The Riftwalkerby EruedraiethChaptersChapter 1 - Winter Wonderland [TESV]Chapter 2 - Dungeons and Draugr [TESV]Chapter 3 - Draconic [TESV]Prologue - Rifts to Walk, Time to TravelChapter 1 - Winter Wonderland [TESV]Author's Note This is 'A Scientific Breakthrough' 's Chapter 14. 'A Scientific Breakthrough' is now considered complete, and Chapter 14 has been removed and moved to this story. The prequel proved confusing, since it was 'Incomplete' and yet still had a sequel (The Shadow of Equestria). I never intended to create an adventure on Equestria with the original Riftwalker, and instead wanted dimension-travelling to be a core part of the story. This is the result. Chapter 1 - Winter Wonderland [TESV] "Well, everyone's here. Do you believe me now when I said that they came from another world?" I asked Robin and Shervin. Both of them walked outside, looking at the environment. Then, they noticed the ponies. "You weren't kidding about them being something else." Robin said. " 'Course I wasn't. I made my point now, do you want to go back or do you wish to stay for longer?" I asked. " I think I'd like to go back. Honestly, I'm slightly freaked out by all of this. " Robin said. " That's fine. Hey Twi, we should go see Celestia to report to her after we got these two back. After we reported to Celestia, we could re-configure the teleporter to a completely new world! Pioneers, like you said! " " If you two are going world-travelling, I would like to accompany you. I do not believe the ponies can ever see me as friendly. " Night said. " This way, I can provide help while not having to deal with angry ponies. And, my powers could prove useful. " " If they work, yes. We don't know where we'll end up. If Twilight lands on a magic-resistant world, she's practically useless. " I said. " Aand thank you. " "You're not the Element of Magic for nothing. We should consider training you in other ways, though. " I suggested. " Will I be human? " " It's probably for the better if you are. A talking pony is less common than a talking human. " " Says you. " "Says the seven billion humans compared to your what, a million ponies? " I stated. " Ehhhhh you got a point there. " "Guys? Can we go back now? " Shervin asked. " Yes, gimme a sec. Twilight, could you give me a hoof with charging the portal? " I placed my hands on the portal stone, the dark yellow magic liquid flowing through the system. Twilight added her own purple magic, and both combined and siphoned into the portal. It lit up again. " Well here's your exit. I hope I'll see you again in the future. " I said. " Thanks though, for showing us this. " Robin said. " My pleasure. Safe journey guys. Oh, and eh, take the keys to my car. It's yours if you want it. I'll probably won't be around on Earth often. " " Serious? " " Uhu. What point is there to a fancy car if it won't be used? Just make sure you don't get caught with it. If they ever ask about me, tell them that I'm either missing and considered dead, or let them visit my mother. She'll know what to do. " "Right. See ya around." Shervin said. "Good luck to you dude. " They went through the portal, and it closed shortly after. " Well, I don't know what you want to do, Luna and Michelle, but I want to go back to travelling as soon as possible. " I charged up the portal again, this time towards Canterlot Castle. " Someone'll need to protect Equestria while Twilight is gone.... I'll take that up, both in honour of you and Twilight. " Michelle said. " Noone can replace Twilight, but if things get too tough and she's needed, send for us. " "Sure. Luna? You coming too? " " Yes, my sister will require my aid. Let us go. " The five of us went through the portal, ending up in Canterlot palace's portal room. Once everypony was there, I made my way to wherever Celestia was, Luna guiding us to her. " She is in here. " I knocked on the door, and stepped inside immediately after, not waiting for a response. "Oh, hello. Back so soon? " " We were gone for a day, but time got distorted, Princess Celestia. " Twilight said politely. " Was your visit exciting? What did you see, what did you learn? " Celestia nearly couldn't contain her curiousity. " Many things, Sister. I will tell you all about it, but I think Primal here is itching to go on his next adventure." I was impatiently bouncing around when everypony looked at me. " Can you blame me? There's an infinitum of possibilities out there! Just think of all the things we'd discover! " " Alright. I am re-assigning you to be The Rift Walker. Together with Twilight, you will venture forth and discover new worlds for us. If you can take back anything, do so. " "Excuse me, Princess Celestia? " Night asked. " I would like to join them on their adventures. This way, I can help out without causing issues. " " Hm.... " " It is probably for the better, sister. You saw how they reacted to her before. I do not think that could be changed easily. " " You are right. Okay, Nightmare Moon. You can accompany the Rift Walker and my student on their adventures. But make no mistake; If any of them get hurt, I am blaming you. " "You'd rather blame me for not protecting Night enough. " I casually inspected my blades. " Just... stay safe, all of you. And come back soon. " " If you find something related to moons on one of those worlds, tell me. " I flipped my blade into the air, catching it with my other hand and slicing the air in front of me with my back hand menacingly. " Will do, Princesses " I turned on my heels and got to the door. " You two gonna gawk all day or are you coming along? " Snapping out of their trances, they quickly followed me. " We could go to Ponyville first, or we could configure this portal to instantly go somewhere new. " " We'll be back soon, right? " " If we don't get stopped somehow, we should be back soon. Plus, time distortion could be a thing again. Damn, I can get used to being called 'Riift Walker'. " "I will not be calling you that, if you do not mind. " " Neither will I. Primal's good enough for me. " "A'ight, let's get this party started. " I reconfigured the portal matrix for unknown coordinates, and poured my energy into it. " This'll require more than just my power." Twilight and Night placed their horns on the stone, adding their magic into the mix. The portal lit up, a shiny silver hue this time. " Shall I take the lead, ladies? " " If the world is magic-less, you're better equipped than us. " Twilight mentioned. " Cool. Here goes nothin'!" WWWWW " AAAH! PLEASE NOT THE HEAD AGAIN! " I faceplanted into a thick layer of snow. I heard Twilight and Night crashing next to me. " Lucky we didn't fall to our deaths, or teleported into an ocean. Where are we? " I asked, standing up. " Hey, you're both hybrid-humans. " I helped both of them to stand up, being careful not to damage Night's wings. " We landed on some snowy plains, by the looks. Hey, there's smoke coming from over there! Wait, what do I hear?" A low growling noise was audible, and getting louder. A few seconds later, a black dragon flew over us. "They have dragons here? I have not seen those in Equestria for centuries!" Night said, bewildered. "That dragon looks familiar... somehow. Hey, there's someone over there." I walked over to where I saw the person, guiding Twilight and Night. "This place feels.. non-magical.." Twilight said, shivering in the cold. "No, I think you're wrong there. I can sense an energy, all around us. It's faint, but there is magic around here." We walked up to what looked like a human, with chestnut brown hair, near-black eyes, and a slightly tanned skin tone. He was wearing a guard-like blue armour, and had a one-handed sword with a shield on his back. "Hello, what's your name?" I asked. "I'm Sawyer. What's your name? And your... friends... they look odd. No offense." "None taken. He's Primal Dagger, my name is Twilight Sparkle and hers is Nightmare Moon." "Yeah, what she really means is that my name is Joshua, hers is Tracey and the woman with wings is called Nicole. I don't know why they look so odd." Ofcourse I knew why, but I wasn't going to tell a random stranger... "Ahehe, yeah. I get a bit confused sometimes." "That's okay, Tracey. I'm kind of figuring out what I'm going to do right now, what with that dragon burning down the town back there." Sawyer looked back at the burned town, but I could tell he did not feel sad about it. "What's wrong with that tree over there? Why is it completely filled with baubles and lights?" Twilight pointed to a tree standing not so far from here. "That's a Christmas tree, I think. From what I know of this place, it's a celebration around these parts where they open presents because of some guy being born or something like that. It's a bit pretentious, if you ask me." Sawyer rubbed his hands, shivering slightly. "It's awfully cold out here. How about we go find either some shelter or some civilization? I don't want to freeze here." I suggested. "We could go back into that cave, but there's not much point to that. It's always cold in this land, and besides, there's a bear back there." "A bear? How did you manage to get past that?" I asked. "It was sleeping. I managed to sneak past it. There was someone else with me, but I have no clue where he went after that dragon flew over. He just ran away!" "Did he have the same kind of armour you have?" Night asked. "Yes, he did... How did you..?" "Just a feeling I had. That was probably your friend then, who I saw running away in the distance there, when we fell down." She pointed towards the direction of the mountain in the distance. "I think he took the path leading that way." "Do you see that too, on the mountain there? There's some odd looking stone archways there." Twilight pointed to the strange architecture. "It's pretty obvious to see, if that's what you mean." I remarked. "Let's check that out then. I don't think we should see any other humans, considering what we look like." Twilight pointed to her horn and Night's wings and horn. "Yeah, good point actually. I just ran to Sawyer here without thinking of any possible consequences." "Other than stealing from and killing a few Imperials back there, I don't mean much harm. You three look friendly enough, other than those menacing blades of yours... Where did you get those, anyway?" "Oh, these?" I drew my blades, inspecting them closely to see if my enchantments were intact. They were still on the blade, but were.. inactive, for some reason. "A friend made these for me. They're made from a rare material called Magesteel, I think it was. Has some rare properties on them which allows the blade to drain it's victims of magic." "I've never heard of that kind of material before.. Are you from around these parts?" "No. Let's just say we are not native to this land, and leave it at that." I sheathed my blades, and only then noticed that my gear was not out-of-dimension as it usually was. My hood was off, luckily. "Alright, c'mon. The women are freezing, and I much prefer some warmth over this chilly atmosphere." We walked for a short while, following the dirt path leading out of the bear cave. We reached a signpost not long after, at an intersection with a cobblestone road. "Helgen... Riverwood... Falkreath... So, Helgen is the destroyed town back there with a dragon flying away from it.. Riverwood is probably the place where your friend ran off to after seeing the dragon... and Falkreath?" "Falkreath is the capital of this 'region', Falkreath hold. Aptly named. Riverwood is part of another region called Whiterun hold, also aptly named after its capital, Whiterun." Sawyer informed us. "How do you know so much of this land..? You sounded like you were not from around here either." "Correct. I'm from a province called High Rock. The land we're now in is called Skyrim, and I've read up on this place from the various books we had back at the libraries in High Rock." "You have libraries? How big?" Twilight nearly couldn't hold in her excitement at the prospect of books. "I think most might be the size of the architecture on that mountain. The biggest one, and most famous, is the Adamantine Tower. It survived countless ages and is probably the longest standing tower in High Rock to date. We don't have as dedicated a mage's guild as here in Skyrim though. Winterhold is quite active, last I heard." "Told ya they'd have magic here. It doesn't fully explain why I sense magic nearby, though." "I can sense it too, and I'm supposedly resistant to magic. You two both look magical, why don't you feel it?" He pointed at both women. "I... I am not sure, Sawyer." Night answered. "Odd. Let's keep moving. I don't want the Imperials on our back, otherwise they may send me back to that chopping block, or somewhere else where they can execute me." "Execute you? Why?" Twilight looked curiously at Sawyer. "I got caught in a border patrol, together with a Stormcloak party with the leader of the entire Stormcloak faction, Jarl Ulfric. They taught I was one of them, but I was merely passing through. When they found out I had stolen some food to stay alive from my long journey here, they took me along for execution aswell." "That is quite a heavy punishment for theft. I would have sentenced you to jail at worst." Night remarked. "They had the leader of the Stormcloak rebellion in their hands. I wouldn't blame them for taking out potential threats along the way. They couldn't risk sending me away, with me knowing that Jarl Ulfric would be executed for stepping up for his people." We walked down the snaky path that headed towards the river. I could gradually feel the sense of magic getting stronger and stronger. We came upon three standing stones, each inscribed with an image. "The magic seems to be emanating from these three stones.... They don't look so special to me." I said as I inspected the one on the left. "I think these can be activated somehow..." Sawyer