From her home in Aetherius, Mara, the mother-goddess and goddess of love of Nirn, was using the powers granted to her for being one of the divines to look through the other realms besides Nirn or Oblivion out of boredom. Views of various worlds were going through her mind like pages turning in a book. One of the worlds she looked at was a mostly metal one with hundreds of what looked like metal golems fighting each other and transforming into other machines.

“Eh, too actiony. Probably would be too occupied with killing each other to settle down and do anything else.

The next one had an anthropomorphic raccoon showing better prowess in sneaking and thievery than the leader of the thieves’ guild and also showing the anthropomorphic fox member of the international law enforcement spotting and then chasing him. What caught Mara’s attention though were the faint traces of love that she could sense between the two.

“Hmmmm…maybe later.” She said before shifting her view to a world filled with all sorts of creatures. Some she recognized, others, she didn’t. “What have we here?” However, the country that her mind’s eye was most attracted to was Equestria, more specifically, the unicorn, Shining Armor, and what appeared to her to be a winged unicorn. Mara, being the goddess of love, could feel and almost smell the amount of love between them. Especially from Princess Mi Amore Cdadenza, or Cadence, who had a power that, while being lesser, was still very similar to her own.

She looked at how the alicorn, as she learned what her breed was called from spying, conducted herself and how she used her power. She found it admirable that even though she could force the citizens to fall in love with those that she deemed fit, she instead used it to strengthen the pre-existing love between those who were already a couple.

“Well, well. A demi-goddess is trying her hand at being her country’s expert on love? This I have to see.” And so, Mara took time out of each day to watch the young princess. As each day went by Mara grew to like the pink alicorn as she endeavored to help the citizens of Equestria with their relationship problems, even those that weren’t romantic in nature such as sibling love. Mara found and enjoyed watching that same sort of love between not only the filly, Twilight Sparkle, and her biological brother, Shining Armor, but also between Twilight and Cadence who had become her foalsitter.

“Awwww!” Mara squeed when she witnessed their greeting to each other.

During that time, Mara also noticed that Cadence and Shining’s love was growing very rapidly over the years. So much so that by the time Twilight was a young adult and had left her home in Canterlot, the alicorn mare and unicorn stallion’s love had reached a fever pitch. “Ooooooo…I know where this is going!” she said with glee.

A few months later

One day during one of her viewings, Mara’s joy for the happy couple grew when Shining finally proposed to Cadence. Mara greatly approved of this coupling. Shining Armor was the captain of the royal guard and tried his best at everything; he would make a great husband if he put just as much effort into this marriage. Cadence had the discipline to use her alicorn powers responsibly and being her country’s and possibly world’s expert on love, she knew not to take advantage of her husband’s affections. Truly, this was a marriage that was destined not to fail.

“Heh, heh, heh” Mara giggled. “I can’t wait to see the wedding! I wonder if there are any other wonderful examples of love in this world.” She said as she turned her senses towards the rest of the planet. However, just as she was beginning her mental sweep of the lands closest to Equestria’s borders, Mara felt a disturbance in the area’s environment; a disturbance that sent a chill up her spine and made her skin crawl.

“Ugh, what is that!? It feels like all the love in this one area is being sucked away like a person’s essence being put into a soul gem!” and then she saw them. Fifty miles to the north of Appleloosa, a swarm of bug-like ponies with holes in their legs were invading a village and doing something to the citizens that was quite shocking to the goddess; draining the love out of every pony there. They did this in two ways, either through biting or inhaling and causing a greenish mist to rise off of them, which Mara assumed was the physical form that love took when being stolen by these things; unlike with Cadence, whose love magic took the form of a heart surrounded by a bluish glow.

“By us! How wicked! Who is leading these despicable creatures!?” her mind’s eye scanned the general area until it focused on who seemed to be the leader. It was tall with a slender body and tipped with a jagged horn. Its eyes, unlike its underlings whose were blue and blank, were snake like with a forest green iris and pale green sclera. It had a black crown atop its mane which was aquamarine and long. Considering that these things could barely been told apart from each other and moved about like the drones of a beehive, Mara concluded that the leader was a queen and therefore female. She was proven right when it spoke.

“Go, my children! Feed upon these morsels!” she said before looking to her left at a pony that was trying to sneak her way into an alley. With a glow of the queen’s horn, the earth pony mare was dragged by her tail in the matriarch’s telekinetic grasp. The accompanying glow then spread to the rest of her body as she was rotated to stare into the slit pupils of her captor. The queen then put the mare’s face so close to hers that they were nearly muzzle to muzzle. The queen grinned.

“Heh, heh” she chuckled while licking her lips. “…don’t mind if I do!” The queen then opened up her mouth wide. It was so impossibly open that Mara wondered if these things were part snake. When the jaws stopped opening, the queen began to inhale and the love within the mare in her clutches was sucked out of her, turning into a green mist before being vacuumed into the bug pony’s gullet. When the process was done, the pony’s head was swaying this way and that and its eyes were unfocused, almost like she wasn’t all there. Wiping her mouth of the small amount of drool that was leaking, the queen put the pony at a slight distance from her before taking a moment to comment on her meal.

