after he was released. It seemed flying didn’t suit him much either.

Looking around, I could see many Griffins had escaped, but judging by the Stronghold’s wreckage, only about half had made it out. The crowd that was assembling around us three out of place ponies parted to let an elderly Griffin through. Like Erin (and all the Griffins here for that matter) his feathers had a bluish tint to them, though his were almost completely overshadowed by a grey that looked like it was seeping through.

“Well done Erin,” the Chieftain addressed our Griffin companion first.

“I wish we could have made it here sooner.”

“Grashnikh has been destroyed many times,” the elder comforted her, “It will be rebuilt again.”

A dragon’s roar broke through the air and a hush fell over the valley.

“Now though, we have a more urgent predicament,” the Chieftain said, turning to me, “That dragon has been searching the mountains for hours. It will not be long before it finds us.”

I nodded my understanding.

“Many of us were wounded in the initial attack, but I have a few warriors fit to fight still.”

“Good,” I said, flinching as I saw a dragon-shaped shadow pass over the clouds, “Because we’re gonna need all the help we can get.”

You’d think with this being the eighth dragon I’d encountered I wouldn’t be nervous. Still, nothing prepares you for that moment when the great lizard comes barreling through the clouds, eyes fixed on you.

I rolled to the side as the dragon flew over where I had been a moment before, a trail of flame scorching the stubby grass. Griffins scattered as the great beast charged through the valley, laying waste to everything in its path. This dragon was slightly larger than the others I had previously encountered, and spines protruded from its luminescent green scales, slicing through the air as it flew.

A few Griffins, most likely the warriors Grashnikh’s Chieftain had spoken of, flew up to meet the dragon as it hovered in the air searching for prey. The scaly fiend’s eyes locked on them as they drew closer, and it let out a blast of fire and smoke, scorching some and disorienting others. Those that hadn’t been burned were quickly snatched up in the dragon’s claws and fed into its mouth, teeth as long as my foreleg reducing the Griffins to pulp.

<<>> I Shouted, hoping to get the dragon’s attention.

My Shout worked, catching the dragon under one of its wings and sending it into a spin. It ploughed into the ground a short distance away. Arrows from Mephalda’s bow were already sprouting from the dragon’s neck as I closed the distance, drawing out Calcion’s Cleaver.

A blast of fire shot out at me as I drew closer, and I was forced to divert my path, swinging around toward the dragon’s exposed side. The flame pursued me as I ran, however, and I soon found myself cut off by the dragon’s tail. The jet of fire cut off just as I was about to be trapped. The dragon seemed to forget about me, swinging its head around to Steadfast, who was already readying his warhammer for a second strike on the neck.

The dragon snapped at my earth pony companion, freshly dried griffin blood flaking off its teeth. He jumped back, and the dragon’s head snapped just short of taking his head off. As it made to lunge again, I stabbed my sword into the dragon’s tail, causing it to whirl around on me instead.

Using the spines as hoofholds, I clambered up onto the dragon’s back. It shot a short burst of fire at me before realizing it was hurting itself as well and took to snapping at me instead. I weaved my way along the dragon’s spine, stabbing Calcion’s Cleaver in wherever I could until the dragon grew tired of trying to catch me.

As it heaved its massive bulk to the side, I found myself rolling off its back and onto a wing. I stabbed the Axe of Whitetrot into the membrane, eventually coming a stop about halfway down the wing’s span.

I Shouted at the joint where the wing met the dragon’s body before I could be flicked off.

The dragon flailed around anyway, making it very hard for me to maintain my position on the wing. Eventually, I gave in and let my war axe pull out, controlling my slide so I wouldn’t hit the ground too hard. I was almost on the ground when the sound of shattering ice met my ears, and the dragon’s wing flipped upward, launching me into the air.

Horizon turned upside-down for a moment, with the mountains suspended from the sky, before I came crashing down to the ground. I tried to brace myself for the impact, but I felt the bone in my foreleg give way as I met the earth. When my skid came to a stop I was battered and bruised, one foreleg broken and, judging by the pain in my chest, a few ribs too. It didn’t help that my armor had been bent out of shape by the collision and was now squeezing my chest as well.

What seemed like miles away, I could see the dragon whirling around in circles trying to catch Steadfast, who kept weaving under the dragon and getting hits off before he could be caught. Mephalda also swooped in, landing on the dragon’s head to get point-blank shots off through its skull.

As quickly but carefully as possible, I reset the bone in my foreleg with my magic, bringing tears to my eyes as I did so. I was unable to bend my armor back into shape with my magic alone, and I didn’t want to risk my ribs resetting improperly by using a healing potion, so I poured my magic into repairing the damage to my foreleg.

I was short of breath, but luckily the ribs hadn’t punctured a lung, so I let them be for now. Standing, I tested my leg and it held weight at least. That would have to be enough. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Steadfast get hit by the dragon’s tail, sending him sprawling across the ground. My friends needed me more than I needed to be healed to one hundred percent.

<> I Shouted, a tempest propelling me forward almost to the dragon.

Mephalda was thrown from her perch on its head as the dragon shook violently. A blast of flame followed her as she flew off, but she nimbly avoided it, continuing her aerial volley. By now the dragon’s head was beginning to look like a pincushion from all the arrows in it.

Its eyes locked on me as I came closer to it. It reared up, exposing its soft underbelly to me. It was too good an opportunity to pass up, and I charged forward, stabbing Calcion’s Cleaver into its stomach. As the dragon began to bear down on me, I converted my charge into a slide, skidding along underneath the beast.

The dragon slammed its claw down as I slid, the points gouging through my armor’s chestplate and slicing my cheek. I could feel blood seeping into the underbarding as my slide came to an end. Looking down, I nearly vomited when I saw the state of my chest.

The dragon’s claws had ripped my armor apart like wet paper, taking trails of my flesh with it. If I didn’t have any broken ribs before, I certainly did now. Forcing myself to look down, I cast a spell to heal what I could on the surface before I blacked out from blood loss. I knew it was laughably inadequate, but it would have to do for now. I just hoped I hadn’t done more harm than good.

The fight wasn’t over yet. Steadfast had gotten back up and crushed one of the joints in the dragon’s wings as I frantically healed myself. A wall of flame suddenly engulfed him, and I feared I was seeing the end of my friend, but he just smiled and smashed the dragon’s jaw shut, a pale aura surrounding him. The dragon barely flinched before knocking him aside with a swipe of its head, but at least he had gotten some use out of those fire resistance potions we had bought.

Calcion’s Cleaver was nowhere to be seen, and I realized I must have dropped it during the slide. A war axe wouldn’t do for slicing through the dragon’s thick hide, so I drew out the steel sword from my saddlebags, holding it high with my magic as I charged the dragon.

Faster than I thought something so big could move, the dragon whirled around on me. With a snap of its teeth my sword was turned to a mess of steel shards. Not halting my charge, I jumped onto its nose and ran up its face, drawing out the Axe of Whitetrot as I did. I sunk the axe into the dragon’s eye as I ran, the curved blade catching on the bone. I was forced to release my weapon as I jumped atop the dragon’s skull.

The dragon bellowed in agony, shaking around like mad. I clung to a spine of the dragon’s head, weaponless as it thrashed up and down. The sharp edges dug into my forelegs as my grip slipped, drawing blood and making holding on even harder. At last I was forced to let go and was launched straight up in the air.

“Sapphire!” I heard Mephalda yell as I neared the top of my trajectory.

Turning my head, I could see her flapping nearby. An ancient earth pony sword was flying from her outstretched forelegs toward me. I grasped Calcion’s Cleaver in my magic as gravity took over again.

The dragon continued to thrash about madly below, but hadn’t moved too far from its original position. My sword met resistance as it cut into the dragon’s neck, the scales, flesh, and bone working furiously to halt the blade’s progress. But, through the force of my fall, I was able to keep the blade moving as it sliced clean through the dragon’s neck, separating its head from its body.

The reek of dragon blood filled the air as the body’s movement came to a halt. Breathing heavily, I paused only to clean my sword before ripping off my mutilated armor. The dragon spontaneously combusted after a moment, its flesh burning away in multicolored fire. Mephalda gasped and made to pull me away from the flames before Steadfast stopped her, explaining what was going on.

My eyes squeezed shut, I watched images flash across the insides of my lids, absorbing the dragon’s memories, and all its knowledge, including how to use the final word of my Whirlwind Sprint Shout, KEST.

I suppressed the urge to use it immediately, and focused on repairing the damage done to me in the fight. Painfully, I forced my ribs back into place before downing a major healing potion. My insides crawled as they attempted to self-repair, the tingle of magic spreading through my flesh. A minor healing potion later and my chest was fully healed. The few other minor wounds I had accumulated were also repaired, and I was back in top condition.

As the Griffins began to climb out of wherever they had been hiding, I retrieved the Axe of Whitetrot from the dragon’s skull. Mephalda also began to draw her arrows out of the dragon’s remains before we were overwhelmed by Griffins thanking us. Once again, the crowd parted to let the Chieftain through.

“Thank you all,” he said, “We of Grashnikh owe you a great debt.”

“I just wish we could’ve made it sooner,” I said.

“Slaying the dragon was service enough,” the Griffin said, raising a claw, “How can we ever repay you?”

“Oh, that’s not necessary-” I started to protest, by the Chieftain cut me off.

“Nonsense! We Griffins are a people of honor. How can we be considered honorable if we didn’t repay you for such a great deed?”

His eyes turned to my broken and bloody armor lying nearby on the ground.

“I think I may even have a gift befitting such an act,” he said, as smile beginning to form on his beak, “Come, follow me.”

Obediently, I trotted after the Griffin as he walked toward the far end of the valley. As mist cleared away, I caught sight of a massive stone statue rearing up against the cliff face we were approaching. It resembled a Griffin somewhat when it came to features, but the body shape was long and lithe, almost serpentine.

“What is that statue?” Steadfast asked as we approached the base.

“That is our Lord Malaquill,” the Griffin elder responded, “When our people, the Griffins, were looked down upon and shunned both by the equines of the world and the Equines of Aetherius, Malaquill took us under his wing. The Draconequus Prince of Curses accepted us when no other would, and we have worshipped him ever since.”

Well, that answered the questions I’d had about Malaquill at least, but I still had no idea why we were approaching the statue to him. I just followed the Chieftain’s lead and waited to see what he would do.

“Goorazh!” he called, rapping on the stone with a claw.

A split formed in the statue’s base and it opened into a door. An even older Griffin who appeared to have gone blind with age hesitantly stepped through the newly formed opening.

“Why have you disturbed me?” Goorazh asked, glaring at the Chieftain.

“My apologies,” he replied, bowing deeply, “But these ponies here helped us against a dragon and I think we should repay them. In particular, this mare could use a new set of armor.”

“We have not made armor for ponies in centuries,” Goorazh said, narrowing his eyes, “I will speak to Lord Malaquill to see if she is worthy.”

The elder Griffin disappeared back into the shrine before emerging again a few moments later.

“She is a friend to Griffins,” he announced, “I will make the armor, but it will take many hours.”

“That’s fine with me,” I said, turning to see Steadfast and Mephalda agreed, “I don’t mind staying here for a while.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

For hours, the sounds of heavy presses and metal on metal rang from the shrine to Malaquill. To pass the time, my companions and I spoke with the Griffins, the Chieftain and Erin most of all. The sun set while Goorazh continued his work, so we stayed the night. My sleep was restless, but I couldn’t recall any of my dreams like the night before.

The following morning, the Griffin Priest emerged, proudly clutching my new set of armor. It looked extraordinary, bent and twisted into fantastical shapes. The metal shimmered with a slight green hue as it was presented. Trying it on, I found it was stronger than steel, but lighter as well, allowing me to move about much more freely.

After thanking the Griffins for the gift, Erin flew Steadfast and I down to the ground and we began the trek back to Whitetrot. I was eager to return to Horizon’s central city. Though I had a house there, the last time I had visited was over a week earlier. It seemed I was so busy, I spent more time away from my new home than actually in it.

After resupplying and dropping off a few items in Breezehome, we traveled up to Dragonsreach. Faniar was just where I expected him to be, in his study, surrounded by open books and hastily scrawled notes.

“Ah, you’re back!” he exclaimed upon seeing us, “I must admit, I was getting worried.”

“Well,” I said, sparing a few glances at Steadfast and Mephalda, “There were some . . . complications.”

“I see. Well, how was Volsteed?”

“Like nothing you’ve ever seen. There’s a whole city built down there, and it was protected by an insanely powerful Draugr. He was using magic; I didn’t even think that was possible.”

“Wait, where’d you find this Draugr?” Faniar asked suddenly.

“In a temple in the deepest part of the city. Why?”

“I knew that Volsteed was an extensive ruin, but I had no idea it was the resting place of a Dragon Priest.”

“A what now?”

“In the ancient earth pony dragon cult, the dragons often granted special powers to their followers, which I’m sure you know. But there were a special few, six in total, granted powers rivaling the dragons themselves. You’re lucky you got out alive if a Dragon Priest was there.”

“Do you have any idea what this is?” I asked, levitating the amulet I’d taken from Voldehorse out of my saddlebags, “The Dragon Priest was wearing it.”

I figured it was worth a shot. After all, next to the Greymanes, Faniar was probably the most likely to know about obscure draconic artifacts.

“Hmm,” he said, examining it, “I have no idea. I looks like nothing to me, just some jewelry, and I can’t detect any enchantments on it. Still, if a Dragon Priest had it, I suppose it’s worth holding on to.”

“So,” I said, taking the amulet back and draping it around my neck, “Now that we’ve cleared Volsteed, have you got any other ruins for me?”

“Actually,” Faniar replied, “I was just looking into this little ruin to the east of Windhorn. Snowtip Barrow, it’s called. Should be a snap for you.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Giving a hard kick, I pushed yet another Draugr off my blade. As I swung around at the next one, it suddenly fell to the floor as one of Mephalda’s arrows burst through its throat. Spinning around, I sliced through the throat of another just as Steadfast crushed one closing in from behind. Turning around to see no Draugr standing nearby, I sheathed my blade and took a breather.

Like Faniar had said, Snowtip Barrow appeared to be a fairly small ruin. Still, I had never seen so many Draugr in one place before. Every corridor seemed to be a tomb, and the walls were lined with side-by-side sarcophagi. I was beginning to seriously doubt the Barrow was anything more than a mass grave, but no Draugr ruin had let me down before, so I decided to press on.

“You really think there’s a word of power here?” Steadfast asked as we trotted down a now-empty corridor.

“There has to be,” I replied, trying to assure myself at the same time, “I don’t know why else there would be so many guardians.”

“I hope we find it soon,” Mephalda commented, looking into her quiver, “I’m getting low on arrows.”

The next few corridors were thankfully clear, serving as a passage deeper into the ruin. At the far end of one, an elaborate iron door blocked the way. The muffled sounds of Draugr milling about could be heard from the other side, and I held back Steadfast as he moved to charge ahead.

The door wasn’t flush against the floor, and I could see a bit of oil flowing under it, perhaps from a vat the Draugr within had knocked over. A quick blast of fire from my horn set it alight, and the flames spread into the room beyond. Screams soon came through the door as the Draugr roasted in place. From the volume of the clamor, there was an entire army through those doors, and I was glad we hadn’t had to trot through to take them out.

Sure enough, when the screaming died down and we opened the doors, dozens, if not hundreds, of burnt Draugr corpses filled the room. Carefully, Steadfast and I climbed over the still smoking flesh while Mephalda flapped overhead. Past the carnage was a door that thankfully opened into a much larger room.

At last we had made it to the lowest cavern of Snowtip Barrow. It was eerily similar to Blank Flanks Barrow’s lowest cavern, though the sarcophagus that had housed Calcion the Vengeful was absent from this ruin. In fact, there didn’t appear to be any Draugr at all in the area.

There was, however, a word wall that I wasted no time in galloping up to. In no time at all, I absorbed the draconic understanding of cold as the letters burned before me in frigid flames.

~KRAH~

“I don’t get it,” Steadfast commented from behind me.

“Don’t get what?” I asked, turning away from the draconic inscription.

“Well, why does this barrow even exist, and why are there so many Draugr here to protect nothing but a word wall?”

It was a legitimate question that was also nagging at my own mind. In all the ruins I’d been to before, there was some kind of extremely powerful Draugr lord hiding in the depths, protected the army one had to fight through to get to them. So, why wasn’t there one here?

“Maybe because of that,” Mephalda said quietly, her eyes fixed at a point above my head.

Turning around, I too looked up in awe. What I had thought was a statue before, I now saw to be a fully intact dragon’s skeleton perched atop the word wall. The barrow began to shake and rocks rained down from the ceiling.

“What’s going on?” Steadfast asked.

I was too afraid to say what I thought.

The cavern roof above the dragon’s skeleton suddenly crumbled to pieces, letting multicolored lightning strike through. Even blown back by the tempest that accompanied it, I could hear heavy wingbeats coming from outside, along with a rhythmic chanting in draconic.

“Alduin’s resurrecting the dragon,” I called as the bones began to shake, proving my fears to be true.

As flesh finished forming over its bones, the lightning stopped striking the once-dead lizard and Alduin flapped off. The dragon within the barrow, however, didn’t seem to be leaving any time soon. Within moments, it had spotted us and gave a roar, launching itself off the word wall and coating the cavern’s floor in fire. Steadfast, Mephalda, and I scattered as the dragon went on a rampage, tearing down the stone pillars that jutted up throughout the cavern.

<<>> I Shouted as the wyrm reeled past me.

My Shout struck the side of its head and sent it tumbling into the underground stream. Blowing steam from its nostrils, it charged toward me across the ground. I shot a blast of lightning from my horn as it came in range, flaking scales off its nose, but it shrugged the damage off and continued coming.

Just before it reached me, I pulled out my sword, but it was coming much faster than I thought it was, and there was no time to jump out of its way before it slammed into me. Luckily, Mephalda had seen my plight and swooped down to pull me out of the way before the dragon’s jaws snapped shut around me. I was even able to get a quick swipe across its tongue in as my hooves left the ground.

Dropping me a short distance from the dragon, Mephalda swooped up into the air, taking shots at the dragon with her bow using the few Draugr arrows she had retrieved in the ruin. Steadfast had also made his way over to this side of the cavern and smashed the dragon’s wing joint with his warhammer as it moved to breathe fire at me again. As the dragon turned to snap at him, he rushed under its belly, taking a few quick swings that did little but anger the beast.

Charging toward the dragon, I reached it just as it was turning toward Steadfast. Calcion’s Cleaver and the Axe of Whitetrot held in my magic, I swung my blades into the dragon’s neck, leaving gashes in its scaly hide that oozed putrid blood. As I made to jump over its neck to get its other side, it swiftly turned its head. The scaled column slammed into me mid-jump, knocking me across the cavern and into the river.

I jumped out of the icy waters as the dragon sent a blast of flame my way. The fire cut off as Mephalda managed to bury an arrow in one of the wound’s I’d left on the dragon’s neck. Looking toward the ceiling, it began to fill the air with flames. Mephalda dodged the fire as best she could, but soon she was trapped by the stone of the cavern. Slowly she fluttered to the ground, feathers and hair burnt off.

Before the dragon could follow up on its attack, Steadfast crushed its other wing, and I began a charge toward it. Midway, I summoned a flame atronach to assist. Soon the dragon was being attacked from three sides. With a flick of its tail, it sent Steadfast flying, dropping him near where Mephalda had crash landed. My atronach it smashed in its claw, leaving only me to oppose it.

Downing a potion of fire resistance, I galloped toward the dragon at top speed, both sword and axe hovering near me. As I neared, it opened its mouth and covered my path with flames. I could feel the heat, but the fire itself deflected harmlessly around the cloak of protection that coated my body. Sweating both from the heat and exertion, I made it to the dragon’s mouth, throwing myself inside. Jabbing my axe into its jaw to keep it open, I thrust Calcion’s Cleaver up into the dragon’s brain, killing it an instant.

The flames cut off and I tumbled out as my fire resistance wore off. Leaving my weapons in the dragon for the moment, I rushed over to where Mephalda and Steadfast were. My pegasus friend was looking much better than when I’d last seen her, no doubt thanks to the healing potions Steadfast had taken from his saddlebags, but the feathers at the ends of her wings had refused to regrow.

She looked at where they should’ve been longingly as I approached. I knew that without those, there was no way she could fly, but the potions hadn’t done any good for them. Despite the magical drain from summoning the atronach shortly before, I had to at least try to heal her. Pouring as much magic as I could summon into a spell, I focused Healing Hooves on the tips of her wings.

Nothing happed at first, except for an acute drain on my magical strength. Still, I kept going, pouring more and more energy in until at last a few tiny feathers began to sprout. I barely heard Mephalda gasp in awe as I remained focused on my goal. At last her wings were restored to perfect condition, and I cut off the spell, my coat drenched with sweat and my breathing rapid and irregular.

“Oh, thank you Sapphire!” she exclaimed, throwing her forelegs around me unexpectedly.

I was still within her embrace when the dragon began to combust behind me, surrounding us both in multicolored lights. Its memories soon melded with mine, teaching me everything I needed to know about KRAH, and how it could be combined with FO to make my frost breath even stronger. The thoughts swirled around in my head until I couldn’t control them anymore.

<> I Shouted involuntarily into Mephalda’s face as she began to pull away from me.

“Um, a little help Steadfast?” I asked as I found myself accidently fused to the pegasus.

Level Up
Health: 200 Stamina: 180 Magicka: 210
New Perk: A Cup of Life [Alchemy] -- Any healing potions you make yourself will be twice as potent.
Word of Power learned: KRAH -- Cold; Frost Breath – Combined with FO, KRAH makes your Frost Breath more potent, freezing opponents more quickly and for a longer time.
Dragon Soul collected
Dragon Soul collected
New Quest: Draugr Secrets -- Continue searching Draugr ruins for Words of Power, and clues about the dragons’ return.

Chapter 30: Giants Above, Death Below

Chapter XXX: Giants Above, Death Below
“Remember we’re both hoofed, at the end of each leg.”

After Steadfast managed to stop laughing at the unfortunate predicament we had gotten ourselves in, he helped to chip Mephalda and me apart. Though being a bit cold, she was none the worse for wear after being frozen solid, and soon we were able to depart Snowtip Barrow. The sun had already set by the time we made it to Whitetrot, so we slept in Breezehome for the remainder of the night before heading up to see Faniar in the morning.

“Back already?” he asked as we entered his study, which was even more covered in papers than usual, “That was certainly fast. I take it you were successful?”

“In finding a Word of Power: yes. In getting closer to finding how to stop Alduin: not really,” I responded, “In fact, he was there yesterday, resurrecting another dragon.”

“That’s not good,” Faniar said, sweeping parchment off his desk to reveal the dragonstone, “He must be nearly finished by now.”

“So, how do we stop him?” Steadfast asked.

“Hmm, there may be a clue in this Draugr ruin I’ve been looking at. According to my research, it used to contain a records room, maybe even holding the secret to Alduin’s eventual defeat. Breakneck Cavern, built in the mountains between here and Foalkreath. I’ll mark it on your map.”

“Thanks Faniar,” I called as we left, “We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

It wasn’t too far to Breakneck Cavern, only a quick jaunt across the wind-swept plains. Clouds were piling overhead as we neared our destination, pushed into place by pegasi.

“Looks like a storm,” Steadfast commented as the sun was blocked out.

“Rain by the looks of it,” Mephalda elaborated, surveying the clouds, “One last downpour before winter.”

“Then I guess we had better get to Breakneck Cavern as soon as possible,” I said.

Now that we were nearing the mountains, I could see some sort of settlement built at its base. I was about to mention it to my friends when a roar suddenly shook the world. Looking over my shoulder, I saw a dragon gliding over the plains. It didn’t seem to be focused on us; instead it flapped toward the settlement I saw ahead.

I didn’t know anything about the settlement, but I rushed forward all the same. This dragon wasn’t going to slaughter ponies when I was around. Spears flew up from the enclosure at the dragon, some sticking in its flesh, but most bouncing away harmlessly. The dragon blasted the ground with fire just before I skidded around the rough wall of boulders and tree trunks.

Inside were creatures I’d never seen before. They were far larger than ponies, and much bulkier as well, their horned heads protruding from the front of their hairy bodies. The rough enclosure was filled with cylindrical tents clustered around a massive bonfire.

“Buffalo,” Steadfast gave a name to the creatures, “To think they have a whole settlement this close to Whitetrot.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well,” he explained, “Buffalo tend to have a real problem with attacking farmers, or else extorting them for food. I can’t believe nopony from Whitetrot ever found this place.”

“I think we’d best put all petty concerns aside for now,” Mephalda said, “And help them out. The dragons are everyone’s problem after all.”

“She’s right,” I told Steadfast, “And once the dragon is dead, hopefully they’ll be a bit more open to peaceful discussion.”

I quickly ducked down as the dragon swooped over our heads, tearing a chunk out of the buffalos’ wall. I shot lightning at the beast as it retreated, sending sparks skittering along its scaly hide but little else. More spears thrown by the buffalo bounced off it as it swung back around toward us.

I Shouted as it passed overhead, hurting it with my very words.

Marked for death, the dragon crashed into the ground, whipping around to face me. The remaining buffalo charged it, but were quickly thrown aside by the lizard’s massive tail. I quickly galloped out of the way as the dragon shot fire in my direction. Steadfast headed the other way and Mephalda shot up into the sky.

As my pegasus friend’s arrows began to embed themselves in the dragon’s head, I rushed toward it, summoning a flame atronach as I went. Pulling out Calcion’s Cleaver just before I reached the beast, I slammed the blade into its side, cutting straight through the scaly armor. Giving a jerk, the dragon threw me aside, the Cleaver still buried in its flesh.

As I ran to retrieve my sword, I found myself standing face to face with the dragon. Twin jets of flame billowed through its nostrils on either side of me, singing my tail as it whipped around in the tempest stirred up by the dragon’s breath.

<> I Shouted as it opened its mouth.

Its jaws snapped against nothing as I transitioned into an ethereal form. Steadfast suddenly jumped through me, smashing the dragon’s snout into the ground with his warhammer. I ran over to where my sword was still embedded in the dragon’s side while it pursued Steadfast. Anxious to get the Cleaver back, I waited until my Shout wore off. When it finally did, I found myself unable to grab it.

I hadn’t been paying attention to my surroundings and, as the dragon chased after Steadfast, its wing had come sweeping around toward me. As I reached out for my sword I was picked up by the wing’s leading edge and was sent sliding down the membrane. To halt my slide, I pulled out the Axe of Whitetrot, hooking it through the wing and lighting the membrane on fire. It took several tries before I got it to hold, near the wing’s trailing edge.

The dragon’s wing was now filled with holes burned during my slide, and it was not at all happy about that. Flaring its wings, I found myself launched into the air. As I reached the highest point, Mephalda caught me, carrying me away from the dragon. After dropping me off, she took off back into the sky, and I charged back into the fray.

As the dragon made to snap up Steadfast in its teeth, he slammed his warhammer into the side of its face, knocking it out of the way. As it did so, it impacted with my atronach, putting an end to the random fireballs it had been throwing its way. I slid under its neck as the head flipped around, cutting a gouge with my axe as I did. Now back on the other side of the dragon, I pulled out Calcion’s Cleaver and clambered onto its back.

Instead of trying to shake me off, this dragon rolled over, intent on crushing me beneath its sizeable bulk. I tried to launch myself off, but failed, and my body cried out in agony as the massive lizard rolled over on top of me. Once it was off again, I quickly bent my armor back into shape as best I could. The Griffin craftsmanship had help up well, that was for sure. I was bruised badly and a few of my bones were possibly cracked, but if I had been wearing my steel armor I’d be red paste instead.

Still, this battle had to end soon. I saw my chance as one of the buffalo’s spears stuck in the dragon’s eye, giving me an opening. Galloping forward, I jumped onto the dragon’s back again, this time climbing up its neck until I was on top of its bucking head. Stabbing both my blades into its skull seemed to do the trick, and the dragon soon seized its struggling, lying still.

I was barely off before its body combusted, and it shared all its memories (unwillingly) with me. No sooner had I allowed them to meld with my own than I found myself looking at the business end of a buffalo’s spear. Looking around, I could see Mephalda and Steadfast were being similarly threatened.

But we hadn’t been attacked yet, so I had hope. I sheathed my own weapons, hoping the act would be reciprocated. The bison continued to threaten us with our weapons, until another that appeared to be the leader strode forward. He was the largest buffalo of the group, and upon his head was a headdress composed of feather from all kinds of winged creatures, from eagles and falcons to griffins and pegasi.

“I am Chief Thundering Plains, leader of this tribe,” he introduced himself, “Why did you ponies come here?”

“We’re on our way to a ruin up the mountain actually,” I offered when neither Mephalda or Steadfast seemed forthcoming with the information, “We saw a dragon was attacking you, and thought you might need help.”

“Help?” the buffalo asked, “Ponies who’ve come to help?”

“Right,” I said, “So, can we go now?”

“Ponies never come to help,” the chief spoke, “Only to destroy, to tell us our land does not belong to us. You have not come to do that?”

“Of course not. Why would we do that?”

“Why would other ponies want to do that?”

“Because you attack us,” Steadfast cut in.

“We attack because you attack us,” the buffalo replied.

“Huh, so you’re saying if we stopped attacking you, you’d stop attacking us?”

“And if we stopped attacking you ponies, we bison would be left alone?”

“Maybe,” Steadfast said hesitantly, “Maybe our people were fighting over nothing the whole time.”

“I think you may be right, small one,” the chief replied, “Perhaps the time for fighting is over. If we stop our attacks on the ponies, they may leave us in peace. This is something I am willing to try. Our raiding parties will no longer attack the ponies.”

“Small one?” Steadfast asked indignantly.

“Just let it go,” Mephalda told him, “Anypony would be little to him.”

“Ponies!” Thundering Plains addressed us, “I thank you for coming here, though you did not tell me your names.”

“I’m Sapphire, this is Steadfast, and this is Mephalda.”

“I have you three to thank for showing us that our fight with your kind is pointless. I hope you will spread the news to the others, so that this bloodshed may stop. You three will always be welcome here, and will have my tribe’s help if it is needed.”

“Thanks,” I told him, though I had no idea for what I could use their help, “Right now though, do you have any good ideas on how to get up this mountain?”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

With Thundering Plains’s, help we soon found our way to Breakneck Cavern’s entrance. Mephalda was correct in her observation that a final rainstorm was on its way. As we neared the Draugr ruin’s entrance, large wet drops began to fall from the sky.

Breakneck Cavern’s entryway wasn’t nearly as impressive as most of the other Draugr ruins I’d seen. In fact, there was hardly an entryway at all. A few standing stones around a cave entrance and an arch inscribed with draconic placed just inside were the only clues that there was a Draugr ruin here at all.

As the rain began to fall more heavily, we rushed inside. Lighting a torch, I led the way into the cave. At the back of the cave a heavy iron door was set into the stone. With a push, it opened onto a hallway like any other I’d seen in Draugr ruins. Seeing none of the undead guardians around, we stepped inside.

Breakneck Cavern was eerily quiet, and the silence itself seemed to press in on us as we traveled farther down the passage. A door at the far end opened onto a room where Draugr milled about aimlessly. Though the room was fairly narrow where we entered, I could see that above there was another, larger space. Rickety wooden bridges crisscrossed the canyon-like enclosure we’d entered, allowing the Draugr up above to cross over our heads.

Wheezing out something incomprehensible, one of the Draugr in the lower passage noticed our entrance and charged forward. A blast of lightning from my horn sent it flying, crashing into another of the undead warriors. With a snarl, the other Draugr turned on us. Arrows began raining down from up above as those on the upper level drew their bows.

As Mephalda flapped up to take on the Draugr above, Steadfast and I charged forward into the horde below. Swinging his hammer, Steadfast smashed the first to come at us back into its tomb. Drawing Calcion’s Cleaver, I slit the throat of the next Draugr I came across.

I found my next swing blocked by a Draugr with a greatsword grasped in its mouth. Pulling my sword back, I swung at the zombie again and found myself once again blocked. Several more times I tried to break through to the Draugr without success, until it went on the offensive instead.

Moving the massive sword at a speed far faster than a living pony could without hurting themselves, the Draugr swung at my forelegs. Jumping back to keep my legs intact, I launched a fireball at the zombie. Rotten flesh sizzled and popped, but the Draugr kept coming at me.

Pulling out my war axe to augment my sword, I pushed against my enemy’s greatsword, pinning it in place. Gradually, I forced my opponent’s blade into the ground and followed up with a swing to the neck that caused the light in the Draugr’s eyes to flicker out and its corpse to return to rest.

Jumping over my defeated opponent, I charged toward where Steadfast was holding back two Draugr with his warhammer. As I neared them, one turned to face me, blocking my sword’s swing with a battleaxe. I followed up with a swing from my war axe, sending fire creeping down the haft. I also managed to hook my axe’s blade around my opponent’s and attempted to force it out of my sword’s path.

As I began to force it down, the Draugr suddenly jerked its head, sending the Axe of Whitetrot flying out of my magical grasp. I barely had time to block as the battleaxe came back down at me. Again the Draugr swung at me, this time at my legs. I was able to nick its side with my sword, but didn’t jump in time and lost my footing. Unable to get my sword up in time to block, I was hit across the back by my enemy’s axe.

<> I Shouted as the Draugr raised its battleaxe for a strike on my neck.

With the Draugr frozen solid, I had plenty of time to get to my hooves. Retrieving my war axe from where it had stuck in a bridge, lighting it on fire, I plunged both blades into the block of ice. Fire and lightning both whipped around within the ice, ultimately killing the undead pony trapped within.

Rushing down the canyon, I caught up to Steadfast, where he was busy crushing yet another Draugr into the ground. Calcion’s Cleaver spinning, I knocked another Draugr out for the count. As I did so, another tried to charge me from behind, and was soon turned to cinders at a blast of fire from my horn.

We finally reached a staircase leading to the upper level, which was guarded by several Draugr looking down on us. Even with Steadfast and me together we would be at a disadvantage in this fight, where the zombies had the high ground.

<<>> I Shouted as we closed in, knocking the Draugr down.

Now we had the height advantage and were able to take out four of them before they could even recover and drag themselves off the ground. At the top of the stairs one of the Draugr was beginning to pick itself up and was able to block my sword swing with a war axe. I nearly stumbled forward into the blade as they drew back suddenly and would’ve cut my face open on it had Steadfast not suddenly knocked it off the stairs with a swing of his warhammer.

“Thanks,” I told him.

“Don’t thank me yet,” he said, ducking down as an arrow flew over his head, burying itself in the pillar behind him.

Dodging the fire from the Draugr archers, we made our way across the upper room to an opening that was clearly an exit on the other side of the chasm we’d just run down. The last arrow fired at us suddenly went wide as the archer firing it was assassinated by Mephalda, its corpse falling from the bridge it was standing on.

“How much farther do you think we have to go?” Steadfast asked as he helped push open the towering stone doors that led out of our current room.

Once we stepped through, it was evident why this place was called Breakneck Cavern. Through the doorway was an expansive cavern stretching off into the distance. From where we’d emerged there was a zigzagging path leading down to where a narrow stone bridge crossed a chasm with a dizzying drop. On the other side a path zigzagged back up to another door like the one we’d emerged from.

“Quite a ways by the looks of it,” I replied to Steadfast’s question as I pointed to the door on the far side, “Unless that’s our destination.”

“Only one way to find out,” he responded, heading down the path.

A few Draugr stood in our way as we traveled down to the bridge, but they were all dealt with fairly swiftly, either with shots from Mephalda’s bow or strikes from Steadfast’s or my weapons. Before we knew it, we were nearing the bridge, where a far more fearsome defense was being mounted.

Once the Draugr had noticed our advance, most of the ones near the bridge had flocked to our end of the chasm. A dozen or so of the walking corpses were prepared to stop us, led by a Draugr in more elaborate battle attire than most, a helmet with wickedly long horns upon its head.

it Shouted, breathing fire at us as we came in range.

<> I quickly responded, my ice meeting the Draugr’s fire in midair before evaporating into steam.

Keeping its glowing eyes focused on me, the lead Draugr drew a sword from its back and led the charge of undead. To my left, Mephalda began emptying her quiver of arrows into the approaching mass of bodies. To my right, Steadfast charged ahead, hammer swinging.

I tried to stand my ground as the lead Draugr attacked me, but found myself pushed back by its sword strike. Calcion’s Cleaver screamed as the blades separated, leaving sparks dancing along the Draugr’s sword. Spinning the ancient earth pony sword in my magic, I went for a strike on the zombie’s neck. My strike came short as its own blade blocked, throwing mine back.

When it came to swordplay, it seemed this Draugr might have me beat, but while it had to focus all its power through its sword, I could use my magic to cast additional spells. I took advantage of this to send lightning from my horn into the zombie’s face. As it blocked my spell with its sword, causing the ancient steel to absorb it instead, I swept Calcion’s Cleaver around to take out its forelegs.

As I did so, however, I opened myself up to attack and the Draugr brought its sword up toward my chest. Cutting off the flow of lightning, I pulled out the Axe of Whitetrot to block. The Draugr’s next swing I blocked with my sword instead, freeing up my axe to once again swing toward my enemy’s legs.

This time I managed to hook the blade around one of its rotting fetlocks, and I tripped it up, flipping the zombie onto its back. As I moved in to strike with my sword, the Draugr spit its weapon out of its mouth.

<> it Shouted, suddenly throwing me back.

I found myself skidding on my back across the floor, dropping my weapons as I slid. Before I could get up, I found myself pinned by the Draugr, its sword raised for a killing stroke.

I Shouted as the weapon came down at me, sinking through my new ethereal form and causing a slight tingling sensation.

Crawling out from under the Draugr, I rushed around to where my weapons had fallen and snatched them up as I returned to physical form. I held both my blades in front of me in a block as the Draugr slammed into me. Pushing it away, I managed to hook my war axe around my enemy’s blade. With a twist I disarmed it, and slashed my sword through its chest before it could Shout out of its predicament.

As it slid to the floor, I surveyed the scene around me. Nearer to the bridge, Steadfast and Mephalda were finishing up the rest of the Draugr. I rushed over to join them as Steadfast knocked the last one into the chasm.

“Do you think it’s safe to cross?” I asked as I surveyed the narrow stone bridge.

“Only one way to find out,” Steadfast said, closing his eyes and taking the first step.

When the stone didn’t give out immediately, he continued on. When he was about halfway, I joined him, Mephalda hovering over our heads, ready to help us up if we slipped. Now I knew where the “Breakneck” part of Breakneck Cavern came from at least. Though I tried not to look down, when I did all I could see was the inky blackness that swallowed up all light far before the bottom was reached. Trying to focus ahead of me, I accidently made a bad step, my hoof slipping off the bridge.

“Help!” I called out as I began to slide of the edge.

Steadfast had almost reached the far edge of the chasm, but came galloping back as he heard my cry. Both he and Mephalda grabbed ahold of my forelegs as I began to fall and dragged me up onto the bridge.

“That was a close one,” Steadfast commented, “I thought we were going to lose you.”

Suddenly the stone beneath us began to creak alarmingly, evidently not built to hold the weight of three ponies simultaneously.

“Go!” I urged Steadfast on as the stone began to crack beneath our hooves.

The back half of the bridge collapsed immediately, falling down into the blackness below. The span we were on began to fall apart in pieces, those suspended farthest over the chasm falling first. Being in the back, I was in the most jeopardy, and found myself lifted into the air by Mephalda. Carefully she directed me around Steadfast until we were on the far side of the chasm.

“Come on!” I encouraged him as he galloped toward us, the bridge falling to pieces behind him.

I could see there was no way he was going to make it in time and did probably the most foolish thing I could’ve. As the stone gave out beneath his hooves at the same moment Mephalda deposited me on the ground, I launched myself over the chasm.

I just barely managed to grab Steadfast’s forelegs as he fell, only now we were both falling. Luckily, Mephalda was there to grab my hindlegs to keep us from falling all the way to our deaths. Slowly, she dragged us up over the edge until we were all out of jeopardy.

“Sapphire,” Steadfast said through heavy breaths, “You are one crazy mare.”

“What else was I going to do, just let you fall?” I replied, “Besides, you would’ve done the same for me.”

My earth pony companion pondered that a moment before conceding my point.

“You two are both crazy,” Mephalda said.

“But in a good way,” she added as we turned to look at her, “It makes things exciting at least.”

“Well, hopefully we can avoid any more excitement for today,” I said, looking up at our destination, “Though I doubt it.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Thankfully, only a few Draugr were there to stop us as we climbed up to the door on this side of the chasm. All of us were feeling just a bit worn out after our harrowing experiences, first with the dragon, and then the bridge. A wave of relief washed over me as we opened the massive stone door.

Inside was the record room we’d been searching for. At least, I assumed that was what the room was. Shelves lined the walls filled with scrolls whose writing had faded to be incomprehensible ages ago. What shelves didn’t hold scrolls held books also ruined by the ravages of time.

We’d found our destination, but finding any clues on how to defeat Alduin could prove to be a much harder task. Most everything the records room contained was next to useless, or else written in Draconic. Anything that was at least somewhat readable we added to our saddlebags anyway, hoping that Faniar could translate it into Equine once he had his hooves on it.

Wandering thought the cobwebs, I soon found that this ancient library was more than just a single room. Spiral stairs led upward to a whole new level, and above it another level. Still our search proved mostly fruitless, yielding nothing that would help us in the immediate future.

In the center of the top room was a pedestal, on which sat a dusty book that seemed unhurt by the ravages of time. Blowing the dust off the cover, I saw the same symbol of a flaming hoofprint I’d seen on other spell tomes throughout Horizon, though this one seemed to be of an older style. “Ice Spike” was printed on the cover in fancy letters.

Flipping open the cover, I allowed the knowledge of this new spell to seep into my mind. As the pages flipped by under their own power, frost began to form on the cover until the book shattered into a flurry of snowflakes, each glowing bright with magical energy.

It wasn’t exactly what we were looking for, but this new spell might be handy in the future at least.

“Hey, check this out,” Steadfast called from behind one of the shelves filling the room.

Trotting over to where he was standing, I took a look at what he’d found. Sweeping the cobwebs off the wall revealed a mural in the same style as the ones we’d found in other Draugr ruins. Like the ones we’d found in the dragon barrow with Faniar, this one appeared to show the history of the dragons. Following it through revealed the same carvings as before, all the way up to Alduin’s return. Unfortunately, there was nothing new to be seen, only the same prophecy from the barrow.

At the end, however, was a slab of smooth stone with an inscription in Draconic instead of a carving. As I’d hoped, a single word stood out for me and began burning with blue fire. Soon I was absorbing knowledge of the air as the dragons knew. I knew everything about SU, especially how to use it to make my weapon strikes faster, knowledge passed on through the memories of the dragon I’d killed at the buffalo settlement.

I Shouted as a practice, drawing my weapons and swinging them around faster than I possibly could’ve before.

“Well,” Steadfast said, “I don’t know about defeating Alduin, “But the Draugr better watch out now.”

“Come on,” I said, sheathing my blades, “Let’s get back to Faniar with these records before our saddlebags get any heavier.”

Level Up
Health: 200 Stamina: 190 Magicka: 210
New Perk: Clean as a Whistle [Light Weapons] -- When you are able to get a substantial swing behind your weapons they will do twice the damage. The chance of decapitation is also double.
Dragon Soul collected
Word of Power learned: SU -- Air; Elemental Fury – This Thu’um imbues your weapons with the speed of the wind, allowing for faster strikes.
New Spell learned: Ice Spike -- Using your magic you can now craft solid spikes of ice out of the air and send them flying at your opponents.
Friendship gained: Chief Thundering Plains -- The leader of the Whitetrot Buffalo Tribe, Chief Thundering Plains commands respect from every bison in Horizon. If called upon in your time of need, he will gladly lead his people in a stampede to crush your enemies.
New Quest: In the Depths of Equus -- Continue to learn locations of Draugr ruins from Faniar and search for more Words of Power.

Chapter 31: Dogs Amongst Decay

Chapter XXXI: Dogs Amongst Decay
“I know why the Diamond Dogs are blind. It has nothing to do with the Minotaurs disappearing. Really.”

After departing Breakneck Cavern, we made our way back to Whitetrot and Faniar. After leaving him the sizeable collection of records we’d picked up in our travels he pointed us in the direction of another Draugr ruin. Hoovgrenzl-ra was our next stop, built in the mountains near Shor’s Stone. Intent on getting there as soon as possible, we left that day and stayed the night in the tiny town near the ruin. The next morning, we headed up the mountains toward our goal.

Few ponies knew that Hoovgrenzl-ra was actually an ancient earth pony ruin, mostly due to the fact that the ancient Minotaurs had built their own city on top of it. In order to enter the Draugr crypts beneath, we’d first have to pass through the Minotauran bronzeworks. Fighting the Draugr guarding the lower ruin would be bad enough, and I sincerely hoped the guardians of Hoovgrenzl-ra would be less active than the ones in Nuzel-zum.

I could see puffs of steam rising from the Minotauran city as we approached, driving the machinery buried far below the surface. Gears spun without tiring outside of the massive bronze doors that led to the ruin.

“Have either of you been in a Minotauran ruin before?” Steadfast asked before we entered.

“A few times,” Mephalda said.

“Once,” I admitted.

“So, what is there to worry about?”

“Automatons mostly,” Mephalda answered for me, “But stay out of the reach of their swords and you’ll be fine. And look out for poison gas and flame traps.”

“Sounds like a delight,” Steadfast said, looking a little unsure.

“Hey,” I told him, “No matter what’s in there, we’ll face it together.”

That seemed to ease his worry, at least enough that he didn’t look petrified anymore. Giving a push, the doors swung open onto Hoovgrenzl-ra. A stone path lined with hissing pipes led the way through the Minotauran city. At first glance, it appeared to be far more expansive than I’d hoped, with stone buildings stretching off into the distance.

Trotting down the first flight of steps, the city suddenly came to life. Gears doubled their speed, lights lit up on their own, and metal guardians rolled out of their alcoves. I blasted lightning at one of the sphere-mounted automatons as it rolled toward us, shattering its gem eyes. Once it was close enough, I swung Calcion’s Cleaver into its head, bending the metal and sending wires and gears flying everywhere. Leaking steam, the machine fell into a heap of broken parts.

Mephalda fired arrows into another of the contraptions as it came from the other side. The arms suddenly stopped spinning, the blades trapped in their current position, as an arrow stuck in the torso’s rotation mechanism. Pulling out his warhammer, Steadfast took a swing at it as it got close, knocking its head off.

The shiny orb went rolling down another flight of stairs, making quite a ruckus and waking the rest of the automatons that were still slumbering. More of the sphere-bots rolled at us from down below. As one tried to roll up the stairs at us, I shot an ice spike through its head. Yet it barely seemed phased that a massive shard of ice had ripped the metal of its face apart. I followed up with a blast of fire, melting the ice and causing the machine’s head to be ripped apart by the excessive steam.

Steadfast galloped down the stairs, bending the torso staff of one of the automatons as it approached. Even bent onto its side, it continued to spin its blades around, though sideways. As it tried to climb the stairs, its swords were broken to bits as they impacted the stone. Another strike from Steadfast’s warhammer put it out of business permanently.

Climbing a nearby ledge allowed me to look down upon the remaining automatons. Hoping I wouldn’t be hit by the spinning blades, I jumped down at one, the Axe of Whitetrot at the ready. I bucked its head in as I fell, knocking it off course, and jabbed my axe’s blade into the arm mechanism at the same time. I crouched to the ground as the blades continued to spin for a bit before grinding to a halt. Drawing Calcion’s Cleaver, I used it to chop the machine in half. I smashed the sword through its face before retrieving my war axe.

However, I was now surrounded by the machines, and while Mephalda was shooting them down as fast as she could, I was about to be shredded to bits anyway. Holding both my weapons in my magic, I focused my thoughts.

My weapons suddenly flew faster than I could follow, though I was in complete control of where they struck. Minotauran swords fell to the ground as I swiftly disarmed the automatons, and gears and gems flew everywhere. When the Shout wore off, not a single Minotauran automaton was left standing, and I was surrounded by piles of scrap metal.

Past a large set of pipes, another machine was lurking, but it was quickly smashed into the wall by Steadfast’s hammer. One suddenly jumped out of a nearby pipe, startling my earth pony friend. Using the haft of his warhammer, he blocked its weapon strikes. As he began to give way, I struck the machine’s neck with Calcion’s Cleaver.

Spinning its blades around and throwing Steadfast away, the automaton turned to me. Using my sword, I blocked its strikes as it rolled toward me. Arrows from Mephalda’s bow pinged off its head mostly uselessly, though a few managed to lodge themselves in seams and pop open the sphere.

Holding it back with my sword, I also used my magic to crack open the head more until I could see the soul gem mounted in the center. I pushed the machine back with a quick thrust of my sword to get some distance and focused my magic on shooting ice spikes into its head. Eventually one hit the soul gem, knocking it out of place and killing the automaton.

To head deeper into the ruin, we passed through a pair of bronze doors nowhere near as impressive as the ones we’d come in. From the wide open entryway, we now found ourselves within narrow, constricting passages. The smooth stone walls covered in piping funneled us farther down into the ruin and the great Minotauran city of Hoovgrenzl-ra. Thankfully, the Minotaurs were much larger than ponies, and though these passages were narrow and confining, there was at least enough room for Steadfast and myself to advance side by side and Mephalda to flap above.

The first room the passage let out onto seemed to be a workshop for repairing the automatons that roamed all Minotauran ruins. Bits and pieces of the machines were everywhere, and it made it hard to realize when a few of the actual ones rolled out to attack us. The first hint I got was when a strike jarred my helmet. I ducked down and turned to see three automatons behind me, their blades spinning viciously.

<> I Shouted, freezing up the mechanisms of all the bots.

With a swing of Calcion’s Cleaver, I sliced the first one’s chilled head in half. The next I chopped the arms off of before burying my blade in the cluster of gems that served as eyes. The third’s arms began to spin again, sending flakes of ice everywhere, before I could take it out. Its sphere was still frozen to the floor, so it couldn’t move, and I took it out with repeated blasts of lightning to the face until the gems all cracked and fell to pieces from the sheer discharge of magical energy.

A few of the automatons had also ganged up on Mephalda and Steadfast, but they were finished handling the situation before I ended the last of the bots that’d attacked me. Just to be sure we’d gotten all of them, we rifled through the boxes and shelves of parts in search of any more hidden assassins.

After finding nothing we moved on through the tunnels. Next we stumbled onto another workshop, this one divided up into tiers where automatons were assembled. A few of them rose to attack us as we entered, though some were obviously unfinished. I quickly cut down one with no blades at the ends of its arms before moving on to the greater threats.

With a blast of lightning I stunned one that Steadfast was fighting, allowing him to break its block and proceed to break it. I buried the Axe of Whitetrot into another’s array of gems as I passed it, shattering most of them. Blocking with Calcion’s Cleaver, I retrieved my axe and then slammed it in again. Again and again I struck the machine’s head until it split in two and bits of machinery spilled across the floor.

The next automaton I encountered, I bucked down the stairs it was struggling to roll up. What was completed on its rolling sphere fell apart as it crashed to the bottom. With a blast of flame, I ensured it wouldn’t cause us any more trouble. I held Calcion’s Cleaver out in the air as another rolled at me, and it slammed right into the blade, slicing straight through its head and killing it instantly.

“Looks like that’s all of them,” Steadfast said as he finished throwing aside the mangled body of the last automaton.

From the shop floor there suddenly came a heavy hissing of steam. From one of the tables, a Minotauran death-clanker, one of the hulking monstrosities shaped like a Minotaur, stood up. It didn’t appear to have its crossbows installed yet, and neither did it have a full chestplate or left hand, but it would still prove to be a formidable opponent.

“I had to go and say something,” Steadfast mumbled as the hulking machine turned toward us.

“Get back!” I called, retreating up the stairs as a blast of flame erupted from the automaton’s chest at us.

Mephalda immediately took off into the air and began to shoot at its exposed chest cavity, where an elaborate system of gears and gems could be seen keeping the machine moving. Steadfast and I, however, were both grounded and were forced to keep our distance as the death-clanker lurched after us.

I shot a few ice spikes into the machinery of its chest as I retreated, but it seemed to have little effect, my spikes being ground to frost or turned to steam before they could do any damage. As I reached the top tier, I ran around until I was nearly lined up with the machine. Giving a leap, I landed on top of it and began hammering away at the horns its steam supply was venting out of.

Shaking itself in anger (if a machine had feelings at all), the automaton managed to throw me off. I went skidding across the ground until I knocked up against one of the wall enclosing the lower level of the workshop. Before I could get up, the machine turned at me, the flame elements in its chest heating up. My heart sank into my stomach as I realized I was trapped.

Steadfast came out of nowhere, his warhammer slamming into the knee of the machine and twisting it out of place. For a moment, the automaton let off on powering its heating element and focused on staying upright as its leg collapsed out from under it. As it fell, it swung toward Steadfast, clubbing him with its intact claw and sending him rolling over toward me.

Now both of us were trapped. Righting itself, the machine began powering its heating element again before Mephalda swooped down on it. From up close, she shot arrows into its eye, shattering the glowing gem, as well as fusing shut the horn I’d been beating on, causing it to heat up red-hot as the steam within became bottled up. Swinging wildly at the yellow blur, the machine finally got lucky and snatched Mephalda up in its claw.

Not even bothering to drop her, it began powering its heating element again before Steadfast or I could escape. Unexpectedly, the automaton’s head suddenly exploded into bits of bronze and gems and it fell over dead. After the steam cleared I took a good look at our mysterious savior.

Standing behind the wreck of the automaton was a creature that could only be described as a dog. Yet, it was far larger than any dog I’d ever seen, standing nearly as tall as a Minotaur would have. It also stood on its hindlegs like a Minotaur, though it had a very canine slouch about it. Milky white eyes blinked uselessly in their sockets, but large nostrils sniffed the air constantly, and the creature’s large ears twitched at the slightest sound. In one of its paws was a staff, which is what I assumed had reduced the machine in front of us to the pile of scrap it now was.

“Hmm, ponies,” it said with a slight lisp as it took a deep breath of the air.

Looking around I could see that it was not the only one of the strange creatures present. More of the doglike things filled the room, strange makeshift weapons grasped in their paws and rough vests draped over their emaciated frames. As a group, they moved in to surround us, hearing and smelling our location rather than seeing it.

“Who are you?” I asked, perhaps overloud for creatures with such sensitive ears, as some of the nearer ones cringed at my voice.

“We are the Diamond Dogs,” the one with the staff, presumably the leader said, “And this is our land.”

“This Minotauran ruin?” Steadfast asked.

Around us, the dogs growled and the hair stood up on the backs of their necks.

“The Minotaurs, our old masters, our old torturers are gone,” the leader spat out with hatred in his voice, “We are the masters now.”

“Well, I’m sorry the Minotaurs were so terrible to you,” I said, hoping to talk my way out of this, “But we’re not Minotaurs, we’re ponies.”

“The ponies we hate even more!” the leader cried, “It was they who forced us to abandon the surface and become the Minotaurs’ slaves in the first place! Seize them!”

Rather roughly, the three of us were grabbed by the Diamond Dogs surrounding us and tied up. Hoisting us over their shoulders, the dogs ran off deeper into the tunnels of Hoovgrenzl-ra. This day was starting to turn out pretty poorly.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

The Diamond Dogs took us deep into the Minotauran ruins, scampering through the twisting tunnels until we were completely lost. At last they came to a halt at the very lowest cavern of the ruin where a set of ramshackle huts were set up in what must’ve once been a Minotauran square. A series of tiers led even further down until they butted up against the rough stonework of the ancient earth ponies. Draconic inscriptions around a doorway decorated with dragons proved it to be the ruin we were searching for. We’d found our goal, but we it looked like we wouldn’t be entering it anytime soon.

After retrieving our gear from us, the Diamond Dogs threw us into an enclosure made of some kind of giant bugs’ exoskeletons. They’d taken into account Mephalda and I and had constructed a cover over the pen so she couldn’t fly away and doused my horn in some of the sticky pitch like the Imperials had when I’d first been captured, rendering my magic useless. After that, they untied us, and left us trapped in our cage until they could decide what to do with us. Their conversations leaned toward what method would be best to dismember and cook us, making me determined to get out at any cost.

“So, what now?” Steadfast asked once the main troop of dogs had left.

“Hey, no talking!” our guard, an unusually squat dog demanded, banging his fist on the cage.

We had to come up with some sort of escape plan, but talking wouldn’t do. Both because it would anger the guard, and with the dogs’ sensitive hearing they’d be on to us as soon as we discussed it. Steadfast sat glumly for a moment before he began to trace at the dirt with his hoof. Perplexed, I looked over at what he was doing.

“Have a plan?” he’d scrawled in the dirt, allowing us to communicate without speaking.

“Still thinking,” I wrote back.

“If only you could use magic,” he responded.

He was right. Without this gunk on my horn, I’d easily be able to unlatch the gate from the outside and allow us to make a break for it. I looked around for anything that could help in that respect. As far as I knew, the only thing that could remove it was alcohol, but there was nothing in the cage except for a few old bones.

Outside however, our Diamond Dog guard had a bottle of something that he was taking swigs of every so often. It was hard to tell just what it was, though it appeared to be some kind of Minotauran brandy. I’d just have to hope I was right.

“Can you get that bottle?” I directed toward Mephalda.

Understanding where I was going, she shuffled over closer to the guard and stuck her wing through a gap in the fence. She quickly drew it back as he reached for the bottle, but went for it again once he set it down. Wrapping her feathers around the bottle, she slowly dragged it toward the fence, until she had it inside and grabbed it with her forelegs.

She passed it to me and I soaked an old rag within the cage with it. It was alcohol all right, or at least some close substitute, as the gunk began to come off my horn as I rubbed. Eventually, it was all cleaned off, and I could feel my magic begin to build again.

It wasn’t a moment too soon; as the guard reached for his missing bottle I unlatched the gate and opened it on his face. Carefully, we tiptoed out of the enclosure, passing by the now-unconscious guard. Retrieving our saddlebags from where the Diamond Dogs had dropped them, we made our way carefully through the settlement.

The paths were a bit twisting, but so long as we kept heading downhill I knew we’d make it to the Draugr ruin eventually. Hopefully once we reached it the dogs would let us be. I’d noticed that no settlements were built near the entrance and the dogs seemed to avoid it, so I hoped it meant that they were afraid of the Draugr and we’d be (relatively) safe within the ancient earth pony ruin.

About halfway through the settlement, a howl suddenly went up from near where we’d been imprisoned. Apparently our guard had come to and was now alerting the others to our escape. Barking throughout the camp responded and Diamond Dogs emerged from their huts, makeshift weapons grasped in their paws.

“Run!” I told Steadfast and Mephalda, seeing no other alternative.

With so many dogs sniffing and listening for us, we were bound to get caught eventually, and the only possible way to escape would be to make a run for the Draugr ruin. I drew Calcion’s Cleaver as we galloped through the camp, slashing the chest of a Diamond Dog with a spear open as I leapt over him. Steadfast’s hammer crushed another as it came at me with a makeshift mace.

I was momentarily trapped as a dog blocked my swing with an incredibly tough sword made from an insect’s pincer. A blast of fire from my horn sent him running off whimpering, bowling into another crowd of dogs who also caught on fire. Avoiding the swings from other dogs, I rushed to catch up with Mephalda and Steadfast.

At last we reached the outskirts of the settlement and were running across the smooth stone surface that led to the Draugr ruin. Arrows began to bounce across the stone near us as the dogs fired on us. How they were able to aim and hit so near without seeing was a miracle, but I would’ve preferred if they were a little less skilled. An arrow managed to slip through the cracks in my armor and stick in my shoulder as we ran.

Arrows crashed off the wall and door itself as we forced the ancient iron to budge, and a horde of dogs came bearing down on us across the floor. The doors finally slid open and the three of us slipped inside, shutting the door behind us. My theory was proven valid as no dogs tried to force their way through the door after us. It looked like they were scared of the Draugr after all.

Before we set off deeper into the ruin, we set about removing the arrows that’d stuck in us during our flight. A few healing potions and bandages later, we were back in top shape. Now that we’d passed through the Minotauran defenders and the Diamond Dog camp, only the undead legions of Draugr stood in our way.

Whatever the name of this ruin was, it had been lost centuries before when the Minotaurs had claimed it and built their own city on top. Whatever it was called, it had a feeling of great age about it, as if it had been one of the first few ancient earth pony barrows built, except it seemed to be built more in the style of a fortress than a tomb, much like Ironhoof Barrow in the north.

Though the Diamond Dogs seemed to fear this place, the ancient Minotaurs must not have. Strings of their mechanical lights stretched down the passage we were in, adding a brighter glow to the eerie flicker of the braziers. Here and there a few bronze pipes could be seen protruding through the stonework, as if the Minotaurs had tried to convert the ruin for their own uses and had given up halfway through.

Following the lights brought us down another passage. This one seemed to have once been a simple hallway, but had been converted to a crypt later on. A few Draugr crawled out of their makeshift tombs before we could reach them.

As one with a battleaxe clenched in its teeth swung at me, I blocked with the Axe of Whitetrot. The two blades slid away with a screech. Spinning my blade back around I knocked the Draugr’s weapon away. A follow up with a strike to the face lit the zombie on fire and sent it back to its slumber.

Another Draugr knocked up against me as Steadfast crushed it with his warhammer. Down the passage another appeared through a doorway and came galloping toward us as fast as its rotting legs would allow. Mephalda and I both shot at it, her with arrows and me with ice spikes. Eventually the Draugr lost its footing and went tumbling end over end to lie dead at our hooves.

The next room appeared to be a banquet hall, and Mephalda instantly dropped one as it tried to run around the doorway toward us. A throne had been set up above the banquet hall below, yet nopony was sitting in it. Below a few Draugr were tipping over a rotten wooden table and setting up bows on its edge using mounting mechanisms. Arrows came flying at us as they released the shafts from their mouths.

My Griffin armor took most of the damage from them, a few dents forming here and there as I rushed down toward them. One critical weakness in the design of their bows was that they couldn’t be rotated all the way around the table, and both Mephalda and I took advantage of it, her by flying around behind to shoot arrows into their exposed backs and me by running around behind the table to attack them.

A swing of Calcion’s Cleaver killed the first undead pony manning a bow, but as I moved to follow up on its companion I found my blade stopped by an ancient earth pony war axe. Both of us tried to disarm the other without success and eventually pulled away for another strike. This time I drew out my Axe of Whitetrot too and came at the zombie with two weapons. My strategy worked; while the Draugr manage to block my sword, it was unable to also block my war axe, and the blade ignited as it hit the zombie’s chest, lighting it on fire.

Launching myself off my fresh kill, I sank my war axe into the neck of the next archer before moving on to its companion. I held my sword back as Steadfast suddenly crushed the undead pony with his warhammer. All the Draugr in this room out for the count, we moved on through the iron grate at the end of the hall.

Continuing to follow the Minotauran lights took us down a passage that let out on a chasm with a narrow bridge spanning it. The Minotaurs had thoughtfully added handholds to make the trip less perilous, but they were far too high for any of us to use and would be no use in keeping us from falling off the side. The disaster in Breakneck Cavern still fresh in our minds, Mephalda carried Steadfast and me across to the other side safely.

Once on the other side, we could see that we were now standing in a cavern obviously carved out by ancient earth pony tools and lit by the Minotaurs’ mechanical magic. Across the cavern was something I could get excited about: a Word Wall. There didn’t appear to be any danger, so I galloped up toward it and allowed the burning letters to teach me everything about weapons.

~ZUN~

Looking around, I could see that all the Minotauran equipment finally converged upon a cage-like structure tucked to one side of the cavern, right next to a set of stairs that would no doubt lead us out of the ruins through a hidden back door. Mephalda and Steadfast were already looking at the mechanism, and I trotted over to join them.

I nearly took a jump back as I saw what was contained in the machine. Tipped upright was the sarcophagus that would’ve been up near the Word Wall but the Minotaurs had apparently moved. The cover was off, and a Draugr wearing elaborate armor was sitting upright in it. As I moved closer, the eyes suddenly burst open.

This time I really did jump back. The corpse came to life and began to bang on the bars of its cage. Swiftly flying away, Mephalda began to shoot arrows at the enraged Draugr.

it suddenly Shouted, coating the bars of its cage in ice and drawing a sword.

I drew my own weapons, as did Steadfast, as the Draugr began to pound on the bars with its sword, cracking the now brittle metal. With a final swing the Draugr broke free of its cage, sending bits of bronze flying everywhere. Swinging its ancient earth pony sword around, it advanced toward Steadfast. As Steadfast blocked, I charged the Draugr, my sword and axe ready. Steadfast swung his hammer at its legs as it turned to face me, knocking it down.

it Shouted at Steadfast, freezing him before he could strike back.

I jumped between my friend and the Draugr as it made to smash him, my sword blocking the strike. Ice began to coat Calcion’s Cleaver, but was soon pushed back by the lightning that began to arc from the blade. Pushing with my sword I forced the Draugr back until it swung my sword away from me. Blocking with my war axe, I hooked the blade around the Draugr’s.

It became a battle of strength as we both tried to disarm the other, but eventually the zombie won, flicking my axe away from me. An arrow sliced through its neck as it moved to attack me. Growling, the Draugr turned around to face Mephalda.

it Shouted, and though Mephalda dodged, a bit of her wing was caught in the Shout, causing her to flap a bit unsteadily down to the ground, still firing arrows the whole way.

Before I could retrieve my axe, the Draugr came at me again, intent on finishing me off. I swung Calcion’s Cleaver toward its neck, but the Draugr blocked, forcing my sword to the ground. Picking it up, I swung at its maimed forelegs, but my swing was once again blocked.

Before I could attempt to strike again, the zombie advanced on me, sword swinging. As its blade met Calcion’s Cleaver this time ice began to coat my blade, fusing the two together. I heard a shattering of ice just before my sword was pulled out of my grasp.

I suddenly Shouted, staggering the Draugr before it could strike me.

From behind came Steadfast, unfrozen through frost still clung to his coat in places, and with his warhammer he crushed in the ribs of the Draugr. Its sword went flying out of its mouth as it crumpled down to the ground, finally dead.

“I guess I owe you one,” I told Steadfast as I retrieved my weapons.

“Let’s not even get started on how many I owe you,” he responded with his usual upbeat attitude, despite having been frozen solid moments before.

“I assume that’s the way out,” Mephalda said regarding the stairs as she joined us.

“I hope so,” I told her, “I think I’ve had enough of this ruin to last me a lifetime.”

Level Up
Health: 210 Stamina: 190 Magicka: 210
New Perk: Your Blade is my Blade [Block] -- When blocking using any kind of axe, your chance of disarming your opponent is doubled.
Word of Power learned: ZUN -- Weapon; Disarm – Shout defied steel, as you rip the weapon from an opponent’s grasp.
New Quest: Delaying Doomsday -- Find some way to stop Alduin from finishing his plans to destroy all of the Northlands.

Chapter 32: The Doubt of Dragons

Chapter XXXII: The Doubt of Dragons
“You mean they used a Shout to defeat Alduin. Are you sure?”

Night had fallen by the time we’d made it back to Whitetrot from Hoovgrenzl-ra, so we stayed the night in Breezehome before heading up to Dragonsreach to see Faniar. It appeared we may have been able to see him the night before, as it looked like he hadn’t had a wink of sleep. The journals we’d brought back from Breakneck Cavern were sitting all over his desk, frantic translations into Equine lying nearby.

Before we could enter his mess of an office, a messenger wearing Whitetrot armor ran past on the way to the Jarl, nearly knocking us over. Whatever this pony had to say was undoubtedly important. Faniar would just have to wait; he seemed pretty preoccupied anyway. I trotted over to where the Jarl was seated, ready to fulfill my position as Thane however possible.

“Jarl Valor’s Blade,” the messenger addressed Whitetrot’s leader, giving a deep bow, “The town of Rearikstead may be in grave danger. A dragon was seen last night in the surrounding mountains. The town’s guards do not wish to leave for fear of leaving the town unprotected. They request additional aid.”

“Dragons are everywhere,” Protocus responded, “We’re stretched thin enough as it is my Jarl. We can’t spare any more troops.”

The Jarl seemed to ponder the situation a bit before turning to look at me.

“The Equines are smiling on us today it seems,” he said, “For Thane Sapphire has arrived here at the opportune time. I need you to travel to Rearikstead, and fight off this dragon if necessary.”

“Of course,” I assured the Jarl, “I’ll leave immediately.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Rearikstead was on the far western edge of Whitetrot Hold, so it took a bit of time to reach the tiny town. I’d only been here once before, and then to assassinate somepony. I sincerely hoped the townsponies didn’t recognize me as the killer, otherwise I could have a hard time here. Yet the Jarl hadn’t indicated that I was suspected, and I assumed he knew nearly everything that went on in his hold.

As we neared the town, it became obvious the dragon hadn’t decided to stay flying in the mountains. Smoke billowed from patches of ground that had tasted the dragon’s flame, and the windmill’s blade had been knocked off, burying itself in the roof of the inn. The dragon itself was nowhere to be seen, but judging by the recent destruction it couldn’t have gone far. A few Whitetrot guards were lying dead along the path, but other rushed out of the inn to greet us as we approached.

“Thane Sapphire,” a stallion who’d been badly burned on one side of his body addressed me, “Thank Buckatosh you’ve come. The dragon’s still around here somewhere.”

“Do you have any archers left?” I asked him.

“Three,” he said, beckoning forward a few of the guards wearing the awkward contraptions earth ponies needed to fire bows.

“Right, I want them to spread out away from the town, but to stay close enough they can still fire at the dragon if it returns. If there are any wagons we need to get the wounded on them and send them off before the dragon comes back.”

The stallion turned from me and began issuing orders to his soldiers. I looked around, searching for where the dragon could be hiding. The western mountains were the most obvious choice, but it could just have easily been hiding over a hill in the distance. Mephalda flapped into the air to get a better vantage point.

“It’s coming!” she called down after what seemed like no time at all.

Carts filled with the injured rolled away as fast as possible in the direction of Whitetrot. I couldn’t yet see the dragon, but I trusted Mephalda’s judgment. If she said it was coming, then I believed her.

A roar that shook the town gave confirmation that my trust had not been misplaced. Some thatching fell off the roof of a farmhouse as the great lizard swooped over us. This dragon was the largest I’d ever seen besides Alduin, and was covered in bright red scales. It suddenly swooped around as it saw us standing on the road and landed north of the town.

Arrows immediately began to fly from the countryside, striking the dragon but hardly phasing it. The dragon was out of reach of even my most long-range spells, so I galloped forward with the rest of the ponies fighting to defend the town. As we neared, the dragon suddenly opened its jaw and filled the road with flames. Steadfast and I were unaffected, as were a few of the guard-ponies who’d had the sense to drink potions of fire resistance like us. However, many of the guards were fried to a crisp in an instant.

<<>> I Shouted, closing the distance with the dragon in an instant.

Calcion’s Cleaver I already had out, and I used it to strike the dragon on the side of its face, cutting off its stream of fire. Its eyes seemed to open wider as it realized I had Shouted, but they quickly narrowed in anger as it snapped its jaws at me. Luckily I was able to escape being eaten, though a bit of the end of my tail was stuck between the dragon’s teeth.

Running beside the dragon’s neck I stabbed my sword in, chipping away scales. As it began to twist its head around at me, it found itself under attack from Steadfast and the Whitetrot guards. Giving up on snapping me up with its jaws, it turned its attention toward its earth pony attackers. It didn’t give up on me, however, and grabbed at me with a scaly claw.

Ducking down to avoid being caught, I found myself sliding beneath the dragon’s wing. The lizard’s method of flight reared over me like a canvas, and I pulled out both my blades and stabbed them into the membrane, tearing twin gashes through it.

Roaring in pain, the dragon drew its wings in toward its body, and I found myself drawn along. Blasting around me with fire allowed me to burn a hole large enough in the membrane that I was able to escape being crushed and suffocated. Tumbling to the ground, I took a look at Steadfast rushing the dragon’s other wing, smashing its joints, and Mephalda, standing atop the dragon’s head and firing arrows into its skull, before I moved on to my next target.

The dragon’s rear leg was exposed and unprotected, and I blasted it with lightning as I galloped in for a strike with Calcion’s Cleaver. The leg twitched as I drew my blade across it, even severing one of the dragon’s claws. A torrent of hot, putrid blood erupted from the wound, killing all grass in the area instantly.

Throwing a Whitetrot guard away in its teeth, the dragon turned its enraged gaze on me. I barely dodged as its tail came near to taking my head off. What I didn’t expect was the tail to come whipping back so suddenly, knocking my helmet off and sending me rolling across the ground. Spinning around so rapidly that it managed to throw Mephalda off its head, the dragon turned its whole body toward me and let loose a torrent of flames.

<> I Shouted, my breath meeting the fire and holding it off just long enough that I was able to get to my hooves and get away from the flames.

Steadfast struck its side, caving in the scaly hide before the dragon could strike at me again, and it turned to deal with him while still keeping its focus on me. Deftly he managed to roll aside as the dragon’s mouth came down where he had been moments before. As Steadfast ran away from the beast, I ran toward it.

Dodging its tail as it whipped around, I jumped onto its back and ran up toward its neck, slicing off spines and gouging at its body as I did so. Shooting fire at Mephalda to keep her at a distance, the dragon then turned toward me, fire building in its throat.

<<>> I Shouted, knocking its head back and into the ground.

Though momentarily stunned, the dragon still recovered and began beating its wings. I clung tightly to the spines, the sharp edges digging into my flesh as the dragon took off into the sky. When the dragon reached the top of its flight I began to inch my way up its spine toward its head. I stopped and clung all the tighter as it send a line of fire flying over my head.

Tucking both my weapons away, I focused my Sparks spell at the dragon’s wing joints. As the lightning sizzled over them the muscles locked up and the dragon began to fall from the sky. It was unable to get them working again in time to correct its fall, and the great beast slammed into the inn, smashing the roof and walls down.

As its body finally came to a rest I jumped off, only to find myself trapped in the building. The dragon smashed its head through a wall, not even bothering to move its body before breathing fire at me.

<> I Shouted, quickly taking on an invincible and ghostly form.

Flames roasted the inside of the inn, but I escaped the fire by jumping though a wall and landing outside. By the time I returned to my physical form the dragon had removed its head from the wreckage and was staring me down. Building magic in my horn, I shot a flurry of ice spikes at the lizard’s head. It continued to flinch away from them until one buried itself directly in its eye.

It gave a roar of defeat, its head slamming into the ground, though one eye continued to look around. Drawing Calcion’s Cleaver, I rushed forward for the killing blow.

“WAIT!!” the dragon spoke in Equine.

Perplexed, I pulled up short, my sword still hovering in my magical grasp.

“WHO ARE YOU??” it asked, fixing its one good eye on me.

“I’m . . . Sapphire,” I replied, confused at why this creature that had been intent on destroying me moments before was now trying to communicate with me.

“SO, THE STORIES ARE TRUE AFTER ALL!!”

“Stories?”

“YOUR THU’UM IS STRONG, MAYBE EVEN STRONGER THAN ALDUIN’S!! I HAD TO KNOW FOR MYSELF!!”

“Wait, you’re saying my Shouts are stronger than Alduin’s?”

“THERE HAS BEEN TALK AMONG THE DOVAH LATELY, THAT A PONY HAS APPEARED WHOSE THU’UM IS MORE POWERFUL THAN OUR LEADER'S!! THERE HAVE BEEN QUESTIONS OF WHETHER HIS PLAN TO DESTROY THE WORLD MAY LEAD TO OUR OWN DESTRUCTION!! IF THERE IS ONE IN THE WORLD STRONGER THAN HE, PERHAPS WE SHOULD NOT FOLLOW HIM!!”

“Let me get this straight. You dragons don’t want to follow Alduin?”

“WE MUST OBEY HIM!! AS FIRSTBORN OF BUCKATOSH HE IS THE MOST POWERFUL DOVAH, OR SO WE THOUGHT!!”

“If I were to defeat Alduin . . .”

“IT WOULD PROVE HE IS NOT THE MOST POWERFUL!! THE DOVAH WOULD NO LONGER FOLLOW HIS COMMANDS!! WE HAVE NO QUARREL WITH THE PONIES, SO LONG AS THEY LEAVE US ALONE!! WE ONLY ATTACK BECAUSE IT IS THE WILL OF ALDUIN!!”

“So, how do I find Alduin?” I asked, but before the dragon could respond, it breathed its last breath, and the eye that had begun fixed on me became glassy and lifeless.

In a moment it began to combust, and I witnessed all its memories, right up until it attacked Rearikstead to draw me out. All this had happened because of me, I now understood. My mind was also filled with knowledge of weapons, particularly how to wrench them from an opponent’s grip.

I Shouted to get the energy out, though there was no target, and my Shout did absolutely nothing.

“What was that all about?” Mephalda asked, landing next to me.

“That dragon just talked to me,” I replied as Steadfast joined us.

“That’s never happened before, has it?” Mephalda asked.

“No.”

“So, what’d it have to say?” Steadfast asked.

“All this lies with Alduin. The dragons are questioning his leadership. If we can defeat him, the other dragons will all stop attacking.”

“Defeat the World-Eater?” Steadfast said, “How in The Beyond are we supposed to do that?”

“It does seem to be a bit of an impossible task,” Mephalda pointed out.

“He’s the firstborn of Buckatosh, for Zenitrot’s sake,” Steadfast added.

“Right,” I said, “But he’s still a dragon. And we’ve proven that dragons can die. It may take a bit of effort, but they can be killed, and so can Alduin.”

“I don’t know,” Mephalda said, “Where do we even start?”

“Well,” I said, thinking out loud, “Alduin was defeated once before. Not destroyed, but at least it appeared so.”

“Right, but nopony knows how they did it,” Steadfast pointed out.

“I know, but I know a pony who just might have some idea,” I said as I gazed to the east.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

“How are things going Faniar?” I asked as we trotted into the study of Whitetrot’s court wizard.

“Fantastic!” he replied, running around his study and tidying up a bit, “I’ve been poring over those records you got from Breakneck Cavern, and I’ve learned more in the last day than I have in my entire career of study.”

“There wouldn’t happen to be anything in there regarding Alduin’s first defeat, would there?” Steadfast asked.

“Funny you should mention that,” Faniar said, “I’ve been working on organizing these records by time period, and there’s a distinct gap at the end of the Dragon War. All the scrolls mention is that Alduin was defeated, but there’s no record of anything leading up to his defeat or directly after. It’s as if the event was wiped from history.”

“That’s too bad,” I said, “I thought if maybe we could find out how he was defeated then we could find a way to fight him now.”

“Hmm,” Faniar said, “You know, there may still be another way to find out.”

“Yes?” I replied in excitement.

“Remember that Blade we encountered in a dragon barrow?”

I remembered Scarlet Shores all right. After all, it was her that had gotten us entangled in the mess with the Blackwings that had nearly caused me to lose Steadfast. Of course, if it wasn’t for her I never would’ve met Mephalda, so I had that to thank her for at least. And the snafu with Steadfast had turned out all right in the end, so I had nothing to complain about.

“What about her?” I asked.

“Well, the Blades were experts at dragonlore. I’d find it hard to believe if they of all ponies didn’t know at least something about Alduin’s defeat. Only trouble is, I have no idea how you could make contact with her.”

“Oh,” I said, looking over at Steadfast, “I think we have some idea where to start.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

A quick and uneventful trip later, and we were in Riverwood, standing in front of the Sleeping Bison Inn. The barkeep recognized Steadfast and me from last time, and hoofed over the key to the “attic room” without me having to give the password. However, upon entering Scarlet’s secret room it became very apparent that she wasn’t there anymore.

The sconces on the walls had burned out, and I had to relight them before we could get a real look around the room. All her weapons were removed from their racks, and the shelves were bare. No map adorned the table anymore, and the chests against the walls were propped open, empty.

“You’re sure she was here?” Mephalda asked, looking around at the starkness of the room.

“Yes, it was only a fortnight ago we met here to discuss breaking into the Blackwing Embassy.”

“She must’ve moved on,” Steadfast commented.

“Of course,” I said, coming to a realization, “The Blackwings were getting close to finding her hiding place, so she had to leave.”

“It’s hard to believe she’d leave without leaving behind some clue for you to follow, though,” Mephalda said, “From what you told me, she wanted to stay in touch.”

We searched all over the room, but Scarlet had done an excellent job in removing any indication she’d ever been here. Even Mephalda with her trained ex-Blackwing eyes couldn’t find any clue to where she’d gone. If there was something here for me to find, it was impossible to see. Eventually we gave up and left the inn, returning the key to the barkeep.

Our lead had dried up. My only idea now was to try to get her location from Bruinin in Seclusion. Before we headed off however, I wanted to stop in the Riverwood Trader and talk to Calciar and Eruthar. Mephalda and Steadfast waited outside as I trotted into the only two-story building in Riverwood.

“Good day,” Calciar greeted me from behind the counter as I entered his shop, “How are you doing Sapphire?”

“Pretty good, I guess,” I replied, “A little down since my search for a way to stop Alduin took a turn for the worse.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said, “If there’s any way I could help I could, but I don’t think selling wares will be much help against the World-Eater himself.”

“I suppose not,” I replied.

Our conversation was interrupted as a foal burst in from the back room, giggling as he ran around the counter and bumped into my legs. Recognition dawned in his eyes as he looked up.

“Hey Sapphire!” he yelled up, jumping up and down with glee, “My legs are all better! See! Uncle Calciar and Aunt Eruthar fixed me up!”

“That’s great Cloverdust,” I said, “I’m glad you’re feeling better.”

“Uncle Calciar and Aunt Eruthar?” I asked, looking up at the shopkeep and his wife who’d emerged from the back room.

“Well,” Eruthar said, “After you dropped him off we couldn’t very well send him back into the world right away. Not after what he’d been through. And this loveable little scamp began to grow on us.”

“That’s . . . great,” I said, unable to think of anything else to say, “Well, I’d better get going if I’m going to make it to Seclusion tomorrow.”

“Oh, before you go,” Eruthar called after me as I made for the door, “A unicorn stopped by about a week ago with a message for you. She said if you’re looking for her you should go to Sky Sorcerer Temple. I don’t know how much it’ll help, but that’s what she said to tell you.”

“Believe me,” I said, a smile plastered on my muzzle, “It helps more than you could imagine.”

“Ready to go?” Steadfast asked as I exited the Trader.

“Not quite,” I said, “I think I know where Scarlet went.”

“Where?” my friends asked in unison.

“According to Eruthar, somewhere called Sky Sorcerer Temple.”

“I know where that is,” Mephalda said, her excitement showing in her eyes, “When I was in the Blackwings we were keeping an eye on it. It’s an old Blades Temple near Marekarth.”

“That has to be where she is,” Steadfast said.

“Well,” I said to Mephalda, “Lead the way.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

The sun was beginning to disappear over the western mountains as Mephalda pointed out Sky Sorcerer Temple. At first it didn’t appear to be much, just a mountain rearing up among dozens of others. A few structures with roofs shaped into elegant curves reared up high on the other side of the mountain, but Mephalda instead directed us toward a cave nearer to the base on the east.

“If we tried to get in through the front entrance, we’d be dead before we go there,” she explained, “But if we come in through the cave system we should be able to get close enough to the Blades to explain ourselves before we’re hacked apart.”

So through the caves we went, meeting no more than a few spiders on our way. It was dark and damp, but no Blades blocked our progress, and soon we were within a small valley in the center of the mountain. The far end had been completely rebuilt by the Blades, fashioned into another of the elegant structures we had seen from a distance.

Through a door covered in mysterious symbols was a large entryway, with plenty of places for Blades to be hiding. Yet we saw none and moved on, heading up a steep stairway with narrow walls that forced us to walk single file. All the way I kept my magic ready to draw my sword, just in case I needed to block a strike from a hidden Blade.

“Hello?” I called as I pushed the door at the end of the stairs open.

I had no intention of taking the Blades by surprise. That wouldn’t end well for anypony involved.

“Scarlet Shores?” I called as I stepped through the doorway, “It’s Sapphire.”

“And Steadfast,” my earth pony companion chimed in.

Mephalda remained silent, probably because Scarlet hadn’t met her, and she might not be too thrilled to see a former Blackwing in her fortress.

The room was completely still and empty. The table running through the center still had food on it, however, so the Blades had been here recently. The far end of the room was dominated by a carving similar to the ones we’d seen in the dragon barrows, yet in a different style.

With a slight rustle, Scarlet Shores revealed herself from behind one of the faded tapestries hanging from the walls. I relaxed and let my magic fall as Scarlet did the same, sheathing her blades. A few more unicorns wearing the same armor as Scarlet emerged from hiding places as she approached.

“Sapphire, Steadfast,” Scarlet greeted us, “What brings you here? And who is your companion?”

“This is Mephalda-” I said, but was suddenly cut off by the sound of many blades being drawn.

“Mephalda the Meek!” Scarlet said, “You brought a Blackwing here?”

“Former Blackwing,” Mephalda pointed out, flying a bit higher to keep out of range of the Blades’ weapons.

“No such thing,” Scarlet scoffed, “Once a Blackwing, always a Blackwing, just like the Blades.”

“Well, I can assure you it’s not like that,” Mephalda said, crossing her forelegs, “I left the Blackwings years ago and they’ve been hunting me ever since. Trust me when I say I want nothing to do with them.”

“Trust you?!” Scarlet said, looking outraged.

“Yes, trust her,” a forest green unicorn said as he entered the room.

This new unicorn was different than the rest. He was far older, seemingly beyond his years of combat, and though he wore armor in the same style as the rest of the Blades, his served more as a layer of protection over his robes than armor meant for extended combat.

“Master Rufius,” Scarlet said, bowing to the new arrival, “Forgive me.”

“There is no need for an apology,” he told her in a very grandfatherly way, “You are not at fault. Your zealotry for keeping the Blades safe is admirable, but misplaced. These ponies are not our enemies.”

“Of course,” she said, rising.

“So,” Rufius said, turning toward us, “What has brought you to Sky Sorcerer Temple?”

“We’re searching for information on how Alduin was defeated in the past,” I told the master of the Blades.

“Do you have anything?” Steadfast asked.

“Well, I wouldn’t say we have nothing,” Rufius replied cryptically, “But I doubt we have exactly what you’re looking for. Come with me.”

Obediently we followed him over to the mural adorning the wall we’d seen upon our entry.

“This wall chronicles all the ancient Akhoofiri, from whom the Blades are descended, knew about the dragons, especially Alduin.”

“Right, we’ve seen this before, in dragon barrows,” Steadfast cut in.

“Yes, the Akhoofiri did borrow much from such carvings, but those inscriptions leave out a very important detail.”

“Alduin’s defeat,” Mephalda pointed out.

“Precisely. The ancient earth ponies who constructed the barrows were looking forward to Alduin’s return. The last thing they wanted was for somepony to know how he was defeated in the first place.”

“But the Akhoofiri knew it?” I asked.

“In a way. You see here?” Rufius said, pointing at the centerpiece of the mural, where Alduin was depicted being struck down, surrounded by three earth ponies, “Much of Akhoofiri inscriptions are obscure, and though I have a basic understanding of them, the precise meanings are lost to me. As you can see here, Alduin was defeated by the Tongues, ancient earth pony masters of the Voice, using some kind of Shout.”

“A Shout?” I said, “Really?”

“Yes, unfortunately there’s nothing to indicate exactly which Shout was used.”

“There’s no way to tell?” Mephalda asked.

“I’m afraid not. Only a master of the Voice would even have an idea where to start.”

“Well,” I said to Mephalda and Steadfast, “It looks like we’re going to High Hoofgar.”

Level Up
Health: 210 Stamina: 200 Magicka: 210
New Perk: Magic Missiles [Destruction] -- Your accuracy in casting long-range spells is significantly increased as is the damage you deal.
New Quest: Alduin’s Bane -- Ask the Greymanes about the Shout used to defeat Alduin in the past.

Author's Note

Here ends Act IV: The Search For Power, wherein Sapphire and her friends explored Horizon searching for Words of Power and learned that the dragons were beginning to question Alduin's leadership, providing an opportunity to end the invasion.

In other words, I've finished Act IV and Act V: To End a Dragon will soon begin. I realize that Act IV may have been a bit dull and repetitive, but it had a purpose. Through it I helped build the world by introducing the first (but not last) Draconequus (Discord), the first (but also not last) Dragon Priest, and two more races (Bison/Diamond Dogs). Also, it was really meant just to provide a bridge into the much larger Act V, which will conclude with the confrontation with Alduin himself. So, YAY!

Until then, happy reading!

FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 33: Secrets Long Kept Hidden

Chapter XXXIII: Secrets Long Kept Hidden
“What is better: to be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?”

I was so excited that we were finally getting somewhere in our quest to stop Alduin that we left for the Crest of the World immediately. Guided by the light of the moon, we traveled all the way to Ivarsteed before taking a short rest and departing at first light up the 7000 stairs. With no more than a few windigos to bother us, we soon made it to the Greymane monastery of High Hoofgar.

“Greetings Sapphire,” Night-Sparkle’s voice greeted me as the door opened before I could get a chance to knock, “What brings you back to our humble monastery, and with yet another pony in tow?”

“I’m looking to learn a Shout,” I told him as I stepped inside, deliberately being vague. The Greymanes were pacifists after all, and I didn’t think they’d take too kindly to me looking for a way to kill Alduin.

“Have you searched the ancient earth pony ruins as I suggested?”

“Yes, and I’ve learned many new Words, but I don’t think the one I’m looking for would be written in them.”

“Be careful what it is you seek,” Night-Sparkle said, tensing up, “For I fear what Words of Power you may be after.”

“All right,” I said as I followed him through the monastery and out into the courtyard, “I’m looking for the Shout the ancient Tongues used to defeat Alduin.”

“I feared it was so,” Night-Sparkle said, giving a sigh, “No doubt you’ve been possessed by the idea thanks to those wretched Blades.”

“You don’t like the Blades?” Steadfast asked.

“No, we do not,” Night-Sparkle said firmly, “They seek only death and glory. For them, the killing of dragons is a sport, and the Voice simply a means to do so.”

“So, because you dislike the Blades, you refuse to teach me the Shout the Tongues used?” I asked.

“It is far more than that,” Night-Sparkle said, looking offended, “We cannot teach you the Shout because we are forbidden to learn it.”

“Why?”

“In keeping with Master Jurgen Sky-whinny’s teachings, the Voice is only to be used as a form of meditation, a way to understand both the world and yourself through a new lens. But the Shout the Tongues used, it was meant for far less noble purposes. Using their hatred of the dragons, they created their own Thu’um, the only one created by ponies. Whatever it is, the Greymanes are forbidden from contemplating it, for it serves no useful purpose.”

“No useful purpose?” I asked, “If it can stop Alduin from destroying the world, I wouldn’t say it’s not useful.”

“No!” Night-Sparkle insisted, “It is a weapon forged in hate, and as such there is no way it can be used without the same feeling of hatred flowing through your own soul as you speak the accursed Words. Necromancy, the dark magic of raising the corpses of the dead, is a very useful weapon, but its very use corrupts the user. The Shout the Tongues used is much the same.”

“I only wish to use it to defeat Alduin and end the Dragon War once and for all,” I pleaded with Night-Sparkle, “Only defeat him. The Shout obviously didn’t kill Alduin, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to return.”

“Even so, there is no way we would teach you the Shout. None of our order has any knowledge to help you anyway, save our master Paarthurnax.”

“Can I at least speak to him then?” I asked.

“That is something I cannot allow, especially if you are so set on learning the cursed Shout.”

“There must be some way I can see him.”

“No.”

“If I could just speak with Paarthurnax-”

“No!”

Before I could speak again, a rumble came down the mountain. Through the blast I could pick up words in Draconic, and Night-Sparkle worriedly looked up toward the mountain’s peak. Moving into a solid stance, he Shouted back up the mountain. The reply came swiftly, and he flinched at the words spoken.

“Forgive me Sapphire,” Night-Sparkle said to me once the echoes died down, “I have forgotten my place. Paarthurnax has reminded me that it is not my duty to keep you from the knowledge you seek, no matter how self-destructive it may be. He has agreed to speak with you, breaking his silence with all but the Greymanes for the first time in an age.”

“I finally get to see Paarthurnax?” I asked, still a bit shocked that things had worked out after all.

“Yes, if that is what you wish,” Night-Sparkle said unhappily, “The other Greymanes and I shall teach you the way.”

“Yes, I do,” I replied.

I just couldn’t believe it. I was finally going to get to meet the mysterious master of the Greymanes! If anypony had an idea on how to defeat Alduin, surely it would be Paarthurnax.

“Very well, follow me then,” Night-Sparkle said, trotting toward the other Greymanes, who were standing near the stone archway that led up the mountain.

“We’ll stay back here,” Steadfast told me, his ears twitching, “I think I’ve heard enough shouting for a while.”

“You’ll come up with me to see Paarthurnax though, won’t you?” I asked. I had no idea how long my audience with the master would last, and I didn’t want to be separated from my friends for too long.

“Of course,” Mephalda assured me, “Now go learn whatever Shout the Greymanes want to teach you.”

As Steadfast and Mephalda headed off toward the far end of the courtyard I happily trotted toward the assembled Greymanes. I wasn’t sure exactly what they were planning on teaching me, but I had an idea. I’d never been over by the gate to the mountain’s peak before, and now that I was I could both see and hear the wind howling by. There was no way I could make it through without being shoved off the mountain by the clouds clinging close to the cliff face.

“The last time you were here we taught you to use the elements themselves to assist you,” Night-Sparkle began the lesson, keeping his disapproval at my choice buried deep inside, “Today we will teach you how to reach up to the sky with your Voice and control the weather as the pegasi do. We will begin with Master Yorri, who will teach you the beginning of the secret to clearing the skies, the Draconic word for sky: LOK.”

The pale green mare steeped forward, sweeping her hood off before Shouting toward the ground at her hooves.

The words carved themselves into the stone of the courtyard, disturbing the light layer of snow around them. They faded away as the knowledge of the sky flowed into my mind, teaching me everything I could learn in a lifetime about the canopy over our heads in a matter of moments.

“I will allow you to partake of my knowledge of LOK so that you may attain mastery over the sky,” Night-Sparkle said.

I soon found my mind bombarded by the Greymane’s memories. Bits and pieces of Night-Sparkle’s life flitted in front of my eyes as his memories melded seamlessly with my own. Reaching into my mind, I could now remember how to control the sky, clearing it using only my Voice. I let the newly learned Word of Power out before the thoughts tore me apart.

I Shouted, and the wind died down for a moment around me.

“Excellent,” Night-Sparkle praised, “If you think you’re ready, well move on to the next Word in Clear Skies. Master Midnight-Flame will teach you the Draconic word for spring: VAH.”

Midnight-Flame stepped forward, drawing his hood back as had Master Yorri before him. I couldn’t help noticing that, unlike Master Night-Sparkle, the other masters didn’t seem to be disturbed by my choice to pursue the “cursed Shout” and meet with Paarthurnax. In a way this reassured me that I was making the right choice, even though none of the other Greymanes could tell me so. My thoughts were brought back to the moment as Midnight-Flame Shouted at the ground.

Staring at the runes carved into the ground, I learned more than I’d ever imagined about the season of spring. Every spring for centuries passed by in a blur, yet I understood it all. How it came about, what minute changes accompanied it, even how to project its fair weather and clear skies around me.

Master Yorri allowed me to partake of her knowledge this time, and her thoughts and memories filled my mind until I was fit to burst. My understanding of spring was strengthened a hundredfold by years of practice in bringing it about. Without training, I now knew how to bring about spring myself, using only my Voice.

<> I Shouted, calming the air around me and causing a bit of the chill to recede.

“Now, onto the last word, KOOR, which is Draconic for summer,” Night-Sparkle said, obviously enjoying this chance to teach a Shout even though he disapproved of what I would be using it for, “Master Summer’s Dawn will demonstrate for you.”

the Greymane Shouted, her words carving themselves in the ground, melting the snow around and causing a few small blades of grass to spring up.

Looking upon the runes once again filled my mind with all knowledge of a season, this time summer. I knew it all, down to how the clouds above the ground affected the summer’s weather as much as the plant life before.

As Summer’s Dawn shared her memories with me, I also learned everything about how to use KOOR. I witnessed her training and meditation on summer through the endless cycles of the seasons, each time learning a bit more about how it functioned and how I could use my Voice to emulate it out of season.

<<>> I Shouted, and the clouds that surrounded High Hoofgar bent to my will, clearing away at the command of my Voice.

“We have taught you all you need to know to reach Paarthurnax safely,” Master Night-Sparkle said when he’d finished admiring my mastery of the Shout, “Follow this path and you shall not go astray. We wish you good fortune on your journey to reach the master of our order.”

I waved Steadfast and Mephalda over as the Greymanes began to dissipate.

“Ready to head up?” Mephalda asked, looking at the treacherous path to Paarthurnax, “Looks like we have some rough weather ahead of us.”

“Just stay near to me and you’ll be fine,” I told my companions, “I’ll use my Shout to clear the way.”

All together we trotted up toward the weathered stone archway that led to the Crest of the World.

“Here goes nothing,” I said before focusing my thoughts on my Shout.

<<>>

Ahead of us the wind suddenly died down and the clouds moved off the path without pegasi assistance. Flashing a smile, I trotted ahead, Mephalda and Steadfast close by my side. Every time the clouds grew thick again and the wind began to howl I let loose the Clear Skies Shout. In this method we climbed higher and higher up the Crest of the World until we could see the peak jutting up a short distance above us.

As I pointed it out, a windigo suddenly came out of nowhere, coating my mane in frost. Giving an icy whinny, it flew over the edge of the cliff before swinging back toward us. I shot a blast of fire at the creature, but it swiftly dodged, swooping toward Mephalda. It shot over her head as my pegasus companion ducked down low to the ground.

I continued to follow the icy wraith with fire until it flew in front of Steadfast and I was forced to cut off the stream to avoid burning my earth pony companion. I kept blasting flames at it, eventually hitting its whipping tail and melting it, but doing no further damage.

Suddenly I was disoriented by a strike from a cloud. Looking around, I could see that the unnatural weather atop this mountain was beginning to take control again. Clouds swarmed toward us, jockeying for space, and a frigid wind began to howl over the ridge.

I tried to Shout to clear the weather away, but a cloud slammed into my face and I had to stop to cough out tufts of it. The windigo latched onto my back, causing my body temperature to drop rapidly. Swinging my head around, I blasted it with fire, reducing it to nothing but a puddle and a few teeth.

“Sapphire!” I heard a call come through the storm faintly.

Through the clouds I could see Mephalda a short distance away, struggling to stay near the mountain as the wind threatened to blow her off. As I saw frost begin to form on her wings I knew I needed to stop this weather now. Swinging my forelegs wildly in front of my face I opened up a large enough space that I could open my mouth to Shout.

<<>> I Shouted, and the sky immediately obeyed my call.

The clouds left us alone, the wind died down, and Mephalda was finally able to flap herself over solid land and break the frost off of her wings.

“Um, a little help here?” I heard Steadfast say.

Turning around, I saw that he was hanging on tightly to the ledge, dangling out over the bulk of the mountain. Together Mephalda and I pulled him out of mortal peril. Thankfully the rest of our trek up the Crest of the World was uneventful. This time I made sure to Shout well in advance of the weather closing in again, so we wouldn’t be taken off guard.

At last we reached the very peak of the mountain, far above the clouds. All of the Northlands stretched out into the distance from this vantage point. After admiring the view for a bit, we turned back to the mountain’s peak itself. There was nothing overly spectacular about the sight that greeted us. All Paarthurnax’s dwelling seemed to consist of was a fairly level patch of snow and a few odd pieces of an ancient earth pony ruin.

“Dragon!” Steadfast called out as a light grey beast flapped over the mountain’s peak.

Paarthurnax was nowhere to be found, but he had to be around somewhere and would surely rush to help us fight the dragon once he saw what was going on. Snow flew up from the ground as the dragon came in for a landing near the ruin stones. I galloped toward the lizard, but slowed to a trot as it made no move to attack me. Steadfast gave me a look of confusion as I did so, but mimicked my movements, as did Mephalda.

As I trotted up to right in front of the dragon’s mouth, it still made no move to attack. The pieces begin t fit together in my mind until I came to a realization. But it just couldn’t be possible!

“Paarthurnax?” I asked.

“THAT IS CORRECT, MY LITTLE PONY!!” the dragon boomed, its warm, moist breath washing over me, “I AM PAARTHURNAX, MASTER OF THE GREYMANES!!”

“You’re a dragon,” was all I could think to say, completely dumbfounded for the moment.

“YES, THAT IS RIGHT!! IT WAS I WHO TAUGHT THE FIRST TONGUES TO USE THE VOICE AS THE DRAGONS DO!! I HAVE BEEN PASSING DOWN MY KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM TO THE GREYMANES EVER SINCE!!”

“So you know how to defeat Alduin!” I said hopefully.

“PATIENCE, MY LITTLE PONY!! ALL KNOWLEDGE COMES IN TIME!! FIRST ALLOW ME TO TASTE OF YOUR THU’UM!!”

“Um, okay,” I said, trying to think of a Shout I could use on the dragon that would impress him. Eventually I settled on the first one I’d learned, the one the Greymanes had taught me.

<<>> I Shouted past Paarthurnax’s head.

“VERY GOOD!! NOW LET ME SEE HOW WELL YOU CAN LEARN A NEW THU’UM!! I WILL TEACH YOU YOL, THE DRACONIC WORD FOR FIRE!!”

Paarthurnax Shouted, the runes burning through the snow.

As I looked upon the runes that this time very literally burned, all the dragons’ knowledge of fire entered my mind. My own knowledge of how to bring fire into being with my unicorn magic suddenly seemed very shallow in comparison to the vast wealth of knowledge I now had on how to kindle fires with my Voice.

“I UNDERSTAND THAT THE GREYMANES HAVE BEEN ABLE TO TEACH YOU MASTERY OF A THU’UM BY SHARING MEMORIES!! IS THAT CORRECT??”

“Yes,” I told the dragon.

“PREPARE YOUR MIND SAPPHIRE, FOR I SHALL SHARE WITH YOU THE TRUE KNOWLEDGE OF THE DRAGONS, FAR DEEPER THAN THE MINDS OF EVEN THE GREYMANES CAN GRASP!!”

As I steeled myself, the memories came flooding in. Paarthurnax had been right. The memories I received from him seemed deeper, more powerful, and more meaningful than any I’d experienced before, even from other dragons I’d defeated. In an instant I experienced Paarthurnax’s extremely long life, seeing and feeling every moment he had breathed fire. My understanding of how to breathe fire was so absolute by the time the memories stopped coming that I didn’t think I could learn any more on the subject even if I scoured the whole of the Northlands.

“COME, LET US SEE HOW YOU HAVE MASTERED THE THU’UM!!” Paarthurnax demanded.

I complied, directing my Shout at a drift of snow that had piled up against one of the ancient standing stones.

As I Shouted my breath itself turned to fire, blasting outward with the fury of a dragon’s breath. The snow I’d directed it at turned to steam, and the stone behind was scorched by the sheer power of the flame. Expectantly, I turned back to Paarthurnax.

“YOUR CONTROL OF YOUR VOICE IS EXTRAORDINARY, RIVALING MANY OF MY DRACONIC COLLEAGUES!! YOU SHALL LEARN MUCH UNDER MY TUTELAGE, SURPASSING MY OTHER STUDENTS IN NO TIME!!”

“I’d love to, really,” I told Paarthurnax, “And some day I will take the time to learn all you have to teach me, but right now I’m in a bit of a hurry to stop Alduin from destroying the world.”

“AH YES, IT ALL COMES BACK TO MY BROTHER’S CRAZY SCHEMES, NOW DOESN’T IT??”

“Your brother?” Steadfast asked, stepping forward.

“YES, AS HE IS BUCKATOSH’S FIRSTBORN, I WAS HIS SECOND!! BUT HIS ELEVATED STATUS HAS MADE HIM ARROGANT!! HE BELIEVES IT IS ONLY DRAGONS WHO SHOULD INHABIT THE NORTHLANDS, AND DESPISES ALL MORTALS, ESPECIALLY THE PONIES!! I, HOWEVER, SAW THE POTENTIAL IN PONYKIND AND TOOK THEM UNDER MY WING, TEACHING THEM THE DRAGON LANGUAGE AGAINST ALDUIN’S WISHES!!”

“So you will help us to defeat him?” I asked.

“BEFORE I DO, I MUST ASK YOU: WHY IS IT THAT YOU ARE SO SET ON DEFEATING HIM??”

“He’s going to destroy the world if somepony doesn’t stop him,” I said.

“AND THAT IS A BAD THING WHY??”

“Well, I live in this world, as do you, and I don’t want it to end.”

“A LOGICAL EXPLANATION, BUT WHAT IF THE END OF THIS WORLD BRINGS ABOUT THE BIRTH OF A NEW WORLD, AS A SEED PLANTED IN THE GROUND MUST DIE BEFORE A TREE CAN SPRING UP FROM IT??”

“If the world ends, millions of ponies will die. I’m not about to let that happen.”

“BUT WHAT OF THE MILLIONS OF LIVES THAT COULD ARISE IN THE NEW WORLD, BUT WOULD NEVER RECEIVE A CHANCE TO LIVE?? CAN YOU DENY THEM THEIR LIVES??”

“Listen,” I said irritably, “I don’t have time to argue existential questions with you. Every moment we’re up here debating is another moment Alduin and the dragons who follow him are destroying innocent life. If we can stop Alduin, we can stop that. So are you going to help us or not?”

“OF COURSE I SHALL HELP YOU, THOUGH YOU MAY BE RIGHT!! LIKE ALL DOVAH, I TEND TO ENJOY THE SOUND OF MY OWN VOICE MORE THAN I OUGHT!! YOU WISH TO LEARN OF THE SHOUT THE TONGUES USED TO DEFEAT ALDUIN IN THE PAST, IS THAT CORRECT??”

“Yes, though the Greymanes don’t think I should.”

“THEY ARE PERHAPS THE MOST CAPABLE WIELDERS OF THE VOICE I KNOW, THOUGH THEY ALLOW THEIR TRADITIONS PASSED DOWN FROM JURGEN SKY-WHINNY TO CLOUD THEIR JUDGEMENT OF THE PRESENT!! I SHALL TEACH YOU ALL I KNOW ABOUT THE SHOUT USED TO DEFEAT ALDUIN, AS I BELIEVE IT MAY BE ESSENTIAL YOU KNOW IT IN ORDER TO DEFEAT HIM AGAIN!!”

“IT WAS CALLED DRAGONREND BY THOSE WHO CREATED IT, AND IT WAS MADE USING ALL THE HATRED THEY COULD SUMMON TOWARD ALDUIN!! IT DID NOT LIVE UP TO THEIR EXPECTATIONS, ONLY WOUNDING DRAGONS RATHER THAN KILLING THEM!! NEVERTHELESS, IT WAS AN EFFECTIVE TOOL FOR THEIR FINAL BATTLE WITH ALDUIN HERE UPON THE CREST OF THE WORLD!!”

“FOR YOU SEE, DRAGONREND LASHES OUT AT A DRAGON’S VERY SOUL, FORCING THEM TO ACCEPT THE CONCEPT OF MORTALITY, SOMETHING OUR MINDS CANNOT GRASP!! AS SUCH, I AM AFRAID THAT I CANNOT TEACH IT, FOR IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR MY MIND TO HOLD THE WORDS FROM WHICH IT WAS CONSTRUCTED!!”

“How can I learn it then?” I asked.

“THE TONGUES SURVIVED THEIR FINAL BATTLE WITH ALDUIN, IF JUST BARELY!! THOUGH THE DRAGON CULT REFUSED TO RECORD THE METHOD OF ALDUIN’S DEFEAT, THERE IS NO DOUBT IN MY MIND THAT SOMEWHERE THE TONGUES DID RECORD THE WORDS TO DRAGONREND!! AND I BELIEVE THEY ALSO UNDERSTAND THAT ALDUIN WOULD RETURN SOMEDAY, AND AS SUCH THEY WOULD HAVE ALSO CREATED SOME WAY THAT ANOTHER WITH THE VOICE COULD LEARN THE WORDS THEY’D CREATED!!”

“Where do I start?” I said, feeling overwhelmed, “What should I look for?”

“THE TONGUES WERE WELL KNOWN IN THEIR TIME!! SURELY THERE WILL BE RECORD OF THEM WHEREVER YOU MORTALS KEEP SUCH THINGS SAFE!! PERHAPS THE COLLEGE BUILT TO THE NORTH WILL BE A GOOD PLACE TO START!!”

“The College of Winterhorn?” I asked.

“YES, THAT’S THE ONE!! SURELY A STOREHOUSE OF MAGICAL KNOWLEDGE WILL CONTAIN SOME MENTION OF THE MAGIC USED TO DEFEAT ALDUIN!!”

“Thanks, we’ll be back as soon as we find something,” I promised Paarthurnax.

“So, college?” Steadfast said as I joined him and Mephalda, “I guess it’s about time I got a higher education.”

Level Up
Health: 220 Stamina: 200 Magicka: 210
New Perk: It Ain’t Heavy, It’s my Armor [Heavy Armor] -- You have become so adept at using your armor that its weight no longer factors into your carrying capacity when it is worn.
Word of Power learned: LOK -- Sky; Clear Skies – Horizon itself yields before the Thu’um, as you clear away fog and inclement weather.
Word of Power learned: VAH -- Spring; Clear Skies – Combined with LOK, VAH clears the skies more quickly, and brings about weather one would experience in Horizon’s spring.
Word of Power learned: KOOR -- Summer; Clear Skies – Combined with LOK and VAH, KOOR clears the skies for a longer time period and brings about weather one would experience in Horizon’s summer.
Word of Power learned: YOL -- Fire; Fire Breath – Inhale air, exhale flame, and behold the Thu’um as an inferno.
New Quest: Advanced Studies – Travel to the College of Winterhorn and search for information on Dragonrend.

Chapter 35: Shade

Chapter XXXV: Shade
“Summon the Draconequi. I’ll trade the soul of every last subject of mine for a little comfort.”

The noble-ponies standing around me looked just as shocked as I was. High King Shade had died nearly half a year ago, torn apart by Jarl Stormcloud, yet there he was sitting in his throne, clearly alive. The impossibility of the situation didn’t seem to bother Jarl Radiance one bit, as she was beaming and holding her deceased husband’s hoof.

“I know this is unexpected,” she announced to the assembled ponies, “But the important thing is that the King has returned, and Horizon can be at peace once again.”

“Jarl Stormcloud will never accept this,” General Cuirass spoke up, “He killed Shade himself after all.”

“Then this should only prove who is the more powerful Jarl,” Radiance responded.

“He may not accept it at first,” Shade spoke, his glum, gravelly voice contrasting with Radiance’s, “But, like me, he will come to terms with this new development in time.”

Though Shade seemed by all outward appearances to be fine, I could see that something was distinctly wrong with him. In no way did he appear to be a reanimated corpse, as he was undoubtedly whole and alive, and his movements were too fluid for a corpse to mimic. His personality, though distant, seemed like it fit him better than one somepony was simply projecting into him. I couldn’t place my hoof on it, but something was undoubtedly amiss.

“It’s Shade,” Mystic confirmed, leaning in toward me until I could hear her horn crackling, “Whatever caused that magical disturbance I felt is linked to him.”

I nodded that I understood before turning back to examine the king again. Though the charcoal gray earth pony had assured those assembled that everything was fine, he seemed to be a bit uncertain himself. If I had a chance to speak to him, maybe I could ask how he had been brought back to life.

“This is too unnatural,” I overheard General Cuirass say as he walked behind me to speak to the Legion soldiers present, “Keep this secret and don’t allow anypony in or out of the palace until this matter’s been resolved.”

The soldiers obeyed his orders and rushed off to blockade the doors before anypony could slip past. It looked like we’d be trapped here until somepony got to the bottom of Shade’s resurrection. Among the ponies around the twin thrones, I saw that an orange earth pony with a fiery red mane was staring at me. He motioned off to the side for me to join him before trotting away from the crowd. Weaving through the crowd of nobles, I trotted over to join him.

“I am Falk Fire-mane, Jarl Radiance’s steward” he introduced himself to me, as well as Steadfast, Mephalda, and Mystic who had joined us, “I know everyone is a bit confused right now, but it seems like you and your friends here may have some idea what is going on.”

“Sorry,” I told him, “We’re likely just as in the dark as you.”

“That’s too bad, because I have absolutely no idea what is going on. Even as her steward, Radiance refuses to share with me how Shade could have returned. I fear the reaction the other Jarls could have to this announcement. If they think Radiance has turned to dark magic, even those currently on our side may abandon the Empire and join Stormcloud’s rebellion.”

“I don’t think they’ll find out,” I shared, “General Cuirass is locking down the palace until he gets some answers.”

“He wouldn’t!” Falk said, his eyebrows flying up, “I’ll have to speak to him about that. In the meantime, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, could you investigate this sudden turn of events?”

“Of course,” I said, “We’re trapped here too until we find out what’s going on.”

Giving his thanks, Falk trotted over to where General Cuirass was standing, talking to a unicorn mare in mage’s robes.

“This is just like a murder mystery, except in reverse,” Mystic said, “I’ve read plenty of books on the subject. Should we start rounding up suspects?”

“Not yet,” I said, the wheels turning in my head, “That magical energy spike you felt back at the college, could it have come from the Beyond?”

“I suppose so. Like I said, it was different than anything I felt before. I guess that’s what happens when somepony’s brought back to life. Why?”

“I think I may have some idea of what’s going on,” I said, trotting toward the stairs that led out of the throne room.

No guards blocked our progress this time as we entered the Pegasusius Wing, probably because they were busy holding back the ponies who wanted to leave the Blue Palace. The abandoned wing of the palace was empty as usual, though everything was still set up the way Pegasusius the Mad had had it all those years ago when he’d lived here.

“Discord!” I called as I trotted through the rooms, “I need to speak to you!”

“Discord?” Mystic asked, “As in Discord Discord, the Draconequus?”

“Right,” Mephalda confirmed, “Sapphire had a run-in with him about a week ago.”

“Come on, I know you can hear me!” I yelled, unwilling to give up, “I know you’re behind this!”

Still nothing happened, and I hung my head in disappointment. Maybe I had misjudged Discord, and he really had honored our deal and abandoned the Pegasusius Wing.

“And just what makes you think I’ll come when you call?” a familiar voice caused me to look up.

Sitting at the table in front of me was the mad Draconequus, sipping tea from a cup that he then proceeded to eat.

“Honestly, you mortals beat me in one challenge and you think you can just order me around,” he continued to speak, turning to stare at me with his mismatched eyes.

“Yet you came,” I pointed out.

“You’re just lucky I had nothing better to do. And I intend to clear my name of this snafu before disaster strikes.”

“What do you mean clear your name?”

“Well, you don’t think I brought Shade back to life, now do you?” Discord said, feigning innocence.

“Of course,” I said, “It’s just the kind of thing you’d do.”

“Well, I’m afraid you’re wrong about that,” he said, slithering up the wall until he hung down from the ceiling, “I have no interest in bringing ponies back to life, at least not that sourpuss Shade. He’s no fun at all.”

“But if you didn’t do it, then who did?” I asked.

“Oh, it always amazes me how much chaos you ponies can cause for yourselves,” Discord said, detaching from the ceiling, “I must admit I get quite a kick out of it.”

“You had something to do with it,” I accused, “I just know you did.”

“Careful, Sapphire,” Discord said, pinching my lips shut with his claws, “It’s not wise to push a Draconequus. And you forget, an ordered system will always progress toward one that’s more chaotic. It’s simple thermodynamics.”

“You wanted to clear you name, right?” I asked once he’d released my lips, “Then help us figure this out.”

“You think I’ll just tell you the answer? What kind of entertainment is that?” Discord said, pulling out a bag of popped corn and lounging on a sofa that hadn’t been there a moment ago, “No, after all this slandering and besmirching of my good name, I think you’ll have to figure this one out on your own.”

“The more you block our efforts, the more I’m convinced it really is you behind this,” I stated, crossing my forelegs.

“Sounds like a personal problem to me,” Discord said, giving a yawn, “But if you really want my advice, you should start with the pony at the center of all this.”

“King Shade?” I asked, but Discord had already disappeared, making it impossible to tell if he’d ever been there to begin with.

“Well, that was . . . something,” Steadfast said.

“Is he usually like that?” Mystic asked.

“Both times I’ve met him,” I grumbled, “I wish he was a bit more helpful.”

“You’re lucky he didn’t destroy you,” Mystic said, “He’s a Draconequus after all. They’re not usually that patient.”

“I don’t know, maybe he had some respect for me after I outsmarted him last time.”

“You outsmarted Discord?” Mystic said with awe.

“Yeah, I guess so,” I admitted, feeling a little embarrassed.

“That’s a story I have to hear,” Mystic said.

“Maybe some other time,” I told her, “After we’re out of the palace.”

“So, King Shade then?” Mephalda asked.

“Right,” I said, “King Shade.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

The rest of the day we spent trying to get a word with King Shade. However, that task proved to be next to impossible, both because everypony in the Blue Palace also wanted to speak to him and he never left Radiance’s side. Whenever we tried to speak to him about how he’d been resurrected, Radiance would always cut in and steer the conversation in a new direction. If we could only get him alone, maybe then we’d be able to get something out of him.

Night came before we were successful, and with General Cuirass’s soldiers keeping everypony within the Palace, bedding had to be found for the crowd of ponies trapped within. Most of the nobles were fine, since they lived here anyway, and the servants were the same way, but many of the mid-level members of Radiance’s court and visitors like us had nowhere to sleep. The Legion provided those without beds with bedrolls, but it was a long night sleeping on the cold marble floors of the Blue Palace.

In the morning we had an equally hard time of catching Shade. Instead, we split up and began questioning the different members of the court, keeping an eye out for a chance to speak with the king alone.

Eventually news was brought to the king and queen that General Cuirass was running Seclusion in her place, blocking any edicts Shade passed from exiting the building and answering any messages brought for Radiance himself. While Shade seemed content with the current setup and tried to convince his wife that things were normal, she wasn’t content and marched off to speak with the general. As Shade left his throne and trotted off toward his bedchambers, I seized the opportunity, following him down the hallway.

“King Shade,” I called after him, causing him to pause in his trek.

“Yes?” he said, turning around, “How can I help you?”

I stood silent for a moment. He seemed different than the Shade I’d seen sitting next to Radiance. While he had seemed glum before, he now seemed downright depressed, his eyes sunken and hollow and his shoulders slumped with weariness.

“I was just wondering . . .” I started to say, trailing off.

“How I’m alive again,” he answered, no question in his voice.

I nodded that he’d hit the nail on the head and he gave a deep sigh.

“I can’t keep this up forever. I may as tell somepony,” he said, “The truth is: I’m not.”

“What?” I asked, feeling even more confused.

“I am not the king,” he admitted, “He died when Jarl Stormcloud Shouted him apart. I’m merely a shade of him, a construct to ease Radiance’s grief. She, however, thinks that I am real. For her, I must keep up this ruse, though it pains me to steal another pony’s life.”

“You have to tell her,” I told Shade after I’d processed what he’d said, “She’ll find out eventually anyway.”

“I know,” he said, hanging his head, “But she must come to that conclusion on her own. Until then you must promise to keep this a secret.”

“I don’t know. . .”

“Please do this for me,” he pleaded.

“All right,” I promised, “But this can’t go on much longer, with everypony trapped here.”

“I know,” he said, “And if you want to do something in the meantime, try to convince the court wizard that what she did was wrong.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

After my talk with Shade, I told Steadfast, Mephalda, and Mystic what was really going on. They weren’t exactly convinced that letting the shade walk around pretending to be Radiance’s husband was really a good idea, but agreed to leave him be and focus on Seclusion’s court wizard for now.

It wasn’t hard to find her, her being one of the few unicorns here. I realized as we approached the cream-coated mare that she was the same pony General Cuirass had been speaking to the day before. She looked up from the plate of food she’d been staring at as I sat down across the table from her.

“Listen, I don’t know who you are and I don’t want to talk,” she said, looking back down at her untouched food.

“Well, I think we should talk,” I said to her, “About how you created Shade.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she denied.

“Listen,” I said, leaning in closer, “Shade told me what’s going on.”

“Oh no,” she said when she realized I wasn’t joking, “I knew this would happen eventually. I just didn’t think it’d happen so soon.”

“He’s not happy,” I told her, “He knows he’s not real.”

“That’s not the point. He’s meant to be there for Radiance. After months of grieving we became worried about her. When she came to me at her wit’s end, begging me to find any way to return her husband to her, what was I to do?”

“You could’ve refused,” Steadfast pointed out.

“Yes, I see that now. But as cruel as it would’ve been to let her go on like she was before, it would be even more cruel now to return her to that state after she’s had a taste of being with him again.”

“But he’s not her husband,” I argued, “He’s merely a shade, a construct with the true Shade’s personality embedded into it. Isn’t it cruel to let Radiance believe any different?”

“Yes,” the mage admitted, “But it’s too late now to do anything about it. If I suddenly take him away, what would that do to the Jarl?”

“I’m not asking you to destroy Shade now,” I said, “I just want you to be ready for when it needs to be done. Shade doesn’t want it happening until Radiance herself realizes the error of her ways.”

“Well . . . all right, I’ll prepare the spell. But this isn’t going to be pretty.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

There wasn’t much left to do for the rest of the day but chat up our fellow “prisoners.” While we did so we kept an eye on the king and queen, especially on how Radiance was acting. Slowly throughout the day her mood seemed to shift toward Shade, drifting away from the perfect happiness she’d been experiencing at first. Still, she seemed content enough as the sun set to not risk confronting her.

My sleep was restless that night, once again haunted with the faces of ponies I had killed. Tossing and turning, I awoke in the middle of the night to hear the sound of raised voices coming from elsewhere in the Blue Palace. Careful not to disturb the ponies sleeping around me, I rose to my hooves and crept down the hall toward Radiance and Shade’s bedchambers.

“-not the Shade I remember,” I heard Radiance say as I came within range of the propped-open door.

“That’s because I’m not,” I heard Shade’s gravelly voice respond, “I look like him, I talk like him, but I’m not him.”

“Nonsense, you just don’t remember-”

“I remember perfectly! I died in this very room, Jarl Stormcloud tearing me apart as I stood helpless! I’m dead Radiance, at least I should be.”

“You may have died, but there were no remains. Your soul found its way to a new body. You’re just confused is all. We can start a new life together if you give it a chance.”

“No. I can’t live like this anymore, and neither can you. You put on a brave face, but I can tell underneath you’re still suffering. All I am is a way for you to mask your grief, and that’s all I’ll ever be.”

“That’s not true!” Radiance protested.

“Get Silver Quill, I want to go back where I was.”

“But you were dead!”

“Yes, and I should be still.”

“Wait! Stop!” Radiance called as Shade stormed out the door, nearly running over me.

“I hope Quill is ready to do what must be done,” he mumbled to me as he passed by.

“What are you doing here?” Radiance asked me as she followed Shade out of the room, “Never mind. This is none of your business. I need to stop my husband before he does something foolish.”

“He’s not your husband, Radiance,” I said, moving to block, “Shade’s dead.”

Giving me a glare, she pushed past, chasing after him. Once I’d recovered from being shoved against the wall I followed Radiance down the hall. As I reached the doorway to the throne room Mephalda poked her head through.

“It’s happening now?” she asked.

“Apparently,” I responded, continuing my journey down the hall.

Shade and Radiance slipped through a doorway that light spilled out of, and Mephalda and I followed. Silver Quill, the court wizard, was already in the room, bringing the total number of ponies to five. It appeared Silver Quill had had trouble sleeping as well, as she rose from her desk and not her bed as we entered. Panic gripped her as she looked from Shade to Radiance.

“All right Quill,” Shade demanded, “I need you to send me back.”

“Don’t do it,” Radiance pleaded, throwing herself in front of Shade, “Don’t take him away from me.”

Quill looked torn, eyes darting between Shade and Radiance.

“He’s not real,” I said, stepping in, “That’s not really Shade. You know it and he knows it. Let him go.”

“Have you ever had someone you loved dearly torn away from you?” she turned on me, “Do you know what it’s like to have a hole inside you that can’t be filled no matter how much ponies tell you they’re sorry for your loss? I do, I lost my husband and now he’s all I have to remember him by.”

“Shade, the real Shade, is in Sovngarde now, and he’s waiting for you to join him” Shade spoke up, “Do you think this is how he would want you to remember him?”

“I just don’t know what else to do,” Radiance wept.

“You’re right to mourn him,” I told her, placing a hoof on her shoulder, “But you can’t live your whole life wishing he was alive again. You’ve got to move on. You’re got to start living again.”

“It’s what he would want,” Shade said, “Trust me, I know.”

“I don’t know if I can let you go again,” Radiance said.

“Hey, we’ll see each other again someday,” he replied, grasping her hoof, “Until then, live a life I’ll look forward to hearing about.”

He pulled her into an embrace as he finished, where they stayed for a few minutes. Eventually he nodded to Silver Quill and began to pull away, though Radiance was reluctant to let go. As Quill’s horn began to glow, the Jarl grabbed ahold of me tightly, her tears running down my back and soaking into my coat. In a flash of light, Shade was obliterated, returning to the raw magical energy he’d been formed from.

“It’s done,” Quill announced, and Radiance sobbed all the harder. I continued to hold her, offering her comfort as long as she needed it.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

By the next morning Radiance had mostly recovered from her grief. It was evident in the way she held herself that she had begun a new chapter in her life, and though her joy was still tainted with grief, the healing process had started at last. She pulled my friends and I aside as she entered the court.

“Sapphire, I cannot thank you enough for what you’ve done,” she told me, tears glimmering in the corners of her eyes, “You’ve served both Hoofingar and myself admirably for some time now, and it would be rude of me not to reward you.”

“That’s really not necessary,” I said, blushing a bit, “Anypony would’ve done the same.”

“But they didn’t, and that is why you shall be Thane of Hoofingar. Allow me to present you with the blade of this realm,” she said, passing a sword over to me, “Wear it proudly, as a sign of my gratitude.”

“I don’t know what to say,” I said, taking the elegant ebony blade from the Jarl, “Thank you.”

“It is I who should be thanking you,” she said, smiling, “If there’s anything I could do for you, do not hesitate to ask.”

“Thanks,” I said, “I don’t think we really need anything right now, but I’ll keep it in mind.”

“So, where will your adventures be taking you now?”

“The Imperial City,” Mystic spoke up with enthusiasm.

“Well,” Radiance said, “I may be able to help you out after all. I have a ship heading for Leyawhinny today. Allow me to make the arrangements, and I’ll make sure you’ll have the finest lodgings aboard.”

Level Up
Health: 220 Stamina: 220 Magicka: 210
New Perk: Lord of Swords [Light Weapons] -- When dual-wielding swords, you will be able to attack 20% faster.
Appointed as Thane: Hoofingar
Unique Item added: Blade of Hoofingar -- This exquisitely crafted ebony sword is reserved for only the greatest heroes of Hoofingar hold. In addition to being enchanted to siphon health from its victims, in essence acting as if eternally poisoned, it allows you to show off your status as Thane of Hoofingar.
New Quest: Come Sail Away -- Sail to Leyawhinny and then travel to the Imperial City.

Chapter 36: A Journey of Ice and Water

Chapter XXXVI: A Journey of Ice and Water
“And you all made fun of me for packing so many scarves.”

The Imperial Dignity set sail later that day and, true to her word, Radiance got us the best accommodations on board. Unlike on the Inquisitor, all we had to do was sit back, relax, and let the seasoned sailors handle things. The Dignity was far larger than the Inquisitor, and the four of us were each allowed to occupy a private stateroom.

The journey to Leyawhinny would take four days in total, since we’d be forced to detour around the Pegasari Dominion before circling Unicornica and arriving on its eastern coast. That suited me just fine. We’d been so busy rushing around lately it’d be good to have a few days to rest up and fully heal.

The first day passed swiftly, as the Dignity made its way around the western isles of the archipelago that made up the pegasus homeland. By the time the sun set that night, we had already passed Stalliondril, and we continued to skirt the cloud layer that marked pegasi territory as we traveled through the night.

The next day passed much the same, with very little to do on the ship than chat with my friends and read A Brief History of the Empire; Vol. I. Later in the day storm clouds began to build to the south. Rather than alter our course and delay our arrival in Leyawhinny, the captain decided to continue through the storm. We were forced belowdecks as freezing rain began to pelt the Dignity. As the storm howled outside, I turned to finishing the book I’d snatched from Blank Flanks Barrow all those weeks ago.

“Though Camelon may have perished in the battle, his legacy will live on,” the newly appointed Emperor Talhooves announced to the assembled Unicornican warlords, “For the first time in centuries ponies have a chance to be united under one banner. This Empire will unite all. My Empire; the Alicorn Empire!” he finished, flaring his new wings. Emperor Talhooves had a plan to subject the Northlands to his will already in place. And with his new magic and wings, nopony would dare stop him.

The story of the Alicorn Empire’s rise is continued in A Brief History of the Empire; Vol. II.

A knock on my door interrupted me as I began to tuck the book away and reach for another.

“Come in,” I called.

“Miss Sapphire,” the crewmember who opened the door said, “The captain requests your presence on deck.”

Puzzled, I rose from the bed and strapped on my armor, hoping it would provide at least some protection from the elements. As I stepped out of my room, I saw that Steadfast, Mephalda, and Mystic had also been called out of their rooms.

“What do you think this is about?” Mystic asked.

“I don’t know,” I said, “But I intend to be prepared.”

The frigid rain was still pelting down as we left the comfort of the cabins and stepped out onto the deck. A layer of ice coated the deck, making it hard to get up to where the captain struggled to steer the boat through the storm. Eventually we reached the wheel, which the captain fought with using both his magic and his hooves. As we approached, he turned the wheel over to the other crew members nearby.

“I thought you should see this,” he called over the squall, passing a telescope over to me.

Gripping it in my magic, I focused it where he directed. In the distance through the rain I could barely make out a few small figures flying beneath the cloud layer. As I watched, they shot back up through the clouds. A few moments later, they emerged from the clouds again, much nearer to the boat.

“Pegasi?” I asked, passing the telescope to Mephalda.

“We believe so,” the captain replied, “And it looks like they’re intent on seizing our ship.”

“Why would they be after us?” Mystic asked, “We’re a passenger and cargo ship.”

“They’re Blackwings,” Mephalda said, passing the telescope on, “Somehow they must’ve found out we’re on board.”

“They’re not exactly our biggest fans,” I told the captain as he looked to me for explanation.

“Well, I don’t intend to let them have my ship,” he said, looking in the direction the Blackwings were coming from, “If we’re going to stop them I’m going to need everypony’s help.”

At the captain’s orders, all crew members armed themselves and prepared for the ship to be boarded. Steadfast, Mephalda, Mystic, and I stood up top in the freezing rain with our weapons drawn, waiting for the Blackwings to make their move. At last they emerged from the clouds directly above the ship and swooped down toward us.

They went for the sails first, running their blades through and shredding them. One was suddenly stopped in his mission as an arrow from Mephalda hit him in the chest. It bounced off his chest armor without harming him, but did manage to knock him off course. With the fierce winds and pounding rain, he had no time to stop himself before he crashed into the deck of the ship.

Steadfast was standing near where he’d landed and cracked the Blackwing across the back with his warhammer as he tried to get up. Flaring his wings, the pegasus sent blades skittering across the deck, one sticking in Steadfast’s fetlock. As he pulled it out, the Blackwing was able to stand back up.

Drawing a sword from beneath his cloak, he went on the offensive now, pushing Steadfast back. I was too far away to help him with my blades, but I tried sending a blast of lightning at the back of the unsuspecting Blackwing’s head. I quickly cut off the spell as the lightning defused through the storm, jumping from raindrop to raindrop and spreading uncontrollably through the air.

I was forced to leave Steadfast to handle things as I heard a thump on the deck behind me. Whirling around, I drew both Calcion’s Cleaver and the Blade of Hoofingar. The Blackwing who’d landed behind me’s blade met both mine with a vicious shriek. I was forced to back out of the block and duck down as she sent hidden blades flying out of her wings.

I Shouted, and my blades began to spin more rapidly as I advanced on the Blackwing.

Yet as fast as my Voice-augmented swords were moving, the Blackwing was able to block nearly all my strikes. By the time the effects of the Shout faded, all I had accomplished was to get a few nicks on her and put a few chinks in her armor. Now that my striking speed was reduced back to normal she had the upper hoof, and went on the offensive.

As she brought her sword around toward my neck I blocked with Calcion’s Cleaver. Lightning sparked through the night, electrifying the rain around us as the swords met. I tried to swing the Blade of Hoofingar around toward her side, but she blocked with the blades in her wings, keeping me at bay. Pulling both my blades free, I backed away from the Blackwing.

As she began to advance toward me I leapt at her, swinging my swords around toward her neck. Deftly she blocked both my strikes with her sword, never giving an inch, even as I put all my strength into my push. With a flick of her neck she sent my swords flying back, forcing me to retreat. She was good, in fact she was significantly better than me when it came to swords, but I had something she didn’t.

I Shouted, and her sword flew from her mouth and went sliding across the icy deck.

Now that she had no sword, I brought both of mine down toward her chest. With her wing blades she blocked them in midair. Pulling out a knife from within her cloak, she pushed toward me, her wing blades keeping my swords from moving. I didn’t have the focus to Shout again so soon, so I dropped my swords instead and focused on blasting fire into her face with my magic. It stunned her momentarily, just long enough that I was able to draw my war axe and sink it into her throat.

As the rain washed my blade, I searched around for my other two weapons, which had been thrown away when the Blackwing had charged at me. The Blade of Hoofingar was stuck into one of the masts nearby, and I was able to retrieve it easily. Calcion’s Cleaver, on the other hoof, was another story. Frantically, I searched for my favorite sword, until I saw it a little ways away, sliding across the ice coated deck. As the ship listed in the storm it began to slide toward the edge.

Giving a shout, I threw myself toward the blade, sliding across the deck on my stomach. At last it was in reach and I snatched it up, but I was too close to the edge and went sliding off. Grasping the sword in my teeth, I swung it around into the edge of the deck, leaving me suspended over the side of the ship. With great effort I managed to pull myself back up, but at least I hadn’t lost Calcion’s Cleaver.

I was suddenly forced to duck down as a massive fireball went flying over my head. I turned to see Mystic fighting no less than three Blackwings on her own, keeping them at a distance with both a ward and offensive spells cast frequently from her horn. But there was no way she could keep it up forever. As I watched they began to circle her, making it difficult to keep them all in her sight at once.

I charged in to help, Calcion’s Cleaver and the Axe of Whitetrot held in my magical grasp. As I slid down the stairs, one of the Blackwings heard me coming and turned to face me.

<> I Shouted, causing a cast of frost to cover his body. The covering only grew thicker from the rain, making it even more difficult for the Blackwing to wiggle free.

Before I could even attempt to finish him off, my blade was met by the sword of another of the Blackwings circling Mystic. She pulled back and struck again, forcing me to block again. As I tried to swing my war axe toward her side, she blocked with her wing blades. I managed to disengage the axe from her wing before she could pull it away, but I didn’t have time to dodge as the tiny knives came flying out of her feathers. Thankfully, they did little more than bounce off my Griffin armor, adding more tiny dents to my already impressive collection.

Striking with Calcion’s Cleaver, I managed to push the Blackwing back a step, but she held me in the block and didn’t allow me to push her any farther. I swung the Axe of Whitetrot around toward her legs, but changed direction at the last second, hooking it around the Blackwing’s sword.

Tears came to my eyes as the wing blades meant to block my war axe instead opened fresh wounds along both my fetlocks, but I forced myself to stay focused on the fight. With a twist of both my blades I managed to throw the Blackwing’s sword from her mouth. Calcion’s Cleaver came down on the side of her head, slicing through her helmet and electrifying it at the same time. The Blackwing fell to the ground jerking uncontrollably while blood soaked through her hood.

I turned quickly to the sound of breaking ice, meeting the blade of the Blackwing I’d frozen with both my swords. Anger burning in his eyes, he aggressively pushed forward, forcing me to slide back across the slippery deck until my hindquarters ran into the railing running along the edge of the ship. I blocked with the Blade of Hoofingar as he swung toward my side. I quickly added Calcion’s Cleaver to the block as a single sword proved ineffective at halting his blade.

Drawing his sword back, he swung around toward the right side of my head. Using both my swords, I forced his blade off course, and it cut through the railing behind me instead of my face. Pulling it from the splintered deck, the Blackwing swung his sword around at the left side of my head. Once again I diverted his blade and it cut through the railing instead of me.

An evil grin upon his face, he brought his sword straight down at me. As I blocked, I once more began to slide back. Only this time the railing began to give way behind me. If I didn’t do something fast I was going to find myself in the water!

<<>> I Shouted, sending the Blackwing rolling across the deck.

As I pulled myself away from the edge and downed a healing potion to repair the still-bleeding wounds on my forelegs, I watched the Blackwing tumble across the deck as a ball of cloth and feathers. At last he came to a stop just in front of Mystic. In a moment he was reduced to a cinder as she blasted him with pure concentrated magic.

Looking around, I could see no more Blackwings on the deck. It appeared they’d given up. That is, until I looked up. Above the deck of the ship perhaps a dozen of the pegasi darted amongst the lines and cables securing the sails. At the center of the swarm was Mephalda, who was rapidly firing off arrows in order to keep from being surrounded. It was obvious the Blackwings realized who she was, as they paid us no mind and focused on attacking her.

Of course, I couldn’t just do nothing and leave her to be overwhelmed. As I charged toward the central mast, I fired shards of ice up toward the hovering Blackwings, striking a few and causing them to plummet into the sea. Mystic joined me, firing off bolts of magic I couldn’t identify. Once I reached the central mast I began to climb. Mephalda was in the crow’s nest and I was going to reach her.

Up the makeshift rope ladder I climbed, taking shots at a few of the Blackwings as I passed by. I was nearly to the crow’s nest when I was suddenly knocked off the ladder. I went rolling across one of the crossbars the sails were hung from until I manage to grab ahold of the beam. Holding on for dear life, I looked up to see a Blackwing land nearby.

Unsteadily, I forced myself to my hooves, careful to remain balanced atop the beam. With catlike agility the Blackwing bounded toward me, drawing a sword as she did. Drawing the Axe of Whitetrot, I somehow managed to block her first strike. Her next swing nearly knocked me from my precarious position.

I Shouted before she could get another swing in, marking her for death.

As she doubled over in pain, I struck her on the back of the neck. As she fell into the sea, I retrieved her sword. Looking up, I could see that Mephalda was in a bad situation. All the remaining Blackwings were clustered around her, intent on finishing her off.

“Mephalda!” I called, hoping she could hear me over the storm, and threw her the Blackwing sword.

She snatched the blade out of the air as it spun past her and, quicker than I could follow, stabbed it into the chest of the nearest Blackwing. Pulling it out, she swiftly struck down two more in one swing before plunging it into another of the Pegasari assassins. With another flurry of slashes, she knocked away the last two, sending them plummeting to their deaths.

“Thanks!” she called to me after she looked around to confirm the last of the Blackwings were vanquished, “I thought that was going to be the end of me!”

“I appreciate the sentiment,” I said, hanging upside-down from the post and clinging to it for dear life, “But could I get a little help here?”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

We stayed alert for Blackwing mischief for the rest of the night. Thankfully, no more came and we emerged from the storm intended to entrap us as the sun rose in the east. After we were in the clear the captain steered us north-east, leaving pegasi territory behind in order to circle Unicornica. As we left the reach of the Blackwings, we all headed belowdecks to sleep, catching up on the rest we’d lost the night before.

It was smooth sailing all morning and I slept well, eventually waking and feeling refreshed, my aches and pains gone. With nothing better to do, I began to read the book Calciar and Eruthar had given me: Minotauran Inquiries; Vol. I.

Of all the races one could choose to study, the Minotaurs are perhaps the most intriguing. This is, of course, due to the fact that their entire race utterly vanished over a thousand years ago, leaving behind nothing but empty cities filled with advanced technologies, but also guarded fiercely by the Minotaurs’ creations. This volume will cover Minotauran architecture and what can be learned from studying it. For Minotaur anatomy, see Vol. II. For an in-depth discussion of their culture, see Vol. III. For information on their religion, see Vol. IV. And for theories on their disappearance, see Vol. V.

Before I could read any further, a knock came at my door.

“Come in,” I called, setting the book aside to read again later.

Gradually the door opened, and Mystic stuck her head through.

“Is something happening abovedecks?” I asked, hoping the Blackwings had given up on following us.

“No,” the unicorn said, trotting into the room, “I just didn’t know if maybe you wanted to talk.”

“Sure,” I said, making space for her on the bed, “About what?”

“I don’t know, just talk,” she said, “About you, Steadfast, and Mephalda, I guess.”

“What about us?”

“Well, from what I saw last night, you guys really look out for each other. I mean, you’re all really good friends, and it’s just – well, I’ve always had trouble making friends.”

“Well, you’re not alone in that.”

“You? Really?”

“You bet. Steadfast and Mephalda are the first true friends I’ve made in a long time.”

“I thought it was just me. I guess it’s hard to make friends when you’ve got your nose buried in a book all the time.”

“I don’t think that’s quite it,” I laughed, “I had the same problem, but I think my lack of a cutie-mark alienated me more than my love of books.”

“Well, whatever the reason,” Mystic said, completely ignoring the fact that I’d admitted to being a blank flank, “I don’t want to be alone anymore. I want what you guys have. I want friends.”

“Hey, I’d say you’ve got some already,” I told her.

“Really?” she said hopefully.

“Of course. You’re practically one of us already.”

“Oh, thank you!” she said, giving me a hug, “You don’t know how much this means to me.”

“Judging by how hard you’re squeezing me,” I said, fighting for air, “I have some idea.”

“Oops, sorry,” she apologized, and then began laughing. I soon joined in as well.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

That night, I awoke to frantic knocking upon my cabin door.

“Huh, what?” I said, sitting up in bed as the door flew open.

“Sorry to disturb you,” the crewmember said, “But the captain thinks you ought to come up top at once.”

Forcing myself to wake up, I rolled out of bed and set about assembling my gear, banging my shins more than once as I struggled to pull on my armor. Eventually I was ready, and headed up top where my friends were already waiting. The stars were invisible behind the veil of clouds above us, and a frigid wind whistled past as I made my way up to them.

“What is it?” I asked, “More Blackwings?”

“I’m not sure,” the captain said, “All I know is this storm shouldn’t be here.”

“The storm yesterday shouldn’t have been there either,” his first mate pointed out.

“Yes, but this is different,” the captain said, “That was near Pegasari Dominion territory. This is too far away for them to try something without angering the Empire. We’re nearing the Ear of Unicornica, for Julimanos’s sake. Also, we haven’t spotted any pegasi at all yet.”

“Then where did this storm come from?” Steadfast asked, “Clouds can’t move by themselves, can they?”

An icy whinny came from far away, no louder than a whisper in the breeze.

“Did you hear that?” I asked, though nopony else seemed to have.

Again the whinny came, closer this time, and the others around me confirmed they’ve heard it.

“What is that?” the captain asked.

“Well, it sounds like WINDIGOS!” I shouted the last word as one of the icy creatures suddenly came barreling out of the snow that was beginning to blow around us.

I pulled out the Axe of Whitetrot and prepared my horn for flames spells as I waited for another of the creatures to attack us. The snow began to blow harder until another of the vaguely horse-like creatures emerged. In an instant, it was torched by my magic and reduced to no more than a puddle and a few odd shards of ice.

More suddenly flew out of the storm, coating the deck and masts with ice. Careful not to hit any parts of the ship, both Mystic and I, as well as a few of the unicorn sailors, began to fire flames at the creatures. As one galloped through the air past me, I swung my war axe around and chopped its head off. I had no time to strike another that was rapidly charging toward my face. Right before it reached me, it suddenly fell out of the air, struck down by a flaming arrow shot from Mephalda’s bow.

The battle against the windigos seemed to be a losing one, as they clearly outnumbered us. The ship began to creak and groan as it became frozen bit by bit. But we wouldn’t give up. I was determined that we would reach Leyawhinny no matter what stood in our way.

I Shouted into a swarm of windigos, destroying them in an instant with the force of my dragon breath.

More of them turned toward me as they saw I could snuff out so many with one move. Keeping up a wall of fire in front of me with my magic, I retreated from the swarm. However, more came flying from the storm, attacking me from all directions. As I swung my war axe through them it eventually flew from my grasp, sliding across the deck.

Without my weapon, and my magic becoming dangerously low, the windigos swarmed over me. Ice formed over my horn, keeping me from doing magic, and I could feel my body temperature begin to drop as frost began to cover my coat, seeping under my armor. My vision faded until all I could see were the blurry outlines of the windigos around me.

I heard a yell come from somewhere close just moments before Steadfast jumped over me, my axe in his mouth. Swinging it wildly, he ignited every windigo around me and forced the others to back off. Hoisting me onto his back, he carried me away from the swarm of ice-creatures.

I heard voices, but was unsure exactly what was being said as Steadfast dropped me off. After what seemed like an eternity I could feel warmth begin to return to my body. My vision cleared until I could see Mystic standing over me, pouring warmth into me with her magic. Steadfast and Mephalda were both nearby, watching over me. At last I regained enough strength that I could sit up.

“What happened?” I asked, looking around.

“You almost died,” Mystic said, “But then Steadfast saved you.”

“All I did was bring you back here,” my earth pony companion said, returning the Axe of Whitetrot to me, “It was Mystic that used a spell to both repel the windigos, and now to heal you.”

I was so lucky to have such friends, and was about to tell them so before I saw a spire of rock suddenly loom up in front of the ship.

“Look out!” I called out too late.

The Imperial Dignity ran head on into the rock and was smashed to matchwood in an instant.

Level Up
Health: 230 Stamina: 220 Magicka: 210
New Perk: Keen Eyes [Block] -- You are extremely aware of your surroundings, and are therefore able to block attacks much more easily, no matter from what direction they come.
Follower gained -- Mystic: A student from the College of Winterhorn, Mystic is a highly trained sorceress in all kinds of magic. Capable of writing her own spells, Mystic brings a high-powered attack and defense to the battlefield.
New Quest: The Frigid Northlands -- Make your way through the blizzard on hoof to the Imperial City.

Chapter 37: Unicornica

Chapter XXXVII: Unicornica
“Being a city pony is hard work. I’m so hungry, I could eat a-”

After the Imperial Dignity shattered apart, we were all thrown into the freezing waters of the Sea of Phantoms. Tossed back and forth among the splintered remains of the ship, we eventually washed up on a rocky shore. Steadfast, Mephalda, and Mystic all emerged from the storm to join me, along with a good deal of the crew.

Everypony was battered and bruised, but major injuries were rare, with only a few broken bones. I passed around the supply of healing potions I had in my saddlebags as we huddled together against the cold. Unfortunately, quite a few ponies didn’t join us, among them the captain.

“Where are we?” somepony yelled over the storm.

“We were rounding the Ear of Unicornica last I knew!” the first mate called out, “Best guess is we’ve landed somewhere on it!”

“What are we going to do?” somepony else asked.

“Well, we can’t stay here!” I said as the icy whinny of a windigo cut through the blizzard, “I say we try to follow the shore until we find some sign of settlement!”

“She’s right!” the first mate agreed with me, “We have to get out of this blizzard!”

Somehow I ended up in front, leading our group through the storm. It was slow going, snow constantly blowing into our faces and making us more miserable than we already were. To make matters worse, windigos swooped out of the storm from time to time to attack us.

Following the coast, eventually we found a sign of civilization. A rickety dock with a small boat bobbing up and down in the icy water was built upon the shore, a worn hoofpath leading inland. All we had to do to find somepony would be to follow the path. Unfortunately, the windigos had other plans.

As we turned to head inland, a swarm of them came flying out of the snow. No time to draw a weapon, I fried the first one that came toward me with my magic. Mystic and a few of the unicorn crewmembers did the same, but the earth pony crewmembers didn’t stand a chance. Three of them died, freezing solid, before the rest of the crew ran to help the non-magical members.

Forming a circle of protection around those who couldn’t defend against the windigos, we slowly made our way down the hoofpath. Of course, we couldn’t stop every windigo that struck, and our numbers slowly dwindled as the winter spirits picked us off. Eventually, a building came into sight in the distance.

“We’re almost there!” I called back, only to see that the windigos were staging a much larger attack than they had before.

Constantly striking, the ice creatures were cutting through the center of our group, separating those in the back from the leaders. I couldn’t risk shooting fire into the windigos, as my flames were more likely to harm a pony than one of them. But ponies were being coated in ice left and right. I couldn’t just do nothing.

I Shouted at the windigos swirling above the group.

With a shriek, many of them flew away, burning up as they did so. The fire spread through the swarm, taking out enough of the nearby windigos that we were able to connect the groups. Drawing the Axe of Whitetrot, I charged toward the remaining windigos.

Swinging my blade around, I managed to chop through the neck of one, melting it. A blast of fire knocked one off the back of a pony whose teeth were beginning to chatter with cold. Lending her a hoof, I helped herd the survivors toward the building, struggling to keep it in sight through the storm.

A windigo swooped down toward us, and I shot fire into the air. It swerved, missing my blast, but I was able to clip its foreleg with my axe, setting it afire. A blast of ice hit me in the face as it wheeled around toward me. Through the cold, I struggled to light my horn, but finally I was able to project fire from it, melting the windigo.

We were finally close enough to the building that I could get a good look at it. It appeared to be a farmhouse, with enough timber cleared around it for a barn to be built nearby. Mephalda knocked on the door as the rest of the survivors made their way to the house, Mystic and me bringing up the back, keeping the windigos at bay with our magic.

“Please, let us in!” Mephalda called as she banged on the door.

At last the door swung open, revealing a stocky yellow unicorn with a pure white mane. A thick scarf whipped around behind his head as the wind blew snow through his doorway.

“What are you doing out in a storm like this?” he asked.

“Our ship crashed! We need shelter!” the first mate of the Dignity explained.

“We’re under attack by windigos!” I added, blasting yet another as it tried to pick off the shivering pony standing beside me.

“Windigos!” the stallion exclaimed, his bushy eyebrows flying up, “Get in here now!”

Happily we complied, filing through the door of the farmhouse. When we’d all passed through, the burly stallion slammed the door shut. There wasn’t much room, and it was a bit cramped, but at least it was warm, a fire roaring in a stone fireplace. Our host rushed to supply blankets for those with more severe chills, and set a pot of soup over the fire before sitting down with us.

“What do you know about the windigos?” the first mate asked suspiciously.

“First things first,” the stallion laughed, “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Golden Oak. Welcome to my humble homestead.”

“What do you do up here?” Steadfast asked, “Doesn’t seem like there’s much around.”

“Admittedly there’s not,” Golden Oak answered, “But I run a home for dairy cattle, and I sell their milk in Stablehall in exchange. It’s not a life that requires a whole lot of company.”

“Did you say Stablehall?” I asked.

“Yes, the town’s not too far south of here, only an hour or two’s trot down the road.”

The wheels were spinning in my head. We would never make it to Leyawhinny, but if we could get to Stablehall, it wasn’t too much farther to the Imperial City. Only problem was, we’d have to brave the windigo-infested storm to reach it.

“However, I wouldn’t even think of going out in that storm unless you have to,” Golden Oak said, seemingly reading my thoughts, “Those windigos will tear you apart.”

“I’ve never seen so many in one place,” Mephalda said, “Where do they come from?”

“That’s the thing,” our host replied, “More and more lately, we’ve been having strange weather up here. Storms spring up without the pegasi stepping in and blizzards filled with windigos sweep across the land. If you ask me, I think this is the start of something much worse. It used to be rare to see a windigo in Unicornica, but now there are whole swarms of them flying around. I tell you, something is feeding them.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Golden Oak admitted sadly, “But if things get much worse, I’m going to have to leave my homestead and move south.”

A particularly strong gust of wind shook the house, silencing our conversation. We continued to listen to the icy gale for a minute or more before our host spoke again.

“Well, it’s late and there’s no sense even considering leaving until this storm dies away. Best get some shut-eye.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

That night we slept around Golden Oak’s fire, and for the first part of the next day focused on recuperating, since the storm still hadn’t died down. At last, the blizzard outside ceased and windigos retreated. Golden Oak pointed the way to Stablehall, even giving me a map of Unicornica with his home marked on it.

Not long after we left his homestead, we came upon a long thin lake, the very same one that Stablehall was built on the bank of further south. Finally Unicornica’s northmost town came into sight. Now that we were clear of the blizzard, it was clear we were no longer in Horizon anymore. Royal banners in typical unicorn style fluttered down from perfectly smooth walls of stone, hinting at the opulence of the city.

Within the overly thick walls were perfectly straight paved roads leading past the various shops Stablehall had to offer to the keep. A few roads crisscrossed the town, connecting to the housing and temple district on its far end. I’d read somewhere that Stablehall had once had sizeable gardens within its walls. That was not the case anymore, as nearly every bit of land was occupied by buildings of various functions.

I knew it would be best just to pass Stablehall by and continue on to the Imperial City before sunset, but I had no idea what we might encounter along the way and we were running low on potion and food supplies after the Dignity had crashed. Also, my armor, amazing as it was, was beginning to look a little worse for wear, and I intended to repair it best I could once I found a blacksmith.

My plan was to enter Stablehall, get the supplies we needed, and get out with enough time to make it to the Imperial City before dark. Steadfast, Mephalda, Mystic, and I even split up the things we all needed to make things go faster. Of course, things rarely went according to plan for me, and this day seemed to be no exception.

“Stop the Menace!” a pony called as I exited the apothecary’s shop after I finished buying potions for myself and herbs for Mephalda, “Tell Count Blazing Amethyst to do something about this threat before your own foals are taken from you!”

I paused in my walking and regrettably turned around, letting my curiosity get the better of me. Most of the ponies walking by seemed to be ignoring the mare waving a poster in the air with her magic, but a few stood around her, seemingly supporting whatever she was talking about. I could see that the poster she held was also pinned up around the town, featuring sketches of seven different ponies with the words “Who’s Next?” printed beneath.

“Seven of our own, seven have been taken from us in the past few months!” the mare began to speak louder as she saw that she’d caught my attention, “Are you next? One night will you suddenly disappear, only for your bones to be found in the woods weeks later, picked clean? Or will you do something? Will you tell Count Blazing Amethyst to send our guards out immediately to fight this threat?”

“What’s going on?” Mephalda asked, landing next to me.

“Looks like there’s been a string of murders around here,” I said, still listening to the mare with the poster rant on about how the Count was being irresponsible.

“That’s terrible,” Mephalda said, “Somepony really should do something about it.”

“Are you saying it should be us?” I asked, turning to look at her.

“Well, I’m not saying that – you see – all I meant was that . . .” she stammered, hiding behind her hair.

“Because I agree,” I said, lifting her spirits, “Let’s go speak to the Count.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

“No,” the fiery orange unicorn answered.

“But Count Blazing Amethyst,” I pleaded, “If there’s a murderer on the loose, they must be apprehended.”

“You think I don’t know that?” the stallion said, stepping down from his throne and whipping his ornate cape around, “I know the implications, but I can’t spare my guards to go gallivanting around searching for a needle in a haystack.”

“Surely it can’t be that hard to find whoever’s doing this,” I said.

“My county is a sprawling forest, parts of which no pony eyes have likely seen,” he replied coldly, “You think it’s easy to find a single pony within? I invite you to try it for yourself.”

“Well, all right then,” I said.

“I beg your pardon?”

“We could look into the matter for you, and you could keep your guards where they are.”

“Hmm, yes,” the Count considered my proposal, “I suppose that could work out.”

“So it’s fine with you if we look into this?”

“Yes, go on and search out this murderer that plagues my hold. You have my blessing.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Though it was important we get to the Imperial City and find Dragonrend, I couldn’t just abandon Stablehall to a mass murderer. Hopefully things would work out for us and we’d find “The Menace” in no time. My first idea was to speak to the ponies who’d alerted me to the plight the town was in, in the first place.

However, the mare who’d been swinging the poster didn’t have anything helpful to offer. Her son had disappeared one night, and wasn’t found until days later, his skeleton thrown in a pile in the woods. The other ponies with her all had similar stories to tell, but none of them seemed very useful. Eventually I was forced to admit we needed to look elsewhere for clues.

We questioned everypony we could get to speak to us, but by the end of the day we still had no idea how to catch the killer. I’d compiled a list of places the missing ponies had last been seen and decided to visit them before turning in for the night. Many of the murders had happened some time ago, however, and any clues that may have been left were gone by the time we arrived.

We were trotting through an alley formed by the backside of some of the shops and the city wall on our way to an inn when a cloaked figure suddenly jumped out in front of us. The cloak completely concealed whoever the pony was, but a long thin knife floated in front of them, held in a shimmering purple magic like I’d never seen before.

The clatter of hooves on cobblestones came from behind us as well, and two more of the cloaked figures emerged, also holding long thin knives. I drew the Blade of Hoofingar as the pony in front of us swung at me. The two blades met, sparks traveling along the blades before pulling away.

Behind me, Steadfast and Mephalda pushed against the two cloaked ponies and Mystic pulled up a ward against another that had emerged from a side alley. When I turned back to look at my attacker, I was forced to bring my sword up quickly to keep from being decapitated.

My attacker pulled their knife away, allowing me to attempt a strike. Unfortunately, my opponent was too quick, and blocked my sword. Flipping the blade away, the cloaked pony went for my throat. My sword deflected the blade just in time, knocking it down to the cobblestones.

Before my attacker could bring their blade back up, I swung my sword around at their face. They managed to jump back, but not quick enough, and my blade nicked the pony’s cheek and cut through a bit of their hood. Bringing a hoof up to their face and bringing it away bloody, the pony began to back away from me.

Giving a whistle, my attacker suddenly turned tail and ran. Behind me, the other cloaked attackers also scampered away. I chased after mine for a bit, but I didn’t know Stablehall very well, and I soon lost them. Trotting back to where we’d been jumped, I saw that my friends had also been unsuccessful at apprehending their attackers.

“What was that all about?” Mystic asked.

“I don’t know. I think somepony doesn’t want us to catch the Menace,” I said, “Hopefully things will be much clearer after a good night’s sleep.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

In the morning things weren’t any better. In fact, things had gotten worse. The night before, another pony had disappeared, just a block away from where we’d been jumped. In response the town’s gates were kept shut while Stablehall’s guards looked into it. It looked like we had let Count Blazing Amethyst down and he’d decided to take matters into his own hooves.

Still, I wasn’t going to give up on catching the Menace. Strangely, we were unable to find the pony who’d reported the disappearance, so we moved on to the crime scene. Scouring the block for any trace of evidence we found nothing. We were about to call the search hopeless when a group of guards approached us.

“Are these the ponies you saw last night?” the lead guard asked a townspony they were escorting around.

“Yes, that’s them!” the stallion exclaimed, “I saw them creeping through the alley behind my shop shortly before Providence disappeared!”

“You’re under arrest,” the guard announced, and his fellow guards surrounded us, “On suspicion of murder.”

Though we protested, the guards wouldn’t take no for an answer. Relieved of our weapons, we were marched to Stablehall’s keep and thrown in the dungeon beneath it. The four of us were thrown in a large cell and left there until the Count declared a sentence for the crime we were suspected of.

We all knew, of course, that the only punishment we could possibly receive was death. And with us being new to the town, nopony would fight to have the execution stopped. We had to get out of the prison somehow, but it had to be done at the right time. Thankfully, I’d been able to conceal a few lockpicks in my tail before we’d been sent down here, but I was waiting for the ideal time to use them.

As the day neared its end, the guard began to slack off. Most either headed off to the barracks or to their homes if they had one. At last, only one guard remained to watch over the prisoners through the night. The captain entered the room to bid him a good night before leaving.

“Keep an eye on these prisoners over here,” he said, gesturing to us, “And stay awake this time.”

He levitated the keys to the cells over to the young guard, who clumsily caught them. The guard’s fumbled catch wasn’t what interested me though, it was the captain’s magic. As he floated the keys over, I realized it was the exact same color of the magic my attacker last night had used.

As he turned to walk past our cell, I saw that he also had a fresh cut along his cheek where I had cut my attacker. There was no doubt in my mind that the guard captain was one of the ponies who had jumped us last night. But to find out why, we’d need to follow him, something that was impossible while we were still trapped in this cell.

Lucky for us, no sooner had the captain left the dungeon than the guard on duty pulled his table over to the cell next to us and set up a game of checkers. While the guard was distracted, I pulled out my lockpicks and levitated them through the bars. After breaking a few, I finally got the lock to pop open.

Swinging the door as fast as I could, I caught the guard unaware, knocking him unconscious. Retrieving our gear from the evidence chest, we hurried up out of the dungeon in hopes of catching up to the guard captain.

He was just leaving the outer keep by the time we made it outside, allowing us to tail him as he trotted through the city. Curiously, instead of heading to a house, he made his way through the city gates and headed out into the forest outside Stablehall. We followed as quietly as we could, passing among the thick trees and keeping sight of him.

Once or twice it seemed he heard us, as he began to look around, and we were forced to hide behind trees and in the undergrowth. The path he took was far from straight, looping through the forest in a very illogical way, but eventually he reached what appeared to be his destination.

Torch light came from an area where no trees stood, and we held back a minute as he exited the forest, entering the light. When we were sure we were safe, we quietly snuck forward to take a peek at where the captain had gone.

The glade was filled with quite a few ponies, most of them from Stablehall, including Count Blazing Amethyst himself. They were clustered around a long wooden table placed in the center of the glade. The table was set for a feast, but it was the main course that was troubling.

Tied up in the center of the table was a live pony, his eyes darting around frantically at the assembled ponies. At the far end of the table a stone shrine rose up, but it was definitely not devoted to any Equine. The creature carved out of stone was long and lithe, a Draconequus riddled with holes so that it seemed to be rotting away.

“Festerus,” Mephalda whispered breathlessly, “The Draconequus of Decay.”

“Flawless Karat,” the Count spoke to the guard captain, “I expected so much more out of you. You couldn’t kill those visitors like I’d asked you to, and you even got your fellow brothers injured in the attack.”

“You should never have allowed them to look into our dealings,” Karat replied, “If you had just told them to leave things be, we never would have gotten in this mess.”

“They would have looked into it one way or the other, I could tell,” the Count said, “Better that I make them believe I’m on their side so they suspect less. You’re just lucky it worked out so well that we could pin this on them.”

“Speaking of which, when do we eat? I’m starved.”

If I had trouble believing they’d really eat Providence, I had no difficulty now. There was no “Menace” plaguing Stablehall, just these cannibals, and the missing ponies hadn’t just been murdered, they’d been eaten! There was no excuse, no reason to stay my blade. These ponies deserved to die in the worst possible way!

Before I even knew what I was doing, I drew Calcion’s Cleaver out and stepped into the torchlight. The Cannibals of Festerus ceased their discussion as the rest of my friends joined me.

“Well, this is certainly an unfortunate turn of events,” the Count said, staring me down.

The cannibals drew their blades, filet knives I could see now, and rushed the four of us. I saw red and swung Calcion’s Cleaver around, knocking a pony’s sword away and carving into his chest as I did so. I galloped forward, slicing at anything that moved, shooting lightning indiscriminately as I did so.

<<>> I Shouted as a group of the cannibals climbed onto the table and made for Providence.

They went flying off and soon tasted my cold steel as I launched myself over the table at them. My blade cut through each and every one of them, singing with joy as it went. As a few of the cannibals began to run off into the forest, I shot ice spikes through their heads, killing them instantly.

Turning, I found my blade clang against Count Burning Amethyst’s. Pulling my sword back, I swung at him again and again. Eventually I managed to knock his sword from his grasp, snatching it up for myself. Fear in his eyes, he began to retreat.

I followed, smashing his wards as fast as he could put them up. They grew weaker over time as his magic faded, and eventually the sword I’d snatched from him broke through without effort. The blade continued on, slamming against his horn. Bone and keratin cracked as the sword sliced through his magical organ. Raw magic blasted out from the wound, destroying the sword in the process and throwing him back.

“You wouldn’t kill me,” he said, cowering into the ground and sliding back, “You’re no monster.”

“You’re right, I’m not,” I said, and a smile cracked across his face, “But you are.”

The smile faded, though the Count appeared confused.

“And I’ve got something far worse in mind than killing you.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I wouldn’t be staying for the execution, of course, even though the townsponies wanted me to. Bringing the Count back to Stablehall, he’d woken the whole town with his raving. Though it was the middle of the night, an emergency town meeting was called, where Providence told of everything that had happened. The Count was condemned to death, and the four of us were pardoned for the crime he’d tried to pin on us.

In the morning, the town gave us a heroes’ farewell, loading us down with much more gold and jewels than was strictly necessary. Though they wished we’d stay longer so they could give us a proper thanks, we were behind as it was to reach the Imperial City. Still, leaving as heroes felt pretty good, and we all carried ourselves a little higher as we set out for the capital of the Unicorn Empire.

Level Up
Health: 230 Stamina: 230 Magicka: 210
New Perk: You Wouldn’t Like Me When I’m Angry [Light Weapons] -- When enraged, your strikes deal double damage, and you are more likely to get a critical hit.
Map added: Unicornica -- You now know the location of every major and minor town in the province of Unicornica, as well as the roads connecting them.
New Quest: Arcane Knowledge -- Travel to the Imperial City and enter the Arcane University.

Chapter 38: The Imperial City

Chapter XXXVIII: The Imperial City
“The Mages are said to have a great library of precious books, but they jealously hoard them for themselves.”

At last the Imperial City appeared in the distance, our destination in sight. Above the city rose the White-Gold Tower, home of the Unicorn Empire’s leader. The Imperial City was built on an island, and the only way to reach it was by using a bridge on the city’s southern edge. To reach the bridge, we’d need to follow the well-used cobblestone path that circled the lake.

The weather here was crisp, nearing winter, but still warm enough to travel comfortably, nothing like the blizzard that had been raging a short distance north. As we traveled the Red Ring Road around Lake Rumare, a group of armored ponies jumped out of the trees.

“Well, look what we have here,” the leader said, “Travelers, and judging by the jingle-jangle of your saddlebags, you’ve got more than enough gold to spare.”

“We don’t want any trouble,” I told the pony, who was obviously a bandit.

“Well, you came to the wrong place then,” he said, drawing a greatsword off his back.

Before his first stroke fell, Calcion’s Cleaver flew from its sheath, knocking his blade away. The other bandits both behind the leader and behind us drew their own weapons and charged forward. My sword met the leader’s again, the blades screeching against each other. He jumped back as I shot fire at him, giving me some space.

Drawing the Blade of Hoofingar as well, I swung at the bandit. He blocked with his greatsword, then swung it around toward my knees. Jumping back, I brought my ebony sword around at his neck. As he blocked it, I swung Calcion’s Cleaver up into his chest. He slid off my blade, falling to the ground dead.

Another bandit, an earth pony with a mace, jumped over his body. With Calcion’s Cleaver, I blocked her swing. Before I could get my own strike in, she swung the mace at me again. Repeatedly she smashed her mace into my ancient earth pony sword until it discharged lightning up her weapon, making her flinch back.

While she was at a distance, I drew the Axe of Whitetrot. The next time she swung at me, I blocked with Calcion’s Cleaver and hooked the Axe of Whitetrot around it, locking it in place. Sliding it down the blade of my sword, I threw her weapon from her mouth. Now that she was disarmed, I followed up with a strike to her side with my sword.

Ahead of me, Steadfast was holding off two bandits at once with his warhammer. An arrow bounced off the back of my helmet, just above the neck, before I could rush to help him. Craning my neck, I could see a pegasus with a bow fire another arrow at me. Dodging the deadly dart, I shot lightning up at the bandit. Eventually, I managed to land a hit on her, causing her to fall from the sky into the path of Mystic’s magical attacks.

Turning back to where Steadfast was fighting, I fired a few ice spikes at the remaining bandit. Suddenly a bandit came flying out of the woods and ran into me, knocking me off the path. Retrieving my weapons from where they’d fallen, I turned toward the bat-pony who’d knocked me over.

Blades splayed from the ends of her wings, she flapped toward me. Using both my swords, I blocked her attacks. She was still able to force me back toward the waterfront, separating me from my friends. Eventually I was able to seize the upper hoof and slash the Blade of Hoofingar through her wing. The sword cut through the bone and membrane, bending the metal frame over the wing that held her blades.

Now that she only had weapons on one wing, it was a little easier to hold her off. As I blocked the blades on her good wing with my ebony sword, I brought Calcion’s Cleaver around toward her other side. The blade dug in, catching at her wing joint, and I ended up hoisting her in the air and depositing her in Lake Rumare.

“Everything covered down there?” Mephalda called down from the path.

“Yes,” I called up, cleaning my blades, “I just hope we don’t encounter any more complications before we reach the Imperial City.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Thankfully, we made it to the Empire’s capital without any further interruptions. Crossing the long bridge that stretched from the mainland to the island in the middle of Lake Rumare, we entered the ivory city itself. The Imperial City was built as a perfect circle, with the White-Gold Tower in the center and walled-in districts surrounding it.