walked up to the right stone, with a depiction of a fierce warrior on it. When he touched it, the image in the stone lit up, and a small beam shot to Sawyer. "What happened? Are you hurt?" "No, on the contrary. I feel... stronger.." Sawyer drew his sword, and hacked the air in front of him. "I feel like I can pick up skills much quicker now, for some reason." I touched the stone I had inspected aswell, but nothing happened. "Seems that these either only work once, or are only attuned to you for whatever reason. These other two must me a mage and a rogue, and the one you touched must've been something to do with a warrior." "Odd. Why don't you try the last stone? Maybe it works on one of you?" Twilight stepped over to the mage stone, and touched it in the center. Again, nothing happened. "Hmm.. Hey Sawyer, test one of the other ones, would ya?" He walked over to the mage stone, and it lit up when he touched it. "Definitely attuned to you. What do you feel now?" "The same thing, but... more magical?" Sawyer held his hand up, and flames appeared. Making sure not to aim at us, he shot out a gout of fire. "Not all that useful yet, I feel... I only know this spell." "Damn, I suddenly realized! I know where we are!" I shouted. Twilight gave me a confused look, and Night looked at me expectantly. Sawyer was still busy practicing spells. "Remember that mark I gave you, Twi- Tracey?" "Yes, but I don't know what that has to do with this place." " It belongs to one of the six 'schools' of magic from... Skyrim! I knew it was familiar!" I jumped into the air in sheer excitement. "But this was a game you played, wasn't it? How are we here?" "That, I don't know. It was quite a long time since I played it, so I remember nearly nothing." "I can't sense magic, though." "Maybe you can, but you could be simply looking for the wrong kind of magic. Try changing that.." Twilight concentrated, and we could see her horn sparking slightly. "I think... I feel... I see what you mean now. It's not unicorn magic, it's those schools you mentioned. And these stones emanate an altered version of it...?" "I'm not sure how they emanate magic to begin with, nor can I sense what kind." "If you can sense magic now, maybe you can try casting magic too?" Night suggested. She concentrated again, her eyes focused on a nearby twig. Her horn sparked again, and lit up. The twig started levitating. "I did it!" "If you can use magic, I should be able to aswell. I will find out soon enough, I feel...." Night shuffled on her feet. "I'm probably versed in lightning destruction magic, and then I have my shadow powers aswell... I don't feel like testing out spells, though. I'll use them when I need them." I called to Sawyer, who was still burning down various plants and trees in the vicinity. "You done being a pyromaniac? Maybe you can keep that fire up in a non-volatile form so we can stay warm." He walked over, and held the little flame in his hand, heat emanating from it. "Gladly. We have to make haste to those ruins, there's a storm coming." He pointed to a dark and stormy cloud formation. We walked further down the path, leaving the stones behind. The river was gently flowing next to us, and the sun was still in the sky for the time being. " I think I see Riverwood up ahead. You wanted to skip it, right? " Sawyer looked at Twilight. " It may be for the better. The less people know about us, the better. " " We'll cross this river then. There's a lower part over there on the other side. " He pointed to a coast with a dead tree on it , next to a steep hilly area. "I'll take the lead. " He waded into the water, the gentle flow doing little to stop him. Twilight followed him, followed by Night, and I took up the rear of the formation. Drying our clothes as we reached the other side, Twilight noticed a hollow tree. " We could hole up in that trunk, or we could continue for the ruins. " " Or, that ruined watchtower over yonder. " I pointed to the watchtower that was further ahead in the same direction of the Hollow tree. " Something tells me we should look inside that hollow tree, though. " Sawyer made his way over to it. "I knew it!" I looked inside of the hollow trunk, to spot a wooden chest inside. "Wow, Sawyer. You got a sixth sense for loot. Go ahead, check what's inside of it." He opened the chest, and revealed it's contents: A golden ingot, an amethyst, a silver ruby ring, a copper ruby circlet, and a see-through crystal. "Wow, look at all of that! And that is simply in the trunk of a dead tree?" Night looked at the items with curiousity. "I don't know how it got here, but i'm taking it! Any of you want this?" "You found it, Sawyer. It's all yours if you ask me. Besides, I have no use for material wealth." "Me neither! I prefer books. If there's any books, I want them. What is that crystal, though?" Sawyer stashed the other items into his pockets (?), and help up the crystal. "This is what's called a Soul Gem. It stores the souls of dead things inside, which can be used for the enchantment of magical properties. I don't know why, or how, but that is what they are used for." "That is quite sinister." Night took the gem, and inspected it closely. "How would you fill such a thing?" "From what I've learned, you either use a certain spell, or enchant a weapon with Soul-stealing. Much like the way those daggers of yours work. Master Enchanters can get more out of these, and can even recharge their enchanted weapons without the use of these gems. " I could feel raindrops landing on my face, ever so slightly. "We gotta hurry if we wanna stay dry. Let's make a run for that watchtower and hope that it will provide enough cover to wait out the storm." Sawyer pointed to the right of him. "There's a path there, behind those trees. I think that will take us up there." We ran as fast as our legs could carry us, and sprinted up the ruined stone stairs leading up to the watchtower. "Wait! I hear talking." I motioned to the others to stay silent while I took a closer look. I could see a leather-clad human with a shield and a sword standing outside of the watchtower, and heard two voices, one male and one female, coming from inside the tower. "They don't look friendly." Sawyer looked at the human standing outside. "I'll sneak up on that human outside, you three try to take care of the ones inside." I climbed over a few rocks on the other side of the bridge leading out of the watchtower, and carefully made my way to behind the human. I stood up slightly, and used my dagger to slice the human's throat open without making a sound. Meanwhile, Sawyer charged into the watchtower, shield raised and sword held high, followed by Night with her hands held high, and Twilight scurrying along behind them. An arrow flew over their heads, and narrowly missed me. Sawyer managed to take out the archer without much problems. A furious yell was heard, coming down the stairs. Paired with the clanking of heavy armour, a towering female human with a dangerously sharp Greatsword charged down the stairs, straight for Sawyer. He blocked the strike with his shield, but the force of the attack made him stumble. I quickly ran over to help in whatever way I could, and attempted to find a weak-spot in the bandit's armour. The bandit was too focused on taking out Sawyer, and Night and Twilight had taken cover near the opening of the watchtower, seeing as they had no weapons. "Take a weapon from one of these bandits, I'll help Sawyer eliminate her." Night ran over to the bandit I had killed outside, and looted his sword. Testing it with a few shoddy swings, she seemed content with her new weapon. Twilight stayed where she was, and motioned to the bow the other bandit had. I took her hint. Sneaking once again, I got behind the iron-clad bandit, and struck my dagger in between the joints of her armour, near her neck. She dropped to the ground, lifeless. "Thanks. That bandit had quite the power with that greatsword of hers." I moved over to the archer bandit, and looted his bow and a few arrows. I handed them over to Twilight. "You sure you can fire a bow, and not hit us in the process?" "I think I can guide the arrows enough to not cause collateral damage, thank you very much." "Just checking. I don't want to end up with arrows in my back." "This tower isn't much use for shelter. Maybe there's a better spot to take cover upstairs." I quickly bounded upstairs, following the rickety wooden stairs. It wasn't much better upstairs. "Hey Sawyer, how about your sixth sense?" "Further upstairs, at the top there." Sawyer went upstairs, and came back not too long after with a few iron weapons, and some gold coins. "Not much interesting things." "Well, we better head over to the ruins, then." "Wait, let me put on this iron armour." Sawyer took the bandit's armour, and strapped it on. Following the path out of the watchtower that winded around a cliffside, we got closer to the ruins. "There's more bandits. I can see two of them with bows, and one with a warhammer. Tracey, you got a clear shot on the archer on the left, I'll take the right archer back there, and you two can tussle with that warhammer guy." I could feel my magic empowering my stride, and I shadowstepped through the air silently, behind the archer. I saw the other archer fall in the distance, an arrow straight into his head. The archer in front of me saw it, aswell, and turned to shoot at my friends. "You're not shooting anyone today." I punctured his chest with both my daggers, and let the lifeless corpse fall onto the ground. I could see an iron-clad Sawyer charge into the bandit, knocking him down. Night delivered the killing blow by stabbing her sword straight through his chest. I walked over to them, and gave a few arrows to Twilight. "I'm surprised you two kill so easily, actually." "I am surprised, too. I do not feel pity for these bandits, strangely enough. It is what they deserve, looting old ruins." Night said. "I don't like it, but atleast they got swift deaths. They would not have shown mercy to us either." Twilight took the arrows I held up, and placed them in a quiver she looted on her back. Lightning crackled, and the sky erupted with a torrent of rain. "That wasn't me! Hurry, into the ruins!" Chapter 2 - Dungeons and Draugr [TESV]"Phew.. Uh-oh, looks like we got out of the frying pan and walked straight into the fire.. There's more bandits over there. Looks like an archer, and some kind of berserker." "Ah, to hell with it. CHARGE!" Sawyer raised his shield and stormed at the two bandits, taking them by surprise. "I suppose we follow, then?" I glanced at Twilight and Night, and they both nodded. Twilight nocked an arrow to fire it, while Night charged after Sawyer. By the time I was next to Sawyer, both bandits were dead. One sliced in half, courtesy of Sawyer and Night, and the other had an arrow in her knee and arm. "Dammit, save some for me next time will you?" I checked both bodies for any loot, and retrieved the arrows for Twilight. "Don't be so slow then! Y'were nearly walking over here! You got those fancy teleports, right?" Sawyer sheathed his shield and sword, and checked his new surroundings. "They cost me a lot of energy. I'm not attuned to the magic in these parts." "You're not attuned, we can't use anything but levitation spells! You should be happy you can atleast do those teleports!" Twilight scoffed as she placed some arrows back into her quiver. "I'm sure you'll be able to cast proper magic eventually. Sawyer, do you have any magical scrolls perhaps?" "Not with me, but I'm sure we'll find some in 'ere." Sawyer proceeded to walk over to the chest in the corner, next to a flight of stairs that led down. "Nothing all that interesting in 'ere... There's some gold, an uncut ruby, an amulet with an anvil depicted on it and a blue potion." "A blue potion...? And an amulet with an anvil, you say? If only I could remember what those were...." I took the potion, and held it in my hands. "Might aswell take a sip of it." I placed the potion on my lips, and poured its contents down my throat. There was a slight tingling sensation, and I felt magically renewed. "And..? I do not have acces to my full power, so you can not count on me to bring you back to life if it went awry." Night looked at me curiously, searching for signs of disaster. "Quite the opposite, I feel renewed. Magically, that is. I remember what these potions were now, they were Magicka potions." I dropped the emptied potion back into the chest, and walked over to the beginning of the stairs. "Take those other things with you too, we don't know what that amulet might be good for, but I have a sneaking suspicion it's to do with either crafting, or merchants. Let's go." The party followed me down the stairs, into winding corridors overgrown with roots and covered in sticky spiderwebs. "This place.... It's in such a state of disrepair.." Twilight examined the various roots and burial urns along the path, making sure not to touch any spiderwebs. "It's an old burial temple, from what I remember reading back in High Rock. How we had accounts of burial temples in Skyrim, I have no clue..." "It doesn't really matter.... What matters more is... I hear shuffling up ahead. Stay quiet, I'll check what it is." I moved further into the tunnel ahead, and found the source of the shuffling sounds: Rats, or something similar to them. I made my way back to my party and told them what I saw. "Those are skeevers, their bites can transmit various diseases... Just... Don't get bitten, and maybe let Tracey strike them down. How many were there..?" "One, maybe two." "Yeah, Tracey should be able to handle them. Go ahead." Twilight walked forward, her bow drawn and ready with an arrow nocked. A moment later, we heard an arrow let loose, and a body dropped to the floor. "Nicely done Tracey. I can't wait for you to be able to use proper magic, imagine how devastating