“Mmmmm…delicious.” she then gave her attention to the drained pony and brought the mare back over to look her in the eyes. “I must say, your love had a very unique flavor to it. I believe it had that slight tang that the zeal for life usually gives it. I do apologize for snatching it away so suddenly, but we both know you wouldn’t have given it freely…” she then brought the mare muzzle to muzzle with herself. “…now would you?” she asked in a menacing voice with a toothy grin. The pony barely responded. Too emotionally drained from the attack, the poor mare slowly shook her head in an unfocused and listless manner, unable to muster up the will to show that she was afraid for her life. For not only had she been depleted of her love for others, but also herself, and did not care whether or not the monster before her took her life.

Not exactly caring that her prey could properly answer her, the queen dropped the pony, watching it crawl away slower than a snail. Just then a somewhat bulkier bug pony landed next to her. She turned before addressing the drone. “Yes, General Arthros?”

The bug pony bowed before responding. “My liege, Queen Chrysalis, reports are coming in that some of our fellow changelings are not able to find enough love for themselves. At this rate, we won’t even have enough to make it back to the hive.”

The now revealed Queen Chrysalis waved off the concern before responding. “Fear not, my little changeling, for soon we will have all the love we could ever eat. Have you forgotten of our planned conquest for the rest of Equestria? That buffet of affection will feed us for generations! But first, we’ll start with that wedding happening in Canterlot in a little while. It will make a delectable appetizer!” she said in delight.

“NOT ON MY WATCH, YOU BITCH!!!” yelled Mara, unheard by the changelings because of her only using her powers to see and hear them.

Back in Aetherius, Stendarr, who was visiting Mara, walked into the common room, of which she was standing in, at her shout. “Mara, what trouble’s you?” When he saw her opening her eyes, he asked his next question with a raised eyebrow. “Has…something happened with those ponies you seemed to have taken a liking to? Why bother yourself with them? Our father didn’t create their world, so they aren’t our responsibility.”

Turning to him, Mara glared and put her hands on her hips. “Stendarr! You are being such a hypocrite! You are the god of justice and mercy. It shouldn’t matter if they aren’t of Nirn, you should care for any group of beings who cry out for those very things.” She said while wagging a finger.

Stendarr rolled his eyes and sighed. “Fine, but what exactly has happened in that realm to get you so worked up? I assume that it’s some sort of transgression against love?” he said while crossing his arms.

Taking her arms from her waist, Mara answered. “Yes, gaze with me to the area in that realm I saw the atrocity take place and the being who committed it and plans to commit another” she said as she once again closed her eyes while Stendarr did the same.

Back in Equestria, Chrysalis and her changelings finished consuming the love of that village. They then flew in the direction of Canterlot and changed into various flying animals and some pegesi and spread out in order to not be too conspicuous on their approach, unknowingly revealing another of their abilities to the two deities. Even with her changed form, Mara and Stendarr were still able to keep their nearly all-seeing eyes on Chrysalis, for she and five other changelings had taken the form of a family of pegesi, with the queen still being the tallest of all of them, but not quite alicorn size like her previous form. As she flew, Chrysalis’ face turned from one of simple ravenous hunger, to one of conviction when she remembered the most important reason for this conquest.

“Soon, my children, you won’t ever have to worry about running out of food again.” she said under her breath.

Back in Aetherius, Mara and Stendarr opened their eyes. “See! These things called ‘Changelings’ eat the very thing that I have control of and she plans to disrupt one of the events that I cherish the most, a wedding! Not just any wedding, but a wedding between one whom I consider a kindred spirit and her true love! I say we smite the leader of those horrid beasts or at least send a champion to assassinate her!” she said angrily.

Stendarr’s eyes widened. “Whoa, Whoooooa! Let’s calm down for a second!” He said while putting his hands on Mara’s shoulders. When he had her attention he directed her to sit down with him on a couple of nearby chairs. Once they did with Mara sitting to his left, Stendarr continued the conversation. “Before you jump to any rash decisions, I’d like to point out that now you’re forgetting your jurisdiction.” he said while pointing at her and giving her an equally pointed look.

“E…Excuse me!?” said Mara, flustered and putting her right hand to her chest while slightly leaning back. In her mind, she was wondering where he got the nerve to say such a thing. She is the goddess of love, what right did he have to say what was in her jurisdiction? Putting her hand back on the arm rest, Mara didn’t have to wait long for her guest to continue.

“While I do agree that crashing a wedding and stealing a fundamental part of one’s mind is a terrible crime, we can’t just barge in on their world and take control of certain aspects of their society. Especially since, as you’ve implied, there is already a protector of love that oversees the various relationship problems that plague her land. It would be like if she came over here and tried to take your job away from you.”

Mara put a hand to her mouth in shock, realizing how bad that would be. Putting her hand down, she responded. “I hadn’t thought of it like that!”