We entered through what had once been Talhooves Plaza. During the Great War, the Pegasari Dominion had invaded the Imperial City itself, and though never fully taking it, they had managed to seize control of Talhooves Plaza. Destroying the statue of Talhooves in the center of the district, they erected stocks and execution blocks in its place to deal with all Talhooves worshippers.

When the war ended and the White-Gold Concordat was signed, banning Talhooves worship, the stocks and execution blocks remained in place, and Emperor Brass Tax renamed the district Silver Coin Square after his great-grandfather, the first Emperor in his royal line.

It was obvious who was in command here, as banners bearing the bust of the Emperor fluttered from the highest buildings in the district. Imperial Legion soldiers guarded this city, standing at attention on nearly every street corner, ready to step in at a moment’s notice.

But we weren’t here to visit any of the elite living in Silver Coin Square. Nor were we here to buy from one of the many vendors who’d set up a makeshift market in the town square, much to the dislike of the district’s residents. We had a goal, and that goal was on the northwest corner of the city.

Passing through the Pegasus Gardens, another housing district whose residents tended to be of the winged variety, we made our way to the Arboretum. Expansive gardens stretched through this district, giving the rich residents of the Imperial City a place they could escape from the endless stonework without leaving the safety of the city’s walls. They had suffered some extensive damage during the war, and some of the scars still showed beneath the greenery.

The Arboretum, however, was also not our destination, so we swiftly passed through, following the carefully tended paths that ran around the plant life. Into the outer wall of the district was set a large gate similar to the one that we’d passed through to enter Silver Coin Square. Through it was a bridge that led out to the Arcane University, which held the Mystic Archives where we’d hopefully find the words to Dragonrend. I nearly skipped for joy as we neared the gates.

“Halt!” the Imperial guards ordered, crossing their pikes in front of me before I could pass through the gates, “Papers, please.”

“Papers?” I asked.

“Yes, all ponies wishing to enter the Arcane University must have Imperial Consent Forms,” the guard explained.

“Where can we get those?” Mystic asked.

“Imperial Consent Forms can be procured from any mages establishment within the Empire, or requested from the Ministry of Magic,” the guard said blankly, sounding like he was reciting a well-memorized form.

“Well, I’m a member of the College of Winterhorn,” Mystic offered, “I’ve even got proof of membership.”

“The College of Winterhorn, being built in Stormcloud territory, is not recognized as a legitimate mages institution at this time,” the guard responded.

“All right,” I said, “Where’s the Ministry of Magic.”

“White-Gold Tower, enter through the south doors and turn right immediately.”

“Thanks for your help, anyway,” I told the guard and turned to leave.

Hopefully, we’d be able to convince whoever was working at the Ministry of Magic to get us the papers we needed to get into the Arcane University. The White-Gold Tower wasn’t far away, just a walk straight through the Arboretum, and we’d be there in no time.

“Excuse me,” a cream-coated unicorn spoke to us as we passed through the gardens, “Were you trying to get into the Arcane University?”

The mare patiently waited for our response as I sized her up. Despite the fact that she was wearing an elaborate gown and had her cherry red mane done up in elegant curls, she didn’t seem as stuck up as many of the other residents I’d seen roaming the gardens. Of course, she could have just been trying to pry into our affairs for her own benefit, but I decided not to judge her too fast.

“Yes, we were,” I admitted.

“All these new rules they have,” she scoffed, “I really see no need for it. Yes, the University may be a battlemage training center now, but that’s no reason to close off its more civil parts to the public. I’m Gilded Armor by the way.”

“Sapphire,” I introduced myself, shaking the hoof she offered, “and this is Mephalda, Steadfast, and Mystic.”

“A pleasure making your acquaintance,” she said, sounding completely genuine, “You know, I do have a bit of pull around here. Perhaps I could get you ponies into the Arcane University.”

“Could you really?” Mystic asked anxiously.

“Of course,” Gilded Armor said, “It would be my pleasure.”

“Now, if I was in charge around here, we wouldn’t have all this time and money-wasting paperwork, only the essentials. Why, this Empire could run twice as well with half the fuss if we just-” she said as we trotted toward the University entrance before suddenly stopping at the tinny sound of a bell.

“Oh no!” she exclaimed, “I’m late for the Equine Council meeting! I don’t suppose I could trouble you to come along with me, and we’ll straighten out this University business later?”

“Well, I suppose so,” I said, since she had been so nice to us and willing to help us get into the University.

“All right, this way then,” she said, leading the way through the Arboretum to the White-Gold Tower.

At the center of the city was Green Emperor Way, a circle of land dedicated to memorials to the great Emperors and heroes of the Unicorn Empire and its predecessor, the Alicorn Empire. Empty bases showed where statues to the Alicorn Empire’s first Emperor, Emperor Talhooves, had been removed in accordance with the White-Gold Concordat.

In the center of the Green Emperor Way was the White-Gold Tower, rising up to the heavens, the dragonfire lit by Empress Mystica still burning at its top. Following Gilded Armor, we rushed into the building and up the stairs to the observation area for the Equine Council. Our guide had her own box reserved up front, and ushered us in before she joined us and listened at rapt attention to the Council below.

The Council Chamber itself seemed very bare, with only seven of the many seats reserved for Council-members filled. There were spots marked out for all the Jarls of Horizon, but each one of them was empty. It appeared only the Counts of Unicornica had bothered to make the trip for today’s session. Well, all except for one.

“That’s odd,” Gilded Armor said, “I don’t see Blazing Amethyst, Stablehall’s Count, down there. He never misses a chance to try to boss the Council around.”

“Well, I don’t think he’ll exactly be doing that anymore,” Steadfast said.

“And why’s that?” Gilded Armor asked, swiveling around in her seat.

“We caught him in the woods last night practicing cannibalism,” Steadfast explained, “He’s to be executed today.”

“Oh my. I knew he was unpleasant, but I never imagined he’d be a cannibal.”

That matter cleared up, I turned my attention back to the Council Chamber. Other than the Counts, there were several Legion Generals down below pushing their own agenda. In the center of the room, surrounded by guards and advisors, stood Emperor Brass Tax himself.

Count Rusted Iron, who I knew well since he was Kvatch’s leader, stood and began to propose a strict military action against the Pegasari Dominion for their recent weather inconsistencies. The counts from Brumare, Corral, and Anvil immediately stood to protest the idea of such a thing. After all, if war came with the Dominion, their towns would be the first to suffer. The rest of the counts rose as well, all intent on voicing their opinions.

I watched as the Council fell apart. The Emperor tried to convince the counts to settle down, but his efforts were unsuccessful and he gave up quickly. Soon it was no more than a shouting match, the counts bickering about something that would hopefully never come to pass.

“Pitiful, isn’t it?” Gilded Armor asked, “Our Empire’s governing body is no more than a sparring ground for stuck-up nobles who care for nothing but themselves. If only my family had a voice in this.”

“Why don’t you?” Mephalda asked.

“Unfortunately, my family is one of the lesser houses,” she explained, “Our nobility is mostly just a formality, as we have no land holdings to our name. Well, my father Silver Cuirass does own a sizeable estate near Brumare, but we’ve no vassals, so we don’t have a vote in the Council.”

“Did you say Silver Cuirass?” I asked, “As in General Silver Cuirass?”

“Yeah, why?” Gilded Armor asked, “Do you know him?”

“You could say that,” I said, thinking back to the times we’d met.

“Wait, Sapphire!” Gilded Armor explained, apparently having an aha moment, “I knew I recognized that name.”

“You do?” I asked.

“Yes, my father’s mentioned you in his letters. You’re the pony who’s been fighting off the dragons, the only one successful so far. Something pretty important must have brought you here to Unicornica.”

“We’re looking for a way to defeat Alduin,” I told her, figuring it wouldn’t hurt, since she seemed to know everything about me anyway.

“Wow,” she said, “I think that getting into the Arcane University to look for that is more important than watching the Council bicker. I doubt they’ll accomplish anything today anyway. Let’s get out of here.”

Gilded Armor led the way out of her booth and down out of the White-Gold Tower. Once more, we passed through the Arboretum and its gorgeous gardens before we arrived at the gates to the University.

“Excuse me, sirs,” Gilded Armor said to the guard-ponies, “I need to pass through to the University.”

“Of course, Lady Gilded Armor,” they said, pushing open the gate.

“Don’t worry, they’re with me and I’ll vouch for them,” she said when the guards attempted to block our path.

I believe I felt giddy as we finally crossed the bridge to the Arcane University, and Mystic was practically jumping up and down with glee. At the end of the bridge was another gate that opened onto the University, which was modeled after the main city with a circular wall surrounding a steep spire. Guarding the gate were two battlemages, but after Gilded Armor assured them we would make no trouble, we were able to enter.

It was clear upon entering that the Arcane University was no longer being used as an educational institution. Upon the lawns that students must have once studied, and attended lectures during the warmer months, there were now built temporary wooden barracks for the Legion battlemages trained here. Banners fluttered from the walls, but they featured the bust of Brass Tax, not the magical eye representing the University that could still be seen carved into some of the walls and buildings.

A wall cut through the middle of the University, dividing it in half, with only a few gates set into the central tower allowing access to the other half. Gilded Armor led us straight to the tower, pointing out that the Arch-Mage of the University had once lived at the top of the tower, but now it was the living quarters of the Imperial Battlemage. After traveling through an abandoned foyer, we exited into the back half of the University.

Here things didn’t seem quite so abandoned as battlemages in training filled the yard, firing spells at each other. Divided into pairs, the unicorns would alternate between casting offensive spells, and casting wards to protect themselves from the spells cast by their sparring partner. It was actually quite interesting to watch the fresh battlemages work out new ways to circumvent their partners’ wards, but Gilded Armor rushed us along to the back of the University.

“Have you been here before?” I asked, when it seemed she knew exactly where she was taking us.

“Oh, a time or two with my father to inspect the troops,” she replied, “And he likes me to come make an inspection on my own every now and again to report back to him since he can’t be here himself. Of course, I have more interest in our Empire’s politics than our military, so I often spend more time with the Imperial Battlemage. Emperor Brass Tax just appointed a new one not too long ago, and I’m not sure what to think yet, but he seems a decent pony and a competent mage, so I’m sure things will work out all right.”

As she finished her speech, she seemed to have found the building she’d been searching for. Pushing open the heavy wooden doors, she ushered us inside. At first there was little to be seen, but soon the magical lights became active and lit up the massive room so that we seemed to almost be in daylight.

“Welcome to the Mystic Archives,” Gilded Armor said, gesturing around her.

The Archives were larger than anything I could’ve imagined, with shelves of books stretching off far into the distance. Above us were two more tiers of decreasing size also filled with shelves of books and scrolls. It was almost too much to take in; I was caught breathless.

“Someone there?” an elderly pony asked as she slowly trotted into the Archives from a side room.

“This is Ambrose,” Gilded Armor introduced us to the pony, “Caretaker of the Archives. She can help you find whatever you need.”

“Help these ponies out, Ambrose,” Gilded Armor told her, “They’re my friends. I need to get back to other business. See you later.”

“So, what is it you’re looking for?” Ambrose asked us once Gilded Armor had left.

“A book on Dragon Shouts,” I told her, “Specifically one regarding a Shout called Dragonrend.”

“Well, we can start over in the reference area,” the elderly librarian said, slowly making her way over toward a set of shelves on the far side of the room.

Joining her, we began to search through the seemingly endless supply of books. There were compilations and compendiums of practically every kind of magic, but a book regarding Shouts was rare and hard to find. Eventually, we had enough picked out to search through. Carrying them over to a few of the tables set up for studying, we began to look through them for any mention of Dragonrend.

After some time paging through the old tomes and a few searches using Mystic’s magic, we still had nothing. A few of them mentioned Dragonrend, but they only contained theories on how it could possibly have been created and used. After flipping through another book that had nothing useful in it, I remembered there was one other way to narrow down our search.

“Ambrose,” I called, startling the pony a bit, but getting her attention, “Do you have any books on Shouts by Arias?”

“Arias, you say?” Ambrose asked, “Yes, I think we have some of his volumes somewhere.”

We continued to look through books while the librarian slowly made her way to where the books by Arias were kept. When she called that she’d found them. we dropped what we’d been doing and rushed up to the second tier, where she was beginning to carefully pull some extremely ancient books of the shelf.

“This is one on unusual magic,” she explained her choices as she passed them over to us, “This one covers wonders of Horizon, and this one is on Shouts.”

Being extremely careful with the dusty volumes, we carried them to more of the nearby tables and began to look through. The first two books were complete busts, without even a mention of Dragonrend. The third, however, proved to be mildly useful. It mentioned Dragonrend; in fact, it had a whole page on Dragonrend, but there were no word of power written in Draconic or Equine, only a description of what Erik Hammerfall had told him about the Shout and how dangerous it was.

“Is this all there is?” I asked disappointedly.

“I’m afraid so,” Ambrose answered, “Those are the only books by Arias that I know of that mention Shouts. If you want, I could fetch the Imperial Battlemage to see if he could help you.”

“I’d appreciate it if you would,” I said, and Ambrose slowly trotted off.

I didn’t want to have come all the way here for nothing. In Erik Hammerfall’s letter, it had said he’d shared the words to Dragonrend with Arias, who had written them down. But if they had been written somewhere, they appeared to have been lost to time. I had no idea how the Imperial Battlemage could help us with our problem, but I was open to anything at the moment.

Ambrose was a slow-moving pony, and we had no idea how long she would take to fetch the Imperial Battlemage, so we set about searching the Mystic Archives for any possible book that could help as we waited. Ambrose had chosen well in her selections, as we found not even the slightest clue to Dragonrend in our search of other books.

“You wished to speak with me?” a stallion’s voice asked from near the Archives’ entrance as we set about putting the books back where they’d been taken from.

Standing just inside the doors was a light grey unicorn with a slightly darker mane. On his head was a wide brimmed hat with a drooping cone on top and on his back was a mage’s robe. Both of his articles of clothing were decorated with moons and stars arranged in various constellations. He was a young stallion, only a few years older than me, yet he seemed to have seen his fair share of struggles in his short life, as his mane was already beginning to lose its color.

“I am the Imperial Battlemage,” the pony introduced himself, “My name is Star-Swirl.”

Level Up
Health: 230 Stamina: 230 Magicka: 220
New Perk: ‘Tis But a Scratch [Restoration] -- Your mastery of healing spells is now great enough that life-threatening wounds that would’ve been unhealable previously are now within your skill.
New Quest: Master of all Magic -- Get assistance from the Imperial Battlemage in learning Dragonrend.

Chapter 39: Scrolls

Chapter XXXIX: Scrolls
“Star-Swirl the Bearded is only the most important conjuror of the pre-classical era.”

“How can I help you?” Star-Swirl asked us.

“You’re the Imperial Battlemage?” I asked, hoping my question didn’t sound rude.

“Yes, I am,” he answered, “I know I’m younger than most ponies who would even be considered for Imperial Battlemage or an Arch-Mage position, but I’ve accomplished a lot in my short time studying magic. Emperor Brass Tax considers me qualified enough, at least. I did master the amniomorphic spell, after all.”

“Perhaps it’s not such a big deal outside of academia,” he said when his final statement was met with blank stares, “So, is there something I can help you find?”

“I don’t know,” I said, “We’re looking for something on Dragonrend, the Shout the Tongues used to defeat Alduin at the end of the Dragon War, but Ambrose couldn’t find anything.”

“Hmm,” Star-Swirl said, thinking to himself, “What books have you looked at already?”

Leading him over to the shelves, we showed him the books we’d already gone through.

“Arias, huh?” he asked when he noticed a pattern in our books, “I may just have something for you.”

Lighting his horn, he caused a book to come floating toward us from the far end of the library. It was an old book, at least as old as the other books by Arias we’d been looking at. On the cover was scrawled History of the Horizon: The Dragon War. Flipping through it, Star-Swirl passed the book over to me when he’d found his place. Taking the book, I began to read.

Dragonrend, that illusive and mysterious Shout. To date, it is the only Shout that has been created by ponies alone, and not the dragons themselves. But what words make up this Shout, and why are they not written anywhere in all the Northlands? Near the end of his life, the great Tongue Erik Hammerfall came to me and shared with me the truth about the “cursed Shout.”

Dragonrend, he explained, was meant to strike a dragon in the most vicious way. All dragons are immortal, and thus cannot even fathom the concept of mortality. Dragonrend forces them to comprehend it, lashing out at their very souls and beings. Because of this, no dragon could possibly have thought up such a Shout.

Near the end of the Dragon War, things were looking very bleak, Erik explained. The pony armies could not stand against the dragons or their armies. The only solution was to destroy Alduin and hope it would demoralize the dragons enough that they would give up fighting. And so, the Tongues pooled their knowledge to create Dragonrend.

It was a Shout formed in hatred and anger, a Shout meant to destroy the very essence of being a dragon. The Tongues knew the inherent risk of creating magic out of anger, but plunged ahead anyway, staining their souls with the dark deed. When all had been said and done, Dragonrend had been completed and was given power by the Tongues’ anger and fear.

Dragonrend did its duty, defeating Alduin and causing the Dragon War to quickly wind down to a close as Alduin’s devotees either gave up or went into hiding. The Tongues swore to never speak the words of Dragonrend again, nor share them lest they pollute the minds of others with the dark magic of the Shout.

Erik, however, was not so sure that Alduin had truly been defeated for all eternity. He did not wish for the secret of his defeat to be lost to time, and so he confided in me the words of the Shout the Tongues were both proud of and hated.

Upon the next page, I have printed these words, and this shall be the only time I do so. Proceed with caution, ye who have the Voice, for into this page Erik Hammerfall has poured his own knowledge of the Shout and, if you look upon it, it will enter your mind never to be purged.

It was better than I could’ve hoped! Yes, there were many warnings about Dragonrend sprinkled through the writing, but I was certain that this was the only way we’d be able to defeat Alduin. It was sheer luck that not only would I learn the words of the Shout, but also how to use them without meditating, saving us loads of time. Carefully, I turned the page over.

Where the words to Dragonrend should have been printed, instead a new section began, about the closing days of the Dragon War, after Alduin had been defeated. Puzzled, I flipped back and forth, making sure I hadn’t missed a page. Still, there was no sign of the Draconic runes I’d need to learn the Shout.

“Dragonrend,” I said, “It’s missing!”

“Missing?” Star-Swirl asked, taking the book from me.

Carefully, he examined the book, also flipping the pages back and forth.

“Aha, I see the problem. You see how the binding is loose here?” he said, showing us the book, “Somepony has removed the page.”

“You mean we’ll never find Dragonrend?” I asked, taking the book from him.

“But who would remove the page?” Mystic asked, examining the book with me.

“I have some idea,” he said, “At the end of the Third Era, the Arcane University chose an Arch-Mage that was strongly against any kind of dark magic. He led an ultimately unsuccessful crusade to rid Unicornica of all mention of black magic, but his reforms did last in a way. When he became Arch-Mage, he must’ve purged the Mystic Archives of any mention of dark magic. Judging by the warnings from Arias here, he must’ve considered Dragonrend to be a dark spell.”

“What did he do with the banned books?” Steadfast asked.

“Burned them in magical fire, I should think,” Star-Swirl said.

“So we’ll never be able to learn Dragonrend,” I said, hanging my head.

“Well . . .” Star-Swirl said, “There may be one other way you can yet.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“I’ll explain in my office,” he said, leading the way out of the Mystic Archives.

Crossing the practice ground again, we made our way to the University’s central spire, which was nearly an exact copy of the White-Gold Tower, except smaller. Once inside, he led us through the empty foyer to one of the alcoves that surrounded it. Beckoning us inside, we all crowded into the enclosed space, standing atop the circular seal of the college.

Star-Swirl lit his horn, and suddenly we were looking out at a hallway instead of the foyer. We were still atop the seal of the college, but somehow we were now somewhere else. Star-Swirl stepped out into the hallway, and we followed him.

“How did you do that?” Mystic asked, examining the seal on the floor.

“Short-range teleportation pad,” Star-Swirl explained, “They have them all throughout the University. It used to help with the flow of traffic. When you have a college filled with unicorns, why waste space with stairs?”

The hallway we were in appeared to be shaped in a semi-circle, hugging the outside of the tower. Star-Swirl led us to the very middle of the hallway, where a door opened into a central room. Flinging the door open, the Imperial Battlemage led us into what had once been the University Arch-Mage’s quarters.

It was a spacious room, with several tiers lining the walls. The room was filled with reading desks piled high with scrolls, arcane enchanters burdened with staffs and soul gems, and telescopes pointed to the heavens. On the walls were displayed several antique maps as well as some newer ones, depicting everything from the entire Northlands to the island around the Red Mountain of Morrowhinny. From the ceiling fluttered several banners. Though one did feature the bust of Emperor Brass Tax, the others were faded but well preserved banners from the Alicorn Empire and the Arcane University back when it was still an educational institution.

“I may not know much about Shouts, but you can learn them from another pony who does, right?” Star-Swirl’s voice suddenly came from right next to me.

I jumped back as I was taken by surprise. Just a moment ago, he’d been rummaging through his scrolls, looking for something. How had he gotten next to me so fast?

“Yes,” I answered, keeping my eyes on him.

“And the Tongues are the only ponies who know Dragonrend?” he asked, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he’d nearly just scared me out of my skin.

“Right, they didn’t share it with anypony but Arias.”

“So, theoretically, one could learn Dragonrend from the Tongues?”

“I guess so,” I answered, not sure where he was going.

“Well, there may be a way after all,” he said, producing a scroll, “In my studies of time magic, I’ve managed to create a spell that allows a pony to go back in time to whatever date they so choose.”

“So, I could go back and time and learn Dragonrend from the Tongues?” I asked hopefully.

“Theoretically yes, but I’m afraid the spell has a catch.”

“Why am I not surprised?”

“This spell can only be cast once, and it will only last a few seconds.”

“How many seconds?” I asked.

“Oh, ten, twenty, probably not enough for you to learn all of Dragonrend.”

“So we’re still stuck,” I said.

I’d thought for a moment that just maybe there was hope, that there would be a way I could learn Dragonrend after all. But it seemed that no matter what we tried, something always got in the way. I’d had my fill of disappointments on this quest. I didn’t think I could take it anymore.

“Not exactly,” Star-Swirl said, passing me the scroll, “You see, time is a tricky thing. While it may not take an extraordinary amount of effort to move something through time, keeping it there takes a ridiculous amount of magical energy, more than even the most gifted unicorns can access.”

“My spell overcomes that by tricking time into believing that the object that has been moved truly does belong there. Of course, it doesn’t take long for the trick to be exposed. Hence, the time limit for the spell. But I hypothesize that bringing an Equine Scroll along could significantly lengthen the spell’s duration.”

“You see, while you, I, and most inanimate objects exist as points moving through time, Equine Scrolls exist across time, synonymously present at every moment from the creation of the world to the end. Because of their inherent nature, they truly do belong in every time period. If you were carrying one when you cast the spell, it would theoretically create a protective time field around you, allowing you to stay in the past for a much longer time before snapping back.”

“How much longer?” I asked.

“I don’t know for sure, as every time I test this spell I have to completely rewrite a new one in a different way, and the Emperor isn’t willing to let me get my hooves on an Equine Scroll to test my theory. However, I would think that the spell’s duration would be lengthened to at least an hour, if not more.”

That would be plenty of time to learn Dragonrend, so long as I traveled back to the correct time. The only way to be sure to catch the Tongues would be to travel back to Alduin’s Defeat, and I was sure Paarthurnax could easily provide us with the date. Now all we needed was an Equine Scroll.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Steadfast asked later as we sat in the Arboretum.

After thanking Star-Swirl for his help, we had left the Arcane University. The time travel spell was safely kept in my saddlebags until the proper time came to use it. Of course, as it was it would be of little help to us, but I had a plan. I waited until we found a secluded portion of the Imperial City’s gardens before I shared it with my friends.

“There are other ways to get an Equine Scroll,” Mystic said.

“But maybe not in time,” I said, “Time is something we don’t have. Alduin has released nearly all the dragons. Before long he’ll put the main part of his plan to devour the world into action.”

“But breaking into the Imperial Palace?” Mephalda asked.

“I know,” I said, “I’m uncomfortable doing it too, but this is our best chance to get an Equine Scroll. I know there are a few scattered throughout the Northlands, but the chances of us stumbling onto one are about the same as our chances at finding a magical sword of dragon-slaying. The Imperial Archives have hundreds of Equine Scrolls; we only need one.”

“I understand if you don’t want to be a part of this,” I told my friends when they still looked uncertain, “I’ll go alone.”

“Hey, we’re your friends,” Steadfast said, placing a hoof on my shoulder, “And if you think this is the best way to go about getting an Equine Scroll, then we’re with you.”

“Really?”

“Of course,” Mephalda said, “But I hope your plan is more complex than simply walking through the front doors of the White-Gold Tower and asking to see the Scrolls.”

“Oh yes,” I said, “Much more complex.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

For the remaining hours of the day we hid out in the Arboretum, dodging the guards until night fell. Once the sun set, we began our infiltration of the Imperial Archives. As I’d hoped, Mephalda’s experience as a Blackwing had come in handy. She still remembered that there was a secret entrance to the White-Gold Tower through the sewers beneath the Arboretum. While she pried up the ponyhole cover that led to them, the rest of us stood watch.

We had abandoned our heavier armors and saddlebags in a thick cluster of bushes within the Arboretum. If all went according to plan, we’d be able to retrieve them once we had the Equine Scroll. We had to travel light and quietly to reach the Imperial Archives, and I had my enchanted Thieves Guild armor on to help stay stealthy. Steadfast had exchanged his warhammer for a mace he’d bought in the Market District. For some reason, this reminded me far too much of our botched attempt to infiltrate the Blackwing Embassy.

Once Mephalda had the ponyhole cover up, Steadfast, Mystic, and I jumped through. Mephalda followed, closing the sewers up behind her, plunging us into darkness. Mystic used the light from her horn to illuminate our surroundings, giving us a clear look at the sewers around us.

Thankfully, it was a dry sewer, making it not quite as unpleasant to travel through. Weathered stone lined the walls, holding up the city above us. From the light of Mystic’s horn, I could see the tunnel stretched off into the distance, other tunnels branching off to both sides in several places. It looked like we’d entered a labyrinth beneath the city.

Mephalda led the way, following a map in her head she’d memorized long ago. I was soon lost in minutes, and glad we had Mephalda with us to lead the way. She stopped as the sound of skittering came from up ahead, and all of us drew our weapons as quietly as possible.

Out of the darkness came bounding a giant rat. Mephalda drew her bow and shot an arrow straight through its head, killing it immediately. The corpse slid to a stop at our hooves. I guess even the Imperial City had its share of oversized rodents.

As we turned the next corner, we ran head on into another rodent of unusual size. Swinging the Blade of Hoofingar around, I killed it by slicing through its body. As I did so, it gave a squeal that echoed off the walls of the sewer. Multiple eyes opened up ahead of us in the darkness.

Five more of the giant rats came bounding out of the darkness. A swift flame spell from Mystic took out two, roasting them instantly. With his mace, Steadfast caved in the skull of another, and Mephalda shot a fourth before it could close the distance with us. The fifth one jumped at me. Holding my ebony sword up, the rat impaled itself.

“Disgusting creatures,” Mystic commented.

“We’re just lucky it wasn’t something bigger,” Mephalda whispered back, “Who knows what else lives in these sewers.”

As we continued to sneak through the sewers, I noticed our path was very indirectly leading to the White-Gold Tower. We’d traveled much farther than the short distance between our entrance and Green Emperor Way, no doubt having traveled all the way around to beneath the Market District.

As we traveled beneath the city, I began to hear the sound of running water. Shortly afterwards, Mephalda led us out into a wetter part of the sewer. The stone we were standing on was still dry, but a river ran through the center of the cavern we’d entered. A few narrow stone bridges led across the canal, allowing us to cross safely.

As I began to cross the bridge, the sound of shifting rock suddenly came from beneath me. The bridge seemed to be holding up fine, but the sound continued on, joined by the splash of water. Out of the water a massive lizard composed of rock suddenly leapt, its jaws closing on the bridge.

“Craggidile!” Mephalda exclaimed as I jumped off the bridge.

My leap didn’t occur a moment too soon, as the craggidile tore the center stones out, causing the bridge to collapse. Unfortunately, this stranded Steadfast on the other side.

“Run!” Mephalda called as he drew his mace, “You’ll never be able to take it on!”

Steadfast ran along the edge of the canal as fast as he could. The craggidile seemed to realize his goal and began to lumber through the water toward the bridge. I could see that Steadfast might make it to the bridge first, but he would never be able to make it across in time. Thinking fast, I ran down the edge of the canal as well. As Steadfast’s hooves touched the bridge and the craggidile leapt, I jumped in front of it.

<<>>

The craggidile went flying backwards from the force of my Shout, making a colossal splash as it hit the water. Steadfast grabbed my hoof before I could fall in as well, and hoisted me up onto the bridge. Before the craggidile could recover, we galloped toward the tunnel opening where Mephalda and Mystic were waiting. The craggidile snapped at the entrance, giving a roar, but it couldn’t fit and soon gave up, returning to the water.

“You are one crazy mare, you know that, right?” Steadfast said once we were safe.

“Yeah, well, what was I going to do?” I retorted, “Not save your flank?”

After Steadfast conceded my point. we moved on, and judging by Mephalda’s even more cautious hoofsteps, we were getting close to our goal. At last she stopped, and began to carefully examine the wall. When she finally seemed satisfied, she carefully removed a stone at the base of the wall and ushered us through the hole. It was a tight fit, and we had to slide on our stomachs to make it through, but we all managed to make it out of the sewers.

The room we were in was completely empty, a storeroom at first glance. A plain wooden door was set into the far wall. Grabbing the handle, Mephalda gently tugged it open. Inside were rows of bed in which ponies slept, though a few were up and about in the darkness. Mephalda placed a hoof over my mouth when I was about to whisper a question to her and slowly shut the door. Once it was closed again, she ushered us to the far end of the room before speaking.

“Those are Moth Priests in there,” she whispered, even more quietly than before, “With no Alicorn Emperor to read the Equine Scrolls, they’re the ones in charge of reading the prophecies. Of course, they go blind after only a few readings. Because of that, their hearing is exquisite. If we make even the slightest sound, they’ll know we’re there. We must be careful not to make even a peep on our way to the Archives.”

Once we all nodded that we understood, Mephalda opened the door back up. Since the Moth Priests were all blind, Mystic was able to increase the light from her horn enough that we could clearly see where we were going. It wouldn’t do to bump into a bed or trip on a loose moccasin.

Very carefully, Mephalda led us through the maze of beds and around the Moth Priests that were wandering around. I nearly held my breath as we passed by each one, afraid that even the gentle sound of my breathing would give us away. My worry was not in vain, for their ears seemed to twitch as we passed, even though I could hear no sound at all in the vast sleeping chambers.

Finally. we made it through the Moth Priests’ quarters, and Mephalda opened the door to the Imperial Archives. At least, we assumed it was the Imperial Archives. Since the Moth Priests couldn’t see anyway, there was no need for a sign over the door. However, upon opening it, I knew we were in the right place.

From ceiling to floor were custom-built racks filled with scrolls like nothing I’d ever seen before. They were much larger than any sensible pony would choose to write on, and the cases that covered the scrolls were made of gold and crystal so refined it couldn’t have come from this world. The scrolls themselves seemed to exude an otherworldly sensation, marking them as the special gifts from the Equines to ponykind.

Mephalda stopped me as I moved to pull one off its shelf, motioning to a Moth Priest that stood just down the aisle from us, running his hooves over the scrolls that had taken his sight. Looking around the Archives, I could see that two other of the blind ponies were doing the same.

Mephalda pointed to each of us and the Moth Priests in turn before flapping quietly up above the racks of scrolls. Following the pegasus’s lead, the three of us split up and positioned ourselves close to a Moth Priest. When Mephalda saw we were all in position, she suddenly gave a whistle. In an instant, all the Moth Priests’ heads turned toward where Mephalda was hovering.

Quickly, I brought the hilt of Calcion’s Cleaver down upon the pony’s head, knocking him out cold. With the help of Mephalda’s distraction, Steadfast, Mystic, and I had all rendered our Moth Priests unconscious.

I was just finishing pulling an Equine Scroll off its rack and strapping it to my back when the door of the Imperial Archives flew open. In rushed several of the Moth Priests we’d seen back in the sleeping quarters, searching for the source of the ruckus we’d caused. Carefully dodging them, we made our way back through the sleeping quarters and into the sewers.

As we snuck back through the tunnels, I couldn’t help taking a peek back at the tube strapped to my back. We had an Equine Scroll, and with it, we would soon have the key to Alduin’s defeat.

Level Up
Health: 240 Stamina: 230 Magicka: 220
New Perk: Out of Sight, Out of Mind [Sneak] -- When sneaking, if you are seen and retreat out of sight of your opponent and remain hidden, they will become convinced you were never there to begin with, granting you full surprise.
Unique Item added: Star-Swirl’s Time Travel Spell -- This spell will allow you to go back in time, but only once, and only for a few seconds.
Unique Item added: Equine Scroll -- A gift from the Equines of Aetherius, the Equine Scrolls contain prophecies and histories, but can only be read by an alicorn without permanent damage to your vision.
New Quest: Victory on the Horizon – Return to Horizon and use Star-Swirl’s spell to travel back in time and learn Dragonrend.

Author's Note

Two chapters on the same day? What is this? Special thanks to my editor/proofreader for taking the time to look over two chapters instead of the customary one this week.

So, the end of Act V is coming soon, with the inevitable confrontation with Alduin. In fact, we're only six chapters away. Get hyped.

I'd also like to take this moment to remind those of you who've read this far that comments are encouraged. Your feedback really makes me feel good about making the decision to publish my first story and makes me want to get more chapters out to you as fast as I can. Questions about the story/characters/world? Bring them on! Reactions to events in the chapter? Great! Just want to talk about Skyrim? That's good too!

As always, thanks for reading! And remember: Darkness is Coming.

FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 40: Secrets in the Dark

Chapter XL: Secrets in the Dark
“The Count of Saddlegrad is not all he seems. Let’s just say I’m not the only pony who enjoys his evenings.”

After we left the chambers of the Moth Priests, our escape from the sewers was easy. The craggidile gave us no further trouble, and the rats were a minor nuisance at most. Soon we exited into the Arboretum, where there were luckily no guards around, and retrieved our gear. The Equine Scroll I placed in my saddlebags and, though I didn’t think it would fit at first, the otherworldly artifact seemed to shrink down just enough that I could get it in.

For the remainder of the night, we stayed at an inn in the Temple District, and at first light we departed for Bridle. Hopefully we would be able to charter a ship back to Seclusion using our rewards from Stablehall. We reached Bridle in just a few hours, and Mephalda headed out to find a ship while the rest of us picked up some supplies in town.

As I waited outside Bridle’s only general goods store, I couldn’t help but notice the crowd of bat-ponies forming near the waterway that divided the city. They appeared to be arguing with a unicorn wearing the robe of a Vigilant of Steedarr. Intrigued, I moved a little closer to listen in on their conversation.

“All I need is for you to come with me until we clear this up,” the Vigilant said.

“We’re not vampires, we’re thestrals,” the lead bat-pony argued back.

“All I know is that you come out at night and hang upside-down from the docks, and that sounds an awful lot like a vampire to me.”

“You know nothing of our people! Thestrals and vampires are no more alike than dogs and werewolves!”

“Until I know for sure that you’re not vampires, I need to keep you in the Hall of the Vigilant where you can’t hurt anypony.”

“The only pony hurt will be you if you don’t leave us be.”

“Very well,” the Vigilant said, drawing a sword, “We’ll do things the hard way.”

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I knew the Vigilants of Steedarr were a bit radical when it came to stamping out anything they considered unholy, but to accuse these bat-ponies, or thestrals as they identified themselves, of being vampires simply because of their appearance was wrong.

“Leave them alone,” I said, stepping in, “They’re not vampires and you know it.”

“As a matter of fact, I don’t know it,” the Vigilant said, turning toward me, but thankfully sheathing his sword, “This is none of your business, and I’d appreciate it if you- Wait, don’t I know you?”

I couldn’t imagine any way he could’ve recognized me; I’d certainly never seen him before in my life. From within his robes he pulled out a parchment with a sketch of my face on it. Beneath it was an offer for a reward for the crime of “Breaking into Horizon’s Hall of the Vigilant and freeing a prisoner wanted for use of the Black Sacrament.” It looked like my past had caught up to me.

“By Steedarr, it really is you,” he said, drawing his sword.

“What’s going on?” Steadfast asked, trotting up to me.

“I think we’d better run,” I said.

With no time to explain more, I turned tail and ran from the Vigilant. There was no way I was going to let myself be captured now, especially with the Equine Scroll weighing down my saddlebags. As Steadfast and I ran through Bridle, we managed to pick up Mystic and Mephalda before leaving the town. Mephalda had managed to get us a ship, but unfortunately we wouldn’t be using it, not with the Vigilants searching for me. I decided the best course of action would be to get as far away from Bridle as possible while heading south toward Horizon. We continued to gallop down the road until I was sure the Vigilants had given up the chase.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I allowed myself to relax at last as Saddlegrad came into sight in the distance. I would have to watch my step more carefully from now on. Not only were the Blackwings out to get me, it looked as if the Vigilants of Steedarr now were too!

I gave a groan as we approached the city gates. There, standing just outside, were more Vigilants. As they noticed us on the road, they all rushed out to intercept. There would be no running this time.

“You’re a wanted mare,” the leader of the Vigilants said once they had us surrounded, pulling another of the wanted posters from his robes, “Come with us please.”

“Just her,” the Vigilant said when my friends tried to follow.

“No way,” Steadfast protested, “Wherever she goes, we go.”

“Suit yourself,” the Vigilant replied.

The Vigilants led us around Saddlegrad to a large lodge built on the west side with a statue of Steedarr rearing up out front. I couldn’t believe I had forgotten that the Vigilants of Steedarr were based out of Saddlegrad. Instead of leading us away from danger, I’d led us straight into it.

My only hope now was that the Vigilants would be forgiving of my crimes, but from what I’d seen in Horizon’s Hall of the Vigilant, I doubted it. Eventually we entered the main Hall of the Vigilant and were escorted through its halls and up to its third floor. The Vigilants deposited us in an office occupied by a pale brown unicorn before leaving.

“So, I understand you’re the one who caused all that trouble for our Horizon contingent,” the unicorn said, staring at us from across his desk.

“I rescued a foal you were torturing, yes,” I answered, hoping I’d be able to defend myself from this pony’s accusations.

He was wearing far more elaborate robes than the other Vigilants. That, and the fact that he seemed to carry himself with great authority, led me to believe that this was the Grandmaster of the Vigilants.

“Do you know why he was being kept there?” he asked calmly, completely overlooking that I’d mentioned torture.

“He was trying to summon the Dark Brotherhoof to kill the orphan mother who was abusing him.”

“Precisely. He was making prayers to the Nightmare, wife of the Void, the unholy guardian of death. That is something we cannot tolerate. It must be punished.”

“By breaking the legs of a foal?” I asked, “Your purposes may be noble, but the way you go about enforcing them makes you just as bad as the things you seek to eradicate. Actions speak much louder than words. What do the actions of the Vigilants say? When you go around terrifying everypony by arresting and torturing anypony you even suspect of being the slightest bit deviant from your mold, your words of nobility are drowned out by the screams!”

“Enough!” the Grandmaster yelled, snapping at last, “You know nothing of the fight we struggle every day to carry out. Yes, we must make tough choices that may seem barbaric, but the alternative is even more barbaric. To let vampires and Draconequi run free, what kind of a world would that be?”

“But I didn’t have you brought here to discuss my organization’s methods with you,” the stallion said, calming down and returning to his seat, “You are here because of what you did in attacking Horizon’s Hall of the Vigilant, and you will be punished for it. An execution awaits, though not a public one.”

Before I could protest, the doors swung open behind me and Vigilants stepped in to restrain my friends and me. As I struggled against my captors, another Vigilant stepped into the room and approached the Grandmaster.

“Providence,” the Grandmaster spoke to him, turning his attention away from where we were being led away, “I trust you bring good news.”

“Only the best,” Providence replied, “But may I first ask what is going on here?”

“Just arranging an execution for the pony who broke into our Horizon Hall.”

The new Vigilant turned around to look at us, drawing back his hood as he did so. Recognition dawned in his eyes as he saw us, and I also recognized this pony. He looked different in his Vigilant’s robe, but not so different that I didn’t recognize him as the pony we’d saved from being eaten by the Cannibals of Festerus.

“You can’t kill them!” he protested to the Grandmaster, “Those ponies saved my life!”

“How so?” the pony behind the desk asked.

“Well, that’s what I came here to tell you about,” Providence explained, “I was looking into the Festerus cult we thought might be lingering in Stablehall, when I was captured by them. But they weren’t satisfied with having me as a prisoner, no, they were going to eat me! If it wasn’t for these ponies right here, I’d be dead. They were the ones who rushed in and completely wiped out all of the Cannibals of Festerus.”

“You wiped out an entire Draconequus cult?” the Grandmaster asked incredulously.

“Well,” he said when I nodded that it was true, “I guess I can’t execute a pony who’s done such a service for the Vigilants. I will drop your crime this time, but stay clear of any shady dealings in the future. The Vigilants of Steedarr will not be so forgiving a second time.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

After leaving the Hall of the Vigilant safe and sound, we made our way down to Saddlegrad itself. I’d managed to scrape by yet again without being executed. Though this time I’d been saved by somepony a little less crazy than Jarl Stormcloud’s advisor. The warning from the Grandmaster still rang in my ears, however. I really had to avoid any crime at all if I hoped to keep from living my life on the run from the various organizations that had it in for me.

Now that we were in Saddlegrad, I began to plan out our next move. Traveling though Kvatch would be the quickest way to return to Horizon, but we’d also have to sneak through the Pale Pass. Also, the prospect of returning to the town I’d grown up in, the town I was constantly looked down upon in, the town I’d run away from, didn’t seem too appealing.

The other option was to travel to Anvil and charter a ship to a friendly port city along Horizon’s northern coast. Getting a ship there would be a little more difficult than in Bridle however, as any ship leaving from Anvil would have no choice but to pass through pegasi waters.

Whatever path we chose, there was no way we could reach another town before nightfall. We’d have to find someplace to bed down here in Saddlegrad. As we were searching for an inn, a scrawny unicorn waved to get our attention. Intrigued, I trotted over to speak to him.

“Um, excuse me,” he said with a frail voice, “But you’re new to Saddlegrad, aren’t you?”

“Just passing through,” I told him.

“Visitors, even better,” he said, “If you’re interested, I wonder if you’d do me a favor?”

“What kind of favor?” I asked, not willing to get roped into something unless I knew what it was.

“Well, I’m Ember, and I’m an attendant to Count Coming Dusk,” he explained, “I have to admit, I’m a bit worried about my master.”

“What about him?” Steadfast asked.

“Well, he’s getting old, and he often wanders out after dark. He doesn’t want me going with him and I’m afraid one day he’ll turn up dead.”

“So, where do we come in?” Mystic asked.

“You’ll stay in the castle, and if he sneaks out, you’ll follow him, find out where he’s going. As visitors, it won’t be suspicious to have you stay as guests, and if he catches you, you can claim simple curiosity.”

“Well, I suppose so,” I said, “But for tonight only.”

We didn’t have a place to sleep yet for the night, and staying in Saddlegrad’s keep sounded better than paying for an overpriced room in an inn. Still, we couldn’t tally long. We needed to get back to Horizon and find how to stop Alduin as soon as possible.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Unlike in most towns, both in Unicornica and in Horizon, Saddlegrad’s keep was built outside of its walls. Though there was a connecting bridge, the seat of the town’s government was no closer to it than the Hall of the Vigilant. But it was also far grander than many of Unicornica’s keeps, set apart from them as it was set apart from its own town.

Ember got us set up in some of the nicest rooms in the castle. More importantly, they were adjacent to the Count’s quarters. We saw him as we entered Saddlegrad’s castle, an old yet regal dark gray unicorn wearing a fur-lined robe and an ornate golden crown that covered his horn. Ember didn’t bother to introduce us to him as he rushed us past, instead deciding we’d have a better chance of following him if he didn’t recognize us.

Once we were in our rooms, we slept up until the sun set, getting ready to stay up all night if necessary. Once night fell, we slept in shifts, with two ponies awake at all times to keep an eye out for the count. Sometime during Mephalda and Steadfast’s shift, I was woken up. The Count was on the move.

Careful to remain unnoticed, we followed him down the halls of Saddlegrad’s castle. Interestingly enough, he wasn’t alone. By his side was the Countess, his wife, all the way out of the keep. We waited a minute or so after they exited the castle, giving them time to get far enough away that they wouldn’t hear us exit, before following them.

Upon exiting, I knew we’d made a mistake. The Count and his wife were nowhere to be seen. Splitting up, we looked in every direction from the castle until we finally caught sight of them. They were down near the bank of a nearby river, and we quietly crept down until we were in an opportune spot to watch what they did next.
They stood and talked for a while and things seemed pretty innocent at first. Maybe Ember was worried for nothing. Maybe the Count just wanted to get some time alone with his wife away from the pressures of court. Then he suddenly bared his fangs and sank them into his wife’s neck.

I watched in shock as the Countess slowly died and fell to the ground. Saddlegrad’s Count was a vampire! A vampire, with the Vigilants of Steedarr so close by this entire time! And on top of that, he’d just killed his wife!

“Forgive me, my sweet,” he said, wiping her blood from his mouth and drawing a silver sword, “I shan’t be joining you in Aetherius.”

“Stop!” I yelled, jumping out of the bushes, unsure of what had possessed me to do so.

“Who are you?” Coming Dusk asked, turning his sword toward us, “Vigilants, here to take me in at last?”

“Actually we’re not,” I said, “We’re just visitors passing through Saddlegrad.”

“Visitors?”

“Yes, and we saw what you just did.”

“Oh, thank Buckatosh,” he said, dropping his sword to the ground and confusing us all.

“Excuse me?” Mystic asked.

“I was hoping somepony would come,” he explained, “Now I can be with my wife in Aetherius instead of becoming a restless spirit. I was going to kill myself, but now you can do it.”

“Whoa,” I said, “Slow down. Why would we kill you?”

“Because I want you to.”

“I’ve been count for hundreds of years,” he went on when we all responded to his previous statement with confused looks, “Every few decades I’d fake my death, make myself look younger, and take my own place as Count. But it was so tiring. I’ve lived so long that I long for death more than anything, the ability to escape this world. My wife and I, we were going to do it together, but I couldn’t let her kill herself and become a ghost. She deserves so much better. I killed her so that only I would need to commit suicide. But now you’re here, and you can do it.”

“I – I don’t know,” I said, “It wouldn’t feel right to just kill you.”

“Do you know what it’s like to have lived for centuries?” he asked, “To watch everypony and everything you know turn to dust? I knew the Alicorn Empire at its height, I watched the Gates to the Beyond open, I witnessed the Great War devastate the land. Do you know what it’s like to watch everything you worked so hard to create burn?”

“Do you know what it’s like to live as a creature of the shadows? To force others to die so you may live? To have a dark desire within you to feast on the blood of other ponies, many of whom you call friend? Do you know how that feels? I do, and I don’t wish to any longer. I long for death. Will you be kind enough to give it to me?”

“Well, when you put it that way . . .” I said, looking into the Count’s tear-filled eyes.

Hesitantly, I took the silver sword from him. Closing his eyes, he removed his crown, revealing the smooth curved horn of a vampire unicorn beneath. Tossing it off to the side along with a folded piece of parchment, he prepared himself for death.

The sword was shaking in my magic as I prepared to plunge it into him. Could I really do it? Could I kill the Count of Saddlegrad, even if he was a vampire and longed for death? I knew this was what he wanted, but even so, I closed my eyes as I stabbed the sword through his exposed chest.

“What’s happened here?” a scrawny and scared voice suddenly came from behind us.

Standing in the bushes we’d been hiding in was Ember, staring at us and the Count’s dead body with horror.

“It’s complicated,” I told him before he bolted, and I began to explain what exactly had happened.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Ember listened patiently to our story, drinking in every word. He had great respect for the Count, and in the end helped us to take the bodies away for a proper funeral. The Count’s secret would not be shared, he assured us. The scrawny unicorn had no intention of tarnishing Coming Dusk’s long and prosperous reign.

The crown and parchment I placed in my saddlebags for later. So far as I knew, the Count had no heirs, but a suitable pony would need to be chosen to take his place and run Saddlegrad. No doubt the parchment had some instructions on it that would be helpful in choosing a successor.

After preparing the Count’s and Countess’s bodies for burial, I brought the parchment to the steward. While he found it odd that we’d been around when they had died, he took Ember’s word that they’d died of old age, and not something more sinister. Saddlegrad’s royal court convened as the steward read the will.

“As I depart this world, I bid a fond farewell to my subjects,” the tawny unicorn read, “I hope that I have served you as well as I could have in my time as your Count. I have no doubt that, even in my absence, Saddlegrad will continued to be the shining example of what Unicornica has to offer. It will be up to you, my subjects, to make it so.”

“As you know, I have no heir, and no close relatives. And as such, there is nopony to succeed me on the throne. Of course, Saddlegrad must have a Count. Because of this, I have chosen a pony from among you to take my place after I have passed. The pony I have chosen as the new Count of Saddlegrad is . . .”

All the noble-ponies assembled in the throne room leaned forward with anticipation, eagerly awaiting the announcement of Coming Dusk’s choice. No doubt each of them was hoping in their heart that he would pick them. But no announcement came from the steward.

At first I thought that he was simply drawing it out for effect. However, looking at him, I could see he was frowning and rereading what was printed on the page.

“No, that can’t be right,” he mumbled to himself, “Excuse me one moment.”

Nervous whinnies came from the assembled noble-ponies as the steward stalked out of the throne room. After he waved at me, I followed. He didn’t stop until he had ducked into the Count’s council room.

“Is this some kind of joke?” he asked, furious, as he slammed the parchment onto the table.

“No, the Count had that on him when we found him,” I said, “What’s wrong with it?”

“Just look for yourself!” the steward demanded, so I did.

“You have to believe me,” I said when I’d read through the whole document, “I had nothing to do with this.”

“I know. I don’t know how you would’ve done it anyway,” the steward said, scratching his head, “The Count’s signature is nearly impossible to forge.”

“You’re worried about what the court will say,” I said when I noticed he was still reluctant to bring the Count’s will back to the throne room.

“Yes,” he admitted, “I can believe the Count would do something like this, but I don’t think the noble-ponies will take it very well.”

“Just tell them what you told me,” I said, “That there’s no doubt this is genuine.”

“Right,” the steward said, picking the parchment back up and steeling himself for what was to come.

“Sorry about that,” he apologized to the assembled ponies as he reentered the throne room, “Continuing: Because of this, I have chosen a pony from among you to take my place after I have passed. The pony I have chosen as the new Count of Saddlegrad is Ember, my attendant for the past six years. He has been kind and respectful toward me all those years, and without the false sincerity many of you nobles have. He also shows wisdom and intelligence beyond his years, and I have no doubt he will make a fine Count of Saddlegrad.”

“This is the final and incontestable act of Count Coming Dusk of Saddlegrad, to be enacted upon the event of my death. Praise be Buckatosh, and all the Equines.”

As soon as the steward stopped reading the will, the room exploded into indecipherable shouting. It came both from the nobles, who were arguing that the Count had no right to place a commoner on the throne, and from the staff, who were giving Ember a hearty congratulations. Eventually things settled down, and the steward agreed he would find an expert in documents to look the will over before the coronation took place, though he was certain the document was genuine.

We wouldn’t be attending the coronation, however. We still needed to get back to Horizon, and I needed to learn Dragonrend. We did however say our farewells to Ember before we left.

“Did you ever imagine you’d be Count?” I asked him.

“Never in my wildest dreams,” he laughed, “Hey, thanks for being there for me. If there’s anything you ever need, just let me know. Well, after the coronation.”

“Of course,” I promised him before we left Saddlegrad’s castle, setting out on the final leg of our journey.

Level Up
Health: 240 Stamina: 230 Magicka: 230
New Perk: Day Air’s Even Drier [Speech] -- You are so adept at persuasion, that your persuade attempts will never fail, no matter how ridiculous your claim may be.
Friendship gained: Ember – This scrawny and insignificant attendant to Saddlegrad’s Count is now the Count himself. While he may not seem like much, Ember is actually quite an effective leader, and a precious political ally.
New Quest: Across the Sea, the End Awaits -- Charter a ship in Anvil to return you to Horizon, so you may learn Dragonrend.

Chapter 41: Stripes

Chapter XLI: Stripes
“She’s an evil enchantress! She does evil dances!”

After leaving Saddlegrad, I led our party through the Spine Mountains toward Anvil. None of my friends asked why I had chosen this route, but I suspected they all guessed the reason. I wasn’t ready to return to Kvatch yet, not even for a moment. My whole life up until a few months earlier had been lived there, and the memories were too painful. I was a blank flank, an outcast, and that was all the ponies there would ever see me as. In Horizon, and now Unicornica I was a hero, but in Kvatch I was nothing.

Because of the events in Saddlegrad, it was already mid-afternoon by the time we made it to the port-city of Anvil. In both Stablehall and Bridle, we’d been forced to stay longer than we’d planned after supplying ourselves. Time was slipping by rapidly, and we couldn’t afford any more distractions. Whatever supplies we had would have to last us until we returned to Horizon.

We raced through the town, never stopping to look at any of the shops, as we made our way to the docks. Winter was coming in earnest now, and several of the ships in Anvil’s harbor appeared to be docked permanently until spring came. Thankfully, a few still seemed ready to set sail at a moment’s notice. Anvil was a large port so, rather than run from ship to ship asking for passage to Horizon, we approached the harbor master.

“Hello, do you have any ships leaving soon for any port in Horizon?” I asked the wizened old unicorn sitting in the harbor master’s office.

“Horizon?” he replied, “That’s a good one! There’s not a captain here willing to brave those pegasi waters to reach Horizon. Too many ships’ve gone down around those isles.”

“There must be somepony that could take us to Horizon,” I pleaded, “Even just as far as Windhorn.”

“Well, there’s only one captain who’d even consider making a journey like that,” the harbor master said, scratching his chin, “But he’s in Anvil’s dungeons right now, screaming like a madman that the Skooma found on his ship’d been planted there.”

“Which way to the dungeons?” I asked, an idea forming in my head.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

“You want to go where?” the pony on the other side of the bars asked.

“Horizon,” I repeated myself, “Any port will do, so long as you get us there in one piece.”

“Ain’t often I get ponies asking to go to Horizon. Most of the time when I make my runs there, it’s either to pick up refugees beggin’ t’ get out, or to carry weapons t’ the Legion on an ‘mperial supply run.”

“But will you do it?” Mystic asked urgently.

“Course I’d be willing to,” Captain Winter’s Breath said, “But as you can see, I’m in a bit of a predic’ment here.”

“I thought about that,” I said, bringing my plan into action, “If we clear your name, find out who put that Skooma on your ship, would you give us passage to Horizon in return?”

“Hmm,” he replied, thinking it over, “Yes, I s’pose I could do that. But Horizon’s ports start to close up with ice around this time of year. If you want passage, you’re goin’ to have t’ clear my name right quick.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I wanted to be out of Anvil by that night or the next morning at the latest, so we’d have to solve this case fast. I decided speaking to the guard captain would be a good place to start. Anvil’s guard captain was a cherry red dappled pegasus who preferred to be out on the town’s streets instead of cooped up in the dungeons. We found him patrolling the city square, keeping an eye on a group of shady-looking ponies who could’ve passed for bandits.

“Fireglider!” I called, getting his attention, “Could we speak with you a minute?”

“I don’t see why not,” the dappled pegasus said, turning his attention away from the potential bandits as they left through the city’s gates, “What do you want to talk about?”

“Captain Winter’s Breath.”

“Ah, yes. I can’t believe him of all ponies was smuggling Skooma.”

“That’s what we’re here to talk about. We don’t think he did it. Can you help us prove who did?”

“Well, all I know is that the Skooma was found in his hold when we did a search before he left port. As for who put it there, it could’ve been anypony.”

“That . . . doesn’t really help,” Steadfast stated bluntly.

“If I knew who did it, I’d have brought them in myself,” the guard captain replied, “But, I do suspect the zebras in that caravan outside the gates. The moon-sugar Skooma is made from is grown in their homeland, after all. And the zebra caravans are notorious for spreading and distributing Skooma.”

“So why haven’t you taken them in?” Mephalda asked.

“I don’t have any proof,” Fireglider said, “And they’re outside the city limits, so I can’t investigate without the Count’s permission. He’s not convinced they’re to blame. But, if you can find proof and bring it to me, then I’ll be able to take action.”

“We’ll look into it,” I told Fireglider.

“How do you plan to get proof?” Mystic asked as I began to trot toward the city’s gates.

“I don’t know,” I said, “I thought I’d just start with talking to the zebras.”

“You think that’s wise?” Steadfast asked.

“It can’t hurt,” I said, “Maybe they’ll let something slip, or we’ll find some way to get evidence.”

Like with Whitetrot, the zebra caravan was camped outside of the city’s walls. However, unlike in Horizon, here it was by choice. There were no laws keeping zebras outside of town in Unicornica, but the caravans still preferred to pitch their tents and keep their own company.

The caravan was pitched not just outside Anvil’s gates, but a bit down the path. Tents covered in zebra runes and woven mats formed a rough circle around the caravan’s cookfire. Four zebras were sitting around it when we approached.

“Greetings traveler, I am Sar’kei,” a zebra wearing exquisite furs introduced himself, rising from his spot at the fire, “As head of this caravan, may I help you today?”

Inwardly, I groaned. I’d forgotten that zebras tended to speak in rhyme. Not wasting any time, I went right to the point.

“Do you have any Skooma for sale?” I asked conspiratorially, hoping I could convince Sar’kei that I legitimately wanted to buy Skooma from him.

“We do not have what it is you ask for,” Sar’kei said, narrowing his eyes, “The choice to do so would be most poor. Moon-sugar only will you find, but not for you to addle your mind. For ponies to partake in the Darkpass thyme, we will not be responsible for such a crime.”

“You won’t sell Skooma?” Steadfast asked.

“The drug of Darkpass is a plague I despise; giving it out would be most unwise.”

“That’s great to hear,” I said, earning a puzzled look from Sar’kei, “We’re looking for whoever is distributing Skooma around here to stop them. Do you know of anypony selling Skooma?”

“Sar’kei has no knowledge of such things; they are not his concern. An addict to the drug you need, for to the source they will return.”

“Thanks anyway, Sar’kei,” I told the zebra before we departed.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Our only lead had dried up. Well, it wouldn’t be the first time something like this had happened to us. We just had to push on. Sar’kei had said to follow an addict to the Skooma’s source. At least, that’s what I’d gotten out of his rhymes.

Finding a Skooma addict could prove to be difficult, however. It wasn’t like ponies walked about in the street announcing they used an illegal drug. Perhaps there was one in the Anvil dungeons, in which case there was only one pony to speak to. We found Fireglider in a tavern on the west side of town, sitting at the bar, but with his attention focused more on the room around him than on the drink sitting before him.

“Fireglider, we’ve got an idea to draw out the Skooma dealers,” I told him as we sat down next to him.

“Whatever you’ve got, let me hear it,” he said, giving us the go-ahead.

“If you’ve got any Skooma addicts in the Anvil dungeons, let them out,” Mephalda explained, “Then follow them. They’re bound to return to the dealers eventually.”

“That’s a good plan,” Fireglider said, “I like that plan. There’s only one problem.”

“What?” I asked.

“I’m already a step ahead of you. The priests at the Temple were keeping a Skooma addict locked up until he got over it. I ‘convinced’ them to part with him so I could follow him to wherever the Skooma’s coming from. I followed him to this tavern, but he’s starting to look a little jittery, and I predict he’ll head off to wherever he gets his Skooma soon enough.”

“Perfect,” I said, and we joined him in waiting.

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before one of the ponies got up from where he’d been sitting alone and headed out the tavern’s door. At a motion from Fireglider, we all rose and followed him out. We were forced to stick to the shadows and alleyways to avoid being seen, as the pony we were following seemed extremely paranoid and kept looking over his shoulder every few seconds.

After walking around Anvil a few times to assure himself that he wasn’t being followed, the stallion headed for the city’s gates. I prayed he wasn’t going where I feared he was. We followed him out of Anvil as he trotted down the path toward the zebra caravan. I groaned as he stopped and spoke to the zebras. Sar’kei passed over a vial to him after a bit.

“Nobody move!” Fireglider demanded, rushing in.

The Skooma addict disobeyed, galloping into the woods to escape the captain of the guard. The zebras, however, stood stunned and confused as Fireglider trotted up to them. Reading them their rights, he bound their hooves and led them away to Anvil’s dungeons. Sar’kei’s expression broke my heart as he passed me.

“I’m sorry,” I mouthed to him as he and the rest of the zebra caravan was led away to prison.

I stayed around for a bit near the zebra camp as Fireglider took them away. I couldn’t believe that Sar’kei really had been the one selling Skooma. When he’d spoken to us, he’d seemed so impassioned about preventing the spread of the drug. Could he really have been lying through it all?

Before I turned back to Anvil, where my friends had returned and were waiting for me, I noticed the bottle Sar’kei had given the Skooma addict was lying discarded on the side of the path. I trotted over and picked it up, turning it over in my magic. Uncorking the top, I took a whiff of the substance inside.

The smell that greeted my nostrils was not the decadently saccharine scent of Skooma, but rather a woodsy herbal scent that reminded me almost of tea. Curious, I allowed a drop to fall onto my tongue. I was pleased to find that it wasn’t Skooma at all, but rather some sort of herbal soup.

I nearly leapt for joy when I discovered that Sar’kei hadn’t been trading Skooma at all. Of course, my leap stopped when I remembered that the zebra, and all his companions, were now being kept in Anvil’s prison. I had to clear his name.

With renewed vigor, I rushed into Anvil, meeting my friends and explaining on the way. They too were unsure about the zebras’ guilt and were happy to accompany me back to Anvil’s dungeons.

Once inside, I explained everything to Fireglider, from Sar’kei’s impassioned speech earlier, to the vial that was clearly not Skooma. However, Anvil’s captain of the guard wouldn’t have it.

“Whether they gave him Skooma this time or not, his first choice for obtaining Skooma was to go to the zebras. That makes them as good as guilty in my book.”

“You assumed the zebras were trading Skooma, maybe he did too, and sought out a quick fix before he returned to his regular dealer.”

“I find that hard to believe without any hard evidence. Now, we’ve got a Skooma addict on the loose and the people that made him that way in prison. That’s something I can understand and believe in. Until you bring me something that proves otherwise, you’re wasting my time.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

After trying to convince Fireglider he had the wrong culprits, and failing miserably, we left Anvil’s dungeons and stalked the town’s streets. It was on these streets that we ran into the newly freed Captain Winter’s Breath, who promised us that his ship, the Ice Skater, would be ready to leave first thing in the morning for Dawnstar.

I was glad that we would finally be returning to Horizon, but my joy was tainted by our defeat here. It didn’t feel right to leave Sar’kei and the rest of his caravan in the dungeons, falsely accused, as we skipped town. If only there was some way we could clear their names like we’d cleared Winter’s Breath’s, though without implicating some other innocent pony.

I was about to give up and find an inn for the night, when Mephalda caught a glimpse of a pony scampering through the shadows across the town square. A closer inspection revealed it to be the Skooma addict Fireglider had been using to root out the drug dealers. What was he doing back in town?

Silently, we followed him through Anvil until he stopped at an abandoned shack near the edge of town. After knocking on the door in a complex pattern, it opened, revealing two shadowy figures standing inside, one a Griffin, and the other a unicorn. As the Skooma addict trotted inside, we snuck around to the side of the building where we’d have the ability to overhear their conversation.

“Are you sure you weren’t followed?” a gruff voice asked, muffled by the wood, “We can’t have another slip up like that incident with the Ice Skater.”

“Yes, I’m sure,” a second voice, most likely the Skooma addict’s, said, “The guards think they’ve caught the culprit for that already. After I led them to the zebra caravan they stopped following me.”

“Fire-breath, I thought you were being ‘reformed’ by our local priesthood?” a third voice said, most likely the Griffin’s, joined the conversation, “What are you doing out and about?”

“They let me go,” Fire-breath said, “They said I had convinced them I was clean, but I think Fireglider just wanted to use me as bait.”

“How can you be sure he’s not still having you followed?” the first voice questioned.

“I already told you. I led him to the zebras, and he jumped on that as fast as he could. The caravan’s in the dungeons now, awaiting execution. So can I get my Skooma now?”

“I suppose so,” the Griffin spoke, “If you have the gold for it.”

“Excellent,” the Griffin replied to the sound of coins spilling across the floor, “Now, the zebras may have been taken in our place, but you still need to lay low until Fireglider drops his guard again. Stay out of sight.”

“Of course,” Fire-breath said, leaving the shack.

The other two characters left through the back, the Griffin on wing and the unicorn on hoof.

“Mephalda, would you follow the Griffin?” I asked, since she was the only air-worthy member of our group.

“On it,” she said, flapping up into the night.

“I’ll take care of this creep,” Steadfast said, taking off in the direction Fire-breath had headed.

“I guess you and I will follow the unicorn,” Mystic said to me.

I nodded my agreement, and we took off after the stallion. Keeping to bushes and alleyways, we followed him until he left Anvil and headed north. Keeping out of sight, we trekked through the forest as the unicorn ahead of us followed a zigzagging path. At last, he came to a stop at a cave opening overgrown with moss, where he looked around suspiciously before heading inside.

Mystic and I approached the cave ourselves after making sure there were no sentries hiding in the woods nearby. On a sign near the entrance was printed “Paradise Rock: Beware of Manticores.” I had to hope that the warning was just a way to keep ponies out as we too trotted into Paradise Rock.

Water dripped down the walls as we made our way down the narrow entry tunnel. Moss and mushrooms covered every surface, surrounding us with life. Mystic and I stayed prepared as we traveled deeper into the cave, her keeping a spell charged and ready, and me holding Calcion’s Cleaver at the ready.

As we passed the first side passage in the tunnel, Mystic suddenly gave a cry from behind me. An earth pony with a mace had come flying out of the side passage and had knocked her down. She quickly put up a ward before her attacker could bring down the mace on her head. Supercharging her ward, she threw the mare off of her and back down the passage she had come from. Standing, Mystic shot flames down the tunnel, frying her attacker.

Following my friend’s flame blast, I headed down the side passage, searching for any other ponies in hiding. Around the corner, a unicorn with a pike was waiting. Dodging the end of his weapon, I knocked the shaft aside. Calcion’s Cleaver sank into his neck, lightning spreading from the wound and seizing up his muscles.

An arrow whizzed past me, slicing a thin wound in the side of my neck. Down the passage, I saw a bat-pony wielding a bow. As she fired another shaft at me, I dodged, very nearly losing an eye in the process. A blast of lightning came flying down the passage from behind me, Mystic’s magic knocking the archer against the tunnel wall.

I bandaged up my neck swiftly before moving on to where the tunnel turned again. The cavern it led into had been converted into a living area, beds arranged in a mismatched fashion against the walls. Within the room were two ponies, an earth pony wielding a staff that hissed menacingly, and a unicorn with a greatsword. As Mystic headed for the mage, I tackled the sword-pony.

My first strike with Calcion’s Cleaver he blocked, forcing my blade aside. As he brought his sword around toward my neck, I shot ice spikes at him, forcing him to back away. As he swung at me again, I drew the Blade of Hoofingar to help in my block. Both swords held up to the strike, though just barely.

Pulling his sword back, the unicorn swung toward my legs. With both my swords I blocked, forcing his blade into the ground. Again he swung at me, and again I blocked. Pulling back, the stallion held his blade in front of him and charged me. I tried to knock the greatsword aside using my own, but I made no difference, and the blade continued to sail toward my chest.

<<>>

The unicorn went flying back from the force of my Shout, and his blade left his magical grip. Unfortunately, it continued on its course, impaling me. I doubled over as the greatsword sank between my ribs, thankfully missing my heart. Still, I was in no condition to continue the fight.

As my vision began to blur, I saw the stallion pick himself up from where he’d fallen and come toward me, picking up a battleaxe from a rack as he did so. I was painfully aware of the greatsword that was stuck in me, and how I was unable to do anything as he raised his weapon over my neck for a killing blow.

Suddenly, he was thrown to the side, hit full on by a blast of Mystic’s magic. As he began to pick himself up, he was hit again, burning to ash in the process. Mystic rushed over to me, a grim look on her face as she examined the wound.

Painfully, she began to extract the sword, casting a healing spell as she did so. Gradually, my insides began to knit themselves back together as the blade was pulled out. With a final pull bringing tears to my eyes, the sword came out. Mystic was sweating with exertion by the time my flesh finally knit itself back together perfectly.

“You saved my life,” I said as I examined my fully restored flesh, “Thank you.”

“From what I’ve seen, I’m sure you’ll return the favor someday,” Mystic replied as she regained her strength.

Once we were both ready to continue, we headed back up the tunnel to the main path. Just as we were about to enter it, I quickly pulled Mystic back around the corner. Through the main tunnel stalked the Griffin we’d seen back in Anvil. After she’d walked out of sight, we headed on to the tunnel, nearly bumping into Mephalda in the process.

Reunited, we continued on through the tunnels of Paradise Rock until we made it to the main cavern. It was even damper here, with a subterranean river running through the center of it. Wooden bridges and platforms filled the cavern, where ponies stood at alchemy labs, converting crates of moon sugar into phials of Skooma.

Advancing onto the wooden bridges, we began the attack. Arrows from Mephalda’s bow and ice spikes from Mystic and me scattered the ponies below creating Skooma. Climbing down the stairs, I drew Calcion’s Cleaver and the Axe of Whitetrot. An earth pony came at me with a war axe clutched in her teeth, and I struck her down with a strike from my sword before she could even attempt a swing at me.

I shot a blast of lightning at another pony as she attempted to set fire to the alchemy labs, destroying the evidence. The torch fell from her grasp at my energy blast, extinguishing itself in the water. Leaping over the table, I took off the head of the next torch-bearer using my sword.

A ball of feathers crashed into me before I could attack the next pony I saw. As I rolled across the wooden planks, I saw that the Griffin from Anvil had attacked me. Swinging Calcion’s Cleaver at her beak, I forced her to back off. However, she still had me pinned with her hindlegs, keeping me from moving from the vulnerable position I was in.

I turned my head and gritted my teeth as her claws scratched across the side of my helmet. I tried to hold her off with my sword, but she still managed to get swings in at my chest and head. Any other armor would most likely have given out to the razor-sharp claws by that point, but the sturdy Griffin design kept me relatively safe from her attacks. But it couldn’t last long.

As flames flew from my mouth, the Griffin was forced to back off of me to avoid being badly burned. I was still pinned, but I was able to get my hindlegs free just long enough that I could wedge them under the Griffin’s chest. Giving a kick, I managed to force her off of me enough that I was able to stand.

As she swung a claw at me, I managed to hook my war axe around it. Twisting it around, I snapped the wrist, earning an enraged squawk from the Griffin. Using her wings, she sent me tumbling off the platform we’d been fighting on and into the shallow stream. She landed nearby as I forced myself to my hooves.

As I swung my war axe at her, she knocked it aside, using her broken claw and causing her to shriek in pain. As she advanced on me, I backed up until I was standing on moss-covered stone. Hoping my plan wouldn’t backfire, I thrust Calcion’s Cleaver into the stream.

Lightning jumped through the water, electrocuting the Griffin. I stepped back as a few arcs jumped over the damp stone, but none came close to me. When the lightning finally stopped, I stepped forward and retrieved my weapons.

The Skooma den was mostly empty after I’d finished up with the Griffin, with only a few ponies running around at the edges of the cavern. The unicorn we’d followed here was standing nearby, a mace floating in his magical embrace. He dropped it and backed away as I moved toward him.

“Don’t hurt me!” he pleaded, “I surrender; I’ll come quietly.”

Anger boiled up inside of me as I approached him. I wanted him dead, I wanted him to hurt.

“What are you doing?” the frightened stallion asked as he backed up against the wall, “I’m surrendering, don’t you see? Take me to the dungeons, don’t kill me!”

I was deaf to his screams as I pulled back Calcion’s Cleaver and prepared for the end.

“What’s going on?” Mephalda asked as the tip of my sword stopped abruptly just before his chest.

As if my head had been cleared, I looked around at what I was doing. Shakily, I allowed Calcion’s Cleaver to pull away from the drug dealer.

“He wants to be brought back to Anvil,” I explained, “We’ll have to bind him, and take some of the Skooma as proof.”

“Are you all right, Sapphire?” Mystic asked as Mephalda bound our prisoner.

“I’m fine,” I said as I fumbled to sheath Calcion’s Cleaver.

The truth was, I wasn’t fine. What had just come over me, had possessed me to attempt to kill a pony begging for mercy? This stress of constantly fighting these battles day in and day out with no rest must’ve really been getting to me. When this business with Alduin was over, I would need a long rest period.

“All right,” Mystic said, though I could tell she believed me about as much as I believed myself, “We’d better get back to Anvil before our ship leaves.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

After bringing in the ringleader and the Skooma we’d captured, Fireglider had no choice but to admit that imprisoning the zebras was wrong. The pony we’d captured went willingly to jail, and was even willing to rat out his co-conspirators in a bid to save his own neck. Sar’kei and his friends were set free, none the worse for wear but for a blow to their honor.

“You ponies have our gratitude, for correcting this grievance that was so rude,” Sar’kei said to us as we accompanied them out of Anvil’s dungeons.

“Well, we couldn’t just let you rot in prison when we knew you were innocent,” Mephalda told him.

“To free us was a risky game, how did you know we weren’t to blame?”

“Well, we talked to you,” I said, “We knew you wanted nothing to do with Skooma.”

“Oh, and we found this,” I said, drawing the phial Sar’kei had given the Skooma addict out of my saddlebags, “What is it?”

“He came searching for the drug; instead I gave a cure,” Sar’kei said, laughing, “A drink of this on every hour will make a dark mind pure.”

As he finished his explanation, we exited Anvil’s castle. At the docks below was the Ice Skater, ready to take us back to Horizon. It was time for the zebras and us to part ways.

“We need to go, or we’ll miss our boat to Horizon,” I told him.

“I wish you safe passage through the sea, my new equine friend. If in your travels you meet Sar’van, tell her her brother has not met his end.”

Level Up
Health: 240 Stamina: 240 Magicka: 230
New Perk: Drink to Life [Alchemy] -- Any healing potions used now have a lasting effect that continues to repair you flesh even after the initial healing has ended.
New Quest: Blast from the Past – Travel back in time and learn Dragonrend from the Tongues.

Chapter 42: Dragonrend

Chapter XLII: Dragonrend
“I can’t believe time travel is really possible. How did you – I mean I – figure it out?”

After only a day at sea, we made it safely to Dawnstar. Staying there for a restless night, we traveled on again in the morning until we reached the Crest of the World, passing through Ivarsteed and High Hoofgar to reach it. Paarthurnax was waiting for us when we arrived.

“WELCOME BACK!!” Paarthurnax boomed in greeting, “WAS YOUR SEARCH SUCCESSFUL??”

“In a way,” I replied, “We found a way to travel back in time so I can learn Dragonrend, but first I need to know when I need to travel to. When Alduin was defeated.”

“HMM, YES!! WELL, IT WAS THE TWELFTH OF FIRST SEED BY YOUR CALENDAR, TWO-HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS BEFORE YOUR FIRST ERA BEGAN!!”

“All right,” I said, drawing out the spell Star-Swirl had given us and the Equine Scroll we had acquired, “I guess I’ll have to aim for then as best I can. What time of day was Alduin defeated?”

“IT WAS AT DUSK THAT ALDUIN WAS BANISHED!!” the dragon said, though his mind seemed elsewhere, “WITH THE SETTING OF THE SUN, THE TONGUES STRUCK HIM DOWN!! I SAY, IS THAT A KEL, WHAT YOU PONIES CALL AN EQUINE SCROLL??”

“It is,” I confirmed.

“HOW CURIOUS!!” he commented, but neglected to say more.

“All right,” I said, turning to face my friends, “Here goes nothing.”

“BEFORE YOU DO, I HAVE A WARNING FOR YOU!!” Paarthurnax cut in, “BEWARE ALTERING TIME!! ANY CHANGES YOU MAKE COULD HAVE TERRIBLE CONSEQUENCES!! AS SUCH, YOU MUST NOT INTERACT WITH THE TONGUES UNTIL AFTER THEY HAVE DEFEATED ALDUIN!! IF YOU DO, HE MAY NEVER BE DEFEATED, AND THE UNIVERSE WILL BE TORN APART BY THE PARADOX!!”

“Okay, don’t speak to the Tongues until after Alduin is banished,” I repeated Paarthurnax’s warning, “Here I go.”

Clutching the Equine Scroll tightly, I focused on my destination. I only had one chance to get this right, so no error could be allowed. Committing Star-Swirl’s spell to memory, I prepared to cast it.

<====|o|====>

With a flash of light and a thunderous clap, my friends suddenly disappeared from before my eyes. The ground I was standing upon had been burned, the snow melted away by my sudden appearance. Indeed, it seemed that I now stood in a hole carved out of a snow bank.

Rising from where I’d appeared, I took a look around. I was still atop the Crest of the World, though now things were very different around me. The weathered stone monuments Paarthurnax perched upon were now new. Looking out over Horizon, I saw some familiar cities, and some unfamiliar. In many places down below, the land was burning.

Dragons flew everywhere, filling the sky with their wingbeats and roars of anger. At the base of the Crest of the World, great armies clashed, their sword strikes reaching even this height. This was surely the end of the Dragon War.

I ducked behind a rock as I heard voices nearing the tip of the Crest of the World. Peeking over, I could see three ponies that I could only assume were the Tongues approach.

“Do you think he will come to our trap?” a golden-brown earth pony mare with a bow asked.

“Why would he not, Felicia?” an icy blue earth pony with a warhammer replied, “We have been slaughtering his kin all day on our way up here. There is no way he won’t show.”

“I know, Erik. But will Dragonrend work as we intended?” Felicia said, “Uris, what do you say?”

“I see no reason why it should not,” answered an elderly grey earth pony with a multitude of staffs strapped to his back, “Forcing a great lizard such as Alduin to grasp mortality, such a thing will cripple him at the least.”

“We’re about to find out,” Erik said, watching as a dragon wheeled through the sky.

Uris drew a staff off his back and began shooting blasts of lightning at the flying lizard, forcing it to land. The dragon landed, but it was clearly not Alduin. The Tongues attacked anyway, using their varied skills to harm the beast. Soon its body was filled with Felicia’s arrows, beaten by Erik’s warhammer, and fried by Uris’s magic blasts.

Snapping its jaws, it lunged for Felicia.

<<>> she Shouted, causing the dragon’s head to whip back.

Erik Shouted, burning a hole through its wing with dragon fire.

A blast of ice from Uris’s staff coated the dragon’s head. Stunned momentarily, Erik took the opportunity to bring his warhammer down on the dragon’s head. His weapon smashed through the dragon’s skull and killed it instantly.

“Another fine kill, my friend,” Felicia congratulated him, “What does that make for you today, six?”

“Seven, actually,” the stallion said, sheathing his warhammer, “One more and it will be a record.”

“Well, there would be no finer wyrm for you to break that record with than Alduin himself.”

“You two should stop flapping your gums and focus on what is coming,” Uris advised them, “Alduin approaches.”

Turning to look in the direction the old stallion was looking, I saw a flaming mass hurtling toward the Crest of the World. Only when I got closer could I see that the mass was in fact two dragons locked in combat falling through the sky. They crashed through the monuments and arches atop the mountain, knocking many to the ground as they landed.

One of the dragons was a massive black monstrosity covered in spines. His eyes and nostrils glowed red as he threw the other dragon off of him. As the light grey dragon rolled through the snow, I recognized him as Paarthurnax, albeit a Paarthurnax that was thousands of years younger. Rolling in the snow, he managed to extinguish most of the flame that had been burning over his scales.

<”!!YOU HAVE GROWN WEAK, MY BROTHER!!”> Alduin taunted Paarthurnax, <”!!YOUR TIME WITH THE PONIES HAS SAPPED BOTH YOUR STRENGTH AND YOUR WILLPOWER!!”>

“AL~DU~IN!! STOP!!” Paarthurnax pleaded, “IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS!! THE PONIES HAVE MUCH TO OFFER, IF YOU WILL JUST PERMIT THEM TO SHOW YOU!! END THIS MADNESS!!”

<”!!THE ONLY MADNESS HERE IS YOURS!! YOU HAVE TAUGHT THE PONIES OUR LANGUANGE AND HAVE BETRAYED US ALL!! YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A DOV!! IT IS US OR THEM!! FOR THE LAST TIME, WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON!!”>

“I AM NOT ON ANYONE’S SIDE!! I ONLY WISH YOU WOULD SEE REASON, THAT WE COULD LIVE TOGETHER AS BROTHERS WITHOUT THIS ENDLESS DEATH AND DESTRUCTION!!”

<”!!THOSE ARE A TRAITOR’S WORDS!! YOU HAVE MADE YOUR CHOICE, BROTHER!! YOU HAVE CHOSEN TO SIDE WITH THE WEAK, THE DOOMED, THE PONIES!! AND AS SUCH, YOU SHALL DIE WITH THEM!!”>

Alduin launched himself across the mountain at Paarthurnax, smoke billowing from his nostrils. Paarthurnax rolled to the side at the last moment, Alduin’s claws sinking into stone instead of dragon flesh. Alduin spun at his brother, tail whipping around and demolishing much of what was left of the monuments. Opening his maw, the World-Eater belched forth flames so bright and so powerful that I could feel the heat from my hiding place.

Paarthurnax flapped above the flames, unharmed save for some fresh holes in his wings. He swooped down toward his brother, buffeting his head with his wings. Snarling, Alduin snapped at his tail, his razor-sharp teeth slicing through his scales and leaving bloody gashes.

Knocking aside pillars of stone erected by ponies, Alduin charged where Paarthurnax landed. His mighty wings stirring up a whirlwind, he knocked his younger brother back. Raising his claw, he slashed it across Paarthurnax’s face, cutting gouges through the scales and tearing off the spines on the left side of his face. Helpless, Paarthurnax steeled himself for the killing blow, but it never came.

<”!!MAKE NO MISTAKE, I WILL KILL YOU!!> Alduin said, leaning in close, <”!!FIRST THOUGH, I WILL KILL YOUR PRECIOUS PUPILS, AND YOU SHALL WATCH!!”>

Grabbing Paarthurnax’s neck with his claw, he hoisted him up and slammed him against one of the few monuments that was still standing. Paarthurnax was forced to remain upright, looking on as Alduin turned toward the Tongues who’d been doing little but avoiding the epic battle up until this point. They all had shocked expressions on their faces at the defeat of their mentor, but Uris quickly pulled them together.

“Now is the time!” he said, “Now is when we bring the great lizard down!”

<”!!FOOLISH PUNY MORTALS!!”> Alduin boomed, <!!ALWAYS THINKING YOU HAVE HOPE, EVEN WHEN YOU ARE DOOMED!!>

<<>> the Tongues all shouted together, striking Alduin from all sides.

A change suddenly came about. The fire in Alduin’s eyes died, and his wings refused to flap. The World-Eater crashed to the ground, unable to halt his fall. But, he was still very much alive.

<”!!WHAT HAVE YOU DONE??!!”> he screamed, <”!!WHAT SORCERY IS THIS!! WHO TAUGHT YOU THOSE WORDS??!!”>

As Alduin struggled with mortality, the Tongues moved in for the kill. Arrows bounced harmlessly off his hide, though a few managed to stick. Erik’s hammer blows chipped away at Alduin’s spines, but did little damage to the dragon himself. Even Uris’s magical blasts seemed to do only superficial damage to the World-Eater.

Suddenly, Alduin returned to normal. With a flick of his tail, he knocked Erik away, and nearly fried Felicia with his fire breath. Thrusting with his legs, he launched himself up into the air.

<<>>

Uris’s Shout caused Alduin’s wings to fail on him once again, and he fell from the sky.

<”!!THOSE WORDS!!”> Alduin roared, <”!!THEY’RE IN MY HEAD!! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!??>

Enraged, Alduin shook his head around, breathing fire as he did so. Felicia was caught in the blast this time, taking burns over a significant portion of her body. As Erik charged the World-Eater, he was thrown aside by a swipe from his claw.

“We’ve no choice now!” Erik yelled from where he’d slammed into a monument stone, “Uris, you have to use the Scroll!”

I watched as the eldest Tongue drew an Equine Scroll out of his saddlebags. Holding it up, he began to chant in a language I was unfamiliar with. The Scroll began to glow as he did so, unrolling it so that it faced Alduin. The great dragon began to slowly slide toward the Scroll, bits of him seeming to stretch toward it as he did so. As Dragonrend lost hold on him, he flapped his wings and began to pull himself away from the portal.

<<>> Erik Shouted from where he had fallen.

Alduin collapsed to the ground, clawing for purchase as the Scroll began to suck him in more quickly. Around me, the world began to shake, snow sliding down the mountain and monuments toppling. Among them was the one Paarthurnax was still leaning against. As it crumbled, he slid backwards, falling off the side of the Crest of the World.

<”!!NO!! NO!! NOOOOOOOO!!”> Alduin screamed as the Scroll sucked him in.

With a flash, Alduin disappeared completely, and the Equine Scroll rolled itself up.

“What have we done!?” Uris exclaimed, falling to the ground.

“What had to be done,” Erik answered, hobbling over to the elder Tongue, “Now Alduin is gone.”

“No, not gone,” Uris said, “He’s drifting, drifting on the currents of time. May the powers in the heavens have mercy on our souls if one day he reappears.”

I figured this was probably the best chance I’d have to show myself, so I took it.

“Hello,” I said, stepping out from behind my rock, and then immediately ducking behind it again as a collection of Shouts flew past me.

“Come out!” Felicia’s voice demanded, “Show yourself!”

Slowly, I stepped out from behind the rock. When nopony Shouted at me again, I began to trot toward the Tongues.

“Who are you?” Erik asked.

“I’m Sapphire,” I announced, “And I’m from the future-”

“Oh, I was afraid this would happen,” Uris said, burying his head in his hooves, “I was afraid we would cause Alduin to switch places with somepony else.”

“No, that’s not what happened at all,” I assured him, “I came here on purpose.”

“Why would you come here?” Felicia asked.

“Because, where I come from, Alduin has returned. Everything Uris was just saying about him coming back someday has already happened to me.”

“So, why here, why now?” Felicia asked.

“I need a way to defeat Alduin,” I explained, “I need to learn Dragonrend, and I need to do it fast. You’re the only ponies who can teach it to me.”

“A solution has presented itself,” Erik said to Uris.

“What?” Uris asked, just as confused as I was.

“You were afraid Dragonrend would be misused, would corrupt ponies, if it was written down. Yet, you didn’t want the secret to be lost in case Alduin returned. Well, now we don’t have to record it anywhere because we can just teach it to her and she’ll take it back with her to the time where it’s needed.”

I nearly facehoofed. The whole reason I’d gone to all the trouble of traveling back in time to learn Dragonrend was because there were no records of it. Yet the fact that I’d traveled back in time had caused there to be no records of Dragonrend in the future. Perhaps there was a reason the time travel spell only worked once.

“Of course we shall teach you Dragonrend,” Uris said, “But you said we must be swift, so we shall teach it to you immediately. There are, however, a few warnings I must give you before we begin.”

“The Shout was conceived with hate, it corrupts the user, it’s powerful dark magic . . .” I rambled off, recalling all the warnings I’d had to read just to get this far.

“Um, yes, quite,” Uris said, taken aback by my response, “Well, let’s just get started then. The first word in Dragonrend is JOOR, Draconic for mortal. Using JOOR as a Shout, one can project a pony’s experiences and fears of mortality into a dragon’s mind, severely crippling them in the process. I will demonstrate.”

Just like with the Greymanes, the runes appeared in the torn-up snow of the Crest of the World. Staring at them, I allowed all knowledge of mortality to enter my mind. This time was very different that the other times I’d learned Words of Power, however. The thoughts I received were dark, tainted, embodying only the worst parts of being mortal, and making me feel very small and insignificant. At last they stopped, and I was able to dispel the thoughts, though not completely.

“Can you teach me how to use it?” I asked.

“How?” Uris asked, puzzled by my request.

“By sharing your memories,” I told him.

“Are you Dragonborn?” he asked suddenly.

“I don’t know,” I said, “The Greymanes don’t think so.”

“The . . . Greymanes?” Felicia asked.

“Oh, never mind,” I said, “They’re in your future. They’re masters of the Voice like you.”

“Getting back on subject,” Uris said, “Yes, I suppose I could share my memories with you. Prepare yourself.”

Soon, all of Uris’s memories regarding mortality were added to mind. It was odd, considering how they did not focus on meditations like the Greymanes’ had, but rather on every near-death experience and every weakness. I even experienced his fear of dying now in his old age.

I Shouted to get the thoughts out of the forefront of my mind.

“I shall teach you the next word,” Felicia said, hobbling forward, her burns clearly paining her, “The second word of Dragonrend is ZAH, Draconic for finite. For an infinite creature like a dragon, it is impossible for them to grasp the concept of having a definite end. With ZAH, we can force them to grasp it.”

she Shouted, and the word once more appeared on the ground.

As the letters burned with blue fire, I now learned everything there was to know about being finite. Like with JOOR, the knowledge I gained seemed tainted, focusing only on the bad and forcing me to come to terms with the fact that one day my life would come to an end. Felicia’s memories came swiftly after, teaching me everything she had learned about how constrained a pony’s life really was.

<> I Shouted, having mastery over two words now.

“The final word in Dragonrend is FRUL, Draconic for temporary,” Erik said, preparing to teach me the final Word of Power, “In Dragonrend, it forces dragons to consider their lives to be short and fleeting instead of eternal.”

The knowledge of just how quickly a pony’s life passed quickly entered my mind. One day we were here, and the next day gone; it was depressing. Erik’s memories only added to the experience, showing me how small I really was in the grand scheme of things.

<<>>

My knowledge of Dragonrend was now complete. I knew everything there was to know about how constrained a pony’s life was. The knowledge weighed heavily on my mind. But now I could force a dragon to feel the misery as well.

“Now you know our dark Shout,” Uris said solemnly, “Hopefully you shall be the only pony besides us who must bear this great burden.”

I was about to ask for any more advice on fighting Alduin, but before I could, I began to feel magic coursing over my body. It seemed my time was up. Lightning began to spark from my horn, and I returned to my own time.

<====|o|====>

“How’d it go?” Steadfast asked, helping me up.

“Well, I hit the right time at least,” I said, “I saw Alduin’s defeat, and then the Tongues taught me Dragonrend, so, all in all, the trip was a success.”

“That’s great,” Mystic said, “Now you can defeat Alduin.”

“NOT EXACTLY!!” Paarthurnax cut in.

“What do you mean?” I asked, turning toward the ancient dragon, and noticing for the first time the missing scales and spines on one side of his face.

“ALDUIN CAN NOT BE DEFEATED IN THIS WORLD!! HERE, HE IS TOO POWERFUL FOR ANY WEAPON TO FELL HIM!! BUT, WHEN HE IS FEEDING IN SOVNGARDE, HE IS VULNERABLE!!”

“Sovngarde?” Steadfast said, “As in the earth pony afterlife?”

“YES, ALDUIN GROWS IN STRENGTH BY FEASTING ON THE SOULS OF THE DEAD!! HOWEVER, THIS IS A PRIVILEGE HE KEEPS TO HIMSELF!! EVEN I, HIS BROTHER WAS NOT PERMITTED TO KNOW WHERE IT WAS THAT HE PASSED INTO THAT REALM!!”

“What do you mean, where?” Mephalda asked.

“ALDUIN MAY BE THE FIRSTBORN OF BUCKATOSH, AND A DRAGON FAR BEYOND ANY OTHER, BUT HE IS PHYSICALLY CONSTRAINED BY SPACE LIKE THE REST OF US!! THE ONLY WAY TO JUMP BETWEEN REALMS IS BY USING A PORTAL OF SOME KIND!!”

“Like the gates to the Beyond that Mehruinous Dagon used to invade the Northlands at the end of the Third Era,” Mystic pointed out.

“PRECISELY, BUT ALDUIN NEVER SHARED HIS SECRET WITH ME!! SURELY THERE IS SOME PLACE BUILT BY HIS EQUINE SLAVES THAT ALLOWS HIM TO TRAVEL TO THEIR AFTERLIFE!! THE LOCATION, HOWEVER, IS LOST!!”

“Well, I know some ponies who might know,” Steadfast said, “The Companions are devoted to preserving earth pony culture. At the least, they should have some clue about how to get to Sovngarde without dying.”

“It looks like we’re going to Jorrvaskr then,” I said.

Level Up
Health: 250 Stamina: 240 Magicka: 230
New Perk: Silent as a Shadow [Stealth] -- The sound of your hoofsteps is so quiet that they no longer alert enemies to your presence.
Word of Power learned: JOOR -- Mortal; Dragonrend – Your Voice lashes out at a dragon’s very soul, forcing it to land.
Word of Power learned: ZAH -- Finite; Dragonrend – Combined with JOOR, ZAH forces a dragon to accept a finite existence, causing them mental anguish as they are forced to land.
Word of Power learned: FRUL -- Temporary; Dragonrend – Combined with JOOR and ZAH, FRUL forces a dragon to see their life as fleeting and temporary, causing them physical pain as they are forced to land.
New Quest: Companionship After Death -- Speak to the Companions about their knowledge of a portal to Sovngarde.

Chapter 43: The Hunt for Death

Chapter XLIII: The Hunt for Death
“In the end, all valiant earth ponies can enter Sovngarde”

Jorrvaskr.

I’d been to the Companions’ headquarters only twice before. The first time I had met Steadfast, and the second was when he’d been confirmed as a full Companion. Needless to say, he was eager to return to the place where he had devoted the last few years of his life.

Passing through Whitetrot also allowed us to drop a few things off at Breezehome, including the Equine Scroll. Our party now grown to four, I considered speaking to Protocus about buying a few new beds for my home. If we ever had enough time when we weren’t adventuring to stay at Breezehome, my current accommodations wouldn’t cut it.

Steadfast lead us through the mead hall once we arrived, taking us to speak to the Companions’ leaders, the Circle. They were meeting downstairs when we found them, finishing up a discussion on something pertaining only to Horizon’s premier fighting force. Steadfast approached the elderly white stallion that stayed behind as the others dispersed.

“Harbinger Whitemane,” he addressed the pony, giving a slight bow of respect, “I have some questions for you.”

“Ask away, Steadfast,” the pony answered, “You know I’m always eager to teach the younger generation.”

“I want to know about Sovngarde,” he said.

“Ah yes, the land of paradise,” Whitemane said longingly, “Where Ysgroomar greets all great earth ponies and welcomes them into his mead hall for joyous celebration.”

“Is there a way to reach it without – you know – dying?”

“Hmm,” Whitemane said, furrowing his brow, “I cannot think of any reason one would be permitted to enter the sacred grounds without dying a warrior’s death.”

“We ask because we believe Alduin has been traveling to Sovngarde to feast on the souls of the dead,” I explained, “We want to stop him from doing so, but he is only vulnerable when he is in Sovngarde.”

“We believe the ancient earth ponies may have built a portal to reach Sovngarde so that Alduin could travel there,” Steadfast added.

“Feasting on the souls of the dead, you say?” Whitemane said, stroking his beard, “That’s not right. Sovngarde is meant to be a place earth ponies are safe from the threat of death. If this is true, Alduin must be stopped.”

“Come,” he said, rising from his chair and slowly making his way down the hall, “Perhaps you are right. If so, the only way you could find such a portal would be to use ancient earth pony maps.”

Whitemane led us to the archive room where I had first found Steadfast. Pulling a large and dusty book off the shelves, he began to page through it, finally stopping at a list of names.

“There were three ancient earth pony lords who were obsessed with mapping Horizon,” Whitemane said, flipping through the book again until he stopped at a map of Horizon covered in unfamiliar markers, “Their fortresses were here, at Mare’s Reach, here, at Broken Horn Redoubt, and here, at Dreadguard Bastion. There’s sure to be a map of Horizon in at least one of these places, and it should have the location of this portal on it if there is one.”

“I think we’ll try Mare’s Reach first,” I said, marking the ruins on my map, “If it turns up empty, at least Broken Horn Redoubt is also in the Karth.”

“May the ancestors guard your path,” Whitemane told us as we left Jorrvaskr.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Though Protocus didn’t have any beds immediately for Breezehome, he did promise to order a few for me. I also arranged to have a few changes made to my house while I was gone and purchased a few bedrolls in the meantime. It would take nearly half a day to reach Mare’s Reach, so we decided it’d be best to rest up in Whitetrot and depart in the morning.

Once again the nightmare of the ship haunted me, though this time there were even more dead ponies covering the deck. I hadn’t had such a nightmare in weeks, and it took me by surprise, coming out of nowhere. I laid awake for some time with their faces haunting me before I could finally return to my uneasy slumber.

After heading off to the forge in the morning to repair our weapons and armor, we left Whitetrot and headed west, toward Rearikstead. A short distance past the tiny town we left the path and crossed through the wilderness. Mare’s Reach was an ancient earth pony fortress built not too far from Uragbashar. I saw it in the distance, with a few Griffins wheeling around the mountain, as we traveled.

Eventually we made it to the point I had marked on my map as Mare’s Reach. Through the pine trees I could see a set of weathered stone stairs leading up through a set of arches to a grand entrance set into the mountainside. Deer wandered through the arches, taking off as we approached. Climbing up the steps, we pushed into the ruin.

Immediately inside Mare’s Reach was a grand hall, complete with pillars, though a few had fallen down over the years. Rugs and banners still decorated the hall, though time had taken its toll, leaving behind little more than faded and ragged scraps of what must’ve once been items of great beauty.

In the center of the hall, among the remnants of tables, many of which had been chopped to pieces, burned a campfire. Around it sat several ponies wearing bandit armor. Before attacking, I wanted to make sure things were what they seemed, so we inched closer and listened, hiding behind one of the fallen pillars.

“What do you think those pegasi are doing down there?” a unicorn mare with a silvery coat asked.

“Searching for treasure, most likely,” said a scruffy red earth pony with a battleaxe strapped to his back, “And if they do find some, we’d better make sure they share.”

“That’s foolishness,” a bat-pony in mismatched pegasus armor said, “You really think we’d be able to take them down? And besides, we’ve already been paid to make sure nopony sneaks up on them.”

“I know,” the earth pony grumbled, “But it’s not like we’re making a lot now anyways, what with Jarl Glamus hardly ever sending out caravans anymore. A little more gold to fill our coin purses wouldn’t hurt.”

I’d gathered enough evidence to make my decision by this point. These ponies really were bandits, and as such needed to be put down to protect other ponies. Caution had also yielded a surprising bit of information. Not only bandits and Draugr inhabited this ruin, in our search we could expect to run into a group of pegasi as well. Hopefully they’d be friendly, and willing to work together to cut through the Draugr, but I wasn’t holding my breath.

Drawing out Calcion’s Cleaver and powering up my horn, I prepared to attack the bandits. My friends spread out, taking up positions around the fire. At my signal, we all charged it at once. My ice spikes flew through the air, some melting as they hit Mystic’s fireballs.

My sword met the stallion’s battleaxe as I reached the group. Using his size to his advantage, he pushed my sword back. Whipping out the Blade of Hoofingar, I knocked his weapon out of its block and into the floor.

He swung his battleaxe at me again, but I managed to block it before it was able to hit my side. Pushing him back with my swords, I forced him to abandon the block and rear up for a strike. My ebony sword blocked his swing as it came down at me, and my ancient earth pony sword slammed into his chest. As the blade pierced his heart, he fell over, his battleaxe falling from his jaw and my sword sliding out of his chest.

The bat-pony was already dead by the time I finished, her armor bent out of shape by Steadfast’s strikes. At the end of the hall, the unicorn was fleeing while attempting to repair the damage done to her by Mystic’s magical blasts. She fell, sliding across the floor, as one of Mephalda’s arrows shot through the back of her neck.

Passing through one of the doorways that the unicorn’s body wasn’t lying in, we entered the next chamber of Mare’s reach. A grand hall met our eyes, far larger and more ornate than the room we’d come from. Great stone banquet tables still stood in rows across the floor, though age had been rough to them. At the far end of the hall was an imposing throne that appeared to be carved to look like it was made of bones.

Behind us, just in front of the wall separating the entry hall from this one, was a massive statue of a rearing pony. The mare depicted had a warlike gleam in her eyes and was clothed in armor that appeared to be a more elegant version of Draugr armor with a cape draped over it. More than likely, this statue depicted whatever Draugr lord had once ruled here, who we would probably meet in the depths.

Moving on, we passed down a series of tunnels where flames still burned from the braziers mounted on the walls. Here and there were the mutilated forms of Draugr, bearing testament to the pegasi that had already passed through here. A set of small blades embedded into one of the walls caught my attention.

“Blackwing wing-blades” Mephalda said, extracting them from the stone, “I don’t think we’re dealing with just any pegasi.”

I agreed, though I was puzzled why the Blackwings were here in the first place. This was the second time I’d found them in an ancient earth pony ruin. The first time had been back at Blank Flanks Barrow, when one of their agents was trying to get his hooves on the Golden Claw. Come to think of it, the Blackwings were also after the Emerald Claw that had once belonged to Splitten’s Jarl and was now in my saddlebags. Why were the Blackwings interested in ancient earth pony ruins?

That question would have to wait for later, as we had a Draugr ruin to explore. Who knew how long the Blackwings had been here, and how far ahead of us they were. If they were here to make off with whatever was in this ruin, we’d have to make sure they didn’t take the map of Horizon before we did.

Rushing ahead through the passages, I didn’t notice the trap placed on the floor of one of the rooms. Something I stepped on must’ve triggered it, for the ground suddenly opened up beneath me. The piece of floor I’d been standing on was actually a grate that swung open to drop me into a pit. Steadfast too fell with me, but Mephalda was able to grab Mystic and pull her back from the edge before she too was taken by the trap.

At the bottom, Steadfast and I landed in a pool of water, which broke our fall without breaking any bones. We appeared to be in a cistern, and I climbed out of the water and onto the ring of stone that surrounded it. Across the pool of water, where Steadfast climbed out, I could see a door set in the stone that would let us out of this trap. Looking up, I could see that Mephalda and Mystic were peering down through the grate into the darkness.

“We’re fine!” I called up the shaft, my voice echoing as I did so, “Just keep moving and we’ll meet up with you!”

Circling the pool, I made it to where Steadfast was smashing the door to splinters with his warhammer. I passed through the newly opened hole as he gestured for me to go first. Calcion’s Cleaver held in front of me, I looked around the room.

Here, braziers filled with the purplish flame burned brightly, illuminating my surroundings. On one side of the room were cells set into the wall, though time had caused the doors to fall from their places as the hinges and locks rusted away. On the other side of the room were stone tables covered in rusty blades that looked like torture equipment. I guess it only made sense to build a torture room right next to the trap pit for catching trespassers. Still, I didn’t want to stay here any longer than necessary.

As I was about to open the door at the far end of the room, it began to shake on its own. Draugr grunts came from the other side as the undead rammed themselves against it. I backed away as the door began to pull off its hinges, eventually coming completely free. Before the door even hit the ground, Draugr began to pile through.

My dragon breath incinerated the crowd of undead, turning them to cinders. In the back the fire spread, igniting the Draugr in the hallway. Steadfast knocked one away with his warhammer as it charged toward me.

“Come on,” I said, leaving the torture chamber, “We’ve got to catch up with Mystic and Mephalda.”

I drew both my swords, spinning them around as I charged down the passage. Draugr still on fire from my Shout quickly fell to my blades. Charging ahead, I stepped into a room lined on both sides with sarcophagi. The Draugr awoke immediately, crawling out of their coffins to defend the ruin.

I swung at the first one with the Axe of Whitetrot as it came at me, hooking my war axe’s blade over its. The zombie pulled away before I could disarm it and swung its blade toward my neck. It missed as Steadfast’s hammer lifted it off the ground. A swipe from my axe killed it for good after it landed against the nearby wall.

Another Draugr charged me, a spear strapped to its side. Before it closed the distance between us, I shot ice spikes at it. The Draugr dodged each of the freezing missiles, picking up speed as it drew closer. Changing my aim, I shot an ice spike through the zombie’s foreleg. Veering off to the side, it impaled another Draugr with its spear before I sliced its head off with a swipe of Calcion’s Cleaver.

An arrow bounced off the shoulder of my armor, and I looked in the direction from which it had come. A Draugr was busy loading another arrow into a bow that had stood up ridiculously well to the ravages of time. The next dart fired at me nearly took out my eye, and I shot lightning at the Draugr before it could reload again. Writhing with power, the corpse returned to death.

Near the door, one more Draugr stood, a greatsword held in its mouth. Drawing out both my swords, I charged and knocked the zombie’s blade to the ground. It recovered surprisingly fast, pushing my blades away and forcing me back. As it swung for my side, I used both my swords to redirect its much larger sword to the floor. As it began to lift its blade off the ground, I swung both mine around until they were beneath it. The greatsword was quickly thrown from the Draugr’s mouth, and I finished up with a sword strike to the neck.

Through the door at the far end of the room was a long, bare tunnel. At the end of it was an exit to a small break in the mountains. Around us, the walls of the mountain reared up to a small gap above where sunlight came in. A few small trees sprouted in the miniscule mountain valley, and snow covered rock unaltered by pony hooves. A ramp-like formation of rock provided a way to reach another door carved into the mountain across the enclosure.

As we started off toward it, a roar shook the trees, causing snow to spill onto the ground. From a cave near the door, a snow white manticore emerged. Snarling, it launched itself of its ledge and flapped down toward Steadfast and me on its bat wings.

I rolled to the side as the beast swooped over us, and Steadfast did the same in the other direction. The manticore’s claws ripped at air, and it slammed into the cliff face, causing more snow to rain down. Giving a roar, it turned back around toward us.

I began to shoot fire at it using my horn until it got too close for comfort. I ducked down as a mighty claw swiped over my head. As the stinger from the manticore’s scorpion tail swung at me, I dodged to the side. Drawing Calcion’s Cleaver, I slashed through the tough exoskeleton and managed to take the manticore’s stinger off. Roaring in anguish, the beast pounced at where I was pinned against the cliff face.

<>

I became ethereal, and the manticore’s face slammed into solid rock instead. While I was invulnerable, I trotted out of the beast’s reach. While I waited to return to physical form, Steadfast slammed his warhammer into the manticore’s hindleg, snapping the bone. Pulling itself away from the cliff, it lunged at Steadfast.

Rolling out of the way, he swung at the manticore’s paw. It roared in pain and leapt toward him. As he rolled to the side, the beast rammed its head into a tree. At that moment, my Shout wore off, and I sent a blast of flames into the pine’s needles. The flames quickly spread, catching the manticore on fire as well.

Ripping the tree apart, the creature gave a wail and turned toward me. I shot ice spikes into its face, one striking its eye, before it began its charge. As it leapt at me, I ducked down and crawled beneath the beast. Sliding in the snow, it managed to turn itself back around remarkably quickly.

I galloped away as the beast pursued me across the tiny valley. Steadfast had begun a climb up toward the door, and jumped off the stone ramp as the manticore passed him. Warhammer clutched tightly in his teeth, he brought it down upon the manticore’s head, gravity doing its fair share of the work. Bone crunched, and the manticore stopped its pursuit of me, lying dead in the snow.

Now that the threat was nullified, we trotted up to the doorway out of the valley. Pushing the iron doors aside, we passed into another grand hall. Here a few Draugr milled about, their eyes latching onto us as intruders as we stepped inside.

With a blast of lightning, I knocked the first one to come at me away. A blast of fire incinerated another before I was forced to draw my swords. A Draugr with a mace attacked me, but I was easily able to hold it off with the Blade of Hoofingar while cutting through the zombie’s side with Calcion’s Cleaver.

Holding my ancient earth pony blade out before me, I sent lightning flying into a group of charging Draugr, reducing them to little more than piles of ash. Marveling at the power of my sword, I continued on, cutting down another of the Draugr before it could draw its weapon.

With that, all the Draugr in the hall had returned to their eternal slumber, and we could move on. Leaving the grand hall, we traveled through narrow and twisting passages, taking out Draugr as we did. Steadfast smashed down the wooden door at the end of the tunnels, making an opening into a larger passageway.

“You two made it,” Mystic exclaimed in a whisper as we exited the tunnels we’d been traveling through.

“Blackwings up ahead,” Mephalda explained also in a whisper, and also with a smile on her face.

Reunited, we crept forward as quietly as possible until the Blackwings were in sight. Down a slope stood four of the cloaked pegasi. They were standing in front of a circular door like the ones I’d seen in Blank Flanks Barrow and Ironhoof Barrow. The lead pegasus examined a dragon claw made from what looked like iron before rearranging the door’s rings and inserting the claw.

As the door began to slide into the floor, I launched the attack. Ice spikes went flying from my horn toward a light blue mare standing on the edge of the group. Surprisingly, her wings flew up at the last minute, the blades hidden within them shattering the ice into splinters. Throwing off their cloaks, the Blackwings turned toward us.

“Mephalda the Meek, Sapphire, Steadfast, in that order,” the leader, a bright yellow pegasus with a fiery orange mane ordered the Blackwings around her.

Three of the pegasi immediately launched themselves toward Mephalda, while the other focused on the remaining three of us. As fast as Mephalda fired her arrows, the Blackwings kept dodging them as they flew closer. At the last moment, Mephalda grabbed the lead Blackwing with her bare hooves, and rammed him into the ground, using his own momentum against him.

Before he could right himself, she kicked him up off the ground and into the next oncoming pegasus, knocking her out of the air as well. In the process, she had managed to retrieve twin blades from the first Blackwing, and was somehow holding them with her forehooves.

She slashed at the leader as she came near, and blade met blade. A crackling discharge of lightning brought my attention to the fight going on nearer to me. The pegasus who’d been focused on us was now knocked out of the sky by Mystic’s magic. I aided her, blasting the Blackwing again and again until she crumpled to the ground, lightning charging over her armor.

I left Mystic to finish her off as I saw Steadfast was engaged in fighting the first Blackwing Mephalda had knocked back using his warhammer. As his partner rushed to help, I shot fire at her, forcing her to stay away from Steadfast. Turning her attention toward me, she flapped through the air, wing blades ready.

My Shout caused her to fall from the sky, gripped by pain as my very voice lashed out at her. Still, she was able to block my strikes as they came, keeping Calcion’s Cleaver at bay using the blades on her wings. As my Shout wore off, she stood, and I was forced to draw my other sword to keep from being sliced up badly. Desperately, I fought to bring my thoughts together.

My sword strikes suddenly became much swifter as an unnatural wind came to my aid, propelling them at speeds beyond what I could attain normally. Without her landing a strike on me, I managed to knock the tips of her wing blades off before my ebony sword slit her throat and Calcion’s Cleaver stabbed up into her chest.

Steadfast was still fighting the Blackwing he had been before, but both of them now looked to be worn out. Mystic was working to help him, keeping the Blackwing busy with magical blasts, so I moved to help Mephalda instead. Both her and the Blackwing leader had taken several hits, and both were circling around, looking for the perfect moment to strike.

Shooting ice spikes at the Blackwing, I was able to distract her long enough that Mephalda could make her move. Lunging in, my pegasus friend slashed at her opponent with both her blades, cutting through the Blackwing armor and into the flesh below. Flaring her wings, the Blackwing sent knives flying at Mephalda, forcing her to back away, a few of the blades stuck in her forelegs.

<<>>

My Shout sent the Blackwing tumbling down the slope. She came to a stop where Steadfast was standing, and he wasted no time slamming his hammer down onto her shoulder joint, crippling her foreleg. Mephalda flapped down, blades still in her hooves, and stabbed them both through the Blackwing’s armor into her chest, inflicting life-ending wounds.

After healing our myriad wounds from the fight and catching our breaths, we searched the Blackwings. They had a decent amount of gold on them, along with a plentiful supply of potions. However, there was no clue as to why they were here, in an ancient earth pony ruin.

Once we rested up, we moved on into the cavern the Blackwings had unlocked for us. Instead of a natural cavern like in Blank Flanks Barrow, this room had been carved completely by earth ponies, though it was roughly the same size. More columns decorated with the pony from the entrance passed alongside us as we made our way to the far end of the chamber.

A raised stone platform featured a sarcophagus surrounded by braziers burning in memorial to the pony buried here. No doubt there was a powerful Draugr slumbering inside, but my focus for the moment was on the wall engraved with Draconic behind the sarcophagus.

Mystic, Mephalda, and Steadfast all took up positions around the coffin as I examined the word wall. As usual, one word stood out for me, burning with blue fire while the rest remained lifeless and cold. Soon I found myself gliding on the current of time, experiencing the passing of ages as only the dragons could. In the end, I had a new understanding of time, only I had a new word for it now.

~TIID~

No sooner had the knowledge entered my mind than the lid burst off the sarcophagus behind me. Mephalda tried to shoot an arrow into the Draugr before it could rise, but her projectile was incinerated as the braziers sent flame high to the ceiling. As the Draugr rose, the flames seemed to wrap around her, slipping through the cracks of her armor and forming a cape along her back.

<> I Shouted, hoping to immobilize her.

My ice never stood a chance as the flames surrounding her devoured them. Spinning her hooves, she caused a fireball to form between them before throwing it at me. I dodged out of the way as the stone where I’d been standing became charred.

Mystic had the right idea and was shooting lightning at her, a magic her flames could neither stop nor feed on. The Draugr sent flame billowing toward Mystic, but she pulled up a ward around herself, and the fire passed around her harmlessly. She struck back with a blast of lightning even stronger than before, forcing the Draugr to seize her flame attack.

<<>> I Shouted, knocking the Draugr off her sarcophagus and away from the braziers that seemed to be feeding her power.

Mephalda was shooting arrows as fast as she could at the Draugr, but most of them were burning up in the fire before they got there. The few that did, however, seemed to pain the Draugr immensely, burning right through her crumbling flesh. As she turned her attention toward Mephalda, Steadfast charged in with his warhammer, striking her side.

He was force to promptly drop his weapon and retreat as it caught fire. He had done a significant amount of damage, however, crushing the Draugr’s side as if it was composed of ash. Drawing my swords, I advanced around the sarcophagus, looking for the opening I needed to finish this once and for all.

At last I had it and, while the Draugr was preoccupied with holding off Mystic, I galloped up, both swords held out before me. The Draugr noticed I was coming a second too late, and wasn’t able to stop me as I leapt over her. Calcion’s Cleaver slashed through her neck, and the Blade of Hoofingar through her midsection, dividing her into three parts. She crumbled into a pile of ash as I rolled to a stop.

“Well, that was certainly intense,” Steadfast said, retrieving his warhammer, which was still a bit hot.

“Time to find out if it was worth it,” I said, looking around.

If the map we were searching for was anywhere in this ruin, it would surely be here, in the burial place of the master of this fortress. In some of the side rooms were maps, though they mostly detailed Mare’s Reach itself and the surrounding countryside. A few featured the far-off land of Atmarea, from whence the earth ponies had come, but there was nothing even vaguely resembling what we were looking for.

“Well, what now?” Mystic asked as we returned to the main burial chamber empty-hooved.

“Now, we go to Broken Hoof Redoubt,” I said, pulling out my map.

Level Up
Health: 250 Stamina: 240 Magicka: 240
New Perk: A Healer’s Touch [Restoration] -- Any Restoration spell can now be cast for half Magicka, regardless of difficulty level.
Word of Power learned: TIID -- Time; Slow Time – Shout at time, and command it to obey, as the world around you stands still.
New Quest: The Silent Cartographer -- Search Broken Horn Redoubt for a map containing the location of a portal to Sovngarde.

Chapter 44: Dragons and Goats

Chapter XLIV: Dragons and Goats
“Let us begin with the Cloven Hoof, the so-called ‘mad-goats’ of the Karth.”

After leaving Mare’s Reach, we headed south through the night toward Broken Horn Redoubt. Our path was far from short, however, as we were forced to detour around the Karth’s mountains more often than I would’ve liked. As we circled yet another peak, I caught sight of light in the distance. But, it was too early to be dawn, and the light was coming from the wrong direction.

Climbing a ridge, we found the source of the light. A small valley nestled between the soaring mountains was ablaze. A dragon could be seen circling around in the smoke and raining even more fire down onto the valley. Between the raging fires ran a small collection of goats, desperately struggling to fight back at the dragon.

Climbing over the ridge, we rushed down into the valley to help them. Dodging the fires hungrily eating the dry mountain grasses, we closed the distance with the flying lizard. As we neared, I began to shoot ice spikes at its underbelly, and Mephalda let fly a flurry of arrows. The dragon turned our attention toward us, and we were forced to dodge out of the way as it bathed the land in fire.

I shot lightning at the dragon, trying to draw its attention and force it to come in range of my swords, but it refused to land. I was forced to roll through the maze of flames as it tried to burn us up. Seeing no other option, I focused my thoughts for a Shout.

<<>>

Roaring in pain, the dragon’s wings stopped working and it fell from the sky, landing on its own fire. Many of the goats rushed in to attack the beast now that it was grounded. They began hacking at its flesh with their makeshift weapons, though it thrashed about uncontrollably, impaling a few of them with its spines.

I shot lightning at its face while I galloped in. Drawing both my swords, I slashed at the dragon’s nose. Its eyes cleared as Dragonrend wore off and attempted to snap me up in its massive jaws. A strike from Steadfast’s warhammer knocked its head aside, allowing me to sprint out of danger.

Running under the dragon’s wing, I slashed my swords up through the membrane, hoping to keep it from taking off again. On the other side of the beast, Mystic was torching the other with fire, burning holes through the membrane. Working together, we were able to ground it.

I ducked down to the ground, sliding as the dragon’s tail whipped over me, catching my helmet and throwing it off. I watched it bounce away, but had no time to retrieve it as the dragon twisted its head around to breathe fire at me. I finished downing a potion of fire resistance just as the flames hit me.

The fire continued to follow me until I made my way around toward the dragon’s head, both my swords ready to carve up its face. The flames suddenly cut off as Mephalda scored a hit in one of the dragon’s eyes. Its head thrashed around as it searched for who had robbed it of sight.

<<>> I Shouted, knocking its head to the ground.

Running up, I was able to pull myself onto its neck before it recovered. With the Blade of Hoofingar, I slashed at the scales, knocking them aside reveal the flesh beneath. Using Calcion’s Cleaver, I stabbed into the dragon’s neck, sending lightning charging beneath its scales.

As the dragon swung its head around to throw me off, I held tightly to one of its spines. However, I was still thrown about quite a bit and held on even tighter after the sharp-edged growth nearly took off my ear. Eventually it stopped struggling and held itself upright.

As it began to lean backwards, I realized what it was about to do. It was going to fall on its back and crush me, cutting me to ribbons as the spines would be forced through my body. As it began its fall, I crawled around to the front of its neck, which was now on top.

Unexpectedly, the dragon suddenly stopped itself with its tail and pushed itself forward. I’d played right into its trap, and now it was going to crush me from the front. As the dragon fell forward, I drew both my swords and held them in front of me. If I was going down, the dragon was coming with me.

As the dragon’s head struck the ground, my blades were forced through its neck. Choking on the swords, the dragon died. I was still crushed beneath, however, the weight of the dragon choking the life out of me. As the dragon combusted, black spots began to appear before my eyes.

They were quickly replaced by memories of things the dragon had experienced in its extremely long life. I learned the importance of time, and how it flowed onward, carrying all of us in its wake. I even learned how I could command the flow around me to slow using my Voice.

I Shouted at the culmination of the memories.

Time slowed around me as my friends ran up to where I was stuck beneath the dragon. In slow motion, I watched as they worked together to lift the skeleton off of me. Time snapped back to normal as Mystic used her magic to bend the armor around my chest back into shape.

Finally I could breathe again! I took deep breaths to fill my lungs, relishing the air I was taking in. When I felt strong enough, I stood, and Mephalda returned my helmet to me. After bandaging up the minor wounds I had taken on in the fight, I turned my attention to the goats nearby who were tending to their own wounds.

“Dragonslayer,” one of the goats addressed me, “You have our thanks, even if you are a pony.”

I frowned a bit at the condition the goat had tacked onto the end, but figured it was a good sign they hadn’t killed us on sight. Their greeting was especially warm, considering how I had betrayed them and caused the destruction of their capital. Of course, I didn’t plan on mentioning that fact.

“Could you help us find Broken Horn Redoubt?” I asked the goat while he was in a good mood, “We’ve been having a bit of trouble getting through the mountains.”

“Of course,” the goat replied, “There are none who know the mountains of the Karth better than its true inhabitants.”

I took it his reply was an agreement to take us to Broken Horn Redoubt, as the goat began to lead his party away from the burning valley and didn’t object when we followed.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

With the assistance of the goats, we made it to Broken Horn Redoubt in no time. The way they knew their way through the twisting passages of the Karth amazed me. When we were still a ways off, I could see that Broken Horn Redoubt was not an abandoned ruin. More goats milled about the doorway, and rough tents and campfires were set up around it.

Like Mare’s Reach, Broken Horn Redoubt was built into the side of a mountain, with stone stairs leading up to the entrance. There were no arches here, however, and the set of stairs was divided in half by a massive stone statue. Though the stone had been worn down by the years, it was still clear what it depicted. An earth pony with a battleaxe stood over a cowering unicorn, his horn snapped off at the base, which was probably what the name of this place had come from.

As we trotted up the steps, a few of the goats camped above came to meet us. A goat in a wooden crown that appeared to be a local chieftain was flanked by a few goats with spears. I got a bad feeling from the look on his face.

“How d-a-a-a-re you bring these ponies here!” the chieftain yelled at the leader of the group of goats we had saved.

“They helped us to defeat a dragon,” our guide explained, “In return, all they asked was to be led here.”

“Do you know who these ponies are?” the chieftain fumed, “This one here led the intruders to Caprika Redoubt!”

As he finished, he pointed his cloven hoof at me. The goats around us drew their weapons, bleating in surprise at the revelation.

“What I did was very wrong,” I apologized, “And I am very sorry for what I did. If there is any way I can make things up to you-”

“We don’t want your apologies or your favors!” the chieftain cut me off, “We want your head on a pike to be paraded around as an example of what happens to traitors!”

A bubble of protection suddenly sprung up around us from Mystic’s horn. The Cloven Hoof’s weapons shattered against its magical surface as they tried to strike us. Drawing our own weapons, we were ready to defend ourselves when the ward fell. The chieftain retreated up the stairs as his guards fell to strikes from Calcion’s Cleaver and the Blade of Hoofingar.

A goat with a war axe swung at me, but I was easily able to block it with my swords. Throwing the weapon from her mouth, I slashed through her neck. Another goat with a sword that looked to be made from bones attacked me. Blocking with my ebony sword, I impaled him with Calcion’s Cleaver.

Pushing through the goats, I rushed up the steps toward where the chieftain was standing. He had a staff grasped in his teeth and began to shoot balls of green fire at me as I approached. Dodging his fiery blasts, I closed the distance and slashed at him with Calcion’s Cleaver.

He blocked using the staff, pushing me back down the stairs. I swung at him again, this time for his head, and once more he blocked with his staff. Pulling my ancient earth pony sword back, I swung for his legs. As he moved to block, I altered the path of my weapon and brought it down over his staff. The blade cut through, and green magic spilled from the break, pushing both of us back with the force of the blast.

Defenseless, the chieftain tried to back away, but I wasn’t going to let him escape. Anger burning in my eyes, I advanced on him, Calcion’s Cleaver crackling gleefully with lightning.

“No! Stop!” the goat pleaded as he ran out of space, backing against one of the tents.

Lifting my sword into the air, brought it down on the goat. My blade cut right through his body, piercing the tent behind him. As the cloth fell away, it revealed a goat and her kid huddled inside. Pulling Calcion’s Cleaver from the chieftain, I prepared to run them through.

“Sapphire the Butcher!” the kid exclaimed, breaking free of his mother’s grasp and running away.

I suddenly felt very numb, and my sword fell from my magical grasp. The kid’s statement had hit me hard. What was I doing, about to kill a defenseless kid and his mother? Did the goats really see me as a butcher? And the most important question: Were they right about me?

I couldn’t pull my eyes away from the horrified expression on the face of the goat within the tent as I retrieved my weapon and cleaned the chieftain’s blood off. In a daze, I sheathed my weapon and turned away, heading toward the entrance of the Broken Horn Redoubt.

“Are you all right?” Mephalda asked worriedly as I joined the group.

“I’ll talk about it later,” I promised, almost more to myself than to the pegasus standing before me, “Right now, let’s just get through this ruin and hopefully find a way to Sovngarde.”

Though she still had a worried look on her face, Mephalda pushed open the massive iron doors to Broken Horn Redoubt. As we stepped inside, I took one last look at the remaining goats, who were darting away from the camp as fast as their legs could carry them. Shaking the kid’s words from my head, I entered the ruin.

A large hall greeted us upon entering Broken Horn Redoubt. Due to the fact that the goats had been using this place as a camp, the entry hall had been completely picked clean of anything valuable long ago. Even the braziers on the walls had been pried off and replaced with torch sconces.

Traveling down the tunnel at the end of the hall, we found several dead Draugr as well as the bodies of goats that had no doubt died when this ruin’s defenders had come back to life. Eventually, proof of goats using the ruin as their dwelling dwindled. Apparently they’d had no interest in delving into the deeper parts of the ancient earth pony fortress.

As we entered yet another passageway carved into the mountain, the inevitable happened. From the tombs set into the walls, fresh Draugr emerged. As one emerged from the wall next to me, I instantly struck it down with Calcion’s Cleaver. But there were far more crawling out of the walls down the hall.

Shots from Mephalda’s bow dropped two of them before they could get close, and fireballs from Mystic took out another. As the horde reached us, I swiped at the first with my ancient earth pony sword. Its own sword came up to block mine, halting my strike. Pulling back, I struck again, only to find my sword blocked again.

The Draugr slowly forced my blade down to the ground before whipping its own up at my face. The sword merely nicked my cheek as I jumped back. Swinging my sword around, I knocked the Draugr’s aside. My blade was blocked from striking the zombie, but I still had my magic. From my horn I sent a blast of fire into the Draugr’s face. Squealing, it backed off, and I separated its head from its body with my sword.

Drawing the Axe of Whitetrot, I stepped over my fallen adversary and took on the Draugr with a greatsword standing before me. As it swung the weapon at me, I blocked, pushing the blade away. Its next swing also failed as I blocked, forcing the Draugr back. As it tripped over a Draugr one of my friends had killed, I seized the opportunity and lit the zombie on fire. As it fell to the floor, I searched for a new target.

Near the end of the hall was a Draugr shooting arrows at us. It focused its shots on me as I began to send ice spikes flying down the hall at it. Slashing through another Draugr with the Axe of Whitetrot, I galloped toward the archer. One of its arrows suddenly struck me in my fetlock, causing me to trip and tumble forward.

Picking myself up, I pulled the arrow out. Favoring my injured leg, I continued to advance toward the Draugr. With Calcion’s Cleaver, I cut through the bow, rending it into two pieces. Next I brought my sword down on the Draugr’s head, killing it instantly.

Passing by the now-dead archer, we entered the next room, a large banquet hall where a few Draugr with greatswords roamed about. They turned toward us, eyes glowing blue, as we entered.

<<>> I Shouted, swiftly closing the distance with one of them.

My swords clashed with the zombie’s sword, sparks flying from where the blades met. As I brought my ebony sword around toward its side, it moved its greatsword to block. While it did so, I brought Calcion’s Cleaver around toward its now undefended side.

<>

The Draugr’s Shout took me of guard, sending me tumbling back across the floor. Rising to my hooves, I saw Steadfast was now attacking the Draugr I’d been fighting. After the zombie had blocked a few of Steadfast’s swings, he brought his warhammer down onto the blade, shattering it. A moment later, Steadfast was thrown back as the Draugr Shouted again.

Racing in, I struck before the undead warrior could Shout again, raining blows down on its armored back. Calcion’s Cleaver I slammed through the back of the zombie’s head, sending lightning coursing over its body until it fell over dead.

Running past a Draugr Mystic had coated in ice, I attacked another member of the undead army. Using Calcion’s Cleaver, I beat the zombie back. As I was about to make the killing blow, an arrow struck me in my hindleg just above the boot, and I missed. The Draugr I was fighting swung for my head, but I was able to dodge and take out its forelegs with my own swords. As it fell over, I sliced Calcion’s Cleaver through its throat.

I whirled around at where the arrow that’d hit me had come from, nearly being hit again in the process. A line of windows ran along the top of the banquet hall, and a few Draugr archers were shooting through them. Though some of them were focused on Mephalda, the rest were shooting down at the rest of us. I sent ice spikes flying at the Draugr that’d hit me until I managed to shoot one through its forehead.

Pulling the arrow from my hindleg, I turned toward the other archers, assisting Mephalda in taking them out. At last all the Draugr in the hall were dead, and our work here was done. Those of us who had weapons cleaned the ichor off using some old tapestries before moving on.

Through the heavy iron doors was a passageway that led deeper down into the mountain. The walls were inscribed with scenes depicting the conquests of the pony who was buried here. At least, I assumed they were. Each of the murals depicted the earth pony with a battleaxe we’d seen outside crushing all manner of creatures, but most of all unicorns.

On pedestals beneath the murals where unicorns were defeated were clay jars. I made the mistake of knocking one over. Out of it spilled a multitude of multicolored cones. Apparently the builder of this fortress had enjoyed taking the horns of his defeated enemies as souvenirs.

Eventually the passage came to an end, with another large iron door set into the wall. On either side of it was a Draugr sitting in a throne. I had too much experience in Draugr ruins to expect them to stay dead. I shot an ice spike at the one on the left as Mephalda shot an arrow at the one on the right.

Both our shots hit right on, sticking in the Draugr’s heads, but they didn’t seem fazed. Blue lights lit in their eyes as they rose from their thrones and drew battleaxes from their backs, our projectiles still stuck in their foreheads.

Mephalda shot more arrows into the one she had struck, and Mystic assisted with magical blasts to slow it down as it charged her. I began to shoot more ice spikes at my target, growing frantic to stop it before it reached me. As I reached for my swords, Steadfast smashed his warhammer into the Draugr’s side, sending it rolling across the floor.

Growling, the Draugr rose and smashed its weapon against Steadfast’s. As they pushed back and forth, I tried to win Steadfast an advantage by assaulting the Draugr with lightning. When that didn’t work, I began to attack with my swords, and though I was able to inflict some serious wounds, the Draugr refused to die.

<>

Frost coated the Draugr’s body as it froze solid from my Shout. I stabbed Calcion’s Cleaver through the ice and into its side, sending lightning pulsing through the icy body cast. Steadfast raised his warhammer up as high as he could and smashed it down on the Draugr’s head, crushing it to pieces. The now headless Draugr toppled over, finally dead.

There was no need to lend a hoof to Mephalda and Mystic, as they had already finished off the Draugr they’d been fighting by the time Steadfast and I were done. Pushing the heavy iron doors open, we proceeded into the next room.

The hall we entered had been carved out of the mountain with great attention to detail. Soaring pillars covered in dragons held up the ceiling high above. A single hole in the ceiling let in light, illuminating a strangely carved mass of stone in the center of the room. Beyond the lump of stone was a raised platform backed by a wall covered in Draconic writing on which sat a sarcophagus.

As we stepped inside the room, we were met by the sound of metal hitting stone. As it came again, the lid of the sarcophagus shifted. Then it cracked in two, the blade of a battleaxe visible through the break. One more swing broke it off entirely and the Draugr within emerged.

Though its flesh had rotted away over the years, the armor it wore was now tarnished, and the robe draped on its back was now filled with holes, there was no doubt in my mind that this was the same pony depicted outside the ruin and on the walls outside this burial chamber. We had found the master of this fortress, and the most important resident of this tomb.

Snarling, the Draugr lord jumped from its sarcophagus, leaping over the carving in the center of the room to attack us. Mephalda’s arrows barely slowed it down as it approached, and it was able to dodge Mystic’s and my magical attacks surprisingly fast. When it finally reached us, Steadfast swung his hammer up into its chest, knocking it back before it could strike.

I drew both my swords as it approached me and was ready when it swung its battleaxe down toward my head. Calcion’s Cleaver I used to stop the blade, and with the Blade of Hoofingar I pushed back the haft. Pulling back, the Draugr swung at me again, this time toward my hooves.

I jumped, but the Draugr anticipated it, and swung its weapon up around toward my exposed side. Before it could, an ice spike cast by Mystic sent its blade off course. I ducked down as the battleaxe swung over my head.

As the Draugr finished its swing, its battleaxe struck Steadfast’s warhammer, and the two weapons became lodged together. Both earth ponies, one alive and one long dead, pulled at their weapons, neither willing to surrender. Eventually the Draugr won out and threw Steadfast’s weapon from his mouth. Before the two weapons had even disconnected, it brought its battleaxe back down toward Steadfast’s neck.

Time suddenly slowed to a crawl as I charged forward. As the blade touched Steadfast’s neck, I bowled into him, pushing him out of the way. The battleaxe clanged against my armor as I passed. As time snapped back to normal, I was slammed into the ground by the force of the strike meant for Steadfast.

The Draugr looked confused, but quickly recovered and tried to chop my head off with its battleaxe. I rolled to the side and the blade struck the stone instead, sending sparks flying into my mane. Before it could strike at me again, an ice blast from Mystic froze its hooves to the floor. Giving a kick with my hindlegs, I smashed the ice and the Draugr’s hooves, knocking it over.

I leapt to my hooves before the Draugr could recover. I tried to slash at its neck with my sword, but it blocked before my blade even got close. I was still pushing back on the Draugr when Steadfast ran in and hit the zombie in the side with his warhammer. Nearly losing the grip on its battleaxe, the Draugr rolled over, struggling to stop its roll with the remains of its forelegs.

As it rose and turned toward me, an arrow struck it in the back of the neck. Two more followed, shot swiftly from Mephalda’s bow and clearly causing the undead creature considerable pain. It was still able to block my attempted strike using Calcion’s Cleaver, though.

Spinning its battleaxe around, it pushed my sword away. Steadfast blocked its next strike with his warhammer. While he held the Draugr off, Mephalda managed to shoot another arrow into its head. As it tried to push Steadfast back, flames from Mystic covered its head. The flames in its eyes died, even as the flames around its head burned brighter, and the Draugr collapsed.

The Draugr destroyed, we healed our wounds and began to search for the map we’d come here for. Searching the side rooms off the main cavern found us some maps, but none with the portal to Sovngarde marked, and none with a range greater than the land around a small town.

When our search began to prove fruitless, I trotted over to the Word Wall to get a moment away. As always, a word began to glow, and knowledge flew from the wall to my mind. Soon I learned everything the dragons knew about binding, specifically how restless souls were bound to this realm and kept from traveling on to Aetherius. The word for bind in my mind had been replaced by its Draconic counterpart.

~GRON~

“Is anypony else starting to think this may be a lost cause?” Steadfast asked as he turned over yet another chest filled with maps that did us no good.

“I haven’t found anything like what we’re looking for,” Mystic said, levitating a few dozen maps herself, “It looks like there are no maps of Horizon here.”

“Actually, there is one,” Mephalda said from above us.

“Where?” I asked.

“Right there,” she said, pointing down at the stone sculpture in the center of the room.

When I looked puzzled, she flapped down and picked me up. As we ascended, the sculpture began to resemble something very familiar. As we flew higher yet, I realized I was looking down on a perfectly carved replica of Horizon. I could make out famous landmarks like the Crest of the World rearing up near the center of the province, Lake Fillynalta shimmering like liquid glass nearby, the Seclusion Arch in the north, though no city was built upon it, and Windhorn to the east, looking nearly the same as it did today.

“It’s Horizon!” I exclaimed, “It must have been carved as an exact replica during the time the dragons ruled. This has every city and fortress built by the ancient earth ponies on it!”

“What about the portal to Sovngarde?” Steadfast called up.

“Just a moment,” I said, drawing a journal out of my saddlebags.

In it I had been keeping track of the snatches of Draconic I’d learned, piecing together how the dragon language worked. It wasn’t perfect, but I knew at least of few of the basic runes and words now. Carefully I translated Sovngarde into Draconic and searched the map for matching runes.

“Over there,” I said, pointing to a ruin on the eastern edge of the map.

Mephalda flew me over and deposited me next to the ruin, where Steadfast and Mystic had already assembled.

“That’s the word for Sovngarde,” I said, pointing to a set of runes carved into the mountains, “I have no idea what the rest of the words around it say, but this is the only mention of Sovngarde on the whole map, so I think it’s safe to assume the portal’s built here.”

“And this ruin here,” Steadfast said, pointing to the structure next to the words.

“If my translation’s correct,” I said, translating the runes next to it and marking the location on my map, “The portal is at Skuldafn.”

Level Up
Health: 250 Stamina: 240 Magicka: 250
New Perk: I Guess I Forgot to Jump [Heavy Armor] -- You are now so acquainted with your armor that, when wearing it, half of your fall damage is negated.
Dragon Soul collected
Word of Power learned: GRON -- Bind; Become Ethereal – Combined with FEIM and ZEI, GRON allows you to stay in your ethereal state for a longer amount of time, and use magic while you are in it.
New Quest: Alduin Falls -- Travel to Sovngarde and destroy Alduin.

Author's Note

One week remains until the trip to Sovngarde.
One week remains 'till the Tongues heed the call.
To battle Buckatosh's firstborn in the land of the dead.
One week remains until Alduin Falls.

That's right. In the next chapter is the moment everything has been building up to: the confrontation with Alduin himself. Be prepared.

In the meantime, feel free to hit up the comment section or message me if you're enjoying the story or have any questions. I'd be more than happy to chat/answer.

Until then, happy reading!

FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 45: World-Eater's End

Chapter XLV: World-Eater’s End
“Even we who ride the currents of time cannot see past time’s end.”

At last, after weeks of searching, Alduin was finally in reach! All we had to do was travel to Skuldafn, enter the portal, and defeat the World-Eater before he could do any more harm. It would be a hard task, but finding his hiding place had brought us one step closer to completing it. I was sure Paarthurnax would want to hear the news, and we would pass by the Crest of the World on our way to Skuldafn anyway, so we decided to travel up the mountain to tell him.

“SKULDAFN??” the ancient dragon asked when we told him, “I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF SUCH A PLACE!!”

“Well, you wouldn’t have, would you?” Steadfast asked, “You said that Alduin kept the location of the portal secret, even from you.”

“HOW HE COULD KEEP THE CONSTRUCTION OF SUCH A THING SECRET STILL BAFFLES ME TODAY!! BUT NOW THAT YOU HAVE FOUND IT, I AM CERTAIN OF WHAT MUST BE DONE!! WE MUST CONFRONT ALDUIN, AND STOP HIM FOR ALL ETERNITY!!”

“We?” I asked.

“YES, I SHALL ACCOMPANY YOU IN YOUR QUEST!! I CANNOT HELP BUT TAKE PARTIAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THIS EVIL THAT HAS SPREAD!! WHEN I WAS YOUNG, I STOOD AT ALDUIN’S SIDE, BELIEVING WE WERE EXALTED BEINGS, AND THAT IT WAS RIGHT FOR THE MORTALS TO WORSHIP US!! I ENCOURAGED HIM, MADE HIM INTO THE TYRANT HE BECAME!! I SHARE THE BLAME FOR THIS MADNESS, AND I MUST ATONE FOR MY CRIMES BY HELPING TO END IT!!”

“COME!! ALDUIN’S PLANS HAVE NEARLY COME TO FRUITION!! WE MUST BE SWIFT IF WE ARE TO STOP HIM!! CLIMB UPON MY BACK, MY LITTLE PONIES, AND WE WILL TRAVEL AS ONLY A DOVAH CAN!!”

Careful not to impale ourselves on the great dragon’s spines, we climbed onto Paarthurnax’s back. I realized what a great honor must have been bestowed on us, to be allowed to ride atop a dragon. Once we were securely seated upon him, Paarthurnax flapped his mighty wings and leapt from the Crest of the World.

All of Horizon spread our beneath us, trees bunching together into rolling forests split only by rivers that appeared to be no more than shining ribbons. The view was breathtaking as we flew above the clouds. Was this how pegasi experienced the world? I was suddenly very envious of their ability to fly.

As Paarthurnax glided, we were able to relax and take in the view. As we traveled farther east, mountains appeared to both the north and the south, narrowing as we flew over the Split, home to Splitten. Indeed, we could see the town below, perched upon the eastern edge of Lake Hornrich. To the north, I knew the Pale Pass cut through the mountains, leading to Kvatch. I almost thought I saw the tiny town that’d once been my home in the distance, but it must’ve been my imagination.

Eventually the Split closed up, and only mountains jutted up beneath us, as tightly packed and impossible to navigate as the Karth. From time to time I could see bits and pieces of a crumbling trail once built by the ancient earth ponies, no doubt leading to Skuldafn, and marked them on my map whenever I could.

Where the mountains were thickest, Skuldafn itself appeared at last, a crumbling ruin of ancient stone. As Paarthurnax glided down toward the complex, I could see the tiny figures of Draugr scampering about. A few dragons also were perched atop the ancient stone spires, and two of them took off to meet us as we landed.

“GO!!” Paarthurnax called as he dropped us off, “GET TO THE PORTAL!!”

As we ran across a stone platform that seemed to be little more than a landing pad for dragons, Paarthurnax flew up into the sky to meet the dragons coming for us. They clashed in midair, clawing at each other and sending pillars of flame curling through the air.

As Paarthurnax battled the dragons above us, we charged the Draugr assembling before us. I drew both my swords as we clashed with the crowd of undead. With Calcion’s Cleaver I blocked a Draugr with a war axe, and with the Blade of Hoofingar I held off another with a mace. Twisting my ancient earth pony sword around, I threw the war axe from the Draugr’s mouth, finishing up with a strike to the back of its neck.

The one with the mace proved harder to hold off, as my blade simply slipped past the weapon’s head. With my ebony sword I swung toward the zombie’s legs, but my swing was stopped by its mace. Again I swung at its legs, and it blocked again, but this time Calcion’s Cleaver was free to cut across the unprotected side of its head. Ichor bleeding from the wound, the Draugr growled and jumped at me, only to be impaled by the Blade of Hoofingar.

Moving forward, I helped take the pressure off Mystic, who was holding off four Draugr at once with her magic. An ice spike from my horn knocked down one before it even knew I was there. A second swiftly fell to a strike from my war axe, lighting it on fire.

The side of my armor suddenly bent inward, and I was thrown into the air as I was hit by a warhammer. Recovering from my roll, I turned to face the zombie that had attacked me. As it charged me again, I sent a blast of fire into its face, disorienting it. I was easily able to dodge the swing it threw at me, venturing a slice across its back with Calcion’s Cleaver.

I jumped back to avoid the buck it gave at me with its hindlegs. Before I could close in again, the Draugr had swung around and was ready to crush me with its warhammer. As it brought the weapon around toward me, I blocked with Calcion’s Cleaver, holding it off. With another swing, it brought its warhammer beneath my sword and threw it from my grasp.

I Shouted before it could bring its hammer down on my head.

Its weapon suddenly went flying from its mouth, leaving it defenseless. Well, not completely defenseless. I still had to dodge the kicks from its rotting forelegs as I rolled over and retrieved my sword. Once I had Calcion’s Cleaver again, I had the upper hoof, and swiftly took off the Draugr’s head.

Ice suddenly sprung up next to me, nearly freezing one of my hindlegs to the ground. Looking ahead, I saw a Draugr wielding a staff standing on a set of stone steps that led up the exterior of Skuldafn. Mephalda was shooting arrows into the Draugr wizard, but most of them it managed to freeze in midair, sending them tumbling to the ground.

I shot lightning at the zombie as I galloped toward it, but I was stopped before I reached the stairs by a Draugr with a pike. I hooked Calcion’s Cleaver under the blade of the Draugr’s weapon and forced it down to the ground. Drawing the Blade of Hoofingar, I swung the second sword down through the pike’s haft, separating the blade from the handle. The Draugr now had only a broken stick in its mouth, and I was able to easily take it down with a chop to the neck.

The corpse of my defeated opponent froze solid as a blast of magic intended for me hit it. Pushing the icy mass aside, I continued my charge up the stairs toward the Draugr with a staff. I ducked down at the last moment when a blast of ice flew at my face. Using Calcion’s Cleaver, I forced the end of the staff away from me. With my ebony sword, I attempted to take out the Draugr’s legs, but it spun its staff around and blocked.

I Shouted, lighting the Draugr on fire with my dragon breath.

It stumbled backwards up the stairs, but didn’t let go of its grip on the staff. Pushing with my swords, I managed to push it into the stone, but wasn’t able to break the block. The tip of the staff began to glow an icy blue before suddenly sending ice flying out in all directions. Most of it turned to water and steam as it hit the flaming Draugr, but some of it was able to congeal on my face, leaving frost in my coat.

No longer flaming, the Draugr began to push back on me, forcing me down the stairs. I exited the block, drawing my swords back, as I began to tip backwards. As the zombie tried to shoot ice directly at me, I knocked the staff away with my ancient earth pony blade. It continued to try to hit me directly, and I continued to block, but I knew I couldn’t keep it up for much longer.

Mephalda suddenly swooped in, her bow slung across her back, and the Blackwing blades she’d taken from Mare’s Reach held in her hooves. With a quick swipe from behind, she cut the Draugr’s staff into three pieces, sending both the zombie and me flying backwards from the magical blast. Mephalda quickly threw the Draugr off of her when she landed and took off into the air again, coming down on the Draugr with both blades out, stabbing it in the heart.

A lightning bolt from Mystic shot past my ear as she advanced up the stairs and brought the fight to the Draugr standing at the top of the ruin. As Steadfast passed me, his warhammer knocking the zombies aside, I also climbed the stairs and shot ice spikes into the horde of Draugr.

As I reached the top of the ruin, I brought out Calcion’s Cleaver and the Axe of Whitetrot and began slashing indiscriminately. A Draugr with a war axe stopped the swing of my sword. As it tried to pull my weapon away, I drew the blade from its axe’s grasp. Blocking with my sword as it swung at me, I hooked my own war axe under the Draugr’s blade and pulled it from her mouth. A swing from my sword up into the zombie’s chest finished it off.

<<>>

My Shout pushed back the crowd of Draugr pressing toward me, sending many of them falling down the stairs that led down the backside of the ruin, breaking limbs and necks in the process. The next Draugr that attacked me I fried with flames from my horn before it could strike. When it did, I met its sword with my war axe, twisting the blade from its grip. A cut across the throat sent the corpse back to death.

As two Draugr came at me simultaneously, one with a battleaxe and one with a sword, I drew both my swords to fight. My ebony sword met the Draugr’s ancient steel, and sparks flew from the blade. With Calcion’s Cleaver, I halted the swing of the battleaxe toward my head, but was unable to push the Draugr back. As the Draugr with the battleaxe pulled back, I swung at the other one with Calcion’s Cleaver, only to have my blade blocked. With no time to bring the Blade of Hoofingar back around to block, I jumped out of the way to avoid being chopped in half by the battleaxe.

My blades were suddenly aided by a whipping wind that cut across the ruin, moving them in a flurry too fast to follow. The Draugr with the battleaxe I swiftly beat back, until I was able to slice at its forelegs, causing it to fall over. A strike to the head by Calcion’s Cleaver caused the light in its eyes to die. The Draugr with the sword died swiftly as I knocked its blade from its mouth with repeated strikes and finished up with a blow to the throat.

Flaming scales suddenly began to rain around me, and I looked up to see Paarthurnax and a ruby red dragon engaged in combat. The two giant lizards went tumbling over the battlefield, slamming into the top of the ruin and crushing many of the Draugr. I lost sight of them as they crashed through a weathered stone pillar and slid off the edge of Skuldafn.

Looking down the back edge of the structure we’d climbed, I could see that few Draugr were left standing. The remaining undead were milling around the bottom of the stairs that led down the building I was standing on top of. Past the stairs was a stone plain with a roughly circular carving in the center of it. Surrounding the carving were stones pointing into the sky, one of which had a shimmering blue dragon perched atop it.

As my friends rushed down the stairs, bringing the fight to the Draugr, I joined them. The first zombie I saw, I sent lightning flying into its face, frying its brain and causing it to fall over into another of the undead warriors. The second Draugr became pinned, and was no match for me as I ran it through with Calcion’s Cleaver.

When there were only a few steps left, I leapt from them, impaling a Draugr with my ancient earth pony sword. I ducked down as a sword held by a nearby Draugr flew over my head. Knocking the zombie over with a buck from my hindlegs, I spun around and sliced through it with my blade.

I rolled to the side as a Draugr with a warhammer swung at me. Where I had been a moment before, there was now a crack spreading through the stone. As the Draugr brought its weapon down at me again, I blocked with Calcion’s Cleaver. When the hammer continued to move toward me, I brought out the Blade of Hoofingar as well to block. However, even that proved ineffective, and the Draugr began to overpower me.

<> I Shouted, coating the Draugr in ice.

Before I could shatter the ice and kill the zombie inside, a blast of lightning suddenly hit me, throwing me across the stone. Sparks still danced across my armor as I staggered to my hooves. I searched for the source, my eyes finally locking on a Draugr dressed in elaborate robes, a golden staff held in its mouth.

Before it could strike at me again, Mystic sent a blast of ice at the zombie, coating it with frost. Giving a growl, it turned toward her, shooting lightning brighter and stronger than any I’d seen before from its staff. Mystic raised a ward around herself, and the storm of lightning slammed into it, crackling over the surface. The staff the Draugr was using seemed to have no limit to its power, as it continued to pour lightning from the tip, and soon Mystic became exhausted by the strain of holding it off.

<<>> I Shouted, knocking the Draugr over and cutting off the flow of lightning from its staff.

Mystic let her ward fall and collapsed to the ground. No time to check if she was all right, I charged the Draugr with the staff. As it picked itself off the ground, I began to shoot ice spikes at it, some sticking in its rotten flesh and others shooting all the way through, opening up holes in its frail body.

As I reached the Draugr, I blasted flames at its head, jumping over it. I drew Calcion’s Cleaver as I did so, swinging it around toward the zombie’s head. Surprisingly, I found the golden staff blocking my path. I continued to fly over the Draugr, but Calcion’s Cleaver was pulled from my grasp and sent spinning across the stone.

The Draugr turned toward me as I landed, pointing the end of its staff, which was shaped like a pony head, at me. The eyes glowed as lightning began to build around it. I pulled out the Axe of Whitetrot and yanked the staff away from me as it discharged its lightning.

Spinning its staff, the Draugr threw my axe away. As it did so, however, I pulled out the Blade of Hoofingar and slashed through its forelegs. As it fell, it used its staff for support. Rising to my hooves, I knocked the staff away from it with my ebony sword. As the Draugr collapsed to the ground, I ran it through with the Blade of Hoofingar for good measure.

Many of the Draugr on the field were already dead, with only a few still locked in combat with my friends. Seeing none nearby, I retrieved the Axe of Whitetrot and galloped over to retrieve Calcion’s Cleaver before joining the fight. The dragon that had been atop the monument before suddenly blocked my path to my weapon, landing directly in front of me.

I swung the Blade of Hoofingar in front of me, slashing the dragon across its face. As it let loose a stream of fire, I ducked beneath its head, making my way toward its wing. I quickly chugged down a potion of fire resistance as it turned its flames toward me, but it gave up on breathing fire when it realized it was hurting itself more than me.

As it snapped at me, I jumped onto the leading edge of its wing, and its jaws closed around its own flesh instead of mine. Giving a wail, it drew its head back, but also retracted its wing, which I was running across. I found myself catapulted into the air, landing on the dragon’s back and getting cut up by its spines in the process.

It turned out even Griffin armor could only take so much abuse, and I had a few rents in the chestplate through which oozed my blood. I quickly cast a healing spell and drank down a potion of healing before staggering to my hooves. It was hard to keep my balance on the lizard’s back, but somehow I managed and began to work my way up toward the dragon’s head.

Craning its neck all the way around, it sent a wave of fire cascading down its back, forcing me to duck down. My potion of fire resistance had worn off, and though my armor did an admirable job of protecting me, flames still made it through the cracks and rents in my armor, burning my flesh beneath. At last the flames cut off and the dragon turned its head toward new targets.

Pushing myself up and wincing as the armor rubbed against my burns, I was looked out at the dragon’s wing, which was now on fire. Mystic danced around it, avoiding the dragon’s flames as she began to freeze some of the charred flesh, causing it to break into pieces. As I advanced up the dragon’s neck, Steadfast also joined in the fight, smashing through the frozen flesh with his warhammer, even taking the dragon’s tail off after Mystic iced it.

I crawled up the dragon’s neck while my friends kept it busy, using its spines as makeshift hoofholds. As I neared its head, I stabbed my ebony sword through the flesh, ripping scales off as the blade cut through. The dragon twisted its head around, searching for me, and caught sight of me for a moment before Mephalda put an arrow through its eye.

At last, I reached the top of the dragon’s head. Swinging my sword wildly, I chopped off enough spines that I was able to safely stand. Still, I was forced to hold tightly to the remaining spikes so that I wouldn’t be thrown off.

<>

My Shout froze the top of the dragon’s head completely, the ice sinking deep into the flesh. Raising the Blade of Hoofingar high above my head, I plunged it through the now-weak frozen flesh and into the dragon’s brain. One last puff of smoke escaped its nostrils as it collapsed to the ground, dead.

Downing a potion to help heal my burns, and wincing as it took effect, repairing my flesh, I made my way over to where my ancient earth pony blade had fallen. I reached it just as the dragon combusted, and all its memories were transferred into my mind. I knew everything about its long life, but especially vibrant were the times the dragon had contemplated how ghosts were bound to this plane of existence, and how one could use that binding to make an ethereal form last longer.

<<>> I Shouted, and my body took on its ethereal form, leaving me transparent and unable to touch the world around me.

“YOUR THU’UM HAS GROWN VERY STRONG INDEED!!” Paarthurnax commented.

I turned around to see that he had joined us, bearing a few new scars from his battle with the other dragons. Indeed, all of us had taken injuries from the fight. For Paarthurnax, nothing could be done to aid the healing process, but we ponies were able to fix ourselves up using a combination of potions and healing spells. After all, we would need to be at our best for the fight that was yet to come.

“So, where’s the portal?” Steadfast asked as we healed.

“I BELIEVE IT IS RIGHT HERE!!” Paarthurnax said, motioning to the large carved circle nearby, “BUT IT IS NOT OPEN AT THE MOMENT!! THERE MUST HAVE BEEN SOME WAY FOR THE PONIES HERE TO ACTIVATE IT!!”

Searching around, my eyes were drawn to a pedestal near where I had fought the Draugr wizard. On it was a single hole in the stone, surrounded by an intricate circular carving that matched the portal gate and the embroidery on the Draugr’s robes. Seeing no better option, I picked up the staff the Draugr had been wielding and slotted it into the hole.

Suddenly, the carving upon the ground came to life. The circle broke into many parts, which began to sink into the ground. As they parted, a bright multicolored light began to spill from the hole that was created. Forming a cone, these lights flew upward from the hole, looking like concentrated aurora. Down in the hole itself was a swirling vortex of deep blues and midnight purples.

“THE PORTAL TO SOVNGARDE!!” Paarthurnax said with awe, “COME, ALDUIN AWAITS!!”

Paarthurnax flapped into the air before dropping into the portal and disappearing. Tentatively, I stepped up to the portal’s edge. Closing my eyes, I stepped forward into the swirling lights and passed out of the mortal world.

{O} {O} {O}

When I opened my eyes, I was standing in a grassy mountain valley. Around me were mountains tipped with snow, and a simple hoofpath ran down through a foggy meadow. I could almost believe I was still in Horizon, if it wasn’t for the red-tinged aurora that swirled through the sky. Behind me a swirling vortex of light covered the mountainside. My friends stepped out of it as I watched, materializing here much like I had.

“So this is Sovngarde,” Steadfast marveled at the land around him, “An earth pony paradise.”

“How do we know if Alduin is here?” Mephalda asked as Paarthurnax landed nearby, sweeping away the mist with his wing beats.

“HE IS HERE FOR SURE!!” the great dragon said, “THIS MIST REEKS OF HIS FOUL MAGIC!! NO DOUBT HE USES IT TO ENSNARE LOST SOULS FOR HIM TO FEAST UPON!!”

“Well, let’s stop him before he can do that anymore,” I said.

Our entire party in agreement, we set off down the hoofpath, Paarthurnax flying above us and clearing the mist away with his wings. Steadfast was right, this place really was a paradise. It was like Horizon, except that everything was so much better. The grass was greener, the mountains more magnificent, and even the air seemed fresher, making you feel good to be alive. Not that many of this realm’s inhabitants were. We were trespassers in the land of the dead and had to be careful to watch our step.

As the path wound around yet another bend, a gigantic stone and timber structure came into view in the distance. Across a set of magnificent waterfalls was a great lodge, built in the most extravagant earth pony style I’d seen. The only way to it was a bridge made from the skeleton of a dragon, which was surprisingly sturdy and held up well as we crossed.

“I SHALL WAIT OUT HERE AND KEEP WATCH FOR ALDUIN!!” Paarthurnax announced, “I DOUBT I WOULD BE WELCOMED IN SHOR’S HALLS!!”

Tentatively, I pushed upon the massive door to the hall. Though it appeared to be made of heavy timber and reached to the sky, it swung inward easily, allowing us passage into the building. The inside of the structure was filled with earth ponies from all time periods reveling in the afterlife. I even recognized several of the ponies in the room, such as King Oman One-Eye, the Tongues, and even High King Shade.

“Welcome to the Hall of Valor!” a stocky gray pony with a long beard said, trotting up to us, “What brings you visitors to the land of the honored dead?”

“You’re Ysgroomar!” Steadfast said with almost fangirl delight, “Discoverer of the Northlands, leader of the 500 Companions, first King of Horizon!”

“All true, my friend,” Ysgroomar replied with a laugh, “And one day we shall have the time to talk again. Now, however, it is time for you to disclose why you have come here.”

“We’re here to defeat Alduin, once and for all,” I announced.

“Yes, I had heard the great World-Eater had returned,” Ysgroomar said, stroking his beard, “And now he once again feasts on the lost souls of Sovngarde. If you intend to bring the beast down, I shan’t stop you, but I advise you speak to the Tongues first. They may be able to help you.”

After giving my thanks to Ysgroomar, the four of us spread out to gather information from the residents of Sovngarde. I myself made my way over to the table at which the Tongues sat. After looking at me for a moment, they talked among each other, apparently deciding that they recognized me.

“Sapphire,” Uris spoke first, “I did not expect to see you again.”

“Neither did I,” I admitted, “Especially so soon.”

“Soon?” Felicia asked.

“Well, it’s only been two days for me,” I said.

“I see,” Uris said, “And now you are here to slay Alduin, in the only place he can be slain, which we learned after our foolhardy decision to confront him at the Crest of the World.”

“That’s right,” I said, “I was hoping you could help me.”

They traded looks for a moment before Erik answered me.

“We cannot,” he said.

“Why not?”

“We are the creators of Dragonrend,” Erik explained, “Even in our deaths that act clings to us. But, it had the unexpected effect of protecting this hall when we entered. So long as we remain within the Hall of Valor, Alduin cannot harm it, and all the souls already within are safe. If we were to leave, Alduin would swoop down upon this place, and devour every soul within, becoming stronger still.”

“So you can’t help me defeat Alduin,” I said, sadly, “Is there at least any advice you can give me on how to do it?”

“As you know, we were unable to defeat Alduin ourselves,” Felicia said, “But he is a dragon like any other. As such, a fatal blow, hard as it may be to land one on him, should kill him.”

As I nodded my understanding, a roar came from outside the Hall of Valor, shaking the building and interrupting the revelry. I galloped out, meeting Steadfast, Mephalda, and Mystic on the way. Paarthurnax let out another bellow of warning as we exited the building, weapons drawn and ready.

“ALDUIN APPROACHES!!” he warned, taking off into the sky.

A roar shook the valley before we could even see Alduin. We were still crossing the bridge back over the waterfalls when the giant black dragon suddenly appeared. Flapping out of the mist, he seemed to have his attention focused only on Paarthurnax, who was flapping toward him.

<”!!GREAT TRAITOR!!”> Alduin greeted his brother, <”!!YOUR MEDDLING CAST ME ADRIFT ON TIME, RUINED MY PLANS, AND YOU NOW INTRUDE UPON MY FEEDING GROUNDS, THAT I MAY NOT EVEN EAT WITHOUT YOUR TREACHERY STAINING THE OCCASION!!”

“AL~DU~IN, PLEASE, LISTEN TO REASON, BROTHER!!” Paarthurnax pleaded, “I DO NOT WISH TO HARM YOU, BUT I AM PREPARED TO DO WHAT MUST BE DONE!! TURN FROM YOUR FOOLISH PLANS AND LIVE IN HARMONY WITH THE PONIES, ELSE I SHALL BE FORCED TO DESTROY YOU!!”

<”!!DESTROY ME??!!”> Alduin said incredulously, <”!!YOU FORGET YOUR PLACE!! I AM AL~DU~IN, FIRSTBORN OF BUCKTOSH, DEVOURER OF THE WORLD!! NONE CAN HARM ME, NOT EVEN YOU!!”>

“I DID NOT WISH FOR IT TO COME TO THIS!!” Paarthurnax said sadly, “BUT YOU LEAVE ME NO CHOICE!!”

Sending fire from his nostrils cascading over his body, he flew swiftly into Alduin. The greater dragon was only taken off guard for a moment before he battered Paarthurnax with his wings, cutting into his flesh with the spines that sprouted upon them. As Paarthurnax clawed at Alduin’s wing, tearing bits of the membrane off, the World-Eater swung his tail around toward his brother’s head, and Paarthurnax was forced to back away.

<<>> I Shouted, careful not to hit Paarthurnax.

My Shout hit true, causing Alduin to toss about in pain. Paarthurnax swooped at him as he was forced to the ground. Holding Paarthurnax off with swings of his tail, Alduin searched for the source of the Shout. Eventually his eyes fixed on my friends and me, who were climbing off the dragon bridge.

<”!!I SEE YOUR TREACHERY KNOWS NO END!! EVEN AFTER THAT DAY ATOP THE MOUNTAIN’S PEAK, YOU CONTINUED TO TEACH THE MORTALS OUR SACRED WORDS!! AND NOW THEY HAVE INHERITED THE SAME DARKNESS THAT GRIPPED YOUR FIRST PUPILS!! DO YOU REALLY THINK THEY INTEND TO STOP WHEN I AM DEFEATED??!! HOW MANY MORE OF OUR RACE WILL FALL TO QUENCH THEIR BLOODLUST??!!”>

“BE SILENT!!” Paarthurnax retorted, covering Alduin’s back in ice.

Frozen spines snapped off the great dragon’s back as his brother clawed at them. Swinging his head around, Alduin clamped his jaws around Paarthurnax’s neck. Biting in and ripping off scales, he threw Paarthurnax off of him. Though hot blood dripped from the wounds on his neck, staining the ground, Paarthurnax rushed in toward Alduin anyway.

The World-Eater gave a mighty flap of his wings and ascended back into the sky, causing Paarthurnax to crash into the forest of pines that filled Sovngarde. Taking off into the air himself, he shot fire at his elder brother.

As we tried to get closer to where the two dragons were fighting, the mist itself seemed to block our progress. Tendrils of the glowing mist wrapped around us, impeding our walk. It was as if it had a mind of its own, and the intention of keeping us away from Alduin.

<<>> I Shouted, and the mist obeyed my Voice, rolling away into the far edges of the valley.

Now we could freely move and clearly see the battle raging above us. Alduin and Paarthurnax were still locked in combat, but as we watched, Alduin pushed his younger brother away. Paarthurnax went tumbling back before recovering, and rocketed toward Alduin with flames blasting from his maw. Once again, the two dragons slammed into each other.

With his claws, Alduin grabbed at Paarthurnax’s wings, shredding the membrane. Only by holding on to the larger dragon was he able to stay in the air, as his wings were now useless ribbons of flesh. As he bit at Alduin’s neck, breaking spines off and tearing through his scaly hide, the World Eater shoved him away.

Paarthurnax fell from the sky, landing heavily on the ground near us. Flames burned in Alduin’s nostrils as he swooped down and roasted his brother. Paarthurnax tried to rise, but Alduin repeatedly knocked him down, ripping through his hide with his claws on each pass.

<<>> I Shouted, knocking Alduin out of the sky and removing his advantage.

He crashed down to the ground near where we were standing, his expansive wings blocking out the sky. I shot ice spikes upward, tearing holes in the membrane and allowing pinpricks of light to shine through. Mystic joined me in the attack, shooting lightning into the World-Eater’s body.

As he rose, the dragon looked at us as if we were a minor annoyance and sent a wave of flame rolling our way. The fire incinerated everything before it, destroying the perfect landscape of Sovngarde. As the inferno passed, the land began to heal, sod regrowing over the charred land, though evidence of scars still remained.

As we were forced to race away from the fire, Alduin turned his attention toward Paarthurnax. The two great lizards lumbered toward each other, digging their claws into each other’s flesh. Paarthurnax scratched his claws down Alduin’s back, sending black scales cascading off and ripping great gashes through the World-Eater’s thick armor.

Alduin responded by biting at Paarthurnax’s wing, tearing what was left of the membrane. Digging his claws into his younger brother’s side, he tore through the flesh, ripping gouges across his chest. With his tail, Paarthurnax forced Alduin away before more damage could be done.

The grass beneath each of the dragons withered to death as their blood spilled onto it. Both had severe wounds, though Paarthurnax seemed to be feeling it much more than his older brother. As Alduin launched himself toward his brother, Paarthurnax pushed him back with his fire breath.

Alduin countered with ice that quickly began to overcome the smaller dragon’s flames. Paarthurnax stumbled back away from the growing glacier until he was standing near the edge of the now-frozen waterfall. With a swing of his tail, Alduin demolished the ice before him to get a clear shot at Paarthurnax.

As Alduin lunged at him, Paarthurnax jumped onto Alduin’s back, clambering over him and digging in with his claws wherever he could. His claws shrieking on the ice as he came to a stop, Alduin began to toss around, determined to dislodge Paarthurnax from where he was attached to his back. As his grip began to pull free, Paarthurnax sank his teeth into Alduin’s shoulder, tearing away a patch of flesh, scales, spines, and all as he went flying.

Alduin took off into the air before swooping down at Paarthurnax, his claws tearing apart the smaller dragon’s back. As he came back around, he landed on his brother, raking a claw across his face and tearing off the spines from the undamaged side of his head. Paarthurnax breathed fire onto Alduin’s shoulder wound and squirmed out from under the larger dragon as he tossed around in agony.

Paarthurnax ducked down as Alduin snapped at him, and closed his own jaw around the base of Alduin’s neck, his teeth slicing through the scales. Craning his neck around, Alduin grabbed Paarthurnax’s neck as well. Giving a tug that also ripped out his own scales and flesh, Alduin pulled Paarthurnax off of him.

Paarthurnax clawed at Alduin’s face and struggled to break free, but the World-Eater kept his grip on his brother’s neck, even as his spines and scales were torn off from Paarthurnax’s swings. Swinging his neck around, Alduin slammed Paarthurnax into the ground until he stopped fighting.

Alduin opened his jaw for a moment before snapping it back shut and crushing Paarthurnax’s neck. The younger dragon seized his struggling as the life drained out of him. I watched in shock as Alduin released his brother, allowing his body to fall to the ground, dead.

<”!!YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE STOOD IN MY WAY!!> Alduin said as he pushed Paarthurnax’s lifeless body over the edge of the frozen waterfall, sending it falling down a bottomless pit.

<<>> I Shouted, finding my voice.

As my Shout hit Alduin and he flinched with pain, I charged him, hoping to kill the beast before he was able to recover. He shook the effects of Dragonrend off far too quickly, however, and I found myself dodging his spiny tail as it flew over me. Drawing Calcion’s Cleaver and the Blade of Hoofingar, I stabbed both swords into the tail as I ran alongside it, careful not to impale myself.

Alduin turned to shoot flame at me, but suddenly turned away as Mephalda began to shoot arrows into his wounded shoulder. Taking a deep breath, he lit the sky up with fire, forcing Mephalda to swiftly dodge out of the way. His flames cut off as a blast of pure magic from Mystic struck his head, and he turned to snap at her.

Steadfast jumped ahead of me, leaping onto Alduin’s back and smashing his spines aside with his warhammer, opening a path for me. I followed my earth pony companion, driving my swords through the rents opened in Alduin’s scaly armor by Paarthurnax. The great dragon may have been dead, but I intended not to let his sacrifice be in vain.

