A changeling's visit to Skyrim

“So she’s alive then?” Fenora asked as Stross dragged the Princess of the night from the dragon’s remains and checked her over.

“Yeah, but she’s out; probably from all that bouncing around while we were fighting Jerkfrey.” Stross replied, discarding his cloak, which was completely ruined from the fight (It’ll take more than an Oxi-clean rip-off to get all that dragon barf to come out) “Technically, I’m not sure she can die. You know, with the whole ‘immortal ruler of the night’ thing going on.”

“So what do we do with her?” Fenora asked “And don’t say we let her join us!” she quickly added when she remembered Stross’s sympathetic disposition.

“I wasn’t! She was going to kill me.” Stross yelled.

“Well technically she said she’d lock me up in some place she banished me to, but that might have just been a heat-of-the-moment thing. Regardless, we need a way to get her off my case.  That Princess is really adamant about taking me down; I doubt she’d stop until I-”

“That’s it! I’ve got it!” Stross announced “I am going to fake my own death!”

“What?” Fenora questioned.

“Yeah it’ll be super easy!” Stross bobbed up and down with excitement “Let’s just take her back to Whiterun with us, then when she wakes up I’ll go hide somewhere and you can tell her I died in the fight. That way she’ll go home and won’t look for me anymore. It’s brilliant!”

“And you know that will work.”

“Pssh. Of course it will! I’ve done this plenty of times back in Equestria!”

Fenora rubbed her chin and considered the plan.  One the one hand Stross had supposedly done it before with success. On the other hand, that was in Equestria, where according to Stross ‘those ponies are as gullible as… a really gullible person’. But this was in Skyrim where… Okay, not much difference. And considering how this was an Equestrian Princess…

“You know,” Fenora looked up at her companion “that just might work.”

“I’mma genius!”

Before leaving for Whiterun, Fenora insisted they check what remained of Ivarstead. Most of the villagers had returned and began cleaning up the wreckage of the inn, which Wilhelm was in the process of crying like a baby over.

Our heroes cringed at the damage done in the fight. “Do you need any help fixing this?” Stross asked.

“That’s kind of you to offer, thane. But you two have done enough by saving us from that beast.” Temba thanked them “Don’t you worry, we’ll have this place back together in no time. That is, if we could get some decent lumber; those bears won’t stop scratching up all the trees.”

“They deserve at least some thanks though, they helped in the fight.” Stross turned to the bear commander as he and his battalion were departing “Thank you for aiding us, we couldn’t have done it without you.” Fenora joined him and they gave a salute.

“Think nothing of it.” the bear said in a deep masculine voice, earning a shocked reaction from the two “T’was our honor to assist you against such a scourge. Remember… Only you can prevent forest fires.”

With that, he saluted back and left with the rest of his brethren.

Luna’s eyes tightened as she awoke, sunlight streaming down into her face. She raised her arm to shield her eyes as they acclimated to her surroundings. All around her were walls and furniture made of wood, in the ceiling above her were three large, person-shaped holes. Bringing her eyes to level, she felt the bed beneath her, and to her horror, Luna found it was lined not only with cloth, but with animal pelts as well.

Her heart-rate jumped and she frantically tried to remove herself from the comfortable construct of carcasses only to find a weight on her body keeping her pinned.

“What in the name of- AHH!” Luna screamed as she pulled the covers off, finding a woman underneath smiling up at her.

“Hey sleepy head.” Laelette said cheerfully and giving a seductive and frightening smile full of fangs “Now we can finally start round one! Ding ding!”

“GAH! Cease this at once!” Luna yelled as Laelette groped her.

“Oh, I love when they play hard to get.” Laelette said before she dropped any remaining shred of tact and face-planted into Luna’s gazongas “Phpb blub brrb bluh brrb!”

“NO! Get off me!” Luna shrieked and tumbled onto the floor “Where am I? Who are you? And why do you humans always have such an intrusive fascination with my breasts!?”

Laelette giggled at the Princess’s display. “Don’t worry Princess, you’re fine, everything’s fine. You’re in Whiterun, and the big bad dragon that ate you is dead now; Fenora and Stross killed it!” she said joyfully as she made a hood and cape out of the blankets.

Luna sat on the floor for a second, breathing heavily and recovering from the PG-13 assault on her body. After another moment or so she was able to rationalize the information she’d been given, and immediately remembered why she had come to this world in the first place.