Stendarr nodded. “Another thing, I believe that not everything is as black and white as it seems with this supposed monster. So killing her might be a bit too hasty.” he then remembered the last thing he heard Chrysalis say. ‘Especially if she’s doing this so her people don’t starve. I would be remiss in my duties if I let snap and irrational decisions go by. That isn’t true justice.’

Stendarr then remembered another important detail. “Also even if we wanted to kill her, we barely have enough of a connection to Nirn and its magicka to do much of anything besides send visions, bestow blessings to those that pray at one of our shrines, or perform miracles, which are extremely rare, by the way. What makes you think we could do anything major in the country of…Equestria was it?” Mara nodded so he could finish. “…right, Equestria.”

After Mara calmed down, the now rationally thinking goddess asked her next question. “Well, if we can’t just go in and take her out, then what can we do?” she asked

Stendarr looked up as he thought for a moment, then tilted his head down and turned back to his hostess. “Hmmmm…well. I think we can send a champion, but only to help, not act as a vigilante. He or she will help in capturing the queen so that the ruling party can deliver justice in accordance with their laws.”

“Do you think the most recent legendary hero, the dragonborn, would help?” asked Mara.

Stendarr smiled widely at her suggestion. “Excellent idea! Not only has he proven himself capable of handling the most ferocious of foes, but he’ll jump at the chance for some adventure. In fact, I heard that he’s currently quite bored with how quiet Skyrim has been lately. This is a grand opportune moment to enlist his help!”

“Perfect!” Mara exclaimed while jumping to her feet in giddiness. At the same time, she put clenched fists up to her chest like a child who was just told that they were getting their birthday presents early.

“Buuuuut.” said Stendarr, also getting to his feet and putting a hand up to stop the goddess from feeling too assured of this plan.

“But?” she said, putting her hands down, not liking the mood killing word.

Stendarr put his hand down before continuing. “But…we also have to enlist the help of the daedric princes since we are bound to Mundus and they aren’t. Therefore, they might be able to go to other parts of the universe easily. I only have one daedric prince in mind and even asking him would be a gamble between him helping us, or pelting us with random things pulled from everywhere.”

“Oh, no. Don’t tell me.” groaned Mara while face palming.

“Uh huh.” said Stendarr with a slump of his shoulders, also groaning.

Shivering Isles: New Sheoth, during the 100th cheese festival

Sheogorath, the silver haired daedric prince of madness, was sitting on a throne in a pavilion set up in the bliss district; eating some perfectly aged goat cheese with the finest skooma that could be produced in the region. Hundreds of citizens were milling about in and around the pavilion, enjoying the various cheese based foods and different flavored skooma.

After finishing his third large piece of cheese, Sheogorath sighed in contentment. “Aaah, ain’t it grand?” he said the female golden saint that was standing to the left of his throne. The armored golden skinned daedra looked to her ruler with a raised eye brow. The mad god’s purple and brown suit, while ridiculous in color still had a refined look. The one piece of clothing that didn’t go with anything that he was wearing though was the large sliced cheese wheel hat that was actually made out of cheese. When questioned about it earlier, he had said that he got it from a man who was a fan of packing, whatever that meant.

Smiling at his silliness, the golden saint responded in a mirthful tone. “It is, my liege, but didn’t you ask that not five minutes ago.”

Smirking, Sheogorath threw the cup of skooma away. “C’mere, ya sexy slug!!!” he said in a manic voice. He then grabbed the golden saint, bent her backwards over his knees, and then French kissed her. After a few seconds, Sheogorath released her lips and then threw her off the raised platform that his throne was situated upon. Before the saint could hit the ground, Sheogorath snapped his fingers and a king size mattress materialized under her, where the golden saint landed softly. She turned back around and sat there in shock while leaning back on her arms for support, sporting a slight blush on her cheeks.

His smirk turning into a predatory grin, Sheogorath pointed back to his home. “Go back to my bed chambers in the palace and wait for me and Sanguine there!” he said with a wink.

Getting up, the golden saint brushed away some imaginary dust on her knees then looked back up to Sheogorath, revealing to her lord that her face had become redder than a tomato. “Y…yes sir!” she said with a salute. She then ran to her destination with a smile on her face and a spring in her step.

Sanguine, the daedric prince of debauchery, lusts, and dark desires and lover of parties , walked up to the throne and leaned on it with his left arm and drained the contents of his goblet in one sip. Sighing, Sanguine also threw his cup away. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were trying to upstage me with that little display.”

Sheogorath hit him on the chest and mockingly scolded him. “Oh, shush. Ya already have credit for coming up with this celebration fer me ta host in honor of me love of cheese, so I think I can indulge in some debauchery.” he said, putting emphasis on the last word. A twinkle in his eye indicated his mischievous intent.

Sanguine threw his head back and laughed. “HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Now this is a side of you I can get used to!” spying something of interest, he turned to leave. “If you would excuse me, there’s some women talking over by that cheese table.” He then leaped off the stage and ran to the women.