you'll be then..." "Don't get your hopes up, I doubt I can figure out why my spells aren't working right now.." Twilight looked down at the ground, slightly ashamed. "We'll find out. Let's continue." We passed a bookcase with another magic potion, and a few rags and burial urns. We took the potion, but left everything else as it was. "Hold. There's light ahead, and it's moving. Bandit." Sawyer drew his shield, and carefully moved forward. "Let me do the sneaking, Mr. heavy armour. I'll take him out." I held him back, and proceeded to sneak onwards, my daggers drawn. The bandit was facing away from me, making for an easy target. "He's dead. Coast is clear otherwise." The others walked up next to the bandit's corpse. Sawyer looted his corpse for any gold pieces he could find, and left him in the corner of the tunnel. We continued onwards, and walked into a peculiar looking room, with a locked gate, a lever and various images along the walls. "Looks like a puzzle room. I love puzzles! Let me figure this out." Twilight instantly searched the room for clues, and stopped at the similar looking images on the front wall and the left wall. "I think it's a sequential code. Those images above the gate correspond to the images on these turning stones here. If it works from left to right, it would be...Snake... the broken one is also a snake... and a dolphin. Snake, snake and dolphin, from left to right." Twilight started turning the stones to the images she said, and pulled the lever. The gate opened with a mighty creak. "Leave it to you to crack puzzles within seconds." "Puzzles like these are nothing for me. I could do these with my eyes closed!" "I've no doubt you'd be able to. Let's continue, shall we? I see a chest at the end there. You do the honours for that chest, Tw- I mean Tracey." Twilight opened the chest, and removed it's contents: Gold, an uncut amethyst and a lockpick. "There's another one of those soul gems here, and a red potion on this bench. If the blue one was magic, would that make the red one body?" Twilight curiously tapped her chin. "I'll test it, even though I dislike being a test subject." I grabbed the potion and drank it. This time, I felt a burning sensation, as if my insides were being burned clean. "Oof, that one burned. As if my insides have been burned clean. I do feel slightly better though." "This isn't the safest way of testing what potions do, but okay.." Twilight took the potion from my hands and placed it back in the chest. "There's a stairwell here, and more shuffling from down the stairs. More skeevers?" "Probably. Does sound like more of them though, so Tracey's arrows won't be able to deal with all of them in time. I'll go ahead and use my shield as a protective line for you guys." We followed Sawyer down the stairs, and as we thought, a pack of three skeevers awaited us. Twilight shot the furthest one, while Sawyer and Night dispatched the other two with a quick slice of the blade. "That dealt with them quite nicely. What's on the table over there, though? Looks like a scroll, and a sickly green potion." Sawyer walked over to the table, and inspected the items. "That potion might be poison of some sorts. And I think the scroll might be something for Tracey to look at." I approached the table, and gave the scroll to Twilight. She unrolled it and started reading it. "Interesting..." Just as he rolled up the scroll again, it started glowing. The scroll vanished, and left a glowing, fiery residue in the air. The residue then started moving erratically for a moment, and then shot into Twilight's eyes. "Are you okay Tracey?" I asked, concerned for her wellbeing. "Am I okay? I'm more than okay, I finally know how to cast magic! It's so simple!" She conjured a fireball in her hands, and shot it at the bookcase against the wall. It quickly burnt up in flames. She tried doing it again, but instead of a fireball, a sizzle was heard. "Odd, I can't do it again." "That's because that was just a scroll of Fireball. If you want to keep casting the same spell, you either need more scrolls, or read the corresponding book for it." "I hope we find one of those books then... That feeling of casting a proper spell again was relieving." "I think... Hold on, let me check." Sawyer opened his bags, and rummaged around in them for a while. Eventually, he found what he was looking for, and held it up for us to see. It was a red book, with a flame symbol on the front cover. "You might want to read this one." Twilight took the book eagerly, and read it completely within a few seconds, pages turning with the speed of light. The book burnt up in flames afterwards, and Twilight looked to a different bookcase, and cast the spell she just read. A stream of flames erupted from her hand, and set the bookcase alight. "If I'm correct, and the books back in High Rock are too, you should be able to cast it with both hands too. Try that!" Twilight held both hands up this time, and a dual-stream of flames went out this time, but sputtered out after a few seconds. "Costs more magicka, but you got double the firepower. I think you would be able to cast it far longer than most, once you get the hang of it. According to what your friend here says about you, that is." "She's an avid magic user back where we came from, I have no doubt she'd be able to here. I do have a sneaking suspicion this scroll was placed here for a reason, though." "I share your suspicion, Joshua. Something feels off.. C'mon, let's move on and see if we find anything that can confirm it." We carried on through the corridors, and stopped in front of a door opening, covered in thick webs. "Webs...? I suppose the fire spell you just learned will come useful, if we happen upon spiders. Burn the webs!" I stood at a safe distance as Twilight unleashed her flame spell on the webs, charring them in seconds. It led into a room completely covered in webs, and a few egg sacs in the corner. Another webbed doorway held a man captive, who looked oddly like a thief. He mumbled a few words through his prison, but they were too muffled to understand. "Think whoever's trapped inside those webs is trying to tell us something. There's a lack of spider in this room, though..." "That may be because...it's....right...there...." Twilight took a few steps back in fear as she pointed upwards. There was a gigantic spider where she pointed at. Which obviously came down because it's webs were disturbed. "That's.... a big..spider.... Sawyer..? Could you, umm...? Not that I'm scared of spiders...but eh, I'd rather not...be bitten by...that." Sawyer, as heroic as he was, charged forward with his shield raised, in defense of the rest. Twilight prepared her bow for a second, but decided against it and held up her hands instead. Night and myself stood at a safe distance, knowing we would be of no use with no way to block the spider's enormous fangs. The spider, noticing an immediate threat in the form of Sawyer, lunged at him, fangs bared and dripping with venom. I noticed the spider had a slight limp to it, however. His shield took the brunt of the attack, but a few drops of venom landed on his armour, sizzling and burning away the material. "Tracey, I could use some help here!" Twilight held up both her hands, and a massive stream of fire unleashed from both her hands, engulfing the spider in it's entirety, along with the rest of the room with it. Once the spider was properly burnt to a crisp and no longer moving, I checked up on Sawyer to see if he sustained any major injuries. Other than a few burns, he was okay enough to continue onwards. "That's some fried spider right there. I knew that fire spell was there for a reason. Luckily it was already wounded previously. Now, this guy in the webbing.." I walked over to him, and undid the charred webbing in his face. The webbing protected him from most of the fire, but he still had a few minor burns on his face and hands. "Alright, who are you? And why were you trapped in webs? Didn't you know not to deal with gigantic spiders alone..?" "My name...augh... is Arvel the Swift... The spider caught me by surprise as I was walking through this room, and it struck me..agh...in my back." Before I could ask any more questions, he quickly took to his legs and made a break for it. Twilight was faster though, and used a telekinesis spell on him to drag him to the ground again. "Don't kill me! Don't kill me! I'll give you the claw, just please, don't kill me!" "Why would we kill you...? And what do you mean by 'claw'?" Twilight asked Arvel. "You mean, you don't know about the treasure locked in this place?" "Treasure?" Sawyer quickly became intrigued upon hearing about possible treasure. "People say the ancient nords buried their treasure in this old, forsaken temple, but it's locked behind a door which you need this claw for. I stole it from a stupid merchant back in Riverwood." "A thief, huh? I don't take kindly to thieves..." I drew my dagger agressively "No, please! I won't do it again, I swear!" "Once a thief, always a thief... You don't trick me." My hand moved to strike him, but was stopped in mid-air by Twilight. "Don't. Even though he is a thief, he does not deserve this fate after being trapped by that spider. Give us the claw, and leave." Arvel quickly scurried up to his feet, pulled a golden claw from his pockets which he gave to Twilight, and quickly ran back the way we came from. "Can't believe you stopped me from slitting his throat. Scum like him shouldn't be allowed to live." "Not even he deserved to die after what happened. Don't think you'd like being freed from the clutches of a giant spider only to be killed afterwards because you were a thief." "Still..." "Don't. Let's just continue on, he gave us what he stole anyway. We can go to this 'Riverwood' place after we finish up here, and return this claw." "I suppose." Sawyer took the lead, his shield raised for any potential dangers. After a few seconds of walking, we stumbled upon what looked like a burial hall, with countless decayed bodies. Some even had weaponry still close to their bodies, marking those as warriors in a past life. "They did not just store treasures here, they also used it as burial grounds for their dead. We should tread carefully, the dead do not like being disturbed." Night said as she took a sneaking pose. "Some of these bodies look awfully well-preserved... D'you think...?" I spoke a bit too soon. A few of the corpses with weapons next to them started moving, and took up their swords and shields. "Draugr. Nicole was right, the dead definitely don't like being disturbed. And they strike back with force!" He raised his shield in time to block an attack from the nearest Draugr. Night charged forwards to the Draugr furthest away from us, and started wailing on him with both her swords. The sustained barrage of strikes eventually got too much for the Draugr, as he lowered his guard for just a moment, allowing Night to strike at his mid-section. She cut the undead creature in half. As Sawyer was sparring with one of the Draugr, myself and Twilight took to eliminating the third and last Draugr. My daggers proved ineffective in one-on-one combat, but allowed for a few openings for Twilight to shoot arrows at it. After exposing his weak spots a few times, the Draugr fell, riddled in arrows. I quickly shadowstepped to Sawyer's adversary and struck it in the back, eliminating it instantly. "Almost too easy with the four of us. We could've just let that thief run ahead, he'd be dead long before he even reached wherever the treasure might be!" I looked ahead, and noticed a peculiar stone on the ground with an intricate marking, and next to it, a very, very spiky grate. "Now this is the most obvious trap I've ever seen." I quickly checked if there were any other stones similar to the ones I saw, which there were none of, and proceeded to take one of the shields from the draugr to throw onto the stone from a distance. As the shield hit the ground, the grate slammed back with force, it's spikes menacingly sharp. It retracted a few seconds later. I carefully removed the shield from the trap without triggering it again. "Don't step on that stone, and we should all be fine." We carefull shuffled past the stone and its gate, but found another one of the Draugr lying down just behind it. It quickly came back to life and raised its sword and axe, and charged at Sawyer. Sawyer blocked both it's strikes, before Night cut in and slammed her weapons unto the draugr's skull. The force of the weapons knocked it back, but it was still alive. "This one's tough!" "Not tough enough.." I quickly snuck to it's back, and stabbed it in it's neck with both my daggers as it was fighting with Sawyer and Night. It took my attack and went still for a moment, before pulling both my daggers out of itself and turning to face me, it's weapons raised to strike at me. It didn't get the chance, as an arrow struck it straight through it skull. It finally fell to it's knees, and promptly fell over in a heap. "Pff.. Thanks. That thing was quite tough indeed. Didn't think it would survive that strike..." "Atleast I got your back. Maybe we should get you a bow aswell so you can strike from a distance?" "That doesn't even sound like a bad idea... Keep an eye out for any extra bows." "Do you think these swords are any good? They look ancient, but they seem protected with runes." Night lifted up one of the Draugr's swords to show us. "They certainly look good. Give me one aswell, and take two for yourself." Sawyer took the blade given to him by Night, and Night herself slid the two blades she acquired in sheaths along her sides. A sound was heard in the distance, sounding like swinging axes. We stepped down the stairs into another chamber similar to the one back where we fought the multiple Draugr in. I immediately noticed a few of the corpses lined up at the side to be Draugr, and