Flaring his wings, he knocked Mystic aside and turned his attention toward where Steadfast and I were galloping across his back. We jumped off as he sent flames cascading through the jungle of spines we were traversing. As we neared his wings, I slashed a path open through the membrane with my swords to let us through.

Rolling across the ground, we were forced to gallop off immediately as Alduin’s flames followed us, even burning through his own wing. I shot flame at his tail as it swung past, though I seemed to do little damage to it. Circling back around the great dragon, I continued to slash at any break in his flesh until I was near his neck.

I Shouted, and Alduin staggered back momentarily as my Voice marked him for death.

His scaly armor temporarily vulnerable, I dug both my swords into it, slicing through to the flesh beneath. As I did so, Alduin reared up, and I was forced to drag my swords toward his chest to keep him from pulling them away from me. I was about midway down his chest when my Shout suddenly wore off, and I had a much harder time dragging my swords through his flesh.

<> I Shouted up at his cracked and rent flesh as I drew my swords out.

Ice coated his scaly hide, seeping through the cracks and freezing the flesh beneath. Swinging my swords as hard as I could, I smashed the icy flesh. I fell backwards as the meaty insides of Alduin spilled out at me, some frozen, and some merely displaced by Paarthurnax’s repeated strikes, set free when I cracked open Alduin’s hide.

As I began to wipe the acidic blood off of me, I suddenly stopped. There, through the broken flesh and past splintered bone, was Alduin’s heart, beating rapidly to pump his draconic blood throughout his vast body. All it would take to kill him would be a blade to that all-important organ. Unfortunately, Alduin had other plans.

He heaved his massive bulk up above me before bringing it back down toward me. I watched in horror as his scaly hide came bearing down on me. Even if I could get to my hooves, there was no way I would be able to get away in time before I was crushed. I doubted even my Griffin armor could save me from this.

“Sapphire!” I heard Mystic’s voice call a split second before Alduin landed on me.

However, just before he could, I suddenly saw a flash appear next to me, and Mystic was right beside me. With another flash, I was suddenly out from under Alduin, sitting nearby as he crashed to the ground.

“How did you-” I started to ask.

“Short-range teleportation spell,” Mystic explained as she helped to remove the dragon blood from where it was still burning me.

“We’ve got a chance,” I told her as I bandaged up my burns as best I could, “Alduin’s heart is exposed, we just need a clear shot to strike it.”

Mystic never got a chance to respond. She quickly pushed me to the side, catapulting herself in the other direction as a blast of Alduin’s flame tore through where we’d been sitting. Building lightning in my horn, I sent a blast flying into Alduin’s face as I galloped toward him.

As it arced over his head, distracting him, Mephalda flew down and landed on the top of his neck. Pulling out her Blackwing blades, she began to hack at the flesh Paarthurnax had already severely damaged. Great chunks of his scaly armor fell away until his flesh was exposed.

As Alduin tried to throw Mephalda off, Steadfast struck the exposed flesh with his warhammer, causing the World-Eater to seize up. Mephalda got a few more swings in with her sword, even piercing Alduin’s throat, before she took off to safety. As Alduin breathed fire, Steadfast nearly got roasted as well, as flames shot from the hole in the dragon’s neck, charring the flesh and burning the hole even larger.

Up in the air again, Mephalda drew her bow and began to shoot arrows at Alduin,e ven burying a few in one of his eyes. As it went dead, he tossed his head around, blowing flame everywhere with the hope of hitting us. The flames stopped flowing from his mouth and blasted out the side of his neck as Mystic plastered his maw with ice. A blast of lightning followed, causing him to rear up, and finally giving me a clear shot.

<<>>

I quickly closed the distance with Alduin, shooting under his neck and up to his exposed chest. Before he slammed back down on me, I leapt into his chest cavity, the Axe of Whitetrot held in my magic. The blade slammed into Alduin’s heart, ripping the delicate organ open and catching it on fire simultaneously. The blood within lit of fire, and I was forced to abandon my axe as a blackened and charred mess.

Giving a great roar of pain, Alduin began to collapse. I quickly retreated from under him, keeping my distance as the World-Eater fell to the ground. Dragon blood spilled through the meadow, hissing as it killed the grass. With a thud Alduin hit the ground, the fire in his eyes dying.

“We did it,” I said, not quite believing myself.

“We did it!” Steadfast exclaimed, tackling me into a hug and jumping with joy.

All four of us cheered, suddenly feeling fantastic despite our many wounds. We’d accomplished our impossible goal! Alduin was dead, and the dragon attacks would stop! The Northlands were safe once more!

<”!!YOU REALLY THINK IT’S THAT EASY??!!”> a voice suddenly boomed from behind us.

Quickly I turned around to watch in horror as Alduin heaved himself up from where he’d fallen. His chest cavity suddenly began fill back in with flesh, and the gashes in his hide mended themselves. His neck closed up and his spines began to regrow. The arrows in his eye burst into flame as it came back to life.

Rapidly swinging around, his jaws closed on Steadfast, ripping him to shreds. Tears filled my eyes as my earth pony companion’s tattered body fell to the ground.

<”!!YOU THINK THAT PUNY MORTALS LIKE YOU CAN DEFEAT THE LIKES OF ME??!!”>

Swinging his tail around, he knocked Mephalda out of the sky. Before she could recover, he slammed a claw over her. Picking her up, he crushed her to pulp.

<”!!I AM THE GREAT AL~DU~IN, FIRSTBORN OF BUCKATOSH!!”>

He turned toward Mystic next, flames spouting from his nostrils. She brought up a ward to stop the flames as they came at her, but the sheer force of the blast caused it to collapse quickly, and Mystic was reduced to a pile of ash.

<”!!NO MORTAL WEAPON CAN KILL ME, EVEN HERE, FOR I HAVE BOUND MY SOUL TO THIS PLACE!! IF I DIE, SOVNGARDE AND EVERY EARTH PONY’S SOUL GOES WITH ME!!”>

Terribly frightened, I backed away from the towering dragon, suddenly feeling very small and alone. He’d just killed all my friends, and I had no doubt that I was next. Everything we’d done had been pointless. After all our work, Alduin was still alive, and it seemed stronger than ever.

<”!!NONE CAN HARM ME!! NONE CAN TOUCH ME!! I AM AL~DU~IN!!”>

The World-Eater’s jaws came down swiftly upon me, and I died.

Dragon Soul collected

Author's Note

Here ends Act V: To End a Dragon, wherein Sapphire and her friends met the great dragon master Paarthurnax and set off on a winding adventure across the Northlands to defeat Alduin, eventually bringing them to the earth pony afterlife of Sovngarde where they all perished. Here also ends Book 1, and the first half of this story.

This is not the end; in fact it is just the beginning. Be prepared for Book 2, and the true quest for which Sapphire is destined.

Comments? Questions? Outrage? Leave them in the comments or PM me.

Chapter 46: After Death

Chapter XLVI: After Death
“Come visit again. Or I’ll pluck out your eyes!”

I died that day in Sovngarde, I knew I had. Yet, somehow I woke up lying in a featherbed, staring up at a stone ceiling carved with twisting lines that seemed to move over and under each other, squirming across the tiles. I tried to sit up, but instantly was sent back down to my back as my head started spinning.

“Oh, I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” a strangely familiar voice said.

“Where- Where am I?” I asked, finding my voice.

“You are in the city of New Antiquity, capital of the Shivering Isles,” the other voice responded, and the bed itself began to move beneath me, propping me up so I could see around the room, “And it is the First of Evening Star, Year 2oo of the Fourth Era, by your calendar, in case you were wondering.”

Sitting across from my bed, sitting in a wicker chair, was Discord, dressed in the oddest fashion. He was clothed in gray robes, and a pointy hat much like Star-Swirl’s but of the same color of his robes sat upon his head. In a paw, he held a pipe with which he blew smoke that formed into ships, sending them flying through the open window beside me from time to time.

“I don’t understand,” I said, rubbing my head, “What happened.”

“Well, to put it quite plainly, my dear, you died,” Discord said, suddenly right beside me and without his outfit from before, “But you died already in an afterlife, so things were a bit confusing, and you didn’t know quite where to go.”

“In other words, you were thrown into limbo,” the Draconequus continued, picking up a coat stand and attaching its base to the wall before bending over backwards and shimmying under it, “Lucky for you, I was passing by at the time, and I snatched you all up and brought you to my realm to recover.”

“You all? Are my friends alive as well?” I asked hopefully.

“Yes, yes, they’re resting next door,” Discord said, looking annoyed at being interrupted, “Like I was saying, you are now residents of New Antiquity, in my own personal sphere of the Beyond, the Shivering Isles!”

One of the walls in the room suddenly rolled up into the ceiling, revealing a view of Discord’s realm. Though the walls of a city dominated one side of the view, the rest was utterly fantastical and impossible. Multicolored hills rolled off into the distance, covered in all manner of odd things. On the far horizon, I could just make out the shimmering sea that surrounded the Shivering Isles.

“Isn’t it marvelous,” Discord said, sliding a new wall in to replace the old one, “My own personal realm of chaos.”

“We can’t stay here,” I told him plainly, considering my options now that our plan to defeat Alduin had utterly failed.

“Whatever do you mean?” he asked, slithering out from beneath the covers, “You are in my realm, under my control now, and you shall go when I say you can go.”

“You don’t mean to say you’ll keep us here while Alduin and his dragons are out there destroying the Northlands?”

“Why? Would you rather be there, doomed to die again?” Discord asked, pressing a claw against my horn, “What do you plan to do to stop Alduin? Nothing of your world can harm him.”

“You could stop him,” I said.

“Oh, I hardly think I’d do something like that,” the Draconequus said with a harrumph, “I don’t care to meddle in the affairs of mortals unless it brings me entertainment.”

I considered the situation I was in. No weapon I had could possibly harm Alduin, making him, for all intensive purposes, invincible. It seemed that neither Equine nor Draconequus would be willing to help either. Maybe it really was best to remain here in the Shivering Isles. After all, I had nothing else to do. Feeling defeated, I hung my head and wallowed in my misery.

“Oh, you’re going to get all sad now, aren’t you?” Discord said with disdain and began to walk toward the door, lifting it off the floor, “Glum isn’t my style. I’ll be back when you’re more fun.”

“By the way, that’s a fine necklace you have,” he said just before he passed through the door, eyes appearing in the back of his head, “Wherever did you get it?”

Looking down, I realized I was still wearing the odd amulet I’d picked up in Volsteed. All the rest of my gear was lying beside my bed in and around my saddlebags, restored to perfect condition, but this amulet was about my neck, and still as bland as ever. Yet, I could still feel the difference it provided, the warmness and sense of hope spreading through my body as I stared at it.

“I took it off a dead Draugr,” I told Discord honestly, figuring there was no sense in being rude to someone who’d gone out of his way to save my life, even if he was a nearly all-powerful creature from beyond the mortal realm.

“Interesting,” he replied, stroking his beard, “I thought the Elements of Harmony were all lost.”

“The Elements of what?” I asked, intrigued by his offhand comment.

“The Elements of Harmony,” Discord said, tearing the door off the wall completely, and bending it into a chair before sitting on it, “Ancient and powerful artifacts from the beginning of time, said to be so powerful that no one can stand up to them when they are united.”

“Even Alduin?” I asked.

“I hadn’t considered that,” Discord said, though it seemed to me that he may have been lying, “Yes, I suppose so.”

“How would I find them?” I asked, sitting up in bed, excited now that I had a possible way to defeat Alduin.

“Well, there are six of them,” the Draconequus said, counting off on his fingers, “Each represents one of the ancient virtues of honesty, kindness, laughter, generosity, and loyalty.”

“And the sixth?” I asked.

“A mystery,” he replied, drawing a magnifying glass from out of his multi-colored vest, “Though it will only appear when the other five are present, and only if you activate them by demonstrating the virtue they represent.”

“So, which one do I already have?” I asked, looking down at it.

“Oh, it wouldn’t be very sporting of me to just tell you,” Discord said, looking appalled, “No, I think it’s best if you figure it out on your own.”

“Sometimes I can’t tell if you’re with me or against me,” I said with a sigh.

“Why, whatever do you mean?” he said, feigning innocence.

“Well, you saved my life, even though you didn’t have to, and now you’ve told me how I can defeat Alduin,” I explained, “Yet, you seem to constantly block me and get in my way. Why do you do it?”

“I’m a creature of chaos, my dear,” Discord said with a flourish, “Nothing I do will ever make sense to your mind. That doesn’t mean I don’t intend to help, but I’ll do it my way.”

“Fine,” I said, “But it doesn’t do me a whole lot of good to know how to defeat Alduin when I can’t even leave here.”

“Oh, I never said that. You can leave, but only by my terms,” the Draconequus said, stretching out a glass of water on the table beside me until it was a scroll. He then proceeded to unroll it, revealing a long and unreadable contract.

“Okay, what are your terms?” I asked, dreading what I’d be asked to do, but knowing all the same that it was the only way I would ever be able to return to the Northlands.

“Oh, it’s quite simple,” Discord said, gesturing to the ceiling above my head, which became a map of the Northlands, “I just need you to connect my realm to your world.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

“He wants us to do what?” Steadfast asked as we trotted through New Antiquity.

“He wants a more sturdy connection between the Shivering Isles and the Northlands,” I explained, “When Empress Mystica lit the dragonfires all those years ago, it made him unable to open any portals. However, he was still able to establish a few weaker connections, such as the one through Pegasusius’s mind.”

“But now we’re supposed to help him open up a connection with our home?” Mystic asked.

“That’s right,” I said, “It’s the easiest way to travel between the realms, short of an actual portal.”

“And you think it’s a good idea just to let him into our world?” Mephalda asked, “He is a Draconequus after all. Who knows what damage he could cause?”

“I don’t see we really have a choice,” I said, “This is our only way to return as well. We can’t travel through the same connections Discord does. If we want to get home, we’re going to have to trust Discord to honor our deal.”

“So how are we supposed to do this exactly?” Steadfast asked as we left through New Antiquity’s gates.

“Near the center of the island, there’s a tower that holds a crystal,” I explained what Discord had told me, “It used to connect the Shivering Isles to Ponythiah’s realm, but Ponythiah managed to get Discord’s Changelings there to go rouge and shut down the magical linkway. All we need to do is reactivate the tower, and Discord will redirect it to the Northlands.”

“Sounds simple enough,” my earth pony friend said, “I guess.”

After leaving New Antiquity, we made our way to Mount Pandemonium, where our objective lay. Though New Antiquity itself was odd, it had still been built like a sensible city, no doubt to maintain the last slivers of sanity its non-Changeling residents had. Outside the gates was a completely different story.

The Shivering Isles were limited in their shape in space, so things weren’t quite as ridiculous as in Pegasusius the Mad’s mind. Still, gravity didn’t seem to work correctly, the landscape was twisted into fantastical shapes, and random objects, many I didn’t even recognize, dotted the land.

Thankfully we ran into few of the exceedingly insane Changeling and pony residents that lived out in the wilderness. Those that we did tended to ignore us, or float on by, lost in their own madness.

After passing through a school of flying fish and chopping through a jungle of combs, we finally made it to Mount Pandemonium. In the middle of fairly flat land (for the Shivering Isles), the mountain towered up, bits of it jutting out at odd angles. At the top was a stone tower that resembled the architecture of New Antiquity.

Changelings, in their true forms, patrolled the only path leading up to the tower. To see a Changeling as they truly are was a strange sight indeed. They looked much like ponies, except they tended to resemble insects more than equines. A hard black exoskeleton covered their bodies, with holes punching all the way through on their legs. On their back fluttered a pair of insectoid wings, and a knarled horn sprouted from each of their heads. Their eyes were solid disks of blue light, staring though everything.

The first guardian fell as an arrow from Mephalda’s bow punched clear through the hard, black carapace on its head and into its brain. The second guardian refused to be taken out so easily and dodged my ice bolts, rolling across the ground. It hissed as Steadfast charged it and dodged his swing, jumping over him and hovering momentarily. As it did so, Mystic managed to roast it with her fire magic, leaving the smell of burnt bug in the air.

The guardians at the base dealt with, we continued up the precarious path. It was nearly vertical in places, but somehow we managed to hang on as it looped around up Mount Pandemonium. We were about halfway up, and nearly hanging upside-down, when we saw more Changelings.

A trio of them patrolled the path before us, this time with armed with their own weapons. I drew Calcion’s Cleaver as we approached, hoping for a surprise strike. We had no luck, as one of them noticed us advancing up the path and sounded the alarm for the others, using a bizarre clicking language.

Mystic and I both began shooting lightning at them as we charged, but it hardly seemed to faze them other than causing their outlines to shimmer slightly. Steadfast charged in and attacked one with a sword. Swinging his hammer past the Changeling’s weapon, he crushed the wings upon its back before swinging his weapon back around and knocking the creature off Mount Pandemonium. It squealed as it fell, unable to stop the fall with its damaged wings, and was impaled on the knitting needles jutting up from the ground.

As Mephalda shot arrows at another, it brought a shield up to block. I charged it, and with Calcion’s Cleaver I knocked the shield aside. The Changeling’s mace hit me in the shoulder as I did so, but my armor took most of the damage, and I was able to block before it could get a swing in on my face. Pushing back with my weapon, I forced the Changeling away from me until it exited the block.

A shudder went across my armor as the third Changeling struck me with its war axe. The one with the mace I had been fighting gave up on fighting me and instead turned to face Steadfast, who was attempting to crush it like he had the first of the creatures. I focused me energy on the Changeling with the war axe, swinging at it until our blades met. As Mystic blasted it with flame, heating up its exoskeleton, I hooked my sword under the Changeling’s weapon and relieved it of its axe. A kick knocked it directly into the path of another one of Mystic’s attacks, killing it.

After retrieving the Changeling’s war axe to replace the Axe of Whitetrot, we continued up Mount Pandemonium. At last the tower came into sight, a massive stone structure that looked exceedingly out of place. But I suppose it was one of the few places anything even resembling order was allowed in the Shivering Isles, so it was bound to look out of place.

Heavy gates of adamantium barred the entrance, keeping us from entering the tower. However, a few Changelings milled around the gate, and as we watched, a few even passed right through, the gate shimmering as if it were a waterfall being parted. It seemed that it was merely a trick, and not as substantial a barricade as it appeared at first.

Before we approached it, I focused my magic and summoned a flame atronach. The fiery pony galloped toward the crowd of Changelings, spouting flames and throwing the guards into disarray. Leaping over the overlarge cooking pot we’d been hiding behind, we charged in toward the confused Changelings.

The first one I met, Calcion’s Cleaver took the head off of in a second. As my blade came around though, it met the sword of another Changeling. As I shot flame at its head, it swung its blade around toward my legs, forcing me to jump back. The next time it swung at me, I batted its sword to the ground. It pulled it out from under my own with a shriek of metal and made to cut at my throat.

The blade missed as I deflected it with Calcion’s Cleaver. Lightning shot from the tip as the swords met, shocking a nearby Changeling to death. Giving a hiss, the Changeling I was fighting kicked me back with its forelegs. As it jumped toward me, sword held out in the air, I galloped toward it, sinking my blade into its soft underbelly. Its wings gave a few flutters after my sword protruded from its back before going limp.

As another Changeling, this one with a battleaxe, charged me, I pushed my latest victim off my blade, causing my new opponent to chop through the corpse of its fallen compatriot. Hissing, it brought its battleaxe down toward my head. I blocked with Calcion’s Cleaver, lightning flying between the blades. The Changeling was stronger than me, however, and began to push me back toward the edge of Mount Pandemonium.

Just as I was about to fall off the edge, an arrow struck the Changeling in the eye. As it tossed around, trying to remove the shaft, I was able to knock the battleaxe away from it and run it through with Calcion’s Cleaver.

No more Changelings remained outside of the tower, so we proceeded inside, shivering a bit as we passed through the ethereal gate. Inside, the tower’s style shifted dramatically. On the outside it resembled an Imperial fortress, but within the style was closer to a Minotauran temple. It was impossible to see exactly where the two meshed, no doubt due to the chaos that permeated the land.

More Changelings waited inside up the ziggurat-like steps, surrounding a massive floating crystal. Light glowed from deep within, but at the moment it served no useful purpose. Of course, when we were done here, that giant diamond would be our ticket home. Eager to return to the Northlands, I charged up toward the assembled Changelings.

Wickedly barbed arrows instantly began to shoot toward us as they saw us. I raised a foreleg to protect my face as the deadly darts rained around me. As I neared the first Changeling, I drew both my swords and cut through its chest. It didn’t even have time to draw its greatsword before it fell to the ground dead, its sticky green ichor coating my blade.

The next Changeling I faced was wielding twin war axes. I knocked them both to the sides with my swords, but wasn’t able to get a strike in on the otherworldly creature before it brought its axes back up toward my chest. I jumped back before striking both blades down with Calcion’s Cleaver. A moment later, I stabbed the Blade of Hoofingar through the Changeling’s chest.

As a Changeling ran toward the crystal, magic building at the end of the staff it was carrying, I ran to intercept. As it attempted to send raw magic up into the crystal, I tackled the creature to the ground. Rolling across the stone, it kicked at me with its forehooves, knocking my helmet off. I struck back, hitting it in the face with the butt of the Blade of Hoofingar.

I swung Calcion’s Cleaver down toward the Changeling’s neck, but it shifted at the last moment, and my blade became lodged in its shoulder. Ichor poured out all the same, wounding but not killing the Changeling. With a hiss, it lunged up and bit into my ear using its fangs.

Giving a shriek of pain, I pushed the Changeling off. Placing a hoof to my ear, it came away bloody, and I could feel a piece of it was gone. I had no time to heal before the Changeling pounced at me again, fangs ready to strike a second time. As it dove at me, I pulled out the Blade of Hoofingar and drove it through the creature’s chest. Its teeth came to a stop just a hair from my nose as it died.

Pushing it aside, I tended to my wounded ear. The flesh was bubbling slightly from whatever was in the Changeling’s drool, but thankfully a few healing potions stopped any further damage from being done. My ear refused to regrow the missing flesh, however, and blood continued to trickle from the wound. I wrapped a bandage around it for now to staunch the bleeding.

All the Changelings now gone, we could reactivate the tower. Recalling Discord’s instructions, I trotted around to each of the four stone pedestals that surrounded the crystal and placed my hoof to them. When the last one lit up, the crystal began to glow brighter than ever and lift higher off the ground. As it became level with the tower’s roof, a beam of light shot from it into the sky, completing the connection.

“I guess that wasn’t so bad,” Steadfast said, cleaning ichor off his weapons.

“Now we just have to hope Discord honors our deal,” I said, looking toward New Antiquity.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

The trip back to the Shivering Isles’ capital was uneventful (or as uneventful as things could be in a realm of chaos.) As we passed through New Antiquity’s gates, the statue of Discord within came to life.

“Congratulations, ponies!” Discord praised, stepping down onto the cobblestones with us, “I must say that was quite a good show.”

“We did what you asked,” I told the Draconequus, “Now send us back to the Northlands.”

“Not so fast,” he said, hopping over us until he was standing in front of the gates, “The job is only half done.”

“You promised if we opened a path to the Northlands you’d send us home!” Steadfast fumed.

“Yes, but the path is not open.”

“What are you talking about?” I said, pointing through the gates, “The tower is active, you can see for yourself!”

“Well, yes. This tower is active,” Discord said, and with a snap of his fingers the gates slammed shut and reopened to reveal a completely different landscape, “But this tower is not.”

Instead of the sunny and fantastical world the gates had opened onto before, they now showed an equally ridiculous land, but one that was filled with darkness and decay. In the distance was Mount Pandemonium, and atop it was another tower, this one without a beam of light protruding from its top.

“What did you do?” I asked.

“You really should have done your reading,” Discord said, depositing a copy of a book entitled A Visitor’s Guide to the Shivering Isles into my saddlebags, “The Shivering Isles represent both sides of chaos, and therefore exist in two places simultaneously. You’ve managed to activate the link from Mania, the joyful side of chaos, but not the one in Dementia, the more grim side. To return to the Northlands, you’ll have to activate this tower too.”

“Why didn’t you mention this sooner?” I asked angrily.

“I can’t be expected to be responsible for everything,” Discord said with a smirk, drawing out a parasol, “Now I’d get going if I were you. I feel like a cola storm’s brewing.”

“What’s cola?” I asked, but Discord was already gone, no doubt having returned to his palace.

“Don’t worry, Sapphire,” Mephalda said as I hung my head, “We did it once, we can do it again.”

Nodding that she was right, I turned and led the way out of New Antiquity back into the wilds of the Shivering Isles.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Between the two sides of the Shivering Isles, I think I far preferred Mania. At least there everything wasn’t constantly trying to kill you. Trekking through Dementia, we had to watch our step as deadly blades whirred by overhead, and the very ground threatened to give way underhoof.

At last we made it to Mount Pandemonium and ascended to the tower atop it. Here the tower seemed severely damaged, threatening to slide off the mountain at any time. Carefully, we trotted inside through razor-sharp gates that thankfully turned out to be another illusion.

We didn't see any more Changelings, at least not until we reached the top of the tower where the crystal floated. There was so much buzzing in the air from their wings that it was palpable. The four of us split up, preparing to come at the swarm from different directions.

<<>> I Shouted, quickly reaching the swarm, my swords even dismembering a few before I came to a stop.

I found myself surrounded by Changelings and shot fire from my horn while spinning around. Many of them lit on fire, though a few seemed unaffected. As one with a warhammer burst through the flames, I drew my swords and blocked. Pushing it back with Calcion’s Cleaver, I slashed through the chest of another that tried to come from behind with the Blade of Hoofingar.

Sheathing my ebony sword, I shot lightning into the face of the Changeling with a warhammer. Its bright eyes lit up, and a sickly green fire surrounded its body as it began cycling through different forms. I stabbed my sword through its heart as it began to take the form of me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a Changeling knock Steadfast’s warhammer from his grasp. As he jumped for it, the Changeling melted it into slag with its magic. Grabbing the warhammer the Changeling I’d been fighting with had dropped, I slid it across the floor to Steadfast.

I Shouted, staggering the Changeling standing before my earth pony friend.

Grabbing the Changeling warhammer in his mouth, he swung it up at the creature, breaking its jaw. Another swing caved in the side of its head. As one jumped on my back, I sent a blast of fire out from my horn before it could get at my ear and slashed my swords at where I thought it was standing. My blades hit flesh, and the Changeling slid off my back, leaking ichor the whole way. Wiping the sticky life-juice off me, I sent an ice spike into the last Changeling in the tower, who was fighting Mystic and didn’t see my attack coming.

Once more I trotted around the room, activating the pedestals until the crystal lifted into the sky, shooting a beam off into space. This time, however, things were different. As the beam began to build in power, I felt myself pulled off the floor. Mephalda, Mystic, and Steadfast also began to levitate, drawn toward the beam. Though I struggled to escape, it was no use, and I was drawn into the beam anyway and shot off to Marea knows where.

Level Up
Health: 260 Stamina: 240 Magicka: 250
New Perk: Magical Reserve [Destruction] -- When your health is low, you will receive a larger amount of Magicka, along with faster regeneration.
New Quest: The Elements of Harmony -- Find the lost Elements of Harmony, and use them to defeat Alduin.

Chapter 47: The Search Begins

Chapter XLVII: The Search Begins
“The Elements of Harmony. I know I’ve heard of them somewhere before. But where?”

“Sapphire!” Faniar exclaimed when we entered his study, “I haven’t seen you in weeks. I thought you dropped off the face of the earth.”

“Well, in a way, I did,” I told Whitetrot’s court wizard.

Thankfully, the beam from the Shivering Isles had taken us directly to the Northlands. Strangely enough, we’d appeared in a little-used wing of Dragonsreach. At least it hadn’t dropped us off in some place like Morrowhinny or in the Pegasari Dominion. In fact, it had dropped us off right where we needed to be. The only unicorn in Dragonsreach was my first choice on who to ask for advice about finding the Elements.

“Huh?” he asked, confused by my statement.

“Never mind,” I told him, “Long story short, we found a way to defeat Alduin, but it turned out to be a dud and he killed us, but Discord saved us, except then we had to escape the Shivering Isles.”

“I must admit, you’ve lost me,” he said.

“I’ll explain some other time,” I said, “The important thing is, now I know some way we can defeat Alduin for sure. Have you ever heard of the Elements of Harmony?”

“Sorry, can’t say that I have,” the unicorn replied.

I’d been afraid of that; luckily, I had a backup plan. I had found the Element I was now wearing around the neck of a Dragon Priest. Faniar had mentioned there were six Dragon Priests, and there were also six Elements. I figured it was more than likely not a coincidence.

“Well, in that case, do you know where we can find ruins ruled by the Dragon Priests?” I asked.

“Sorry,” Faniar said, pulling out his journal that listed all the ancient earth pony ruins, “I’m not really sure where any of them are except for the one you found. I can tell you probable sites, though.”

“It’s better than nothing,” I told him, trying to keep my spirits up, “What have you got for us?”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Our first destination was Skybound Summit. The ancient earth pony fortress was built into the southern face of the Crest of the World, only a short distance from the ruins of Hoofgen. Traveling down through Riverwood, we were there in no time. I stood outside the rearing stone entrance for a bit as I considered what would be awaiting us. Hopefully, a Dragon Priest and another Element of Harmony, but nothing was certain.

Taking a very deep breath, I entered the ruin. Inside was a natural cavern; apparently Skybound Summit’s entrance blocked up what had once been the mouth of a cave. A few tables were scattered around the cavern, at which sat several ponies wearing mismatched armor. I sincerely hoped they weren’t bandits.

“Lookee what we got ‘ere,” a rough-looking earth pony stallion with a greatsword slung across his back said as he noticed our entrance, “You lost?”

“Just passing through,” Mephalda said tensely.

I too hoped that they would just let us pass. The last thing I wanted was a fight with these ponies.

“Well, that’s a problem, ‘cause you’re not goin’ through,” the stallion said, “Not with any of yer gold at least.”

Well, that settled it. They were bandits all right. Reluctantly, I drew Calcion’s Cleaver and the bandit mirrored my actions, drawing his own weapon.

“Fine,” he spoke through the weapon in his mouth, “We’ll do things the hard way.”

Without warning, he brought his weapon down toward my shoulder. As I blocked with my ancient earth pony sword, the other bandits in the cavern got up and drew their own weapons. As the stallion I was facing brought his greatsword down toward my legs, he found it blocked by Steadfast’s warhammer, which knocked his weapon back. I seized the opportunity and shot flames into his face before slicing through his neck with my blade.

A unicorn mare came at me next, magic sparking across her horn. I ducked down and dodged as she sent a blast of lightning at me. The next time she did so, I blocked with Calcion’s Cleaver, which absorbed the energy and began to reflect it back. As she cut off the flow of magic, I brought my Changeling war axe down into her neck, severing her spine.

As I pulled it out, I was forced to duck down to avoid being hit by a bat-pony that swooped over me. As she passed overhead, I sent ice spikes at her, though most shattered against her armor. She engaged Mephalda in the air, my pegasus friend drawing her Blackwing blades to dismember the thestral.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw another bandit swing a war axe toward me. I quickly spun around, hooking Calcion’s Cleaver under the blade. Lightning began to pulse between the weapons, but neither of us surrendered the block. While I kept the battleaxe stationary with my ancient earth pony sword, I whipped out my ebony blade and ran the bandit through, easily slicing through her armor.

As Mystic threw the last bandit at the wall with a blast of magic, the fight was over. I searched the cavern, picking through the chests that were scattered around for gold, gems, and potions, and found a sizeable haul before we moved on.

Under an arch bearing a frightening Draconic inscription I couldn’t read, we passed deeper into Skybound Summit. Like in many of the ruins we’d entered, the walls were covered in murals, no doubt depicting the life of the pony who’d built the mighty fortress. I couldn’t make out much, except for the pony’s envy of pegasi and all flying creatures. Apparently this place had been an attempt to reach the heavens. Just how far the ancient earth pony had gotten to his goal, we had yet to see.

My thoughts returned to the now as a rustling came from within the walls. Bits of stone crumbled away as the Draugr pushed out of their tombs. I sent a blast of flame down the hall, torching a few before they had even truly emerged, and hopefully saving us some trouble later. Another I took down with a slash from Calcion’s Cleaver across the torso, and Steadfast, Mephalda, and Mystic all did their part in slaying the corpses before they were battle ready.

Some, however, escaped our purge and began to lurch toward us, antique weapons held in their mouths. My Changeling war axe met its ancient earth pony equivalent as I blocked the first Draugr’s strike. As I attempted to rip the weapon from the zombie’s mouth, I instead ended up ripping the blade off the weapon. The Draugr stared, dumbfounded, at the stick in its mouth as I ran it through with my ebony sword.

The Blade of Hoofingar met resistance as I swung it around at a Draugr with a warhammer. Pushing against the larger weapon, I forced it back until the Draugr was forced to release it. My Changeling weapon came in next, slicing through the zombie’s neck, causing ichor to spill from the wound and the walking corpse to fall to the ground.

My sword spun around in the narrow passageway to meet the sword of another Draugr. As I swung toward its neck, it managed to knock my blade away. Instead, I made for its forelegs, but it also managed to block. Projecting fire from my horn, I lit the Draugr’s head on fire, but it didn’t seem to care much, as it ventured a swing at my neck. Knocking the blade aside, I drew Calcion’s Cleaver. As the two ancient earth pony blades met, lightning began to travel from mine, electrocuting the Draugr. As it spasmed to the ground, I ran it through with the Blade of Hoofingar.

Mystic cleared the rest of the corridor with a blast of pure magic, and we proceeded on. The passageways through Skybound Summit twisted and turned, but undoubtedly led upward as we passed deeper into the ruin. A few more Draugr troubled us as we passed through, but nothing major happened until we emerged onto a banquet hall.

The room was packed with the living corpses, milling about among the tables as if they were at a party. The hall was massive, with soaring ceilings and exquisitely carved banquet tables. At one end of the room was a throne for the host, flanked by two doors, one of which we had entered through, and the other most likely led upward. Across from the throne there was no wall. Rather, the side of the mountain had been opened up to allow an unparalleled view of southern Horizon.

Our arrival had not gone unnoticed, however, and the Draugr turned toward us, growling. Many drew their swords and advanced toward the throne. Mystic began shooting ice out into the crowd, freezing any of them in place as they approached. It wasn’t enough, however, and soon a few began to make it up the stairs.

<<>> I Shouted, knocking them back and buying us time.

Mephalda was already shooting arrows down into the crowd, but there were just so many of them. I tried to assist her, doing my part by shooting ice spikes down at the mass of undead ponies, but I didn’t seem to be making much of a dent. Focusing my magic, I summoned a flame atronach in the center of the crowd. The burning pony instantly jumped into action, torching the Draugr around it and drawing their attention away from us.

Still, the masses of undead continued to surge forward until we were forced to fight them. With both my swords drawn, I swung into the seething mass of rotting flesh, hoping my strikes were fatal. Of course, the Draugr fought back too.

Calcion’s Cleaver came to a stop as it met the blade of one of the zombies, who had begun to push us back. Pulling my sword out of the block, I swung it toward the Draugr’s forelegs, only managing to nick them as the zombie knocked my blade aside. Calcion’s Cleaver was once again blocked as I swung toward the Draugr’s head, but this time I used it to my advantage and forced my opponent’s sword to the ground. With my ebony sword, I separated its head from its shoulders.

This, of course, opened me up to attack from the side. Sheathing the Blade of Hoofingar, I sent flames at the Draugr closing in on the weak point. I shot the fire all around me, torching the Draugr, but more still came. Drawing my swords, I continued to fight, though I soon found the Draugr were closing in around me.

<<>>

As the Draugr weapons closed in on me, I left my physical form, suddenly incapable of being harmed. As a ghost, I galloped out of the fray until I was standing upon the hall’s throne. I was surprised just how few Draugr really were left. Almost all of them were now on the upper level, choking the last of the fight out of us. Well, I wasn’t going to let that happen.

I shot lightning into the crowd of Draugr as I regained physical form. As they closed in on my perch, I swung my swords around, hacking through their unprotected heads. Still they pressed in, making it more and more difficult to keep them away. For some reason, they all seemed to be converging on me, and while my friends were attempting to clear them out, it wasn’t going to be fast enough to save me.

I Shouted, and my weapons began to fly through the air.

My blades moved in a whirlwind, tearing apart the Draugr around me. I climbed down from the throne and advanced through the crowd, hacking through as many zombies as I could before the effects of the Shout wore off. As my blades began to return to a more normal speed, the number of Draugr in the room had decreased significantly.

Mystic’s magic tore the few in front of me apart before I could even reach them. I spun around just in time to block the blade of another zombie. Bringing my sword back, I swung in again, this time breaking the block and cutting the Draugr’s throat open. Another came at me, and I managed to block its swing before it was able to cut its sword across my back. While I was blocking, the Draugr fell dead, releasing its weapon as an arrow from Mephalda shot through its throat.

Looking around the banquet hall, I was astonished to see that no Draugr remained; we had actually done it. After taking a moment to rest from the taxing fight, we looted the mounds of bodies for scattered gold and potions. After we were satisfied we’d cleared everything out, we headed through the other door behind the hall’s throne.

Only a few rooms were through the door, off branching pathways, before a set of stairs began to zigzag upward deeper into the mountain. About midway up the stairs was a doorway that opened onto another set of rooms. As we attempted to pass, a Draugr with a war axe grasped in its teeth rushed out and tried to knock us off the stairs.

As my Changeling war axe met the Draugr’s weapon, Steadfast hit the zombie with his hammer, knocking it off the stairs instead. Scuffling came from within the passage, and another Draugr appeared this time with a bow mounted in a firing contraption. One of the arrows sailed past my ear, through the hole that Changeling had made.

Mephalda began to fire back, her arrows sticking in the other archer, one impaling her eye and throwing off her aim. Mystic charged in toward the Draugr, a ward deflecting the arrows. With a blast of ice, she froze the Draugr where it stood. Following her, I shattered the ice and impaled the undead pony beneath.

In the next room were two more of the zombies. One Mystic destroyed immediately with a blast of magic, and the other I swung at with Calcion’s Cleaver. My ancient earth pony sword met a mace, my blade striking the hilt. The Draugr pushed my blade aside, but I took advantage of the opportunity and swung it around into the zombie’s side.

This room was the end of the short passageway, apparently a guard outpost. The wall was solid stone but for a small window through which arrows could be shot down onto advancing ponies. The far wall also revealed that arrows could be shot down onto the stairway. We’d been extremely lucky not to have caught the attention of the Draugr until we reached a point where we could actually strike back.

The Draugr out of the way, we continued up the stairs. They continued up for quite some time until finally stopping at a magnificent set of stone doors. Surprisingly, they led out into the open air of Horizon. High above the ground (though not near as high as High Hoofgar) a piece of the mountain had been carved away, leaving a fairly level area upon which stood weathered monuments.

Near our exit was one that caught my eye. It was covered in Draconic runes, and one stood out as I approached it. I soon learned everything about maws and mouths in general. What this information would be useful for, I had no idea. All I knew was that it was Draconic knowledge, and the word for maw had been replaced in my mind by the Draconic form.

~JOT~

A cracking of stone from behind me grabbed my attention, and I turned to see that there was indeed a sarcophagus here for the fortress’s builder, though it had been built near the ledge, open to the elements. As the stone tumbled off, a Draugr lord crawled out, a long thin blade grasped in its mouth.

<<>> I Shouted, hoping to end this fight before it started.

The Draugr lord went tumbling off the edge of the cliff, but reappeared a few seconds later, hovering in the air. Though it didn’t have the grace of a pegasus, it still managed to swoop down at us, blade whistling over our heads. Mephalda shot arrows at it as it wheeled around, one in its foreleg and another in its shoulder, but they barely slowed it down.

As it swooped down toward me again, I sent a blast of flame at it, and Mystic did the same as it passed her. As the zombie swooped toward Steadfast, he swung his hammer up into the air, connecting with the undead pony. It fell from the sky, and before it could get up he hit it again.

He was forced to jump back as it swung its blade at him and leapt to its hooves. I came at the Draugr, Calcion’s Cleaver held in my magical grip, and our blades met. The screech of metal on metal was deafening as the blades slid past each other, but eventually it was over. I managed to nick the Draugr’s cheek, but no more before I was pushed away.

I brought my sword back around at the Draugr’s neck, and it was blocked again. This time though, my opponent began to rise into the air. Eventually the zombie was directly above me, and began to press downward, forcing me into the ground. My blade began to slide back toward me until the Draugr was suddenly knocked out of the air by a magic blast from Mystic.

As the Draugr lord tried to rise, Mephalda shot an arrow into its eye. The zombie tossed its head as it lost sight, but didn’t give up on trying to kill us. As it jumped toward me, I drew out the Blade of Hoofingar. The Draugr was too smart to fall for that trap, however, and levitated over me.

<> I Shouted, and ice began to creep over the Draugr’s body.

Unable to fly any more, it fell to the ground, frozen in place. With Calcion’s Cleaver, I jabbed toward its heart. However, with a tinkling of ice, the Draugr lord was able to break partially free and block my strike with its own blade. The blade was suddenly thrown from the Draugr’s grip as one of Mephalda’s arrows struck it. I finished my strike now, killing the powerful Draugr.

“Well, no element, no Dragon Priest,” Steadfast said, looking around the summit of the fortress.

“Perhaps not, but it wasn’t a complete bust,” I said, looking back at the Word Wall, “Come on, let’s get back to Whitetrot.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Descending from Skybound Summit, we were on the path to Hoofgen when we met a few ponies. I prepared to draw my weapons as they approached, just in case they were bandits, but I relaxed when they made no moves to attack us. Still, they were heavily armed for something. My curiosity got the best of me, and I spoke up as we met.

“Where are you fellows headed?” I asked.

“Haven’t you heard?” an earth pony mare at the front of the group asked, “Jarl Sibli’s put out a bounty on the dragon that’s been terrorizing his hold.”

“A dragon?” I asked.

“You got that right,” a unicorn stallion said, “He’s intent on having it taken out before it attacks Foalkreath itself. He already lost Hoofgen; he can’t afford to lose his last remaining town. He’s offered to pay 1000 gold to whoever kills the dragon.”

“Where’s the dragon at?” Mephalda asked.

“Last we knew, it was roosting at Ancient’s Ascent,” a pegasus mare, the last member of the group, replied, “In fact, that’s where we’re heading now.”

“Say, you wouldn’t be interested in teaming up, would you?” the first pony asked, “I bet we could take it down even faster with a few extra blades.”

I couldn’t see any reason why not and, after consulting with my friends, I agreed to join with this band of ponies. They knew where Ancient’s Ascent was better than me, so they led the way along the path and into the southern mountains of Horizon. When Ancient’s Ascent came into sight in the distance, the dragon still appeared to be perched there, so we were in luck.

At the base of the mountain began a set of stone stairs that zigzagged up to the peak, upon which the dragon was. Those of us who were earthbound began to ascend the stairs, and the pegasi flew ahead toward where the dragon was roosting. It gave a roar as Mephalda began shooting arrows into it before the rest of us were even up the stairs.

When we reached the top of Ancient’s Ascent, the dragon had already taken off and was trying to flame both Mephalda, who was shooting arrows into its hide, and the other pegasus, who was slashing at it with a sword whenever she got the chance. I shot a few ice spikes up at the dragon before bringing it to the ground.

<<>>

Racked with the terrible agony Dragonrend brought, the great lizard fell from the sky. Drawing Calcion’s Cleaver, I managed to get a swing in at its snout before it could recover. I quickly dodged to the side as a column of flame shot from the dragon’s maw, burning up what little grass grew this high.

I ran under the dragon’s wing, shooting flames up into it and burning a hole in the membrane. Narrowly dodging a swipe of its razor-sharp claws, I slid out from under the massive wings and around toward its tail.

<> I Shouted, freezing a segment of the tail.

With a leap, I brought Calcion’s Cleaver down on the frozen appendage, shattering it and causing the tail to squirm away, writhing as the life drained from it. With a roar of pain and anger, the dragon spun around toward me. As it opened its mouth to shoot fire, I summoned a flame atronach inside, which began to burn the soft tissue of the dragon’s mouth.

Snapping its jaw shut, the dragon reduced my summoned companion to sparks. I jumped out of the way as a blast of dragon fire came at me. Running around to the other side of the dragon, I saw the mare who’d joined us was sinking her greatsword into the dragon’s shoulder joint. She jumped away as a claw came at her, but not quite fast enough.

The dragon’s talons closed around her tail, and she was lifted up off the ground, squirming and slashing at the dragon’s wrist. As the great lizard’s wounds became catastrophic, it dropped her. As she crashed to the ground, the dragon’s jaw closed around her, crushing her to pulp.

“Erias!” the unicorn stallion screamed, rushing in with magic burning at the end of his horn.

Jumping onto the dragon’s back, he began to shoot ice across it, the frozen crystals sinking through the wounds the others had inflicted. The dragon shuddered as the ice began to build up, sending shards of it flying in all directions. As the stallion jumped off, the dragon snatched at him with a claw. It missed, slamming down on the ground, where Steadfast crushed it, snapping and splintering bone with his Changeling warhammer.

<<>> I Shouted at the dragon’s head, knocking it away as it attempted to snap up Steadfast.

Angrily, it turned toward me, jaws ready to close around my body. I held Calcion’s Cleaver ready, and jumped away at the last minute, cutting through the dragon’s jaw. Mystic came up from behind me, coating the inside of the dragon’s mouth with ice. Snapping its jaws together, it sent shards of the frozen water flying everywhere. I dodged a few as they flew over my head, burying themselves in the ground around me.

The pegasus who’d accompanied us landed on the dragon’s head and began slashing at one of its eyes with her sword. As she blinded the great lizard, it tossed its head around wildly, throwing her off. Her unicorn companion charged in as she rolled away, sending ice into the dragon’s face and freezing its other eye. Unable to see what it was doing, the dragon sent flame everywhere, one blast unfortunately catching the stallion. His body burst into a torch, combusting in seconds until nothing was left but a charred mess.

While the dragon still couldn’t see, I rushed in, dodging the flames. Holding Calcion’s Cleaver above my head, I sliced through the dragon’s scales, cutting its lower jaw in half. I continued my gallop, the sword still held out above me, as I ripped open the dragon’s throat. Choking on its own blood, the giant fell to the ground, and I barely managed to roll out from under in time.

Cleaning my blades, I waited for the dragon to combust. As it did, the entirety of its life joined my memories, with a focus on the dragon’s contemplations of maws, both on dragons like itself and on ponies. I saw how I could use my voice to rip away the weapon held in another pony’s grasp, and my understanding grew until I had to let it out.

<> I Shouted, and Steadfast’s warhammer suddenly flew from his mouth.

“Sorry about that,” I apologized to my earth pony friend.

A new Word of Power learned, and the dragon here dead, my task was completed for the day. All that was left now was to claim our reward in Foalkreath and return to Whitetrot. As we prepared to leave, my attention was caught on the pegasus standing nearby mourning her companions.

It occurred to me that it could easily have been my friends that had died in this fight. Adventuring was a dangerous business, and I intended to get out of it as soon as I could, before any more heartbreak came my way. I’d already seen them die once, and was determined to never let it happen again.

Level Up
Health: 260 Stamina: 250 Magicka: 250
New Perk: Two Bits and No Less [Speech] -- You know how to assert yourself with merchants and will never be swindled again. All prices when bartering are in your favor.
Word of Power learned: JOT -- Maw; Disarm – Combined with ZUN, JOT rips an opponent’s weapon from their grip no matter how hard they grasp it.
Dragon Soul collected
New Quest: The Dragon Cult -- Hunt down the Dragon Priests, and the Elements of Harmony they possess.

Chapter 48: Everything Burns

Chapter XLVIII: Everything Burns
“If the Cloven Hoof aren’t attacking my town, the earth ponies are trying to force me off it.”

After we claimed our reward from Jarl Sibli in Foalkreath, we headed back to Whitetrot. Faniar had another ruin ready for us to look into when we arrived, a crumbling fortress called Four Stars Lookout built in the northern Karth. We left immediately and were able to make it to the ancient earth pony fortress by the time the sun was setting.

Four Stars Lookout was built high upon a mountain near Karthpasture, and the front tower of the ruin looked out over a small valley between the mountains. There was no possible way to sneak up on the ruin without being in sight of its windows. Soon we found out that it was currently occupied.

We were forced to dodge arrows as we made our way up the mountain. Whoever was shooting at us would need some explanation when we made it up to them. Turns out, no explanation was necessary. Ponies in bandit armor stood outside the base of the tower as we approached, their weapons drawn and ready to keep us out.

I blasted one with my lightning right away, frying her with the elemental energy. An arrow from Mephalda dropped the other, and we passed over their corpses on our way into the tower. In the close quarters I drew Calcion’s Cleaver and slashed through a bandit’s neck as we rounded a corner.

Before we headed up the stairs that led to the upper levels of the tower, Mystic sent a wall of flames billowing up the stairway. A few screams confirmed that her attack had been successful. Galloping up the still-warm steps, we climbed higher into the tower. As a mare with a bow tried to shoot down at us, I sent ice spikes up at her, forcing her to dart around the corner.

Steadfast was first around the corner and tackled her to the ground, crushing her bow with his warhammer. Another archer higher up the stairs fired down at him as he swung at the bandit he’d disarmed. Mystic stepped in, her ward causing the arrow to snap into pieces. Mephalda fired her own arrows up the steps, first crippling, and then killing the bandit archer.

We continued to climb the stone stairs until we neared the top of the tower. I began to trot into a room at the top, but ducked back as a warhammer slammed into the wall next to my head, breaking bits of stone off. Drawing Calcion’s Cleaver, I pushed the warhammer away and down to the floor.

A scruffy looking stallion came into sight, levitating his weapon. I immediately stabbed toward him with Calcion’s Cleaver, but he was able to jump out of the way. Shooting flames, I forced him back as I ascended up the stairs and into the room.

I swung Calcion’s Cleaver at his legs, but he was able to block with his warhammer and force me back. As he did so, I brought out the Blade of Hoofingar and slashed down at him, though he was able to block that too. Using both my blades, I blocked his weapon as he brought it down toward me.

While I held the block, my friends were able to make it up the stairs. First was Steadfast, who slammed his own warhammer into the bandit’s side. He staggered toward an opening in the wall that appeared to be a large window. He moved back even farther as Mystic shot flame at him. Then Mephalda shot an arrow that stuck in his eye, and it was all over. As he fumbled around, trying to see, he tripped and fell out the window, his body breaking on the rocks far below.

Looting the chests stockpiled up here yielded a large amount of gold and arrows, as well as a hearty supply of all kinds of potions. After we’d thoroughly looted the top room, we headed down the tower to the small landing it was built on. The tower itself was only an outlying building of Four Stars Lookout. The main building butted up against the cliff face a short distance away.

There was no door built into the entrance, but rather a curving entryway such that the interior and exterior were separate, but easy to pass between. Around the entrance was a makeshift barricade of piled-up tree branches. Apparently somepony didn’t want anypony getting in . . . or out. After Mystic levitated some of the larger branches away, we entered the ruin.

Once inside, we found ourselves in a modest entry hall. Compared to some of the other ruins we’d been to, this place seemed small. I wondered if maybe Faniar had made a mistake in sending us here. But, he was a friend and I trusted his judgment, so we’d just have to pass further in and see if things got grander and more befitting of a Dragon Priest.

Scattered around the entry hall were the bodies of several bandits and Draugr, explaining why the entryway was barricaded. If Alduin’s return had awakened the Draugr, it seemed that now they were preparing to move out of their decaying fortresses and retake Horizon. I sincerely hoped I was wrong on that point.

A few Draugr emerged from the shadows at the far end of the hall. As I charged in to attack one of them, Calcion’s Cleaver drawn, an arrow came flying from the dark and sheared past my neck, tearing through the skin a bit. I quickly bandaged it as I ran and swung my ancient earth pony sword around in an arc that would cut up the neck of the Draugr I was attacking.

It blocked with its war axe, however, twisting Calcion’s Cleaver down toward the floor. I pulled my sword away before it could be thrown from my grip and swung it around toward the Draugr’s neck. The war axe once again blocked, and this time it slid down the blade toward me. Before the war axe could strike my chest, I whipped out the Blade of Hoofingar and blocked. As I did so, I finally managed to swing my ancient earth pony sword through the zombie’s chest. With a dry rasping, it fell to the floor dead again.

Another arrow went flying over me, though quite a bit off this time. Turning toward where the first shot had come from, I could see that Mystic was frying the archer with her lightning magic. The bow combusted, and the Draugr gave a shudder before falling to the floor.

The path clear, we proceeded on. Only one door led out of the entry hall and deeper into the Draugr ruin, so we strode through it, following the twisting passages. As we passed through a tunnel lined on either side with Draugr tombs, many empty, we heard the rasping of more Draugr up ahead. The ground was slick with lantern oil, spilled from a pot and pooling in the uneven hallways. Mystic conjured up a fireball and sent it barreling through the fuel, lighting it up at once.

From down the hall, Draugr screams came as they met a fiery end. Once the flames died down, we strolled forward over the burnt stone. Suddenly, from around the corner came a flaming Draugr. It slammed into Mephalda, catching her on fire too. Before it could run any farther, Steadfast crushed it with his warhammer, though the corpse continued to twitch as the fire went out.

On the ground now, Mephalda was working to put out the flames on her body. Once they were extinguished, she placed some salve on them and drank a healing potion to help fix things faster. Gritting her teeth, she froze up as the magical healing passed through her body, repairing her burns and even regrowing the hair she’d lost.

Once she was back in fighting condition, we continued down the hallway, stepping over the burnt corpses of Draugr who had died to our trap immediately. At the end of these passages was a narrow stone bridge leading out across a large hall below. A single Draugr patrolled it, armed with a bow.

A shot from Mephalda took it out, and she quickly flapped up to keep it from falling down below and alerting the other Draugr. One of the walking corpses had noticed, however. It was standing on another bridge crossing the cavern to the right and began to shoot arrows at us as we crossed. Mephalda, Mystic, and I all shot at the Draugr in our own ways, but it continued to evade us until at last we managed to corner it.

With lightning shot from me on the left and ice shot by Mystic on the right it had nowhere to run as Mephalda’s arrow hit it in the forehead. However, though the arrow had gone all the way through, protruding out the back, the Draugr continued to function. That is, until Steadfast suddenly galloped onto the bridge, and used his warhammer to knock the zombie off into the hall below.

We followed his lead and crossed our bridge, circling around through the tunnels until we managed to make it to the second bridge. Crossing it as well, we made it to a small staircase that led down into the hall below. Steadfast cleared the way ahead of us, smashing Draugr against the wall before they could fight us.

As we entered the hall, all the Draugr turned to fight us, and chaos broke out. Mystic began blasting them as fast as she could with every spell she could muster. Steadfast rushed in, swinging his warhammer about and knocking the Draugr every which way. Mephalda flapped up higher to get a better vantage point for raining arrows down onto the zombies.

As for me, I took off into the crowd, both swords swinging. Calcion’s Cleaver electrocuted my foes while the Blade of Hoofingar sucked out their life. It was an exhilarating experience. Of course, it had to come to an end, and it did so when my blades met the sword of a Draugr. As I tried to swing around toward its forelegs, I found myself blocked by the sword of another. They were working together!

I swung my ancient earth pony sword at the first while bringing my ebony blade around toward the second, only to have them both blocked. I backed away from the first and swung both my blades around toward the second walking corpse. Its blade blocked Calcion’s Cleaver, but the Blade of Hoofingar was blocked by another Draugr. I was forced to back away from the trio of zombies as they began to slash at me. I was unable to keep up on blocking all three at once.

Time suddenly slowed to a crawl, and I was able to anticipate the Draugr’s moves, dodging all of them as I ran my swords through their shriveled hearts. I took out a few more of the zombies before time snapped back to normal. I was now behind the majority of the walking corpses, close to the door that led deeper into Four Stars Lookout. Near where my friends were fighting, I summoned a flame atronach. It began to incinerate the Draugr between us while I pushed back toward it.

My blades gleefully slashed through the Draugr, meeting only minor resistance from time to time. As the Blade of Hoofingar became notched under the blade of a Draugr war axe, I tried to pull it away. Just the opposite happened, however, as the zombie was able to rip the ebony sword from my magical grip. I met its blade with Calcion’s Cleaver, sending lightning pulsing down the blades. As the Draugr spasmed to death, I ran to retrieve my gift from Jarl Radiance.

A Draugr was standing over the sword, and I ripped open its stomach as I retrieved my blade. Another Draugr nearby swung a battleaxe at me, which I quickly dodged before shooting lightning at it. When the lightning proved ineffective, I switched to flames, igniting the Draugr’s head and causing it to run away screeching, dropping its battleaxe.

That Draugr was the last in the room, and I rejoined my friends before proceeding deeper into the ruin. The doors leading out of the hall were rather large, and as I pushed them open I was struck with awe by the sight that greeted us. A large cavern spread off into the distance, and within it was built an entire Draugr city. Perhaps Faniar had been right to send us here after all.

This place resembled Volsteed so much, it was uncanny. While the town was set up in a different way, the Draugr buildings looked exactly the same, and undead townsponies trotted about on business as if nothing was different. Much like at Volsteed, I was reluctant to disturb their lives (or rather unlives) but it was the only way we were going to get to the structure built on the far end of town.

It didn’t seem to be a temple like in Volsteed, but I had no doubt that if this place had a Dragon Priest, it would be there. The building seemed to climb the wall, jutting out as the cavern got narrower at the top, and finally disappearing right through the ceiling, apparently continuing on into the mountain above. If there was an Element of Harmony buried deep in this ruin, it was on the other side of the town.

Carefully, we descended into the town, following the stone stairs that led down to the floor of the cavern. Pieces had been worn away over the years, and bits of the ceiling had fallen in, making the journey a bit more precarious than it must’ve once been. Eventually, we made it to the Draugr town’s streets and tried to blend in. We’d learned from our experience in Volsteed that any Draugr, even one of the unarmed ones, could easily trigger an alarm calling down a whole army on us. As such, we tried to stay out sight as much as possible.

Through the streets of Four Stars Lookout we stalked, until we were forced to pass through the market district. Many of the Draugr had set up stalls, selling wares I couldn’t recognize. Still, if it wasn’t for the fact that the merchants were rotting away and speaking Draconic, I could’ve believed we were trotting through the marketplace of any town in Horizon.

Of course, the inevitable happened as we stalked through one of the town’s back alleys. A Draugr with a spear caught sight of us, giving a howl in Draconic to alert its fellows. An arrow from Mephalda knocked the spear away from the Draugr just instants before a blast of magic from Mystic’s horn annihilated it.

As we emerged from the alleyway, we caught sight of more guards coming from each side. A blast of ice went flying over our heads, shot from the staff of a Draugr in the back of the group and splashed against the wall behind us. I headed off toward the left, and Mephalda came with me as Steadfast and Mystic headed toward the right.

The Draugr approaching us soon found themselves tripping as Mephalda shot arrows into their forelegs. The first wave fell into my blades as I brought both my swords around. The next was not killed quite so easily, and I found Calcion’s Cleaver blocked by the pike of one of the zombies. Holding the weapon in place with my ancient earth pony sword, I separated the blade from the staff using the Blade of Hoofingar. The ebony blade swung up into the Draugr’s chest next.

Spinning around, I lopped off the head of a Draugr wielding a mace before my sword met the blade of another of the undead ponies. Pulling my blade back, I struck at the Draugr’s forelegs, slicing through the rotting flesh. I ducked as the zombie’s sword whisked over my head. While I held the sword off with the Blade of Hoofingar, Calcion’s Cleaver went up into the Draugr’s heart.

The Draugr before me suddenly froze solid as the mage behind it blasted ice at me. Projecting flames in front of me, I managed to push my way toward the zombie holding the staff. When I finally reached it, I drew out Calcion’s Cleaver and knocked the staff away before the mage could use it. Ice splattered the ground around my hooves as the Draugr fired the staff anyway.

My dragon breath torched the Draugr, but somehow it was able to keep from dying again. As it swung the staff at me, I brought up Calcion’s Cleaver to block. My blade nicked the staff only the slightest bit, but lightning jumped from the sword and into the weapon’s magical innards. The staff began to shoot ice everywhere, freezing everything, including many of the Draugr warriors. At last, it exploded in a shower of ice, freezing the mage where it stood.

Most of the rest of the Draugr around had retreated into their homes, and we got no resistance as we passed through the now-icy alleyway and headed toward the tower at the edge of the town. With no further problems, we made it to the tower and pushed open the heavy stone doors to enter.

No Draugr soldiers stalked these halls, only attendants that seemed content to run away or slink into the corners at our approach. Eventually, we found the set of stone stairs that led up through the structure. It was easy going as we ascended, meeting no Draugr at all. Still, it made me a little jumpy wondering when we were going to run into another. It was inevitable, after all.

Finally, the inevitable happened. As we reached the top of the stairs, a Draugr with a battleaxe emerged from the doorway. Mystic blasted it with ice, causing the zombie to drop its weapon. Steadfast followed up by smashing its head into the door frame. As the corpse slid to the floor, we passed through into the next room.

We had climbed quite a ways upward on those stairs, and I reckoned we were now atop the mountain. Real moonlight angling in through a hole in the ceiling and through the windows proved my point. We were standing in some sort of circular room built at the very top of Four Stars Lookout. In the center was an ornately carved sarcophagus, no doubt containing the Draugr lord of this barrow and hopefully an Element of Harmony.

Around the room, several Draugr were adjusting tiny mirrors. In each of them shone a single star high in the sky above, their light reflecting toward the center of the room and the crystal placed atop the coffin. As all four lights converged on the crystal, the sarcophagus began to shake.

Mephalda shot an arrow through the head of one of the Draugr as it attempted to adjust the mirrors further. We all rushed in, working to cut down the Draugr before the overlord arose. We even angled the mirrors away from the coffin, but it was no use.

The Draugr burst out anyway, sending bits of stone flying everywhere. From the sword gripped in its mouth, it sent lightning flying across the room toward Mystic. Her ward went up and reflected the bolts back at the Draugr until it stopped. As I shot an ice spike at it, it chopped it in half with its sword, knocking the shards of ice aside.

<<>> I Shouted, charging up to the Draugr and slamming my ancient earth pony sword into its chest.

That is, I would have stabbed my sword into its chest if it hadn’t been deflected first. The end of Calcion’s Cleaver screeched across the floor before I was able to bring it up and around at the Draugr’s neck. The zombie’s sword was already up, however, blocking my strike.

<<>>

I was thrown back by the Draugr’s Shout and sent skidding across the stone floor. As the overlord shot lightning at me, I rolled to the side. While the Draugr was focused on me, Steadfast had managed to sneak around behind it and crushed one of its hindhooves with his warhammer, sending it tumbling off the sarcophagus.

Recovering, the zombie swung its sword at him, but he managed to nimbly jump out of the way. As the Draugr slashed at him with his sword again, he blocked with his warhammer and managed to push the zombie a few steps back.

<<>>

Steadfast went flying backwards as the Draugr Shouted him, but still managed to get up in time to avoid the strike of lightning sent at him. As ice began to coat its left side, the Draugr turned to face Mystic. It began to charge toward her, until an arrow from Mephalda burst through its head, the tip protruding from its eye. Annoyed, it sent a blast of lightning at her before turning back to Mystic.

Lifting its sword as high as it could, the Draugr slammed it down into Mystic’s ward. At first, the sword began to heat up, glowing red and threatening to shatter apart, but as lightning shot from the tip, it began to sink through the magical barrier. Mystic began to sweat with exertion as she bolstered her force field, but the sword continued to push through anyway.

<> I Shouted, sending the blade flying from the Draugr’s mouth.

It growled and turned toward me. Giving a jump, the zombie tackled me to the ground. With its surprisingly strong forelegs, it pinned me down. Luckily, I could still use my magic and slashed my sword across the back of its head. Though I could see I had inflicted a wound, and ichor was bleeding down the sides of its head, the zombie didn’t seem to care.

It smashed its skull into mine until the rotting flesh began to peel off its face and the bare bone struck me. I tried desperately to slash its head off with my sword, but as the bone hit my horn, I lost control of my magic, and Calcion’s Cleaver fell to the stone floor.

As the Draugr was about to beat me again, Steadfast’s warhammer threw it off of me. As it slid across the floor, Mephalda managed to get an arrow through its other eye. As the Draugr screamed in anguish, Mystic torched it.

The world spun around me as I rose from the floor, and it took a minute for me to get my balance. When I did, I retrieved my sword and trotted over to where the charred corpse of the Draugr was lying. As I had feared, there was no amulet around its neck.

“Another bust,” Steadfast commented from beside me.

“I don’t know,” I said, refusing to believe that the Element wasn’t somewhere, “This is a pretty large ruin; maybe we just haven’t found the Dragon Priest yet.”

A door on the other side of the room led to a set of stairs. Following them took us down onto the top of one of the Karth’s many mountains. A snowy little valley was nestled atop these peaks, and I took a look around. A short distance away, there was something I recognized.

A Word Wall was pressed against the mountain, seemingly carved from the cliff itself. As I moved closer, the words began to burn before my eyes. I suddenly absorbed all the knowledge there was on the fury of a storm. Of course, storm wasn’t the word I knew it by now.

~STRUN~

There was no sarcophagus nearby, however, and no sign of a Dragon Priest. Four Stars Lookout was not home to one of the Elements of Harmony after all. Though I was glad to have learned a new Word of Power, our jaunt here seemed a hollow victory without the very thing we’d come for.

I was shaken out of my misery as a roar suddenly shook the mountains around us. Over the peaks to the west flew a massive dragon with ruby red scales. It paid us no mind as it flapped overhead, stirring up the snow with its mighty wing beats.

“It’s moving fast,” Mephalda noted, “And isn’t that the way to-”

“Karthpasture!” I exclaimed.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

The dragon was already at the tiny town by the time we arrived. Flames burned in patches here and there, and several of the homes had been smashed to rubble. Karth guards, from the town’s looming barracks, were fighting to keep the dragon on the ground and wound it as badly as possible, but it looked to be doing more damage to them than they were to it.

As we galloped along the dirt path through Karthpasture, the dragon vomited fire, dousing the nearby guards with the heat and flame. They never stood a chance as their armor melted around them, and their bodies burned to cinders. The dragon turned its head toward another grounp that was striking it and snatched them up in its jaws, swallowing them whole.

<<>> I Shouted, knocking the dragon’s head to the side as it attempted to roast more of the town’s guards.

The flames went off course, burning down two more homes. The dragon twitched its head as Mephalda shot arrows at us and turned in our direction as if we were a minor annoyance. A wall of flame separated us as we were forced to dodge the searing fire launched from the dragon’s maw. I shot ice spikes into its side as I ran, but they seemed to merely stick in the thick scales, barely making a difference.

<<>> I Shouted, rushing in toward the dragon with my swords drawn.

I went straight for its wings, which proved to be a bad idea. The dragon quickly drew its wings in toward its body and, as I was standing on top of one, I was thrown toward its back. I rolled across the scales, digging my swords in as I went, until I came to a stop. I looked up to see that the dragon was staring straight at me.

As fire began to build in its nostrils, Steadfast cracked it across the jaw with his warhammer. It released the flames at the ground where Steadfast had been standing before suddenly taking off into the air. I tried to keep my balance on the dragon’s back as it glided through the sky. It let loose a barrage of flame at the ground, burning up everything, including the last few remaining houses.

As it circled back around toward my friends, I advanced up its back. Holding Calcion’s Cleaver above my head, I brought it down into the dragon’s wing joint. The wing suddenly seized up, and the dragon unexpectedly turned, crashing through the guard barracks. The multi-floored structure was ripped in half as the dragon plowed through it.

I managed to jump off on the fourth floor, getting one last hit in as the dragon slid on. As soon as it recovered, the great lizard came rampaging toward what was left of the building. Using its claws, it tore walls and floors apart searching for me. I fought to stay one step ahead, galloping down stairs and under wreckage to stay out of sight. Eventually, though, there was nowhere else to go, and the dragon found me, preparing a flame attack to roast me alive.

As time slowed, I galloped out from under the barrage of fire. As I passed beneath the dragon, I held my swords out, slicing through its legs. I had to duck to avoid the tail as time snapped back to normal, but I had made it and gotten away from the dragon.

As the great beast began to turn toward me, it was suddenly bombarded by arrows from Mephalda. As it opened its mouth to shoot fire at her, she fired even more arrows into the soft interior tissue, causing the dragon great pain. A blast of magic from Mystic knocked the beast to the ground, where Steadfast was able to get his own attacks in.

I Shouted as the dragon began to get up, and it fell to the ground again, weakened.

“DRAGONSLAYER??” the dragon asked as I approached, “ALDUIN SAID THAT YOU WERE DEAD!!”

“Alduin was wrong,” I said as I stabbed Calcion’s Cleaver through the dragon’s skull.

It spasmed for a bit, fighting against the lightning coursing through its brain, before finally allowing itself to die. As it combusted, I relived the dragon’s life and learned how to use the Word I’d learned at Four Stars Lookout. I could see and understand everything about storms, including how to call one to my aid.

I Shouted, and clouds rolled in from distant corners of the sky to send down snow and lightning.

We were victorious, but as I looked around, it seemed to be another hollow victory. Though the dragon was dead, the entire town of Karthpasture was destroyed, and only a few survivors remained, certainly not enough to restart the town. We’d managed to save the town, but in doing so had lost what we’d been protecting.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

After the battle, we tended to the wounded as best we could before helping them on their way to Marekarth. Karthpasture was gone and most likely would never rise again. Helping the last few residents was the least we could do.

As we left the great Minotauran ruin that was the capital of the Karth, a pony in light armor with a courier’s saddlebag galloped up to us. I was amazed how these couriers were able to find a single pony in all of Horizon, and so quickly too.

“Letter for Sapphire,” the courier announced, pulling the message in question from his saddlebags.

“Thank you,” I told him before taking the letter.

As he galloped off, I broke the seal and opened the letter up, curious as to who would write to me. I found out immediately who it was when I saw the black hoofprint at the top of the message.

Sapphire,
We have need of your help immediately. Come to the Sanctuary as fast as possible.

There was no doubt that this letter was from the Dark Brotherhoof, it appeared even from Merrifeather herself. But, I really had no great desire to return to that band of assassins. They had been helpful in finding Mephalda, sure, but I didn’t intend to become a permanent member.

On the other hoof, the message was very short and urgently written. Perhaps the Dark Brotherhoof was in trouble. They may have been assassins, but the ones I had met had been decent enough ponies. It wouldn’t do to just abandon them in their hour of need.

Making my choice, I set out on the path south of the city, headed for Foalkreath and the Dark Brotherhoof.

Level Up
Health: 260 Stamina: 260 Magicka: 250
New Perk: Metal and Magic [Smithing] -- You can now repair enchanted weapons at forges, as well as improve both their physical and magical properties.
Word of Power learned: STRUN -- Storm; Storm Call – A Shout to the skies, a cry to the clouds, that awakens the destructive force of Horizon’s lightning.
Dragon Soul collected
New Quest: A Brother in Need -- Come to the aid of the Dark Brotherhoof, whatever their problem may be.

Chapter 49: Shadowmere

Chapter XLIX: Shadowmere
“So long as there is a Listener to hear the Nightmare’s voice, the Dark Brotherhoof will endure.”

We left for Foalkreath immediately, intent on getting there as fast as possible. I explained the situation to my friends on the way, including the fact that they most likely wouldn’t be allowed in the Dark Brotherhoof Sanctuary. Instead, they would wait for me at the Dead Pony’s Drink in Foalkreath.

From the tiny town I continued on, breathing in the brisk morning air of Horizon. The Dark Brotherhoof Sanctuary was only a short distance away from Foalkreath, and I was there in no time. Merrifeather was standing outside the door when I arrived.

“Good, you got my message,” she said as I approached, and she stepped inside.

“What’s this about?” I asked, following her into the sanctuary.

“Shadowmere has heard the Nightmare’s voice, and she has asked for all the Dark Brothers to gather,” Merrifeather explained as we headed down to the main cavern.

In it was gathered all the ponies I’d seen here the last time I’d visited, as well as a few more that evidently lived separate from the Brotherhoof, as I did. Shadowmere stood in the pool of water, looking over the assembled crowd. I joined them, standing near Prominence as the Listener began to speak.

“My Dark Brothers and Sisters,” Shadowmere spoke in a monotone, “Early this morning the Nightmare revealed to me a job that will require the help of all. The target is different from the usual, but the Nightmare has full confidence that we will be able to pull it off. The town of Shor’s Stone has grown too corrupt. We must purge the town, killing all who live there.”

Confused whinnies broke out across the chamber.

“We’re supposed to kill off the entire town?” a dark brown pegasus asked incredulously.

“That is what the Nightmare has commanded,” Shadowmere said, staring the complainer down.

“It just doesn’t seem like something the Dark Brotherhoof would do,” Prominence said, “The whole town can’t deserve this kind of punishment.”

“That is for the Nightmare to decide,” Shadowmere said tensely, his tone leaving no room for argument, “And she has decided our course. You can follow it, or you can turn your back on our mother.”

“Not what I meant,” the werewolf protested, “I just thought it was a bit unusual.”

“Well, maybe you should keep such thoughts to yourself,” Shadowmere said, stepping out of the pool, “Everypony get some rest. We leave at nightfall.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I was trotting through a graveyard at night. Mist curled around the tombstones and billowed around me, confining my vision to only a few paces in any direction. In the distance, an owl hooted, adding to the creepiness of the experience. Exactly where I was I had no idea, only the drive to keep moving and get through as fast as possible.

I paused a moment as I recognized the inscriptions on a few of the gravestones. The dirt in front of them began to shift, and soon Sage, Captain Faeros, Narius of Rearikstead, and Captain Allesandra of The Daring crawled out of the ground. They were all the ponies I had killed to get into the Dark Brotherhoof, and each of them had a bloody hoofprint upon them. Looking down, I could see that my hooves were coated in their blood.

“Murderer~” they all spoke at once in a haunting tone.

Pushing past them, I galloped away into the mist until they disappeared behind me. I slowed down at last and began to catch my breath, only to find I had arrived at another cluster of tombstones. From the ground rose many pegasi, all their wings dyed black.

“You killed us all~” the corpses accused me, and I ran off again, getting lost in the mist.

“You take no sides in Horizon’s war, do you?~” a voice came from the mist.

“I don’t!” I shouted up, continuing to plow on ahead.

“But you take plenty of lives on both sides~” myriad voices accused.

All around me stood dead ponies in both Imperial and Stormcloud armor, the earth of their graves still clinging to them. Still more pushed out of the ground as I looked out at the field of tombstones raised in memorial to the ponies I’d killed.

Once more I galloped off into the mist, trying to avoid the bloody corpses of my victims. As I looked down, I could see that their blood now stained my forelegs up to the knees. Plowing through the mist, I tripped on a branch and went rolling across the ground, coming to a stop before rough tomb markers made from sticks. Goats emerged from the graves stretching off into the distance.

“Murderer!~” they all accused, and I couldn’t deny it, not with their blood soaking me crimson.

“I didn’t want any of you to die!” I yelled, trying to defend myself, “I didn’t want to kill any of you!”

“Liar!~” the chieftain from Broken Horn Redoubt exclaimed.

My eyes locked on where my sword had cut through him. The goat moved aside as I began to relive the event. His wife and kid were standing there as well, in the middle of the mist-filled graveyard.

“Sapphire the Butcher!~” the kid exclaimed, and the other corpses around me joined in.

An army of dead bodies; goat, Imperial, Stormcloud, and Blackwing; all converged on me, and I was pushed to the ground, screaming the whole time.

~~ ~~ ~~

I bolted upright in my bed, my coat drenched in sweat. The rest of the ponies lying around me were still sleeping soundly and hadn’t been awoken by my night terrors. Careful not to disturb them, I climbed out of bed and crept through the sanctuary.

Things were getting bad. The nightmares were coming more often and were much more vivid. What would they be like after tomorrow? The thought of killing off an entire town of ponies made me sick to my stomach.

As I trotted through the caverns, I passed the room where Shadowmere was, standing before the iron coffin in which the Nightmare was kept. It seemed he didn’t want to be disturbed, so I passed on, looking for someplace I could hole up for the night and not disturb the other Dark Brothers if nightmares woke me again. I found one eventually, in a hole back in the bowels of the caverns. Laying out my bedroll, I attempted to fall asleep again.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I had a restful day’s sleep, but thankfully I didn’t have another of the awful dreams, and I didn’t wake up again. When I got up, however, something wasn’t quite right. There was nopony about, and the entire Dark Brotherhoof Sanctuary was deserted.

I realized right away what must’ve happened. I’d overslept, and everypony had left without me. It looked like they hadn’t been gone for long; hopefully I could still catch up with them before they reached Shor’s Stone. As I hurried to pull on my Dark Brotherhoof Armor, I thought I heard a faint voice.

“Sapphire,” it came a second time.

“Hello,” I called, “Is somepony still here?”

“Sapphire, come to me,” the voice said.

“Where are you?” I asked, “I can’t hear you very well!”

The mysterious voice gave me directions on how to reach it. I realized as I was trotting through the passages that the voice was coming from inside my head, not without. I kept my blade ready just in case a telepathic unicorn vampire was waiting to attack me. At last, the voice guided me into the room I’d seen Shadowmere in earlier in the day.

“Sapphire, can you hear me?” the voice asked, much louder and clearer now.

“Yes, who is this?” I asked, though I thought I had pinpointed the source of the voice.

“I am the Nightmare.”

“I was afraid of that.”

“Do not be afraid. I need you to listen carefully.”

“Okay,” I said, “I’m all ears.”

“My Listener has abandoned me. Shadowmere no longer Listens to my commands. He has made a bargain with Mehruinous Dagon, to bring him into this world by causing massive destruction.”

“Killing Shor’s Stone!” I exclaimed.

“Yes, that was not my order he was relaying, but his new master’s. I could not speak to anypony else, only you. I sensed another Listener was here, but could not find you in the crowd. It was very fortunate that you stayed behind so I could warn you. Did you also sense the need to stay behind?”

“Not exactly,” I admitted, rubbing the back of my neck, “I . . . uh . . . overslept.”

“Nothing ever happens without a reason,” the voice of the Nightmare echoed in my head, “But now you must go and stop Shadowmere and his madness. They have not been gone long, but it will be a struggle to catch them. Are you up for the task?”

“I’m on it,” I promised, taking off at once.

If I had to choose between saving a town and destroying it, I’d choose to save it any day. I just hoped I wasn’t too late.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I galloped through the night as fast as I could, hoping to find the other Dark Brotherhoof members before they made it to Shor’s Stone. I stayed on the path as much as possible to maintain speed, but was forced to detour around Foalkreath and later Splitten to avoid being seen by any guards. It wasn’t that anything I was doing was illegal; it’s just that I didn’t think being caught in a Dark Brotherhoof uniform would help my chances of getting out of the death penalty.

I finally spotted another pony wearing a Dark Brotherhoof uniform as I neared Shor’s Stone. I called to the light blue unicorn as I approached to let him know I was coming so he wouldn’t confuse me with an assassin trying to surprise him.

“What are you doing?” he asked indignantly.

“We’ve got to stop the attack,” I told him urgently, “Where is everypony else?”

“Scattered, and why would we stop the attack?”

“Because the Nightmare said to.”

“What are you talking about?” the unicorn assassin asked, “The Nightmare speaks only to Shadowmere.”

“She spoke to me,” I said, trying to project as much confidence into my voice as I could, “She told me Shadowmere no longer listens to her commands. He’s gone rogue and fallen in line with Mehruinous Dagon.”

“How do I know this isn’t a trick?” he asked, though I could see he wanted to believe me.

“Attacking an entire town? Shadowmere said it himself. It’s not something the Dark Brotherhoof usually does. Why start now?”

“All right,” the stallion said, “You’d better be telling the truth, or you’ll pay for this when everything’s over. The Brotherhoof is scattered, and you may not have time to convince them like me. You’ll have to incapacitate them now and explain things later.”

“Here, this should help,” he said, tossing me a spell tome with Paralyze printed on the cover.

As I opened the book, the pages began to flip by on their own, raw magical energy crackling across them until the entire book was consumed. The knowledge of how to competently cast the Paralyze spell was now fixed in my mind. The unicorn assassin went one way, and I went another, looking for Dark Brotherhoof assassins as we circled the town.

It wasn’t long before I saw one, a zebra with a bow contraption strapped to her. Focusing my magic, I sent a ball of energy flying. As it hit the zebra, her eyes rolled up into her head, and she fell to the ground. I checked to make sure she was still alive before moving on.

Up ahead, a pegasus was perched in a tree. My magic knocked her unconscious, and I rushed forward to catch her before her body hit the hard ground. Gently setting her down in the undergrowth, I moved on, hitting another assassin nearly instantly.

The moon’s glow shone brightly through the trees, helping me immensely in my search to find the assassins before it was too late. An earth pony in Dark Brotherhoof armor fell to my magic as I galloped through the woods. Another blast took out a bat-pony as I ran to the top of a ridge.

Down below, a massive wolf stalked through the forest. Upon closer inspection, however, I could see that it walked much like a pony would. It was a werewolf, and hopefully a Dark Brotherhoof member. Otherwise, simply knocking it unconscious would be a bad idea.

My spell hit it on its hairy back, sending sparks of magical energy shooting through the thick fur. It staggered, but didn’t fall, and turned toward me. As it did so, I shot the spell at it again, hitting it in the head. This time, the werewolf fell to the ground and began to morph into Prominence.

Jumping over his body, I continued through the forest, searching for more Dark Brotherhoof assassins. I shot bolts of the paralysis spell all through the trees wherever I caught a glimpse of a pony in Dark Brotherhoof armor. I had to remind myself to look up into the trees as well, where pegasi and bat-ponies crouched. The only problem then was catching them when they fell from the branches.

“The attack will be starting soon,” the unicorn I’d warned spoke to me when we met up on the far end of Shor’s Stone, “I’ll gather up the ponies we’ve gotten already; you head into town and stop any there.”

Nodding that I understood, I took off toward Shor’s Stone. It was odd to think about, but Shor’s Stone was where I’d been when the Dark Brotherhoof had first found me. Now I was back here, trying to keep the Dark Brotherhoof out of it.

An earth pony mare was attempting to sneak around the inn when I blasted her with my magic, knocking her to the ground. A pegasus on the roof was next, and I rushed up to catch him as he rolled down the sloped thatching. No sooner had I caught him in my forelegs than I was forced to drop him and shoot a blast of magic at a zebra creeping around one of the nearby homes.

I made my way toward the center of the tiny town, incapacitating every assassin I glimpsed. Soon there were no more Dark Brotherhoof members left standing, none that I could see at least. I was beginning to drag the ponies away from the town, to wherever the other members were beginning to wake up, when I was suddenly knocked across the ground.

As I tried to get up, I found myself forced back down again. Looking up, I could see that the hoof placed on my head belonged to Shadowmere. He looked down at me, his eyes burning bright with rage.

“What are you doing?” he asked, his very voice sucking all life from the air.

“The Nightmare told me the truth,” I said, “I stopped you.”

“No,” he said, pressing down harder on my skull, “You delayed me.”

“The Brotherhoof knows the truth.”

“They know what you told them, and when you’re dead, nopony will believe your lies.”

<<>> I Shouted, taking on my ethereal form.

Shadowmere’s hoof slammed to the ground as I rolled out from under him. I rose to my hooves and put some distance between the assassin and myself before I regained physical form.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked, “How could you betray the Brotherhoof?”

“You’d never understand!” he snarled, leaping toward me.

He was much faster than I anticipated, and I didn’t dodge in time. He managed to clip my side as he passed me, sending me rolling down an embankment outside of Shor’s Stone. As I rose to my hooves, he’d already recovered from the jump and was galloping toward me.

<>

The ground became ice beneath his hooves, and he slid past me as I jumped to the side. Tearing up the grass, Shadowmere came to a stop before turning and running toward me.

“Why wouldn’t I understand?” I asked.

This time I jumped to the side well before the pitch black earth pony would reach me. He’d anticipated it, however, and I was hit by him anyway. As we rolled across the ground, he refused to let go, keeping a grip on me at all times.

“How could you betray the Dark Brotherhoof?” I asked, trying to get him to reason with me, “You’ve led them for centuries.”

“Precisely, centuries!” he spat out as he pinned me to the ground, “I’ve lived longer than you can imagine. I’ve seen empires rise and fall, civilizations crumble. In my life the present has become history, history has become legend, legend has become myth, and myth has faded from pony minds. Everything – everypony – I know has turned to dust. I’m alone, and I’ve watched as everything around me faded beyond recognition.”

“Do you know the cruelest thing that can be done to a pony? It’s not killing them. It’s making them watch as everypony around them dies. This gift of mine, eternal life? It’s a curse! I long for death, but never shall I taste the sweet relief of being able to leave this world behind. I am stuck here forever!”

“So you ask why I would betray the Dark Brotherhoof,” he said, pressing me into the ground, “Well, here’s your answer. For a chance at death. Mehruinous Dagon has promised to do away with my deathlessness, to make me mortal, if I assist him in entering the Northlands. All I have to do is to cause a great amount of destruction, create a weakness, and I’ll be able finally die.”

“When I was a colt, Horizon did not exist, and neither did Shor’s Stone. This tiny town is a small price to pay for the chance to live a normal life and die a normal death. It’s not like the town will last much longer anyway. Everything dies in time. Everything except me.”

“What about the Dark Brotherhoof?” I croaked out as he pressed a hoof to my throat, “If you destroy this town, what will ponies think of you?”

“It matters not! We have tried all manner of action in the Brotherhoof. We have killed only the rich, only the poor. We have killed anypony we were asked to, and we’ve killed only the deserving. But no matter what we’ve done, one thing has always been constant. Ponies hate us, and they always shall. What we do here will not change their opinions of us. This stain will wash away as all do, with time.”

“What of the Nightmare?” I forced out, “Who will listen to her voice?”

Shadowmere’s hoof let off on squeezing my throat, but only a bit. He looked deeply perplexed, as if wrestling with something in his mind.

“No,” he said, though he didn’t reapply pressure to my throat, “The Brotherhoof will survive without me. It must learn to.”

“They’ll be lost without you to listen to the Nightmare, you know that,” I said, “Can you abandon all of them for your own desires?”

“I – I . . .” Shadowmere stammered.

“Can you abandon your family?”

I gasped for air as his hoof came off my throat completely. As I looked over at the master assassin, I could see that he had a shocked look on his face, and his head was hung low as he considered what I’d said.

“By the Void!” he exclaimed at last, “What have I done?”

“Nothing,” Merrifeather’s voice came from behind me, “You didn’t do it.”

I turned around to see that she, along with many of the other assassins, was emerging from between the trees. She trotted over to where Shadowmere sat.

“I would have done it,” the Listener said, “I was willing to sacrifice this town, and all of you, for my own desires.”

“But you didn’t,” Merrifeather emphasized.

“Thanks to her,” Shadowmere said, pointing to where I was sitting, nursing my bruises.

“Sapphire, how can I ever repay you?” he asked, trotting up to me.

“No need really,” I said, “I was just doing what the Nightmare told me.”

“Think,” Shadowmere commanded, “There must be something you could use assistance with. I have been around a very long time; I doubt there is anything outside of my expertise.”

“Well . . .” I said, “I am looking for the Elements of Harmony. Have you ever heard of them?”

“Yes, I think Talhooves may have mentioned them a few times,” Shadowmere said emotionlessly.

“You knew Talhooves?” I asked.

“Only in passing, but I do recall he had a desire to collect the Elements of Harmony. I’ll look into the matter and get back to you when I find something.”

Shadowmere trotted off, leaving the rest of us standing around in the woods outside of Shor’s Stone, which was still very much alive, thanks to me.

Level Up
Health: 270 Stamina: 260 Magicka: 250
New Perk: Frigid Force [Destruction] -- All ice-based spells can now be cast for half Magicka.
New Spell learned: Paralyze -- You can now cast a spell with your unicorn magic that temporarily paralyzes a foe without harming them.
New Quest: Divide and Conquer -- While Shadowmere searches for the Elements of Harmony on his own, continue to look for them in Draugr ruins throughout Horizon.

Author's Note

And we're back!
Sorry for not posting in so long. I am currently on winter break and without access to unlimited internet. Also I've been really busy. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this new chapter and will stay tuned for more to come!

FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 50: Horizon's Founder

Chapter L: Horizon’s Founder
“Out of this time also rose one of the most legendary of all Northlandic figures, Ysgroomar, from whom all earth pony kings to this day are descended.”

With the messy business with Shor’s Stone cleared up, I returned to Foalkreath to rejoin my friends. Shadowmere had promised to help us in our quest to find the Elements of Harmony, but that didn’t mean we had to sit around and do nothing. There were still five out there, after all, and the one I did possess was still little more than a useless trinket.

I may not have been able to satisfactorily display the Element it represented, but at least I could search for the others. Going from ruin to ruin hoping we’d find an Element was slow and inefficient, but it was the best plan we had at the moment. And if we were going to explore ancient earth pony ruins, there was only one pony to see.

“How did Four Stars Lookout work out?” Faniar asked as we entered his study.

“Not bad, but no Element,” Steadfast answered.

“That’s too bad,” Faniar said, “But I think I might have one for you. I have reason to believe there might be an Element in Ysgroomar’s tomb.”

“Ysgroomar?” Steadfast asked, “As in Ysgroomar, founder of both Horizon and the Companions?”

“That’s the one,” Faniar answered.

“Are you saying Ysgroomar was a Dragon Priest?” I asked.

“No, but his tomb was later used by another Draugr lord, perhaps even a Dragon Priest.”

“Well, it’s the best chance we’ve got,” I said, “I guess we’ll head to Ysgroomar’s Tomb. Thanks for all the help, Faniar.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Ysgroomar’s Tomb was built on a small island off Horizon’s coast, just north of Windhorn. Luckily, we didn’t need a boat to reach it, as the sea north of Windhorn was already frozen over for the winter. Icy winds howled across the frozen sea as we trekked out to the lonely ruin, but we made it eventually, reaching the monument stones that marked Ysgroomar’s Tomb.

Snow coated the island, and it seemed completely untouched by pony hooves for years. The stone entryway had nearly vanished beneath the drifts, but we were able to dig it out. Pushing the heavy doors open, we ducked in out of the frigid weather.

Just within the ruin was a small cavern tucked just under the island’s stone. Braziers burned brightly with purple flame along the walls, illuminating the interior space. In the center of the room was statue worn down severely with age.

It was Ysgroomar, looking exactly as we’d seen him in Sovngarde. The hairy earth pony was posed in a heroic position, his battleaxe Wingrend in his mouth. The walls were decorated with murals beyond count depicting the former king’s many accomplishments.

Steadfast would have loved to stay there, admiring the room for the rest of the day, but we were on a mission. We left the entry cavern, passing the massive statue, and headed down into the tunnels built beneath the island. We passed through hallways of tombs where the Draugr slept soundly. None emerged until we entered a large cavern beneath the island.

Tombs burst open as we entered the room, and the zombies spilled out, their weapons already in their mouths. A blast of fire from Mystic roasted the one nearest to us. I drew Calcion’s Cleaver and the Blade of Hoofingar and advanced upon a Draugr with a battleaxe.

I swung Calcion’s Cleaver around, but the zombie blocked with its blade. My ebony sword too was knocked away as the battleaxe spun around. I brought my ancient earth pony blade around toward the Draugr’s forelegs, but it was able to block me. As I swung the Blade of Hoofingar around toward its neck, the sword was knocked down by the shaft of the battleaxe.

The blade still hit the Draugr anyway, slicing away the rotten flesh on its shoulder and foreleg. I twisted the blade at the last second before it hit the ground, and I was able to take off the zombie’s hoof. As it staggered, I managed to get a swing in with Calcion’s Cleaver on the other side of its neck. The zombie choked on its own ichor and fell to the floor.

As another Draugr with a battleaxe swung at me, Steadfast rushed in and blocked with his warhammer. I rushed down through the room, chopping off the head of another Draugr as Mephalda shot the archer down the hall that was annoying us with its arrows.

A Draugr wielding a sword stood atop a set of rickety stairs at the end of the cavern that led up to the second level. I shot fire at the zombie, lightning it aflame, but also lighting the bridge below it. That was the last thing I needed if I wanted to get deeper into the ruin.

<> I Shouted, freezing the burning Draugr and the bridge beneath it.

Climbing the stairs, careful not to slip, I knocked the zombie-sicle to the ground, causing it to shatter into a million icy bits. I suddenly ducked down the stairs as a fireball shot through the air right where my head had been. Peeking up onto the second level of the room, I could see a Draugr wielding a staff was now shooting another fireball down toward my friends.

Keeping low to the ground, I crept up the stairs before ducking behind a pillar just in time to avoid the blast of flame that followed me. Unfortunately, the pillar I was behind was made of wood, and old wood at that. With the Draugr’s next blast, it turned into a pillar of fire.

By that time, however, I was no longer there. I leapt at a zombie with a war axe standing nearby, slashing through its chest before moving on and ducking behind another of the pillars that held up the roof here. From there, I rolled across the floor until I was behind another pillar. Continuing this, I circled around the undead wizard until the ceiling began to groan above it. As the final pillar combusted, the stone came crashing down, burying the Draugr.

I was forced to draw back suddenly as the pike of another Draugr came down at me. Shooting flames at it, I pushed the zombie off the ledge that ringed the second floor, and sent it falling to its death. My friends joined me on the upper level now that it was safe, and Steadfast crushed another Draugr with a bow that had been shooting at me. I hadn’t even noticed in my attempt to kill the Draugr with the staff, but there were arrows stuck all over my armor. I pulled them out before moving on.

A Draugr with a sword in front of me suddenly combusted as Mystic’s magic hit it. Farther ahead, near the exit from this room, was a Draugr with a greatsword. As we approached, I shot ice spikes at it. Some stuck, but did little damage, and in the end it was a shot from Mephalda’s bow that killed it.

Stepping over the corpse, we passed into a narrow hallway where braziers hung from the ceiling to provide illumination. Everything was eerily quiet, the ruin shifting being the only noise that could be heard. Eventually the tunnel came to an end, opening onto a large room hollowed out from the stone lit by a gigantic brazier hanging from the vaulted ceiling.

In the center of the room was an elaborately carved sarcophagus. I allowed myself to relax and take a closer look when it didn’t burst open on approach. It appeared to be Ysgroomar’s coffin, untouched even by the Draugr. I gave Steadfast a moment as he marveled over the inscriptions on the coffin of the pony that had founded his order.

Looking around, I could see that this tomb had been built underwater. Through cracks in the ceiling, small trails of the sea above us dribbled down. Stains on the walls bore proof that this wasn’t just a recent occurrence. The ruin began to groan more as we waited, and the streams of water began to grow.

“Um, Steadfast,” I said, looking up nervously at the leaking ceiling, “I think we’d better get out of here.”

No sooner had I uttered my warning than chunks of the ceiling began to rain down and seawater came rushing in. We tried to rush toward the entrance, but the flow of icy water quickly washed us toward the other side of the room. My head knocked against the doorframe of another tunnel as we were flushed down it.

Soon the tunnel filled with water, and we were left holding our breaths as the current swept us along. As we did, we were sent through tunnels filled with Draugr, their bodies flowing along with the current too. I nearly screamed and gave up my precious air when one of the icy cold bodies brushed against my own.

At last the deluge came to a stop as the tunnel curved upwards. We all gasped for breath as air became available again, even if it was a bit musty. We crawled out of the water, damp, shivering, and miserable. Mystic cast a warmth spell on us to help dispel the cold and fight off illness, and soon we were feeling much better, albeit battered and bruised by the crazy ride we’d just experienced.

“Where are we?” Steadfast asked, looking down the passageway we were in.

“It appears to be a sub-ruin,” Mystic said, “Built beneath Ysgroomar’s Tomb at a later date. Faniar did say another ancient earth pony lord had moved in here; maybe this is their fortress.”

“I think Mystic’s right. I just hope it has another way out,” I said, looking back the way we had come.

We forged on through the new set of tunnels, which did seem not quite as old as the ones we’d been in before. In places, a strange symbol kept popping up, most likely the symbol of the pony who’d built this place. I had high hopes that it was also the symbol of a Dragon Priest.

Deeper we delved into the ruins, until the walls came alive around us. We hadn’t seen Draugr for a while and were caught off guard as they suddenly poured from their tombs in the walls. I swung my sword around, trying to keep them back, but my armor still took on a few new nicks and dents as the zombies beat their weapons against the Griffin covering.

With all of us fighting to free ourselves, the battle was over in minutes, Draugr lying around us chopped, crushed, burned, and shot. Fixing up our wounds, we continued on until we came to an iron door set into a sturdy stone frame. Very quickly, I pushed the door open, revealing a horde of Draugr on the other side.

My fire breath torched the Draugr, reducing those in front to ashes immediately and lighting the others up to burn slowly. One even fell into a pool of oil on the floor, lighting up the room. I slammed the door shut as the fire began to billow through the open doorway. My mane got a bit singed in the process, but it wouldn’t be the first time. I just had to thank the Equines that fire always seemed to jump straight for my mane and not the more important bits of my body.

I cautiously opened the door once the clamor had died down. All the Draugr in the room were dead, littering the floor as burnt corpses. As I stepped into the room, I found not quite all of them were dead. My dragon breath had been effective in killing all the Draugr in the room, but an archer was entering from a door on the far side and shot an arrow at me as I stepped through the door.

I rolled across the ash-covered floor to avoid the arrow, ending up behind the still-warm corpse of a Draugr. Another arrow came flying toward me and stuck in the Draugr corpse as I leapt for cover elsewhere. As I peeked around a pillar, I saw an arrow from Mephalda’s bow shoot right through the archer’s head. It fell to the ground, the contraption that let it fire a bow propping it up in an odd position.

Pushing it to the side, I passed into the next hallway, where I came face to face with a Draugr right away. I brought Calcion’s Cleaver up just in time to block the swing at my head. With a kick of my forelegs, I knocked the Draugr back down the hall. A fireball from my horn followed it, lighting the zombie up.

It tumbled backwards into another of the undead ponies standing behind it. The second Draugr knocked the first aside with a staff and began to shoot lightning at me, brushing fire off itself in the process. I ducked low to the ground as the bolts of pure energy shot over me, dissipating over the surface of Mystic’s ward.

I crawled across the ground, and as the Draugr shot another blast of lightning at me, I countered with my own. The two magical blasts met in midair, and lightning arced everywhere, crackling over the walls. Pushing more magic through my horn, I forced the electrical disturbance where the bolts met away from me. Eventually it reached the staff itself and the tip exploded in a burst of magical energy.

Steadfast jumped over me as the Draugr suddenly became armed with nothing more than a stick. Still, it put that stick to good use, blocking Steadfast’s first swing. It wasn’t so lucky the second time, and its skull caved beneath my friend’s hammer.

The hall narrowed further on and began to slope back downwards. At the end of it were two large iron doors. Pushing them open revealed a large carved cavern dominated by a set of carvings dedicated to the dragons. On one of them was an inscription in Draconic that I eagerly trotted over to examine.

As I’d suspected, this wall held the knowledge of the dragons. The words burned as I learned animals as the dragons did, as small and insignificant creatures with weak minds. I also learned everything I possible could about every kind of animal until I thought my mind would burst. At last the flow of knowledge stopped, and I had a new word in my mind.

~RAAN~

A dull thudding came from the center of the room, where a sarcophagus not near as fancy as Ysgroomar’s sat. The top suddenly cracked off and an earth pony emerged, dressed in rotting gowns of state. A warhammer was gripped in its mouth, glowing red a bit around the edges as flames licked across the bludgeon. What was left of the zombie’s mane was thrown violently back, enhancing the animalistic look of the undead lord. Sadly, I didn’t see an Element hanging around the Draugr’s neck.

My Shout lit the Draugr on fire, and it shrieked as the flames burned its flesh, but it didn’t die immediately as I’d hoped. Instead, the Draugr lord jumped down from its sarcophagus and swung its warhammer into my side. My armor buckled and flames licked across it as I was thrown across the room.

As I rose to my hooves, I began to rocket ice spikes across the room at the Draugr, tearing holes through its armor and clothing and ripping apart the flesh beneath. Mephalda began to shoot arrows into it, making sure they hit it at such an angle that they also tore away chunks of the Draugr’s rotten flesh.

Steadfast went warhammer to warhammer with the Draugr, locking their weapons into a block. A blast of flames from Mystic set the zombie on fire, but the flames did little more than annoy it and burn off the remaining hair it had. After knocking Steadfast away, it turned to Mystic for a moment and dropped its weapon.

<<>> it Shouted, throwing her off her hooves and sending her rolling across the floor.

Steadfast was back by this point, and managed to cave in the armor over the Draugr’s back before it retrieved its own weapon. Still, Steadfast’s strike had managed to cripple it, leaving its hindlegs paralyzed. I ran up behind it while it was engaged with my earth pony friend.

<>

The Draugr’s back half froze to the ground, and ice crept through the holes in the zombie’s flesh Mephalda and I had opened up. Snarling, the Draugr knocked Steadfast aside and tried to crush my head with a swing of its hammer. I ducked, and the weapon’s end went flying over my head, just barely nicking my helmet.

Calcion’s Cleaver sang with joy as I brought it around toward the Draugr’s neck. The rotten flesh broke apart easily as my blade entered, cutting through skin, muscle, tendon, and bone. The sword went all the way through, separating the Draugr’s head from its body. I gagged and backed off as the overwhelming stench of long-rotten blood reached my nostrils.

Cleaning my blades, I searched for a way out of here. Thankfully, there was a door tucked in the back of a side room that led to stairs leading up. Following them took us to a small room with a ladder built into the wall. Climbing it allowed me to reach the ceiling, where I was able to push a circular piece of stone up and out. Poking my head through, my eyes met those of a very confused bat-pony.

“Where did you come from?” he asked with a prominent Bracken-swamp accent, offering a hoof to help me out.

“Um, an ancient earth pony ruin,” I said, looking around once he’d helped me up.

I could see that somehow I was now standing on the solid portion of the Windhorn docks. The ancient city reared up behind me, and before me were several ships frozen in the harbor for the winter. The bat-pony helped up Steadfast as well, and then Mystic. Mephalda needed no help to flap out of the hole.

“Thanks for the help,” I told him as he resealed the hole in the docks.

“I have seen you here before,” he replied, “The earth ponies look down upon us, but you do not, I think. In Unicornica, we are looked down upon by unicorns, in fact everywhere we are looked down on. But here, we are both outsiders. Maybe you can understand our plight. Jarl Stormcloud respects you. He will listen if you speak to him.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” I said sincerely, “But like you said, I’m an outsider too, I don’t know how much he’ll listen even if I do talk to him.”

“I understand,” the bat-pony said, “Besides, you have much bigger problem.”

He held out a hoof and pointed behind me. As I turned around to see what he was pointing at, a shadow fell over the land. Above us flapped a dragon, gliding to the south. As it passed over Windhorn, it gave a roar of challenge. But, it didn’t stop and attack the town, it just kept flying south.

“Where do you think it’s headed?” Mystic asked.

“I don’t know,” I said, “Let’s find out.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

As we traveled down the south path from Windhorn, I began to get worried just where exactly the dragon was headed. Judging by its path, it was after Riverwood. Both Hoofgen and Karthpasture had been wiped out now, and I wouldn’t put it past Alduin to have the dragons wipe all the towns out first.

Then again, it could just as easily been headed for Whitetrot, or Foalkreath, or the Crest of the World for that matter. The only reason I was really worried so much about Riverwood was that I knew ponies there. Calciar and Eruthar had been good to me during the short times I’d visited them, and I didn’t want to return to the tiny town only to find their burnt corpses, not to mention Cloverdust’s.

I felt a bit of relief when I heard the dragon rampaging far from any of the towns I was worried about. That relief was short-lived, however, when I realized exactly where we were. Up ahead, the dragon flapped above the trees, but just a short distance away was a tiny farmhouse, now with a broken roof, with a small flaming field of what had once been alchemy ingredients.

“Serendipity!” I called as I galloped up to the farm.

The turquoise unicorn was nowhere to be seen. I really hoped the dragon hadn’t gotten her. That mare had had enough hardship. I breathed a sigh of relief, if only for a moment, when I saw a blast of magic shoot out of the trees near where the dragon hovered. The great lizard coated the forest in flames a moment afterward.

<<>> I Shouted, knocking the dragon from the sky.

It crashed through the burning remains of the trees as I galloped toward it. The area it had cleared was still aflame in some places, and I dodged the scattered fires on my way. As I entered, I could see Serendipity on the other side of the clearing, shooting bolts of lightning at the dragon before retreating into the trees.

I drew Calcion’s Cleaver, but was forced to duck down to the ground as the dragon sent flames shooting over me. As I crawled on my belly through the ash, I sent ice spikes at the dragon’s face, even hitting it in the eye with one. As it drew back in pain, I charged forward.

Calcion’s Cleaver slashed at the dragon’s hide, ripping apart the scaly flesh. As I galloped alongside the beast, I drew my sword along, ripping a long gash in the dragon’s side. It snatched at me with a claw, bending my griffin armor out of shape. Thankfully, the talons themselves didn’t rip through, and I was only scratched up by the points of metal that had formed inside my protective clothing. I swung Calcion’s Cleaver around into the dragon’s palm, and it released me.

As soon as I hit the ground, I took off, heading toward the dragon’s wings. Instead, the wings came for me, throwing me off the ground and sending me tumbling. As the dragon attempted to snatch me up in its jaws, an arrow from Mephalda hit its injured eye, causing it to rear up in pain.

I Shouted, causing the dragon to be gripped by pain as I marked it for death.

I leapt forward, slashing my ancient earth pony sword across its nose as Steadfast swung his hammer into its cheek. The dragon roared, and though in agony, managed to grab me in its mouth and throw me away. I rolled across the forest floor until I hit a tree.

Back at the dragon, Mystic was roasting its wings while Steadfast tried to get another hit on its head. It was too fast for him, however, and knocked him aside. Craning its neck around, it sent a blast of dragon fire at Mystic. Her ward crackled and popped as the flames licked over it, but it held up.

I rose to my hooves and cast a healing spell to repair the wounds the dragon had inflicted on me when it’d bitten me. I also downed a potion of fire resistance before charging toward the great lizard. It let off on blasting Mystic as it saw me coming and focused its breath on me. As the flames licked around me, I prepared the required thoughts in my mind.

Clouds began to billow overhead without the direction of pegasi. Soon the sun was blocked out by their bulk, and lightning began to shoot between them. Snow began to fall around us as the clouds let loose their moisture. Lightning bolts began to arc down, focused on the dragon.

The beast began to cower back as nature’s fury was released on it. Bolts of lightning sought out the cracks in its scaly armor we had opened, scorching the soft flesh beneath. The dragon roared in pain and sent flames flying everywhere. As erratic as they were, they were easy to dodge as I charged in toward the beast.

With a slash of my ancient earth pony sword, I cut through the underside of the dragon’s neck, causing hot, acidic blood to spill out. Lightning bolts continued to rain down on the dragon’s back as I climbed up its leg. Carefully dodging the bolts of natural energy, I made my way up its back, slashing away as I did so.

Then, suddenly, the lightning stopped and the clouds began to migrate away again. The dragon gave a shudder as I crawled across its back, slashing away. I was forced to grab hold of the spikes lining its back as it bucked around, trying to throw me off.

Eventually it succeeded, and I went flying over its head. For a moment I was in freefall, before crashing back down to the hard ground. Looking up, I could see the dragon looming over me. As it opened its mouth to blast me with fire, two magical blasts hit it simultaneously. The raw energy tore apart its face, ripping scales, flesh, and bones to fragments.

As the now-headless dragon collapsed to the ground, I looked for the source of the magical blasts. On one side was Mystic, and on the other was Serendipity, blowing the smoke off her horn, which was still glowing slightly from the massive amount of energy that had just pulsed through it.

“Come to save me again?” she asked, giving a laugh as she approached.

“Actually, this time you saved me,” I said, rising to my hooves and sizing her up.

The turquoise unicorn looked much better than the last time I’d seen her. The wounds inflicted on her by the mine-workers had healed completely, and her tail was even beginning to grow back. But it had been a while since I’d last seen her, nearly two whole months.

The burning of the dragon behind me distracted me from thinking about Serendipity any more at the moment. In a great blast of multi-colored flame, I took in all of the dragon’s memories, with a special focus on animals. I now knew how to use the word I’d learned down in Ysgroomar’s tomb, and how to command the allegiance of animals with it.

I Shouted, though nothing spectacular happened, as all the wildlife had fled when the dragon appeared.

“You have the Voice?” Serendipity asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“We have a lot to catch up on,” I told her.

Level Up
Health: 270 Stamina: 260 Magicka: 260
New Perk: Do-It-Yourself [Smithing] -- Any repairs made on your own armor will increase its armor rating, due to the personalized nature of the repairs.
Word of Power learned: RAAN -- Animal; Animal Allegiance – A Shout for help from the beasts of the wild, who come to fight in your defense.
Dragon Soul collected
New Quest: Ancient Power in Ancient Tombs -- Continue to search ancient earth pony ruins for the Elements of Harmony.

Chapter 51: Wars Old and New

Chapter LI: Wars Old and New
“If we had visited a barrow directly after its construction, we might not have even known any of its inhabitants were dead!”

We stayed at Serendipity’s that night, and I caught her up on everything that had happened since we’d last met. The dragon had caused some significant damage to the roof of her house, and it seemed more like sleeping outside than inside that night. With winter coming in earnest to Horizon, and no time to repair the roof, Serendipity decided to move in to Whitetrot for the season and head back out and repair her home when things warmed up again. After grabbing all the things she’d need, the five of us headed back to the hold’s capital.

Faniar was overjoyed to hear that his friend would be staying in Whitetrot for the winter. In fact, shortly after giving us the location of another ancient earth pony ruin, he took off to see her, leaving his study in the disarray it always seemed to be in.

Mystic, Steadfast, Mephalda, and I all took off for a ruin in the southern reaches of Hjaaltrot, Marethal’s hold. Faniar didn’t have a whole lot of information on Foalgunthur, other than that it was a large ruin that had been ruled by an ancient earth pony warlord. It didn’t seem likely to me that this “warlord” would turn out to be a dragon priest, but we hadn’t known there was one in Volsteed either, so we went along anyway.

The entrance to Foalgunthur was most like the entrance to Hoovestengrav, a raised circle of stone on the ground rather than a grand entryway. In fact, we very nearly missed it as we searched through Hjaaltrot’s twisted forests growing just south of where the swamps started. Only the stone markers around it gave it away, standing as sentinels to a tomb time had forgotten.

Mystic probed the barrow with her magic until she found the stone that would lead into the ruin. With a quick swing of his warhammer, Steadfast knocked it in, revealing stairs leading down. The glow from Mystic’s and my horn provided enough illumination that we were able to find the plain wooden door leading into the tomb.

Within the ruin, seeing was no problem, as the mysterious braziers I’d seen in every Draugr ruin burned here. The entry hallway was surprisingly bare, hardly befitting the realm of a dragon priest, but we pressed on anyway. Soon, the hall let out onto a larger room, lined with tombs and statues on either side.

An arrow from Mephalda’s bow flew swiftly as one of the tombs opened. The Draugr collapsed to the ground as it fell from the alcove it’d been buried in, Mephalda’s arrow sticking through its head. More Draugr than just the one were emerging, however, and we soon had our hooves full.

I drew Calcion’s Cleaver and my Changeling war axe and got to work. I blocked with my sword as a Draugr with an ancient earth pony sword swung at me. While it tried to push through my block, I hooked my war axe over its blade and yanked the weapon from its grasp. My otherworldly war axe sliced through its neck the next moment.

Mystic’s magic fried one of two Draugr coming at me, leaving me to face a zombie with a greatsword. With Calcion’s Cleaver, I knocked it aside before the blade could reach me. I swung my war axe around at the Draugr’s neck, but it managed to get its weapon up in time to block me.

As I swung Calcion’s Cleaver around toward its forelegs, it struck out, hitting me with its hooves. I stumbled backwards from the blow, raising my sword to block as the zombie’s greatsword came down at me.

<> I Shouted, and the greatsword flew from the Draugr’s mouth, allowing me to get a strike in on its neck.

It collapsed to the ground with a growl, but I had no chance to relax as a Draugr with a bow began shooting at me now that there wasn’t a fleshy shield between us. I narrowly dodged the first arrow, and shot a blast of fire at the archer as I rolled across the floor.

The zombie dodged out of the way, and my shot missed. Ducking behind a pillar, I conjured up a flame atronach nearby. The Draugr archer focused its attention on my summoned creature, but the arrows did little harm to it, burning up as soon as they reached its fiery body. It charged forward, breathing fire, and roasted the archer to a crisp.

The Draugr Steadfast was battling soon met the same fate as the atronach galloped around, seeking out zombies to kill. Once the room was empty, it took off into the passageway at the far end, scorching the walls around it. We followed, stepping over the burnt corpses of Draugr as we did.

Suddenly, a great hiss of steam came from up ahead, signifying that my atronach had been defeated. As I stuck my head around the corner, I was forced to draw it back suddenly. A blast of ice went flying past where my head had been, freezing the far wall. Mystic rolled out to face the Draugr wizard, her ward providing her with protection from the ice storm.

It was a narrow passage, and I could do little but watch as she advanced toward the staff-wielding pony. Ice began to build over her ward, flaking away in places to leave coats of it on the floor. As it became thickest, she reached the wizard, her ward touching the end of the staff. Suddenly, it became unstable and exploded, sending bits of wood and metal flying everywhere in the magical blast.

Mystic was thrown back into us, ward collapsing at the sheer power of the magical discharge. The Draugr was also thrown back, but was able to recover remarkably fast, leaping to its hooves and drawing an ancient earth pony sword. I helped Mystic up as it galloped toward us.

The Draugr lit on fire and immediately turned tail. I pursued the burning zombie until it exited the tunnel and suddenly went flying over a cliff, falling to its death far below. I marveled at the sight before me as my friends caught up.

I was standing on a narrow ledge that spiraled down a roughly circular cavern in the rock. Crystals on the ceiling and walls glowed, lightning up the place. Far below was a collection of Draugr buildings. It wasn’t a city, like in Volsteed, but rather a small town. Maybe Faniar had been onto something with this ruin after all.

I shrunk back away from the ledge a moment when I noticed figures moving about below before moving back to get a better look. The creatures moving below weren’t Draugr; in fact they weren’t equine at all. The large canines moved about on two paws, weapons clutched in their remaining appendages.

“Diamond Dogs,” I whispered back, hoping the hounds couldn’t hear us from this far away even with their super-acute hearing.

Looking back over the ledge, I could see another door in the distance, across the town. It wasn’t terribly far through the cavern. If we were silent enough, we might even be able to cross without the Diamond Dogs even knowing we were there.

After removing my heavy armor and slipping into my Thieves Guild attire, I led the way. The spiraling ledge that led down to the town ended about where we had started, if a little bit closer to the exit. That suited me just fine. The less ground we had to sneak over, the better.

A Diamond Dog wearing the helm of an ancient earth pony patrolled near the end of the ramp. Before we passed him, I looked down the main street of the Draugr town. It seemed that the Diamond Dogs had moved in and taken the Draugr’s place. There was a whole Diamond Dog community living down here in the homes the ancient earth ponies had made.

Carefully, we snuck past the first sentry and headed around to the edge of the cavern. My plan was to skirt the town entirely, reducing our chances of being caught. This turned out to be surprisingly hard to do, however, as the Diamond Dogs didn’t seem to want to stay constrained to the town. More than once we were forced to stop and wait anxiously as one of the large canines passed us, using our chosen path to get to another part of the town.

At last we neared the far door, and that was the moment we slipped up. I can’t be sure exactly which one of us gave us away, but the ears of a nearby Diamond Dog suddenly swiveled toward us without warning. She gave a howl before grabbing a spear and charging toward us.

Calcion’s Cleaver made a shriek louder than I’d have liked as I drew it from its sheath. As the Diamond Dog approached, I swung the blade at her head. Instead, she brought up her paw, and I sliced a few of the digits off. Her spear went up into my ribcage, piercing my leather armor easily.

A blast of lightning from Mystic forced the Diamond Dog to back off, removing her spear from my body. I quickly cast a spell to seal the wound before I lost too much blood, and brought my sword around toward the hound, striking her in the snout. As she leapt toward me, Steadfast knocked her away with his warhammer. Before she could get up, I drove my ancient earth pony sword through her chest, piercing her heart.

“I think we’d better run,” Steadfast remarked as the barking and howling of more Diamond Dogs approached us.

“I agree,” I said, sheathing my sword and galloping toward the exit.

The dogs were in hot pursuit, closing the distance with us quickly. Mephalda shot arrows at them as we ran, but it didn’t seem to slow them down much. As we neared the door, I spun around.

<>

The ground behind us suddenly froze over, covered in a film of ice. As the Diamond Dogs reached it, they began to slip and slide, unable to control their motion. Even their sharp claws couldn’t stop them from spinning out. Confident I’d bought us at least a little time, I turned and ran for the doorway.

Already inside, Mystic and Mephalda were shooting at the approaching dogs, picking them off before they could reach us. As I darted between them, they too retreated, swinging the heavy iron doors shut. Grabbing urns, tables, and whatever else we could find lying around, we barricaded the door. The dogs attempted to break through for a few minutes, but eventually gave up, leaving us be.

Free from the hounds, we forged ahead, passing into another room filled with tombs. At the far end of the room was a set of stairs leading up. I didn’t know how deep we were, but we were going to need a long flight of stairs to reach the surface. I certainly hoped there was a back exit, because I didn’t intend to go back through the Diamond Dog town.

The tombs burst open as we trotted deeper into the room, surrounding us with Draugr. With a blast of flame from my horn, I lit the first zombie to approach me on fire. It was unable to resist as I snapped its back with a strike from Calcion’s Cleaver.

As a Draugr with a battleaxe came toward me, I shot lightning at it. The zombie froze up, but was somehow still able to block the swing of my sword. I swung at it again, but it was still able to block me. As it tried to kick me with its forelegs, I brought my ancient earth pony sword down and chopped them off. Off balance, the Draugr fell to the ground, and I took off its head with another swing of my sword.

A weight suddenly fell onto my back as a Draugr jumped onto me. Craning my neck, I looked over my shoulder and reacted just in time to block a sword coming for my neck. Pulling out my Changeling war axe, I hooked the sword and threw it away, leaving the Draugr weaponless.

It refused to let go, however, and bit at my shoulder. Thankfully, my Thieves Guild armor was thick enough to stop the rotten teeth from piercing my flesh, and I chopped the Draugr’s head off with a swing of Calcion’s Cleaver. Still, I had to remove the head from my shoulder myself as the teeth continued to bite after the Draugr was dead.

The one that’d been on my back was the last in the room, so we moved on, heading up the stairs. We climbed for quite a ways until the steps finally came to a stop at the entrance to a large room. The far wall was dominated by a carving in Draconic, but there was a sarcophagus between it and us.

I pulled on my Griffin armor just in case, and we carefully tried to sneak around the stone coffin in the center of the room. It was no use, as the sarcophagus burst open anyway, triggered by who knew what. Steadfast aimed his warhammer at the Draugr before it even emerged, crushing the side of its skull.

<> suddenly came from the sarcophagus, sending Steadfast flying back.

The Draugr crawled out, drawing a war axe with lightning arcing down its length. The side of its face had been crushed to a pulp by Steadfast’s swing, but the fire in its one good eye made up for it. The Draugr jumped from its coffin toward where Mephalda was flying, swinging its war axe at her. She managed to flap out of the way of the deadly blade, but a bit of her tail was shaved off as it missed her.

Mystic and I both shot lightning at the Draugr as it fell to the ground, rolling before jumping to its hooves. It pointed its war axe at Mystic first, sending a blast of lightning back at her that skittered over her ward. While it was preoccupied with Mystic, I charged in, Calcion’s Cleaver at the ready.

The Draugr turned faster than I thought was possible and hooked its war axe around my sword. With a sudden twist I was unable to counter, it threw Calcion’s Cleaver across the ground. I jumped back as the Draugr swung its axe toward my neck. I was forced to back up until my hindquarters hit a pillar and I could retreat no longer. The war axe suddenly swung down, the blade driving under my armor and into my shoulder.

I screamed as the blade cut through my flesh, and I rolled to the side, pulling the weapon from the Draugr’s grip, but not from my shoulder. Steadfast got another hit in on the Draugr before it could react, further crushing its face. Painfully, I pulled the war axe out, and drank down a healing potion to fix up the wound.

Steadfast continued to crush the Draugr’s face as I rose and trotted over to the Word Wall. There was no Element of Harmony around the zombie’s neck, but this trip didn’t have to be a total waste. I eagerly drank in the knowledge as the wall taught me everything I could want to know about how things froze. The transfer of knowledge was over in seconds, revealing a new word for freeze.

~DIIN~

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

After a short search, we were able to find a back exit to Foalgunthur, letting us out in the southern end of Hjaaltrot. Now all that was left to do was follow the path to Whitetrot through Rearikstead. I hoped to be back before sunset and to get a good sleep in Breezehome before we set out to look into another ruin. There was nothing wrong with adventuring, but my home was practically unused, and I intended to change that.

What should’ve been an easy and uneventful walk home turned out to be far more, however. We’d passed Rearikstead and were already well on our way to Whitetrot when a dragon appeared out of the blue. Mephalda spotted it first, in the distance, but as it flapped toward us, it suddenly changed direction and landed a short distance away, along the path. Curious, we galloped forward to see what was going on.

Upon reaching the top of a hill, we were able to look down upon the dragon. At the moment, it was blasting fire in all directions, trying to keep the Imperial Legion soldiers away from it. Quite a few Legionnaires lay dead around the great beast already, and the number of survivors was dwindling by the second. I ran down to help them, Calcion’s Cleaver already out.

I Shouted as I approached, and storm clouds began to build overhead.

By the time I reached the dragon, lightning was already shooting from the clouds to its scaly hide. It didn’t take the lizard long to figure out that I was the one who’d called down nature’s fury on it, and it threw aside Legionnaires to get at me.

As it blew fire at me, I ducked under the flames and crawled forward until I was under the dragon’s head. This proved to be a bad idea, as it soon realized where I was and tried to crush me. I rolled away, back and forth to avoid the dragon’s head that repeatedly came down at me.

Finally, I was able to get back on my hooves and run under the dragon. I pulled out Calcion’s Cleaver and thrust it through the dragon’s hide as I ran. Scales flaked away and flesh parted for a moment before the dragon heaved itself off my blade. Flapping its enormous wings, the great lizard began to take off into the air.

<<>> I Shouted, knocking the dragon out of the sky.

I quickly realized my mistake as it came falling straight down toward where I was standing. I leapt for safety as the dragon’s bulk crashed to the ground. As I pulled myself to my hooves, I quickly found my world turned upside down as the dragon’s tail struck me. I went flying across the ground, rolling across rocks and through rough grass before finally coming to a stop.

The dragon snatched up another Legionnaire in its jaws before a strike from Steadfast’s hammer forced it to spit out the corpse. It then turned toward my earth pony friend, attempting to snatch him up in its jaws too. Instead, he twisted his warhammer upright, so that it propped the dragon’s mouth open, allowing him to jump out and escape. As he yanked his weapon out, the dragon’s jaws snapped shut just past his head.

Mystic was meanwhile working to keep the dragon landbound, shooting fire at its wings and burning through the membrane. The beast attempted to torch her once Steadfast was out of range, but her ward absorbed the brunt of it. Instead, the dragon swung what was left of its wing around, throwing Mystic across the landscape. She managed to catch herself with her magic before hitting a large rock and darted off to avoid the dragon’s flames.

Mephalda had sheathed her bow in favor of her Blackwing swords and was standing on the dragon’s back, slashing through the scales. As the dragon reached up to grab her, she flapped away, landing on its head and slashing through the flesh there. Giving a leap, she launched herself up and away from the great lizard, causing its jaws to snap at empty air as it tried to devour her.

By now I was back up and, after retrieving my ancient earth pony sword, I charged toward the dragon. Ahead of me, a Legionnaire rushed toward the dragon’s head, a pike clutched in her magic. As the dragon turned its head to look, the pike’s end stabbed into its eye. Giving a roar of pain, the beast sent fire gushing from its maw, reducing the Legionnaire to a pile of ash.

I ran to the side as the flames came toward me as well. The last of the Legion soldiers destroyed, the dragon turned its attention on me. It snapped at me as I ran past its face, but my sword nicked its nose instead. Fuming, the dragon opened its mouth to roast me.

I Shouted, scorching the inside of the dragon’s mouth.

It spat fire at me anyway, forcing me to run around until I was under it, out of reach of the flames. It tried to crush me again, heaving its bulk up, and then back down. I rolled to the side and positioned Calcion’s Cleaver so that the dragon would impale itself on it. My plan worked, and the dragon instantly heaved itself back up as my ancient earth pony blade cut through its flesh.

With a swing of its claw, the dragon sent me rolling across the ground and well away from it. I had managed to hold onto Calcion’s Cleaver this time, thank goodness, and began shooting lightning from the tip at the dragon. My blasts of energy sought out the wounds Mephalda had inflicted on its back, shocking the freshly wounded tissue beneath. The dragon roared and shot fire at me.

I dodged to the side and spared a glance to the sky to see that Mephalda was soaring above the clouds, her Blackwing blades still held in her hooves. I had a plan, and I hoped that it matched up with the one my pegasus friend had.

I ran around toward the front of the dragon and downed a potion of fire resistance before charging straight toward it. The flames billowed around me, but couldn’t break through the magical seal I’d created. I kept galloping until I was just close enough.

I Shouted, causing the dragon’s flames to cut off as it was racked by pain inside.

I looked up to see that I had been right in my expectations. Mephalda was now rocketing down, both her blades held tightly. As the dragon tried to lunge toward me, Steadfast knocked its nose into the ground with his warhammer. An instant later Mephalda reached the dragon, her blades flying apart at the last minute to slice through the dragon’s neck. With a wet thump, the dragon’s head fell to the ground, separated from its body.

It was quick to combust, feeding me all its memories, and melding them with the ones I already had. The practical knowledge of how one could freeze something using only one’s voice also entered my mind, building in urgency until I had to let the Shout out.

<<>> I Shouted, freezing the dragon’s skull to the ground.

“What were Imperial soldiers doing here?” Steadfast asked, looking around at the fallen ponies scattered around us now that the battle was over.

“What do you mean?” Mephalda asked.

“We’re in Whitetrot Hold,” Steadfast said, “This is neutral territory. There shouldn’t be any soldiers here except for Whitetrot guards; not Imperials, and not Stormclouds. And there’s far too many here for this to just be a scouting mission passing through.”

I had to admit that Steadfast was right. There shouldn’t have been any Imperial soldiers here, so why was there? If I was Thane of Whitetrot, and Whitetrot was neutral, then it was my job to figure out what these ponies were doing here. We all started to look around, searching the bodies of the fallen Legionnaires until I found something, a note on a higher ranking pony that seemed to lay out their mission.

Proceed with caution to Whitetrot, avoiding Rearikstead and any populated area larger than a single farmstead. Once in Whitetrot, you will need to speak to Jarl Valor’s Blade, and convince him to join our cause. If he refuses, you are not to leave Dragonsreach until he agrees, or you receive further instructions. Remember that this land cannot stand divided for long. Jarl Valor’s Blade controls a large portion of Horizon’s land, and gaining it will give us a large tactical advantage in this war. Be firm, and do not take no for an answer. This mission is too important.

I passed it to my friends to let them read, knowing what I had to do next. Jarl Valor’s Blade needed to see this.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

The Jarl sighed when I told him the news.

“So it’s come to this now,” he said dejectedly, “General Cuirass would have demanded I turn over Whitetrot to his cause.”

“It certainly seems so,” I said, taking the note back from him.

“I had hoped to stay out of this war,” he said, giving another sigh, “Hoped to stay neutral, and keep my subjects out of this conflict. But the great powers are getting restless and dissatisfied with my neutrality. Just the other day I received a similar message from Jarl Stormcloud, demanding I choose who to side with.”

“What did you tell him?” I asked.

“I told him that I would side with who I always have, with Whitetrot. The Imperials, the Stormclouds, I cannot see myself supporting either side.”

“It looks like you might not have a choice,” I pointed out.

“What would you have me do?” Jarl Valor’s Blade asked, “The Unicorn Empire is crumbling, and desperate to hold themselves together, taking the most drastic and unthinkable actions to do so. But the Stormclouds I also disagree with. It seems to me that they are little more than a cult to a Jarl devoted to wiping everypony from the Northlands who hasn’t been born of an earth pony mare. Still, I must do something.”

He appeared lost in thought for a few minutes, contemplating his next move before he spoke to me again.

“I will stay neutral for as long as I can,” he announced, “It’s the best move at this time. But I also cannot allow General Cuirass or Jarl Stormcloud to keep pushing me to enter this war. Sapphire, I need you to carry a message to the General in Seclusion announcing my intentions. I will personally carry a similar one to Windhorn.”

“Of course, my Jarl,” I told him.

“Whatever happens, we must stay out of this war,” he said, once again looking thoughtful.

Level Up
Health: 280 Stamina: 260 Magicka: 260
New Perk: Master of Organization [No Skill] -- Your powers of packing are unparalleled, increasing your carrying capacity by 20.
Word of Power learned: DIIN -- Freeze; Frost Breath – Combined with FO and KRAH, DIIN freezes your opponents even faster, making your breath as fearsome as the strongest Horizon blizzard.
Dragon Soul collected
New Quest: An Emissary of Peace -- Travel to Seclusion and announce to General Silver Cuirass that Jarl Valor’s Blade will remain neutral no matter how much he is persuaded to do otherwise.

Chapter 52: The Break of Dawn

Chapter LII: The Break of Dawn
“Is it . . . zombies?!”

We left for Seclusion early the next morning. In doing so, we were forced to pass by the remains of our fight the day before, reminding us why we were doing this. It was nearly midday by the time we reached the city perched high in the western mountains. A light snow was falling as we passed through the city gates.

We were nearly to the ancient fortress in the center of the city when a distant roar suddenly echoed across the mountains. A shadow passed above the clouds, outlining the dragon above us. The clouds parted as it swooped down, fire gushing from its maw as it landed atop Castle Dour’s battlements.

As mad as I was at General Cuirass’s decision to try to force Whitetrot to join his war, I couldn’t just let the Imperial headquarters burn. I galloped into the courtyard, dodging the dragon’s fire as I did so. The Imperial soldiers here were attempting to launch a counterattack, but so far only their archers were having any success, peppering the great lizard with arrows.

I made it to one of the stairways leading up the walls and climbed until I was at the same level as the dragon. I began to shoot ice spikes at the beast as I came in range, and it turned toward me as some stuck in its hide. I was just past one of the towers when it suddenly sent a wave of flame cascading toward me. I quickly ducked back inside and headed up the stairs as the fire pursued me.

I met Mephalda at the top of the tower, where she’d perched herself to shoot arrows at the dragon. She quickly flew away, and I ducked back down into the tower as the dragon shot flames at us. Meanwhile, Mystic had climbed up on the other side of the dragon and began to shoot ice at it. While it was distracted, I ducked back out of the tower and seized the opportunity to charge it.

<<>> I Shouted, closing the distance in an instant.

I rapidly drew Calcion’s Cleaver, slashing through the dragon’s side. Before it could swing its head back around and roast me, I stabbed my ancient earth pony blade into its claw. Lightning jumped from the sword and caused the dragon’s claw to spasm, knocking it off balance.

I jumped out of the way as its body slammed into the wall. As it tried to grasp the stone with its tail, Steadfast ran up from behind me and crushed it. The dragon slid off the wall, rotating as it did so and scratching at the edge for purchase. Large chunks of the stone were torn out, damaging the wall, but the dragon still fell, landing atop the practice targets below.

Imperial soldiers and battlemages rushed in, the former hacking at the dragon’s flesh with their weapons, and the latter blasting it with their magic. The dragon gave a roar of defiance, sweeping away many of the soldiers with a swing of its tail. The battlemages went next, thrown to the other end of the courtyard as the dragon spread its wings.

Mephalda continued to fire away at the dragon, safe now that she was flying above it. A few of her shots even stuck in the dragon’s neck. Apparently, it was enough to make the lizard yearn to have her stop. It shot flame up at my pegasus companion as it lifted off from the ground.

<<>> I Shouted, and the dragon suddenly lost the ability to fly.

As it fell, I took a running leap from the battlements and landed on its back. I stabbed both Calcion’s Cleaver and the Blade of Hoofingar through its scales as it hit the ground. The dragon suddenly became aware that I was on its back, and it craned its neck around to roast me. I jumped off and rolled across Castle Dour’s cobblestones as the flames came at me.

The fire suddenly cut off as ice began to coat the side of the dragon’s face. Both Mystic and a few of the battlemages had joined together to blast the great lizard with cold. Sluggishly, it turned toward them, having trouble maneuvering as the ice built up. Eventually its head swung low enough to the ground that the ice began to freeze it in place, immobilizing the beast’s head.

As it struggled to pull itself free, I shot lightning into its body, making the task even harder as I caused its muscles to seize up. I charged in, both my swords drawn, and went to work on the dragon’s neck. The blades quickly cut through the scales, exposing the flesh beneath. Drawing Calcion’s Cleaver back, I stabbed it in as hard as I could, burying it to the hilt.

The dragon roared at the pain I’d inflicted on it, and broke free of its icy prison. I was forced to run away as giant shards of ice flew everywhere. Longingly, I looked back at where Calcion’s Cleaver was still stuck in the dragon’s neck, lightning arcing out from it even without a wielder.

The dragon shot flame everywhere, and judging by the fire shooting from its neck, my last strike had cut all the way through to its throat. Fire burned the stonework of Castle Dour, but thankfully everypony was able to stay out of the way of the blasts. Steadfast snuck around to behind the beast before jumping onto its back and smashing in its scales with his hammer.

The dragon bucked about, struggling to throw the determined earth pony from its back. Eventually it succeeded, throwing my companion high into the air, where Mephalda was able to swoop in and catch him. As the dragon prepared to shoot fire at the Imperial archers still attacking it, I made my move.

Time slowed to a crawl, or at least it did for me. The dragon’s mouth was still open, and fire was just beginning to flow from between its jaws. I charged forward, taking advantage of my temporary ability to bend the flow of time to my will. I leapt as I high as I could, retrieving Calcion’s Cleaver from the dragon’s neck.

As I fell to the cobblestones, I began to roll, and time began to return to normal. I found myself beneath the dragon now, right where I’d planned on being. With Calcion’s Cleaver, I stabbed through the dragon’s scales and into what I hoped was its heart.

My aim proved true as the dragon ceased its fire-breathing and clutched at where I had wounded it. Blood boiling from its chest, it fell dead to the cobblestones. It had been dead only a moment when its flesh began to combust and I gained all its memories.

“By the Equines, I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself,” I heard a familiar voice speak from behind me.

Spinning around, I saw that General Silver Cuirass and his second in command, Legate Rapid Winter, had emerged from the keep, ready to do battle. Around them stood a horde of Legionnaires, dug up from within the castle.

“For a dragon to attack here,” the General continued, “Is nowhere safe. I’m just glad you were here. You know, you still haven’t gotten around to teaching my soldiers a better technique for fighting a dragon than to hit it until it gives in.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” I said, “I’ve been busy.”

“Well, you’re here now,” General Cuirass said before pausing, “Why are you here anyway?”

“Not on a happy occasion,” I told him, drawing Jarl Valor’s Blade’s message from my saddlebags and passing it to him, “The Imperial soldiers you sent to push Jarl Valor’s Blade into joining your side were killed by a dragon yesterday. We recovered their orders and, well, the Jarl wasn’t pleased.”

“What is this?” the General asked as he unrolled the Jarl’s message, “He refuses to take sides? When will he realize that this is impossible?”

“Thanks for bringing this to my attention anyway,” he continued with a sigh, “I suppose that if the Jarl cannot be persuaded, I’ll have to leave him alone to see the error of his ways.”

As the General began to trot around Castle Dour, surveying the damage and setting soldiers to work cleaning it up, I noticed a pony stagger out of the Temple of the Equines and fall over. At first, I assumed that some drunk had accidently wandered into the temple and had been thrown out, but upon closer examination I could see that the pony was wearing the robes of a priestess. Perplexed, I trotted over to see what was going on.

The instant I came within reach the mare suddenly grabbed me. She stared at me, her eyes hollow with exhaustion and fear.

“Can you hear it?” she asked me breathlessly.

“Hear what?” I asked, though I feared I’d regret doing so.

“The voices,” she replied, “Endless voices within my head. Voices telling me I must go to Deathmist Point. I must kill the Draugr there.”

“Deathmist Point?” I asked, “Where’s that?”

“In the mountains, west of Dragon Bridge, near Mount Kilkreath.”

“Can you mark it on my map?” I asked, holding it out to her.

Shakily, she marked both Deathmist Point and Mount Kilkreath on the map. Suddenly, as she finished writing, she stopped shaking. Blinking her eyes a few times, she seemed to return to normal.

“Oh, thank the Equines!” she praised, “The voices are gone! Oh, thank you, thank you for taking the burden!”

Overjoyed, she galloped back into the temple as fast as she could.

“What was that all about?” Steadfast asked.

I feared I knew. I was beginning to hear a voice whispering the back of my mind.

“She passed the task on to me,” I said as the whispers suddenly became a bit louder, “I think we’d better get to Deathmist Point before I go crazy too.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

With a swing of Calcion’s Cleaver, another Draugr went tumbling off the mountain. Deathmist Point had been exactly where the Priestess had said. We’d traveled to Dragon Bridge, and from there passed through the western mountains of Hoofingar, the voices in my head becoming more and more insistent as we passed Mount Kilkreath. At last we made it to Deathmist Point, a small ancient earth pony outpost crawling with the undead warriors. Strangely enough, when we arrived and began killing the Draugr, the voices had stopped.

A Draugr came at me with a battleaxe while I threw its friend off the mountain. With both my swords I blocked, keeping the blade away from my neck. As the Draugr drew back, I swung the Blade of Hoofingar at its forelegs. It blocked my ebony sword, but Calcion’s Cleaver slid right past its weapon and into its chest.

As I threw it off my blade, another Draugr with a war axe swung at me. Hooking my sword under it, I threw the weapon from the Draugr’s mouth. As it went sailing over the edge of the cliff, the Draugr pounced at me, catching me by surprise. I slid through the snow, coming to a stop just before sliding off the mountain. I wrestled with the Draugr for a minute before I was able to get my hindlegs beneath it and threw it off the mountain.

Standing back up, I turned my attention to the Draugr standing inside the ruin. One was just inside the door, hiding around the doorway in order to avoid the blasts of magic coming at it from Mystic. There was no way to approach it or pass through the door without being hit. The ancient earth ponies who’d built this place had known what they were doing.

Near the entrance, I summoned a flame atronach. The fiery pony charged in heedless of its own safety. Flames spilled from the arrow slits as the atronach roasted the zombies inside. We entered Deathmist Point just as the atronach was destroyed, snuffed out by a Draugr with a staff of ice.

I dodged to the side as the zombie shot ice at me, freezing the wall behind me. Steadfast charged forward, only to be held back as a wall of ice sprung up in front of him. Mystic’s magical blast crashed through the ice, crushing the Draugr against the wall. A few arrows from Mephalda finished it off, causing the zombie to slump over against the stone.

The tiny ruin was clear, and I was free to examine the back wall, which bore an inscription in Draconic. I quickly learned everything there was to know about leeching, especially how to do it with somepony’s life. The memories of the dragon I’d killed in Seclusion also began to fill my mind as I learned how to use my new word to leech the life from a pony after marking them for death.

<> I Shouted, being careful not to aim at any of my friends as I did so.

“Is that it?” Steadfast asked, looking around at the scattered Draugr bodies.

“I think so,” I said, “I don’t hear the voice anymore at lease.”

“What’s that out there?” Mystic asked as we exited Deathmist Point.

Following where her hoof was pointing, I saw a structure was built on the west slopes of Mount Kilkreath. It was hard to see, as it nearly blended into the stone. Only the snow piled on top of it gave its position away. Atop it was a statue buried in snow so much that I couldn’t make out exactly what it was.

“I can see figures moving on top of it,” Mephalda said.

“Another Draugr ruin?” I asked.

“I don’t think so,” she said, “But it does look like there’s Draugr on top.”

“Well, I know what we have to do then,” I said, “If there’s Draugr, they need to be cleared out.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

After heading down the mountain Deathmist Point was built on, we headed up Mount Kilkreath. It actually proved to be far easier than I’d imagined, as there was a path that led right to a set of stairs. Up the stairs we went as they zigzagged up the mountain, eventually reaching the ruin we’d seen from a distance. We passed most of the ruin as we headed up to the roof, where we encountered the undead Mephalda had seen.

The corpses that trotted about up here weren’t much like Draugr at all. Sure, they were undead ponies, but they didn’t seem nearly as ancient as the ancient earth ponies, some of their flesh had only recently started to decay, and it wasn’t as well-preserved. Also, instead of ancient earth pony armor, these undead wore the remains of all sorts of armor, including Stormcloud and Imperial. Neither were they all earth ponies, though they were the most prevalent.

A zombie with a battleaxe hobbled toward me as we reached the top of the ruin. I shot it with lightning as it approached, causing it to list over to the side. I swung Calcion’s Cleaver at it, but it blocked with surprising grace. As I slammed the sword back down at it, the blade began to shoot lightning, sending sparks down the battleaxe. The undead pony dropped its weapon as it began to crackle with power, and I sank my sword into its neck.

As I galloped toward another one, I saw Mystic blast one off the mountain with her magic. Steadfast engaged the one I was heading for, his warhammer bending its blade out of shape, but failing to hit the zombie itself. Instead, I headed off toward another group of the undead.

The zombies lit on fire, scattering as my dragon breath burned them. A few even ran shrieking into the statue, causing sheets of snow and ice to slide off. One of them galloped directly toward me, and I jumped to the side, taking off its head with Calcion’s Cleaver.

I jumped as a zombie with a sword swung at my forelegs. I brought my ancient earth pony sword around at its head, but it blocked. Spinning my blade around, I exited the block, but failed to disarm my opponent. The undead pony swung its blade at my forelegs again, and this time when I jumped, I landed on the blade, pinning it to the ground. With a slash of Calcion’s Cleaver, I cut through the zombie’s chest, killing it.

No more of the strange zombies remained, so I looked around, curious to see if there was a Word Wall around here. Instead, my eyes turned to the statue standing nearly against the mountainside. The statue appeared at first glance to be of a pony, but I could see that that wasn’t quite the case. Where a unicorn would normally have a horn, this pony had two, curving out and then back in. Light began to glow in the gap between the horn, and the rest of the snow fell off.

{Greetings my little ponies} a voice spoke that sounded exactly like the one that had been in my head, {I commend you on your success over the Draugr at Deathmist Point, and for the initiative you have taken to seek me out here.}

This was creepy. I was beginning to fear what exactly that strange pony really was.

“Who are you?” Steadfast called, proving that it wasn’t just me hearing the voice this time.

{I am Mareidia, Draconequus of Light} the voice spoke again, confirming my fears.

“Why did you bring us here?” I asked indignantly.

{I despise all undead, and I sought out one who would share my feelings. I thought the Priestess of the Equines would prove a fitting instrument, but she turned out to be a much weaker and less willing tool than I would have liked. How fortunate that she stumbled upon you, ponies who have slain many of the undead in your day. You have not only cleared out Deathmist Point, a Draugr den that I have been forced to tolerate, but came here to me.}

“If you despise the undead so much, why didn’t you just strike down these zombies yourself?” Steadfast asked, “I mean, you’re a Draconequus, after all.”

{I admit my powers have been somewhat . . . weakened lately. A necromancer by the name of Tainted Sun has infiltrated my temple and begun to use it to practice his foul art. He is slowly choking off my power here. That is why I am so glad you have come. I need you to cleanse my temple of this menace. In return, I shall grant you the honor of becoming my Champion, and wielding my sword Dawnbreaker, which is trapped within the temple.}

It sounded like a deal to me, so long as Mareidia kept her promise. At least she was one of the friendlier Draconequi, but I still didn’t know if I could trust any of the creatures. Still, with or without Mareidia’s instructions, we probably would have cleared the temple of the zombies anyway, so we had nothing to lose. Plus, if there was a necromancer doing these things, he had to be stopped.

“We’ll do it,” I told the Draconequus.

{I tried to seal Tainted Sun and his abominations within the temple} Mareidia explained as a slab of stone began to slide into the ground, revealing a stairway leading down, {Now the temple shall be opened again and, with your assistance, cleansed of Tainted Sun’s filth.}

I headed down the stairs and into the Kilkreath Temple, keeping an eye out for Tainted Sun’s zombies. At the bottom was a large, ornate metal door marked with carvings of Mareidia. I tried to push it open, but the door refused to budge. Once all four of us worked together, the doors finally inched open, pushing back the blocks of stone that had been piled inside to keep intruders out.

I stuck my head through the door, and swiftly pulled it back as a sword swung right through where my neck had been. I let Mystic around to the front, and she sent a blizzard flying through the doorway, curving around at my attacker. Judging by the muffled shrieks, I had to assume she had gotten it.

Mystic began firing spells off left and right as she stepped through the door. I could see that the zombies were swarming, coming out of the walls themselves. After Steadfast, I pushed through as well and went to work on the horde of undead ponies.

Calcion’s Cleaver flew from its sheath, slicing off the head of the first zombie I saw, a rotting earth pony in Stormcloud armor. Next, a pegasus jumped at me, its featherless wings giving it no help at all. It landed on my back, and I swung my sword around behind my head, trying to get it off. At last my blade struck rotting flesh, ripping the zombie’s face apart, and it fell off me.

With a blast of fire, I incinerated the next zombie to come at me, a unicorn in Legion armor. This temple was starting to seem like my nightmares, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t creep me out. Swiftly, I swung Calcion’s Cleaver into a zombie in bandit armor, splitting its head open.

Another zombie galloped up the hallway, swinging its Imperial sword at me. I shot ice spikes at it, slicing through its armor, but it didn’t stop. Quickly, I lifted Calcion’s Cleaver to block the zombie’s sword, and steel screeched as they met. I forced the weapons down to the ground, and whipped out the Blade of Hoofingar, slicing through the zombie’s neck.

<<>> I Shouted at a group of the undead ponies, freezing them solid.

As Steadfast set about crushing the frozen zombies, I galloped toward one in Stormcloud armor that was firing arrows at us. I slid across the last bit of floor to avoid an arrow, and swung my swords up to tear apart its bow contraption. As I dodged a kick of the zombie’s forelegs, I swung Calcion’s Cleaver up into its chest. Sliding it off my sword, I took a look around the room.

There wasn’t much to it. Apparently it had once been an entry hall into Mareidia’s temple, but now it was filled with the decay of the zombies. Mystic watched the doorway at the far end for any signs of attack while the rest of us searched. On a table, I found shattered soul gems, an enchanter, some potions, a few coin purses, and a tattered journal. I flipped it open to a random page and began to read.

I simply can’t believe the foolishness of some ponies! Jarl Sibli has banished me from Foalkreath! Doesn’t he know who I am? Tainted Sun is not a pony to trifle with. But it seems few see my genius, even if it would help win the war. I’ve had to move to Marethal, out in the middle of those dreadful swamps. Hopefully I’ll be able to find enough graves for my experiments. The one good thing about Foalkreath was that dead bodies were never in short supply what with their massive cemetery.

Flipping through the journal, I moved on to a later entry.

Does nopony comprehend what I have done? I have made the dead willing and competent soldiers, something nopony has ever been able to achieve! But not even the ponies of Marethal would accept me using their dead to further the cause and end the war. The Legion has failed me, proving even less tolerant of my magical genius than the Stormclouds (I didn’t think it was possible!) So I’ll show them. I’ll break all ties and build my own army. The Northlands will kneel to me once I show them what I can do! Of course, I will need a fortress until my work is complete. Enough ponies have tried to kill me for my necromancy as it is. I hear there’s a secluded temple west of Dragon Bridge that’s nearly abandoned. It just might be perfect for my plans.

I paged through the journal, deciphering the ravings of Tainted Sun as he fell deeper and deeper into madness.

My work is coming along nicely, but it’s far too slow! I need more bodies, and fast. While this temple has proven to be perfect (once I snatched control from Mareidia [no small task]) it is far too secluded. I have to travel so far just to find a cemetery to obtain my bodies, and then I’ve only got one or two. But, it occurred to me that there is a faster way. This war, the cause I devoted myself to when I began this project, just might provide the answer. Stormclouds and Imperials are dying in droves. All I need is the chance to snatch up some of the bodies, and my army will be completed in no time. I should check Dawnstar. I hear some scuffle just occurred there, meaning lots of fresh bodies for my army!

I closed the journal, setting back down on the table where I’d gotten it. It seemed to me the ponies of Horizon were right to fear Tainted Sun. His necromancy was harming ponies in more ways than just by the use of dark magic. He was digging up graves and collecting the bodies of fallen soldiers for his plans for Ponyreth’s sake! Of course, knowing where all these zombies had come from would make it hard to kill them, but I had to hope my strikes would put these tortured souls to rest instead of harming them further.

Out of the temple’s entry hall we went, heading down the stairs to the main sanctum. No zombies lurked in the room just before it, so we were able to look at what we’d be facing. At the far end of the inner sanctum was a statue of Mareidia that had been vandalized, the head, tail, and limbs broken off. Between us and it was a horde of the undead ponies.

Near the statue stood one pony that wasn’t dead yet, a unicorn in dark robes that seemed to absorb the light. He looked half-dead himself, his eyes dark and sunk into his face. His gaze met mine as I stared in, and an ice-cold fire burned in his eyes.

Suddenly all the zombies turned toward us, raising their weapons. We passed through the door as quickly as possible to meet the advancing horde of undead. I shot lightning at a zombie with a battleaxe as I entered the room. As it staggered back, I swung Calcion’s Cleaver through its face.

A group of the zombies burst into flame as my dragon breath struck them. I avoided the flaming undead as best I could while swinging both my swords around. As one jumped toward me, a blast of ice from Mystic dropped it to the ground.

Tainted Sun was now only a short distance away. I galloped toward him, stopping as a zombie with a war axe moved to intercept. My ancient earth pony sword met its blade as it swung at me. I forced the blade down, opening up the opportunity for me to slice the zombie’s head off with the Blade of Hoofingar.

Tainted Sun drew twin swords as I approached, swinging them around in his magic. As I reached him, his blades suddenly arced down at me. I moved as fast as I could, stopping the swords just before they reached me. I tried to push back with both my swords, but it proved to be an impossible task, so I jumped back, letting Tainted Sun’s swords slam together.

I swung at his neck with Calcion’s Cleaver and his forelegs with the Blade of Hoofingar. He blocked both with his swords, though my ebony sword continued to move toward his legs. He rapidly swatted away my ancient earth pony sword with his blade before using it to force the Blade of Hoofingar away from him. As I swung toward his exposed neck, he twisted my ebony sword around so that I ended up blocking myself.

<> I Shouted, and Tainted Sun’s weapons flew from his grasp.

Before I could strike him, his horn glowed with magic and a Changeling sword appeared in front of him, conjured up from the Beyond. Calcion’s Cleaver struck against it, and otherworldly magic arced between the blades. As I brought the Blade of Hoofingar down toward his side, he forced Calcion’s Cleaver away and blocked me.

While I tried to force my ebony sword down his own, I swung Calcion’s Cleaver back at his head. Magic began to hiss and crackle over his horn, and suddenly a blast of pure energy shot out from it. I was forced to duck to the side, and my ancient earth pony sword missed him.

<> I Shouted, and Tainted Sun doubled over in pain.

I took advantage of his temporary weakness, and I swung in with the Blade of Hoofingar. Somehow, he still managed to block, his summoned blade sliding along my own. While I had his weapon stuck in place, I used Calcion’s Cleaver to knock it aside, sending it flying from his grasp where it fizzled out of existence.

I swung my ebony sword up toward his chest, but he grabbed it with his armored forehooves. Wrenching it from my grasp, he took the sword for himself and jumped at me. The blade slammed into my armor, crashing through and ripping up my back. I quickly brought Calcion’s Cleaver up through the pain and impaled the necromancer. He jerked around on the sword a bit before the light finally died in his eyes. At the same moment, all the zombies that were still alive suddenly ceased to be, and fell over.

I carefully pulled the Blade of Hoofingar from my back, attempting to bend my armor back into shape as I did so. A few bandages and a healing potion later I was able to walk without too much pain. I began to make my way over to where the bits of the statue of Mareidia were beginning to shake.

The pieces moved all on their own, reassembling themselves into a complete statue of the Draconequus. Once it was reassembled, it slowly began to move, taking on the aspect of flesh instead of stone. Soon, Mareidia herself stood before us, light radiating from her twin horns and from her body, cleansing the temple of the darkness that lurked in the corners.

{Well done my Champion} she spoke, her eyes fixed on me, {For vanquishing Tainted Sun and cleansing my temple of his evil, I grant you the weapon of heroes.}

From the pedestal before her, a sword rose up, glimmering with internal light. The blade was elegant, curving gently from the tip to the hilt, where a tiny star glowed brightly. As I took it in my magic, I could feel pure power radiating from it. This weapon was strong, perhaps even stronger than Calcion’s Cleaver.

{May it serve you well} Mareidia said, {Dawnbreaker was forged in the fires of the Beyond for the sole purpose of wiping out the undead. Use it wisely, and wield it proudly.}

“I will,” I promised, strapping it on beside Calcion’s Cleaver.

{Is that . . . a weapon of the ancient earth ponies?} Mareidia asked, staring at the Cleaver.

“Yes, actually,” I said, pulling out the sword, “Calcion the Vengeful’s.”

{I would beware such things if I were you} Mareidia cautioned, {Such weapons were forged with powerful dark magic. Only those with the strongest wills can resist their corruption.}

“I think I’ll be fine,” I told her, “Nothing’s happened so far.”

Of course, I really knew that that wasn’t true. I had killed, and nearly killed, ponies I had no reason to. But, I really didn’t want to get rid of this sword. It had served me extremely well in the time I’d had it. If anything, I’d just have to use it less, and everything would be fine.

Level Up
Health: 280 Stamina: 260 Magicka: 270
New Perk: World-Changer [Alteration] -- All Alteration spells can now be cast for half Magicka.
Unique Item added: Dawnbreaker -- The sword given only to the Champion of the Draconequus Mareidia, Dawnbreaker does extra damage to all undead, and will occasionally launch a magical strike that vanquishes all undead in the area.
Word of Power learned: LUN -- Leech; Marked for Death – Combined with KRII, LUN allows you to draw health out of an opponent who has been marked for death, even after the initial strike.
Dragon Soul collected
New Quest: Priests of Old – Seek out the Dragon Priests, and the Elements of Harmony they possess.

Chapter 54: Ruin and Opulence

Chapter LIV: Ruin and Opulence
“Sunny Skies speaks much about war and the Stormclouds, but she knows who provides.”

It didn’t take long for Bereloth to recruit soldiers for the Stormcloud cause. Most of Splitten’s ponies were already gathered in the square, and he didn’t have to travel far to find recruits. Both of Splitten’s smithies had been destroyed in the dragon attack earlier that week, but the Splitten guard had plenty of weapons that Bereloth “liberated” for the Stormclouds. As for uniforms, each recruit was issued the standard Stormcloud armor from supply wagons waiting outside Splitten’s gates.

I kept my own armor, my gift from the Griffins, though it was beginning to get a little beat up. At least I would stand out with it, and the Stormclouds would know not to attack me. I did my best to repair it whenever we stopped our march to rest and train the new recruits.

As we met with the rest of the Stormcloud army at Hoofgen, which had been converted from an Imperial fortified city into a Stormcloud camp, I found myself wondering why exactly I was helping out the Stormclouds. It had felt good to help topple Jarl Aria in Splitten, and I was still riding on that feeling when Bereloth had asked me to help. But was that the only reason I wanted to help out? After all, I didn’t exactly agree with everything the Stormclouds stood for.

I came to the conclusion that there was more to this than a thirst for glory. Bereloth had been kind to me since the attack here at Hoofgen, helping me escape and offering to let me stay with his parents, as well as standing up for me before Jarl Stormcloud, and I wanted to pay him back in a way. Also, I’d taken sides in this war once before, helping the Imperials take Dawnstar. I felt like I owed the Stormclouds something if I was really going to stay “neutral” in this war like Jarl Valor’s Blade. Taking Foalkreath would even things out.

According to Bereloth, the Stormclouds would leave for Foalkreath at dawn the next day, so I had some free time to relax. After wandering the camp a bit, and catching a glimpse of Jarl Stormcloud, I settled down with Minotauran Inquiries; Vol. I. I hadn’t had much chance to read it since we sailed to Unicornica weeks earlier. I propped the book open to where I’d left off and began to read.

Animonculory

This room was certainly one of the most important to the ancient Minotaurs. It was here that magic and machinery came together to create the automatons that still stalk their masters’ halls. Each Animonculory was built complete with all the tools necessary to complete the task of building these machines that could move and think for themselves, at least at a rudimentary level.

Automatons of every shape and size were constructed here, from the tiny worker spiders (see pg. 121) to the spindly spheres (see pg. 133) that guard the halls, to the clankers (see pg. 149) used both for heavy lifting and construction (see labor-clanker, pg. 152) and for protection of the most valuable of Minotauran treasures (see death-clanker, pg. 156). Touring an Animonculory, one would expect to see the massive presses used to convert raw Minotauran Metal into the plates and large components of the automatons, as well as molds into which liquid metal would be poured to create the more delicate internal workings of the machines. Also present would be the frames used to carefully place the source of the automatons’ power within them, a mystery to this day, though many suspect soul gems could have been used to somehow generate the steam that drives all Minotauran creations.

These walking (and rolling, and skittering) wonders can tell us much about the Minotaurs themselves. For example, the technology of the Minotaurs is leaps and bounds ahead of what we currently have. They almost entirely shunned natural magic, and instead focused on creating machines that could mimic that magic. Minotauran defenses have been known to shoot lightning, ice, and fire, as well as expel gases that can cause the same effects as nearly any spell a unicorn could cast. The Minotaurs’ sudden disappearance is most peculiar in that they were at the pinnacle of achievement in their time, and in fact still are now. If ever they were to return, there is no nation in the Northlands that could stand against the advanced technological might of such creatures.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

The next morning, I was awoken by the sound of the camp preparing to set out for Foalkreath. As the sun began to peek over the eastern mountains, Jarl Stormcloud led the way. Hoofgen was soon cleared, the masses of Stormcloud soldiers marching down the path toward an unsuspecting Foalkreath. I hoped things would be over quickly, with the town’s guards giving up once they realized they were outnumbered. Given the number of soldiers around me, I couldn’t see any way they wouldn’t be outnumbered.

A light snow began to fall as we marched down the path. Jarl Stormcloud looked up worriedly, his eyes peeled for the pegasi that were surely up above us moving the clouds around. The last thing he needed was for this attack to go awry because some pegasus reported to the Legion that Stormcloud was moving his troops toward Foalkreath.

“Are you sure the Legion doesn’t know?” he worriedly asked Zest, who bounded along beside him.

“Indubitably!” she replied excitedly, “No Imperials will stop you this time, Stormy!”

I moved in a bit closer to hear what she said next as she stopped bouncing for a moment to lean in and whisper to the Jarl.

“I won’t stop you either,” she told the deep blue earth pony, “But I can’t be here when it happens. I’m heading back to Earthhaven.”

“Of course,” he replied, just as softly, and Zest bounded away.

What could she have meant by her last comment? Surely she just didn’t want to see the battle, I assured myself. After all, the pale green mare didn’t really seem the warrior type. Shaking off my doubts, I concentrated on following Jarl Stormcloud and preparing myself for the inevitable bloodshed ahead.

“This is it!” the Jarl called back as we neared Foalkreath, “Do your land proud! These Imperials will taste the cold steel they deserve for turning their backs on the earth ponies, for turning their backs on Talhooves! Fight with honor! Sovngarde awaits!”

“Sovngarde awaits!” many of the Stormclouds replied before drawing their weapons and galloping forward.

I was caught up in the swarm, charging forward with the rest, and losing track of where my friends were. A Legion guard posted on Foalkreath’s outer wall caught sight of us as we approached and sounded the alarm. Arrows began to arc over the wall, and into the Stormclouds, striking down many. A few Foalkreath guards and Imperial soldiers charged at us through the gates as we approached.

Suddenly, the two armies clashed, and everything exploded into chaos. Calcion’s Cleaver seemed to move on its own as I slashed it across the chest of a Foalkreath guard before sinking the blade into the stomach of a soldier in Legion armor.

I threw myself against the town’s wall as I reached it, avoiding the blast of flame two battlemages suddenly shot from the gateway. Once the fire died down, I spun around the corner, Calcion’s Cleaver taking the first battlemage by surprise and slicing through his head.

The second brought up a ward before I could reach her. I shot lightning from my horn into it, but she was well trained, and the lightning simply diffused over her ward’s surface. I swung Calcion’s Cleaver around, slamming it into the magical wall, and I actually made a little progress. The blade began to cut through the shield, heating up and sending lightning everywhere.

Suddenly, the battlemage dropped her ward, and my sword went flying forward, sticking into the ground. No time to pull it out, I screamed as fire shot from her horn across my back, burning my flesh through my Griffin armor. With my Changeling axe I swung at her blindly, ducking down to keep from getting my face burned off.

The axe finally found its mark, sticking in her shoulder, and interrupting her concentration enough that she couldn’t cast her spell. I yanked Calcion’s Cleaver from the ground and staggered toward her, the sword flying through the air until it met my Changeling war axe, which she’d retrieved from her shoulder.

I drew back and swung again, our blades meeting once more. I kept Calcion’s Cleaver flying, hoping that eventually she wouldn’t be able to block my strike. Meanwhile, I drew the Blade of Hoofingar and swung it around toward her neck. She reacted quickly, blocking it with my axe, but she opened herself up to the swing that came from my ancient earth pony sword, sticking in her chest. I retrieved my axe as she fell to the ground, her blood staining the freshly fallen snow.

As I tried to heal the burns to my back, my concentration was suddenly broken as an arrow struck my hindleg, finding the crack where my boots and greaves met. I turned to see a Foalkreath guard with a bow firing another arrow at me. I stopped it just before it hit my face, grabbing it in my magic. Grabbing my own bow, I fitted the arrow to the string and fired at the pony.

He ran behind a building, finding cover before firing at me again. I dodged his arrows and advanced toward him, firing my own arrows at him, that began to stick in the building he was hiding behind. I was a bit out of practice, hardly having fired my bow since Mephalda had joined our group, but I picked things up again quickly, hitting nearer and nearer to the enemy archer.

As I passed another house on my way to him, I was suddenly knocked over by a pony jumping from between the buildings, my longbow shattering as I landed on it. I tried to bring Calcion’s Cleaver out to knock the mare off of me, but she smacked my horn with her hoof, killing the flow of my magic temporarily.

With no weapons, I hit her across the face with my armored foreleg, knocking teeth from her mouth. I brought my other foreleg up to protect my face as she tried to kick it in. We rolled across the ground, disturbing the snow as we wrestled. Another arrow struck me, this time grazing my neck and causing blood to trickle down.

I fought to get my hindlegs under the mare, and I eventually succeeded, throwing her off of me. I spent half a second searching for Calcion’s Cleaver before I found it lying in the snow, and called it back to me, the blade striking the mare in the back of the neck as it did so. As she fell to the ground, I turned back to the archer, wrapping a bandage around my neck as I did so.

<<>> I Shouted, closing the distance with him in a moment.

Calcion’s Cleaver came up the next moment, chopping his bow in two. As he detached the contraption from himself, he pulled out a sword. Our blades met, slashing to and fro as I forced him back between the buildings. I began to circle around him, until he was trapped between me and the building. With a swing of my forelegs, I swept his out from under him, knocking him down to the ground. Calcion’s Cleaver came down swiftly, slicing through his guard armor and into his heart.

I cast a quick healing spell to finally repair my back before turning back to the main street. I caught a glimpse of Steadfast rushing forward with the Stormclouds, knocking aside a line of Imperial soldiers. I snuck around the back of the house I’d fought the archer by, and galloped through an expansive cemetery until I was on the far end of the town.

A few Imperial soldiers still stood on the wall, but most of them were leaving for the fight, realizing that the Stormclouds were attacking from the east only. Once there were only two standing above the gateway, I summoned a flame atronach between them. They fell, flaming from the barricade, catching it on fire as they did so.

One of the Foalkreath guards not far away noticed the atronach and called for a battlemage to help put it out. As the robed mare appeared, I jumped out from my hiding place, sending ice spikes at her. She raised a ward immediately, and the spikes shattered against the magical shield, though a few of the shards hit the Foalkreath guard standing nearby and wounded him pretty badly.

I slammed Calcion’s Cleaver down on the ward, but it refused to budge. In fact, with a flicker of her horn, the battlemage caused it to glow even brighter, discharging energy that threw me back. Calcion’s Cleaver landed nearby, smoking as lightning skittered down its length. Jumping to my hooves, I retrieved my sword before the battlemage could roast me.

I Shouted, and the clouds grew thicker overhead, the snow falling more rapidly.

I tucked away my sword and galloped in circles around the mage, avoiding the blasts of magic she sent at me. Lightning began to build in the clouds before it suddenly came arcing down, striking the mage’s shield. She struggled to hold it up as the raw force of nature pounded on it. Eventually she gave in, and the ward collapsed, lightning breaking through and singing her body.

An Imperial soldier about to lop my head from my shoulders suddenly fell as an arrow from Mephalda struck it. My pegasus companion was looking out for me. I got the chance to return the favor as I sent an ice spike through the head of an archer lining up a shot on my feathered friend.

I met the Stormclouds as they rushed through the town, cutting down the Imperials until none remained. As the smoke cleared, I trotted up to where Jarl Stormcloud stood, in front of Jarl Sibli’s longhouse. As the indignant earth pony in royal robes was led from his dwelling, I was reminded of the scene between General Silver Cuirass and Jarl Deala the Aged in Dawnstar.

“Jarl Sibli,” Stormcloud began a speech, “You turned your back on Horizon, and you turned your back on Talhooves by joining these Imperials. And now, you will pay for your treachery.”

Before I could react, Jarl Stormcloud drew his sword and separated Sibli’s head from his shoulders. I gasped as the former Jarl toppled over dead.

“What did you do that for?” I asked the Jarl indignantly.

“An example had to be made,” he said, frowning at me, “Foalkreath abandoned Talhooves when it joined the Imperials, and so it abandoned its right to survive. This town will be an example to all who think of abandoning our Equine and bowing to those accursed pegasi demands.”

“Round up everypony here and execute them,” he ordered his captains, sheathing his sword, “Burn the town to the ground.”

“Don’t do this,” I pleaded with him as his soldiers began to drag ponies from their homes before lighting the residences on fire, “If you do this, you’re no better than them.”

“The Imperials started this war when they signed the White-Gold Concordat!” he shouted back, “They should not have if they weren’t prepared to face the consequences!”

It seemed any attempts to convince Jarl Stormcloud to abandon his folly would be pointless. His mind was made up, and nothing would stop him from destroying Foalkreath. I was reminded vividly of what had happened at Caprika Redoubt as families were executed on the spot, homes lit on fire.

There was nothing I could do to stop the destruction, but I had to at least do something. I did know one pony here, and I was determined to get him out. Running ahead of the Stormcloud soldiers, I made it to a house at the edge of town. I burst inside, staying clear of the flaming bits of the roof already beginning to fall.

The house seemed empty, which explained why the soldiers had simply lit it on fire without dragging a pony outside. I knew, however, that there was probably still somepony in here. I smashed open the wardrobe at the far end of the room, and revealed a ladder leading down. Carefully I headed down the ladder, until I reached the bottom and found a knife point held against the back of my neck. I slowly turned around until I was staring at a snow white earth pony.

“Berefs,” I warned him, “You need to get out of here now! The Stormclouds are burning the town to the ground!”

As if to drive home my point, the ceiling above us began to creak as a particularly large portion of the roof collapsed. Flames began to trickle through the floorboards.

“All right, let’s go,” he said, flicking lanterns over onto the forged documents he had lying on a small desk, making sure they were destroyed.

I led the way up the ladder and made sure no Stormclouds were around before leading Berefs to the back door. Once outside, I kept a lookout for the soldiers, hiding Berefs whenever I had to. Both exits from the town were blocked by Stormcloud soldiers, so the only way out would be over the high wooden wall. I nearly jumped out of my skin as a pegasus landed beside.

“Oh, thank goodness it’s you, Mephalda,” I said once I’d calmed down, “This is Berefs. Do you think you can get him out of here without the Stormclouds catching you?”

She sized both him and the wall up for a minute before nodding.

“Yes, I think I can do that,” she said.

“Great! Thank you so much,” I said as I ran back in toward the center of town.

“Where are you going?” Mephalda called after me.

“I’m going to find Jarl Stormcloud,” I called back, “I have to try at least once more to get him to stop this madness!”

I found Jarl Stormcloud right where I’d left him, standing in front of the Jarl’s longhouse. Jarl Sibli’s body had been dragged away, piled up with the other corpses to make way for the ponies that were being dragged from the longhouse and executed before Stormcloud.

