A changeling's visit to Skyrim

Idgrod retold the contents of Alva’s journal while Stross found his way back to the others. The mob of townspeople stood outside the Jarls house listening to her tale like a group of children listening to a scary bedtime story.

“Movarth was a master vampire I thought destroyed over a century ago.” she told them “My father would tell us about the horrid things he’d done when he was in power; covens of vampire followers and legions of braindead thralls, enslaving entire towns to be used as cattle for their bloodthirst, wearing a stupid cape with the collar turned up.” Idgrod grimaced at that last one “But it seems he’s back, and trying to get a foothold so he can regain his territory. And Alva has been helping him these last few months, the traitorous bitch!"

The crowd winced at her foul language.

“It’s lucky these strangers came along when they did. Now we can root out Movarth before he gets the chance to enslave us again!” Idgrod rallied them “And to think you all hated outsiders so much.”

“And… we can finally have some justice for my poor Laelette!” Thronir yelled “Those abominations killed my wife, and would have done worse to all of us! Let’s go make them pay!”

The rest of the mob charged off alongside him, yelling battlecries and thinking angry thoughts.

“Wait!” Jarl Idgrod yelled after them, but to no avail “I meant hire a hunter to clear them out, someone named Belmont maybe.” she sighed and looked to Fenora and Stross “I’m afraid I have a new task for you.”

“Say no more,” Fenora said sullenly as she checked her gear “I’m kind of used to it at this point.”

Fenora and Stross, plus Falion who decided to tag along, reached the cave entrance to Movarth’s lair only a few minutes after the Morthal mob had, and were surprised to find that none of them had gotten within spitting distance of the place. Instead, they simply lingered unsurely near the entrance.

“So… this is the place.” one muttered.

“Yup.”

…

“It’s kind of scary up close isn’t it?”

“…And it’s full of vampires.”

…

“Soooo… who’s goin’ in first?”

…

“Oh for Shor’s sake!” Thronir yelled as he walked to the front of the group “They took my Laelette, they would have done it to any of us. They still will unless we wipe them out here and now; so who’s with me?” he raised his woodcutters axe.

The rest of them were more than hesitant to raise their own weapons, their zealous vigor having quickly faded once they considered what they were up against.

“Over here!” Fenora called as she pushed her way through, the crowd easily parting to her and her friends.

“Ahh, at least you’re with me.” Thronir said, relieved to have some support.

“No.” Fenora told him “You’re with us. We’re the professional slayers of whatever people point us towards. If you want to come along and back us up, then you’re welcome to it just don’t get in our way. What about the rest of-

Fenora looked back only to see that the mob of villagers had vanished, most having dropped their makeshift weapons and torches on the ground.

“Good luck!” one called over to them in the distance before running away again.

“Pfht, fine. It’s probably for the best.” Fenora told herself “Tronir, Falion remember what I told you and stay out of the way. Stross…” she said as she put on a brimmed hat, pulled out an intricate metal crossbow, and loaded the first bolt in a badass fashion “Let’s knock some heads.”

As they entered the caverns, the first thing they noticed was the smell of blood and decay, punctuated with an aftertaste of wine. Soon they discovered the source, several cartfulls of remains, human or otherwise, were piled outside one of the tunnels, a person dressed like a bandit hauling them out and dumping them.

“This must be where they throw their leftovers,” Stross reasoned as they watched from a distance “and they’ve been busy.” he shifted his gaze to the bandit “That guy over there looks like he’s been enthralled like Hroggar.”

Suddenly a bolt pierced through the bandits head and into his brain, killing him instantly.

“What are you doing!” Stross nearly shrieked at Fenora as she lowered her crossbow.

“Taking out their minions, he was under their control right?”

“But I could have tried to break their hold on them later.” Stross argued “We should be saving these poor people, not killing them.”

Fenora just looked at him for a moment and blinked a few times.

“Stross, you’re too nice for your own good you know that.” Fenora told him when realized he was serious “Alright, save them if you can, but don’t expect me to hold back when they’re rushing us with swords.”

Stross smiled, and nodded.

Soon the four of them came to a large open area with a banquet table in the center. Movarth sat at the head while his vampiric followers gathered at the sides, in total there had to have been at least eight of them, each with a thrall of their own. On the table were kegs of wine, various cuts of meat, stacks of gold coins, and other valuables that covered the table like a shrine to greed and gluttony.