those few quickly came to life. One had a bow (YES!), one of them had a massive axe and the other two both had shields and either a sword or an axe. "By now, these Draugr are more a nuisance that a real fight! Although the one with the axe looks dangerous." I quickly stepped through the shadows to appear behind the Bow Draugr, and struck it before it could loose a single arrow. It quickly fell to the ground, considering it was ill-armoured. The others were fighting the other three draugr, but didn't look like they needed my help, so I checked ahead for any dangers. The hall to the next room contained some swinging axes, and I spotted a lever on the other side. "Really? Swinging axes? What kind of burial tomb is this?" I blinked through the trap and disabled it using the lever. The axes stopped swinging shortly after. "Easy. Now let's see if they dealt with those Draugr yet." VVVVV Change of character - Primal Dagger->Twilight Sparkle I saw Primal blinking and eliminating the Draugr with a bow, but I didn't know where he went next. I was too focused on keeping the Draugr, as Sawyer called them, away from myself whilst shooting arrows. I noticed after casting my spells previously that I would know when I could use them again to maximum effect, and now was such a moment. I sheathed my bow, and readied my hands for the intense wave of heat they were about to deliver. I hope we find some other spells soon. This one is getting boring... I unleashed the torrent of flames, and noticed I could keep it up much longer than previously. One of the Draugr with shield managed to deflect my spell for a moment, but eventually collapsed to the sustained stream of fire. The other two Draugr saw their buddy die in flames, and stopped attacking Sawyer and Night to charge at me. This left them open for attack however, and both were quickly struck down by Sawyer and Night. "Thanks. They sure don't like seeing their buddies dying in fire. They completely stopped attacking the two of you to go for me!" "I think they might have an innate sense to target the ones most powerful. Since magic is a sign of power, they went for you. If I were to use magic now, they would all focus me." "Ah. Did anyone see Joshua, by the way? He killed that bow Draugr but I didn't see him afterwards..." "I'm here. I disabled the trap ahead of us whilst you were fighting." "Trap?" "Swinging axes. The tunnel up ahead had a set of them, with a lever at the other side. Not a problem for someone who can instantly blink through it." He yawned slightly, signifying his interest. "Can we please continue? These Draugr are virtually no match for us, and the traps are even sadder." "Did you take the bow?" "The bow that draugr had who I killed? No. You can have that one, it looks better. Give me your old one and a few arrows." He took the ancient runed bow and handed it to me. I gave him my old bow and a quiver with a few arrows in it, which he placed on his back. We continued past the trap, through a few winding halls containing yet more Draugr. Most of them had heavy weapons, but were quickly dispatched by the nimbler four of us. After the windy halls, we ended up in a slightly larger chamber with a running waterfall, and a chest with a Draugr protecting it. Yet again, the Draugr died within seconds, and Sawyer looted the chest. "Another bow, this one looks a bit sturdier. Replace your bow with this one, Joshua. Other than the bow, there's another soul gem, some gold, and a green potion this time. Care to test this one too?" "Fine. Give me the potion." He chugged the potion, and placed the empty bottle and the bow I gave him into the chest while taking the bow Sawyer handed to him. "Don't really feel any different. You can have the next green potion Sawyer, and maybe drink it while we just finished combat. See if it does anything then. It definitely has restorative properties for something, but I'll be damned if I knew what." I noticed a gate through which the water flowed, and a chain next to it. Pulling the chain caused the door to open promptly, allowing acces to a somewhat musky cave. "A cave? This temple is one hell of a mess." Primal mentioned as he waded through the ankle-deep waterflow. We turned a sharp corner, and ended up in a larger section of the cave with glowing mushrooms lining the walls. "Glowshrooms! These give a boost to health and are resistant to electricity. Read that in an alchemy manual back at High Rock." Sawyer plucked a few of the glowing mushrooms, and placed them in his bag. "Another chest up ahead, and a view of a chamber with what looks like a skylight." The waterflow fell down into chamber Sawyer mentioned, and the chest was next to the flow. Primal looted it's contents, and held up what he found: More gold, another magic potion and another scroll. "I think you should have both the potion and the scroll. The scroll looks the same as the last one, so you might want to save it this time for a more dangerous foe. The potion will probably restore your magic, so use that if you feel drained." Primal handed me the items, and I placed them in my pockets, making sure the scroll was neatly tucked away for instant use if I needed it. We travelled down the curving path leading downwards from the chest. Primal promptly stopped us before we got to the end of it. "Think there's a troll ahead. An icy one at that, and it doesn't look friendly." "Trolls have regenerative properties, so we have to strike it down quickly or else we have to face it for much longer than we have to. I'll charge in and tank his strikes, you three do what you have to do to take it down as fast as possible. I'm not entirely sure how long I can keep him on me." Sawyer readied his shield, and charged forwards, closely followed by Night. Both me and Primal readied our bows, and aimed for its head. I landed a few arrows in his head, one even in his eye, but he was still standing. The troll suddenly lurched forwards and slammed Night off the bridge, down to the flowing water below. "No! Night!" I quickly shoved over the edge to attempt to grab Night's arm, but failed and watched as she fell down a few meters. Luckily, she didn't fall a long height, but she looked injured. Sawyer noticed my attempt, and enraged, he struck the troll wildly in it's chest. A few good stabs later, and the troll dropped to its knees, and collapsed on the bridge. After checking to see if the troll was dead, he quickly made his way down to Night to check if she was okay. I followed him and tried to find any kind of healing potion or spell in my pockets, but found none. Primal knew what I was looking for, and gave me a red potion. "Thanks. I'll make sure she drinks it." We hurried to her side, and Night looked like she was in pain. Groaning and holding her leg, which was slightly bent at an odd angle, she was lying on the ground. I quickly placed the potion on her lips, and emptied its contents into her mouth. She coughed shortly, and with a small glow, her bent leg reshaped into its normal form. "Thank you. I did not expect the troll to suddenly go for me." "Atleast you're ok. And look, there's a chest here too!" Primal hurried over to the chest, but quickly discovered it was locked. "Damn, it's locked. Tracey, you had a lockpick right?" Nodding, I gave him my lockpick, and he went to work on the lock. A statisfying click was heard, and the chest opened to reveal gems, gold, another, even sturdier looking bow and some very intricate arrows. "I suppose I'll take this bow too, then. You can take this longbow, Sawyer. Never know what it could be good for. And Tracey, you can have these arrows. They look deadly." "Those are of orcish make. They got a deadly sting to them, but there's few of them here so use them wisely." "I'll use these on stronger foes then, if we find any." I took the arrows from Primal, and watched him take the new bow and give his old bow to Sawyer. We continued further through the cave ahead, and after a few twists and turns, we stumbled upon a larger room with double doors closing the way ahead, with a very angry looking Draugr wielding a greatsword guarding it. "Like that guy?" "He looks tough. I'll let him taste these arrows." I nocked the orcish arrows on my ancient runed bow, and released them in quick succession. Two arrows struck it's head, and the third one went through it's chest. It still started stumbling towards us, however. "It's weakened by now. Strike it down!" Sawyer didn't need to hear that twice, and bashed the Draugr with his shield. Once it was down on the ground, he stabbed his blade through it's chest multiple times, and it stopped moving shortly after. "Good work. Now, let's see what is through these ornate double doors, shall we?" Primal said, with a slight excitement in his tone. Chapter 3 - Draconic [TESV]Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.Prologue - Rifts to Walk, Time to Travel"It sure takes a long time to travel between worlds this time..." I noticed I spoke to myself, but it didn't really matter. What mattered was that the jump didn't work out like it should do. "Oh no, it's one of these again. And this time, it's big enough to stop me from going to Equestria." I was referring to interdimensional vortexes. They would appear from time to time when one travels between worlds. Usually, they are not big enough to cause any form of hindrance, but this one seemed persistent and big enough. They would pull at the person travelling between worlds, similar to what a black hole would do to light. The vortexes don't do any harm other than stopping travel, and would eventually dissipate. "Well, nothing to do other than wait then. Let's see... what could I do to pass time..." Time, ofcourse, meant nothing in this place between worlds. A hundred years could pass, and neither me, my friends or any of the worlds would feel the consequences of it. "Well, since I have nothing else to do, might aswell think of all the events that happened up to now. What a strange and long ride it's been up to this point..." It all started with that experiment, ofcourse. The substance that allowed world travel.. I managed to appear in a mostly peaceful manner, with Twilight finding me on a hill somewhere near Ponyville. Michelle was sent along with me too, however, since she thought I was hurt the moment I ingested the substance and fell to the floor. She didn't have the same kind of entrance as I did.. "I shudder to think what she went through during that time.." She faced demons, she faced a darkness so vile, so impure... It corrupted her very essence, driving her insane, turning her into a monster.. It was untill much later that we finally found out she was on Equestria as well, and even longer to find a solution to the problems caused by that darkness. For all we know, that darkness is gone now, but who knows where it went after that horrible battle on the moon.. We were lucky Night appeared when she did, otherwise we would've never known Luna went insane thanks to the influence of the darkness we imbued into a special stone. Luna's life was saved thanks to her, and possibly most of Equestria along with it. Who knows what would've happened if Luna went on an unstoppable rampage throughout Equestria, fueled by madness and possessed by an evil being..? Luckily, thanks to reasons still unknown to me, Twilight, Night and virtually everyone else, I recieved a few magical powers of my own. It started with my labcoat, the one I wore when drinking the travelling substance, turned into a rogue-esque outfit, complete with daggers and everything. A bit later, I found out I could control all four of the basic elements: Fire, Air, Water and Earth. "Heh, avatar much..." The gods of balancing eventually found out I was a bit too powerful to their tastes, so they nerfed my ability to cast every element, and left me with just being able to cast spells related to Air. Knowing my extensive love for Air, this made no difference to me. Before that happened though, I imbued Twilight and her friends with a few extra special powers of their own. Based off of a game I played when I was younger and careless, I gave each the ability to do something somewhat related to their harmony elements. Twilight was given the means to alter the fabric of materials and substances, Rainbow was given the ability to protect the ones she was fiercely loyal to with devastating effect, Rarity got an extension to her creative and generous soul, being able to create virtually anything out of nothing, with a few limitations to prevent disasters happening... Fluttershy had an innate sense of care towards all things living, so it would only be fitting to add power on top of that by giving her the ability to heal any wound. Pinkie always had the ability to 'enchant' others, causing them to laugh whenever they felt down. Improving that aspect was child's play, and she was now able to enchant objects as well with anything she could think of. Obviously, with a few limitations too, so no disasters would happen... Applejack's always honest, but whenever she did have to lie or use deceit, she's unable to. To fix those downsides, I gave her the ability to create illusions and use trickery and deceit to keep her out of dangerous situations if her raw strength would not be good enough. Luckily, when my powers were taken away, the marks remained. Something still felt a bit wrong about it all, though. I didn't completely feel at ease with the ponies, given how friendly they were to beings they supposedly never seen before. It felt as if my fate was to be something of more importance, not directly related to Equestria or it's inhabitants, but more of that what was beyond... "Ah, seems like the vortex is finally coming to an end. No idea how much time has passed in here, but to them it won't make any difference. I'll just pretend like nothing happened, and continue doing what I would've done in the first place. I do still feel that there's something else waiting for me out there, though..."