One of them, a mare I recognized as Sunny Skies, broke free of her captors. However, instead of running away, she ran right up to Jarl Stormcloud and collapsed at his hooves.

“Oh, thank Talhooves!” she said, “I knew you’d come! I told everypony that someday you’d come free us, and here you are!”

“And you are?” the Jarl asked.

“Sunny Skies!” she proclaimed happily, “I’ve supported your cause since it was founded!”

“I don’t think so,” the Jarl said glumly.

“What do you mean?”

“You never supported me, never fought for the cause, never even supplied us with anything, even information.”

“Well, it wasn’t easy to get away,” she stammered, “But I told everypony how you were in the right. I tried to convince Jarl Sibli to join with you. I prayed to Talhooves every night that you would succeed.”

“But you didn’t do anything,” Jarl Stormcloud said coldly, “Finish her.”

Sunny Skies protested and pleaded for her life as the Stormcloud soldiers pulled her away from the Jarl. My plans to persuade the Jarl suddenly seemed pointless. If he was crazed enough to do something like this, there was nothing I could say to him that would convince him to abandon the destruction of Foalkreath.

I looked away as they executed Sunny Skies. I approached her body before it could be dragged away to the growing piles. The amulet of Talhooves I had used to blackmail her months ago was still hanging around her neck. A scrap of paper protruded from her pocket, and I shakily pulled it out to see what it was. It was an invitation to Golden Bullion’s wedding, no doubt the item she had had Berefs forge for her. I crumpled it up and stuffed it in my saddlebags as I left the town, tears rolling down my face for all the ponies dying around me.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I wandered a bit, though my friends caught up with me shortly outside of town. I had a lot to think about. I’d just helped Jarl Stormcloud kill off an entire town. How could anypony cope with that? There was no justification for it, and I knew I was just as guilty as the Jarl was.

Steadfast suggested I get my mind off things and do something else. I decided it was time to finally fulfill my promise to Jarl Radiance to train her guards how to fight dragons. Of course, I would be training the Legion as well, and perhaps I could make penance for what I’d just done.

General Silver Cuirass was happy to see me, but was less happy when I told him what’d happened in Foalkreath. Of course, I omitted the fact that I’d been part of the initial attack. I doubted I’d get out of there with my head still attached if I told him that.

I spent the next few days training Hoofingar’s guards and the Imperial Legion every trick I knew about how to fight dragons (besides Shouting.) The nights I spent tossing and turning haunted by nightmares filled with the ponies I’d killed. They appeared to be getting worse, and closer together. I barely got a wink of sleep except when I was so exhausted I simply couldn’t stay awake.

On our third night there, I was awoken by a particularly vivid one, in which I relived the entire battle for Foalkreath, and the massacre afterwards. Only, in my dream, I had taken part in the massacre, though against my will. Unable to get back to sleep, I took a walk outside to clear my head and fill my lungs with crisp Horizon air.

Strangely, music wafted through the air, different than what normally came from the Bards College, especially at this hour. Curious, I tracked the source of the music down, arriving at the courtyard for the Bards College, where a party was being held.

“I’m sorry,” a guard said as I tried to enter, “Admission to the Bullion-Ironshod wedding reception is by invitation only.”

I fumbled around for the invitation I’d taken from Sunny Skies for a moment before presenting it to the guard. He looked skeptical, but let me pass. The courtyard was filled with wealthy ponies from all over the Unicorn Empire, reveling and feasting as they celebrated Golden Bullion and Francis Ironshod’s wedding.

I found the newlyweds standing on the far end of the courtyard, Golden Bullion looking a bit tipsy as she downed yet another glass of imported wine. Her husband stood next to her, looking only slightly more joyful than when I’d last seen him.

“Did you hear about that ghastly business at Foalkreath?” another noblepony asked the bride and my ears pricked up.

“Oh yes, just dreadful wasn’t it,” Golden Bullion replied, “The bright side is that neither Francis nor I have ever had any business there, so we’ve lost nothing. Also, I’m sure General Cuirass is planning a retaliation right away, which means lots of business for my ships transporting all those troops and soldiers over here.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! Ponies – lots of ponies – had died, and Golden Bullion was more concerned about her business! I felt a great disgust for her, standing here and basking in her luxury while she considered taking advantage of the fact that a whole town had just been wiped out.

“Oh, it is late,” Golden Bullion said, faking a yawn, “I’m headed off to bed. Don’t wait up too long Francis.”

I wasn’t sure exactly what I was doing, but I began to follow Golden Bullion as she left the party, her words still fresh in my mind. She didn’t trot too far before she entered a large and opulent house near the Bards College. She left the door open as she entered, and I followed her inside. As she trotted upstairs, I silently followed her, the words she’d spoken echoing around inside my head.

As she entered her room, I slowly trotted up behind, drawing Calcion’s Cleaver. It was a mystery why I’d even strapped it on, but I suddenly felt glad to have it with me. It was as if I was in a dream, unable to control exactly what was happening. I saw Calcion’s Cleaver cut through Golden Bullion’s wedding dress and into her heart, but I didn’t feel it.

Suddenly, things snapped back into focus. I was shocked to find that the golden-coated unicorn was now lying dead on the floor, and I was holding a sword stained in her blood. Had I really just murdered somepony? Frantically, I cleaned my blade and fled from the home. The party was still going on, but I barely heard it as I galloped for Castle Dour.

I was forced to sit down inside the castle as I began to hyperventilate. I’D JUST KILLED ANOTHER PONY! And it hadn’t been for some reason like all the other times. This was cold-blooded murder, pure and simple. I’d been angry, and the next thing I knew, I’d killed Golden Bullion. She’d been smug and self-centered, but she hadn’t deserved to die. How could I ever forgive myself after this?

All I knew for the moment was that I had to get out of here. Somepony was sure to find Golden Bullion’s body, and I was finished if they figured out it was me. As I galloped through Castle, Dour, I heard General Cuirass’s voice and stopped, waiting outside the door to his planning room.

“We have to move now,” he said, “There can be no more neutral ground in this war. Jarl Valor’s Blade must understand that.”

“But launching an attack on Whitetrot?” a mare’s voice, probably Legate Rapid Winter’s, asked, “Wouldn’t that prove us to be the tyrants Jarl Stormcloud claims us to be?”

“None of that matters if he takes over all of Horizon himself,” Cuirass retorted, “We’ve lost Foalkreath, yet Stormcloud is fortifying the hold. In order to get to a real target, like Splitten, we have to pass through Foalkreath hold, a hold that now contains nothing of strategic value. The only other option is to go through Whitetrot.”

“Thane Sapphire, she won’t like this,” Winter said about me.

“Of course not, but she has to understand. Valor’s Blade is standing in our way, and the only option is to hit him now while he still doesn’t suspect.”

For the moment, all my worries about Golden Bullion were gone. General Cuirass was planning an attack on Whitetrot. I had a new mission in mind. Jarl Valor’s Blade had to be warned what was coming.

Level Up
Health: 280 Stamina: 270 Magicka: 280
New Perk: Hidden Valuables [Lockpick] -- You are far more likely to find treasure and gold within locked chests.
New Quest: Warmonger -- Bring word of General Cuirass’s plans to Jarl Valor’s Blade.

Author's Note

Here ends Act VI, wherein Sapphire and her friends came back from death, and began their quest to discover the Elements of Harmony, the one thing guaranteed to stop Alduin.

Well, that act took far longer to publish than I expected. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it, and the events it has set up. Most importantly, look forward to a greater focus on the Horizon Civil War in Act VII.

Questions? Comments? As always, feel free to leave a comment or PM me.

Chapter 55: War

Chapter LV: War
“Imperials? Stormclouds? I’m on the side of Whitetrot!”

I returned to our quarters in Castle Dour the moment General Cuirass and Legate Winter finished their conversation. Now that I had some time to think, I realized leaving now would seem suspicious, both to General Cuirass and to Seclusion at large. I tossed and turned until morning, and told my friends what I’d overheard once they were awake.

I didn’t tell them I was the one who’d killed Golden Bullion. How could I? What would they think of me if they knew? Though there was a great commotion and investigation regarding her death, nopony seemed to suspect me, and nopony asked. For all they knew, I’d been asleep in Castle Dour.

We left Seclusion mid-morning, the guards preventing ponies from leaving until the murder was solved, even saluting me as Thane and allowing us to walk out the gates. We traveled through Dragon Bridge, where they’d begun construction of a new bridge, and crossed over the makeshift one they had up at the time. Then we traveled through Rearikstead until we made it to the fortress-city of Whitetrot.

“Are you certain of this?” Jarl Valor’s Blade asked as I told him the bad news.

“Very certain,” I told him, “I heard General Cuirass himself discussing it last night.”

“By the Equines,” he said, rubbing his face with his hooves, “I knew this day would come, but I hadn’t expected it so soon. War, I’d hoped to avoid it at all costs, but it seems that it has come to me.”

“My Jarl,” Protocus said the Valor’s Blade, “There may still be a chance to avoid this. If you spoke to the other Jarls, convinced them to come to your aid . . .”

“In this matter it would be pointless,” he waved off Protocus’s suggestion, “In this Civil War, everypony has taken a side but me. Imperial Jarls would refuse to stand against Silver Cuirass, and the Stormcloud ones would require me to commit to their cause.”

“Then the only other option is to take one of the sides, and choose fast,” the steward said.

“Nonsense!” Darkfeather spoke up, “There is another option, to stand and fight.”

“Against the Imperial Legion?” Protocus said, “Are you crazy? We’d be doomed from the start.”

“This city has weathered armies before,” the Jarl said, “Of course, that was a long time ago, but still. Whitetrot was built to be a fortress city, to stand up against anything that came against it. It will do so again.”

“But we will need more than just the city guard to deter the Legion,” Protocus pointed out, “A fortress is only as good as the ponies defending it.”

“Of course,” Valor’s Blade agreed, “We’ll need to recall all our guards in Rearikstead and Riverwood, but for a small few to announce the Legion’s approach. The same must be done at all the watchtowers.”

“That would leave the hold dangerously unprotected to attack from both dragons and Jarl Stormcloud,” the steward replied, “And even so, it might not be enough to even the odds with the Legion.”

“He is right about that,” Darkfeather pointed out, “Even with our entire guard force concentrated here, the Legion could still take the city. We need more soldiers.”

“So you will get more soldiers,” the Jarl said plainly, “Any able-bodied pony in the hold must bear arms and fight, else we are sure to fall. Sapphire, how long before this attack takes place?”

“I don’t know,” I said, “But General Cuirass seemed anxious to begin.”

“It will take time for him to ready his army,” Darkfeather said, “We have a day, maybe two, but no more.”

“Then we must hasten to make our own preparations,” Jarl Valor’s Blade said, “Dispatch messengers immediately to recall our troops, and round up any more we can. Protocus, get every pony in this city to work fixing up the wall and building barricades. If General Cuirass wants my city, he’s going to have to fight for it.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

General Cuirass gave us more time than we’d expected. The rest of that day passed swiftly as we shored up Whitetrot’s defenses, preparing it for the attack that could come at any moment. Ponies began pouring in late at night, both soldiers recalled from distant watches and townsponies searching for a safe place when the attack came. Whitetrot soon became packed with ponies, and the newly rebuilt Temple of Ponyreth became lodgings for the city’s temporary residents. When even it began to fill up, temporary housing was erected in the town square outside, surrounding the massive dead tree at the center.

The next day, we prepared even more and waited. Still there was no sign of Imperial movement. Could I have gotten things wrong, or had our sudden militarization scared the General off? Neither proved to be true, as scouts began to return to Whitetrot that evening with reports of Imperial Legion soldiers marching in from the west.

Surprisingly, Rearikstead had been completely bypassed, the Imperials using it only to pass through on their way. Whitetrot was the real prize, and nothing else mattered to General Cuirass. There was no sign of them before the sun set, and we kept an uneasy vigil through the night, waiting for the attack.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

“Are you sure about this?” Mephalda asked me as I stood atop one of the guard outposts near Whitetrot’s gates.

“What do you mean?” I asked, looking out from the city instead of turning toward her.

The sun had just risen, blood red, as if it knew what would surely happen today. By the time it set, the ground around, and possibly within, Whitetrot would be stained red with the blood of ponies. That is, unless General Silver Cuirass or Jarl Valor’s Blade backed down. Neither seemed likely to me.

Around Whitetrot were expansive Imperial camps set up rapidly in the night, the soldiers within them now lined up and ready to move on the city at the command. In the distance, massive trebuchets had been set up while we slept, ready to smash Whitetrot’s walls to rubble. Battlemages held up wards over the front lines, keeping us from picking them off with arrows shot from our high ground.

“Do you really want to be involved in this war?” Mephalda answered me, “After all, Foalkreath didn’t turn out so well.”

“I know,” I said, turning away from the terrifying sight before me to face me friends, “And I’m really sorry about that, you guys. If you don’t want to be part of this, I understand.”

“We’re not leaving you,” Steadfast reassured me, “You’re our friend. If you want to get mixed up in this war business, we’ll follow you.”

Mephalda and Mystic both nodded in agreement.

“But, do you really want to be involved in it?” Mystic asked, “Out of all of us, you took Foalkreath the hardest. We can’t help but notice you haven’t been sleeping since then. All we’re saying is that you should think about this before you get into the thick of things and can’t get out.”

“You’re right,” I sighed, “And the truth is, I’m not really sure where I should stand on this war anyway. For now, I think its best just to focus on protecting Whitetrot. That, at least, I know is the right thing to do.”

A flaming rock suddenly hurtled over me as I finished my speech. The trebuchets had begun firing, smashing Whitetrot’s walls apart and catching the buildings inside on fire. The Imperial soldiers began moving forward, but I only got to watch for a moment before one of the flaming stones struck the base of the tower I was standing in. As the tower collapsed, I jumped from the wreckage, rolling across the ground.

The Whitetrot soldiers clustered within the city’s walls had rushed out moments before, so nopony was seriously hurt in the fall. I rose to my hooves and galloped toward the city’s outer gate. I passed stables offering cheap lodgings for the poor traveler, and a small farm that seemed to grow nothing but cabbages before we met the Imperials.

The Legion battlemages had dropped their wards once the armies had met and were now sending blasts of magic wherever they could find an opening without hitting their own soldiers. A jagged front formed where Imperial and Whitetrot forces intermingled, hacking out at each other and staining the snow with each others’ blood.

I drew Dawnbreaker and the Blade of Hoofingar as I met the front, swinging them both around at a Legion soldier with a pike. Using his overlong weapon, he blocked my strikes. Pulling my swords back, I spun them around, slashing down with my Draconequus weapon and upward with my ebony sword. The Imperial blocked again, but I had my weapons on opposite sides of his and managed to spin his pike around and out of his grasp. Dawnbreaker sliced through his Legion armor, parting the metal easily.

As he fell to the ground, I struck out with the Blade of Hoofingar at an earth pony wielding a mace. She blocked my first strike, but my second sliced through her armor, cutting a gash in her side. She had no time to down a healing potion as I struck at her again, and she was forced to block again. With a blast of fire, I cauterized her wound, but also caused her so much pain that she dropped her mace. With a slash of my ebony sword, I sliced open her neck.

I shot another Legion soldier with lightning before finishing her off with a strike from Dawnbreaker. I realized that I was now facing the entire Imperial force, having passed through the front. Or rather, the front had moved past me. I began to retreat along with the Whitetrot guards as they pulled back toward the city.

As I retreated, I was forced to stop to fend off a unicorn with a greatsword. As I struck at him with both my blades, he somehow managed to block, knocking my swords to the side. He staggered as an arrow shot through his throat, but still managed to advance toward me. As another of the deadly darts shot through his eye, he finally dropped his sword and fell to the ground.

I turned tail and vaulted the barricades I’d helped assemble the day before. Most of the Whitetrot guard had retreated through the outer gate and were now holed up behind the barricades. Archers shot down on the advancing Imperials from above, along with Mystic, who discharged blasts of magic instead of arrows.

Imperial soldiers attempted to climb over and around the barricades, only to be cut down by the blades of the Whitetrot guards behind them. As a unicorn mare tried to vault over my section, a war axe gripped in her magic, I shot ice spikes up into her chest. Most of them simply stuck in the metal and leather, but a few managed to make it through to her heart, and she fell over onto the barricade, impaling herself.

“Get back!” I called as the crowd of Imperials suddenly parted to reveal a battlemage, a spell building to completion along his horn.

A huge blast of fire suddenly went flying forward, and the barricades combusted in a spectacular explosion. The guards that hadn’t heeded my warning fast enough were thrown back, flames eating away at their flesh. I pushed myself to my hooves as quick as I could as the Imperial soldiers began to pile through the gateway.

With Calcion’s Cleaver, I blocked a battleaxe that came down at me. Lightning arced from the tip of my blade as I pushed the larger weapon back. The Imperial wielding it was pushed back, forcing him to exit the block. I shot lightning at him, disorienting him before I brought Calcion’s Cleaver up through his chin, rending his face apart.

The battlemage strode through the fray, seemingly invincible behind his ward. I shot ice spikes at it, but they all bounced away without doing any damage. As he noticed me attacking him, he dropped the ward for a split second to shoot a blast of fire at me. I rolled out of the way as the flames came at me, though I ended up a bit closer to him than I had been before.

I pulled out Dawnbreaker as I rolled away from another blast of his magic. Leaping toward him, I stabbed the sword into his ward. Instantly, the magic dissipated, as if I had popped a bubble. He drew out a sword of his own and knocked Dawnbreaker to the side. A blast of magical ice shot past my ear as he tried to freeze me.

<<>> I Shouted, freezing him solid.

I jumped out of the way as one of the rocks launched from the trebuchet came down within the walls. The frozen battlemage was shattered to bits, his icy chunks flying everywhere. I heard somepony call my name, and looked back to see most of the Whitetrot guards regrouping near the second gate within the walls. Firing ice spikes as I went, I retreated back to the gate. Once I was through, the ponies within began to crank up the drawbridge. A few Imperials got through before it closed, but they were quickly cut down.

I climbed a nearby set of steps to the wall that ran over the gate to get a better view of what was going on. The Imperials had taken the surrounding countryside and were now within Whitetrot’s outer wall. Archers over both the outer gate and the second one continued to rain down arrows onto the Imperials constantly, though the first group was beginning to retreat as the Legion’s own archers surrounded them.

Flaming stones from the trebuchets continued to rain down on the city, opening up new holes in the walls to be plugged. Behind us, there was a sizeable hole in the outer wall which Imperials kept trying to enter through, but the Whitetrot guards were holding them off for the moment. Still, those trebuchets were tearing the city apart and something had to be done about them.

I Shouted, and my voice carried out across the battle plain.

Over the Legion hordes it went until it struck the central of the three trebuchets to Whitetrot’s west. Storm clouds began to boil overhead, pouring snow onto the trebuchet crews that I could barely see from this distance. The clouds grew progressively darker until lightning began to shoot out from the underside.

The trebuchets were suddenly struck by massive bolts of energy. As the lightning struck, it split the war machines down the center, charring their insides immediately. Rocks ceased coming from the west as all three of the trebuchets were taken out of action.

“We’re overrun!” Steadfast said, grabbing me as my attention came back to the fight going on around us, “We’ve got to move!”

Looking down, I could see that the Imperials had attached large hooks to the drawbridge and were hauling it down. The archers on the roof with me began to fall as a battlemage struck them with magic. I turned and followed Steadfast, retreating back to Whitetrot’s main gates.

As the last of the Whitetrot guards still living ducked inside the main city, the gates slammed shut. It took four ponies to lay the massive beam across the door that barred it, but once it was in place, the Imperials would have a hard time breaking through. They rammed against the gates, but the heavy wooden doors held. Archers atop the city’s main wall rained arrows down onto the advancing soldiers, making their job even harder.

The gates didn’t hold long enough, however. Magic began to glow between the cracks in the doors, and they suddenly burst apart, completely destroyed. Through the smoking gap stood a battlemage surrounded by Imperial soldiers that rushed through into the city.

I swung Calcion’s Cleaver at one as she tried to gallop past me. My blade caught her war axe, and we both fought to disarm the other. Eventually I gave up on disarming her and slid my sword out from under her blade. She swung at my neck with her war axe the moment it was free, but I ducked down and swung at her forelegs. The ancient earth pony sword sliced through her greaves, and she fell to the ground, impaled by my blade a moment later.

To my left, Warmare’s suddenly went up in flames, though not from a trebuchet strike. The battlemage stood nearby, dousing the street in flames. I galloped toward him, but he noticed me coming and began to turn his magic toward me.

As time slowed to a crawl, his flames billowed from his horn in slow motion. I jumped over him, my ancient earth pony sword cutting through his neck and removing his head from his shoulders. As time shifted back to its usual speed, I slammed into the flaming wreck of Warmare’s, wiping the fire from my armor.

At the end of the street, I watched the Bannered Mare, one of Whitetrot’s finest inns, get torn in two as a trebuchet strike crashed through it, the boulder rolling through the marketplace, smashing all the vendors’ stands. I ran toward it and away from the fight, turning up the stairs to the town’s second level.

On a mission, I entered Whitetrot’s central square just as another of the flaming boulders smashed through the temporary housing set up there. I was thrown backwards as the entire place combusted, the rickety wooden homes going up in flames. Picking myself up, I dodged around the flaming wreckage and headed higher into the city.

Surprisingly, I heard the sound of clashing swords coming from back the way I’d come. I glanced back to see that the Whitetrot guards were retreating even more quickly than before as the Legion pushed against them. I continued my run, reaching Jorrvaskr. The roof nearly touched the ground at the corners of the building, so it wasn’t extraordinarily hard to climb to the top of the structure. From there, I had a good view of the three trebuchets set up to the east of the city.

Once again, the clouds obeyed by commands and pooled together over the trebuchets. Lightning lanced down from them, splitting and burning the war machines. One final stone was launched before its launcher was destroyed, but it was thrown off course and slammed into the stone base of the great fortress-city, doing no damage.

“Sapphire!” I heard Mephalda call from the distance.

I looked over to see that my friends and the Whitetrot soldiers were ascending the stairs to Dragonsreach, striking back at the Imperial soldiers pursuing them whenever they could. I slid down from the roof and ran across the Imperial filled square, intent on joining up with them. The first Imperial never saw me coming as I sliced the Blade of Hoofingar through her neck.

After that, they knew I was in their midst, but I had to keep moving to avoid being surrounded. I struck at an earth pony with a mace for a moment, but she blocked, and I blasted fire into her face to keep from being caught. With both Calcion’s Cleaver and Dawnbreaker, I hit the next Imperial in the side, knocking him off the stairs.

Up ahead, Steadfast was blazing a path to me, knocking the Imperial soldiers from the stairs with his warhammer. As I ran a unicorn through with Dawnbreaker, we met up. Together we galloped up the stairs like mad until we passed by the few Whitetrot archers outside the keep. Retreating, we passed into Dragonsreach, slamming the doors shut.

Within, Whitetrot guards were flipping over tables and benches to prop against the doors. We’d keep the Imperials out in any way. They began to slam against the doors, but the furniture and the guards holding it up kept them out for the moment.

The guard captain, his helmet askew, ran to the back of the great hall, and I followed.

“Jarl Valor’s Blade, they’ve taken the city!” he said anxiously, “What do we do?”

“So now it’s come to this,” the Jarl said, pulling on his armor, “I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly.”

“Now what?” I asked.

“We must stand and face our end,” he said solemnly, drawing a sword.

“That’s it?” Darkfeather protested, “There must be something we can do to fight them off.”

“My city has fallen,” the Jarl said, “What else can I do?”

“Charge out and meet them,” I said brashly.

“Yes,” the Jarl said, considering my suggestion, then with more enthusiasm, “Yes!”

“Get every soldier we have to the great hall immediately!” he ordered.

More piled in as the Imperials continued to bang on the door, threatening to burst through at any second. The soldiers finally stopped coming, and we were all assembled in the great hall, waiting for the doors to open.

“Charge proudly! Fight with honor!” Jarl Valor’s Blade yelled from the front of the room, “If we make our end here today, may we make such an end that it shall be legend! Let this be the day we draw swords together! Now for wrath! Now for ruin! And the red dawn!”

At that moment, the doors burst open and the Imperial soldiers began to charge through. Giving a war cry, Jarl Valor’s Blade charged forward, swinging his sword through the first Imperial he saw. The rest of us charged after him, filled with the enthusiasm projected by our leader.

Imperials toppled from the stairway as we charged down it, the Jarl leading the way. Arrows struck around us as we charged, and took down more than a few, but we continued on anyway, soon galloping through the square and slashing through the archers.

I Shouted at a battlemage blocking our path, lightning him on fire before he could do the same to the Jarl.

My swords spun through the air, taking on a life of their own as they dismembered the Imperial soldiers that were attempting to take this city – my city. We passed through the housing distract, clearing out the Imperials as soon as they appeared. Soon they were retreating as we pushed them from the main gate and down through the outworks of the city.

Before I knew it, we were through the outworks and past the outer gate, driving the Imperials down the road and away from the farms and meaderies. Soon the Imperials were beating a hasty retreat back to Seclusion, and a hearty cheer went up from our little army. We’d really done it! We’d driven back the Imperials and saved Whitetrot.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

The taste of victory was sweet, and all of Whitetrot celebrated that night. Well, all except for the few guards that kept a lookout for any kind of Imperial counterattack. Of course, everypony was in such high spirits that they didn’t mind swapping out the guard every few minutes so that everypony could enjoy the festivities.

Fire crews had put out the blazes, and the most alarming of the destruction had been temporarily patched. True repairs would come later. For that night, Jarl Valor’s Blade opened up his kitchens to the whole city, and the square had been cleared of debris to allow everypony to celebrate.

I was at the party, and enjoying myself quite a bit. I hadn’t felt this good for days. I finally had a reason to be out of the dumps and feel good about myself. I’d stopped an attack from taking the peaceful ponies of Whitetrot unaware, and then had helped repel the attack when it’d come.

Of course, things couldn’t stay perfect. I was debating whether or not I should take another sweetroll when a gray earth pony with an oddly donkeyish mane approached me urgently.

“I need to speak to you immediately, if it’s not too much trouble,” the pony spoke in a voice I instantly recognized.

I complied and followed the pony as he headed down the hallways of Dragonsreach. Eventually he stopped in a little-used wing of the palace, the same place my friends and I had appeared on our crazy ride back from the Shivering Isles.

“Okay Discord, what do you want?” I asked impatiently, crossing my forelegs.

“Oh, don’t act so put out,” he said, transforming back to his natural form in a flash, “At least I had the common courtesy to let you enjoy your little celebration before I broke the news to you.”

“What news?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“Well, I couldn’t help but notice you taking an interest in this little war you equines have going on, and I thought to myself, maybe she’d be able to help, Discord.”

“Help?” I asked, “How?”

“Well, it’s no secret this land’s in turmoil, now is it?” Discord asked, pulling a map of the Northlands down over the wall behind him and using a baton to point to parts of it, “War, death, constant fighting between the pony races.”

“Yes?” I answered tentatively.

“Well, I’m afraid all this fighting and chaos is having a bit of a negative side effect.”

“Like what?”

“Oh, it’d be easier if I just showed you,” the Draconequus said, suddenly beside me and wrapping an arm around me.

I suddenly found myself whisked away, the landscape flying past as we headed northeast. However, it seemed the land moved under us more than we moved over it. It was a strange sensation, but apparently not disorienting to the Draconequus of Chaos.

“Recognize these?” Discord asked once we reached our destination, the far northern tip of Unicornica.

A storm was billowing around us, and eerie whinnies cut through it. All of a sudden, a swarm of windigos came stampeding out of the clouds. They dived into the water, causing ice to coat the surface.

“Yeah, these are windigos,” I told Discord, “We ran into them on our trip to Unicornica.”

“Well, these windigos feed off of anger, fighting, and general disunity,” Discord explained, “And I’m afraid this war has been feeding them quite a bit indeed.”

Suddenly, we pulled back so I could see the storm from above. I gasped at the enormity of it. The entire northern horizon was dominated by the strangely churning clouds. The Ear of Unicornica and most of the Horn were covered as well, frozen under a layer of perpetual ice.

“Unless all this fighting between the pony races ends, and ends soon, this is what will happen,” Discord said.

With a wave of his claw, I watched time pass rapidly. In less than a year, the windigo storm swept over all the Northlands, coating them in ice.

“As you can see,” Discord explained, “The storm will overtake the Northlands so rapidly that there will be no time to discover a new land to settle. Every pony on the face of Equus will be wiped out. Your entire kind will die unless this war comes to an end.”

With a snap of Discord’s claws, we were suddenly back in Dragonsreach.

“How can this be stopped?” I asked, still shocked by what I’d seen.

“Oh, it can’t,” the Draconequus said nonchalantly.

“Then what was the point of showing me this?” I asked angrily.

“It can’t be stopped,” Discord explained, “But it can be postponed, long enough for ponies to find a new land and sort out their differences, at least.”

“How?” I asked, becoming tired of the Draconequus’s antics.

“Well, for one the war must end, and end for all time,” Discord said, pulling out a checklist, “Of course, that is completely impossible with the Northlands in its current state. No, the organization you have now is quite disorderly and will always lead to war. The only way peace, albeit a shaky peace, can be accomplished is by granting each of your races control of their own destiny.”

“What?” I asked, confused.

“Every one of your races must have its own country,” he explained, looking irked to have to explain things to me, “Only then can a lasting peace be established.”

“So, Jarl Stormcloud must win the war,” I said.

“Hmm, that’s one way of doing it I suppose,” Discord said, “And perhaps the best option you have. Well, I think you know everything you’ll need, so I’ll just skedaddle and let you get back to your extremely important party.”

“Wait,” I said as he prepared to snap his fingers and return to the Shivering Isles, “Why would you have me make the world less chaotic? Why are you telling me all this?”

“I’m just a good member of the community looking out for its well-being,” he said, a halo appearing over his head.

“Right,” I said skeptically, “What’s the real reason?”

“Very well,” Discord said, waving the halo away, “When it comes to chaos, there’s nothing more fun to do it to than ponies. To put it simply, you’re my favorite playthings, and I don’t want you to disappear.”

“That’s terrible!” I exclaimed, annoyed (though not really surprised) that Discord considered ponies to be no more than “playthings.”

“I tried to give you the nice answer,” he said with a shrug, “But you wouldn’t have it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some chaos to cause in the Shivering Isles.”

With a snap of his fingers, I was suddenly alone in the bowels of Dragonsreach, left mulling over what the Draconequus had told me.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

That night I finally managed to sleep mostly soundly, though my thoughts were preoccupied with what Discord had told me over regret about ponies I’d killed. The next morning I approached Jarl Valor’s Blade. The Battle for Whitetrot may have been over, but this war was only just beginning to heat up.

“Jarl Valor’s Blade, may I speak to you a moment?” I asked as he finished a discussion with Protocus about fixing up Whitetrot’s walls.

“Of course Sapphire,” he said, lounging back in his throne, “What did you want to talk about?”

“Well,” I said, “It’s just that I doubt that attack on us was the last.”

“I know what you mean,” the Jarl said solemnly, “I too have been worried that General Cuirass may strike again. Then again, it could be Jarl Stormcloud next time. It’s not easy being a neutral hold during a time of war.”

“That’s what I came to discuss,” I said.

“It appears that I can no longer remain neutral in this war,” the Jarl said, “General Cuirass has forced my hoof. He has made an enemy of me and forced me to seek out allies elsewhere. I may not agree with Jarl Stormcloud, but we earth ponies have an old saying: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I need you to bring word to Jarl Stormcloud and let him know I intend to join him.”

“Of course, my Jarl,” I said, happy that he’d chosen the Stormcloud side, making my job of restoring balance to the Northlands much easier.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

With my friends, I left for Windhorn at once. Of course, I figured now that I’d be joining the Stormcloud cause, I’d have to start calling the city Earthhaven. Not that I’d ever get the name Windhorn out of my mind, but I could at least try to address it by the Stormcloud name in the Jarl’s presence.

Nopony stopped us as we entered the Palace of Kings, for which I was grateful. I went directly to Jarl Stormcloud, though the guards near his throne jumped into action to defend him if necessary.

“Ah, Sapphire,” the Jarl said nonchalantly, “I haven’t seen you since Foalkreath. What have you been up to?”

“Not much, just stopping an Imperial attack on Whitetrot,” I replied sarcastically.

“What?” the Jarl said, bolting upright in his throne, “Why was I not told of this?”
Nopony seemed to want to be the recipient of Stormcloud’s wrath, and nopony offered an explanation.

“I come with word from Jarl Valor’s Blade,” I said, removing the ceremonial axe he’d given me from my saddlebags, “He pledges Whitetrot, its hold, and its troops to the Stormcloud cause.”

“Very well,” Stormcloud said, taking the axe from me, “I, Jarl Stormcloud of Earthhaven and Easttrot, accept Jarl Valor’s Blade’s service.”

“And, I also pledge myself to serve in the Stormcloud cause,” I continued, kneeling before the Jarl, “On one condition. No more massacres of towns.”

“I also accept your service,” the Jarl said, looking a bit surprised, “And your condition. Foalkreath was a one-time occurrence. Now that the example has been set, it need not be demonstrated again.”

“In fact,” he said as I rose, “I think I have just the job for you.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s time to remedy the action you took when you first entered this war,” Jarl Stormcloud said, “It’s time to take back Dawnstar.”

Level Up
Health: 290 Stamina: 270 Magicka: 280
New Perk: A Refined Taste [Alchemy] -- The primary and secondary magical effects of potions can now be learned by eating them.
New Quest: Where it All Began -- Help the Stormclouds to retake Dawnstar.

Author's Note

What is this insanity? Two chapters in a row? Special thanks to my proofreader for getting these past few chapters edited in record time!

Chapter 56: Dawnstar

Chapter LVI: Dawnstar
“Now listen here. What I’m sayin’ to you is the honest truth. Let go, and you’ll be safe.”

That night, we slept in the Palace of Kings. Jarl Stormcloud didn’t quite have his plans ready for the attack on Dawnstar, but he spent the next day ironing things out. We trained with the Stormclouds, getting used to their fighting tactics and how to work with them. At the end of the day, Jarl Stormcloud revealed his plan to me.

His attack would be twofold, and I would play a very special part. The main bulk of his forces would attack Dawnstar from the south, on the very same path the Griffins and I had taken. I would lead a smaller group up the mountains to the east and infiltrate the Dawnstar Sanctuary, which had been abandoned for years. The group I was leading would set up early, and be ready to rain down arrows onto the town once the real battle began. Nopony had any idea what really awaited us in that abandoned monastery, so Stormcloud wasn’t taking any chances.

The next day we set out for Dawnstar, making our way to the secret camp the Stormclouds had constructed near the east edge of The Pale. That night, we slept in the camp in anticipation of the battle to come the following morning.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

A party was going on around me, though I seemed distant from it. The guests laughed merrily, though their chuckles seemed a bit hollow, as if they were hiding some cruel pain beneath. I had no idea how I’d gotten to this party, so I made to leave, only to hear the sound of splashing come from beneath me.

Looking down, I could see that the floor was covered in blood, blood that was staining my hooves crimson. I rushed to escape the shallow layer of pony life force, heading for the raised area at the head of the room. As I did so, I ended up bumping into another of the party guests.

“You really should watch where you’re going,” the pony said to me, though her voice was strange and hollow.

I stumbled backwards as I realized the pony I’d run into was Golden Bullion. I’d killed her, yet here she was at a party, her wedding dress rapidly soaking up the blood on the floor. It couldn’t be real! My ancient earth pony sword suddenly plunged forward, running her through. Once more, the unicorn died, falling into the blood with a splash.

“Murderer~” a voice whispered from above.

I looked up, but could see nothing but the ceiling far above me.

“I didn’t mean to!” I yelled, hoping whoever had spoken could hear me.

“But you did~” the voice spoke back to me, “You like killing ponies, don’t you, Sapphire?~”

“No!” I exclaimed, “I don’t!”

“Liar!~” the voice replied.

The ponies around me suddenly came into focus, and I could see they were all ponies I’d killed. The room was filled to bursting with them. How could there be so many!? I hadn’t really killed this many ponies, had I?

Suddenly I was in Hoofgen. I wandered down the halls of the keep, until I ran into an Imperial soldier. Before I could react, he suddenly died in front of me, blood bursting from his chest to add to the layer covering the floors. I ran ahead, getting away from him, only to run into more soldiers, who also instantly died before my eyes.

I galloped faster, emerging from the keep and suddenly appearing in Caprika Redoubt. Around me, goats suddenly burst into flame as I passed. I continued to gallop on, trying to block the images out.

I galloped out of Caprika Redoubt, only to find myself in Dawnstar, where Stormclouds now died the same horrific deaths the Imperials at Hoofgen had.

“Stop!” I cried, “I don’t want to see anymore!”

I galloped even faster, passing through Windrake Cavern and watching Blackwings die around me. Then I was in the Blackwing embassy, where even more of the pegasi died around me. I passed through Splitten’s orphanage next, watching Sage die, before I rapidly passed through the deaths of all the ponies I’d killed for the Dark Brotherhoof.

“Make it stop!” I yelled uselessly.

The blood was getting much deeper now, and it was a struggle to keep moving through the tide of death. I was in the Blackwing embassy again, and the deaths of the many Blackwings only added to the flood around me. Then I was outside Stablehall, then the caves near Anvil, and then Broken Horn Redoubt, the blood of my kills rising around me.

“Stop!” I yelled helplessly as I galloped through Foalkreath, the blood of the many dead ponies there lifting me off my hooves and plunging me under.

~~ ~~ ~~

I bolted upright in my tent, my bedroll soaked from my sweat. As I fought to calm my breathing, a stallion’s head suddenly poked through the tent flap.

“Rise and shine,” Bereloth said, “It’s time to get moving.”

I finished calming down and tried to clear the images of the dream from my mind. Something was seriously wrong with me, I knew that. But there was no time to dwell on such things now. Our attack on Dawnstar would begin soon. What kind of dreams would I have after this?

Trying to clear such thoughts from my mind, I prepared my gear and hunted down a bit of food. Aurora still played across the early morning sky, and only a small portion of the camp was up and about. I counted a dozen Stormcloud soldiers, not counting Bereloth, that would be following me this morning to the Dawnstar Sanctuary. I hoped I could get my act together and get the job done quickly.

Once everypony was ready, we set out from the camp, following the path Jarl Stormcloud had showed me. If all went well, we’d have control of the Sanctuary before dawn, when the full attack was scheduled to begin. During our march, Steadfast trotted up beside me.

“You’re not looking so good,” he commented, “Rough night?”

“Yeah,” I admitted, “Nightmares again.”

“Me too,” he said.

“Really?” I asked in surprise.

“It’s the strangest thing,” he told me, “It seems like near everypony, including all those Stormclouds, had a rough night. And they had some stories about Dawnstar.”

“What kind of stories?”

“Stuff about the place being cursed. Apparently some of the townsponies moved to Windhorn to get away from a string of nightmares that started recently. The stubborn stayed, but they were having nightmares too, apparently.”

“Well, I doubt mine are part of this curse,” I said, “Just a guilty conscience.”

“Listen here,” Steadfast said, “I know you’ve done some terrible things, I was there for some of them, but you can’t just keep beating yourself up over this. You’ve got to move on. I mean, it’s not like you deliberately murdered anypony, right?”

I tried not to flinch back at Steadfast’s words. He hadn’t meant any harm, because he hadn’t known I was to blame for Golden Bullion’s death. But, what he’d said had still stung.

“We’ll continue this conversation later,” he said, “It looks like we’re here.”

Steadfast was right. Standing before us was the massive stone structure that had once been the Dawnstar Sanctuary. Sanctuary to what, I wasn’t quite sure, but it was very old, built like the old monasteries had been, more as a fortress than a quiet lodge.

“All right,” I said to the troops behind me, “The plan’s simple. We need to clear out whatever may inhabit this Sanctuary in order to get vantage points for our archers. We’ll move quickly, but carefully. Everypony ready?”

Once all the soldiers had given the affirmative, I pushed the heavy gates open, Calcion’s Cleaver drawn and ready. Within was a small hall that led to a smaller door. Magic shimmered over the surface in complex patterns.

“Mystic,” I asked, “Can you tell what spells are over that door?”

“It’s just a magical lock to keep the Sanctuary sealed,” she said after examining it a moment, “Shouldn’t take too long to diffuse.”

Mystic set to work on the door, casting all sorts of spells across its surface until it finally returned to plain wood. Leading the way, I pushed the door open and entered the Sanctuary Proper. A snarling pony with a raised spear stood just inside. I quickly swung Calcion’s Cleaver around at it before I stopped suddenly.

The pony didn’t move, but rather stayed completely frozen in place. She appeared to be alive still, and she wasn’t decaying at all, yet no breath came from her nostrils and no heart beat in her breast. Turning around, I came face to face with a Griffin in ornate armor similar to my own. She too had her weapon raised, a cruelly curved sword made from the same metal as her armor.

Stepping back gave me a better perspective. The Griffin and the pony were both in the middle of a fight, prepared to strike each other, yet they made no moves whatsoever. Looking around, I could see that the entire hall was filled with similar scenes. Ponies wearing archaic robes clashed with Griffins in ancient armor, or they would be if they had been moving.

“What’s going on here?” Bereloth asked with puzzlement.

“Remarkable,” Mystic whispered, examining the statuesque warriors, “It appears that time itself has frozen around them.”

“But how?” I asked, “Didn’t Star-Swirl say that it was impossible to stop or alter the flow of time permanently?”

“He did,” Mystic said, “Which means no mortal could have done this.”

I was frightened by the implications. If no mortal could stop time, then who had done this, and what kind of powerful being were we dealing with?

Cautiously, we passed deeper into the Sanctuary, meeting no resistance from the frozen fighters. The archers we’d brought along set up near some of the windows that overlooked Dawnstar as we delved deeper in, searching for any foes that could be tucked away.

There was nothing to find but more of the frozen warriors as we passed through the fortress, eventually reaching the inner sanctum. Strange carvings climbed the walls, some of them glowing gently. Here it seemed time had managed to touch. The skeletons of two ponies and one Griffin littered the room, but just outside there was a Griffin caught in time retreating from the place. It seemed this room, and this room alone was free of the time freeze effect.

“I’m going to continue searching,” Bereloth said as I picked up a journal from the dead Griffin, “This place gives me the creeps.”

Mephalda, Mystic, and Steadfast stayed with me as I paged through the book. Flipping to some of the later entries, I read aloud for their benefit.

The attack went perfectly, but how could we have known what would befall us? We long suspected that the nightmares plaguing Dawnstar were the work of Maremina, Weaver of Dreams, but we never considered that the Sanctuary that stood atop the nearby cliffs had been dedicated to her all along. Our brethren attacked bravely, pushing the cultists back while we blazed a path to the inner sanctum, hoping to destroy the source of Maremina’s power once and for all. That was when it all went wrong. The treacherous Draconequus put an enchanted sleep on all outside of the sanctum, freezing them in place. Gifnaz and I slew the cultists within the sanctum itself, but when he tried to flee, he was caught in the Draconequus’s dark spell. Now I’m the only one left. What am I going to do?

“The nightmares! Maremina! Of course!” Mystic exclaimed.

“Bereloth needs to see this,” I said, and called for him to come.

Suddenly, the grooves in the walls began to glow more brightly, especially around the outline of a dark Draconequus holding up a pony skull.

“You foolish mortals never should have come here~” a voice came from the wall, the same voice that had been haunting my nightmares, “Now you will befall the same fate as those who sought to thwart me before~”

A magical glow suddenly spread out from the inner sanctum. Bereloth froze in place as the wave of magic hit him, leaving him with an expression of shock on his face. Elsewhere throughout the tower the same thing was no doubt befalling the other Stormclouds. We were trapped, and completely cut off.

“What do we do now?” Steadfast said worriedly, “I don’t know about you, but I don’t plan to stay here and waste away like our Griffin friend.”

“But we can’t leave,” Mephalda pointed out, “Or else we’ll be frozen as well.”

“Maybe there’s some way to break the spell,” I said hopefully, flipping through the Griffin’s journal.

This is it. I’m going to die here, aren’t I? I know there’s a way out of this, but it’s beyond my reach. It’s consumed my thoughts, but I can’t understand it! All I can think of is that same chant that taunts me in my dreams, that threatens to drive me mad!

Time has stopped for all around, and yet they stay alive
Yet you are trapped with me forever, cursed to have survived
Maremina knows how to break a mortal’s will in two
I’ll give you hope and yet, you’ll be clueless on what to do
My depraved mind knows no bounds, of that you shall see
For only when true words are spoken will you finally be set free

The rest of the journal was filled with the chant written over and over in increasingly urgent clawwriting. At last, the pages were covered with the words, written over and around each other as the Griffin grew mad.

Maremina had succeeded at her task of breaking the Griffin’s will, but she wouldn’t be so successful with us. The riddle was deceptive, yet I thought I knew the solution. At least I hoped I did. The only problem was that it would hurt, a lot.

“I have . . . something to tell you,” I announced to my friends, taking a deep breath.

“In Seclusion . . . before we left . . . I was the one who killed Golden Bullion,” I admitted.

“What?” they all exclaimed simultaneously.

“I . . . didn’t know what I was doing,” I said, “I saw her at her wedding reception . . . and she was so cold about the death of others . . . talking about the massacre at Foalkreath in terms of profits and . . . I just snapped.”

“Can you ever forgive me?” I pleaded, tears leaking out now that I’d finished my confession.

“Of course we can,” Steadfast said, moving over to comfort me, albeit awkwardly, “There’s nothing too terrible that you can’t tell us. We know you didn’t mean it. It’s not something you’d usually do.”

“Really?” I asked, hopefully.

Mystic and Mephalda also confirmed that they agreed with Steadfast, and moved in to comfort me as well.

“You guys are the best,” I said, laughing.

“Why did you kill her, though?” Mystic asked.

“I don’t know,” I said, “I didn’t even know I had until I’d already run her through with Calcion’s Cleaver. I wasn’t myself that night.”

“You haven’t been yourself much lately,” Mephalda said, “And I think I know why.”

“You do?” I asked.

“That sword,” she said, pointing accusingly at Calcion’s Cleaver, “You forget why it was forged. The ancient earth pony smiths forged it to convey Calcion’s hate as he destroyed his home, and that hate and lust for blood is still within it. Mareidia warned you that it would corrupt you.”

“I thought I’d be strong enough to resist,” I said, wiping away my tears, “But I guess this just proves I wasn’t. Take it, I don’t think I can hold onto it safely any longer.”

“I’ll take this for now,” Mephalda said, pulling Calcion’s Cleaver away from me, “But you know it must be gone forever, and only you can get rid of it.”

“I know,” I said solemnly.

“That was sure brave of you to do,” Steadfast said, “Admitting that to us. I could tell it was hard for you to do.”

“I had to do it sometime,” I said, “Secrets don’t make friends, and I figured this was the best time to do it.”

“Why now?” Mystic asked.

“Time has stopped for all around, and yet they stay alive~” Maremina’s voice echoed around the sanctum.

“Yet you are trapped with me forever, cursed to have survived~” the chant continued.

“Maremina knows how to break a mortal’s will in two~”

“I’ll give you hope and yet, you’ll be clueless on what to do~”

"My depraved mind knows no bounds, of that you shall see~”

“Only when true words are spoken will you finally be set free~”

As the last line finished, the entire Sanctuary shook. The lights glowing on the walls suddenly drained away, the magic fading. The Griffin charging through the door suddenly unfroze, and crashed into Bereloth, sending them both tumbling down a set of stairs.

“The spell,” Steadfast said, “You broke it! All you had to do was tell the truth!”

“It seemed so simple, and so unlike a Draconequus” I said, “I doubted it would work, but I had to try.”

“That’s probably what Maremina was counting on,” Mephalda said.

“What just happened?” Bereloth asked, stumbling into the room, “And what is that?”

I looked down at my chest, where Bereloth was pointing. An orange glow was beginning to spill from my armor. Searching for the source, I fished out the Element of Harmony I’d been wearing. The dull diamond was dull no longer. A bright orange light was glowing from within, and growing brighter by the second. Suddenly it flashed brilliantly, and I lost sight of everything.

~◊~ ~◊ VAHZEN ◊~ ~◊~

Everypony around me seemed frozen in place and tinted by a bright orange light. The walls of the Dawnstar Sanctuary no longer seemed to exist, and neither did the floor. It was orange everywhere, as far as I could see.

‘Honesty’ a voice suddenly spoke from everywhere at once, colored by an accent I couldn’t recognize.

‘Honesty, Integrity, and Trust are all important in a friendship, as well as in everyday life. The bond formed by trust when ponies are honest with each other cannot be broken easily, except by a breach in honesty. Likewise, once a pony’s trust is lost, it is extremely difficult to get it back. However, like all the great virtues, honesty can become corrupted. Witness now, the story of Voldehorse.'

Everything slid away, much as it had when Discord had shown me the far north. Soon I was looking out over a Horizon of a different time, a time when dragons had been plentiful, and worshiped by the earth ponies.

‘Voldehorse learned the virtue of Honesty early in life,’ the voice narrated as I watched the ancient earth ponies go about their lives, ‘His honesty would serve him well in the coming years, as he traveled the land and joined with five other ponies, their group becoming the fastest of friends. The dragons, pleased with the harmony of the Six Companions, bestowed upon them the most powerful artifacts of all time: the Elements of Harmony.’

I watched as the dragons, among them Paarthurnax, presented the six earth ponies with a set of large gems. As the Six Companions took the Elements, they transformed into fantastic masks, which they wore proudly.

‘The Six Companions proclaimed themselves to be Dragon Priests, special emissaries to and from the dragons. The fantastical power they wielded was used to the benefit of all, ushering in a new era of prosperity for Horizon.’

‘But, the power they wielded was so great, the Dragon Priests began to abuse it. Voldehorse, widely known for his honesty, began to deceive the ponies of Horizon. Nopony questioned him, for they didn’t dare think the Bearer of Honesty would lie to them. As Voldehorse’s lies grew more elaborate, his power grew as well.’

I watched as Voldehorse, now appearing much as I had seen him, but alive, commanded the construction of Volsteed. Ponies flocked from all over Horizon to help in the task, not all of them willingly.

‘Consumed by power, Voldehorse founded the Disciples of Impartial Justice, an order devoted to rooting out all dishonesty, except within their own ranks. Even the slightest falsehood would be punished by death, and Voldehorse led vast purges of Horizon, killing more ponies than could be counted. Eventually, the ponies rose up against him and sealed him within Volsteed.’

‘Honesty, like all virtues, must be used wisely, and guarded carefully, lest it become corrupt and causes the very pain and suffering it is meant to prevent,’ the voice concluded.

My history lesson on Voldehorse ended, and the images of the past faded away, replaced by the bright flash of orange as I was returned to reality.

~◊~ ~◊~ ~◊~

I was once again in the Dawnstar Sanctuary, surrounded by my friends.

“What was that flash?” Bereloth asked, rubbing his eyes.

“I just activated this Element of Harmony,” I said, looking down at the gem that was no longer glowing, but still retained its brilliant color, “Honesty.”

“Element of Harmony?” Bereloth asked.

“Long story,” I explained.

“Well,” Steadfast said, “That’s one down, five to go.”

Before I could respond with a retort that we still had to find the other five before they could be activated, my attention was drawn to the noise coming from below. It sounded like a great battle was going on, and I realized it was. All the Maremina cultists, and all the Griffins devoted to wiping them out were awake again. I’d managed to reignite a centuries old battle.

I galloped down toward the main hall as fast as I could, passing over the bodies of dead cultists, and sadly a few Stormclouds as well. By the time I reached the Sanctuary Proper, the battle was nearly over. All the cultists lied dead, and the Griffins were closing in on the remaining Stormclouds.

“Stop!” I shouted, getting the Griffins’ attention.

I galloped down until I was between the Stormclouds and the Griffin’s leader, a one-eyed Griffin in elaborate armor.

“A unicorn?” he asked quizzically, “Where did you, and these other ponies come from?”

“This is going to sound crazy,” I said, “But you were frozen in time.”

The Griffin’s eyes narrowed and he strode closer to me, his sword out in his talons.

“No, it’s the truth,” I said, pulling out the Griffin’s journal I’d found and giving it to him, “Maremina cast a spell on all of you, and you’ve been frozen here for centuries.”

“Until now,” Steadfast added.

“Very well, I believe you,” the Griffin said, tucking the journal away, “Now, why have you come to this temple to Maremina?”

“I’m Bereloth,” the tan-coated earth pony introduced himself, “Ice Wolf in the Stormclouds.”

“Stormclouds?” the Griffin asked.

“Horizon freedom fighters,” he explained.

“Aha,” the Griffin said, “I hope you don’t intend to use this Sanctuary for your own purposes. My brethren and I have our own plans for this place, once the dark magic of Maremina is removed.”

“Of course,” I cut in, “I’m sure Jarl Stormcloud would be happy to surrender this fortress to you.”

“Are you crazy?” Bereloth turned to me, “He’ll never allow this.”

“I have a plan,” I told him, before turning back to the Griffins, “Of course, he will require something in return.”

“You think you have the rights to issue demands?” the Griffin scoffed.

“If you don’t want war, then yes,” I told him, “Jarl Stormcloud has an entire army ready to attack Dawnstar. Once he’s finished there, I’m sure he could spare the troops to take this fortress from you.”

The Griffin sized me up for a minute, apparently trying to see if I was serious. I stared him down until he decided that I was, and gave in.

“Very well,” he said, “What are the terms of this arrangement?”

“You may have complete control of the Dawnstar Sanctuary,” I said, choosing my words carefully, “If you swear never to attack the Stormclouds, or ponies under their protection, and help them to take Dawnstar.”

The Griffin pondered my terms for a moment before reaching out his claw to shake my hoof.

“We will accept your offer,” he said, loud enough for everyone to hear.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

It was poetic justice, really. With Griffins, the Empire had taken Dawnstar from the Stormclouds, and now the Stormclouds were taking it back the same way. The battle didn’t last long. Once the Imperials saw what they were up against, many surrendered to the ancient warriors. Jarl Stormcloud kept to his word, and sent the prisoners back to Windhorn instead of executing them.

He also seemed very impressed by my negotiating skills that had netted us this victory. Jarl Deala the Aged was not as impressed. She wasn’t completely cold to me, now that she was on the throne again, but she didn’t look forward to a fortress of Griffins being perched above her city. Of course, she would follow whatever commands Stormcloud gave, and he’d commanded her to be civil to the new residents of the Dawnstar Sanctuary.

I stood on a bluff to the east of Dawnstar, looking out over the freezing waters of the northern sea. The ice here was breaking apart as a fierce squall moved in from the north, sending the frigid waves crashing against the shore.

Mephalda passed me Calcion’s Cleaver. I’d spent a lot of time with this sword, but now it was time to say goodbye. It was hard, but I knew I had to. If not, more ponies would die by my blade than necessary, some of them quite possibly innocent. My other weapons would do for when killing really was necessary. The Cleaver was the weapon of a butcher, something I was determined to keep from becoming.

I threw the blade as hard as I could, sending it arcing out over the ocean. With a splash, it sank beneath the waves, never to be seen again. It felt as if a great weight had been lifted off my shoulders, and I felt much better than I had for a long time.

We stood there by the coast for a while, watching as the pegasi pulled in a storm to cover Horizon in even more snow. To the east, I thought I saw somepony, but it was so far off I disregarded it. I could ignore it no more, however, when the pitch black earth pony came within view.

“Shadowmere?” I asked, meeting him halfway, “What brings you here?”

“I was looking for you,” he said in his usual lifeless voice, “I believe I may have found some way to find the Elements of Harmony. Their locations are recorded in Talhooves’s Book of Secrets, but I could not get it.”

“Where’s it at?” I asked, surprised that the legendary assassin couldn’t find it.

“The Imperial City,” he replied.

Level Up
Health: 290 Stamina: 270 Magicka: 290
New Perk: Hold it! [Speech] -- In the middle of combat, you will occasionally have a chance to convince your opponent to end the fight immediately.
Element of Honesty activated
New Quest: Return to the Empire -- Travel to the Imperial City and find Talhooves’s Book of Secrets.

Chapter 57: A Perplexing Pony Plague

Chapter LVII: A Perplexing Pony Plague
“There’s ailments all around us in everything we touch and see . . .”

While the news that Shadowmere had found something that could point us in the direction of the other Elements of Harmony was welcome, the fact that we’d have to go to the Imperial City to find it was not. I didn’t think anypony really knew we’d stolen the Equine Scroll, but I figured Star-Swirl probably suspected. Still, it was the only way we were going to find out about the Elements, and it would have to be done sooner or later.

We headed back to Whitetrot to rest up a bit, and left for Seclusion the next day with the Equine Scroll. As luck would have it, a ship was leaving that very day for Leyawhinny. I just hoped it didn’t run into any “complications” this time.

We sailed past the Pegasari Dominion with no problems. Either the Blackwings didn’t know we were on this ship, or they didn’t consider us worth the effort. Either way was fine with me; I got a lot more time in with the first volume of Minotauran Inquiries. We passed through the windigo blizzard, raging as expected, but the attacks and damage weren’t significant enough to impede our progress. Four days after we left Seclusion, the ship reached Leyawhinny late in the morning.

Imperial ships blocked our path as we tried to near the docks. One of the military frigates about our size pulled up alongside our ship. Once the two ships were steady enough, an Imperial officer stepped over onto our ship. I had been up on the deck waiting for us to pull into Leyawhinny, and was in a perfect position to overhear what he had to say to the captain.

“I’m sorry,” the officer, a bright orange unicorn stallion, said, “You won’t be allowed to dock at Leyawhinny today, I’m afraid.”

“Why not?” the ship’s captain, a dark black earth pony mare, asked, “All of my cargo is bound for here and Bridle.”

“There’s an ongoing disaster in the town,” the Imperial replied, “A plague nopony understands has taken most of Leyawhinny. Until it dissipates, the Emperor has declared the town under quarantine. Nopony in, nopony out.”

“That’s terrible and all,” the captain said, “But what am I supposed to do now?”

“I suggest you carry on to Bridle and unload your goods there,” the Imperial said, evidently getting tired of turning away angry ship captains, “Hopefully when you return the crisis will be over.”

“That’s a real comfort,” the captain said, “You do realize what a pain it is to unload all the goods in the bottom of my hold first, don’t you?”

“Of course I do,” he said with a sigh, “I’ve been told that by every ship captain I’ve had to stop. Now please, just leave quietly.”

The ship’s captain grumbled the whole time the officer made his way back to his own ship, but complied with the Legion’s wishes and took us south, toward Bridle. I watched as Leyawhinny began to draw away. Surely there was some way to stop the plague. I was in a hurry to get to the Imperial City, but maybe just one stop wouldn’t hurt.

“Excuse me,” I asked the ship’s captain before we got too far from the city, “Is there any chance you could drop us off before we get to Bridle?”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

It turned out the captain was more than happy to accommodate my request. Down the shore was a small place called Fishermare’s Dock. At a signal from her ship, a small boat came out and picked us up, bringing us in to the shore, no questions asked. The entire process seemed a little suspect, but I didn’t ask the captain how she knew what this place was, and we left without the additional cost she could’ve placed on us for the extra distance we’d traveled.

The trip to Leyawhinny wasn’t long at all. Passing through the forest, we managed to come in sight of it by late afternoon. Of course, the Legion had placed a barricade well back on the path to the city with guards posted to keep curious ponies from getting to close to the quarantined town. Camped nearby, just off the path, was a group of zebras I recognized immediately.

“Sar’kei?” I called, hoping that it really was who I thought it was.

“Sapphire, back in Unicornica again?” he asked as he rose from his campfire, “It’s been a month since we last talked, my friend.”

“I know, it’s been a while,” I said, “But now I’m back.”

“Sar’kei is glad to hear of your return, but if you wish to enter Leyawhinny, you may have bad fortune.”

“I heard,” I said, “I was hoping maybe there was some way I could help.”

“The Imperial soldiers will not let you near,” the zebra said, shaking his head, “This plague will kill all, I fear.”

“Not if I can help it,” I said, “Is there anyone around that might know about it?”

“Only in Leyawhinny itself would there be a witness, and you cannot enter without contracting the sickness.”

“There’s got to be some way,” I said, “Maybe if I can get to the bottom of this fast enough.”

“You cannot go near without getting sick,” Sar’kei said, “But I may have something that will do just the trick.”

He pulled several bottles out of his packs that were lying in the camp nearby. I took one of the large phials as he passed it to me, and my friends did the same.

“What are these?” I asked.

“For a day these will grant you disease immunity,” he explained, “Use them to save this suffering community.”

“Thanks Sar’kei,” I said, “You’re a lifesaver.”

“Do you have a plan?” Mystic asked as I led the way off the path and into the forest.

“Yes,” I said, gradually making my way toward Leyawhinny, “We’re going to get in there, find somepony to ask about this strange sickness, and then cure it.”

“And if we can’t?” she asked.

“These potions only last a day,” I said, drinking mine down, “If we can’t find a cure before they run out, we’ll have to leave. I just hope it doesn’t come to that.”

Sneaking though the forest to get to Leyawhinny was fairly easy. It seemed that the sickness had either killed off or scared away all the local wildlife. I preferred to think it was the latter. No ponies waited outside of Leyawhinny’s gates, though large Imperial barricades with quarantine signs made it clear nopony was meant to enter.

A separate, smaller door led into the guard tower beside the main gate, and it wasn’t barricaded quite as heavily. After shoving the barricades away, we discovered the reason why. The key was lying nearby, but the door could only be unlocked from the inside. Mystic coated the gap between the door and the stone with a blast of superheated magic, and the lock mechanism melted off, allowing us to enter.

The streets of Leyawhinny were completely abandoned, though the sound of racking coughs seemed to be ongoing everywhere. Homes were locked up, keeping the victims of this plague inside. Yet, this obviously hadn’t stopped the sickness from spreading, as every home and storefront was boarded up, plague victims slowly dying inside.

“Hello!” I called, my voice echoing eerily down the empty streets, “Is there anypony around?”

Nopony answered my calls. I began to knock on doors, but I still got no response, even when I could hear and even see that there were ponies inside. I made it all the way to Castle Leyawhinny before I saw another pony outside.

At the gates to the city’s keep, guards lay on the ground, some coughing and clutching at their chests and stomachs in agony, others already dead. They were too weak to stop me as I let myself into the castle. The plague had reached here too, apparently. The great hall was completely empty and nopony sat on the Count’s throne.

We all split up and searched the Castle, but only Steadfast returned with somepony fit to speak with us. The Count staggered along, the old stallion supported by Steadfast a he entered the great hall. My earth pony friend helped him to his throne as we gathered around.

“You ponies shouldn’t be here,” he rasped out between coughs, “Don’t you know the city’s been closed due to the sickness?”

“We know,” I replied.

“Ah, but you were just too stubborn to stay out, huh?” he said, cracking a smile that looked like it caused him physical pain, “Well, if you get sick, it’s your business. I wasn’t able to stop my whole city from coming down with this plague, and I won’t be able to stop it from taking you too.”

“Actually,” Steadfast said, “We’re immune, at least for a day.”

“Well, lucky you,” the aged Count said, “I’m afraid I don’t have that privilege.”

“Is there anything you can tell us, at least?” I asked, “Anything that could help stop this plague?”

“Well, I can’t tell you much how to stop the plague,” he said, “If I knew, I’d have done it myself. But, I can tell you how it started, or at least how I think it started.”

“So, how do you think it started?” I asked.

“Well, if you ask me,” he said, “The plague came because of what happened with those cultists. A while back, the ponies at the Temple decided to go out hunting for Draconequus devotees. Well, they found some all right, worshipers of Ponyrite.”

“Ponyrite?” Mystic asked, “The Draconequus of Pestilence?”

“That’s the one,” the Count said, “They wiped them all out. Shortly after that was when the sickness broke out. We thought it was nothing serious at first, just a common illness. Then, the coughing and the stomach aches came, and then the attack on the mind. It spread so fast that nopony was able to escape it. When the Emperor caught word, he had the whole town quarantined to keep it from spreading to the rest of Unicornica.”

“So, you think all this has to do with the cultists of Ponyrite?” I asked.

“Without a doubt,” he said, breaking into a coughing fit, “Probably some ritual they managed to complete right before their death, or else had set up to go off in case they were taken out.”

“Anything else you can tell us?” Mephalda asked.

“Nothing but that I’m extremely thankful for what you’re doing, or at least trying to do,” the Count said, “Not many ponies would risk their lives to help out so many complete strangers.”

“Yeah, well, we’re different,” I said, “Thanks for the help.”

The Count tried to wave us off as we exited the castle, but soon broke into a coughing fit. The guard just outside the gates that had been dying when we’d entered was dead now, his body lying still in the dust. If this was what all of Leyawhinny would become, we needed to find some way to end this plague fast.

“Any ideas?” Steadfast asked.

“He mentioned the Temple priests were the ones that killed the Ponyrite cultists,” Mystic said, “Maybe they’ll know something.”

“Good idea,” I said, “Because right now I’ve got nothing.”

We headed at once to the Temple, which was across town from the castle, but could easily be seen protruding over the rooftops. On the way, we encountered even more signs of the sickness. Food in vendors’ stands rotted away with nopony to attend to it, and the coughing came from everywhere, never stopping even for a moment.

At last we made it to Leyawhinny’s Temple, an ancient structure of stone and stained glass. Incense greeted our noses as we entered. It seemed that even plagued by this terrible sickness, the priests didn’t stop in their worship to the Equines. Or maybe it was because of the plague that the rituals were ongoing.

Many ponies on the verge of death lay coughing on the temple’s pews. Among them were a few of the priests for this temple. At the head of the room, only one priest was up and about, attending to the shrines and the calls of the ill. We approached the stallion, tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention as he finished his prayer to Julimanos.

“Who are you?” the priest asked with surprise, “I don’t recall seeing any of you around before.”

“Just got here,” I said, “We’re trying to find some way to stop the plague. How come you haven’t come down with it?”

“I saw the sickness for what it was as soon as it appeared, a curse set upon our town by Ponyrite,” he said, “My fellow priests and I led the raid on the Cultists of Ponyrite, and we were the first to contract this strange illness. I went to work at once, trying to create a cure, and I eventually succeeded in curing myself, but by then the rest of the town had fallen to the sickness.”

“So, there is a cure?” Mystic asked.

“Yes, but I was only able to make enough for myself,” the priest replied, “I know there’s more of the herb I need growing outside Castle Leyawhinny, but I can’t leave all these suffering ponies alone while I get it.”

“I could get it for you,” Mephalda offered, “What is it?”

“Thistle branches. There’s a small cluster growing near the north gate.”

Mephalda was off at once, soaring over the town. While she was out gathering the ingredients we’d need to make a cure, we continued our conversation with the priest.

“Do you think you’ll have enough of the cure to end the sickness?” Mystic asked, looking around at all the sickly ponies.

“Not even close,” the priest replied, “But hopefully I’ll be able to make enough to cure one of my brother priests enough that he can stay here and tend to the ill while I search for the true root of this plague.”

“What would that be?” I asked.

“The Shrine of Ponyrite. Once I cast a blessing upon it, the sickness will end. The problem is, I have no idea where the shrine is. There was no sign of one at the cultists’ hideout, so I have to assume there’s one built outside the town somewhere.”

“While you prepare the cure, we could go search their hideout for any clues on where the shrine is,” I offered.

“You’re welcome to if you think it will help,” the priest said, “It was built under Great Oaken Hall, to the south of here, in the wealthier part of town. Like all the rich residences, it will be well marked so you can’t miss it.”

Steadfast, Mystic, and I left the temple just as Mephalda was returning with the thistles. While we looked into the cultists’ hideout, she agreed to stay behind and help the priest to make his cure.

As he’d promised, it wasn’t hard at all to find Great Oaken Hall. An ornate archway proclaimed the mansion on the east end of the square to be our destination. Pushing the door open, we found nopony home. Yet, it didn’t look as if the sickness had struck this place. Most likely it was the priests’ attack that had cleared the building.

We searched the mansion until we found the secret entrance to the cultists’ hideout. It was especially easy to find because nopony had bothered to close it. Through an overlarge fireplace we trotted, and then down a flight of steps stained with cultist blood.

Built beneath Great Oaken Hall was a large cellar, but I suspected most of it had been walled off some time in the past to create the room we were now standing in. The raid from the priests had destroyed nearly everything within. We were surrounded by smashed tables, spilled potions, torn tapestries, and half-completed rituals. If there was anything of worth to find here, it wouldn’t be easy.

“Well, this was a bust,” I said, looking through the broken remains of a pot that had once held some kind of incense.

Mystic ceased sifting through the burnt remains of books, but Steadfast continued to move along the wall, tapping it with his hammer. He suddenly stopped as his taps caused a hollow, echoing sound.

“Maybe not,” he said, and swung his hammer around at the portion of the brick wall he’d been tapping.

The wall came down, revealing a hidden passage.

“Wow,” Mystic said, shining light from her horn down the tunnel, “Looks like the priests missed something.”

Mystic led the way down the tunnel, casting a spell that scanned for signs of danger. A few times she had to warn us to look out for tripwires and pressure plates. This passage must’ve led to something pretty important if it was booby-trapped so thoroughly. Mystic suddenly stopped as we neared the end of the tunnel, a small room in sight.

A terrible smell suddenly came from down the passage, like rotting meat but much, much worse. A hulking creature shaped vaguely like a pony appeared at the end of the tunnel. It seemed to be composed entirely of flesh, but it was in all the wrong places. Bones protruded from its back, and feathers lined one of its forelegs. It lumbered around, searching for us.

“What is that thing?” I asked.

“A flesh atronach,” Mystic replied, “I’ve never seen one before.”

With a grunt, the creature suddenly swiveled its ears (all three) around at us. Fire burned in its mismatched eyes as it caught sight of us next.

“Well, now it’s seen us,” Steadfast said, drawing his warhammer.

There was no room for us to maneuver in this passage, so Mystic put up a ward and pushed on toward the flesh atronach. It lurched toward us, swinging around a leg that seemed to be composed of mudcrab chitins as a club. At the last moment, Mystic caused her ward to flare up, the sudden blast of magical energy sending the atronach flying back into the room it had come from.

We all rushed forward through the tunnel, spreading out once we entered the tiny room at the end. We had little time to look around, however, as the flesh atronach attacked us. I drew Dawnbreaker, slicing it through the abomination’s feathered foreleg as it tried to club me. The end of the leg fell to the ground, twitching, while Steadfast struck the atronach across the back with his warhammer, driving the bones through the body and out the creature’s chest.

Mystic blasted it with fire, causing flaming chunks of it to fall to the ground with sick thuds. The flesh atronach wobbled unsteadily on only three legs, but it lurched toward Mystic and brought its clublike foreleg down at her all the same. With Dawnbreaker, I sliced between protruding bones on the creature’s back and through its torso, chopping it in two.

Both halves continued to move, kicking around at us until Mystic completely roasted them with her magic. Only the pure magic energy seemed to kill the spell causing the flesh to move on its own. I kicked the foreleg I’d chopped off toward her, and she blasted it as well, reducing the flesh atronach to little more than a pile of glowing ash.

Now that we weren’t fighting for our lives, we were able to take a look around the tiny enclosure we were in. The priests had never made it here, and tapestries devoted to Ponyrite still hung from the walls. At the side of the room opposite the entrance was a table upon which sat a censer where incense had once burned, surrounded by candles burned down to stubs. In front of it was a book opened to instructions on how to perform one of the dark rituals to call upon the Draconequus.

Two golden statues of Ponyrite reared up at either end of the table. The aspect of the Draconequus of Pestilence resembled Draconequi, dragons, and ponies. The overall shape of the body was very much draconic, with scales coating the flesh, and a long, lithe tail sprouting from its hindquarters. It was much more serpentine than any dragon I’d seen, however, closer to the shape of a Draconequus. The face, though draconic, had a very ponyish look to it, and the creature’s hindlegs ended in hooves, not claws.

Hanging between the two statues was a golden amulet. I pulled the ends from the statues’ mouths and had a look. The amulet was circular, with a ring of gold around the edge and a disk in the center. Between the gold was a ring of blood-red ruby that shimmered oddly in the dim light. Upon the gold pieces of the amulet was an inscription in Draconequus that I couldn’t read. I tucked the amulet away in my saddlebags, hoping the priest could read the inscription and learn something from it.

“I’m not finding anything,” Mystic said as she paged through the spellbook on the table, “Lots of instructions on rituals, but nothing on how to find Ponyrite’s shrine.”

“I guess they assume anypony reading that book already knows how to find the shrine,” I said, “Well, I guess we’d better get back to the Temple. Hopefully Mephalda’s got the cure brewed up already.”

We headed back through the tunnel to the cellar, keeping a close lookout for booby-traps. Then it was a simple trip back up through Great Oaken Hall and the short trot back to Leyawhinny’s temple. As we entered, we were comforted by the sight of another priest up and about. Though a little weak and wobbly, he seemed to be free of the sickness everypony else in the town suffered from.

“I take it you were able to brew up the cure again,” I said to the priest we’d met on our first visit to the Temple.

“Yes, but sadly only enough for one pony,” he said, “I hope you were more successful.”

“Well, we didn’t find anything that might tell us where the shrine is,” I said, “But I did find this amulet. I was hoping you could read the inscription.”

“This is perfect!” he exclaimed, taking the amulet from me.

“Why, does it say where the shrine is?” I asked hopefully.

“No, even better,” he said, “This amulet is bonded to Ponyrite. With a simple spell, I can make it lead us to the shrine!”

“That’s great,” Steadfast said, “How long will it take?”

“It will only take me a minute to prepare the spell,” the priest said excitedly, “Then we’ll be off to cure this plague!”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

After casting the spell on the amulet in secret, the priest attached it to his horn, wrapping the chain around it. As he lit his horn up, the amulet levitated, pointing in the direction of the shrine. We followed him as he followed the amulet, showing him the way we’d come into the town, which was now our way out.

The amulet led us north, and a bit to the west, and we were forced to detour once or twice when the forest became too thick. Eventually the amulet began to twitch with each new course change, telling us that we were getting close. At last, a break appeared in the trees, and within it a statue identical to the ones I’d seen beneath Great Oaken Hall, except made from stone.

The priest removed the amulet from his horn and threw it to the ground, blasting it with his magic to destroy it. Next, he approached the Shrine of Ponyrite and began to cast spells upon it. As the magic built around it, the statue began to crack under the strain. Eventually it broke in half.

A strange mist suddenly billowed out from the statue. I braced myself against it, but the priest reassured us that all was well. The sickness was being cured, Ponyrite’s dark curse being undone. The evil had been dispelled, and Leyawhinny was once again safe.

Level Up
Health: 300 Stamina: 270 Magicka: 290
New Perk: Lasting Effects [Alchemy] -- The ongoing effects of any potion taken now last twice as long.
New Quest: Secrets of the Emperor – Travel to the Imperial City and find Talhooves’s Book of Secrets.

Chapter 58: Secrets of Talhooves

Chapter LVIII: Secrets of Talhooves
“Reluctantly, the elder sister harnessed the most powerful magic known to ponydom: the Elements of Harmony.”

After the destruction of the Shrine of Ponyrite, we traveled back to Leyawhinny. Just as we’d hoped, everypony was now cured of the mysterious plague. Unfortunately, we were too late to save everypony. A mass funeral was held for those who had died from the disease, among them Leyawhinny’s count. His son, who’d taken his place as the town’s ruler, thanked us for curing the plague, and insisted that we stay in Castle Leyawhinny for the night.

We left the next morning for the Imperial City, following the path to Red Ring Road. It wasn’t far, close to the distance from Stablehall to the Empire’s capital, and the White-Gold Tower came in sight in no time.

As the Red Ring Road came in sight, a roar suddenly came from the trees around us. Trunks tilted as a creature went barreling through the forest to get to us. A manticore of normal colors emerged from the trees, sliding across the path in front of us. Digging into the ground with its claws, it managed to turn itself around to face us.

Snarling, the best charged toward us. Mystic put up a ward immediately, which the beast slammed into. The rest of us drew our weapons of choice to defend ourselves. Mephalda and Steadfast snuck around one side of the manticore while I snuck around the other.

Mystic was forced to drop her ward and retreat as the manticore brought its scorpion tail down at her. I ran toward the beast, cutting a gash in its foreleg with Dawnbreaker. It howled and turned toward me, only to be hit in the cheek with a swipe from Steadfast’s warhammer.

It swung its scorpion tail around at him while keeping its attention on me. Its claws slashed over my head, cutting through the air as I ducked down. I swung Dawnbreaker up over my head, cutting through its paw. I shot fire at its torso, lighting the fur on fire as I ran to escape the claw that swiped down at me.

Ice struck the manticore’s head, coating it in frost. Arrows from Mephalda penetrated the thin layer of ice, sticking in the manticore’s face. With a swing of his warhammer, Steadfast crippled one of the creature’s hindlegs. While it was trying to catch him, I galloped up and swung Dawnbreaker through the manticore’s tail, leaving the stinger end twitching on the ground.

The manticore swung around at me, hitting Steadfast with what was left of its tail. Robbing it of its extremity had made me a prime target for its wrath. It swung its claws at me, and I was hard pressed to avoid them. Eventually one connected with my head, knocking my helmet off. As the manticore roared, I jumped forward, plunging Dawnbreaker up through the roof of its mouth until it protruded from the top of its head.

I pulled the sword out and wiped it clean as the beast collapsed to the ground. We did the decent thing and pulled it off the path, at least, before moving on. The Imperial City loomed large ahead, hiding secrets about the Elements of Harmony we’d come to unearth.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

This time we had no trouble getting into the Arcane University. Finding Star-Swirl, on the other hoof, seemed to be next to impossible. He was the key to my plan. Shadowmere had said that the Secret Book of Talhooves was somewhere in the Imperial City, and if anypony would know where, it would be Star-Swirl. He also was the only pony I’d trust to return the Equine Scroll to without being executed immediately.

I knew exactly where his office was, but none of us knew how to cast the spell that would transport us there. Instead, we headed to the Mystic Archives, passing by the battlemages-in-training. Once within the Mystic Archives we found Ambrose, the only pony we knew here besides the Imperial Battlemage, and asked her to fetch him.

“Do you think it might be here,” I asked, looking around the vast library as we waited for Ambrose to return, “Hidden among these books for centuries?”

“I doubt it,” Steadfast said, “I’m sure that if it was here it wouldn’t be secret anymore. Somepony would have found and divulged Talhooves’s secrets.”

“Still, it’s worth a try,” Mystic said, and began to cast the searching spell she’d used back in the College of Winterhorn’s library.

It took a bit longer, but soon all the books in the Archives were lit up with the same color as Mystic’s magic. A brilliant overglow sprang up around her horn as she struggled to keep her focus on the thousands of books simultaneously.

“Let’s narrow it down with ‘Elements of Harmony’ first,” she said.

All the books suddenly fell back into place on their shelves. A single book flew through the air toward us, still covered in Mystic’s magic. The cover read Ancient Legends of the Earth Ponies, and Mystic flipped it open to the page her search had returned. Only a small blurb was written regarding the Elements of Harmony.

Very little is known about the legendary Elements of Harmony, mainly due to the fact that the earth ponies, even the ancient ones, knew very little about them. It is not the largest among the earth pony legends, but is perhaps the most intriguing. According to the most popular view of the legend, the Elements were an ultra-powerful super-weapon composed of several parts, each representing a virtue the earth ponies admired, such as honesty, loyalty, and generosity. Most likely this legend was created to encourage the virtues the Elements represented, and contains little to no actual historical fact.

Well, I knew that couldn’t be correct. I had proof that the Elements did exist, hanging around my neck. The book appeared to have nothing else regarding the Elements, even though I flipped through the entire volume.

“Did you find what you were searching for?” Star-Swirl’s voice suddenly came from behind me.

“Star-Swirl,” I greeted him, turning around to see him standing just paces away. How he snuck up on us like that I’d never understand.

“Well, you certainly took your time to return,” he said, trotting closer to us, “You’ve been busy, I presume. So, what has brought you back to the Arcane University?”

“Well, this for one,” I said, pulling the Equine Scroll from my saddlebags and passing it to him, “It did work, by the way, to stabilize the time travel. Sorry for stealing it, but I didn’t see another way.”

“Of course,” Star-Swirl said, taking the Equine Scroll from me.

“That’s it?” I said, “You’re not even mad that we stole it?”

“How can I be?” he said, “I practically told you to do so. No, I know that it was of better use to you than it would have been tucked away beneath the Imperial Palace.”

“Oh, all right then,” I said, completely taken off guard by Star-Swirl’s complete lack of care that we’d stolen one of the Empire’s most valuable possessions.

“However, I doubt you came here just to return the Equine Scroll, else you would have returned much sooner,” Star-Swirl said, “What brings you here.”

“This,” I said, pulling the Element of Honesty out from my armor.

“What is that?” he asked, leaning in for a closer look.

“An Element of Harmony,” I explained, “With all six, hopefully we can defeat Alduin.”

“Just one problem,” Steadfast cut in, “We’ve got no idea where the rest are.”

“And you were hoping that the Mystic Archives would hold the answer,” Star-Swirl deduced, “Did they?”

“Not exactly,” I said, passing him Ancient Legends of the Earth Ponies, “This is the only mention the Archives have of them.”

“Hmm, yes, I see, not very helpful,” he said, “Is there anything else possibly related to the Elements we could look for instead?”

“Well, Talhooves’s Book of Secrets,” Mystic said.

“Ah, yes, now that is just a legend,” the Imperial Battlemage said, “Conspiracy theorists have searched unsuccessfully for that book for centuries. I’m afraid it doesn’t exist.”

“We have it on good authority that it does,” I said, “Likewise we know that Talhooves searched for the Elements like us. He had to record it somewhere.”

“Well, I’m not sure where you got your information,” Star-Swirl said, looking perplexed but not asking who our source was, “But I’m afraid that Talhooves’s Book of Secrets doesn’t exist, or else it’s hidden extremely well.

“Then it’s the second one,” Steadfast insisted.

“We could look through some history books regarding Talhooves,” Star-Swirl gave in, “Perhaps we’ll find something that could tip us off, but I wouldn’t get your hopes too high. Nopony’s found anything before, and I don’t expect it to change.”

Star-Swirl looked through the history section, as well as the section dedicated to Emperor Talhooves, pulling down any book he thought would help. Soon we had sizable stacks piling up around us. Minutes turned to hours as we sorted through the vast piles of knowledge.

I learned more than I ever wanted to about Talhooves and the time he rose to power, but nothing about the Elements of Harmony. Well, nothing explicitly mentioning the Elements. Still, I noticed a pattern forming around his conquests. In each of the battles he fought to unify the Northlands, he succeeded against all odds, mysteriously winning in a fight nopony else could. Some might attribute it to skill or luck, but I began to wonder if he had a secret weapon. A weapon we were now searching for.

The feeling grew stronger as we went through even more books. In each and every conquest of a rebellious nation, Talhooves won with only a fraction of the forces of his opponent, unless he wasn’t present. When he was, his enemy was crushed quickly, and there were no remains mentioned. Somehow, Talhooves himself was wielding a higher power to conquer the Northlands.

“Sapphire, I may have found something,” Star-Swirl’s voice came suddenly from right beside me.

I dropped the book I was holding and jumped in surprise.

“You almost gave me a heart attack,” I told him, clutching my chest, “You’ve got to stop sneaking up on ponies like that.”

“And how would you propose I do that?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I said, “Maybe if you wore a . . . bell?”

“A bell?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“Never mind, dumb idea,” I said, “So, what did you find?”

“This is an older book on the Imperial Palace,” he said, passing it over to me, “Read this passage here from one of the ponies responsible for renovating it for the Emperor.”

Emperor Talhooves himself gave me a very special project. Unlike most of the workers, I was granted access to complete maps of the White-Gold Tower, including all the sub-basements that stretch through the sewers. But, the Emperor didn’t have me remodel the rooms for his new empire like the other workers; he wanted me to build something new. “I need some personal space for my own uses,” he told me, “Somewhere only I can reach.” I obliged as best I could, carving out new rooms and passages beneath the tower in secret while keeping clear of the existing tunnels. In the end, I was asked to do the most curious thing. The Emperor required that I seal the rooms off when I was finished, making all my work pointless! When I told him so, he insisted the rooms would still be used, but it was too risky for a simple tunnel to lead into them. Instead he had his Imperial Battlemage create another way for him to enter, some kind of teleporter. I had to remodel some of his bedchambers as well then, also for the Battlemage’s use. I never found out what exactly he used those rooms for, nor have I ever asked. It’s not my business, and furthermore I know what happens to ponies who spread the secrets of Emperor Talhooves.

“This is perfect,” I said when I finished reading, “According to this, Talhooves had private chambers built. If he hid his Book of Secrets, he would’ve hid it there.”

“I admit, things do look promising,” Star-Swirl said, “But we still have no idea how to get to those chambers, nor what awaits us there.”

“It says, though,” I said, “They’re sealed off, but they can be accessed from the Emperor’s private chambers using a teleporter the first Imperial Battlemage fixed up.”

“Exactly,” he replied, “How are we supposed to get there? The Emperor’s bedchambers are private and guarded heavily.”

“Oh no,” he said when he saw the look in my eye, “The Imperial Archive is one thing, but breaking into the Emperor’s quarters…”

“It’s really that important?” he sighed, seeing that I still intended to find that book.

“Star-Swirl,” I said, “This may be the only way to defeat Alduin and stop him from devouring the Northlands.”

“Fine,” he said, “But if you’re going to break into the Emperor’s bedchambers, you’re going to need some help.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Luckily for us, the Emperor wasn’t in the Imperial City that day, so we wouldn’t have to worry about him walking in on us while we searched through his chambers. Getting past the Imperial guards would be difficult enough without that added complication.

Star-Swirl assured us that he could get us at least partway in, but the private wing of the White-Gold Tower was cut off even to the Imperial Battlemage unless the Emperor summoned him. We entered the Imperial Palace with ease, as could anypony. Of course, being in the company of Star-Swirl certainly helped. We got many more compliments and bows than we would’ve had we wandered in alone.

The Imperial Battlemage led the way up to the Emperor’s quarters, having been there himself before. The guards all let him pass until we reached the Royal Chambers. They were clearly marked, and no doubt locked up. As an added precaution, there were guards in Imperial armor posted on either side of the door.

“I’m sorry, but the Emperor isn’t in at the moment,” one of the guards said to Star-Swirl as we approached, “Shall I summon a scribe to take down a message?”

Instead, Star-Swirl blasted the guard in the head with a blast of magic, causing him to fall to the ground, unconscious. The other guard tried to draw a sword on the apparently rebellious Battlemage, but he too was hit by a blast of magic, this time from my horn. It was a good thing there were more than one of us that knew how to paralyze ponies, otherwise things could’ve turned out much differently.

Before we moved on, Star-Swirl cast a spell on the guards, wiping their memories of the last few minutes. For all they knew, we’d never approached them outside the Royal Chambers, they’d just nodded off on duty. After retrieving the key from one of their bodies, we let ourselves in.

Though the royal family was gone for the day, their quarters were far from empty. Both servants and guards roamed around, and more than once we were forced to duck into a room to stay out of sight. Thankfully, only a very few had to be paralyzed and have their memory wiped before we made it to the Emperor’s bedchambers.

Once inside the opulent room, Star-Swirl cast a spell on the door to lock it, so that nopony would interrupt our searching. Now that we were within the Emperor’s bedroom, we realized we really had no idea how to find the teleporter. Mystic and Star-Swirl used seeking spells they knew to examine the walls. Mephalda searched carefully for secret passageways using her Blackwing training. Steadfast and I did our best to look around with no special skills or training.

“I think I’ve found something over here,” Star-Swirl said as his spell probed the wall.

It was in a corner near the exterior wall that he’d found something. With additional probing within the wall, he found the internal locking mechanism, saving us the trouble of finding whatever would open the hidden door. It slid away into the stone, dust raining down. It looked as if nopony had discovered or used the passage since Emperor Talhooves himself, which was quite possibly true.

Within was a small room whose floor was coated in the dust of centuries. Star-Swirl brushed away the dust to reveal a seal similar to the ones in the University carved into the floor. However, he hesitated before stepping inside.

“What’s the problem?” I asked when he made no move to enter.

“Well, it’s a teleporter pad that leads to somewhere we’re not sure of. Also, I don’t think it’s been used in centuries. The chances that something will go wrong are astronomical.”

“We know it leads to secret chambers, and it was used by Emperor Talhooves plenty of times,” I said, “We’ll just have to take the chance.”

“Very well,” Star-Swirl said, stepping onto the pad, “But don’t complain if you get turned inside out.”

“Wait, that can happen?” Steadfast asked as Star-Swirl initiated the teleportation spell.

A moment and a bright flash of light later, we were standing in a very dark passage, the image of the Emperor’s chambers fading from our sight.

“Get down!” Mephalda suddenly yelled, pushing us to the floor with her hooves and wings.

I heard rather than saw sharp blades whisk by over our heads. After a tense moment on the floor, we stood up again and stepped off the receiving pad. As we did so, lights suddenly lit up along the walls, showing us exactly where we were.

The teleporter pad was on a small pedestal that steps led down from. On either side, now tucked into the walls, were sharp blades designed to dismember intruders, which is exactly what would’ve happened to us if Mephalda hadn’t been so alert. They appeared to be dormant now, but I wasn’t taking any chances, and got as far away from them as possible.

A long tunnel stretched into the distance, lit with flickering lights crossed between Minotauran and magical lamps. Side passages could be seen branching off to either side twice down the passage before it reached a heavy wooden door. The blades that had tried to kill us upon our entrance fresh in our minds, we cautiously advanced down the hall.

As we reached the first cross-passage, a rumbling came from the darkness on both sides of us. Out of the shadows stalked clunky automatons shaped roughly like ponies. Their faceplaces slid open and began to glow with magical flames as they approached.

“Iron golems,” Star-Swirl said as he got a good look at the machines, “Get down!”

As we dropped to the ground, magical flame blasted over us, each golem heating up the metal of the other. I rolled forward, getting deeper into these secret passageways before rising to my hooves and drawing Dawnbreaker and the Blade of Hoofingar. I swung my ebony sword at the nearest iron golem, the blade cutting a gash in its armor.

The faceplate slid up as it turned toward me, and twin blades flipped up in front of it. Steadfast had rolled behind it, and he brought his warhammer down on the automaton’s back before it could strike at me. Metal plates popped out of place and the back began to grow red-hot, but the machine still swung its swords at me.

I easily dodged the blades, knocking one aside with Dawnbreaker. The iron golem clumped toward me, its armored tail keeping Steadfast at bay. I blocked a sword strike and tried to push the iron golem back, but it was too strong for me, and I was forced back instead.

Bringing up the Blade of Hoofingar, I stopped both of the automaton’s swords momentarily. While its swords were held at bay, I stabbed Dawnbreaker up into its chest, rending apart its internal mechanisms. Its faceplate opened up to spit magical fire, and I dodged out of the way. As it finished its blast, Mephalda shot an arrow into the still-open head, tearing through the fragile machinery within. The iron golem lurched drunkenly as it tried to roast Mephalda with its fire.

With Dawnbreaker, I sliced through one of its hindlegs, knocking it off balance. With another swipe, I took off the head. When it continued to move, Steadfast smashed in its back, exposing the ruined machinery within. Nearby, Star-Swirl and Mystic were melting down their opponent through sheer magical energy, fusing it to the ground.

My ears swiveled as I heard clanking from behind us, and dragged Steadfast to the ground just in time to avoid being blasted by the magical fire of the new iron golems. Two of them, one from each of the side passages down the tunnel, were advancing toward us. Mephalda shot arrows into them as they came, but most of them bounced off their armored hide.

<<>> I Shouted, closing the distance with the iron golems.

I ended my charge behind them, and brought my twin swords around at their metal necks. My strikes did some damage, but not enough to incapacitate the machines, and one turned toward me, opening its faceplate as the other prepared to blast fire at my friends.

I jumped away from the magical flames, shooting lightning at the golem that wreaked havoc on its internal circuits. It jerked around erratically, but still managed to find me, extending its swords. Star-Swirl and Mystic’s magical attacks overwhelmed its companion, and it turned to watch as the other automaton was reduced to slag.

As it did so, I knocked its swords aside with Dawnbreaker and swung myself onto its back. I hooked my Changeling Axe around its neck, pulling back as hard as I could and crushing the metal plates. While I clung to the golem, Steadfast’s warhammer flew past my head, striking the iron golem in the back of its head. What with my war axe in front and Steadfast’s hammer in back, the head quickly detached from the body, rolling down the passage. Fire spurted from the headless golem’s neck before it fell to the ground and stayed there.

No more adversaries appeared to inhabit this tunnel, so we pushed on and opened the door at the end of the hall. To be safe, we kicked the door open, watching for any hidden blades that would chop us apart if we entered the room. Once Mystic and Star-Swirl’s searching spells assured us it was safe, we passed through the door.

Inside was a moderately large room filled with a wide assortment of things. Ancient relics were piled up against the walls, things Talhooves had collected during his life but mysteriously had never been seen again after his death. I went straight to a bookcase that held many centuries-old volumes.

There were many books there, but only one that I was really interested in at the moment. I searched through the tomes until I found a promising candidate for Talhooves’s Book of Secrets. It was bound in stiff leather with metal rings holding the pages in place. A metal clasp at the other end held the book shut and kept the aged pages from spilling out. Upon the cover was Talhooves’s symbol, a diamond with an alicorn inside.

Hopefully, I cracked open the dusty old volume and paged through it. Everything within was hoof-written and dated at the end of the Second Era and beginning of the Third. Expertly drawn diagrams covered the pages in places, identifying fortresses, relics, and the world before the Alicorn Empire. I stopped and turned back when I saw sketches of a set of amulets, one of them matching the one around my neck.

7th of Rain’s Hoof, Year 4 of the Third Era

I think it’s only fitting that I include mention of my tools of conquest here, as I have assured it shall be recorded nowhere else. Unless somepony discovers this book (which I have gone to great lengths to assure will not happen) the Elements of Harmony shall remain a mystery. None but my closest advisors know of the mystical Elements I wielded, and used to unite the Northlands, and they have been sworn to secrecy on the matter. In the wrong hooves, these Elements could be used for unspeakable things.

When I discovered them, they were but a legend, told to children to make them behave. The Dragon War was far in our past, and nopony could fathom that six Dragon Priests had really wielded mystical weapons representing the great virtues. Of course for the children, it was as real as the aurora in the sky at night, but as I grew older, I too came to think of the Elements of Harmony as little more than a tool to teach honor to the younger generations. That was before I found the first, and witnessed the raw power it held.

After that, I relentlessly scoured Horizon for the remaining Elements, knowing that only complete could they fit into my plan for a unified Northlands. I looked everywhere until I eventually found them in the ancient ruins of Horizon, still on the faces of their masters. When I used them myself, I was surprised to see them transformed! No longer were they ornate masks, but beautiful amulets! (see Fig. 37) With them, I was able to conquer the Northlands quite easily.

Farther down the page was an entry made much later, apparently an addition Talhooves had made in his later life.

20th of Sun’s Height, Year 29 of the Third Era

It’s worth noting that I’ve given up the Elements of Harmony; they are no longer in my possession. I’ve had the oddest urgings lately, so I embarked on a pilgrimage through the Northlands. In doing so, I visited all the old ruins where I found the Elements in the first place, returning them to the Dragon Priests. I intended to have them buried in my secret rooms beneath the palace, along with this book, but it seems they’ve been returned to where they belong. They’ll be far safer than here in Volsteed, Forelhorse, High Falls Ruins . . .

On the next page, where the list of ruins should have continued, was instead a diagram of the Imperial City. I flipped back and forth, searching for the missing page, but it was nowhere to be found.

“Trouble?” Star-Swirl asked me.

“This is Talhooves’s Book of Secrets, it has to be,” I said, passing it to the wizard, “It says where the Elements were found, but the list cuts off in the middle.”

“Yes, I see,” he said, examining the book, “It appears that in the past, somepony may have removed the next page for whatever information it may have contained.”

“But who would do that?” Mystic asked, taking the book from Star-Swirl, “And where would it be?”

“I don’t know, but this book could still be of use,” he addressed me, “Have you already been to any of these ruins?”

“Volsteed,” I said.

“Well, if nothing else, you’ve learned the location of two more of the Elements,” he said, “And maybe there you’ll find out where the other three are.”

“That’s true,” I admitted.

We may not have learned where the other five Elements of Harmony were, but at least we now knew to search Forelhorse and High Falls Ruins, wherever they were. We’d have to ask Faniar when we got back. He might not have known where the Dragon Priests ruled, but he knew where every ruin in Horizon was. All we had to do was name it, and he could point the way.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

It took us a bit, but we managed to convince Star-Swirl we had to leave without looking through the hundreds of mystical relics that crowded Talhooves’s secret chambers. The only thing he left with was Talhooves’s Book of Secrets, which he would safeguard and keep to himself. The last thing the Empire needed was for dark secrets about its original founder to surface.

Once we were back in the Emperor’s quarters it was fairly easy to escape the Palace. The guards we’d knocked unconscious before were still sleeping, and we were able to relock the Royal Chambers and return the key to the guard outside the door before he awoke. From there we returned to the Arch-Mage’s quarters in the Arcane University where we chatted with Star-Swirl. It was too late to head for another town, so the Imperial Battlemage offered to let us stay in his quarters for the night. He assured us that, because the Arch-Mage had often had important visitors, there was plenty of room for guests.

It was good to get some time to relax, simply sitting around and talking. The excitement that our lives seemed to center around would resume soon, but for now there was no use worrying. While my friends were caught up in their own conversations, I reflected on the past few months since I’d fled to Horizon.

I’d certainly never been so busy in all my life, running all over the Northlands to clear dungeons and save towns. I’d really accomplished quite a bit, yet my flank was still bare. With all my accomplishments, had I still not really discovered my destiny? It seemed to be impossible. As Mystic finished trying to convince Star-Swirl that he really would look good with a bit of a beard, I decided to ask him a question that had been sitting in the back of my mind.

“Star-Swirl,” I asked, “You’ve written many spells, right?”

“That is correct,” he answered, “Forty-four new spells and one hundred twenty-nine improvements on existing spells at the moment. And I don’t intend to quit any time soon.”

“So, could you make a spell that does anything?” I asked.

“I don’t know about that,” he said, “I’ve certainly never failed before, though it has taken many tries to perfect my spells. Why this sudden interest in spellcrafting?”

“Well, it’s just that I’ve always been a blank flank,” I admitted, “I’m sure exactly what my destiny is.”

“All right,” he said without pause, “And what this have to do with making new spells?”

“Would it be possible for you to make a spell that would make . . . a pony’s destiny known?”

“Hmm,” he said, rubbing his chin, “Theoretically it would be possible. If I could bring one’s destiny into focus somehow, making everything clear . . . Yes, I suppose I could create such a spell, at least I think I could, but it would be very difficult.”

“Oh,” I said, “Well, if it’s too much trouble-”

“Nonsense,” he cut me off, “Besides, I like a challenge.”

“Well, in that case, thank you in advance,” I said, “For whatever you can do.”

At that moment, an urgent knocking came at the door.

“I’m with guests,” Star-Swirl called, “This had better be important.”

It must have been very important indeed, for the Imperial courier hardly waited for Star-Swirl to finish before opening the door and galloping through.

“General Blazing Honor wants to speak to you immediately in the Equine Council chambers,” the courier announced to the Imperial Battlemage.

“Whatever could he want at this time of day?” Star-Swirl asked, though he grabbed his hat and deposited it on his head.

“It’s an emergency,” the courier tried to stress, “A dragon’s been sighted near Kvatch.”

Level Up
Health: 300 Stamina: 280 Magicka: 290
New Perk: Almost the Same [Block] -- When blocking one weapon with two swords, your block is just as effective as if you were using a shield.
New Quest: Origins -- Travel to Kvatch and stop the dragon there.

Chapter 59: Reunion

Chapter LIX: Reunion
“Changelings overran Kvatch last night! There were glowing portals outside the walls! Gates to the Beyond itself!”

Kvatch.

It had been months since I’d been to the town, ever since I left for Horizon. I had grown up there, but it was no longer my home. Still, hearing that a dragon could quite possibly attack it filled me with dread. I had family there, and though I was effectively dead to them, I still cared for them.

I couldn’t stay away forever. Perhaps now was the time to return to Kvatch. Saving them from a dragon would show my former neighbors that I wasn’t as worthless as they thought I was. The decision was made for me in an instant. I had to get to Kvatch.

We left as soon as Star-Swirl received the news, traveling by moonlight to Bridle, and then on to Saddlegrad. By the time we reached Saddlegrad, the sun was peeking over the Spine Mountains to the west. We continued on without stopping to see how Ember was doing, our sights fixed on the smaller town to the south.

It was nearly midday by the time Kvatch came in sight. Long ago, a Gate to the Beyond had opened up in the city, completely destroying it. Since then, the town had been rebuilt, though not to its original splendor. The town was far smaller than any of the others in Unicornica and had a wooden stockade instead of a stone wall. In fact, there were hardly any stone buildings in the town except for the Count’s keep and the Temple. That wasn’t a good thing when a dragon was attacking.

The flying lizard, a large mottled brown specimen, flew over the town, dousing it with flames. Could Alduin know this was my home, ordering an attack outside of Horizon merely to demoralize me? Of course, maybe the dragons were simply spreading out, preparing to devour the Northlands. For some reason, I found the latter to be more appealing, mostly because it meant Alduin didn’t really know everything about me.

There appeared to be nopony around as we entered except for a few guards, some of which I recognized. Everypony else were most likely hiding in their homes, or had been foolhardy enough to attack the dragon themselves and had been eaten, torched, or dismembered. I tried not to think about the implications too much as I charged up the central street until I had a good view of the dragon.

<<>> I Shouted, striking out at the lizard’s soul and forcing it to land.

It laid down a wall of flame as I tried to approach it, forcing me to jump between buildings to avoid the blast of fire. My friends and I had split up upon entering the town, and Steadfast came charging down another street just as I thought the flames would reach me after all. With his warhammer he crushed one of the dragon’s claws, causing it to roar in pain and cease breathing fire.

With a swipe of its claw, it tried to knock Steadfast away, but he was already gone. Mystic was on its other side, shooting lightning from her horn into its wing. The appendage jerked upward rapidly as the energy coursed through it. As it rose, the dragon tucked its head under it and shot fire at Mystic. Her ward protected her, but she retreated to keep from being overwhelmed.

Galloping down back-alleys I’d memorized in my youth, I found my way around until I was behind the dragon. As the beast lost interest in Mystic, it found a new target. Mephalda flew above it, just out of reach, taunting it as she shot arrows into chinks in its scaly armor. It blasted flames up into the sky, which she expertly dodged, staying one step ahead of the dragon.

As I reached the dragon’s tail, I drew Dawnbreaker and began to run it along the edge of the tail, slicing the spines off. As I reached the point where it met the dragon’s body, I climbed a bit before doubling back and leaping into the air. I went sailing down, positioning Dawnbreaker so that it sliced through the lizard’s appendage. The tail thumped to the ground heavily and hot dragon blood poured from the wound.

The dragon roared with intense pain and sought me out at once. I had no time to retreat as it struck me with a claw, sending me flying through the air. My body finally came to a stop as it crashed into a deformed chunk of obsidian, the remains of the Gate to the Beyond that had opened here centuries earlier. The stone didn’t give way at all, and I could feel my bones snap.

One hindleg was definitely broken, only being held together by my armor, though in the wrong position. Many of my ribs also were cracked, also held in the wrong position by my crumpled armor. Before I could do anything to heal myself, the dragon loomed over me, flames shooting from its nostrils as it prepared to roast me.

<<>> I Shouted, taking on an ethereal form as the dragon blasted me with fire.

In my ghostly state, I was safe from the dragon for the moment, but I wouldn’t be for long. The dragon’s flames suddenly cut off as a chunk of ice from Mystic hit it in the head. An arrow from Mephalda into one of the beast’s eyes hindered it as it searched for Mystic.

I dragged myself behind the Gate to the Beyond, where I’d be relatively safe. Then I went to work, pulling my armor back into shape with magic and resetting my bones before downing healing potion after healing potion. Eventually I was fully healed, though a bit stiff. Apparently the damage I’d taken didn’t want to heal easily.

The ground shuddered as the dragon took off, flapping its wings. Without its tail, it was off balance; it didn’t manage to get very high before slamming into a building. Struggling for purchase with its claws, it climbed higher, until it managed to reach the top of the Gate to the Beyond, where it perched, looking down on us with cruel glee.

I dodged out of the way as it suddenly sent a blast of fire at me. I tried to send ice spikes flying at it, but it caught them quickly and melted them before they could get near. Mephalda continued to shoot arrows at it, but it kept her at bay with its wings. Likewise, it kept Mystic from casting any serious spells by raining fire down at her.

I Shouted, and clouds began to converge overhead.

Lightning soon came striking down on the dragon. It tried to shield itself with its wings, only to have holes burned in them by the lightning blasts. I prepared all the magic I had and shot a particularly strong blast of lightning at one of the claws it was using to hold onto the Gate to the Beyond. Its grip released, and it went tumbling from its perch, crashing into the smithy next to the Gate.

The dragon crawled from the wreckage as the storm dissipated, the clouds returning to their proper corners of the sky. I blasted my paralyze spell into its mouth as it opened it to breathe fire at me. To my dismay, the dragon didn’t go unconscious. It merely opened and closed its jaw, moving its tongue around as if it had lost feeling within its mouth only, which was probably exactly what had happened.

I galloped away as the dragon charged over the ground at me. I dodged around the Gate to the Beyond, but the dragon wasn’t so fortunate. Its vision restricted to only one eye, it slammed into the Gate, causing it to stop completely. Apparently even dragons couldn’t harm the structures of the Draconequus.

Flame blasted over the street as the dragon made its way around the gate, but it wasn’t as streamlined as usual, probably due to the numbing effect my spell had had on the great lizard’s mouth. I dodged behind another wooden building as the fire splashed across the ground.

<<>> I Shouted as I came around the corner of the building, coating the dragon’s face in ice.

I climbed up the dragon’s frozen head, its eye tracking me all the way as I made my way to its neck. I prepared to stab Dawnbreaker into its skull, but the dragon broke free of the ice, sending me rolling down the dragon’s back, the spines denting in my armor. At last I fell of the back, and went rolling down what was left of the dragon’s wing.

I pulled out my Changeling war axe and stabbed into the wing as it held, grabbing it in my teeth to halt my fall. I dangled through a hole burned in the wing, holding on only with my axe. The dragon suddenly jerked its wing up and I went flying through the air, soaring over Kvatch. As the dragon tried to flame me in the air, Steadfast struck it in the head with his warhammer, getting its attention. Mephalda caught me in the air before I came crashing down and deposited me down the path before swooping back toward the dragon, her Blackwing swords drawn.

I galloped back up the path toward the dragon, summoning a flame atronach to gallop beside me. My fiery familiar soon ran ahead, reaching the dragon before me and scorching its claws. I followed up with a strike from Dawnbreaker, slicing through the charred flesh. Another atronach, this one made of ice, joined mine, conjured up by Mystic.

The two elemental beings worked together to torment the dragon, first burning, then freezing it. The sides of the dragon were soon torn apart by the raw energy, raw flesh showing where the scales had fallen away, and the atronachs made their way around toward the dragon’s head. Swiftly, it grabbed each in a claw, ignoring the pain, and slammed them together, producing a cloud of steam.

The dragon suddenly turned on us, breathing fire at Mystic and batting at me with a wing. I ducked down, and the tattered canvas flew over my head. I shot lightning into the dragon’s side, not noticing as the wing came back. I was taken off guard and picked off the ground by the wing, sent flying into the front of a house.

As I got back to my hooves, I saw a few ponies I recognized standing just outside the house, watching the battle with the dragon. They looked at me, trying to determine who I was through the armor. When realization dawned, their eyes flew open in surprise. Ignoring them, I charged back into the fray.

During my charge, I saw that other ponies had left their dwellings and were watching the battle, still ready at a moment’s notice to duck back inside. I cleared their faces from my mind as I neared the dragon, needing to focus on the task of slaying this monster. Its wing once more swung around toward me, but I ducked down and slid beneath it, coming up to the dragon’s side.

I stabbed Dawnbreaker into the exposed flesh of its chest, hoping to strike its heart. Hot, acidic dragon blood poured from the wound, but the dragon continued to thrash about, so I had to assume the heart hadn’t been hit. I was forced to pull my sword out of the dragon as it reached for me with a claw. Instinctively, I swung my sword around, slicing through the dragon’s bone and flesh and separating its forearm from its body.

My amputation of the dragon threw it off balance, and I had to run fast to keep from being crushed beneath the massive lizard’s bulk. It fell to the ground, and Steadfast was able to get a free hit off on its head, cracking its jaw before it was able to recover. With a wing, it propped itself up, returning to a somewhat normal posture.

Steadfast ran away as fast as he could as the dragon breathed fire at him. Still, some of the flames managed to catch him, lighting his coat on fire. He screamed in agony as his flesh began to burn, and rolled across the ground to extinguish the flame. Mystic ran to his aid, putting up a ward between him and the dragon as it tried to finish him off.

Steadfast would be in capable hooves with Mystic healing him; I needed to focus on the dragon. I galloped in toward the dragon, dodging the blasts of flame it sent at me, until I was right before its jaw.

<<>> I Shouted as it prepared to breathe fire at me.

Its head suddenly jerked away due to the force of my Shout. For a moment its neck was exposed, and I took advantage of it to get in a swing with Dawnbreaker. I didn’t manage to kill it, but judging by the fire that spilled out at me, I had ruptured its throat.

I ran beneath the dragon, hoping it wouldn’t decide to crush me, and focused all my magic on swinging my Draconequus sword around. With a mighty swing, I cut through the dragon’s other forearm, slicing it off at the elbow. As before, the dragon leaned very suddenly, and I struggled to get out from under it.

This time, however, I failed and was trapped beneath the bulk of the dragon. My hindquarters and hindlegs cried out in pain as the whole mass of the giant lizard bore down on them. I tried to pull myself out, but was unsuccessful.

The dragon struggled to heave itself up, but stopped when it realized I was trapped beneath it. Craning its neck around, it prepared to roast me alive. Mephalda suddenly came from out of nowhere, landing on the dragon’s head and spearing its good eye with a sword. As it roared in pain, shooting fire everywhere in an attempt to hit Mephalda, she swooped down toward me.

“Come on!” she said, grabbing my hooves and straining with her wings.

Eventually I began to slide out from under the dragon, though flames flew around us as the dragon aimed without sight. With a pop, I suddenly came free. Mephalda fell to the ground, the feathers at the ends of her wings charred. I grabbed ahold of her hooves and dragged her away from the dragon.

She drew her bow, standing unsteadily on her hindlegs, and began to fire shots at the dragon, keeping moving so it couldn’t find her. After making certain my hindlegs would hold me without immediate medical attention, I charged back in toward the dragon.

It blew fire in my general direction as it heard me coming, but even crippled like I was, I was able to dodge it. I drew out Dawnbreaker and the Blade of Hoofingar as I neared the dragon’s head and prepared my thoughts for a Shout.

My swords suddenly flew through the air, slicing at the dragon’s face. Chunks of its jaw and skull were broken off as my weapons hacked faster than anypony could swing. When I reached the neck, my blades sliced it in so many places it was a wonder the head stayed attached. As my blades began to return to normal speed, the dragon collapsed to the ground, dead.

I fought to calm my breathing before cleaning my blades and downing a healing potion to repair the damage done to my hindlegs. The dragon combusted, and I experienced its memories in fast forward as I trotted over to Mephalda. Straining, I managed to restore the feathers on her wings using Healing Hooves. Mystic joined us a moment later, along with Steadfast, who was looking much better now that his burns had been tended to.

“You gave me a scare there,” I told him, “I thought we’d lost you.”

“It’ll take more than that to kill me,” he said, “Especially with you guys around.”

The tension from the fight began to defuse now that it was over. We’d stopped the dragon, and Kvatch was safe. Speaking of Kvatch, now that the dragon was dead, the citizens of my hometown began to leave their homes to examine the massive skeleton and the quartet of ponies who’d killed the beast.

They began to crowd around, some thanking us for what we’d done, still others marveling that the dragon was really dead. I heard my name whispered back in forth in the crowd. It seemed I’d really made an impression on my former neighbors. If there was a better way to do a homecoming, I couldn’t imagine it.

Eventually somepony had the idea to fetch the Count from his keep. After all, thanks from the pony who ran this town would mean more in their minds than any thanks they could give. I watched as Count Rusted Iron made his way from his keep to the central square, where the Gate to the Beyond, and now a dragon skeleton, resided. The red-brown stallion trotted right up to us, his guards making a path through the crowd.

“I am Count Rusted Iron, leader of this fine town,” he announced in his typical bombastic style, “And I would like to thank you behalf of Kvatch for vanquishing this beast of legend. I would be pleased to extend the honor of being Knights of Kvatch to you four heroes.”

He stopped his speech as I removed my helmet, and the chatter in the crowd picked up, my name more prominent than before.

“Say, don’t I know you?” the Count asked, stroking his beard.

“That’s Sapphire!” one of the ponies in the crowd shouted out, “Milling Stone and Pearl’s daughter!”

“By Zenitrot, it is!” the Count said with surprise, “But, I thought you died months ago. I signed the death notice and everything.”

“Everypony thought I was dead?” I asked.

“Well, nopony found your body,” the Count’s steward cut in, “But you disappeared that night with the horrible storm, so we didn’t have time to search right away and figured a wild animal had gotten you.”

“Didn’t have time to search?” I asked with my eyes narrowed.

I strongly suspected the steward was stretching the truth. Most likely nopony had ever looked for me. After all, why waste guards searching for an unproductive blank flank?

“Yes,” he said, “That storm was a real doozy. I sure hope the Equine Council gave the Dominion grief for that mishap.”

I let it go. There was no point arguing about something like this, especially when everypony seemed willing to welcome me back now that I’d saved the town. Well, almost everypony.

“Say, I don’t see your parents around,” Count Rusted Iron pointed out, looking out over the crowd, “I’m sure they’ll want to hear about this. What say we pay them a surprise visit?”

“Sounds fine by me,” I said.

Oh, I’m sure it would be a surprise all right. Their blank flank daughter now a hero, that would be quite a surprise indeed.

My family lived above the bakery my father owned, the Glazed Rapier, which was across town. On the way there, Count Rusted Iron spoke at length about the honors that would come with knighthood, as well as the plans he was making for a banquet in our honor tonight. All the while his steward was writing down everything he said, trying to keep up as he changed his plans by the second.

At last we made it to the Glazed Rapier, where the Count had a guard knock on the door. My mother, a pearly white unicorn with a turquoise mane, answered the door, checking to make sure things were safe and the dragon was gone. The sight that met her shocked her for a moment, for much of the town had followed us here, led by the Count and his retinue. Then her eyes locked on me.

“Sapphire?” she asked breathlessly.

“Hi, Mom,” I said, giving a weak smile.

The whole way here I’d been thinking about how mad I was at my parents for treating me like nothing for being a blank flank. But, now that I was actually here, all those feelings were gone. I was so overjoyed to be reunited with them, and I hadn’t realized how much I had missed them.

I found myself pulled into a hug with my mother as she wept tears of joy. Had they really missed me that much? Perhaps I’d been selling them short, thinking they wouldn’t care if I disappeared. Everything was so confusing at the moment.

“I – we thought you were dead,” my mother said.

“Far from,” the Count butted in, “Why, she just defeated the dragon that was attacking the town.”

“Is that true?” my mom asked, and I nodded that it was.

“Oh, come inside,” she ordered me, leading the way.

“We’ll give you some time alone,” the Count said as he turned to leave, “But don’t forget the banquet tonight. Bring your friends.”

“Stone,” my mother called to my father as I entered the home I’d grown up in, “Get in here, come see who it is.”

“Okay, but this better not take too long,” his voice came from the next room, “I’ve got bread baking and it’s nearly done.”

The slate gray unicorn trotted into the front of the shop, looking over his shoulder at his bread. His black mane was beginning to thin, but he had it combed to hide the worst of it. Had he always looked so old and tired? When he turned around to see who was visiting, he suddenly stopped.

“Sapphire?” he asked, “Is that really you?”

“It’s really me,” I said.

“Where have you been?” he asked, coming around the shop’s counter to where my mother and I were standing.

“Horizon mostly, though I’ve made a few trips back to Unicornica,” I answered.

“What . . . what have you been doing?” he asked next.

“Besides saving Kvatch from that dragon,” my mother pointed out.

“She did that?” my father asked, and my mother nodded affirmation, “It seems you’ve got a lot to explain.”

So I did, telling them as best I could everything that had befallen me since I left for Horizon. Though it had been nearly three months, it seemed like so much had happened, I had trouble believing it myself. It was great though, to be able to speak to my parents for the first time in years and not be ashamed of my accomplishments.

“I don’t believe it,” my father said when I finished my tale, “I never dreamed you’d become what you are today.”

“I have trouble believing it sometimes too,” I told him.

“So, what’s your cutie-mark then?” he asked expectantly.

My heart sank. All I’d accomplished, and it still came down to a stupid butt symbol.

“You still don’t have one yet, do you?” he asked, his admiration of me dwindling.

“Does it matter?” I said.

“Of course it matters,” he replied, “A cutie-mark is the symbol that defines a pony’s destiny. Without one, well, you’re aimless.”

“Do you call everything I’ve done aimless?” I asked, my temper rising, “I’ve done a lot of good things.”

“And in all those things, you never found out what your talent is?” he replied, his temper also rising, “How could you have done so much and still not know your destiny?”

“It doesn’t matter what my destiny is!” I shouted, “Look what I’ve been able to do without a cutie-mark!”

“That’s no substitute!” he shouted back, “Without a cutie-mark, you’re still nothing!”

“Oh, I’m really nothing, aren’t I? I’ve prevented wars, spoke to Draconequi, saved towns, and saved countless lives! You’re so proud of your cutie-mark! What have you accomplished? You bake bread and that’s all!”

“At least I know my place in this world! It seems you have yet to find yours!”

Angrily, he stomped back into the back room where his bread was burning. I stormed out of the Glazed Rapier, too angry for words. I vaguely remember my mother calling me to come back, but my rage at the moment blinded me to everything. It wouldn’t have been a good idea to talk to her in the state I was in, anyway.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I rejoined Steadfast, Mephalda, and Mystic at Castle Kvatch. The Count had offered to let us stay there that night after the banquet, and possibly knighting ceremony. I could tell all my friends wanted to ask me what had happened with my parents to throw me into such a fit, but they held their tongues for the moment, seeing I needed some time to cool down.

I explained everything to them later, when they asked. It seemed nothing I ever did was good enough for my father. I’d done so much, and yet because I had no cutie-mark, in his eyes I’d accomplished nothing. Was he right? Was I wandering without purpose? I had a purpose: to defeat Alduin and save the Northlands. But what would I do after that?

For the banquet, I pushed all those doubts aside. It was a night for us to enjoy ourselves, and enjoy the thanks of the ponies of Kvatch. I caught up with many ponies, trying to replace bad memories with good ones as I they couldn’t wait to praise and compliment us. Strange, the whole town overlooked my blank flank because of my accomplishments, but without my own father’s approval, it meant nothing.

My mother was at the party, but there was no sign of my dad. After my mom managed to get past all the ponies congratulating her, she made her way over to where I was sitting.

“Sorry about that mess earlier,” she told me.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have shown up,” I said sulkily, “I wouldn’t have if I knew dad would act like that.”

“Your father is a very headstrong stallion,” my mother told me, “He didn’t mean any of the hurtful things he said.”

“I thought that maybe if I actually accomplished something great, he could finally be proud of me. I’d no longer be the blank flank that shamed the family,” I said, “But nothing’s changed. To him, I’m still worthless.”

“Oh, you’re not worthless to him,” my mother assured me.

“He said it himself,” I said, “Without a cutie-mark, I’m nothing to him.”

“He didn’t mean it. Your father’s old and set in his ways. It takes time for his mind to get away from that. But he’s proud of you, I know he is.”

“How do you know that,” I asked, “When everything he ever says to me implies he’s disappointed in me?”

“I can tell,” my mom replied, “He was proud today, when he heard of all you’d done, and that pride didn’t go away when you left. He loves you Sapphire, and so do I, no matter what. Don’t you ever forget that.”

“Thanks,” I told her, “I just wish he’d tell me that himself. I don’t think I can come home until then.”

I talked a bit more with my mother before she left the banquet. I was left with many of the ponies I’d grown up knowing, now trying to get in my good graces that I was due to be knighted. I let them know that I’d forgotten, or at least was trying to forget, the last few years in Kvatch, when I’d been an outcast. Any insult was forgiven. The party was much less somber after that.

The banquet was beginning to wind down, and I was thinking about hitting the hay. Most of the party guests, including the Count, had gone to bed, and I was thinking my time had come as well. As I prepared to get up, a slate gray unicorn suddenly appeared in the gateway. He looked around a bit before he found me and trotted over. My father sat down on the bench next to me.

“So,” he said after a bit, “I guess I really messed up today, huh?”

“It wasn’t all your fault,” I admitted now that I had had some time to think about it, “We both said some things we didn’t mean.”

“Too true,” he said, “I was thinking, about what you said. Perhaps, it’s not – not the cutie-mark that determines the pony, but the pony that determines the cutie-mark.”

“Huh?” I said, admitting I was lost.

“Well, who says you have to have a cutie-mark to fulfill your destiny?” he explained, “Perhaps only by pursuing and fulfilling that destiny can one obtain their cutie-mark.”

“And what if I never get my cutie-mark?” I asked.

“Maybe you will, maybe you won’t,” he replied, “Can’t be sure. It doesn’t mean you can’t fulfill your destiny without one.”

“I really am proud of what you’ve done,” he said after a long stretch of uncomfortable silence, “It’s just hard for me to say it.”

“Well, it seems every time we talk we get into a fight,” I told him.

“Unfortunately you inherited my temper and my stubbornness,” he laughed, “That’s never a good combination.”

“I understand you’ve got your own place in Horizon now,” he added after a minute, “But I thought maybe you’d like to stay at the old place one more time?”

“I’d like that,” I said honestly.

Together we got up and left Castle Kvatch for the rooms over the Gilded Rapier. It may have been less fancy, and less roomy, but the important thing was that I’d be together . . . with my family once again.

Level Up
Health: 300 Stamina: 290 Magicka: 290
New Perk: Keep the Change [Speech] -- You may now invest in stores to receive everything from additional discounts to periodic returns on your investments.
Dragon Soul collected
New Quest: The Power of Priests -- Enter a Dragon Priest lair and recover another Element of Harmony.

Chapter 60: Forelhorse

Chapter LX: Forelhorse
“These Dragon Priests are long since dead . . . but something has awakened them from their ancient slumber.”

Talhooves’s Book of Secrets had given us two new locations to search for Dragon Priests: Forelhorse and High Falls Ruins. Forelhorse would be our first destination. And, as luck would have it, it was very close to us.

After spending the night in Kvatch, we set out the next morning for Horizon, taking the Pale Pass. Thankfully there were no guards looking after the path on a day as crisp as this, so we had no problems returning to the land of the earth ponies. Once in Horizon, we stopped in Splitten where the townsponies pointed out that Forelhorse was only a short trot south of the town. We wouldn’t have to return to Faniar in Whitetrot right away after all.

Following the directions of Splitten’s residents, we easily found the ancient ruin. It was built into Horizon’s southern mountains, an extensive stone staircase covered with archways leading up the slopes to an ornate gateway. Like at Volsteed, eerie carvings of heads looked down from the insides of the arch. Once again, I felt magic pressing down on me, though it was different than it had been at the ruin in Hoofingar. I felt my will being stripped away, sworn to obedience of an unnamed entity I suspected was the Dragon Priest of this ruin.

I shook the feeling off as we advanced up the stairs and neared the gates. Even without knowing from Talhooves’s Book of Secrets, I could tell this was a Dragon Priest lair. No other place I’d visited had pressed down on me so hard with this strange magic. Everything fit, but even though we were certain there was a Dragon Priest here, we still had to accomplish the difficult task of reaching and defeating it.

I staggered into the gateway, feeling the effects of the ancient spell most heavily just before reaching the massive stone doors. Steadfast helped Mystic up into the gateway too. As a fellow unicorn, she too was feeling the spell more heavily than our earth pony and pegasus companions.

“I didn’t know it would be that bad,” she huffed as she sat down next to me.

She lit up her horn with magic, causing the glow to expand a bit before constricting and sealing itself around her horn.

“Much better,” she said, breathing a sigh of relief, “Now it’s your turn.”

“What are you doing?” I asked as she cast a similar spell on my horn, coating it in her magic.

Suddenly the pressure from the statues faded away. My head was clear again, and I was no longer overcome by the ancient magic.

“It’s a spell to resist the effects of magic,” Mystic explained, “I can’t imagine what it must’ve been like for you to go through Volsteed taking the effects of the spell the whole time.”

I tried not to think of it. I was sincerely thankful that Mystic was with us, otherwise I probably would have gone mad from the effects of the spells laying over the Dragon Priest lairs by the time we finished.

With all four of us working together, we were able to push open one of the giant stone entry doors. Inside was a massive hall with a set of pillars leading down the center. Statues of an earth pony mare in Dragon Priest robes lined the walls. In one hoof she clutched a long, curved sword, and in the other she held an ornate mask, her Element of Harmony.

At the end of the hall a few Draugr stood at attention, ready to defend the halls beyond. An arrow from Mephalda shot through the air, shooting completely through one’s head. As it fell to the ground, its fellow turned to see what the matter was. It was the last mistake it would ever make, for a blast of fire from my horn charred it to ashes seconds later.

There were two doorways leading out of the entry hall, and the Draugr we killed had both been guarding the same one. Two more waited just a short distance away from us, and they had seen us coming. Steadfast diverted to attack one, his warhammer blocked by its greatsword.

I headed for the other, Dawnbreaker drawn and practically singing with glee as it got the chance to attack undead. My sword met its own blade, energies beyond my comprehension skittering between the blades. I pulled back and swung for the Draugr’s forelegs, but it blocked that strike as well. I forced its sword around until it was forced to release it, and stabbed Dawnbreaker up through its chest, impaling the corpse.

No more Draugr guards remained in the entry hall, so we passed through one of the doorways, delving deeper into the ruin. Much like Volsteed, this was a fortress first and a tomb second. No Draugr rested in the walls as we passed through the hallways. We mostly kept to the main path, a hall whose walls were lined with murals depicting what were no doubt Forelhorse’s Dragon Priest and her accomplishments.

The hallway let out onto the top level of a large open room. A square opened up in the floor at the center bordered by stone banisters, allowing a fine look down. Below us were several other balconies, with a dining hall at the very bottom. Draugr in stately robes sat at the tables, though the throne at the head of the room was empty. Like in Volsteed, they seemed to have no idea of their deceased nature, and undead servants continued to bring them food.

At the far end of the room was a set of stairs leading downward. Unfortunately, a Draugr with a staff was guarding them. Around it was a ward projected from the staff, keeping us from taking it out at a distance. We tried to stay out of its sight, Mephalda and Mystic advancing one way, Steadfast and I another.

The Draugr caught sight of Mephalda and Mystic first, making for the stairs to warn the guards below. Steadfast suddenly galloped forward, closing the distance with the Draugr. His warhammer slammed into the shield, the Changeling weapon tearing apart the magical force field in an instant. His hammer continued on, striking the Draugr in the neck and crushing the life from it.

We headed down the stairs as fast as possible, not sure if guards below us had heard the ruckus. It turned out they hadn’t, but they sure heard us barreling down the stairs to get to them. I nearly lost a piece of my other ear as an arrow came whizzing up at us, striking the wall behind me.

I pulled back around the corner of the last flight of stairs while Mephalda flapped out and sent arrows flying into the crowd of armored Draugr. Mystic turned the corner a moment later, sending lightning into the horde while protecting herself with a ward. I stuck my head around the corner and shot a few ice spikes at the zombies as well.

Once things were thinned out enough, I jumped around the corner and slid down the banister. I jumped through the air as I reached the end, rolling as I landed behind the guards. I swung around with Dawnbreaker before they could set upon me, succeeding in killing one as my random swing cut through its chest armor.

<<>> I Shouted as I turned around toward the Draugr, freezing three of them in place with my breath.

With Dawnbreaker, I cut through the frozen guards, causing them to shatter into pieces that would never live again. My sword met a Draugr’s war axe as I tried to attack another of the undead warriors. I tried to twist it from its mouth, but it overpowered me, forcing Dawnbreaker down toward the ground. I fought back, until the Draugr’s blade suddenly shattered and my sword cut across its cheek. A moment later, the blade cut through its neck, killing it for good.

I shot a blast of lightning into a Draugr that ran toward me while swinging my sword around to meet the blade of one that was charging in from the side. I pushed back on the Draugr until its hindquarters touched the wall, but it still refused to surrender. It swung its sword around, knocking mine away, before swinging toward my head. The sword never reached me, for the Draugr stopped its swing and collapsed when Mephalda shot an arrow through its eye.

Now that the Draugr were dead, I was able to get a better look at them. These zombies at least were simply run-of-the-mill Draugr, not specially trained troops like Voldehorse had had. Did this Dragon Priest not have such Draugr, or was she simply holding them in reserve?

As we entered the banquet hall the servants noticed us first, dropping their serving trays and fleeing for the kitchens. The undead nobleponies called what I could only assume were Draconic obscenities at the servants before they realized why they were fleeing. They quickly jumped up from their tables and retreated to the area around the throne as we approached.

A few of the Draugr, wearing more stately robes and tarnished crowns, were pushed out in front. They looked nervous before they swallowed their fear and drew their swords. Beneath their robes I could see they were wearing armor untouched by age, no doubt enchanted with some dark magic.

“Fah Naghot!” the Draugr in the front said, and its two fellows echoed its call after a moment’s hesitation.

The three Draugr lords converged on us, and I swung Dawnbreaker around at the first to approach me. Our blades met, my Draconequus sword beginning to glow as it came close to the zombie. As an arrow struck it in its eye, the Draugr staggered back, though I wasn’t able to get a strike in with my sword before it brought its own blade back up.

It swung around toward my neck, and I managed to block before the Draugr could strike me. It aimed for the other side of me next, but I blocked its blade again. Reaching out its rotten foreleg, it tripped me, causing me to fall to the ground. It swung down at me, and I brought Dawnbreaker up to block, yet I wouldn’t be able to hold the Draugr off forever.

<<>> I Shouted, and the Draugr was thrown away from me, into the crowd of nobleponies.

Mystic finished up the Draugr that had attacked her, and was moving to help Steadfast when I charged toward my Draugr. It blocked as I swung at it, our two swords clashing. I forced its sword down until our blades slipped apart and Dawnbreaker sliced completely through its armor, cutting into its shoulder.

It brought its sword swiftly up at me, burying it in my chestplate. Luckily the Griffin armor, damaged as it was, held out. There was a bit of pressure put on my chest, but no harm done by the Draugr’s blade. With my armored forehoof, I knocked its blade out of my armor and its mouth, causing it to fall to the stone floor.

The Draugr, now unarmed, tried to tackle me. Dawnbreaker cut easily through the shining armor, completely ignoring it. My blade speared the Draugr all the way through, the tip protruding from its back. It coughed up ichor before slumping over on my blade, the light dying in its eyes.

The rest of the Draugr we let be. They seemed to mean us no harm, so long as we kept our distance. Of course, we had to walk past them to get to the doorway behind the throne, but they made no moves to attack us, keeping their distance so long as we kept our weapons out and ready.

Behind the banquet hall was a set of rooms spiraling downward. Eventually they met up with another, larger passage at a room with an ornate stone staircase. Apparently there was another way down here than the one we had taken. The hall led down a ways before it came to a large set of stone doors coated in gold that had long since begun to peel off. What interested me the most was what would lie behind those doors.

Together we worked to push one open enough to trot through. Once through I could see exactly what I had expected. The door opened onto a massive cavern filled with Draugr buildings, many of them stretching up to brush the ceiling itself. From the ceiling hung a giant chandelier glowing with purple fire. I could make out the tiny figures of Draugr scampering around on it tending to the flames.

The city below was alive as well, filled with undead townsponies going about their business. The city of Forelhorse was a bit larger than Volsteed, and was unlike anything I’d seen before. While Volsteed had resembled its neighbor Seclusion, Forelhorse didn’t look anything like Splitten. The buildings were all crowded together and seemed to be influenced by Minotauran architecture. Or maybe it was the other way around.

Across the town, built into the far wall of the cavern, was a massive temple. That was where we were headed, for that was where Forelhorse’s Dragon Priest was sure to dwell. We scampered down the huge set of stone stairs that led into the town until we were among the buildings.

I wanted to avoid the guards if possible, so we kept to the back alleys, Mephalda flying above the buildings where she could to watch for trouble. We were doing pretty well until we were forced to cross one of the main streets that cut through the town. There were far too many Draugr around to keep from being seen, but we had to cross.

We trotted across the street as quickly as we dared without arousing suspicion. Our plan worked; not one of the Draugr trotting around seemed to even notice we were there. I assumed we were home free when we entered the alleyway again, but I was wrong.

We let our guard down for just a moment and ran smack into the cart a Draugr was pulling down an alley that crossed the one we were following. It began to shout at us in Draconic before realizing that we weren’t dead like it was. Quickly detaching from its cart, it took off at a gallop down the alley, yelling for help.

We jumped the cart and ran as fast as we could down the alley, hoping to dodge any guards that came to the Draugr’s cries. Shouting began to come from all sides as Draugr townsponies, and then guards began to sight us charged between the weathered stone buildings.

We slid past the last building onto a street that ran along the steps to the temple, only to find an army of Draugr guards blocking our path. These Draugr were highly trained soldiers like we’d seen in Volsteed, standing in perfect formation, shields strapped to the forelegs of the front line. Their armor was perfectly preserved, reflecting the light of the chandelier above, and engraved with the symbol of their Dragon Priest.

A Draugr with even better armor, probably a commander, near the back began to shout out orders. The front line raised their shields while Draugr a few lines back drew staffs from their backs. We all drew our own weapons, preparing for the Draugr attack. With another shout from the Draugr captain, the zombies in front began to advance, while those with staffs shot bolts of fire, lightning, and ice at us.

Mystic raised a ward over us before the magical blasts were able to hit us, and they glanced harmlessly off the surface. Mephalda began to fire arrows through our shield at the Draugr wizards as they pounded us. I could see archers in the back of the Draugr army, but they appeared to be doing nothing for the moment, waiting until our ward collapsed to release their deadly darts.

I had no more chances to see what the others were doing as the first line of Draugr reached us. With Dawnbreaker I sliced at one of the zombies, and brought the Blade of Hoofingar down toward the other. The both blocked with their shields, and I pulled my swords away to attack again. Once more they blocked, so I focused both my weapons on one with the next strike. It was able to block my ebony sword as it came down toward the top of its head, but wasn’t able to spin its shield around in time to stop Dawnbreaker from slicing into its neck.

I was suddenly hit from the side by the Draugr I’d ignored, its shield pushing me back. I swung my swords at it, one striking its shield, and the other striking the sword it had just drawn. Dawnbreaker began to glow brightly as I slammed it down again and again on the Draugr’s shield while holding off its sword with the Blade of Hoofingar. Eventually, I stabbed directly into the shield with Dawnbreaker, and the Draconequus blade gleefully cut through, slicing into the Draugr’s foreleg. Giving a squeal that made it drop its sword, it backed away. Before it could get too far, I sliced the Blade of Hoofingar through its throat.

Another Draugr stood in its place in an instant, this one with a warhammer. I blocked with both my weapons, trying to push the zombie back. I twisted out of the way as I let the warhammer swing toward the ground. I swung at the back of its neck, but the Draugr swiftly swung its warhammer up into my chest, and I found myself thrown backwards.

The Draugr were beginning to overwhelm us. There were just too many of them! I needed to clear some space somehow.

Directly in front of me my fire breath incinerated the nearby Draugr. Farther back they simply burst into flame, but even disciplined Draugr are liable to panic when they suddenly catch fire. All in all, I’d been successful in my goal, opening up a wide gap in the Draugr line that expanded as the panicked zombies ran into each other.

The Draugr commander called for order, going so far as to snatch a staff of ice from where it had fallen and freeze the soldiers that were still on fire. By the time it’d managed to quell the panic, a sizeable chunk of its army was dead.

I was preparing to charge forward into the remaining undead when the ward around us suddenly collapsed. I looked over my shoulder to see that Mystic had been struck by the spear of a Draugr who’d come from behind us. In fact, a whole new army had showed up behind us, surrounding us. I wasn’t about to let that stand.

I shot ice spikes into the Draugr that had impaled Mystic before shooting fire at the other nearby Draugr who tried to close in on my injured friend. I ran to her aid, pulling the spear from her before casting a healing spell on her. Once she was strong enough to stand, she tried to put up a ward again, but her magic was too drained for a shield of that size anymore. Instead, she focused on shooting out blasts of her magic into the advancing zombies.

Now that her ward was down, arrows began to rain down from the Draugr archers at regular intervals, keeping us on our hooves. I tried to advance into the oncoming horde of Draugr, slashing away with Dawnbreaker, but there were just too many of them. I was forced to retreat, but with every Draugr I slew, the tiny star in Dawnbreaker’s hilt began to glow brighter.

As I stabbed my blade into a Draugr with a war axe who’d just cut through a chink in my shoulder armor, the star suddenly became too bright to see. Around us, the Draugr suddenly stopped, dropping their weapons and clutching their heads. Each one them exploded in a brilliant flash of light, leaving no remains. The light began to die down and Dawnbreaker returned to normal once all the Draugr standing around us were dead.

For a moment, I couldn’t believe what I had seen. Dawnbreaker had just killed the horde of Draugr that had surrounded us all on its own. I marveled at the power I held in my magic. This was certainly a superior replacement to Calcion’s Cleaver, and this blade wouldn’t mess with my mind.

No more Draugr were around to stop us, so we approached the temple. Up the stone stairs we went, passing by statues of ponies enduring terrible tortures. At the top of the stairs was the same statue of a Dragon Priest we’d seen earlier, but this time larger. Inscribed above her head were words in Draconic that shifted around until they were in Equine, just like in Volsteed.

TEMPLE OF THE PRIESTESS NAGHOT:
ENFORCER OF COMMITMENTS,
PURGER OF TRAITORS

She sounded every bit as lovely as Voldehorse had been. Inside, Naghot was waiting for us, an Element of Harmony about her neck. There was no point in waiting any longer, so we pushed open the temple’s doors and stepped inside.

Empty stone benches filed the large room, facing toward a pulpit at the far end, in front of which sat a gem-covered sarcophagus. Statues of Naghot, three on each side, lined the pews leading up to her tomb. We walked up the center aisle cautiously, our hoofsteps echoing around the room.

As we passed the first set of statues, they suddenly shifted. Seams opened up on the sculptures of Naghot and the statues opened up to reveal a Draugr in priests’ robes sitting inside each one. As one, the stood up and stepped down from their seats, drawing swords in the process.

Mephalda drilled one near us between the eyes with an arrow, yet it still strode toward us. A blast of ice from Mystic froze another, which Steadfast promptly smashed to bits with his warhammer. The remaining Draugr priests suddenly became much livelier, charging toward us with weapons drawn. The one Mephalda had been shooting came right at me, and I took its head off with a quick swipe of Dawnbreaker, killing the Draugr.

Four more remained, though they had a bit of ground to cover before they reached us. I shot ice spikes at one of the front two, but the ones that did hit just glanced off the armor beneath the zombie’s robes. I brought Dawnbreaker up to block as the zombie reached me, slamming its own sword down at me.

I tried to spin the Draugr’s sword away from it, but it turned the trick around on me, making it hard to keep ahold of Dawnbreaker. I stabbed in toward the Draugr’s chest, but as it did the same toward me I was forced to redirect my sword to deflect its weapon. The Draugr stepped closer to me, hatred burning in its eyes as it swung its sword down at me. With Dawnbreaker I blocked, but I was losing ground, and the Draugr continued to push down on me.

<> I Shouted, and the Draugr’s sword was torn from its mouth, sent sliding across the floor.

I stabbed Dawnbreaker into the Draugr’s chest, ripping through the armor and piercing its heart. I had barely thrown it off my blade when I was forced to pull my still-wet sword up to block the strike of another of the Draugr priests. My friends had succeeded in taking out the other Draugr in the first wave, so now there were only two left.

I shot lightning into the Draugr’s face as it tried to push me back, but it didn’t seem to be harming the zombie, so I changed tactics. I pulled out my Changeling war axe and floated it around until it was behind the Draugr. Then I slammed the blade into the gap between its shoulder armor and cuirass. The zombie pulled away from me, but took my war axe with it.

I ducked down as a swing from Steadfast suddenly went over my head, striking the other Draugr, which I had nearly backed into. The one I’d been fighting came back at me, recovering swiftly from its injury. An arrow from Mephalda struck it in the fetlock just before it reached me, tripping it up so I could get a strike in.

I swung around at the back of the Draugr’s exposed neck, but it somehow managed to twist around and block before it hit the floor. I placed a hoof on the Draugr to keep it in place, and swung Dawnbreaker down into the zombie’s side.

Ichor poured from the wound, but the Draugr refused to return to its eternal rest. It swung around toward the leg I was holding it down with, and I was forced to remove my hoof from it. Swiftly it rolled over and rose to its hooves.

<>

The Draugr suddenly staggered and its armor began to deteriorate as my Shout took hold. I knocked its sword aside as it tried to block me, and stabbed Dawnbreaker up into its body. Throwing it off, I turned to look for the remaining Draugr, and saw it die as Mystic disintegrated it with pure magical energy.

No more disciples of Naghot seemed to be waiting to ambush us (there was nowhere they could hide anyway) so we made our way up to the pulpit and sarcophagus. We knew what waited inside that coffin, so we spaced ourselves around it and prepared for the worst. Dawnbreaker ready to stab the Dragon Priest the moment the lid was off, I pried the cover free with the Blade of Hoofingar.

As soon as the lid began to come free, an explosion of energy burst out from the casket, throwing the cover into the air and throwing us back in every direction. As the afterimage of the explosion faded, I watched a Draugr in long, flowing robes hovering over the empty sarcophagus. An amulet of a dragon around its neck glowed green, the same color of magic that coated the staff held to one side of it, and the curved sword on the other.

I Shouted, sending a blast of fire at the Dragon Priest while I rose to my hooves.

Naghot saw my blast coming and dodged to the side, though the trailing ends of her robes were singed and began to burn slowly. Ignoring us, she held the golden staff in the air and began to twist it around. Clouds suddenly came into being from nowhere and began to darken. Lightning began to shoot down from the storm above us, singeing the floor.

Steadfast charged the Dragon Priest while her back was turned, leaping from a pew. She spun around quickly while he was in the air and swung her sword at him. The blade struck his warhammer, sending him flying back.

Arrows began to sprout up in the Draugr’s neck, though not as many as there could have been. Mephalda, like all of us, was having a hard time dodging the lightning. I tried to get closer to Naghot, but a bolt of lightning struck my armor and sent me convulsing for a good minute. When I regained control, I knew one thing: this storm had to end.

<<>> I Shouted, and the clouds fled from my Voice, returning to wherever they had been before.

Naghot noticed what I had done, and spun around to shoot lightning at me from her staff. I desperately dodged the bolts as they smashed apart the pews they hit. It seemed that her staff was not the normal lightning staff, and I wasn’t going to take the chance that getting hit would take me out permanently.

A blast of magic from Mystic suddenly struck the staff, knocking it off course. A second blast hit it a second later, then a third and fourth until the staff went flying from the Dragon Priest’s grasp. She swooped down toward where it had fallen, but I was nearby and reached it first. Holding it up, I slammed Dawnbreaker into it. The Draconequus blade split the staff, sending lightning flying out in all directions. Both Naghot and I were thrown back by the blast as her staff was destroyed.

As soon as she recovered, she came for me immediately. I had both Dawnbreaker and the Blade of Hoofingar ready as she approached. Turns out, it had been wise to have both swords out, as I needed them both to deflect her attacks, even though she only had one blade.

Her blade flew so fast, I was hardly able to deflect them in time. The good thing was, she was now nearly stationary, opening herself up to attacks from my friends. Arrows came in a steady stream from Mephalda, slicing apart Naghot’s rotting neck and face. Ice began to coat one side of her as she focused her attacks on me, courtesy of Mystic.

She was forced to momentarily stop her attack on me as Steadfast jumped onto her back. She struggled to throw him off as he beat in the armor beneath her robes with his warhammer. Eventually he was forced to jump off as she swung her sword at his head. She began to bring the blade back around toward me before I could attack her. I had other plans.

I Shouted, and time slowed to a crawl.

I rushed under Naghot’s sword and stabbed my sword into her chest, missing her heart. I pulled it out, but had no time to thrust it back in as time began to return to normal. As I ran away, I reached out and grabbed the dragon head amulet around her neck, tearing it off.

Time snapped back to regular speed, and I slid across the floor with Naghot’s necklace. The glow around it cut off as it was separated from its master, as did the glow around the Dragon Priest’s sword, which clattered to the ground. She swiftly picked it up in a forehoof and spun it toward me.

Before she could, an arrow from Mephalda and a blast of magic from Mystic knocked it away from her. Steadfast charged back in, his warhammer crushing in the side of the Dragon Priest’s head. She swung at him with an armored hoof, a hidden blade protruding at the last minute and slicing open his chest.

As my earth pony companion staggered back, I rushed in toward Naghot, both swords held up to attack. I swung the Blade of Hoofingar at her, but she intercepted it with her hoof-blade and forced it to the ground. Dawnbreaker continued on unimpeded and sliced through her weakened neck. Her head separated from her body and rolled away, and the torso collapsed to the ground.

I dropped my swords and ran over to where Steadfast was lying. A nasty gash was opened in his chest, but it wasn’t life-threatening, at least not after a few healing potions and a spell for good measure. Steadfast would be just fine.

I trotted over to where I’d left my weapons and cleaned them before sheathing them. Next I searched Naghot’s body, finding a good amount of gold as well as gems. When her head had come off, the amulet still around her neck had fallen to the ground. I retrieved it, a simple amulet with a hexagonal gem that held a dull red light deep inside. After wiping off Naghot’s blood, I threw it over my own neck, letting it hang next to the Element of Honesty. I now had two of the fabled Elements, putting me that much closer to defeating Alduin.

Behind the sarcophagus and pulpit I noticed a wall covered in Draconic runes. I strode over to it and let my mind be filled with new knowledge. Well, it was very old knowledge about the wrath a storm could have and the intense damage it could wreak on the land, but it was new to me. When it was done, I understood wrath much better. In fact, I understood it exactly as the dragons did.

~BAH~

I suddenly found the memories of the dragon I’d killed back in Splitten resurfacing. I witnessed every moment of wrath that had been poured out on that dragon, and every moment it poured out that same wrath on others. In the end, I understood how to strengthen my call to the skies for inclement weather, making my attack much stronger.

<> I Shouted, though nothing happened because we were still inside. No doubt up above a storm suddenly brewed up out of nowhere, called by my voice.

“Did you get it?” Steadfast asked as he trotted up to me.

“Another Element,” I told him, pulling the amulet out so that he could see, “Two down, four to go.”

“So, what’s the plan now?” he asked.

“Now?” I said, “Now we go to High Falls Ruins. Let’s make it three.”

Level Up
Health: 300 Stamina: 300 Magicka: 290
New Perk: A Safe Bet [Alchemy] -- You can now use your unicorn magic to determine the magical properties of an ingredient without risking harm from ingesting it.
Element of Harmony acquired
Word of Power learned: BAH - Wrath; Storm Call – Combined with STRUN, BAH makes your call to Horizon’s weather much more powerful. Lighting will strike faster, harder, and longer.
New Quest: Power on High -- Enter High Falls Ruins and defeat the Dragon Priest there, taking its Element of Harmony.

Chapter 61: Saarthal

Chapter LXI: Saarthal
“Saarthal is a place for earth pony dead, not the mages’ weird experiments.”

I examined the new Element of Harmony on the way to Whitetrot, wondering which one it could be. The dull red gem gave up no secrets, remaining inscrutable no matter how I looked at it. We’d caught a lucky break in Splitten that the townsponies knew where Forelhorse was, but we’d need help to find High Falls Ruins. I knew just the pony who could help us.

By the time we arrived at Whitetrot, the sun was setting, so we slept in Breezehome for the night before heading up to Dragonsreach. Faniar’s study was a bit tidier this time; the papers were arranged neatly in piles and the random clutter had disappeared, stored in some chest or dresser. He also was accompanied by Serendipity, who was assisting him in his research.

“Greetings,” he called out to us, looking up from his book as we entered, “I haven’t seen you in quite some time.”

“We’ve been busy,” I said, pulling out the new Element of Harmony, “But not without results.”

“Is that . . . another of the Elements?” Faniar asked, placing his book down and trotting over to examine it.

“That’s right,” I said, “Found it in Forelhorse. Do you have any idea which one it is?”

“Not a clue,” he admitted, “I’m afraid I don’t know much about such things.”

“I’m sure we’ll figure it out in time,” I said, thinking about the Element of Honesty that also hung around my neck.

“So, if you’ve found another Element, what brings you to me?” the wizard asked.

“We know where another one is: High Falls Ruins,” I said, “Could you point the way?”

“Of course,” he said, marking it on my map, “Oh, I just remembered I have something for you.”

He searched through his desk until he found a sealed letter and passed it over to me.

“Somepony from the Mages College left this for you and Mystic,” he said, “I don’t know what it is, but they made it seem urgent that it gets to you.”

Intrigued, I opened the letter and read what the mages had written.

All students are requested to meet as soon as possible at Saarthal.

That was it? They couldn’t possibly have just told Faniar what it was they wanted me for?

“Saarthal?” I asked out loud, “Where in the Northlands is that?”

“Saarthal?” Faniar said, pulling out his logbook and paging through it, “That’s an ancient earth pony ruin near Winterhorn. What are the mages doing there?”

“Is there anything important about Saarthal?” Mystic asked.

“Well, it is a fairly good sized ruin,” Faniar said, “The first city that Ysgroomar founded when he came to Horizon. And I do have it marked down as a possible Dragon Priest lair.”

“I guess it’s worth a look,” I said, “On the way to High Falls Ruins.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

With Faniar’s help it was easy to find Saarthal. The camp set up by the College of Winterhorn around it helped as well. All the mages already seemed to be doing whatever it was they had come here to do, so I wasn’t sure who to ask for direction.

“We should look for the Arch-Mage,” Mystic told us, “There he is!”

She led us through the camp to a sky-blue stallion in multi-colored robes with a long white beard who was speaking to another mage.

“Greetings Arch-Mage Clairvoyance,” she got the stallion’s attention, “We received your summons. What is going on here?”

“Ah, more workers, excellent,” he said, rubbing his hooves together, “Well, we’ve begun excavation of Saarthal. This was the first city founded by Ysgroomar you know, before the Diamond Dogs attacked and slaughtered nearly everypony during the Night of Tears.”

“But, what’s this have to do with the College?” Steadfast asked, “I don’t mean to be rude, but what claim do spellcasters have to dig up an ancient earth pony city?”

“Well, when one of our students was traveling through this area, she sensed a source of magic,” the Arch-Mage explained, “We believe Ysgroomar may have brought something from his homeland here, some magical relic of intense power.”

“So what are we supposed to do?” I asked.

“Well, the excavation is already underway, but it’s moving slowly. We’ve been cataloguing everything, of course,” Clairvoyance said, “But it’s important that we find that relic. That’s why I was so eager to summon you, Sapphire.”

“Me?” I asked, “I barely know enough magic to hold up in a fight.”

“An exaggeration,” he said, waving me off, “Nevertheless, I’ve been led to believe you have significant experience in ancient earth pony ruins such as this one.”

“True,” I said, “All four of us have.”

“Excellent!” Clairvoyance exclaimed, “So, I would like the four of you to delve into the depths of Saarthal, ahead of the excavation party, and find this relic. If you find yourselves outmatched, don’t hesitate to come back and get a few mages to help you out. Marea knows most of what they’re doing is busywork anyway.”

“We won’t let you down, sir,” Mystic promised the master of her order as he trotted away to look at some maps of the excavation a mage was trying to show him.

“That magical power,” Mephalda asked, “Do you think it might be an Element of Harmony?”

“Could be,” I admitted, “Or maybe it’s the spells a Dragon Priest lays over its fortress. Either way, there’s a good chance we might find another of the Elements here.”

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Steadfast said enthusiastically, “Let’s get started.”

We trotted through the camp until we found the entrance to Saarthal. The large stone doors were propped open, allowing the mages to enter and exit freely. The entry hall had already been picked clean by the eager unicorns, who were busy moving rocks aside to reveal more side passages to explore.

We followed the main passage deeper underground, passing by more mages who were busy studying the murals on the walls, meticulously copying them onto parchment. Torched Draugr corpses lay here and there, though most had been moved into a banquet hall and laid down on the tables to be studied. At last we made it to the final room the mages were studying, a large cavern crisscrossed by stone bridges.

The College’s students ignored us as we trotted through the room and passed over their barricades blocking access to the next passage. The hushed conversation of the busy mages faded into the distance as we trotted deeper into Saarthal. Soon the tunnel ended at an iron door carved with dragons.

Through it, a flight of stairs ran down into a large cavern that had several buildings built against its walls. Glowing mushrooms grew from the walls and up from the floors, lighting the cavern. A few Draugr trotted about, but ran as soon as they saw us, disappearing through the stone door of a building at the far end of the chamber.

Pursuing them, we entered the crypt beneath Saarthal. Here the walls were lined with the coffins of Draugr, and the ones we’d been pursuing were standing down the passage, now equipped with weapons. Mephalda fired her bow at a lantern hanging from the ceiling, and it fell to the ground, landing in a pool of oil. The floor lit up instantly, catching a few of the Draugr in the flames. The others jumped away in time, ducking into side passages.

One of the Draugr jumped from the side passage onto Steadfast’s back as he passed it. Before it could strike, he slammed it up against the wall, crushing the life from it. As another charged in from the other side passage, he knocked it away with his warhammer.

I ducked around the corner, searching for Draugr. One showed itself nearly right away, swinging a war axe at my head. I blocked with Dawnbreaker, pushing the Draugr back through the crypt. As another of the zombies began to climb from the wall, I shot an ice spike through its head. The Draugr with the war axe I forced back until it was trapped against the wall.

I Shouted, and the Draugr combusted, burning to ash.

Another of the walking corpses came at me from behind, an ancient earth pony sword grasped in its mouth. An arrow from Mephalda struck it in the head, knocking its aim off and making it land beside me. I slammed my hoof down on its blade before it could get up, and swung Dawnbreaker down into the back of its neck.

Another Draugr was standing down the corridor, wielding a battleaxe, and I shot a blast of lightning at it as I galloped up. Somehow it managed to angle its battleaxe to block my magical strike, and was unharmed by the time I reached it. I swung Dawnbreaker down at the Draugr, but it blocked with its battleaxe. Drawing the Blade of Hoofingar, I swung at the zombie’s weapon, knocking it off to the side. Dawnbreaker cut through the Draugr’s neck easily, killing it for good.

An arrow struck my helmet, denting in the metal but doing no real harm to me. I spotted the culprit immediately, a Draugr with a bow down at the end of the passage. I galloped toward it, holding my swords ready. It continued to fire arrows at me, and I dodged them all until one caught me off guard and struck me in the neck, narrowly missing my windpipe.

I tripped and rolled across the floor, before scrambling behind an urn to remove the dart. Carefully I pulled it out, applying my healing spell as I did so. Thankfully I was able to heal the flesh without accidentally closing it up around the arrow. Throwing the shaft aside, I looked over the urn and saw the Draugr getting torched by Mystic’s magic.

Trotting forward, I found where the side passage I’d been traveling along met up with the main one, where Mystic was standing. Mephalda and Steadfast appeared a moment later from another side passage. Together again, we continued down the coffin-lined tunnel.

It let out after a bit to a circular shaft. A pillar rose up in the center of the cavern, a stone spiral ramp looping around it. The only way forward was downward, so we followed the ramp around and down. A Draugr guarded the top of the way down, but was easily dealt with by a well-placed shot from Mephalda.

It was hard to see ahead as we traveled downward, and we didn’t see the next Draugr guard until we were right on top of it. It drew a pike out when it saw us, blocking a strike from Steadfast’s warhammer. Mephalda tried to shoot it, but it twisted its pike up as it blocked, stopping her arrow with its blade.

Neither Mystic nor I could get around Steadfast to get at the Draugr. Mephalda took off, flapping around in the shaft until she was behind the zombie. She drew her Blackwing swords, moving in for the kill.

The Draugr saw her out of the corner of its eye and bucked out at her, trying to keep the pegasus at a distance. Twisting its pike around, it began to push Steadfast toward the edge of the ramp. I moved in with Dawnbreaker, stabbing at the Draugr’s side.

It spun around quickly, knocking Steadfast off as it turned its attention to me. Mephalda took advantage of the moment to strike with her swords, cutting the Draugr in half. Dropping Dawnbreaker, I quickly turned to help Mystic haul Steadfast back over the edge. Together, we managed to heave him back onto a sturdy surface.

<<>> a Shout suddenly came from below, rocking the cavern.

The ramp began to crack, falling apart and revealing its age. We galloped forward as it began to give way, cracks forming more prominently now. Only small bits of it actually fell out, landing on the ramp beneath, but the entire structure had become unsteady, and I wouldn’t trust it to hold me for more than a few seconds. We found the Draugr who’d Shouted as we charged down, Steadfast knocking it off with his warhammer.

At last we made it to the bottom of the ramp, where a stone bridge led to a doorway with an iron grate in it. I flipped the switch on the other side to raise the bars before we continued on into the next passage.

The roar of water met our ears as we traveled down the tunnel. We entered a room where waterfalls cascaded down the walls, filling a lake that filled the cavern. A set of wooden bridges led across the room, but most of them were raised, and Draugr stood in between them, guarding the mechanisms that would lower them.

Mephalda flew toward them, shooting arrows down at the zombies as they fired back. Mystic tried to see around the raised bridges to get clear shots at the Draugr with her magic, but was mostly unsuccessful. There was another way to get across, a roundabout way that looped back and forth through the cavern. Steadfast and I followed it as it ran along the wall, passing beneath one of the waterfalls. The wood creaked alarmingly under us, rotted from centuries of damp, but it held long enough for us to get past the waterfall and head back toward the center of the room.

The Draugr standing at the first inter-bridge platform noticed us coming while we were still a ways off, and began to fire arrows at us as well. A few armed Draugr also galloped out across the wooden planks to attack us. I tried to put myself between the Draugr arrows and Steadfast, knowing they’d do much less damage to my Griffin armor than to his mostly unarmored flesh.

The first Draugr to reach us swung its sword at me, which I blocked with Dawnbreaker. I drew out the Blade of Hoofingar as well and swung it at the Draugr’s neck while it was still stuck in a block. The Draugr brought up its foreleg, upon which it had strapped a shield, deflecting my ebony sword.

With the shield it bashed at me, forcing me back. As I swung at its head with Dawnbreaker, the zombie blocked me using its sword. I slid my Draconequus sword down the blade, nicking the Draugr’s neck as the weapon swung past it. Steadfast’s warhammer went swinging over my back, taking both the Draugr and me by surprise, and crushing in its head. As the Draugr fell to the ground, I pulled its shield off and threw it to my earth pony companion so that he’d have something to defend himself with.

<> I Shouted at the next Draugr to charge us, knocking its warhammer from its mouth into the waters below.

It still had a stunned expression on its face as I stabbed Dawnbreaker into it and threw it after its weapon. I ducked down as a Draugr on the platform ahead shot fire at us from a staff. I shot lightning at the zombie, but I missed, hitting one of the archers defending it instead.

The Draugr with the staff turned its attention away from us as an arrow stuck in its neck. As it shot fire at Mephalda instead, I charged forward, hacking through the few Draugr still defending it. I once more shot lightning at the ancient earth pony wizard, but it blocked with its staff, absorbing the energy.

I swung Dawnbreaker down at the zombie as I reached it, bringing it down on its staff. It twisted the staff around, and my sword went sliding down the shaft, scraping off the gold covering it. Dawnbreaker cut through the Draugr’s foreleg the same time that I drew the Blade of Hoofingar and swung it around toward the zombie wizard’s neck. It had no chance to block or fire its staff as my blades cut through its flesh.

Steadfast gave a pull of the nearby lever, and the bridge fell into place on either side of us, allowing Mystic to cross and join us. The four of us continued on down the main bridge until we were blocked by another raised bridge. Mephalda flew ahead, pelting the guardians of the release with her arrows while the rest of us followed another wooden bridge off the side of the chamber.

We were now on the opposite side of the cavern Steadfast and I had crossed on, and passed beneath a different waterfall. Once across, we had an open lane to the next bridge platform and the Draugr clustered on it.

Mystic put up a ward in front of us as we charged forward, deflecting most of the arrows that came our way. I fired lightning bolts over her shoulder and through her magical shield as we approached the cluster of Draugr. As soon as we reached them, Steadfast and I charged ahead, our weapons drawn and ready.

Dawnbreaker flew through the air, crushing in the helm of a zombie with a bow. Another with a pike blocked my next swing, catching my Draconequus blade in midair. Swiftly it spun its weapon to the ground, pulling Dawnbreaker with it. As the weapon hit the stone, I lost my grip on it, and it went tumbling toward the edge of the platform.

I dove for the sword as it slid off, catching it with my magic just in time. I quickly rolled over, knocking the pike away from my neck with Dawnbreaker as I did so. The Draugr stabbed at my exposed underside with its weapon, but I blocked with my sword, knocking the pike away again.

It stomped a rotten hoof down on my tail as I tried to get up. With its pike it stabbed repeatedly at me, keeping me busy blocking its weapon. I wasn’t able to get into a better position from where I was, and the Draugr wouldn’t miss forever. I tried bucking at the zombie’s hooves, but it didn’t seem to faze it.

<<>> I Shouted, throwing the Draugr off the platform.

I jumped to my hooves, spinning Dawnbreaker around me to keep the Draugr away. As one tried to jump onto my back, Steadfast knocked it into the raised bridge with his warhammer. With Dawnbreaker, I speared one that was trying to sneak up on Mystic from behind. One came for me as I threw its fellow from the platform, but Mephalda shot it through the neck before it could reach me.

With the pull of a lever, another two bridges fell into place. There was only one more set we had to drop before we were across the cavern, but it was well defended by archers. Mystic held a ward between us and them as we galloped down the wooden bridge leading around to it.

This time we encountered a problem on our way across. Here the bridge had truly been rotted through by the waterfall, as well as torn to pieces as the water crashed directly into it. A cascading wall of water stood between us and the rest of the bridge.

<<>>

My Shout instantly froze the water directly in front of us. As it fell, the cold began to spread, freezing more of the waterfall until it ceased to fall at all. As soon as it stopped falling, I began to shoot flames at the ice, melting a path through. Mystic caught on quickly and joined in, carving out a way for us to cross. It wasn’t long after we passed that the pressure behind the waterfall built up to the point that it blew the ice out, resuming the cascade.

Leaving the waterfall behind, we charged forward toward the group of Draugr guarding the final set of bridge controls. Mephalda was still shooting arrows into them, her quiver becoming dangerously low as we closed the distance.

I Shouted as we approached, and the Draugr combusted from my dragon fire, falling off the platform to be extinguished in the water below.

I slashed at one that remained, and Steadfast smashed a few on his way to the lever that would lower the last bridges. With the creak of ancient machinery, the bridges fell into place, and we could at last cross to the exit from the lake cavern.

Through the exit door, the passage suddenly turned off to the right. The tunnel expanded, turning into a small room with a circular door at the far end. Murals covered the walls, but they were so ancient I couldn’t make out exactly what they represented.

The door at the end of the tunnel was very familiar to me, as I’d seen ones like it in other barrows. Nearby on the floor sat a dragon claw made from what appeared to be glass, haphazardly thrown to the side as if the pony who’d locked up had been in a great hurry to leave. After lining up the rings to match the symbols on the claw, I inserted the key and let the door slide into the floor.

Through the door was a balcony looking down on a much larger room. Wooden stairs provided a way down. In the center of the room, a gigantic orb hung in the air. It appeared to be composed of overlapping sheets of glowing blue crystal, bordered with ornately crafted rings of silver. The massive orb floated, bobbing up and down slightly as bits of light escaped from the orb before returning at another point.

A lone Draugr patrolled below, protecting the orb. A helmet with ridiculously long horns sat upon its head, and a staff was strapped to its back. It wasn’t a Dragon Priest, but neither was it a common Draugr warrior. Somehow it must have noticed it was not alone, for it began to look around frantically for us.

I didn’t give it the chance to find us first and jumped down at it, both Dawnbreaker and the Blade of Hoofingar drawn. It spun around at me as I fell through the air, pulling the staff off its back and using it to block my attacks. I tried to get a swing in toward its neck from both sides, but it batted away both my swords before hooking its staff around my foreleg and pulling me to the ground.

As it prepared to spear me through with its weapon’s sharp end, Steadfast bowled it over. He managed to get a warhammer swing in on its cheek before it threw him away, blasting pure magic from its staff to keep him away. Blue light began to funnel from the orb to it as it blasted Mephalda’s arrows out of the air.

Grabbing my swords, I threw myself at the Draugr. I somehow managed to catch it off guard, and the Blade of Hoofingar knocked off its helmet while Dawnbreaker sliced through one of its forelegs. It wobbled with its three remaining legs, but managed to stay steady enough to knock me back across the floor with its staff.

Blue light began to funnel from the orb once again, and I watched in horror as the Draugr’s leg began to grow back. As it grew, it grew back fully formed, the foreleg of a perfectly formed pony, complete with hair. Looking closely, I could see that the wound Steadfast had inflicted on its face had been healed in the same way.

“Mystic!” I called to where she was heading down the stairs, “We’ve got to stop that orb; it’s healing the Draugr!”

She nodded her understanding and began to shoot a variety of spells at the orb, trying to nullify its power. Steadfast charged around the orb, coming at the Draugr from behind. Holding his warhammer close to the ground, he struck its hindleg, knocking it off balance.

Light began to flow from the orb again, but suddenly stopped when it came in contact with Mystic’s spell. So long as she kept her magical barrage up, the Draugr was vulnerable. Unfortunately, it knew that too, and set its sights on my unicorn friend. She put up a ward to deflect the Draugr’s blasts, but it wasn’t enough to hold off the pure magic forever.

I shot ice spikes at the Draugr as I charged it, trying to get its attention. It worked, and it turned around toward me, bringing its staff to block Dawnbreaker. I held my Draconequus sword steady, pressing it down as hard as I could. Eventually the blade began to glow bright silver, and the staff the Draugr was holding began to heat up. Gold melted and ran as my blade cut through the Draugr’s staff.

A magical blast suddenly discharged from the staff, knocking back me, the Draugr, and an unfortunate Steadfast, who’d been about to strike the zombie. I grabbed Dawnbreaker and charged toward the Draugr as it got up. As I stabbed toward its heart, it swung both hooves around and somehow managed to catch my sword.

I tugged, but couldn’t pull free, and a smug grin crossed the Draugr’s decaying face. That grin began to fade as Dawnbreaker’s star began to glow brightly. I averted my eyes as it flared up and destroyed the Draugr from the inside. When I looked again, all that was left of the zombie was an amulet lying on the ground. I picked it up, figuring it might be useful someday, before examining the rest of the chamber.

Behind the mysterious floating orb was a word wall. As I approached, I learned the dragons’ understanding of an inferno, known to them as TOOR. The memories of the dragon I’d killed in Kvatch flooded to the surface of my mind, teaching me how I could control a raging inferno, channeling it where I wanted it to go.

<> I Shouted, sending a large blast of dragon fire barreling into the word wall before turning back to the orb that dominated the room.

“So this is the magical artifact the mages sensed,” I said, marveling at the levitating relic.

“I don’t see what else it could be,” Mystic said, pointing her horn at it and scribbling something down on a parchment, “It’s certainly putting out quite a bit of magical energy.”

“So, what is it?” Steadfast asked.

“Not sure,” Mystic admitted, scrunching up her nose, “Maybe Arch-Mage Clairvoyance knows.”

“Indeed I do,” the Arch-Mage’s voice came from the balcony, “But my Zenitrot, I don’t believe it.”

He trotted down the stairs to the main section of the room where the rest of us were standing.

“What are you doing down here?” I asked curiously.

“I thought I’d come down and see how much progress you’ve made,” he said, “Also, I could use a break from ponies asking me a question every two seconds.”

“So Arch-Mage,” Mystic said, “What is this thing?”

“This is the Eye of Magnus,” he said with awe, turning his attention back to the orb, “The most powerful magical relic in all the Northlands.”

“So, what does it do?” I asked.

“That’s the best part,” Clairvoyance said, “Nopony knows. Why, it’s so powerful nopony’s ever been able to tap its full potential. But when we do figure out how to use it, no spell would be impossible. Of course, it doesn’t belong here; it belongs in the College, where we can study it properly.”