“Stross… the changeling! Do you know where it is now? Quickly?!” Luna grabbed Laelette by the shoulders.

“Hmm? Oh yeah! I’m supposed to tell you… he’s dead.” She said with a smile oddly out of place for the morbid topic.

Luna just stared at her for a while. “Dead…” she whispered “How?”

“Fenora said to send you over to her when you woke up. She’s in the Bannered Mare depleting their stock of alcohol.” The vampire explained.

“In the Bannered Mare?! Is everpony in this world a sex addict!?” Luna yelled.

Laelette tilted her head in confusion.

Luna slapped her forehead. “Oh, duh. Human world… human world. Right then, I must find this Fenora and speak with her, post haste!” Luna declared and marched towards the exit. However, she remembered an important detail as she reached the bottom of the stairs. “Umm, do you have any clothes I could borrow?” she asked sheepishly when she returned to the top floor.

“Yep!”

“Excellent. Thank you.”

…

“Could I have them please?” Luna arched an eyebrow.

Laelette gave her a pleading look. “But… I like seeing you naked.”

“Good luck! Say hi to them for me!” Laelette waved to Luna from the doorway while nursing a black eye.

Luna scoffed a bit as she walked the stone streets, trying to adjust the clothes she was given into a more comfortable position. The leggings and skirt fit well enough, but the top was quite scratchy and compressed her wings against her back. And judging by how her feet tumbled around in them, the boots were far too loose. But most egregious of all was the color. Seriously, green!? That horrid color did nothing to compliment her hair or her eyes. She counted herself lucky that she wouldn’t need to stay much longer now that the changeling threat was dead.

Still, for reasons she couldn’t describe, Luna felt a little bad that it was gone. It was a changeling after all, one of the monstrous creatures that foalnapped her niece, attacked Canterlot and wounded her beloved sister. But this one was supposedly working with the people of this new world, defending them from an ancient evil much like she and her sister had done for their own world so many centuries ago.

From within the dragon’s belly she heard parts of the changeling’s speech, and if it were anything to go by, the shapeshifter was grateful to the inhabitants of this world and truly cared about them. Luna still didn’t know whether its intentions were pure or not; whether the changeling’s end goal was to recruit an army to destroy Equestria in the name of revenge, or something else entirely. Motives mattered little now that it was gone, yet she was curious all the same.

She looked up after relenting in the battle with her clothes to find that she had no idea where this ‘Bannered Mare’ even was, nor even where she was going. Doing the logical thing that for some reason eludes nearly every stallion in Equestria, she asked for directions.

“Excuse me good sir,” she asked a tall muscular figure in a cone-shaped helmet “would you be so kind as to provide directions to the Bannered Mare?”

“Did you see those warriors from Hammerfell? They’ve got curved swords! Curved… swords.” He said with a hint of astonishment.

“That’s… not what I asked fo-“

“They say Ulfric Stormcloak murdered the High King… with his voice; shouted him apart!”

“That’s horrible; it must have been a very heated debate for a royal voice to reach such levels. But could you please-“

“Don’t think you can barter with me like one of those damned shopkeepers.”

Luna’s eye twitched. “Will you-“

“No lollygaggin’.”

Luna found her way to the Bannered Mare at about the same time a patrol of guards found one of their ranks hanging from the roof of a building by his underpants with a chicken stuffed in his mouth.

The Princess walked through the door, glad to be out of the harsh afternoon heat. Inside, the place was lively enough for that time of day. The usual customers were sitting around, eating, drinking, telling jokes and tall tales, being terrified of dragons… the usual stuff you do when you bum around on weekends.

However, there was one solemn elf sitting at the bar counter chugging down a bottle of strong-smelling liquid. She arranged it atop a pyramid made from other empty bottles and then ordered another, which the bartender fearfully gave her without complaint or the usual words of caution.

Luna slowly walked over, earning her a sideways stare from Fenora. “May I?” Luna asked.

Fenora gestured for her to sit. “You’re awake.”

“Indeed. And I received quite a rude welcome from your other guest.” Luna told her, to which Fenora chuckled. “However, she has also informed me that the changeling has perished. Is it true?”

Fenora’s light smile turned to a frown once more, and she took a sip of mead before answering. “Yeah… he died in the fight. Forgive me if I don’t go into details.”