Chapter 1 - Winter Wonderland [TESV]Author's Note This is 'A Scientific Breakthrough' 's Chapter 14. 'A Scientific Breakthrough' is now considered complete, and Chapter 14 has been removed and moved to this story. The prequel proved confusing, since it was 'Incomplete' and yet still had a sequel (The Shadow of Equestria). I never intended to create an adventure on Equestria with the original Riftwalker, and instead wanted dimension-travelling to be a core part of the story. This is the result. Chapter 1 - Winter Wonderland [TESV] "Well, everyone's here. Do you believe me now when I said that they came from another world?" I asked Robin and Shervin. Both of them walked outside, looking at the environment. Then, they noticed the ponies. "You weren't kidding about them being something else." Robin said. " 'Course I wasn't. I made my point now, do you want to go back or do you wish to stay for longer?" I asked. " I think I'd like to go back. Honestly, I'm slightly freaked out by all of this. " Robin said. " That's fine. Hey Twi, we should go see Celestia to report to her after we got these two back. After we reported to Celestia, we could re-configure the teleporter to a completely new world! Pioneers, like you said! " " If you two are going world-travelling, I would like to accompany you. I do not believe the ponies can ever see me as friendly. " Night said. " This way, I can provide help while not having to deal with angry ponies. And, my powers could prove useful. " " If they work, yes. We don't know where we'll end up. If Twilight lands on a magic-resistant world, she's practically useless. " I said. " Aand thank you. " "You're not the Element of Magic for nothing. We should consider training you in other ways, though. " I suggested. " Will I be human? " " It's probably for the better if you are. A talking pony is less common than a talking human. " " Says you. " "Says the seven billion humans compared to your what, a million ponies? " I stated. " Ehhhhh you got a point there. " "Guys? Can we go back now? " Shervin asked. " Yes, gimme a sec. Twilight, could you give me a hoof with charging the portal? " I placed my hands on the portal stone, the dark yellow magic liquid flowing through the system. Twilight added her own purple magic, and both combined and siphoned into the portal. It lit up again. " Well here's your exit. I hope I'll see you again in the future. " I said. " Thanks though, for showing us this. " Robin said. " My pleasure. Safe journey guys. Oh, and eh, take the keys to my car. It's yours if you want it. I'll probably won't be around on Earth often. " " Serious? " " Uhu. What point is there to a fancy car if it won't be used? Just make sure you don't get caught with it. If they ever ask about me, tell them that I'm either missing and considered dead, or let them visit my mother. She'll know what to do. " "Right. See ya around." Shervin said. "Good luck to you dude. " They went through the portal, and it closed shortly after. " Well, I don't know what you want to do, Luna and Michelle, but I want to go back to travelling as soon as possible. " I charged up the portal again, this time towards Canterlot Castle. " Someone'll need to protect Equestria while Twilight is gone.... I'll take that up, both in honour of you and Twilight. " Michelle said. " Noone can replace Twilight, but if things get too tough and she's needed, send for us. " "Sure. Luna? You coming too? " " Yes, my sister will require my aid. Let us go. " The five of us went through the portal, ending up in Canterlot palace's portal room. Once everypony was there, I made my way to wherever Celestia was, Luna guiding us to her. " She is in here. " I knocked on the door, and stepped inside immediately after, not waiting for a response. "Oh, hello. Back so soon? " " We were gone for a day, but time got distorted, Princess Celestia. " Twilight said politely. " Was your visit exciting? What did you see, what did you learn? " Celestia nearly couldn't contain her curiousity. " Many things, Sister. I will tell you all about it, but I think Primal here is itching to go on his next adventure." I was impatiently bouncing around when everypony looked at me. " Can you blame me? There's an infinitum of possibilities out there! Just think of all the things we'd discover! " " Alright. I am re-assigning you to be The Rift Walker. Together with Twilight, you will venture forth and discover new worlds for us. If you can take back anything, do so. " "Excuse me, Princess Celestia? " Night asked. " I would like to join them on their adventures. This way, I can help out without causing issues. " " Hm.... " " It is probably for the better, sister. You saw how they reacted to her before. I do not think that could be changed easily. " " You are right. Okay, Nightmare Moon. You can accompany the Rift Walker and my student on their adventures. But make no mistake; If any of them get hurt, I am blaming you. " "You'd rather blame me for not protecting Night enough. " I casually inspected my blades. " Just... stay safe, all of you. And come back soon. " " If you find something related to moons on one of those worlds, tell me. " I flipped my blade into the air, catching it with my other hand and slicing the air in front of me with my back hand menacingly. " Will do, Princesses " I turned on my heels and got to the door. " You two gonna gawk all day or are you coming along? " Snapping out of their trances, they quickly followed me. " We could go to Ponyville first, or we could configure this portal to instantly go somewhere new. " " We'll be back soon, right? " " If we don't get stopped somehow, we should be back soon. Plus, time distortion could be a thing again. Damn, I can get used to being called 'Riift Walker'. " "I will not be calling you that, if you do not mind. " " Neither will I. Primal's good enough for me. " "A'ight, let's get this party started. " I reconfigured the portal matrix for unknown coordinates, and poured my energy into it. " This'll require more than just my power." Twilight and Night placed their horns on the stone, adding their magic into the mix. The portal lit up, a shiny silver hue this time. " Shall I take the lead, ladies? " " If the world is magic-less, you're better equipped than us. " Twilight mentioned. " Cool. Here goes nothin'!" WWWWW " AAAH! PLEASE NOT THE HEAD AGAIN! " I faceplanted into a thick layer of snow. I heard Twilight and Night crashing next to me. " Lucky we didn't fall to our deaths, or teleported into an ocean. Where are we? " I asked, standing up. " Hey, you're both hybrid-humans. " I helped both of them to stand up, being careful not to damage Night's wings. " We landed on some snowy plains, by the looks. Hey, there's smoke coming from over there! Wait, what do I hear?" A low growling noise was audible, and getting louder. A few seconds later, a black dragon flew over us. "They have dragons here? I have not seen those in Equestria for centuries!" Night said, bewildered. "That dragon looks familiar... somehow. Hey, there's someone over there." I walked over to where I saw the person, guiding Twilight and Night. "This place feels.. non-magical.." Twilight said, shivering in the cold. "No, I think you're wrong there. I can sense an energy, all around us. It's faint, but there is magic around here." We walked up to what looked like a human, with chestnut brown hair, near-black eyes, and a slightly tanned skin tone. He was wearing a guard-like blue armour, and had a one-handed sword with a shield on his back. "Hello, what's your name?" I asked. "I'm Sawyer. What's your name? And your... friends... they look odd. No offense." "None taken. He's Primal Dagger, my name is Twilight Sparkle and hers is Nightmare Moon." "Yeah, what she really means is that my name is Joshua, hers is Tracey and the woman with wings is called Nicole. I don't know why they look so odd." Ofcourse I knew why, but I wasn't going to tell a random stranger... "Ahehe, yeah. I get a bit confused sometimes." "That's okay, Tracey. I'm kind of figuring out what I'm going to do right now, what with that dragon burning down the town back there." Sawyer looked back at the burned town, but I could tell he did not feel sad about it. "What's wrong with that tree over there? Why is it completely filled with baubles and lights?" Twilight pointed to a tree standing not so far from here. "That's a Christmas tree, I think. From what I know of this place, it's a celebration around these parts where they open presents because of some guy being born or something like that. It's a bit pretentious, if you ask me." Sawyer rubbed his hands, shivering slightly. "It's awfully cold out here. How about we go find either some shelter or some civilization? I don't want to freeze here." I suggested. "We could go back into that cave, but there's not much point to that. It's always cold in this land, and besides, there's a bear back there." "A bear? How did you manage to get past that?" I asked. "It was sleeping. I managed to sneak past it. There was someone else with me, but I have no clue where he went after that dragon flew over. He just ran away!" "Did he have the same kind of armour you have?" Night asked. "Yes, he did... How did you..?" "Just a feeling I had. That was probably your friend then, who I saw running away in the distance there, when we fell down." She pointed towards the direction of the mountain in the distance. "I think he took the path leading that way." "Do you see that too, on the mountain there? There's some odd looking stone archways there." Twilight pointed to the strange architecture. "It's pretty obvious to see, if that's what you mean." I remarked. "Let's check that out then. I don't think we should see any other humans, considering what we look like." Twilight pointed to her horn and Night's wings and horn. "Yeah, good point actually. I just ran to Sawyer here without thinking of any possible consequences." "Other than stealing from and killing a few Imperials back there, I don't mean much harm. You three look friendly enough, other than those menacing blades of yours... Where did you get those, anyway?" "Oh, these?" I drew my blades, inspecting them closely to see if my enchantments were intact. They were still on the blade, but were.. inactive, for some reason. "A friend made these for me. They're made from a rare material called Magesteel, I think it was. Has some rare properties on them which allows the blade to drain it's victims of magic." "I've never heard of that kind of material before.. Are you from around these parts?" "No. Let's just say we are not native to this land, and leave it at that." I sheathed my blades, and only then noticed that my gear was not out-of-dimension as it usually was. My hood was off, luckily. "Alright, c'mon. The women are freezing, and I much prefer some warmth over this chilly atmosphere." We walked for a short while, following the dirt path leading out of the bear cave. We reached a signpost not long after, at an intersection with a cobblestone road. "Helgen... Riverwood... Falkreath... So, Helgen is the destroyed town back there with a dragon flying away from it.. Riverwood is probably the place where your friend ran off to after seeing the dragon... and Falkreath?" "Falkreath is the capital of this 'region', Falkreath hold. Aptly named. Riverwood is part of another region called Whiterun hold, also aptly named after its capital, Whiterun." Sawyer informed us. "How do you know so much of this land..? You sounded like you were not from around here either." "Correct. I'm from a province called High Rock. The land we're now in is called Skyrim, and I've read up on this place from the various books we had back at the libraries in High Rock." "You have libraries? How big?" Twilight nearly couldn't hold in her excitement at the prospect of books. "I think most might be the size of the architecture on that mountain. The biggest one, and most famous, is the Adamantine Tower. It survived countless ages and is probably the longest standing tower in High Rock to date. We don't have as dedicated a mage's guild as here in Skyrim though. Winterhold is quite active, last I heard." "Told ya they'd have magic here. It doesn't fully explain why I sense magic nearby, though." "I can sense it too, and I'm supposedly resistant to magic. You two both look magical, why don't you feel it?" He pointed at both women. "I... I am not sure, Sawyer." Night answered. "Odd. Let's keep moving. I don't want the Imperials on our back, otherwise they may send me back to that chopping block, or somewhere else where they can execute me." "Execute you? Why?" Twilight looked curiously at Sawyer. "I got caught in a border patrol, together with a Stormcloak party with the leader of the entire Stormcloak faction, Jarl Ulfric. They taught I was one of them, but I was merely passing through. When they found out I had stolen some food to stay alive from my long journey here, they took me along for execution aswell." "That is quite a heavy punishment for theft. I would have sentenced you to jail at worst." Night remarked. "They had the leader of the Stormcloak rebellion in their hands. I wouldn't blame them for taking out potential threats along the way. They couldn't risk sending me away, with me knowing that Jarl Ulfric would be executed for stepping up for his people." We walked down the snaky path that headed towards the river. I could gradually feel the sense of magic getting stronger and stronger. We came upon three standing stones, each inscribed with an image. "The magic seems to be emanating from these three stones.... They don't look so special to me." I said as I inspected the one on the left. "I think these can be activated somehow..." Sawyer walked up to the right stone, with a depiction of a fierce warrior on it. When he touched