His horn began to glow a midnight blue, and the orb was coated in the same color of magic. Suddenly, it blinked out in a flash of light and ceased to be. The room was now empty but for the five of us.

“Where’d it go?” Mephalda asked, looking suspiciously at the Arch-Mage.

“Why, I sent it to the College of Winterhorn, of course,” he replied nonchalantly.

“Didn’t you say it was an artifact of immense power?” I asked.

“Indeed,” he replied.

“And nopony knows how to control it?” I continued.

“That’s correct.”

“And you just sent it to a building filled with eager college students,” I pointed out.

“Oh dear,” the Arch-Mage said.

Level Up
Health: 310 Stamina: 300 Magicka: 290
New Perk: Elemental Wizard [Conjuration] -- When summoning any elemental (flame, ice, storm) atronach, the Magicka cost is halved and the duration the summoned creature remains is doubled.
Unique Item added: Saarthal Amulet -- This unique amulet halves the Magicka cost of all spells cast while it is worn.
Word of Power learned: TOOR -- Inferno; Flame Breath – Combined with YOL, TOOR increases the ferocity of your fire breath, extending the range and increasing the speed at which you can breathe fire.
New Quest: College Troubles -- Return to the College of Winterhorn and make sure the Eye of Magnus is safe.

Author's Note

And at last we have a new chapter. Sorry about the large delay between Chapter 60 and 61, but I'm afraid it couldn't be helped. During the summer my editor has very limited ability to look over my chapters, so I'm sorry to say that a semi-regular schedule for publishing new chapters probably won't resume until mid- to late-August.

That being said, I'll try to get more out as quickly as I can. Only 26 chapters remain now, and I'm aiming to get them all published by the end of the year.

As always, thanks for reading, and as always, feel free to leave a comment or send me a message to let me know what you think. Though the story is already completely written, it's always great to get feedback that I can use on my future stories, and when I eventually do a rewrite of this one.

FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 62: War at Winterhorn

Chapter LXII: War at Winterhorn
“What you learn here will last you a lifetime – several if you’re talented.”

Thankfully there was a back exit from the crypt that led up to where the mages were excavating. The Arch-Mage sent a few down through the way we’d come up to examine the deep crypt more thoroughly, but ordered most of the others to come with us to the College. I didn’t see the point in dragging everypony back, but I didn’t question the Arch-Mage.

As we neared the College, it became apparent that something had indeed gone wrong. Dark clouds swirled above the College, tinted the color of the Eye of Magnus. Screams came from the town, urging us forward.

Flashes of light came from Winterhorn, and as we entered the town we could see that the light was coming from blasts of magical energy the same color as the Eye of Magnus. One flew past us, annihilating a house, as we galloped up the main street.

“This simply won’t do,” Clairvoyance said to himself, “The earth ponies of Winterhorn distrust us enough without us accidentally harming the town.”

“What’s going on?” I asked him as we galloped up the bridge to the College, narrowly avoiding blasts of the strange magic.

“Well, either somepony tried to interact with the Eye, or the teleportation unsettled it,” he answered.

Somehow, the College itself seemed unharmed by the blasts of magic. All the magic funneled out of the main gate before weaving among the pillars that surrounded the courtyard. Timing it right, we were able to enter the main hall of the College, where the Eye of Magnus hovered, spewing magic.

The magic shot out in all directions, but ricocheted all over the room before finding its way out through the main gate. Mages circled the Eye, blasting it with every spell they could think of in hopes that they could stop its destruction.

“Stop! Stop!” the Arch-Mage called as he entered the room, “You’re only making things worse! Concentrate on coating it with a spell of pacifism!”

The mages began to coordinate their efforts, firing the same spell all over the surface of the Eye of Magnus. Its motions began to become less erratic, and magic soon ceased the spew from it. At last it hung motionless in the air, any magic leaving it spiraling slowly through the air before returning to the Eye.

“That was close,” the Arch-Mage said, wiping his brow, “I’m glad the College is protected.”

“Protected?” Mephalda asked.

“Yes, every surface here is enchanted to resist magic so that no damage is done during training,” he explained, “I shudder to think of what might have happened had this been an ordinary structure.”

“Like the ones down in Winterhorn,” Mystic pointed out crossly.

“Yes,” the Arch-Mage winced, “I can’t imagine the citizens of our town will be too pleased about this turn of events, but they must understand that there are certain risks involved when making a breakthrough of this level.”

“That breakthrough leveled half the town,” Mephalda pointed out, looking out at Winterhorn from a much higher vantage point than the rest of us.

“What would you have had me do?” Clairvoyance asked, his eyes narrowing, “We saved what we could, and that has to be enough. We lost good mages from this too, you know.”

“Is that what I think it is?” a bright red unicorn stallion asked the Arch-Mage.

“Ah, Blaze!” Clairvoyance greeted him, “I’m glad to see our professor of Destruction wasn’t harmed in this.”

“Is that the Eye of Magnus?” Blaze repeated his question.

“Indeed,” the Arch-Mage replied smugly, “It was in Saarthal, of all places.”

“What were you thinking, blindly teleporting it here!” Blaze demanded, “You know how much power that thing has! What possessed you to suddenly jump it across space? I was teaching a class here for beginning mages, and now they’re nearly all dead thanks to you!”

“Must I explain this to everypony?” Clairvoyance sighed, “I felt it was worth the risk, considering the potential gains from studying, and even controlling this artifact.”

“But you can’t control it!” Blaze argued, “You proved that today, when it wiped out half of Winterhorn!”

“We will learn to control it!” the elder stallion shouted back before reigning in his voice, “Until then, everypony must stay clear of it. We’ll close the great hall off.”

“That’s not going to stop everypony,” Mephalda said, looking out the doors, “Especially all of Winterhorn.”

“What?” Clairvoyance asked, trotting toward the door.

Quicksilver came galloping up the bridge to meet the Arch-Mage as he entered the courtyard.

“Arch-Mage, what’s going on up here?” she asked urgently.

“No time to explain,” he replied, “What’s going on down there?”

“The whole town’s threatening to march on the College!” she said, “I’ve got the mages you brought back from Saarthal holding them off for now, but it won’t last forever.”

“I’ll speak to them,” the Arch-Mage announced, trotting past Quicksilver and down the bridge to the town, “I’ll make them see reason.”

Worried about what the Arch-Mage might say, I followed him down the bridge. At the base, there was an angry mob of townsponies shouting at the mages lined up in front of the bridge’s base. The Arch-Mage pushed through until he was standing before the crowd.

“What appears to be the problem?” he said, surprisingly level-headedly considering his outbursts earlier.

“You’re the problem!” an orange earth pony, the same one who’d warned me about the College when I’d first entered the town, exclaimed, pushing his way to the front of the crowd, “Your magic did this! You can’t deny it, like you did with the Great Collapse! You unicorns are a menace to society!”

“I wouldn’t say that,” the Arch-Mage replied, frowning.

“You destroyed half the town! When will you be satisfied with your destruction? When nothing but your accursed school of witchcraft stands?”

“Enough, Seeruan!” a mare in robes and a crown commanded, pushing through the crowd.

“Jarl Winter Glory,” the Arch-Mage greeted her, “At last, somepony sensible I can speak with.”

“I’m afraid I must agree with Seeruan,” she said solemnly, “At least the base of his argument. The destruction you brought to our town is unforgivable. I have worked to retain peaceful relations with the College like my predecessors, but it can’t be that way anymore. The damage you wrought is too great to overlook like your lesser transgressions.”

“I have a very good reason for all this,” Clairvoyance replied, “If you’ll just let me explain-”

“Oh, I have doubt you have your reasons,” the Jarl cut him off, “But I don’t want to hear them. There is nothing that could warrant this. I want the College emptied by sundown, and if it’s not, then I will make sure it’s emptied by force.”

“You can’t do this,” the Arch-Mage protested, “The College is all Winterhorn has!”

“And if I allow it to stay, there will soon be no more Winterhorn,” the Jarl replied, “My decision is final. Clear out by sundown, or we’ll clear you out.”

“We won’t go out without a fight!” the Arch-Mage promised before storming off.

I just stood there, shocked, as the two angry groups separated, the unicorns returning to the College, and the earth ponies to what was left of their homes.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I got some disapproving glares as I approached the Jarl’s longhouse, but entered anyway. A war was brewing here, but I hoped I could defuse it before things erupted into violence. First I wanted to speak to Jarl Winter Glory about reconsidering her position, and if that failed, help her to clear the College.

I didn’t want to do so, but I had to admit that what the Arch-Mage had done was reckless. He’d endangered the entire town, and while he was still running the College he’d keep endangering it. Therefore, I hoped to convince the Jarl to change her demands to his resignation.

“Jarl Winter Glory,” I got her attention as I entered her throne room.

“What do you want?” she asked, rather nastily, “And what are you, a unicorn, doing in my longhouse. You should be at the College preparing to defend yourself.”

“I’m not with the College,” I told her, “Well, technically I am, but I’m rarely here, and more importantly I don’t agree with the Arch-Mage.”

“So, why are you here?” she asked.

“I want you to change your mind.”

“Not going to happen,” she scoffed, “You wasted your time coming down here if you thought you could get me to rescind my demands. You unicorns have no place in Winterhorn, and it’s time I do what should have been done immediately after the Great Collapse.”

“You don’t have to throw the unicorns from the College,” I told her, “If you could get the Arch-Mage to resign and get somepony more careful in charge, all your troubles will be over.”

“Ha!” she scoffed, “Get Clairvoyance to resign? It would be easier to lift the Crest of the World. Besides, somepony just like him would replace him. It’s the way the College works. No, the College must be closed down; there’s no alternative.”

“If that’s how it has to be,” I said, “Then I’ll help you clear out the College.”

“Likely story,” the Jarl said, “I wouldn’t trust a unicorn to side with me against her own kind. I wouldn’t trust a unicorn ever.”

“But-”

“Get out, before I have you thrown out. And don’t come back or you’ll be leaving in a pine box.”

I left the Jarl’s longhouse, trotting past the guards who were baring their weapons. My plan had failed, but I had a backup plan. Unfortunately, my backup was far less appealing than my main plan.

“How’d it go?” Steadfast asked as I trotted down the stairs of the longhouse.

“That bad, huh?” he said when he saw my face.

“She won’t change her mind,” I said, “And she doesn’t want my help.”

“Why not?” Mephalda asked.

“I’m a unicorn,” I said, “And she doesn’t trust ‘my kind’.”

“So forget her,” Mystic said, “We can still try to fix this.”

“I know,” I said, “But the Arch-Mage - I don’t agree with what he stands for.”

“Neither do I,” she admitted, “Bringing the Eye of Magnus here and nearly killing everypony, it wasn’t right. But the College has been my home for years. I’d hate to see it abandoned. If we can get Clairvoyance to resign . . .”

“Winter Glory won’t accept it,” I said, shaking my head.

“That’s what she says now, but if he’s removed from power, and a more sensible pony takes his place, she might come around.”

“It’s worth a shot,” I admitted.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Clairvoyance, expectedly, was opposed to the idea of his forced resignation. In fact, he seemed appalled that we’d even suggest such a thing, even when we pointed out the benefits of him slipping into retirement and letting somepony else run the College. The teachers at the College were also unsympathetic to our cause. Many of them agreed that the Arch-Mage had made a mistake in blindly teleporting the Eye of Magnus here, and nopony wanted war, but none of them were willing to push for his resignation. There was loyalty to the head of their order that couldn’t be broken.

And so sunset came, and the College was still filled with mages preparing for the attack that was sure to come. Sure enough, as the sun sank behind the western mountains a line of torches began to move out from the Jarl’s longhouse and make their way toward the College. As the ponies came into sight, I could see they were armed and ready to attack.

“This is your last chance!” Jarl Winter Glory called up, “Leave now, or we’ll be forced to attack!”

“Never!” Clairvoyance yelled back, “Raise wards!”

Shimmering shields of every color burst up in front of the mages lining the bridge to the College. Reluctantly, I began to draw my sword before sheathing it again. Just because I was here didn’t mean I had to kill ponies in this battle. Ideas swirled around in my mind until a plan began to form. I shared it with my friends, and we set out to enact it.

We rushed forward with the mages as they charged down the bridge toward the townsponies. Blades flashed in the torchlight as both sides drew their weapons. The clashing of steel rang across the tundra as the two makeshift armies clashed. I avoided conflict where I could.

I drew Dawnbreaker as I pushed toward the line of armed earth ponies. My Draconequus sword struck the war axe of an earth pony. I pushed against it, twisting it down to the ground. My opponent swung her weapon back up toward me, nearly hitting my foreleg. I swung Dawnbreaker up under her blade swiftly and threw it from her mouth.

Instead of striking a killing blow as I should have, I merely struck her in the head with my Paralysis spell. I tried to pull her away from the fighting as best I could before seeking out my true target. Jarl Winter Glory was standing toward the back of the group, yelling encouragement and wielding a bow with which she shot at the mages.

As I headed in her direction, I ran into a mare with a warhammer. I blocked with Dawnbreaker, pushing her weapon away. Steadfast came in from the side, hitting the shaft of her weapon with his own. As it was knocked from her mouth, he knocked her unconscious with his shield.

A pony fell directly in front of me, hit by Mystic’s paralysis spell. A moment later another fell on top of it, this one dead, half its head burned away by a blast of magic. The mages were holding nothing back, blasting pure magic into the crowd of earth ponies. This fight had to end, and fast.

A stallion with a greatsword swung at me, and I pulled out both my swords to block. Slowly, I began to push him back until he staggered away from me. Spinning his sword around, he charged back at me. Dropping my ebony sword, I shot him in the face with the Paralyze spell, dropping him.

The guards around the Jarl began to notice that we were among them, wreaking havoc through the lines, and made their way toward us. I blasted one with my spell before she could get too close, but the rest made it to us. As one stabbed a spear at me, I knocked it to the side with my Draconequus sword. He slid it along my blade, striking my armor and seeking for a gap. Before he could, I blasted him in the face with my spell, knocking him out.

<<>> I Shouted, throwing a few of the guards out of the way.

Only two now stood between us and the Jarl. Steadfast attacked one, a stallion with a pike, and I headed for the other, a mare with a mace. I attempted to block with Dawnbreaker, but my blade slid off the weapon, struggling to find purchase. The mare got a hit in on my side, denting the armor where plates met. With the flat of my sword, I trapped her against me and shot her with my Paralyze spell.

Nearby, Mystic was trying to blast the Jarl, but her spells stopped up short, blocked before they could reach the leader of Winterhorn. I spied the cause, an amulet around her neck that flared up with light whenever a spell neared her. I charged in toward her with my sword drawn, seeking to put an end to her immunity to magic.

Mystic was unarmed except for her spells, so the Jarl turned her attention to me. Dawnbreaker struck against Winter Honor’s sword, sparks flying as the two blades met. She forced me back, but I swung my sword in toward her as I retreated, forcing her to devote her focus to blocking my attacks. Eventually I got a strike through, swinging upward and catching her amulet with my blade. At the moment it left her neck, I shot a blast of paralysis into her face and she toppled over.

“Mystic!” I called my mage friend over to me.

The next part of the plan was up to her. Rushing over, she grabbed ahold of the Jarl before suddenly blinking out of existence. A few of the earth ponies around us had noticed what we’d done and turned to attack us.

“They killed the Jarl!” Seeruan yelled, brandishing a battleaxe, “Get them!”

Mephalda took off into the air, getting clear of the encroaching mob. I grabbed Steadfast and collected my thoughts.

<<>> I Shouted, shooting through the crowd of earth ponies until I was standing before the entrance to the College.

“Next time, warn me before you do that,” Steadfast said, picking himself up off the ground.

“Sorry,” I told him, seeing that I’d dragged him across a fair bit of ground.

“Second phase now?” he asked as he adjusted the sheath for his warhammer.

“That’s right,” I nodded, and began to gallop up the bridge back to where we’d come from originally.

I searched the crowd of mages, looking for a single pony, one wearing different robes than the others.

“Ha, the Jarl is gone!” the Arch-Mage declared happily, “They’re falling into chaos! It won’t be long now!”

He never suspected a thing as I strode up to him and hit him with a Paralyze spell. As he fell to the stone bridge, the mages around him searched for who hit him. I began blasting them too but wasn’t nearly fast enough, and was forced to duck out of the way as spells began to sail over my head.

A blast of pure energy I couldn’t possibly dodge without jumping to my death came right at me. Suddenly, a ward popped up in front of me, and Mystic charged past, firing blasts of magic at the remaining mages who’d been around Clairvoyance, knocking them all unconscious. Grabbing the Arch-Mage, Mystic once more blinked out of existence.

“The Arch-Mage!” somepony called, realizing he was no longer standing at his post, “What did you do with him?!”

I knocked the pony unconscious with a spell, which probably wasn’t the wisest course of action, as the rest of the mages began to shoot spells at me right away. Mystic popped up again as I tried to hold them off, grabbing Steadfast and disappearing again. Next she took Mephalda, and I was left holding off the angry mages alone. Remembering how the Arch-Mage had said the College was magic-proof, I hid behind a pillar, where the spells couldn’t touch me. As the mages began to loop around, closing in around me, Mystic suddenly appeared and teleported me out of the fight.

I found myself standing in a small stone room. At least, I assumed it was all stone. The floor and ceiling were, but the walls I couldn’t tell, for every bit of wall space had been devoted to bookshelves. It was like a miniature library had been tucked away here.

Steadfast and Mephalda were also here, as well as Jarl Winter Honor and Arch-Mage Clairvoyance, who were lying unconscious on the floor. I felt bad about having to knock them out for this, but it was the only way I could see to get them together to discuss civilly what to do about the College.

“What is this place?” I asked as I waited for them to wake up.

“My hideaway,” Mystic explained, “It’s a gap in the walls that only I know how to get to. Over the years I’ve turned it into my own personal library. Do you like it?”

“Well . . . there certainly are a lot of books,” Steadfast said, looking at the towering shelves loaded to overflowing.

There was no more time to talk as the Jarl awoke, groaning. She looked around at us before jumping to her hooves and reaching for her sword, which she no longer had.

“What do you think you’re doing, ponynapping me!?” she demanded, “I knew you were loyal to the College!”

She jumped as the Arch-Mage woke up on the floor next to her.

“What is the meaning of this?!” he demanded, looking around crossly.

“You’ve got to settle this conflict,” I spoke to them, “But killing each other won’t accomplish it.”

“You want the College to be emptied out, is that it?” the Arch-Mage asked, “This is one of the last safe havens for unicorns in Horizon. Where are we supposed to go?”

“No, I don’t want the College emptied,” I said, “But that doesn’t mean I want your reckless experiments to destroy Winterhorn. These earth ponies have as much a right to live here as you do.”

“You’re endangering our way of life,” the Jarl pointed out, “When Jarl Stormcloud hears about all this he’ll shut you down for sure. This is Stormcloud territory after all, and you have to abide by his word.”

“Maybe you don’t,” I said, “What if the College left the Stormclouds?”

“Join the Empire?” the Arch-Mage asked with disgust, “They don’t approve of us.”

“I didn’t say that,” I explained, “What if you became your own city-state?”

“Never!” the Jarl said, “Winterhorn is Stormcloud through and through.”

“Maybe so,” I said, “But I didn’t say Winterhorn should secede, only the College.”

“How is that going to work?” Winter Glory asked, “The College and the town are right next to each other.”

“Not exactly,” I said, “In fact, from the events earlier today and the fight tonight, there’s not many buildings left of Winterhorn near the College. You can rebuild around what’s left, which should be far enough away. The College can even help. It could be a provision of the peace treaty.”

“Peace treaty?” Clairvoyance asked.

“Yes, to end the fighting. The College of Winterhorn will be declared independent so long as they help rebuild the town and not endanger it again with reckless behavior. In return, Winterhorn will promise to respect the College’s sovereignty and never to attack it again without provocation.”

“Doesn’t sound like we have much of a choice,” the Arch-Mage grumbled.

“We won’t keep you here,” I said, “I just wanted you to know there was another option to fighting over this. If you like, you can go to war again. The College will destroy the town, until the Stormclouds come and pummel the College in retaliation until it falls into the sea. I’m offering you a different decision.”

“It does sound like a good idea,” the Jarl admitted, “I’m willing to agree if you are.”

“Very well,” the Arch-Mage said after thinking for a minute, “But let’s get this down in writing.”

He pulled a scroll and quill off a nearby bookshelf and began to write.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

And so, on the morning of the first day of the 201st year of the Fourth Era, Jarl Winter Glory of Winterhorn and Arch-Mage Clairvoyance of the College of Winterhorn emerged from the College and announced an end to the fighting. They had stayed up nearly the entire night drafting the document they now each held a copy of. The Treaty of Winterhorn officially recognized the College as a separate nation, providing they helped repair all the damage their recklessness had caused. Of course, not everypony was satisfied, but the majority of the students and townponies agreed that the peace the two leaders had drafted was just and fair.

Of course, very few knew that it was the four of us that had brought the peace about, and that suited me just fine. We were already gaining quite a reputation throughout Horizon, and if we were recognized for anything else we wouldn’t be able to step outside without being mobbed.

“It’s not exactly what I wanted, but I suppose this compromise will have to do,” the Arch-Mage spoke as he stood beside me, “And, I suppose you were right about this fight just leading to our own self-destruction.”

“Did you just admit you were wrong?” Mystic asked, grinning.

“I never said that,” he quickly said, “But everypony makes mistakes, even Arch-Mages.”

“It’s not wrong to make mistakes,” Mephalda said, sharing her wisdom, “It’s how you handle the aftermath that matters.”

“I must say,” the Arch-Mage said, turning to look at me, “I never once considered seceding from Horizon. Wherever did you get that idea?”

“Well, I was just thinking about how this is the last refuge for unicorns in a land that’s becoming increasingly hostile to anypony who’s not the same race as Jarl Stormcloud,” I said, “It’s something I didn’t mention earlier, but I was hoping you’d consider allowing the College to become a sanctuary for all non-earths now that it’s independent of Horizon.”

“We’re a school of magic,” he said, “We’re for unicorns only.”

“Yes, but you’re also a nation-state now,” I said, “And remember when you asked me where unicorns could go in Horizon if the College was shut down? Every other race already has nowhere to go.”

“Well, I suppose that’s true,” he admitted, “I’ll have messengers spread the word that anypony who feels threatened by Jarl Stormcloud’s regime is welcome here.”

“Speaking of Jarl Stormcloud . . .” Steadfast said, pointing at a Stormcloud messenger that was galloping up to the College.

“We’d better see what the Jarl wants,” Clairvoyance said, leading the way down to the remains of the town, “I doubt he could’ve gotten word of our secession yet.”

“How may I help you?” he asked the messenger as she met us.

“I’m here to speak to them, actually,” she said, weaving around the Arch-Mage to reach us before making her announcement, “Jarl Stormcloud needs you in Earthhaven immediately.”

“What for?” I asked.

“The War,” she replied plainly before seeing I wanted more specifics, “He’s preparing for the attack on Marekarth.”

Level Up
Health: 310 Stamina: 300 Magicka: 300
New Perk: Finesse [Lockpick] -- Your skill with lockpicks is refined enough that, even when failing to pick a lock, your lockpick will rarely break.
New Quest: The City of Stone -- Join the Stormclouds for the attack on Marekarth.

Chapter 63: Battles

Chapter LXIII: Battles
“See? I’d never leave my friends hangin’.”

As Jarl Stormcloud ordered, we headed for Windhorn immediately. Stormcloud’s capital and Winterhorn weren’t that far from each other, and we arrived in just a few short hours. Townsponies filled the streets as we entered the city, celebrating the New Life Festival now that we’d entered a new year. I noticed a conspicuous absence of pegasi in the crowd, however. Hopefully when they heard the news about the College of Winterhorn they’d leave the Winged Quarter for better housing.

Jarl Stormcloud, understandably, was upset about the College’s secession, but not nearly as much as I thought he’d be. After all, it was an institution of magic, something his earth pony army couldn’t use without staffs, and was not really a huge loss to him. Besides, he had much bigger things on his mind.

As soon as the New Life Festival was over, he intended to launch his attack on Marekarth. With Dawnstar now back in his hooves, Foalkreath posing no threat, and Whitetrot on his side, Marekarth was his next step on the way to Seclusion, and pushing the Empire out of Horizon. I was ready to help him take Marekarth as well. He’d kept his word when we attacked Dawnstar, and had let the town live, even letting the Imperial Jarl leave for Seclusion before replacing her with Deala.

Stormcloud had everything planned out; all that remained was to depart for Marekarth itself. The rest of that day we enjoyed the festivities of Windhorn’s New Life Festival. I made sure to head on down to the Winged Quarter to enjoy their celebration and spread the news as well. Sadly, while the rest of the town was busy celebrating a new year, the bat-ponies down at the docks were forced to keep working. The dock foremare wouldn’t let me near them, but I made sure somepony would pass the word to them about Winterhorn.

Jarl Stormcloud let us sleep in the Palace of Kings that night, and we departed for Marekarth in the morning, meeting up with other Stormcloud soldiers headed to the west. Eventually we met up at a camp in the mountains of the Karth, north of the city, and waited until it was time to attack.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

“Prepare yourselves!” Jarl Stormcloud ordered as the sun began to set, “Soon we will liberate Marekarth from the clutches of the Imperials, and their puppet Jarl Glamus!”

A cheer went up from the assembled soldiers.

“Tonight we will free this proud city from the Imperial curse!” the Jarl shouted, “We will secure our rights and freedoms! We will teach the Empire the fury of earth ponies when they are deprived of such rights!”

Another cheer went up from the soldiers, who were now ready for the battle, their armor strapped on and weapons ready.

“To victory!” Stormcloud said, “For Horizon! For Talhooves!”

The army of Stormclouds surged down the mountain, the Jarl at the head. I trotted along with the crowd as fast as I could. Soon Marekarth’s walls came in sight, an impregnable edifice of stone capped with bronze.

“Who goes there?” the gatekeeper asked as we approached.

“The true sons and daughters of Horizon!” Jarl Stormcloud shouted back, “Will you stand against us, or will you join the fight!”

The guard hesitated for a moment, but thankfully it was one of Marekarth’s guards and not an Imperial soldier. The gatekeeper began to open Marekarth’s towering gates to let us in. Suddenly he dropped to the ground, an arrow through his neck.

“Traitor!” somepony called from inside the walls.

As the Stormcloud soldiers attempted to enter the city, they were cut down by arrows, piling up in front of the gate. Mephalda flapped up into the air until she could see over the walls. She fired a few arrows of her own before returning to the ground.

“The city’s full of Imperial troops,” she said, “A few guards on the wall saw us approaching and raised the alarm. There’s more leaving the keep right now.”

The army parted to allow a few heavily armored Stormclouds with large shields pass through to the front. A few archers followed them as they headed through the opening in the gate, protected from the enemy shots by the shields. When the archers called back that it was safe to advance, the Stormcloud army once more swelled forward, pushing the city gates open the rest of the way.

I followed the soldiers, entering the city of Marekarth. Imperial soldiers were swarming through the city, clashing with the Stormclouds in the market. I drew Dawnbreaker as an Imperial soldier with a pike charged at me, her weapon down. I stepped to the side as she attempted to run me through, bringing my sword down on her weapon.

She swung the pike back up into the air, knocking Dawnbreaker away. I ducked as she swung the blade over my head. Kicking out, I knocked her forelegs out from under her. As she fell to the ground, she swung her pike at me, which I blocked with my Draconequus sword before it could reach my head. Slowly, I began to push it away.

As I did so, one of the Marekarth guards came up behind me and swung her mace into my flank, denting in the armor. I bucked at her and missed, losing ground to the mare with the pike as I did so. Another buck landed on her jaw, forcing her to drop her weapon, which I grabbed in my magic.

I swung it around at the back of her neck, striking her helmet on the edge. Still, the mace cracked her spine as it rolled, killing the mare in an instant. Still holding off the mare with the pike using Dawnbreaker, I swung my stolen mace around at her head. She spun her pike to block, too late, as the mace hit her in the side of her head, caving in her helmet and her skull.

<<>> I Shouted as I charged toward one of the stone stairways that twisted up through the city.

The Imperials that had been standing on the stairs a moment earlier were thrown back, scattering at the force of my Shout. One with a war axe recovered first, swinging it around at my head as I approached. I blocked with Dawnbreaker, pushing the axe away. He swung it up again, this time at my chest, but I knocked it to the ground with my Draconequus sword. I drew the Blade of Hoofingar as I did so, swinging it around at the soldier’s head.

The sword of another Imperial blocked me as I did so. I spun my ebony sword around, trying to throw away the Imperial’s sword and failing. Meanwhile, the other pony swung his war axe back around at me, which I blocked with Dawnbreaker. As they both swung their weapons at me at the same time, I deflected with my swords, pushing them in toward the center. The war axe and sword locked, leaving both Imperials open to strikes from my swords that opened their necks.

Steadfast charged past me, stopping a battleaxe from striking my head with his warhammer. I ducked out from under the two locked weapons and swung Dawnbreaker through the armor of the unicorn wielding the battleaxe. As she fell to the ground, I spun around to face the stairs.

Two soldiers were making their way down toward us, and I blasted one of them with lightning from my horn, sending him flying backwards with sparks flying over his armor. The other tried to pierce me with a spear, which I knocked to the side with Dawnbreaker. Before he could recover, I blasted him in the face with fire. He ran off screaming as the flames coated the inside of his armor.

I proceeded up the stairs, reaching a tier where a few shops were built into the rock wall. As I neared another set of stairs, an Imperial with a mace suddenly jumped out of the doorway ahead of me. I blocked the weapon easily but heard more doors opening behind me. I pushed the mace away swiftly, striking it against the ground. I continued to bring Dawnbreaker around in an arc, striking the soldier in the side and knocking her from the tier.

I spun around to see four soldiers advancing up toward me. The one in the back was suddenly fried by Mystic’s magic, and two others turned to fight her. A unicorn stallion with a battleaxe came at me, and I brought Dawnbreaker up under the blade of his weapon. I threw it away, but before I could stab him with my blade a ward suddenly popped up around him. Dawnbreaker was already halfway through, so I pushed until it completely penetrated his ward, and I could swing it around into his neck.

Mystic and Steadfast rejoined me as we headed up higher into the city. Mephalda flew nearby, picking off opponents wherever she could with a few well-placed arrows. Down below, I could see the Stormclouds were pushing the Imperials back, cornering them. Like us, more Stormclouds were making their way up the tiers across the city, facing fierce opposition from Marekarth’s Imperial defenders.

We headed up the stairs until it turned suddenly, becoming a bridge that stretched across to where the Hall of Records was built beneath the Temple of Difillya. A single soldier waited to stop us from reaching the bridge, a mare wearing the armor of Marekarth. With a longsword, she blocked my initial strike, but couldn’t react fast enough to block the swing Steadfast took at her.

We began to head across the bridge, but a group of Imperial soldiers tried to cross the other way at the same time. Mystic fired lightning at them, and I did the same, but they had a battlemage with them who raised a ward, protecting them from harm.

<> I Shouted as we neared them, and the front row’s weapons went flying from their grasp, tumbling off the bridge.

We charged through the ward, striking out with our own weapons at the now unarmed Imperials. As the first row tumbled from the bridge, the ward went down and the battlemage began to go on the offensive, shooting magic at us. Mystic raised a ward over herself and went after him, blasting through the soldiers in her way.

I found myself locked in combat with a stallion wielding a sword. As I swung my weapon around toward his neck he blocked me, knocking my sword aside before swinging back around toward me. I jumped back as the blade swung past my neck, swinging my own sword around to knock his blade into the guard rail of the bridge. The Blade of Hoofingar swung around into his neck while I kept his sword from moving with Dawnbreaker.

Before I could even push his body out of the way, I felt the tip of a spear pierce my armor. The Griffin armor was strong, but it had been repaired so much that the spear cut right through a weak point. I winced as the soldier wielding it twisted it around, digging into my flesh. My vision grew blurry as I searched for the culprit.

<>

My flame breath incinerated the soldiers ahead of me. One of them must have been the soldier who’d impaled me with the spear, for it stopped moving in my chest, and the glow around it died. Still, the spear was stuck in me, and I collapsed, only driving the weapon in farther. Mystic finished her fight with the battlemage, encasing him in ice before toppling him off the bridge, before she rushed to my side. Pulling the spear out, she cast a healing spell on my battered flesh, sealing up the wound.

A few more Imperial soldiers stood on the bridge, but they were easily dealt with before we moved on, making for a set of stone stairs that would lead us up to the top level of the city. An Imperial soldier came charging down the stairs was we went up, a pike held out to spear us through. Mystic shot a fireball at him, not killing him, but causing him to stagger and fall from the stairs.

An Imperial archer waited for us at the top of the stairs, firing arrows down at us as we advanced. Mystic put up a ward, and I fired ice spikes at the enemy soldier. One eventually succeeded in piercing her defense, finding the spot of her head her helmet didn’t cover and shooting straight through. As she toppled from the ledge, we reached the top tier of Marekarth.

A few Stormcloud soldiers had made it up this far as well, but not many. We joined up with them in front of the keep. It was oddly still up here. Had Jarl Glamus used up all his troops already?

I got my answer as the keep’s doors suddenly opened and Marekarth guards poured out. Behind us, the Temple of Difillya’s door also opened, and Imperial soldiers advanced from it. We were soon surrounded, Imperials on one side, and Marekarth guards on the other.

Chaos suddenly broke out as both sides attacked each other. Screams and the clash of blades flew through the air as I searched for a target. A Marekarth guard with a warhammer found me first, her weapon crushing one of my hindlegs. I cried out as I felt the bone snap, but devoted my attention to swinging Dawnbreaker up at the mare.

She blocked with her warhammer, pushing me back and injuring my hindleg further. I brought out my Changeling war axe and swung it around toward her foreleg. The weapon’s blade cut into the back of her leg, tearing it open as I pulled the weapon toward me. Now we were even, legwise at least.

As she swung her warhammer back down at me, I blocked with Dawnbreaker and hooked my war axe over the shaft. I had her locked in place, but I couldn’t strike back myself. As she began to push her weapon toward me, I suddenly moved out of the way while drawing Dawnbreaker back, allowing her weapon to strike the stone. Dawnbreaker swung around over her warhammer and through her neck, decapitating her.

I reset my leg and cast a healing spell on it, stitching it together enough that I could stand on it, at least. As a Marekarth guard with a sword tried to charge me, I blasted him with fire, forcing him to stagger back. Next to me, a Stormcloud suddenly fell to the blade of an Imperial, and I retaliated by stabbing her attacker with Dawnbreaker.

Looking around, I could see that the tables were turned. The Stormclouds were no longer winning this battle now that we were surrounded. Had this been Jarl Glamus’s plan all along, to lure us up to the keep and ambush us? I knew one thing for certain. We’d never survive this if nothing changed.

<> I Shouted, and clouds began to swirl overhead.

Lightning soon began to lance down from the clouds, striking the soldiers around us. The Stormclouds backed in on themselves, keeping their distance from the enemies as they were fried by the fury of the storm. Soon, only a few Imperial soldiers and Marekarth guards remained, and they quickly surrendered, dropping their weapons lest I call the storm down on them as well.

Jarl Stormcloud and the rest of his army joined us in front of the keep before heading in. Pushing the bronze doors open, we charged into Jarl Glamus’s stronghold. We ran through the hallways unopposed until we reached a large open room before the Jarl’s throne.

Suddenly, the Stormcloud soldier galloping next to me was hit by a giant crossbow bolt. I ducked behind a bronze-coated pillar before sneaking a peek at what had shot him. Mechanized crossbows built by the Minotaurs squatted up near the great hall, shooting giant bolts at anything that moved.

I quickly ran to the next pillar, the crossbows tracking me as I did so. I jumped through the air as one shot under me, striking the wall. I skidded across the ground, nearly being hit by another bolt as I pulled myself behind another pillar. As I looked around the pillar, the crossbows followed me, shooting another two bolts that tore chunks from the pillar as they whizzed by.

<<>> I Shouted, quickly shooting forward until I was standing behind the crossbow.

A Marekarth guard guarded each one, and I brought Dawnbreaker up to defend myself as one of them pulled a sword on me. I blocked, pushing the stallion back until he was near the other guard. As they bumped into each other he lost control, and I threw his sword away, swinging Dawnbreaker around to slice his head off.

The mare behind him pushed his body to the side, jabbing at me with a pike. I stepped to the side, avoiding the blade, and hooked it with my sword. As I held it in place with my weapon, I also grabbed it with my hooves and magic and strained to lift the mare into the air. Finally I got enough momentum built up that I was able to flip the pike, throwing the guard in front of the crossbows, where she was shot by one of the deadly bolts.

<<>> I Shouted.

Ice covered one of the crossbows, seizing up its insides and causing the cable to snap. The other I stabbed Dawnbreaker into, tearing through the internal machinery. I continued to hack away at it until it ceased firing.

The Stormclouds rushed forward as the stream of deadly bolts ended. Marekarth guards came galloping down the stairs to meet them. I struck out at one with Dawnbreaker as he passed, slicing through his foreleg.

I ducked down as a guard with a battleaxe tried to take my head off. I grabbed her forelegs as I headed up the stairs, tripping her up. I was pulled down as well, tumbling through the crowd of fighting ponies. I ended up beneath my opponent, and blocked swiftly with Dawnbreaker as she swung down at my head.

As I tried to block her next swing, she knocked Dawnbreaker away with her armored hoof. I reached out for anything nearby I could block with, and found one of the bolts from the crossbows. Her blade screeched as it hit the bronze shaft, and I slid the sharp end up into her chest. I pushed the battleaxe away as I rolled her body off of me and retrieved Dawnbreaker.

The Stormclouds were pushing the guards back now, Jarl Stormcloud at the front of the fighting. I followed as they pushed all the way up the stairs to the great hall and throne room. However, nopony sat on the throne. Instead, Jarl Glamus’s steward stood beside the throne, approaching us as we entered the room.

“I am prepared to make an unconditional surrender in the name of Jarl Glamus,” he said, approaching Stormcloud, “Marekarth will gladly join in your rebellion against the Imperial tyranny.”

“I don’t want to speak to you.” Stormcloud said pointedly, holding the tip of his sword before the steward’s throat, “I want to speak to your master. Where is he?”

“I-In his bedchambers,” he stammered out, “But he’s not to be disturbed.”

“Fetch him,” Stormcloud ordered, and a few of his soldiers left to search the keep.

A few minutes later they returned with Jarl Glamus. He looked much different than when I’d last seen him. He no longer held himself so highly, not after the attack on Caprika Redoubt. Even after all this time, the magical burns on his skin refused to heal, leaving him looking just as pitiful as Captain Faeros had when he’d ordered me to kill him. Yet, beneath his injuries, and staring defeat in the face, I could still see his arrogance burning.

“Jarl Glamus,” Stormcloud spoke to him, moving his sword away from the steward, “You misled the ponies of the Karth, bowing to the Pegasari Dominion’s demands just as the Unicorn Empire has. You abandoned Talhooves, and led your subjects to do the same. Now, make peace with your remaining Equines.”

Glamus did nothing but glower at Jarl Stormcloud. Slowly he lifted his head to stare him in the eyes. Suddenly he jumped toward the Jarl, drawing a knife out of his robes. Stormcloud swiftly swung his sword around, chopping off Glamus’s head before he could do any harm.

“Where is Umas?” Stormcloud asked as he cleaned off his sword, “Find him and bring him here.”

A few of the guards left again, and returned a few minutes later with an elderly charcoal gray earth pony.

“Umas the Wise,” Stormcloud spoke to him, “Your nephew turned his back on Talhooves, and on his race. I know that you, however, are a loyal son of Horizon. Are you willing to take your nephew’s place on the throne of Marekarth?”

“I am,” Umas replied, and Jarl Stormcloud placed Glamus’s crown on his head.

“Jarl Stormcloud!” one of his soldiers said urgently as he entered the throne room, “We have something you need to see.”

The Jarl followed the soldier outside, and my friends and I trotted after, curious about what was going on. In the great hall, there was a pegasus in Blackwing robes bound and sitting on the ground. It appeared his wings had been clipped, either during a fight with the Stormclouds from which he still bore the wounds, or after they managed to subdue him in order to keep him from flying away.

“Us loyal devotees of Talhooves are winning this war,” Stormcloud taunted the Blackwing, “Do you still think he is not real and not on our side?”

“I know it,” the Blackwing said, earning himself a kick from one of the soldiers surrounding him, “You have no idea what you are doing, and soon your rebellion shall collapse. But fear not, the Pegasari Dominion will be there to pick up the pieces.”

Another kick knocked the smug grin from his face. As he brought his head back around to face Stormcloud, he suddenly stopped, his eyes fixed on where we were standing. In particular, I noticed he was looking a bit over my shoulder, and I followed his eyes to where Mephalda was flying, beginning to look concerned.

“It can’t be!” he said, struggling against his bonds.

“Do you finally see the truth?” Stormcloud asked, misinterpreting the Blackwing’s words.

“I see that you must not know who it is you have allied yourself with,” the Blackwing said, “Else you are a fool to allow Mephalda the Meek to enter your army.”

“Who?” Stormcloud asked, looking at Mephalda.

“Why, her of course!” the Blackwing said, “Mephalda the Meek is only the most famous and deadly Blackwing of all time!”

The Blackwing suddenly tore his bonds apart and bucked the guards around him away. Swatting aside the blades that came at him, ignoring the injuries, he lunged toward Mephalda. Faster than I could follow, Mephalda drew out her bow and shot the Blackwing through his skull. He slid across the ground in front of us, his blood pooling on the floor.

The Stormclouds around us mumbled to each other, not sure about what to do. Jarl Stormcloud looked equally shocked, staring at the Blackwing’s motionless body. Eventually he turned toward where Mephalda had landed.

“Is this true?” he asked.

“Mostly,” the pegasus said, “I used to be a Blackwing, but not anymore.”

“There’s no such thing as an ex-Blackwing,” he replied, “Only if you are dead do you stop being one. I cannot trust Blackwings.”

“Seize her!” he ordered, suddenly turning, “I cannot allow any Blackwing to remain alive!”

I drew my sword before I even knew what I was doing, and waved it at the Stormclouds, forcing them to keep their distance. Steadfast drew his warhammer, and Mystic put up a ward around us as we formed a protective circle around Mephalda.

“What are you doing?” Stormcloud asked incredulously.

“I won’t let you kill my friend,” I said, “She may have been a Blackwing once, but she’s changed.”

“Impossible. Once a Blackwing, always a Blackwing. You don’t know what you’re doing.”

“I know Mephalda,” I said, “And I know that she’d do the same for me. If you want her dead, you’ll have to kill me first.”

“Sapphire, listen to yourself,” Stormcloud said, “Is she really worth dying for?”

“Yes, she is,” I answered firmly.

“You’re really willing to sacrifice yourself over this?”

I nodded in response while Stormcloud scowled at me. Then, slowly, his face began to soften and he gave a sigh.

“Very well,” he said unhappily, “I trust you, and if you vouch for her, then I shall allow her to remain. You’re an honorable pony, and I have to respect the loyalty you’ve shown to your friend. If I didn’t, then everything I fight for is hollow.”

“You won’t harm her?” I asked suspiciously.

“No,” he replied, “Even though I still feel it’s a poor idea to allow a Blackwing, any Blackwing, to live, I won’t threaten Mephalda again.”

I let down my guard, putting my sword away. Steadfast also sheathed his weapon, and Mystic allowed her ward to fall. Mephalda tapped me on the shoulder and I turned to look at her.

“Did you really mean all that?” she asked.

“Of course I did,” I said, “You’re my friend. I’d never abandon you.”

My eyes were suddenly drawn downward as I noticed a red glow coming from my chest. I pulled out the hexagonal Element I’d picked up in Forelhorse and held it up before my eyes. Sure enough, it was the source of the glow, which grew brighter every second until it swallowed up everything else, and I was forced to close my eyes against the brightness.

~◊~ ~◊ MIDROT ◊~ ~◊~

Like back in the Dawnstar Sanctuary, all the ponies around me were still there, but the walls and floor were not. Also, everything was tinged red instead of orange this time.

‘Loyalty,’ a voice once more spoke from everywhere at once.

It was similar to the voice I’d heard within the Element of Honesty, but not quite the same. The odd accent was gone, replaced with a tone that suggested the speaker was extremely sure of herself.

‘Loyalty is what holds friendships together when times get tough,’ the voice continued, ‘For without Loyalty, any relationship falls apart at the slightest hardship. Loyalty can be hard to maintain, for being truly loyal means that you take upon the trials of not only your only life, but those of your friends as well. Of course, like all great virtues, Loyalty can be easily corrupted. Witness now, the story of Naghot.’

Everything slid away from me, until I overlooked the same ancient version of Horizon I had when viewing the story of Voldehorse. This time, the action centered around Naghot as the voice narrated the events that befell her.

‘Naghot learned the importance of Loyalty in Horizon during a time when many ponies betrayed their neighbors for their own ambitions. Still, she clung to her belief in Loyalty, and it guided her to five other ponies, who all became the fastest of friends. The dragons, pleased with the harmony of the Six Companions, bestowed upon them the most powerful artifacts of all time: the Elements of Harmony. The Six Companions proclaimed themselves to be Dragon Priests, special emissaries to and from the dragons. The fantastical power they wielded was used to the benefit of all, ushering in a new era of prosperity for Horizon.’

‘But absolute power corrupts absolutely, and the Dragon Priests began to abuse their powers for their own benefit. Naghot took a cynical view of ponykind, believing them all to be the backstabbing wretches she had known in her youth. She searched Horizon for anypony who betrayed each other, in however small a way, and punished them for their crimes. However, in the process, she broke nearly every commitment she had made herself, becoming the very things she sought to destroy. Her vast purges caused the ponies of Horizon to rise up against her and seal her within Forelhorse, where she could no longer scrutinize all their dealings and punish them for the smallest inconsistency.’

‘Loyalty must be guarded carefully and used properly. Taken to an extreme, it can be just as devastating as if it is not followed at all. Guard your loyalties carefully, and do not make or break commitments lightly.’

Horizon flew from my sight, and a bright flash of red blinded me, returning me to reality.

~◊~ ~◊~ ~◊~

“So, which one was it this time?” Steadfast asked.

“Loyalty,” I replied, “Standing up for Mephalda must’ve activated it.”

“Well, that means we’ve only got four more to go,” he pointed out.

“That’s true,” I said, “And we know where one of them is at least.”

Suddenly the entire city shook, and a strange hum filled the air. Along with the Stormclouds, we rushed outside to see what was going on. A huge shimmering field covered Markekarth, causing all of the town’s residents and invaders alike to murmur worriedly.

“We know where it is,” Mephalda said, “But getting to it could prove to be a problem.”

Level Up
Health: 310 Stamina: 300 Magicka: 310
New Perk: Long-Distance Caster [Destruction] -- With any spells involving projectiles, you are now significantly more accurate at long distances.
Element of Loyalty activated
New Quest: Trapped -- Find a way to escape the force field that has fallen over Marekarth.

Chapter 64: Nuzel-zum

Chapter LXIV: Nuzel-zum
“The excavation site is closed. I don’t need any more workers or guards.”

We were trapped.

All of Marekarth, as well as much of the mountain it was built into, was covered in a magical field that glowed a shimmering gold. A vast dome now covered the city, making it impossible for anypony to enter or leave. Mephalda flapped into the air, searching for the source.

“What is this?” Stormcloud demanded, “Umas, what is the meaning of this?”

“I don’t know,” the elderly stallion answered, “It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

“That Minotauran tower out in the mountains,” Mephalda asked as she landed near us, “Is it connected to the city?”

“I don’t know,” the new Jarl of Marekarth answered, “Only a hooffull of ponies have ever been there. Why?”

“That’s where the shield is coming from,” she said.

“But why would it suddenly pop up now?” Stormcloud asked.

“Um, I think it was the Blackwing,” one of the Stormcloud soldiers spoke up.

“Impossible,” Stormcloud waved off her suggestion, “How could he do such a thing?”

“When we found him, he was messing with some of the Minotauran controls on the wall,” the soldier explained.

“Well, go there and shut it off!” Stormcloud ordered.

“We can’t,” she said, shaking her head, “He destroyed the controls.”

“By Ysgroomar,” Stormcloud said, “You mean to say we’re trapped here?”

“Maybe not,” I said, after thinking a bit, “The shield’s coming from that tower, so maybe we can shut it down from there.”

“But how?” Umas asked, “That Minotauran ruin is a maze. There’s no way you can find your way to the tower.”

“Maybe we don’t have to,” I said, “Mephalda, can you fly there?”

“No,” she shook her head, “There’s another shield around the tower.”

“Hmm,” I said, thinking of another way, “You said that ponies have made the trip before?”

“Yes,” Umas replied, “But they’re all either dead or missing.”

“Do you have any research notes from their trip still lying around?” Mystic asked.

“I’m not sure,” Umas answered, “You’ll have to ask our researcher.”

We followed Umas back through the keep to a large bronze door in the very back. We traveled through it, the Marekarth guards standing at alert letting us pass. Apparently they’d already received the news that Marekarth was in Stormcloud hooves now, and wanted to keep their heads on their shoulders.

We entered a room with a large canal, a bridge crossing it and leading to another large set of bronze doors. A makeshift study had been set up on the near side of the canal. Bookshelves packed with scrolls surrounded a table covered in books on the Minotaurs. A dull brown earth pony sat behind the table, copying something down.

“Hmm, what brings you here?” he asked inquisitively as he noticed us.

“Long story,” Umas said, “I’ll explain later. These ponies need to get to the tower the previous expedition went to. Do you have any research notes?”

“Even better,” the stallion said, trotting over to one of the chests near the canal’s edge.

He returned with a small cube covered in strange etchings and passed it to me. I flipped it around in my magic, but could see no way it would help us to navigate the Minotauran ruins.

“What is this?” I asked.

“A lexicon,” the researcher explained, “Used by the ancient Minotaurs to store vast amounts of data. The last expedition to the observatory used it to chart their way.”

“But how am I supposed to use it?” I asked.

“Well, it stores the entire expedition,” he said, “Press that button there and it will play back whatever occurred where you’re currently standing.”

I gave it a try, pressing in one of the raised portions on the side of the lexicon. Suddenly the dull red light that had been pulsing through the cracks in the lexicon grew brighter and a group of figures appeared around us. Five ponies composed entirely of red light surrounded us, standing around and preparing for the expedition. I recognized one of them, a unicorn stallion with a caramel coat. It was Topaz, the pony Jarl Glamus had sent to Doompit Mine for his research here.

“Everypony ready?” he asked, his voice oddly tinny.

“Alright,” he continued once they nodded affirmation, “Those records we found mentioned an observatory. Let’s see if we can’t reach it today.”

“Do you know how to get there?” an earth pony mare asked.

“Not exactly,” Topaz admitted, “But it should be marked fairly well. Most of the area markings in Nuzel-zum so far have been in Equine, but just in case, I memorized the Minotauran word for it.”

“What are we waiting for?” an armored mare with a greatsword across her back asked, “Let’s get in there.”

“Bellwether is right,” Topaz said, “We should get moving. We can discuss any other questions on the way.”

The group trotted across the bridge over the canal and passed through the bronze doors. I noticed now that they were a mixed group of three scholars and two guards. Even then Topaz must’ve suspected that the defenses of Nuzel-zum were active. I pressed the button on the side again as they vanished from sight, and the lexicon returned to normal.

“Pretty nifty, huh?” the researcher said, “Whenever you’re not sure about a path, just activate the cube and you’ll see the path their party took. And, if you’re curious, just leave it on and you can watch the entire expedition.”

“Please don’t,” Stormcloud said, “Time is of the essence. The majority of my armed forces are trapped within this city. Everywhere else in Horizon is now vulnerable to attack from the Empire.”

“We’ll get that shield down as fast as we can,” I promised him.

Steadfast and Mystic at my sides, and Mephalda flying overhead, we entered the great Minotauran city of Nuzel-zum.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

For the first bit, it was fairly obvious what route the research expedition had taken. Everything was swept clean, and catalogues lay here and there. Apparently the current researcher had no fear that the automated defenders of the city would disturb his research.

Eventually we found ourselves passing into lesser used halls, where the Minotauran automatons lay motionless around us. Curious, I pressed the lexicon a few times to view the progress of our predecessors.

I activated the lexicon when we reached a large room filled with hissing steam pipes. Several doorways led out, but they were all labeled in Minotauran, as Topaz had feared. As the lexicon activated, the ghosts of the researchers suddenly appeared.

“Admit it, you don’t really have any idea where we’re going, do you?” an armored bat-pony stallion asked.

“Of course I do, From-Highest-Ledge,” Topaz replied, “We’re on the right track; it’s just that the observatory is just too far away for any of the signs to point the way. But if we pass through the Debate Hall, here, we should near the city center. There’s sure to be some kind of marking there to help find the observatory.”

“But you don’t know for sure, do you?” From-Highest-Ledge retorted, “You could just be leading us into another empty room. I say we go back now. Every step we take gets us deeper into this labyrinth. We’ll be lost before long, and never find our way out.”

“That’s not true,” Topaz said, pulling out a map and holding it before the bat-pony’s face, “I’ve been keeping careful track of our path. We’ll find our way out. But there’s no point turning back when we haven’t discovered anything yet.”

“That’s not exactly true,” an earth pony mare pointed out, “We’ve already passed through the steamworks and three of the outer workshops. I’d say we’ve got quite enough data to last us for some time.”

“Where’s your sense of adventure, Torius?” Topaz responded, “Our goal is the observatory. Without finding what we set out to find, our accomplishments are hollow. Isn’t that right, Blossom?”

He turned to look at the final member of the party, a unicorn mare dressed in scholar’s robes like his own.

“Well, I think-” she started to say before suddenly being cut off.

A blast of lightning hit her in the side, causing her to flip over before falling to the ground, motionless.

“Where in the Beyond did that come from?” Bellwether demanded, drawing her greatsword.

“They’re on the ceiling!” Torius cried.

The expedition party panicked, running around madly, Bellwether and From-Highest-Ledge swiping at invisible enemies.

“Quickly, through here!” Topaz called, pushing open one of the doors.

The party galloped away quickly, their glowing forms vanishing as I released the button on the lexicon. A quiet skittering came from the darkness. Something told me we weren’t alone. Slowly I trotted over toward where the wires that connected all the lights intersected, and turned the knob. The artificial lights glowed brighter, allowing us to see the horde of spider-like automatons that clung to the ceiling.

Glass domes jutted up from the bodies of some of them, lightning skittering around inside. One of them suddenly glowed before sending a bolt down at Mystic. She threw up a ward, deflecting the bolt. More of the lightning began to rain down at us, and some of the spiders began to crawl down the walls.

“We’ve got to get out of here!” I said, jumping into the ward Mystic conjured over all four of us.

Mystic’s ward moved with her as we made our way toward the door Topaz had passed through. A few of the mechanical spiders made it down the walls before we reached the door, and I drew Dawnbreaker to fight them off. The blade easily cut through the metal, tearing apart the mechanics inside, and rendering the spiders harmless before they reached me.

Likewise, Steadfast was crushing the machines with his warhammer, and Mephalda was cutting them apart with her Blackwing swords. We made it to the door with only minor injuries from the strikes the spiders made at us with their metal legs. Once through, we slammed the door shut and locked it.

We could hear the mechanical spiders pounding on the door as we caught our breaths. I activated the lexicon again to see what had befallen the expedition party after they passed through these same doors. The ghostly red figures locked the door immediately, much as we had, before galloping off through the halls to put some distance between themselves and the spiders. We followed their wavering figures as they passed through the long-abandoned halls.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Things were still for quite some time after that, most of the ruin’s mechanical defenders destroyed during the previous expedition. A few times we met automatons that wandered out of the side passages, but for the most part we simply followed the lexicon through Nuzel-zum, taking the same path as our predecessors. We passed through the Debate Hall and city center, then through some living quarters before we reached an area more densely packed with hissing machinery. When we entered a large room filled with half-built automatons, I activated the lexicon, searching for the correct exit from the workshop.

“What is this place?” Bellwether asked, looking around at what I assumed were the same half-finished automatons we could see.

“The Animonculory,” Topaz answered, “Where the Minotaurs built their automatons. You can see that even to the moment they disappeared they were busy building new ones.”

“Fascinating,” Torius said, “A functioning Animonculory. Maybe we can figure out how the automatons are powered if we study this room.”

“Mark it down for later,” From-Highest-Ledge said, “We can’t tarry here if we want to reach the observatory.”

“Right,” Topaz said, turning away from a death-clanker he and Bellwether were looking at, “It shouldn’t be much farther now.”

Bellwether suddenly drew her sword and looked up at what I assumed was the death-clanker rising from the table it was lying on. It must have been so, because she began to swing her sword at it, and its image began to phase in and out of existence as she came into contact with it.

Topaz tried to cast a spell at it, but he jumped to the side, avoiding the giant crossbow bolts that were still stuck in the floor. From-Highest-Ledge attacked at its head, but he was soon knocked away by a swipe of its hand, and was sent tumbling against the wall.

“We can’t best this thing!” From-Highest-Ledges said as he picked himself up, favoring his left hindleg, “We have to get out of here!”

Topaz nodded his agreement.

“Bellwether, Torius, we have to go!” he called, already heading for one of the doors.

“You’ll never outrun it!” Bellwether said as she dodged a swipe from the death-clanker, “You go, I’ll hold it off!”

“You’ll never survive!” Topaz protested.

“I was hired to protect you!” she replied, “It’s an occupational hazard! Now stop arguing and go!”

Topaz hesitated a moment before obeying and leaving the Animonculory. From-Highest-Ledge and Torius followed him out. I kept the lexicon running as Bellwether fought the massive automaton, until it finally got the upper hoof. Bringing its arm up, it impaled her with its crossbow before firing her across the room. As she slumped over in the corner, I deactivated the lexicon.

As I’d feared, the sound of turning gears and gyros suddenly came from the workshop table. The death-clanker that had killed Bellwether was still alive. Steam began to hiss from it as it stood up and leveled its crossbow at us. It fired at Mephalda first, but she took off into the air, flapping around behind it and drawing her bow.

As Mephalda fired arrows into the death-clanker’s vulnerable parts, Mystic and I began to shoot it with lightning. The machine jerked around, the raw energy we were pouring into it wreaking havoc on the internal machinery. It still managed to get a few shots off with its crossbow, however, nicking my back and slicing through the armor.

I ceased shooting lightning at it and drew Dawnbreaker, charging forward. I ducked down as it swung an arm over me. I stabbed my sword up into it armpit, locking it in place. Steadfast came by a moment later and slammed his warhammer down onto the arm, snapping it off. The death-clanker kicked at me with one of its legs, sending me flying back.

Steadfast swung it at its chest cavity, but scrambled back as a cloud of scalding steam shot out at him. Mystic threw up a ward as the death-clanker began to fire bolts at her. The solid metal rods slammed into the magical shield, deforming before bouncing off. With each shot it took, the shield flashed and grew weaker, draining Mystic’s power. I charged forward before she was completely overwhelmed.

<<>> I Shouted.

Ice began to cover the death-clanker’s body before seeping in through the cracks. Within, the gears and gyros grew brittle, snapping as they came in contact with each other. Finally the automaton’s power source seized up and it fell over, the artificial light in its eyes dying. As it hit the ground it split apart, the brittle metal cracking and breaking easily.

The automaton destroyed, we continued on through the door Topaz had passed through, getting ever closer to our goal. Topaz had been right about the observatory being nearby. Only a short passage separated the Animonculory from the stairs that led up the tower.

We climbed higher and higher, until the tower jutted out of the Karth mountains. At last we reached the top, where an array of mirrors and lenses filled a large dome. At the moment, a field of energy was pulsing through the array, projecting the shield around us and Marekarth.

We searched for the controls to the shield with little success. The controls were all labeled in Minotauran, making it impossible to tell which levers would do what. In addition, many seemed locked in place, a safety keeping us from doing anything until the energy flow was cut off.

“If the previous expedition came through here, maybe they mentioned something,” Mystic suggested.

“It’s worth a shot,” I said, activating the lexicon.

The glowing red figures of Topaz, From-Highest-Ledge, and Torius appeared trotting up the steps.

“We made it at last,” Topaz said, breathing a sigh of relief before marveling at the sights around him, “A working Minotauran observatory.”

“What’s this?” Torius asked, inspecting a set of controls, “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Hmm,” Topaz said, inspecting the panel, where he found a small parchment tucked behind the controls, “Interesting. This appears to be some sort of last resort defense against attackers.”

“How so?” From-Highest-Ledge asked.

“It realigns all the lenses to project a shield around the entire city,” Topaz explained as he read, “It’s really quite ingenious, using the observatory to protect Nuzel-zum.”

“Would it cover Marekarth too?” Ledge asked.

“I would assume so,” Topaz answered, “Marekarth is just the outworks of Nuzel-zum, so I suppose the shield would protect it too.”

Ledge looked thoughtful for a moment before asking Topaz another question.

“Could you activate it?”

“Easily,” he answered, holding up the parchment he’d found, “The instructions are all right here. There’s even instruction on how to hook up the controls in several other places, Marekarth Keep among them.”

Very suddenly, From-Highest-Ledge grabbed Torius and held a sword to her neck.

“What are you doing?” Topaz asked.

“It’s simple. I need to know how to activate this shield, if it comes to it. Give me the instructions, and she won’t get hurt.”

“All right,” Topaz said, moving slowly toward the bat-pony.

“That’s close enough,” Ledge said when Topaz was standing in front of him, “Set it down now.”

As Ledge reached down to pick up the parchment, Torius suddenly jabbed him in the chest with her foreleg. Pushing his sword away, she broke free of his grasp, picking up the shield instructions as she ran away from him. Topaz began to fire ice at the bat-pony, but he flew away, hiding up in the array of mirrors and lenses overhead.

Topaz kept his magic ready as he searched to room, waiting for Ledge to emerge. Suddenly the bat-pony shot down from the rafters, knocking Topaz to the ground. He tried to fire ice at him, but the mercenary used his hoof to push his head away.

Torius came at him from behind, holding a knife. He quickly jumped at her, knocking the blade from her mouth. Before she could react, he drew his sword and stabbed it up into her body, throwing her to the side.

“Torius!” Topaz yelled as he watched her body roll across the floor.

From-Highest-Ledge retrieved the instructions to activate the shield from her body before turning toward Topaz. The unicorn scholar ran away as the bat-pony swooped toward him, heading back down the tower. I deactivated the lexicon as Topaz disappeared down the stairs. Up in the rafters, the glow faded around From-Highest-Ledge, but he didn’t disappear.

“Curious, are we?” he asked, looking down on us from his perch.

“Why did you do it?” I asked, drawing Dawnbreaker to defend myself if he happened to swoop down on us.

“Because . . . he’s working with the Blackwings,” Mephalda said, putting the pieces together.

“Very clever,” Ledge replied, still not moving from his perch, “Yes, I work for the Blackwings. They paid me well to accompany those scholars and report what they found in this ruin. Of course, when we found this room I had something far greater to report. I gave Marekarth’s Justiciar the ability to activate the shield from his quarters, and I stayed here, making sure nopony would meddle with the device until the plan is complete.”

“Plan?” Steadfast asked.

“The Blackwings knew Jarl Stormcloud was sure to attack Marekarth eventually,” Ledge said, “And when he did, he would be very close to taking control of Horizon. That they cannot allow, so I am trapping him here until the time is right to release him back into the war.”

“I’m afraid we can’t let you do that,” I said.

Mephalda suddenly fired an arrow at From-Highest-Ledge from behind, where she’d silently moved to while he was talking. He flared his wings and made to dive from his perch, and the arrow shot through the membrane, tearing a gash in it. Tipping off balance, Ledge fell from his perch and crashed to the ground.

He drew his sword the moment he hit the ground, leaping toward Mystic. She threw up a ward to block his swing, and his sword crashed against her magical shield. He spun around a moment later at Steadfast, who was taking a swing at him from behind with his warhammer. The bat-pony blocked the strike, twisting out from under Steadfast.

He gave the earth pony a kick before swinging his sword around at him. Though thrown off balance, Steadfast blocked the swing with his warhammer. As Ledge pulled back to strike again I charged in, swinging Dawnbreaker around at the back of his head. He spun his sword around at me next, knocking Dawnbreaker to the side.

I drew the Blade of Hoofingar and blocked his next strike as he kicked out at Steadfast, keeping him at a distance. I used both my swords to block him, pushing him back toward my earth pony companion. Suddenly Ledge shot up into the air. My swords nicked him slightly as I passed under him, but I then ran into Steadfast.

We were both still lying on the ground when Ledge swooped back in. He headed for Steadfast first, but a swing from his warhammer convinced the bat-pony to pull back up. A blast of lightning charred his feathers as he did so, and he threw his sword at Mystic, forcing her to roll away.

Next he dive-bombed me while I was still lying on the ground. He drew a second sword from his back as he did so, preparing to strike me as he crashed down on me. A shot from Mephalda knocked the blade from his grasp while he was in the air, and he hit me without a weapon. As he landed on top of me, I kicked up with my legs, throwing him up and off of me. As he flew through the air from my kick, he slammed into the beam of golden energy jutting up from the floor, disappearing instantly as his body was absorbed into the flow passing through the lenses that channeled it outside into a shield.

“Great,” I said as I picked myself up, “He probably had the instructions on how to turn it off on him. Now how are we supposed to shut this thing down?”

Steadfast looked around for a bit before trotting over to where one of the giant arms that held a mirror jutted up from the floor. Swinging his warhammer as hard as he could, he smashed it into the support, causing it to wobble slightly.

“What are you doing?!” Mystic asked incredulously.

“Manual override?” he offered as he slammed it again, knocking the arm off its track.

The mirror it was holding fell out of its position, allowing a beam of energy to pass through another arm instead of being deflected. Soon it was chaos as the energy bounced all around the room, tearing it apart. Pieces of the lens and mirror array rained down at us as we struggled to dodge, and holes opened up in the observatory dome. Finally the machinery must have recognized something was wrong, because the hole spewing magical energy sealed itself up, cutting off the flow.

As the last broken pieces of the observatory fell to the floor, we made our way to a large observation window that had been broken out in the chaos. The shield faded away gradually without a power source to sustain it. Far in the distance, we could make out Marekarth, and beyond that the sunrise. Now Stormcloud could leave the city; our task was done.

Level Up
Health: 320 Stamina: 300 Magicka: 310
New Perk: Bookworm [No Skill] -- The benefits from reading skill books are now doubled, and books count half as much toward carrying capacity.
New Quest: High Falls -- Enter High Falls Ruins and retrieve the Element of Harmony from the Dragon Priest there.

Chapter 65: Priests and Their Possessions

Chapter LXV: Priests and Their Possessions
“In days of old, when dragons ruled the earth, mortal ponies worshipped the beasts as gods.”

Retracing our steps, we were able to find our way back to Marekarth. By the time we arrived, Jarl Stormcloud had already left. He’d left no further instructions for us, so I assumed his next attack wouldn’t be for quite some time. We returned to Whitetrot and got some rest before departing for High Falls Ruins the following morning.

Following Faniar’s instructions, we found it quite easily. High Falls Ruins was built in the south of the Pale, in the mountains that divided the hold from Whitetrot Hold. In fact, it wasn’t all that far from the Hall of the Vigilant.

We knew what to expect by this point and weren’t at all surprised to see the large arch-covered stairway leading up the mountain. Mystic performed the magic-blocking spell on herself and me before we entered this time, and I experienced only a mildly annoying buzzing as we ascended the stairs to the great doors that led into the ruin.

We passed through the massive stone doors into a grand entry hall, just as we had many times before. The first hall was completely void of Draugr, making me a bit nervous. The most unsettling part about the entry hall was that the light didn’t reach the upper levels of the ceiling, where I imagined I could hear scuffling in the dark.

As we passed through the next set of hallways, we still saw no Draugr. It wasn’t that I was spoiling for a fight, but the residents of this tomb being conspicuously absent made me uneasy. At last we reached a balcony overlooking the main banquet hall. However, no Draugr sat down at the table below.

Instead, there was a collection of ponies sitting at the long banquet table, and another sitting in the throne at its head. For a minute I thought it was a collection of bat-ponies, since some of them had bat-wings, but there were earth-ponies and zebras here also, as well as unicorns with smooth and wickedly curved horns. Their pallid coats and the feast laid out before them proved what they really were: vampires.

“Get back!” I whispered urgently to my companions as the vampire at the head of the table began to sniff the air and crane his head in our direction.

We retreated into a dark room that must’ve once been personal quarters for this ruin’s royal court. No sooner had we hidden ourselves than a winged vampire trotted through the door we’d come from. It appeared my fears about being watched in the entry hall had not been unwarranted. She looked around a bit before jumping off the balcony and flying down to the table below.

“Lord Movath,” she reported to the vampire at the head of the table, “We have intruders in the keep.”

“And instead of apprehending them, you came to me?” he hissed.

I heard a crunch, and the vampire who’d followed us from the entry hall screamed.

“Block the entryway,” Movath demanded, “They must not be allowed to escape and give us away. Find them!”

A great scuffling came from the banquet hall as the vampires spread out to look for us. Mephalda was the first to react as one stepped into the room we were hiding in. As she reached the center of the room, her eyes glowing eerily in the dark, the former Blackwing shot an arrow directly into her chest, piercing her heart. The vampire staggered before tipping over, blood dripping from her mouth.

As Mystic pulled the body away, another vampire happened to take a look inside. I quickly fired off a spell to paralyze him, and dragged his body into the room. A slash from Dawnbreaker between the ribs finished him off. So far the vampires hadn’t spotted us, but if they were to find this room we’d never leave it alive. We needed to move to a more defendable position.

Mephalda took a peek outside, quickly scanning the banquet hall for signs of the vampires. Once she thought it was clear, she launched herself up into the rafters, taking out a winged vampire that lurked up there. Another minute later, she landed on the far side of the room, peeking through the different doors before beckoning us over to one.

Carefully we made our way along the balcony, keeping an eye out for the patrolling vampires. One spotted us as we passed the rooms he was searching, but a blast of lightning from Mystic knocked him against the wall. We quickly ducked into another room as the vampire’s body hit a bookcase, knocking the ruined tomes to the ground and causing quite a bit of noise.

When nopony came, we made a run for the nearest staircase. As we headed down the stone steps, we ran into a vampiric earth pony. As she made to shout out her discovery, Mystic suddenly blasted her throat with a spell. When she tried to call for help, no sound came out. My unicorn companion had effectively made the vampire go mute.

The vampire drew her sword, swinging it at Mystic. I blocked with Dawnbreaker, and pushed it back as Steadfast cracked his warhammer across her back. As her spine snapped, the vampire released her weapon, and I was able to slit her throat with my Draconequus sword.

We continued down the stairs, not even bothering to hide the body as we galloped into the banquet hall. We were about halfway across when we heard voices approaching us. We ducked under the table, which was covered in pony flesh, and hid beneath the blood-soaked wood. Mephalda also made herself scarce as vampires reentered the room.

Lord Movath himself, a unicorn in dark robes highlighted with blood red, trotted in, a zebra by his side. At least, she had once been a zebra. Her vampirism had faded her stripes to be almost indistinguishable from the rest of her coat, and her mane was messy and unkempt.

“They may already be gone,” she was saying to Movath as they trotted toward the banquet table, “It wouldn’t be hard to sneak in and then back out again.”

“Yes, but Chrys didn’t see them leave,” he replied, most likely referring to the pegasus whose body was now lying on the table, “If she had, then she wouldn’t have come here to warn us. And there’s no way they could have left while we were searching.”

“If they had, they’d still be nearby,” the zebra pointed out.

“It’s not late enough,” Movath grumbled, “The day-star is far too bright for any of us to venture outside yet. We have to wait until sundown to search outside, and by then they’ll be too far away to identify.”

“Of course, they could still be here,” the zebra said.

“They must be,” Movath said, “We’ve got to keep looking. They’ve got to be somewhere.”

“Lord Movath,” a group of three vampires reported, trotting in from a large tunnel leading off of the banquet hall, “There’s no unusual activity among the Draugr. They didn’t flee into the undercity.”

“But the Draugr have been getting bolder,” one of the group pointed out, “Perhaps one was able to make it all the way up through the keep.”

“Nonsense,” Movath spat, “As dense as our deceased sentry was, even she would have been able to tell the difference between a living pony and those zombies. Check again.”

“There doesn’t seem to be anypony here,” one of them, an earth pony, said, “If there are living ponies in the keep, why not use a spell to detect life?”

“That’s what I’ve been doing, you foals!” the Vampire Lord shot back, “I’ve checked every room in the keep for signs of life.”

“Well, not exactly every room,” the zebra at his side pointed out.

“Are you saying what I think you are?” he asked.

I couldn’t see anything, but I could just imagine Lord Movath preparing to use a Detect Life spell on the hall. If he did that, we’d stick out and be discovered for sure. The time for hiding had come to an end. Before Movath and his vampire minions could find us, Mystic sent a blast of magic upwards, throwing the table off of us.

The group of three vampires was hit by the flying table, one of them dying as it crushed them against the wall. Movath and his second were surprised at first, but the shock soon turned to pure rage as they realized who was standing before them.

I jumped toward Movath, swinging Dawnbreaker, but I was knocked off course as the zebra slammed into me. I rolled across the floor, keeping Dawnbreaker close as I did so. As soon as I stopped, I jumped to my hooves, my Draconequus sword held in front of me. The zebra came at me anyway, and I swung my sword around, slicing the tip of her ear off as she ducked down.

Next I swung my blade down at her head. She brought up her hooves before it reached her, however, and held my blade in place. I struggled to pull free, but her grip was too strong, and I found her overpowering me, pushing my sword to the side. At last she gave a swift tug and yanked it from my grasp.

I drew out the Blade of Hoofingar, swinging it around at her head, but she batted it away, the blade cutting into her hoof as she did so. I swung the blade up and around, toward her side, but with a swift kick she knocked it away, sending it flying from my magic.

Before I could draw another weapon, she tackled me, pinning me to the ground. I moved my head to the side as she tried to bring a hoof down upon it, instead cracking the stone floor I was lying on. I twisted my body around as she attempted to hit me, trying to get my hindlegs under her to throw her off. I was unsuccessful, but she managed to get a hit on me, landing a hoof on my shoulder and cracking the bone with the force of her strike.

<> I Shouted, sending dragon fire up at her face.

The zebra screamed and rolled off of me, trying to put out the fire devastating her face. I rolled away as well, trying to ignore the intense pain in my shoulder. I pulled a healing potion from my saddlebags, intending to chug it down and repair my broken bones before they got out of place. My plan failed as the zebra kicked the phial out of the air before slamming me to the ground again.

I once more moved my head away as she tried to crush it with her hoof, but I was preoccupied with my shoulder, and she managed to bruise up the side of my face as she clipped it. Her next strike came down on my shoulder again, wounding it even further. As she did so, I managed to get my hindlegs under her.

As I struggled to throw her off, she continued to pound at me, snapping ribs and completely destroying my shoulder. She didn’t suspect a thing as I drew my Changeling axe and jabbed it into the back of her skull. I dug it in deeper as she suddenly lunged in at me with her head. Her fangs sank into my wounded shoulder as I twisted the axe and snapped her neck.

I pushed her off of me before staggering upright. Of the vampires in the room, only Movath remained now, but my friends seemed to have him on the defensive, keeping him preoccupied with Mystic’s magical attacks while Steadfast darted in and wounded him with his warhammer and Mephalda shot arrows into his body.

I drank down all the healing potions I dared, using spells and enchanted bandages to help heal up the rest. My shoulder was returned to normal, as was my face and chest. There was no sign of the zebra’s bite on my shoulder, but to be safe I drank an extra healing potion to help purge any poison from the wound.

<> I Shouted at Movath, injuring him from within and making him vulnerable to the strike from Mystic that killed him.

“Let’s get out of here before more show up,” I said, not looking forward to a battle with more of the lifeless creatures.

We galloped off through the tunnel the group of scouts had come through. They’d spoken of Draugr and an “undercity,” so this seemed to be the most promising path to the bulk of High Falls Ruins. Sure enough, before long the large doors came into sight. Unfortunately, they weren’t unguarded.

A vampiric earth pony patrolled in front of them, and a bat-winged vampire flapped above them. Mephalda carefully lined a shot up on the flying vampire before letting an arrow fly. It struck the pony perfectly, knocking him out of the air. We charged forward as the dead vampire landed on the living one. A strike from Steadfast took out the remaining sentry, opening up the way forward.

Opening the large doors revealed High Falls, and the origin of its name. The doors looked out onto a large cavern filled with a Draugr city. Around the edges of the cavern, large waterfalls cascaded down, filling a canal that ringed the city. In the very center of the town, four statues of a pony reared up back to back, each holding an unrolled scroll covered in Draconic. I assumed they proclaimed some list of rules the residents of High Falls had to follow, and it was impossible to miss at least one of the lists from anywhere in the city.

We trotted down the stairs in front of the keep into the town below. As we did so, we kept an eye out behind us to make sure no vampires were following. We finally allowed ourselves to believe they weren’t coming after us when we reached the city of High Falls itself.

I didn’t particularly want to fight an army of highly-trained Draugr soldiers, but even sneaking around had failed us last time. This time we walked openly through the streets, among the Draugr, but made sure to keep an eye out for anypony who looked like a guard. Some of the undead ponies looked at us suspiciously, but none made any moves to call out an alert on us.

We were walking through the market set up around the base of the statues when one of the Draugr approached us. It offered us a bouquet of nightshade, saying something in Draconic as it did so. When I didn’t take it, the Draugr became extremely distraught, speaking rapidly in the language of the dragons. I had a basic knowledge of how the language worked, and knew many of the words, but I couldn’t keep up with what the Draugr was saying. Eventually the Draugr threw the nightshade at Mystic before running away.

“What was that all about?” Mystic asked as she passed the bouquet to Mephalda, who tucked the deadly flowers into her saddlebags.

“It looks like that Draugr really wanted you to take a gift,” Steadfast said.

“Yes, but why?” I asked, looking up at the list of rules towering above us, “Do you suppose it has something to do with this?”

The sound of armored ponies drew my attention away from the statue we were standing under. A group of about a dozen Draugr in quality armor trotted down the street. The captain shouted out something in Draconic as they entered the market. The Draugr around us all pointed at us before running away rapidly.

The Draugr captain barked something and all the soldiers drew their weapons. They were like nothing I’d ever seen before, staffs with a sword-like blade at either end. The Draugr soldiers spun them around as they marched forward. We drew our weapons, but I feared it wouldn’t be enough to hold off all the Draugr.

“Mephalda, that pot!” I called, pointing out a pot on the edge of a market stand where a Draugr had been selling lantern oil.

Anticipating my plans, she shot an arrow at the edge of the pot, causing it to fall from the stand and splash across the ground. The nearest lines of Draugr were hit, but I waited until it began to pool beneath them before I shot out a blast of fire. The Draugr incinerated instantly, the flammable lantern oil spreading the flames quickly. The other undead soldiers moved quickly, executing their flaming comrades before they could cause too much damage.

Mystic began to shoot lightning at the advancing soldiers as I shot ice spikes and Mephalda shot arrows into them. When they came too close for comfort, I drew Dawnbreaker and the Blade of Hoofingar. Steadfast and I charged forward, his warhammer and my twin blades flying.

As I swung my ebony sword down toward one of the Draugr soldiers, it blocked using one of the blades on its odd weapon. While I had it blocked on one side, I swung Dawnbreaker in toward where the Draugr couldn’t block me without surrendering its block with my other weapon. Amazingly, it managed to do the impossible, twisting its head nearly all the way around, twisting my ebony blade over until it blocked Dawnbreaker with the very same blade.

With a sudden spin, the Draugr straightened itself out and brought the other blade on its weapon in between my swords. A quick twist threw my blades away from each other, but I managed to keep ahold of them and brought the Blade of Hoofingar up to block as the Draugr stabbed in toward my chest.

I put the Blade of Hoofingar away and focused on using Dawnbreaker to keep the Draugr’s weapon in a block. As I did so, I blasted fire at the Draugr’s head and the weapon’s shaft at the same time. The wood caught fire, becoming brittle enough that when I dragged my weapon down the blade, it snapped off. A kick knocked the other blade off, leaving the Draugr with a scorched stick, and vulnerable to the blade that stabbed it in the side of the throat.

<<>> I Shouted as three Draugr soldiers came at me at the same time.

They all froze solid and quickly shattered as I ran my blades threw them. Passing the icy remains of the Draugr, I found myself standing before the Draugr captain. It drew another of the strange weapons, stabbing down at me and forcing me to block rapidly.

Spinning its weapon around, the Draugr repeatedly struck at me, forcing me back. This Draugr was good, probably the reason it was in command. With no hope to best it in one-on-one combat, I summoned a flame atronach behind the captain. It turned rapidly to face the fiery pony as flames licked over its hindquarters, but foolishly opened itself up to attack.

<> it Shouted as it threw its weapon at me, extinguishing my atronach.

I ducked down as the double-bladed weapon flew at me, knocking it aside with my swords. As the Draugr turned back toward me, it searched for its weapon, jumping for it when it spotted it lying on the ground. I wasn’t going to allow it to get it back, and slashed out at the Draugr’s forelegs. Severed at the knees, the Draugr still tried to pull itself toward its odd weapon, even when I chopped off its hindlegs as well. It was still struggling to get to it when I sliced off its head.

Only a few Draugr remained, and they were easy to mop up now. After clearing the market, we continued through the city, heading toward the temple that had been hidden by the gigantic pony statue previously. No more Draugr emerged from their homes or gave us any more trouble as we made our way to the structure built into the cavern’s wall.

The buzzing returned at the base of my horn as we ascended the steps to the temple entrance. Gigantic statues of ponies holding hooves towered over the entryway, an inscription in blocky Draconic letters between them. Once more, the letters twisted until they were in Equine, revealing what the inscription really said.

CRUELTY FOLLOWS THE CRUEL
-LORD VOCOLT

It didn’t tell us quite as much about our adversary as the past inscriptions had, but it did tell us at least one thing: the Dragon Priest’s name. Once inside the temple, we’d be searching for a Lord Vocolt, who had apparently once spoken the words inscribed outside his temple. Without further ado, we pushed the doors open and entered.

Long lines of stone benches filled the back of the temple, and we passed through them on our way up to the very front. At the head of the temple a throne was set up to one side, and a slab of stone serving as a table was on the other. Behind the stone table were three chairs, in which sat three Draugr in priestly robes. Mephalda drew back her bow and fired an arrow through the eye of one of them.

Instantly the three Draugr rose, the one seemingly oblivious to the shaft piercing its brain. We all drew our weapons as the Draugr drew their own weapons, identical to the ones the undead army had been using outside. Slowly, they stepped down from their pedestal and trotted toward us.

I blasted fire at one while Mystic blasted it with lightning. The rotten flesh crackled and popped as the lightning hit it, burning off as the fire followed up. The Draugr was very literally torn apart by the force of our combined spell, until only its skeleton remained before it too turned to ash.

Steadfast ducked down as one of the priests swung its weapon at him. He swung his hammer back up and caught the weapon between the blades, pushing it toward the ground. As he did so, Mephalda fired more arrows into the Draugr’s head until it began to tear apart, becoming more wood than flesh. Steadfast suddenly jerked his weapon up, separating the Draugr’s head from its body.

The final Draugr advanced toward us, spinning its weapon in complex patterns as it did so. I tried to get my sword in, but it was quickly swiped away by the zombie priest. Mystic’s magic was also ineffective, as the weapon seemed to either absorb it or deflect it. Mephalda’s arrows couldn’t get through the spinning blades either.

<<>> I Shouted, and the Draugr went flying through the air, crashing against the wall.

Before it could pick itself up and retrieve its weapon, Mystic blasted it with magic, holding it in place. Steadfast took a hammer to its head just to be sure, leaving a mess on the wall. The Draugr defeated, we looked around for the one zombie we were actually looking for.

There was no sarcophagus, like with Naghot, nor a statue of dragon, like Voldehorse, but Vocolt had to be around here somewhere. The back wall was inscribed in Draconic, but it was different from the rules posted outside. As I approached, one of the words began to glow, and I learned everything the dragons knew about lightning.

~QO~

“So, where’s the Dragon Priest?” Steadfast asked after our third search of the temple.

“I don’t know,” I admitted, “I don’t see a sarcophagus anywhere, and if he was going to emerge from a hiding place I think he’d have done it by now.”

“Hey, over here!” Mystic called from one of the tunnels that led behind the Word Wall.

I had assumed that the tunnels would lead up to the surface, as a back exit, but that was not the case. The two passages met up just behind the wall before sloping downward. We followed it down until it opened up into a larger room with a circular door at the end.

“A puzzle door,” Mystic observed, “But where’s the claw?”

While everypony looked around, searching for the key, I pulled the Emerald Claw from my saddlebags. Could it really be that easy? Had I had the key all along? I tried it, matching up the rings so that they matched the symbols on the claw and inserted it. Surprisingly, the door opened, sliding into the floor.

Through the door was a large cavern carved from the mountain. In the center was an ornate sarcophagus. It began to rattle as we approached, and each of us drew our weapons. The stone coffin suddenly burst open, a Draugr in ornate robes wielding a staff, and another of those weird weapons floating above it.

I shot a Paralyze spell at the Draugr, hoping to immobilize it before the fight started, but my spell had absolutely no effect on the Dragon Priest. Mystic shot columns of ice at the hovering zombie, who shattered them as they came with blasts of fire from his dragon-shaped staff. Mephalda’s arrows he knocked away with his double-bladed weapon, spinning it through the air faster than anypony could naturally.

Steadfast jumped up at Vocolt as I drew my weapons. His warhammer swung in toward the Dragon Priest’s head, only to be deflected at the last minute by his double-bladed weapon. Vocolt sent flames blasting at Steadfast as he retreated, galloping away to a safe distance.

Mystic was able to get a few bolts of lightning in, scorching through the Priest’s robes, before he turned his attention back to her, using his staff to send waves of fire in her direction. I came around to the other side, receiving a boost from Mephalda that threw me toward the Dragon Priest.

As I swung Dawnbreaker at him, however, he spun his double-bladed weapon around, knocking my sword aside and nearly slicing my throat before I could buck him and change direction. As I slid across the ground, I came to the realization that no weapon could harm Vocolt while he still wielded the unique weapon he and his followers had.

<> I Shouted as Steadfast jumped at him.

His weapon suddenly went flying from his magical grasp, sliding into the far corner of the room. He was unable to block as Steadfast struck him across the back with his Changeling warhammer. I could hear ancient bones crack as he knocked Vocolt out of the sky, sending him tumbling not far from Mystic.

Before Mystic could strike, Vocolt called up a firestorm around himself, making it impossible to get near. As the fire dissipated, Vocolt appeared, rage burning in his ancient eyes. He popped his back straight before sending a wave of fire cascading toward Mystic.

As she jumped away, Steadfast charged the ancient priest. The fire was suddenly cut off as he blocked with his staff, the only weapon he had on hoof. I saw an opportunity as the two stallions fought for supremacy, and charged forward with Dawnbreaker leading the way.

As Vocolt pushed Steadfast away, I swung Dawnbreaker in, knocking his staff to the side. My Draconequus sword plunged upward into the Dragon Priest’s chest, piercing his heart. To my alarm, it didn’t kill him right away; instead, he grabbed hold of Dawnbreaker and began to pull it deeper in, forcing me to come closer as well.

Then, as Dawnbreaker sank up to the hilt, the star contained within began to glow brighter and brighter. I saw panic in Vocolt’s eyes for a moment before I was forced to squeeze my eyes shut and escape the unbearable brightness. Vocolt suddenly combusted, and Dawnbreaker clattered to the temple floor.

All that was left of the Dragon Priest were his robes, his staff, and the two amulets he’d worn around his neck. I threw aside the still-smoking one shaped like a dragon and retrieved the other. The simple chain held an octagonal gem, and purple light dwelled deep within it, faded and weak. I slipped this newest Element of Harmony around my neck. We were halfway there.

Level Up
Health: 320 Stamina: 310 Magicka: 310
New Perk: Wearable Spells [Enchanting] -- The spell placed on any item of clothing you enchant will now be twice as strong as normal.
Element of Harmony acquired
Word of Power learned: QO -- Lightning; Storm Call – Combined with STRUN and BAH, QO causes the storm you call to come more quickly, strike more viciously, and last much longer.
Sanguinare Vampiris contracted
New Quest: Back to Basics -- Search Horizon for ruins in which Dragon Priests and their Elements of Harmony may dwell.

Chapter 66: Guardian of Dusk and Dawn

Chapter LXVI: Guardian of Dusk and Dawn
“We are children of the Twilight. Beings who are to be guided from the darkness into the light. And from the light into darkness.”

With the Element from Vocolt, we now had half of the Element of Harmony in our possession. However, we had now run out of locations to search for the remaining Elements. Faniar knew about every ancient earth pony ruin in Horizon, but he didn’t know which ones held Dragon Priests. I was hoping that the College of Winterhorn would have a bit more information on the subject.

It also gave us an excuse to check on how the newly divided Winterhorn was doing. Though we’d helped negotiate a peace between Clairvoyance and Winter Glory, I didn’t know for sure if it could last. However, as we neared Winterhorn, a roar suddenly tore through the evening sky.

A dragon flew overhead, not attacking anything, but scanning the ground with its gaze. It flew on, turning south until it perched at the top of a mountain jutting up above the rest of the range. I could see heat and smoke rising as it leaned over the far side of the mountain and presumably began to breathe fire.

“What’s it doing?” Steadfast asked.

“I don’t know,” I said as I began to trot down the path that ran past the mountain, “But we’re going to find out.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Miraculously, the dragon was still perched at the peak of the mountain when we reached it. Somepony must have been fighting it, for I saw a few small blasts of magic flying up to meet the great lizard from time to time. Whoever was fighting, I just hoped they were still there when we arrived.

At first we had to guess how to make it up through the mountains, following paths that had been snowed over by recent storms. Eventually sets of stone stairs appeared, leading the way up. And though they were also covered in snow, it was a vast improvement over climbing directly up the cliff face.

As we neared the top, the peak came into view. From where the dragon was perched, a cliff suddenly shot down before leveling out, providing a large open space of fairly level ground covered in snow. Built on that level ground was a stone structure unlike anything I’d ever seen in person, built in the same style as the dappled pegasi dwellings of Morrowhinny. On top of it was a large statue of a mare standing on her hindlegs, a moon held in one forehoof, and a star held in the other.

The dragon noticed us before I could make a further inspection and sent a blast of fire toward us. We ducked behind some large rocks as the snow evaporated into steam around us. Mephalda took off into the air, firing arrows rapidly into the dragon’s face.

While it was distracted with Mephalda, we galloped forward to the structure built at the base of the statue. Any magical attacks we launched seemed to have no effect on the towering lizard. We needed to get it closer to us.

<> I Shouted, calling down a storm on the beast.

Clouds swirled around the top of the mountain, lightning lancing from them to strike the dragon. It leapt from its perch and circled around, searching for its attacker. As it did so, it was repeatedly struck by lightning, burning holes in the beast’s armor and forcing it down until it hit the ground.

As the dragon landed in front of the statue, I jumped from my hiding place and galloped toward the great lizard. I drank down a potion of fire resistance as it opened its maw and released a wall of flame at me. The fire passed harmlessly around me as I charged up to the dragon and struck it on the nose with Dawnbreaker.

I tried to dodge as the dragon snapped at me, but I wasn’t able to move in time, and its jaws closed around one of my hindlegs. I struggled to get away as it bit down, denting and piercing the armor. Its sharp teeth cut across my leg as I pulled free, taking my boot with it. I hobbled away as the dragon gobbled up the portion it’d taken from my Griffin armor.

When it finished eating my armor, the dragon turned back toward me and let loose a wave of fire. Mystic rushed in, putting up a ward around us, which deflected the flames to either side. I cast a healing spell on my leg, returning it to normal, before Mystic lowered the ward and we both took off in different directions.

I drew Dawnbreaker out again and charged around toward the dragon’s tail, ducking under its wing. I summoned up a flame atronach as I did so, setting the elemental loose beneath the dragon’s wing to cause all sorts of chaos. By the time I made it to the dragon’s tail, my atronach had already burned up a significant portion of the dragon’s wing, making it impossible for it to fly again.

The dragon crushed my atronach with its claw as I jumped onto its swinging tail, nearly impaling myself on one of its spines. The dragon blasted fire at me as I climbed up its back, but I kept my head down and was able to avoid most of the blow.

<<>> I Shouted as I reached the top of its back.

As Dragonrend took hold, the dragon twisted with pain, nearly throwing me off. I jabbed Dawnbreaker into the beast’s flesh as rapidly as I could, taking advantage of the dragon’s weakened state. I slid to the side, bringing my sword down on the lizard’s wing joint as I fell.

Hot, acidic blood gushed from the wound as the dragon’s wing fell from its body. Shaking the effects of Dragonrend off, the dragon searched for me, stomping all through the blood-soaked snow as it spun around. I ran under and around it as rapidly as I could, trying to avoid the monster’s gaze.

Eventually it managed to spot me. Giving a roar of rage, it attacked, grabbing me in a claw. It brought me up to its mouth before stuffing me inside. As soon as my hooves landed on its slimy tongue, I stabbed Dawnbreaker into the roof of its mouth. I missed the brain, but did manage to pierce one of the dragon’s eyes before removing my sword from the tender flesh.

I held it up in front of me and hunkered down as the dragon snapped its jaws shut, trying to crush me. The teeth raked past my head, tearing my helmet off as I stabbed my sword back into the roof of the beast’s mouth. My headgear went tumbling down the dragon’s throat, out of reach.

<> I Shouted, filling the dragon’s mouth with fire.

As its wounds caught fire, the dragon swiftly spat me out. I went flying through the air until I crashed into the moon held in the statue’s hoof. I slid down until I was sitting in the hoof itself and tended to my wounds. Quite a few bones had been broken when my flight abruptly stopped, and I had teeth marks running across the top of my head. I wrapped a bandage around my skull just in case the wounds opened up again and began to bleed.

A short distance away, I could see Steadfast was trying to take on the dragon much as I had. From a point high on his back he was striking the beast, caving in its scales, and rupturing its flesh. As the dragon turned around to snap him up, he struck it across the snout, tearing off scales as his warhammer hit.

As Steadfast faced it head on, Mystic blasted its chest scales repeatedly with ice and lightning spells. Gradually its scales began to flake off, and then its flesh beneath began to fall away as well. The dragon rammed its head into Steadfast, knocking him off its back, before spinning its head around to roast Mystic.

As she ran from the dragon’s breath, a ward protecting her, I searched for a way down from my perch. There appeared to be no way down except for either sliding down the statue’s foreleg or jumping off. Either way there was a good chance I wouldn’t survive the fall.

<<>> I Shouted, taking on my ethereal form.

Tentatively, I stepped off of the statue’s hoof, hoping I wasn’t mistaken. I fell of course, though not as rapidly as if I’d been in my physical form. I landed softly on the ground, my ghost-like body sinking slightly into the ground before propelling me back up to the surface. As I returned to my normal form I checked to make sure I was unharmed before moving on.

The dragon was truly enraged now, breathing out fire as it spun, creating a flame cloak around itself. Mephalda flew above the fire storm, getting shots off at the dragon through the gap in its fiery protection. It spotted her rapidly, and focused all its fire upward, surrounding Mephalda and closing in on her.

I galloped forward, Steadfast doing the same from the dragon’s other side. It spotted us coming and ceased its attack on Mephalda to focus on us. It reared up on its hindlegs, attempting to swat at us with its wings, but it had forgotten it was missing one of its flight appendages and fell off balance, crashing to the ground.

We rushed in, striking the points that Mystic struck with her magic from a distance. The dragon heaved itself back into a fighting position, staring down its snout at us. Flames erupted from its nostrils, nearly scorching us both.

I galloped away for a second before swiftly turning back and jumping onto the dragon’s nose. As I slid across, I cut Dawnbreaker through its good eye, completely blinding it. The dragon gave a roar of pain, lifting its head to the sky. As it did so, Mephalda rapidly shot arrows down its throat, stripping away at its already injured flesh and striking its brain. As arrow after arrow struck the dragon’s thought-organ, it locked up, and then crashed to the ground.

I jumped out of the way as the dragon’s head came crashing down next to me. I tended to my lesser injuries, tying on bandages as the dragon began to catch fire. I absorbed its memories in an instant, experiencing the life of a dragon that had ruled and been worshipped in Horizon long ago before being overthrown by its worshippers. At the forefront of the memories were the dragon’s understanding of lightning. Soon I knew how to wield the deadly bolts like I never had before, and call them down from the clouds above.

<<>> I Shouted, and the clouds obeyed my call, pooling together over the statue that reared above us and sending lightning down at it.

Now that the chaos of the fight was over, I was able to look around and see who the dragon had been fighting before. The corpses of dappled pegasi in priestly robes lay scattered and dismembered around the statue’s base. Nearby a single priest was alive, protected by a magical shield that covered her hunched up body.

a voice commanded as I reached out to the last priest.

I searched around for the source of the voice, but could see nopony standing nearby.

“Who said that?” I asked, shouting up into the sky.

the voice replied, echoing across the mountains.

“Who are you?” I asked.

the voice explained,

I turned to look up at the towering statue of a mare before me. The Twilight Guardian was a Draconequus, a creature of the beyond like Discord and Mareidia. But, unlike many of her fellows, she chose to take on a form familiar to ponies, resembling a dappled pegasus, albeit the most radiant one I’d ever seen.

the Twilight Guardian continued to speak,

“This one’s still alive, isn’t she?” Steadfast asked, gesturing to the pony covered in a magical force field, “What’s with her anyway?”

“Well, what do you need?” Mystic asked, “We could help.”

“But when a pony is put in a soul gem, they can’t be removed,” Mystic pointed out, “Not without destroying them to harvest their life energy.”

“So, let’s do this then,” Steadfast said, “Where’s the Star at?”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

We left at once for Lake Fillynalta, traveling through the night. Morning was dawning by the time the abandoned fort came into sight. It must’ve once been an impressive keep, guarding Foalkreath, which it looked out at on the far side of the lake. However, time had not been kind to the castle, and many of its walls and towers were caved in, part of the fort even sinking into the ground near the water’s edge.

Surprisingly, there were no guards posted outside of the fort, and we were able to let ourselves in through the armory. I grabbed an old iron helmet as we passed through, replacing the Griffin one I’d lost forever to that dragon. Torches still burned in the wall sockets, so I had to believe somepony still lived here. Sure enough, voices soon came from up ahead.

“Chillwing claimed that the Master said to be on guard,” one voice spoke.

“Why?” another responded, “Nopony knows where we are. Nopony that cares anyway.”

“Well, all I know is that he said the Twilight Guardian is up to something,” the first voice said, “She’s formed a link with the Northlands, and she’s been funneling a fantastic amount of energy from Moonshadow into it.”

“What for?”

“I don’t know, but Chillwing’s got his own plans. The Star’s begun filling with energy too. He hopes to open a second link.”

“Into Moonshadow?”

“That’s right, and from there to the Master’s realm. Twilight will never know what hit her when the Legions of Vile pour into her realm.”

“Can that happen? Can a Draconequus actually invade another’s realm?”

“The Master claims it’s happened before, and it didn’t end well for the Draconequus involved.”

“Which one was it?”

“Jyggylag or something like that.”

“Never heard of ‘im.”

“Exactly.”

I’d heard as much as I’d wanted, and nodded to Mephalda, who had already lined up a shot down the hall with her bow. She released her arrow, and it hit the first dappled pegasus directly between the eyes, killing her at once. The other screamed and ran, and was dropped a moment later as a second arrow hit her in the hindleg.

“Help!” she called, “Intruders!”

Then she was silent as a shaft shot from Mephalda’s bow hit her in the throat. We moved into the room she’d fled into, heading for the door she’d been fleeing for. Hopefully it would lead to wherever Chillwing and the other devotees of Clopicus Vile were hiding.

“That didn’t sound good,” Steadfast commented on what we’d overheard before we opened the door to the rest of the fort.

“I know,” I said, “We’ve got to get that Star before they try to open a gate to the Beyond.”

With added urgency, we sprinted down the halls, searching for the rest of the cultists. Finally we ran into one in a side room, a stallion wielding a pike as he rummaged through a chest for some armor. Swiftly Steadfast knocked the weapon away from him, taking him by surprise. A blast of lightning from Mystic fried his brains, causing him to fall into the armor chest, which shut on top of him.

“They’re down here!” a pony shouted from down the hall as she spotted us.

An arrow flew from Mephalda’s bow, shooting through our adversary’s unarmored forehead and out the back of her skull. More cultists came through after her, stepping over her body and drawing katanas of a different style from the ones I’d seen the Blades use.

<<>> I Shouted, knocking them over as they tried to approach.

Steadfast charged in, his warhammer slamming the dappled pegasi into the stone walls of the decaying keep. I drew Dawnbreaker and charged toward one of the cultists that had recovered, striking her katana as she blocked. I twisted it around in her mouth, pushing until she was forced to drop it. I followed up with a strike to the neck using my Draconequus sword.

I sent ice spikes at the next cultist I saw, piercing his unarmored skull easily. These cultists were easy to defeat, as they were vulnerable in their robes that didn’t even seem to be enchanted, and they weren’t all that good at swordplay. Perhaps they’d once been fearsome adversaries, but now they’d lost the blessing of the Twilight Guardian.

Whatever the case was, we easily defeated them, pushing through the wooden door to the next room in Fort Fillynalta. We entered a room that could’ve once been a great hall or training room, but now it was falling apart and water covered a large portion of the floor. A few cultists waited here, ready to defend themselves from us.

“You’re too late, followers of the Twilight Scourge,” a white-coated dappled pegasus said as he finished an incantation in the center of the room, “Your mistress will fall!”

As he finished his declaration, a glow began to rise from a patch of stone behind him that was raised above the water. Upon the block was inscribes symbols of black magic, and a six-pointed star-shaped gem rested in the center. It was from the gem that the light began to come, and a star soon sprung up above it, slowly growing larger and brighter until it resembled a small tear in space.

The leader, Chillwing I assumed, drew his sword and prepared to defend the gate he was opening. I shot lightning at him, missing as he dodged to the side. Mephalda, Mystic, and Steadfast separated as they headed for the different cultists defending the room. I focused on Chillwing, shooting fire and shards of ice at him as I approached.

As I neared him, he suddenly gave a hop assisted by his wings and closed the distance between us. My Draconequus sword screeched against his katana as the blades met. I pushed back with my weapon, but Chillwing refused to be moved. The portal grew behind him, hungrily sucking up water and loose stones as it expanded.

I exited the block, swinging Dawnbreaker around at the dappled pegasus’s neck. He blocked with his katana, trying to push my sword down into the shallow water. I gave him a blast of flames, igniting the side of his face. He quickly dunked it into the water, hissing as the fresh burns met the stagnant water.

I swung Dawnbreaker down toward the back of his neck, but he recovered too quickly, knocking my blade aside with his katana. As I swung my sword around toward his forelegs, he also managed to miraculously block my blade. As we struggled, pushing against each other, the portal suddenly doubled in size, now large enough for several ponies to pass through at a time.

I Shouted, slowing time around me.

Chillwing was stuck moving in slow motion as I left the block, ducking down to avoid his blade. I stabbed Dawnbreaker up through his torso before kicking him off my blade, sending him sprawling in the water as time returned to normal.

The portal suddenly snapped open, pulling in everything around it. Chillwing’s crumpled body went tumbling through, disappearing as it entered Moonshadow. A swirling and blurred land of colors greeted my eyes as I stared through the portal, calling me in.

“Sapphire!” Mystic called from where she was holding off a cultist with a stolen katana, snapping me out of my trance, “Get the Star!”

My eyes snapped to the glowing gem resting just below the portal. I struggled forward through the water, trying to keep the portal from pulling me in as well. As I inched my way forward through the rapidly shrinking layer of water, the portal began to pull on the ceiling, breaking bits of stone and support beams out.

I finally reached the base of the portal, where the Twilight Star still sat within the black magic circle. My hooves felt leaden as I fumbled to recover the Star from its pedestal. Eventually I settled on knocking it out of the circle. It seemed to work, as the portal suddenly snapped shut with a roar, bringing bits of the ceiling down with it.

“Well, that could have gone worse,” Steadfast said as he crushed the cultist he’d been fighting with, “Now all we need to do is bring the Twilight Star back to the shrine.”

“Where is the Star?” Mystic asked, knocking down the cultist she had been dealing with.

“Um,” I said, looking around before realizing I’d knocked it into the water, “Help me look?”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

We managed to find the Twilight Star in a matter of minutes, mostly because Steadfast stubbed his hoof on it in the murky water. From there we returned immediately to the shrine south of Winterhorn.

the Twilight Guardian demanded as we neared the shrine

The Twilight Star had returned to normal after I had separated it from the magic used to open the portal. Now it seemed to be little more than a particularly exquisite star-shaped soul gem. Of course, looks could be deceiving. As I held it in my magic, I could feel it radiating pure energy.

As the Twilight Guardian ordered, I held the Star close to the trapped priestess. It began to glow slightly after the priestess suddenly disappeared and the shield collapsed in on itself. I held up the Star, examining it and marveling that a living pony was held inside.

the Twilight Guardian announced.

“What?” I asked, not understanding what she meant about entering a soul gem.

“You’ve got this, Sapphire,” Steadfast said, making his vote of confidence that I could do it.

“He’s right,” Mephalda chipped in, “I’m sure you’ll be able to handle this. You led ponies out of Pegasusius the Mad’s mind after all.”

“What about you guys?” I asked.

“Go on,” Mystic said, “Bring her back.”

The Twilight Guardian apparently took that to mean that I was ready to go, for the world around me suddenly shifted, strange colors filling my vision as everything turned upside down.

{◊} {◊} {◊}

As I opened my eyes, I found myself surrounded by crystal on every side, tinted the same color as the Twilight Star. Somehow, I was within the soul gem. Behind me, a bright light shone through a shattered gate of crystal, more of the gem chipping away with every second. It seemed that keeping this doorway open was harming the Star; I’d have to do this fast.

A path led out in front of me, crystal walls towering up at odd angles on each side. I passed through the passage until it came to a large open area where shards of crystal floated in midair around a bridge that crossed to another passage on the other side. However, the room was not empty.

Changelings stood on the bridge, shifting between their true forms and pony-like creatures. Something told me these creatures weren’t meant to be here. Perhaps the portal had brought something through from Clopicus Vile’s realm after all.

I blasted the first Changeling with a Paralyze spell, locking it up as it fell from the bridge. The other creature of the Beyond turned toward me, hissing and baring its fangs. It drew a spear and began to gallop across the bridge toward me.

<>

Dragon fire flew out in front of me, barreling down the bridge and spilling over the edge. The Changeling jumped from the crystalline bridge, hovering in the air with its insect wings. I shot ice spikes at it as it flew toward me, cutting through its chitinous shell somewhat but doing no serious damage.

As it reached me, I swung Dawnbreaker up and around, knocking its spear aside. As it tried to jab me again, I jumped into the air, making it surprisingly high, before slashing my Draconequus sword through its torso. The Changeling fell from the sky, clutching its chest as it dropped out of sight.

I galloped across the bridge and into the crystalline passages past it, keeping a look out for Changelings. Eventually I heard the buzzing of wings coming from up ahead. I snuck around the last corner, catching sight of a single Changeling hovering in the air. A short distance away cowered the dappled pegasus priestess, completely unarmed and helpless.

<> I Shouted as I jumped into the room, striking the Changeling.

As the creature doubled over in pain, I swung Dawnbreaker up, slicing through its wings. It fell to the ground, but was able to draw a sword to block me. I pushed the Changeling back, drawing the Blade of Hoofingar and stabbing the ebony blade through the creature’s neck.

“Ready to go?” I asked the priestess as I cleaned the ichor from my sword, “The Twilight Guardian sent me.”

The priestess rose at once when I mentioned the Draconequus she served. I led the way back through the Star, weaving through the passages and carefully making our way across the bridge. At last we made it to the exit, which was still expanding and tearing the Star apart from the inside. I ushered her through and took one more look around at my fantastical surroundings before jumping through as well.

{◊} {◊} {◊}

I was back in the Northlands in an instant, once again standing at the top of the mountain upon which the Shrine to the Twilight Guardian was built. Steadfast, Mystic, and Mephalda were all standing there, as was the priestess I’d rescued within the Twilight Star. She took the magnificent soul gem from where it lay on the snow and tucked it within her saddlebags.

the Twilight Guardian spoke,

I felt my Griffin armor suddenly taken from me, lying in a bundle in the snow. In its place I now had a new set of armor composed of the same crystal as the Twilight Star. It was strangely light and simple, yet it seemed stronger than anything I’d ever seen.

“I will,” I promised the Draconequus, moving around a bit to get a feel for the new armor.

The Griffin armor had been fantastic, but this seemed better in every way. I had a feeling I was going to like using it quite a bit.

Level Up
Health: 330 Stamina: 310 Magicka: 310
New Perk: Fast Mending [Restoration] -- All healing spells can now be cast twice as fast, healing injuries in half the time.
Unique Item added: Twilight Armor -- This special set of Draconequus armor is only bestowed upon Champions of the Twilight Guardian. The crystal armor is non-bulky, weighs next to nothing, and will stop most anything. In short, it’s a dream come true.
Dragon Soul collected
New Quest: Hitting the Books -- Search the College of Winterhorn’s library for the locations of the Dragon Priests.

Chapter 67: Forbidden Knowledge

Chapter LXVII: Forbidden Knowledge
“I am Hermaehorse Mora, guardian of the unseen, and knower of the unknown.”

After finishing our business with the Twilight Guardian, we returned to what we’d been doing before being taken off course. After a short trek down the mountain and across the snow-covered tundra, we made it to Winterhorn. Things seemed to be going fairly well in the tiny town. Construction of new homes farther from the College was underway, and students appeared to be helping here and there. So far the treaty seemed to be holding.

Stormcloud soldiers patrolled the town, replacing many of the guards that had died in the battle for Winterhorn just days before. The College now had its own guards besides Quicksilver patrolling in front of the College. They recognized us as we reached the base of the bridge and let us pass, even calling out a friendly greeting.

As we entered the College courtyard, I caught sight of ponies who were dressed in the robes of a mage. A unicorn and a few bat-ponies were being directed toward one of the many towers that surrounded the College. Apparently word was spreading that this was now a safe haven for non-earth pony races.

We headed straight for the library, Mystic leading the way. This time the vast room filled with books was not empty. Mages sat at the desks and on the floor, reading through books on magic and relics, apparently working to understand the Eye of Magnus. Refugees were here as well, taking advantage of the vast store of knowledge now at their disposal. The elderly Griffin librarian flapped across the room as we entered, landing in front of us.

“Mystic, so good to have you back,” he squawked, “With this sudden influx of ponies, I’ve been struggling just to keep up with their requests.”

“Thanks, I’ve missed you too Narickh,” she replied, “But I’m afraid I can’t stay. We just need to search the library for some information.”

“Oh, of course,” he grumbled, “Well, let me know it you need help finding anything.”

“All right,” Mystic said as he departed, flying back up to his perch above the library, “What exactly are we looking for.”

“Anything on the Dragon Priests, I guess,” I said.

Mystic cast her finding spell on the library, narrowing down the search to just a few books. We paged through them, searching for information on the Dragon Priests, but there was little mention of them, and if so it was in passing, with no locations described as their dwellings. We decided to broaden our search, looking at books about the Dragon Cult, and then the ancient earth ponies. Still, there was no mention of where the Dragon Priests resided, though they themselves did pop up from time to time. It was as if all mention of them had been purposefully left out of the books.

The search began to seem pointless after a while, as we flipped through book after book, finding nothing that could help us. Mystic spoke to Narickh, seeing if there were any other books he had on the subject. He flapped up to his private collection with Mephalda, Mystic making a short teleport to reach it. Steadfast and I stayed in the main library, searching for any books that could possibly hold the key.

“There’s got to be something here,” I said to myself as I replaced yet another book on the shelf.

Looking across the vast rows of books, I noticed a door in the wall I hadn’t seen before. When I stared directly at it, it disappeared, but out of the corner of my eye I could see the bookcases warp around a simple wooden door set into the wall. I approached it slowly, keeping it at the edge of my vision so that I could see it. When I reached it, I grasped the handle in my magic and stepped through the secret door.

However, it felt strange to stand within it, as if I wasn’t really in the College of Winterhorn at all, but “somewhere else.” The walls were stone, much like the College, but slightly different, and blocks were missing in places, filled with dusty old books instead. I pulled a few out and wiped their covers off before paging through them. They were interesting books, but nothing that would help us in our search for the Elements of Harmony, so I placed them back where they were.

In the center of the room, a simple pedestal rose up with a single book on it. Perplexed, I trotted up to it and examined the volume. The cover had no title, nor did it look like any cover I’d ever seen. As I picked it up in my magic, I realized the book was bound in patches of dried pony flesh. I tried to place it back where it was only to find that I couldn’t. My magic didn’t seem to want to let go of it.

{{{KNOWLEDGE TAKEN CAN NOT BE RETURNED}}}

I spun around rapidly, searching for the source of the terrifying voice. Directly behind me, right in front of the door, a tear had opened in space, darkness swirling around the edges. Sprouting from the center of it was a grotesque mass of tentacles, some with eyes on the end, slowly blinking as they sized me up.

“Wha-What are you?” I stammered out.

{{{I AM HERMAEHORSE MORA}}} the creature replied, {{{KEEPER OF FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE, DRACONEQUUS OF APOCRYPHA}}}

“What do you want?”

{{{NOTHING, OTHER THAN THE SPREAD OF ALL KNOWLEDGE, WHETHER IT BE CONSIDERED GOOD OR EVIL. YOU SEE, ALL THAT MATTERS IS THE TRUTH, NOT WHAT BARRIERS YOU MORTALS MAY SET AROUND IT IN THE NAME OF MORALITY}}}

“Why can’t I put the book back?” I asked, changing the subject.

{{{I TOLD YOU, MY LITTLE PONY. ONCE KNOWLEDGE IS TAKEN, IT CANNOT BE RETURNED}}}

“What is this book, and why is it bound in pony flesh?” I asked, holding the tome as far from me as possible.

{{{THE OGHMA INFINIUM IS MY FINEST POSSESSION}}} Hermaehorse Mora boasted, {{{WITHIN IT IS CONTAINED ALL KNOWLEDGE. READ FROM THE INFINIUM, AND YOU SHALL KNOW EVERYTHING YOU WISH TO KNOW}}}

“There’s got to be a catch,” I accused, refusing to believe that a Draconequus would create anything like this without an ulterior motive.

{{{NO CATCH, ONLY KNOWLEDGE OF PAST, FUTURE, AND PRESENT. BUT BEWARE, THE TRUTH MAY NOT ALWAYS BE PLEASANT}}}

“So, that’s it, huh?” I said, “It will tell me everything, even things I would be better off not knowing? Well, thanks for the offer, but I think I’ll find where the Dragon Priests are dwelling some other way.”

{{{OH, THE INFINIUM CAN TELL YOU MUCH MORE THAN THAT}}}

“Not interested.”

{{{THE SECRETS OF THE COSMOS}}}

“Not interested.”

{{{THE TERRIBLE TRUTH ABOUT TALHOOVES}}}

“Not interested!” I said, preparing to slam the Oghma Infinium back down on the pedestal.

{{{WOULDN’T YOU LIKE TO KNOW YOUR DESTINY, WHAT YOUR CUTIE-MARK IS MEANT TO BE?}}}

“What?” I asked, pausing with the book held in the air before me still.

{{{WOULDN’T YOU LIKE TO KNOW?}}} Hermaehorse Mora said as he retreated into his void, closing it up behind him.

I was left staring at the door of the tiny room, the Oghma Infinium still held in my magic. Could what he said really be true? Could this book really tell me what I’d been searching for my whole life? And if it was true, was the risk worth it? I scowled at the Oghma Infinium for a bit before tucking it into my saddlebags. I wasn’t going to read it now, but maybe later.

I trotted through the door in the wall, closing it behind me as I returned to the College of Winterhorn’s library. As I looked back, I could no longer see it among the books. It seemed that the strange room had disappeared. I wondered, did it really exist or was it all a trick of Hermaehorse Mora’s?

“Bad news I’m afraid,” Mephalda said, landing beside me, “Narickh didn’t have any books on the Dragon Priests either.”

“All right,” I said, giving a sigh, “Looks like this trip was a bust. The only other place we could look would be the Mystic Archives, but that’s too far away.”

“So what now?” Steadfast asked.

“I don’t know,” I said, “We could always ask Faniar for ruins again.”

“Works for me,” my earth pony companion replied, “I just hope we get a chance to sleep.”

I agreed, inadvertently yawning. We hadn’t had a chance to sleep the night before, and could use a good night’s rest. We left the College of Winterhorn for Whitetrot, hoping to reach it before sundown. As we traveled, the Oghma Infinium weighed down my saddlebags.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

We managed to make it to the fortress city built on the Whitetrot plain before the sun set. We went straight to Breezehome as soon as we entered and got a good night’s sleep. We awoke feeling much better than we had in a long time, rejuvenated and rested. In fact, we felt so much better, we decided to stay in Whitetrot for another day to recuperate. Yes, time was short to find the Elements of Harmony and stop Alduin, and to end the Horizon Civil War, but we’d be no good at accomplishing either of those things if we were too exhausted.

We relaxed for the day, catching up on some much-needed rest. At the forge, those of us who carried weapons repaired them, and we bought needed supplies from the shops, stocking up on the potions and bandages we were sure to need, as well as food for our travels. I also got a chance to read a bit more of Minotauran Inquiries; Vol. I. I was sitting in Breezehome, enjoying the fire and reading my book, when Steadfast stuck his head through the door.

“You might want to come out here,” he said before ducking back out himself.

Perplexed, I set down my book and followed him outside. Some of the ponies in the market were heading up toward the city’s square, so I followed the crowd. On the second tier was where all the action was. A crowd of ponies was gathered around the dead tree in the center of the square, where a few Vigilants of Steedarr stood.

“Ponies of Whitetrot,” one of them spoke, “We Vigilants have no quarrel with you, but with somepony in your midst we do. Somepony among you has an item we seek to destroy. The Oghma Infinium, foul book of the Draconequus Hermaehorse Mora. Surrender this book to us by the end of the day, or we will have no choice but to attack your city!”

The speaker jumped down from the soapbox she’d been standing on and led her fellows through the crowd. I watched them leave as they exited the square, heading for the city gates. How did they know I had the Oghma Infinium? It made no difference now. Either I gave the book up to the Vigilants, or they’d destroy the town.

As the crowd began to disperse, I followed the Whitetrot guards up to Dragonsreach. As I suspected they would, they reported to the Jarl immediately. He took the news that we were to be attacked surprisingly well.

“Darkfeather,” he spoke to his bodyguard, “Prepare the troops immediately to defend the city.”

“Sir?” she asked.

“If it’s a fight the Vigilants want, it’s a fight they’ll get.”

“Of course milord, right away,” Darkfeather said before galloping off.

“You intend to fight them?” I asked Jarl Valor’s Blade.

“They do not know with what forces they are dealing,” the Jarl replied, “These Vigilants must learn that they cannot simply show up at a town, threaten it, and get away with it. That may have worked for them in Unicornica, but here in Horizon things are different. Besides, if we can defend ourselves from the Imperial Legion, I think these Vigilants will be no problem.”

“Right,” I said, though I wasn’t sure.

There weren’t quite as many ponies defending Whitetrot this time. Most of the guards had returned to their posts near the border after the battle with the Legion. In addition, many of Whitetrot’s guards were now serving in the Stormcloud army and were posted far from here. And while the Vigilants of Steedarr weren’t exactly comparable to the Imperial Legion, I didn’t fancy facing a large number of them in force.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

The day passed swiftly as I agonized over what to do. The Oghma Infinium could hold the answers to everything I ever wanted to know, but it was putting the ponies of a town I was Thane of in danger. If the Vigilants got their hooves on the book, I could lose an opportunity of a lifetime, but if I didn’t, a battle would come to Whitetrot. Jarl Valor’s Blade was certain we could hold off the Vigilants, but ponies would still die if I didn’t turn over the book.

As the end of the day came, I decided what I had to do. The Oghma Infinium had to be destroyed, and I had to be the one to do it, that way I knew the job was done. I pulled it out of my saddlebags and threw it into the fire, watching as the flames licked over the pages.

But even though it was surrounded by fire, the book refused to burn. Using a ladle, I fished it out of the fire, and it tumbled across the floor, still in perfect condition. I picked it up in my magic, drawing out Dawnbreaker. I slashed my sword down at the Infinium, but even my Draconequus blade refused to slice through the tome.

“The Vigilants are here,” Mystic announced, stepping through the front door, “What is that?”

“It’s the Oghma Infinium,” I admitted, “I found it at the College.”

“Well, get it out here then,” she said, “The Vigilants are demanding its destruction.”

“It can’t be destroyed,” I said, “I’ve already tried.”

“There’s got to be some way,” Mystic said.

The sound of sword strikes suddenly came from outside as the Vigilants attacked the Whitetrot guards.

“Let me try,” she said, taking the book from me.

Aiming toward the fire, she blasted the Infinium with pure magic. Intense energies slammed into the tome, yet it stayed in pristine condition. Mystic exhausted her magical reserves, and allowed the book to fall, unharmed, to the floor.

“Well, what do we do?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” I said, “I don’t want to give it to the Vigilants until it’s destroyed, or else they might try to use it. Limitless knowledge is dangerous.”

“You think they’ll really try to use it?”

“I don’t know. The Vigilants claim to hunt down the scourges of the world, but the stuff they do isn’t much better. There’s something off about them, and I don’t trust them.”

“All right,” Mystic said, passing the Infinium back to me, “We need to find a way to destroy this thing, but right now we should probably focus on the battle going on outside.”

I nodded and grabbed my sword, leaving my Twilight Armor behind for the fear the Vigilants would recognize it as Draconequus armor and start another feud. Outside Breezehome, a few Vigilants were rounding up the townsponies, searching them and their homes for the book I had in my saddlebags.

They noticed that Mystic and I were armed and redirected their attention toward us. As one brought her mace down toward me, I blocked with the Blade of Hoofingar. Dawnbreaker was strapped to my side, but like my Twilight Armor I didn’t want to wield it too openly for fear of starting another fight. I pushed her mace back, carefully hooking my ebony sword underneath the end. I blasted the Vigilant in the face with a Paralyze spell as I closed in on her, knocking her to the ground.

<<>>

The group of Vigilants trying to storm us was suddenly thrown back. I paralyzed those I could before they closed back in on me, and cut through those I couldn’t. I didn’t want to kill these Vigilants for coming to get me, but if I had no other choice, I did. As I impaled one with my ebony sword, the last of the Vigilants inside the gate were taken care of.

“Where are Mephalda and Steadfast?” I asked Mystic.

“They got involved in the fight right away,” she said, “They must be up in the housing district.”

I nodded my understanding and took off for the stairs that led up into the second tier of the city. As I reached the top, a Vigilant jumped me, holding a sword to my throat. As I elbowed him in the stomach he pulled the sword back for a strike.

<<>> I Shouted as his blade came down on my neck.

I suddenly took on my ethereal form, and his blade passed through my ghostly body, striking him instead. I retrieved my blades as he healed himself. Suddenly he was hit by a paralysis spell from Mystic, sending him tumbling down the stairs. As I returned to my physical form, we charged together past the houses to where the fight was taking place.

The fighting was thick here up in the housing district, Steadfast and the Whitetrot guards trying to hold off the Vigilants on the ground. Mephalda was in the air, dropping the pegasus Vigilants with shots from her bow and dodging the arrows fired up at her.

I charged in, slicing apart the bow one of the robed ponies was using. She drew a dagger on me and tried to slide it between my ribs. I blocked her stab with the Blade of Hoofingar, knocking her dagger away, and knocked her on the head with the hilt of my sword.

My hindleg was suddenly sliced open by the swipe of another nearby Vigilant. Grimacing with pain, I spun around, my sword meeting his. I slid my sword down his blade until I was able to swing it into his neck. I cast a healing spell on the gash and bound it before moving on.

As a Vigilant came at me, his battleaxe ready to swing down on my head, he was suddenly fried my Mystic’s magic. I stumbled over another Vigilant as Mephalda dropped him with an arrow, and found myself standing next to Steadfast.

“Glad you could join us,” he said as he smashed in the skull of one of the Vigilants closing in on us, “What was keeping you?”

“The Oghma Infinium,” I said as I knocked another of the ponies unconscious, “I have it.”

“Well then, give it to them,” he said, keeping a Vigilant at bay with his warhammer.

“It’s not that easy,” I said, “I tried to destroy it, but nothing worked.”

“So if they get it, they can’t destroy it either?”

“That’s right,” I answered, “And I don’t feel right just turning it over. What if they abuse it?”

“Puts us in a bit of a tight spot, doesn’t it?” he commented.

“Yeah,” I answered, blindly swinging my sword and taking a Vigilant’s head off, “Unless you’ve got any ideas on how to destroy it.”

“Well, we could burn it in the Skyforge,” he offered, knocking a unicorn into a house before she could launch a ball of flame from her horn at us.

“I tried burning it,” I said, shaking my head, “And Mystic tried it with magical fire.”

“Well, the Skyforge might still work,” he said, “There’s no hotter and purer fire in all the Northlands except for the Red Mountain, and going there could be a problem.”

“The Skyforge it is,” I said, slicing through a Vigilant’s foreleg, “Lead the way.”

Steadfast began to carve a path toward Jorrvaskr using his warhammer. I followed behind, blasting the Vigilants he missed with a Paralysis spell, or slicing into them with the Blade of Hoofingar, depending on the circumstances.

“Where are we headed?” Mystic asked, catching up with us and sending a blast of fire behind to keep the Vigilants from closing in on us.

“The Skyforge,” I answered, “Steadfast thinks it might be able to destroy the Infinium.”

“I sure hope he’s right,” Mystic said, “There’s more Vigilants here than I’ve ever seen before, and I don’t think we can hold them off forever.”

Eventually, we made it to the central square of Whitetrot. The Whitetrot guards were busy leading a valiant last defense before the Vigilants pushed past them and ascended the steps to Dragonsreach. As we wove through the fighting, I tripped and the Oghma Infinium spilled from my saddlebags.

“It’s the Infinium!” one shouted, spotting the book as I picked it back up, “Get it!”

The Vigilants that weren’t occupied with the fighting all turned to us, charging toward us with weapons raised. We galloped up the stairs to Jorrvaskr as quickly as we could, Mystic sending spells back from time to time to hold the Vigilants off. As we reached the building, the Companions began to spill out, prepared to defend their mead hall from the attacking ponies.

We galloped ahead, following Steadfast as he hung a left at Jorrvaskr, heading toward a jutting peak of rock upon which a giant eagle was carved from the rock. The light of the Skyforge illuminated the statue and propelled us onward as we climbed the steps. As we neared the Skyforge’s fire, I pulled out the Oghma Infinium and held it high in the air.

“I am destroying the Infinium!” I declared to the Vigilants who were trying to fight their way up to us.

Many of them paused in their fighting to watch as I threw the book into the fire. I prayed it would work as the flames began to pass over the tome’s cover. Slowly at first, then with increasing rapidity, the cover began to blacken and the pages began to combust. Sickly green flames burst up as the black magic in the tome was consumed. The Oghma Infinium burned, a screech beginning to sound from the book as all its secrets and ancient powers were consumed.

The Vigilant who’d declared war on Whitetrot in the square that morning trotted up next to me, watching as the Infinium was consumed completely, turning to ash.

“It is destroyed!” she confirmed for her followers before motioning for them to depart the city.

The Vigilants began to trot off for the city gates as if nothing happened. The Whitetrot guards weren’t going to allow that and surrounded the Vigilants, relieving them of their weapons and forcing them to march up to Dragonsreach, where Jarl Valor’s Blade would deal with them. As they were led off, a courier trotted past Jorrvaskr and met us at the Skyforge.

“Message for you,” she said, pulling one out of her saddlebags, “What happened here?”

“Bit of trouble with the Vigilants,” Steadfast answered as I took the letter, “But it’s over now.”

“Well, serves them right if you ask me,” the courier said as she watched the robed ponies get led up to the keep, “Always sticking their noses in everypony’s business.”

“Well, what’s the message say?” Mystic asked after I opened it.

“It’s from Jarl Stormcloud,” I said, “He wants us in Windhorn tomorrow. The war’s coming to an end.”

Level Up
Health: 330 Stamina: 320 Magicka: 310
New Perk: Gallop to Glory [Light Weapons] -- Any power attacks with light weapons inflicted after a sprint now do triple damage.
New Quest: Stormcloud’s War -- Travel to Windhorn and receive your orders from Jarl Stormcloud.

Chapter 68: Marethal

Chapter LXVIII: Marethal
“I stand where I have always stood: in Marethal.”

The letter from Jarl Stormcloud had said to meet him the next day, so there was no point in leaving immediately. We spent another night in Whitetrot before leaving for Windhorn. A light snow was falling as we neared the ancient city, adding to the already impressive amount piled over the land. Horizon’s winter was coming in force.

We were crossing the bridge to the city when a terrible roar suddenly sounded over the mountains. Craning my neck around, I saw a massive dragon soar in from the south, its eyes fixed on Windhorn. A strong wind blew over us and the dragon passed us by, soaring over Windhorn’s wall before setting down inside.

We galloped forward, passing through the towering gates into the city. The dragon was standing on top of the inn just within the city, filling the streets to either side with flame. A bell was ringing in the background, calling the Windhorn guards to arms, but only a few had made it so far.

<<>> I Shouted as the dragon roasted two guards who were firing arrows at it.

The clouds above the city grew back, the snow falling harder now, and the wind whipping things up into a blizzard. The sky rumbled before sending bolts of lightning into the dragon. It shrugged the strikes off, seemingly not even caring as its scaly armor was pierced and burned all over.

This dragon was quite a bit larger than any I’d seen before, except for Alduin. Between the two, it was a close comparison in size. No wonder Alduin had sent this dragon to destroy Windhorn. It looked like it could simply flatten whole buildings by landing on them.

The dragon swung its head around, finally stopping as its gaze locked on us. Its eyes narrowed as it found me, and it opened its gaping maw to spew forth fire. The four of us scattered, running from the dragon’s breath. I ducked inside a shop as the fire caught up to me.

After slamming the door shut on the flames, I turned to see a trio of townsponies huddling behind the counter. I was about to reassure them that everything would be all right when the front of the shop suddenly exploded. The dragon’s tail cut through the wall, sending chunks of stone flying everywhere. I ducked down, huddling into a ball as the tail swept over me and the stone crashed against my crystalline armor a moment later.

Stone was still raining down when the dragon lowered its head to look through the hole it’d made. Like the townsponies, I galloped for the nearby stairs as the dragon sent a blast of flame into the shop. Fire billowed up from the stairway as we reached the top, singeing the ceiling.

I headed back toward the storefront immediately, climbing over furniture in a mad scramble to reach the door that led out to the balcony. I threw the doors open before stepping out onto a balcony that was barely there anymore. I gave a leap, landing on the dragon’s snout. It crossed its eyes, pinpointing me before shaking its head and sending me flying off, rolling across the square.

It raked its claws along the sides of the inn as it turned toward me. The dragon barely fit within the square and was clinging to the walls to keep from falling and getting trapped. I intended to fix that, and I galloped toward it as it opened its mouth to roast me.

<<>>

The inside of the dragon’s mouth was suddenly coated with ice, and the fire was backed up for a moment, erupting as steam before any actual flames left the dragon’s mouth. That moment was all I needed, and I ducked under its head, running beneath the beast as it shot fire where I no longer was.

I drew Dawnbreaker and the Blade of Hoofingar as I neared the wing the dragon was propping against the row of buildings that now had a line gouged through from the dragon’s tail. I stabbed both into the wing joint, cutting across and forcing the dragon to draw its wing in. The dragon tipped off balance, falling toward me, trapping me between it and the buildings.

<<>> I Shouted, pushing the dragon away from me just long enough that I was able to duck into another building.

The wall caved in as I entered, hit by the dragon’s bulk. I headed for the stairs as fast I could, climbing onto the second floor, and then the roof. Steadfast stood on a roof not too far away and jumped from it, swinging his warhammer down as he fell. His weapon struck the dragon’s hind claw, dislodging it from the building and sending the beast crashing all the way to the ground.

The dragon realized it was trapped on the ground now and swung a claw up at the inn, knocking off a large portion of the front and roof where Mephalda was standing, firing arrows at the beast. Straining to move its wings, the dragon managed to get them free and in the air. It flapped up, dislodging itself from the narrow street as it sent a wall of flame at Mystic, who was trying to bring it back down with ice spikes.

The dragon doused the city with flame, burning buildings at it headed east. I followed across the rooftops as fast as I could, clambering up onto the wall at one point in order to move faster. I followed the dragon as went on a rampage through the city, smashing in buildings and lighting the insides on fire.

<<>> I Shouted as it reached the Winged Quarter.

The dragon fell from the sky as I forced mortality on it, crashing through the archway that separated the pegasus slums from the rest of the city. I quickly climbed down from the wall using a set of stairs, and entered the Winged Quarter.

Before I could reach the dragon, it smashed its claws into the buildings around it and hefted itself up. Stone rained down as the buildings were destroyed, the dragon now standing on top of them and looking down at me. I ran as it filled the street with fire, kicking in a locked door to enter a home.

A knife flew past my head, thrown by a dappled pegasus within. Another grabbed me before I could explain, holding a sword to my throat.

“Who sent you?” she demanded, “Jarl Stormcloud?”

“No,” I said, “There’s a dragon outside.”

“Tell me another one,” the pegasus said, “We knew Stormcloud would lead this purge someday, and we’re ready.”

The dragon’s claw suddenly tore through the wall, grabbing the pegasus who was holding me. She screamed as the dragon pulled her out, feeding her into his mouth. I grabbed Dawnbreaker and charged up the stairs to the second floor of the home, dodging an arrow shot by another dappled pegasus.

I jumped through a window, shattering the glass, and landed on the dragon’s inverted head. As it righted itself, I scrambled over onto the top of its head. It knew I was there immediately and bucked its head, throwing me into the air. I fell from the sky toward the dragon’s open mouth, about to be eaten.

A huge fireball suddenly struck the dragon in the side of the head, knocking it away from me. As I tumbled down the neck, bouncing off spines, I saw Mystic running across the rooftops, her horn still glowing from the spells she’d casted. The dragon sent blasts of fire at her, scorching the tops of the buildings but failing to break through her ward.

I finally came to a stop around the middle of the dragon’s back. Mephalda flew overhead as I picked myself up, her Blackwing blades cutting through the dragon’s scaly flesh. It roared as she did so, and twisted its head around to snap at her. She was already out of the way, however, having dived beneath the dragon’s head, firing arrows up into its neck.

Steadfast emerged from a roof nearby as I charged along the dragon’s back, cutting in with my Draconequus blade and roasting the exposed flesh with a flame spell. Steadfast galloped up to the dragon, who was focused on Mephalda, and struck the roof it was standing on repeatedly with his warhammer. The stone began to crack from the repeated hits, and the dragon’s weight did the rest. The edge of the building crumbled off, sending the dragon’s back half plummeting into the square, its tail dragging a gouge through the building.

I grabbed hold of a spine as the dragon tipped, its horizontal back becoming a ramp. As its bulk struck the square, it destroyed the statue of Jurgen Sky-Whinny, reducing it and the cowering dappled pegasus to rubble. As the dust settled, I began to climb my way up the dragon’s back, striking wherever the flesh was exposed from a lightning strike.

Mystic jumped from a roof as the dragon’s flame pursued her. She made a short teleport to the ground before focusing all her magical energy on sending lightning bolts at the dragon’s foreclaws. They twisted and were scorched as the bolts hit them, and the dragon was forced to let go of the building, sliding down into the enclosed square. It snapped its jaw around the face of the building as it fell, but it simply crumbled away in its mouth, too damaged to hold.

I was thrown momentarily into the air as the dragon crashed to the ground before landing again and bouncing across the spines. When I recovered, I begin to gallop once more toward the dragon’s neck, which was now propped against the face of the destroyed building. The dragon flared its wings, pushing rubble away and creating more as they brushed against the nearby shops.

<> I Shouted.

The dragon’s wing suddenly caught fire, going up in flames instantly. All that was left behind was the scorched bone structure by the time the fire went out. The dragon roared with rage and snapped at me, managing to scoop me up in its mouth.

As I tried to keep from sliding across its tongue, I stabbed Dawnbreaker up into its brain. It grew suddenly hot, and I downed a potion of fire resistance just before the flames came gushing up at me. Dragon fire surrounded me as I drew the Blade of Hoofingar and stabbed it up into the dragon’s brain as well, opening the wound.

<<>> I Shouted as the flames stopped.

Ice traveled across the roof of the dragon’s mouth, entering the wound I’d inflicted on it and freezing the brain. The dragon began to move more sluggishly before finally dying, crashing to the ground with me still trapped in its mouth.

It seemed an eternity passed in the dark while I waited for the dragon to combust. Finally it did so, all its memories merging with mine as its flesh was consumed. After they finished, I pulled Dawnbreaker and the Blade of Hoofingar from the dragon’s skeleton and trotted out through its throat.

I rejoined Steadfast, Mystic, and Mephalda, and we left the Winged Quarter for the Palace of Kings. The dappled pegasi began to emerge from their homes as we left, marveling at the sight of a dragon’s skeleton. I scowled as we exited the Winged Quarter. Just outside were the majority of Windhorn’s guards, apparently waiting to defend the city only if the dragon left the slums and attacked earth ponies instead.

“The dragon’s been dealt with, my Jarl,” a soldier was reporting to Jarl Stormcloud as we entered the Palace of Kings.

“By whom?” he asked.

“By us,” I answered.

“Ah, I should have known,” the Jarl said, “Well, it seems our city is once more in your debt. How do you always manage to be in the right place at the right time?”

“We were just answering your summons,” I answered before he could ask if I had some sort of dragon-sensing ability, because I most certainly did not, yet I always seemed to end up where a dragon was attacking at just the right time.

“Of course,” the Jarl said, stepping down from his throne and motioning for us to follow him as he trotted to his war room, “Then you also know that I intend to end this war very soon.”

“Yes,” I answered, “Your letter mentioned preparing for a strike on Seclusion, the Imperial capital.”

“That battle will be the toughest we will ever have to fight, but it will come in time, and we will be prepared,” he said, “But one last obstacle stands in our way before we storm Seclusion.”

“Marethal,” Mephalda said, looking at the map on the table before us.

“Precisely,” Stormcloud answered, “If I focus all my resources on Seclusion, I need to be sure I will not be attacked from the rear. So long as Marethal remains in Imperial hooves, my flank is in danger. What if, during the attack on Seclusion, General Cuirass lands additional troops there and marches them through the swamps to pin me in against the Hoofingar Mountains? It would be the end of the rebellion, and the end of a free Horizon.”

“Oh, don’t be so glum Stormy,” Zest said, suddenly popping out from behind the Jarl, “He has to go through the Pegasari Dominion if he wants to do that.”

“Perhaps you’re forgetting, Zest,” the Jarl said, removing her from his back, “But the White-Gold Concordat, that accursed treaty we’re fighting against, binds the Dominion and the Empire together, making them allies in all but name.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about them working together,” she said nonchalantly, “I’d worry about them not working together.”

“As always, I don’t understand a thing you’re saying,” Jarl Stormcloud said, shaking his head, “Just tell me if we can win this war.”

“Yes, we can win this war,” Zest replied, “Maybe not easily, but we can win this war.”

“Excellent,” Stormcloud said, seemingly missing the emphasis Zest used.

However, her words were not lost on me. She specifically emphasized that this war could be won. But what did that mean? Was there another war waiting, one that couldn’t be won? Or maybe Zest was just being herself, and not making any sense as per the usual.

“To make things short, I need you in the fight for Marethal,” Stormcloud continued, “Meet with my troops in Hjaaltrot and get some rest. The battle commences tomorrow.”

“You’re not coming?” I asked after he marked the location of the Stormcloud camp on my map, curious that he’d be absent from a battle when he never had been before.

“No,” he replied, shaking his head, “I have to stay here and prepare for the battle of Seclusion.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

We did as Jarl Stormcloud had ordered, reaching the Hjaaltrot Stormcloud camp by early evening. We were fairly close to Marethal, but with all the swamps and tangled trees, nopony would find us unless they were actively looking. The battle would commence at sunrise the next morning, but for now we had some time to relax. I worked on finishing my first volume of Minotauran Inquiries.

Arcanex

The Arcanex is a bit of a mystery to scholars. Every large Minotauran ruin contains one, but the purpose is hard to decipher. It is similar to a large amphitheater, except that far more mechanics fill it than would be expected. Also there is a highly irregular concentration of magical gems, all filled with increasing energy, apparently being charged by the machines around them. Within the Arcanex itself is an apparatus identical in every ruin (see Fig. 221). A series of lenses and gems snaking over the roof and walls, the exact purpose of the contraption is unknown. The apparatus is similar to an observatory in several ways, except that most Arcanexi are built far underground.

Some have suggested that the Arcanex is perhaps the Minotauran equivalent of a temple. The Minotaurs are known to have eschewed both the Equines and most of the Draconequi, instead choosing to worship science and technology. However, an Arcanex is built nothing like how one would suspect a temple to be built, even a temple dedicated to the gods of electricity and steam. Perhaps nopony shall every truly understand the purpose of the Arcanex.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

The next day dawned stormy and gray. It was as if nature itself knew that pony blood would be spilled today. Of course, Jarl Stormcloud could simply have arranged for the battle to coincide with a scheduled storm on the weather table in order to keep pegasus observers away. Either way, the feeling of death seemed to cover the land.

The Stormcloud commander filling in for Jarl Stormcloud, a gruff stallion named War-Bear who was missing a leg, led the silent march through the swamps. Marethal soon came into sight, a ramshackle collection of buildings barely larger than Foalkreath.

We could see that a few Imperial soldiers patrolled the town. It appeared General Cuirass knew Marethal needed to be protected, but didn’t think it tactically important enough to spare a full troop. He’d underestimated Jarl Stormcloud and how much he wanted Marethal. Of course, it could all just be a clever trap.

None of that mattered as a roar suddenly sounded across the marshes. I prayed it was just a hydra, but my fears were realized as a dragon suddenly swooped overhead. The Stormclouds took advantage of the confusion to charge into the town, taking the Imperials by surprise, but all my attention was focused on the winged lizard circling overhead.

<<>> I Shouted as it flew over the town, roasting Imperials and Stormclouds alike.

As Dragonrend took hold, the dragon suddenly fell from the sky, sliding across the ground and carving a groove down the path that ran through Marethal. Mephalda was already in the air, shooting arrows into the dragon’s body as it tried to shake off the feeling of mortality that clung to it. Mystic hit it in the head with a magic blast, sending its neck whipping around and knocking its head through a building.

Steadfast reached the dragon first, crushing its tail with his warhammer. As it spun around at him, he jumped out of the way. Its injured tail swung around with it, tearing through a house before swinging around toward where I stood. I raised Dawnbreaker as the tail passed over, slicing through the portion weakened by Steadfast’s strike and chopping the back half off.

As the tail fell to the ground, the dragon suddenly became very enraged, spinning around toward me. I ventured a slice with Dawnbreaker at its jaw before running past its neck. As it twisted around after me, I was hit by the swinging neck and sent rolling across the ground. I scrambled to my hooves as the dragon let loose a blast of fire at me.

Mephalda suddenly shot down from the sky, landing on the dragon’s head. With her Blackwing blades, she carved through the dragon’s scales and chopped off its spines, trying to pierce its brain. The dragon shook its head, throwing Mephalda off before sending a blast of fire at her. Mystic sent a wave of ice to nullify the fire as Mephalda righted herself and flew away.

<<>> I Shouted, calling down a storm on the dragon.

As lightning struck its body, the dragon tried to get clear of the storm. As it took off into the air, Mephalda came soaring down, cutting holes through the dragon’s wings with her Blackwing blades. Mystic followed up with blasts of fire, destroying the dragon’s wings and grounding it permanently.

As it crashed to the ground, Steadfast charged up to it, swinging his warhammer into its side. The dragon huffed smoke from its nostrils and grabbed Steadfast in a claw. It then threw him as hard as it could toward Marethal’s longhouse. Mephalda swooped down and saved him before he hit the structure, but she had to swiftly drop him and fly away as the dragon sent a blast of flame at them.

I galloped toward the dragon, shooting ice spikes at it as I did so. Eventually one managed to strike it in the eye, causing it to howl in pain as the frigid shaft blinded it. I sent lightning flying at the dragon’s face, striking it in its bad eye and causing it even more pain. The dragon didn’t even bother to find me before covering the area I was in with flame. Luckily, I’d had the foresight to down a potion of fire resistance, and I passed through the flames unharmed.

<<>> I Shouted, freezing the dragon’s head to the ground.

The fire cut off abruptly as the ice covered the dragon’s mouth. The great beast struggled against its imprisonment, thrashing around as it tried to escape. The ice began to crack, and I climbed onto its neck while it was still mostly stationary. Using Dawnbreaker and the Blade of Hoofingar, I cut through the dragon’s flesh, trying to sever its neck.

The dragon suddenly broke free of the ice, and I was forced to focus on keeping from being thrown off. I clung to a spine, but my grip soon began to slip, and I could feel myself sliding off. As a last strike, I blasted the dragon with fire as I was thrown off.

Mephalda caught me before I began to tumble across the ground, swiftly dropping me off before the dragon spotted us. Mephalda took off into the sky, shooting at the dragon’s good eye. It was moving so quickly and erratically, however, that it was hard for her to hit it.

As Steadfast slammed his warhammer into its jaw, nearly dislocating it, the dragon was still enough that Mephalda was able to get her strike in. The dragon roared and let fire loose everywhere as the shaft sank into its eye, blinding it completely. Steadfast was nearly crushed under its claws as it stomped around, trying to destroy everything around it.

I galloped toward its stump of a tail, pulling myself onto its back. I galloped upward, doing whatever damage I could as I neared its neck. The dragon might not have been able to see, but it could feel what I was doing, and craned its neck around toward me, breathing fire. Suddenly, Mystic appeared next to me, putting up a ward around us.

We galloped up the dragon’s back together until it ceased breathing fire and tried to throw us off instead. I grabbed a hold of one of its neck spines while Mystic willingly jumped from the beast’s back. She began to shoot ice at the dragon’s head, coating it in frost. It angrily blasted fire everywhere it thought she was, but didn’t succeed even when it found her. Her ice was able to hold it off, and push it back.

I climbed the dragon’s neck, trying not to be thrown off as it whipped its head around. At last I reached its head, and stabbed my swords through the wounds that Mephalda had already inflicted on it. Scales peeled off and flesh was ruptured, but still the dragon refused to die. I was hurting it, however, and it angrily whipped its head back, throwing me off.

<<>> I Shouted as I left the dragon’s head.

The force of my Shout slammed the dragon’s head to the ground. Mystic swiftly covered it in ice, once more freezing its head to the ground. Steadfast came galloping in a moment later, jumping into the air as he swung his warhammer down on the dragon’s head. The dragon’s skull shattered, and bone shards pierced its brain, swiftly killing it.

As I recovered from my tumble and healed my minor wounds, the dragon began to combust. Soon all its memories were mine, and I learned what it was to be a dragon once again. So seamlessly did the memories of all these dragons mesh with mine that I was beginning to have trouble keeping track of what had and hadn’t happened to me personally. The experiences were all the same to my mind, and I had to be careful. If I killed many more dragons, I might forget what it meant to be a pony.

By the time the dragon was dead, the Battle of Marethal was over, the Imperials laying down their weapons. Many glanced our way as they did so, apparently not willing to take on dragon slayers, which was just fine with me. The battle had been won, and I hadn’t had to kill a single pony.

War-Bear chose a resident of Marethal to be the new Jarl (no doubt pre-chosen by Jarl Stormcloud) and I watched the old Jarl flee to the west. My gaze was drawn upward, toward the mountains, and the city that was perched among them. Seclusion would fall soon.

Level Up
Health: 330 Stamina: 330 Magicka: 310
New Perk: The Knife that Cuts Deepest [Sneak] – All sneak attacks with daggers now do sixteen times normal damage.
Dragon Soul collected
Dragon Soul collected
New Quest: Rebellion – Attack Seclusion and free Horizon from Imperial control.

Chapter 69: War's End

Chapter LXIX: War’s End
“Sometimes we all just need to be shown a little kindness.”

After the Battle of Marethal, we reported back to Jarl Stormcloud in Windhorn, where he immediately announced his plans to take Seclusion. While we’d been fighting for Marekarth, another group of Stormcloud troops had taken Dragon Bridge. Surprisingly, the town put up next to no resistance, and the Ponytus Occulatus outpost was abandoned. It was as if General Cuirass knew we were coming for Seclusion and had pulled all his troops back for defense of the city.

Stormcloud’s troops were already on the move, transporting the siege weapons that would be needed to break into the city. He’d captured a few of the Empire’s trebuchets from the armory near Marethal, had constructed a few catapults of his own, and was ready to pound the city into submission.

It would be hard to even enter the city. Seclusion itself was built as a fortress, perched on an arch of rock to which there was only one path of approach. That one path of approach had been heavily covered by General Cuirass’s troops, making it near impossible to reach the city.

Of course, Jarl Stormcloud could have ordered his siege weapons to target the arch that half the city rested on, taking it and the Blue Palace out, but her refused, saying that he was here to save Horizon, not destroy it. I had memories from Foalkreath that said otherwise, but kept my mouth shut.

Two days after we took Marethal, the Jarl launched his strike, focusing all his power on Seclusion. The fleet waiting at Windhorn smashed through the ice and circled around to surround the Imperial navy in Seclusion’s harbor. There was no escape for the Imperial ships so long as the Stormcloud ships stayed afloat. They were replaced daily with commandeered merchant vessels (which is what they really were in the first place) as the Imperial navy fought to break free, tearing the ships to pieces with their ballistae and cannons.

While the Imperial navy was busy trying to break free of a harbor that was rapidly freezing around them, the siege weapons pounded Seclusion, especially the barricades that had been set up all the way along the path to the city gates. General Cuirass wasn’t foolish enough to fill the barricades with his soldiers, but they lay in wait nearby in case our attacks stopped long enough for us to begin a charge for the gate.

We lost two of our trebuchets in the first day of the battle, as the General still had a few siege weapons of his own. Trebuchets constructed in the mountains above Seclusion rained down stones on our ranks, forcing us to move the camps farther from the city to keep them from being destroyed.

Progress soon slowed to a crawl, and the Siege of Seclusion began. It became a challenge to see how long the city could last without fresh supplies. They were cut off, both by land and by sea, and when the odd pegasus tried to escort food in, they were usually shot from the sky, either by Stormcloud archers or a catapult strike.

As the siege dragged into its fourth day, I began to hear grumbling among the Stormclouds, and I was inclined to agree with them at points. We were supposed to be taking Seclusion, the last city standing in the way of a free Horizon, and instead we were huddling in the cold, doing nothing. Even so, I knew that a direct assault would still be suicide, even with all the damage that had been done to the barricades. Nopony knew exactly how many Imperial soldiers waited inside, but judging by the number of ships now frozen in the harbor, he’d brought half the Legion.

I was finishing up Minotauran Inquiries; Vol. I when I noticed Bereloth marching through the camp, looking around for something. He trotted over when he saw where Mephalda, Mystic, Steadfast, and I were sitting around a fire. He suddenly ducked to the ground, as did everypony around us, as a flaming stone struck a nearby trebuchet, turning it into a mess of splintered and burning wood.

“This siege has got to end,” he said as he approached us, “Did you know we’ve already had some ponies head home? If we don’t enter Seclusion soon, there won’t be any Stormclouds.”

“Well, there’s not really anything we can do about it, is there?” Steadfast asked.

“Actually, there is,” Bereloth said slyly, “The Jarl’s got a plan to take out the trebuchets guarding the city. It requires a small team, and I was wondering if you’d be interested?”

“Sure,” I said, “It’s better than sitting around here doing nothing, but I thought there was no way for us to get up to the trebuchets.”

“Well, the crews that fire the things have to get up there somehow,” Bereloth pointed out, “And the entrance isn’t from Seclusion. There’s a mountain pass north of the city that Imperial troops have been using to bring supplies up. One of the ships saw them last night. It’s our ticket in.”

“When do we leave?” Mystic asked.

“Right away,” Bereloth replied, “I’ve got to round up a few more soldiers. Meet me out by the northernmost catapult.”

We gathered up all our gear, happy to be able to do something. While we waited for Bereloth by the catapult, we watched the Imperial ships trapped in the harbor. None of them were firing anymore, but an attack the Stormclouds had attempted the day before proved that they still had ammunition, but were holding it in reserve to defend themselves. I found it odd that the Imperial navy was so clustered instead of being spread out in a more advantageous formation. It seemed that they were all protecting a single ship in the center of them, an impressive frigate that was now locked in the ice like all the rest.

I had no more time to examine the Imperial fleet as Bereloth returned with four other Stormcloud soldiers. We set off at once, crossing the ice well out of the reach of the Imperial fleet’s guns. Only a few Stormcloud ships waited farther out, constantly being forced to retreat as the ice spread.

I’d heard that during the winter ice could stretch all the way from Horizon’s coast to the shores of the Featherrest Isles. Theoretically, one could cross the ice, but the distance was so great I wouldn’t want to risk being lost in a blizzard when at any moment the ground could give way beneath your hooves.

We made it around to the north of Seclusion without any mishaps, however, and soon our hooves were on solid ground again. We followed Bereloth as he led the way to a crevice in the mountains. It was narrow, and slow going at first, but soon the ground began to slope upward, and stairs appeared carved into the slope.

Eventually we reached the top, where we could look down on where the two trebuchets were mounted on the mountains. Around the siege weapons scrambled Imperial soldiers loading and firing the trebuchets, and townsponies who were working on carving stones from the mountainside to be thrown at the Stormcloud weapons of war. A stack of barrels sat near each trebuchet, filled with the oil the Imperials used to light their projectiles on fire.

Mephalda borrowed a torch from one of the Stormcloud soldiers and lit the tip of her arrow on fire. She fitted the flaming shaft to her bow and pulled it back slowly before rapidly releasing it. The arrow shot down at the trebuchets, striking one of the piles of barrels. One of the Imperial soldiers noticed the burning arrow stuck in the barrel and sounded the alarm, rushing to put the fire out.

It was too late. The barrels suddenly went up in a massive fireball, lighting the trebuchet on fire as well. The flames burned bright and strong as they consumed the machine of war, causing it to collapse in on itself and drop pieces down the mountain onto Seclusion.

A soldier spotted us a moment later and began firing her bow at us, forcing us to keep our heads down. Mephalda popped up for a moment, bow in hoof, and fired a single arrow before dropping back down. No more arrows came from the Imperial archer.

The Stormcloud soldiers drew their weapons and charged down the steep path to the trebuchets. The sound of steel on steel rang through the air as their blades met those of the Imperials. I bypassed the main fight and headed toward the second trebuchet with my friends.

I drew Dawnbreaker as an Imperial soldier with a battleaxe tried to stop us. As he swung his weapon down at my head I blocked, holding him off long enough for Mystic to freeze him solid with a blast of ice. Using my sword, I snapped his battleaxe off before driving the blade through the ice and into his body.

Mystic threw up a magical shield as an Imperial battlemage sent a ball of flame flying at her. Mephalda soared up into the sky, firing arrows down at the spellcaster. As he fired lightning bolts up at Mephalda, Steadfast came in from the side, crushing the battlemage against the cliff face.

The soldiers running the trebuchet abandoned their post, moving to defend against us. I fired ice spikes at the one closest to me, many bouncing off his helmet, but some sticking in his face. As he stumbled and fell, I finished him off with a blast of flame.

Mystic zapped one with an overcharged lightning bolt, sending him flying off the cliff and tumbling down to Seclusion below. The third hid behind one of the trebuchet’s legs, dodging the arrows Mephalda shot at him.

<> I Shouted, burning through the trebuchet and hitting the soldier behind.

As he caught on fire, he ran away, not seeing that he was heading straight for the edge of the cliff. He reached the abrupt drop and went plummeting down to land in Seclusion. Nearby, Bereloth and his soldiers finished mopping up and began to gather the townsponies to hold until after the battle.

“Wait!” he called as Mystic prepared to light the second set of barrels aflame, consuming the second trebuchet, “Destroy the trebuchet, not the oil. Those are our orders.”

Mystic obeyed, focusing her flames on the trebuchet instead. Steadfast, Mephalda, and I helped the Stormcloud soldiers to roll the oil barrels away from the flaming war machine. Apparently Jarl Stormcloud had some use for these. Hopefully we wouldn’t have to wait too long to find out what it was.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

That evening we were back in the Stormcloud camp. The Jarl was drilling his soldiers, telling them to be ready to attack at a moment’s notice. Nopony said it for sure, but I think he intended to attack that night, or possibly the next morning.

I was alone in my tent, finally getting around to reading The Book of the Dragonborn. Mephalda had left on a scouting mission to survey Seclusion from above, still working to convince Jarl Stormcloud that it had been right to spare her. Steadfast was practicing with the Stormcloud soldiers, honing his skill with the warhammer. Mystic had disappeared to find a place to read her books without distracting noises in the background.

“Interesting read,” a voice spoke from over my shoulder, and I nearly jumped out of my skin in surprise.

I turned my head to see that Shadowmere was standing in my tent with me.

“How did you get in here?” I began to ask, “No, never mind. What do you need?”

“The Nightmare has revealed to me a target specifically picked for you,” he droned in his deathly voice.

“Why me?” I asked.

“That’s not for me to know,” Shadowmere replied.

“All right,” I said, “Who is this target?”

“Emperor Brass Tax.”

I stared at him for a moment, trying to see if he was joking. It really was hard to tell with his face whether he was thrilled or angry. But, I’d never known him to joke before.

“Well,” I said, “I’m a bit busy right now. How soon does this assassination need to be done?”

“Tonight.”

“You expect me to travel all the way to the Imperial City?” I asked incredulously.

“Of course not,” he replied, “The Emperor is here.”

“What do you mean by here?” I asked.

“He was making an inspection of Seclusion and General Cuirass’s troops when Jarl Stormcloud launched his attack,” Shadowmere explained, “He is currently in his ship, The Canteriah, in the middle of the Imperial fleet.”

“So that’s why the fleet’s clustered around one ship,” I mused.

“Can we count on you to do this assassination?” Shadowmere asked.

“Yes,” I said, though not really sure I could kill the Emperor, “I think I can do it.”

“Excellent; the Nightmare will be watching,” Shadowmere said, and then I was once again alone.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I snuck out of the Stormcloud camp that night, slipping on my Dark Brotherhoof armor before I left. I hadn’t worn the midnight black armor in a long time and had forgotten the joy of feeling the shadows cling to you. Thankfully there was no moon to give me away, the cloud cover keeping things good and dark. Still, there was enough light to see by, even if none of the guards seemed to think so, and carried their brilliantly burning torches around, blinding me as they passed.

Soon I was clear of the camp and sneaking across Seclusion’s frozen harbor. Nopony seemed to notice my approach, not even the guards trotting on the decks of the Imperial navy ships. Soon the massive wooden behemoths reared up around me, and I used them to my advantage, sticking to the shadows even more than usual.

At last I neared my target. The massive frigate reared up out of the darkness, The Canteriah printed boldly on its side. Unlike the other Imperial navy ships, The Canteriah seemed to be completely unharmed. It seemed the other ships in the fleet had formed a protective barrier around it, taking the damage meant for the Emperor’s ship.

I wondered as I climbed up the anchor chain, did Jarl Stormcloud know the Emperor was here? He couldn’t have, otherwise he surely would have ordered a far greater attack on the Imperial fleet. So far, his catapults and trebuchets hadn’t touched the ships, only the city above. If he found out that the Emperor was here, I feared what he would do.

As I reached the top of the chain, I hopped over to a nearby ladder and nimbly climbed up the side of the ship. I hoisted myself up onto the deck and hid behind a stack of bolts for a ballista while I looked around. Only a few guards patrolled up here, but they had torches placed everywhere, making it difficult to sneak around or even see.

I quickly shot a few ice spikes while the sentries’ backs were turned, snuffing out the torches on the front portion of the ship. As one of the guards turned back to patrol his area, he realized that the lights had gone out. Before he could raise the alarm, I hit him with a Paralyze spell.

As he slumped over onto the deck, I snuck around until I was behind some barrels. Once more I snuffed the lights with my ice spike spell, plunging the middle portion of the ship into darkness. Cool, refreshing, safe darkness.

“What’s going on?”one of the guards asked, trotting past me and missing me in the darkness, “Clear-water, are you messing about again?”

Swiftly rising from the shadows, I placed a hoof over the guard’s mouth and sank the Fell Blade I’d gotten from Flies-Though-Darkness through his ribs. He struggled a bit before slipping out of my hooves and falling to the deck. I stashed him behind the barrels where I’d been hiding before sneaking forward again.

The last pony standing on the deck had not yet realized what was going on, but soon saw that most of the torches burning on the ship’s deck had been extinguished. He may not have known what was going on, but he knew that it wasn’t a good sign and began to trot toward the stairs that led belowdecks. I hit him in the back of the head with my Paralyze spell, knocking him to the ground.

He’d fallen to the ground right in front of the door to the ship’s cabin, and I had to step over him in order to enter. As I did so, I suddenly realized that I was very hungry. I’d have to remember to eat when I got back to the Stormcloud camp, or maybe there was some food waiting in The Canteriah’s kitchen that I could swipe. I shook the thoughts of food from my mind. I had a mission to do now. Eating could come later.

I took the Ponytus Occulatus armor off the sleeping guard and fitted it onto myself. Hopefully it would buy me a little time. I stepped through the door, spying two Ponytus Occulatus officers guarding a door a little ways inside the cabin. They didn’t think anything was off at first; my plan was working.

As they began to realize that I was not who I appeared, I rapidly paralyzed one of the officers. The other drew a sword before I could strike him too. Throwing off the Ponytus Occulatus helmet, I became one with the shadows, darting around and extinguishing the torches.

The officer fumbled around in the dark, trying to see by light of his horn. I knocked his sword from his magic easily before placing a hoof over his mouth to keep him from calling for help. The Fell Blade slid through his armor easily, piercing his heart. I lowered the now-dead officer to the ground gently and removed the rest of my Ponytus Occulatus armor.

The door they were guarding opened easily; it wasn’t even locked! Cautiously I stepped through into The Canteriah’s private cabin. It was the picture of luxury, filled with everything a pony could ever need, including a collection of rare books locked within cases to keep them from being thrown about at sea.

“Welcome,” a voice suddenly spoke to me.

I looked around, my eyes locking on the source of the voice, an aged unicorn sitting behind an exquisite desk. I recognized him instantly. After all, growing up in Unicornica I’d seen his face every day, plastered over everything, including the coins I used to buy and sell my gear.

“I know why you’re here,” he said, rising from his seat, “You’re here to kill me.”

I couldn’t believe it. I was standing in the same room as the ruler of the entire Unicorn Empire. And I was supposed to kill him. But now that I was here, I didn’t think I could do it. He’d been my Emperor for far too long for me to even consider it.

“Don’t you want to know how I know you’re here to kill me?” he asked.

“You heard the fight outside?” I said, finding my voice, “I’m wearing the armor of the Dark Brotherhoof? I imagine the Emperor of the Northlands must have many enemies.”

“But I’m not one of them,” I added, setting the Fell Blade down on the floor.

“Pick your weapon back up!” Brass Tax ordered, “No, I know that you’re here to kill me because I ordered the hit on myself.”

“What?” I asked incredulously.

“I want to die,” he emphasized.

“Why would you want to die?” I asked.

“You know what’s going on outside,” he said, pacing over to look out a set of expansive windows at Seclusion, “Seclusion will fall soon, and Jarl Stormcloud will be High King of Horizon. What do you think will happen to me if he finds me trapped here?”

“Well . . .” I said, trying not to think about it.

“Exactly,” the Emperor replied, “I’ll be captured, most likely tortured, and then paraded across the land as a trophy. I don’t want that to happen.”

“That . . . is why I want you to kill me,” he said with a sigh, returning to his desk, “But first I need you to do something.”

“What is it?” I asked, fearing a trap.

“I need you to take this to General Silver Cuirass,” he said, pulling a sealed scroll from his desk.

“What is it?” I asked, not pointing out that reaching General Cuirass would be impossible at the moment.

“My sons are all spoiled brats,” Emperor Brass Tax said, “I suppose I’m to blame for that. Anyway, none of them are fit to rule the Unicorn Empire. They’ll drive it into the ground in days, and the Pegasari Dominion will be there to pick up the pieces. That cannot be allowed to happen.”

“This scroll declares General Silver Cuirass to be my successor. I’m sure he’ll make a far better Emperor than I ever was. I was a fool to think that signing the White-Gold Concordat could ever lead to lasting peace. But, that’s in my past now, and I’ll soon get the reward I deserve for parlaying with the pegasi.”

I took the scroll from him, tucking it inside my armor. A great blast of light came from outside, and the Emperor turned to look at it. Seclusion was aflame, ribbons of light flowing down from where the trebuchets were previously. It looked like Jarl Stormcloud had put that oil to good use.

“The battle has begun,” the Emperor said, “I am ready to die now.”

I obliged, paralyzing him before I sank the Fell Blade into his heart. A look of peace crossed his face as he settled back into his chair, departed from this mortal realm.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

By the time I snuck back out of The Canteriah, ran to the now-abandoned Stormcloud camp to get my armor, and galloped back up to Seclusion, the battle had already passed the gates. I dodged through the fighting as best I could, passing through to the market, where I spotted Mephalda flying above the crowd of battling ponies. I drew Dawnbreaker and my Changeling axe and fought my way to where Mystic and Steadfast were battling below.

“Glad you could make it,” Steadfast said as I sank my blade through an Imperial soldier he’d been holding off, “Where’d you go?”

“I had a bit of a personal matter to attend to,” I said, “I’ll explain later. I’ve got bigger problems right now.”

“Like what?” Mystic asked, coating a phalanx in ice.

“We’ve got to stop Jarl Stormcloud from killing General Silver Cuirass,” I said.

“I don’t know about you, but that sounds like it’s impossible to me,” Steadfast commented, “Luckily, those are my favorite odds.”

“How are we supposed to do this?” Mystic asked.

“Well,” I said, thinking, “First, we’d better get to Castle Dour before Jarl Stormcloud does.”

“On it,” Mystic said, blasting a path open with her magic.

We fought our way through the crowd of Imperials and Stormclouds, closing in on the massive castle of stone in the center of Seclusion. Mephalda noticed we were on the move and flapped down to meet us, assisting us on the ground while we explained the situation to her. Once she was up to speed, she took back off into the air and worked on opening a path for us with her bow.

We fought our way through the rest of the Imperial soldiers until we were up in the Castle Dour courtyard. A few Stormclouds had made it up here and were fighting with the Imperial soldiers guarding the keep and firing arrows from the walls. Other than that, the four of us were basically alone. Steadfast knocked in the door with his warhammer and we entered the keep.

The keep seemed to be fairly deserted, most of the Imperial soldiers outside fighting for the city. A mare with a sword jumped out of a side passage as we passed through the castle, jumping Steadfast. A blast of lightning from Mystic stopped her from striking him with her sword. I sliced Dawnbreaker through her armor, forcing her to let go of my earth pony friend.

We met no more Imperial soldiers on our journey until we reached the banquet hall turned war room. General Cuirass and Legate Winter’s Breath were the only ponies in the room, rapidly struggling to burn their orders and maps. Cuirass drew a sword as he noticed us enter the room.

“So, this is how it ends?” he said, fixing me with his gaze “You’re the one who’s going to kill me?”

“We’re not here to kill you,” I said, sheathing my sword, and hoping he’d do the same, “We’re here to save you.”

“Likely story,” the General said, “I know you’re in league with Jarl Stormcloud. You’re going to deliver me to him, are you?”

“No, you have to live,” I said, pulling out the scroll the Emperor had given me and tossing it to him, “Emperor Brass Tax gave me this. It names you his heir. He doesn’t want his sons to rule the Empire, he wants you.”

“Where did you get this?” Cuirass asked suspiciously.

“On The Canteriah,” I said, earning a stunned look from him, “The Emperor asked me to kill him so that he wouldn’t be taken prisoner. Now I can’t let that happen to you either.”

“And how are you going to do that?” Cuirass asked, though he lowered his sword.

“You have to surrender.”

“And that’s supposed to keep me from being taken prisoner?”

“Trust me,” I said sincerely, “I don’t want you to die any more than you do.”

“Well done!” I heard Jarl Stormcloud proclaim as he entered the room behind us, “General Silver Cuirass, the military governor, at my mercy at last!”

Cuirass hesitated for a moment before dropping his sword.

“I surrender; you have bested me,” he said to Stormcloud.

“I had hoped you would go down a little more gloriously than this,” Stormcloud said, “We were both great warriors once.”

“That was a different war,” Cuirass replied.

“Perhaps,” Jarl Stormcloud admitted, “But you always knew how this war would end; with my sword ending your life. And now that day has come.”