After seeing this, Sheogorath leaned back, crossed his legs,put his hands behind his head, and sighed in contentment. “Cheese, skooma, women, and an expert on partying. What could make this occasion?” Just then, the telltale purple shifting orb of a teleportation spell appeared a few feet before the stage and when it faded, Mara and Stendarr were revealed.

“Of course! Uninvited guests! I love uninvited guests!!!” he said enthusiastically. He then jumped high into the air from his throne and did a few flips in the air. When he finally landed on a table that mysteriously appeared, his clothes had changed. Now his suit was patterned in a way to make it look like the outfit was made out of cheese. As a bonus, his clothes now matched the cheese hat that somehow managed to stay on his head. Putting two fists to his hips, Sheogorath leaned down low to look the two aedra in the eye with a stern face. “Except when I don’t.” In the blink of an eye, his look changed to one of confusion with a tilt of his head. “Hmmm…do I like uninvited guests? And can they do the chicken fingers appropriately to entertain small children!?” he said with a manic smile that looked like it could split his face.

Mara and Stendarr looked at each other then back at Sheogorath twice before Stendarr spoke up. “Ahem…yes, well. I’m sure uninvited guests could be very fun indeed, but we aren’t here to…” he took a look around before continuing “… take part in the festivities. We actually came to ask you for a favor.”

At hearing this, the mad god plopped down on the table so hard that any mortal would’ve had a sore bum for days. His legs dangled over the sides as he folded his arms over his chest. “Oooh? And what would the high and mighty divines want with a lowly daedra? Hmmmmmmm!?” he said while putting his face uncomfortably close to theirs and giving them a sideways glance.

Mara, looking unamused with her half-lidded gaze and small frown, shoved his face back. This caused Sheogorath to almost fall on his back before righting himself back into a proper seating position. Wanting to get right to the point, Mara gave her answer before Sheogorath could respond to being shoved with one of his infamous non-sequiturs. “We came here to ask if you could send a champion to another realm so that he could complete a task for us.”

“Really? And who might that be?” said Sheogorath with genuine interest.

This time, Stendarr answered. “The dragonborn, Darmith Cyran.” He said with a guarded expression, not knowing how the mad god would react.

“Little Darmy!? Oh, he was so much fun last time I met him! Trying to solve each of those problems inside Pelagius the third’s mind, his confused face during the ordeal, and his bewildered face when I replaced his armor with regular clothes and took all his items right from under his nose…WHEN HE WAS STARING RIGHT AT ME THE WHOLE TIME WE WERE TALKING!!! HAHAAA!!!” his frenzied visage suddenly became calmer. “Good times.” he said with a serene tone. He then looked passed the two divines at Sanguine across the pavilion, who was at another table chatting up even more attractive women and enjoying some meat dipped in cheesy fondue. “Hey Sanguine! Get over here!”

Sanguine turned his gaze to the mad god held up a finger to ask for him to wait a moment. “Sorry ladies, but the host of the party calls.”

“Awww!” said the ladies in disappointment.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be back.” said Sanguine. He then took the lady on the left’s hand and kissed it, causing her to giggle and blush. Smiling, the party daedra got up carrying the fondue fork he was about to eat from before Sheogorath called him over. Three quarters of the way there, Sanguine finally ate the whole piece of fondue covered meat off the fork in one bite. He then threw the fork to his left. It sailed through the air, taking a piece of cheese away from a male party goer’s hand and impaled the dairy product into an archery training target that mysteriously appeared.

When he arrived, Sanguine found Sheogorath waiting with a small first place trophy in the shape of an arrow on a pedestal. Just as with his hat, this trinket was also made out of cheese.

“Lady and Gentleman!” Sheogorath said to Mara and Stendarr. “May I present…the champion of the annual fork throwing competition!” He then gave the trophy to his royal daedric guest who proceeded to take a bite out of the cheddar arrowhead.

After a couple more bites, Sanguine swallowed and looked to the three of them. “Sooooo…what’s up?”

“Mara and Stendarr are asking me to send Little Darmy to another realm to go on some sort of quest for them!”

Sanguine’s eyes widened. “You mean Darmith Cyran? Oooooo…I say you should accept! He can be quite the Oblivion raiser when in the proper mind set.” He then grabbed a goblet of wine off a server’s platter and took a sip. After savoring the taste, he turned to Mara and Stendarr. “I’m curious though. What exactly do you need the dragonborn for? I might like to join if it sounds fun enough.” He said before taking a rather large sip.

Mara decided to answer this time. “An evil creature known as ‘Chrysalis’ plans on crashing the royal wedding of the guard captain, Shining Armor and Princess Cadence in order to…”

The second she mentioned who was getting married, Sanguine turned towards Sheogorath and spat his wine out in a steady stream for three seconds dead center at the mad god’s face. When it stopped, Sheogorath was revealed to be soaked in wine and holding up a ten point score card.