“You needn’t.” Luna pardoned her “We only needed to know that it was no longer a threat to us.”

“Mm hmm.” Fenora grunted and finished off another drink. “I doubt he even cared about Equestria anymore… but whatever.”

A moment of silence passed.

“So.” Luna tried to strike up a conversation “I assume you’ll wish to destroy the dragons that did all this?”

“Yes. But truth be told, we’re kind of on hold with that for now.” Fenora explained “There’s an artifact called the horn of Jurgen Windcaller that can supposedly help us beat them, but we don’t have it. We tracked its location to the master of the Thieves Gulid, a prick named Mercer Frey. He’s getting it back from his Nan’s house, and in exchange for it, they want us to save their butts and do their stupid errands. Which reminds me…”

Fenora put on her guild hood and handed a giant bag of septims to the bartender. “This should cover the tab the Guild has run up.” She then pulled out a bigger bag and handed it over “And this should cover my personal bill.” The bosmer turned back to the Princess who was staring at her in shock. “What? I can’t save the world while I’m sober!”

“Trust me, I know of what you speak, but that seems excessive.” Luna said, remembering the case of hard cider she kept in her room for long nights filled with paperwork and how it paled in comparison to Fenora's habit. “Still, what pray tell will you do until this Windcaller’s horn is retrieved?”

“I’m not sure. Not much I can do, really.” Fenora answered slowly, letting the weight of her sadness return and really sink in.

A few awkward moments passed before Luna spoke again. “The changeling… It claimed it was not using mind control to enslave you or earn your favor, is this true?”

Fenora sighed and put down her glass. “First off, his name is- was… Stross. And no, he never used any kind of magic on me, except those times when he saved my life.”

“He… saved your life?” Luna said skeptically.

Fenora turned from Luna and faced back into her half-empty glass with a small grin. “Yeah… he did. One time he nearly sacrificed himself forcing his own life energy into me; I know for sure I would have died if he hadn’t been there. When he woke up the next morning, he told me what brought him back from death’s door in turn was my love for him.”

Luna leaned onto the counter, curious over what she’d just heard. “And did you have feelings for him?” she asked.

“I’m not sure…” Fenora said with a distant look in her eyes “We only met four… maybe five days ago now. But it feels like a lot longer. And considering everything we’ve gone through, any normal person would have left. But he stayed with me.” Fenora smiled. “And he’s always had this attitude and personality that just, for lack of better words… brought out the best in me.” She turned to Luna “It’s that kind of inspired feeling, the kind that makes you believe you could do anything in the world. You know what I’m talking about?”

Luna slowly nodded, as she’d felt it many times before in her long life.

“That’s the kind of feeling Stross fills me with.” Fenora continued “As long as he’s there, I could keep going through anything the world could throw at me.”

Luna put a comforting hand on Fenora’s shoulder. “Then we are truly sorry he is gone. To be honest, we have never thought a changeling could mean so much to someone. We have always believed they were nothing more than heartless monsters. The way they deceive you, and turn you against one another, and suck the life from your-”

Luna was quickly thrown off her current track when Fenora drew a knife and firmly embedded the tip into the counter while throwing her a deathly glare.

“R-right, sorry.” Luna apologized “Though tis been said, we are sorry for your loss.”

Fenora softened her gaze and nodded.

“And if it is any consolation,” she stood up and valiantly proclaimed to the ceiling “we shall stay in this world until these Dragons are properly dealt with!”

“That’s great, I- Wait. WHAT!” Fenora yelled, narrowly avoiding a spit-take.

“Indeed, the destruction of an entire world is something we cannot tolerate! THOSE FOUL CREATURES SHAN’T GET AWAY WITH THEIR NEFARIOUS DEEDS WHILE WE ARE HERE!” she announced in her Royal-Canterlot- voice, toppling Fenora’s beer pyramid and earning an annoyed look from the bartender as the bottles scattered across the floor.

“I- B-but what about your kingdom? Won’t it need you to rule it?” Fenora sputtered.

“Nonsense!” Luna insisted as she stepped off her chair “My sister has ruled more than adequately for over a thousand years. And with all those stuffy nobles and bureaucrats they have now, all should be well in hoof. I shall have plenty of time to assist the people of Skyrim in their struggle! DEATH TO THE DRAGONS!”