“You can’t kill him,” I protested as Stormcloud made to strike Cuirass, “He surrendered.”

“Do you have any idea how many ponies died out there for this moment?” Stormcloud asked, “He’s a tyrant and an oppressor. Him and his blasted Empire.”

“Do you think they died for this?” I asked, “Was this what you were fighting for the whole time. A chance to kill one pony? Not the end of the White-Gold Concordat, not the freedom to worship Talhooves?”

“She’s got you there, Stormy,” Zest said, trotting into the room in full battle dress.

“I thought you were staying back at the camp,” Stormcloud grumbled.

“I was, but then I got this weird feeling that I should be here,” she replied, “Good thing I came. You weren’t really going to kill him, were you?”

“I was,” Stormcloud said, “But it appears my mind has been changed for me. No, Sapphire, this wasn’t what I was fighting for. It seems even I needed reminding of my higher purpose.”

A scuffling at the far end of the room caught our attention. Four Stormclouds passed through the door, trying to control a bound pegasus. Somehow, Ambassador Stratus had gotten herself captured.

“We caught this one trying to fly away,” one of the soldiers offered as an explanation.

“Ambassador Stratus,” Jarl Stormcloud said, trotting up to her, “I remember the day you delivered the White-Gold Concordat to Earthhaven. Do you? It’s where this whole war started.”

“I don’t think so,” she said, smirking even though she was bound, “This all started when the pegasi made the mistake of thinking for a second they could consider the earth ponies equal to them. It’s not a mistake that will be made again.”

Emotions flashed through my mind as Jarl Stormcloud drew his sword. Ambassador Stratus had taken Steadfast from me, and she’d no doubt sent Blackwings after me. She’d like very much to see me dead, but did I feel the same way? I normally didn’t willfully want anypony to die, but Stratus had tested my patience.

“Wait!” I called before Stormcloud brought his sword down on her.

It turned out I really didn’t want Stratus to die. In fact, I didn’t want anypony else to die from this.

“Don’t kill her,” I said.

“Give me a good reason why not!” Stormcloud demanded, “She started this, when she pushed a treaty on us we couldn’t possibly accept. She represents what I’ve been fighting against, the White-Gold Concordat.”

“That doesn’t mean she has to die,” I said, the words spilling out, “You wouldn’t want her to kill you if she were in your position.”

“She would kill me if our positions were switched!” Stormcloud said.

“Maybe so,” I said, “But you’re not her. She may have done bad things, many bad things, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t deserve another chance. Everypony deserves to be treated well, no matter what they’ve done.”

Stormcloud pondered what I said, but still seemed intent on killing Stratus.

“Is this how you want your reign to begin?” Zest asked, surprisingly seriously, “With bloodshed?”

“No,” Stormcloud said at last, hanging his head and dropping his sword, “Enough blood has been spilled today.”

“Let her go,” he said with a sigh, “Let them both go.”

Shocked, the Stormcloud soldiers unbound Stratus, and those around General Cuirass dropped their weapons. Stratus began to trot away slowly, before suddenly turning back and staring at me. Puzzled at what she was staring at, I looked at myself and saw a purple glow emanating from my chest. Suddenly a flash of light disconnected me from reality.

~◊~ ~◊ ULAAK ◊~ ~◊~

The world was purple, and the ponies around me were frozen in time, many of them staring at the octagonal amulet from which the purple light came.

‘Kindness,’ a voice spoke from everywhere, though it sounded a bit timid, as if it could scare itself.

‘Kindness, Compassion, and Sympathy. All these are important in life and in friendship. A pony without Kindness is cruel toward others. A pony without Compassion is unable to help others in their times of need. And a pony without Sympathy only hurts those who are hurting more. Witness now, the story of Vocolt.’

‘Vocolt, in his early life, was the kindest pony anyone knew. He was always there to help anypony in need, and did not wish to harm anypony in any way. His Kindness was an example to others, and he found his place with five other ponies, who became the fastest of friends. The dragons, pleased with the harmony of the Six Companions, bestowed upon them the most powerful artifacts of all time: the Elements of Harmony.’

‘The Six Companions proclaimed themselves to be Dragon Priests, special emissaries to and from the dragons. The fantastical power they wielded was used to the benefit of all, ushering in a new era of prosperity for Horizon.’

‘But Vocolt, like the other Dragon Priests, soon began to abuse his great power. He became obsessed with creating a perfect society where everypony was kind to each other, and the cruel were destroyed. He created a vast list of rules on how to treat others with kindness and thrust them upon his subjects. The penalty for breaking any rule was death. So he became the very thing he despised, cruelly oppressing his subjects in the search for perfection. His subjects rose up against him one day, tired of his rules, and sealed him within his “perfect city,” High Falls.’

The scenes of ancient Horizon I’d been witnessing pulled away as the vision neared its end. I was once again standing within Castle Dour.

‘Kindness must be guarded carefully,’ the voice continued, ‘Like all virtues, it cannot be compelled, for compelled Kindness is not really Kindness at all. Treat everypony you know as rightly as you can, but do not do so out of a sense of duty. Kindness must be offered freely.’

The light grew more intense, returning me to reality.

~◊~ ~◊~ ~◊~

“That’s half of them now,” Mystic commented, “Which one was it?”

“Kindness,” I said, “For sparing Stratus’s life.”

“An Element of Harmony?” Stratus gasped out, staring at me.

As I turned to look at her and ask her what she knew about the Elements, she took off, flying up the stairs to the roof and departing Seclusion forever.

“What was that about?” Steadfast asked.

“I don’t know,” I said, “I think I’m afraid to find out.”

Jarl Radiance the Fair was marched into Castle Dour as I finished speaking. She shrugged off the Stormclouds holding her and approached Jarl Stormcloud directly as she entered the banquet hall.

“Jarl Stormcloud,” she spoke before he did, “You may have killed the last High King, my husband Shade, but you have proven yourself to be worthy of his position. Accept my fealty to you. You shall receive my vote for the Kingship.”

“I accept,” Stormcloud said, apparently just as shocked as everypony else in the room.

“Smart mare,” Zest said, somehow suddenly standing beside me, “Now she can remain Jarl.”

“So, Stormcloud is High King now?” I asked.

“No, not yet,” Steadfast replied, “A Jarlmoot still has to be convened and the Jarls have to choose the next High King. But, the decision will undoubtedly be unanimously for Stormcloud.”

“And then?” I asked.

“Stormcloud will be High King,” Steadfast answered.

“Then we’ll see if he’s at good at peace as he is at war,” I commented.

“The Kingship won’t last for long,” Zest mentioned nonchalantly.

“What do you mean?” I asked, not expecting her to explain herself.

“The whole system is crumbling,” she explained, surprising me, “The ponies of Horizon are becoming sick of constantly bickering Jarls. I think it’s about time for a democracy.”

“A democracy?” Mephalda asked, “And who will run it?”

“Why, me of course,” the eccentric mare replied, “Can’t you see it now? First Chancellor Zest of the Earth Pony Confederacy.”

“To be honest, the name really doesn’t sound that impressive,” I said, trying to defuse Zest’s ideas of revolution.

“Hmm, you may be right about that,” she said, sitting down and thinking, “What about Chancellor Piefeather . . . or Puddinghead?”

I just shook my head. Whatever crazy idea Zest had, it would take place far in the future, if at all. For now, I was just happy that the War was over. Horizon was at peace at last.

Level Up
Health: 340 Stamina: 330 Magicka: 310
New Perk: Blind Strike [Light Weapons] -- Due to your incredible perception, when you can’t see your target, you are now more likely to hit it. Of course, maybe it’s just luck.
Element of Kindness activated
New Quest: Halfway There -- Find the remaining three Elements of Harmony.

Author's Note

Here Ends Act VII, wherein Horizon's bloody Civil War finally tumbled to a conclusion as Sapphire took her stand with the Stormclouds and, in doing so, found the Elements of Loyalty and Kindness and activated them along with Honesty. For now Horizon is at peace, but dark clouds are brewing and new adversaries will emerge from the shadows in Act VIII: Child of Darkness.

Thanks all for reading this far! I hope you all are enjoying what you've read. If so, please feel free to comment or send me a message with any comments or questions. Only two more acts to go and I can't wait to finally complete this story!

FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 70: Blades

Chapter LXX: Blades
“There are those that say the Blades still exist around us, in hiding from the Blackwings.”

Morning dawned soon after the Battle of Seclusion ended, but we weren’t ready to leave immediately. We stayed the day in the city, helping to rebuild the damage done in the battle, and resting in between. Jarl Radiance was surprisingly hospitable, allowing us to stay in the Blue Palace that night.

General Cuirass and the other Imperial leaders left the city after signing a peace treaty. The Imperial navy was still locked in the ice, but a few support ships arrived to find the war over. Instead of dropping off fresh troops to crush Stormcloud’s rebellion, they carried the Legion’s leaders home to Unicornica.

Ambassador Stratus had disappeared, along with her surviving Blackwing Justiciars. Whether they’d returned to the Pegasari Dominion, or were waiting above the clouds, nopony knew. Stormcloud was satisfied enough that they had left, and returned the shrine of Talhooves to its place in the Temple of the Equines.

We left Seclusion the next day, departing for Whitetrot. Three Elements of Harmony were still out there, hidden within ancient earth pony ruins. The problem was, we had no idea which ancient earth pony ruins. There were so many, but it seemed we’d just have to search them one by one, guided by Faniar.

We were passing the path that led up to where the Blackwing Embassy had once stood when Mephalda suddenly stopped and looked around worriedly. Before anypony could ask what was wrong, she shot up into the clouds. A moment later, she came plummeting down through the cloud cover.

“Hide!” she yelled as she shot down toward us.

Not questioning her, we dove behind some rocks surrounded by trees. Mephalda landed and swiftly joined us. A moment later a troop of pegasi suddenly shot down through the clouds, pulling up as they neared the path. Each and every one of them was dressed in the armor of the Blackwings. A whole army of Justiciars casually flew over the path to Dragon Bridge.

“What are they doing?” Steadfast asked, “I’ve never seen so many on the move.”

“I don’t know,” Mephalda whispered back, “It looks like they’re launching an attack, but on what?”

“We’re going to find out,” I said.

“How?” Mystic asked.

“We follow them.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

We trailed the Blackwings as they continued south, eventually settling down on the ground and following the path. We had several close calls where we thought they’d spotted us, but we stayed out of sight for the most part, keeping them just within our view. Whenever another pony would appear on the path, the Blackwings would suddenly make themselves scarce, disappearing until they were certain they were alone again.

As the sun set, we neared the town of Dragon Bridge. The Blackwings waited until nopony was around before sneaking into the now-abandoned Ponytus Occulatus outpost. Appearing that they intended to stay for the night, we headed to the town’s inn and rented some rooms. We would take shifts sleeping and waiting for the Blackwings to move again.

My shift was second, during the darkest part of the night. That suited me just fine. I slipped on my Dark Brotherhoof armor as I stalked through the town, clinging to the shadows. It seemed that my strength had been sapped during our day of travels, but now it was restored as I enjoyed the night.

There was no movement from the Ponytus Occulatus outpost, and I soon began to grow bored, despite the sudden influx of energy I felt. I got that strange feeling I’d had back on The Canteriah, that I was suddenly intensely hungry without reason. I tried to brush the feeling away; there was no reason to be hungry when I’d had a meal just a few hours before.

Still, those few hours seemed like an eternity, as if I’d never fed before. I suddenly tasted blood in my mouth. I realized I’d been running my tongue over my teeth and had somehow cut it. Odd, that had never happened before. Carefully running my tongue over my teeth again, I felt two points protruding from my upper set of teeth.

No, not points, fangs I realized as my vision began to fade. Around me the darkness became even more vibrant until it seemed like day, and the torches burned like miniature suns, blinding me. A reddish haze began to descend over my vision, blocking out the scorching lights and letting in only the darkness.

I staggered over to a forge while I still maintained control. The blacksmith had left her bucket of water for cooling the metal out, and I could see my reflection within. Two fangs did indeed sprout from my jaw, and my eyes burned a furious red. My horn had lost its ridges, instead becoming smooth, curved, and wickedly sharp at the point.

I realized what was happening. Back in High Falls Ruins, when that vampire had bitten me, I must not have gotten the poison out as I had thought. I was becoming a vampire! The desire to feed grew stronger, and I sucked up the blood in my own mouth, my tongue’s wound sealing itself as I did so.

I began to lose focus on my surroundings as I stumbled away from the smithy. As a door opened somewhere in the town, I shrank back into the shadows, hiding in the darkness that accepted me. I watched hungrily as a mare trotted out of her home, a torch mounted on her back. Perhaps in any other situation I would have wondered why she was sneaking out at night, but right now the desire to feed overruled everything else.

My body moved on its own, slipping out of the shadows and following the mare. I felt magic begin to crackle across my deformed horn, eventually shooting out at the unsuspecting filly. She dropped to the ground instantly, unconscious, but still alive. Perfect!

Grabbing her with my magic, which seemed stronger than usual, I dragged her out of the street and behind the town’s inn. Batting the torch away, I bared my fangs and sank them into her neck. Blood spurted out, filling my mouth and I greedily sucked it down, satisfying the dark desires within me.

As I finished my feeding, I withdrew my fangs from the mare’s neck and the wounds seemed to seal themselves. My vision began to return to normal, and I could feel my horn shifting to its correct shape. The fangs in my mouth drew back up until they were natural teeth again. My vision returned to that of a normal pony, and I was unable to see hardly anything in the dark.

Everything felt much better, until I looked down and saw the mare lying unconscious and drained of life. Suddenly, the realization of what had just happened came crashing down on me. I had done this! I’d just killed a pony by sucking her life from her! I retched on the ground nearby, sickened by what had just happened.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I finished my shift of watching the Ponytus Occulatus outpost without incident, though I was numb the whole time. I was a monster, and there didn’t seem to be anything I could do about it. No moves by the Blackwings were made during my shift, and I turned the duty over to Mystic early in the morning. I returned to our rooms in the inn, trying to sleep and drive the memory of what I’d done from my mind.

Somepony found the body of the deceased mare in the morning, causing a panic in Dragon Bridge as the townsponies put together a task force to search the nearby caves for the vampire who’d done this. Guilt sat heavily in my stomach as they rushed about, never suspecting that the culprit was among them.

It was just like when I’d killed Golden Bullion, only this time I couldn’t keep it a secret. As long as I was a vampire, this was sure to happen again. I had to tell my friends, at least to warn them about their safety. But, how do you tell your friends that you’re an undead creature of the night who feasts on pony blood?

As the townsponies spread out to search for vampires, Dragon Bridge became mostly abandoned. We stayed behind and were able to watch as the Blackwings left the Ponytus Occulatus outpost. Once more they headed south, and we followed. It was while we trotted along the path, trailing the Blackwings, that I decided to confess what had happened the night before.

“I have something to confess,” I said as Mephalda settled back to the ground after watching the Blackwings from the air.

“I’m the one who killed that mare last night,” I admitted when nopony said anything.

“What? Why?” Mystic asked.

“I couldn’t stop myself,” I said, recalling the night before, “It’s like I was a spectator just along for the ride.”

“How long have you been a vampire?” Mephalda asked thoughtfully.

“Only a few weeks, I think, since we were in High Falls Ruins,” I said, “Last night was the first time I fed though.”

“All right,” Mephalda said, “It’s a good thing we caught it early. Maybe we can find a way to cure it.”

“Really?” I asked.

“There has to be some way out there to cure vampirism,” she said, “If there is, we’ll find it.”

“Until then, it’s probably best if we go our separate ways,” I said, dreading the decision. As long as my friends were near me they were in danger, and I didn’t want to risk feeding on them as well.

“No way,” Steadfast protested, “We’re sticking with you until we lick this thing.”

“It’s too risky,” I said, “What if I end up killing you?”

“We’ll just have to be careful,” Mephalda said, pulling me close with a wing, “We can get through this, and we’re going to do it together.”

“Thanks,” I said, “I really didn’t want to send you away, but I didn’t see any other option.”

“There’s always a way,” Mystic said, joining Mephalda and me, “We’re not going to desert you, no matter what.”

“I hate to cut in on all the feels,” Steadfast said, “But the Blackwings are gone.”

“What?” I said, looking south at where they’d been a moment ago.

“They took off into the clouds,” Steadfast explained as we searched for where all the pegasi had gone.

“Do you think they spotted us?” Mystic asked.

“No,” I said, looking out at the nearby mountain with an Akhoofiri fortress built on the slopes, “I think they’re reached their destination.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

It appeared the Blackwings had finally decided to put an end to the Blades. The Blades were great warriors, but the last time we were here we hadn’t seen that many of them. Without help, the army of Blackwings would easily overpower them. We galloped as fast as we could to the back exit into Sky Sorcerer Temple, intent on warning the Blades of what was coming. We were galloping up to the entrance when a Blade suddenly dropped down from above out heads and blocked our path, two katanas held in his magical grasp.

“Halt!” he ordered, “What brings you to Sky Sorcerer Temple?”

“Blackwings are coming!” Steadfast blurted out, and the guard’s eyes grew suddenly large.

“You do not jest?” he asked before seeing that we were dead serious, “Right this way.”

He led us up into Sky Sorcerer Temple, disarming the traps the Blades had set after our last unexpected visit.

“Master Rufius,” the Blade guard said as we entered the main sanctuary of Sky Sorcerer Temple, bowing to the forest green unicorn, “We need to leave immediately. Blackwings are on their way.”

“And why would we abandon our finest fortress?” the leader of the Blades said, trotting up to us, “What are a few Blackwings?”

“It’s more than a few,” I spoke up, “It seems every Blackwing in Horizon is preparing to attack this place.

“How many?” he asked.

“Nearly forty,” answered Mephalda, who’d had a better chance to count them.

“Almost triple our numbers,” Rufius said, “But I’m afraid we still cannot flee, not while so many Blackwings wait outside to snatch us up.”

“You intend to stay and fight?” Scarlet Shores asked, “No offense Master, but against this many Blackwings, it seems suicidal to do so.”

“I know,” Rufius said, “But we have no other choice. If today is the end of the Blades, let us make it a day to be remembered.”

“Who is with me?” he asked, raising a sword to the ceiling.

Cheers went up from the assembled Blades, but abruptly ended as an arrow flew from one of the dark corners of the ceiling and struck Rufius in the shoulder. The room lit up as the Blades cast fireballs into the darkness. The Blackwing that had been hiding in the corner had nowhere to run as she was struck by magical flame and was consumed.

The Blades carried Rufius away, protecting him as they put on their full battle armor. Light glinted off the silvery armor as the Blades shot artificial lights into the air, illuminating the dark room and making it impossible for assassins to hide in the shadows. Soon Rufius was patched up and wearing his own battle armor.

We waited for the rest of the Blackwings to appear, some of the Blades holding wards over themselves. There were only a few ways the Blackwings could enter the room, through narrow passages that were closely guarded. At last the storm broke, and the Blackwings came pouring through each of the entrances simultaneously.

The Blade archers struck down the first few that made it through the doors, but were soon overwhelmed by the tide of Blackwings. Mystic and I fired ice spikes at the pegasi as they flapped into the room, seeking out Blade targets. Magic arced through the air, and the fight devolved into chaos.

I Shouted, and time slowed to a crawl around me.

Now I could see clearly what was going on and selected a target. A Blackwing with a battleaxe was about to crush Rufius, and I rushed over, knocking the blade from the air with Dawnbreaker. Time returned to normal, and the Blackwing crashed into me, sending us both rolling across the floor.

She recovered first, flaring her wings and sending hidden blades flying at me. I covered my face with my foreleg, deflecting the blades as they struck my Twilight Armor. I sent a blast of fire into the Blackwing’s face before swinging my sword at her head.

She blocked Dawnbreaker with blades strapped to her forelegs, swinging it down toward the ground. I drew my Changeling axe as she swung a foreleg at my face. I hooked the blade around her foreleg, cutting into her Blackwing armor and holding her blade at bay. With Dawnbreaker I held off her other blade, keeping her from striking me.

<> I Shouted as she tried to throw more blades at me with her wings.

My Shout sent dragon flame washing over her body, igniting her. She jerked away as her body caught fire, and I was forced to remove my Changeling war axe from her foreleg to keep it from being taken from me. The Blackwing stumbled backwards, crashing into a Blade who ran her through.

Another Blackwing swooped down at me from behind, and I whirled around, stopping her sword with my own. I drew the Blade of Hoofingar as well to assist me as I held her off. As I swung Dawnbreaker around toward her neck, she threw blades at me from her wings. A few managed to slice across my face before I was able to block them.

I blinked the blood out of my eye as I swung Dawnbreaker around at the Blackwing’s head. My blade struck her helmet, tearing it off her head as I jerked the sword upward. She stabbed at me with her sword, her blade slipping off the crystalline armor.

<> I Shouted, wounding the Blackwing with my Voice and draining her strength away.

Still, she was able to block my strike as I swung Dawnbreaker down toward her head. The Blade of Hoofingar sank into her neck, but she swiftly batted it away with her hoof and drank down a potion of healing to repair the wound. As she did so, I took the opportunity to do the same, healing the cuts on my face.

I shot lightning at the Blackwing as I held off her sword strikes with Dawnbreaker. As my bolts hit her armor they electrified it, sending the Blackwing spasming to the floor, her sword dropping from her mouth. I impaled her with Dawnbreaker before moving on.

Looking around, I saw many more Blackwings than I’d expected. Apparently the troop on the ground wasn’t the only group headed for Sky Sorcerer Temple. More were pouring through the door at the moment, firing bows at the Blade archers, who weren’t able to dodge the deadly shafts. What I would give to be able to use my Storm Call here.

<<>> I Shouted, settling on Frost Breath instead.

Many of the flying Blackwings became coated in ice as they flew through my breath. They fell from the air, shattering on the ground. The rest of the Blackwings that entered after that stayed on the ground. Still, there were a few of the pegasi up in the air, and Mephalda was busy flying from one to another, using her Blackwing blades to carve through their armor, dropping their bodies to the ground.

I dodged one and rushed over to help Steadfast, who was trying to hold off a Blackwing with a greatsword. The pegasus had gotten in several strikes on my earth pony friend, and he was badly wounded, walking with a limp on a bloodied hoof.

<<>> I Shouted as the Blackwing prepared to finish Steadfast off.

I shot in, knocking him aside and taking his place. The greatsword struck my Twilight Armor, bruising me underneath and shrieking as metal met crystal. With Dawnbreaker, I knocked the Blackwing’s greatsword aside and shot a blast of fire at the stallion.

He jumped back, somersaulting through the air before swooping overhead and landing behind me. His greatsword struck my back, but the armor held. I swung Dawnbreaker around while turning myself, bringing my flames around toward my assailant. As the fire hit him, it simply passed over a magical sheen. Apparently the Blackwing had something that blocked fire.

I gave up on using my spell and instead drew my Changeling axe to augment Dawnbreaker. Swinging my blades in opposite directions, I trapped the Blackwing’s greatsword between them. I tried to twist it from his grasp, but instead found him pushing my blades away and going for my heart.

<> I Shouted, and his greatsword flew from his mouth, disappearing in the crowd of fighting ponies.

I already had my blades up to deflect as he shot blades from his wings at me. Using his armored hooves, he pushed my blades aside launched himself toward me, using his wings to propel him. I was knocked over onto the ground with the Blackwing on top of me, his wing blades extended and pointed at my neck.

As he prepared to strike, Steadfast came galloping in, knocking the Blackwing off of me with his warhammer. Before the pegasus could recover, he brought his warhammer down on his head, splattering the insides across the floor.

“Thanks for the save,” I told him, rising from the ground.

“Thanks yourself,” he said, “Come on, I think we’re almost through this.”

Looking around, I saw that he might be right. No new Blackwings were entering the room, and only a few still flew around without opposition. I shot a lightning bolt at one up in the air, knocking her down before charging toward where she landed.

She had lost her weapon in the fall, but quickly snatched up one of the Blades’ katanas, blocking me as I swung Dawnbreaker down at her. Using her wings to push herself up, she got to her hooves and advanced toward me. I drew the Blade of Hoofingar as well, swinging it down toward her foreleg.

As she blocked my ebony blade with her katana, I swung Dawnbreaker around toward her neck. A blade thrown from her wing knocked it off course, causing me to catch her helmet instead, tearing it off. I brought Dawnbreaker back down swiftly onto her head, before she could react. Her skull split and she fell to the ground, dropping the katana she’d been attempting to use to stop my blade.

I ducked down as a blast of lightning shot over my head, striking Mystic’s ward. One of the Blackwings was holding a staff in her mouth, and charged another blast, firing it at my unicorn friend. The lightning skittered over her ward as Mystic advanced toward the pegasus.

She began to shoot lightning of her own at her opponent, but the pegasus dodged, overcharging her staff as she weaved around the deadly bolts. The Blackwing released the magic built up at the end of her staff, sending a massive blast of lightning at Mystic, breaking her ward.

Before the Blackwing could strike again, I fired off ice spikes at her, one of them hitting her in the eye. While the Blackwing was blinded, Mystic fired off blasts of lightning, striking the pegasus. As the energy arced over her armor, she flipped through the air, coming to rest with smoke leaving the gaps in her armor.

A final Blackwing remained in the room, and was struck down by two of the Blades at once. A few of the Blades galloped off through the exits to make sure no more Blackwings were waiting, reporting back that the attack was over.

We’d won, but at great cost. Of the fourteen Blades, six were now dead, including Master Rufius. Scarlet Shores was now Master of the Blades, in Horizon at least. After the Blades finished separating the bodies of their own from the bodies of the enemy, she stood on the table to make an announcement.

“Brothers and sisters!” she spoke, catching their attention, “Today we have won a great victory, but the cost was too high! The Blackwings dared think that they could strike us in our own fortress and destroy us, but we have proved them wrong! We will not allow their aggression to go unanswered! Tonight we shall bury our dead and mourn their loss, but tomorrow we shall strike the Blackwings’ fortress!”

Level Up
Health: 340 Stamina: 330 Magicka: 320
New Perk: Axe Master [Light Weapons] -- Any attacks with a war axe now do extra bleeding damage due to your technique.
New Quest: Blades and Blackwings -- Travel with the Blades to attack the Blackwings’ last fortress in Horizon.

Chapter 71: Plots Unmasked

Chapter LXXI: Plots Unmasked
“There is peace now, and that peace will continue for as long as it suits our needs.”

At first light, the remaining Blades set out for the Blackwings’ fortress. With the Blackwing Embassy destroyed, and every city in Horizon now under Stormcloud control, the only place the Blackwings could retreat to was a fortress built on the northern edge of Hoofingar. Though the Horizon Civil War was over, and the Blackwings were outlawed throughout the land, we had no doubt that a good number of them still hid out in their last remaining fortress in Horizon.

Scarlet Shores led the way north back along the path we’d followed the day before. Eventually we neared Seclusion and looped around the northern edge of Horizon, crossing Seclusion’s frozen harbor and passing the Imperial ships still docked there. Soon our hooves were on solid land again, and we followed the coastline, keeping to the narrow strip of land between the mountains and the sea.

As we rounded another mountain, the fortress came into sight, an imposing structure of stone built up the nearly-vertical side of the mountains. I had never seen anything quite like it in Horizon. There was no doubt in my mind that this was the fortress we were looking for. This fortress was built more like the Blackwing base Steadfast and I had encountered at Windrake Cavern than any of the rugged earth pony structures that dotted Horizon’s wilderness.

“There are sentries up there, watching,” Mephalda said, peeking over the line of rocks we were hiding behind, “But they’re farther apart than they should be.”

“They must be low on horsepower after that attack on Sky Sorcerer Temple,” Scarlet Shores pointed out.”

“Perhaps,” Mephalda admitted, dropping down to sit with the rest of us, “Or perhaps they have something else planned.”

“Like what?” Scarlet asked.

“I don’t know,” the pegasus answered, “But I don’t like the look of those clouds to the north.”

I gazed in the direction Mephalda was pointing with her hoof. Dark thunderheads were rolling in, black and ominous.

“Are we scheduled for a storm?” I asked.

“I haven’t had a chance to check the weather schedule in a while,” Mephalda said, “But the pegasi only made a deal to provide weather to the Empire. Now that Horizon isn’t part of the Empire, they might try something.”

“You think the Blackwings are off doing weather duty?” Steadfast asked, “Like at Windrake Cavern?”

“I doubt it,” Scarlet Shores said, “They wouldn’t conscript Blackwings from this fortress if it was underpowered, especially since it’s the last outpost they have in Horizon.”

“They could be planning an ambush,” Mystic said.

“The only way we’ll know for sure is by entering,” Scarlet said.

“There’s no way to sneak up on them,” Mystic said, shaking her head, “Even with as few sentries as they have, they’ll see us coming.”

“Not necessarily,” Scarlet said, “Sapphire, Mystic, do you know how to cast an invisibility spell?”

“I can,” Mystic said as I shook my head that I couldn’t.

Scarlet pulled a tome from her saddlebags and passed it to me. On the cover was printed Invisibility. I opened the tome and allowed the pages to flip by faster than my eyes could follow, allowing me to learn the spell in instants.

“Now you can,” Scarlet said when I finished learning how to make myself invisible, “Use it the whole way to the entrance. Steadfast, Mephalda, use these potions of invisibility.”

I cast the spell I’d just learned, causing my body to be completely invisible. The Blades and Mystic did the same thing, also disappearing. As Steadfast and Mephalda drank down their potions, they too disappeared.

“Let’s go,” I heard Scarlet’s voice say, and a shimmer briefly appeared in the air as she rapidly turned toward the Blackwing fortress.

I followed, being careful not to bump into anypony around me. The spell required complete focus to maintain, and I feared it would collapse if I touched anypony. We made it to the front of the fort without any of the sentries spotting us, and one of the Blades drew out a lockpicking kit, going to work on the door.

As the door popped open, we rushed inside, looking around for Blackwings as we did so. The entry hall appeared to entirely deserted, but the Blades fanned out, searching for any hiding pegasi. When they confirmed that no Blackwings were lurking in the shadows, we moved on.

The entire fortress had been carefully planned out to repel any attack. The architecture made it so that the Blackwings would see us coming before we saw them, and they would be able to defend themselves while we’d be at a disadvantage. Of course, it was probably built to defend against attack by an earth pony army, not a small group of highly trained Blade warriors.

Mephalda spotted the first Blackwing before we did, taking advantage of the clear lines of sight afforded from the air. As the Blackwing was hit by three separate paralysis spells, Mephalda’s arrow struck her in the neck. She was unable to even scream out as she choked on the staff and died. The Blades quickly pulled her out of the way, hiding her body before we moved on.

We hurried through the hallways, Blades breaking off to check the rooms off to the side, and made our way to the stairs. From outside we could see that the fortress was built in three tiers, with an entrance to the next tier on the roof of each of the lower tiers. That would cause a problem when we were forced onto the open roof, exposed to the sentries, but for now the important thing was reaching the roof.

Mephalda and a Blade archer teamed up, keeping a lookout for Blackwings and sniping them whenever they were spotted. Once or twice the Blackwing had to be finished off by a blade, but the two archers were very precise in their shots, leaving few survivors. At last we reached the top floor, but didn’t dare exit to the roof until we’d taken care of the sentries that we knew lurked here.

We split up, four Blades going with Mephalda and Steadfast and four going with Mystic and myself. We carefully navigated the hallways and approached the hallway lined with windows that faced out at the sea. I began to turn the final corner before pulling back.

There was a Blackwing standing just around the corner, thankfully patrolling in the opposite direction. I made myself invisible again before peeking back around the corner. The sentry had stopped in her pacing and approached the windows, staring out at the mounting storm to the north. I snuck around the corner, coming up behind her.

As I drew Dawnbreaker, I lost the concentration necessary to keep my invisibility up, and I became visible again. The Blackwing spotted me out of the corner of her eye and spun around, but not before I was able to stab Dawnbreaker into her side.

I drew Dawnbreaker back and used it to block as the Blackwing drew her own blades with her forelegs and brought them down at me. A lightning bolt struck her armor, shot from Mystic, and caused her to tense up, becoming as stiff as a rock. As she tried to scream for help, Scarlet Shores slapped a hoof over her mouth and slit her throat.

A cry came from down the hall, and we saw that another Blackwing could see us around the pillars. We chased after her as she began to gallop away. She pulled up short and rolled into a side passage as one of Mephalda’s arrows shot at her from farther down the passage.

We made the same turn the sentry had, and followed her down the hall, shooting spells at her the whole time and scorching the fortress’s walls. Arrows from Mephalda and the Blade archer followed her as well, one striking her in the wing as she tried to take off. She began to slow as an arrow struck her in the hindleg, and we soon caught up with her. A slash of Scarlet’s katana finished her off.

We returned to the staircase, and once more made ourselves unseen as we exited onto the roof of the first tier. The wind was truly howling now, freezing us with cold northern wind. The storm was also moving closer, the banks of cloud piling up as it approached. I turned away from watching the weather and galloped to the door to the second tier, which was unlocked. The Blackwings didn’t yet know they were under attack, and nopony could reach this door without coming through the first tier or flying anyway.

There was a single Blackwing within the entry hall of the first tier, going over an inventory list and checking the contents of several crates strewn around the room. He dropped his list as we entered the room and drew a bow, holding it in his hooves like Mephalda. We dove behind some of the crates, dodging his shots.

One of the Blades shot off a spell that muted him, keeping him from calling for help. Of course, that didn’t keep him from taking off and flying away. The fireballs the Blades launched at him, burning his wings off, did. He fell to the ground, where he was killed by a shot from Mephalda’s bow.

“What is all this?” Mystic asked as she examined the crates, prying a few open to look into them.

“Weapons, provisions, bandages; seem like typical Blackwing supplies,” Scarlet said.

“But why are there so many?” Mystic asked, “And why are they lying out in the open?”

“She’s right,” Mephalda said, “Most of these weapons are for common hoofsoldiers, and the Blackwings never leave anything lying out in the open unless there’s no room for it elsewhere.”

“We don’t have time for this right now,” Scarlet argued, “We can examine these supplies later. We have to move now, while we still have the element of surprise.”

Mephalda longingly gave the crates one last look before moving on. I had to admit it was odd the Blackwings would have so many fresh supplies, especially ones not meant for them, but I agreed with Scarlet that we needed to move before the Blackwings knew we were here. Still, I was curious about the situation, and it nagged at me while we snuck through the halls of the fortress.

A Blackwing waited near the staircase up ahead, and Mephalda missed for the second time that day, her arrow slicing through the mare’s ear and knocking against the wall instead. She brought her hoof up to her bloody ear a moment before turning to face us. By then it was already too late for her to defend herself. Blasts of lightning from the Blades threw her against the wall.

Shortly after her armor rattled upon impact, a pegasus stepped through a nearby door, groggy with sleep and struggling to pull on her Blackwing armor. Steadfast smashed the door down onto her with his warhammer, knocking her to the ground before caving her head in with a second strike.

He jumped away from the doorway as knives began to sail through it, thrown by the pegasi within. I got a good look inside for a minute, seeing some living quarters, before I was forced to dodge an arrow shot straight for my forehead. I conjured a flame atronach within the room and set it loose. As it burned the Blackwings, a few Blades stepped into the room and assisted, killing the wounded and ill-prepared pegasi.

The Blades spread out and checked the other rooms before we moved up, sweeping each floor before moving on. Even though there were less Blackwings here than there would have been before the attack on Sky Sorcerer Temple, there were still quite a few hiding within the complex. Luckily, the Blades were swift, and none of them were able to get off a cry for help before they were killed.

Once more we reached to top level and prepared to take out the sentries. This time we split into three groups, and I headed down the middle with Steadfast and two Blades. It was difficult to sneak up on the central sentry, as the passage stretched a long way to his post. As he paced back and forth, he would commonly look down the passage and we had to make ourselves scarce, ducking behind decorative columns or into rooms.

At last we reached the sentry. As he turned suddenly, hearing the death of one of his companion sentries, he threw a punch at the window and tried to fly through the hole for help. I blasted him with a paralysis spell before he could make it out, though he flopped halfway through, cutting his stomach on the broken glass. I ran to grab him before he fell out, and pulled him back inside, where one of the Blades finished him off.

The second tier clear, we headed up to the roof and prepared for the final tier. Invisible, we crept along and entered the final section of the fortress. Things went wrong right away as we opened the door on a Blackwing. She was knocked backwards, her head smacking into the wall and splitting it, but there were two others in the room.

“Intruders!” one yelled while the other took off and flew away, making sure the message reached the rest of the Blackwings in the fortress.

Mephalda and the Blade archer fired at the remaining Blackwing, having a bit more trouble hitting a moving target. They still managed to hit her, crippling her wing and forcing her to drop out of the sky. She drew a shield off a nearby rack and used it to block the arrows as she advanced toward us.

<<>> I Shouted, shooting forward and ending up behind her.

She was forced to drop her shield in order to turn toward me with a sword, blocking my swing with Dawnbreaker. However, as she did so, an ice spike and two arrows shot through her neck. I pulled my Draconequus sword away as she choked on her blood and sank to the ground.

Another Blackwing flapped through the doorway at the end of the room, and was hit by a lightning bolt from Scarlet Shores. He crashed into a pillar as he fell, and was smashed to the ground by Steadfast as he tried to recover. Leaping up, he threw blades from his wings at my earth pony friend, forcing him to back off. Magic strikes from Mystic and the Blades finished him off before he could strike out at Steadfast.

We galloped forward, hoping to be able to take the remaining Blackwings by surprise. We soon ran into the second Blackwing that had been in the entry hall as she tried to return. I slashed at her as she flew past me, landing a hit on her wing with Dawnbreaker and shearing off some of the feathers. She slid across the ground, but quickly recovered, using a war axe to hold off the Blades. A fireball cast by Mystic came from behind, engulfing her in flames. She screamed as the fire consumed her, and she went charging through the Blades, disappearing down the hall.

We continued to make our way toward where we hoped the stairs would be, and ran into three Blackwings as we reached the correct hall. One held a staff in his mouth and forced us to retreat back around the corner as he shot fire down the hall at us. Mystic focused her magic around the corner, and summoned up a storm atronach, an elemental creature composed of smog and lightning. The atronach charged the staff-wielding Blackwing, tearing him apart and scorching him.

His companions took down the atronach, but opened themselves up to attack as they did so. We charged around the corner, the Blades leading the way with their katanas raised. The Blackwings tried to block, but were soon overwhelmed by the Blades. Their unusual blades sliced through the Blackwings’ armor, killing them instantly as they tore the flesh beneath apart.

We galloped to the stairs and began to ascend, Mephalda and the Blades archer firing arrows up at the Blackwings that tried to flap down at us. We reached the second floor and spread out, searching for Blackwings. We could’ve simply continued up, but then there was the possibility we could end up surrounded, so we decided to round up any ponies on this level first.

One shot out of the air as we passed a side passage, tackling a Blade to the ground and running him through with a sword. I shot fire at the Blackwing before she could get away, catching her cloak on fire. She took off down a hallway, making a flaming target for Mephalda to fire at. After a few shots, she stopped running and dropped to the floor.

As I turned a corner, blades suddenly bounced off my armor. I pulled back to avoid by being hit by the Blackwing that had thrown then from her wings. As the Blackwing swung around the corner, I ducked down and she flew over me, swinging her sword down at a Blade. I tried to get a strike in at her as she fought the Blade, but she kept bucking at me, making it hard for me to get close.

<>

The Blackwing suddenly doubled over as my Shout wounded her from within. The Blade swung his sword down into where her neck and shoulder met, wounding her but not killing her. His follow-up strike knocked her sword away before slicing through her neck and decapitating her.

We soon met up with the other groups on our floor, cornering the Blackwings and making our way back to the stairs. There weren’t many Blackwings lurking on the floor itself, but as we began to near the stairs more of them appeared, rushing to head us off before we could reach the higher levels.

<<>> I Shouted as we approached the stairs, knocking many of the Blackwings out of the air.

One fell next to me, dropped by an arrow from Mephalda, as I charged the pegasi trying to pick themselves up off the ground. I swung Dawnbreaker toward the first one I reached, a bright red stallion. His sword was drawn before I even knew it, and blocked my own blade. I swung my sword away and back around toward his hooves, but he blocked that too.

I was put on the defensive as the Blackwing rose from the floor and swung his sword around toward my neck. I blocked with Dawnbreaker, the blades screeching as they met, and tried to slide down the blade. He spun his sword around, nearly knocking mine away. I had trouble blocking as he pushed me back, eventually knocking my sword to the ground and swinging in toward my neck.

<<>> I Shouted, and his sword swung through my ghostly form.

I put some distance between us before I returned to my physical presence. A Blade was now engaging him, fighting in a flurry I couldn’t follow and pushing the Blackwing back. Mystic shocked the Blackwing with a blast of lightning, allowing the Blade to win the battle, striking him in the heart with his katana.

I galloped toward a Blackwing that was fighting another blade, swinging her battleaxe at him. Her blade knocked the Blade’s aside, and she cut up into his chest, throwing him off. I shot a blast of flame at the Blackwing before I reached her, Dawnbreaker swinging through the air.

As she tried to strike me with her battleaxe, I swung Dawnbreaker up and blocked. She pushed down at me, but I held her off, shooting magic at the wooden staff of her battleaxe as I did so. The wood had been enchanted to resist such a thing, but eventually the spell gave out and the wood began to char. At last the blade of the axe snapped off, and Dawnbreaker swung forward, slicing down the Blackwing’s side.

She spit the now-worthless stick from her mouth and flared her wings, extending the blades within and using them to strike at me instead. I drew out the Blade of Hoofingar as well and used both blades to block her strikes. Eventually I managed to get my ebony sword wedged in between the blades in such a way that I held her wing motionless. I gave it a tug, pulling her toward me before releasing and swinging my ebony sword into her neck.

A few arrows and spells finished up the last of the Blackwings, and we ascended to the next level. From this point on it seemed the fortress was even more deserted than before, with few Blackwings showing themselves. The large group that attacked us must have been among the last, unless a larger group waited at the very top of the fort, which I wouldn’t doubt.

Before we reached the most secure rooms at the top of the Blackwing fortress, we cast invisibility spells on ourselves. Careful to move slowly and silently, we entered the top floor and snuck around until we found a large study with a set of windows looking out on the sea and the dark storm rolling in.

We saw no Blackwings, so a few of us dropped our spells and looked around the room. Bookcases were lined with tomes, many of them dossiers on ponies the Blackwings were keeping an eye on. I noticed that there was a dossier with my name on it, and it had quite a few entries within. The rest of the books in the room were either on pegasus history or ancient earth pony ruins. Within a display case sat a dragon claw made from ivory, and I smashed the case open to retrieve it. I’d heard that the Blackwings were after dragon claws like this one, but this was the first time since Blank Flanks Barrow I’d actually seen proof.

“Why are the Blackwings looking for Dragon Claws?” I asked myself as I examined it.

The Ivory Claw fell from my magical grasp as Blackwings suddenly shot through the doorway and out of hidden doors in the walls near the ceiling. They began to attack the Blades, but were unaware that not all of them were visible and received a nasty surprise of their own as they found themselves attacked from behind. Among the Blackwing coming through the door, a jet black pegasus in full battle regalia strode in.

“You!?” Ambassador Stratus nearly hissed as her eyes locked on me from across the room.

She took off into the air, flying over the battle to reach me. I drew both Dawnbreaker and my Changeling war axe as she approached, preparing to defend myself.

<<>> I Shouted while she was still in the air, but she dodged my Shout.

She crashed into me, nearly knocking me against the overlarge desk near the windows. I pushed back with my blades, but couldn’t make her move a bit. She spread my blades apart with her own, and began to crane her head in toward my neck. At first I thought she was going to bite me, but instead she clamped her teeth onto the strings holding the Elements of Harmony around my neck.

As she tried to tug them off, I felt a burst of energy enter me from the Elements themselves. With renewed strength, I pushed her swords away from me. I slammed my chestplate into her nose, forcing her to release the Elements or lose her teeth.

<> I Shouted, and her blades fell from her hooves.

She drew a greatsword at her side with her mouth, and also bared the blades on her wings, spinning them around at my neck. I jumped back, grabbing at the Elements with my magic and stuffing them back inside my armor. I struck her wing blades with my Changeling axe as they spun by, breaking a few of them off.

Stratus lunged out with her hooves, pushing me back against the desk so I couldn’t dodge as much. As her greatsword came down at my head I blocked with Dawnbreaker and held off her wing blades with my Changeling axe. As she pulled the sword back to strike again, I switched, hooking my axe around her greatsword and using Dawnbreaker to block the smaller blades.

I grabbed my Changeling axe in my mouth to get more leverage, and rolled backwards over the desk, pulling Stratus’s greatsword with me. The blade went flying over my head, smashing into the windows and knocking them out, allowing the cold wind to blow into the study.

Stratus jumped over the desk like an acrobat, swinging her wing blades around at me. It became difficult to block her effectively as she spun faster and faster, throwing papers off the desk at my face to disorient me. Strikes to my armor battered and bruised me, and a few of the blades managed to graze my exposed neck. I just couldn’t keep up with her.

I Shouted, and my blades took off on their own.

I matched Stratus’s strikes with my blades, succeeding in pushing her back. A few of my hits managed to break off her wing blades, destroying the device that attached them to her flight appendages. My Draconequus sword moved with the speed of a whirlwind, removing her helmet and slicing her Blackwing armor to pieces until she was standing before me unarmed and unarmored.

As my strikes stopped, Stratus stared at me, a shocked expression on her face. Then she recovered and tried to strike me in the face with her hoof. I swung Dawnbreaker out, slicing the tendons and muscles of her foreleg. She drew it back and collapsed to the ground as the blood began to gush from it.

“What do you know about the Elements of Harmony?” I asked the cowering pegasus, holding the tip of my sword to her throat.

“Why should I tell you?” she spit back.

“I could kill you,” I replied.

“I suppose you’re right,” Stratus said, “Very well, it’s not like I have anything to lose. Unlike many of my colleagues, I realized the legends to be true. The page our ancestors recovered told of Talhooves’s secrets. We know where half the Elements are stored already, and all that is left is to recover them. The Pegasari Dominion can always use an all-powerful weapon, especially in the upcoming war.”

“War?” I asked, logging away the fact that Stratus had admitted to knowing where the remaining Elements were.

“Yes,” Stratus said, smirking at me, “The time of peace is over. The time has come for all our plans to come to fruition, and for the Northlands to bow to its rightful masters, the pegasi. Winterhorn will be the first to fall, and then the rest of Horizon and Unicornica.”

“You realize now that I can warn them what’s coming,” I stated.

“Not what’s coming,” Stratus asked, “What has come. At this very moment the Pegasari Air Fleet is moving in for the attack. Winterhorn’s defeat will be swift.”

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” I said, taking my sword away from her neck.

“What are you doing?” she asked as I trotted away toward where the Blades were bandaging their wounds and recovering from the battle, “Aren’t you going to kill me?”

“No,” I said, “I never was going to kill you. When I saved you from Jarl Stormcloud in Seclusion, it wasn’t a hollow gesture. Everypony deserves another chance, even you.”

She stood and looked at me with a puzzled expression before taking off through the broken window. I watched as she made her way up toward the rolling thunderclouds, where more pegasi lurked, waiting to attack Horizon. War was here.

Level Up
Health: 340 Stamina: 330 Magicka: 330
New Perk: Chain Reaction [Destruction] -- Any lightning based spells can now chain between multiple enemies, doing even more widespread damage.
New Spell learned: Invisibility – This spell allows to disappear completely so long as you maintain complete focus on the spell.
New Quest: Invasion! – Defend Winterhorn from the Pegasi Dominion’s invasion of Horizon.

Chapter 72: Falling Skies

Chapter LXXII: Falling Skies
“But make no mistake, this is not a peace forged out of necessity between rival nations of equal strength. It is more like the calm between storms. And the next storm, I think, will be far deadlier than the last.”

While the Blades took control of the Blackwing fortress, Steadfast, Mephalda, Mystic, and I left for Winterhorn. If Stratus hadn’t been lying, then the Pegasari Air Fleet was already there. When we reached the tiny town at dusk, we saw that what she said had been true.

Dark clouds filled the sky, forming a canopy over the land. Below the cloud layer floated the Pegasari airships, their cannons pounding at the College and the town of Winterhorn alike. The ships were nearly invisible against the dark sky, except when their cannons flashed or a fireball flew over them, making them visible for a split second.

A Pegasari airship was certainly a sight to behold, a ship mated with a cloud using mysterious spells known only to the pegasi. An airship was built much like a ship made for use at sea, except that dark clouds were fused to its hull at critical points. The underside was heavily armored in order to deflect the missiles that were sure to fly up at such a large target. That meant that all the weapons were mounted above the cloud layer, which forced the ship to descend to lower altitudes in order to use its cannons effectively against any ground-based targets.

One of the massive ships pounded Winterhorn, while three focused their efforts on the College, smashing away at the wards the mages had haphazardly erected over their home. The mages at the College were faring somewhat better than the earth ponies in Winterhorn, using their magic to strike back at the airships, so we focused our attention on the town.

The thundering of the cannons slowed as the airship began to more precisely identify targets. Pegasi flew from the ship’s deck, landing in the streets below. Even from this distance, I could see that these were not Blackwings attacking the town, just ordinary hoofsoldiers. After the College seceded from Horizon, Jarl Stormcloud had posted a large amount of Stormcloud soldiers here, who were now fighting to defend the town from the invading pegasi.

Mephalda flew up toward the Pegasari airship while the rest of us headed for the town itself. Arrows bounced off my armor as pegasi on Winterhorn’s roofs fired down at me. I focused my magic and shot a lightning spell up at them, knocking a few off as the energy coursed over their armor. I shot ice spikes at as a follow-up at those that dodged, striking them and knocking them out of the air.

One of the pegasi I had hit with lightning recovered and pushed herself off the ground, drawing a sword and charging toward me. Dawnbreaker flashed in the firelight as I drew it, blocking the pegasus’s swing. As she went for my neck, I knocked her sword down to the ground. As she swung it back across at my armored forelegs, I swung my Draconequus sword up and around into her neck.

A spear struck my hindleg, bouncing off the crystalline armor. I spun around at my attacker, another of the pegasus soldiers. I batted the spear away as she tried to impale me again. I drew my Changeling axe as well and hooked it around the spear. As I forced the spiked staff to the ground, I swung Dawnbreaker up into the mare’s chest.

<> I Shouted at a group of pegasi who were flying toward me.

As the dragon flames hit them, many were consumed instantly. Those at the edge of the blast fell to the ground, struggling to put out the fire that coated their bodies. The lucky ones were able to dodge out of the way completely but were forced to scatter in the process. A few of the survivors continued toward me, but many of them descended upon the nearby Stormclouds instead.

As one came hurtling toward me, a lance fastened to her side, she was suddenly knocked from the sky by a blast of magic from Mystic. Some of the burned pegasi on the ground near her focused their efforts on her, ignoring me for the moment. As another pegasus flew through the air at me, I ducked down and swiped through her underbelly with my sword.

With a blast of fire, I roasted a Pegasari soldier trying to sneak up on me from the side. I blocked with Dawnbreaker as another tried to bring a battleaxe down on me. I pushed the battleaxe away and swung my sword around at him, missing his neck but forcing him to retreat.

He swung his weapon down at me again, and I sidestepped it, causing the blade to strike the ground instead. As I swung my Draconequus sword around at his neck, he released his weapon and jumped back. As I swung at him again, he knocked the sword away with a foreleg, hitting the blade at an angle that didn’t pierce his armor. He drew a knife from his side and lunged at me, going for my throat.

Time slowed, and I stepped out of the leaping pegasus’s way. I stabbed Dawnbreaker through the back plates of his armor, impaling him. As time returned to normal, he fell to the ground, dead.

I made my way through the crowd of Stormclouds and armed townsponies until I found where Steadfast was knocking the pegasi aside with his warhammer. As I reached him, more landed behind me from their ship above us. I turned around to face them, filling the area between us with fire. A few of them leapt over the flames, coming for me.

I redirected my fire, knocking one out of the air but failing to stop the other two. I used Dawnbreaker to block as one brought her mace down at me, and I used the Blade of Hoofingar to stop the other’s war axe. I twisted my ebony sword around as I managed to hook it beneath the blade. I threw the pegasus’s war axe away before slicing through her throat.

Meanwhile, I had to continuously reorient my Draconequus blade in order to stop the swings of the other pegasus. As her companion died, I tucked away my ebony sword and blasted the Pegasari soldier with a paralysis spell. I was going to kill her, but thought better of it and instead relieved her of her weapons and bound her hooves and wings.

As I finished taking her prisoner, another pegasus attacked me, wielding a warhammer. She smashed it into my back, bashing my armor against my spine and knocking me to the ground. I rolled out of the way as she attempted to swing the hammer down at my head. I spun around as I got up, sweeping her legs out with my own.

She recovered quickly, using her wings to assist her. As she swung the warhammer down at me again, I blocked with Dawnbreaker. I pushed back on the warhammer as she tried to bring it down at my head. While we were locked in place, I drew my Dark Brotherhoof Fell Blade and sliced through the cracks in her armor, puncturing a lung. As she choked on her blood, I stepped away from the carnage and back to Steadfast.

“Something’s got to be done about that ship,” he commented, “As long as it’s there, it can keep dropping off more troops, and everything we do is pointless.”

“I think I may have an idea,” I said after thinking for a minute.

“Go for it,” Steadfast replied.

I galloped toward the massive airship, which was circling the town now, its cannons tearing apart the ancient houses and the new constructions. Pegasi continued to launch themselves from the deck, landing on the Stormclouds defending the town. I climbed on top of the Jarl’s longhouse as the airship passed nearby.

<<>> I Shouted directly at the ship.

Above it, the clouds began to peel away, revealing the gorgeous night sky and the weather teams that struggled to patch the hole. The ship itself began to lurch to the side as the clouds holding it up tried to flee. Tufts began to escape, and the ship began to fall out of the sky. Eventually, the clouds still attached to it weren’t enough to hold it up, and the airship crashed to the ground just over the ridge Winterhorn was built against.

A fireball soared into the sky as the black powder aboard caught fire. Pegasi flew from the fireball, escaping the inferno, and one of them settled down near where Steadfast and I were standing.

“A warning would’ve been nice,” Mephalda commented, smoothing out her feathers.

“Sorry,” I said, “Next time, I’ll let you know before I knock a ship out of the sky.”

A resounding crack broke through the air as a section of the College’s wards fell, and a tower was pummeled by the Pegasari cannons, falling into the sea. Large strikes of magic began to lance up from the College, striking the armored undersides of the Pegasari airships, and they began to pull back a bit. Pegasi and bat-pony refugees of the College soared up at the ships, doing their part to protect their new home.

With most of the fighting in Winterhorn done, we galloped toward the College. Along the path were a few pegasi that had escaped the crashed airship. We let them be for the most part, as many were badly injured, and only struck out at those that attacked us first.

At last we reached the College’s bridge, where many of the mages were standing, projecting wards over the one path to the College. A few cast spells up at the approaching pegasi and airships, but most of them focused on their wards. They had to; as hard as the Pegasari Air Fleet was pummeling them, a lapse in focus could result in the destruction of their only link to the mainland. As we headed up the bridge, a swarm of Pegasari soldiers launched from the nearest ship and flew toward us.

<<>> I Shouted at them and their ship.

The clouds above churned violently, no doubt frightening the weather crews up top. Lightning began to build in the clouds and then lance down at the Pegasari soldiers and their airship. Many of the flying warriors were knocked out of the sky immediately, but a few managed to make it to us.

Mephalda fired her bow rapidly, picking them off as they approached. Mystic and I joined the mages around us in firing off spells at the approaching pegasi. As one made it through the wards, I swung Dawnbreaker up at her, slicing her wing off. She went plummeting over the other side of the bridge to crash on the rocks below.

The other Pegasari soldiers saw the foolishness in continuing the attack on the bridge and turned back toward their ship. But, their ship was no longer there. Lightning strikes from the clouds above had torn it apart. The night suddenly turned to day as a bolt struck the powder stored below and ignited it, turning the ship into a rapidly falling fireball.

We galloped up the rest of the bridge and entered the College as the Pegasari soldiers traveled the same path by air. Mages and refugees were assembled in the courtyard, ready to fight the pegasi off as they landed. I sent a fireball up into the air at one as she cleared the wall, igniting her and sending her plummeting to the ground.

Soon the soldiers from the ship I destroyed were joined by reinforcements from the two remaining ships. They shot through the wards, landing in the courtyard among their fallen companions without being hit. Swords were drawn as the College’s defenders engaged their Pegasari attackers.

A Pegasari soldier with a pike landed near me and instantly swung the weapon at my head. I swung Dawnbreaker around, knocking the pike away from me. The soldier swung it around again, this time at my legs. I leapt into the air, landing on his weapon and pinning it to the floor. I swung Dawnbreaker across the tips of his wings, slicing off the ends of the feathers before sinking my blade into his neck.

I ducked down as a lightning bolt shot over my head. At first, I thought it was just a stray bolt from one of the mages, but as I looked over the crowd of fighting ponies, I saw that the lightning had been deliberately fired at me by a pegasus wielding a staff.

I dodged another blast that she fired at me before galloping toward her. A pegasus with a mace tried to block me as I went, but a swift strike with Dawnbreaker knocked it from her grasp. A second strike knocked her out of my way. I dodged another blast of lightning before I reached the pegasus.

As I swung Dawnbreaker at her, she blocked with her staff. I swung my sword back and around at her legs, but she took off into the air, knocking my sword aside with her staff. I jumped to the side as she shot a blast of lightning at me, striking the ground instead.

<<>> I Shouted at the staff-wielding pegasus.

Ice began to coat her body, and she fell from the sky, crashing to the ground. She began to shake the ice off and was able to fire lightning from her staff before I could strike, keeping me at bay. Swinging Dawnbreaker around, I knocked her staff aside before swinging my sword through her neck.

I spun around as another of the Pegasari soldiers tried to attack me. I blocked her mace with my Changeling axe, spinning it out of her grasp. As I swung my sword at her chest, she jumped out of the way. With my Changeling axe, I caught hold of her foreleg and held her in place. Dawnbreaker swung up through her chest, slicing through her armor and piercing her heart.

Across the courtyard, I watched as a group of Pegasari soldiers made it past the College’s defenders and entered the library. I charged across to the doors, as did some of the mages, and entered the building.

The Pegasari soldiers were flying around the expansive room, taking advantage of the vaulted ceilings. I shot ice spikes at a few, but didn’t dare shoot too many into the air for fear of hitting the books that lined the walls. Likewise, I didn’t dare use any incendiary spells for fear of lighting the whole place ablaze.

Mephalda entered the library, taking off into the air and shooting arrows into the levitating pegasi. Soon the air became unsafe for them, and they retreated to the ground where the bookshelves offered some protection.

As I turned a corner, I nearly had my head taken off by a pegasus with a sword. She released her blade as it stuck in the bookcase and drew a shortsword, swinging at me again. I blocked with Dawnbreaker, pushing her around the corner and into the Pegasari soldier behind her. As she stumbled against her fellow combatant, I swung Dawnbreaker through her neck, severing her head.

Her comrade watched with shock as her body fell to the ground. I swung my blade down toward his back, hoping to cripple him, but he managed to get his war axe up in time to block me. I swung my sword around, knocking the axe away before striking at the joint of his wing. Muscle tore and his wing hung limp as I sliced through it.

Enraged, he swung his war axe back at me, cutting under my sword and hooking the axe beneath my helmet. I shot flame at him as he tried to pry my helmet off. As he lit on fire, I stabbed him in the chest with my sword. I removed the axe and bandaged where the blade had sliced my neck before moving on.

A pegasus with a bow spied me through the bookcase and shot an arrow at me. Instead, the shaft struck the books, piercing the pages. The pegasus disappeared a moment later as an angry Griffin tore her apart. I galloped around the bookcase to where a few more of the pegasi still lived, advancing on the librarian.

As one slashed at his head, he grabbed the sword in his claw and pushed it away, digging his other claws into the pony’s chest. Though Narickh was old, it seemed he could fend for himself. Still, he couldn’t defend himself if he was surrounded, so I galloped toward him.

I shot a lightning bolt at the closest Pegasari soldier, and the energy leapt from her armor to the armor of the pony next to her, shocking them both to death. Narickh killed another of the soldiers, turning her battleaxe on herself, before one of them got him. A Pegasari soldier had managed to sneak around to his side and had drawn a greatsword across his stomach.

I Shouted as I neared him.

Time slowed to a crawl as I jumped through the air and knocked the pegasus with the greatsword to the ground. Running her through with Dawnbreaker, I spun around on a pegasus who was about to bring her battleaxe down on the Griffin’s neck. As her weapon shattered, struck by Dawnbreaker, time returned to normal.

She stumbled backwards from the blow, running into another Pegasari soldier. Forgetting the danger, I shot a blast of fire at the two intruders, consuming them in flames. Another pegasus threw a spear at Narickh, but I jumped in front of it, grabbing it in my magic before thrusting it through the body of the pony who had thrown it.

“I’ll tend to him,” Mephalda promised as I turned toward Narickh, “They need you out there.”

I left Narickh in capable hooves and exited the library. Out in the courtyard, the Pegasari troops were still fighting the mages of the College. The wards began to collapse one by one as the Pegasari airships pounded them with their cannons. Soon cannonballs were crashing through the towers of the College, tearing apart the ancient school. I fought through the clashing ponies in the courtyard until I was at the edge of the College, staring out at the airships through where a pillar should’ve been.

<<>> I Shouted at the nearest airship.

As before, the clouds both above and attached to it began to boil away. The cloud began to fall from the sky, and pegasi frantically abandoned it. The ship eventually crashed into the sharp rocks of Winterhorn’s harbor and was smashed to bits. The powder ignited a minute later, blowing flaming chunks of wood and rock in all directions.

As cannonfire began to rain down on the College’s central building, a bizarre humming began to emerge from it. A bright blue light began to glow from every opening. The doors suddenly flew open, revealing the Eye of Magnus glowing brighter than ever. A sphere of blue light expanded out from it, grabbing the Pegasari soldiers and flinging them away as it touched them. As it passed over me, I felt pure magic course through my body, feeling wonderful and terrifying at the same time.

The orb continued to expand out until it surrounded the College. Shots from the remaining Pegasari airship ricocheted off the surface, some striking the ship itself. A layer of lightning began to build over the magical shield before striking out at the airship. As it began to take on heavy damage, the cloud-based ship turned away from Winterhorn and back toward the Featherrest Isles, defeated.

A cheer went up from the ponies within the College, and I found myself cheering along with them. The first victory had been won against the Pegasari Dominion. However, I couldn’t help wondering how many more fights there would be before the war came to an end.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Late that night, I was tossing and turning in my bed. Seeing as how it was my actions that had taken out three of the ships that had been harassing Winterhorn, the Arch-Mage decided I deserved to stay in the student quarters, which were much more extravagant than the temporary housing put together for the refugees.

My mind was filled with worry. I’d finally managed to bring peace to the Northlands, or so I’d thought. But, now there was an even bigger war raging across the land. How in the world was I supposed to bring peace and balance to the world and stop the windigo invasion now?

I rose from my bed, going for a walk. Perhaps the cool night air would help clear my head and I could get some sleep. I trotted through the quiet and abandoned halls of the College of Winterhorn, making my way to the courtyard.

This war wasn’t the only thing on my mind, either. Alduin and his dragons were still on the loose, trying to destroy the Northlands. I knew I had to find the Elements of Harmony to defeat him, but it was a long and arduous journey to find them. I now knew how to find the last three at least. The Blackwings knew, and they had the missing page from Talhooves’s Book of Secrets, probably hidden away in the Blackwing Headquarters in Pegasor. Of course, that brought up a completely different set of problems. How was I supposed to get into Pegasor without being killed on sight?

My head was spinning as I trotted through the courtyard. It was becoming hard to focus. A deep and feral hunger was calling for me. I began to realize what was going on, but it was hard to resist. Already my body was starting to go its own way, trotting toward the door to the hall the refugees were now living in.

I tried to fight the urge to feed, but it was just too strong. A reddish haze descended across my vision as I stalked through the dark hallways. Propelled forward by my vampirism, I snuck through the hall until I found a pegasus sleeping all alone in a side room, curled up on top of a bedroll.

My mind screamed for my body to stop as my fangs emerged from my jaw and sank into the pony’s neck. My now-curved horn glowed slightly as I paralyzed the stallion, keeping him from struggling as I drank his blood.

Once I had my fill, my fangs left the stallion and began to shrink back to normal. My body slowly morphed back into its regular form, and I regained control of it. I stood appalled at what I had just done. At least this time I hadn’t killed the pony. Though he looked drained of blood (because he was) he was still breathing shallow breaths.

I slowly made my way back through the College to my quarters, swearing to myself that first thing the next morning I’d look for some way to cure this disease, before I hurt any more ponies.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I searched the College’s library like mad the next day for anything they had on vampirism. As I’d hoped, the pony I’d fed on the night before hadn’t died, though he’d needed significant medical attention to get back to normal. Nopony knew who’d done it, and nopony questioned it. Many assumed that it was one of the refugees, but my friends and I knew better.

“Something I can help you with?” Narickh’s voice came from behind me, making me jump.

The elderly Griffin librarian was looking much better, a set of bandages wrapped around his body holding him together while he healed.

“Yes,” I told him, gathering up the books I’d dropped, “Do you have anything on cures for vampirism?”

“A cure?” he asked, raising a bushy eyebrow, “Why this sudden interest? Could it have to do with the attack last night, perhaps?”

I dropped my books again as I realized that the Griffin knew my secret.

“Don’t worry,” he said, “I won’t tell. After all, at least you’re actually looking for a way to get rid of the curse.”

“So, do you have anything on a cure?” I asked.

“I’m afraid not. We had a researcher a long time ago trying to find a cure, but his research dried up, and we never heard from him again.”

“Well, I’m sure somepony knows,” I said hopefully, “Now that that’s out of the way, do you have anything on spells for walking on clouds?”

“Planning a trip to visit some pegasi?” he asked, once again arching an eyebrow.

“You could say that,” I said, “Do you have anything?”

“We don’t, I’m afraid. However, I know that a potion has been created that does exactly what you’re looking for. There’s a zebra that stops by sometimes – she’s really a very talented alchemist – she’s created a potion that allows a landbound pony, or zebra for that matter, to walk on clouds.”

“Great,” I said, “Where does she live?”

“Well, she doesn’t exactly live anywhere. It could be hard to find her. She leads a caravan across Horizon. Name’s Sar’van.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I couldn’t believe my luck. I actually knew Sar’van. Other than a guard, she’d been the first person I’d talked to at Whitetrot. I hadn’t spoken to her a whole lot since I’d first entered the city, but I made the point to visit whenever I saw her camped outside of the city. As chance would have it, she was waiting outside of Whitetrot’s gates as we arrived at the city.

“Greetings, Sar’van,” I said as we approached her.

“Sapphire, my unicorn friend,” she spoke in her sing-song tone, “It has been awhile since we’ve last spoken.”

“I’ve been busy,” I told her, “In fact, I’m here to talk business now, if you don’t mind.”

“Sar’van will help you out indeed. What is it that you now need?”

“I was told you know how to brew up a potion that will let wingless ponies walk on clouds. Is it true?”

“I can make it, that much is true, but why would you need such a brew?”

“I need to get into Pegasor,” I explained, “That could be a problem if the floor gives out on me.”

“If you wish to enter the capital of pegasuskind, you will need much more than the potion you have in mind.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“As unicorn or earth pony you will be seen; only as a pegasus can you fit in.”

“A potion I’ll brew that will disguise you, not one for the clouds only. For only together will you have a chance to pass for a flying pony.”

I nodded my understanding. We’d never even make it into the Featherrest Isles without looking like pegasi. Sar’van had thought of everything, and set to work preparing a large supply of the potions we’d need for our journey. Soon we’d enter the Pegasari Dominion and, if things went according to plan, nopony would be the wiser.

Level Up
Health: 340 Stamina: 340 Magicka: 330
New Perk: Party Tricks [Illusion] -- All Illusion spells can now be cast for half the Magicka.
New Quest: The Land of the Pegasi -- Sneak into the Pegasari Dominion, and retrieve the locations of the last three Elements of Harmony from the Blackwing Headquarters in Pegasor.

Chapter 73: The Isles

Chapter LXXIII: The Isles
“Go on; find a spell that will get us wingless ponies into Cloudsdale.”

The ice shifted underhoof as we crossed, threatening to plunge us into the frigid waters. It was hard to see where we were going, and we didn’t dare carry a torch for fear of being discovered. If we disappeared out here, on the ice fields between Horizon and the Featherrest Isles, nopony would ever find us. It was pure foolishness to cross the ice even at this time of year, but it was the only way we were going to make it into the Pegasari Dominion.

Steadfast and I had been to the Dominion once before, when we’d snuck into the Blackwing fortress at Windrake Cavern for the Bards College, but this was completely different. Windrake Cavern had been in the middle of nowhere. This time we were crossing through heavily populated pegasus cities.

The largest island in the archipelago that was the Featherrest Isles was home to two of such places: Sunhorn and Pegasor. Pegasor was our eventual destination, but it would be impossible to waltz into the Pegasari capital directly. Instead, we were crossing the ice at Horizon’s eastern border to reach the island. Then we’d make the short journey to Sunhorn and follow the paths from there to Pegasor.

Of course, the Pegasari Dominion and Horizon were now at war, so it was difficult to cross from one to the other without being spotted. Pegasi sentries flew overhead more often as we neared the Isles, and we were forced to lie down on the freezing ice and remain still until they passed.

At last we reached solid ground again. Through the darkness, we maintained a steady trot towards where Sunhorn was marked on my map. The city came into sight as the sun began to peek over the Spine Mountains of Unicornica, which could just barely be seen in the distance jutting above the horizon.

Sunhorn was a city that had been built during a time when the Featherrest Isles had been open to all pony races. Like Winterhorn and Windhorn, it had once been under unicorn control, and the city’s architecture showed it. Sunhorn was a divided city, with typical structures built up the slopes of the mountains, and more built on top of the low-lying clouds that brushed up against the under-city.

I pulled a potion from my saddlebags as we neared the city. I’d had to do quite a bit of rearranging in order to make room for the many phials I now carried, but I’d made do and slimmed things down to only the essentials. My Twilight Armor now sat unused in Breezehome, traded for the typical pegasus clothes I now wore, provided by Sar’van. The only armor I carried was my Dark Brotherhoof armor, tucked away safely in my saddlebags. This was a job for stealth, and heavy armor had no place here.

I drank down my potion as my friends did the same. Instantly, my appearance began to change, my coat going from gray to gold, and my mane and tail from gold to brown. My horn vanished, and two wings sprouted on my back. The spell only changed my appearance, however. I still couldn’t fly, as the wings didn’t really exist, and I could still feel my horn and use magic, even though nopony could see it.

My friends had all changed as well. Steadfast was now a pale blue pegasus with a snow white mane. Mystic was an orange pegasus with a red and yellow striped mane. Mephalda was still a pegasus, but had obscured her identity by changing into a mare with a cobalt coat and a silvery mane.

Fully disguised, we entered Sunhorn. The guards posted at the gates gave us no trouble as we entered, falling for our ruse. Everything seemed perfectly normal in Sunhorn, exactly like any city in Horizon or Unicornica. Ponies went about their lives, acting as if the war that their land had declared was perfectly normal. A few ponies stood around a message board in the center of town, reading about how war had been declared, and how the Pegasari leadership was promising a swift victory over the earth ponies.

We ignored the propaganda as we passed through the city. We had one goal in mind here: finding a map of the Featherrest Isles. I would’ve completely avoided entering the city at all if it hadn’t been for the fact that we had no idea how to navigate the Isles. The Empire put out maps, of course, but none were detailed enough to show exactly how a pony was supposed to be able to travel through the rocky mountains that separated Sunhorn and Pegasor. Like so many other things, the Pegasari Dominion kept this a secret.

I realized what was off about the city as we neared the cloud district. Every single pony we passed was a pegasus. Of course, a large pegasus population was to be expected in the pegasus homeland, but even in Horizon there’d been the odd unicorn or pegasus living among the earth ponies. Here there was nothing but pegasi. It was as if every other race had been wiped off the face of the earth.

I was preparing to drink my cloud-walking potion before we entered the cloud district, when I caught something out of the corner of my eye. A hooded pony was darting around in a nearby alleyway, soon disappearing from sight. Suddenly, I felt a hoof over my mouth, put there by a pony standing behind me. A moment later I lost consciousness.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

My head was pounding when I came to. I found that I was restrained, my hooves tied behind my back, pinning me to a chair. My hindhooves were also tied to the chair’s legs, making escape impossible. To practice, I lit up my horn and found that I could in fact use magic. Apparently, my captors hadn’t impeded my magical ability with that vile goo, but I decided to keep my abilities secret in case I needed a surprise.

Trying to take in as much as possible before my captors realized I was awake, I cracked my eyes open slightly. I was in a dark room lit only by a few candles placed here and there. I couldn’t see any of my friends around me, but a few of my captors stood nearby, going through my saddlebags. Now that they had their hoods off, I could see that they were unicorns, or at least they appeared that way. My own disguise warned me that looks could be deceiving.

“Looks like Steedarr was on our side,” one commented as she dropped a stack of parchment on the table my saddlebags and possessions sat on, “Visitors to the Blackwing Headquarters; we’ve caught ourselves some big shots.”

So they’d found our invitations to enter the Blackwing Headquarters. Before we left Horizon, I had Berefs (who now lived in Whitetrot after the messy business in Foalkreath) forge us the invitations. I figured that the farther we could get without having to break disguise and fight our way through, the better.

“Dark Brotherhoof too,” the other commented, laying my armor out, “I didn’t think the Brotherhoof operated in the Dominion anymore.”

“I’d put my money on that they were absorbed into the Blackwings, or some other shady government organization,” the mare postulated as she pulled out all my potions, “What do you suppose these are for?”

“Friend of the Blackwings, Dark Brotherhoof member,” the stallion said, “My guess is poison.”

“She’s been over Horizon an awful lot,” the mare said, examining my map of the province, “I’ve never seen such a complete map of it.”

“I’ve never seen this book,” the stallion said, looking at the copy of A Visitor’s Guide to the Shivering Isles Discord had given me, “Looks like she’s got her hooves in everything, including Draconequus worship.”

“She’ll be awake soon if she isn’t already,” the mare said, “Let’s get some answers.”

I tried to maintain the ruse of being asleep, but was forced to give it up as a bucket of ice water was dumped over my head. Sputtering and blowing the water from my nose, I tried to shake my head dry.

“Who are you? Where are we?” I asked once I cleared the water from my nose.

“We ask the questions,” the mare said, her hood now raised, “But I can tell you that we are the unicorn resistance; that should strike some fear into your heart. As for where we are, if you figure that out, you’re already dead.”

“So, Soaring Heights,” the stallion said, “What brings you to Sunhorn? And be truthful, or it’ll hurt you.”

“Well,” I said, determined to tell the truth, “My name’s not really Soaring Heights to start with, and I’m not a pegasus.”

My honesty was rewarded with a hoof strike across the face.

“The truth, no nonsense!” the mare demanded, “We know you’re somehow involved with the Blackwings and the Dark Brotherhoof, which doesn’t put you very high in our books. Your kind sickens me, thinking you can just ‘purge’ us as if we’re some kind of sickness. Well, the tables are turned now. You do what we say, or you’ll get more pain than you can imagine!”

“I’m telling the truth,” I said, using a low level healing spell to repair where I’d bitten the inside of my cheek, “I’m really a unicorn named Sapphire, and I’m trying to break into the Blackwing Headquarters to find the key to stopping the World-Eater Alduin.”

“Somepony hit her over the head too hard,” the stallion commented, “She’s gone mad.”

“No!” the mare insisted, “It’s just a ploy to get us to lower our guard. She’s just faking, but we can beat that obstinacy out of her.”

“Look,” I said, “I’m telling the truth, and I’ll prove it.”

With my magic, I undid my bonds and rose from the chair.

“She’s loose!” the mare cried, building magic at the end of her horn to strike me.

As they both shot fire spells at me, I picked the chair up in my magic and used it as a shield. The chair was consumed, turning to ash. My two interrogators stood dumbfounded, unable to believe that a pegasus like me had just used magic.

“Check my armor if you have to,” I said, “It’s made for a unicorn, not for a pegasus.”

“Go check,” the mare ordered, keeping her horn pointed at me.

“She’s right,” the stallion confirmed as he examined my Dark Brotherhoof attire, “There’s no holes in this thing for wings, and there’s a slot for a horn on the helmet.”

“May I see it?” I asked, motioning for him to throw it to me.

He complied, but kept his horn pointed at me, ready to strike at a moment’s notice. Using my magic, I pulled the armor on, sliding it over my fake wings. The spell began to deteriorate as I tugged the armor over wings that weren’t there. The wings on my back jerked around for a minute, unsure of what to do as they wouldn’t fit within the armor, before disappearing completely.

“By Julimanos,” the stallion swore, “She was telling the truth after all.”

“I don’t mean you any harm,” I told my two kidnappers, “I just want to get to Pegasor. So long as you don’t hurt me or my friends, we won’t have any problems. You haven’t done anything to them, have you?”

“The others we captured!” the stallion exclaimed before charging out of the room.

The mare followed him, leaving me alone. I exited the room as well, being careful to keep within sight of the two ponies ahead of me so that I wouldn’t be killed on sight. I saw now where we were, in a set of ancient catacombs, no doubt built beneath Sunhorn long ago. And now the unicorn resistance in this city had made the tombs their home.

Steadfast, Mephalda, and Mystic were all found in rooms similar to the one I’d been in, about to be interrogated. Thankfully, none of them had been tortured yet, and my captors made sure they were set free without further fuss.

Once we were free and had our gear returned to us, we were taken to the resistance’s leader, a one-eyed unicorn stallion named Sky’s Wit. We told him our tale, and about our goal. Of course, I didn’t tell him exactly why we needed to enter the Blackwing Headquarters. I was worried that he’d want the Elements of Harmony for himself, to combat the pegasi.

“As I understand it, what you really need are directions to Pegasor,” he spoke as we finished our story, “Perhaps even a path through the mountains that no pegasus knows about.”

“That would be most helpful,” I admitted.

“We can help you with this,” Sky’s Wit replied, “The resistance has much use of such information. However, before you leave, I would request that you assist us in an urgent matter.”

“What would that be?” I asked suspiciously, reminding myself that nothing was ever really free.

“The Pegasari Dominion has long oppressed us here, proclaiming us to be inferior to the pegasi,” he replied, “Now they are preparing for a war that, if won, will let them do the same to the whole of the Northlands. That cannot be allowed to happen. The docks here in Sunhorn are busy constructing a new Air Fleet to replace the one they lost at Winterhorn. We intend to break into the docks and sabotage the fleet tonight. Will you join us?”

I thought about it for a minute. Getting the remaining Elements was important, but equally important was stopping this war. At the moment, there didn’t seem to be anything I could do to convince the Pegasari Dominion to back down. Perhaps the only thing that could be done at the moment was to sabotage their war effort so that any attack on Horizon would never take place, and they would admit defeat.

“We’re in,” I said.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

We must’ve been unconscious for some time, as it didn’t take long for night to come. With the hooded unicorn resistance, we left the catacombs and headed up through the silent city. Our disguises were still in place, lasting a whole day and keeping us from looking too conspicuous in the city. Fortunately, the Pegasari shipyards were built in the non-cloud part of the city, so we didn’t need any of our precious cloud-walking potions.

We passed Pegasari guards from time to time as we traveled through Sunhorn, but Mephalda was always able to take them out with a well-placed shot from her bow before they were able to cause any trouble. Near the top of the city, the shipyards jutted out away from the homes below to prevent cataclysmic damage in case of accidents. We could see the massive ships under construction as we approached, held up by the clouds that kept the shipyards from collapsing under their own weight.

Four guards waited outside of the shipyard’s gates, keeping watch for intruders like us. A few members of the resistance snuck around toward two of them while Mephalda and I snuck up on the others. I kept to the shadows, creeping along the building until I was standing behind one of the Pegasari guards. As Mephalda dropped down from above and stabbed the other guard, I put a hoof over my target’s mouth and sank my Fell Blade into her side. We pushed the bodies off to the side before moving on.

A few of the resistance members were handy with lockpicks, and popped the locks open quickly, opening the doors to let us inside. We hid behind a stack of lumber as we surveyed the situation. All six of the docking positions were filled, with two of the airships completed (one being the damaged one from Winterhorn). The other four were still under construction and being held up by the docks instead of under their own power.

Though guards had been posted outside, the inside of the shipyards were far from unprotected. The lights of torches burned in the dark, marking where the guards patrolled. The entire shipyard was filled with them, and more no doubt waited within the attached buildings, able to be roused from their slumber to fight if it came to it.

We moved around the pile of lumber, splitting up to take out the guards looking out for the airships. I snuck up on a pegasus guard who was alertly looking out for any signs of trouble. As he trotted along a shelf filled with tools, I followed on the other side. When he reached the end of the shelf, I quickly lunged out, catching him by surprise and sinking my dagger into his throat.

Hiding his body under a tarp, I snuck through the shipyards, seeking out a new target. I found two guards who were spending more time chatting than actually guarding the airships. I hid in the shadows and waited for them to separate, but they didn’t seem inclined to do so any time soon.

An arrow flew through the dark, striking one in the back of the head. As the other gasped, I charged out of the shadows, clamping a hoof over her mouth a split second too late, allowing a bit of her scream to get out. She tried to fly away, batting at me with her wings, as I struggled to pierce her side with my dagger. Eventually, I managed to pierce her heart, and dropped her to the ground.

Across the shipyards, I saw a worker emerge from the sleeping quarters, nearly bumping into a unicorn before ducking back inside. Shortly after, a large group of armed guards spilled through the door, working to light the torches around the shipyard and illuminate the place. Arrows began to fly through the air as they spotted the resistance members finishing off their fellow guards.

I drew Dawnbreaker as two of the guards charged toward me. It seemed the time for stealth was over. As one brought a mace down at my head, I blocked with my Draconequus sword, pushing it away from me. The other swung a sword at my forelegs, which I was forced to dodge, no longer able to rely on my armor to protect me from strikes like that.

I shot a blast of fire at the pegasus, forcing her to retreat. I swung Dawnbreaker around, knocking the first’s mace from her mouth before swinging my blade back up and into her neck. The other guard swung her sword at my side, and I brought my sword back around to block, stopping the blade before it reached me. With my blade, I pushed her back until she was against the wall. Drawing my Changeling war axe, I swung it around into her neck, finishing her off.

<<>> I Shouted as a group of pegasi charged me.

They were thrown back, some landing in bins of nails. I let loose a blast of fire at the others that tried to approach. A few tried to fly over the flames, and I cut my fire spell off in order to shoot ice spikes up at them. Most were hit and fell to the ground, but one got through.

I blocked the battleaxe she swung at me, stopping it with Dawnbreaker. I tried to push her back, but instead she pushed me back. I jumped out of the way as I released her battleaxe and it came crashing down. As it stuck in the floorboards, I swung Dawnbreaker around into the pony’s neck.

As she fell to the ground, I turned to face the survivors of my fire attack, drawing the Blade of Hoofingar as well to fight them off. A pegasus with a war axe swung down at my head, and I hooked my ebony sword beneath the blade, throwing it from her mouth. I struck her in the chest with my hoof as she tried to leap at me, knocking her into the pony behind her.

Another of the guards tried to strike me with her sword, but I blocked with Dawnbreaker. While I pushed back at her with my Draconequus sword, I swung the Blade of Hoofingar into her side. She pushed Dawnbreaker away, and I switched to my ebony sword to block her, using Dawnbreaker to stab her in the chest instead.

<<>> I Shouted at the remaining pegasi, including the one I’d previously disarmed.

They froze over solid, and I stabbed my Draconequus sword through the ice, spearing them through. Knocking their frozen bodies out of the way, I galloped over to where Steadfast was fighting to hold off three pegasi at once. Though he looked like a pegasus at the moment, his wings were non-functional, and the others were able to take advantage of their ability to fly.

I shot an ice spike into the head of one of them as I approached, sending it through and out the other side. Another flapped toward me, and I blasted fire up at her, trying to hit her wings. Instead, she zoomed over me, forcing me to duck down as she swung a sword over my head.

I brought Dawnbreaker up to block, knocking the weapon from her mouth. She leapt to retrieve it as she landed, and swung it up to block me before I could strike her. I forced her sword away, knocking it to the ground and kicking it with my hoof. Swinging Dawnbreaker around, I took off her head.

Steadfast crushed the last remaining pegasus with his warhammer, sending her flying through the air. A few began to disembark from the ship that had attacked Winterhorn, and threw shields up over their heads as Mephalda rained down arrows on them.

<<>> I Shouted, causing the plank they were climbing down to become slick with ice.

Many slipped before recovering with their wings and hopping to the docks where I was standing. However, many of them were shot out of the air by Mephalda before they landed near me. Those that did land I repelled with Dawnbreaker. Steadfast lent a hoof, attacking the pegasi still heading down the plank with his warhammer.

I ducked behind a stack of wood as an arrow pierced my armor and stuck in my shoulder. Archers on the ship were firing at us, giving up on approaching via the plank connecting the ship to the docks. I pulled out the arrow and wrapped a bandage on under my armor before rolling out of my hiding place.

<<>>

I went shooting forward up the plank, landing on the ship, in the middle of a crowd of pegasi with bows. I covered my face with a hoof and launched fire from my invisible horn, spinning in circles to coat the pegasi around me with flames. Arrows still flew at me, sticking in my armor, but they weren’t life threatening wounds, so I continued to cast my spell until I couldn’t any longer.

No more pegasi stood around me, so I headed for the hatch to belowdecks, Mephalda stepping through as I opened it. Only a few Pegasari soldiers lurked below, hiding behind barrels of supplies. Mephalda shot arrows at them, pinning them down as I snuck around behind them.

I ran one through with Dawnbreaker before he even knew what hit him. The other turned in surprise as I killed her friend, and leapt at me with her sword ready. I had no time to dodge, and was tackled to the ground by the pegasus, bringing Dawnbreaker up just in time to stop her blade from slicing my throat.

She kept me pinned, flapping her wings to apply additional pressure. She brought her sword up, and then back down at my neck, nearly knocking Dawnbreaker out of the way. Arrows struck her in the throat, and she rolled off me as she choked on the shafts. Mephalda stood nearby, and shot an arrow through her heart to finish her off.

No more pegasi lurked within the ship, so I peeked back above to see what was going on in the rest of the shipyard. No more pegasus guards remained, and the unicorns were busy moving the barrels of black powder into position. The plan had been explained to us before we’d arrive here, and I knew what had to be done.

Mephalda and I moved the barrels of black powder within the airship around to their designated spots, removing lengths of cord from our saddlebags and connecting them to the barrels. Very carefully, we ran the lines out of the ship and through the shipyard, where other ponies were doing the same thing.

As we exited the shipyard, all the lengths of cord came together. We stepped back from the structure before Sky’s Wit sent a ball of flame at the cords. Fire traveled down the lines swiftly, entering the shipyard and the barrels of black powder within.

Explosions burst through the night as key points of the shipyard were blown to pieces. The ships within began to fall first, separated from the clouds that held them up by the explosions. The bits of shipyard connected to clouds exploded as well, separating from the fluffy material. The shipyard began to groan, tipping under its own weight until it collapsed, breaking apart and falling down the side of the mountain, shredding to pieces as it did so.

“As promised,” Sky’s Wit said, passing a map of the Featherrest Isles to me while he watched the shipyard’s destruction, “May the Equines aid you in your quest.”

“You as well,” I said, staring down at the map and the path clearly marked connecting Sunhorn and Pegasor.

Level Up
Health: 350 Stamina: 340 Magicka: 330
New Perk: Diplomacy [Speech] -- When speaking to any non-pony race you receive a boost to your Speech skill.
Map added: Featherrest Isles -- You now know the location of every town in the Featherrest Isles and the paths connecting them, by land or by cloud.
New Quest: Seat of Power -- Enter Pegasor and sneak into the Blackwing Headquarters.

Chapter 74: Dominion

Chapter LXXIV: Dominion
“Don’t they realize we are a mighty tribe of warriors, and should not be crossed? We have got to break ranks with those weak foals!”

Following Sky’s Wit’s path on the map, we were at Pegasor by midday, and made it without any pegasus interference. Our disguises ran out at sunrise, precisely when we’d donned them the day before. I hoped as I drank another of the potions down that this would be the last time, and only because I wished for our mission to be successful today.

In order to enter Pegasor, we were forced to use some of our cloud-walking potions. Pegasor was built on the peak of the highest mountain in the Featherrest Isles, but the majority of the city was constructed atop the ever-present clouds that surrounded the top of the mountain much like the Crest of the World. Apparently, news had already spread about the destruction of Sunhorn’s shipyard despite the Pegasari government’s best efforts to hush it up, as we heard whispered conversations as we passed through the streets.

The Blackwing Headquarters reared up in the distance, nearly as prominent as the Crystal Tower built on the mountain nearby. Looking at the imposing structure, I realized that I was afraid to enter. Sneaking into Horizon’s Blackwing Embassy had been one thing, but sneaking into the headquarters of the entire organization? This task would be anything but easy, and any slip up would result in death.

As I sought to pull myself together, I overheard, not for the first time that day, ponies talking about the Pegasari Congress. Apparently, it was meeting today and discussing what the Dominion planned to do about this war they’d started. I needed some time before we entered the Blackwing Headquarters, and this seemed the perfect way to spend that time.

After convincing my friends to sneak into the Pegasari Congress, we headed for the Pegasari Capitol, which was constructed mostly of clouds and stood out as a new construction among the older buildings it overlooked. Only officers of the Pegasari military were allowed to sit in on the proceedings, so we stole a few uniforms from the local barracks before entering the Congress building.

The Pegasari Congress was certainly a sight to behold, and we got a good look as we took our seats. It was quite a bit larger than the Equine Council, yet the same amount of ponies seemed to be doing all the talking. The rest sat silently and agreed with whatever their favored speaker said. Unlike the Equine Council, there were no nobles, only high-ranking military officers filling the stadium. I noticed that it was the higher ranks, the upper echelon, that did most of the talking. Most likely they formed the High Military Council that made all the real decisions in the Dominion.

Seven of the Congress-ponies wore different uniforms than the rest. I assumed them to be the governors that ruled the separate districts and towns apart from the Capital. It seemed the military permeated every aspect of the Pegasari government, including the jobs that required no experience in combat whatsoever. I’d read somewhere that nopony within the Dominion was allowed to vote or hold public office unless they’d first served a term in the military. It seemed the author of that book had been correct.

“See that mare there?” Mephalda said, pointing at a pony in an elaborate military uniform standing before the crowd of Congress-ponies, “That’s Lightning’s Fury, the Pegasari High Commander.”

“The Chair recognizes General Stratus, former First Emissary to Horizon,” Lightning’s Fury said as I watched, gesturing to a mare I recognized all too well.

“Thank you, High Commander,” Stratus said, rising and turning to speak to the majority of the assembled Congress, “My fellow pegasi, we are engaged in a glorious battle to restore leadership in the Northlands to where it rightfully belongs. We all knew this battle to be inevitable; in fact, we’ve been training for it since the last war. Yet, I’ve heard grumbling among you, doubts that it is the proper time for this attack.”

“I can assure you, this is the correct time for us to take back control of the Northlands. Horizon and the Unicorn Empire are both weak from the war between them. Would you rather we wait until they have rested and regained their full strength? No, we must attack now, while the odds are as heavily in our favor as they shall ever be!”

“If the odds are in our favor, then why did we lose the entire East Air Fleet during our first attack!” a dark blue stallion with a rainbow-streaked mane demanded, rising from his seat.

“The Chair does not recognize General Typhoon at this time,” Lightning’s Fury said, frowning, “General Stratus, you still have the floor; will you allow this interruption?”

“Yes, High Commander,” Stratus responded, “I recognize General Typhoon and will allow him to comment. General, the EAF lost the battle over Winterhorn due to unforeseen circumstances. According to our sources, the College itself repelled the attack using a powerful magical artifact.”

“And you didn’t know this before you foolishly ordered our troops to be flung headlong at Winterhorn?” Typhoon countered.

“We knew of the existence of the artifact,” Stratus replied, “But not that the mages controlled it, nor what it could do. And our troops were not flung pointlessly at Winterhorn.”

“It was a massacre!” Typhoon exclaimed, “The entire fleet, obliterated in one day!”

“The entire fleet was not destroyed,” Lightning’s Fury pointed out, “One ship did manage to make it home.”

“Barely, and when it did, it was then destroyed while docked,” Typhoon said, referring to the events of the night before. We can’t take these kind of losses, not for long anyway.”

“The attack on Horizon and Unicornica has been planned for years, and it was just recently looked over by a review committee,” Stratus said, “It won’t last long at all, perhaps a few weeks. The plan calls for lightning strikes taking towns rapidly and taking control of the surrounding countryside over an extended time period.”

“Because your ‘lightning strike’ on Winterhorn was so successful,” Typhoon mocked Stratus, “We need to pull out of this war before we become too invested. To continue is the height of folly.”

“Be careful how you choose your words,” the High Commander warned, “What you are saying could be taken as treason to the Dominion.”

“Is it treason to look after the Pegasari Dominion’s well-being?” Typhoon asked, “To enter into a war with Horizon and the Empire, it can only bring destruction and suffering upon our land.”

“Unless we take Horizon, and its precious fields, the Dominion is in a very precarious position,” Stratus pointed out, “Now is the perfect time to strike. Our battle will do little damage to the upcoming harvest, and we still have enough food stockpiled away to last through the war. That will be all.”

As Ambassador – General – Stratus sat down, General Typhoon did as well, though reluctantly. The High Commander called for reports on the food stockpile, but I’d seen and heard enough. The Pegasari Dominion was planning on continuing its war against Horizon, and launching one against the Empire. However, there was a pony who could help us to stop it. General Typhoon seemed to be vehemently opposed to the idea of this war, and perhaps he could be persuaded to steer his country in the same direction. I tucked it away for use later.

We left the Pegasari Congress, returning the uniforms to where we’d found them, and made our way toward our true destination for the day. While we’d been observing the Congress, the day had stretched into late afternoon, and the Blackwing Headquarters was beginning to cast a long shadow across the city. Fear began to settle back into my stomach as we approached the dark building. Blackwings armed with bows could be plainly seen as we approached the front gate, tracking us with their weapons and preparing to shoot us down if we proved to be a threat.

“Stop right there,” the Blackwing guard at the gate ordered as we approached, “Don’t you know this is a restricted area?”

“Stand down, we have passes to enter,” I said, trying to project confidence as I passed our forged invitations over to the guard, careful to use my mouth and hooves instead of my magic.

Berefs had been incredibly thorough in creating our passes, even making a custom stamp to create the seal top Blackwing documents had on them. Hopefully that, and the forged signatures of the Blackwing leadership, would convince the guard to let us pass without question. The gate sentry scrutinized our passes for a while, carefully looking them over for any sign of fakery.

“Well?” I asked, hoping that acting important and impatient would convince her to let us move on without further inspection.

“Everything appears legitimate,” she said at last, passing the papers back to us, “You may enter.”

Our plan had worked, but it still felt like we were walking into a grave as we entered the building. Soon we were inside, confined within the towering structure of stone. Mephalda led the way, passing through hallways she knew well. After all, she’d spent a large portion of her life within these walls.

We passed numerous Blackwings as we trotted through their headquarters, though most paid us little attention, assuming that if we were already inside, we were allowed to be here. At last we came to a courtyard where young foals played, flapping around in the sunlight that filtered in from the opening far above. They were not unsupervised. Armed Blackwings stood both on the ground and on the roof above, keeping an eye on the foals.

“I remember this place,” Mephalda said, her voice catching, “Recreation time, when we had a break from the endless stabbing and maiming they taught us. I was the only one my age with a cutie-mark already. They knew I could be a killer; the others were children of the Blackwing leadership, being trained with the hope that they could become a killer. What kind of pony hopes for something like that, that their child will become a murderer?”

I placed a hoof on Mephalda’s shoulder, hoping to comfort her as she stared out at the foals through bleary eyes.

“Sorry,” she said after a bit, “I needed a moment. We should probably get moving.”

“Do you know where the page would be stored?” Steadfast asked as we followed her down the hall.

“No, but I have an idea,” she replied, “Even as a full Blackwing, there were some areas of this building off limits to me. I’m guessing that’s where they store their most sensitive information.”

“Or their torture rooms,” Steadfast pointed out.

“No, I’ve seen the torture rooms,” Mephalda said with a shudder, “You don’t want to go there.”

We took her word for it and followed as she led the way up through the Blackwing Headquarters. I was lost in minutes, which was probably the point. Only a Blackwing could navigate these corridors, and we were fortunate to have Mephalda with us. At last we neared our objective, a door marked as restricted to only a few ranks. Two guards stood in front of it.

They never knew what hit them as we trotted by. Mephalda’s Blackwing blades flew from where they were concealed in her clothes, running the first guard through. The other I grabbed with my hooves before sinking the Fell Blade into her heart. We set them gently to the ground and looked around to make sure nopony else was around.

Unfortunately, the sentry didn’t possess the key to this door, so I set to work on it, struggling to pick the lock. Eventually I got it, after losing most of my lockpicks. Slowly I pushed to door open, Mephalda and Mystic waiting just outside to fire in the moment they saw anypony within. The two guards within were swiftly taken out, Mystic knocking them unconscious with her spell before Mephalda shot an arrow through each of their heads.

We dragged the other two guards from outside into the room and shut the door. One of the inner guards possessed the key to the door, so we locked it before continuing on. A second door, this one unlocked, opened onto a long passageway lit by flickering torches. We followed it until we reached another room.

“I thought I made it clear we weren’t to be disturbed,” a Blackwing within the room said before suddenly drawing her sword.

I drew Dawnbreaker, blocking as she leapt through the air and swung her blade down at me. A second Blackwing drew a staff and began to shoot lightning at Mystic, who countered with a ward. While the Blackwing was shooting lightning at Mystic, Steadfast galloped around behind and took her legs out with his warhammer. A blast of fire from Mystic finished her off.

The Blackwing fighting me used her height advantage to force me back. I pushed my sword up and over my head as she flew around to behind me. As I spun around she swung for my neck, nearly hitting it as I jumped to the side. An arrow hit her in the joint connecting her wing to her body, and she fell to the ground. Before she could get up, I swung Dawnbreaker down, striking the top of her head.

“What is this place?” Mystic asked, looking around at the bare walls.

“I don’t know,” Mephalda replied, “Like I said, not even I was allowed here. I don’t think it’s where they’d keep the page we’re looking for, though. We’d better leave.”

“Just a minute,” I said as I examined a large pane of glass set into one of the walls.

Through it I could see a study immensely similar to the one Stratus had used in the Blackwing fortress in Hoofingar. Stratus herself stepped into the room a moment later, and I ducked down to avoid being seen. However, she didn’t even look in our direction. Apparently she didn’t know that anypony could watch her. It seemed that the Blackwings here had been spying on her, and she hadn’t even suspected.

She sat down at her desk and began to write something down on sheets of parchment. She also pulled a few dossiers off the shelves behind her and began to fill them out. She wasn’t doing anything all that interesting, and I began to leave, when another pegasus trotted into the room.

“How did things go at the Congress today?” the other pegasus asked.

“Acceptable,” Stratus replied, putting her work away, “The High Commander is fully behind the assault on Whitetrot. Of course, I had to convince her that it would be useful as a trading hub from which to control the rest of Horizon.”

“She does not suspect your true motives?” the other pegasus asked.

Stratus shook her head as a response.

“Good, I doubt the High Commander would wish to risk so many lives to eliminate one asset,” the other pegasus said, “Of course, you and I know that one pony can make all the difference.”

“Especially this pony,” Stratus grumbled, “I’ve never seen anything like it. Her and her companions alone could tip the scales of this war against us. Nopony suspects what really happened at Winterhorn?”

“No, most of the ponies that have heard the truth have refused to believe it,” the other pegasus said, shaking her head, “A single pony shouting three ships out of the sky? It’s impossible! Fortunately, most ponies are sticking to the official story. Most of those that knew the truth died in that attack on the Sunhorn shipyard last night. The rest will perish in an unfortunate fire tonight.”

“Excellent,” Stratus said, “Nopony can know what happened. We must eliminate Sapphire before she causes us even more problems. I’ll lead the attack on Whitetrot myself, to make sure the job is done.”

“Admiral Cirrus won’t like that.”

“She won’t have a choice in the matter. The attack’s confirmed, but they’re pushing for a date. We have to hit Whitetrot while Sapphire’s there to make it count. Where is she now?”

“That’s the thing,” the other pegasus said, rubbing the back of her neck, “We’ve lost her.”

“You what?” Stratus asked, enraged.

“Our patrols lost sight of her as she was crossing the ice south of Sunhorn. They’re combing the area looking for her.”

“Do you realize what this means? She’s probably in the Featherrest Isles by now! She was probably the one behind the attack on the shipyard last night! She knows we have the page from Talhooves’s Book of Secrets, and she’s looking for the Elements too! For Arkhay’s sake, she’s probably coming for it! Triple the guard around the Vault immediately, and kill anypony who approaches except for the top commanders!”

“Right away!” the pegasus said, jetting off to obey Stratus’s orders.

“We’d better go, now!” Mephalda said, and I agreed wholeheartedly.

We galloped out of the room and back down the hall to the first room. I fumbled with the key in my magic as I rushed to open the door back out into the hallway. My heart nearly stopped as we passed through the door and nearly ran into the pegasus who’d been in Stratus’s office a minute earlier.

“Watch where you’re going!” she exclaimed as she flew away, but questioned us no further.

We headed the opposite direction she’d gone in, while I forced my heart to stop racing.

“Mephalda, Stratus mentioned a Vault,” I said once I returned to normal, “Do you have any idea where that is?”

“I’ve heard of it before,” Mephalda said, worry crossing her face, “And I think I might know.”

“Lead the way, then,” I said.

Mephalda did just that, taking off into the air and taking advantage of the higher than average ceilings. We rushed through the maze-like building, galloping to keep up with Mephalda. We pulled up short as she suddenly stopped and dropped to the ground.

“Okay, if I’m right, the entrance is over there,” she said, pointing around a corner.

I peeked around the corner and caught sight of a whole troop of Blackwings standing in front of an inconspicuous looking door.

“That’s it all right,” I said, seeing no other reason why there would be so many Blackwings in one place.

“How are we going to do this?” Mystic asked after she too took a look at what lay before us.

We came up with a plan before moving out to enact it. I’d noticed that the hallway the Blackwings were standing in had only two entrances: the one we were standing by, and the one across the way. Mephalda and Mystic backtracked and found their way over to the other entrance, while Steadfast and I waited where we were.

Mystic raised a solid ward over the other end of the hall, cutting off Blackwing exit there. Mephalda flew near the ceiling and shot arrows through the narrow gap between the ceiling and Mystic’s ward. As the darts began to strike the Blackwing guards, they turned toward the threat.

<> I Shouted as I galloped around the corner, revealing myself.

A blast of dragon fire went rolling down the narrow corridor, roasting the closest Blackwings, and forcing the others to retreat nearer to Mystic, who was now moving the ward down the hall to push the Blackwings toward Steadfast and me. As a Blackwing flew through the air, trying to fly over us and get reinforcements, Steadfast swung his warhammer through the air, knocking the Blackwing to the ground.

I conjured a flame atronach nearby and began to shoot fire with my magic, trapping the Blackwings between Mystic’s ward and a wall of flame. I stopped casting my fire spell as one of the Blackwings jumped through the flames at me. I drew Dawnbreaker, stopping his sword before it could reach me. Steadfast knocked him to the ground with his hammer and pummeled him into submission.

Another Blackwing came at me right away, a battleaxe gripped in his teeth. I blocked his first strike before dropping to the ground. Mystic dropped her ward and sent a wall of flame down the hall, roasting the remaining Blackwings, including the one standing over me triumphantly.

We checked the ends of the hall to make sure nopony had noticed and was coming before we trotted back to the door the Blackwings had been guarding. Steadfast tried to smash the door open with his warhammer, but it was enchanted, and not even a Changeling weapon could break it. I tried to pick the lock, but soon ran out of lockpicks. Mystic, after casting a complicated spell on the lock, managed to get it open, though it left her sweating and exhausted.

We pushed the door open and stepped into a small room. A large metal door stood at the far end, looking like something the Minotaurs would have constructed, except that it was made of steel instead of bronze. There was no visible way to open it, and we appeared to be stuck.

<<>> I Shouted at the hinges, and Steadfast followed up with a strike of his warhammer.

<<>> I repeated once I managed to pool my thoughts together, Shouting at the locking mechanism this time.

The huge metal door fell from the wall as the two places it was mounted to the wall were shattered. It really seemed a waste to have such an intricate method of keeping ponies out that was thwarted so easily. We stepped through the door, entering a dark room.

I found a switch on the wall similar to one in Minotauran ruins, and flipped it, causing light to burst up around us, revealing that we were standing in a gigantic room filled with crates and shelves. It seemed we had found the storeroom for everything the Blackwings were serious about keeping from being stolen.

We moved swiftly through the room, knowing that at any moment we could be discovered, and the entire Blackwing organization would come bearing down on us. Everything was arranged in a bit of a haphazard manner, stacked wherever there appeared to be room. Each of us examined a section of the room, searching for the one item we’d come here to get.

Steadfast found it first and called out to us. We came rushing through the room and gathered around to see what the missing page from Talhooves’s Book of Secrets said. The page continued right where the past one had left off.

. . . Valgroom, Ragnfoald, and Labyrinthian. I had the strangest feeling, as if the Elements needed to be returned to their homes, but not so they would be hidden. No, it felt as if they were to be used again, and needed to be placed in the perfect position for somepony else to find them, as I did. I hope that whoever finds them uses them wisely, and is a much better pony than I.

There was nothing else on the page to do with the Elements of Harmony, and on the back was a new entry about the Imperial City and Talhooves’s grand plans for them. It didn’t really matter; we’d got what we wanted. I tucked the page in my saddlebags, but recorded the names of the ruins we still had to enter on my map just in case. We didn’t necessarily need the page, but I didn’t want the Blackwings to have it, and I intended to return it to Star-Swirl so that the book would be complete.

We trotted out of the room and back through the halls of the Blackwing Headquarters. After a while, we saw a whole group of Blackwings go soaring down the hallways, no doubt having discovered our break-in. We hurried out of the building, passing through the gates before they locked the building. The Blackwing archers atop the walls followed us with their bows, but didn’t seem inclined to pursue us after we cleared the grounds.

I was ecstatic! We’d actually managed to sneak into and out of the Blackwing Headquarters without being caught, and had accomplished our objective. We now knew the locations of the remaining Elements of Harmony and could find them easily. We were that much closer to stopping Alduin for good.

We were nearing the dock district, where another Pegasari Air Fleet was docked, when I recognized a pony walking by himself down the boardwalk. At least, I was pretty sure it was him. How many ponies had a rainbow-colored mane? It was a risk to talk to him, but I decided it was worth it and strolled over.

“General Typhoon?” I called to get his attention.

“Yes, what do you want?” he asked, turning to face me, almost saluting before realizing that I wasn’t in uniform.

“We saw you in Congress today,” I said.

“That debacle,” he grunted.

“Well, I just wanted to say that I agree with you,” I said, trying to raise his spirits, “The Dominion shouldn’t get involved in unnecessary wars with other nations.”

“If only others felt the same way,” he said.

“I’m sure they do,” I said, “Or at least, they will after they’ve been exposed to the horror of war.”

“I’m afraid it’ll be too late then,” Typhoon responded, “Once the war machine begins rolling, it’s not easily stopped.”

“Well, just keep fighting for what you believe in,” I said, “Everypony else will come around eventually.”

“I wonder what that’s all about,” the General said, looking away from me to watch the Blackwings taking off from the roof of their headquarters, their silhouettes black against the sunset.

When he turned back to us, we were already gone.

Level Up
Health: 350 Stamina: 340 Magicka: 340
New Perk: The Best Defense . . . [Light Weapons] -- Your first strike with a Light Weapon now does significantly more damage if you take the initiative and attack first.
Unique Item added: Missing Page from Talhooves’s Book of Secrets -- This page was torn from its book long ago and kept in the Featherrest Isles up to the current day. On it is both the locations of the remaining three Elements of Harmony and instructions on how to use the secrets of the Imperial City.
New Quest: The Great Horizon Scavenger Hunt -- Return to Horizon and find the remaining three Elements of Harmony.

Chapter 75: Valgroom

Chapter LXXV: Valgroom
“We stand at the tomb of Hoofnoraak, who has been dead for many generations. I fear, however, that her return may be at hand.”

We left Pegasor immediately, before the Blackwings could hunt us down. We left through a different gate than we had entered the city, just to be safe, and made it far from the gate before the city itself was locked down. We followed the same path back as we had used to get to Pegasor, though this time we had to hide ourselves from Blackwing patrols from time to time.

We reached Sunhorn by early morning and went around the city in order to avoid the Blackwings swarming over it. We headed to the western edge of the island Sunhorn was built on before crossing the ice, this time angling ourselves to reach Horizon closer to Windhorn. No Blackwings spotted us while we crossed the sea, or they didn’t attack us at least.

When we reached Windhorn, we warned Jarl Stormcloud about the impending attack on Whitetrot. He agreed to send additional Stormcloud troops to garrison the town as soon as he could round them up. Many members of his army had returned to their homes after Seclusion was taken, assuming the war to be over. He also agreed to send some of his precious catapults, in case an air fleet showed up for the attack. We didn’t tell him where we’d gotten our confidential information, and he didn’t ask.

After that, we returned to Whitetrot ourselves. Stratus had made it clear the attack was to take place while I was in the city, and I didn’t want to jeopardize the city’s safety by returning. But, most of our heavy gear was still in Breezehome, and we needed an expert on ancient earth pony ruins to help us find where the remaining Elements were hidden; we needed Faniar.

After resting up for the night, we set out for Valgroom, which was in the far south of the Karth, west of Grishnakh. We were greeted by the typical set of stone stairs leading up to a pair of large stone doors. However, the ruin was not as abandoned as I would’ve liked. Tents were pitched at the top of the stairs, dark tents marked with the symbol of the Blackwings.

“What do you suppose they’re doing here?” Steadfast said contemptuously as we peered at them through a set of bushes.

“Looking for the Elements, just like us,” I said, “Except they have a head start. Still, if they’re still here, then they must not have it yet, which means we’ve got a chance to find it before them.”

“What’s the plan?” Mephalda asked, fitting an arrow to her bow.

“We can’t get at the ruin or the Element while these Blackwings are still here,” I said, “They’ve got to be taken out.”

“On it,” Mephalda said, flying up to the arches over the stairway, staying out of sight of the Blackwing sentries.

Mystic cast the magic blocking spell on me and herself before we moved on. Once more, the buzz came back as we passed under the arches, but I wasn’t crushed beneath the dark magic. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of the Blackwing sentries drop to the ground, shot by Mephalda. Two more suffered the same fate before we made it to the top of the stairs.

We parted ways, spreading out through the mostly empty camp. The first Blackwing I ran into was sitting behind an alchemy lab, brewing up goodness knows what. He drew his sword as he spotted me, but I jumped at him, grabbing the alchemy lab with my forelegs and tipping it over at him. Broken bits of glass stuck in his body and strange chemicals burned his flesh as the alchemy equipment shattered.

With Dawnbreaker, I knocked his sword to the ground. As I swung for his neck, he blocked with the blades concealed in his wings. Ignoring his injuries, he pressed his attack, spinning around and slicing at me with his wing-blades. I pulled out my Changeling axe and swung it through one of his wings, tearing off the feathers and the mechanism holding his blades. While I held off his other wing with Dawnbreaker, I swung my Changeling axe into his neck.

Another Blackwing had heard our scuffling and the destruction of the alchemy lab, and emerged from between two of the tents. I blocked her sword with Dawnbreaker as she forced me back. I blasted her with fire, blistering the side of her body and destroying one of her wings beyond repair.

I ducked as she sent blades flying at me from her wings. As she tried to throw more at me, I used Dawnbreaker as a temporary shield. She swung her sword down at my head, and I blasted her with a paralysis spell. She fell onto my blade as she lost consciousness, impaling herself on the Draconequus sword.

Behind me, a cluster of tents caught fire as Mystic torched the Blackwings attacking her. She strode through the ashes, having eliminated the rest of the attackers. The camp was now completely empty, its inhabitants killed either by Mephalda’s bow, Steadfast’s hammer, my blades, or Mystic’s magic. We checked the tents anyway to make sure there were no Blackwings hiding, and our search came up blank.

We left the camp and pushed open the doors to Valgroom. Immediately within the ruin was a large entry hall with a host of dead Draugr and two living Blackwings. They drew their blades as they saw us enter. Mephalda shot arrows into one of them, crippling her legs and wings with the deadly shafts. Steadfast crushed her into the ground with his warhammer as she approached him.

The other carried some kind of charm that projected a ward around her, and Mystic’s magical attacks were useless. I got in close, using Dawnbreaker to block the Blackwing’s strike as she tried to cut me apart with a battleaxe. I drew the Blade of Hoofingar as well and swung it up into the Blackwing’s chest. I dug my blade in until it pierced her heart and she fell to the ground, her mouth releasing the battleaxe.

The Blackwings dealt with, we continued on deeper into Valgroom, passing by statues of the ruin’s Dragon Priest, a mare whose face was covered by her mask/Element and who wielded a powerful staff. The following hallways were clear of Blackwings, until we reached the banquet hall. Around the table in the center of the room sat several of the pegasus agents, dead Draugr piled around them.

“I’m just saying that there’s really no reason for us to have to stay here,” one of them said as we listened in, “Nopony’s going to enter this ruin, not with our camp in the way, and no Draugr are going to come up here.”

“Orders are orders,” another replied, “We’re supposed to keep this hall secured in case things go south, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

“I still say we’re chasing legends,” the third Blackwing said, “I mean, have either of you ever seen an Element of Harmony?”

“Can’t say I have,” the first replied, “If they get the one here, it’ll be the first. Not that I think they’ll do so. Those Draugr puzzle doors are impossible to open without the proper key.”

“Don’t we have it?” the third pony asked.

“I don’t think so,” the first replied, “Otherwise they’d be back up with the Element already.”

“They’re trying to break through the door,” the second added, “If they can’t get that staff to work, then black powder is next.”

“Do you think that’ll work?” the first Blackwing asked skeptically.

“At breaking the door, no,” the second replied, “At breaking everything around it so they don’t have to use the door, probably.”

While they’d been talking, they hadn’t been paying attention to the stone balcony set above them. Soon the four of us were in position and ready to take them out. Mephalda struck first, shooting an arrow through the third pony’s head. Mystic’s lightning strike came next, electrocuting the first Blackwing. As she jerked around in her armor, Steadfast emerged from one of the lower hallways and crushed her armor in with his warhammer.

<> I Shouted, sending a line of ice flying down the table and freezing the second Blackwing. Steadfast finished him off as well, striking his frozen body with his warhammer.

We moved on deeper into Valgroom, leaving the bodies of the Blackwings where they lay. The hallways were completely empty, the Draugr slaughtered by the pegasi as they had passed through the keep. We followed the trail of carnage until we reached the doors that led out of the fortress and into the city of Valgroom, already propped open for us.

As we stared through the gap, once more a subterranean city greeted us. Within the expansive cavern, the ancient earth ponies had built themselves a large town in dedication to whatever Dragon Priest ruled this place. At the far end of the cavern we could see the temple rearing up. That was where we were headed. It was also where the Dragon Priest, Element of Harmony, and most likely a troop of Blackwings were also located.

As we descended into the city we found that it was still filled with Draugr. Apparently the Blackwings hadn’t wasted time passing through Valgroom city, and had just flown across to the temple, where they knew their prize awaited. We, however, were land-bound, except for Mephalda, and were forced to sneak through the city in order to reach the temple.

However, sneaking through Valgroom proved to be much harder than it had been in the previous ruins. The entire town was stirred up, no doubt by the troop of pegasi that had flown overhead. Draugr soldiers marched down the streets, displacing the peaceable townsponies.

We watched from behind a pillar as a column marched down the first street past the keep. We waited until they had passed before moving on. It was tough to dodge the patrols of Draugr once we entered the streets. It seemed like around every corner a new group was lurking, and we were forced to duck inside of empty buildings more than once. The upside was, with them divided into so many patrols, we wouldn’t have to face a whole Draugr army . . . hopefully.

We were about a third of the way through the town when we spotted another troop of the Draugr soldiers looking for trouble. We quickly jumped into a shop (at least I assumed it was a shop) that bordered the street. This time, however, it wasn’t empty. The Draugr within was very upset that we’d barged in and didn’t intend to buy anything. Its excited speech in Draconic drew the soldiers right to us.

As the Draugr captain stepped through the door, Mystic blasted it with fire, sending the flames billowing out through the door and into the street, knocking the other Draugr back. Before they could recover, we ran for the shop’s back door. Mephalda brought up the rear and shot a few arrows into the pursuing Draugr before we exited the building.

We found ourselves in a narrow alleyway that had no exit in sight. It twisted back and forth, however, so there was probably a way out in the distance, or at least another shop we could duck through. A whistle sounded from behind us, as well as shouted orders in Draconic.

We took off, galloping down the alleyway while Mephalda flew overhead, providing cover fire. I don’t know how they did it, but the Draugr soon caught up to us. I rapidly spun around, taking the first by surprise as I slashed Dawnbreaker through its chest.

Another of the zombies swung a warhammer at me, and I used my sword to block, holding off the attack. A second Draugr came at me with a sword while I was busy blocking the first, aiming its blade toward my neck. Steadfast crushed the Draugr before it could reach me, and I used my fire spell to force the one wielding the warhammer to back off. As it batted at the flames covering its body, I swung Dawnbreaker through its neck, decapitating it.

<> I Shouted at a Draugr with a battleaxe that charged toward me.

Its weapon went flying from its grip, and I stabbed it in the chest with Dawnbreaker, the force of its charge driving the blade through its armor and into its heart. As I threw the Draugr off my blade, I turned to face a Draugr with a pike trying to stab me. The pointed end of its weapon struck my armor, but glanced off, and the blade sliced at the gap connecting my gauntlets to my cuirass, hitting just right and drawing blood.

I held my foreleg up to try and lessen the pain while I swung Dawnbreaker around at the Draugr, knocking the pike to the side. I shot lightning at the zombie, but it skittered over an invisible shield that made my enemy immune to magic. I drew the Blade of Hoofingar and used it to knock the pike away again, holding it where it couldn’t strike me. Dawnbreaker cut through the air, slicing the Draugr’s head off.

I spun around, my ebony sword whistling through the air as I did so, and struck a Draugr’s armor. The blade cut through, but not enough to reach the Draugr’s flesh, and it spun its greatsword around at me. I blocked with Dawnbreaker, using the Blade of Hoofingar to hack at the armor. Eventually my blade cut through, and I dug it into the Draugr’s flesh, doing substantial internal damage. Another swipe stabbed my blade through the Draugr’s heart and lungs. It dropped its sword as it coughed up ichor and fell to the ground.

<<>> I Shouted at a Draugr with a staff that was trying to chip away at Mystic’s ward with blasts of fire.

The Draugr went flying through the air, slamming against the stone rear of a building. Before it could rise, Mystic blasted it with lightning, immobilizing it. An arrow from Mephalda finished it off, shooting through its head and into the ground. I drank down a healing potion to repair my foreleg now that no Draugr remained standing around us.

We took off before more Draugr could show up, weaving through the alleyway and inadvertently getting farther from the temple. At last the alley’s exit came in sight, but it was blocked by more Draugr soldiers, who were beginning to advance toward us.

<> I Shouted, and sent a blast of dragon fire rolling through the alleyway, wiping out the first few Draugr.

The captain was struck by an arrow from Mephalda and ducked down behind its troops, covering its face with an armored foreleg. The rest of the Draugr surged forward, closing the distance with us. Two on the edge were taken out as Steadfast swung his hammer into one, whose body then struck the other, sending them both rolling to the side. Mystic shot a blast of magic into the crowd, thinning them out further before they reached us.

Dawnbreaker flew up in front of me as I blocked the sword of a Draugr soldier. I noticed that the star set into the hilt was beginning to glow brighter, the sword feeding off the undead it killed. Soon it would be ready to wipe them all out. I threw the Draugr’s sword away and impaled it with the blade, comforted by the fact that Dawnbreaker was nearly ready to wipe out all the undead around it.

I charged the remaining Draugr, swinging Dawnbreaker through the neck of one before it knew what was happening. My Draconequus blade met the war axe of another Draugr, and I fought to spin it out of the zombie’s grip. Failing, I swung it around at the Draugr’s side.

It surprised me, swinging its war axe around toward my neck instead of blocking. Dawnbreaker sliced through the Draugr’s armor and cut through its flesh, but I wasn’t able to block in time as the zombie’s blade came at me. I ducked down so that the blade hit my helmet instead of my neck. As the axe hit the side of my helmet, I found myself knocked to the ground, a ringing in my ears.

I shot fire at the Draugr before it could finish me off, and rose, retrieving Dawnbreaker from the Draugr’s side. I’d wounded it badly, both with my sword strike and the fire that had scorched its rotting flesh. I swung Dawnbreaker around as hard as I could, knocking the war axe from the Draugr’s mouth and shaving a bit of the flesh off its face at the same time. My sword came back up, slicing through its jaw and into its neck, killing it for good.

More Draugr poured in from the street, overwhelming us. I ignored the lesser zombies and headed straight for the captain, hoping they’d scatter if they lost their leadership. The Draugr captain drew a battleaxe, and stopped Dawnbreaker as I swung at its neck. Twisting its weapon around, the Draugr pushed me back.

I shot lightning at the captain, but the bolts seemed to diffuse over its (probably) enchanted armor. I drew my Changeling axe to supplement Dawnbreaker as the Draugr reached me, swinging its battleaxe down at me. I blocked with both my blades, forcing the battleaxe back. The Draugr swung its weapon at me again, this time at my side. I hooked the Changeling axe around the blade and forced it up and away from me. I stabbed Dawnbreaker at it, striking it just above where its chest armor ended.

The sword began to glow, the star in the hilt projecting energy. In a flash of light, all the Draugr around us were consumed, their screams silenced by the intense energy of my Draconequus weapon. As the light faded, all that was left of our foes were piles of slightly glowing ash surrounding us.

After patching ourselves up, we left the alleyway, heading toward the center of town. Hopefully we’d thinned the Draugr’s numbers enough that they wouldn’t tangle with us anymore, but I wasn’t holding my breath. Within the center of the city was a large building, so large in fact that I wondered if Valgroom had two Dragon Priest temples.

The runes inscribed on the structure didn’t change as we watched, however, remaining Draconic, so I concluded that this was simply another building important to the ancient earth ponies. Chutes lined the side of the building that bordered Valgroom’s square, leading into the structure. Whenever a Draugr would pass by, they threw something they had on them, usually some coins, into the chutes. Intrigued, we entered the building.

Just inside was a small room that seemed almost to be the entrance to a shop. However, two Draugr soldiers waited behind the counter instead of shopkeepers. As they spotted us, one exclaimed something in Draconic and ran through the door behind it. The other drew a sword and approached us. Arrows soon filled its head, shot by Mephalda, and it fell to the ground.

We leapt over the stone counter and entered the back room, pursuing the other Draugr. It was nowhere to be seen, but the room itself was a sight to behold. Vast piles of riches filled the chamber, with more falling in from time to time, brought here by the chutes outside.

In the middle of the room was a small stand with an ornately carved dragon claw made of sapphire sitting atop it. The Blackwings up in the keep had mentioned that they didn’t yet have they key to open the Dragon Priest’s crypt. Perhaps this Sapphire Claw was the key they didn’t yet have.

As I pulled the Claw from its stand, Mephalda suddenly tackled me to the ground. Arrows flew from hidden points on the walls, bombarding the area around the stand. Somepony didn’t want this Claw to leave the building, which made it even more likely that it would open the Dragon Priest’s Crypt and get us closer to the Element of Harmony.

As we left the treasure filled building, we found ourselves facing a troop of Draugr that the missing soldier had gathered to stop us. I stuck the Sapphire Claw in my saddlebags and drew Dawnbreaker as the Draugr began to charge toward us.

<<>> I Shouted, freezing the first few lines of Draugr.

Mephalda began firing arrows like mad into the crowd, and Steadfast charged forward, blazing a path through with his warhammer. Mystic sent a wall of flame out at the Draugr, roasting many before they could reach us. I charged up my horn and sent a lightning blast at one of the nearest Draugr, causing the bolt to arc to other nearby zombies, forming a shocking spiderweb as it spread out through the Draugr.

The Draugr captain watched with horror as its troops were destroyed and drew a staff, sending a blast of lightning at me. I dodged the blast, running forward through the waves of Draugr, swinging Dawnbreaker around as I did so.

I was forced to stop in my charge as a Draugr with a greatsword swung at me. I ducked down, avoiding the blade, and swung Dawnbreaker at the Draugr’s forelegs, slicing its hooves off. As it fell to the ground, I jumped over it, stabbing my Draconequus sword into its back for good measure.

I jumped to the side, dodging another blast of lightning before I reached the Draugr captain. It swung out at me with its staff, trying to strike me in the head with the gem at the tip. I ducked down and swung Dawnbreaker up as I did so. My blade met the staff, and it began to crack and pop as the sword cut through it. Magical energy went blasting out from the broken magical weapon, throwing both me and the Draugr captain back.

It rose swiftly, running toward me with the broken staff held out in front of it. I knocked the staff aside with Dawnbreaker, but it continued on, finding a slight gap in my armor and exploiting it. The jagged end of the staff stuck in my flesh, forcing me to drop Dawnbreaker as I was overcome with pain.

The Draugr captain left the staff in me and drew a greatsword, preparing to finish me off. Lightning suddenly ripped the greatsword from its mouth. More blasts struck its armor, burning through it and tearing the Draugr beneath apart. Its body fell to the side, scorched and broken. Mystic ran up to me and carefully removed the broken staff before casting a healing spell on me.

“Thanks,” I said as she helped me up.

Another Draugr came charging toward us, but fell to the ground as an arrow from Mephalda found its way through its head. We left the square, stepping over the piles of Draugr bodies. No more of the Draugr soldiers stopped us on our way to the temple, either because they were too afraid, or because there were none left.

We ascended the stairs to the temple, the buzzing at the base of my horn becoming stronger. Another statue of the mare we’d seen earlier reared up here, her hooves outstretched and her mask gone. As had happened before, the runes above the door to the temple began to shift until they were readable, and we knew who our adversary was.

TEMPLE OF THE PRIESTESS HOOFNORAAK
AND THE DISCIPLES OF CHARITY

We entered the temple, prepared to deal with Hoofnoraak in order to get whatever Element of Harmony she possessed. Dead disciples and pegasi within the sanctuary reminded us that there were still Blackwings here. We would have to move quietly and strike swiftly if we were to take them by surprise.

Before we headed down to the crypt, however, I examined the Draconic inscription on the wall at the back of the temple. As I’d hoped, one of the words began to glow with blue fire, and I learned everything the dragon’s knew of life. I could sense it all around me, and I began to remember, experiencing the life of the dragon I’d killed at Windhorn in order to understand how to use my knowledge to my advantage.

I Shouted, though my voice came out as a whisper.

I could suddenly see all life around me. Mephalda, Mystic, and Steadfast were all burning like bright torches, their life visible to me. I could also see the Blackwings in the crypt below, and I counted six before the Shout wore off and my vision returned to normal.

“That was weird,” I told my friends, “I could see your lifeforce, and the lifeforce of the Blackwings beneath us.”

“How many?” Mystic asked, obviously amazed at the incredible power of Shouts.

“Six,” I replied, “They’re trying to open the crypt.”

“Well, I don’t think they can without that Claw we found,” Steadfast said, “But we’d better stop them just in case.”

I agreed, and we headed down under the temple, staying out of sight of the Blackwings. As we came within view of them, we hid behind a stone that had fallen from the ceiling. The Blackwings were indeed trying to open the Dragon Priest’s crypt, blasting at the circular puzzle door with a powerful staff. They didn’t seem to be having much luck without the Sapphire Claw.

Mephalda drew back her bow, and at the moment she released her arrow, both Mystic and me sent ice spikes shooting down at the Blackwings. Three of them fell immediately as they were hit, halving the number of highly trained pegasi we had to fight. The Blackwing that had been working on the door turned away from it, shooting pure magic from the staff she held and destroying the rock we were hiding behind.

I galloped forward, Steadfast at my side. One of the remaining Blackwings swung a battleaxe at me, and I blocked with Dawnbreaker. As she tried to get at me with her wing-blades, Steadfast used his warhammer to crush her wings against her body. She pulled back with her battleaxe and swung at him.

I swung Dawnbreaker at her side, but she used her wing-blades to block. I heard the head Blackwing’s staff charging up, and grabbed the one Steadfast and I were fighting with a foreleg. As the staff fired, I pushed the Blackwing in the way of the blast, and she was consumed by the intense magic.

Mephalda was busy fighting the other Blackwing with her blades, and Mystic was assisting her, getting in spells wherever she could. I picked myself off the ground and headed for the Blackwing with the staff. She began to charge it up, preparing to fire at me as I approached. After all, I had no chance of dodging it now.

<> I Shouted, and the staff fell from the Blackwing’s mouth, sending its deadly blast of magic up at her instead.

With the Blackwings taken care of, I approached the puzzle door and lined up the rings so that they matched the markings on the Sapphire Claw. The door slid smoothly open now, working perfectly despite the Blackwings’ best efforts to break it. Once the door was open we stepped through.

I was forced to duck down immediately as a blast of ice shot over my head. It appeared that Hoofnoraak was already awake. The Dragon Priest hovered in the center of the room, her dragon staff floating in her sickly green magic. I rolled to the side as another blast of ice came at me, freezing the floor instead.

I sent a blast of fire at Hoofnoraak, forcing her to levitate away from me. I got to my hooves and charged, Dawnbreaker held in my magic. I leapt into the air, launching myself off Hoofnoraak’s broken casket. My sword swept through the air, slicing through the string holding the dragon amulet around the Dragon Priest’s neck. Her magic faded and she began to fall from the sky.

<<>> Hoofnoraak Shouted, and ice formed around my body, freezing me solid.

I watched in horror as I plummeted toward the ground, about to shatter. Mephalda snatched me out of the air before that could happen and flew me away from the fight, gently setting me down. Mystic approached a moment later, as Mephalda shot arrows at Hoofnoraak, her and Steadfast keeping the Dragon Priest at bay.

Warmth returned to my body as Mystic thawed the ice around me. I stretched a bit before drawing the Blade of Hoofingar and charging in toward Hoofnoraak. She was confined to the ground now and was trying to freeze Steadfast with her staff. I grabbed Dawnbreaker from where it had fallen as I ran, and leapt at the Dragon Priest. I landed on her back, but she swiftly bucked me off, sending me sliding across the stone floor.

<<>> she Shouted, trying to freeze me again.

<> I Shouted back, nullifying her ice with my fire.

She jumped through the mist formed by our meeting Shouts and swung her staff at my head. I was thrown to the side as it struck me and was sent rolling across the floor. As Hoofnoraak prepared to blast me with ice from her staff, it was suddenly blasted from her grasp. She drew a sword as Mystic approached, lightning still leaping from her horn at the Draugr. Hoofnoraak held up her Draugr sword, blocking and redirecting the lightning so that Mystic was forced to retreat.

I swung Dawnbreaker around as I stood up, taking a good portion of Hoofnoraak’s rotten hindlegs off. Steadfast swung his Changeling warhammer around, striking the Dragon Priest in the back of the head as she turned to face me. Her ancient skull collapsed, and the light in her eyes died as her head was turned to pulp.

Catching my breath after the fight, I rolled Hoornoraak over and removed the remaining amulet from around her neck. A triangular gem hung from the string, the green that must’ve once been dazzling now faded and dark. I threw it around my neck with the other three, our mission completed. Only two more were left to find before we confronted Alduin.

Level Up
Health: 350 Stamina: 340 Magicka: 350
New Perk: Armor of the Gods [Smithing] -- You know have the ability to repair any set of armor, including Draconequus.
Element of Harmony acquired
Word of Power learned: LAAS -- Life; Aura Whisper – Your voice is not a Shout, but a whisper, revealing the life forces of any and all.
New Quest: The Final Two -- Find the remaining two Elements of Harmony.

Chapter 77: Stratus

Chapter LXXVII: Stratus
“Oh, it’s fine my dear. Short tails are in this season. Besides, it’ll grow back.”

Brumare’s count insisted that we stay the night after saving his city, so we enjoyed the banquet at Castle Brumare, and left the next morning for Horizon. The Pale Pass was still snowed shut, making it nearly impossible to cross, but we made it through and reached Splitten by dusk. We left the lake town in the morning and trekked back across Horizon to Whitetrot.

Before, I’d been avoiding Whitetrot if possible, so that no attack would come to the town. But, the attack was bound to come sooner or later, and I’d prefer to get things out of the way and face it head on. No doubt Blackwing spies noticed our arrival that day and sent the information on to Ambassador-General Stratus at once. Word from Winterhorn arrived late that night that the Pegasari Air Fleet was on the move, headed in our direction.

Jarl Valor’s Blade sent out messengers to summon the guards on the fringes of the hold to return to the capital, but there was no way they’d arrive in time. As the sun rose, the fleet came into sight in the north. Eight of the massive warships flew through the air, moving in perfect formation as they surrounded Whitetrot.

The cannons began firing as soon as they were in position, pounding away at Whitetrot’s walls and its newly repaired buildings. The Stormcloud catapults returned fire, but made little progress against the armored undersides of the airships. The Pegasari troops flew from the airships next, swarming down at the ground.

This attack had been launched specifically to target me, and had been planned by Stratus, who knew the power I wielded with my Voice. The airships were keeping their distance where they could, out of range of my Shouts. Still, they wouldn’t be safe forever.

I galloped down from Dragonsreach, leaving the Jarl and his entourage to defend themselves. Pegasari troops landed in the city square as Steadfast, Mephalda, Mystic, and I reached it. The pegasi crashed through the dead branches of the tree in the center of the square as they hit the ground, drawing their weapons.

<> I Shouted, marking the ponies before me for death.

The Pegasari troops staggered as my Shout hit them, harming them from the inside. I drew Dawnbreaker and swung it up through the chest of one of the pegasi before she could recover. One of the pegasi had a bow and began firing arrows at us, forcing us down and behind the benches that ringed the tree.

Mystic raised a ward over us as we circled the tree, causing the arrows to bounce off. We reached the pegasus archer, who Steadfast crushed into the ground with his warhammer. As another of the Pegasari soldiers leapt at us, war axe in mouth, Mephalda shot her from the air.

More of the pegasi flew down from the airships, some being hit by Whitetrot’s archers, but many making it through and landing in the city. I swung Dawnbreaker around, blocking the swing of a mare with a battleaxe. I pressed up with my sword, forcing her away from me. I knocked the battleaxe to the ground before slicing down at the pegasus.

She jumped to the side, but my blade still found flesh, slicing through her wing. She swung at my head, and I ducked down, angling my blade toward her forelegs. She kicked at my blade, managing to knock it back, and swung her battleaxe back down at me. I rolled to the side as the blade struck the ground, and I jabbed my Draconequus sword into her side before she could deflect it.

The tip of a spear struck my back, scraping across my crystalline armor. I spun around, slicing the end of the spear off with Dawnbreaker. The stallion who’d been holding it dropped the useless stick and drew a shortsword instead. I swung at his head, and he blocked, pushing my sword to the ground. I swung Dawnbreaker back up, rending his gauntlets and slicing the flesh on his forelegs. He dropped his swortsword as the pain set in, and I swung my Draconequus sword up through his chest.

<> I Shouted at a group of pegasi closing in on us.

The ones in front had no time to dodge and were ignited instantly, but those behind them were able to fly over the flames and make landings elsewhere in the square. As one flew straight toward me, I blasted flames into the sky, roasting her before she could reach me. Mephalda’s arrows and Mystic’s blasts of magic kept most of the rest at bay, or at least far enough away that Steadfast and I wouldn’t have to worry about being overwhelmed.

I rounded the tree, shooting ice spikes ahead of me and catching the pegasi troops off guard. Dawnbreaker swung through the air, rending the armor of any pegasus that stood in my way. As I completed a loop, I was tackled by a Pegasari soldier from the air.

I disentangled myself from her as we rolled across the square, and held my sword up to block. Her battleaxe came down heavily, sending a peal ringing through the air as it struck my Draconequus sword. She hooked the blade around my weapon so that I couldn’t break free without opening myself up to attack, and began to press toward me.

I was forced backwards, giving up ground. I drew my Changeling war axe and swung toward her side, but she spun her battleaxe around, slamming my sword to the ground and then bringing her weapon back up to block my axe. She swung her battleaxe up around, catching Dawnbreaker while keeping my war axe immobilized and began pushing me back again.

I had no more ground to give as my hindquarters brushed against the base of the statue of Talhooves. Up at Dragonsreach, Jarl Valor’s Blade himself was directing the catapults, and managed to score a hit on the nearest Pegasari airship. As the stone went careening across the deck, the ship tipped to the side and its crew began to spill off, recovering as they remembered they had wings.

One of the ship’s cannons fired just as it was hit, and its round fell short, careening through the square instead of Dragonsreach. It whooshed over my head, smashing into the statue of Talhooves. I quickly disengaged from the pegasus and held up a foreleg to keep her battleaxe from striking my face. As I jumped to the side, she remained stationary and was crushed by the upper half of Talhooves as it came crashing down.

<<>> I Shouted, clearing the square of the pegasi nearest me.

Whitetrot guards and Stormcloud soldiers had reached the square by now and were taking on the Pegasari soldiers, but were taking heavy losses. As before, everything hinged on the airships above the city. We galloped out of the city square, leaving its defense to others, and headed through the housing district.

The ancient wooden houses were burning, pieces of their roofs torn away by Pegasari cannon fire. Pegasari troops roamed the streets, searching for Whitetrot’s defenders. Quite a few of the guards and Stormclouds already lay dead upon the cobblestones.

<<>> I Shouted, quickly closing the distance with the first group of pegasi.

I projected fire from my horn, creating a cloak of invulnerability around myself. The pegasi kept their distance and bided their time until I ran out of energy to keep the spell going. By the time that happened, however, a number of them had been taken out by Mephalda and Mystic’s long distance shots. When I ceased casting my fire spell, only two remained standing before me.

One was plowed out of the way as Steadfast struck her with his warhammer. The other swung a sword at my head. I blocked with Dawnbreaker and forced the pegasus back. Flames still burned on the ground in places, and while the mare was focused on me, she stepped in one of the fiery patches. She yelped and jumped as her hoof was scorched, dropping her sword in the process. Dawnbreaker swung around, slicing through her chest instead of her neck as she tried to take off into the air.

The building I was standing behind suddenly had its front taken off by a cannonball. Cannonballs rained down upon the housing district, coming very close to my friends and me. The nearest Pegasari ship was pummeling the area, determined to take us out no matter the cost to its own troops that were still among us. But in doing so, it had gotten too close to the city.

<<>> I Shouted, and the clouds fled from around the airship.

This time, the fleet had brought a weather crew along for each ship, and the determined pegasi fought to retrieve the fleeing clouds and reattach them to the ship. It was no use, however, as they ended up returning more clouds to the back of the ship than the front, and it began to tip forward, drifting toward the city. The Pegasari airship fell from the sky, crashing into Whitetrot’s wall and sticking in it, toppling houses as it did so.

As the airship came to a rest, Pegasari troops spilled off of it, charging into the city. A few Stormcloud soldiers were making their way toward us from the square, but even with them there was no way we could take on so many attackers. Mystic raised a ward over us as the pegasi charged forward, deflecting the arrows fired at us.

I shot a blast of lightning at the first pegasus to reach us. Mephalda concentrated on taking out the archers in the back, striking the closer soldiers when they got too close for comfort. Once enough archers were taken out, Steadfast and I left the protection of Mystic’s ward and went hunting for Pegasari soldiers.

One of them rammed a pike through a Stormcloud soldier as he reached the fight. I swung Dawnbreaker down, snapping the pike’s blade off and rendering the weapon useless. The pegasus ducked as I swung my blade back around at his head, but he couldn’t dodge as the Blade of Hoofingar came back the other way, slicing through his shoulder. I impaled him with my ebony sword as he collapsed to the ground.

I swung Dawnbreaker around and blocked as one of the Pegasari soldiers slashed at me with a greatsword. She pulled back and swung at my forelegs, forcing me to jump. I swung Dawnbreaker at her head, and she ducked. Her blade met the Blade of Hoofingar as I swung it around at her. She pushed back with her blade, driving my ebony sword back toward me.

<> I Shouted, and her blade went flying from her mouth, allowing me to swing my sword up through her armor and into her heart.

A higher ranking Pegasari officer stepped from the airship, entering the city. I blasted lightning at her, but the energy funneled down into an amulet around her neck before spreading out and coating her sword. As she pointed the blade at me, lightning leapt from its tip, and I was forced to dodge.

I galloped toward the Pegasari officer while she took off into the air and flapped toward me. I tried to strike her as she flew overhead, but she was too clever and spun around, landing behind me. Her first strike landed across my back, her blade screeching as she drew it across my crystalline armor.

I spun around, my blade meeting her own. I drew the Blade of Hoofingar as well, and pushed back at the pegasus’s sword. Unexpectedly, she struck out at me with her forehooves. I was thrown back, struggling to hold onto my swords. I held them up as she slashed at me, aiming for my neck.

She brought her blade back up swiftly, and again I blocked. Repeatedly she swung at me, forcing me to retreat as she gained the upper hoof and kept it. I didn’t have time to strike back as she kept her blade moving, eventually knocking the Blade of Hoofingar from my grasp, sending it sliding into the ruins of one of the nearby homes.

I continued to block her strikes, having a more difficult time now that I only had one sword. It didn’t take long before she relieved me of Dawnbreaker as well, sending it flying until it stuck point down in a pile of rubble. He pushed me back against a building, pinning me down so that I couldn’t fight back.

“All this for you?” the officer said through her sword hilt as she held her weapon over me, “So much trouble just to kill one mare.”

I was suddenly splattered with blood as the officer’s head was separated from her shoulders. I wiped the blood from my eyes, trying not to gag, as my savior rolled the pegasus’s body off of me.

“The Jarl thought you could use some help,” Darkfeather said as she offered a hoof to help me up.

“Thanks,” I said, “We could sure use some.”

A crack resounded over the city as yet another of the stones fired from Dragonsreach found its mark, crashing through the Pegasari airship. The ship began to break up, splitting in two before its black powder went off, sending flaming chunks of wood raining down on Whitetrot.

“Well, that’s two of them at least,” Darkfeather said, looking at the crashed ship near us, “But I don’t know how much longer we can last under that cannon fire.”

I looked out over Whitetrot and spotted two ships hovering close to each other outside the city. Pegasari troops were dismounting from them, trying to surround the city and block up the gates so that nopony could escape.

“The airships need to be taken out first,” I said to the dappled pegasus next to me, “If we can get down there, I can take those two out.”

“How?” she asked.

“I’m gonna use a Shout to turn the weather against them,” I replied, “But I need to be closer.”

“Closer I can do,” Darkfeather said before charging off, throwing blades at the pegasi who were beginning to creep up from the market district.

The Stormcloud soldiers had the situation here under control, finishing up the pegasi from the ship I had brought down, so we followed Darkfeather, heading for the steps that led down into the lower tier of the city. As a pegasus tried to fly over the Jarl’s bodyguard, I shot her with an ice spike, knocking her down where Darkfeather could pierce her body with her blade.

The fighting just inside the city gates was fierce, the pegasi trying to keep Whitetrot’s defenders from pushing them out and Whitetrot’s guards trying to keep the pegasi from pressing farther into the city.

<> I Shouted, roasting the pegasi in the back of the group, where no Whitetrot guards were able to reach.

Darkfeather gave a battle cry as she charged down toward the remaining pegasi, swinging her blade through the neck of the first to turn her way. Mystic and I both shot lightning at another group that charged toward us, and our bolts spiderwebbed out, immobilizing all the Pegasari that came at us.

Steadfast struck down a pegasus with a warhammer before she could even strike at him before turning to block the strike of a soldier with a greatsword. I swung Dawnbreaker up and blocked as a Pegasari soldier with a war axe swung at me. Spinning my sword around, I threw the weapon from her grip and sent it flying through the air. As she tried to fly away, I stabbed my sword up into her, throwing her back down to the ground.

Cannon fire began to rain down on us as we took out the majority of the pegasi around us. Warmare’s roof caved in, hit by a cannonball that careened through the wall and smashed apart the forge before crashing into Whitetrot’s wall. A well-placed shot from the Dragonsreach catapult crashed through the airship above the armored layer and wreaked havoc within the vessel. A second shot followed, tearing the airship apart further as it tried to turn on the catapult.

The ship began to fall, isolated explosions damaging it, but not destroying it completely. It crashed onto Whitetrot’s eastern wall, tipping until the bow smashed apart the Bannered Mare. More explosions tore apart the ship’s deck, a fireball consuming the pegasus crew as they tried to escape.

Darkfeather pushed open Whitetrot’s main gates and ushered us out. I brought my sword up quickly as we passed through, running into opposition right away. I swung my sword around toward a pegasus’s foreleg, but she blocked with her spear. I spun the weapon around until it went flying from her mouth, and I impaled the Pegasari soldier.

Mystic sent blasts of pure magic out in all directions, clearing the pegasi away from us. Darkfeather threw blades and Mephalda fired her bow as we advanced forward, heading for the walkway over the city’s outer gate instead of fighting through the mayhem that filled the path leading up to Whitetrot.

“This close enough?” Darkfeather asked as we trotted over the outer gate, “Any closer and we’re not going to be able to get back out alive.”

“It’s perfect,” I said, collecting the thoughts I needed in my mind.

<<>> I Shouted, and the clouds obeyed my commands.

The pegasus weather teams saw the cloud cover they’d created begin to swirl and churn violently, and rushed in to diffuse the situation. As lighting began to crackle across the clouds, the Pegasari airships realized the danger they were in and began to take off, trying to put distance between themselves and the violent weather.

It was too late, however. Lightning began to lance down from the storm clouds, igniting the airships and the black powder within them. The ships began to explode, falling from the sky and crashing near the stables. As the pegasus crews tried to flee the ships, they too were hit by the deadly bolts of lightning, frying in midair.

We retreated back toward the main gate as arrows began to fly toward us, shot by pegasi indignant about the loss of their ships. As they pursued us, driving us toward the main gate, help came from an unexpected source. The Whitetrot guards that Jarl Valor’s Blade had called back to the city all arrived at once and formed ranks, charging up the path and driving the Pegasari off.

Some stayed to guard the main gate, but the rest passed through it, intent on retaking the city. The massive wooden gateway suddenly exploded before our eyes, hit by cannon fire. Many of the fresh guards were crushed beneath the falling stone or hit by cannonballs. As the guns ceased firing, we crossed over what had once been Whitetrot’s gate, and headed for cover before the bombardment recommenced.

Three airships were left attacking the city, two flying high over it and out of reach, but one was coming near Jorrvaskr, pummeling the city square with cannon fire. We galloped for it, hoping to get close enough that I could drop it before it got out of range. We passed Breezehome on our way to the market district, where Pegasari soldiers were fighting the Stormclouds and Whitetrot guards near the wreck of their airship.

I ducked down and slid across the ground as a pegasus swung a sword at my neck. I popped up as I passed her, my boots causing sparks to fly as they scraped across the cobblestones and I turned. She spun around at me, and I met her blade with Dawnbreaker. As I held her off, Mephalda shot an arrow through her neck. I finished her off with a swipe to the chest as she choked on the shaft.

I conjured up a flame atronach before heading toward my next target. As my flaming construct spread chaos among the battle, roasting the pegasi, I headed toward a pegasus with a mace, Dawnbreaker and my Changeling war axe held at the ready. I swung my axe around, catching the mace with the blade and yanking it out of the way. Dawnbreaker came in a moment later, slicing through the stallion’s neck.

I Shouted as I noticed some eagles nearby, picking at the body of a fallen cow.

They all flocked to my call, wheeling over my head before the attacking the pegasi. As one of the Pegasari soldiers tried to keep an eagle at bay, I swung Dawnbreaker through her armor. The blow wasn’t fatal, however, and after she swung her war axe into the eagle harassing her, she came after me.

I swung Dawnbreaker up, trying to catch it beneath the pegasus’s blade, but she altered her swing, hitting my helmet and dragging her blade down until it found my neck. I knocked the axe away before any serious injury could be inflicted, but I could feel the blood running down my neck. I quickly wrapped a bandage around it to stop the bleeding as I blocked the pegasus’s next swing.

I dragged my blade along hers, eventually managing to succeed in my earlier goal and catch Dawnbreaker beneath the axe’s blade. I tugged upward rapidly, throwing the weapon from her grasp. She tried to fly away, but a blast of fire from my flame atronach scorched her wings and she fell back to earth. My blade once more slashed through her armor, finishing off the job it had started earlier.

<<>> I Shouted, freezing all the pegasi around me.

As the Stormclouds finished off the pegasus-sicles, I drank down a healing potion, repairing my neck before the injury could become worse. Darkfeather led the way up the stairs to the city square, anticipating my intentions. We galloped as fast as we could through the square, dodging cannon fire, and headed up the stone steps to Jorrvaskr.

<<>> I Shouted as I reached the Skyforge.

At once, bolts of lightning began to strike the nearby airship, both from without and from within. The vessel began to split apart as the strikes damaged it. Eventually the black powder was hit, and the side of the ship was blown out. The airship tipped sideways as it fell, the clouds attached to the other side still trying to keep it aloft. It crashed outside of the city walls, smashing to bits on the rocks.

Now only two Pegasari airships flew over the city. A group of pegasi, some wearing different armor from the rest, flew away from one of the ships, landing on the stairs leading up to Dragonsreach. They began to hack their way up toward where Jarl Valor’s Blade commanded the catapult defense of Whitetrot.

The Jarl fired his catapult, once again masterfully aiming the stone it threw. The projectile crashed into one of the Pegasari airships, flying out the other side. Bits of cloud flew away from the vessel as it dropped, passing over the city walls. Another shot hit it as it cleared Whitetrot, and the black powder within ignited, destroying the airship and sending the debris raining outside the city.

The remaining airship turned away, heading back north and ceasing its cannon fire. A shot from the Dragonsreach catapult hit it as it retreated, tearing through the captain’s cabin and sending broken glass and wood raining down on the town. The group of pegasi on the steps to Dragonsreach stopped their advance as the airship flew away.

“Coward! Traitor!” Stratus’s voice called out from the group, “I’ll see you hang for this, Admiral Cirrus!”

Turning away in disgust, she continued up the stairs, attacking the guards blocking her way. With the last Pegasari airship retreating, the Jarl abandoned the catapult and pulled back into Dragonsreach.

“We have to get to Valor’s Blade!” Darkfeather exclaimed, galloping down toward the city square.

We followed as fast as we could, Mephalda flying into the air and shooting arrows at the pegasi as they climbed to Dragonsreach. Most of them still made it through and forced the doors open, charging inside. Shortly after, we too reached the keep and charged in. Two pegasi blocked our path, one of them a Blackwing.

I Shouted, and time slowed around me.

I galloped forward, swinging Dawnbreaker around and decapitating the Blackwing. The other pegasus I relieved the weapon of, and as time returned to normal she was crushed by Steadfast’s warhammer. I shot ice spikes at an approaching Pegasari soldier, but he dodged, only to be hit by a blast of magic from Mystic.
Across the room, Stratus threw Jarl Valor’s Blade’s weapon from his mouth, knocking him down in front of his throne.

“All this because of your Thane,” Stratus taunted the Jarl as she held a wickedly sharp dart over him, “You know, I really came here to kill her, but hopefully I can make her suffer before I do, by killing you.”

As she threw the dart at the Jarl, Darkfeather suddenly jumped between them, the dart striking her instead. The point bored right through her armor, sticking her chest. As she fell, seemingly in slow motion, she threw a blade of her own at the surprised Stratus, striking her in the chest as well, next to her heart.

“Darkfeather!” the Jarl exclaimed, rising and trotting over to where she had fallen.

Stratus staggered as she pulled the blade out of her chest, wincing at the pain. She stumbled toward us as she headed for the exit, nearly running into me. I threw my foreleg up over my face as she found enough strength to send her wing-blades flying at me. I drew Dawnbreaker and the Blade of Hoofingar, swinging them around and tearing the blade mechanisms off her wings, as well as a few feathers. As she drew a sword, I batted it away and relieved her of the other weapons she carried with my magic.

“So, now what?” she said, smiling as I pointed Dawnbreaker at her, “Are you finally going to kill me?”

I knew I really should. After all, Stratus had tried to kill me and my friends so many times. She’d attacked an entire city just to get at me, and chances were she was willing to do it again. Yet, as much as I knew she should die, I just couldn’t.

“No,” I said, pulling my sword away, “I’m not.”

“But, I slaughtered Whitetrot,” Stratus said, “I killed her.”

She pointed at Darkfeather, who was still lying on the floor, the Jarl bending over her and administering a healing potion and bandages.

“She’s not dead yet,” I said, “And that wound wasn’t fatal.”

“Oh, but it is,” Stratus said, flinching as her own wound acted up, “That blade was poisoned, and there is no cure. Healing the wound will only make things worse.”

I looked over at Darkfeather, who was breathing heavily, her frame wracked with pain as the poison took hold.

“I still won’t kill you,” I said firmly.

“But, she was your friend, and I took her from you. And she wasn’t the first,” Stratus said, sounding confused, “I don’t deserve to live.”

“No, you don’t,” I agreed, “But I’m going to let you anyway. I’m not like you Stratus. I’m willing to give ponies a chance to change, even when they don’t deserve that chance.”

Stratus stared at me, perhaps for the first time rethinking her decisions in life. As her focus suddenly shifted downward, I looked at the green glow emanating from my chest. I pulled the latest Element of Harmony out just in time to see it flash so bright that everything else disappeared.

~◊~ ~◊ ZOFAN ◊~ ~◊~

Dragonsreach had disappeared, and only the ponies around me remained, colored by the green light. My friends looked expectantly at me, realizing that I’d somehow activated another of the Elements. Stratus had the look of surprise frozen on her face. The Jarl was even looking up from Darkfeather for a moment to see what was going on. The dappled pegasus was the only one not watching me, her face contorted with pain.

‘Generosity,’ a voice with a cultured accent said, identifying which Element it was I had just activated.

‘Charity and Generosity are both virtues one should treasure and practice every day. A giving spirit will always be rewarded, and will always be respected. Give freely, and out of your own desires, instead of through compulsion, or else your generosity will be tainted, as will your expectations toward other ponies. Witness now, the story of Hoofnoraak.’

I found myself once more viewing the Horizon of the past, when dragons ruled the land, and the earth ponies gladly worshipped them. All gave gifts to the dragons, and to each other, but one mare in particular seemed especially willing to give.

‘Hoofnoraak was always charitable toward her fellow ponies, even as a filly. No price was too great for her, if only it would help the ponies around her. Her giving nature caused her to join a group of five other like-minded ponies, who became fast friends. The dragons, pleased with the harmony of the Six Companions, bestowed upon them the most powerful artifacts of all time: the Elements of Harmony.’

‘The Six Companions proclaimed themselves to be Dragon Priests, special emissaries to and from the dragons. The fantastical power they wielded was used to the benefit of all, ushering in a new era of prosperity for Horizon.’

‘But, the power they were gifted with was too great, and they soon began to abuse it, including Hoofnoraak. She became obsessed with her generosity, believing that all ponies should be as giving as she had been. She built a vast city, Valgroom, from which she ruled the surrounding lands with an iron hoof, demanding tribute be given generously.’

‘At first, her intentions were somewhat noble, using the tribute she collected to better the lives of lesser ponies. But, eventually she became more and more tyrannical, keeping the wealth for herself and greedily hording it. In addition, anypony who did not give generously enough for her she had executed, and led vast purges of the land. Her subjects eventually rose up against her, and sealed her within Valgroom.’

I departed from Valgroom, returning once more to Dragonsreach.

‘Guard well your Generosity, and give freely and joyfully. Otherwise, it will come to control your actions and your perception of others’ actions. Remain generous for the right reasons, and your Generosity will serve you well.’

As the voice finished her narration, the Element of Generosity once more flashed, and I was returned to reality.

~◊~ ~◊~ ~◊~

“The Element of Generosity,” I announced before anypony could ask, “Giving Stratus her life back, again; that’s what must have done it.”

I looked around for Stratus, but she had already left, no doubt flying slowly back to Pegasor due to her injury, pondering her crimes. I hoped our paths would cross again, and under happier circumstances.

I trotted over to where Darkfeather lay on the ground, trembling as the poison took full effect. Jarl Valor’s Blade sat next to her, holding her hoof as she faded away. I thought I spotted a tear in his eye, but couldn’t be sure. I joined them, sitting across from the Jarl and offering my hoof to the dappled pegasus as well. As her shaking began to subside, she looked up at the Jarl, a smile crossing her tortured face.

“Now my debt has been repaid,” she said to him before lying back peacefully and dying.

Level Up
Health: 360 Stamina: 350 Magicka: 350
New Perk: Trade Ya [Block[ -- When blocking, you will now have an improved chance of taking an opponent’s weapon and using it yourself.
Element of Generosity activated
New Quest: The Only Cure -- Find a way to cure yourself of vampirism.

Chapter 78: Roots and Remedies

Chapter LXXVIII: Roots and Remedies
“Vampirism tends to keep one remarkably . . . fresh.”

Following dappled pegasus customs, Darkfeather was cremated that night, burned until nothing remained of her but ash. After the ceremony, her ashes were placed in an urn in Dragonsreach, where they would sit until the end of days, a reminder of the pony who had sacrificed herself to save the Jarl. Once Whitetrot was repaired, the Jarl also intended to have a statue erected of her in the square, next to the statue of Talhooves.

Whitetrot had won the battle, but the city would never be the same. It had only just been recovering fully from the Imperial attack, and now the city was in ruins again. Houses and businesses would have to be rebuilt, and the rubble and bodies would have to be cleared from the streets. We set about the latter task immediately, and by the end of the day we were completely exhausted.

I slept soundly at first, but around the middle of the night, I found myself rising from my bed. I had a lot on my mind and got up to take a walk. This attack, all the destruction that had come to this city, it was because of me and Stratus’s obsession with killing me. Would I bring death to this city again? Stratus seemed different than the last two times I had spared her. Perhaps this time she’d really changed and wouldn’t come back, but I wasn’t counting on it. The truth was, as long as this war went on, whatever town I was in would be in danger.

Jarl Stormcloud had sent more soldiers to garrison the town, at least. Fresh warriors patrolled the streets now, allowing the exhausted ponies who’d helped defend the city get their much-needed rest. I passed a few as I trotted through the town, and they waved a greeting. I was, after all, becoming very well known throughout Horizon.

As I trotted through the small group of houses in the market district, near Breezehome, I spotted a guard patrolling all on his own. He didn’t see me yet, so I snuck up on him, getting closer as I kept to the shadows. Before I knew what was happening, a haze descended over my vision, and I began to actively hunt the soldier.

His ears pricked up as I neared him, and he began to turn toward me. Before he could spot me, I shot him with a paralyzing spell, dropping him to the cobblestones. I pounced upon his unconscious body, sinking my fangs into his neck and draining him of his blood. As my thirst was sated, I withdrew my fangs from him and wiped the dribbles of blood from my muzzle.

My body began to twist back into its natural form, my fangs drawing back up into my teeth and my horn returning to normal. The haze left my vision and my mind cleared as I realized I had just fed on another pony. I turned away in disgust from what I’d done, and dragged his body out of sight before returning to Breezehome. This had to end, soon.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

“Where is this place anyway?” Steadfast asked as we trotted down the path west of where Foalkreath had once stood.

“The Dark Brotherhoof Sanctuary’s nearby,” I promised him, “It’s kept hidden to all but members, though. You’re going to have to wait outside for me, I’m afraid.”

“You think she’ll know the cure?” Mephalda asked as she flew overhead and looked out for trouble.

“She might,” I said, “Hemlock’s the only vampire I know. If she doesn’t know some way to cure vampirism, at least she should be able to help me get it under control.”

As I saw things, this was my last chance to cure the disease. Otherwise, I intended to take Star-Swirl’s advice and live with my vampirism. I hoped Hemlock would be able to offer me some tips on how to keep it from controlling my actions, or else I’d have to stay outside of towns for fear of striking innocent ponies.

I left Mystic, Mephalda, and Steadfast on the path a little ways down from the Sanctuary and trotted the rest of the way on my own. The door recognized me as I pressed my hoof against it, and it opened, letting me inside. The Sanctuary was quiet as I trotted down into it, most of the assassins gone or sleeping. Fortunately, I was able to find Hemlock right away, sitting in a side passage.

“What brings you back to us, Dark Sister?” Hemlock asked in an eerily chilly voice. Would I sound like that someday?

“Actually,” I said, “I’ve come to speak to you.”

“You have contracted vampirism,” she replied before I could say so, “Don’t be alarmed. A vampire as ancient as me can smell the disease on a fellow creature of the night.”

“Right,” I said, trying not to be creeped out that she could smell my vampirism, “Anyway, I was wondering, since you’re a vampire as well, did you ever look for a cure?”

“I did, many years ago,” Hemlock admitted.

“But you never found one,” I said.

“Actually, I did,” Hemlock said, “But the cure only treats those who have only begun to tread the path to vampirism. I was too far along, and it did not work on me.”

“How long can you have had vampirism before it doesn’t work?” I asked, hopefully, “Could I be cured?”

“Yes,” Hemlock said, sizing me up, “You’ve not yet taken on your permanent vampiric form. You could still purge the disease from your system.”

“So, what’s the cure?” I asked.

“I can’t say for sure,” Hemlock replied, “There’s only one pony who knows how to brew it, an alchemist named Fleethoof in Winterhorn.”

Suddenly my hopes plummeted. Winterhorn had been attacked twice, once by the Mages Guild and once by the Pegasari Air Fleet. Who could say if this Fleethoof still lived? Well, there was only one way to find out for sure.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I left the Sanctuary immediately and joined up with my friends before heading up to Winterhorn. I really hoped that Fleethoof was still alive; he was my last chance to cure my vampirism. If he couldn’t help me, I’d have to return to Hemlock and find a different way to deal with my vampirism.

I had no idea where I could find Fleethoof, so when we reached Winterhorn, I asked. Thankfully, he was still alive, though his house had been destroyed in the First Battle of Winterhorn. I was told he could be found in Winterhorn’s inn, The Frozen Hearth. As we entered, I spotted him right away, an elderly stallion sitting by himself. As we trotted over to him, the inn’s bard began a new song that caught my ear.

“Our hero, our hero, claims a warrior’s heart.”
“I tell you, I tell you, the Dragonborn comes.”
“With a voice wielding power of ancient earth pony art.”
“Believe, believe, the Dragonborn comes.”
“It’s an end to the evil of all Horizon’s foes.”
“Beware, beware, the Dragonborn comes.”
“For the darkness had passed, and the legend yet grows.”
“You’ll know, you’ll know, the Dragonborn comes.”

As the bard finished singing, we reached the table.

“Are you Fleethoof?” I asked, and the elderly stallion slowly looked up at me.

“Yes; why do you ask?” he asked suspiciously.

“I was told you found a cure for vampirism,” I told him, sitting down at the table across from him.

“Many years ago, yes,” he said, “When I was still a young stallion. I’m afraid if you’re looking for me to fix up a batch for you though, you’re out of luck.”

“Why?” I asked.

“It is a very difficult potion to make and requires an ingredient I do not have. The Crimson Nirnroot; it grows only in Underkeep, the great city of the Minotaurs. I’m afraid I am too weak to make the journey anymore.”

“Well, we could do it,” I said, “We’ll get you everything you need.”

“Just the four of you?” he asked, raising an eyebrow, “No, the Minotauran defenses would chew you up.”

“You might be surprised,” I said. After all, we’d done some pretty impossible things together.

“Well, if you insist,” Fleethoof said with a sigh, “But it would take a miracle for you to get through that place alive. A journey to Underkeep is not something one undertakes lightly.”

“So, where is this Underkeep?” I asked.

“You’ve never heard of the great Minotauran kingdom beneath Horizon?” he said with a smile.

“No,” I admitted as I pulled out my map, “Why, where’s it at?”

“It is here,” he said, gesturing to a large portion of the map spanning from Winterhorn to Marethal, “Underkeep is the greatest of the Minotauran cities, stretching through a cavern several leagues across. But, if you want the easiest way in, you will have to pass through Bullftand, here.”

“We’ll be back,” I promised the stallion as I examined the mark he’d placed on my map near Winterhorn.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Bullftand’s bronze towers reared up out of the snow as we approached, bearing testament to the Minotauran city that had once stood here. The city had certainly seen better days, as the bits that were exposed were in poor condition, crumbling away. With some difficulty, we found the door that led into Bullftand and headed down the empty halls, through which Minotaurs had once walked.

Things were dark at first, and truly empty. It seemed that many expeditions had been here before to explore the ruin and had cleared out everything on the surface. Every chest we passed was empty, and light fixtures had been torn from the walls. Even the tables had no plates or Minotauran silverware on them, picked clean by archaeologists.

As we passed deeper in, things suddenly changed. Two automatons rolled out of side passages as we headed toward the city’s steamworks. I drew Dawnbreaker, blocking the spinning blades mounted to the machine’s torso. Mystic blasted the other with ice, causing its joints to seize up, keeping it from swinging its weapons at her. Steadfast slammed his warhammer into the machine’s “head,” crushing it and causing bits of gears and crystals to fall from it.

I ducked down as the automaton I was facing reversed the spin of its blades and swung for my head. I jammed Dawnbreaker up into its arm mechanism and caused the spinning to stop, sparks falling on my head as my blade ground against the gears. I drew my Changeling war axe and slammed it into the machine’s gem-eyes, shattering them and blinding it. I hooked my war axe around the automaton’s blade and drew Dawnbreaker back before slamming it through the head, causing the machine to tumble backwards.

We began to trot down the hall again, until a blast of lightning shot past the side of my face, singing my cheek. We ducked behind steam pipes as the blasts continued, sending the deadly bolts bouncing off the machinery. Peeking around the pipe, I caught sight of our attacker, an automated turret mounted to the ceiling. I shot ice spikes at it, drawing its attention, while Mephalda jumped out and shot an arrow right into the gem it was shooting lightning from, destroying it.

We continued down the hall, passing among the hissing pipes, and rounded a corner. We immediately backed up as a Minotauran death-clanker came into view. The monstrous automaton charged down the hall, firing its massive bolts at us and damaging the steam pipes.

<<>> I Shouted at the floor, coating it in ice.

As the death-clanker came charging down the hall, it slipped on the ice and slid away from us, eventually falling to the ground. Mystic blasted magic at it as it tried to get up, knocking off one of its arms. Mephalda fired arrows repeatedly at the automaton, pinching shut one of the steam exhausts on its head. Steadfast smashed it in the head with his warhammer, shattering one of its gem eyes before it swatted at him and sent him sliding across the ice.

The automaton clomped toward us, trying not to slip on the ice, and fired bolts in our direction, forcing us to keep our heads down. Mephalda flew up into the air, dodging among the hissing pipes as she fired arrows at the automaton’s other horn, trying to collapse it as well. Already the machine was overheating, its metal beginning to glow red hot as the single exhaust tried to keep up. When the exhaust was cut off entirely, things only grew worse, and steam began to leak from the machine itself.

<> I Shouted, bathing the machine in dragon fire and assisting the overheating process.

As the steam expanded, the automaton was torn apart, its body exploding in a burst of steam before falling to the ground. We stepped over the fallen machine, Mystic retrieving the soul gems that spilled out before we continued on.

We really had no idea where we were going in Bullftand, but we just kept heading down and hoped it would eventually lead to Underkeep. In truth, we had no idea how large Bullftand actually was, and we were soon lost among the twisting passages. We stopped when we reached a large room, probably Bullftand’s Debate Hall.

“This is ridiculous,” Steadfast said, “How are we supposed to find our way down to the city’s bottom. It could take days.”

Days we didn’t have. I hadn’t packed a particularly large amount of food, and we couldn’t count on finding any down here. Also, judging by my previous pattern of vampirism, if we stayed down here more than a few days, it was sure to strike, and I’d end up feeding on one of my friends. There had to be an easier way to reach Underkeep.

“We’ve got to keep heading down,” Mephalda said, “Maybe we’ll find a map.”

“The Minotaurs didn’t use maps,” Mystic said, shaking her head, “At least, not the same way we did. They were good with directions, so the only maps they had would be used by newcomers.”

“Well,” I said, “We’re in a Debate Hall. Surely they had guests come to debate from time to time. There may be a map around her somewhere. Look around.”

