A changeling's visit to Skyrim

Stross slowly regained consciousness as the silence and dark surrounded him. He felt sick and gross, like there was something sloshing around under his shell. Why he had been out or for how long escaped him, but the first thing he registered was the cold, wet sticky substance he was laying in. Groggily he opened his eyes and rolled onto his side, feeling the sticky stuff drip from him as he tried to sit up.

“What is this stuff…Blood? Did I get hurt?” he thought as his mind rewired itself “No… can’t be. I don’t even hurt.”

Then his mind jumped to a worse conclusion. “But wait, if it doesn’t hurt that means it’s really bad! I could be dying from blood loss! But wait… how could I be figuring that out then? No blood means no smarty-brain.”

Then out of his hazy vision he saw a pair of limbs laying on the other side of the room. “Whose are those?” they looked surprisingly similar after all.

Then he realized it, they were his arms! They were over there, which meant they weren’t attached to him!

He rolled over and pushed himself up with his… arms?

“How do I still have these?” he asked himself in mild shock.

It was then that Stross noticed the fine difference in the scales on his arms, near the wrist on his left, and closer to the shoulder on his right. “I… I regrew my arms.” He muttered. “How-?“

He ran his hand through the sticky stuff and brought it to his face. To his relief, it was only the remains of a melted wisp. That was likely what gave him the strength to regenerate.

“That’s right. The fight with the Wispmother and her clones. Did we win?” The changeling blinked a few times and began looking around the room. Then his eyes locked on something that made him snap to his senses.

“Oh no.” He whispered when he saw Brelyna lying flat on her back in a pool of her own blood.

Stross scrambled over to her. “Brelyna, you’re-“ he let out a gasp when he got a better look at her. From the ground she looked fine, but standing over her, he saw her entire left arm had been torn off, severed by blade of ice that was slowly melting into the pool of blood around her.

“No… No no no no no!” He put his hands onto where her missing arm was supposed to be and began trying to close it off, his magic slowly cauterizing the open wound. But all too soon he started feeling drained. “No, not now! Come on, stay with me.” Stross began to panic as his healing flames flickered out in his hands.

“Hey! Somepony hel- Nn…no.”  Stross’s call for help got caught in his mouth when turned his attention around the room, and then he could only look in horror at what was waiting for him.

Princess Luna, the mages; his friends… all of them lay motionless around him, each of them surely dying. Onmund was propped against a wall with several shards of red-stained ice sticking out of his belly, J’zargo sat in a similar manner against one of the spikes, many little bleeding holes drilled through his torso and neck. Trixie lay face down, covered in gashes across her arms and legs, likely more covering the rest of her. Luna was in some manner of shock, unable to do anything but stare outward into space with her unblinking, dilated eyes. His changeling eyes could see their life forces, barely there… nearly slipping away.

But worst of all was Fenora, and Stross felt sick when he saw her at the far end of the room.

“Fenora!” Stross called as he rushed over to her, unsure what to do.

Stross felt his breath hitch several times as he looked over her. The entire front half of her body was completely torn apart; an explosion had torn right through her armor and into her chest, leaving her bare ribcage exposed and her guts hanging out.

“F-Fen… no, oh no. Look at you… Fenora.” Stross slowly lifted her head up, and felt tears running down his face when he saw the state of hers. With a trembling hand he limply touched her broken jaw and traced where her left cheek had been ripped away.

He clenched his fists and trying to conjure up his healing again. But try as he might, the light on his fingertips simply faded away each time after making a pitiful amount of progress; a few muscles healed, or a bone fragment put back in place. He just didn’t have enough left in him to fix her all the way.

“Come on bug, think! Do something!” he yelled at himself.

Then Stross remembered something, the goo on the ground, the same stuff that let him regenerate with his kind’s healing factor. It was the essence of the Wispmother, the creature that harvested souls, and souls had energy he could use. He immediately looked around and found the puddle again.

Unlike the essence of the lesser wisps he ate before, it felt sickly and tainted when he touched it, but he started absorbing it anyway. As he drew the energy out of the slush and the puddle slowly began depleting, something felt right. Somehow it was far more than he could remember having in his entire life, even after his bandit massacre at Bleak Falls. Just how much power had the Wispmother harvested in this place?

Stross wasn’t in the mood to question it. The second he was done, he rushed back and grabbed hold of Fenora, and began working with all his might to restore her. It was easier than he could have imagined, and in seconds, shattered bones mended and became whole. Flesh regrew, eventually covering over in skin again.