“Nice shot!” he said with an elated tone and huge grin.

Ignoring the mad god’s crazed praise, Sanguine turned to Mara and Stendarr with eyes the size of dinner plates. “A royal wedding!? Oh, now you have to let me in on this!” he said, pointing at them emphatically.

The two aedra looked at each other in concern before Mara turned her gaze back to Sanguine with a raised eyebrow. “And why should we do that?”

Sanguine face palmed before responding incredulously. “Are you kidding!? A royal wedding is one of the biggest events mortals could have! Especially the reception! Possibly hundreds of mortals dancing, getting drunk, and doing all manner of overindulging party activities! What could be more enticing to a daedra like me!?” he finished excitedly, indicating himself with both hands.

A mischievous twinkle appeared in Sheogorath’s eyes as he imagined how crazy and overblown Sanguine could make that party just by being himself. “Why didn’t I think of that!?” he said before also turning to Mara. “Alright, I’ll help, but only if you let Sanguine join in and let him try to help the mortals with the after party.” He then thought of another mad idea. “Annnnnnnnnnnd! If you also let me be the one who guides him to his main objective…which is what exactly?”

Seeing that Mara was getting a little annoyed, Stendarr decided to answer for her to avoid any unpleasantness. “Mara wants the dragonborn to stop Chrysalis, queen of the changelings, from realizing her goal and I want her captured alive and brought before her native world’s justice system.”

Sheogorath put his hands together. “Oooooooo! Lots of opportunities to make crazy things happen and lots of ways to achieve that goal, each one crazier than the last! Ok, throw in management of this mission and you’ve got yourself a deal!”

Mara’s anger had risen considerably by the end of this new condition added to the agreement. The mad god had essentially turned her plan into one of his own. Though the objective might’ve been the same, she shuddered at what Sheogorath would do to lead Darmith to it. Even then, it wasn’t certain that the mad god would even guide him to it, and instead have him mess around all over the realm. She raised a finger and opened her mouth to protest before she felt a hand on her left shoulder. Turning, she saw Stendarr shaking his head, telling her that it wasn’t worth yelling over.

After taking his hand off of her, Stendarr turned to the Sheogorath and Sanguine, the latter having his arms folded and a smug look, obviously thinking that only he and his fellow daedra benefitted from this since they more or less hijacked this mission. However, Stendarr had something up his sleeves.

“Alright, you can lead him as you see fit, but the main objective must be the same throughout. Darmith Cyran must not only stop Chrysalis from crashing the wedding and taking over the princesses’ country, but also capture the changeling queen alive and bring her to the proper authorities.”

Mara made an “oh” of realization look and gave a side glance at her fellow deity before looking back at the two daedra and returning Sanguine’s smug grin with one of her own; realizing what Stendarr had in mind. Wanting the satisfaction for herself, and to give her own conditions, Mara spoke up. “And the citizens mustn’t go into a panic because of Darmith’s doing. If any of our conditions aren’t met, we, along with some of our fellow divines will be back to force you to clean up any mess you make in that realm. I’m sure my husband, Akatosh, the god of time, would be happy to deal with two sources of his wife’s ire.” she said, her smile having grown to be even more audacious.

Both Sanguine’s arms and jaw dropped, stunned that the goddess of love would threaten him and his friend with siccing her husband on them. After closing his mouth, Sanguine turned to Sheogorath with raised eyebrows, eagerly awaiting his reaction to such brazen flaunting of status.

Pausing for a moment, the mad god put a hand to his bearded chin and looked up and slightly away in thought. “Hmmmm…well, I don’t know. I’m not sure if-oh, who am I kidding!? That makes it twice as interesting! DEAL!!!” he said, finishing by suddenly turning back to Mara and extending his hand for a shake.

Mara rolled her eyes at his reaction. It came as no surprise that the daedric prince of madness would be crazy enough to think the threat of receiving a beating from the god of time would be exciting to him. Reluctantly, Mara clasped Sheogorath’s hand and shook it.

The deal was struck.

A few minutes later on Nirn, in Skyrim, on the Throat of the World

Darmith Cyran, a now famous Kahjit amongst most of Skyrim, was feeling a bit bored lately, some time after the defeat of Alduin, the world eater. About a year ago, if you had told this dark brown/white furred humanoid feline that he was a being that was born with the soul of a dragon, AKA the dragonborn, and was destined to save the world by slaying a giant black dragon, he would’ve called you nuts. Considering what he had been through, the creatures he had seen, and the places he had explored, Darmith figured anything was possible at this point.

Currently, he was visiting his literally oldest friend, Paarthurnax, dragon leader of the Grey Beards, human monks who practice The Way of the Voice. The reason for his visit was not only because of his boredom, but also curiosity about a certain aspect of dragon shouts, one of the main abilities associated with being the legendary dragonborn.