it, the image in the stone lit up, and a small beam shot to Sawyer. "What happened? Are you hurt?" "No, on the contrary. I feel... stronger.." Sawyer drew his sword, and hacked the air in front of him. "I feel like I can pick up skills much quicker now, for some reason." I touched the stone I had inspected aswell, but nothing happened. "Seems that these either only work once, or are only attuned to you for whatever reason. These other two must me a mage and a rogue, and the one you touched must've been something to do with a warrior." "Odd. Why don't you try the last stone? Maybe it works on one of you?" Twilight stepped over to the mage stone, and touched it in the center. Again, nothing happened. "Hmm.. Hey Sawyer, test one of the other ones, would ya?" He walked over to the mage stone, and it lit up when he touched it. "Definitely attuned to you. What do you feel now?" "The same thing, but... more magical?" Sawyer held his hand up, and flames appeared. Making sure not to aim at us, he shot out a gout of fire. "Not all that useful yet, I feel... I only know this spell." "Damn, I suddenly realized! I know where we are!" I shouted. Twilight gave me a confused look, and Night looked at me expectantly. Sawyer was still busy practicing spells. "Remember that mark I gave you, Twi- Tracey?" "Yes, but I don't know what that has to do with this place." " It belongs to one of the six 'schools' of magic from... Skyrim! I knew it was familiar!" I jumped into the air in sheer excitement. "But this was a game you played, wasn't it? How are we here?" "That, I don't know. It was quite a long time since I played it, so I remember nearly nothing." "I can't sense magic, though." "Maybe you can, but you could be simply looking for the wrong kind of magic. Try changing that.." Twilight concentrated, and we could see her horn sparking slightly. "I think... I feel... I see what you mean now. It's not unicorn magic, it's those schools you mentioned. And these stones emanate an altered version of it...?" "I'm not sure how they emanate magic to begin with, nor can I sense what kind." "If you can sense magic now, maybe you can try casting magic too?" Night suggested. She concentrated again, her eyes focused on a nearby twig. Her horn sparked again, and lit up. The twig started levitating. "I did it!" "If you can use magic, I should be able to aswell. I will find out soon enough, I feel...." Night shuffled on her feet. "I'm probably versed in lightning destruction magic, and then I have my shadow powers aswell... I don't feel like testing out spells, though. I'll use them when I need them." I called to Sawyer, who was still burning down various plants and trees in the vicinity. "You done being a pyromaniac? Maybe you can keep that fire up in a non-volatile form so we can stay warm." He walked over, and held the little flame in his hand, heat emanating from it. "Gladly. We have to make haste to those ruins, there's a storm coming." He pointed to a dark and stormy cloud formation. We walked further down the path, leaving the stones behind. The river was gently flowing next to us, and the sun was still in the sky for the time being. " I think I see Riverwood up ahead. You wanted to skip it, right? " Sawyer looked at Twilight. " It may be for the better. The less people know about us, the better. " " We'll cross this river then. There's a lower part over there on the other side. " He pointed to a coast with a dead tree on it , next to a steep hilly area. "I'll take the lead. " He waded into the water, the gentle flow doing little to stop him. Twilight followed him, followed by Night, and I took up the rear of the formation. Drying our clothes as we reached the other side, Twilight noticed a hollow tree. " We could hole up in that trunk, or we could continue for the ruins. " " Or, that ruined watchtower over yonder. " I pointed to the watchtower that was further ahead in the same direction of the Hollow tree. " Something tells me we should look inside that hollow tree, though. " Sawyer made his way over to it. "I knew it!" I looked inside of the hollow trunk, to spot a wooden chest inside. "Wow, Sawyer. You got a sixth sense for loot. Go ahead, check what's inside of it." He opened the chest, and revealed it's contents: A golden ingot, an amethyst, a silver ruby ring, a copper ruby circlet, and a see-through crystal. "Wow, look at all of that! And that is simply in the trunk of a dead tree?" Night looked at the items with curiousity. "I don't know how it got here, but i'm taking it! Any of you want this?" "You found it, Sawyer. It's all yours if you ask me. Besides, I have no use for material wealth." "Me neither! I prefer books. If there's any books, I want them. What is that crystal, though?" Sawyer stashed the other items into his pockets (?), and help up the crystal. "This is what's called a Soul Gem. It stores the souls of dead things inside, which can be used for the enchantment of magical properties. I don't know why, or how, but that is what they are used for." "That is quite sinister." Night took the gem, and inspected it closely. "How would you fill such a thing?" "From what I've learned, you either use a certain spell, or enchant a weapon with Soul-stealing. Much like the way those daggers of yours work. Master Enchanters can get more out of these, and can even recharge their enchanted weapons without the use of these gems. " I could feel raindrops landing on my face, ever so slightly. "We gotta hurry if we wanna stay dry. Let's make a run for that watchtower and hope that it will provide enough cover to wait out the storm." Sawyer pointed to the right of him. "There's a path there, behind those trees. I think that will take us up there." We ran as fast as our legs could carry us, and sprinted up the ruined stone stairs leading up to the watchtower. "Wait! I hear talking." I motioned to the others to stay silent while I took a closer look. I could see a leather-clad human with a shield and a sword standing outside of the watchtower, and heard two voices, one male and one female, coming from inside the tower. "They don't look friendly." Sawyer looked at the human standing outside. "I'll sneak up on that human outside, you three try to take care of the ones inside." I climbed over a few rocks on the other side of the bridge leading out of the watchtower, and carefully made my way to behind the human. I stood up slightly, and used my dagger to slice the human's throat open without making a sound. Meanwhile, Sawyer charged into the watchtower, shield raised and sword held high, followed by Night with her hands held high, and Twilight scurrying along behind them. An arrow flew over their heads, and narrowly missed me. Sawyer managed to take out the archer without much problems. A furious yell was heard, coming down the stairs. Paired with the clanking of heavy armour, a towering female human with a dangerously sharp Greatsword charged down the stairs, straight for Sawyer. He blocked the strike with his shield, but the force of the attack made him stumble. I quickly ran over to help in whatever way I could, and attempted to find a weak-spot in the bandit's armour. The bandit was too focused on taking out Sawyer, and Night and Twilight had taken cover near the opening of the watchtower, seeing as they had no weapons. "Take a weapon from one of these bandits, I'll help Sawyer eliminate her." Night ran over to the bandit I had killed outside, and looted his sword. Testing it with a few shoddy swings, she seemed content with her new weapon. Twilight stayed where she was, and motioned to the bow the other bandit had. I took her hint. Sneaking once again, I got behind the iron-clad bandit, and struck my dagger in between the joints of her armour, near her neck. She dropped to the ground, lifeless. "Thanks. That bandit had quite the power with that greatsword of hers." I moved over to the archer bandit, and looted his bow and a few arrows. I handed them over to Twilight. "You sure you can fire a bow, and not hit us in the process?" "I think I can guide the arrows enough to not cause collateral damage, thank you very much." "Just checking. I don't want to end up with arrows in my back." "This tower isn't much use for shelter. Maybe there's a better spot to take cover upstairs." I quickly bounded upstairs, following the rickety wooden stairs. It wasn't much better upstairs. "Hey Sawyer, how about your sixth sense?" "Further upstairs, at the top there." Sawyer went upstairs, and came back not too long after with a few iron weapons, and some gold coins. "Not much interesting things." "Well, we better head over to the ruins, then." "Wait, let me put on this iron armour." Sawyer took the bandit's armour, and strapped it on. Following the path out of the watchtower that winded around a cliffside, we got closer to the ruins. "There's more bandits. I can see two of them with bows, and one with a warhammer. Tracey, you got a clear shot on the archer on the left, I'll take the right archer back there, and you two can tussle with that warhammer guy." I could feel my magic empowering my stride, and I shadowstepped through the air silently, behind the archer. I saw the other archer fall in the distance, an arrow straight into his head. The archer in front of me saw it, aswell, and turned to shoot at my friends. "You're not shooting anyone today." I punctured his chest with both my daggers, and let the lifeless corpse fall onto the ground. I could see an iron-clad Sawyer charge into the bandit, knocking him down. Night delivered the killing blow by stabbing her sword straight through his chest. I walked over to them, and gave a few arrows to Twilight. "I'm surprised you two kill so easily, actually." "I am surprised, too. I do not feel pity for these bandits, strangely enough. It is what they deserve, looting old ruins." Night said. "I don't like it, but atleast they got swift deaths. They would not have shown mercy to us either." Twilight took the arrows I held up, and placed them in a quiver she looted on her back. Lightning crackled, and the sky erupted with a torrent of rain. "That wasn't me! Hurry, into the ruins!"
Chapter 2 - Dungeons and Draugr [TESV]"Phew.. Uh-oh, looks like we got out of the frying pan and walked straight into the fire.. There's more bandits over there. Looks like an archer, and some kind of berserker." "Ah, to hell with it. CHARGE!" Sawyer raised his shield and stormed at the two bandits, taking them by surprise. "I suppose we follow, then?" I glanced at Twilight and Night, and they both nodded. Twilight nocked an arrow to fire it, while Night charged after Sawyer. By the time I was next to Sawyer, both bandits were dead. One sliced in half, courtesy of Sawyer and Night, and the other had an arrow in her knee and arm. "Dammit, save some for me next time will you?" I checked both bodies for any loot, and retrieved the arrows for Twilight. "Don't be so slow then! Y'were nearly walking over here! You got those fancy teleports, right?" Sawyer sheathed his shield and sword, and checked his new surroundings. "They cost me a lot of energy. I'm not attuned to the magic in these parts." "You're not attuned, we can't use anything but levitation spells! You should be happy you can atleast do those teleports!" Twilight scoffed as she placed some arrows back into her quiver. "I'm sure you'll be able to cast proper magic eventually. Sawyer, do you have any magical scrolls perhaps?" "Not with me, but I'm sure we'll find some in 'ere." Sawyer proceeded to walk over to the chest in the corner, next to a flight of stairs that led down. "Nothing all that interesting in 'ere... There's some gold, an uncut ruby, an amulet with an anvil depicted on it and a blue potion." "A blue potion...? And an amulet with an anvil, you say? If only I could remember what those were...." I took the potion, and held it in my hands. "Might aswell take a sip of it." I placed the potion on my lips, and poured its contents down my throat. There was a slight tingling sensation, and I felt magically renewed. "And..? I do not have acces to my full power, so you can not count on me to bring you back to life if it went awry." Night looked at me curiously, searching for signs of disaster. "Quite the opposite, I feel renewed. Magically, that is. I remember what these potions were now, they were Magicka potions." I dropped the emptied potion back into the chest, and walked over to the beginning of the stairs. "Take those other things with you too, we don't know what that amulet might be good for, but I have a sneaking suspicion it's to do with either crafting, or merchants. Let's go." The party followed me down the stairs, into winding corridors overgrown with roots and covered in sticky spiderwebs. "This place.... It's in such a state of disrepair.." Twilight examined the various roots and burial urns along the path, making sure not to touch any spiderwebs. "It's an old burial temple, from what I remember reading back in High Rock. How we had accounts of burial temples in Skyrim, I have no clue..." "It doesn't really matter.... What matters more is... I hear shuffling up ahead. Stay quiet, I'll check what it is." I moved further into the tunnel ahead, and found the source of the shuffling sounds: Rats, or something similar to them. I made my way back to my party and told them what I saw. "Those are skeevers, their bites can transmit various diseases... Just... Don't get bitten, and maybe let Tracey strike them down. How many were there..?" "One, maybe two." "Yeah, Tracey should be able to handle them. Go ahead." Twilight walked forward, her bow drawn and ready with an arrow nocked. A moment later, we heard an arrow let loose, and a body dropped to the floor. "Nicely done Tracey. I can't wait for you to be able to use proper magic, imagine how devastating you'll be then..." "Don't get your hopes up, I doubt I can figure out why my spells aren't