Fenora sharply sucked in a breath of air, and her eyes shot open, darting around until they landed on Stross. “Where. What… how did-?” she breathed.

“Shh… it’s okay Fen. I’ve got you. Just rest, okay? Just rest.” Stross told her as he blinked tears out of his eyes.

Fenora’s breathing calmed when she heard his voice, and she gave him a nod before falling into sleep.

Fenora was alive, and Stross felt incredibly relieved. But he knew there was more work to be done, and very little time to do it.

Hurrying back to the mages, he started with Brelyna. There were numerous little cuts all over her, and frostbite covered her body, but stopping the bleeding and sealing off the empty socket where her arm used to be was top priority. Stross focused his healing there. Slowly but surely the wound closed itself, and the bleeding came to a stop.

Stross felt a sudden spike of pain in his chest, but shrugged it off. He considered trying to give Brelyna a new arm, but considering how long it took just to seal the wound, Stross knew he’d have to do it later, and she’d live for now.

Moving quickly, he made his way to J’zargo, and by channeling the magic coursing through his veins from the Wispmother goo, the holes punched through the kah’jiit’s body filled in with new flesh. There might have been broken bones, or something else Stross didn’t know, but at least J’zargo had lungs that weren’t full of holes now.

Then another wave of pain hit him. This time it was harder and lasted a bit longer than before.

“Grr- whatever’s doing that needs to stop. I do NOT have time for it!” Stross thought angrily as he shook off the pain and moved to the next patient.

Onmund was next, and the nord had to be pulled from his sitting position and laid on his back in order to pull the ice out. Easily the worst part was trying to get his intestines back in. It was like trying to figure out how to store a rope in a tiny box; a long, bloody, disgusting rope in a bloody, rank-smelling box. But once that was done, it was relatively easy to seal him back up.

Trixie had taken a bad hit to the head, and the ice had filled her mouth and nose, preventing her from breathing. Worse was her right eye, which was splattered down her face. Stross could deal with the eye later, and focused on melting the ice to clear the passageways for air, albeit filling her mouth and nose with water. But she could still breathe right? Right?

Why wasn’t she breathing?!

Stross looked back over the others, and saw that despite his treatment, none of them were awake yet either. But he healed them!

He rushed to Luna, who out of all of them had sustained the least injuries. Besides a few scrapes that were already almost healed over on their own, there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with her.

“Luna, you okay? I need your help.” Stross lightly shook her. When she didn’t respond, Stross held her head between his hands and channeled some of his healing magic through it, thinking she was suffering a concussion or something. This also yielded no results.

“Darn it, why isn’t this working?” Stross thought to himself and looked over Luna for anything else that might be wrong. “What happened to you? Your eyes are all wide and derpy, like…”

Then the changeling got an idea.

His horn started bubbling a sickly green glow and spread his influence into Luna’s mind, completely unchallenged in her state. As soon as his changeling influence was in place, he whispered for her to wake up. And when Luna began to stir due to his command, he quickly purged it from her.

“Uhh, what happened?” Luna mumbled through clenched teeth as she brought a hand to her head.

“You gotta help! I can’t wake them up!” Stross yelled, and Luna grimaced in pain once more before trying to ask what he was talking about.

After slapping him a few times to snap the changeling out of his panic, Luna got Stross to quickly explain what had happened.

“We must act quickly then.” Luna said with a determined frown, and shakily got to her feet.

After a quick inspection on the mages, Luna was disturbed to see how ghastly their injuries were despite the fact that Stross had healed them already. She was about to question him on it, but thought better of it knowing how distressed and emotionally fragile Stross was.

She instead checked them again, and set his mind at ease, telling him that the injuries that remained were superficial. She said that they were all still very much alive, but very weak, and in need of help if they were to recover.

Surprisingly, all it took was some basic CPR and a magical surge to jump-start their hearts, and each of the mages were back to life. Or as back to life as one could be, considering they should have each been in the hospital for no less than a year. They regained consciousness for maybe about a second before passing out again, leaving Luna and Stross to carry them someplace better.

The next room they entered was one of Skyrims many dead body preparation stations, complete with rusty embalming tools and hundred-something-year-old linen wraps. Perfect for helping repair bodies that were still very much alive!

Brelyna was the first one to wake up, just shortly after they’d finished moving into the new room. The first thing she noticed was her missing arm, and quickly began hyperventilating over it.