Walking the last few feet, Darmith finally entered Paarthurnax’s home, the highest summit of The Throat of the World, the tallest mountain in Skyrim and possibly all of the continent of Tamriel. He leaned his back on the stone wall covered in dragon text and waited for a minute or so before he felt the hard thump of the old dragon perching on the ancient wall. Getting off of the wall, Darmith turned fully to Paarthurnax and looked up to make eye contact with the titanic beast. He then gave a friendly smile to show that he was happy to see the wise reptile.

“Pruzah avond. Good evening, Dovahkiin. It is good to see you.” said Paarthurnax.

Darmith nodded slightly before responding. “Hi, Paarthurnax.”

The dragon tilted his head when he noticed what Darmith was wearing. “Zurun, usually you are clothed as if you were about to engage in a great battle. Yet today, you are dressed in normal mortal apparel.” What Darmith wore really was comparatively mundane to his usual heavy armor and equipped with various weaponry. All that he currently had on was a backpack for provisions, a belted tunic, and simple green pants.

Darmith folded his arms and smirked. “Zurun, I didn’t know that the dress code for meeting with the leader of the Grey Beards was War Casual.”

Paarthurnax returned the grin before they both shared a laugh, Paarthurnax’s coming out in a loud rumble. After a moment the laughter stopped.

“…hahahahaha! So, what brings you here, Dovahkin?” the great dragon said as he climbed off his perch and sat down in front of his small companion.

“Paarthurnax, we’re friends. There’s no need for titles amongst us.” said Darmith as his arms unfolded. ‘I never understood why almost no one would call me by my actual name.’ he thought.

Paarthurnax once again grinned before responding. “Too true, Darmith Cyran. If I may reiterate, to what do I owe this friendly visit?”

“Well…” he said while scratching his head in slight nervousness. “I was wondering about a particular aspect of the dragon shouts.”

“Really? What would you like to know?” asked Paarthurnax with a raised eye ridge.

Feeling more relaxed, Darmith responded. “Why is it that when I use a full dragon shout such as fire or other elemental shouts, it comes out as a ball or a short puff, but when a dragon uses it, it comes out as a continuous stream?”

The wise dragon gave a smirk at this relatively easy question to answer. “It is actually very simple. As you know, all mortal races can cast spells by manipulating their magicka into specific patterns and focusing the energy through their hands. However, the outer extremities are the only areas that a mortal can cast spells with. This comes from not having enough control to manipulate and produce magicka through more internal sources. A mortal’s soul does not allow for such control. The Dovah, on the other hand, can manipulate and produce magicka from more internal sources. We use this to strengthen our thu’um’s and give us more control of our shouts.”

Darmith was surprised at the answer being so easy to understand and actually make some sense to him. He was eager to learn more, as the prospect of being able to improve his shouts was too good of an opportunity to pass up. “Wow. Could I learn to have such control?”

Paarthurnax grinned this time at the dragonborn’s appetite for the knowledge of his kind. “Of course! Being the dovahkiin, you too have the soul of a dovah and can therefore control your magicka in the same way your spiritual brothers can. Simply focus your magicka in your throat and use a shout. Your thu’um will stop when you’ve either exhausted all of your magicka or lose your breath, whichever comes first. Go ahead. Attempt to perform a true dovah’s shout.”

Eager to see if he could do it, Darmith did as instructed. Focusing his magicka, the impromptu student felt the familiar faint tingle of magicka build up in his throat. Turning to his right, so as to avoid hurting Paarthurnax, Darmith let loose the most common of the shouts. However, something was different about the shout now that he was using magicka.

“YOL TOOR SHUUUUUUUUUUUUL” It was no wonder losing one’s breath was one of the things that could cut off a dragon shout. Apparently, the use of magicka causes the last sound of the shout to be extended. Whether this worked with all shouts or just elemental shouts could probably be explored at a later time. For now, Darmith turned back to his teacher to see his reaction to his performance.

A large smile grew on Parthurnax’s face as he gazed at his successful student. “Wonderful! You have truly embraced your inner dovah to be able to perfectly mimic my kind’s voice.”

“Thank you, Professor Parthurnax.” said Darmith with a short bow. Even though he said it in a joking tone of voice, he truly did have respect and appreciation for the dragon who helped him in his past quest and bestowed this new knowledge upon him. A few seconds later, there was an abrupt disturbance.

“HAHAHAHA!!! That ability will come in handy for your next adventure little mortal!” said a familiar voice that seemed to come from everywhere.

Suddenly, the purple orb of a teleportation spell appeared to Darmith’s left and Paarthurnax’s right. When it cleared, Sheogorath and Mara were revealed.

Darmith bit his lower lip. ‘Oh, boy.’ He then put on an obviously nervous smile. Uh hi Sheogorath. How is everything?”