“Death to the dragons!” everyone in the inn echoed as they raised their mugs in a toast.

“Shut up! All of you stop encouraging her!” Fenora silenced them “Princess, go home. We’ve got this handled.”

“I’m an immortal Alicorn with ungodly amounts of magic. I can help! You need me!” Luna yelled, getting into Fenora’s face, unwilling to relent.

Fenora matched her and pulled herself in by the scruff of Luna’s uncomfortable shirt. “NO WE DON’T’! I don’t care how powerful you are! After the way you attacked Stross, we don’t want your help, much less need it! And I doubt you could help anyway. The last dragon you tried to kill ate you and we had to pull you from its stomach.” Fenora harshly reminded her “You would be useless to us!”

Fenora breathed for a second and calmed herself. When she looked at the Princess, she found she had fallen silent.

Luna just stared back for a while, her eyes not fully focused on Fenora, but those last six words echoing in her mind. Her expression was frozen and stillness fell over the room as she unwillingly delved into long repressed memories. The world seemed to melt away into blackness with only her and the elf before her remaining. Only it was not just Fenora standing there, it was also an all too familiar figure, one that had long since left her behind.

Useless... Luna hated that word. She hated it for what it meant, and she hated hearing it applied to anything. For Luna, it all stemmed back to when had heard those very same words for the first time. Even today, tens of hundreds of years later they still stung like poison-tipped daggers in her heart when she thought of them. Hearing them yelled at her in almost the exact same way left her broken.

Her eyes immediately went soft and her lip began to quiver, her legs going weak. It was doubtful she knew what she was doing, and even more doubtful that she could control herself if she did.

“But- I…” Luna dropped to her knees and hugged Fenora around the waist, leaning her head against the Dragonborn’s chest. “I’m not useless! I wanna save the world too, mommy. Why don’t you love me like Tia?!” she cried out as tears spilled down her face.

…

Error: Fenora_brain.exe has stopped working.

Warning: Hnnnng_virus detected in Fenora_heart.exe: attempting to recover…

Warning: Guilt capacity reaching dangerous levels: Supressing…

Core data backup successful.

Rebooting: Complete.

…

"L- Luna?" Fenora stuttered out "Princess?"

There was no reply, only sobbing.

“Umm… It's okay. You're going to be okay.” Fenora said awkwardly to the Princess currently hugging her like a child. “Hey… I’m sorry I yelled at you like that. But it'll be alright. You can help us save the world if you want.”

Woona looked up to her with red, puffy eyes. “R- really?”

“Yeah.” Fenora stroked her hair “Of course you can.”

"Do you still love me?"

Fenora struggled to not die from the sheer unadulterated cuteness as she stared at the Princess's hopeful face.

"Yes Luna... Of course I do."

Luna smiled and hugged her. And for a few short moments, she felt truly happy.

…

And then reality came crashing back down like a pallet of bricks and awkwardness.

Luna’s eyes shot open and she bolted a solid ten feet away in a millisecond. “Ahem, I mean yes. Thank you.” she said as she dusted herself off under the stares everyone was giving the two.

Fenora straightened up and addressed her in an equally stiff manner “We’ll talk about it later. Just head outside, I’ll be there in a minute or so.”

Luna didn’t need to be asked twice. She had bolted outside in a trail of smoke as Fenora sat back down.

...

Once it was sure the coast was clear, a barrel wobbled over, sprouted legs and hopped onto the barstood next to the Dragonborn.

“What was all that back there?” it asked in a hushed tone “First she was all valorous and determined… and then she practically exploded with sadness and regret; it nearly made me faint there was so much.”

“You said there were two of those Princesses; one controlling the day the other controlling the night? I’m staring to think there was more than a little favoritism from their parents.” Fenora deduced.

“I didn’t even know they had parents. Most of us believe they just sorta’ poofed into existence one day and started purging all the evil stuff. But sibling rivalry aside, what are we gonna’ do now?! If she finds out I’m still alive she’ll kill me.” the barrel shook in terror.

“Not to worry my buggy little friend. I don’t think she’s really that bad.” Fenora patted the top of the barrel with a smirk “I’ve got a new plan. Just follow my lead.”

“I’m gonna get lynched.” The barrel sobbed.