“My loyal followers.” Movarth stood, addressing the others “It has come to my attention that our progress in the town of Morthal has run into yet another snag."

The other vampires whispered lightly to each other at this.

“The source… was none other than our newest member, Alva.” he snapped his fingers and a large thrall dragged Alva, bound and gagged, before the crowd.

“I was foolish to trust a task of such importance to a mere fledgeling. But you were foolish to fail me!”  he yelled, barring his fangs.

Alva finally managed to wrestle her gag off. “But you said I would be yours, that we’d be together forever!”

“Silence!” Movarth roared “I said we would if you brought me Morthal. I gave you my gift, I gave you more than your share of chances. But you have failed me nonetheless, betrayed me. Now I will show you what happens to those that betray me.” He said, seething with anger as he bared his fangs once more.

“No… no please! Movarth!” Alva struggles against her bonds as Movarth moved to drain away her life essence. “Please, give me another chance. I can take another town, any town you want!”

“It’s too late for that, but don’t worry.” Moverth told Alva as he held her chin “There will always be others to replace you.”

With that he bit down on her neck, the vampiric energies keeping her alive quickly flowing back to their source. But before Alva’s eyes closed and darkness overtook her, she felt a sharp pain as Movarth bit down ever slightly harder.

Back in the world of consciousness, Movarth reeled backwards and writhed in pain on the floor as yanked out the bolt lodged in his spine.

“WHO SHOT THAT?!” he roared as he stood up, his healing factor restoring him.

It wasn’t more than a second later that three more bolts hit him in the chest, neck, and forehead. The assailant finally stepped out of the shadows as he recovered from the impacts.

“Now that I have your attention.” Fenora said as she chambered another bolt.

“GET HER!” Movarth ordered to his followers as he glared daggers at Fenora.

Instantly, every thrall and lesser vampire was charging towards her, spells glowing and weapons raised. But Fenora was lifted into the air by Stross, giving her just enough height to scramble over their heads. Together they made a beeline for Movarth, hoping to take him down first.

He shot out a trio of fireballs at them, forcing Stross to drop Fenora in order to avoid it. Fenora rolled with the landing, pulled out a whip, and lashed it at him. Movarth teleported away again, launching another fireball as soon as he reappeared.

At this point the rest of the vampires had begun advancing on them again, and Stross had to focus on keeping them at bay with his stun spells and flashbangs. The thralls collapsed easily, and the vampires turned away, shielding themselves from the sudden bright light. But these spell were never meant to be more than distractions for fleeing changelings, and their effect quickly wore off.

Meinwhile, as Fenora struggled to even hit Movarth as he teleported around them, and Stross desperately tried to hold off the advancing army, Thronir and Falion watched from one of the room’s higher landings.

“Don’t you think we should help?” Thronir asked.

“Yes, but how? You’re a woodcutter, and my combat magic is next to none.” Falion told him in frustration.

“Dammit you’re right; we’d probably get killed out there if we tried.”

“Gah!” Fenora yelled in pain as one of the fireballs struck her square in the back “Hold still, damn you!” she fired another salvo at Movarth.

Movarth cackled manically as he dodged her bolts again and returned fire, teleporting away again shortly after. Stross let out a stream of fire along the ground that grew into a massive wall of flame, giving him a few precious seconds to aid his elvish friend. Scanning the room for Movarth’s putrid aura as he teleported away, he spotted what he was looking for and quickly relayed his knowledge.

“Fen, over there!” he pointed next to the banquet table just as Movarth appeared.

Movarth was going to launch another fireball, but he soon found his helpless targets were not so helpless anymore, especially since one of those foes now had a whip coiled tightly around his neck.

“Get over here!” Fenora yelled. And with a strong pull, Movarth was in her grasp, staring down the shaft of her crossbow as she held him in place.

“Smile you son-a-va motherless goat!” Fenora yelled as she emptied her magazine into Movarth’s face. Once her crossbow clicked empty she kicked his body away, and with a flick of her wrist the whip tore through his throat, ripping his head clean off his body and sending it bouncing away onto the floor.

For a few short moments everything was silent.

Thronir, Falion watched in awe, while Stross and the dozen minions currently dog-piling on top of him could only stop and stare, their mouths hanging open wordlessly.

Fenora stood over the limp, decapitated body of Movarth for a second before turning to the rest.

“Well you guys. I knew it all along.” she said to them as she pulled out a pair of shades “Vampires…” -put’s on shades- “suck.”