After no small amount of hugging and gentle reassurance from Stross, she finally calmed down, and was even able to rationalize that she could possibly make a new one with Stross’s help.

That was what they were currently up to. Beside them were a couple of healing potions that had been thickened to a paste with Brelyna’s instructions, a clove of garlic and imp stool mushrooms from Onmund’s bag would allow them a bit more potent. Her old arm was also nearby, and they made sure to thank Luna for finding it. All they had to do was reattach it.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Brelyna asked nervously as Stross held a recently cleaned knife thingy to her shoulder.

“Uuuuuuuuhhhhh… can you run it by me one more time?” Stross asked sheepishly.

Brelyna took a deep breath and pulled her mage robe down a bit more. “Okay, what you want to do is begin to make a cut just outside the rotator cuff- AAAAHHH!”

“Sorry! I started too soon!” Stross apologized.

“It’s okay just keep going!” Brelyna screamed “You want to get the shoulder socket open again so we can put the replacement- AAH- bone into the correct place before we- EEEE- ‘re able to reattach the arm into its- GAH-HAH… proper place. Did you get it?”

“I think, hold still a sec.”

Stross took the replacement humerus bone he’d made from fusing together pots of bone meal, and dipped the end in a healing potion paste. Then he carefully inserted it into the socket, and used his healing spell in tandem with the restoring effects of the potion to fuse the newly grown muscles to the foreign bone.

“Okay… good. Good.” Brelyna said, trying to keep her breathing under control. “Now for the arm. Take the rest of that paste and slather it on one of those ‘bandages’. We’ll need it to keep the arm in place.”

“You sure know a lot about this stuff.” Stross complimented as he did as she instructed.

“I had to. Physiology of mer and men was a large part of my studies back when I turned thirteen. Who would have thought it would actually be useful?” Brelyna chuckled.

“Alright, just hold still while I put this…. Here.” Stross said as he aligned the old bone and the new one and prepared to heat-fuze them together. “You might want to clench your teeth. This is probably going to-“

“NNNNEEERRRR-HUURRRR-Hurrr!” Brelyna shrieked in pain as Stross started to melt the two bone halves together.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. Almost done. Almost done!” Stross soothed as he tried to keep his focus on the bones and nothing else, lest he lose focus and burn something he wasn’t supposed to. “There… all done. Finally.”

Brelyna just nodded and tried to breathe normally again.

The tears spilling down her cheeks told Stross that fusing limbs back on was probably way more painful if you had skin instead of scales. So Stross took extra care while wrapping the bandage around the healing flesh. A quickly made sling to keep her arm from moving and he was finished.

Stross leant back and observed his handiwork; not too bad, all things considered.

“I’d take it easy on that arm until it’s healed all the way.” Stross told her just as a matter of caution.

“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Brelyna said and scooched over to Stross on the embalming table “Thank you for saving us, all of us. You’re amazing Stross.”

“Yeah…” Stross sighed and looked down at his hanging feet, kicking them idly.

“But are you okay?” Brelyna asked “After all this we should all be worried about you the most.”

“I’ll be fine. It was just really close.” Stross told her “When I saw you all just lying there covered in blood, and my magic was almost gone I thought I was going to lose every one of you. Onmund and J’zargo were full of holes, Trixie lost an eye, and Fenora… Brelyna, why are you even here?”

“What?” Brelyna asked, for a second thinking Stross was trying to push her away.

“Why did they send apprentices to get this stupid staff?” Stross asked “It’s too dangerous for you- by the Fallen, it would be too much for an army! I don’t think me and Fen would stand a chance against all this if we did this all ourselves, let alone while looking after all of you.”

“I’m sorry Stross, I didn’t mean to be a burden on you. None of us meant to.”

“I didn’t mean it like that- it’s just I-“ Stross stuttered before realizing she was right in a way. “It’s not your fault. Skyrim needed heroes and you were all that were left. It’s… it’s just too much, and I don’t want anyone else to get hurt because of it, especially my friends.” Stross sighed “I’ve barely ever had friends before, being a changeling and all that, not real friends at least. Not friends I could be me with.”

Brelyna didn’t know what to tell Stross, how to respond. She and him were the same in a way, but she’d never had friends because she’d never had the chance. He’d had all the chances and they’d blown up in his face. All the psychology books she’d memorized failed her, and all she could do was give him a sideways hug, lean her head onto his shoulder and hope it helped.