We searched the Debate Hall, and the surrounding passages, but found no trace of a map. Perhaps the parchment had rotted away centuries earlier, or perhaps there were no maps to begin with. I did manage to find something, however. Outside of the Debate Hall was a small shop built into the wall where it seemed visiting Minotaurs could buy necessities. Within was a box of lexicons. Curious, I pulled one out and activated it. In front of me, a blast of red light suddenly jetted out from the lexicon before congealing.

“Um, guys!” I called, “I think I found our map!”

The red projections had formed a network of branching passages and rooms. Glowing Minotauran runes hovered around them, identifying what each area was. A small dot blinked within a large room near the middle of the city, and I assumed it was us. Following the passages, I found a route that would take us down to an exit at the bottom of Bullftand that was strangely labeled in both Minotauran and Equine: Underkeep.

“Fascinating,” Mystic said, taking the cube from me, “A three-dimensional map that allows you to view the floor plans of every level of the city at once.”

“Underkeep,” Steadfast said, staring at the map, “There’s a shortcut to reach it, a vertical tunnel that goes right past the ruin. We can bypass Bullftand entirely.”

“Well, let’s get going then,” I said, “According to the map, the shortcut should be . . . this way.”

We left the Debate Hall, following the bronze-filled hallways to the shortcut. Doors opened from up ahead and automatons rolled out. I sent a blast of lightning at one, wreaking havoc with its internal circuitry and causing it to fall, twitching, to the ground. The others turned toward us, spinning up their blades as they rolled down the hall.

Mephalda shot an arrow through the head of one, shattering its gem eyes. A second arrow drove the first farther in, pushing the soul gem within the head out the back. Without its power source, the automaton fell over, blocking the path as the other machines tried to get at us. With their blades, they hacked apart their fallen comrade and once again rolled toward us.

Mystic and I shot lightning at the advancing machines, but they continued to come, rolling over the ones we destroyed. Steadfast swung his warhammer down the line, smashing the eyes on all of them, leaving them blind. They swung about madly, nicking my earth pony companion’s hindleg as they searched for targets.

<> I Shouted, melting their internal mechanisms.

They began to seize up as the metal re-hardened. I drew Dawnbreaker and slashed them apart, clearing a path for us to pass through. One of them was fused to the floor, but its arm mechanisms still worked, and it swung a blade at me as I passed. I swung Dawnbreaker around, slicing the top of its head off and exposing all the circuits and wiring within. A few ice spikes finished it off.

The spider-like mechanical workers skittered along the walls as we headed for the shortcut marked on the map. Mephalda shot them with her bow whenever they seemed to take an interest in us, and after a bit they began to leave us alone.

At last we reached the vertical passage that cut through Bullftand. A bronze grate stood in our way, keeping us from stepping over the sheer edge and falling to our deaths. Steadfast pulled a nearby lever on the wall, and steam began to hiss from above us. The sound of gears met our ears as a platform descended, eventually settling into place at the same level as the floor we were standing on. The gates swung open as the lift came to a stop.

“Fascinating,” Mystic marveled as we stepped onto the platform, “It’s amazing what the Minotaurs built, isn’t it?”

“I wish they’d built more things like this, and less stuff that tries to kill you,” Steadfast commented as we all entered.

I pulled the lever at the center of the platform, and the gates closed in front of us. The lift began to ascend, before I stopped and pulled the lever the other way, causing it to go down. I also held the map in front of me, watching as the tiny dot that represented us descended through the passage, nearing the gates to Underkeep.

We were two levels from the bottom when the lift suddenly came to a halt. As it came to a stop, I was thrown off my hooves, and the map lexicon flew from my grasp. It bounced across the platform, falling through the bars of a gate on the nearest level.

“Everypony all right?” I asked as I picked myself up off the ground.

“What happened?” Mephalda asked.

“Something must be blocking the lift,” Mystic said.

The lift had stuck halfway down a level, and Steadfast smashed against the top of the bronze gates with his warhammer. As the gates tore away, he hopped down to the next floor, and the rest of us followed. It wasn’t hard to figure out what had happened. Broken stone and bits of metal blocked the lift, part of a cave-in below us. We would have to proceed the rest of the way by following the hallways.

I retrieved the lexicon from where it had fallen and led the way. I ducked to the side as lightning shot at us. I headed back out and shot a blast of my own at where the bolt had come from, hoping to hit a turret. A skittering sound came as a Minotauran spider scrambled across the ceiling. Another bolt of lightning came down, this time from a different place. Mephalda moved into the open and shot an arrow that cracked open the back of the spider, sending lightning shooting in all directions.

Automatons rolled out of the halls ahead, blocking our path as they swung their blades around. Mystic and I both shot lightning at them, but it proved ineffective. These automatons were different, shielded against lightning attacks in some way. I shot ice spikes off instead, smashing through an automaton’s head and killing it.

Mephalda began to fire arrows at the oncoming machines, and Steadfast charged in with his warhammer, ducking down to avoid a blade before snapping an automaton in half. I drew Dawnbreaker, charging forward as well. As I swung toward one of the automaton’s heads, it angled back and blocked my blade. I swung around toward its torso instead, and it righted itself, once more blocking with its bronze blades. I drew the Blade of Hoofingar as well, and as it blocked my ebony sword, it failed to stop the Draconequus sword that sliced its head off.

I blocked as two of the machines swung at me. I kept my blades moving, stopping their spinning arms wherever I could. A blast of fire from Mystic roasted the innards of one, and it toppled to the ground, freeing up my second sword. As I blocked with Dawnbreaker, I swung the Blade of Hoofingar into the automaton’s head and caused it to stop moving.

We continued on, galloping through Bullftand as fast as we could. No doubt it was night by now, and Buckatosh knew how far we’d have to travel through Underkeep in order to get enough Crimson Nirnroot. I wanted to get through and out of this place as fast as possible.

We found the stairs leading down to the final level, and I began to descend them. Mephalda suddenly gave a cry and swooped down, picking me up. At the end of the stairs, a set of blades had popped out of the ground and spun up the stairs. If Mephalda hadn’t grabbed me when I had, I would’ve lost my hooves and quite possibly my life.

She set me down at the bottom of the stairs, safely out of range of the blades. She proceeded to do the same thing with Mystic and Steadfast, until we were all on the final level. I consulted the map, making sure we were headed in the right direction, before we took off again, headed for the gates to Underkeep.

I stopped as we neared a passageway filled with swirling gas. Broken pipes leaked the noxious fumes. There was no guarantee that the gas would kill us, but I didn’t intend to take any chances. I pulled out the map and searched for an alternate route.

“Now what?” Steadfast asked.

“This appears to be the only way through,” Mystic said, confirming what I saw.

We had to pass through the room. Maybe the gas wasn’t so bad after all. Steadfast stuck a hoof into it to test it and quickly pulled it back. He gritted his teeth in pain as blisters covered his flesh. I offered him a healing potion and cast a spell before things got worse. Turns out the gas was going to be a problem after all.

It just wasn’t fair. The gates to Underkeep were just through this passage and down the hall. We’d come so far, only to be turned back now. I refused to admit defeat and tried the only thing I thought might possibly work.

<<>> I Shouted, attempting to clear the “skies.”

Surprisingly, it worked, and the mist rolled back, giving us a clear shot through to the other side of the room. We trotted through, unharmed, as the gas pooled in the corners of the room. We were nearly across when my Shout wore off, and the gas suddenly began to sweep back toward us.

“Run!” I yelled as I took off at a gallop, hoping to reach the far end of the room before the gas reached us.

We were nearing the door when the mist began to cover us, and painful blisters broke out over our bodies. I screamed in agony as my flesh was covered with the gas. As we pulled ourselves out of the room, I shucked off my armor, allowing the gas within to escape back into the air. I drank down as many healing potions as I dared before casting a healing spell, returning my flesh to normal. Then I began to tend to my friends, who had already consumed a large amount of healing potions as well.

Once we were fully healed, the painful blisters gone, we headed away from the room, leaving the gas behind. I used the map to get our bearings again and led us to a large room with towering bronze doors at its end. Pulling a lever caused the doors to swing open on their own.

“Whoa,” Steadfast said as we passed through them.

Whoa indeed. We’d found Underkeep.

Level Up
Health: 360 Stamina: 360 Magicka: 350
New Perk: The Right Tools for the Job [Lockpick] – Any lockpicks you forge yourself will have a lower chance of breaking.
New Quest: The Root of Power – Search Underkeep for Crimson Nirnroots.

Chapter 79: Underkeep

Chapter LXXIX: Underkeep
“This creeping doubt has haunted my career in recent years, and I have begun to doubt if I will unravel some great secret of the Minotaurs in my lifetime, though it lies just under my nose – or indeed, under my hooves.”

Underkeep.

The very name was misleading. This ancient Minotaur land was much more than a simple keep. The massive cavern we looked out on stretched off in the distance until the far end couldn’t be seen. Within were entire Minotauran cities soaring up toward the ceiling, their bronze glinting in the artificial light. Some light came from enormous glowing mushrooms that seemed to grow everywhere, but it was mostly overpowered by the harsh synthetic light of an artificial sun that hung from the ceiling, a perfect globe of bronze that burned like the many Minotauran gas lamps that filled their halls.

We stopped soaking in the fantastical views long enough to trot into the spacious cavern. A bronze archway greeted us, Minotauran runes across the top and Equine runes underneath saying “Welcome to Underkeep.” I found the Equine signs to be odd, but with a place this spectacular, it was no wonder the Minotaurs wanted ponies to be able to soak in the sights too.

“How are we supposed to find Crimson Nirnroots in all this,” Steadfast asked, looking around.

“Well, regular Nirnroots grow near water,” Mephalda said before flapping up into the sky and taking a look around.

“There’s a river that cuts through the cavern that way,” she reported as she landed, “But there’s a problem.”

“What kind of problem?” Mystic asked.

“There’s a Diamond Dog camp in the way.”

“Is there any way around it?” I asked.

“If we travel north, through that city, we should be able to avoid the Diamond Dogs.”

We were forced to choose between the Dogs and the automatons that no doubt stalked the streets of the Minotauran city. I’d choose the Minotauran machines any day over those canines that could smell and hear everything you did.

We headed north, toward the blocky bronze structures of the Minotauran city. Soon the spires towered over us and we trotted down the abandoned streets, our hooves clacking against the perfectly lain cobblestones. Everything was precise and geometric, just the way the Minotaurs liked it.

A few of the spider automatons skittered around, tending to repairs. The city was perfectly preserved after all the centuries it had lain dormant, no doubt due to the constant care it received from its mechanical servants. A few labor-clankers stomped about as well, performing the larger tasks the spiders couldn’t do. However, these benign automatons were not the only ones patrolling the streets.

Minotauran spheres rolled down the street in front of us and stopped suddenly when they realized we were not their Minotaur masters. The rolled toward us rapidly, spinning their blades around. Mystic and I shot lightning and flames at them, but these automatons seemed to be of tougher stuff than the Minotaurs’ other creations and were unfazed by our attacks.

I drew Dawnbreaker as one of the rolled up to me, and I blocked the first swing of its sword. It readjusted the angle of its arms and blades, something I’d never seen a sphere do before, and fought with its twin blades separately, swinging as if it were a living Minotaur using a sword in each hand. I drew my Changeling axe as well, using it to block the other sword as it swung at me.

Mephalda flew around behind the automatons and began to shoot arrows into the mechanisms on the back from which its steam pipes protruded. It seemed to work, as she managed to cripple one long enough that Steadfast could knock its head off with his warhammer. Mystic was pummeling the one in front of her with ice spikes, while keeping it at bay with a ward. Eventually her shards of ice managed to break through the machine’s armor, and she destroyed the internal mechanisms.

I pulled back my Changeling axe and ducked as the automaton swung its sword up at my head. I used my axe to knock its sword away again as it swung at me, before hooking the blade around its shoulder. I gave a yank, tearing the arm from the machine and causing gears and gyros to spill out. The automaton pulled its remaining sword back and swung it back around at my side. I blocked with Dawnbreaker as I hit the side of its head with my Changeling axe, caving it in.

Minotauran spiders began to swarm around us, and Steadfast crushed a few before he realized that they weren’t after us. The skittering machines grabbed the broken bodies of the fallen automatons and began to drag them away. Apparently keeping the city clean was more important to their simple minds than avenging their fallen comrades.

We continued through the city, nearing its center, when we suddenly ducked back around the corner. A large Minotauran automaton was patrolling a cross street, and judging by the crossbows mounted to its arms, it wasn’t there to fix potholes.

A hissing of steam growing closer at an incredibly fast rate told us that it had seen us. Before it could turn the corner, we headed for the large, ornate doors of the building we were nearest to. As it turned the corner, we slammed the doors shut and searched for something to barricade them with. It was no use; we’d entered a Debate Hall, where all the benches and tables were made from stone attached to the ground.

The doors were blown off their hinges as the death-clanker smashed its way in. Thick clouds of steam poured off of it, and it directed the blasts of scalding gas toward us. Mephalda took off into the air, and the rest of us split up, trying to keep it from attacking us all at once.

<<>> I Shouted as it began to stomp toward me.

Ice began to coat the armor of the automaton, but it continued running, and closed the distance with me. As it swatted at me with an arm, I grabbed hold, clinging to the giant crossbow bolt fitted into the machine’s main weapon. Before I could draw my sword and start hacking away at the machinery, the automaton fired its crossbow, sending me flying across the room holding on to the bolt. As the shaft buried itself in the wall, I hit the stone and fell to the floor.

Steadfast charged in at the automaton, swinging his warhammer at its leg. He managed to do some damage, bending a plate of armor out of place so that it fell off, but it seemed to be merely superficial; the mechanisms beneath were unharmed. As the automaton swatted at him, he ducked between its legs, swinging his warhammer into the small of its back. Gyros bent and shattered as they spun out of control, and Steadfast galloped away from the flying shreds of metal.

The automaton’s steam plant went into overdrive to keep hot as Mystic shot ice at it, coating the side of the machine’s body. It raised an arm to point at my unicorn friend, but did not fire its crossbow. Instead, a mechanism on the underside of the arm began glow and spray fire toward her. She jumped out of the way of the first blast and raised a ward, galloping away as the automaton sent flame after her.

A ballista had been mounted near where I’d fallen, and I hurried over to it. I had no understanding of the controls and had to figure it out by trial and error. Spinning the wheels that changed the ballista’s orientation, I pointed it at where the automaton was swinging at Steadfast. Pressing buttons, I managed to load a bolt and fire it at the machine’s chest.

The shaft went flying through the air, striking its target and knocking the mech backwards. It staggered, a bit confused that it now had a spear sticking through its body, no doubt jamming some internal mechanisms, before it recovered and sent a slew of bolts back at me. I struggled to reload and fire again, but I failed, the ballista torn apart by the automaton’s bolts.

<<>> I Shouted, getting as far away from the ruined ballista as fast as I could.

The automaton began to run toward me, firing bolts as it came. I shot ice spikes at it with my magic, but most bounced off its armor. One managed to strike its gem-eye and shatter it. Lightning skittered over the machine’s head as the ice melted and seeped into the internal circuits.

As the automaton pulled up short, it began to charge the flamethrower beneath its arm. I galloped out of the way of the fire as it began to shoot it at me. Mephalda lined up a shot from the air and fired it into the flame-throwing mechanism. A fireball suddenly exploded around the automaton’s arm, scorching it badly. As the mech tried to fire a bolt at me from its crossbow, it found the cord snapped and the bolts all melted together.

I ducked under the machine as it tried to hit me with its injured arm. I swung Dawnbreaker up as I did so, dislodging the plates around its hips. Mephalda began shooting ice spikes immediately at the exposed gears. However, the ice was simply ground up by the rapidly rotating wheels. Steadfast charged past me, ducking under the automaton’s arm as it turned around and swung at him. He swung his warhammer up into the mechanisms, doing some severe damage to them.

The death-clanker kneeled to the ground as the gears that attached to its legs fell apart. It lifted an arm and tried to shoot fire at Steadfast as he retreated, but Mephalda shot an arrow through the mechanism, igniting it and scorching the automaton’s other arm. It still swung its arms around, keeping us at bay, but it had no more weapons.

<<>> I Shouted as I galloped up to it, aiming for the ballista bolt impaled in its chest.

The massive spear jerked upward as my Shout hit it, tearing through the innards of the automaton and rupturing the power plant. The machine jerked around as steam began to spill from it, a sudden blast of heat blowing upon its chest. Eventually it went stiff and collapsed to the ground, the last of its steam leaking from it.

We left the Minotauran death-clanker where it lay and headed through the Debate Hall, exiting through the far doors. We trotted through the Minotauran city, avoiding the automatons wherever possible, until we reached an open square outside of a building that looked suspiciously like an arena. Within the square was a tiny pedestal with an even smaller bell on top of it. A tiny hammer sat nearby.

“What do you suppose this is for?” Steadfast asked as we all puzzled over the bell’s purpose.

“Doesn’t make much sense to have a bell like this out in the middle of nowhere, does it?” I asked.

Intrigued, I picked up the tiny hammer and struck the bell, causing a soft tinkling to emerge from it. The bell’s sound was magnified by the buildings around us, but only slightly. Soon it faded away into the far reaches of the cavern.

“I guess it doesn’t do anything,” Steadfast said with a shrug.

A roar that echoed across all of Underkeep suddenly caused us to jump. The flickering of the light drew our attention to the artificial sun hanging in the distance. The top had opened, and out of it a dragon emerged, flames covering its body. It gave another roar before launching itself off the globe and flapping toward us.

“Okay, so maybe it does do something,” Steadfast said fearfully.

The dragon swooped low over the Minotauran buildings, its wings smashing through one of them. Slowly it settled down in the space in front of the arena, staring at us but not attacking.

“TELL ME, WHERE ARE MY CAPTORS??” the dragon demanded.

“Your . . . captors?” I asked, finding my voice.

“YES, THOSE ACCURSED MINOTAURS!!” the dragon exclaimed, its hot breath washing over us, “THEY LOCKED ME DOWN HERE, MADE ME A SLAVE!! NOW I AM FREE, AND I WILL SEE THEM ALL BURN!!”

“I don’t know how to tell you this,” Steadfast said, “But there are no Minotaurs; they’ve been gone for centuries.”

“WHAT??” the dragon asked, “MY CAPTORS ARE GONE?? MY VENGEANCE THAT HAS KEPT ME STRONG FOR ALL THESE YEARS HAS BEEN FOR NAUGHT??”

“I’m afraid so,” I replied, just glad for the moment that the dragon wasn’t attacking us.

“WELL, I MAY NOT BE ABLE TO FEAST ON THOSE THAT TRAPPED ME, BUT AT LEAST I SHALL FINALLY HAVE A MEAL AGAIN!! IT HAS BEEN SO LONG SINCE I LAST DINED ON PONY FLESH!!”

<> I Shouted as the dragon tried to snap us up, filling its mouth with my fire.

“YOU KNOW THE TONGUE OF THE DOV!!” the dragon exclaimed, “IMPOSSIBLE!! I WILL TEACH YOU TO MEDDLE IN THE AFFAIRS OF DRAGONS, YOUNGLING!!”

The dragon let loose a gout of flame, scorching the stone around us. We had already moved out of the way, drinking down the last of our potions of fire resistance. I headed around toward the dragon’s wing, drawing Dawnbreaker and the Blade of Hoofingar. I stuck both my blades into the aged membrane and tore it apart as I galloped.

The dragon drew back its wing as it felt the pain, nearly taking my swords with it. It sent more fire my way as I galloped around behind it, dodging its tail as it tried to hit me. Steadfast landed a hit across its jaw with his warhammer while the beast was distracted with me. As it turned to snap at him, he ran under its neck and out of the way.

<<>> the dragon Shouted, sending ice in all directions.

The stone was soon coated with frost from the dragon’s mouth. As we slipped around, the dragon drove its claws through the ice and took off into the air, flapping above us. Flames melted the ice, pursuing as we dodged it. But, without proper traction, it was a losing battle, and the flames closed in on us.

<<>> I Shouted, striking the dragon with all the hatred the ancient earth ponies had felt for its kind.

The dragon’s wings suddenly stopped flapping as it realized what it meant to be mortal. It fell from the sky, its body twisting, and crashed to the ground, shattering the remaining ice.

“WHAT ARE THESE WORDS??” it demanded fearfully as it shook its head around, “WHO TAUGHT YOU THIS??”

“The Tongues,” I answered as I galloped up to the dragon and slashed my blades into its side.

“IMPOSSIBLE!!” the dragon said as it twisted its head around and breathed fire at me, only to be hit from behind by a blast of Mystic’s lightning, “ALDUIN KILLED THE TONGUES!!”

“No,” I said, schooling the dragon on history as I galloped toward its tail, “The Tongues sent Alduin forward in time using an Equine Scroll. Now we’re going to kill Alduin for good.”

“YOU HAVE HIGH ASPIRATIONS, MORTAL!!” the dragon chuckled while trying to impale me with the spines on its tail, “BUT NO ONE CAN DEFEAT THE MIGHTY AL~DU~IN, FIRSTBORN OF BUCKATOSH!!”

“But the Elements of Harmony can,” Steadfast said, striking the dragon on the nose with his warhammer.

We didn’t really know that for sure, of course, only that they were immensely powerful. Who was to say that Alduin wasn’t even more powerful? But, the frightened look that appeared in the dragon’s eyes when Steadfast mentioned the Elements told me that our plan just might work after all.

The dragon didn’t seem to want to talk anymore, and focused on breathing fire at Steadfast. Mephalda managed to pull him out of the way before he was roasted, and then ascended into the air, shooting arrows down at the dragon’s face.

As it focused on her, shooting fire into the air, I mounted the dragon, climbing onto its tail and then charging up its back. I hacked at its spines as I went, both my blades out and swinging. Mystic summoned an atronach made of lightning, which began to blast away at the dragon’s hide, tearing off chunks of scales. I took advantage of the holes to stab my blade in at the exposed and charred flesh.

As I neared the top of the dragon’s back, it turned around at me and began breathing fire in my direction. I ducked down, counting on my armor to protect me. For the most part it did, though a bit of flame did seep through the cracks and burn my flesh. The dragon stopped its barrage of fire for a moment and I rose, resuming my gallop up its neck.

I Shouted as the dragon opened its mouth again to roast me.

Time slowed as I jumped off the dragon’s neck, launching myself toward its mouth. I held Dawnbreaker in front of me while building a spell in my horn. I cast my flame spell just as I entered the dragon’s mouth.

Time suddenly snapped back to normal, and I went flying into the dragon’s mouth, burning through its flesh and carving the rest of my way with my Draconequus sword. I closed my eyes as I plowed through the dragon’s head, my Draconequus armor snapping the dragon’s bone. I passed out the back in an eruption of flesh and rolled across the ground, covered in bits of dragon.

As I searched for something to clean myself off with, the dragon began to combust, burning down until nothing but its skeleton was left. Its memories all fused with mine, all the years it had roamed Horizon, all the years it had been a prisoner. I experienced its entire life, both free and in captivity, until I could honestly say I remembered having those experiences.

“Ugh, I’ve got to get this stuff off of me,” I said as I wiped at the gore with a hoof. Sadly, this flesh didn’t seem to want to burn up like the rest.

“Well, maybe if you didn’t have to be so dramatic all the time, you wouldn’t have this problem,” Steadfast joked.

“Har har,” I faked laughter, “Let’s find some Nirnroots and get out of here.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I was unable to find anything in my saddlebags to clean myself with, and had to leave the dragon flesh on me as we trotted through the rest of the city. The river that Mephalda had seen from the air curved around the city, and I took a minute to wash myself in the frigid waters before we moved on. Sadly, no Crimson Nirnroots grew so close to the city, or else they’d all been cleared out by the Minotaurs. It seemed the only place they grew in this area of Underkeep was near the Diamond Dog camp.

Very carefully we snuck down the riverbank, careful not to let a splash or a loose stone betray our presence. There was nothing to hide behind as we approached, but that was no problem, as the Diamond Dogs couldn’t see anyway. The real trick was making sure they didn’t hear or smell us.

The river happened to run through their camp, dividing it in two with the larger section on the east bank and a smaller area on the west. We’d have to pass right through it in order to get the Nirnroots. Mephalda had told us she’d seen some growing in the middle of the camp from the air. She was now trotting on the ground with us so that the Dogs didn’t hear her wingbeats.

As we passed beneath a bridge, one of the canines approached from either direction. We quickly ducked under the bridge and stayed hidden until they passed. I didn’t think they could’ve heard us, but I’d been wrong about their auditory capabilities before.

“That sound, what do you think it was?” one of them asked the other as they stopped and met at the top of the bridge.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say a dragon,” the other replied.

“Why not a dragon?” the first asked.

“Down here, in Underkeep?” the second retorted.

“Why not?” the first answered, “You’ve heard the old legends. They say the Minotaurs imprisoned a dragon down here. That is why the land flourishes without the light of the sun.”

“Nonsense,” the second said, “That makes no sense.”

“It does make sense!” the first insisted, “Dragons are magic!”

The sound of scuffling came from overhead, along with growls and grunts as the Dogs fought each other. I pressed back harder against the stone, nearly drawing my sword, as one of the canines fell over the edge, splashing in the water.

“Fine, so it wasn’t a dragon,” the Dog said, rising from the water and shaking itself dry, “You win.”

Before the overlarge canine headed back up to the bridge, it stopped and smelled around. It was so close to us, we could easily take it out, but then the whole camp might come after us, something we didn’t have time for.

“What is it?” the one up top asked.

“Nothing,” the one down with us replied at last, taking one last whiff, “I thought I smelled something.”

The Dog scampered out of the water and back up onto the bridge. I let loose the breath I’d been holding when they both marched away. Cautiously, we stepped out from under the bridge and continued down the riverbank heading south.

It seemed that the Diamond Dogs also knew about the value of the Crimson Nirnroot. They appeared to be farming them, or had at least placed a rough fence around them in order to keep them from being stepped on. We carefully climbed over the fence, trying not to make any noise.

Quickly we gathered up as many Nirnroots as we could, stuffing them in our saddlebags. Once we thought we had enough, we climbed back over the fence. Unfortunately, when we did so, Mystic landed on top of a Dog who was patrolling. He gave out a howl that was swiftly silenced as Mephalda shot an arrow through his head.

More howls responded from the east, and Dogs began to charge down the street, sniffing and swiveling their ears around as they searched for us. We headed through the camp, avoiding Dogs, but were slowly forced west instead of east. It looked like it would be impossible to get back to Bullftand, so I searched for another way out. To the west was another Minotauran city, this one with a tower that went all the way up to the ceiling, perhaps even up to the surface.

“Come on, this way,” I whispered, “I think I found another way out.”

The Dogs, with their sensitive ears, heard me and quickly converged on our location. We broke into a gallop, heading west out of the town. If they wanted to stop us, they’d have to catch us first.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

TOWER OF MINO-ZARK

That’s what was inscribed over the ornate bronze doors of the tower in the center of the third Minotauran city we’d visited today. The Diamond Dogs had given up pursuit when we’d passed the outlying bronze-coated buildings, and we dodged Minotauran automatons as we made our way through the city.

Passing through the towering doors, we entered the Tower of Mino-zark. Just within the tower was a large entrance hall filled with statues of the Minotaurs. My hooves clacked across the marble floors as I approached a pedestal in the center of the room that had a lexicon protruding from the top. Pressing a button on the pedestal caused the lexicon to light up, and a glowing projection of the tower appeared in the air.

“What do you suppose that’s for?” Mystic asked, pointing at the top of the tower, where there was a dome labeled “Master Arcanex.”

“I don’t know,” I said, “Hopefully a way out.”

Like in Bullftand, a lift connected the tower to the surface. We piled onto the platform, and I pulled the lever, causing steam to hiss around us as we ascended. We rose higher and higher until the lift finally came to a stop at the top floor, where the map below had said the Master Arcanex was located.

We trotted into the spacious room, which contained nothing but a small control panel on the floor. Up above, a vast network of bronze arms, lenses, and crystals spanned the room. The Arcanex, according to Minotauran Inquiries; Vol. I, was a room found in every major Minotauran ruin for an unknown reason. I had never seen one in a different ruin, most likely because they were so expansive, but I had no doubt that this was the Arcanex. I would also wager that this was the largest and grandest, hence the title: Master Arcanex.

A door on the far side of the room led out to Horizon, but I had a look around before we left. The control panel was a mess of dials, buttons, and levers so complex I doubted even the Minotaurs fully understood how to use it. A small book was tucked between the lever arms, and as I opened it, I found it was filled with instructions on how to use the Arcanex. At least, that’s what I gathered from the illustrations; the instructions were in Minotauran.

Near the back of the book was a loose sheet of parchment that slipped out as I paged through. I examined it, trying to read what was written on it. Thankfully it was in Equine, but I wasn’t used to reading the scrawl of letters created by a creature that clutched its writing utensil in its hand.

Plan #8-C

SITUATION: The Northlands are not currently at a level in which conquest is viable or productive. Any attempts to seize control of the land would result in unacceptable casualties and compromises. Neither would the benefit of control be substantial enough to afford launching any attacks.

EXECUTION: The entire Minotauran Confederacy will be preserved in its current state, transported through time via the Arcanex terminals. Control of transportation will be granted to Prime Overseer of Underkeep, initiated from the Tower of Mino-zark. Prime Overseer is granted authority to determine time of transport and destination.
Note: Council recommends jump of no less than 1000 years and no more than 5000 for the optimum effect.
Immediately following transport, all members of Confederacy will need to be ready for combat, but are required to wait for confirmation from Council until making move.
Note: If Council is unresponsive for more than one (1) day, proceed with Plan #3-L to maintain tactical surprise.

ADDITIONAL NOTES: Supreme Overseer Adamantium Resolve will be present at Underkeep when Arcanex terminals are activated, but will not command transport. In the unlikely case that the Council is unable to fulfill its duties, the Supreme Overseer is granted absolute control over the Minotauran Confederacy for the duration of the campaign.

I almost didn’t believe what I had just read. It was too ridiculous to be true, but everything looked so official and legitimate, I had trouble believing it wasn’t for real. The Minotaurs had disappeared much as Alduin had, only to reappear at a later date. What date that was, this document didn’t specify, though I flipped it around searching for some indication of when the Prime Overseer had sent his race.

Suddenly the Arcanex made perfect sense. There was one in every major Minotauran city, all linked to the Master Arcanex in Underkeep. When the Prime Overseer of Underkeep had activated the Arcanex in the Tower of Mino-zark, all the other Arcanexi had followed, funneling their citys’ residents forward in time.

The Arcanexi weren’t temples, they were machines, and their purpose was to transport the Minotaurs forward in time without the use of an Equine Scroll. Unless . . . Looking up, I did indeed spot one of the gigantic scrolls contained within a crystal near the center of the array. Somehow the Minotaurs had managed to harness the Scroll’s powers and jump themselves through time.

“Amazing,” Mystic said after I’d shared my find with my friends, “When are they supposed to arrive?”

“That’s the thing,” I said, “It could be in a few minutes, it could be in a few centuries. It doesn’t really specify.”

“It sounds like they won’t be coming in peace,” Steadfast noted.

“Steadfast’s right,” Mephalda agreed, “The whole reason they jumped themselves forward in time was because they wanted to conquer a Northlands worth conquering.”

“We’ve got to warn somepony about this,” I said.

“But who?” Mystic asked.

“I don’t know,” I said, “Everypony who will listen, I guess. Everything we thought we knew about the Minotaurs is wrong. The attack could come next week or next era. We need to be prepared.”

“How do you prepare for something like this?” Steadfast asked.

I agreed. Our task seemed impossible.

Level Up
Health: 360 Stamina: 370 Magicka: 350
New Perk: Quick Swap [Light Weapons] -- The time it takes to switch between light weapons is drastically reduced.
Dragon Soul collected
New Quest: The Return of the Minotaurs -- Warn the Northlands about the impending attack from the Minotaurs.

Author's Note

Here ends Act VIII, wherein the Pegasari Dominion launched their unprovoked war on the Northlands and were turned back at every advance by Sapphire and her friends, who also infiltrated the Dominion itself to learn the locations of the last three Elements of Harmony, one of which-Generosity-was found and activated, and Sapphire discovered she had contracted vampirism and searched for a cure, eventually finding it in the depths of Underkeep along with the truth about the Minotaurs. This legend draws to a close and fights will shake the foundations of the Northlands in Act IX: To Make An End.

FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 80: City in the Clouds

Chapter LXXX: City in the Clouds
“Though other races often regard the Griffins as barbarians and even beasts, these noble warriors have an ancient culture forged from endless warfare in their harsh mountain homelands.”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve brewed one of these,” Fleethoof admitted as he carefully combined ingredients in an alchemy lab.

After discovering the frightening truth about the Minotaurs, we left the Tower of Mino-zark and found ourselves in the mountains south of Dawnstar. We returned immediately to Winterhorn and arrived around mid-morning. Fleethoof was surprised to see us again, but took the Crimson Nirnroots we’d gathered and set to work brewing the cure for my vampirism. It was a long and complicated process, and the hours dragged on as we stood in his room, watching him work.

Soon the sun set, and I could feel my vampiric urges begin to grow. It had been two days since I’d last fed, and I was so very thirsty. I wanted to leave, for fear I would end up feeding on my friends or the pony brewing up the cure for my affliction, but I also wanted to stay, so that I could drink down the potion as soon as it was finished.

“Shouldn’t be much longer now,” Fleethoof said as he added some butterfly wings to the mixture.

“I hope not,” I said, being careful now not to cut my lips on my fangs, “I think it's feeding time again.”

“Oh my,” the elderly earth pony alchemist said, taking a look at me, “Yes, we’d better hurry.”

I tried to control myself, fighting the urge to hunt, but it was growing stronger with every passing moment. Sneaking a glance at the mirror Fleethoof had in his room, I saw that my horn had already transitioned from straight and grooved to curved and smooth. It wouldn’t be much longer now.

As Fleethoof began to pour the mixture into a phial, my mind became suddenly cloudy and a haze descended across my vision. None of the ponies in this room were sleeping, or vulnerable enough to feed on. A simple paralysis spell would fix that.

As I tried to shoot the elderly earth pony in front of me, my spell suddenly went awry, the magic clinging to my horn. Nearby, a unicorn in mages robes cast a spell over my horn, holding the magic in. As I leapt for her, fangs bared, an earth pony and a pegasus grabbed my forelegs and held me back.

The elderly earth pony grabbed a hold of my head and poured vile-tasting liquid down my throat. The effect was instantaneous as my strength was suddenly sapped. The haze left my vision and my head cleared as I collapsed to the floor, the potion’s magic coursing through my veins. My horn painfully morphed back to its natural form, and my fangs retreated entirely.

Then I realized what I had nearly done. I had nearly fed on one of my friends. But, now it made no difference. My vampirism was cured. I would never feed on another pony again.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

We stayed the night in Winterhorn, while I recovered my strength, and left the next morning for Whitetrot. Faniar helpfully provided us with the location of the next Dragon Priest lair, Ragnfoald, and we set out for it at once. Ragnfoald, like Valgroom, was also located in the Karth, but it was north of Marekarth instead of east.

As we trotted through Horizon’s wilderness, I found it refreshing to finally be free of my vampirism. I hadn’t noticed it before, but the sun had seemed to make my blood boil whenever we were out in it. Now the experience was much more pleasant. We were passing through the mountains, following the route Faniar had marked for us, when we noticed a Griffin wheeling overhead.

“Malaquill’s Talons!” the Griffin exclaimed as she landed near us, “It really is you! What good fortune!”

“What are you doing out here, Nagrissa?” Steadfast asked.

“Uragbashar is under attack,” she explained, “The Pegasari are trying to seize the village. My father ordered me to fly to Grashnikh for aid, forcing me to abandon the battle, but now that I’ve found you we can return.”

“The Dominion’s attacking Uragbashar?” I asked, puzzled.

The Pegasari Dominion seemed to be intent on making enemies wherever they could. First they’d invaded Horizon, then Unicornica, and now they were picking fights with Griffin strongholds. Perhaps their failures at Winterhorn, Brumare, and Whitetrot were forcing the Pegasari leadership to take drastic measures, seizing success wherever they could. Surely the places the Griffins had built their villages would be ideal for the pegasi as well, but I could see no reason behind them launching an attack on yet another race.

“Yes,” Nagrissa answered, “We have to hurry. We Griffins are great warriors, but even a great warrior can be felled by many foes, and there are many pegasi striking the village.”

“All right,” I said, motioning for Nagrissa to lead the way to Uragbashar, “Let’s go.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Uragbashar wasn’t too far away from where we’d been when Nagrissa had found us, and we were there in no time. The battle was still raging when we arrived, pegasi swooping out of the clouds to attack the Griffins both in the air and within their stronghold. Surprisingly, there were no airships here. Perhaps the Dominion didn’t want to risk losing even more members of its already dwindling Air Fleet.

As Nagrissa and Mephalda flew up, engaging the pegasi in the air, Mystic, Steadfast, and I galloped up the twisting path that led up the cliff face to the mountain village. Before we reached the top, pegasi in the nearby air fired arrows at us. Mystic and I both sent blasts of lightning out at them, shocking them enough that they fell from the air, crashing through the trees below.

I drew Dawnbreaker as we reached the top and galloped past the Griffin dwellings. Everywhere I looked, Griffins, some in armor and some not, tore apart the Pegasari invaders, literally. The broken and maimed bodies of the pegasi lay everywhere, but more of the soldiers still landed, overpowering the Griffins with sheer might of numbers.

I galloped up behind a Pegasari soldier with a spear, catching her by surprise and slicing Dawnbreaker through her neck. A pegasus with a war axe saw his comrade fall and flapped toward me, swinging his weapon at my head. I swung Dawnbreaker up and around, blocking his blade. I drew my ebony sword as well, and slid it in under the war axe’s blade. The war axe screeched as I pulled it along Dawnbreaker and sent it flying from the pegasus’s mouth, following up with a swipe from my Draconequus sword across his face.

I charged toward another group of the pegasi, who were harassing a single Griffin, and shot flame at them. As some ran off, burning, the others wheeled around toward me, finishing off the Griffin. I shot ice spikes at the closest one as she flew toward me, and eventually managed to penetrate her armor, and then her heart.

I drew both my swords as the pegasi closed in on me. I blocked a pike with one while stopping a battleaxe with the other. I ducked under the blades, pulling my swords back, and the enemy weapons crashed to the ground. I swung Dawnbreaker swiftly through the chest of a pegasus with a sword before turning back and facing the two ponies who’d been attacking me previously.

I Shouted, and my blades flew rapidly through the air.

With Dawnbreaker, I knocked the pegasus’s pike away and stabbed her in the heart. With the Blade of Hoofingar, I struck the battleaxe, pushing to pony wielding it back. As I knocked the weapon from her grasp, she stood stunned, until I swept my ebony sword through her neck. I rapidly spun around, blocking a sword wielded by another pegasus before my Shout ran out.

As I used Dawnbreaker to block, I swung my ebony sword around at the pony’s side. She sidestepped as my blade slid past, and all I managed to do was nick her armor. She pulled her sword back, ducking down as Dawnbreaker slid over her head, and swung around toward my side.

I jumped out of the way, bringing Dawnbreaker up to block her sword again. I aimed for her neck with the Blade of Hoofingar, but she twisted out of the way, sliding her blade down my Draconequus sword. I sheathed my ebony sword and shot a blast of flame at her. As she jumped back, I jumped around my fireball and took her by surprise, swinging Dawnbreaker through her neck.

Nearby, the Griffin Chieftain was holding off six pegasi with a warhammer, and there were many more bodies strewn around him. But, he was beginning to take some serious damage, his armor broken in places, and a cut on his forehead leaking blood into his eyes. I ran in to help him before he was overcome by the Pegasari soldiers that converged on him.

<<>> I Shouted, freezing the pegasi closest to me.

I swung Dawnbreaker around, cutting through the ice and destroying the ponies within. I shot fire at another of the pegasi, incinerating her as I pressed forward with the flames. I used Dawnbreaker to block as another dropped from the sky, swinging a mace at me. Lightning lanced up at her as I cast it from my horn, and the pegasus dropped from the sky, dying as I impaled her with my Draconequus sword.

The Griffin Chieftain managed to kill the last two pegasi that were attacking him, and I tossed him a healing potion to repair himself before the pegasi attacked again. He grunted a thanks and downed it before once again picking up his warhammer in his claws and flapping toward more of the Pegasari invaders.

<<>> I Shouted upwards, and the clouds obeyed my Voice, rolling away to reveal the remaining pegasi over the stronghold.

Some were caught off guard by the sudden disappearance of the clouds beneath their hooves, and fell before catching themselves with their wings. The others were already in the air, preparing to dive through the clouds that no longer existed. The remaining pegasi involved in the attack were now exposed, and all jetted down at the stronghold at once.

I shot lightning up at them, causing the bolts to branch between them, knocking them out of the sky. But, my lightning could only do so much, and soon the Pegasari soldiers began to land among the Griffins. As one landed near me, I swiped at her with my Draconequus sword, only to have it blocked by a pike. I shot fire at the Pegasari soldier, roasting her within her armor.

Fire suddenly licked at my tail, and I jumped away from the flames, putting out the blaze. A Pegasari wizard flew nearby, a staff grasped in his mouth. With it, she was sending fire down upon the Griffins and at me. I shot ice spikes up at her, but she nimbly dodged out of the way.

<> I Shouted, and the staff flew from her mouth, falling to the ground.

We both raced for it, but she reached it first and shot a blast of fire at me that forced me to keep my distance. I ran among the Griffins and Pegasari soldiers, swinging my Draconequus sword through the enemies when I wasn’t busy dodging the blasts of flame. At last I was able to pool my thoughts for a Shout again, just as I found a path through the fray to the wizard.

<<>> I Shouted, closing the distance with the pegasus before she could react and send a blast of flame my way.

I swung Dawnbreaker around as I reached her, aiming for her head. She held up her staff to block, and my sword struck it. It was made of tougher stuff, however, and the staff wasn’t even harmed by my blade from the Beyond. As she tried to force me back, she sent flame spewing from the tip of the staff, keeping any nearby Griffins from coming to my aid.

I applied all my strength to pushing the pegasus back instead, pushing forward with Dawnbreaker. I strode toward her as well, coming closer to where my sword was levitating, until I could have grasped it in my mouth. I struck out at her with my forehooves, but she countered, using her own armored hooves to defend herself.

<> I Shouted, and my dragon breath swept over the pegasus, incinerating her completely.

The tables were now turned on the pegasi. Before, they had outnumbered the Griffins, but now it was a fairly even match. The Griffins tore through their ranks, destroying the pegasi. When they saw the battle was lost, many tried to retreat back through the cloud cover, but some of the Griffins pursued, hunting down their attackers.

“Halt!” the Chieftain ordered when more of Uragbashar’s warriors made to take off as well, “They know they are defeated. Let us not lose any more warriors today in a foolish mission of vengeance.”

“But we must be avenged,” Nagrissa protested, who was among the Griffins who had been about to pursue.

“And we shall be,” the Chieftain said, “But at the right time, in the right way. We’ll need to call a meeting of the Chieftains to discuss this attack.”

The Griffins that had chased the pegasi back through the hole in the clouds suddenly came streaking back through the cloud cover. Could it have been a trick? Were there more pegasi hiding above the clouds? It turned out it was something much worse.

“Dragon!” one of the Griffins yelled in warning moments before the massive lizard fell through the clouds.

It flew over the Griffin stronghold, hunger burning in its eyes as it viewed the worn out and injured Griffins. It opened its maw and sent a blast of flames over the village, lighting the huts on fire. Some Griffins tried to attack it in the air, but it batted them away or snapped them up in its jaws.

<<>> I Shouted as it wheeled back toward us.

The dragon was suddenly struck by the feeling of mortality, and it fell from the sky, crashing into the outskirts of the village. The Griffins took off toward it and I followed, meeting up with Steadfast, Mystic, and Mephalda as I did so. I drew Dawnbreaker as we approached where the great lizard had fallen.

It breathed fire and I ducked down to the ground, allowing the flames to pass over my head. Many of the Griffins, who were in the air, were not as fortunate, and were caught in the flames. As the flames died down, I galloped toward the dragon, angling myself so that I would meet its wing.

<> I Shouted as I reached its wing, and I burned a hole in the membrane, grounding the beast for good.

It roared in rage and twisted its neck around toward me. I galloped away, but wasn’t fast enough, and the dragon was able to pick me up in its mouth. As it swung me around, it tried to clamp its teeth down on me. Fortunately, my Twilight Armor protected me, and the only injuries I received were bad bruises from the crystalline plates slamming against my flesh.

<<>> I Shouted as the dragon sent fire up its throat.

I took on my ethereal form, and the fire passed through me harmlessly. I leapt from the dragon’s mouth, falling slowly through the air until I reached the ground. I ran beneath the great lizard and hid while it searched for me until my body returned to its natural state.

I drew Dawnbreaker and the Blade of Hoofingar and stabbed up into the dragon’s flesh, taking advantage of the weak spots the Griffins had given me with their earlier attack. The dragon roared with pain as I pierced its vulnerable flesh, and it craned its neck around to roast me. I jumped out of the way as the flames came at me, and the dragon ended up roasting its own flesh.

I ran under the dragon’s good wing, assisting the Griffins as they also hacked away at its scales with their weapons. The Griffins scattered as the dragon breathed fire at us, and I jumped onto its back. The great lizard was about to breathe fire at me again, but swung its head around rapidly as Steadfast struck its claw with his warhammer.

As he ran away, the dragon followed him with flame, moving its head in a predictable pattern. This gave Mephalda the perfect chance to shoot arrows into its eyes, blinding it. The dragon was enraged and spewed fire in all directions, nearly burning me as I crept up its back.

I was nearly at its neck when it rolled over, and I galloped along the side of its rotating body, trying not to be crushed. I ended up standing on its armored underbelly and drove my swords through the flesh. The dragon swiftly twisted its head around and opened its mouth, preparing to breathe fire at me.

The Griffin Chieftain swooped out of the air and struck it on the nose before it could, his warhammer cracking the bone. It snapped at him, but he flew out of the way, landing another shot on its injured eye. Mystic shot ice at the dragon, coating the top of its head, and the Chieftain used his warhammer to shatter it, his weapon impacting the top of the beast’s skull.

I charged forward and stabbed Dawnbreaker through the dragon’s neck. Many Griffins followed their leader and lent their own blades to strike the dragon’s head. The great lizard thrashed around as it was attacked, but soon fell as the Griffins overwhelmed it, and its head fell to the ground as it died.

As the Griffins reveled in their victory, the dragon began to combust. Soon I had the memories of yet another dragon pressing on my own, threatening to overwhelm me. My life was hard to remember now, as it seemed I had lived several lives, all just as real to my mind. But, that was apparently the price that had to be paid in order to become a master of the Voice.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

The frigid wind whistled past as I clung to my Griffin mount. We’d travelled long and far, over the Karth mountains, and now over the blistering deserts of Darkpass. Our destination was a place I’d never thought I’d see in my lifetime.

After the battle with the dragon, the Griffins had begun to repair the damage done to their home. We were welcome to stay the night in Uragbashar. The next morning, the Chieftain requested that we stay for the meeting of the Griffin leaders in Horizon. After all, the last one I’d attended had ended quite favorably.

The Griffins’ opinions were all over the board on what to do next, but they all agreed on one thing. By attacking Uragbashar, the Pegasari Dominion had declared war on all of them. But, even united, the Griffin strongholds of Horizon were no match for the Dominion. They would need help from elsewhere.

The Chieftains decided that the entire Griffin race had to be united if this war against the pegasi was to be won. In order to do that, a delegation of six Griffins, one from each tribe, would be sent to speak to the Griffin capital. Surprisingly, they requested that the four of us accompany them and speak to the Griffins’ leader, hoping that an outside voice could persuade him to take decisive action against the pegasi.

The clouds began to roll back around us as we neared Griffinium. Posted within the thunderheads were Griffin sentries sworn to protect the Griffins’ capital from invaders. At last, the city came into view, and it took my breath away.

It looked as if a mountain had been torn from the earth and was now suspended in the sky. It hadn’t been a clean tear, either; the mountain slowly tapered away to a point below the surface. Clouds clung to the stone here, keeping the city afloat.

On top was a short mountain with enough peaks to keep its Griffin residents happy. Stone buildings covered the mountain’s surface, rearing up as a monument to the Griffin spirit. Large statues of Griffin leaders and heroes towered over us as we reached the city.

Steadfast, Mystic, and I dismounted as the Griffins settled down within a square near Griffinium’s outskirts. Finely dressed Griffins gave us bizarre looks as they walked past us, but they continued about their business and did their best to ignore our presence. The Griffins we had flown in on waited in the square until a few guards showed up.

“What is the meaning of this?” one of the guards asked, a young Griffin in officer’s armor.

“We are emissaries from the Horizon Strongholds, come to plead our case before the King,” Nagrissa answered.

“Not that,” the Griffin officer said, “I mean what are these ponies doing here?”

“Who the Chieftains choose to send as their representatives does not concern you,” Nagrissa replied, “Whether they have talons or hooves, they do represent the will of the Chieftains.”

“Outsiders are forbidden from entering Griffinium,” the officer said sternly, “I’ll have to take you to my superior officer.”

“Very well,” Nagrissa said, “That would be the royal court, yes? We were going there anyway. Thanks for the escort.”

The officer grumbled, but went along with us, leading the way and clearing a path through the city. We passed towering statues of Griffins, reminding them of their history, as we travelled up the mountain to the huge palace built at the top. A huge staircase of weathered stone led up to the entryway, which was open to the air, separated only by massive columns.

The Royal Court was filled with Griffins, each representing a clan or royal house, talking to each other. At the far end of the room were seven chairs, though only one was occupied at the moment, a towering throne reserved for the king. Our guide led us through the madness to a Griffin whose feathers were beginning to whiten with age dressed in a uniform covered with medals.

“General Orak Blooded-Beak,” the officer addressed his superior, “I have an urgent matter that needs tending to.”

“What could be so urgent that it requires interrupting me when-” the General began to ask as he turned, but stopped when he saw us, “So, this is the problem.”

The General evidently had his position for a reason. It looked like he’d been in many conflicts, which he proudly bore the scars of. Claw marks showed across his face, and one of his claws had been chopped off, replaced by a mechanical equivalent. His wing-feathers were also out of order, sagging slightly and proving that the bones underneath hadn’t quite healed correctly.

“We are emissaries from the Horizon Strongholds,” Nagrissa introduced herself and her companions.

“I see that,” the General said grouchily, “But what are these ponies doing here?”

“They are also with us,” Nagrissa said, “The Chieftains wished for them to come along, and sent them as representatives as well.”

“Do you know what the law is concerning non-Griffin trespassers in Griffinium?” Orak asked, “We throw them off the edge of the city, after clipping the wings of any who can fly.”

I was suddenly very afraid that the General would do just that, personally.

“But, if they were sent as delegates of the Chieftains, we can’t do that,” Orak Blooded-Beak said at last, “Conduct your business here and leave as soon as possible.”

“Thank you General,” Nagrissa said, smirking at the officer who’d brought us here as we walked away.

Apparently the Griffin King held an open court, and Nagrissa walked right up to his throne. There were no guards to protect their sovereign, at least none that could easily be seen. The King leaned forward as we approached, letting the Horizon Griffins know he was ready to hear what they had to say.

“King Grimwarikh the Mighty,” Nagrissa addressed her leader, giving a bow, “May your hatchlings be plentiful and may you never be found wanting for a perch.”

“Proceed,” the King said after Nagrissa had said the proper greeting a Griffin used when addressing royalty.

“Two days ago, one of our strongholds was attacked by soldiers of the Pegasari Dominion,” Nagrissa explained, “The Chieftains of Horizon have already agreed that an attack like this can only mean more will come in the future, and intend to wage war on the Pegasari Dominion wherever possible. We ask Griffinium’s help in this endeavor, and the support of all Griffins.”

“And why,” the King asked, “Should I risk my city in order to protect a few clans that have long refused to integrate into our new society here?”

“Because we are Griffins, just like you,” Nagrissa said, “Are you or are you not King of All Griffins as your title proclaims?”

“I am, but I would not risk the safety of the many to save the few.”

“The Pegasari Dominion won’t stop with taking the Strongholds,” I spoke up, “You’ll be next.”

“Who has allowed ponies to enter my court?” the King asked, “Where is General Orak?”

“They are also emissaries from the Chieftains of Horizon,” Nagrissa explained for the third time that day.

“The Dominion intends to conquer all of the Northlands,” I continued when I saw I had the King’s ear, “They are already at war with Horizon and Unicornica. Then they will come after Darkpass, Morrowhinny, Bracken-swamp, and Griffinium. They will take over everything if nothing is done to stop them.”

“All the more reason we should stay out of this conflict,” the King said.

“What Griffin has ever run from a fight?” Nagrissa challenged, “What kind of Griffin King would turn his back on his subjects to keep himself safe?”

“Careful fledgling,” the King warned, “You’re walking on mighty thin clouds.”

“All your might, all your strength,” she continued anyway, “And when it is needed you refuse to use it. The Griffins were once a proud people, but now nothing is left of our heritage but a kingdom that hides in the clouds.”

“The Dominion will come for you,” I stressed, “Do you want to stand alone when their Air Fleet is at your doorstep?”

“So you suggest we join the Empire, then, eh unicorn?” King Grimwarikh challenged me, “We spent centuries fighting for the right to be a full province, to stand alongside the other races of Horizon, and what has it gotten us? Nothing but trials and tribulations! We gave up on that corrupt nation long ago.”

“I don’t suggest you join the Empire at all,” I said.

“Then you think we should join Horizon?” the King asked, “The earth ponies shun our kind and treat us horribly, so I have heard from the very beaks standing before me today asking for aid.”

“I don’t suggest you join Horizon either,” I said, and continued before he could cut me off again, “I suggest that you stand alongside both Unicornica and Horizon in this war, as allies only so far as that you have a common enemy.”

“The Griffins are a proud race,” I continued while the King still looked thoughtful, “But you’ve long been looked down upon by the other races as barbarians that hide in the wilderness and plunder innocents. Prove that that is not the case. Prove to the world that the Griffins are strong and noble.”

“Very well, unicorn,” the King said, “It seems you have swayed my decision. How can I argue with that? You may tell your Chieftains that Griffinium will come. From this day forth, the Griffin race is at war with the Pegasari Dominion.”

I breathed a sigh of relief as the King made his decision. I didn’t know if the choice I’d made was very poor or very wise. I’d brought yet another side into the war that currently ravaged the Northlands, hoping that it would end the war more swiftly. But, truth be told, I didn’t know if bringing in more combatants would help or hurt in the long run. At least, if the Minotaurs returned, there’d be another race present to fight them.

Level Up
Health: 370 Stamina: 370 Magicka: 350
New Perk: Winter Wizard [Destruction] -- All ice related Destruction spells now cost half as much to cast.
Dragon Soul collected
New Quest: Elemental Extraction -- Enter the remaining two Dragon Priest lairs and find the remaining two Elements of Harmony.

Chapter 81: An Eye Gone Awry

Chapter LXXXI: An Eye Gone Awry
“As you may have learned, this object . . . The Eye . . . is immensely powerful. This world is not ready for it.”

After our audience with the King, the Griffins returned us to Seclusion, where we’d be able to sleep the remainder of the night. Rising in the mid-morning, we prepared to set out for our original destination three days earlier, Ragnfoald. But, as we were getting ready to leave the city, a courier rushed up to us.

“Important message from the College of Winterhorn,” she said, retrieving a letter from her saddlebags and passing it to Mystic.

“I don’t believe it,” she said before passing it over to me.

“What is it?” Steadfast asked, trying to peek over my shoulder.

“Clairvoyance is going to activate the Eye of Magnus,” I answered.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

We galloped to Winterhorn as fast as we could. The last time the Eye of Magnus had felt Clairvoyance’s magic, it had nearly destroyed Winterhorn. We couldn’t let him do the same thing again. Some tricky negotiating had saved the College last time. This time the citizens of Winterhorn wouldn’t be so forgiving.

I knew something was wrong the moment the College of Winterhorn came within sight. No longer was the shield that had protected the College from the Pegasari Air Fleet up. I should have taken that as a good sign, since the Eye wasn’t active at the moment, but to me all it said was that somepony had been fiddling with it. A pony who didn’t know what he was doing.

The ground suddenly shook as we approached the College, and a great crack sounded through the air. I was thrown from my hooves as the earth shook beneath me, agitated by a massive source of magic. Bolts of lightning the same color as the Eye of Magnus’s magic shot up into the air, connecting with the cloud layer above.

An orb of light began to expand outward from the College’s center, much as it had before, but this time damage was done to the massive structure. Towers already weakened from battle collapsed as the wave of magic passed through them. Jagged bolts of lightning jetted out from the orb’s edge, clinging to the nearby cliffs and lighting any nearby trees on fire.

Whatever Clairvoyance had just done, I was sure he had not meant for it to happen. The ponies of Winterhorn had heard and felt the commotion going on outside their dwellings and emerged to gawk at the spectacle before their eyes. Hushed words began to pass between them in a worried tone, wondering if it had been the right decision to allow the College to remain.

We hurriedly headed toward the College’s gates. Hopefully we would be able to reach the Eye and stop Clairvoyance. However, Quicksilver was not at her post at the gate. She was standing outside the shield, looking in at the glowing figures of two ponies that looked as if they had been crudely sculpted from pure magic.

“Oh, thank the Equines you’re here,” Quicksilver said as she saw us approach, “Maybe you can help with this. Whatever Clairvoyance is doing with the Eye, it’s forced me out, and now these things are keeping me from entering.”

“What are they anyway?” Mephalda asked.

“They appear to be some kind of atronach,” Mystic said, “But composed of pure magic instead of an element or material.”

“Well, in all my days of studying Conjuration, I’ve never seen an atronach like this,” Quicksilver said.

“All right then,” I said, trotting up to the glowing ponies, “Let’s see if we can get some answers.”

“Hello?” I said, “Can you speak?”

The two guardians stood still and silent. I realized that they had no distinguishable features on their face, such as eyes or a mouth, but I suspected there was still some way they could communicate.

“What are you?” I asked, and they moved, turning their heads slowly toward each other.

Still, they didn’t speak to me or answer my question. I decided to try a different approach.

“What is this thing, and what does it have to do with the Eye of Magnus?” I asked, pressing a hoof against the magical surface.

As my hoof touched it, the magical constructs immediately pointed lances made of magic at me. As I withdrew my hoof, their lances disappeared, melting back into their bodies.

“All right,” I said, drawing back my hoof, “Who are you?”

With seemingly great concentration, the two magical constructs both formed a mouth on their muzzles.

“We are the guardians of our Lord Magnus,” they replied in unison, the same eerily echoing voice coming from both mouths.

“Okay,” I said, more than a little bit creeped out by what was going on in front of me, “So, you guard the Eye of Magnus?”

“That is correct,” the guardians replied, “The artifact you know as the Eye of Magnus is under our protection. One of your kind has attempted to defile it.”

“Clairvoyance wasn’t going to defile it,” Quicksilver cut in, and the elementals’ eyeless heads rapidly snapped to face her, “He merely wanted to harness its power.”

“The Eye cannot be harnessed,” the elementals said, “It is far beyond your power. The hornless ones came first and thought they too could use the Eye’s power. But they were mistaken. We were kind to them, granting them small favors, a taste of but the smallest sliver of power the Eye contained, and they reveled in it. They wasted the gifts we bestowed upon them, and so we held back our blessings. We thought that by hiding the Eye, we could keep it safe.”

“But now we see that the Eye will never be safe, not so long as your kind roams this realm. You thought to take the Eye’s power, but now it shall take yours. We will grow in power until nothing can stop our advance. This world will be purged of your kind’s greed forever. That is the final word of the Guardians of Magnus.”

The mouths disappeared from the faces of the Guardians, and the shield began to crackle menacingly, sending lightning bolts striking near us. We retreated from the deadly strikes, keeping our distance from the shield.

“Now what?” Steadfast asked.

“The Eye of Magnus and whatever weird magical guardians it’s conjured up are plotting to wipe out ponykind,” Quicksilver said, “We can’t just let that happen.”

“Right,” I said, “But we can’t just walk up the bridge to the Eye and destroy it either, not with those guardians there.”

“Destroy the Eye?” Quicksilver asked incredulously.

“It’s the only way to stop this from happening again,” I said, “The ancient earth ponies sealed it deep underground and surrounded it with undead warriors. That didn’t keep Clairvoyance from digging it up and poking around where he shouldn’t have. The only way to make sure nopony makes that mistake again is to destroy the Eye.”

“But, the Eye of Magnus could be the source of all magic,” Quicksilver protested.

That stopped me. Could I do without my magic? Could I walk around like an earth pony with a horn? What would the loss of all magic do to the world, when every unicorn wouldn’t even know how to turn a doorknob?

“We have to hope that’s not true,” I said, “It doesn’t matter if we don’t have magic if we’re all dead. Dead is what we’re going to be if the Eye isn’t destroyed. Permanently.”

“So, how do we get in then?” Quicksilver grumbled, conceding my point.

“Well, the shield is solid, so we can’t just walk through,” I said.

“But a spell could possibly open a hole in the shield,” Mystic suggested.

“These Guardians aren’t going to just stand idly by while we burn a hole through the shield,” Quicksilver said, “The Eye of Magnus is going to know what’s going on the moment we start probing the shield with magic.”

“Could we teleport in?” I asked.

“It’s no good,” Quicksilver said, “I tried earlier, and the shield just threw me back out.”

“Is there another way to enter the College?” I asked, thinking, “Somewhere the Guardians wouldn’t be posted, and we could burn through?”

“Actually, yes,” Quicksilver replied, perking up, “There’s a system of storage tunnels running beneath the College that we could enter through.”

“Well then, let’s get down there and see what we can do,” I said.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Getting to the storage tunnels was easier said than done. They’d been built beneath the College back when Winterhorn had been a much larger city, and had apparently branched beneath a substantial portion of it. If I had to guess, I’d say they were used for much more than storage.

Or course, the reason they were now accessible from outside the College was because of the Great Collapse. The actual storage tunnels were clustered directly beneath the College, and were intact, but tunnels that had once branched out through the city were now exposed. Many had caved in, but Quicksilver knew of one that hadn’t.

In order to reach the tunnel’s entrance, we had to carefully descend the cliffs to reach the icy sea below, and then ascend the column of stone the College was perched upon. The entrance was a hole in the sheer cliff face, and we couldn’t reach it no matter how hard we tried. Mephalda flew us across one by one in the end, until we were in the bowels of the College.

The magical shield projected by the Eye didn’t extend quite this far, but it wasn’t long before we encountered its shimmering surface. Quicksilver and Mystic set to work casting spells on it to see what would nullify the magic. After a few tries, the Eye realized what was going on, and the two mages had to set up wards over themselves to keep from being fried by the blasts of lightning that jumped from the shield’s surface. The rest of us retreated to a safe distance.

“We’ve got it!” Mystic exclaimed at last, and we scampered over to see where she’d fried a hole in the shield, “Quickly, get through!”

The five of us jumped through the hole that had opened, entering the College. As Mystic jumped through, her hole closed up. Lightning fired off at the tunnel outside, caving it in, but none struck within. Apparently the Eye didn’t yet know we’d breached its defenses.

But, it knew something was going on, and it had dispatched some of its magical Guardians to search the storage tunnels. As one turned a corner and spotted us, Mephalda loosed an arrow from her bow. The shaft struck the elemental creature in its forehead, and it dissolved into glowing dust. Mephalda looked just as surprised as everypony else that the Guardian was dead.

“How did that work?” Steadfast voiced the question all of us were thinking.

“To create a projection like that,” Mystic thought aloud, “They must be very unstable. And in order for them to act like the ponies they’re modeled after, they must have pony weaknesses as well.”

“Well, at least we know they can be killed now,” I said, drawing Dawnbreaker in case any more of them showed up.

It didn’t take long until we ran into more, a group of them this time. The Guardians seemed to exhibit some kind of hive-mind, and it appeared that what one knew, all knew. Hence, they knew we were within the College now, and they knew exactly where we were.

The Guardians projected weapons from their bodies, and they shifted into actual weapons summoned from some realm beyond even the Beyond. I held up Dawnbreaker as one of them brought a battleaxe down at me. I pushed back, forcing the weapon away from me.

I was caught off guard as the Guardian’s weapon suddenly popped out of existence and then back in near my head. I ducked down as the blade swung through where my neck had been. I swung my Draconequus sword toward the Guardian’s neck, and it blocked with its battleaxe, before causing its weapon to reappear behind me. I already had the Blade of Hoofingar ready, and blocked the elemental’s weapon with it, using Dawnbreaker to slice through its neck. The battleaxe turned to ash just like its wielder.

Quicksilver and Mystic were having a difficult time. Since the Guardians were made of magic themselves, spells had little effect on them. All except for the spell Mystic had used to break through the shield. Once she began to use it, she had a much better job, burning holes through the Guardians with blasts from her horn.

<<>> I Shouted as fresh Guardians emerged from other passageways to join the fight.

They went flying through the air and slammed into the College’s stone walls, shattering into ash. One of the Guardians from before saw me use my Shout and galloped toward me. I thought I was ready to face it, until it suddenly lit itself on fire, becoming a fire elemental instead of pure magic.

Dawnbreaker met the flaming sword wielded by the Guardian, and flames licked down my blade. I pressed back with my sword, hoping to buy myself some time. The Guardian pointed a hoof at me, and I jumped to the side as its hoof suddenly sent out a jet of flame.

<<>> I Shouted, and my frost breath extinguished the Guardian.

Steadfast slammed one of the elementals against the wall, reducing it to ash, and the battle was over for the moment. But, it was sure to resume soon. After all, every Guardian in the College knew exactly where we were.

“Which way to the surface?” I asked Quicksilver, and she led the way.

We galloped through the hallways, passing by crates of goodness knows what stored away by the College. Some more Guardians appeared, sinking through the ceiling, as we neared the stairs to the surface.

Mystic blasted a hole through the chest of one with her magic, and the rest converged on her. Mephalda fired arrows at the elementals as they approached, but it wasn’t enough. They began to chip away at Mystic’s ward, and Steadfast and I galloped in to help.

As I swung Dawnbreaker through yet another Guardian, cutting it in half, some of them began to abandon Mystic and turn on me. I drew my Changeling war axe as three of them came toward me at once. With Dawnbreaker, I blocked a mace that suddenly grew into a warhammer. I spun my blade around, knocking the Guardian’s weapon to the ground, before swinging my Draconequus sword through its neck.

My war axe met a sword, and I pushed it back. The Guardian fought me for dominance though, and pressed back toward me. As I spun my war axe away, the creature teleported its weapon closer to me. I brought my axe down swiftly, catching the otherworldly blade and spinning it around into its wielder’s neck.

The remaining Guardian took on the appearance of ice. I swung Dawnbreaker around at it, but it blocked with an icy blade. We moved back and forth, swinging and countering, unable to best each other. The Guardian eventually managed to knock my sword aside long enough that it was able to jab its blade in toward my exposed neck.

<> I Shouted, and the elemental and its blade melted.

I jumped over the pool of water and swung my sword around at another of the Guardians. Its sword jumped across space to block my own. I slid my blade along its edge, twisting it around before pulling free. I jumped back as the sword swung past me and swung my own weapon in. The Guardian was unable to pull its blade up in time, and my Draconequus sword cut right through its body, separating its head and shoulder from its torso.

Mephalda landed and began to hack away at the creatures with her Blackwing blades. As the last put up a fight, blocking her strikes with two swords of its own, I came in from behind, stabbing it in the back with Dawnbreaker. Mephalda pushed its weapons away and swung her swords around, cutting the creature’s head off.

Before more of the Guardians could show up, we headed up the stairs, entering the dormitories. Mystic and Quicksilver blasted away with their magic as a horde of Guardians charged down the hall. Mephalda began to let arrows fly from her bow as they drew closer to us.

I jumped to the side, landing on a bed, as one of the creatures swung a battleaxe at me. I swung Dawnbreaker around, blocking its next strike, and magic coursed down my blade, weakening my grip on it. I pulled my sword back, allowing the battleaxe to strike the bed.

I jumped from the bed as it ignited from the spread of pure magic, and rolled to the side. I ducked as the Guardian swung its battleaxe over my head, smashing a dresser. Dawnbreaker swung through the air, chopping the elemental’s hooves off. I jumped back as magic spilled across the floor from the wounds.

The Guardian swung its weapon back around at me, and I jumped to the side again. The next time the battleaxe swung at me, I pulled out my Changeling war axe and hooked it under my enemy’s blade, holding it in place. Dawnbreaker shot forward, impaling the Guardian and causing it to disintegrate into ash.

I Shouted before charging back into the fray.

Time slowed down for everypony but me, and I galloped through the attacking elementals, spearing and slashing them with my Draconequus sword. As time returned to normal, a path appeared behind me, covered in the ashes of fallen Guardians. I spun in a circle, Dawnbreaker out, and managed to kill one more before they converged on me.

The Guardians nearby began their attack, swinging everything they could at me. I wasn’t able to fight them off, but I was at least able to keep them at a distance. I couldn’t let them touch me for fear of what that pure magic would do to my flesh. Holes began to appear in their chests and faceless heads as Mystic and Quicksilver fought their way toward me.

I swung Dawnbreaker around on the offensive, knocking a Guardian’s war axe to the side. I followed up with a stab to the chest, and then spun around to block a sword swung at me. I drew my Draconequus sword down the blade, and jumped to the side as the enemy sword swung past me.

As the elemental swung its sword down at my head, I brought Dawnbreaker up to block. Slowly it forced the blade down toward my head, and lightning began to shoot from the weapon’s tip. I ducked down to buy more time and drew the Blade of Hoofingar, stabbing it toward the Guardian’s chest.

It abandoned Dawnbreaker and stopped my ebony sword, knocking it to the side. Lightning still spewed from its weapon’s tip, and I jumped in the air to avoid being shocked by the line of lightning that passed where my legs had been a moment earlier. I swapped my ebony sword for my Changeling war axe and swung it around, catching the elemental’s blade. As I held it in place, I stabbed Dawnbreaker into the Guardian’s chest, reducing it to a pile of ashes.

Another Guardian came at me from behind, but Steadfast knocked it away with his warhammer. As it fell to the ground, he spun his weapon around and impaled it with the point on the opposite side of the hammer’s head. Another Guardian galloped down the hall, but Quicksilver burned it in half with the spell Mystic had discovered.

We galloped toward where the Guardian’s had come from, nearing the Eye. As we passed the stairs to the Arch-Mage’s quarters, we came in sight of the doors to the main hall, where the Eye was housed. I stopped as I heard blasts of magic and pony screams coming from above.

“There’s somepony up there,” I said, looking up the stairway.

“We’re so close to the Eye,” Quicksilver said, “We can’t turn back now.”

“But we can’t just leave them to die,” Mephalda protested.

“Fine,” Quicksilver replied, heading for the stairs, “But let’s do this as quickly as possible.”

We galloped up the stairs as fast as we could, and soon some of the Guardians came in sight. They were already facing us, no doubt aware that their fellows had died and that we’d be nearing them soon. As Mephalda shot an arrow at one, it swung its weapon through the air swiftly, deflecting it.

The Guardians were becoming more powerful. It seemed that before, the Eye had needed to divide its energy through the numerous projections. Now that there were far less of them, more energy could be devoted to each of them. The Guardians here seemed more stable, and they were far more proficient with their weapons.

I swung Dawnbreaker around at one wielding a warhammer, and it blocked, shoving me back down the stairs. It stomped toward me, crackling with energy, and swung the warhammer around, striking the stairs and cracking the stone. Steadfast swung his Changeling warhammer across the elemental’s back, and it collapsed.

But, it was back up swiftly, swinging its warhammer at Steadfast, who dodged the weapon. It sent magic lancing out at him, forcing him to retreat up the stairs toward more of the elemental creatures.

It came back down toward me as Steadfast fled and swung its weapon around at my head, smashing the banister. I brought Dawnbreaker up to block as it swung down at me again. Magical energy left the blade as it struck my sword, and I began to lose control of my weapon.

The Guardian drew back, preparing for another swing. As its warhammer soared through the air, it was hit by a blast of Mystic’s magic. The weapon wasn’t really real, and her spell burned the end off of it, turning it into a worthless stick. I jumped forward as the stick struck the stairs next to me, and drove Dawnbreaker through the elemental’s chest.

Quicksilver blasted away at the Guardians that were attacking Steadfast, and we regrouped. Mystic and Quicksilver sent blasts of magic forward continuously as we climbed the stairs. Mephalda flew above them, firing arrows instead of spells. Steadfast and I trotted up in front of them, disabling any Guardians lucky enough to make it through their magical barrage.

At last we reached the top and the door to the Arch-Mage’s quarters. The door was scorched and was hanging partway off its hinges, but it was still there. The sound of magic blasts was coming from the room, but stopped as we pushed open the door the rest of the way.

Within were several mages from the College. Ash piles lay everywhere, proving that they’d been doing far more than just hiding while the attack was going on. A red unicorn stallion trotted toward us while the rest tended the magical burns they’d sustained during the fight.

“Blaze, what happened in here?” Quicksilver asked as he approached.

“Clairvoyance happened,” he said angrily, grinding his teeth, “He thought he could control the Eye of Magnus, but now it’s controlling him. I was there when he tried to activate it. I warned him not to do it, but he wouldn’t listen.”

“Luckily I anticipated something would go wrong, and I ordered the students to hide themselves and put up wards in the more secure rooms. Hopefully they’re still alive. We barely made it out of the great hall in our haste to reach here. Many unicorns died; many more are now controlled by that thing Clairvoyance brought to our College. He’ll pay for what he’s done, I swear to you.”

“We can worry about the Arch-Mage later,” Quicksilver said, “Right now we’ve got to destroy the Eye of Magnus, before its power spreads. All of the Northlands will fall if we allow that.”

“Quite,” Blaze replied, “Just give us a moment and we’ll be ready.”

Once the mages around us finished tending to their wounds, we headed back down the stairs. Blaze and Quicksilver led the way through the doors to the College’s main hall. And, by led the way, I mean they blasted through the magically protected doors.

The Eye of Magnus hovered right where it had been the last time we’d been here, glowing brighter than I’d ever seen. The lifeless bodies of unicorns and a few curious refugees lay scattered around the room. Lightning bolts arced from time to time between the Eye and magically protected walls.

Clairvoyance floated in the air near the Eye, a band of magical lightning connecting him to it. His body was motionless, and he seemed to have no life in him whatsoever. His eyes suddenly snapped open, and light spilled from them as we approached.

“Come no closer, or you shall meet your end,” he said, though it seemed more like he was being used as a puppet by the Eye than actually speaking to us.

“Inquisitive and troublesome creatures,” he continued, the Eye speaking through him, “You must realize that you’ve accomplished nothing by coming here.”

“We killed your Guardians, and now we’ll destroy you!” Blaze challenged the Eye, “You’re defenseless!”

“Hardly. My power cannot be extinguished, nor can it wane. It can only grow! I will take your magic as my own, and then I will spread, until all the world is under my control. As for destroying me, you wouldn’t dare even attempt such a thing. I have your leader under my complete control, and he shall die if I am harmed.”

In response, Blaze sent a blast of magic at the Eye. It greedily began to suck it up, pulling the magic in and growing more powerful. But, something was distinctly wrong about Blaze’s magic. As the Eye soaked it up, its pulses of light became more erratic. Whatever the Destruction professor was doing, it was working.

He called for help as the Eye sucked greedily at him, trying to pull him in like Clairvoyance. The other mages lent a hoof, copying Blaze’s dark spell. The Eye continued to draw in the magical energy until it realized something was wrong. Dark spurts of magic flew from it, blocking out the light. Still, it was stuck pulling the magic in and couldn’t stop. The Eye spun erratically, its plates grinding against each other.

“Now!” Blaze shouted, “Somepony hit it while it’s vulnerable!”

I obliged, drawing Dawnbreaker and charging toward the shaking metal globe. I struck it with my Draconequus sword, sheering through the strange metal. Plates went flying as I galloped away, and the Eye exploded in a shower of magic. The whole College shook as the magical energy was released, and all the mages were knocked off their hooves. The pieces of the Eye disintegrated completely, leaving no trace of their existence.

“It’s a shame Clairvoyance had to die,” Quicksilver said as she looked at his lifeless body, “He wasn’t a bad Arch-Mage, just misdirected.”

“He was probably dead before we even got here,” Blaze said, joining his colleague, “The Eye was draining everypony here of magic, and he had more to give than most.”

“Who will be Arch-Mage now?” I asked.

“Well, he never named a successor,” Mystic said, “Any of the head professors could take his place.”

“There are only two of us left,” Blaze said, “Only Quicksilver and I. You can have the position. I don’t want it.”

“Oh no,” Quicksilver said, “There’s no way I’m letting you give me the Arch-Mage position, much as I’d like it. You were the one who said all along that Clairvoyance shouldn’t mess with powers beyond his control, and you were the one who got most of the College to safety before the disaster struck. I think what we need most right now is an Arch-Mage who knows his limits. And the fact that you don’t even want the position means you’re even more fitting for the job.”

“Fine,” Blaze replied, “I accept. I will be the College of Winterhorn’s new Arch-Mage. Let’s get to work cleaning up this mess.”

Level Up
Health: 370 Stamina: 370 Magicka: 360
New Perk: Unbreakable [Lockpick] -- No matter how difficult the lock, you will be able to save your lockpicks, and they will never break.
New Quest: The Evil Below -- Enter Ragnfoald and retrieve the Element of Harmony hidden there.

Chapter 82: Ragnfoald

Chapter LXXXII: Ragnfoald
“There’s an evil to the north, friend, and its name is Ragnfoald.”

At last we stood before the gates of Ragnfoald. We’d been redirected twice in the past few days, but now we were finally here. We’d stayed the night at the College of Winterhorn and had left the next morning, once things had settled down. Now we were here, in the western mountains of the Karth, ready to enter yet another ancient earth pony ruin in search of a relic with infinite power.

We made it to the great gates with no problem, thanks to Mystic’s spell. However, once again we wouldn’t be alone in this ruin. A Blackwing camp had been set up outside the ruin’s entrance. Although it had been ransacked (probably by the goats of the Karth), I wouldn’t doubt it if there were Blackwings still waiting inside.

I Shouted, the word coming out as a whisper.

Instantly I could see all the life around me, including within Ragnfoald. There were no life signs nearby, but I could just barely see flickers of life off in the distance, perhaps deep within the ruin. As my vision returned to normal, I told my friends what I had seen. We needed that Element of Harmony in order to stop Alduin, and no Blackwings were going to stand in our way. We pushed open the massive doors to the ruin and stepped inside.

The entry hall was in a terrible state of disrepair, with light peeking through large holes in the stone roof. Some more Blackwing tents were set up here, but none of the specially trained pegasi were anywhere to be seen. We continued deeper into Ragnfoald, leaving the entry hall and traveling through the ancient stone passages until we reached the banquet hall.

Unlike in Valgroom, the Blackwings hadn’t cleared out the Draugr here. The long-dead nobles still went about their days with their ancient servants attending to them. The royal courts of ancient Horizon still lived on in these ruins. It was such a shame that we’d be forced to kill some of them in order to make it any deeper into Ragnfoald. Resigning myself to the fact, we headed down through the tunnels to the entrance of the banquet hall.

The servants scattered as we strode past them, warning their masters of what was coming. The ancient noble-ponies rose in haste as we entered, most of them retreating to the far end of the room. As in Volsteed, the first Dragon Priest lair we’d visited so long ago, a few of the nobles separated themselves from the group, drawing their swords.

I drew Dawnbreaker as they charged toward us. Mephalda shot arrows at them, the shafts sticking in their necks and heads but not killing them. Mystic shot bolts of lightning at the approaching Draugr, but it barely seemed to phase them. I swung my sword around and met the blade of one as it reached us.

<<>> I Shouted, throwing the Draugr over the crowd of nobles and against the wall.

Another of the Draugr nobles swung its sword at me, and I blocked with my Draconequus sword. I forced the zombie back, drawing my Changeling war axe and swinging it around into the long-dead pony’s side. It pulled its sword back and swung toward my head.

I wasn’t able to block in time and ducked down, the blade flying just over the tips of my ears. I swung my Draconequus sword through the air, striking the Draugr’s blade and forcing it back. As I held the Draugr’s weapon in place with Dawnbreaker, I swung my axe into its neck and killed it for good.

The Draugr I’d Shouted earlier was back, and it swung its sword down toward my head. I blocked with Dawnbreaker, pushing the Draugr back. The zombie snarled at me as it pulled its sword away and my blade sliced through its ear. It swung its sword back around at my neck, and I jumped back to avoid it. I swung Dawnbreaker back around and knocked the blade to the ground. My Changeling war axe sailed through the air, cracking the Draugr’s skull and knocking it to the ground.

I swung Dawnbreaker around as another Draugr came at me, and I blocked its sword with my own. It began to push back on me so I exited the block and jumped to the side as the blade sailed past me. I swung Dawnbreaker into the Draugr’s back before bringing it up to block as it retaliated. This time I wasn’t able to exit the block without risking my own safety, and the Draugr forced me back. Suddenly, my enemy was knocked to the side as Steadfast caved in its head with his warhammer.

The rest of the Draugr in the room seemed content to leave us alone as we cleaned off our weapons and left the banquet hall. We followed the branching stone tunnels until we ran into a few of the keep’s guards. They snarled in Draconic as they drew their weapons on us.

With Dawnbreaker, I blocked the war axe one of the guards swung at me. It swung at me again, and again I blocked. As it tried for a third time, I sent magical flame at it, scorching its face and causing it to drop its weapon. Dawnbreaker flew through the air, decapitating the Draugr before it could react.

<<>> I Shouted at the next one to approach me, and its body was coated in frost.

I stabbed Dawnbreaker into its neck as I passed it, bringing my sword back around to block as a Draugr swung a mace at me. As it tried to swing for my head, Mephalda shot an arrow through its eye. I took advantage of the moment to knock the mace from its mouth and impale the Draugr with my Draconequus sword.

One Draugr remained in the passage with us, and was blasted aside by Mystic’s magic. After looting the bodies for anything valuable, we continued down the passage, taking stairs down whenever we could, searching for the entrance to the vast city that waited for us deep within the mountains. At last we found the great hall that would lead out into Ragnfoald city.

A few Draugr guarded the gate, though more of them lay dead on the ground, no doubt killed by the Blackwings. They noticed us as we trotted down the grand staircase toward them, and Mephalda began to shoot arrows at them, dropping a few before the battle could start.

<> I Shouted, and the ones in front of me suddenly dropped their weapons, gripped with pain.

I sliced the head off of one with Dawnbreaker as it fumbled to pick its mace back up, but was forced to block the swing of the next one I met. The Draugr was still gripped with internal pain because of my Shout, but had managed to pick its sword back up. As I pulled my own sword away, the Draugr lunged in, swinging at my forelegs.

I jumped to avoid the sword and swung my own weapon down at the Draugr’s head. It shifted its body as it spotted the blade coming down, and moved to the side, so all my sword did was slice the side of its helmet and a bit of its rotten flesh off. The Draugr stabbed its ancient earth pony sword in toward my chest, and I jumped back, before knocking the weapon to the ground. Dawnbreaker found its mark this time as I swung it around, slicing through the Draugr’s skull.

<> I Shouted at another of the Draugr, and it instantly combusted, the dragon fire hungrily consuming its rotten flesh.

I swung Dawnbreaker around toward one of the zombies, but my blade was blocked by an ancient earth pony warhammer. I tried to force the weapon to the ground, but the Draugr jerked its hammer back up, knocking Dawnbreaker to the side. It swung down at my head, and I brought my Draconequus sword back up to block, holding the Draugr off long enough to collect my thoughts.

<<>> I Shouted, sending the Draugr flying into the grand doors and knocking them open.

I stabbed through the chest of another of the Draugr, and Mystic blasted another with her ice magic. Mephalda finished it off as she shot an arrow through its frost-coated head, and it fell to the ground. The Draugr I’d Shouted through the doors came back up the stairs, severely injured, and Steadfast slammed it into the ground with his warhammer, reducing its already broken head to pulp.

No more Draugr remained that could oppose us, so we stepped through the grand doors and looked out upon Ragnfoald. It seemed less impressive to have a city like this contained underground now that we’d seen Underkeep, but it was a grand sight to behold nonetheless. Tiny Draugr trotted about below, going about their business as they passed between the ancient stone buildings.

At the far end of town a massive temple was built, where we’d find our Dragon Priest and the Element of Harmony. Above the temple, a frightening head of a pony was carved out of the stone, a terrifying smile fixed on its face. More of these heads ringed the cavern, their eyes staring down at the town. I looked away and shivered as the eyes seemed to stare straight into my soul.

I Shouted, searching for the life signs of the Blackwings that I knew were still here, and found them within the temple around the same place I’d seen them before.

“I don’t think they’re in the crypt yet,” I said when the Shout faded away.

“That means they don’t have the Claw,” Mephalda said, “Hopefully it’s somewhere in here.”

“Maybe that tower?” Steadfast said, pointing to the large light-giving structure like the one we’d seen in Volsteed.

“It’s worth a shot,” I said, “Let’s see if we can get there without riling up the Draugr.”

We headed down the stairs to Ragnfoald, entering the Draugr town and trying to remain out of sight of the zombies. Something was distinctly wrong with these Draugr, and it took me a minute to figure out exactly what it was. The undead here were smiling. But it was a grotesque smile, something not meant to ever grace the faces of ponies, especially in death. It looked a bit like somepony had grabbed the rotting flesh at the corners of the mouth and pulled it up into a smile.

It was just as unsettling as the faces that surrounded the town, their gazes beating down on the ponies below. It seemed we weren’t the only ones who felt uncomfortable because of them. The Draugr took winding routes through the city in order to keep buildings between themselves and the jeering faces. But, that didn’t keep them from stepping into their gaze as they fled from our approach.

As we made our way through the town, we ran into quite a few Draugr townsponies. I was hoping that they wouldn’t report us to the guards, but it seemed like that was too much to ask. As we approached the base of the tower in the center of town, a group of the Draugr soldiers came down two different streets.

<<>> I Shouted as one group charged us, sending the front rows crashing into the Draugr behind them.

As they scrambled to recover from the upset, Mystic shot lightning through their ranks, making the problem even worse. The other group charged forward, and Mephalda shot arrows into their ranks, picking some off before they reached us. I drew Dawnbreaker, eyeing the brightly glowing star in the hilt, and Steadfast drew his Changeling warhammer.

Steadfast got the first kill, knocking a Draugr aside with a swing of his weapon. I swung Dawnbreaker around next, meeting the war axe of another of the Draugr soldiers. The zombie spun its axe around, swinging in toward my neck. I knocked the blade aside with Dawnbreaker and swung in toward the Draugr’s neck.

The zombie recovered quickly, catching Dawnbreaker beneath its axe’s blade. With a quick twist, it threw my Draconequus sword from my grasp, sending it flying through the crowd of Draugr. I drew the Blade of Hoofingar swiftly and blocked the Draugr’s next swing, before drawing my Changeling axe and swinging it into the zombie’s neck.

I galloped toward where I’d seen Dawnbreaker go flying, swinging my ebony sword through the Draugr that stood in my way. A zombie with a greatsword blocked my path, and I was forced to pull up short, using the Blade of Hoofingar to block the zombie’s swing and keep my head on my shoulders.

I pushed back at the Draugr, but it released the block, pulling its sword back and jumping to the side to avoid being hit by my blade. It swung around at my neck again, and I ducked, stopping the weapon as it passed over my head. The Draugr pulled its blade back before swinging it back in at me, and I blocked once more with my ebony sword.

<> I Shouted, and the Draugr’s greatsword went flying from its mouth.

I stabbed my ebony blade through the armor on its back, piercing its heart, as I galloped past it. Dawnbreaker was in sight now, the glow from its hilt drawing me toward it. I swung the Blade of Hoofingar through the neck of another Draugr as I dove for my gift from Mareidia, grabbing it in my magic.

I used both my swords to block as a Draugr suddenly swung a battleaxe down at me. We became locked together as its battleaxe’s blade hooked over where my blades met. Together we pulled away, and I swung my swords back around at the zombie right away.

It blocked both my blades, one with its warhammer’s blade, the other with the staff of it. It spun its weapon around before swinging the sharp end back in toward my neck. I blocked with Dawnbreaker and stabbed the Blade of Hoofingar in toward its chest. My ebony blade cut through the ancient armor, sinking in until it pierced the zombie’s shriveled heart.

A blast of flame suddenly struck me, sending me tumbling. I drank down a quick healing potion to repair the burns caused by flames that had seeped through my armor before facing my foe. A Draugr wizard stood a little ways away, wielding a staff that it was now using to pelt Mystic’s ward with fire.

I charged toward the staff-wielding Draugr, slashing through the other zombies with Dawnbreaker. The wizard noticed my approach and sent another blast of fire my way. I jumped to the side, and it ended up roasting its fellow soldiers instead. I stabbed my Draconequus sword into one more Draugr before I launched myself toward the wizard.

<<>> I Shouted as it blasted flame at me yet again, and the fire was neutralized.

Ice even coated the tip of the Draugr’s staff, rendering it useless. It used the gold-covered staff to block my swing as I brought Dawnbreaker down toward it. I swung my blade back around, aiming for the Draugr’s side, and it blocked with the staff again. As my Draconequus sword struck it, the ice at the tip shattered.

I ducked down as the Draugr sent a fireball right over my head. I swung Dawnbreaker back around, knocking the staff to the side as the zombie tried to flame me again. The fire passed me, and I forced the undead wizard back. I drew out my Changeling war axe and used it to knock the staff to the ground, impaling the Draugr with Dawnbreaker a moment later.

As a Draugr war axe struck me on the back, ringing as it hit my armor, I spun around. The blade grazed the side of my neck as I did so, and I quickly wrapped on a bandage while I blocked the blade with Dawnbreaker. The Draugr swung down at my head, and I held up my Draconequus sword to block. From point blank range, I shot ice spikes through the Draugr’s neck, tearing it apart until it died for good.

I conjured a flame atronach a little ways away, near Mystic, and it began to help her, blasting flame at any Draugr that gave her trouble. I turned my attention toward the Draugr captain of this group, who was shouting out orders in Draconic to its troops. I galloped toward it, slicing the head off another zombie as I did so.

I was forced to stop as a Draugr swung a pike at me. I blocked with Dawnbreaker and pushed the zombie back. It returned a moment later, undeterred, and tried to spear me with its weapon. With a foreleg, I pushed the weapon to the side and pulled the Draugr closer. The undead warrior died as I stabbed Dawnbreaker through its head.

I slashed through the chest of a Draugr with a warhammer and launched myself toward the Draugr captain. It drew a greatsword immediately, blocking my Draconequus sword. I tried to push the Draugr back, but it jumped to the side, pulling its weapon back before swinging it around at my head. I ducked down, but the blade managed to hit the top of my crystalline helmet, shaking me up a bit. I blocked its next swing with Dawnbreaker and pushed the zombie back before it could gain the upper hoof.

the Draugr Shouted, and its strikes became a hurricane I couldn’t keep up with.

I Shouted as well. Two could play at that game.

For a few minutes, we were both locked in combat, neither one of us able to gain the upper hoof, until the Draugr’s Shout wore off. For a few seconds, I had the advantage, managing to strike the Draugr on its chest and slice through its armor, but making no other progress. As my strikes returned to a normal speed, the Draugr swung its greatsword down toward my head, and I was forced to back up and block.

I was forced to move back more and more as the Draugr pressed toward me, until I was able to move to the side and exit the block, causing the Draugr’s sword to fly into the ground. I swung toward its neck with Dawnbreaker, but it brought its weapon back up in time and blocked. I swung around toward its forelegs, but it blocked that as well. It blocked me again as I swung down toward its head.

While we were locked in place, a blast of lightning from Mystic suddenly helped me out. The Draugr captain was stunned for a moment as the bolt of energy struck it, and I took advantage of it to drive Dawnbreaker through the hole I’d made earlier and pierce the Draugr’s heart. As I pulled my sword out, it began to glow brilliantly, and all the Draugr still standing were consumed by Dawnbreaker’s power. The captain and all the remaining Draugr were reduced to ash piles.

The Draugr taken care of, at least for the moment, we entered the nearby tower. Thankfully, no Draugr waited to stop us here, or they had been killed by Dawnbreaker’s last attack. Either way, we easily made our way up through the tower until we reached the top. A few Draugr were up here, but they weren’t trained soldiers, and ran instead of attacking us. We weren’t here for them anyway.

A dragon claw forged from silver waited on a pedestal beneath the brazier in the center of the tower, seemingly forgotten. Or, maybe this town’s ponies had rebelled, hiding it from their master. Either way, we had the key to the Dragon Priest’s crypt now. We retrieved the Silver Claw and headed down through the tower.

“So nice of you to find that for us,” a voice greeted us as we exited the tower.

Blackwings stood in the square where the Draugr had been a few minutes before. More of them emerged from the shadows around us, their blades far too close to our necks for comfort.

“Come now, turn it over,” the leader demanded.

Intending to keep my head on my shoulders today, I tossed her the Silver Claw.

“Look at this,” she said, “We’ve captured Sapphire and her companions. High Command will like this for sure. Especially when we deliver five Elements of Harmony to them at the same time.”

The Blackwing leader proceeded to pull the four amulets I had around my neck over my head. However, as she took them, I noticed that the light within died. They may have taken the Elements, but they couldn’t use them, and I would see to it that they never would be able to.

“Bind them,” the Blackwing leader ordered as she examined the Elements, “Let’s see if we can find another of these.”

The four of us were bound and forced to hobble along with the Blackwings until we reached the temple. The grinning faces were here too, though this time they were attached to a pony who held a Dragon Priest mask in one hoof and balanced on a greatsword with the other. I looked up as we neared the door, examining the writing above it.

TEMPLE OF LORD OATAR
AND THE DISCIPLES OF DELIGHT

“Oatar the Mad?” Steadfast said as we passed beneath the doors, “I’ve heard stories about him. He was a great Draugr lord who went insane and became a terrible tyrant, forcing the ponies under him to remain happy all the time, or he’d execute them.”

“Well, it looks like he was also a Dragon Priest,” Mystic observed, “And we’re about to meet him.”

The Blackwings guarded us as we passed through the temple, stepping over the bodies of dead Blackwings and dead Draugr devotees. Beneath the temple we went, until we stood outside of Oatar’s crypt. The Blackwings’ leader fitted the Silver Claw into the door mechanism and lined up the rings, causing the ancient door to slide away.

The Blackwings rushed inside, heading for the sarcophagus in the center of the room and leaving only two Blackwings to guard us. I could see a Word Wall nearby and headed toward it, trying to learn a new Word of Power before chaos broke out in the room.

As I approached the Draconic inscription, I began to learn everything there was to know about peace, until I comprehended it as the dragons did. A moment later I experienced snippets of the life of the dragon I’d killed at the Shrine to the Twilight Guardian. From its memories I learned how to use peace and bestow it upon others, especially those beneath me, such as animals.

<> I Shouted involuntarily.

At that moment, the sarcophagus in the center of the room burst open and Oatar the Mad shot up into the air. His robes flowed out behind him, and he held both a staff and a greatsword in his magic. The Blackwings scrambled to attack him, but he grinned evilly before releasing a Shout at them.

<<>> he Shouted, marking all the pegasi around him for death.

As they doubled over and fell from the air with the pain, the Dragon Priest blasted them with his staff. I seized the opportunity to escape, grabbing both my swords with my magic and using one to cut my bonds while slashing through the chest of the guard watching me with the other. Mephalda somehow managed to get her swords out and struck the other guard with one while throwing the other to Mystic. My unicorn friend grabbed the blade in her magic and cut Steadfast’s and her bonds.

The Blackwing furiously attacked the Dragon Priest, but he was too powerful for them, and blasted them with pure magic from his staff. The Blackwing leader managed to reach him in the air and landed on his back, swinging her blades into his neck. The long-dead earth pony snarled and swung his greatsword around at her, slicing a gash in her side. She bled profusely as she fell to the floor below, and I could hear her bones crack as she hit. The Elements of Harmony in her saddlebags spilled out across the floor.

<<>> I Shouted, knocking Oatar out of the air.

Before he could recover, the remaining Blackwings converged on him. His robes were torn and his rotten flesh was rent, but still the Dragon Priest lived. He swung his staff around, obliterating the pegasi on one side, and swung his greatsword’s blade through those on the other. By the time he rose back to his hooves, only two Blackwings remained.

<<>> the Dragon Priest Shouted, and the blades of the remaining Blackwings went flying from their mouths.

They were vaporized into nothingness as he blasted them with his staff. The Dragon Priest turned toward the four of us and pointed his staff in our direction. We scattered as he sent the blast of pure magic barreling toward us. There was no way any of us could stand up to a weapon like that.

<> I Shouted the next time Oatar pointed it at me.

The staff went flying from his magic, but still fired off as it did so. The blast went shooting past me and struck the wall. I heard it crack and collapse as the blast hit it, and glanced over my shoulder to see a gaping hole in the wall leading into another part of the ruin. Or, maybe not. I thought I caught a glimpse of bronze before turning back.

When I did, Oatar was much closer than I’d hoped he’d be. I brought Dawnbreaker up to block as he swung his greatsword through the air at me. The blades seemed to scream as they met, one forged to further the dark purposes of the undead, and the other forged to extinguish them. Oatar’s eyes flashed, and green flame coated his blade.

I was forced to back up as I could feel the heat coming off his weapon. The fire died as an arrow from Mephalda’s bow shot through the Dragon Priest’s head, the tip sticking out of his eye. I tried to force Oatar back, but his magic was too strong, and he continued to push toward me. Steadfast jumped through the air, his warhammer striking the Dragon Priest in the head and smashing in half of his face.

<> he Shouted at me, knocking me back, before turning toward Steadfast.

My earth pony friend ran from the Dragon Priest, but Oatar leapt through the air and landed in front of him. Steadfast brought up his warhammer and blocked as the Dragon Priest brought his greatsword down at him. Oatar drew his weapon back and slammed it down again and again, until Steadfast’s hammer fell from his mouth.

<<>> I Shouted as Oatar prepared his death blow.

I went shooting through the room at the speed of a whirlwind and pushed Steadfast aside. Dawnbreaker was up before me and blocked the Dragon Priest’s strike. Yet, it had hit so hard that I was staggered. The Dragon Priest followed up with another strike, this time knocking my Draconequus sword out of my magic. As he prepared for another strike, he was suddenly vaporized. I turned to see Mystic throwing aside the still-glowing staff.

Nothing was left of Oatar the Mad except for the simple amulet he’d been wearing with his dragon amulet. It was still warm as I picked it up and examined the rectangular gem that had once been blue. I trotted over to where the Blackwing commander had fallen and retrieved the other Elements of Harmony, throwing all five of them together over my neck.

“Only one left,” I noted, looking down at the amulets around my neck.

“Where do you think this leads?” Steadfast asked, looking through the hole in the wall and drawing my attention away from the Elements of Harmony.

I trotted over and joined him, along with Mystic and Mephalda. Within there really were pillars of bronze, as well as a door down a long hall. Nothing appeared to be within the room, but even so it was abundantly clear what we’d stumbled upon.

“Looks like a Minotauran ruin,” Mystic said.

“Maybe it’s a shortcut out,” I said hopefully, jumping over the rubble and entering the hall.

It was eerily silent within the ruin. The only sound that could be heard within the empty hall was the hissing of steam pipes in the distance. At last we reached the doors at the far end of the hall and stepped into another room.

This one was circular, and the lights were on here. Bronze covered every surface, including the elaborate control panel on one side of the room. Above us was a dazzling array of mirrors, lenses, and gems. They crackled and buzzed as we watched, light dancing within them. There was only one other time I’d seen a room like this, and it hadn’t been so active.

“This is the Arcanex,” I said before I suddenly realized why the equipment around us was in motion, “Oh, no.”

A shimmer filled the air and the sound of a magical discharge echoed across the room. Suddenly around us appeared a vast herd of hairy bipedal creatures. The Minotaurs had returned.

Level Up
Health: 380 Stamina: 370 Magicka: 360
New Perk: Charm [Speech] – All Speech attempts of every kind will be much more successful, as you will be able to convince almost anypony to see your point of view in any situation.
Element of Harmony acquired
Word of Power learned: DREM – Peace; Pyne’s Peace – Combined with PAAN, DREM will increase the amount of time that you can calm animals as well as allowing you to calm larger and more aggressive beasts.
New Quest: Escape! – Escape the Minotauran ruin alive.

Chapter 83: Return

Chapter LXXXIII: Return
“She said Pinkie, you’ve got to stand up tall, learn to face your fears. You’ll see that they can’t hurt you, just laugh and make them disappear . . .”

After thousands of years, the Minotaurs were back in the Northlands, and we were standing among them. They were too busy trying to shake off the shock of being transported through time to have noticed us yet, and we tried to stealthily make our way to the exit. That proved to be impossible, as one of the towering creatures noticed us as we neared the door.

“Pony trespasser!” she shouted, pointing a finger at me.

“Get them!” the Minotaur standing near the controls said, looking over the crowd at me, “We must have surprise!”

We took off through the crowd, dodging the hands that reached for us. Eventually, one of the Minotaurs managed to catch me by the tail, and I blasted him with a paralysis spell.

<<>> I Shouted, shooting forward.

As I shot through the crowd, I grabbed Steadfast and Mystic and pulled them along with me. Mephalda flew overhead, ducking through the door with us. We galloped down the silent halls for a bit until we were sure that the Minotaurs weren’t chasing after us. We trotted into another room, keeping a lookout not only for the Minotaurs but also their automatons that most likely still stalked the halls.

As we stepped into a small room in the middle of the steamworks, we ran right into one of the hairy residents of this ruin. He had little time to react as Steadfast swung his warhammer up toward his head. The Minotaur caught the hammer in his hands and tried to pull it away from Steadfast, but suddenly slumped over as Mephalda shot an arrow through his head.

“Bthardamz Overseer to Steamworks,” a voice spoke out of one of the pipes lining the wall, “Be warned, a group of ponies has infiltrated the city and may be in your area. Lock all gates and seal all exits from the city. Acknowledge.”

We didn’t wait around for the Overseer to figure out that the Minotaur manning the Steamworks was dead. We couldn’t have them sealing the gates on us once they figured it out, either, so we shut the gates to the Minotaur’s office and locked it with the key he had on him. Hopefully, this would deny them access to control of the city long enough that we could escape.

We headed down the passages, more wary now that we knew not every Minotaur had been transported within the Arcanex. But, it wasn’t a living enemy that we encountered next. A few of the Minotauran spheres rolled around, blocking our passage.

Mephalda sent an arrow flying through the air, and it punched through the head of one of the automatons, damaging it severely, but not killing it. Mystic and I shot lightning at the automatons as they approached, knocking some of them out for the moment. I drew Dawnbreaker as they reached us and swung my sword up through its body, slicing it in half.

I blocked the sword swing of the next one with my Draconequus blade. Steadfast knocked it to the side with a swipe of his warhammer, bending it out of shape. Steam hissed ominously from it until my earth pony companion finished it off with another strike.

As one swung at my head, Mephalda fired an arrow into its arm mechanism, stopping the spinning blades. I blasted the automaton with lightning, shattering its eyes, before swiping its head off with Dawnbreaker. I shot an ice spike at the next automaton, tearing its head open. A blast of fire from Mystic through the hole finished it off.

Steadfast crushed another of the automatons, and I jumped over its crumpled body, swinging Dawnbreaker through a machine stunned by an arrow from Mephalda. A blast of magic from Mystic melted the last automaton standing in the hallway. We galloped away before more could show up.

“Does anypony know the way out?” Steadfast asked as we galloped through a set of stone tunnels, voicing the worry that had been nagging at my mind.

“If we keep heading up, we should reach the surface eventually,” Mystic said, though it seemed to be a plan with many drawbacks.

“I could fly ahead and find a way up,” Mephalda offered, and took off when we she saw we agreed with her plan.

The tunnel we were walking through currently appeared to be the Minotaur living quarters. At least, that’s what I gathered from the small rooms set off the hall containing beds and desks. The rooms were all empty, their residents in the Arcanex. Or, they had been in the Arcanex when they were transported. It seemed that the magical field only transported the Minotaurs from some places and not others.

We darted inside one of the rooms as we spotted two Minotaurs walking through a side passage up ahead. We hoped they were gone, but to be safe Mystic and I cast a spell of invisibility on ourselves and Steadfast drank a potion before stepping outside. The two Minotaurs were still standing in our hall, looking up and down the passage and searching for us.

“There!” one of them said, pointing at me as steam spurted from pipes on the wall, outlining my invisible form.

As one of them aimed a crossbow in my direction, the other pointed a wand at me, sending a blast of magic from the tip. It impacted my body, and a pale glow surrounded me, but there were no other effects as far as I could see. Then Minotauran spider automatons began to crawl from a pipe on the ceiling, converging on me. Apparently, the Minotaur with the wand had called them.

I drew Dawnbreaker and began slashing away at the mechanical creatures skittering toward me. Steadfast drew his warhammer and began to crush them against the floor and the walls. Mystic put a ward up in front of us as the other Minotaur began to fire crossbow bolts at us. As the glow around me faded, the spiders lost their focus and scattered, attacking Steadfast and Mystic as well.

<<>> I Shouted, throwing the spiders away from me and knocking the two Minotaurs over.

I drew the Blade of Hoofingar as well and spun around, chopping apart the mechs surrounding me. As the Minotaurs at the end of the room picked themselves up, Steadfast finished off the last of the machines. One raised his crossbow and prepared to fire, but it was knocked from his hands by a blast of lightning from Mystic. As the other pointed her wand at me, I shot ice spikes at it, forcing her to drop it as my spikes struck her hand.

From his belt, the first Minotaur drew a long bronze sword, while his companion grabbed a crossbow on her back. I galloped toward the sword-wielding Minotaur, striking my sword against his. He swung the blade around, aiming toward my neck, but I blocked it with Dawnbreaker.

As his companion tried to shoot me, she was struck by a blast of ice from Mystic. Steadfast charged her a moment later, forcing her away from me. I focused on the Minotaur in front of me and swung my Draconequus sword around toward his waist. He angled his sword, blocking me before cutting up toward my head.

I jumped back, swinging Dawnbreaker around and knocking his sword away. As he swung around toward my back, I rolled forward, stabbing up toward his chest. He sidestepped, and I went sliding past him. He turned back toward me, swinging his sword in an arc to cut my head off.

<> I Shouted, and the sword went flying from his hand.

Stunned, he stared at where his sword had been for a moment before I stabbed Dawnbreaker up through his stomach. Broken bits of a crossbow came flying my way as Steadfast destroyed the other Minotaur’s weapon. A blast of flames from Mystic finished her off.

Mephalda wasn’t back yet, so we continued through the halls, searching for a way up to the surface. Another Minotaur appeared up ahead, searching the living area. We headed into another room until he passed, and then darted ahead. I snuck up behind him, trying to remain as stealthy as possible, until I was able to stab Dawnbreaker up through his back.

A few automatons rolling around near a door at the end of the hall spotted us, and began to roll in our direction. Mystic and I shot bolts of lightning at them, and they began to spiderweb across their heads, shorting many of them out. I swung Dawnbreaker around through the head of one that hadn’t.

Steadfast crushed two together with a swing of his warhammer, fusing them. As they tried to roll in separate directions, he swung his warhammer between them, destroying them both. As one of the machines tried to strike me with its sword, I blocked with Dawnbreaker. I drew my Changeling war axe and struck it in the head while I had it immobilized.

We galloped forward before more of the automatons could show up and pushed open the doors at the end of the hall. We entered a large cavern beneath the mountains, its walls ringed with Minotauran buildings. In the center a market was set up, with permanent stands made from stone and bronze. A group of Minotaurs was here, standing near the cavern’s center.

These Minotaurs were different than the ones we’d encountered previously. While they had been ordinary Minotaurs simply trying to catch the ponies that were about to ruin their plans, these were trained soldiers. Bronze armor covered their bodies completely, even their faces, and they all carried at least two weapons.

One gave a shout as he saw us and drew a crossbow from his back. Bolts began to fly through the air, and Mystic put up a ward around us. I shot ice spikes back at the Minotaurs as we approached, though most of them bounced off their armor.

<> I Shouted as we neared them, and they were all hit with sudden pain from within.

While their armor was weak, I swung Dawnbreaker around, knocking the crossbow from one’s hands before stabbing the blade through his armor. My Draconequus sword sank between his ribs, puncturing a lung, and he fell to the ground coughing and choking on his blood.

Mystic shot spikes of ice at one, slicing through her currently weak armor. The shards of ice jetted through her body and tore out the back, gutting her. Steadfast swung his warhammer around, crushing the leg armor of one of the Minotaurs. As she fell to the ground, he slammed his Changeling hammer down on her face, flattening the helmet.

I slashed my sword up through another’s crossbow before my Shout wore off. As I tried to lunge for his heart, the Minotaur jumped back and pulled a mace off his belt. However, to me this mace was about the size of a small warhammer. I jumped out of the way as he swung it at me.

I ducked down as the Minotaur swung the mace at my head. The next time, he swung it toward my body, and I used both Dawnbreaker and the Blade of Hoofingar to block it. He tried to drive the massive club toward me, but I was able to hold him off, and he drew his weapon back, preparing to slam it down on me.

<> I Shouted, and my fire breath engulfed the Minotaur.

The flames seeped through the cracks in his armor and blistered his flesh immediately. He roasted inside his suit of armor, as if he was wearing an oven. He screamed as the flames devoured him and dropped his mace, the weapon landing in front of me and nearly crushing my hoof.

Meanwhile, Steadfast was taking on another one, trying to swing his warhammer around the Minotaur’s sword long enough that he could get a hit in. Eventually he succeeded, and smashed the armor on the Minotaur’s side. The hulking creature swung his sword up as Steadfast did so, and caught him right between the forelegs, sending him flying back. Mystic destroyed the Minotaur she’d been fighting with a blast of magic, and rushed over to help Steadfast.

The one he’d struck strode toward where he had fallen, but he appeared to be injured from Steadfast’s strike. I shot as many ice spikes as I could toward the weak spot in the Minotaur’s armor until they broke through, shredding his flesh beneath.

The last Minotaur soldier swung a flail at me, the weapon’s end landing on the ground near my forehooves. I ran beneath the swinging chain as the Minotaur swung at me again, and passed the creature by. Now that I was behind him, I stabbed Dawnbreaker and the Blade of Hoofingar through his back armor.

The Minotaur swung around at me, catching me with the back of his hand and sending me flying. As I slid across the ground, I scrambled for my weapons, managing to catch Dawnbreaker. Before I could get off the ground, the Minotaur swung his flail at me, and I raised Dawnbreaker to block. The flail’s chain wrapped around my sword, and the Minotaur easily pulled it away before preparing for a final strike. Arrows suddenly sprouted from his throat where his helmet met his cuirass, and he dropped his weapon. Mephalda landed beside him as he hit the ground.

“I found a way out,” she announced, looking over my shoulder at where Mystic was helping Steadfast back up, “It’s just through the workshop and the grand hall.”

“Great,” I said, “Let’s go.”

We took off at once, following Mephalda as she led the way into one of the buildings ringing the cavern. It led through halls coated with steam pipes until we reached Bthardamz’s workshop. There were no Minotaurs present here yet, though there were a few automatons in various states of repair that someone had activated.

As one of the machines rolled toward me, I blocked its blades with Dawnbreaker. I swung my blade down toward the machine’s head, but it rolled to the side, avoiding my blade. Still, I did manage to chop one of its arms off. It spun its other blade around at me, and I ducked, shooting fire at its base until the ball it rolled around on had melted. I swung Dawnbreaker up through its torso, destroying the mechanisms and its steam plant.

Mystic shot through the steam plant of another, which was exposed. Steam began to gush from the pipes, propelling the automaton forward and causing it to knock over its fellows. Steadfast ran through the chaos, warhammer swinging, and took down the automatons.

I swung Dawnbreaker around as another of the automatons came at me, this one missing the top of its head. I blocked as its sword slashed at me, dodging back and forth as Mystic sent lightning into the exposed mechanisms in its head. As she did so, the machine went berserk, rolling into a steam pipe on the wall and tearing it apart with its blades before falling down it.

<<>> I Shouted, ice washing over the automatons in front of me.

I ran through the crowd of frozen mechs, slashing at them with Dawnbreaker while they couldn’t move. The brittle metal cracked easily, and I soon left a trail of shattered automatons behind me. I was stabbing my Draconequus sword through another automaton that tried to strike me, when I noticed a death-clanker sitting on a workbench nearby.

It wasn’t active yet, but I wasn’t taking chances. I galloped toward it, before jumping on its exposed chest. At that moment, steam began to hiss from it, and the automaton grabbed me with its hands. The claws tried to cut through my crystalline armor, but failed. The automaton stood up from the table, staring at me with its gem eyes while it held me out in front of it and prepared for a scalding steam attack.

<<>> I Shouted at it, and I went flying backwards, tearing the arms off with me.

The armless automaton was defenseless as Mephalda pelted its internal mechanisms with arrows and Mystic filled its innards with lightning. Steadfast smashed its head in before it could even attempt an attack, and the machine fell to the ground, lifeless again.

After my friends helped pry me out of the automaton’s hands, we headed through the rest of the abandoned workshop, following Mephalda to the surface. We saw no more automatons or Minotaurs as we trotted through the hallways, until we reached the grand hall. A group of them guarded the large bronze doors at the far end.

Mephalda took off into the air and shot arrows down at them, killing two right away. The rest of us galloped toward them, weapons at the ready. Mystic and I shot ice spikes at them as we came, piercing the neck armor of one and killing her. One of the remaining three ran over toward a pipe on the wall near the door.

“Grand Hall to Overseer!” he yelled into the pipe, “We’re under attack!”

As an arrow bounced off the pipe, he jumped away and drew a crossbow, firing up at Mephalda. Mystic and Steadfast headed toward a Minotaur soldier with a shield, while I headed for another. She swung a battleaxe at me, and I pulled up short as the blade whistled past me.

I swung Dawnbreaker up as she swung down again, and our blades met, screeching past each other. As she swung her battleaxe at me again, I blocked with my Draconequus sword, fighting to keep her blade in place. As I did so, I drew out my Changeling war axe and swung it around into the gap in her armor between her cuirass and her greaves.

I forced the blade deeper into her flesh, and she jerked back involuntarily, pulling her battleaxe away. I stabbed Dawnbreaker in, sticking up through her stomach. As she staggered back, I jumped in the air and swung my Draconequus sword through her neck, taking her head off.

The Minotaur leader continued to fire his crossbow, and managed to hit Mephalda in the wing. As she fell from the sky, I lunged toward the being that had shot her. He pointed his crossbow at me and shot a bolt off, but the bronze shaft bounced off my Twilight Armor, leaving a scratch but doing no other damage.

I swung Dawnbreaker through his crossbow, and he jumped back to avoid having the same thing done to him. He drew two swords from his belt and swung them at me. I drew the Blade of Hoofingar as well and blocked, keeping the Minotaur at a distance. He swung his swords around toward my sides, but pulled them up at the last minute, aiming for my head.

<> I Shouted, and his blades went flying from his hands.

He was stunned for a moment, but quickly recovered as I swung my swords up at his neck. With his gauntlets he blocked my swings, until the armor on his forearms began to deteriorate. When Dawnbreaker sliced one of his hands off, he staggered back. The Blade of Hoofingar swiftly shot into his armpit and angled down into his heart. I drew my blade out and cleaned it as the Minotaur fell to the ground.

“Bthardamz Overseer to Grand Hall,” the voice of the Overseer came from the pipe near the door, “Report.”

We ignored the urgent commands of the Minotaurs’ leader and pushed open the doors to the Karth.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

We now had no idea where we were, and it was getting dark out. We began to ascend a hoofpath just north of Bthardamz, and found a camp built over the ruin, no doubt once home to Minotauran researchers that had died from an attack by wild animals or the Cloven Hoof. We were fairly confident no Minotaurs could see us from where we were if they left their city, so we set up camp there for the night.

“Minotaurs back in the Northlands,” Mystic said over dinner, “It’s hard to believe. This will upset everything.”

“As if the Northlands didn’t have enough problems already,” Steadfast said, “Unicorns, earth ponies, pegasi, and Griffins at war, and now the Minotaurs will be joining the fight. Not to mention the dragons that still roam the land.”

I had to admit, things looked pretty bleak. But, we’d made it through so much, we couldn’t give up now. Sure, there was no easy solution to the war that ravaged the Northlands, and the windigos fed on the disorder and grew stronger every day, but we did know how to stop the dragons. Five of the keys to defeating Alduin now hung around my neck. I examined the last one as I tried to look on the bright side.

Mephalda’s ears pricked up, as if she heard something none of the rest of us could. Cryptically, she stood and gazed to the north before suddenly taking off into the air. She was above the clouds for a few minutes before she came back down.

“What was that all about?” Steadfast asked.

“Pegasari troops are moving in the north,” she said, “Around Seclusion, I reckon.”

“Another attack?” Mystic asked.

“Most likely,” Mephalda said, “Though I figure that it’s more important at this time to stop the Minotaurs than keep the pegasi from expanding.”

Mephalda’s news didn’t help the mood one bit. I could tell everypony was down in the dumps, but what was I to do about it? There had to be some way to lift everypony’s spirits.

“Have any of you ever been to a Jester’s Day festival?” I asked out of the blue.

“They don’t celebrate Jester’s Day in the Featherrest Isles,” Mephalda said, the first to respond.

“We never had one when I was growing up in Dawnstar,” Mystic said, “The town was too small. I went to the one in Seclusion once, though.”

“Steadfast?” I asked.

“I suppose a few times,” he admitted, “When they had one in Whitetrot. Jarl Valor’s Blade isn’t too keen on it though, so there hasn’t been one in awhile.”

“Kvatch was too small, like Dawnstar,” I shared, “But they had one in Saddlegrad every year. I remember the first time my father took me. It was the first year Anvil cancelled theirs, feeling it attracted too many ‘unsavory characters,’ and the town was packed with ponies from three towns. It didn’t take long before I got lost, before the festivities even started.”

“I was just a foal at the time, and I’d never seen a jester before. But, I figured that it was their holiday, so there’d be a lot of them, all dressed differently than everypony else. I ended up at the office of the Vigilants of Steedarr, back when they were just starting out and had their base inside Saddlegrad’s walls. Now, I thought that they were the jesters.”

“The Head Vigilant, he tried to explain it to me, but I thought it was all a joke. So, there I was in the Hall of the Vigilant, waiting for a show, while they were searching for my dad in a crowd of hundreds of ponies. Well, I guess they didn’t want me to be disappointed at my first Jester’s Day festival, so the Vigilants put together a little show for me.”

“You should have seen the look on my father’s face,” I laughed, “When he walked into the Hall of the Vigilant and saw ponies devoted to stamping out evil in the Northlands trying to juggle apples and wearing pants on their heads, all to please a little filly.”

“Why- why did you tell us that story?” Steadfast asked when the laughter died down.

“Things have been bad lately, and we’ve all been feeling a little low,” I said, “I just thought we could all use a laugh.”

Mephalda’s face suddenly got very serious as she stared down at my neck. Puzzled, I looked down as well, and saw that a blue glow was emanating from the newest Element of Harmony. I was about to ask if anypony knew what exactly was going on, but I was cut off as the light flashed before my eyes.

~◊~ ~◊ JIIK ◊~ ~◊~

‘Laughter!’ an outrageously cheery voice spoke from everywhere.

Once more, everypony was frozen around me while I stood in a realm of a single color, this time blue.

‘It’s important to maintain a sense of Optimism and Joy at all times. Those who are glum cannot see the way forward, or the bright side of life, and nopony wishes to be around a pony who sees only darkness in everything. The ability to Laugh no matter what the situation is a valuable skill to have, but like all virtues can be used improperly. Witness now, the story of Oatar the Mad.’

‘As a young colt in Horizon, Oatar sought only to bring Joy to those around him. His greatest treasure in life was being able to make other ponies smile, and he was most talented at it. His cheerful nature drew him to five other like-minded ponies, and they became the fastest of friends. The dragons, pleased with the harmony of the Six Companions, bestowed upon them the most powerful artifacts of all time: the Elements of Harmony.’

‘The Six Companions proclaimed themselves to be Dragon Priests, special emissaries to and from the dragons. The fantastical power they wielded was used to the benefit of all, ushering in a new era of prosperity for Horizon.’

‘But, like all the Dragon Priests, Oatar soon began to abuse the awesome power he’d been given. His desire for smiles grew into a demand, until he built his own kingdom in the far west of Horizon, where everypony would be required to act with cheer at all times. A single misstep would mean death.’

‘Yet, as he forced his own subjects to smile, Oatar himself rarely smiled, nor showed Joy or Optimism of any kind. He was forced to put on a false front, remaining grotesquely happy at all times, and it drove him mad, causing him to become an even greater tyrant than before. At last, his subjects had had enough, and marched on him, sealing him within his fortress at Ragnfoald.’

‘While it is important to remain Optimistic in every situation, this should never be because it is forced, but because light truly can be seen at the end of the tunnel. So long as your Laughter and Joy are genuine, they can help make even the darkest day seem grand. Guard them well, and they will serve you in kind.’

~◊~ ~◊~ ~◊~

“Another Element already?” Mystic said as I returned to reality, “That was fast.”

“Which one was it?” Mephalda asked.

“Laughter,” I said, “It seems odd that Laughter would be one of the great virtues, but I suppose it really is important to laugh from time to time in order to keep one’s spirits up.”

“It worked for us,” Steadfast said with a shrug, “And your story netted you another Element to use against Alduin. Only one left.”

“All right,” I said, “I can’t be the only one with amusing stories about my foalhood. Who’s next?”

“Very well,” Steadfast said after a moment, “Let me tell you about the time I went sledding down the Whitetrot canals with a guard’s shield . . .”

Level Up
Health: 380 Stamina: 380 Magicka: 360
New Perk: It Came From . . . Behind! [Sneak] -- All sneak attacks from behind now do twenty times normal damage.
Element of Laughter activated
New Quest: The Spark -- Find the last Element of Harmony within Labyrinthian.

Chapter 85: Treason and Treaties

Chapter LXXXV: Treason and Treaties
“But our brethren, the Minotaurs, scorned the Draconequi, and mocked our foolish rituals, and preferred instead their gods of Reason and Logic.”

We were surrounded by complete and utter chaos. While we’d been within Labyrinthian, the Imperial Legion had arrived, adding yet another faction to the battle raging in the wilds of Horizon. The Battle of Five Armies, as it would come to be known, was a terrifyingly confusing affair.

The Pegasari, Imperials, and Stormclouds were all fighting each other. At the same time, the Griffins were actively fighting the Pegasari while trying to avoid getting mixed up with the Stormclouds or Imperials. And the Minotaurs were out to attack anything that moved. Everypony (and Griffin) was fair game to them.

Battle waged everywhere, whether in the air or on the ground. The only place there was no battle going on was at the fringes of the conflict, which my friends and I fought to reach. Imagine my surprise, then, when I saw a certain zebra wandering around in the north.

“Sar’van?” I asked, “What are you doing out here?”

“Our caravans travel; it is our way,” she replied, “Why should you be surprised to see us today?”

“Well, maybe because the battle of the century is raging just over there!” Steadfast said.

“Sar’van sees much fighting, but nothing gets solved,” she observed, “Perhaps it is best to not get involved.”

“I can’t just let that happen,” I said, “I’ve got a plan to end all this, but to do it we need to be able to get to the Pegasari fleet.”

“I may have something you can try,” Sar’van said, rooting through her saddlebags and producing a phial of something, “One sip of this, and like a pegasus you’ll fly.”

I took the phial from the zebra and drank down a bit of it. I pulled my armor off as something began to grow out of my back. Looking over my shoulder, I saw that two pegasus wings now sprouted there. And, unlike when we’d been in disguise in the Dominion, these would allow me to actually fly.

Well, I could fly awkwardly at best. I wasn’t used to the wings, and more than a few times I ended up plowing into the ground as I practiced. But, it would have to be good enough. Once Steadfast and Mystic were also confident they could fly well enough to reach the Air Fleet, we thanked Sar’van and flew off into the sky.

None of the Pegasari soldiers paid us any mind, nor got close enough to us to be able to tell that we weren’t really pegasi. We winged our way up toward one of the larger airships, hoping that we could catch the Pegasari High Commander off guard. It wasn’t until we landed on the deck of the ship that the crew noticed that something was off about us. As my wings retracted into my body, they realized just what that was.

The Pegasari troops still on the ships drew their blades and attacked us. I sent a blast of fire at one, causing him to go tumbling over the edge of the ship and plummet to the ground as a fireball. I swung Dawnbreaker around to block the battleaxe of another. As she pressed back at me, I pulled out my Changeling war axe and swung it around into her neck.

I swung my axe at the next pony to attack me, but she swung her sword around, blocking my attack. As Dawnbreaker came down at her head, she flicked my war axe away and brought her sword up to block. The blades screeched against each other as they met, and I brought my war axe back around to strike the pegasus’s blade and force her back.

She pulled her blade against mine, and ducked under them as my weapons swung over her head. She sidestepped as I tried to bring my blades down on her, and used her wings to gain a height advantage over me. I sheathed my war axe and shot lightning up at her, striking her wings and sending her into a tumble. Steadfast finished her off with his warhammer, smashing her ribs in.

<> I Shouted at a pair of Pegasari soldiers that left their posts at the cannons and drew their swords.

They doubled over with pain, and their armor snapped as my Shout tore through them. I sliced one’s head off easily with Dawnbreaker, but the other managed to block me. I spun his sword around, throwing it from his mouth, before stabbing my Draconequus sword into his chest.

More Pegasari soldiers emerged from the cabin at the rear of the ship. Mephalda dropped a few with her bow before they could get close, but wasn’t able to take them out completely. Steadfast swung his warhammer up, lifting one the Pegasari off her hooves before slamming her back down to the deck.

<> I Shouted, my fire breath lighting the Pegasari soldiers, and a bit of the deck, on fire.

Mystic quickly sprayed ice where the fire spread on the deck, keeping it from hitting the barrels of black powder near the cannons. If it had hit them, things would have been disastrous, especially since only one of our number could fly at the moment.

Another pegasus charged toward me, swinging her warhammer down at me. I jumped to the side, and her weapon struck the deck. Before she could get it back up, I sliced Dawnbreaker across her neck. As another pegasus leapt at me, I shot an ice spike through her neck, killing her.

As I impaled a Pegasari soldier with a pike, I saw a Pegasari officer emerge from the cabin. I’d seen this pegasus before; his rainbow mane was a dead giveaway. He just might be the key to ending this whole war.

“General Typhoon!” I called to him, catching his attention as he looked out at the carnage on the ship’s deck.

He drew his sword, expecting me to attack him, but instead I sheathed my weapon. My friends did the same, perhaps not understanding my intentions, but seeing that I meant him no harm. Puzzled, the General lowered his guard slightly.

“You . . . know me?” he asked.

“We’ve met once before, on the docks of Pegasor!” I shouted over the screams of dying ponies and the roar of cannon fire, “It was right after you were rejected by the Pegasari Congress for speaking out against this war! I was disguised as a pegasus then!”

“Yes, I do recognize your voice!” he said, realization dawning in his eyes, “You’re the one who encouraged me to keep fighting against the war!”

“Yes!” I said, nodding vigorously.

“I don’t think my protestations did much good!” the General said, looking around, “Look at this! Ponies killing each other, and for what? To prove which race is superior? It’s pure foolishness!”

“I agree!” I said, “This has to end now!”

“But how?” he asked, “The Pegasari Congress is fully behind this attack! Only the High Commander can stop it now!”

“Then you’ve got to talk some sense into Lightning’s Fury!” Mephalda said, “By force, if necessary!”

“Are you talking about . . . mutiny?”

“If we must!” Mephalda replied, “You’re more fit to lead the Dominion anyway! Think about what the High Commander has gotten you into! Wouldn’t it be better if the Dominion was headed by somepony who hasn’t taken leave of their senses? Think about what’s best for the Pegasari Dominion!”

General Typhoon pondered what Mephalda had said, but I could tell that his mind was already made up.

“You’re right!” he said, sheathing his sword, “We’ve lost enough ponies to this war! It needs to end!”

“So, do you have a plan?” Mystic asked.

“I was hoping I’d never have to use it, but yes!” Typhoon replied, “My soldiers are loyal to me, and I’m of a high enough rank that I should be able to convince the others to follow me as well! The only problem will be the soldiers on the High Commander’s flagship, who are loyal to her alone!”

“Then let’s get going!” I said, “We haven’t got a lot of time!”

General Typhoon nodded his agreement before heading down into his ship and mustering up a few Pegasari soldiers to help us in our endeavor. Turns out, Typhoon was far from the only pegasus who just wanted the war to end. It was a comforting thought as we drank more of the potion Sar’van had given us and flew over to the High Commander’s flagship, the General leading the way.

“General Typhoon!” one of the Pegasari soldiers guarding our destination said, saluting sharply as he flew up to her, “High Commander Lightning’s Fury and Commissar Fireflight do not wished to be disturbed during the battle! Please return to your own operations post!”

“I’m sorry, you’re only doing your duty,” Typhoon said before drawing a sword and slashing it across the guard’s neck.

The rest of the Pegasari soldiers on and around the ship suddenly turned on us, drawing their blades. Arrows shot at us from archers on the airship’s deck, and Mephalda returned fire. I swiftly glided down to the deck before the wing potion wore off, and slashed Dawnbreaker through a pegasus with a mace.

<> I Shouted, slowing time down as I charged into the crowd of pegasi on the deck.

I drew my ebony sword as well and slashed through the Pegasari soldiers around me, knocking their weapons aside and killing them as they sluggishly tried to retaliate. As time snapped back to normal, I put away the Blade of Hoofingar and focused on using Dawnbreaker to block the swing a pegasus with a battleaxe made at me.

I pushed back with Dawnbreaker, but the mare held her ground. As I pulled my sword away to slash at her side, she drew her battleaxe back and swung it around at my head. My swing came up short as I dodged her blade, but I shot a blast of lightning at her as I dodged. As sparks danced over her face, she dropped her battleaxe. Dawnbreaker slid smoothly up through her armor and into her heart.

As a few pegasi attacked me from the air, Mystic roasted them with her magic. I ducked down as Steadfast swung his warhammer over my head, striking a Pegasari soldier that had been charging toward me. I slid across the ground as Steadfast leapt over me, and headed toward a Pegasari with a greatsword guarding the door to the airship’s cabin.

She raised her weapon as I approached, preparing to block me. A shot from Mephalda grazed her neck, causing her to drop her guard for a split second. With that moment, I slammed Dawnbreaker down on her greatsword as hard as I could. She nearly dropped the weapon but managed to cover, and swung it up at my chest.

I failed to jump out of the way quite fast enough, almost forgetting that I wasn’t wearing my torso armor. The blade cut a nasty gash in my flesh, but thankfully didn’t puncture any major organs. I slammed her blade to the ground with Dawnbreaker, but she swiftly slid it out and spun it around toward my head.

I Shouted, hitting the mare at point blank range.

She suddenly dropped her weapon as fear struck her. She backed away and cowered in a corner as I repaired the damage to my chest. One of the soldiers that had come with General Typhoon finished her off. Another pegasus tried to take me by surprise, dropping toward my back, but Mephalda shot him out of the air, striking him in the throat with an arrow.

General Typhoon led the way as his soldiers mopped up the remaining resistance. Pushing the door to the cabin open, he stepped inside. Within the flagship’s cabin were many ponies, mostly officers, checking charts of the battle around them. Messages were passed up to them through holes in the floor, and they updated their charts accordingly.

Behind the main charting table was the High Commander, who looked up in surprise as we entered. Beside her stood a Blackwing agent in elaborate robes. No doubt this was Commissar Fireflight. She flexed her wings as she saw us, revealing the hidden blades within them.

“What is the meaning of this?” Lightning’s Fury exclaimed, “General, I demand an explanation!”

“High Commander, we’ve got to end this war, now!” Typhoon said forcefully.

“Now, when we’re on the very verge of absolute triumph?” she scoffed, “I hardly think so. Return to your post.”

I noticed that as she finished she began to pull her sword out of its sheath a bit with the tip of her wing.

“Very well then; I see I have no other choice,” Typhoon said reluctantly, “High Commander Lightning’s Fury, I hereby relieve you of duty.”

“On what grounds?” the High Commander demanded.

“Insanity,” Typhoon replied, “According to the Pegasari Constitution, Article IV, Point 45, if the High Commander proves to be unfit to command during a combat exercise, due to either medical or mental degradation, the field commander has the right to relieve her of duty and take her place.”

“This is treason!” Lightning’s Fury exclaimed, “I’ll see you court-martialed and hung for this!”

“Please,” Typhoon pleaded, “Step down voluntarily.”

“I’d rather die!” the High Commander said, drawing her sword and launching herself through the air at the General.

Typhoon was ready for her and drew his own sword, also taking off into the air. Their blades clashed as they met in midair, and it was soon hard to see exactly what was going on as they tumbled around, their blades flashing as they swung them in a flurry.

Around the room, the Pegasari officers stayed out of the fight, trying to keep their distance. Apparently there were many more pegasi who supported Typhoon than he’d thought. Also, they were all lower ranking officers, and didn’t much care about the upset of power in the upper echelons. It might even pave the way for them to be promoted, once the new High Commander forcibly retired his political enemies.

The Blackwing Commissar was not so docile. She drew a sword and launched herself toward the duo, but was quickly turned away as an arrow from Mephalda struck her in the neck. The shaft didn’t penetrate, as it had hit armor concealed beneath her robes, but it did get her attention. She turned toward the four of us instead, and we scattered as she reached us.

She swung her sword through the Pegasari soldiers loyal to Typhoon before spinning back at us. We ducked down as wing-blades went flying through the room. Mystic put up a ward in front of us as Fireflight threw knives at us with her forehooves.

<> I Shouted as she flew toward us, and her sword went flying from her mouth.

She recovered quickly, twisting her fetlocks in such a way that the hidden blades in her gauntlets extended out. I brought up Dawnbreaker to block as she slashed one of them down at me. Her other blade struck one of Mephalda’s Blackwing blades. She flared her wings, keeping Steadfast and Mystic at a distance. As Mystic tried to fire lightning at the Commissar, it bounced off her enchanted armor, pursuing the caster. Instead, Mystic found a Pegasari sword and tried to get close enough to the mare to strike.

I was forced to move my sword swiftly in order to hold off the Blackwing’s blade. It wasn’t easy, and several times she nearly managed to get a hit on me. Nearby, Mephalda swung her sword around wildly, putting the Commissar on the defensive. At last, Mephalda managed to swing her sword around and snap Fireflight’s hidden blade off. She was taken by surprise as the Blackwing suddenly flicked her hoof up and shot a vial of poison out of her gauntlet.

Mephalda was hit with the poison and fell backwards, her flesh beginning to burn away as the deadly liquid splashed over it. I pulled a potion of cure poison out of my saddlebags and tossed it to her, hoping she could catch it. I’d let my attention lapse long enough already. Fireflight knocked Dawnbreaker out of my grasp and sent it spinning across the floor.

I Shouted as I drew the Blade of Hoofingar.

My ebony blade spun around rapidly, slicing off the Blackwing’s hoof before she could shover her blade into my neck. She was befuddled as I did so, and shot blades out of her wings at Steadfast and Mystic, forcing them to dodge, before turning her wings on me. Desperately, she struggled to block my flurry of strikes with her wing blades while she clutched her bleeding foreleg to her chest.

The blades on her wings shattered beneath my strikes, and I sliced up her wings as well, ensuring she’d never fly again. She drew a knife with her mouth, but I quickly batted it away, sending it sticking in the floor. As she tried to strike me with her good forehoof, I chopped it off as well, before swinging my sword around and taking off her head.

As it rolled away, I rushed over to Mephalda to make sure she was all right. She looked awfully pale, but she was alive at least. She grabbed my hoof and I helped her up, lending her a shoulder to lean on until she regained her full strength.

I retrieved and cleaned my weapon, looking away from the dead Blackwing Commissar, whose blood was staining the wood of the airship. Across the room, General Typhoon managed to run the High Commander through with his sword. He cleaned his blade before sheathing it and trotted over to the holes in the floor from which scrolls were still coming.

“Send a message to all commanders and troops,” the new High Commander ordered the couriers on the deck below, “Announce ceasefire immediately, and recall all troops to their ships.”

“Wait!” I said to Typhoon, “What about the Minotaurs? They’re trying to kill everypony and take over the Northlands.”

“Really?” Typhoon asked before seeing that I was serious, “Okay, announce ceasefire against everyone except the Minotaurs. And have all ships concentrate their fire on the Minotauran army.”

“You know,” Typhoon said to us after he’d sent the couriers off, “I want to end this war as fast as possible, but I can’t immediately withdraw to the Dominion, not while the Minotaurs are here. The Legion and the Stormclouds might not take our presence here very well.”

“Don’t worry about that,” I told him, “I’ve got a plan.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

“You want me to do what?” Stormcloud asked incredulously.

My plan consisted of speaking to the leaders of the different factions and convincing them to end this war. High Commander Typhoon of the Pegasari Dominion was already on my side, and I’d managed to speak to King Grimwarikh the Mighty of the Griffins on the way down from the Pegasari Air Fleet. While he was understandably sore at the Dominion for destroying Griffinium, he agreed to at least give me a chance, and sent his troops to attack the Minotaurs instead.

I had no idea what general would be leading the Imperial Legion, so I expected convincing the unicorns to withdraw would be difficult, maybe even more so than the Dominion. The Stormclouds were the safe bet, or so I’d thought. I already knew the Jarl, and hoped that I’d be able to talk some reason into him.

“This war has got to end,” I explained to him, “Otherwise, we ponies will just end up tearing each other apart, and the Minotaurs will walk over the carnage.”

“If you think I’m going to just forgive those pegasi and unicorns after all they’ve done, you’re sadly mistaken,” Stormcloud said, “The Pegasari took Seclusion, and the Legion now controls Splitten. If I make peace with them now, it cannot last, not while they still control earth pony land.”

“I’m not asking for immediate peace,” I said, putting together a more permanent plan in my mind, “Just a ceasefire and an agreement to fight the Minotaurs instead of each other. We can work out a more lasting peace once this battle is over.”

“How do I know the other sides will honor the agreement?” the Jarl asked.

“I’ve already taken care of the pegasi,” I said, “The High Commander has been replaced with a pony who wants an end to this war just as much as I do. I don’t know about the Legion yet, but hopefully if you call for a ceasefire, the Imperial leader will honor it.”

“I don’t know,” Stormcloud said, considering my proposal, “It seems too risky a gamble to make.”

“Send a party of emissaries with me if you must,” I said, “Send us to the Imperial leader, and we’ll work out a deal.”

“Hmm, very well,” Stormcloud said, though he continued to frown, “I suppose that so long as I have delegates there, the deal worked out will have to be fair.”

“Thank you,” I said, “We won’t disappoint.”

Within my head, I was overjoyed. That was three leaders down, and only one more to go.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Waving a flag of truce, we approached the Imperial lines. Thankfully, they honored it and let us pass through to the command tents set up in the back of the army. I was surprised to see the stallion standing behind the table with a map of the battlefield.

“General Cuirass?” I said, “What are you doing here? I thought you couldn’t leave the Imperial City.”

“As Imperial Potentate, the Equine Council forbade me from leaving,” he explained, “But they can’t very well stop the Emperor from leaving.”

“Well, congratulations,” I said to the new Emperor.

“So, why is it you’ve come here?” he asked.

“I’ve come to make peace,” I replied.

“Always the diplomat,” Cuirass said, shaking his head, “Tell me, why I should make peace with a rebel government that ousted me from power and spit in the Empire’s face, and a land that humiliated the Empire in the last war and seeks to destroy it in this one?”

“Because if you don’t, the Minotaurs are going to take over the Northlands,” I said plainly.

“Ah, yes, the Minotaurs,” Cuirass replied, “I don’t see what that has to do with this, nor do I have any clue where they came from in the first place.”

“They transported themselves forward in time,” I explained, “They were looking for the opportunity to take over the Northlands when they’re weak and defenseless. This war is making the very world they came to conquer, and if you don’t make peace with the other leaders, everypony will be lost.”

“That serious, huh?” Cuirass asked.

“That’s right,” I said, “They’ll win unless everypony bands together to stop them.”

“Very well,” the Emperor replied, “I may not understand exactly why you do the things you do, but you’ve never steered me wrong before. I expect that Stormcloud will be content with a ceasefire now, and the details of peace can be worked out later?”

“That’s right,” Bereloth spoke from behind me, “He agrees to a ceasefire, so long as you agree to focus your forces on the Minotaurs. If you do, he shall do the same.”

“Then it’s agreed,” Emperor Silver Cuirass said, “From this moment on, we share a common enemy, but that does not make us allies, not yet.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

With the Dominion, the Griffins, the Stormclouds, and the Imperial Legion united, the battle against the Minotaurs was soon over. As the dust settled from the Minotaurs’ defeat, the four remaining armies returned to their camps and kept at a distance from each other. Now, it was up to me to arrange for a more permanent peace.

The next day, I traveled to the Crest of the World, and walked the 7000 Steps once more. I spoke to the Greymanes, and they agreed that High Hoofgar could be used as neutral ground to negotiate peace. They were none too keen about having so many ponies step inside their sacred halls, but I was able to convince them that it was for the best if the conference could bring lasting peace.

The day after, the four of us returned to the four remaining armies, splitting up to spread the word faster. Emperor Cuirass, High Commander Typhoon, and Jarl Stormcloud all agreed to attend, but the Griffin King did not. He’d had enough warfare, and his people needed time to heal and rebuild the city they’d lost. He left Horizon, taking his Griffin warriors with him, leaving three armies to work out a peace and defeat the Minotaurs.

On the third day after the Battle of Five Armies, the three leaders met at High Hoofgar, bringing their entourages along. It was crowded in the Greymanes’ conference room, but it didn’t seem to matter now that at last something was getting done. Night-Sparkle called the meeting to order, and the leaders began to voice their intentions.

“The first term on the table should be the return of both Seclusion and Splitten to Horizon,” Stormcloud spoke up.

“Of course,” Typhoon agreed, “It is my intention to withdraw all Pegasari troops from Horizon as soon as possible, and turn Seclusion back over to Stormcloud hooves. In fact, even now my troops are only there to garrison the city in case of Minotaur attack. Jarl Radiance the Fair rules again.”

“Very well,” Stormcloud said, satisfied with Typhoon’s concession, “And you, Emperor Cuirass?”

“I would, of course, be willing to turn over Splitten, but I’m afraid I can’t,” Cuirass responded.

“And why not?” Stormcloud asked, rising angrily.

“Because Splitten is no longer in Imperial hooves,” Cuirass replied evenly, “I received a report last night that Minotaurs have overrun the city. I will, of course, be willing to help drive the fiends from the city and turn it over once it is in my power to do so.”

“I suppose I’ll have to be satisfied with that,” Stormcloud said, taking his seat, “Next, we have to discuss the return of prisoners.”

“Yes,” Typhoon spoke up, “We will gladly return all earth pony and unicorn prisoners if we receive all pegasus prisoners as well. That includes the Blackwings.”

“Unacceptable,” Stormcloud said, “I cannot, in good conscience, turn over agents who seek to dismantle the very foundations of earth pony religion.”

“I can promise you that no longer will they be sent to enforce the ban on Talhooves worship, but only if those you have captured are returned to their homes,” Typhoon said, “The White-Gold Concordat was an unfair treaty, and it was that way on purpose. The purpose of the treaty we are creating here today is to establish lasting peace, where nopony needs fear their neighbor.”

“Fine,” Stormcloud conceded, “All pegasus prisoners will be turned over to you, and the same will be done for the unicorns.”

“We will also return all prisoners,” Cuirass promised, “But if we are talking about lasting peace, there is one more thing we must discuss.”

“What is that?” Typhoon asked.

“The talents of the three races must be shared,” Cuirass explained, “We unicorns will regulate the rising and setting of the sun, moon, and stars, as well as the changing of the seasons, in exchange for food from Horizon and favorable weather from the Pegasari Dominion.”

“The pegasi will proveide both Unicornica and Horizon with the weather they need in exchange for the unicorns’ magic and the earth ponies’ food,” Typhoon agreed.

“And we will provide you both with food in exchange for the cycle of days and seasons and favorable weather,” Stormcloud said, completing the circle.

“Then it’s settled,” Typhoon said, “At last, a lasting peace between our nations.”

“Only one obstacle stands in the way of true peace,” Cuirass pointed out, “The Minotaurs.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

A more official treaty was written up later, guaranteeing all the things the three leaders had promised at High Hoofgar. But, though the war between the pony races was at an end, the war with the Minotaurs was just beginning. During the negotiations, the Minotaurs had not been idle, and had taken Whitetrot. The Three Armies were waiting around the Crest of the World, and the next day they moved out to take Horizon’s central city back.

The Pegasari Air Fleet began the attack, pounding Whitetrot with cannon fire again. Imperial trebuchets and Stormcloud catapults also leant a hoof, pounding the Minotaurs and their automatons waiting inside the city. While the pegasi attacked the city from above, the non-flying ponies stormed the front gates. After a battlemage blew the gates open with a spell, we entered the city.

Minotaurs were waiting for us, and Dawnbreaker tasted blood right away as I slashed through the torso of one of the hulking creatures. Crossbow bolts came shooting down from the rooftops. Mephalda returned fire, shooting arrows at the stationary automatons. I assisted, firing lightning bolts at them, but was forced to stop when a Minotaur with a warhammer charged toward me.

I jumped out of the way as the weapon’s end slammed into the ground where I’d been standing. I stabbed Dawnbreaker toward the Minotaur’s side, but he knocked my blade away with his warhammer. I jumped back as the warhammer swung past my forelegs, and blasted fire at the Minotaur’s hands. He dropped his warhammer and I jumped forward, stabbing Dawnbreaker into his chest armor.

The armor cracked, but I wasn’t able to pierce the Minotaur’s flesh before he knocked me aside with his burned hands and drew a sword from his belt. I ducked down as the sword swung over my head, and then swung Dawnbreaker up to meet the large bronze blade. I shot the Minotaur’s hands with lightning so that his grasp on his blade weakened, and I threw it from his grasp, stabbing my sword up through the hole in his armor I’d made earlier.

As the pony soldiers surged through the city, I followed the wave, heading up into the housing district. Automatons rolled around on the streets, and I shot ice spikes through the heads of a few before they reached me. I brought Dawnbreaker up to block as one swung its blades around at me. I slid my Draconequus bladed down until I was able to slice off the machine’s arm. I spun my sword around and stabbed it through its head a moment later.

Mystic sent a blast of fire rolling down the street, consuming many automatons. I rushed into the gap left by the inferno, and swung Dawnbreaker around at the Minotauran machines. One of them brought up a blade to block me, and I drew my Changeling war axe as well, slamming it into the side of the mech’s head.

I swung Dawnbreaker around at an automaton different than one I’d seen before. It blocked my sword strike with a shield, and tried to stab at me with the sword attached to its other arm. I spun my sword around, knocking the automaton’s blade away. It bashed at me with its shield, and I was forced back.

<<>> I Shouted as it rolled at me.

Ice coated its shield and arms, spreading into its mechanisms. Steadfast slammed his warhammer into the automaton’s shield, shattering it. I followed up with a strike to its torso, impaling the machine in its steam plant. Steam hissed from the ruined automaton as it collapsed to the ground.

My friends and I galloped ahead to where the Pegasari soldiers were finishing off the Minotaurs and automatons in Whitetrot’s square. Together, we headed up the steps to Whitetrot. No more Minotaurs were around, but a death-clanker sat in front of the keep’s doors and stood up, hissing steam, as we approached.

<<>> I Shouted, and storm clouds began to converge overhead.

Lightning shot down from them, striking the automaton repeatedly and breaking apart its armor. I charged toward the machine, dodging the giant bolts it fired at me, the Pegasari troops followed. I ducked as the automation swung an arm over my head, and stabbed my Draconequus blade through its armor, tearing open a gash in its chest.

The death-clanker grabbed me with its mechanical hand and held me in front of it, preparing to scald me with a steam attack. I swung Dawnbreaker into its arm, trying to break free, but its grip held. A lightning bolt went shooting down from the clouds above and penetrated the hole I’d made in the automaton’s chest, striking its power source. The light in its gem eyes died as it toppled to the ground.

While some of the Pegasari worked to pull the automaton’s remains out of the way, Mystic, Steadfast, Mephalda, and I stepped into Dragonsreach. There were only three Minotaurs here, one of them sitting in a new throne where Jarl Valor’s Blade’s had been. The two armed Minotaurs charged toward us, drawing their crossbows to take a few shots before we were within melee range.

Mystic put a ward up in front of us, deflecting the deadly shafts, and Mephalda fired arrows back through it. One of her shots hit a Minotaur in the hand, making him drop his crossbow and pull the shaft out. I drew Dawnbreaker as I leapt toward one of the armored Minotaurs. She drew a greatsword, and our blades clashed.

I tried to slide my Draconequus sword down toward her hand, but she flicked it away with her own weapon, and swung her blade at my back. The greatsword struck the armor, and I fell to the ground from the force of the impact. I rolled over, bringing Dawnbreaker up to block as she swung her blade down at me again.

<> I Shouted, sending a blast of dragon fire up at her and forcing her to step back.

I swung Dawnbreaker around at her hooves as I rose, but she jumped to the side, and my blade only grazed her armor. As she swung her greatsword toward my head, I ducked under it and jumped in toward her, stabbing Dawnbreaker through her armor. I drove the blade in up to the hilt, swiftly pulling it from her body as she toppled to the ground.

Mystic finished off the other Minotaur, frying him within his armor with continuous lightning. I wiped my sword off and strode toward the last Minotaur, the one sitting in the throne.

“Please, don’t kill me!” he begged as we approached, “I surrender!”

“We’ll take him prisoner,” I said.

Enough blood had been shed on the Minotaurs’ account, and even more would be before this whole thing was over.

“I knew this was a bad idea,” the Minotaur said, “But Adamantium Resolve wouldn’t listen.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Everything went wrong!” he replied, “Underkeep’s Overseer transported us too far forward; too many Arcanexi were damaged, and most of our race never arrived. Then the Supreme Commander had us abandon Underkeep; in fact, we abandoned nearly all our cities and moved to take your towns. Adamantium Resolve should have known you’d fight for every city, but he gave the order anyway.”

“Where is he now?” I asked.

“Supreme Commander Adamantium Resolve?” the Minotaur asked, “He’s hiding out in the only Minotauran city we still occupy, Nuzel-zum.”

“Nuzel-zum,” Steadfast said, “Isn’t that in-”

“Marekarth,” I finished for him.

Level Up
Health: 380 Stamina: 380 Magicka: 380
New Perk: The Weakest Link [Light Weapons] -- Your skill with Light Weapons allows you to find the most vulnerable spot on an enemy, allowing you to ignore their armor rating.
New Quest: The Minotauran Plan -- Take Marekarth back from the Minotaurs and capture Adamantium Resolve.

Chapter 86: The Final Battle

Chapter LXXXVI: The Final Battle
“He’s not a monster; he’s a MINOTAUR!”

With Whitetrot retaken, the Three Armies made a push for Marekarth immediately. The Minotauran Overseer of Whitetrot had said that the Minotauran Supreme Overseer was in Nuzel-zum, and we intended to catch him off guard while we had a chance. As the sun set, we reached the city of Marekarth, which was active with Minotauran technology once more.

Pegasi rained down from the sky, landing within Marekarth’s walls and taking the Minotaurs by surprise. The Legion and Stormclouds surged toward the city’s gate, forcing it open with battering rams. Just inside the gates, the Minotaurs had set up ballistae that tore apart the front ranks of soldiers as they attempted to enter the city.

Steadfast, Mystic, and I hid just outside the gates as Mephalda flew over the wall, firing arrows at the sentries atop it. She tackled the Minotaur that was watching after the ballistae, sinking her Blackwing blades into his back. Once he was out of the way, she deactivated the giant crossbows so that we could enter. A cheer went up from the Stormclouds and Imperials, and we all charged into the city together.

I spotted a group of automatons and Minotaurs trying to come at us from the side and ran to intercept. I blasted the first mech with a bolt of lightning before sinking my Draconequus sword into its head. As I threw the automaton off, I swung my blade around and met the sword of another automaton.

The machine pulled its weapon back before swinging it back around at me, both its arms spinning around its body. I ducked down beneath the blades, and swung my sword at the sphere holding the automaton up. As it tried to roll away, my sword sliced its method of locomotion apart, and it fell to the ground. I slashed Dawnbreaker through its head before it could try to push itself back up.

A Minotaur swung a mace at me, and I blasted fire at him, forcing him to keep his distance. As my flames ran out, he charged back in, swinging his oversized mace around at my side. I blocked with Dawnbreaker, stopping his strike, if only just barely. I jumped back as he swung the mace around and down at my head.

<> I Shouted, and his swing came up short as he stopped to clutch at his chest.

While he was vulnerable, I jumped it toward him, swinging my sword around at his tarnished armor. The blade cut through easily enough, but I didn’t give him a severe wound and was forced to jump back as he swung his mace at me. The next time his mace came my way, I swung around not at the weapon, but at his hand. As my blade sliced through the backs of his hairy fingers, he dropped his weapon, and I was able to stab my blade up through his armor and into his chest.

I shot ice spikes at another Minotaur as I swung my Draconequus blade around and through the torso of an automaton. The Minotaur I’d been shooting at drew her crossbow and began shooting at me. I grabbed a Minotauran shield that had been dropped by someone, and used it to block the bolts as I advanced toward the Minotaur.

I threw the shield at her as I reached it, and she dropped her crossbow. She had a battleaxe out in a moment, however, and swung it around at me. I jumped back, avoiding the swinging blade, and shot a bolt of lightning at the Minotaur. A gem embedded in her armor absorbed my magic, and I did no harm to her.

I swung Dawnbreaker around at her legs, but she blocked with her battleaxe. I swung my blade around again, this time aiming for her waist, but she once again blocked, hooking her weapon over mine. She tried to pull Dawnbreaker away from me, but I held on tightly, refusing to let go, until I yanked my sword free and swung it around through her chest. Her armor split as my blade dug through her flesh, and she fell to the ground dead.

I picked the Minotauran shield up again as crossbow bolts began to rain down on me. I advanced toward where they were coming from, a group of Minotauran automatons with crossbows instead of blades at the ends of their arms. Climbing stairs up to the next tier of the city, I knocked one off the ledge with my shield. Holding it between myself and the remaining automatons, I worked my way down the line, destroying the machines with my Draconequus blade.

A flash of light caught my eye, and I turned to see a fireball flying down from the guard tower in the center of the city. It landed among the pony soldiers, frying a group of them instantly. Looking up at where it had come from, I saw that the Minotaurs had rigged up some kind of machine that could replicate a unicorn’s magic and shoot fire.

As another blast of flame was shot into the city, I made my way up toward the tower. A few automatons got in my way as I headed up toward the keep, and I brought Dawnbreaker up to block their swings. As a blade struck mine, I slid my sword down it until I was able to chop the sword off. The automaton swung its other blade around at me, and I ducked before swinging Dawnbreaker around and slicing that one off too.

<<>> I Shouted, and the machine I’d just disarmed went flying back, smashing into the others behind it.

I sent flames shooting out from my horn as the machines began to recover and roll toward me. It wasn’t until after a few rolled into the flames and began to heat up that I killed the fire and swung toward the glowing figures with my Draconequus sword. My blade sliced through the heated metal, ripping the automatons apart. I carefully stepped around the still-glowing automaton wrecks as I approached the rest of the machines.

I swung Dawnbreaker around at an automaton, the force of my swing tearing its arm off. It spun its remaining blade around toward me, but I blocked it easily and forced the weapon back. To finish the machine off, I swung Dawnbreaker around through its neck, separating its body from the thinking mechanisms in its head. Without its head, the automaton rolled off the ledge and crashed to the ground.

<<>> I Shouted, covering the remaining automatons in a wave of ice.

As their steam plants froze over, they came to a stop, and they offered no resistance as I slashed Dawnbreaker through the brittle metal. A crossbow bolt went shooting past my head as I took care of the last one, and turned to see a Minotaur advancing toward me. I galloped to meet him, dodging the bolts he fired at me.

I shot a blast of fire ahead of me just before I met him, but the Minotaur seemed unfazed, and drew a spear to fight me. I swung my Draconequus sword around at his leg, but he easily blocked it with his spear. He spun it around, pushing my sword away, and stabbed the javelin at me. I stepped back, and the tip struck the stone between my forehooves.

I tried to take the opportunity to swing Dawnbreaker around and knock the spear to the side, but the Minotaur was too quick for me and swung his weapon up, striking my chest. My crystalline armor held, but I was thrown back off my hooves and dropped my sword.

I pulled out the Blade of Hoofingar as the Minotaur stabbed at me again, and I knocked his weapon to the side. Undeterred, he swung his spear around, cracking the end across the side of my head. I tumbled across the ground, recovering just in time to block his next swing. I was dangerously close to the ledge that dropped down to Marekarth’s lower level, and as the Minotaur swung the spear at me again, I grabbed it in my magic. Heaving with all my might, I pulled the Minotaur closer to the edge before pushing him the rest of the way with my hooves.

I jumped to my hooves as he went plummeting down, and galloped up toward the upper level of the city. As I reached the area in front of the keep, an automaton with a crossbow began to fire at me. I shot ice spikes back until I managed to tear its crossbow off its body. Leaving the unarmed automaton behind, I headed for the guard tower.

It was built in an odd place, on the opposite side of the Temple of Difillya. I crept around the temple, trying not to broadcast my presence, until I was within sight of the tower. Another blast of flame went shooting down from above as I approached the tower’s door and pushed it open.

A Minotaur standing within saw me immediately and drew his sword. I charged toward him, Dawnbreaker swinging, and our blades met. The metal screeched as we pulled them apart, and I swung toward the Minotaur’s legs. He blocked, pushing my sword away, and swung at my head. I ducked down, but swung Dawnbreaker over my head, meeting his blade.

In order to get a bit more height, I jumped onto a table, putting me nearly face to face with the Minotaur. The drawback was that I couldn’t maneuver quite as well. I jumped as the Minotaur swung his blade around at my legs. When he swung back at them, I was barely able to dodge and ended up landing on his sword, pinning it to the table. I swung Dawnbreaker around, slicing off the Minotaur’s head before he could draw another weapon.

Leaving the Minotaur’s corpse behind, I headed up the stairs to the open top of the tower, where the flame engine was set up. I pushed the trapdoor open rapidly before jumping through, catching the machine’s operator by surprise. He fired a shot at me with a crossbow before dropping it and grabbing a war axe.

I jumped to the side as he swung it around at my head, being careful not to fall from this precarious place. I swung Dawnbreaker around, stopping his blade as he swung it down at me. As I swung my sword toward his neck, he sidestepped, nearly running into the flame engine. I took advantage of the slip-up to swing my blade around at his arm.

Unfortunately, my blade didn’t penetrate, and it only left a nick in the armor. The Minotaur swung his blade around at me, and I ducked down to avoid it. As he swung it at me again, I blocked with my Draconequus blade, holding him in place. He gave a quick twist of his axe, and was able to pull my sword away from me, sending it clattering to the floor.

Before he could swing his weapon back around, an arrow sprouted from his throat. More soon followed, and he staggered backwards, tumbling over the railing and falling from the tower. Mephalda flew into the tower and landed next to me.

“It looked like you could use some help,” she said as I retrieved my sword.

“Thanks,” I said before trotting over to the flame engine, “How do you suppose this thing works?”

Turns out, it was very easy to work. Spinning the wheels mounted on the side allowed it to spin and aim, and a simple pull of a lever shot a blast of fire from the smoking end. I turned the Minotaurs’ own weapon against them, raining fireballs down on them and their automatons wherever I saw them.

Once all the enemies within the city were taken care of, Mephalda and I left the tower and headed down toward the city’s keep, meeting up with the rest of the ponies there. We followed the crowd into the side of the mountain, where some of the soldiers had already entered. It appeared that the ballistae that had troubled us during the Stormcloud invasion of the city had been repaired, but it didn’t take long for them to get destroyed again.

While some of the ponies headed for the throne room and the rest of the keep’s rooms, I led the bulk of the troops to the entrance to the Nuzel-zum excavation. As we neared the bridge, a terrible hissing of steam came from the far doors. Three giant automatons came lumbering out of Nuzel-zum and began to shoot their giant crossbow bolts at the assembled soldiers.

My friends and I split off from the main group of ponies as one of the death-clankers began to make its way toward the exit to Marekarth. Mystic shot a blast of pure magic at the automaton, melting one of its legs.

<<>> I Shouted, quickly cooling the melted metal so that the automaton was fused to the ground.

The machine pulled its leg free, causing it to snap in two, and slipped as it tried to walk again. Steadfast charged in and swung his warhammer at one of its arms, knocking the crossbow apart. The automaton lifted its other arm, revealing it had a flame-launching device underneath, and aimed it at Steadfast. Mystic teleported in, grabbed Steadfast, and teleported out before the machine fired its flames at him.

Mephalda fired an arrow at its flame-throwing device, but missed as the automaton stood up. The machine extended its crossbow-less arm and used it as a crutch as it stood up. With its other arm, it alternated between shooting flames and crossbow bolts at us.

<<>> I Shouted, galloping swiftly in toward the automaton.

I slashed Dawnbreaker through its flame-throwing device as I galloped under its arm and ran away as fast as I could as a fireball exploded out from it. Putting out the flames at the ends of my mane and tail, I dodged the swing the automaton made at me with its charred arm.

The machine turned toward me, and I brought Dawnbreaker up to block as it swung its arm down at me. My Draconequus blade tore through the machinery, causing the machine’s hand to go limp. Steam began to hiss from the automaton, and it opened its chest as it prepared a steam attack against me.

<> I Shouted, and time slowed to a crawl.

Before the death-clanker could blast me with scalding hot steam, I jumped toward its open chest. An orb rotated in the center, bizarre and magical lights swirling within. I stabbed Dawnbreaker through it, causing the automaton to explode. I ran away as the machine was blown to bits, and doubled my pace as time returned to normal.

The other automatons were destroyed by that time, and the soldiers were pouring through the doors to Nuzel-zum; we followed close behind them. As we entered the ancient Minotauran city, we encountered mostly automatons. The Minotaurs we did spot retreated almost immediately after seeing us. The upside was that they were unwittingly leading us right to the Supreme Overseer.

So far, the path was following the same route we’d followed to get to the observatory. Therefore, we knew exactly what to expect as we entered a large, dark room. Mystic and I began shooting lighting up at the ceiling immediately after entering, striking the horde of Minotauran spiders clustered up there.

Lightning bolts began to rain down on us from the automatons, and the unicorn battlemages around us put up wards. They extended them as the pegasi flew up to strike out at the machines. The earth pony archers provided cover fire as they did so, and soon the spiders were all gone, their broken metal husks falling to the floor.

We continued through the Minotauran city, passing by hissing steam pipes and empty workshops. As we entered the Debate Hall, the Minotaurs finally stood their ground. Mystic shot a blast of lightning at the row of Minotaurs wielding crossbows in the back as they began to fire their bolts at us, and the Stormcloud archers followed suit with their arrows, returning fire.

I scrambled through the chaos until I ran into one of the armored Minotaurs. She swung her sword down at my back, and I swung Dawnbreaker around to block. I drew my Changeling war axe as well and swung it toward the Minotaur’s legs, but she drew another sword and blocked my swing.

She crossed her blades and slid them away, nearly pulling my axe from my grip. She swung one around toward the side of my head and the other down from the top, and I blocked them both with my otherworldly weapons. She pulled her sword away from my Draconequus blade and drew it back before swinging around at my forelegs. Her sword glanced off my crystalline armor, and I brought Dawnbreaker around to block as she angled the sword up toward my chin.

<> I Shouted, and her swords went flying from her grip.

I swung Dawnbreaker up toward her chest, but she blocked with a raised ridge of metal on the outside of her greaves. As I swung my Changeling war axe around at her legs, she did the same thing with her other arm. I sheathed my axe and shot a blast of lightning at her.

However, she now had a free arm and used it to punch me in the neck. I gasped for breath as I dropped Dawnbreaker. She snatched my Draconequus sword up with her hand and lunged at me with it. I galloped beneath her arm and around behind her as she did so, drawing my ebony sword. Before she could turn around, I plunged the Blade of Hoofingar through a gap in her back armor. As she collapsed to the ground, I retrieved Dawnbreaker from her hand.

I spun around at a Minotaur wielding a mace. As he tried to smash me with his weapon, I ran under it and stabbed Dawnbreaker into his chest. My strike failed to kill him, however, and he grabbed me by the tail and threw me away from him. I ducked down to avoid his mace as he swung it at my cheek, and knocked it to the ground with Dawnbreaker. I jumped onto his mace and used it to launch myself toward the Minotaur.

He swung his arm at me, stopping me from reaching him. As he did so, I grabbed onto his gauntlet with my magic and used my momentum to pull it off his arm. I threw it away as I slid across the floor, my hooves creating sparks. I galloped back toward him, dodging a swing of his mace, and swung Dawnbreaker around.

My blade sliced off his hand, and the Minotaur instantly dropped his weapon in pain and clutched his bleeding forearm to his chest. He blocked my next swipe with the gauntlet on his good arm, and pulled a potion from his belt. Before he could use it, I used my Changeling war axe to yank his arm out of the way, and stabbed my Draconequus sword through his chest.

One Minotauran archer was much better than the rest. So far nopony had been able to reach and kill him without dying themselves. Even Mephalda wasn’t able to do more than land a hit or two on him with her bow. I galloped right toward that Minotaur.

I Shouted as he turned to shoot at me with his crossbow.

Immediately his heart was filled with fear, and he cowered away from me. He turned to run and hastily fired a few poor shots with his projectile weapon that I was easily able to dodge. He even threw his crossbow at me in an attempt to slow me down before my Shout wore off, and he realized his mistake.

He drew a sword from his belt as I reached him, and blocked my swing at his neck. Dawnbreaker flew through the air, headed for the Minotaur’s waist, but he managed to angle his sword and block before going on the offensive. He swung his blade around toward my neck, and I spun my Draconequus blade around to block.

As he slid his sword down my blade and angled it toward my neck, I stepped to the side, and his blade slid along the side of my helmet instead. As it neared my neck, I spun Dawnbreaker around and knocked his sword away. I ducked as he swung the blade back at me, and I jumped forward, slicing my Draconequus sword up through his side. My blade cut through armor, bone, and flesh beneath, puncturing his lung. I stepped away as he fell to the floor, coughing up blood.

As the soldiers finished off the last of the Minotaurs, I rejoined my friends, and we scouted ahead, searching for the Supreme Overseer. We spotted an armed Minotaur standing in front of a locked gate and converged on him. He drew a flail as we approached and swung it around, blocking out progress.

Mephalda shot arrows at the Minotaur, but most bounced off his armor. Mystic’s blast of lightning managed to get through, sending him shaking and knocking his flail from his hand. Steadfast and I charged forward as he recovered and retrieved his weapon. He spun the flail around, and the head slammed into my back, my armor absorbing the strike.

I sliced at his arm with Dawnbreaker, and he drew it back as Steadfast swung his warhammer into the Minotaur’s leg. I heard bone snap, and the Minotaur fell to his knees. He swung his flail around, wrapping the chain around Steadfast’s warhammer before pulling my companion’s weapon away from him. As the warhammer went flying, the Minotaur prepared to swing his flail at Steadfast.

<> I Shouted, and the Minotaur’s weapon went flying from his hand.

I spun Dawnbreaker around before stabbing it into the Minotaur’s chest. He grabbed at the blade with his hands, trying to stop it from sinking in deeper. He released it as the blade cut through his armor and he tried to shove me away instead, only succeeding in impaling himself further. I pulled Dawnbreaker from his chest as he toppled forward, dead.

The soldiers caught up to us as I finished off the guard, and the battlemages burned the lock off the gate, allowing us to proceed up the steps on the other side. We climbed through the ancient Minotauran city, heading for what we hoped was the Overseer’s office. Crossbow turrets on the walls appeared from time to time, but the pegasi were easily able to fly up and disarm them while the unicorns provided magical protection. I took their appearance as a good sign, suggesting that whatever was up here was worth protecting.

A hallway at the top of the stairs held doors to several offices, and the soldiers forced each of them open, checking for Minotaurs. Most of those they found were civilian administrators, and they surrendered immediately, some even pointing the way to the Supreme Overseer. We followed their directions down the halls, headed for the one Minotaur that could end all this.

The door the other Minotaurs had said to look for suddenly opened as we approached. Out of it strode a Minotaur coated in armor that hissed steam. Bulky apparatuses stuck out from the armor in places, running the mechanical suit. The Minotaur wearing the steam powered armor leveled an arm at us and began to rapidly fire crossbow bolts from the weapon mounted on his forearm.

Mystic put a ward up in front of us, stopping the projectiles, while Mephalda returned fire. I leant a hoof, shooting ice spikes at the Minotaur and trying to strike the machinery on the suit. Giving up on using its crossbow, the Minotaur switched to the flame-launcher mounted on its other arm. The flames washed down the narrow hallway, having nowhere to go but straight at us. Mystic braced herself as the fire hit her ward and passed around it.