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Their victory was cut short however, as Movarth’s dead body turned to ashes only to reform into an even larger, gargantuan bat-like… thing…

He turned into the final stage vampire bat-monster; how else do I say this?

Anyway, he punched Fenora to the ground and stomped her once before picking up her limp form and snarling “Vampires do NOT suck… Nor do we sparkle!”

He then slashed open her throat with a claw and began to use magic to drink her blood, while ironically both sucking and sparkling.

“Fen, NO!” Stross yelled “Hey would you guys mind getting off me?” he asked to the pile of people on top of him.

“Naw man.”

“We’re good here.”

“Oh for crying out- Burn!” Stross ignited himself, sending the heap off in search of water buckets.

Acting quickly, Stross body-slammed into Movarth. Unfortunately, this had little effect seeing as how the vampire was now easily four times bigger than Stross, and Movarth kept draining Fenora despite the latter repeatedly stabbing him in the eyes with a broken wine bottle.

Stross tried his stun spell, followed by fire blasts. Nothing worked and Fenora hung limply by the throat as Stross scratched at Movarth with his chitonous claws before Movarth grew tired of the annoyance and slapped Stross away.

“Enough you puny fledgeling!” he snarled at Stross as he finished absorbing Fenora’s life energy and threw her to the floor beside him “Your friend is already dead.”

“What? No!” the changeling thought as he put a hand on Fenora’s cheek. Through his aura sense he could feel her life slowly flickering out.

“Fen, stay with me, I won’t let you die like this, I won’t leave you.” he whispered to her as he channeled what little of his own power he could spare to keep that spark of life from going out.

He was interrupted again, and at the worst possible time, by Movarth snatching him up in an iron death-grip. Through the bone-crushing sensation from the fingers around his skull, Stross could hear Movarth speak a single word.

“Pathetic.”

What followed was a bone-snapping crunch as Movarth stomped down on Fenora’s already broken body, shattering her ribcage and likely rupturing her insides. As his own scales began to crack and bleed, the changeling could just see the little white light that remained of Fenora’s life force finally fade out.

That was more than Stross could take.

Setting his hand ablaze to a near molten temperature, Stross jammed his fingers into Movarth’s arm, causing the master vampire to shriek in pain and release him. Highlighting on his advantage, Stross lunged forward screaming, both hands now ablaze. Aiming for the chest he plunged his hand through Movarth’s ribcage and tore his black, ichor-filled heart out; squeezing the still beating organ in one hand and Movarth’s head in the other, his fingers digging into the vampire’s skull. In his anger Stross wasted no time in Syphoning the life out of him.

“Give it back.”

Stross could feel the blood from all the people Movarth had ever fed upon as he drained energy from the vampire, each felt a bit different, but all were tainted by a taste that Stross had always despised; deception and malice. It was if Movarth’s very soul was made of nothing but evil, corrupting everything it touched.

“It wasn’t yours to take. It wasn’t given, you didn’t earn it, so give it back.”

All of Movarth’s life reserves had been drained and he reverted back to his normal form, but Stross didn’t stop there. Full of anger and thirsting for vengeance, he delved into Movarth’s own tainted life-force and syphoned out every last morsel of life left in the monster before him.

“Give. Her. Back… and-“

“DIE!” Stross wailed in his heavily distorted voice as he tore the last bits of life out of the vampire making its body explode into dust, never to rise again.

Things were silent as Stross stood in the center of the room. He turned to look at Movarth’s minions and their thralls for a mere second before all of them ran for the exit, screaming like ladies and scrambling over each other as they did so. Stross didn’t pursue them however, his mind was on one thing and one thing only; Fenora.

Rushing to where she lay on the rocky floor, he did the only thing he could think of and began pouring all his power into reviving her, and not just what he could spare, all of it. At a miraculous pace, her bones and muscles mended, and the burns and scars healed over as if they were never there. Within seconds Fenora’s body was in perfect condition, but her eyes didn’t open, nor did she start breathing again.

“Come on Fen. Don’t do this to me.”

Straining to keep the flow of energy constant, Stoss kept healing her, focusing on the fading remnants of her life-force.

“You’re the only real friend I’ve ever had, and we only just met. You can’t die so soon.”

Stopping the quickly fading glow from leaving her body was like trying to stoke a dying forge back to life from the embers, times a million, yet Stross persisted. He couldn’t just give up.