For a few minutes the just sat there, Stross with his eyes shut up in thought. Then he spoke up. “Hey Brey, I need to be alone for a minute. Can you keep an eye on the others while I’m gone?”

“Of course.” She answered simply “Let me know if you need anything, okay?”

Stross hummed and walked away down the path.

As he walked down the damp stone steps, listening to the water trickle down the rocks, Stross would have left his mind to wander had it not been for a blur of movement catching his eye. He turned to look, quickening his pace and rounding a corner down a narrow passageway. It soon came to a dead end, and standing there, looking disheveled and muttering to herself as she hit her fist against the solid rock was Trixie.

“Trixie?” Stross called out “What are you doing?”

The unicorn mage turned her head to face him, showing the makeshift bandage that covered her eye. Stross had tried to heal it when she was still asleep, but eyes were complex, and the healing simply made it scab over into a perfectly round white orb in her socket.

“What do you want changeling?” Trixie said, sounding very annoyed and even a bit anxious. She returned to testing different spots on the wall “Unless you can offer Trixie a way out of this horrible place, leave Trixie alone.”

“Are you okay?” Stross offered.

Trixie grit her teeth and momentarily paused what she was doing. “NO! Trixie is NOT okay!” she snapped and rounded on him “Trixie is exhausted and freezing. Trixie just lost an eye! And worst of all, Trixie is going to die in a cave, and it’s all your fault!”

Stross was taken aback, and tried to retort. “What do you mea-“

“If you hadn’t eaten that dumb wisp, none of us would have gotten hurt!” she cut him off “Trixie should have gone back to Winterhold the second she saw you! Trixie should have let you risk your life here alone. Changelings have never been anything but trouble and grief for me!”

Stross was going to feel hurt, but the fact that Trixie snapped out of her third person at the very end gave him pause. Out of curiosity, he asked her “What do you mean we’ve only been trouble?”

Trixie blinked, realizing she slipped up and tried to cover it with a frown. “That’s none of your business.” She huffed and turned her back.

“I haven’t done anything bad to you so far. I saved you just now, and healed your hand when you cut yourself! What have I ever done?!” Stross yelled.

Trixie crossed her arms and remained silent.

Stross grabbed her shoulders, spun her around to face him and started shaking her back and forth. “Tell me! Tell me! Tell me! Tell me! TELL ME!” he demanded like a stubborn child who was denied a cookie.

“Fine!” Trixie slapped him off “Since it’s so important to you, I knew a changeling once!”

“Ooh.” Stross gave her his full attention, pulled up a seat and cracked open a wisp core like a coconut drink.

“Yes… I knew a changeling once, befriended her even.” Trixie sighed and got lost in her memories.

*Flashback returns!**Nostalgia film grain powers ACTIVATE!*

A cool night breeze passed over the city street where a humble stage was set up. The performer had just taken a bow and the small crowd that had gathered to watch was quickly dissipating. Out of the back, a blue unicorn in a purple star-patterned hat and cape wobbled out and sat on the stairs leading to her trailer/stage, practically collapsing on her rump.

Trixie removed her hat and wiped the sweat from her brow. The performance had been an exhausting one, but ever since her disgrace at Ponyville she had needed to give larger, more dazzling, more spectacular performances.

She didn’t even realize when a blonde pegasus mare with a deep purple coat approached her. She looked up in surprise, but it quickly turned to apprehension; another pony expecting a picture and an autograph. She’d had to start giving the mementos out for free ever since her decline.

But then the mare did something she didn’t expect.

“Trixie met her after a wildly successful show in Fillydelphia, she introduced herself as Floor Show; she brought Trixie a smoothie and asked if she could carry Trixie’s props. Apparently she was a huge fan of Trixie’s.”

…

A bright blue box painted with glittering stars wheeled itself on stage.

Trixie announced that for her next trick, she would need the help of her lovely assistant, and a few ponies in the crowd mumbled in confusion, as such a thing was yet unheard of for the traveling showmare.

Then Floor Show walked on from left stage, wearing quite a revealing gold skintight leotard, and earning a number of hoots and whistles from the stallions in the crowd.

Trixie rolled her eyes and opened the box, revealing there to be nothing inside. She motioned for Floor to get in, and proceeded to explain that she wound be cutting the mare in half as she pulled out a floppy saw.

Most of the crowd yawned at the old and dated trick. But Trixie proceeded to pass the saw through the box halves and pulled them apart when she was done, showing that she had indeed sawn her assistant in half.

It lasted for about a second.