Said daedric prince, now wearing his usual brown and purple suit, sauntered up to Darmith’s right side with a fancy cane in his left hand before throwing his cane toting arm around Darmith’s shoulders, giving the dragonborn a one armed hug while pushing the head of the cane into his cheek. “Ooooh…nothing much. Just enjoying a cheese festival. I invited Sanguine over since he was the one who thought up the idea. The cheese was great and the skooma was exquisite.” He then looked up in the air as though he was trying to remember something. “And I believe I also…” suddenly, he grinned “…AGREED TO SEND YOU TO A LAND THAT YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT SO YOU CAN DO THE BIDDING OF ONE OF THE DIVINES!!!” he yelled while using the arm he was giving a hug with to drag Darmith over to Mara.

“WHAT!?” Darmith exclaimed.

When he was finally standing in front of her, Darmith recognized who she was and wondered what the goddess of love would want with a Kahjit warrior. Mara, annoyed with Sheogorath’s antics, put a hand to her forehead and rubbed her temples before putting it down and addressing the confused dragonborn.

‘sigh’ “It’s as he said. I have need of you, Darmith Cyran, for a mission in a far off land. Though, what he didn’t say was that this land is not even on Nirn, but on a completely different world that isn’t even in Mundus.” Darmith raised an eyebrow, thoroughly intrigued. “Sheogorath also forgot to mention that you would only be sent there if you accept the mission.”

Shrugging his shoulders a few times to get the mad god’s arm off, Darmith put on a slight thinking face before deciding what to ask. “Ok. This sounds interesting, but what would you have me do in this new country?” Mara briefed him on the mission and by the end, Darmith had his arms crossed and was even more intrigued with both of his eyebrows raised and wearing a pleasantly surprised smile. Weddings weren’t really his thing, but on top of having the opportunity to explore a whole new world, the possibility of being regarded as a hero in said new world for capturing a criminal made it very enticing.

Darmith put his arms down before responding. “The chance to explore a new world and take down another likely powerful monster? Count me in!” he said excitedly.

“Excellent!” said Mara, also sporting a smile. “When you’ve prepared yourself for the journey, contact me by praying at one of my temples or shrines. I’ll then have Sheogorath transport you. May you have a safe journey and your quest lead to a rousing success.” With that, she teleported away, leaving Darmith, Paarthurnax, and Sheogorath at the summit.

Noticing that Sheogorath didn’t leave, Darmith turned and addressed the daedric prince. “Ummm…Sheogorath?”

“Yeeeeeeesssss?” he said.

Darmith continued in his questioning. “Why are you still here?”

Sheogorath walked back up to Darmith, twirling his cane, and stabbed it into the snow before grinning like the mad god that he was. “Well that’s just it, isn’t it?”

“I don’t foll-“ Darmith started to say before Sheogorath cut him off.

“One thing that Missus Prude of Fancy Town oh so helpfully didn’t mention was that I would be the one guiding you on this mission!”

“What!?” exclaimed Darmith, thoroughly surprised and taking a step back. He was now wondering what he’d gotten himself into. He could only imagine what would happen now, especially when his last encounter with the daedric prince was really trippy.

“However, she didn’t say anything about whether I was only allowed to direct you when the mission officially started.” He then jumped back and spun around like a mini-tornado then suddenly stopped with new clothes adorning his body and sitting in a strange looking chair with his legs crossed. Instead of his usual suit, he had on a white shirt with buttons and tight fitting beige pants tucked into black leather boots. His accessories of choice were what looked like a very short scarf and one of those weird floppy hats that he had seen bards directing plays at their college wearing. The cane in his left hand had transformed into a large cone with a handle and the word ‘Director’ written on the side. Getting up from his seat, he walked closer and began talking through the cone.

“I WANT THIS WHOLE THING TO BE A GRAND SPECTACLE!” he yelled, causing Darmith to clap his hands over his sensitive ears.

“Uuuuh…what.” The Kahjit eloquently asked when he took his hands from his head.

Taking the cone from his mouth, Sheogorath repeated himself. “I said I’ll be wantin’ this to be a grand spectacle. I want the mortals and immortals of this new world to have their jaws unhinged in astonishment. I want you to surprise them by not showing every extraordinary thing at once. That goes for your cat face too.”

“Ex…” Darmith put a hand to his face at its mention then put it down and raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me, but…what?”

Sheogorath grinned at the dragonborn’s befuddled expression before explaining. “You see, as Mara said, the world that you’ll be visitin’ is mostly populated by sentient, four legged beasties and you’re goin to a country whose mortals are mainly ponies!” he said in a crazed voice before laughing.

Darmith remembered that interesting part of his mission briefing. To be honest, it wasn’t too strange for him, especially after meeting and helping out a talking dog named Barbas find his master. After reminiscing that past quest, Darmith gave his attention back to Sheogorath.

When he saw that Darmith was paying attention, the daedric prince elaborated on what he wanted the dragonborn to do. “I want you to introduce yourself to the two rulers of Equestria wearing one of your armors that hides your face and wear a cape around it to hide your tail. When not wearing your armor, make sure everyone sees you only in a cloak and one of your dragon priest masks. I want you to only reveal your true appearance and your dragon shouts at opportune moments. Trust me, you’ll know when to reveal them.”