“Please don’t die…” Stross managed to think before the healing glow finally gave out and his world faded to black “Fenora… I love you.”

Stoss was swimming in blackness. Time seemed inconsequential to him until a bright light opened up to him in the distance. Moving towards it automatically, Stross peered through it. On the other side was a world he was very familiar with; Equestria.

Immediately he found himself being sucked through the portal to the other side.

When he opened his eyes, Stross realized he was laying in a grassy field outside of a small town. Looking himself over, he saw that he was in a four-legged form again, but not his form. This one was larger, with fur instead of shell, and feathered wings instead of insect ones.

“You okay Rainy?” a soft feminine voice to his right asked.

“What? Who said that? And how did I get here?” Stross thought, but his mouth answered for him, the rest of his body moving of its own accord as well.

“I’m fine,” he said, though not in his own voice “I was just thinking how nice the weather is today.”

His head turned to look at a violet-colored mare with a light green mane. Stross immediately remembered her.

“Bloom sprite. But that was- This… was years ago. How did I get here; why can’t I move? Is this some kind of memory?”

“I know, right?” Bloom said as she snuggled up to his side “I’m so glad you wanted to come out here with me.”

Stross couldn’t help but relax inside his own head as he brushed his hoof through her soft mane and felt her breath against his chest. He remembered Bloom really well because of how warm her aura was, and how quickly she had latched on to him. He had assumed the form of a pegasus for a couple of days and met her in a flower shop. From there they’d met a few times for lunch and those meetings had quickly turned to dates.

All the while he’d been seeing her, he’d feed off her in tiny bits, just enough to survive; she’d never noticed and he always found some way to make it up to her, even if she didn’t know what it was for. Stross, or Raindrops, was always kind of awkward, but Bloom liked him, and she would go out of her way to see him more often. This was one of those times when they were alone together, and it was times like this that Stross would always remember and cherish.

“Hey Bloom?” his voice asked of its own accord.

“Hmm?” she looked up at him sweetly.

“There’s something important I need to tell you.”

“Wait… was this? Oh no.” Stross remembered the one bad part of this memory.

“I think I’m in love with you Bloom.” he told her “Hey, I mean it.” he said when she started to laugh.

“I’m sorry Rainy, you’re just so silly when you try to be romantic.” Bloom said between snickers “But I know, and I love you too.”

She scooted up closer to kiss him, but he stopped her just short of his lips.

“Hold on, I just want to do this right.”

“No no no, NO! Don’t do it you fool, you’ll ruin everything!” Stross yelled despite having already lived through the outcome.

“Rain, what do you mean?” Bloom gave him a confused look.

“I just need to show you what I really am. Don’t worry, it’s not that bad.”

“It IS that bad!”

“Just… stay right there, and keep watching.” ‘Raindrops’ told her as he got up “Just remember, it’s still me. Okay?”

“Raindrops?” Bloom said, clearly starting to get frightened.

No matter how much Stross wished it hadn’t happened, there was no way for him to change the past. He got up and stood only a couple of feet from Bloom, and let his disguise slowly melt away as she watched in absolute terror.

“No! You idiot!” Stross yelled, at himself ironically.

“Bloom, this is me.” he said as he opened his aqua eyes and looked at her “Umm are… you alright?”

Bloom was breathing uneasily and looked to be on the verge of either screaming or fainting outright.

“Bloom?” Stross said gently as he brushed a hoof against her cheek.

Stross mentally sighed “Three, two… one-”

So, screaming it was. And boy howdy, was it. The hills were alive alright. Alive with sounds of “AAAAAHHHH!” and “MONSTER!” and “DON”T EAT ME!” as Bloom ran for her life.

“Bloom wait!” Stross yelled as he flew after her “I’m sorry!”

Stross managed to corner her at the bank of a strongly coursing river. She looked nervously between him and the rushing waters, wondering if it was better to chance swimming to the other side and drowning, or meeting her fate with the monster walking towards her.

“Bloom… please, it’s still me.” Stross begged her as he once again assumed the form of Raindrops “I still love you, please don’t run.”

“You’re lying, you're still that thing!” Bloom yelled at him.

“Of course I was lying! Would you have even talked to me if I looked like this?” Stross dropped his disguise again, Bloom grimaced as he did “You said you loved me, and I know it was true. Changelings need love to survive, without you I’d have died, I still will.” he explained “Please don’t do this to me Bloom… I love you.”