Floor then wiggled herself out of her half of the box, still very much whole and proceeded to blatantly tell the crowd in an overly oblivious voice that she the other half was empty, and that she was in the first half the whole time. Trixie growled at the betrayal, about to give her assistant an earful right on stage.

But then another Floor Show popped out of the box, announcing that she had been in the first half as well! A third and fourth followed, stating the same as the audience rubbed their eyes. The Floor Show’s danced over to Trixie and caught her between them as they all took a bow.

The audience began clapping, then they began cheering. A roaring applause sounded out as flowers were thrown on stage.

Trixie turned to Floor and quietly whispered in her ear, asking how she did it. Floor just smiled sweetly and told her it was a secret, and she’d tell her later.

"It was the most successful show Trixie had performed in a long time. ‘Our tricks really floored them.’ she’d say. We kept going for weeks, and in every act Floor Show would create a new surprise that even Trixie didn’t know about. The ponies loved her, and she made sure they loved Trixie too. She… didn’t even mind when Trixie took the spotlight from her.

“We had made it together, my wonderful assistant and I, we had reserved a show to play before the Superb-Owl Hoofball championships! We were inseparable, unstoppable together."

...

It was the night before the big show that would make the showponies’ careers, and Trixie was a nervous wreck. She sat in their hotel room pacing back and forth, looking over the routines. It was only a three minute performance, so she’d have to make it bigger than big. It had to be the most spectacular thing anypony had ever seen!

Floor show walked in the door, carrying the take-out they’d ordered. When she saw Trixie practically tearing her mane out she put the food on the counter and rushed over to calm her down.

Floor let Trixie vent her anxieties to her, let out all the stress she’d been feeling since they booked the gig. Trixie turned to her with the first hint of unsureness Floor had ever seen in the mare, and in a moment of weakness, Trixie asked if they should just cancel the show.

Floor just took her in her hooves and kissed her on the mouth. It was a quick one, but it pulled Trixie out of her state. Floor told her that she had nothing to worry about, and that she’d be with her the whole way.

Trixie appreciated it, but remained unconvinced, still doubtful of herself.

Floor knew it was time. Softly, she asked if she could trust Trixie with a secret. Trixie nodded, and Floor was covered in a whirl of purple fire, revealing her true form.

Trixie’s eyes widened, but Floor cut her off before she could scream.

“’Don’t you see Trix? This is how I’m able to do all those things in our shows; I’ve got magic too, and it’s fueled by all the ponies watching us. They love our performance, and I’m able to feed off them to power my spells.’ She told me ‘Ponies might have slandered your name at one point, but the truth is, you’re an amazing performer, most of the things I do I adapted from your tricks! With my magic and your showmareship, we’ve got nothing to worry about. So stop being so shaky, it doesn’t suit you so well.’”

Trixie smiled as Floor put on her disguise again. She was right, they had it as long as they were together.

*End flashback*

“And then when the day came for us to preform, she wasn’t there.” Trixie said, biting back tears. “Trixie had to preform alone, but it wasn’t the same without her, and the crowd knew it! Trixie tried to give them the biggest act they’d seen… but I went too far and my spell backfired. The next thing I know, I’m laying face first in the grass in the middle of nowhere, with this weird body and no way back.

“I loved Floor Show, she was my friend. And she abandoned me when I needed her most!” Trixie ended her story and heard a faint sniffling coming from behind.

She turned around to see Stross bawling his eyes out and blowing his nose on a linen wrap. “Th-that was the saddest story EVER!” he said with jumpy breath before loudly blowing his nose again. He got up and walked towards Trixie. “I have to hug you.”

“No. Get away from Trixie.” Trixie said and tried to push him away.

Unfortunately, she didn’t know that one doesn’t say no to changeling hugs.

…

After a tearful moment where Trixie kept resisting, only to finally break down and cry into Stross’s hug as he did the same into hers, the changeling walked back to the others with her. But he stopped right before they arrived in the next room.

“You go on ahead, I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Stross told her.

Trixie nodded. “Alright. And… thank you, Stross.”

Stross waved to her and turned back down the passages leading deeper into Labyrinthian. He quickened his pace and set off at a run, knowing he wouldn’t be back until he had completely cleared the way ahead and secured a safe passage out for his friends.

Whatever he encountered ahead he would deal with. Whoever conjured that magic draining wind, he’d make them stop. If he had to fight for his life against an army of ghosts and draugr to retrieve the staff, he’d do it. He do anything if it meant keeping his friends from harm.