working right now.." Twilight looked down at the ground, slightly ashamed. "We'll find out. Let's continue." We passed a bookcase with another magic potion, and a few rags and burial urns. We took the potion, but left everything else as it was. "Hold. There's light ahead, and it's moving. Bandit." Sawyer drew his shield, and carefully moved forward. "Let me do the sneaking, Mr. heavy armour. I'll take him out." I held him back, and proceeded to sneak onwards, my daggers drawn. The bandit was facing away from me, making for an easy target. "He's dead. Coast is clear otherwise." The others walked up next to the bandit's corpse. Sawyer looted his corpse for any gold pieces he could find, and left him in the corner of the tunnel. We continued onwards, and walked into a peculiar looking room, with a locked gate, a lever and various images along the walls. "Looks like a puzzle room. I love puzzles! Let me figure this out." Twilight instantly searched the room for clues, and stopped at the similar looking images on the front wall and the left wall. "I think it's a sequential code. Those images above the gate correspond to the images on these turning stones here. If it works from left to right, it would be...Snake... the broken one is also a snake... and a dolphin. Snake, snake and dolphin, from left to right." Twilight started turning the stones to the images she said, and pulled the lever. The gate opened with a mighty creak. "Leave it to you to crack puzzles within seconds." "Puzzles like these are nothing for me. I could do these with my eyes closed!" "I've no doubt you'd be able to. Let's continue, shall we? I see a chest at the end there. You do the honours for that chest, Tw- I mean Tracey." Twilight opened the chest, and removed it's contents: Gold, an uncut amethyst and a lockpick. "There's another one of those soul gems here, and a red potion on this bench. If the blue one was magic, would that make the red one body?" Twilight curiously tapped her chin. "I'll test it, even though I dislike being a test subject." I grabbed the potion and drank it. This time, I felt a burning sensation, as if my insides were being burned clean. "Oof, that one burned. As if my insides have been burned clean. I do feel slightly better though." "This isn't the safest way of testing what potions do, but okay.." Twilight took the potion from my hands and placed it back in the chest. "There's a stairwell here, and more shuffling from down the stairs. More skeevers?" "Probably. Does sound like more of them though, so Tracey's arrows won't be able to deal with all of them in time. I'll go ahead and use my shield as a protective line for you guys." We followed Sawyer down the stairs, and as we thought, a pack of three skeevers awaited us. Twilight shot the furthest one, while Sawyer and Night dispatched the other two with a quick slice of the blade. "That dealt with them quite nicely. What's on the table over there, though? Looks like a scroll, and a sickly green potion." Sawyer walked over to the table, and inspected the items. "That potion might be poison of some sorts. And I think the scroll might be something for Tracey to look at." I approached the table, and gave the scroll to Twilight. She unrolled it and started reading it. "Interesting..." Just as he rolled up the scroll again, it started glowing. The scroll vanished, and left a glowing, fiery residue in the air. The residue then started moving erratically for a moment, and then shot into Twilight's eyes. "Are you okay Tracey?" I asked, concerned for her wellbeing. "Am I okay? I'm more than okay, I finally know how to cast magic! It's so simple!" She conjured a fireball in her hands, and shot it at the bookcase against the wall. It quickly burnt up in flames. She tried doing it again, but instead of a fireball, a sizzle was heard. "Odd, I can't do it again." "That's because that was just a scroll of Fireball. If you want to keep casting the same spell, you either need more scrolls, or read the corresponding book for it." "I hope we find one of those books then... That feeling of casting a proper spell again was relieving." "I think... Hold on, let me check." Sawyer opened his bags, and rummaged around in them for a while. Eventually, he found what he was looking for, and held it up for us to see. It was a red book, with a flame symbol on the front cover. "You might want to read this one." Twilight took the book eagerly, and read it completely within a few seconds, pages turning with the speed of light. The book burnt up in flames afterwards, and Twilight looked to a different bookcase, and cast the spell she just read. A stream of flames erupted from her hand, and set the bookcase alight. "If I'm correct, and the books back in High Rock are too, you should be able to cast it with both hands too. Try that!" Twilight held both hands up this time, and a dual-stream of flames went out this time, but sputtered out after a few seconds. "Costs more magicka, but you got double the firepower. I think you would be able to cast it far longer than most, once you get the hang of it. According to what your friend here says about you, that is." "She's an avid magic user back where we came from, I have no doubt she'd be able to here. I do have a sneaking suspicion this scroll was placed here for a reason, though." "I share your suspicion, Joshua. Something feels off.. C'mon, let's move on and see if we find anything that can confirm it." We carried on through the corridors, and stopped in front of a door opening, covered in thick webs. "Webs...? I suppose the fire spell you just learned will come useful, if we happen upon spiders. Burn the webs!" I stood at a safe distance as Twilight unleashed her flame spell on the webs, charring them in seconds. It led into a room completely covered in webs, and a few egg sacs in the corner. Another webbed doorway held a man captive, who looked oddly like a thief. He mumbled a few words through his prison, but they were too muffled to understand. "Think whoever's trapped inside those webs is trying to tell us something. There's a lack of spider in this room, though..." "That may be because...it's....right...there...." Twilight took a few steps back in fear as she pointed upwards. There was a gigantic spider where she pointed at. Which obviously came down because it's webs were disturbed. "That's.... a big..spider.... Sawyer..? Could you, umm...? Not that I'm scared of spiders...but eh, I'd rather not...be bitten by...that." Sawyer, as heroic as he was, charged forward with his shield raised, in defense of the rest. Twilight prepared her bow for a second, but decided against it and held up her hands instead. Night and myself stood at a safe distance, knowing we would be of no use with no way to block the spider's enormous fangs. The spider, noticing an immediate threat in the form of Sawyer, lunged at him, fangs bared and dripping with venom. I noticed the spider had a slight limp to it, however. His shield took the brunt of the attack, but a few drops of venom landed on his armour, sizzling and burning away the material. "Tracey, I could use some help here!" Twilight held up both her hands, and a massive stream of fire unleashed from both her hands, engulfing the spider in it's entirety, along with the rest of the room with it. Once the spider was properly burnt to a crisp and no longer moving, I checked up on Sawyer to see if he sustained any major injuries. Other than a few burns, he was okay enough to continue onwards. "That's some fried spider right there. I knew that fire spell was there for a reason. Luckily it was already wounded previously. Now, this guy in the webbing.." I walked over to him, and undid the charred webbing in his face. The webbing protected him from most of the fire, but he still had a few minor burns on his face and hands. "Alright, who are you? And why were you trapped in webs? Didn't you know not to deal with gigantic spiders alone..?" "My name...augh... is Arvel the Swift... The spider caught me by surprise as I was walking through this room, and it struck me..agh...in my back." Before I could ask any more questions, he quickly took to his legs and made a break for it. Twilight was faster though, and used a telekinesis spell on him to drag him to the ground again. "Don't kill me! Don't kill me! I'll give you the claw, just please, don't kill me!" "Why would we kill you...? And what do you mean by 'claw'?" Twilight asked Arvel. "You mean, you don't know about the treasure locked in this place?" "Treasure?" Sawyer quickly became intrigued upon hearing about possible treasure. "People say the ancient nords buried their treasure in this old, forsaken temple, but it's locked behind a door which you need this claw for. I stole it from a stupid merchant back in Riverwood." "A thief, huh? I don't take kindly to thieves..." I drew my dagger agressively "No, please! I won't do it again, I swear!" "Once a thief, always a thief... You don't trick me." My hand moved to strike him, but was stopped in mid-air by Twilight. "Don't. Even though he is a thief, he does not deserve this fate after being trapped by that spider. Give us the claw, and leave." Arvel quickly scurried up to his feet, pulled a golden claw from his pockets which he gave to Twilight, and quickly ran back the way we came from. "Can't believe you stopped me from slitting his throat. Scum like him shouldn't be allowed to live." "Not even he deserved to die after what happened. Don't think you'd like being freed from the clutches of a giant spider only to be killed afterwards because you were a thief." "Still..." "Don't. Let's just continue on, he gave us what he stole anyway. We can go to this 'Riverwood' place after we finish up here, and return this claw." "I suppose." Sawyer took the lead, his shield raised for any potential dangers. After a few seconds of walking, we stumbled upon what looked like a burial hall, with countless decayed bodies. Some even had weaponry still close to their bodies, marking those as warriors in a past life. "They did not just store treasures here, they also used it as burial grounds for their dead. We should tread carefully, the dead do not like being disturbed." Night said as she took a sneaking pose. "Some of these bodies look awfully well-preserved... D'you think...?" I spoke a bit too soon. A few of the corpses with weapons next to them started moving, and took up their swords and shields. "Draugr. Nicole was right, the dead definitely don't like being disturbed. And they strike back with force!" He raised his shield in time to block an attack from the nearest Draugr. Night charged forwards to the Draugr furthest away from us, and started wailing on him with both her swords. The sustained barrage of strikes eventually got too much for the Draugr, as he lowered his guard for just a moment, allowing Night to strike at his mid-section. She cut the undead creature in half. As Sawyer was sparring with one of the Draugr, myself and Twilight took to eliminating the third and last Draugr. My daggers proved ineffective in one-on-one combat, but allowed for a few openings for Twilight to shoot arrows at it. After exposing his weak spots a few times, the Draugr fell, riddled in arrows. I quickly shadowstepped to Sawyer's adversary and struck it in the back, eliminating it instantly. "Almost too easy with the four of us. We could've just let that thief run ahead, he'd be dead long before he even reached wherever the treasure might be!" I looked ahead, and noticed a peculiar stone on the ground with an intricate marking, and next to it, a very, very spiky grate. "Now this is the most obvious trap I've ever seen." I quickly checked if there were any other stones similar to the ones I saw, which there were none of, and proceeded to take one of the shields from the draugr to throw onto the stone from a distance. As the shield hit the ground, the grate slammed back with force, it's spikes menacingly sharp. It retracted a few seconds later. I carefully removed the shield from the trap without triggering it again. "Don't step on that stone, and we should all be fine." We carefull shuffled past the stone and its gate, but found another one of the Draugr lying down just behind it. It quickly came back to life and raised its sword and axe, and charged at Sawyer. Sawyer blocked both it's strikes, before Night cut in and slammed her weapons unto the draugr's skull. The force of the weapons knocked it back, but it was still alive. "This one's tough!" "Not tough enough.." I quickly snuck to it's back, and stabbed it in it's neck with both my daggers as it was fighting with Sawyer and Night. It took my attack and went still for a moment, before pulling both my daggers out of itself and turning to face me, it's weapons raised to strike at me. It didn't get the chance, as an arrow struck it straight through it skull. It finally fell to it's knees, and promptly fell over in a heap. "Pff.. Thanks. That thing was quite tough indeed. Didn't think it would survive that strike..." "Atleast I got your back. Maybe we should get you a bow aswell so you can strike from a distance?" "That doesn't even sound like a bad idea... Keep an eye out for any extra bows." "Do you think these swords are any good? They look ancient, but they seem protected with runes." Night lifted up one of the Draugr's swords to show us. "They certainly look good. Give me one aswell, and take two for yourself." Sawyer took the blade given to him by Night, and Night herself slid the two blades she acquired in sheaths along her sides. A sound was heard in the distance, sounding like swinging axes. We stepped down the stairs into another chamber similar to the one back where we fought the multiple Draugr in. I immediately noticed a few of the corpses lined up at the side to be Draugr, and those few quickly came to life. One had a bow (YES!), one of them had a massive axe and