Stross reached forward to her, but she recoiled and stepped back. This unfortunately led to her falling in the river. Stross galloped after her as the river swept her away and she desperately tried to keep her head above the water. Flying over, he attempted to grab her and pull her out, but with her added weight and the strength of the current Stross only got pulled in as well. His wings soaked and useless, he could only hold on to Bloom and keep her head above the water until they plummeted over the edge of a waterfall and were pulled underneath.

Darkness, cold, and a chocking pain flooded Stross’s senses as water flooded his lungs. He could feel Bloom’s slowly losing warmth as he held on to her. Air bubbles escaped from both of them, heading towards the shimmering light near the surface. Concentrating through the pain, Stross charged up a teleportation spell and held Bloom even tighter, hoping with all his might that it would drag her along with him.

He landed and rolled, hard cobblestone beneath him. Coughing and sputtering, he forced his eyes open through the pain and the blinding sun to see Bloom, soaking wet less than a foot away.

“Bloom…” he chocked out as he dragged himself over to her unconscious form “Bloom…”

He was stopped by a pair of hooves wearing gold metal. They dragged him away while another guard and several other ponies from the crowded market street checked if Bloom was okay. Immediately the guard began preforming CPR on her, desperately trying to save her life.

“Bloom I’m sorry!” Stross yelled in tears as the guard slapped magical restraints on him and dragged him off. “I’M SO SORRY!”

Stross woke with a start, gasping for breath as he looked around him. He was in a bed in the inn, he could tell by how uncomfortable it was. He felt around for what form he was in; bipedal, with lots of bandages.

“It was just a memory, a really bad memory.”

He thought back to that day. Bloom had lived and made a full recovery, but it took him nearly a week to break out of that prison. Fortunately it was before the invasion of Canterlot so they had no idea what he was and had just thrown him in with the rest of the prisoners. If they had known he’d have likely been sentenced to death if not killed on sight. He wished he had never told Bloom the truth, but it just felt so wrong not to, to live a lie like that, and use it to take advantage of another.

Bloom wasn't the first, and she'd hardly been the only one. But no matter what, the outcome was always the same.

Stross let out a sigh before falling back onto the pillow. When he did however, he disturbed something; a silver-haired wood-elf who had been hanging asleep off the side of the bed, clutching his bandaged hand in hers.

“Mmn… Stross?” she groaned as she blinked herself awake.

“Fenora,? I-“

Before Stross could continue, Fenora had already pulled him into a bone-snapping hug. “You idiot.” she half-heartedly scolded him “Don’t ever do that again.”

“Wha-“

“Thronir and Falion were watching the whole thing, the spineless wimps. They told me what happened and helped to drag you back here.” she explained “You nearly killed yourself trying to save me.”

“Of course Fen, we’re friends. That’s what friends do for each other.” he said, still trying to forget the terrible memories that had popped into his mind.

Fenora stared at him in shock for a second. “Stross… you’re the best friend I've ever had. But after all this, I can't understand why you haven't left yet. I don’t deserve you.”

"No... don't say that." Stross brushed a few stray hairs out of her face "You're the first person that's known what I am, and didn't hate me for it. Period. You stayed with me when I fell into this world, and even wanted to be my friend. You don't know how much that means to me." he told her honestly “and like it or not, I'm going to return the favor. I’m here to stay and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

With that he hoped out of bed and headed for the door, adopting a chipper attitude on a dime for her.

“So where are we going next?” he asked.

“Umm, Ustengrav… to get the horn for the Greybeards.” Fenora reminded him “But are you sure you’re up for it so soon? You were in pretty bad shape when we brought you here.”

“I’ll be fine.” He told her as he pulled off the bandages from where his shell had healed over “I can’t explain why, but I feel great right now.”

This was a lie though, and Stross knew it. He knew exactly why he felt great; the reason had been in the room with him all night while he recovered. Fenora’s love for him was stronger than ever, and for the first time, he truly knew that it was okay. He’d been with her through everything thus far, and would be through all her adventures to come. And the best part was that he hadn’t needed to use any of the usual trickery to get there, Fenora just loved him for who he was, and that’s really all he wanted all along.

As the two of them met up with Lydia and headed out the door to ever brighter days filled with danger and world trekking fun, Stross couldn’t help but smile at this whole chance mishap that he now considered to be the best thing to ever happen to him.