Fenora kicked the inn’s door open and walked outside into the still blistering heat. She looked around the immediate area but found no sign of Skyrim’s newest arrival. That is until she heard a small cough from behind her. Investigating further lead her to Luna, who was sitting around the corner, out of sight from the main street.

“Hey.” Fenora greeted softly.

“We apologize about what happened back there.” Luna responded “We did not intend to, as they say, ‘cause a scene’.”

“That’s alright. It happens" Fenora paused and then asked with genuine concern "Do you want to talk about it."

Luna just hugged her knees tighter.

Fenora sat down next to the Princess and took a breath “Regardless, what I said was unfair. I shouldn’t have been so harsh on you, and if you want, you can stick around and slay dragons with me.”

“So you really would allow me to aid you?” Luna asked hopefully “Even after everything I did to you, and what I tried to do to your changeling friend? Are you… really sure you what me here?”

“Are you kidding? Nah, I’m just joking around.” Fenora said sarcastically “I’m only fighting an entire army of flying, fire-spitting death machines the size of buildings. Heck, I could probably take down every single one while blindfolded! I can totally just turn down help whenever I want.” Fenora took a serious tone and stared Luna in the eyes “There’s no way I can do this all on my own; I need all the help I can get. If that means bringing you on board, then I’m all for it.”

Luna gave her a warm smile.

“On a few conditions.” Fenora quickly added.

“Okay. Like what?”

“For starters, I’m in charge here. If you want to help us out, then you’ll have to follow my lead.”

Luna nodded with an affirmative.

“Condition two: I’m not your babysitter. If you break Skyrim’s rules, then you face the consequences on your own. Tell her, guardsman.”

“Disrespect the law and you disrespect me.” A guard popped up from underground “And all the other infinitely respawning law enforcement that come out of the woodwork from the most minor offences.”

Luna gulped and she nodded in agreement as the guard tunneled away.

“And condition three… stop talking all weird, using the third person; ‘we’ instead of ‘I’ and such.”

“No.” Luna said and stood up with determination “We are afraid that is not negotiable. We insist we use the royal ‘we’ when addressing ourselves. It’s traditional to do so when addressing our subjects, AND TO USE THIS MUCH VOLUME WHEN SPEAKING SO THAT- murph!”

Fenora groaned in annoyance as she shoved her hand into the Princess’s mouth. “Listen, it may be tradition for royalty in your world, but in this one it’s mostly makes it hard to understand you, or terrifies the living daylights out of people. So don’t do that all the time, ‘kay?”

“We-“ Luna quickly corrected herself when she saw Fenora nearly burst a vein. “I… accept your terms. What is our first step to destroying the dragon menace?”

“Well seeing as how we’re grounded without Jurgen’s horn, I was going to take the day off and relax. But since you’re here to stay, I guess I have different plans.” Fenora said as she got up and started walking “So let’s get you acclimated to Skyrim, shall we?”

“Umm Dragonborn, tell us again why we’re here.” Luna said as she and Fenora approached Jorrvasker, the hangout of the Companions.

“If you’re going to be any help to us in ridding Skyrim of its dragon problem, you’re going to need to learn a little about how we do our foightin’ in Skyrim.” Fenora explained “And no one in Skyrim knows more ‘bout foightin’ then the Companions.”

Fenora was not wrong. The second she swung the door open, sounds of a brawl filled the air. A nord woman and a dark elf were heatedly duking it out with a hot-headed actor from New Zealand.

“A’ight c’mon then! Ya don’ get away with takin’ the last sweetrolls while I’m around!” he yelled as he took a foightin’ stance, circling his fists around threateningly.

“Get his legs, I’ll go for the eyeballs!” one of the Companions yelled to the other.

“Oi crikey, mah face! You sods done it now!” the man in the sailor suit proclaimed as he threw a few solid punches into them.

As they strafed across the room and around the tables full of food and drink, the other Companions threw out advice.

“Move your feet!”, “Keep your guard up.”, and “Use your head!” were among the helpful tips given, but apparently the brawlers only heard the last bit, and all three came to the same conclusion from it.

Simultaneously they leant back, and with a grimace-inducing crack, flung their heads forward and smashed them together, two falling to the floor in a heap of throbbing pain a second later.

“Yeah you bettah stay down!” he yelled as he victoriously strutted around them “We’ll be back with more foightin’ after this commercial break!”