the other two both had shields and either a sword or an axe. "By now, these Draugr are more a nuisance that a real fight! Although the one with the axe looks dangerous." I quickly stepped through the shadows to appear behind the Bow Draugr, and struck it before it could loose a single arrow. It quickly fell to the ground, considering it was ill-armoured. The others were fighting the other three draugr, but didn't look like they needed my help, so I checked ahead for any dangers. The hall to the next room contained some swinging axes, and I spotted a lever on the other side. "Really? Swinging axes? What kind of burial tomb is this?" I blinked through the trap and disabled it using the lever. The axes stopped swinging shortly after. "Easy. Now let's see if they dealt with those Draugr yet." VVVVV Change of character - Primal Dagger->Twilight Sparkle I saw Primal blinking and eliminating the Draugr with a bow, but I didn't know where he went next. I was too focused on keeping the Draugr, as Sawyer called them, away from myself whilst shooting arrows. I noticed after casting my spells previously that I would know when I could use them again to maximum effect, and now was such a moment. I sheathed my bow, and readied my hands for the intense wave of heat they were about to deliver. I hope we find some other spells soon. This one is getting boring... I unleashed the torrent of flames, and noticed I could keep it up much longer than previously. One of the Draugr with shield managed to deflect my spell for a moment, but eventually collapsed to the sustained stream of fire. The other two Draugr saw their buddy die in flames, and stopped attacking Sawyer and Night to charge at me. This left them open for attack however, and both were quickly struck down by Sawyer and Night. "Thanks. They sure don't like seeing their buddies dying in fire. They completely stopped attacking the two of you to go for me!" "I think they might have an innate sense to target the ones most powerful. Since magic is a sign of power, they went for you. If I were to use magic now, they would all focus me." "Ah. Did anyone see Joshua, by the way? He killed that bow Draugr but I didn't see him afterwards..." "I'm here. I disabled the trap ahead of us whilst you were fighting." "Trap?" "Swinging axes. The tunnel up ahead had a set of them, with a lever at the other side. Not a problem for someone who can instantly blink through it." He yawned slightly, signifying his interest. "Can we please continue? These Draugr are virtually no match for us, and the traps are even sadder." "Did you take the bow?" "The bow that draugr had who I killed? No. You can have that one, it looks better. Give me your old one and a few arrows." He took the ancient runed bow and handed it to me. I gave him my old bow and a quiver with a few arrows in it, which he placed on his back. We continued past the trap, through a few winding halls containing yet more Draugr. Most of them had heavy weapons, but were quickly dispatched by the nimbler four of us. After the windy halls, we ended up in a slightly larger chamber with a running waterfall, and a chest with a Draugr protecting it. Yet again, the Draugr died within seconds, and Sawyer looted the chest. "Another bow, this one looks a bit sturdier. Replace your bow with this one, Joshua. Other than the bow, there's another soul gem, some gold, and a green potion this time. Care to test this one too?" "Fine. Give me the potion." He chugged the potion, and placed the empty bottle and the bow I gave him into the chest while taking the bow Sawyer handed to him. "Don't really feel any different. You can have the next green potion Sawyer, and maybe drink it while we just finished combat. See if it does anything then. It definitely has restorative properties for something, but I'll be damned if I knew what." I noticed a gate through which the water flowed, and a chain next to it. Pulling the chain caused the door to open promptly, allowing acces to a somewhat musky cave. "A cave? This temple is one hell of a mess." Primal mentioned as he waded through the ankle-deep waterflow. We turned a sharp corner, and ended up in a larger section of the cave with glowing mushrooms lining the walls. "Glowshrooms! These give a boost to health and are resistant to electricity. Read that in an alchemy manual back at High Rock." Sawyer plucked a few of the glowing mushrooms, and placed them in his bag. "Another chest up ahead, and a view of a chamber with what looks like a skylight." The waterflow fell down into chamber Sawyer mentioned, and the chest was next to the flow. Primal looted it's contents, and held up what he found: More gold, another magic potion and another scroll. "I think you should have both the potion and the scroll. The scroll looks the same as the last one, so you might want to save it this time for a more dangerous foe. The potion will probably restore your magic, so use that if you feel drained." Primal handed me the items, and I placed them in my pockets, making sure the scroll was neatly tucked away for instant use if I needed it. We travelled down the curving path leading downwards from the chest. Primal promptly stopped us before we got to the end of it. "Think there's a troll ahead. An icy one at that, and it doesn't look friendly." "Trolls have regenerative properties, so we have to strike it down quickly or else we have to face it for much longer than we have to. I'll charge in and tank his strikes, you three do what you have to do to take it down as fast as possible. I'm not entirely sure how long I can keep him on me." Sawyer readied his shield, and charged forwards, closely followed by Night. Both me and Primal readied our bows, and aimed for its head. I landed a few arrows in his head, one even in his eye, but he was still standing. The troll suddenly lurched forwards and slammed Night off the bridge, down to the flowing water below. "No! Night!" I quickly shoved over the edge to attempt to grab Night's arm, but failed and watched as she fell down a few meters. Luckily, she didn't fall a long height, but she looked injured. Sawyer noticed my attempt, and enraged, he struck the troll wildly in it's chest. A few good stabs later, and the troll dropped to its knees, and collapsed on the bridge. After checking to see if the troll was dead, he quickly made his way down to Night to check if she was okay. I followed him and tried to find any kind of healing potion or spell in my pockets, but found none. Primal knew what I was looking for, and gave me a red potion. "Thanks. I'll make sure she drinks it." We hurried to her side, and Night looked like she was in pain. Groaning and holding her leg, which was slightly bent at an odd angle, she was lying on the ground. I quickly placed the potion on her lips, and emptied its contents into her mouth. She coughed shortly, and with a small glow, her bent leg reshaped into its normal form. "Thank you. I did not expect the troll to suddenly go for me." "Atleast you're ok. And look, there's a chest here too!" Primal hurried over to the chest, but quickly discovered it was locked. "Damn, it's locked. Tracey, you had a lockpick right?" Nodding, I gave him my lockpick, and he went to work on the lock. A statisfying click was heard, and the chest opened to reveal gems, gold, another, even sturdier looking bow and some very intricate arrows. "I suppose I'll take this bow too, then. You can take this longbow, Sawyer. Never know what it could be good for. And Tracey, you can have these arrows. They look deadly." "Those are of orcish make. They got a deadly sting to them, but there's few of them here so use them wisely." "I'll use these on stronger foes then, if we find any." I took the arrows from Primal, and watched him take the new bow and give his old bow to Sawyer. We continued further through the cave ahead, and after a few twists and turns, we stumbled upon a larger room with double doors closing the way ahead, with a very angry looking Draugr wielding a greatsword guarding it. "Like that guy?" "He looks tough. I'll let him taste these arrows." I nocked the orcish arrows on my ancient runed bow, and released them in quick succession. Two arrows struck it's head, and the third one went through it's chest. It still started stumbling towards us, however. "It's weakened by now. Strike it down!" Sawyer didn't need to hear that twice, and bashed the Draugr with his shield. Once it was down on the ground, he stabbed his blade through it's chest multiple times, and it stopped moving shortly after. "Good work. Now, let's see what is through these ornate double doors, shall we?" Primal said, with a slight excitement in his tone.
Chapter 3 - Draconic [TESV]Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.
Prologue - Rifts to Walk, Time to Travel"It sure takes a long time to travel between worlds this time..." I noticed I spoke to myself, but it didn't really matter. What mattered was that the jump didn't work out like it should do. "Oh no, it's one of these again. And this time, it's big enough to stop me from going to Equestria." I was referring to interdimensional vortexes. They would appear from time to time when one travels between worlds. Usually, they are not big enough to cause any form of hindrance, but this one seemed persistent and big enough. They would pull at the person travelling between worlds, similar to what a black hole would do to light. The vortexes don't do any harm other than stopping travel, and would eventually dissipate. "Well, nothing to do other than wait then. Let's see... what could I do to pass time..." Time, ofcourse, meant nothing in this place between worlds. A hundred years could pass, and neither me, my friends or any of the worlds would feel the consequences of it. "Well, since I have nothing else to do, might aswell think of all the events that happened up to now. What a strange and long ride it's been up to this point..." It all started with that experiment, ofcourse. The substance that allowed world travel.. I managed to appear in a mostly peaceful manner, with Twilight finding me on a hill somewhere near Ponyville. Michelle was sent along with me too, however, since she thought I was hurt the moment I ingested the substance and fell to the floor. She didn't have the same kind of entrance as I did.. "I shudder to think what she went through during that time.." She faced demons, she faced a darkness so vile, so impure... It corrupted her very essence, driving her insane, turning her into a monster.. It was untill much later that we finally found out she was on Equestria as well, and even longer to find a solution to the problems caused by that darkness. For all we know, that darkness is gone now, but who knows where it went after that horrible battle on the moon.. We were lucky Night appeared when she did, otherwise we would've never known Luna went insane thanks to the influence of the darkness we imbued into a special stone. Luna's life was saved thanks to her, and possibly most of Equestria along with it. Who knows what would've happened if Luna went on an unstoppable rampage throughout Equestria, fueled by madness and possessed by an evil being..? Luckily, thanks to reasons still unknown to me, Twilight, Night and virtually everyone else, I recieved a few magical powers of my own. It started with my labcoat, the one I wore when drinking the travelling substance, turned into a rogue-esque outfit, complete with daggers and everything. A bit later, I found out I could control all four of the basic elements: Fire, Air, Water and Earth. "Heh, avatar much..." The gods of balancing eventually found out I was a bit too powerful to their tastes, so they nerfed my ability to cast every element, and left me with just being able to cast spells related to Air. Knowing my extensive love for Air, this made no difference to me. Before that happened though, I imbued Twilight and her friends with a few extra special powers of their own. Based off of a game I played when I was younger and careless, I gave each the ability to do something somewhat related to their harmony elements. Twilight was given the means to alter the fabric of materials and substances, Rainbow was given the ability to protect the ones she was fiercely loyal to with devastating effect, Rarity got an extension to her creative and generous soul, being able to create virtually anything out of nothing, with a few limitations to prevent disasters happening... Fluttershy had an innate sense of care towards all things living, so it would only be fitting to add power on top of that by giving her the ability to heal any wound. Pinkie always had the ability to 'enchant' others, causing them to laugh whenever they felt down. Improving that aspect was child's play, and she was now able to enchant objects as well with anything she could think of. Obviously, with a few limitations too, so no disasters would happen... Applejack's always honest, but whenever she did have to lie or use deceit, she's unable to. To fix those downsides, I gave her the ability to create illusions and use trickery and deceit to keep her out of dangerous situations if her raw strength would not be good enough. Luckily, when my powers were taken away, the marks remained. Something still felt a bit wrong about it all, though. I didn't completely feel at ease with the ponies, given how friendly they were to beings they supposedly never seen before. It felt as if my fate was to be something of more importance, not directly related to Equestria or it's inhabitants, but more of that what was beyond... "Ah, seems like the vortex is finally coming to an end. No idea how much time has passed in here, but to them it won't make any difference. I'll just pretend like nothing happened, and continue doing what I would've done in the first place. I do still feel that there's something else waiting for me out there, though..."