<<>> I Shouted, sprinting down the hall until I was standing before the Minotaur blocking our way.

I swung Dawnbreaker at his arm as I dodged around him, wrecking his crossbow. Flicking his arms, he caused a blade to emerge from each of his gauntlets and swung them around at me. I ducked under one and jumped over the other before blocking his next swings with Dawnbreaker and the Blade of Hoofingar.

While he was facing toward me, he had his back toward my friends. Mystic rushed in, coating the steam plant on his back in ice. Steadfast galloped past her, smashing the plant to bits with a strike from his warhammer. Without its power source, the Minotaur had trouble moving his armor. As he sluggishly tried to bring his blade around to block, I swiped Dawnbreaker across his neck, and he collapsed to the floor.

Not wasting any time, I headed for the door the Minotaur had emerged from. Throwing it open, I stepped into a large conference room, my friends close behind me. The Minotaurs within abandoned what they were doing and raised their hands up in surrender.

“Which one of you is Adamantium Resolve?” I asked.

The Minotaurs all pointed to the Supreme Commander, who was standing at the head of the table. Adamantium Resolve lowered his hands as he was pointed out, and strode around the table toward me.

“Why do you want to know?” he asked innocently.

“I need you to call off your war against ponykind,” I said as soldiers of each of the three races began to enter the room.

“Call off this war?” he asked, “A war that took decades to plan and centuries to come to fruition?”

“You’re going to fail,” I told him, “Surrender now.”

“What makes you think the Minotaurs will fail?” he asked, striding up to me and bending down to look me in the eye, “We have technology and weapons far superior to your primitive tools.”

“Your invasion’s already failed,” I stated, “Not enough Minotaurs were transported forward in time. Your cities are in ruins, and you abandoned Underkeep, your most defensible position. Nuzel-zum is all you have left, and a pony army is storming it as we speak.”

“We still control your town Splitten,” the Supreme Overseer replied, though he seemed to be grasping at straws now.

“How long will that last?” I asked, “A day? Maybe two? You’ve lost.”

“And if I do surrender,” he said, “What will become of my people?”

“You’ll be allowed to live,” the voice of Emperor Cuirass spoke from behind me, “But you’ll be forced to leave the Northlands, so that you cause no further trouble for us.”

I turned around to see all three leaders were here now that this area of Nuzel-zum was secure. Of course, I was fairly certain these three stallions would’ve come even if things weren’t safe. It was just who they were.

“Leaving our cities and our homes?” Adamantium Resolve asked, “How can you even ask such a thing?”

“You brought this on yourself,” High Commander Typhoon replied, “If you had returned in peace, we would have gladly welcomed you back. But, you decided to attack instead, and so you will be forced to leave this land.”

“We’re not asking,” Jarl Stormcloud pointed out, “This is not a negotiation between two equal parties who will mutually benefit. This is us laying down our demands in a way much fairer than you deserve.”

“What choice do I have?” the Supreme Overseer said, “If I accept your terms, then my race will be forced to leave everything we have, but if I don’t, then we will all die. I accept, but I will not forget this, and neither will my people.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I watched from Marekarth’s guard tower as the Minotaurs filed out of the city as a group, soldiers from the Three Armies escorting them. The line of torches and lamps stretched out of the city and weaved south through the Karth. Eventually the Minotaurs would make their way to Horizon’s southern border, and would use some little used mountain passes to leave the Northlands forever.

I watched a lone windigo fly through the air, searching for its fellows. I’d noticed a sudden increase of them in the sky during the Battle of Five Armies, and I’d seen them more often than normal ever since. But, now that the Northlands were finally at peace, the windigos had no conflict and hatred to feed off of and were starving.

One of my main goals was completed, and now only one more remained. Alduin had to die.

Level Up
Health: 390 Stamina: 380 Magicka: 380
New Perk: Be a Tree [Sneak] -- You are now able to hide in plain sight from enemies searching for you by impersonating the scenery.
New Quest: At the End of it All -- Enter Sovngarde and defeat Alduin using the Elements of Harmony.

Chapter 87: Journey's End

Chapter LXXXVII: Journey’s End
“I told you that the future of Equestria didn’t rest on me making friends. But the opposite is true!”

The next day dawned far too soon for my liking, a crisp and clear morning. Today was the day I was finally going to finish what had been started exactly four months earlier. When I’d left Unicornica I’d never imagined what would happen to me. In a short amount of time I’d gone from being a nobody to being the only pony to challenge Alduin.

I’d met some great ponies that I was glad to call my friends. They were the first ponies I’d met to completely overlook my lack of a cutie-mark and accept me for who I was. Speaking of my cutie-mark, it still hadn’t appeared on my flank, but I was no longer worried. It didn’t seem as big a deal as it had when I’d left for Horizon. After all, I’d accomplished so much without it. I doubted anypony since Talhooves had had such a big impact on the Northlands as me.

I knew what I had to do; the Elements were all primed and ready to do their jobs, and yet I was hesitant. I knew how this mission was going to end. Alduin had said he’d linked his life force to Sovngarde, so that if he died, so would the earth pony afterlife. If the Elements did their job as I suspected they would, the very world around me would be destroyed, and I doubted I’d make it out alive.

I was wandering around Marekarth, trying to work up the courage to do what had to be done, when I stopped in the city’s market. Amid all the destruction from the many battles fought here, a traveling bard had decided to bring light with the gift of music. I stopped and listened as she sang her song.

“Alduin’s wings, they did darken the sky.”
“His roar fury’s fire, and his scales sharpened scythes.”
“Ponies ran and they cowered, and they fought, and they died.”
“They burned and they bled as they issued their cries.”
“We need saviors to free us from Alduin’s rage.”
“Heroes on the field of this new war to wage.”
“For if Alduin wins, ponykind’s gone from this world.”
“Lost in the shadows of the black wings unfurled.”
“But then came the Tongues on that terrible day.”
“Steadfast as winter, they entered the fray.”
“And all heard the music of Alduin’s doom.”
“The sweet song of Horizon, sky-shattering Thu’um.”
“And so the Tongues freed us from Alduin’s rage.”
“Gave the gift of the Voice, ushered in a new age.”
“And if Alduin’s eternal, then eternity’s done.”
“For his story is over, and the dragons are gone.”

I suddenly felt filled with purpose. The song the bard had sung had definitely been written long ago, after the Tongues defeated Alduin. The end was no longer true; Alduin’s story was not yet over, but it was up to me to end it. The middle of the song, however, was just as true as the day it had been written. The Northlands needed a hero to stop Alduin before he destroyed everything, and I would just have to do.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

After I told my friends that I was ready to go, we set out on the long journey to Skuldafn. As we passed Splitten, I watched as the Minotaurs filed out of the city, heading for lands south of the Northlands. Passing the town by, we headed up into Horizon’s eastern mountains. The paths I’d noticed from above on our first trip here and marked came in handy, allowing us to find our way to the ancient earth pony ruin. When we reached Skuldafn, it was just as abandoned as when we’d left it.

“Well, I guess it’s time we finish this,” Mystic said as I stopped in front of the portal to Sovngarde.

“It’s just going to be me entering,” I announced, turning to face my friends, “I have to do this alone.”

“No way!” Steadfast protested, “If you’re going, we’re going too!”

“Steadfast is right,” Mephalda said, though a bit less forcefully, “We’re not letting you do this on your own.”

“You can’t come with me,” I said, “After you . . . died last time, Alduin told me that he’d bound his soul to Sovngarde. If he dies, Sovngarde is destroyed. We don’t all have to die. Just me.”

“There’s got to be another way,” Steadfast said, “We’ll find some way to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“We’re out of time,” I said, shaking my head, “Ponykind may be united, but it’s never been weaker. If Alduin and his dragons make their final strike now, the Northlands will be consumed. I’ve got to do this.”

“So,” I said, my voice catching in my throat, “I guess this is goodbye.”

“Steadfast,” I continued, approaching my earth pony friend, “You were my first real friend. You were the first pony to look past my blank flank and accept me. Thank you for helping me to see my own self worth. I’ve only known you for a short time, but in that time, through the things we’ve done, you’ve become like a brother to me. I’m going to miss you dearly.”

“Mephalda,” I said, walking over to her now, “When we first met, you were nothing like what I’d been told to expect. Instead of a heartless murderer, you turned out to be a caring and compassionate mare who helped me get through my problems. Thanks for being there for me. I’m going to miss you so much.”

“Mystic,” I continued, stepping over to the mage now, “We’ve been through so much together, how can I ever say goodbye? You’ve always been there for me, no matter what. I can’t believe we’ll never see each other again.”

“I’m going to miss you all so much,” I concluded, blinking away my tears.

My friends moved in to embrace me one last time, comforting me and preparing to say goodbye forever.

“Well, I guess this is it,” I said as they released me, “Look after my stuff; I might come back for it after all.”

I pulled off all my gear, including my weapons and armor, and set them down with my saddlebags. All I carried with me now was the one weapon that could actually hurt Alduin. Waving goodbye, I stepped through the portal to Sovngarde.

{O} {O} {O}

Once more, I trotted through the fields of earth pony paradise. Mists projected by Alduin still covered the land, but I was sure he could see me through them. He would know I was here by now. Oddly, a strange sense of calm passed over me. I now knew exactly what I had to do and there was no going back.

A brief flash came from behind me, and I craned my neck to see that an image now adorned my flank. At last I knew my purpose in life, and my cutie-mark had finally appeared to prove it. I would’ve been overjoyed to see the mark just a few months earlier, but now it didn’t seem like such a big deal. The symbol that represented my destiny was a series of Draconic runes, but I could easily read and understand.

~DOVAHKIIN~

Dragonborn.

As I neared the bridge to the Hall of Valor, I heard Alduin’s wingbeats. The mist was blown away as he flew low over the ground and settled down in front of me. The massive dragon stared down at me disdainfully.

<”!!SO MY LITTLE PONY, YOU HAVE RETURNED TO DIE AGAIN!!”>

“No,” I replied, “I’ve come to kill you.”

<”!!AGAIN??!!”> Alduin chuckled, <”!!BECAUSE THAT WORKED SO WELL THE LAST TIME!!”>

“This time I have the Elements of Harmony,” I declared.

<”!!YES, DEFEAT ME WITH THE MAGIC OF FRIENDSHIP!!”> Alduin said sarcastically, <”!!WHAT GOOD ARE YOUR VIRTUES AGAINST THE FIRSTBORN OF BUCKATOSH??!!>

“They’re worth so much,” I said, “And I’ve learned that in my journey to defeat you. I learned how important it is to be honest, especially with your friends. Because, if you are true friends, they will accept you no matter what terrible thing you have to admit to them.”

As I said so, the orange diamond hanging from my neck began to glow brilliantly and levitate a bit away from my body.

“I learned how important it is to be loyal to your friends,” I continued, “Even when it would be easier just to disown them, you need to be ready to stand up for them. And if they experience hardship, it’s your responsibility as well. You need to be there for them whenever they need you, whatever the circumstance.”

The red hexagon began to glow and joined the Element of Honesty in floating around my body.

“I also learned how important it is to show kindness to others,” I went on, “No matter how they’ve treated you in the past. In our brutal land, finding a pony you really want to treat well is hard, but in order to be treated with kindness by others, you have to show it yourself first.”

The Element of Kindness joined Honesty and Loyalty.

“It’s also important to give generously to others, especially when they don’t deserve it. It may take quite a lot of giving, but eventually the recipients of your gifts will begin to be changed by them. And the thanks you get from those you give to is better than any gift you could receive.”

A green light joined the orange, red, and purple ones already floating around me.

“I learned how important it is to be able to laugh, and to have somepony to laugh with. Just because the times we live in are grim, it doesn’t mean we have to be gloomy all the time. Taking the time to raise another’s spirits brings light not just to their day, but to yours as well.”

The blue rectangle floated up into the air, joining the others and producing a radiant light that beamed out from me.

“And when all those Elements come together, and are practiced by true friends, the spark within them creates a magic greater than anything else. It is a magic so powerful that nothing can stop it, and nothing can hope to best it. This is the magic you don’t understand, and it is the magic that will destroy you.”

The Element of Magic joined the other five, and a brilliant light burst out from the cluster of gems. As color burst from the Elements, it eventually congealed into a dazzling rainbow that shot from the gems and arced through the air, slamming into Alduin. As it hit him, his flesh began to shatter, and his blood began to boil.

<”!!NO!! THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING!!!!”> the great dragon exclaimed as his flesh was stripped away by multicolored light, <”!!I CANNOT BE DEFEATED!! I AM THE GREAT AL~DU~IN!!”>

As his flesh was torn apart and his skeleton began to burn and shatter, Sovngarde grew dark. The lights in the sky swirled ominously, and the mountains in the distance began to shatter, exploding into the air. The Hall of Valor was torn to splinters as the ground beneath it flew apart, and the dragon skeleton that formed a bridge tumbled down the endless falls.

The world flew apart around me, and I stood among the chaos, until a cliff slammed into me, and I died.

Author's Note

After more than two years, this story has finally come to an end. There are a few more epilogues and "post-chapters" after this, but since this is the end of the main story, I thought it the best place to leave my final set of Author's Notes.

I have a few people I'd like to thank, first and foremost being my editor, who took the time to comb through the over 400K words in this story and correct my many grammatical mistakes. I have no doubt that editing took a huge amount of time and I appreciate it greatly.

I would also like to thank those who left comments on the story so I could get an idea of your thoughts and reactions. Special shoutouts to the two most frequent commenters: Constellation (who's followed the story and left me comments pretty much all the way through), and WubsAndWaffles (who provided a lot of comments and enthusiasm at the beginning of the story). For my first published fimfic, it was great to see all your reactions.

Before I begin publishing my next fic, there will be a short hiatus to give my editor some time off. Sometime during that hiatus I'll do a blog post describing what's coming.

I hope you enjoyed this story, and if you'd like a PDF copy in its glorious 1217 page entirety, e-mail me at fireofthenorth.writer@gmail.com with a request and I'll send it to you.

Thanks so much for reading The Equine Scrolls: SkyFiM all the way through!

FireOfTheNorth

Epilogue

Epilogue

I was . . .

. . . somewhere . . .

. . . Falling?

No, floating . . .

Where was I floating?

Why was I floating?

Why was I surrounded by jagged pieces of crystal, which also seemed to be floating?

“Oh, good, you’re awake,” a familiar voice came from over my shoulder, “I was getting a bit worried there.”

“Discord?” I asked, spinning myself through the air to look at him, “What happened?”

“I’m afraid you died . . . again,” the Draconequus said, “And I saved you, or most of you at least.”

“What do you mean most of me?”

“Well, I recovered your body, but your mind was already gone, shattered I’m afraid, by the world ending around you.”

“So, where are we now?” I asked.

“In your mind, of course,” Discord replied, gesturing around at the broken spires of crystal surrounding me, “Well, that’s not exactly true. We’re within a soul gem that contains your mind until it’s repaired and can be safely returned to your body.”

“This is my mind?” I asked.

“I did say it was in quite a sorry state,” Discord said, “But, considering how you killed Alduin and destroyed Sovngarde, you should be lucky there’s anything left to recover.”

“So, the Elements worked?” I asked, “Alduin’s dead then?”

“They worked marvelously,” Discord said, “Alduin’s been destroyed, and the dragons are fleeing the Northlands. You also succeeded spectacularly at your other task. The windigos are retreating, and the Northlands look like they will last another few centuries, long enough for ponykind to find a new home.”

“Good,” I replied, comforted by the news, “My friends?”

“They await your return. They visit your body from time to time, in Blank Flanks Barrow, waiting for the day you awake.”

“Awake?”

“Yes, your body waits for the day your mind is whole again. But, that will not happen without your help. It requires your input to heal such a wound. That is why you are here, to repair your damaged mind.”

“It seems like quite a task,” I said, looking around at the destruction surrounding me.

“Yes, but it should be well within your abilities,” Discord said, also surveying the state of my mind, “And don’t worry about the Elements of Harmony; I’ll take good care of them.”

“Now, I really must be going,” the Draconequus said, opening a door in the air, “I swear the Shivering Isles can’t last a day without me. Farewell Sapphire, and good luck on repairing your mind.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I worked tirelessly to reassemble my mind, reuniting the shattered fragments. It was difficult, and time dragged on as I reconciled my memories, recalling everything that had befallen me in order to put my mind back in order. Slowly, the broken shards of crystal began to reunite, and the world around me became more ordered.

The soul gem reformed around me, my mind slowly repairing itself at the same time. I sculpted massive cathedrals and spires out of pure crystal through sheer willpower, building a home for myself within my own mind, and restoring my sanity. The gem I was within came ever closer to completion, until the day I finally awoke.

What Came After

What Came After

After Sapphire’s victory, life in the Northlands continued much as it always had, though now without as great a threat from dragons or from war. For four centuries, the peace between the three pony races held before falling apart. However, as Discord had predicted, ponykind was able to find a new home in the south.

After the long-awaited Jarlmoot, Jarl Stormcloud was finally named High King of Horizon, and ushered in a new era of prosperity for the earth ponies. Unfortunately, he still kept to the racist policies he’d stood for, and much of Horizon’s non-earth population fled to other lands. However, never again did Stormcloud raise a weapon against another pony, returning to the Greymanes in his later life and devoting himself to the Way of the Voice.

Out of respect, it wasn’t until after Stormcloud’s death that Zest launched her revolution and established the Earth Pony Confederacy. She’d been right in thinking that earth ponies were tired of the old monarchy, and she met little resistance as she overthrew the old system, executing Horizon’s nobles with a new invention of hers, the guillotine. Only Jarl Radiance the Fair escaped her purges.

After Sapphire’s sacrifice, Steadfast ended up spending quite a bit of time in Seclusion, where he tried to establish a northern branch of the Companions. It never took hold, but it soon became a lesser goal in his mind. Radiance and he grew very fond of each other, and were married just before Zest’s revolution forced them to flee Seclusion and go into hiding.

Together they worked to found a secret society that would help guide Horizon in the right direction now that an utterly insane pony had taken over. Their descendants were eventually able to infiltrate the Confederacy’s government and place themselves close to the Chancellery. As Zest’s descendants became increasingly more unstable leaders, Radiance’s and Steadfast’s tried to rein them in. It was Zest’s distant descendent Chancellor Puddinghead that helped discover Equestria, but didn’t do so without Smart Cookie, a distant descendent of Radiance and Steadfast.

Mephalda the Meek returned to her secluded mountain valley, emerging only to visit with her friends and check on Sapphire. As pegasi fled from Horizon she welcomed them into her home, and her family became the leaders of the small town that grew up. As the windigos slowly crept southward, the Featherrest Isles were swallowed up, and the Pegasari Dominion made an attack on the southern nations, stopped only because Mephalda’s descendants offered up the mountain valley for them to live in.

Commander Typhoon did his part to try to defuse the anti-unicorn and anti-earth pony sentiments in his nation, but it wasn’t enough. The Dominion had lost a war and the soldier-race of pegasi took it very poorly. Still, he was able to keep control of the nation out of the hooves of more radical pegasi, and brought prosperity to the Featherrest Isles.

His descendants served as High Commanders for many generations, even up to the invasion into the southern nations. The quick thinking of Commander Monsoon averted the crisis when she agreed to move into the secluded mountain valley Mephalda had once lived in, naming it Peleponysia. In thanks for the gift of land, the Peleponysian Commanders always made sure a descendent of Mephalda served with them, all the way up to Private Pansy who served beneath Commander Hurricane and helped discover Equestria.

Silver Cuirass served as the last Emperor of the Unicorn Empire. After his death, his only child, Gilded Armor, took his place, and served as Unicornica’s first queen. Though the counts protested at first, they eventually accepted the mare on the throne, due to the prosperity she brought their land during her rule. Her descendants ruled the land fairly, even though they were forced to move the nation’s capital several times to escape the advancing ice, first retreating to Saddlegrad, and then to Kvatch. It was her distant descendant, Princess Platinum, who attended the peace conference at Splitten, which the earth ponies renamed Solidarity after being forced to move there to escape the oncoming winter. She also discovered Equestria, but not without another pony to help her.

Mystic returned to the College of Winterhorn, eventually becoming the college’s arch-mage, and worked to restore the magical institution to its former glory. It was all for naught, however, as the College eventually fell into the ocean and was consumed completely. She was broken up by the event, and was no longer to cast even the simplest spells. Broken inside, she moved to Unicornica. The destruction of the College of Winterhorn affected her so deeply that her descendants were also unable to do all but the most mundane magic, until Clover the Clever, who Star-Swirl took under his wing and trained before she became an assistant to Princess Platinum and helped discover Equestria.

Star-Swirl later became known as Star-Swirl the Bearded, the greatest wizard of all time. Through his research on time and aging spells, he was able to live an incredibly long life, dying at the age of 418. He never left the Northlands, dying just a few short years before the exodus into Equestria. He never was able to complete the spell he’d started for Sapphire, but kept the unfinished portion anyway, in case one day somepony else was able to complete his work.

Over 3000 Years Later . . .

Over 3000 Years Later . . .

“Magnificent, isn’t it Princess?” the charcoal gray earth pony mare asked as she trotted along next to the lavender alicorn.

“Magnificent indeed,” Twilight Sparkle replied, “There’s so much to learn from this place. Hopefully enough that we’re able to fill in the gaps in our history books.”

“These murals on the walls have told us so much about ancient earth pony art and culture already,” the mare said as they entered another hallway filled with archaeologists busy cataloguing everything, “I’m curious just what you think this place might have been once.”

“Well, the upper levels resemble a keep, but the lower levels are tombs,” Twilight replied as she scribbled her thoughts down on a piece of parchment clipped to a clipboard, “I would simply say this was a fortress if it weren’t for the overlarge crypts. Of course, it could still be a fortress and not a barrow if the ancient earth ponies tended to have mass graves for their dead.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” the other mare said, nodding, “We’ve yet to decipher the name or any of the writing within the ruin, but we’re working on it.”

“A certain passage of your report piqued my interest enough to warrant a personal visit,” Twilight said, flipping through the pages attached to her clipboard, “Do you think I might see the specimen?”

“Of course,” the gray mare said, “Right this way.”

She led Twilight through the dark and abandoned tunnel of the ancient ruin her team had been excavating for the past few weeks. At last they made it down to the very bottom of the ruin, where a large cavern dwelled beneath the mountain the ruin was built within.

“Hello River; your Highness,” a pale blue unicorn said, rising from his chair and giving a bow as the two ponies entered the cavern.

“Anything new down here?” River asked.

“Nope, it’s just as boring as ever,” the unicorn replied, “The equipment’s registered a few times, but nothing out of the ordinary. It’s probably just picking up background magic and vibrations.”

“Remarkable,” Twilight said, gazing upon the “specimen.”

There was nothing overly remarkable about the light grey unicorn that lay in the stone sarcophagus, except that she was perfectly preserved. Twilight could almost believe she was only sleeping, ready to wake up at any time.

“What kind of preservative did they use?” Twilight asked.

“We’re really not sure,” the unicorn said, “It must be some kind of magic, because her flesh appears by all accounts to be living. Yet, we’ve registered no brainwaves, heartbeats, or breaths. In fact, she registers no life signs at all.”

“And this here?” Twilight said, pointing to a small gem within a candle holder next to the sarcophagus that flashed irregularly from within.

“We have no idea,” the unicorn replied, “But it contains an extreme amount of magic, enough to short out our sensors and prevent us from examining it with a spell without being blasted back.”

“The power source preserving her, perhaps?” Twilight asked.

“That’s possible,” River said, “In fact, we’ve considered it, but we can detect only a weak linkage between the gem and her body. It’s not nearly strong enough to transport the amount of energy it would take to preserve her body.”

Twilight stared inquisitively at the body, willing it to give up its secrets. Her attention was broken as a crackling met her ears, and she turned back toward the archaeologists.

“Did you hear that?” she asked them.

The instruments are just picking up background information,” the unicorn said that, “They come and go every few hours or so.”

A few seconds later the same machine crackled again.

“That’s not normal,” River said, trotting over to one of the machines pointing at the specimen.

Soon the crackling sound picked up, until the machine was printing out a steady signal.

“We’ve got brain activity,” River said, “Do we have any researchers on the other side of that wall?”

“None that I’m aware of,” the unicorn replied, “But, we haven’t really managed to get a full map of this place made yet.”

Another of the machines beeped, and he trotted over to check it out. Soon the beeping increased and bunched into groups of two beeps at a time.

“A heartbeat?” he asked, double checking his equipment.

“I’m getting mana readings over here!” River called out, looking at the printout from another machine.

“Respiration!” the unicorn said as he checked another of the beeping machines.

Twilight stood over the specimen, watching as life slowly seemed to flow back into her. As the archaeologists scrambled around checking their equipment and trying to make sense of the sudden influx of data, her eyelids began to flutter. Then they popped open completely, and her icy blue eyes stared up at the lavender alicorn standing over her.

Sapphire was awake.

Introduction

A long, long time ago, north of the magical land of Equestria
Before the rule of Celestia and Luna,
Before the rule of Discord,
Before Equestria was even discovered,
The Alicorn Empire ruled.

For centuries the Alicorn Emperors ruled all of pony, zebra, and griffin lands,
In the not-yet frigid North,
With the aid of the mystical Equine Scrolls.
A gift from the Nine Equines, the most powerful beings in the world,
The Equine Scrolls could predict the future,
But came with a terrible consequence.
Extended use of the Equine Scrolls would leave their readers blind,
Unless they had the power of an Alicorn.

With them, the Alicorn Emperors gained the allegiance of all three pony races.
The unicorns, the pegasi, and the earth ponies were gleefully united.
With the mystical powers of the Equine Scrolls,
All of the known world kneeled before the Alicorn Empire.
Until, that is, the death of the last Alicorn Empress, Empress Mystica.
She sacrificed herself to save the Empire and closed the gates of The Beyond,
But left no heir behind.

The unicorn nobles chose a new emperor from among themselves.
But the pegasi refused to serve the emperor the unicorns chose,
And split off, becoming the Pegasari Dominion.
There the pegasi skulked in their cloud temples,
And maintained a shaky alliance with the now-Unicorn Empire,
Trading control of the weather for both the earth ponies’ food,
And the unicorns’ magical control of the sun and moon.

But the peace couldn’t last,
And the Great War broke out upon the world,
Killing many, and accomplishing nothing.
Emperor Brass Tax was forced to yield to the Pegasari Dominion,
In order to prevent the further destruction of an Empire falling apart at the seams.

A shaky peace was once again made,
One where the pegasi claimed victory.
Talhooves, the Ninth Equine and only earth pony among them,
Was removed from the Imperial pantheon.
The pegasi sent their agents, the Blackwings, to enforce it,
Further infuriating the earth ponies of the Horizon territory.

Sick of being looked down upon by both their winged and horned brethren,
The earth ponies of Horizon rose up against the Empire,
Under the charismatic Jarl Stormcloud.
As Horizon is engulfed in civil war,
The unicorns seek to maintain control of the territory,
And the pegasi watch from the shadows.

But an even greater threat is coming.
A threat that will consume the world if left unchecked.
The dragons, who have been gone for thousands of years,
Will return,
And when they do,
Only one pony can stop them.
And she doesn’t even know it.

The Equine Scrolls:
SkyFiM

You should have acted
They’re already here
The Equine Scrolls told of their return
The defeat, was merely a delay
In the time after The Beyond opened
When the foals of Horizon would spill their own blood
Nopony wanted to believe
Believe they even existed
But when the truth finally dawned
It dawned in fire

But, there is one they fear
In their tongue, she is Dovahkiin
Dragonborn!

-Prophecy of Night-Sparkle Greymane

Chapter 1: Executions and Myths

Chapter I: Executions and Myths
“As we commend your soul to Aetherius, blessings of the Eight Equines upon you.”

I awoke to a jolt in my hindquarters. Slowly I cracked open my eyes to find I could see . . . nothing. Well, not exactly nothing. Some light filtered in through the rough strip of cloth tied around my head as a blindfold. Apparently it hadn’t been tied on very well, as it fell off at the next jolt.

I found myself sitting in the back of a rough wooden wagon with several other ponies. Like them, I had my hooves bound. But only with a strip of leather. How was that supposed to keep a unicorn bound?

I tried to undo my bonds with my magic, only to find I couldn’t. I felt something wet and sticky soak through my mane.

“You’re trapped just like us, little miss magic,” I heard a voice say from my right.

I turned toward this new voice only to find myself nearly face to face with a tan-coated earth pony. He apparently had no concept of personal boundaries.

“They put some of that magic-blocking gunk on your horn while you were out,” he said as I started to scoot away.

His voice sounded strangely familiar, but he wasn’t nearly interesting enough to hold my attention at the moment. I was obviously a prisoner, but who were my captors? My heart sank as I saw the pony pulling the wagon was wearing Imperial Legion armor.

But looking around, I saw we were most certainly not in Unicornica. Between the rough and tall trunks of pine trees, I could see snow-capped mountains rising in the distance. An elk lapping at a stream ran off as we approached. The realization hit me at the same time the wagon bounced once again. I was in Horizon.

“Where are they taking us?” a lime green earth pony across from me asked nervously.

“Hoofgen, by the looks of it,” the tan pony next to me said, pulling the other’s blindfold off.

“Hoofgen?” the green one asked, “Why would they be taking us there? Splitten is much closer.”

“Can’t have an Imperial execution in a town loyal to the Stormcloud cause, now can they?” the tan pony stated.

Only one word stood out for me. Execution?

“Wait, you!” the green pony said, staring with wide eyes at the deep blue earth pony with us both gagged and bound, “You’re Jarl Stormcloud! You’re the leader of the rebellion!”

“And your rightful High King,” the tan pony said.

“You,” the green pony said, looking at me, “They don’t want us. They want them. We shouldn’t be here. They can’t execute us!”

“See, Hoofgen,” the tan pony said, tearing the green one’s attention away from me.

I too looked forward as the gates to the tiny town swung open.

“And there’s General Silver Cuirass,” the tan pony spat out with contempt, “The military governor.”

A caramel coated unicorn wearing bright silver Imperial armor looked down on us as we passed through the gate. As we entered the town of Hoofgen, he trotted down the perimeter wall’s stairs.

Hoofgen was little more than a ramshackle collection of homes within a protective wall. It appeared the only reason the town even existed was for the Imperial fortress the wagons pulled to a stop in front of. Banners bearing the bust of Emperor Brass Tax fluttered in the wind.

“On your hooves prisoners,” an Imperial soldier said as he unlatched the back of the wagon, “File out in an orderly manner for recording.”

“Imperials love their lists,” I heard the tan pony mumble under his breath as we stood.

Unsteadily, I made my way out of the wagon and entered the line of ponies forming in front of two Imperial officers.

“Name?” the stallion asked as he levitated a thick book and quill in front of him.

“Spitz,” the green pony, who had ended up at the front of the line said, looking around frantically.

“Home town?” the stallion continued, paging through his book.

“Rearikstead.”

“Cutie-mark?”

“Gold coin.”

“Mm-hm, here he is,” the officer said, “And it appears you have a long record of theft. What are the charges?”

“Theft of the statue of Marea from the Splitten temple,” the mare officer said, reading from a scroll she pulled from her saddlebags.

“Send him to the block,” the other officer said, making a check in his book.

“B-but, this isn’t about me!” Spitz stuttered, getting nervous as a guard attempted to push him toward the execution block, “I’m not going to die because of some Stormclouds!”

He took off running as fast as he could with his hooves bound. He didn’t make it far. He fell with an arrow through his neck before he even made it to the guards.

“Next!” the stallion officer called, turning back to the line.

“Name?” he asked as the tan pony in front of me stepped forward.

“Bereloth,” he stated boldly.

That was where I had heard his voice before. He was the pony last night who had been afraid to enter the Pale Pass. And that would mean the Jarl I had heard was Jarl Stormcloud, leader of Horizon’s rebellion.

Spitz was right; this whole execution was about the Stormclouds. As I looked at all the ponies destined to be executed, I saw they were all wearing the rough armor of the earth pony homeland. They wouldn’t execute me along with them, would they?

“He’s a confirmed Stormcloud soldier, all right, “the officer with the book said, “Send him to the block. Next!”

That was me. Hesitantly, I stepped forward.

“Name?” he called.

“Sapphire,” I said nervously. This was really happening.

“Home town?”

“Kvatch.”

“A fellow Imperial, huh?” he said, paging through his book, “Cutie-mark?”

“None,” I admitted.

The officer raised an eyebrow at that. I looked at my hooves in shame. The whole reason I’d left my home was now laid bare. I’d tried everything, but still my cutie-mark had refused to appear. I was nineteen years of age, and still my flank was blank. The town had given up on me becoming anypony of value. Even my own family had given up on me. There was nothing left for me in Kvatch. So I’d come to Horizon, and now I was going to die.

“Only a few petty thefts on your record,” the officer said.

Yes, in my desperation to receive my cutie-mark, I had even stooped to petty thievery. Turns out, I wasn’t too good at picking locks and pockets.

“What are the charges, Winter?” he asked his companion.

“Crossing the border into Horizon illegally,” she said, reading off another scroll.

“Can we execute her for that?” she asked doubtfully.

Maybe I had a chance at life after all.

“May as well now that she’s here,” he replied, checking my name off in his book.

“Sorry,” Winter said, “To the block.”

“Jarl Stormcloud, as if we even need to check. No doubt that you’re guilty,” the stallion said, but I barely heard him as I shuffled toward the chopping block in a surreal state.

“Jarl Stormcloud,” General Silver Cuirass said once all the prisoners had been gone through, “You have brought great death to this province. And today, we are going to put you down for it. Rue this day, you Stormclouds. For this is the day justice is done!”

“What of this one?” he asked when he reached me, “Surely you are not also one of them? Legate, what is the meaning of this?”

“She was caught at the ambush, crossing the border illegally,” Winter said, stepping forward, “Do you want me to release her, General?”

“No,” he said, “What’s done is done. It would have been better for you, kinsman, if you had chosen some other night to brave the pass.”

“Execute her before the block is stained with rebel blood,” he ordered as he walked off, his voice catching in his throat.

None too gently, I was pushed forward and forced to lie with my neck on the chopping block. A muscular black pony in executioner’s attire trotted up to me, a freshly sharpened axe held in his magical grasp.

I knew what would happen next. The axe would come swinging swiftly down and separate my head from my body. The first time I had seen an execution, I had been but a foal. My father had to travel to the Imperial City to order more flour for his bakery, and I had begged and begged to be allowed to come along. Finally, he caved and I was allowed to visit the Empire’s capital.

Dumb luck scarred me for life, as we entered the city just as they were executing traitors in Talhooves Plaza. Or, what had once been Talhooves Plaza. The image of the execution haunted my dreams for months, and I never asked to visit the Imperial City again. Funny, is this what ponies talk about when they say their lives flashed before their eyes?

“What was that?” the executioner asked, looking up at the sky worriedly.

I had been so busy recalling my foalhood my mind had drifted away from the present. It snapped back as another peal of thunder, or whatever it was, shook the sky.

“Probably more pegasi mischief,” General Cuirass said, “If they try something else so soon, they’re going to be in some serious trouble.”

Sweat beaded on my forehead. I wondered, while the executioner was distracted, how far could I run before they shot me like Spitz?

“Get on with the execution,” the General ordered.

The executioner obediently raised his axe. But, before he could bring it down, a dark shape swung around the mountains. The banners flapped backwards as the great creature flapped its wings. The scaled lizard landed heavily atop the nearby fortress, knocking archers off in the process.

“By Arkhay!” one of the Imperials shouted, “What is that thing!?”

I recognized it. But I didn’t believe it. It was something I had only read about in legends.

“Dragon!” General Cuirass yelled.

Indeed, it appeared that it was a dragon. Opening its maw wide, it directed a blast of flame into the execution area. The executioner dropped his axe and ran away flaming. I heard the useless pings as arrows bounced off the dragon’s flesh. Flapping his wings and fanning the flames, it took off and swooped around toward the tower the rest of the archers were standing on.

In the confusion, everypony seemed to have forgotten about me. I lay there, stunned for a minute, before crawling away from the block. The executioner’s axe was lying nearby, and I used it to cut my bonds. Rubbing feeling back into my chafed forelegs, I searched for some way out of here.

All around me were the charred corpses of ponies. Some Imperial soldiers had formed up and were attempting an attack on the dragon. The Stormcloud prisoners were nowhere to be seen.

“Hey!” I heard a voice yell at me.

Searching for the source, I found Bereloth waving me over. He was standing in the doorway of somepony’s house. I galloped over as fast as I could. I really had no choice, any shelter was better than standing out in the open with a dragon attacking the town. And while I didn’t know Bereloth, at least he was kind enough to offer to share his shelter. It’s not like he could rob me, I had no possessions at the moment.

As soon as I was within the house, he slammed the door shut. Now that I didn’t have a dragon breathing fire down my neck, I was able to take a look around. The ponies who’d lived here had set out a meal before leaving to watch the execution. How they intended to stomach down food after seeing something like that was beyond me.

Not that I was complaining. I was famished and ate one of the apples right away. It was just a pity I wouldn’t be able to take any of it with me.

A set of rough burlap saddlebags hit me in the face. Bereloth was tying on his own set he had found. As I tied mine on he began to stuff food in his, including a whole cheese wheel. Apparently earth ponies had a thing for cheese.

“Sapphire, right?” he asked as I stuffed my own saddlebags.

I nodded, not wanting to risk spraying him with pie by talking.

“I’m Bereloth,” he introduced himself, “Ice Wolf in the Stormclouds.”

“Where’s the Jarl?” I asked.

“He made it out, I’m sure. He’ll be safe. And we should be plenty safe in here”

No sooner had he spoken those words than the dragon’s tail came crashing through the thatched roof. Flames licked at the timbers as it circled back around.

“Maybe not as safe as I hoped,” he said, smashing through the door.

I followed him outside. Honestly, what else was I going to do? I had no weapon and this buck seemed to know what he was doing. Well, somewhat.

The house we’d been in had collapsed by the time I caught up to him at the Imperial fortress. I waited nervously as he picked the lock. With an audible click, it unlocked and he pushed into the building. Honestly, seeing as he was a Stormcloud, I didn’t get why he’d just waltz into an Imperial fortress, but my world was so topsy-turvy right now it really didn’t matter.

Once more we were inside and he slammed the door shut. The fortress was made of stone. Perfect, nonflammable stone. Unless the dragon decided to knock the building down, we would be safe in here.

Well, relatively safe. Another dead Stormcloud soldier bore testament that the Imperials weren’t going to let just anypony use this place as shelter. While I was looking at the dead soldier, Bereloth passed a bottle of ale over to me.

“I don’t drink,” I said simply.

“Your loss,” he laughed, passing me a rag as well, “But that’s not what it’s for. Hopefully the alcohol can get that gunk off your horn.”

I tried just wiping it off with the rag and experienced no success. Sheepishly, I dipped the rag in the bottle. After that the thick, black stuff came off just fine. This Bereloth seemed to know what he was talking about, at least.

“One for me, one for you,” he said, tossing me a war axe complete with sheath he’d taken off the dead Stormcloud.

I caught it with my magic and swung it around a little to get a feel for it.

“Here,” he said, tossing me the armor that was on the dead soldier a moment ago.

“Stormcloud armor?” I asked.

“Fine,” he said, giving a shrug, “Go unprotected.”

Grumbling, I pulled the dead pony’s armor on. Luckily she had died from a head wound, so none of her dried blood was on it. I left the helmet. It was designed with earth ponies in mind anyway.

“Looks like this way’s the kitchens,” Bereloth said, looking around the corner, “Ready to go?”

I nodded, hefting my war axe. Luckily, the kitchens were abandoned. The dining hall was not.

Two Imperial soldiers were still inside. Apparently they hadn’t realized there was a dragon attack going on.

Bereloth charged in screaming, or more like grunting through the axe held between his teeth and attacked one of the soldiers.

I still held my war axe out, but I didn’t want to hurt these ponies. After all, these were Imperial soldiers! Every part of my life had taught me to respect and obey these ponies.

Apparently the remaining soldier had no reservations about attacking me. Maybe it was my armor, or maybe he was just mad about me interrupting his game with his comrade. Pulling his sword from his sheath, he charged me. As his blade swung through the air, I brought my axe up to block.

Metal rang against metal as the two blades collided. He swung again, and I blocked again. Twice more he swung at me, but I anticipated his moves and brought my axe up to block each time, albeit in the nick of time. As he swung at my hooves, I jumped up in the air, swinging my axe down at him.

With a wet thump, I buried the blade in his forehead. His sword clattered to the ground as he toppled over, the life fading from his eyes. I had just killed another pony. And an Imperial soldier at that! I stopped for a minute to calm my breathing before pulling my axe out of his body.

I made sure to wipe the blade off, before sheathing it. I wanted to have a look around, and maybe calm my nerves. I picked up the Imperial’s sword, as well as a potion of minor healing he had on him. Leaving the body behind, I took a look at the rest of the room.

One certain thing in particular caught my eye. A large map of Horizon was laid out on a table at the edge of the room. All the major and minor towns were marked out, as well as the paths between them. I rolled it up and stowed it in my saddlebags with a quill and inkwell. I could use every bit of help I could get navigating this province.

“We’d better get out of here,” Bereloth said as the building shook, causing dust to rain down from the ceiling, “Follow me.”

I followed the tan earth pony down a flight of stairs, past sputtering torches, into a dimly lit room. Judging by the cages that ringed the room, this was the dungeon. And it was not empty. Four Imperial soldiers stood in the center of the room.

“Why are we even down here?” one asked.

“There’s a way out somewhere,” another said, “If we can just find it.”

“You don’t have a clue where it is, do you?” a third chimed in.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when Bereloth tapped me on the shoulder.

“See if you can take one out,” he whispered to me, handing me a bow and quiver.

I had never been very good at archery as a foal. Hence, the lack of an archery cutie-mark.

“Can’t you?” I asked.

“The bow’s not made for earth ponies,” he whispered back.

It looked like it was up to me. I levitated the wooden bow in front of me and shakily fit an arrow to the string. Pulling it back, I lined up a shot on the closest soldier.

My shot missed, the arrow sinking into his hindleg instead of his heart. Giving a yelp of pain, he swung around and attempted to pull it out. Quickly I fit another arrow to the string and let it fly. It once again missed, burying itself in the side of his head, not his heart, but I wasn’t going to complain.

The other soldiers climbed over his body as I put away the bow and pulled out my war axe. As one slashed his sword at me, I threw my axe up to block, his blade ringing against the handle. He quickly pulled it away before I could disarm him and launched another strike, this time at my head. With a slash, I knocked the sword off its trajectory, causing sparks to fly as it hit the floor.

Not even stopping his swing, he brought the sword up to slash at me again. I had no time to block, so I jumped back as agilely as I could. His sword nicked by armor, leaving a gash across the front, but it didn’t penetrate to flesh. His next swing I easily blocked with my axe, sending his sword shuddering. I blocked his next strike with the axe’s handle, which proved to be a mistake.

He had anticipated it, and twisted his sword so that the blade caught under my axe’s. With a quick flip, he sent the axe flying out of my grasp. Now I was unarmed. Well, not completely. All unicorns were taught at least a few minor defensive spells in case of emergencies. I put one to good use, sending a flare of fire into his face.

He ran away, screaming and batting at the flames. In the time it took for him to put them out and down a healing potion, I had retrieved my axe.

He stood at the ready, his sword held out in front of him in a block. Galloping toward him, I put all the force I had behind my attack and knocked his own sword against him. He staggered from the impact, which gave me enough time to swing my axe around and bury it in his neck. He gave a wet gurgle as he fell to the floor.

Turning around, I saw Bereloth impaling his second soldier. He had taken out both of them while I had been busy, but had taken a minor wound in the process. Grunting, he tied a bandage over his bleeding foreleg.

“Feel free to take a look around,” he said, walking unsteadily on his bandaged leg, “We shouldn’t be coming back here again.”

I felt a little guilty as I swept some gold coins off a table into my saddlebags. It felt wrong to be taking money from an Imperial garrison, but they had no use for it. Not with the dragon outside killing them all.

I added a few bandages and potions of healing and stamina to the coins I had swiped, as well as a thick book bound with a black cover. “Book of the Dragonborn” was outlined in silver on the front. I’ll admit it, I was a bit of a bookworm, and was obsessed with reading any book I could find. I had exhausted the entire selection in Kvatch, but I hadn’t seen this book yet. I would have to read it later, once I got out of here.

“Ready to go?” Bereloth asked as he finished looting a chest.

I nodded my head and pulled out my war axe.

“You don’t talk much, do you?” he asked, laughing.

“Not if I can help it,” I said.

Laughing, he picked the lock on one of the prison cells and swung the door open. Once inside, he pushed down a portion of the stone wall that made up the back of the cell. A dark tunnel stretched off into the distance. Placing a torch in a mounting on his back, Bereloth led the way.

I followed close behind the flickering light as he traveled deeper into the ground. The sound of our hooves striking rock echoed off the narrow walls of the tunnel. Sticky threads hung from the walls as we passed through the mountain.

At last we came to a larger cave. Sickly sunlight spilled in through several holes in the ceiling. The sticky substance I had noticed earlier was most concentrated here, coating the walls and the floors. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it was giant spider web.

Suddenly an arachnid the size of a full-grown pony fell from the ceiling. It looks like it was spider’s web after all. I may have screamed before coming to my senses and pulling out my bow. Fitting an arrow to the string, I shot at the spider as it scuttled closer.

I had three arrows stuck in it by the time it got too close for comfort. Giving a yell, Bereloth swung his axe into the spider’s head repeatedly. Giving a squeal, it collapsed to the ground.

“You’ve never seen a Frostbite spider before?” he asked as he cleaned his blade.

“No,” I shook my head, “The spiders in Unicornica are normal sized.”

“This won’t be the last one you see if you intend to stay in Horizon much longer,” he laughed, sheathing his axe.

I followed the buck as he led me through the cave. Finally, we stepped out into actual sunlight, squeezing through a crack in the rock. We emerged in a forest butting right up against the mountains. Through the leaves of the trees high above me I could see no sign of the dragon.

“This is where we part ways,” Bereloth said, striding off into the forest.

“Wait,” I said, speaking up, “Why did you want me to come along with you?”

“Figured I could use an extra blade. Turns out I was right. You’re a good fighter Sapphire, even for a unicorn. If you’re ever in Riverwood, feel free to spend the night at the Riverwood Trader. Tell ‘em Bereloth sent you and you’ll be fine.”

He gave a wink before galloping off into the wilderness. I looked out at the expansive realm that was Horizon. From my vantage point, I could see past the forest to the great plains and mountains of the earth pony homeland. Taking a deep breath of the crisp, cool air, I set out.

Level Up
Health: 110 Stamina: 100 Magicka: 100
New Perk: Dual-wielding [No Skill] -- You may now use your unicorn magic to cast two low-level spells at once, be it levitating two light weapons, firing two spells, or wielding one light weapon and one spell.
Map added: Horizon -- You now know the locations of every major and minor town in the Horizon province and the roads connecting them
New Quest: A Warning of What’s to Come -- Warn anypony who will listen about the dragon attack on Hoofgen.

Chapter 17: Death and Life

Chapter XVII: Death and Life
“The dragons aren’t just coming back, they’re coming back to life.”

Because it was already getting late, I convinced Faniar it would be better to leave in the morning. Though he was overly energetic and ready to leave immediately, he realized the dangers of traveling at night and agreed to wait until morning so long as we left at first light. Steadfast and I trotted down through Whitetrot to Breezehome, where I was finally able to sleep in my own bed again, while Steadfast took the guest room I hadn’t even known existed.

At first light Faniar came a-knocking, and the three of us set out into the wilds of Horizon. Well, not exactly the wilds. The path through the wilds, at least.

“So, why Pynesgrove?” I asked him as we walked down the path that curved through the eastern end of Whitetrot hold into Easttrot.

“I believe we’ll have the best chance of catching a dragon there,” he said, consulting a few of his charts and maps, “Or at least finding some evidence. Also, it’s not all that far from Whitetrot, even if it is in Jarl Stormcloud’s territory.”

“What do you expect to find?” Steadfast asked.

“I don’t know. Hopefully something that will tell me whether or not the dragons are coming back the way I think they are.”

Before we knew it, we were in sight of the ramshackle little collection of buildings known as Pynesgrove. It was so small, it could barely be called a town, which explained why it didn’t appear on my map of Horizon. Well, not yet. I marked it as best I could before we reached the tiny settlement.

All the town seemed to be was an inn, a few homes, and a shrine to Ponyreth, or Pyne as the earth ponies called her, the Equine of nature and the warrior. Everything seemed very calm in the town, ponies going about their business as we passed by. Why Faniar thought a dragon would surface here I had no idea.

Suddenly, the very air seemed torn asunder by a deafening roar. Wind whipped through the pine trees as a massive black dragon swooped overhead. I couldn’t get a close look, but I was almost certain this was the same dragon I’d seen at Hoofgen. Paying no attention to the town, it flapped up to the cliffs overlooking it.

“Hurry, we have to make it to the barrow!” Faniar cried out, galloping for the zigzag path that wound up the cliff.

Steadfast and I followed, making the harrowing climb until we emerged on top, looking down on the town. Faniar motioned for us to duck low to the ground and follow him closer to where the dragon was hovering. Slinking through the grass, we inched along the ground until we had a good view of both the dragon and the nearby dragon barrow built atop the cliff.

The dragon proceeded to chant in draconic, and the world itself seemed to grow darker with every word it uttered. Looking up overhead, I saw the clouds twisting into unnatural shapes without the aid of pegasi, converging above the dragon barrow. Lightning arced through the rapidly darkening clouds until a bolt finally struck the barrow.

Multicolored lights jumped up from the dragon’s tomb, similar to what I had seen when taking their souls. These lights, however, formed a solid, swirling pillar reaching all the way up to the clouds. It pulsed with energy in time with the living dragon’s chant.

Eventually, the vortex tore open the barrow, sending rock spinning high in the air before it crashed down. Out of it crawled the skeletal remains of a dragon that had died centuries ago. Engulfed in the otherworldly light, flesh began to form over the bones until a living dragon stood in its place, giving a roar of defiance against death.

The lights were suddenly cut off and the clouds began to dissipate as the dragons began to speak to each other. In the resurrected dragon’s speech I picked up only one familiar word, and I knew it meant trouble.

Alduin.

The larger black dragon had to be the world-eater, and he was the one bringing these dragons back to life. Everything was beginning to fall into place. Of course Alduin couldn’t fulfill the prophecy and devour everything on his own. That’s where the other dragons would have to come in. Already they had succeeded at attacking and doing substantial damage to several towns. Well, this one wouldn’t be doing the same; it would meet its end here.

<”!!GO MY BROTHER!!”> Alduin boomed in Equine, <”!!FEAST ON THE FLESH OF THE LESSER RACES!!”>

As he finished, he turned to glare where Faniar, Steadfast, and I were hiding. A blast of flame sent the three of us scattering before he took off. The newly resurrected dragon gave a stretch of its wings, testing out its new body before crawling toward us.

From its sheath I pulled Calcion’s Cleaver, and prepared a lightning spell with my horn. Steadfast drew his warhammer and stepped into a ready stance. Faniar levitated the staff he had brought along, building magic at its tip.

As one we charged in toward the dragon, but were soon sent scattering again as it belched a wide trail of flame. Steadfast reached the dragon first, smashing his warhammer through its wing to keep it from taking off and flying. As it tried to turn on him I closed the distance, tearing my sword through the membrane of its other wing, crippling it as well.

Suddenly it flared its wings up, sending Steadfast and me flying, before tucking them against its body. Both of us landed up in the pine trees that seemed dominant here. As I began to climb down, I watched Faniar engage the dragon.

With a flash from the tip of his staff, an exact duplicate of him composed of glowing energy appeared nearby. His copy rushed the dragon and began shooting blasts of fire and lightning at the beast. Faniar himself tucked the staff onto his back again and pulled out a slender sword before charging at the dragon.

As it turned toward him and opened its maw, he dropped his sword and powered up his horn. With it, he sent a blast of ice into the dragon’s mouth, coating the inside. It glowed, then turned to a burst of steam as the dragon struggled to breathe out fire. By the time it finally managed, Faniar was well out of the way. Meanwhile, his duplicate had managed to do some significant scorching to the dragon’s side until it was crushed beneath a claw and returned to pure magic.

I finally made it down from the tree and retrieved my sword, drawing it and the Axe of Whitetrot before running at the dragon. As its attention was focused on Faniar, I ventured a swing at its head, which proved unsuccessful as it brought up a claw to block. I jumped back as the razor-sharp talons slashed right past my face.

Steadfast also joined the group, giving a war cry before attempting to jump on top of the dragon. Holding on to the spines as tight as he could, he slammed his warhammer into the dragon’s back repeatedly, caving in the scales and injuring the flesh beneath. The dragon shook its body with all its might before Steadfast was thrown off.

He landed near the edge of the cliff not far away, balancing precariously. As he tried to regain his balance, he began to tip farther toward the deadly drop. I reached out with my magic and pulled him in just enough that he was able to fall back onto solid ground safely. With Steadfast out of harm’s way, I turned back to the fight.

Faniar was rushing around the dragon, coating it with ice and making it very mad. I lent my lightning spell as well, using it to crack the ice into splinters and further injure the dragon. As I cast my magic at the dragon, I continued to work my way around to the far side of it, an idea forming in my mind.

Once I was fully on the other side of the dragon and both Faniar and Steadfast were out of the way, I released a Shout on the dragon.

<<>>

The dragon went flying back from the force of my Shout, sliding up to the edge of the cliff. It wasn’t quite perfect, but my next Shout would do it for sure. I felt the thoughts reforming in my mind, but not nearly fast enough.

A swipe of its tail struck Faniar, sending him flying through the clearing. Steadfast rushed the dragon, giving a swipe at its nose before wisely retreating. I shot an arrow into its eye just as it was about to engulf Steadfast in flames. Further enraged, it searched all around with its other eye to find me.

When it finally did, I was forced to jump out of the way of a blast of flame. As I rolled to a stop on the ground, I realized I hadn’t come near as far as I needed to. The dragon’s flames washed over me a moment later.

Desperately, I rolled in the dirt to put out the fire as my flesh burned. I quickly drank down a few healing potions, dulling the pain enough for me to cast a healing spell that repaired most of the damage. I still hurt, but full healing would have to wait for later.

The dragon was apparently convinced its blast of flame had killed me, and was devoting all its attention to Steadfast, snapping its jaw at him. Seeing my friend was already bleeding in several places where his armor had been nicked, I wasted no time in summoning my Shout.

<<>>

The dragon was hit full on with my Shout and went sliding off the edge of the cliff. It dug its claws into the mountainside, seeking for purchase as it fell, but all it succeeded in doing was pulling pieces of the cliff with it. It roared and spat fire as it fell.

I rushed forward as it did, throwing myself off the edge after it. When it crashed onto the inn below, I landed on top of it, and it absorbed most of the fall. Not wasting any time, I yanked out Calcion’s Cleaver and slashed into the dragon’s belly.

It quickly rolled over, sending me rolling down the thatched roof of the inn. I tried to get a grip on it as I neared the edge, but I fell off anyway. Luckily, I landed on a porch, if somewhat heavily. No time to climb down, I blasted the door off with a burst of fire and entered the inn.

As I entered the main portion of the building, I saw what looked like the entire town’s population huddled together. Quickly I climbed down the stairs and headed for the door.

“What’s going on out there?” one of the ponies asked fearfully.

“Dragon . . . Got to go,” I panted before rushing out the door.

Emerging outside, I looked up to see the dragon perched atop the inn. As it caught my movement with its one good eye, it sent fire to eradicate me. Pine trees lit into pillars of flame as I ran from it. As long as it stayed on top of that inn, the only chance I had was to get out of sight and shoot arrows at it, hopefully piercing its heart.

Steadfast and Faniar came plodding down the mountain pass and joined me.

“Is there a plan?” Faniar asked.

“I think so,” I said, coming up with one on the spot, “I need you to hurt it anyway you can, head or heart if possible. Steadfast, you try to antagonize it and draw it into swinging range. I’ll see if I can’t take out its other eye.”

Our group split up to accomplish our various tasks, dodging the dragon’s fire attacks as we did. Faniar began sending long-range lightning spells at the dragon, shocking its head and confusing it. Meanwhile, Steadfast began hammering on a nearby pine tree that looked ready to topple onto the inn. I pulled out my bow and got to work, shooting arrows at the dragon whenever there was a clear shot.

With a crash, suddenly Steadfast’s tree came down on top of the dragon. The tree was very large and heavy, and managed to further crush one of the dragon’s wings, as well as upsetting its balance on the roof. I came sliding down, but not before grabbing onto the tree.

Crashing to the ground, it lit the pine on fire and hurled it at Faniar. Whitetrot’s court wizard froze up in shock a moment before the blazing trunk slammed into him.

Steadfast rushed around the inn, his hammer ready. The dragon quickly saw him coming, however, and he was forced to retreat to keep from being roasted alive. The dragon crawled forward, pursuing him around the corner of the building, intent on finishing him off.

Before it could, I lined up a shot on its head and fired. My arrow buried itself in one of its horns, causing it only temporary annoyance. I fitted another to the string and winged a quick prayer to the Equines before sending it hurtling across the gap.

The dragon reeled in agony as my arrow lodged itself firmly in its eye, completely blinding it. Steadfast ran off as it wheeled around searching for him. Determined to survive, the dragon sent flame shooting all around it, cutting off all avenues of approach. Thankfully, I had a solution to that.

<<>>

The dragon staggered and slammed into the inn, the trails of flame cut off. I rushed forward while it was distracted and climbed on top of its head. Swinging Calcion’s Cleaver over my head, I jammed it down through the dragon’s skull as hard as I could. Its brains melted beneath the magic of the blade, and the dragon thrashed for a bit before finally succumbing to death for good.

Yanking my sword out, I climbed down from the dragon’s head. As I cleaned the corrosive blood from my blade, the dragon began to combust behind me. In a moment, I followed its entire life, all the memories it had collected over centuries; even its death I experienced, followed by its rebirth and subsequent second death. When the images finally stopped coming, I breathed a sigh to relieve the tension from the fight. It was all over.

“That was amazing,” I heard Faniar say softly.

I looked up to see the stallion standing nearby.

“How did you survive that?” I asked him, referring to the burning tree that had taken him out.

“I didn’t plan on going up against a dragon without packing a good supply of potions of fire resistance and healing,” he said, gesturing to his saddlebags, “Sorry I wasn’t there for the finale though.”

“So, what happened back there?” he added, “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“I experienced all of that dragon’s memories,” I explained, “It happens whenever I kill a dragon.”

“Fascinating, there’s nothing about that in any of my books,” he replied, levitating them out and flipping through them.

“Well,” Steadfast said, “Looks like you were right. The dragons are coming back to life. But why here, why now?”

“Alduin,” I answered.

“Alduin?” Faniar asked, pulling out the Book of the Dragonborn, “You mean the world-eater Alduin, prophesied to return and devour the whole world?”

“That’s him. And I think the other dragon was Alduin. It was the same one that destroyed Hoofgen, the first seen in centuries. It only stands to reason the world-eater would return first before waking the others.”

“But where did Alduin even come from?” Steadfast asked, “And why did he choose to invade now?”

“No idea,” Faniar answered, and I too gave a shrug of my shoulders, “But, maybe we’ll find something out at the next barrow.”

“The next barrow?” Steadfast asked.

“Yes, the closest one from here is less than an hour’s walk south. Maybe this time we can get there before the resurrection happens.”

Fighting two dragons in the same day, and seeking them out at that, seemed extreme. But, I was curious now about how the dragons were returning, and if Faniar thought we could learn something about it by poking into another barrow, I was with him.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Faniar was true to his word, and we were at the next barrow in no time. However, as we drew close to the ugly-looking stone bump on the ground, I could see we were too late. Whatever dragon had been here had already left. Scorched and flattened trees, dead grass, and burned goats bore testament to the destruction the dragon had wreaked upon resurrection.

“Looks like we’re too late,” Steadfast called to Faniar as he rushed toward the barrow, “We should get out of here before it comes back.”

“No,” Faniar protested, staring over the barrow’s cracked lip, “There’s got to be something here we can use.”

I trotted up to join him moments before he hopped down into the darkness. He vanished for a moment before his horn illuminated the empty space.

“It’s all right,” he called up, “There’s stairs.”

Taking a leap of faith, I jumped in after him. After a brief fall, I landed on a solid stone step.

“Why are there stairs in a dragon’s tomb?” I asked as I lit a torch to provide additional light.

“Probably for the skeleton’s caretakers,” Faniar replied as Steadfast jumped down to join us.

“Caretakers?”

“The Draugr. No doubt the dragons wanted their remains kept safe and clean until the day Alduin came to wake them up. Most likely that was one of the uses of those who followed the dragon cult once they became undead.”

A Draugr lying crushed by a falling stone, and others burned in the life-giving fire seemed to prove Faniar’s deduction. We descended deeper and deeper into the barrow until at last our hooves touched the bottom. The room seemed to be a perfect circle, just right for a dragon to curl up in and wait for its rebirth.

It was the walls that drew Faniar’s attention. Increasing the light from his horn, he was able to project a sphere large enough to make out the details climbing the stone. Carvings of dragons and earth ponies were mixed together in a grand mural without any end in sight.

“Wait a minute,” Faniar said, and went rushing down the wall, following the mural until he came to a sudden stop.

“What is this?” I asked as he stared at the cold stone.

“It’s history,” he said, “This is the ascension of Buckatosh, and the ordering of time.”

“And this is when he took upon the dragon form,” he said moving along the wall back the way he had come, “And the birth of the dragons. And here’s the settling of the Northlands, the rise of the dragon cult, the rebellion against the dragons, it’s all here!”

“And what’s this?” I asked as he stopped just before where he had started, coming full circle.

“This,” he said, “Is the prophecy of Alduin’s return.”

The carving was centered around a massive and terrible dragon, Alduin I assumed. Around him were other dragons rising from their tombs, and ponies dying beneath their onslaught.

“Why is this here?” I asked.

“Probably to remind the dragons of their past,” Faniar said, looking around the room before turning back to Alduin’s return, “And of their future.”

“And this,” I said, pointing to the carving next to it, “What’s this supposed to be?”

“It appears to be Alduin’s defeat,” he said, leaning in for a closer look, “It appears the ancient earth ponies were able to defeat him with . . . a Shout?”

“But which Shout?”

Before Faniar could answer my question, I felt a blade against the back of my neck. Turning my head very slightly, I could see a katana was also levitating behind Faniar’s head, surrounded by silvery light.

“Who are you?” a mare’s voice spoke from the darkness, “And what are you here for?”

“My associates and I,” Faniar said, gesturing with his hooves, “Were just doing a little research into the dragons and why they’re – um – coming back to life.”

“What interest have you in these matters?” the voice demanded.

“We want to stop the dragons from destroying the world,” I answered, “We’re looking for some way to do that.”

“Tell me truthfully, from where have you come?”

“Whitetrot,” I sighed heavily, “I’m the Thane, he’s the court wizard, and he’s a member of the Companions.”

“A very unlikely combination,” the voice protested, “But yet it appears to be true.”

The blades were pulled away from our necks, allowing me to turn around. Whoever had been speaking was remaining hidden in the shadows, but I got an idea of her position before her magic faded from sight.

“Who are you?” I asked, hoping for a less cryptic response.

“On the surface,” was all I got from the mysterious voice.

Cautiously, we ascended the stairs and climbed the wall for the last bit, emerging onto the plains of Easttrot. After we had all exited the barrow our mystery attacker finally showed herself.

A golden-coated unicorn mare with a dark red mane and tail climbed from the barrow. She wore a type of armor I’d never seen before, composed of multiple interlocking plates that let her move naturally, yet would also confound any blade looking for a weak spot. Across her back was slung an armory’s worth of weapons, mostly of the katana variety.

“I don’t believe we got your name,” Faniar said sarcastically.

“Nor I yours,” she replied, “But I’ll initiate the pleasantries. I am Scarlet Shores. What are your names?”

“I’m Sapphire.”

“Steadfast.”

“Faniar.”

“Well, now that that’s out of the way, I suppose we can part ways,” Scarlet said before turning to go.

“Wait,” I called after her, “Who are you and why were you in the dragon barrow?”

“Same reason as you, I suppose,” she said, turning back, “I was curious, and I’m looking for some way to stop the dragons. My order’s devoted to it.”

“And what order is that?” I asked.

“The Blades,” she replied, “Greatest dragonslayers in the history of the Northlands, and protectors of the Alicorn Emperors.”

“I thought they were wiped out at the end of the Great War,” Faniar said.

“We’d like the Blackwings to think that,” Scarlet replied, “They’ll always give us trouble. But we’ll give it right back.”

“Well, it was nice meeting you all,” she said, “But it’s time for me to disappear. And if you really do aim to make an end to the dragons, perhaps we’ll meet again.”

Without another word, she galloped off into the distance, disappearing from sight.

Level Up
Health: 170 Stamina: 140 Magicka: 160
New Perk: Overcharge [Destruction] -- When casting two identical Destruction spells simultaneously, the effects are quadrupled instead of doubled.
Dragon Soul collected
New Quest: The Way of the Voice -- Return Jurgen Sky-whinny’s horn to the Greymanes and continue your training.

Chapter 18: Elder Ways and Ancient Days

Chapter XVIII: Elder Ways and Ancient Days
“Sky above, Voice within.”

After our puzzling encounter with Scarlet Shores, the three of us returned to Whitetrot. While Faniar returned to the keep to review his notes, Steadfast and I took some recuperation time from our adventures. I also told him my story, in full, of how I had come to Horizon and everything that had happened since.

The next morning we left Whitetrot for Ivarsteed, and eventually High Hoofgar. I still had the horn of Jurgen Sky-whinny and intended to return it as I had been asked to. Also, if anypony knew more about how the dragons were returning, it would be the Greymanes.

After a harrowing climb and a few clashes with wolves and windigos, Steadfast and I made it to the top of the Crest of the World, or at least as high up as High Hoofgar was. The massive entrance doors swung upon smoothly as I stepped inside the monastery.

“Sapphire,” Night-Sparkle greeted me, “We’re so glad to see both you and the horn have returned safely.”

“It wasn’t easy,” I told him as I passed the horn over.

“But worth it,” he replied, cradling it close to him, “Jurgen Sky-Whinny’s horn has come home at last.”

“And who is this?” he asked, seeing Steadfast behind me.

“This is Steadfast,” I explained, “We got the horn together.”

“Well, I’m afraid High Hoofgar is only for those studying the Voice. He is not permitted to enter.”

“What? Why not? He’s with me!”

“This is how it has to be. The secrets we share within these walls are for those who follow the Way of the Voice alone.”

“That’s ridiculous. He won’t cause any trouble. And besides, I would never have found the horn without his help.”

“These are our rules. You can follow them or you can leave High Hoofgar.”

“You don’t need to leave on my account,” Steadfast chimed in, “I can wait outside.”

“It could be days,” I told him.

“Well, maybe if I could just come inside and stay out of the way?”

“What do you say?” I asked Night-Sparkle.

“Hmm,” he said, “The Greymanes have never allowed anypony not gifted in the Voice to enter our sacred halls. But, times are changing. And, as Paarthurnax would say, we must stay true to our past and mindful of the present without sacrificing our future.”

“I suppose he could stay,” Night-Sparkle bent, “So long as he stays far away from where we are training. Our Voices are liable to tear him apart if he gets in the way, and I will not be held responsible if such a thing happens.”

Night-Sparkle left us to find rooms for ourselves while he meditated. I chose the cell I had before, and Steadfast took the one adjacent to it. After I stripped out of my armor and laid down my belongings, I headed over to Steadfast’s cell to talk a bit before I left for training.

“So,” I asked, “Any plans while I’m off training?”

“I’ll find something to do,” he said before pausing, “High Hoofgar. I always dreamed about coming to this place. Well, I suppose everypony on the Whitetrot Plain did, lookin’ up at it every day. The Greymanes are legendary figures here. I imagined they’d be more . . .”

“Nice?”

“Yeah, like kindly old mountain ponies. I guess sometimes the real thing just can’t compare to the stories about it. Speaking of which, have you got anything to read?”

“I’ve got the first volume of A Brief History of the Empire if you want to take a whack at it.”

“May as well, I’ve got nothing else to do.”

After I retrieved my book for Steadfast, I headed back to the main room of High Hoofgar, ready to begin my lesson. Night-Sparkle was waiting for me when I arrived.

“I believe it would be best to conduct today’s lesson outside,” he said, guiding me toward the back of the building, “Both to avoid disturbing your friend and to give us more space to maneuver.”

“What’s the lesson today?” I asked him.

“All good things come to those who wait,” he replied cryptically.

He said nothing more as he guided me toward the heavy doors that led to High Hoofgar’s courtyard. Behind the monastery was a wide open area of nearly flat land penned off on two sides by the monastery itself and the other two sides by the mountain. The only way out was through High Hoofgar itself, or through an ancient stone archway leading to a path further up the mountain.

Yorri, Midnight-Flame, and Summer’s Dawn were already assembled outside. They gave us slight bows in turn as we passed.

“Last time you were here,” Night-Sparkle began, “We taught you mastery of Unrelenting Force. You can now bend force to your will. But force is only one path to follow. Today, we will teach you the meaning of true speed, elemental speed. You will learn the power and grace of a whirlwind. Master Midnight-Flame will demonstrate.”

The stallion stepped forward and pulled back his hood, letting his silvery mane flow over his shoulders. He closed his eyes and concentrated, forming the word in his mind.

he shouted, the word appearing in draconic on the ground in a blast of wind too fast to follow.

Suddenly all knowledge of the whirlwind entered my mind, thoughts and images flying by. I could almost feel myself picked up in the blast, becoming the whirlwind itself. I experienced the raw elemental power of the wind and allowed myself to be consumed by it.

Soon the thoughts became more solid, focusing on the memories of a single dragon regarding it. It was the one I had killed at Pynesgrove, and all its meditations and knowledge of the whirlwind became mine. They were my memories now, and I remembered rather than learned how to control the wind.

I echoed Master Midnight-Flame, causing the wind to propel me forward faster than my legs could carry me.

“Interesting,” Master Night-Sparkle said, “No meditation, yet mastery. I assume you have killed another dragon since we last met.”

“Two actually.”

“I won’t condemn how you choose to use the Voice, but our order has always advocated its use for peaceful purposes and thoughtful meditation. If your purpose in studying here is for combat alone, as was Jarl Stormcloud’s, you will be disappointed. There is no room for that kind of study here. So I ask you, what is your purpose in studying at High Hoofgar?”

I took a minute to think about it. Sure, Shouts were useful when fighting dragons, but that wasn’t my primary goal, was it? Horizon had nominated me to be its dragon slayer, it seemed, but other than the recent excursion with Faniar, I hadn’t sought dragons out. I would use my Voice to defend, not attack.

“I want to know why I have the Voice,” I told Night-Sparkle, “And what I can do with it.”

“A fitting and respectable goal,” he replied, “If you continue on the Way of the Voice, someday you will accomplish it. Now, if you are ready, we will teach you a new word, NAH, meaning ‘fury’ in the dragon tongue. Master Summer’s Dawn will demonstrate.”

The letters glowed for a moment before my eyes, until my vision filled with images of elemental fury. In a moment, I learned everything I could about the force and power of the wind and weather. But, this time I had no memories of application. There was no way I could use my newfound power, and I was acutely aware of it.

“Combined with WULD, NAH will propel you along even faster with the fury of the wind behind you,” Night-Sparkle said, “Let us see what you have learned.”

I tried to focus my thoughts on NAH, but it was just no use. For all the knowledge I’d gained, I still couldn’t do it. Night-Sparkle continued to watch expectantly.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know how,” I told him at last.

“Ah, no dragon souls remain to learn from. I will share with you my knowledge of NAH, at least enough that you will be able to use it.”

Night-Sparkle’s memories suddenly flew toward me in a blazing, multi-colored fire. I felt them enter my mind and make themselves at home, becoming one with my own memories. I suddenly experienced his entire life’s meditation of NAH.

<>

I was sent flying forward almost too fast to see where I was going, propelled by the whirlwind I had summoned up. Yet, it felt that I barely had a grasp on the use of NAH.

“Very good,” Night-Sparkle said, “I think that’s enough for today. Meditate on NAH, and when you feel you have mastered it, return for another lesson.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

As the great dragon Miirazbulaar wheeled around the mountain, Talhooves steeled himself for combat. With a mighty Shout, he sent the wyrm crashing into the mountainside, its broken carcass spreading across the country. Talhooves’s endeavors had not gone unnoticed. Even as the flames of the dragon died down, the Unicornican warlord Camelon approached the earth pony. He offered him glory and riches, promises of helping form a kingdom that would last centuries. He accepted, and was known thereafter as General Talhooves.

“Mind if I come in?” Steadfast asked, poking his head into my cell and interrupting my reading of A Brief History of the Empire, Vol. I.

“Sure,” I said, laying the book aside, “What’s on your mind?”

“I was just wondering how long you plan on staying here,” he asked.

After my training with the Greymanes I had taken two days to meditate on NAH. I was now pretty confident I could Whirlwind Sprint properly, but more practice wouldn’t hurt. Still, life in this monastery was a bit dull. Aside from meditating on and practicing Shouts, not much else seemed to go on here.

“I don’t know,” I answered Steadfast, “However long it takes, I guess.”

“I just feel so isolated here,” he said, “Like this place is separate from the rest of the world. Dragons could be burning everything for all we know. Jarl Stormcloud’s rebellion could have wiped out the Empire, and we’d have no idea.”

“I know how you feel. I’m not sure about this monastery life either. I’ve got a gift for using the Voice, but I don’t know what the point is if I never do anything useful with it. And Horizon seems to be depending on me using it to fight the dragons. Here I’m inaccessible if there’s trouble. I want to continue my studies, but I need to be out and about, not caged in here.”

“So, what are you going to do?”

“I’ll talk to Night-Sparkle in the morning; tell him I could never be a Greymane. Hopefully I’ll still be able to continue my training somehow.”

“I sure hope so, I’d hate for you to have to give up now,” Steadfast said as he turned to leave, “Well, I’ll let you get back to your book. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” I called back before picking up A Brief History of the Empire again.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

The following morning, I approached Night-Sparkle in the courtyard, just as I had told Steadfast I would.

“Ah, Sapphire, so nice to see you this morning,” the grey-maned stallion said as I trotted up, “Have we mastered NAH already?”

“Well, yes,” I answered, “But actually I wanted to speak to you about something else. I can’t stay here at High Hoofgar. Though I’d like to continue my training, I need to be out in the world.”

“Well, the life of a Greymane is not for everypony,” he replied, “But you can still continue on the Way of the Voice by meditating on the Words of Power, and seeking out new ones on your own. Many of the structures built by the ancient earth ponies contain inscriptions that may allow you to learn new words. In exploring them, you can continue your training.”

“Thank you Master,” I said, giving a slight bow, “It has been an honor to study under you.”

“Before you leave,” Night-Sparkle stopped me, “We would like to teach you one more Word of Power.”

The other Greymanes had assembled and nodded their agreement.

“You have learned to use the Voice to push both others and yourself along. Now we will teach you of how the Voice can shape and alter the world around you. Master Yorri will teach you the draconic word for frost, FO. With it, your breath will become as cold as the chilliest Horizon winter day, freezing anything that stands before you.

Master Yorri Shouted, the word appearing on the ground.

The power of the frost, and the intense cold of Horizon, swirled through my mind. My education was rapid, yet complete. It was soon built upon as Yorri shared her memories and meditations on FO with me. Once I had absorbed it all, I was able to match her Shout perfectly.

I Shouted, and the ground froze in front of me.

“We hope that someday you will return to High Hoofgar seeking our guidance,” Night-Sparkle spoke for the Greymanes, “And remember that the Voice is a gift. Use it wisely.”

“I will,” I promised, running off to grab my saddlebags and armor before heading back down the mountain with Steadfast.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

When we made it to the bottom of the Crest of the World, Ivarsteed seemed to bustling with activity. I wouldn’t think anything of it except that the last few times I had been here, nothing had been going on. A crowd had formed out in front of the inn, and I tuned into the conversation as I neared it.

“What are we going to do about this?”

“Is no place safe anymore?”

“As if there wasn’t already reason enough to abandon this town to the wilds!”

“What’s going on?” I asked an orange earth pony mare near the edge of the group.

“Draugr wandered into the town,” she explained, “That’s never happened before. Chilled Hearth Barrow has been dead for centuries.”

“Chilled Hearth Barrow?” I asked.

“It’s an ancient earth pony ruin about an hour’s trot down the road.”

“Hey, where are you going?” she asked as I trotted off.

“Chilled Hearth Barrow,” I answered, “I’ll see what’s going on.”

“Why are we doing this?” Steadfast asked as he ran to catch up.

“Did you have something else in mind?” I asked.

“No, just curious why you’re so eager to dive into a Draugr ruin.”

“Night-Sparkle told me to search Draugr ruins for Words of Power, and this chance just seemed to fall into my hooves.”

“Works for me. I can’t wait to get out there and crush some Draugr skulls again.”

I just rolled my eyes and continued down the path. It wasn’t long at all before I could see the ancient stones poking over the treetops. Chilled Hearth Barrow had to be close.

Without warning, a Draugr with a war axe jumped out from among the trees. The blade glanced off my armor, giving me time to pull my own war axe out. The next time the corpse swung at me, its weapon was blocked by the Axe of Whitetrot. As we locked blades, Steadfast charged up from behind and smashed his warhammer down on the Draugr.

As the Draugr died, its raspy scream drew the attention of two more. One with a greatsword charged Steadfast as the other kept its distance and shot arrows at me. I tried to keep trees between us as much as possible as I drew out my own bow. My first few arrows went wide, but I finally got a shot into the Draugr’s side.

As I moved to a better position, the Draugr got off a lucky shot. An arrow zipped between the trees and buried itself in my foreleg, just above the fetlock. Gritting my teeth through the pain, I moved on to a better spot and fired on the Draugr again, this time striking it in the eye. With a blast of lightning, I finished it up before attending to my leg.

After removing the arrow and bandaging it up, I regrouped with Steadfast, who had finished off his Draugr and was looting the body for gold. Together, we approached Chilled Hearth Barrow cautiously. Cresting a hill, we finally got a good look at it.

The barrow itself was a raised dome grown over with plant life that had encroached over the centuries. Surrounding it were the weathered pillars I had seen in the distance, standing like sentinels to protect the barrow. Real defenders patrolled closer to the barrow. I counted four Draugr staggering out in the sunlight.

With my bow I easily took out two of them before they caught on. I pulled out my sword and galloped down the hill as they began to climb toward us. The one I met first had a war axe held in its mouth. I jumped back as it swung at my chest and brought my sword down toward its head.

It brought the axe up to block surprisingly quickly, and Calcion’s Cleaver glanced to the side. The Draugr took advantage of the moment to swing its axe around toward my head. I ducked to the side, and all the blade cut was a chunk of my mane. As it swung back around toward my head, I threw my sword up to block, catching the axe just beneath the blade. I quickly twisted my sword around and disarmed the undead pony. Continuing my swing, I brought my sword around into its neck. It gave a raspy gasp as it fell to the ground dead.

I turned to where Steadfast was still fighting the remaining Draugr, which also was wielding a warhammer. Both of them had dents in their armor, but neither had been able to get the best of the other. I hoped to tip the odds in Steadfast’s favor as I shot flames at the Draugr. As it began to burn up, Steadfast finally got the fatal swing in, killing the zombie for good.

“I sure hope things are easier inside,” he said before approaching the ivy-covered barrow.

The only entrance was through a heavy wooden door set into the stone that had been smashed open from the inside. Peeking inside, I could see the Draugr lamps were already lit and illuminating the tomb with their eerie purplish light.

Cautiously I sent a hoof inside. When no Draugr appeared, I entered the barrow entirely. Steadfast followed as I crept down the corridor and the spiral staircase that followed, dropping us deeper into the crypt. Bodies of the giant rat-creatures I’d seen in Blank Flanks Barrow littered the floor at the bottom, already killed by the Draugr.

“What are those things?” I asked Steadfast when I was sure the coast was clear and there were no Draugr lurking about.

“Skeevers,” he replied, “Nasty things, aren’t they? Good thing they’re easy to kill.”

In the room we had just entered, the walls broke open in several places and four Draugr stepped out.

“I can’t say the same for them,” Steadfast commented before launching himself toward the nearest, warhammer swinging.

The one closest to me I blasted with fire, reducing it to a charred crisp in seconds. A second came at me, a greatsword grasped in its teeth, along with a third wielding a battleaxe. I pulled out both Calcion’s Cleaver and the Axe of Whitetrot, blocking the attacks as they came at me, sword to sword, axe to axe.

I jumped as the one with the battleaxe tried to sweep out my legs, blocking the swing of the greatsword as I did. I was pushed back as I blocked with my sword, forced to give ground to the Draugr. The other zombie repeatedly swung its battleaxe at me, forcing me to maneuver my war axe to keep from being sliced severely.

I finally broke through the greatsword’s block and nicked its wielder in the neck. Thick, dark blood oozed from the wound as the Draugr took a step back. I had no time for a killing blow as the other Draugr raised its battleaxe up to cut me in half. I jumped out of the way as the blade came down and slammed the Axe of Whitetrot into the shaft.

The weapon ignited as my blade cut into it and the Draugr was forced to release it. Calcion’s Cleaver went swinging up into its chest, and it fell to the floor a crumpled pile of flesh.

My side armor suddenly buckled, cutting into me as a greatsword slammed into it. I pushed the blade aside with my sword and turned to face my attacker. The Draugr brought its greatsword back to hit me, but I took it by surprise with a blast of fire. As it tried to recover, I swung the Axe of Whitetrot into its neck. Once again the blade lit on fire and the Draugr burned from the inside.

Steadfast finished up the Draugr he was fighting as I pulled my twisted armor out of the wound and downed a healing potion. It tingled as it took effect, sewing up my side good as new. The same couldn’t be said of my armor. As I took a look at it, I realized in what bad shape it really was. I promised myself the next time I was in a civilized town I’d a find a blacksmith’s forge to fix it up.

“Deeper in, I guess,” Steadfast said, trotting up to me and pointing toward the door at the far end of the room.

Past the door were more stairs leading down into the crypt. At the bottom was a large room filled with empty coffins. Undoubtedly some of the Draugr we’d seen on the surface, as well as the one’s that had “wandered into” Ivarsteed had come from here. Only a few intact coffins remained, and Steadfast and I quickly made an end to whatever was inside as they tried to emerge.

Deeper still we went until we looked down a long hallway lined on either side by elaborate carvings. At the end was a set of heavy metal doors, but for the moment the carvings demanded my attention. As I followed them, I realized they told a story, no doubt of the pony who was buried here.

I couldn’t read the glyphs, at least not most of them, but I could make out most of the story through the images. The first few depicted an earth pony mare on the hunt for riches. Eventually she began to crave power, until the walls depicted her commanding entire armies to do her bidding. But it still wasn’t enough and she sold herself to the dragons for greater power. In the end her army turned against her, but for a loyal few, who constructed the tomb we were now in. In truth, I believed those ponies that had followed her were now the Draugr that defended this place so vehemently.

Without any more delay, I pushed open the heavy doors at the end of the corridor. Past them was a chamber carved out of the solid rock and lit with the magical and eternal lights common in all ancient earth pony ruins I’d seen. Mingling with the purple light coming from an elaborate suspended chandelier was an icy blue light emanating from the center of the room.

As I stepped closer, I could see the light was actually coming from a Draugr, suspended in midair. Though it was impossible to tell for sure, I suspected this was the same mare depicted in the corridor outside. Her eyes snapped open as I drew even closer, the light from them blindingly bright. The light around her fluctuated as she snarled and fixed her attention on Steadfast and me.

Lightning flew from her eyes and burned the wall behind me as I ducked down. An earth pony doing magic was not good news at all. I galloped across the room as she sent another bolt at me, nearly catching me this time. The light faded a bit around her as she allowed herself to fall to her hooves. Pulling a sword off her back, she searched for where I was hiding.

I pressed myself closer against a pillar as her gaze swept over my hiding spot. I breathed a sigh of relief as she continued on, not noticing my presence. But that sigh turned to a gasp of horror as she snarled and swung in the opposite direction, toward where Steadfast was.

Slinking around the column, I saw her pursuing my earth pony companion, staring lightning at him and forcing him to run. I couldn’t just let her catch him, so I did the only thing I could think of at the moment. I ran in and jumped at her back, swinging Calcion’s Cleaver.

Amazingly, she was able to bring her own sword up to block. Ice began to form on my sword’s edge where the other blade touched it. I pulled back and shattered the ice before the weapons fused. The Draugr easily bucked me off her back before I had a chance to get even a single swing on her.

Slowly she approached where I had fallen, her eyes open only the slightest crack to let her see. When she was practically standing over me she opened them fully and sent crackling lightning hurtling at me. I brought Calcion’s Cleaver up on instinct, though I knew a sword couldn’t save me from this.

When I wasn’t dead in an instant, I cracked open my eyes to see the sword absorbing the electricity thrown at it. In fact, it began to deflect the lightning into the Draugr, causing her to grimace in pain, but still she didn’t relent. She only stopped shooting the lightning at me when Steadfast caved her head in with his warhammer.

I let my sword clatter to the ground and took a moment to catch my breath. Flopping back on the cold stone floor, I saw caught a glimpse of something I hadn’t before. Surrounded by carvings of dragons, there was an inscription in draconic on the wall behind me. One word began to stand out as I looked on, and I braced myself to learn something entirely new.

What hit me was surprising. It was no raw natural force or concept I found myself learning, but rather I began to learn everything there was to know about Pyne. In mere moments, I learned everything I possibly could about the Equine of nature. I understood it all, down to the very motivations and thoughts of the wild animals. Yes, I knew more about Pyne that most priests probably did, but I didn’t know her by her Equine name anymore, I knew her as only the dragons did.

~PAAN~

Level Up
Health: 170 Stamina: 150 Magicka: 160
New Perk: Slice of Life [Light Weapons] -- Attacks with war axes do extra bleeding damage over time and have a higher chance of critical strikes.
Word of Power learned: WULD -- Whirlwind; Whirlwind Sprint – The Thu’um rushes forward, carrying you in its wake with the speed of a tempest.
Word of Power learned: NAH -- Fury; Whirlwind Sprint – Combined with WULD, NAH increases the force of your sprint, propelling you along even more swiftly.
Word of Power learned: FO -- Frost; Frost Breath – Your breath is winter, your Thu’um a blizzard.
Word of Power learned: PAAN -- Pyne, Pyne’s Peace – The Voice soothes wild beasts, who lose their desire to fight or flee.
New Quest: Into the Depths – Find and explore Draugr ruins to discover new Words of Power.

Chapter 34: The College of Winterhorn

Chapter XXXIV: The College of Winterhorn
“If you have the aptitude you should join the mage’s college in Winterhorn.”

I’d heard of the mage’s college of course, but had never actually had a chance to visit. Other than the Arcane University in the Imperial City it was the largest educational institution to teach magic in all of the Northlands, and after the Arcane University closed down and split into two different institutions, the College of Winterhorn had become one of the few respectable places left to study magic.

Frankly, I was surprised the college was still open. Winterhorn was Stormcloud territory, and I knew how much the Stormclouds despised unicorns and their magic. Yet, somehow the college seemed unaffected by the war, standing tall and proud over the town. As we approached, it seemed Winterhorn itself was not as lucky.

According to the history books, Winterhorn had once been the largest city in Horizon. Not so anymore. The Winterhorn we stepped into was only a bit larger than Riverwood, its collection of earth pony buildings lining the unpaved road that led through town to the college. A few discouraging glances were sent our way as we passed through the settlement.

“Here for the college, I presume?” A bright orange earth pony asked from the porch of Winterhorn’s tavern as we passed by, “Well we don’t need any more of your kind here!”

“What do you mean?” I asked, fearing I knew the answer, “What’ve you got against the college?”

“You unicorns and your magic, it’s just not natural,” he said, trotting down the steps to speak to me face to face, “Last thing we need is a school to teach you how to use your witchcraft. Nothing ever comes from that place but death! We know it was them what caused the Great Collapse, though they deny it.”

“Great Collapse?”

“Winterhorn used to be a great city, the jewel of Horizon. Then, without warning, half the city plunged into the sea. The entire northern half of the city was destroyed in an instant. That is, all except for the College of Winterhorn.”

“I’m sure there’s an explanation-”

“Of course there is! Their magic got out of control and obliterated half the city! Mark my words, the things they teach in that college you don’t want to know.”

The stallion stomped off back into the tavern, leaving Steadfast, Mephalda, and I standing in the middle of the street. I didn’t want to believe any of the things he had said, but a small part of me wondered if maybe some of it was right. After all, the College of Winterhorn had been known to have much looser standards than the Arcane University. Was study of dark magic allowed? And if so, was it a good idea to fraternize with ponies who thought that such a thing was right?

“Don’t worry Sapphire,” Mephalda said, placing a hoof on my shoulder, “I’m sure most of what he said was just the Stormclouds talking.”

“That’s true,” Steadfast agreed, “And we’re just here for a book, right?”

“Right,” I responded, shaking the doubts from my head.

No more ponies tried to warn us off as we approached the bridge to the college, though we received a plentiful amount of disapproving glares. Standing at the entrance to the bridge was a sky blue unicorn wearing a set of mage’s robes. She looked bored, but snapped to attention as we approached.

“Hold it right there,” she commanded, her horn glowing, “If you intend to enter the college I’m afraid I need to ask you a few questions.”

“What kind of questions?” I asked.

“We can’t let just anypony into the college,” she scoffed, “I need to know your intentions and if you’re skilled enough at magic to join us here.”

“Alright, ask away.”

“For what purpose do you wish to join the College of Winterhorn?”

“Well, we were hoping to look through your archives for some mention of how the Tongues defeated Alduin,” I said, gesturing to Steadfast and Mephalda.

“You do not wish to join the college?”

“Not exactly.”

“Well, I’m afraid that’s not how we do things around here. If you want to use our library you’ll need to be a student.”

“How do I do that?”

“Prove yourself to me.”

“What?”

“Prove your aptitude at magic. We’re not here to teach ponies simple household spells. Our purpose is to foster advanced studies and innovation in the arcane arts.”

I tried to think of which of the spells I knew would impress this pony. Now that I thought about it, they all seemed pretty basic. Eventually I settled on casting a flame atronach, as it seemed to be the least mediocre of my limited collection.

“Hmm,” the guard-pony said, “Not quite advanced, but still far beyond a simple fireball. I just don’t know if it’s . . . enough to justify your admission.”

“That’s the most advanced spell I know,” I explained.

“I was afraid of that. You have the aptitude perhaps, but as for what skills you can bring to this institution . . .”

“Well, I do have the Voice,” I said, thinking of my other magical skillset, though it was technically not the same as unicorn magic.

“The legendary earth pony skill? Let’s see it,” the guard said, crossing her forelegs.

I Shouted, using the new Word Paarthurnax had recently taught me.

The guard had obviously not taken me seriously, and her eyebrows flew up in amazement as my breath ignited. She stood stunned for a moment before shaking her head and returning to reality.

“A unicorn with the Voice,” she mused, “Oh, the teachers will love this!”

“So, am I in?” I asked.

“Yes, of course. Follow me to the college proper.”

“Though, I’ll have to ask for your companions to stay behind,” she added as she began to head up the bridge.

“What?” I asked.

“Well they’re not unicorns,” she said, turning back around to face us, “There’s nothing they can contribute to the college.”

“But they’re with me,” I protested, “And they won’t cause any harm.”

“I’m afraid I can’t take that chance. We can’t let outsiders know our secrets.”

“I can’t go without my friends. I won’t go without them.”

“Listen. If you were a long-time student perhaps I could take your word and allow it, but I just don’t know you that well yet. How am I supposed to place my trust in them if I don’t know if I can place my trust in you?”

“What will it take for you to trust me?” I asked.

“Well, if you could prove your devotion to the college, I suppose that would be enough. A few rogue students set up a necromancy den a while back in Freshwater Cave. If you were to go clear them out, restore the college’s honor, I guess then I could let all of you enter.”

“So if we take out these necromancers,” I asked, making sure I understood, “Then you’ll allow us all in.”

“That’s the gist of it. Will you do it?”

“Which direction?” I asked, answering her question.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

Freshwater Cave wasn’t far from the College of Winterhorn; a short trot along the rocky beach got us there in no time. An unassuming cave entrance opened up in the coastal rock right where it was marked on my map. There was no marker to prove it was Freshwater Cave, so we just had to hope we had the right one.

Mephalda led the way into the cave, her bow at the ready. Since we were dealing with ponies using dark magic, we’d decided it would be best to try and catch them unawares, hopefully taking them out from a distance before they could cast any spells on us. Ergo, Mephalda, with her razor-sharp reflexes and unparalleled accuracy with a bow, would be leading our party’s initial strike.

Two ponies in dark robes came into sight as the tunnel we were in let out into a more expansive cavern. Drawing her bow, Mephalda let an arrow fly. The shaft buried itself in one of the necromancers’ heads, causing them to drop to the floor. As the other one wheeled around toward us I began shooting ice spikes at her. Most shattered against the far wall, but one managed to pierce her hindleg, causing her to kneel down to the ground.

From another passage came three more unicorns. One immediately cast a ward, deflecting the blast of lightning I sent shooting at her. Another failed to raise hers fast enough, and Mephalda’s arrow went sailing through, piercing her neck and causing her to fall down to the cave floor. Three now remained, and the one not keeping a ward up or removing a shard of ice from her leg cast a spell on a dry pile of bones lying nearby.

With a rattle the pony skeleton stood up, the slight glow of magic around it. Retrieving a rusty sword from the floor the skeleton began to approach us. Before it could reach us Steadfast returned the reanimated pony to its death-state with a swing of his warhammer.

The necromancer I’d injured before sent a blast of lightning at him as he moved to intercept the skeleton. I did the same, and the bolts met in midair, releasing a crackling discharge that made Steadfast’s hair stand on end, but did no further damage.

Changing her approach, the necromancer shot a blast of lightning at me next, which I was forced to jump out of the way to dodge. As I did so I shot more ice spikes at her, but she was too quick to be hit with one again. The same didn’t hold for arrows and, as she dodged me, she jumped right in the path of one of Mephalda’s deadly shafts, knocking her to the ground.

The one holding up a ward dropped it as Steadfast closed in on her. Drawing a long, thin blade from within her robes, she held him off while the necromancer behind her cast another spell. From his horn he sent magic arcing into his recently fallen companion. The corpse of the necromancer Mephalda had just ended stood back up and charged toward us with a sword of her own drawn.

The reanimated corpse’s blade met mine as I drew Calcion’s Cleaver. Lightning arced down the blade, causing the necromancer’s magic to fizzle, but it didn’t seem to affect her at all. As I swung around my sword again, the corpse sluggishly brought its own blade up to block. The zombie seemed to act more like an awkward puppet of a pony than a pony itself, so I took advantage of it by bringing my sword around faster than it could block. Cutting it off at the knees caused it to drop its sword, and I brought my own blade around for the finishing stroke on its neck.

The sound of shattering metal met my ears and caused me to turn around to see Steadfast had destroyed the other necromancer’s blade. He followed up with a strike to the pony’s back, crushing her spine and causing her to die of shock. The last necromancer cowered behind a ward as Mephalda’s shots pinged off, chipping it away little by little. Steadfast finished him off with a quick strike to his head through the ward.

“Think that’s all of them?” I asked.

“Better make a check to be sure,” Mephalda said.

Cautiously I trotted down the side tunnel the necromancers had come from. At the end was a smaller cavern where a few beds had been set up. When no necromancers popped out to attack, I decided it was safe enough to make a search. Looting the chests and tables yielded a significant amount of gold and potions, as well as a few soul gems, both of the regular and “black” variety. In addition, there was a tome on one of the tables with the title Reanimate Corpse. Normally I’d be eager to learn a new spell, but I wanted nothing to do with necromancy, and I tucked it in my saddlebags to bring as proof that the necromancers had been eradicated.

Returning to the central cavern, I saw that Mephalda and Steadfast were stripping the robes off the bodies to take as additional proof. Once we were sure we’d scoured the entirety of Freshwater Cave we headed back up the beach to the college.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

“Well well well,” the guard at the bridge said as we approached, “You actually did it?”

“Sure did,” I said, passing over the robes and spell tome as proof, “So we can enter now?”

“Of course, follow me. I’m Quicksilver, by the way, and when I’m not watching this bridge I’m the teacher for Conjuration.”

“Do you teach necromancy here?” Mephalda asked as we ascended the ramps and bridges of stone that led to the college.

“Of course,” Quicksilver replied without hesitation, “At the College of Winterhorn no study is forbidden unless it endangers those around you.”

“So those necromancers . . .” I said.

“Were former students of mine. But they intended to use necromancy to lead an uprising against Jarl Stormcloud. If their study were benign I would have allowed it. They were intent on using it for violence, something I could not allow to tarnish the name of this school.”

It seemed that perhaps the stallion back in Winterhorn had been at least partially right. Anything was allowed in the College of Winterhorn, no matter how dangerous. I wondered where they crossed the line at endangering fellow ponies. I’d have to watch myself while I was here.

As we traveled toward the college I could see the devastation of the Great Collapse spread out beneath me. It seemed like the entire shoreline had just broken off into the sea. All except for the cliff the college was perched on, that is. Unnaturally square stones poked out of the icy waters below, and bore witness to the fact that Winterhorn had once been a large and highly developed city.

Before I knew it we were at the gates, which Quicksilver opened by inserting her horn into a hole near the center. They swung open onto an open courtyard surrounded on all sides by rearing towers of weathered stone. In the center was a pool that seemed to bubble with pure magic. A stone statue of a unicorn in mage’s robes hovered over it, sparks flying from the pool to its horn from time to time.

“I’ll let you make yourself at home,” Quicksilver said, heading back down the bridge and leaving us alone.

A few more unicorns wandered the grounds, and it was easy to get directions to the library. Up a flight of stone steps was the expansive warehouse for the College of Winterhorn’s records. Shelves stretched from wall to wall filled with priceless tomes. In fact, the shelves of books stretched up higher on the walls than anypony could possibly reach. Rolling ladders provided the means to reach them.

“Where do we start?” Steadfast asked, looking at what were surely thousands of books.

“I’m not sure,” I said, feeling a bit overwhelmed myself, “Look for the history section I guess.”

Dividing the library up, the three of us searched for any book on the Dragon War, the Tongues, or Alduin’s defeat. Shelf after shelf, book after book we scoured, looking for anything useful. It soon began to seem like a hopeless quest. The books seemed to be arranged in no logical order. We’d have to search the whole library just to have a chance of finding what we were looking for, and even then we’d have a slim chance of picking it out from the thousands of other volumes.

“Are you about finished rifling through my precious books with your blunt-ended pony legs yet?” a voice came from up above as I was about to give up hope on finding anything.

A distinct rustling sound came from above, and I looked up to see an elderly griffin peering through a hole in the ceiling. He slowly flapped down from his perch and landed in the middle of the library, eyeing each of us as he descended. Placing the book I’d been looking at back in its slot, I trotted over to where the old griffin had landed.

“Ey?,” he squawked, “I asked you a question!”

“Um, no, not really,” I answered.

“Hmm, you don’t look like students, at least no students I’ve ever seen,” he said, stroking his feathery beard, “Why are you here?”

“We’re looking for a book on the Tongues, the ancient earth pony heroes,” I explained.

“So we can find a way to defeat Alduin,” Steadfast added.

“Defeat Alduin?” the griffin laughed, “That’s one I haven’t heard before.”

“You’re serious,” he said when we didn’t laugh along, “Well, I’m afraid to be the bearer of bad news, but you ask the impossible.”

Reaching behind him with his tail, he pulled a book with a black cover and silver trim off the shelf behind him. I recognized it instantly.

“And the Scrolls have foretold, of black wings in the cold, that when brothers wage war come unfurled,” he read from the book.

“Alduin, Bane of Kings, ancient shadow unbound, with a hunger to swallow the world,” I finished for him, “I’ve read that one. But it’s not impossible to defeat Alduin. It’s been done before.”

“Obviously not, or he wouldn’t be back,” the griffin argued.

“He may not have been destroyed permanently,” I retaliated, “But somehow the Tongues were able to take him down, at least temporarily. That’s all we’re asking for.”

“I don’t know,” the griffin said, “It seems you’re searching for something specific, some weapon or technique the Tongues used.”

“A Shout,” I supplied.

“Right,” the griffin said, thinking, “Chances are whatever this Shout is, it’s buried somewhere in some obscure tome. If only my assistant were here. She’s got a knack for complex finding spells that would come quite in handy here.”

“We have visitors Narickh?” a voice asked from behind us.

Standing in the doorway was a lavender unicorn in mage’s robes, her deep purple mane streaked with crimson. Upon her back was a set of saddlebags filled to bursting with books. She began to unpack them, floating them back to their places as she waited for the griffin, Narickh apparently, to respond.

“Ah Mystic, just the pony I wanted to see,” he said, “Think you can work some of your magic to find a book?”

“Certainly!” Mystic beamed, setting her horn aglow. Every book throughout the expansive library lit up in sync, surrounded by the same color of magic as her horn.

“What do you need?” she asked as Narickh directed her attention toward me.

“We’re looking for a book on the Tongues,” I said.

“Hmm, something more specific?” she asked, though the number of books held in her magic decreased significantly.

“We’re looking for a Shout they used.”

“Better, anything else?” she asked, decreasing the possible books yet again.

“If there’s mention of it, the Shout’s called Dragonrend,” I added.

“Here we go,” she said, floating down a book from an obscure corner of the library, “The Life of Erik Hammerfall.”

“He was one of the Tongues,” Mystic explained as I paged through the volume, searching for some mention of Dragonrend, “The book’s mostly a set of letters and memoirs written by him.”

Flipping through, the word Dragonrend finally caught my eye, though I had to flip back a few pages to find it again.

[A letter Erik wrote to his fellow Tongue Felicia Fire’s-fury upon the tenth anniversary of their defeat of Alduin]

My Dearest Companion,
It is hard to believe a full decade has passed now since that day, when you, Uris, and I stood upon the Crest of the World and beheaded the Dragon Cult. Yet that moment continues to eat away at me. Dragonrend worked, but at what cost? The darkness of such words I feel eating away at me even today. I know Uris has requested that the words we uttered that day never be recorded, so that our darkness may not corrupt another generation. Yet I feel that everything will go to waste if they are not preserved. That is why I have trusted one, and only one pony with this secret, for him to record and keep hidden until need arises. Please forgive me, but I know that Arias will keep our secret safe. Still, I would understand if you feel betrayed by this breach in your trust, and as such I will not be returning to Horizon. Give Uris my regards.
-Erik Hammerfall

It appeared I had gotten my hopes up for nothing. I knew nothing more about Dragonrend now than I had before I’d come here. Still, it had been recorded in at least one place, and though the chances of finding it were a million to one, I still had to try.

“So, did you find what you were looking for?” Mystic asked when I looked up from the book.

“Not exactly,” I said, passing the book back for Steadfast and Mephalda to get a better look at, “I was looking for the actual words to Dragonrend, not just something about it.”

“That’s too bad,” Mystic said, looking around at the shelves of books, “I’m surprised that was the only mention of the subject.”

“It’s not your fault,” I told her, “The Shout’s words were never recorded on purpose.”

“That’s not exactly true,” Mephalda reminded me, “It says here the words were recorded somewhere.”

“Yeah,” Steadfast said, “But how in the Northlands are we supposed to find wherever this Arias hid it?”

“Wait, did you say Arias?” Narickh asked.

“Yeah, why?” Steadfast answered.

“Arias was a famous recorder who lived in Unicornica around the time of the Dragon War,” Narickh explained, “Much of his work he kept secret, storing tomes filled to the brim with knowledge beneath his dwelling in secret tunnels.”

“That is, until somepony found them,” Mystic cut in, “Works by Arias are extremely rare and valuable, both because of the easily accessible knowledge packed inside and the fact that he only ever made one copy of each book.”

“So, you think maybe somepony found the book where Arias recorded the words for Dragonrend?” I asked.

“It’s likely so,” Mystic said, “We’ve got a few of his books here, but none on Shouts.”

“That’s too bad,” I said, “This place was our best chance to find any information.”

“Well, there is one other option,” Narickh said.

“Yes?”

“We may not have the book you seek,” the old griffin explained, “But the Arcane University has a much larger library, and a much larger collection of Arias’s works.”

“Of course,” Mystic said, facehoofing, “If any place has the book you’re looking for, it’ll be the Arcane University.”

“Are you talking about the Arcane University in Unicornica?” Steadfast asked.

“Of course,” Mystic said excitedly, “I’ve always wanted to go, and now I have a chance to! We can charter a ship to Anvil and be there in no time!”

“I have to grab a few things,” the unicorn called as she galloped off, “Meet you in the courtyard!”

“What just happened?” Steadfast asked me.

“I’m not quite sure,” I said, “It looks like we’ve picked up another pony.”

“Sorry about that,” Narickh said, bringing our attention back to the old griffin, “Mystic tends to be easily excitable. I’m sure you can find your own way to the Imperial City just fine. Don’t worry about her; I’ll break the news to her gently.”

“No,” I said, “It’s fine if she comes along. It seems like she really wants to go, and it would be good to have a mage with us when we enter the University.”

“Well, alright then,” Narickh said, “Just keep an eye on her, alright?”

“Of course.”

Mystic seemed to have somehow defied the laws of time and space and was already waiting out in the courtyard for us when we emerged from the library.

“Ready to go?” she asked, nearly jumping up and down with excitement.

“You’re the one with the plan,” I said, “Lead the way.”

We weren’t even to the bridge before she stopped suddenly and scrunched her face up. As I turned to ask her why she’d stopped I saw that sparks had begun to arc over her horn.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“I can sense disturbances in the magic field,” she explained, looking a bit embarrassed.

Suddenly her body locked up and the sparks over her horn burst into full-on lightning. A cone of pure magical energy swirled around her horn, shooting up into the sky as her body shook with tremors. At last the sparks began to die down and Mystic forced herself to her hooves.

“So, sensing disturbances in the magical field,” I said as I helped her up, a bit shocked by what had happened, “What exactly does that mean?”

“I-I can sense when there’s a large magical change in an area,” she said, looking a little shaken up herself, “But I’ve never felt something like that before. Something huge just happened in Seclusion.”

“Something huge like a dragon destroying the town?” Steadfast speculated fearfully.

“I don’t know,” Mystic said, “Like I said, it’s never been that strong before.”

“Well, there’s only one way to know for sure,” I said, fixing my sights on the west.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

By the next morning we’d made it to Seclusion. It seemed fine from the outside; there was no damage indicative of a dragon attack at least. Within too everything seemed to be perfectly natural, with the townsponies going about their business. But, Mystic had said that something had messed up the magical field here pretty good.

I didn’t want to start doubting her authenticity so soon after meeting her, but it certainly appeared that everything was fine. Unwilling to give up right away, I decided our best bet was to go to the Blue Palace and ask Jarl Radiance. If anypony would know about something big happening in Seclusion, it would be her.

As we entered the Blue Palace’s throne room everything snapped into place. Jarl Radiance sat in her throne as she always had, though this time a smile graced her face, making her look more lovely than ever. And there, in the throne next to her, sat High King Shade.

Level Up
Health: 220 Stamina: 210 Magicka: 210
New Perk: Scrounger [Lockpicking] -- You will find considerably more potions in locked chests than usual.
New Quest: The King is Dead; Long Live the King -- Investigate how High King Shade is now alive.

Chapter 53: The Corruption of Power

Chapter LIII: The Corruption of Power
“My title is just a formality. I’ve always been in charge here.”

I jumped behind a forge as the dragon sent flames billowing down the street. Just across the cobblestones, Mystic hid beneath the overhang of an inn, preparing her magic to strike the dragon as soon as it came within range. Mephalda stood atop the inn, sending arrows flying into the flesh of the dragon, enraging it to the point that it sent flames flying at her, igniting the roof of the building just as she soared away.

After the encounter with Mareidia at Mount Kilkreath, we headed back to Whitetrot to get the location of another ancient earth pony ruin. It was already dark by the time we arrived, and we decided to sleep for the night and head up to Dragonsreach in the morning. Instead, we awoke to a frantic pounding on my door. Outside was a courier bringing news that Ivarsteed had been attacked by a dragon, and that it was now on its way to Shor’s Stone, and presumably Splitten after that.

Gathering up our gear, we set out for the lake town, arriving shortly after the dragon had begun its attack. This dragon seemed to have a plan, as it systematically went about lighting the buildings on fire. While it had merely harassed Ivarsteed and Shor’s Stone, it seemed intent on completely destroying Splitten, no doubt on Alduin’s orders.

I ducked inside the blacksmith’s shop as the dragon found me and tore apart the forge, sending sparks flying everywhere. A wall of flame hit the shop as I slammed the door shut. I galloped like mad through the shop, passing through into the living quarters behind it, where the blacksmith and his family were. Sliding out the back door, I stopped to peer around the corner of the building.

The dragon was advancing down the street, but stopped as Mystic suddenly revealed herself, sending lightning into the dragon’s neck. It swung its head around at her, smashing through the wall of the inn, but she ran inside before his jaws reached her. Inhaling sharply, the dragon suddenly sent fire through the hole it’d created in the inn, filling the room inside with flames. I hoped dearly that Mystic had made it to safety.

The dragon’s tail thrashed around, crashing through the charred front of the blacksmith’s shop, until Steadfast struck it with his warhammer. Weaving under the dragon’s tail, he struck it again. As it roared and began to turn around, he picked up a battleaxe that was lying near the forge and brought it down swiftly on the dragon’s tail. The blade sank nearly all the way through, coming close to chopping off the tail, leaving it hanging by a narrow strip of flesh and scales. Steadfast abandoned the axe in the tail and retrieved his warhammer as he galloped to safety.

<<>> I Shouted, shooting toward the dragon.

I whipped Calcion’s Cleaver out as I drew near, striking the dragon on the chin. It struggled to turn around in the narrow street, its wing smashing apart the upper level of the nearby inn. The front edge of the wing angled down at me next, bits of timber flying with it. I was unable to dodge and was picked up by the wing and slammed against the building adjacent to the smithy.

Though I had the wind knocked out of me, I sent flames shooting into the dragon’s wing, burning through the membrane. I quickly drank a potion of fire resistance as the dragon refused to let me go and instead breathed fire at me. Flames washed over both me and the dragon’s wing. The building behind me also got a good roasting, and as the dragon pressed harder with its exposed bone, I went flying back through the wall as it turned to ash.

I quickly picked myself up and ran out the back before the dragon attempted to roast me again. I ended up in yet another of Splitten’s winding streets, with no idea how to get to the dragon. I could hear it roaring, and saw Mephalda swoop over it, sending poisoned arrows down at it, but I couldn’t get to it.

Barrels were stacked in front of a nearby building, and I climbed up them to get a better view. After a bit of scrambling, I made it up to the rooftops, where I could look out at the city and find a route to the dragon. However, it found me first. I jumped into the air with assistance from its wings and landed on the rooftops across the street from me, its claws tearing through the roof.

I galloped across the roofs as the dragon breathed fire at me, making my way toward the city square where I’d have a bit more room to move around. Buildings went up in flame behind me, the entire row falling to the dragon’s fire. As I ran, I looked out at the city and saw just how much destruction had taken place already. This had to end soon, or else there wouldn’t be a Splitten at the end.

As I made it to the square, I leapt from the rooftops, rolling across the cobblestones and through the thin layer of snow that had accumulated. I quickly ducked behind the wall that ringed the square as the dragon sent even more fire at me. Stealthily, I made my way around to where I knew the dragon would enter.

<<>> I Shouted, and the dragon was wracked with pain as it was forced to comprehend being mortal.

Holding out Calcion’s Cleaver, I shot lightning from its tip into the dragon’s face, blistering off scales. I stepped to the side as it attempted to roast me again, failing as it was distracted by Dragonrend. Suddenly, the dragon shook off my Shout’s effects and turned its head toward me, fire building in its nostrils. I had been advancing on it, and now I had no time to run and nowhere to hide.

A blast of ice struck it in the side of the head as it attempted to fry me, throwing its aim off. Mystic continued to blast the dragon as I ducked under its head and around to its side, drawing Dawnbreaker as well. I stabbed both swords into the dragon’s side as I galloped along, but was forced to stagger back as it slammed a claw down at me.

The dragon forced Mystic to retreat with its fire breath, then turned toward me, ice and scales peeling off its face. I slid under it as it breathed fire at me. On the far side was Steadfast, who helped me up with his hoof while breaking off scales with his warhammer. He gave me a push up onto the dragon’s back before retreating when it craned its neck around toward him.

<<>> I Shouted as I ran up the dragon’s back, coating it in ice.

Mystic’s magic and my swords shattered the ice, tearing apart the dragon’s flesh beneath. I galloped forward as fast as I could while the dragon craned its neck around. It began to breath fire at me just as I made it far enough up its neck that it could no longer hit me. Still, a bit of my tail suffered as the flames licked at it.

Unable to roast me, the dragon instead twisted its neck around, trying to throw me off. As I began to slip, I stabbed Calcion’s Cleaver into the side of its neck, grabbing on with my forelegs and my teeth. When the dragon discovered it still hadn’t dislodged me, it swung its neck around again, intent on throwing me off.

I Shouted as I began to feel myself slipping.

Time slowed around me as I scrambled to stay on top of the dragon’s rotating neck. I pulled Calcion’s Cleaver out and charged forward until I was on top of the dragon’s head. As I began to feel time returning to normal, I quickly stabbed the blade through the dragon’s skull.

Suddenly, things snapped back to normal speed, and I was thrown off the dragon and sent rolling across the cobblestones. Calcion’s Cleaver was still in its head, however, and discharging lightning through its brain. The dragon’s eyes rolled up into its head, and it fell to the ground, its head smashing the low stone wall that surrounded the square.

It began to combust as I yanked my ancient earth pony sword from its skull. All its memories flew into my mind, and I began to experience its entire life in fast-forward. I caught fleeting glimpses of the knowledge of how to use Words of Power, but as I had no unlearned Words at the moment, the dragon’s memories taught me nothing new about how to Shout.

Now that the dragon was dead, residents of Splitten began to emerge from their homes, determined to see if the attack really was over. The square was soon flocked with grateful townsponies thanking us for stopping the dragon. One pony in the back of the crowd ran off to the keep, and a few Splitten guards pushed through the crowd a minute later.

“Jarl Aria would like to speak with you,” the guard captain said sharply before she turned and headed off toward the keep, her guards making a path through the crowd.

If the Jarl wanted to see me, who was I to object? I just hoped I wouldn’t be proclaimed Thane of another hold. I already had Whitetrot and Hoofingar to look after. As we reached Misttail Keep, the guards asked my friends to wait outside, which I found a bit odd, but I figured for some reason Aria must have only wanted to see me.

Within Misttail Keep, the guards led me to the main hall, where Jarl Aria was holding court. Nobleponies crowded around her, intent on praising her, except for a pale blue stallion who sat away from the rest, sullenly staring at the Jarl. Just to the Jarl’s left was the pony I had seen leave the crowd and rush to the keep. Come to think of it, she seemed familiar, as if I’d seen her before.

“Is this her?” Jarl Aria asked the pony standing beside her.

“Yes, she’s the one,” the mare responded.

At a wave of her hoof, the guards suddenly grabbed me.

“You are hereby under arrest for the murder of Sage,” the Jarl announced, “Take her to the dungeons.”

I suddenly remembered where I’d seen that mare before. When I’d killed Sage at the orphanage, she’d been the other caretaker who’d called the guards on me. I kept her in sight as the guards dragged me away to the dungeons.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

What was I to do? I was guilty of the crime, and I knew it. Not to mention I probably wouldn’t even get a trial from Aria if she was really as corrupt as the Thieves Guild claimed her to be.

The idea suddenly came to me. Maybe the Thieves Guild could help. They certainly didn’t like Jarl Aria, and they just might be willing to do something about it. Also, I had a way to get out of my cell and find them.

At the changing of the guard, I opened up the wall of my cell the same way Serif had the first time we’d been trapped here, and snuck through the walls of Misttail Keep. After retrieving my possessions from the evidence chest, I headed down into the Ratway. Going by memory, I eventually found my way to the Ragged Flagon.

“I haven’t seen you in a while,” Serif said as I entered through the back entrance, “Where did you come from?”

“Prison,” I told her, sitting down across from her at the table.

I went on to explain the whole affair, including how I’d killed Sage for the Dark Brotherhoof, and how I’d just helped save the town from a dragon attack. It looked like I was trapped down here. I certainly couldn’t show my face in Splitten again, not with Jarl Aria out to get me. But, maybe there was some way I could get around that.

“I could really use you guys’ help,” I said after I finished telling my story.

“Of course,” Serif answered, “If there’s anything we can do, of course we’ll help.”

“Hold up,” Malif butted in, pulling up a chair, “I see where this is going. It seems you have a feud with Jarl Aria.”

“You’re no fan of hers either though, right?”

“Yes, but we don’t kill ponies. We leave that to the Dark Brotherhoof,” Malif said, “If you want Jarl Aria dead, you’ll have to take care of it yourself.”

“He’s right,” Serif said, “No matter how much we dislike the Jarl, we would never go as far as assassinating her.”

“Of course not,” I said, “I know that. But, you don’t want her in power any more than I do. Perhaps we could find a way to replace her as Jarl.”

“How?” Malif complained, “The Thieves Guild doesn’t have as much pull in Splitten as it used to, and even if it did, there’s no way anypony could convince Jarl Aria to step down. Besides, who would take her place? All the nobles are as corrupt as she is.”

“Not exactly,” Vespers’s voice came from behind, nearly startling me out of my seat.

“What do you mean?” Serif asked curiously.

“Arband, the Jarl’s nephew,” Vespers explained in his chilling voice, “He is not like his aunt. Though he is part of the royal court, he refuses to enjoy the benefits of it. He is very vocal against Aria’s policies, and he often steals from the Jarl’s storehouses to provide for the poor. If anypony would make a good Jarl, it would be him.”

“So, how do we make that happen?” I asked eagerly.

“Most of the nobles in Aria’s court only follow her and grovel to her because she has the power,” Vespers said, “She has few true friends. If she could be forced to abdicate her throne to Arband, the other nobles would flock to him instead.”

“And just how are we going to get her to abdicate?” I asked.

“It’s easy,” Vespers said with a cold smile, “We’re going to start a revolution.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

I laid low for the next few days, surfacing only long enough to let my friends know what was going on. While I hid from Jarl Aria’s guards, they and the Thieves Guild members helped spread the word that soon there might be a new Jarl in power, one that sincerely cared for the poor. Support was overwhelming (or so I was told,) but one thing remained. Arband still needed to be convinced to lead the revolution.

So, after three days of honing my lockpicking and alchemy skill, I finally was allowed to leave the Ragged Flagon. Vespers and Serif were coming as well, along with some of the more prominent ponies that would meet us once we left the Ratway. There was a small boat waiting for us outside of the sewers, and we climbed in at once and set sail down the canal in the moonlight.

We were guided through the waters until a lantern appeared in the distance. From its light, we could see a group of beggars gathered around a pony in a cloak. A white muzzle tinted blue only slightly protruded from the cloak, and the pony it belonged to spoke softly as he passed out food and clothing to the beggars around him. We left the boat a short distance down the docks and proceeded on hoof toward the lamplight.

“Lord Arband,” one of the ponies in our group, a mare nominated by the dockworkers to represent them, spoke up as we approached the cloaked figure, “Fear not, we simply wish to speak with you.”

The cloaked figure still looked like bolting, so we all removed our weapons and set them aside as a symbol of peace. The pony seemed to relax only a bit, and pulled the hood off of his head, revealing the stallion I’d seen in Misttail Keep standing apart from the others. Arband appeared guarded, though curious as to why we’d seek him out.

“Who are you?” he asked, trying to project some authority into his voice.

“Concerned members of the community,” Vespers spoke, “Like you. My associate here and I represent the Thieves Guild.”

“I speak for the ponies who work the docks all day,” the first mare announced.

“I, the ponies who dwell in the slums of Dryside,” a stallion who’d joined us said.

“And I speak for the beggars who live around the canal,” the final member of our group announced.

“And you?” Arband asked, looking to me, “Who do you speak for?”

“Well, myself mostly,” I answered, “I just don’t like seeing where Splitten is headed.”

“Wait, I know you,” he said, rubbing his chin, “You’re the pony that killed the dragon and who killed Sage.”

“Right, that’s me,” I said not all enthusiastic about my second “accomplishment.”

“Then I do believe I have you to thank for helping out those orphans,” he said, surprising me, “I tried to have Sage taken away from the orphanage, but my aunt wouldn’t touch her. I can’t commend killing her, but there’s no doubt you may have saved some of those foals’ lives with what you did.”

“Thanks, I guess,” I said.

“Well then,” he said, turning to speak to the entire group again, “Why is it you wanted to speak to me, and in such a dire place?”

“You know as well as we do that Splitten is rotting from the inside,” Vespers spoke for the group, “Jarl Aria feasts in Misttail Keep while the poor starve outside its doors. If something isn’t done soon, Splitten will erupt into war and unrest.”

“We both do our parts to keep this city alive, taking from the rich and corrupt and giving to the poor and needy, but it’s not enough anymore. Unless there’s real change in Splitten, it won’t last much longer. But for real change to happen, it must be done from the top, not from the shadows.”

“What are you saying exactly?” Arband asked.

“The ponies of Splitten want you to be Jarl instead of Aria,” the dockworker mare answered, “They’ve seen your generosity and kindness firsthoof, and they know you care about them and not just yourself. They are willing to fight to place you on the throne if need be.”

“No, I don’t want a war,” Arband objected, “I don’t want bloodshed and revolution. I may despise my aunt’s policies, but she’s still family. I don’t want her dead.”

“Hopefully it won’t come to that,” Vespers reassured him, “We only intend to press with our force until Jarl Aria gives in and abdicates her throne. All you need to do is support the movement by speaking to the townsponies and be ready to take the throne when Aria abdicates it.”

Arband bit his lip, thinking hard about the implications his actions could have. I could see him wrestling with the decision in his mind before coming to a conclusion.

“All right,” he said, “I’m in.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

It was two days later that the citizens of Splitten took to the streets. The guards were pushed back to the Keep, and injuries were minor. The other planners of the rebellion and I moved around through the crowd in plain clothes, encouraging the demonstrators without drawing attention to ourselves.

A few of the Splitten guard defected to our cause, but the majority stayed where they were, drawing up battle lines in front of Misttail Keep. Jarl Aria had rewarded them generously for their loyalty. However, even with most of Splitten’s guard force barricading the center of Splitten’s government, the crowd began to push forward, reaching the steps by dusk.

Through the night, the crowd of angry ponies continued their disobedience, keeping anypony from entering or leaving the keep. Scuffles broke out from time to time, but thankfully there were no casualties, only wounds from fights with the guards. Mephalda and Mystic helped tend to those, keeping to the back where the wounded were brought.

It was nearly dawn by the time chaos broke loose. Somepony had antagonized one of the guards too much, and she’d cut the demonstrator down with her sword. The townsponies around her instantly converged, beating her to the ground, and fighting began to break out along the line.

I tried to stop it, but it was no use. The crowd was churned up into a frenzy, and they wouldn’t stop until the guards were dead. Those at the top of the steps, protected by wooden barricades, began to shoot flaming arrows into the crowd, hoping to disperse things. Instead, the townsponies became even angrier and began to cry for the death of every guard.

A few tried to make their way up the stairs, but were quickly shot down by the crack shot archers. Eventually, they gave up on scaling the stairs for the moment, and the guards ceased firing their bows, only using them to keep ponies away from any advance to the keep’s doors. The revolutionaries were about to try another assault when the keep’s doors burst open.

“Stop!” Arband called from the top of the stairs.

Though a few of the guards turned to look at him, most of them kept their sights fixed on the crowd below, bows held at the ready. In his hoof, Arband held a scroll triumphantly. He unrolled it and held it up for all to see.

“Jarl Aria has abdicated her throne!” he announced, “Let’s put this fighting to an end! As Splitten’s Jarl, I order you to stand down.”

The guards dropped their weapons, kneeling to their new Jarl, and a cheer went up from the crowd. I couldn’t believe we’d actually done it! We’d put Jarl Arband in power, and deposed his corrupt aunt. And we’d done so in a mostly nonviolent way.

As the crowd of ponies began to disperse from in front of Misttail Keep, plans were discussed for a celebration. Soon a makeshift festival was put together in the town square to celebrate the ousting of Aria. After I retrieved my possessions from the Ragged Flagon, I joined in the festivities with my friends.

“What’s this all about?” I heard a voice ask from behind me.

Turning around, I saw the tan-coated pony who’d asked the question. He was dressed in Stormcloud armor, and behind him stood eight Stormcloud soldiers, looking around longingly at the festivities, but staying in formation.

“Hello Bereloth,” I greeted him, “What brings you here?”

“Jarl Stormcloud has tasked me with recruiting more soldiers for the Stormcloud army,” he said proudly, “Splitten’s my last stop before we head out to Foalkreath. Say, I don’t suppose you and your friends would tag along with us? We could always use a few more good swords.”

“I don’t see why not,” I told the first pony I’d met upon entering Horizon.

“Great,” he replied, “I’ll let you know when we head out.”

Level Up
Health: 280 Stamina: 260 Magicka: 280
New Perk: Maybe if You Ask Nicely [Lockpick] -- When picking locks, there is a chance that the lock will spring open through sheer willpower.
Dragon Soul collected
New Quest: Off to War -- Accompany Bereloth and the Stormcloud army to Foalkreath.

Chapter 76: The Spread of War

Chapter LXXVI: The Spread of War
“Any hope to stem the tide of pegasus rule over all the Northlands is dimmed.”

After we finished up in Valgroom, we returned immediately to Whitetrot, a brand new Element hanging around my neck. I knew it was dangerous staying there when the Dominion could launch an attack at any moment, but we needed Faniar to help us find the remaining two ruins, Ragnfoald and Labyrinthian. We would stay the night and be off in the morning, before the pegasi had time to launch an attack.

I was hoping for a peaceful night, but instead it was restless, and I soon found myself wandering the streets of Whitetrot to tire myself out. Over a month had passed since the Battle of Whitetrot, yet signs of it still remained. Still, the city was beginning to heal, the damaged and destroyed buildings repaired, and the city square cleared of the debris left over when the temporary barracks were destroyed.

Stormcloud soldiers were in the city, sent by Jarl Stormcloud in case the Dominion launched an attack. Yet, they were only here as a precaution, and Whitetrot guards alone patrolled the streets at night. A few of them saluted me, greeting me as Thane as I passed. I got a few odd looks from them as well, but the guards had no interest in bothering their Thane and simply patrolled past.

I had circled the city several times before I found myself approaching the Bannered Mare, one of Whitetrot’s inns. It was the largest of the resting places for weary travelers, and though I had no need, I found myself entering the establishment.

I’d had a look around before, but usually during the day, when ponies sat around the fire, drinking mead and recalling tales of valor. Now, the place was silent, and the fire burned low. Even the pony behind the bar, who was supposed to rent rooms to those that asked, was asleep, her head lying on the counter next to a tankard and the rag with which she’d been cleaning it.

Excellent, I thought. I was so very hungry at the moment. I went around to behind the counter and started rooting through the food stores, before I realized what was going on. Before my vampirism could take control, I trotted around the counter and headed for the door.

The mare behind the counter continued to sleep as I ran into a table, stumbling as a haze began to descend across my vision. I stumbled toward the door, reaching out for the handle with my magic. If I could just get away . . .

The handle for the door was in my magic, but I released it, turned back toward the perfect meal behind me. I strode toward the counter, staying out of the light where possible, and hopped over it. A paralysis spell ensured the mare wouldn’t wake, and I held her in position, slumped over on the bar.

My fangs sank into the mare’s neck, and I quickly drained the blood from her body, stopping before she lost a critical amount. My thirst was quenched, and things started returning to normal. As my body morphed back to its original form, my mind cleared as well, and I realized what I had done.

I stumbled away, running into the same table as I made for the door again. Hyperventilating, I burst out into the night, breathing in the crisp winter air. A light snow was falling, the flakes settling on my coat as I regained my composure.

Once again, my vampirism had got the better of me, and I’d harmed yet another pony. I had to get rid of this affliction fast, before I hurt anypony else. But so far, I’d had no luck finding a cure. The College of Winterhorn’s library had had no mention of what I needed, and it was the most promising lead I’d had. Of course, there was another library that might just hold the answer.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

The next day, we left for the Imperial City immediately, traveling by land. There was no time to take a ship around the Pegasari Dominion, and I doubted any ship captain would even dare to attempt such a thing with the war on anyway, so we traveled to Splitten, and from there braved the Pale Pass, which was mostly snowed shut. After making it over the drifts that filled the twisting pass, we stayed the night in Kvatch, and I got to have a bit more quality time with my parents.

The following morning we were off again, right away. Near midday, the Imperial City loomed ahead, and we crossed the bridge to the island in the middle of Lake Rumare. No longer did the bust of Emperor Brass Tax adorn the walls of the city, but rather dark banners of mourning. Apparently even a week and a half after the Emperor’s death, the city was still grieving for him.

At least, that’s what the Imperial government wanted everypony to be doing. Everything was business as usual in the streets, however. The vendors still sold their wares, the Imperial Legionnaires stills stood at attention, and the beggars still pleaded for coins. If there was any mourning for the dead Emperor, it wasn’t among the common ponies.

We continued through the city on the way to our true destination. If there was mention of a cure for vampirism anywhere in the Northlands, it was likely held within the Mystic Archives. We passed through Green Emperor Way, taking a shortcut through to the Arboretum. As we entered the palace grounds, we saw a pair of very familiar faces.

“Sapphire, Steadfast, Mephalda, Mystic!” a cream-coated mare exclaimed as she sighted us, “It’s been ages since I’ve seen you!”

“Hello, Gilded Armor,” I replied, before bowing to the stallion with her, who was surrounded by guards, “Your Highness.”

“I’m afraid I’m not Emperor yet,” Silver Cuirass replied, “The Equine Council is still debating whether or not my claim to the throne is genuine. Brass Tax’s sons are fighting me as well, of course. For now, I am merely Potentate, temporary steward of the Empire.”

“You’ll be Emperor someday,” Gilded Armor reassured her father, “And then you can right the Empire.”

“I’m afraid there’s no Empire left to rule,” Cuirass replied with a sigh, “When I’m crowned, it will only be over Unicornica, a position more fit for a king than an emperor.”

“Well, you’ll still make a fine king,” his daughter said.

“Not as fine as you’d be as a queen,” he replied with a snort, “I’m afraid I’m more talented in planning a war than in governing a land.”

“Well, maybe a warrior is just what Unicornica needs to lead it right now,” I said.

“What do you mean?” the Imperial Potentate asked suspiciously.

“You know that the Pegasari Dominion has attacked Horizon,” I said.

“Of course,” he said, “When I haven’t been busy providing genealogies to the Equine Council and defending the Emperor’s last act, I’ve been keeping a sharp eye on the events going on there. Wasn’t their initial attack repelled at Winterhorn?”

“Correct,” I said, “But they plan to try again, and we have reason to believe they intend to attack Unicornica too.”

“And what gave you that idea?” Cuirass asked.

“We overheard them discussing it when we were in the Blackwing Headquarters,” Mystic said.

“You were in Pegasor?” Gilded Armor asked incredulously.

“I don’t know what to think of you,” Cuirass said, shaking his head, “I don’t agree with you siding with the Stormclouds and driving us from Horizon, but you saved not only my life, but that wretched Blackwing Stratus. And now you bring us this information, warning us before the pegasi appear on our doorstep. Whose side are you on?”

“I’m on nopony’s side,” I said, “I just want what’s best for the Northlands.”

“And you thought breaking up the Empire, the force that’s held the Northlands together for centuries, was best for it?” he asked.

“You know as well as I do that the Empire’s been in decline since it ceased being the Alicorn Empire,” I said, “The system doesn’t work anymore. In order for the Northlands to survive, each race must have its own nation and be free to pursue its own destiny.”

“There’s truth in what you say,” Cuirass admitted begrudgingly, “But the world you imagine is idealized. The process to get there is much harder than you would make it sound.”

“I’m just one mare,” I said, “But I’ve been doing my part. It’s time for you to do yours. Be the Unicorn King.”

I left him with that thought as we headed around the White-Gold Tower and through the Arboretum. After passing through the gardens and across the bridge to the Arcane University, we made our way to the Mystic Archives. Now that we were here, we had a lot of digging to do.

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

We found a great variety of books on vampirism in the Mystic Archives, but no cure. There were some mentions of ponies trying to find a cure, but all the attempts had ended in failure. Like lycanthropy, vampirism was a disease few really understood.

After searching through the endless books, we decided to ask the Imperial Battlemage for help. If anypony could help us in this situation, it would be Star-Swirl. However, none of us had seen Star-Swirl walking the grounds. He was most likely in his office, which few knew how to reach.

“You sure about this?” Steadfast asked as we piled into one of the teleportation alcoves.

“I understand the basic principle of the spell,” Mystic said, “It’s directing it where we want to go that’s the tricky part.”

“Let’s try it,” I said.

Mystic began to cast her makeshift spell, and we were instantly transported elsewhere in the University. We found ourselves staring out at a hall filled with doors, most likely living quarters. Mystic’s spell continued to burn, rapidly sending us elsewhere on the University grounds. In moments we jumped all over the Arcane University, until I lost track of where we were. The spell finally came to a stop as we looked out upon the hallway to Star-Swirl’s quarters. A bit disoriented, we staggered out and made our way around to his door, giving a knock before entering.

“I thought I said I wasn’t to be disturb-” the Imperial Battlemage said before seeing who we were, “Oh, it’s you. Come on in.”

As we followed our host in, I heard a distinct jingling. Apparently Star-Swirl had taken my comment about wearing bells seriously, as they now adorned his Battlemage robes. He also seemed to have taken Mystic’s advice, and a bit of a beard was growing from his chin, curling past his coat.

“I was just looking through Talhooves’s Book of Secrets,” he explained, pulling it out from under papers he had haphazardly stashed it under, “It’s remarkable all the things we never knew about him. Why, they could fill a book, which they have.”

“That reminds me,” I said, pulling the missing page from my saddlebags, “Here’s the page the book was missing.”

“Wherever did you find it?” he asked, eagerly taking it and returning it to its rightful place in the ancient volume.

“Pegasor,” I said, “The Blackwings had it.”

“So, you’ve found where the last Elements of Harmony are,” he said as he examined the page.

“That’s right,” I said, “We’ve already retrieved one of them.”

“So then,” he said, setting the book down, “If you know where the Elements of Harmony are located, why have you come here?”

“Well . . .” I said, suddenly embarrassed by the reason of our voyage, “We’re looking for a cure for vampirism.”

“Is that so?” Star-Swirl asked, “You’ve contracted it, then?”

“How did you know?” I asked.

“I have a keener eye than most ponies, and you appear to have had it long enough that some of the signs are beginning to show,” he replied, “Less pronounced ridges on the horn, paler coat, darkness around the eyes. Of course, all these are just early signs, so minute that most ponies probably don’t even notice.”

“Oh,” I said, “So, do you know of a cure?”

“I’m afraid I can’t help you there,” he said, shaking his head, “As you’ve probably already discovered, there is no known cure for vampirism. Many have tried, but all have failed.”

“So there’s no hope?” I asked, hanging my head.

“There’s always hope,” Star-Swirl said, tilting my head back up, “I’d encourage you to keep searching. Perhaps there is a cure, but it is hidden in a remote place. But, I would also consider the necessity of accepting your vampirism and working to control it, so that it does not control you. Talk to another vampire, one who’s had much experience. You can keep it from taking over your life. Count Coming Dusk did it for many years, after all.”

I remembered Coming Dusk, especially that things didn’t end too well for him. But, he had proven that it was possible for a vampire to live among regular ponies, with nopony the wiser. Well, except for Star-Swirl, who apparently couldn’t be fooled.

“Well, thanks for the help anyway,” I said, “We should probably be getting back to Horizon. Before we go, have you made any progress on the destiny spell I asked about?”

“Progress: yes, success: no,” Star-Swirl said, “I’ve created a spell, but I don’t think it will do what I want it to.”

He pulled a book from his desk and flipped to the last page. He passed it over to me, and I read what he’d written.

From one to another, another to one, the mark of one’s destiny singled out alone fulfilled.

“It’s supposed to isolate one’s destiny, and therefore your cutie-mark,” Star-Swirl explained as he took the book back, “But I don’t dare cast it, for fear of the other side effects.”

“Like what?” Mystic asked.

“Well, the cutie-mark could only be temporary,” the Imperial Battlemage replied, “Or, it could force you to do only the action you’re destined to do. Or, it could scramble the destinies of those around you. I really can’t say for sure without trying it, which I wouldn’t dare do without putting up safeguards first.”

“I understand,” I said, “But whatever you can do, I’m grateful.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep trying,” Star-Swirl promised.

Frantic knocking came from the door.

“What is it now?” Star-Swirl asked before calling, “Come in!”

A courier charged into the room, the same one that had done so the last time we’d been here.

“You’re needed in the Equine Council chambers at once,” the courier said, “The Pegasari Dominion has just declared war on Unicornica.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

By “declared war,” the courier really meant that the Dominion had launched an unannounced attack on Brumare. We followed Star-Swirl to the Equine Council chambers, where Silver Cuirass quickly prepared a defense against the invasion. Legionnaires and battlemages already put on alert because of my warning to the Potentate were being sent immediately to meet the Pegasari army at Brumare. Steadfast, Mystic, Mephalda, and I would go with them and help to drive off the airships that were also attacking the town.

General Cuirass wanted to leave with them, but the Imperial politicians forbade it. The last thing the Empire needed at this time was another dead leader. He grumbled and fought it of course, but he wasn’t Emperor yet and didn’t have the power to overrule the Council. Star-Swirl also was forced to stay in the Imperial City to perform his duties and protect the Imperial Potentate.

We left for Brumare immediately, passing through Corral in order to cross the Spine Mountains, and reached the town by nightfall. The silhouettes of three airships could be seen in the sunset as we approached. Pegasi flew over the city, laying waste to the homes below. Blasts of magic lanced up at them from the city, the unicorns refusing to roll over and give up their home.

As we passed through the city gates, we saw that they were fighting a losing battle. Most of the combatants on Unicornica’s side were townsponies who’d taken up arms to defend their homes, the guard force of the town long dead. The Pegasari soldiers, on the other hoof, were both more numerous and highly trained warriors. Our entry tipped the scales.

The Legionnaires and battlemages charged forward, taking the pegasi by surprise and winning us a hoofhold in the city very quickly. As cannon fire began to rain down on the buildings we had taken, I fixed my eyes on the airships harassing the city. They had to be taken down before they could do more damage and deploy more troops.

We headed toward the south end of the city, where one of the ships was hovering. Pegasari soldiers flocked to stop us as we did so. I drew Dawnbreaker and sliced through the armor of the first one to attack me, a mare with a spear grasped in her teeth. She fell to the dust, her shaft snapped in half.

As an archer loosed arrows at us, Mephalda returned fire. The pegasus fell from the roof she’d been standing on as an arrow struck her in the foreleg, and she landed on one of her fellow soldiers. A blast of fire from Mystic charred the flesh of both of them, taking them out of the fight.

<> I Shouted, sending flames rolling down the street.

As the Pegasari soldiers took off into the air, I shot ice spikes at them, forcing them to dodge the deadly darts. Mephalda added her arrows to the mix, making it even harder for the enemy to keep from being hit. As one dodged a spike I sent at her, she flew right into the path of Steadfast, who slammed her to the ground with his hammer, crushing in her ribcage with another swing of his weapon.

A pegasus wielding a greatsword landed directly in front of me and swung at my head. I ducked down, bringing up Dawnbreaker to block. I forced her blade away, drawing the Blade of Hoofingar as I did so. While my Draconequus sword forced the mare’s greatsword away from me, my ebony sword cut into her foreleg, piercing the armor at the joint.

She jumped back from me, assisted by her wings. As she swung her sword around at me again, she accidentally blocked an arrow shot at her by Mephalda. As she stood there, shocked that she had been so lucky not to be hit, I charged forward, knocking her greatsword from her mouth with my ebony sword and running her through with Dawnbreaker.

A pegasus with a war axe stood in my way as I tried to get to the airship, and I swung my Draconequus sword up, hooking her axe and throwing it from her mouth. I clubbed her across the side of the head with the flat of the blade, knocking her aside. I galloped forward, the two Pegasari soldiers standing in my way suddenly taken out before I could reach them, one from a blast of Mystic’s magic, the other shot by one of Mephalda’s arrow.

<<>> I Shouted at the airship where it hovered over Brumare’s temple.

The storm clouds clustered over the city that the pegasi had brought here in their invasion responded immediately to my Voice. Lighting began to lance down, tearing the airship apart and igniting the black powder used for its cannons. I backpedaled as the airship became a flaming conflagration that slowly fell from the sky, crashing onto the temple.

We headed back through the city, retracing our steps as we headed toward Brumare’s center, where the Pegasari had complete control. Like Kvatch, Brumare had once been attacked during Mehruinous Dagon’s attack on the Northlands. The Pegasari airship was tethered to the remains of the Gate to the Beyond, which reared up in the city’s center, a dark reminder of what had once taken place here.

From the east, the Legionnaires and battlemages were trying to carve a path through the pegasi, but they were taking heavy losses from the ship’s cannons. We charged in from the south, passing between the shops and homes that had been destroyed in the earlier aerial bombardment. A few Pegasari soldiers, one with a staff, noticed us as we approached and began to defend their hoofhold in the city.

We ducked behind buildings as strikes of lightning went flying down the street, seeking us out. The pegasus with the staff ordered the others to flush us out. As one flew down the street, she was suddenly knocked from the sky by Mephalda. More arrows followed as she crashed to the ground, until the Pegasari soldier lay motionless on the cobblestones.

As another tried to fly over a building and come down at me, I sent a blast of lightning up at her. Her wings seized up, and she slid down the side of the building before crashing to the ground in front of me. Before she could recover, I struck her across the back with Dawnbreaker and then stabbed the blade through a weak point in her armor.

Mystic charged down the street, putting up a ward to protect herself from the magical attacks. As she did so, she shot lighting at the Pegasari soldier, forcing her to use her staff to push the lightning back. The bolts met in midair, energy pulsing through the air as they built into a crackling ball of lightning. I emerged from my hiding place and galloped forward, keeping clear of the beams of lightning, until I neared the Pegasari soldier.

<> I Shouted at her before falling to the ground.

The staff flew from her mouth, and the ball of lightning went hurtling toward her. She tried to dodge, but it was pointless. Bits of stone and wood flew through the air as she was consumed by the energy and the ball crashed into the building behind her. I rose from the ground and galloped through the shop the pegasus had been in front of, entering Brumare’s main square.

Pegasi owned the square, filling it as they departed the airship above and charged toward the oncoming Imperial troops. There was no way I could get close enough to the airship without the pegasi seeing me, and there were far too many for us to take on alone.

“If you can keep them off of me, I can Shout that ship out of the sky,” I said to my friends, “But we’ll have to pass through the square quickly.”

“Got it,” Steadfast said, and Mystic and Mephalda also confirmed that they understood my plan.

We galloped forward, Mystic projecting a ward around us. It didn’t take long for the pegasi to see us, and they swiftly closed in on us. Mystic shot magic off in all directions, trying to keep them at bay, and Mephalda did the same thing with arrows. If they ever got too close, Steadfast or I would take them out with their weapons. We were forced to do this more and more often as we neared the Gate at the center of town.

<<>> I Shouted as we passed under the airship.

At once, the clouds above and around the Pegasari warship began to clear away. As terrified whinnies came from the ship’s crew, some of the soldiers around us stopped to look up. The ship plummeted from the sky, crashing into the Gate to the Beyond. The spiny obsidian cut through the armored underside of the ship, though the Gate took damage as well as the ship crashed into it. Both the former Gate to the Beyond and the Pegasari airship came crashing to pieces as they fell to the ground. As the black powder ignited, the fleeing pegasi were thrown free.

The Imperial Legionnaires and battlemages cut through the Pegasari soldiers now that they didn’t have to worry about the airship. To the north, the third ship began to retreat, and the Pegasari soldiers around us fled for it before it got too far away. The first Pegasari invasion of Unicornica had failed, and the Legionnaires and townsponies gave a cheer as the pegasi left.

I climbed to the top of one of the buildings in the center of town and watched as the airship retreated. Out over the sea, it joined up with three others and began to head south. However, whether this fleet was headed for the Dominion or Horizon, I didn’t know. We needed to get back to Whitetrot.

Level Up
Health: 360 Stamina: 340 Magicka: 350
New Perk: Inferno [Destruction] -- All flame based spells now do extra damage and have extra spread, but are less predictable.
New Quest: Breezehome is Where the Heart Is -- Return to Whitetrot and prepare for the Pegasari invasion.

Chapter 84: Into the Labyrinth

Chapter LXXXIV: Into the Labyrinth
“When those Elements are ignited by the . . . the spark, that resides in the heart of us all, it creates the sixth element; the element of . . . magic!”

That night was one of the most enjoyable of my life, as we talked until we passed out from exhaustion. The dawn came soon, waking us and calling us to return to civilization. No Minotaurs appeared to have left Bthardamz yet. A few bronze pipes poked out of the ground near our camp, and as dawn came, spurts of green fire began to leave and enter them, shooting through the air.

“What are these things?” Steadfast asked as one shot out right next to him.

“The Minotauran Inferno Communication System,” Mystic said, “With it, they can send a scroll across the Northlands in just a few minutes instead of days. They’re communicating, getting ready to move.”

“We have some time before they do,” I said, shouldering my saddlebags, “That note in Underkeep said they had to allow a full day without the Council responding before they could take action alone.”

“But what if the Council replies?” Steadfast asked.

“They won’t,” I said firmly, “I’m pretty sure the Council was in Morrowhinny, maybe even on the slopes of Red Mountain, and it no longer exists.”

“We’ve got till this evening, then,” Steadfast said.

“Right,” I said, “That’s all the time we’ve got to warn everypony. Let’s start with Jarl Stormcloud. He needs to know that his land will soon be overrun with enemies from within.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

“Minotaurs, you say?” Stormcloud asked when we told him.

“That’s right,” I said, “They were never really gone, they just transported themselves forward in time so that their invasion would come as a surprise. They’re not moving yet, but by this evening every Minotauran ruin in Horizon will release Minotaur soldiers across the land.”

“As much as I’d love to send my troops to check out every Minotauran ruin in Horizon, I’m afraid I can’t,” Stormcloud replied sarcastically, “I have bigger problems to worry about. The thrice-accursed Dominion has taken Seclusion, and if that wasn’t bad enough, the Imperial Legion is pouring through the Pale Pass, attacking Splitten as we speak.”

We hadn’t been gone that long, and already the war was heating up. If all three armies now fought for Horizon, the situation was decaying indeed.

“The Pegasari Air Fleet is preparing to move, sending advance ships over Marethal toward Whitetrot,” Stormcloud continued, “Also, Griffinium’s been spotted entering Horizon from the west. The only consolation is that the pegasi and the Griffins might end up tearing each other apart. I’ll be sending troops in the morning to meet them here, where the Griffin city and the Pegasari Air Fleet are set to meet. Hopefully we can take them by surprise.”

“Jarl, what’s that mark there mean?” I asked, gesturing to the spot Stormcloud had indicated the fleets would meet at.

“That?” he said, “That’s the ancient earth pony city of Labyrinthian.”

◊◊◊ ◊◊◊ ◊◊◊

We set out with the Stormcloud troops the next morning, which just happened to be headed right where we wanted to go. Overnight, the southern reaches of Hjaaltrot had turned into a battlefield. The massive flying mountain that was Griffinium floated in the sky, surrounded by Griffin defenders. The Pegasari Air Fleet surrounded it, pounding away at every part of the city. This time the Dominion had pulled out all the stops, and had sent every airship they had. Nearly twenty of the flying ships filled the skies.

Beneath all the fighting was a massive maze of ruins that had once been a grand city. It was built in typical ancient earth pony style, and I was happy to see it was also built in the style of the Dragon Priests. Even from a great distance, I could tell that this was our destination; this was Labyrinthian.

Pegasari soldiers flew down from their ships as we approached, and we broke away from the Stormcloud army. The gates of Labyrinthian were in sight when the flying soldiers rained down on us as well. Mystic and I shot lightning up at them as we galloped, striking some out of the sky before they reached us.

We suddenly stopped right before the gates as the crushing sensation of magic hit us. This was different than all the other times we’d approached Dragon Priest lairs; it was far stronger. The magic was inside my head, chipping away at my sanity. Mystic managed to collect her thoughts long enough to cast her magic blocking spell, but it only made the pressure bearable; it didn’t erase it entirely.

Pegasari troops swooped down at us as we recovered, but they were soon hit with the crippling effects as well, falling to the ground. I drew Dawnbreaker and charged them, swinging toward a pegasus with a war axe. She blocked my strike with her weapon, and I dragged my blade down hers, slicing through her throat.

<<>> I Shouted, throwing the majority of the soldiers away from us.

I blasted flames at another of the pegasi as she tried to attack me. She kept her distance, falling to Mephalda’s arrows instead. I cut off my flame spell and blocked with Dawnbreaker as a Pegasari soldier with a battleaxe swung at me. The pegasus swung his blade down at me, locking it over my Draconequus sword, and forced me back.

Steadfast crushed the helmet of another pegasus before turning toward the one fighting me. As he tried to smash him, the Pegasari soldier spun his battleaxe around, knocking Dawnbreaker to the ground and blocking Steadfast’s warhammer. As I tried to pick Dawnbreaker up, he stepped on the blade, but I already had the Blade of Hoofingar out and stabbed it into his side, cutting through his armor and into his heart.

I swung both my swords around at one of the pegasi trying to get through Mystic’s ward. She saw me out of the corner of her eye, and brought her greatsword around to block. As I kept Dawnbreaker pressing down on her sword, I hooked my ebony blade under it and into her chest armor.

I ducked as another Pegasari soldier swung a mace at my head. As she tried to do it again, I blocked her with Dawnbreaker. I spun my blade around, throwing the blunt weapon from her grasp. She jumped back as I swung my ebony sword at her, using her wings to help her. I shot a blast of lightning into her chest, dropping her to the ground, and stabbed my sword through her back.

The rest of the Pegasari soldiers fled, not finding us worth the trouble. Or, maybe they were flying off to get reinforcements. It didn’t matter either way. If they returned, we’d no longer be here. Cleaning my blades, I turned around and pushed open the surprisingly still intact gates to Labyrinthian.

It was odd to see an entire Draugr town built on the surface instead of deep underground for a change. No Draugr townsponies walked around, however. Labyrinthian had been explored before, at least on the surface, and any ponies that hadn’t been wielding weapons had been easily killed. However, other than the complete lack of anything going on around us, it was a bit like walking through Windhorn. They were probably built around the same time, in fact.

The magical pressure on my mind at the base of my horn continued as we trotted through the massive ruin. The throbbing was incessant and distracting, almost causing me to miss seeing opposition ahead. A few Blackwing agents stood in the street, keeping watch for their fellows who were rooting through the nearby buildings.
Mephalda fit an arrow to her bow and let the shaft fly, striking one of the Blackwings in the head and sending her tumbling through the street. The rest turned toward us, drawing their weapons. Mystic and I blasted lightning at the pegasi agents as we ran to close the distance with them.

I drew Dawnbreaker, slashing at a Blackwing with a mace. She ducked under my blade and swung her weapon in toward my foreleg. The mace hit my foreleg, glancing off the gauntlet and twisting my hoof out of place.

I hobbled away, keeping my foreleg raised as the mare swung the mace at me again. I brought Dawnbreaker up to block, angling it so that her blunt weapon slid off. As she swung at me again, I blocked with my Changeling war axe, hooking the blade around her weapon and holding it in place. Dawnbreaker shot forward, piercing her armor and sliding into her chest.

I had no time to heal myself as a Blackwing with a warhammer jumped out at me from a nearby building. I blocked with both my weapons, holding the mare off. She pulled her hammer back and swung it back down at me. I jumped to the side, swinging Dawnbreaker through her neck as I did so.

I crouched behind a stone for a moment and twisted my foreleg back into position before casting a healing spell on it. Once it was back in the correct position, I gave it a test, putting my weight on it. When it held, I advanced around the boulder, searching for more Blackwings.

One came at me from above, swinging twin blades in her forelegs, and I shot flames up at her, roasting the feathers off her wings. As she crashed to the ground, she shot what was left of the charred blades from her wings at me. She stood on her hindlegs and lunged for me, swinging her swords around at my neck.

<> I Shouted, and her blades went flying.

I blasted her with a paralysis spell as she swung a hoof at me, and stabbed Dawnbreaker through her chest to finish her off. Another Blackwing flapped toward me, but Steadfast struck him while he was still in the air, knocking him to the ground in front of me. With my Changeling war axe I batted away the sword he swung at me and swung Dawnbreaker through his neck, taking his head off.

With the Blackwings dealt with, we continued to the Draugr city, keeping our eyes out for anypony else who wished to attack from above. A great shadow covered Labyrinthian, cast by Griffinium, which hovered above it. So far, the Griffins were holding the Pegasari off, and even striking out at some of their ships, but the pegasi were beginning to make strikes in toward the flying city.

It didn’t help that their airships constantly pounded Griffinium both above and beneath with their cannons. Chunks of stone were constantly being blown off the city, and they were falling down below, demolishing Labyrinthian beyond what time had done to it. As the battle between pegasi and Griffins raged overhead, bodies were also a common sight to see raining down on the Draugr city.

A large keep dominated the center of the city, the streets around it ringed with stone arches. If we were going to find our Dragon Priest, it would be in there. As we approached the arches, a few Draugr soldiers emerged, looking up at the conflict above them. One of them noticed the four of us galloping down the street at them, and motioned to its comrades that they were about to come under attack.

Dawnbreaker flew swiftly through the air, lopping off the head of one of the Draugr before it could even draw its weapon. The next soldier I encountered was prepared, a sword ready to block my swings. I brought Dawnbreaker down as hard as I could, causing the Draugr’s sword to jerk back and dig into its shoulder.

The zombie surprised me, striking out with its forehooves and pushing me back. I brought Dawnbreaker up to block as it swung down at my head. I forced the Draugr’s sword back, staggering it before I swung my Draconequus sword around at its forelegs. My blade sliced right through the rotten flesh, taking the zombie’s leg off entirely.

Undeterred, it wobbled a bit but still managed to swing its sword around at my neck. I swung Dawnbreaker back around, knocking the blade aside, so that it flew over my head instead. The Draugr swung down at my back, sliding its blade across my armor and doing no real damage, and I stabbed Dawnbreaker through the zombie’s neck.

<<>> I Shouted, freezing two of the Draugr solid.

I darted past them, slicing my Draconequus sword through their frozen bodies. A Draugr with a pike stopped me as I tried to slash through its head. I slid by sword along the staff until I caught it under the blade, and threw the zombie’s weapon away. My Draconequus blade swung around, sinking into the zombie’s neck.

A roar came from down the street, and I turned to see a snow manticore charging toward us. Apparently, Labyrinthian had been deserted for so long that wild animals were beginning to take over the place. There was no time to fight the manticore and the Draugr at the same time, so I employed one of my lesser used Shouts.

I Shouted, and the manticore immediately came to heel.

With the monster now obedient to me, it went rampaging through the Draugr, stabbing them through with its stinger and ripping them apart with its claws and teeth. As the last of the Draugr was torn to shreds, the manticore padded up to me, giving me an affectionate lick. Shaking the slobber from my armor, I sent the manticore off to go pursue some Blackwings that had landed in the distance, and tried to put as much distance between myself and the creature as possible before my Shout wore off.

“Oh no,” I said as the four of us reached the top of the stairs to the keep and looked back over the city.

In the distance, I could see that the Stormclouds and Pegasari were fighting each other. Now a new force was joining them from both the east and the west. The Minotaurs’ armor glinted in the sunlight, as did the polished flesh of the automatons they’d brought along to help them. There were now four factions on the field around Labyrinthian.

“We can worry about the Minotaurs later,” Steadfast said, “We’ve got to get that last Element before things get too crazy.

I nodded my agreement and turned away from the land battle. I looked up as we neared the gates to the keep. Directly above us, Griffinium floated in the air, taking a severe beating from the Pegasari Air Fleet. My eyes dropped back down to our objective, and soaked in the words printed above the grand gates.

TEMPLE OF MAREOKEI
CHIEF PRIESTESS OF THE DRAGON CULT

Before we trotted into the temple-keep, I noticed that there was an inscription beside the gates. One of the Draconic words glowed with blue fire, and I moved closer to soak up the knowledge of the dragons. My mind was filled with thoughts of sand and how it slipped through the hourglass, propelling time along. Memories began to come back to me, memories that had once belonged to the dragon locked away in Underkeep. I now knew how I could control the flow of time more carefully and for a longer duration.

<> I Shouted, and everything around me came nearly to a stop.

As time resumed, I trotted back over to the doors, and helped my friends to open them. Standing side by side, we stepped into Mareokei’s temple. The grand entryway was empty, the Draugr guarding it now lying dead outside. We strode forward, following the passages at the far end of the room deeper into the temple.

It wasn’t until we entered another grand room near the center of the temple that we encountered more of the undead. Carvings of dragons adorned the walls, as well as one mare over and over: Mareokei. The Dragon Priest was waiting for us, but first we had to get through her guardians.

The Draugr soldiers filling the room were none too happy to see us here. A Draugr wizard near the back of the room shouted orders while pulling out a staff. Blasts of lightning went flying over our heads as we entered the room, and arrows began to rain down on us from the Draugr archers.

<> I Shouted, burning a path through the center of the room and charging in.

I swung Dawnbreaker around toward a Draugr with a greatsword, striking its blade. As another of the zombies tried to jump me from behind, Mephalda took it out with a few well-placed shots from her bow. I slid my Draconequus sword down the zombie’s weapon, and swung it back around toward its forelegs. It jumped up on its hindlegs as I did so, and its attempt to swipe my head off went high.

I stabbed Dawnbreaker forward, but the Draugr swung its blade around, knocking my sword to the side. As the Draugr swung its weapon up toward my chin, I jumped back, swinging Dawnbreaker around at my opponent’s neck at the same time. My blade sliced through the front of the zombie’s neck, injuring but not killing it. I swung Dawnbreaker back around into the zombie’s head, slicing through its helmet and dissecting its brain.

As the Draugr died, I was suddenly hit by a blast of lightning. I went sliding across the floor, dropping my Draconequus blade. My limbs spasmed uncontrollably, and I wasn’t able to get up. Draugr hovered around me, one preparing a spear to thrust through my body.

<<>> I managed to Shout out, taking on my ethereal form.

The Draugr’s attacks failed, passing straight through my ghostly body. I rose, and galloped over to retrieve my Draconequus sword before my Shout wore off. As I picked my weapon off the ground, I watched Steadfast slam his warhammer down on the Draugr wizard’s staff. The magical item shattered, and magic went blasting out in all directions. Steadfast ducked to the ground and avoided the worst of it, but the Draugr was completely destroyed.

As my body returned to its natural form, I swung Dawnbreaker around at the nearest Draugr, slicing through its armor and torso, killing it. I let out a blast of fire from my horn, scorching the Draugr around me. As a burning Draugr galloped out of the flames at me, I swung Dawnbreaker through its scorched body.

A warhammer struck me on the back, knocking me to the ground. I tried to rotate on the ground and managed to redirect the Draugr’s next attack using my Draconequus blade. The warhammer struck near my head, and the zombie pushed my blade aside, raising the weapon to strike me again.

As it swung the weapon down at my head, I pushed myself forward until I was under the Draugr, and stabbed my Draconequus sword up into its underbelly. As the Draugr died and dropped its weapon, Dawnbreaker’s hilt began to glow, the star burning brilliantly before destroying all the Draugr in the room. I blinked the afterimage from my eyes and brushed the magical ash off of me before standing up.

We trotted over the fallen Draugr and their ashy remains, and stepped through the door at the far end of the hall. A long tunnel, walls were covered in carvings that depicted Mareokei’s life, led down to another great room. In it was a horde of treasure that nopony had been bold enough to loot before; chest stacked up to the ceiling and urns surrounded by piles of gold and jewels. Also, in the center of the room there sat a single, empty sarcophagus.

Above it hovered a terrifying Draugr in flowing robes. Mareokei stared down at us, disdain in her eyes. The green fire that burned around her dragon amulet and her twin staffs also seemed to flow from the corners of her eyes. She fired both staffs at us simultaneously, one shooting fire, and the other shooting lightning.

I dodged the twin blasts of magic and rolled across the temple floor. Mystic fired her own blast of lightning up at the Dragon Priest, striking her lightning staff. As Mareokei turned the staffs on her instead, Mephalda shot an arrow through the air, striking the staff and nearly knocking it from her magical grasp. As she swooped down at the ground, Steadfast swung his warhammer through the air and knocked the Dragon Priest’s lightning staff out of her grip.

She swung her fire staff around, striking Steadfast and sending him flying, burning him with fire as she did so. He pulled out some healing potions and began to down them as Mystic stepped between him and Mareokei, putting up a ward to stop the flames.

Mephalda shot arrows into Mareokei’s back as she tried to roast Mystic. I galloped toward the Dragon Priest, jumping off the sarcophagus in order to reach her. I grabbed her, wrapping my hooves around her neck and slashing Dawnbreaker at her. She blocked my swing with her staff, knocking my weapon to the side, and pointed the staff at me.

I grabbed her dragon amulet as I jumped off, avoiding the blast of flame that came at me. She settled to the ground, but surprisingly her staff was still grasped in a magical grip. As she spun around, I could see that the bizarre black magic still burned in her eyes. I jumped behind her sarcophagus as she sent more flames shooting at me.

Arrows sprouted from Mareokei’s neck as Mephalda fired at her. As the shafts began to pierce her rotting face as well, she turned toward my pegasus friend. Mephalda shot in, dodging the fire, and stuck both her Blackwing blades in the Dragon Priest’s chest before rolling over her.

Mareokei stumbled a bit, but still lived, and shot more flames at Mephalda, catching her tail on fire. Ice spikes began to pelt the Dragon Priest, fired by Mystic covering Steadfast’s charge. Mareokei was taken unaware as my earth pony friend swung his warhammer into her side, crushing her ribs and smashing her organs.

The Dragon Priest spun around at Steadfast, firing flames at him. Mystic put up a ward around him for protection, but left herself vulnerable, and was taken unaware as Mareokei pulled a shorter staff out from under her robes and shot ice at her. Mystic was soon covered in the frost, immobilized, her ward around Steadfast dropping and causing him to get burnt again.

I Shouted, and galloped in toward Mareokei, Dawnbreaker and the Blade of Hoofingar swinging wildly through the air.

My Draconequus sword struck first, knocking the ice staff to the ground. Mareokei held up her remaining weapon in front of her, blocking every swing I attempted at her. Eventually my Shout wore off, and the Dragon Priest swung her staff in a long arc, throwing the Blade of Hoofingar from my magic.

Flames shot past my head as the Dragon Priest angled her staff down at me. I frantically tried to hold it back with my Draconequus sword. She continued to move the staff around, continuously shooting fire from the tip until it began glow red hot, and I struggled to counter. At last she broke through my defenses, and the flames went billowing down my side, scorching half of my body.

<> I Shouted out through the pain, and time around me slowed nearly to a halt.

I wanted so badly to heal my injured flesh, but I had to use this time for the greatest benefit, and I gritted my teeth against the pain while I swung Dawnbreaker around. My Draconequus sword knocked the Dragon Priest’s weapon from her grasp, and I swung the blade back, preparing for a final strike. Time snapped back to normal as I swung the sword through Mareokei’s neck, taking her head off. The fire in her eyes died as her head rolled across the floor and her body collapsed.

Carefully, I pulled my armor off and surveyed the damage, before casting a healing spell on my burns. Painfully they healed, sealing back shut. I pulled the final Element of Harmony from around Marokei’s neck, a dull pink six-pointed star, before trotting over to help my friends with their own burns.

Another inscription in Draconic waited on the back wall of Mareokei’s tomb, a single word calling out to me, and I obeyed, approaching the wall and soaking up the knowledge of dragons. I learned fear as the dragons knew it, true fear that dwelled in the hearts of both mortals and immortals. Soon the memories of the dragon I’d killed at Uragbashar surfaced in my mind, teaching me how I could use fear to my advantage, and place it within the hearts of others.

I Shouted, careful not to hit any of my friends.

“Already?” Mephalda asked as I turned around.

I was puzzled about what she meant by her question for a moment before I looked down at my chest. From it was emanating a pink glow. I held up the final Element of Harmony, and saw that it was beginning to glow, drawing power from the other five also around my neck. With a brilliant flash, I suddenly left this world.

~◊~ ~◊ LUH ◊~ ~◊~

The entire world around me was tinted pink, my friends frozen in time and space. I waited for the explanation that was sure to come.

‘Magic,’ the voice spoke, right on time.

‘Honesty, Loyalty, Kindness, Generosity, and Laughter are all great virtues,’ the voice said, straying from the normal speech, ‘When all five of these great virtues work in harmony, amazing things can happen. But virtues like this are nothing if one has no friends to share them with. When the five great virtues are united in friendship, something amazing happens, and a more powerful Magic than anything else is formed.’

‘This magic springs up in one’s heart the moment they realize how happy they are that they have someone to whom they can easily share their deepest secrets Honestly, when they realize that they will be Loyal to these friends no matter what, when they realize that the Kindness of and to their friends brings out the best in them, when they realize that giving Generously to their friends is better than receiving, and when they know they will always have somepony around who will lift their spirits and Laugh with them.’

‘Mareokei knew what it meant to have friends, and she knew the magic that it could bring. But, she foolishly squandered this magic, always craving more. As her friends descended into madness and destruction around her, she followed, practicing the dark arts and selling her soul to the Ideal Masters. She became the most powerful wizard in all the Northlands, but for all her power, she was alone, and could do nothing to change the fact that she would never feel love from another pony again.’

‘She sealed herself within the great capital city she had built, back when Horizon was prosperous under the rule of the Dragon Priests. There she pondered the decisions she made in her life, and mourned for the friends she had lost. At last, she allowed the darkness to consume her, becoming black magic incarnate, a walking opposite of the bright magic she had once represented, and her Element faded and became useless.’

‘Now you know that great magic she once had. Do not squander it, nor wish for more. Treasure this magic and remember its source, the friendships you have forged. For the spark of your friendships keep the magic within the Elements alive. Some may say the Elements themselves are the most powerful force in all the Northlands, but they merely relay what is within your heart. Allow the magic from within to guide you, and you can do anything you set your mind to.’

The world around me suddenly swirled away, the pink fading from my vision, and I returned to Labyrinthian.

~◊~ ~◊~ ~◊~

“You’ve done it!” Mystic exclaimed as I returned to reality, “You assembled the complete set!”

“We did it,” I said, “The Elements are powered by us, the bonds we’ve forged. Or, so I was told by the Element of Magic.”

“Now we can defeat Alduin, right?” Steadfast asked hopefully.

“I hope so,” I said, “But we can’t very well do that from here. Let’s get out of this ruin.”

We left Mareokei’s crypt, and I recounted everything that had happened when the Element of Magic had spirited me away. There was no sign of the manticore or Blackwings outside as we left the temple, and we had a clear path out of Labyrinthian. As we headed down the ancient street, the sound of a great blast came from overhead.

Looking up, we could see that a huge chunk of Griffinium’s underside had been knocked off. The giant slab of stone fell slowly through the air, crushing the Temple of Mareokei. There was something wrong with Griffinium itself. As we watched, the entire city began to tilt ominously, while the Pegasari Air Fleet continued to pound it. Then, it began to fall out of the sky.

“Run!” I yelled, galloped toward Labyrinthian’s exit as I saw that Griffinium was going to land right on top of the ancient earth pony city.

The mountain of stone came crashing down, smashing Labyrinthian. We were nearly hit by the debris cloud as we exited the city. Griffinium continued to fall and shatter, crushing Labyrinthian completely until there was nothing left. Everything was buried beneath the remains of the Griffins’ capital.

“This has to end,” Mephalda said breathlessly, looking at the destruction.

“It will,” I said firmly, looking up at the ships flying high in the sky.

Level Up
Health: 380 Stamina: 380 Magicka: 370
New Perk: Cartographer [No Skill] -- You are a whiz at using a map and can plot the best course with ease. All travel times are now reduced as you can use shortcuts to your advantage.
Word of Power learned: KLO -- Sand; Slow Time – Combined with TIID, KLO slows time down to nearly a halt, allowing you to accomplish much more while everypony around you moves at a snail’s pace.
Word of Power learned: FAAS -- Fear; Dismaying Shout – And the weak shall fear the Thu’um, and flee in terror.
Element of Harmony acquired
Element of Magic activated
New Quest: Peace -- Find a way to bring peace to the Northlands, no matter what it takes.