Darmith looked slightly to his left as he thought about it. Why did Sheogorath want him to make a big spectacle of this mission? He then remembered that this was the daedric prince of madness, whose motives were nearly impossible to figure out. However, while this did bother him, what Sheogorath wanted him to do actually sounded interesting. He liked the idea of being regarded as a hero in an unexplored, new land, but Sheogorath would also turn it into something resembling a theater performance with the big reveal of his true appearance and abilities. One thing was for sure, he wouldn’t have to worry about boredom with Sheogorath around.

Turning his gaze back to his soon to be guide, Darmith finally responded. “That actually sounds like fun. I can’t wait.” he said with a smile.

“GREAT! SO GLAD YOU LIKE THE IDEA! Go and get your things so we can get this show on the road!” and with that, Sheogorath teleported away.

Darmith stared at the spot where the daedric prince was standing before looking over at Paarthurnax and smiling up at him. “Well, it looks like I’m off to my second grand adventure in under a year.”

Paarthurnax returned the smile. “Indeed. Though it probably won’t take as long, the fact that you are going to a place that is even beyond Mundus is no less extraordinary.”

Darmith nodded. “Yep. Well, I better get going. I wouldn’t want to keep Mara waiting.” He then turned and walked away. “See you when I get back.” he called over his shoulder.

“Goodbye, Darmith Cyran.” said Paarthurnax with a wave of his right wing. When Darmith was out of sight and earshot, he put a hand to his head and rubbed it in exasperation. ‘sigh’ “I’m getting too old for this craziness.” He then looked down the mountain in the direction of one of the major cities of Skyrim. “I wonder if I could sneak up on one of their breweries and binge drink this headache away.” Paarthurnax thought. The old dragon then took off to get drunk and possibly end up making a fool of himself in front of his bearded followers by nightfall.

3 days later in Equestria

Celestia and Luna were worried. Ponies were disappearing and showing up a day later claiming to have headaches. This had started a few days ago and the reports of these happenings had come from nearly every corner of Equestria and grew in frequency. Fearing this could happen to her subjects right under her muzzle, Celestia had Shining Armor cast a strong shield over the entirety of Canterlot. Despite him being best known for having the rank of captain of the royal guard, he also lived up to his name by being the best defense mage in the Equestrian military.

Because of his skill in the art of defensive spell craft, Shining was confident that the wedding could be safely held in the capital, despite Luna advising against it. At this moment, Luna was trying to convince her sister to reconsider going through with the wedding while this crisis was going on.

“Sister, are you sure going through with this at this time is such a good idea? With all of the reports of ponies disappearing and reappearing all over Equestria, I would think that having a wedding at this time wouldn’t be the best idea” said Luna.

They were both looking out a window on the east side of their throne room as they talked. Celestia bowed her head before responding. “I understand, Luna. However…” she then looked at the smaller alicorn, “Shining Armor insists that the wedding is held as soon as possible. I also have the utmost confidence in his abilities. Did you know that he once held off an entire platoon of griffin knights with a miniscule force field spell that only lasts a split second for each casting? Shining was so proficient that not only was he able to block all of their strikes, but was also able to knock them out by using the force fields as battering rams.”

“That may be, but even Sir Armor has his limits. That, and we also have a good portion of our guards out searching for whatever is behind these strange happenings. Couldn’t you just order the captain to post pone the wedding until this issue is resolved?” said Luna with narrowed eyes.

Celestia shook her head at this. “Luna. Everything has already been set up. Twilight and her friends are coming, the various supplies that I ordered for both Applejack and Pinkie Pie are already here, and guests of various levels of importance have come from across Equestria and beyond to attend the event. Some of these guests traveled for days or weeks to get here. Do you honestly think I’m going to tell all of them, including Shining’s parents, to just turn around and come back later, effectively wasting their time?” she asked, with slight incredulity.

Luna lowered her head before responding in a regretful tone “No, I suppose I don’t. Sorry.”

Watching her sister feel ashamed wasn’t one of Celestia’s preferred pastimes. So, to comfort her literally and metaphorically blue sister, she went over to her side and wrapped a wing around her while nuzzling her cheek for a bit. “Don’t feel embarrassed, sister. You’re only looking out for our subjects, and I applaud you for that” she said with a warm smile.

“Thank you, Celestia. I’m glad that you understand” said Luna as she got out from under the white wing. “I’m going to order Captain Armor to keep the guards on high alert for anything suspicious within the city” she said as she turned to face Celestia.

Celestia’s smile grew at this proclamation. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from an upstanding ruler such as yourself, little sister. Though, now that you mention it…” she said as she put a hoof to her chin. “…our guards within the city could use some help. With the wedding coming up and even more guards having to be pulled from the streets in order to protect the happy couple and the guests during the event, their numbers will be stretched too thin to see anything suspicious before it’s right on our doorstep; if anything suspicious gets into the city that is.”

Luna nodded before adding her thoughts. “Yes, that is a dilemma. We would need something that would allow them to focus more on their patrols than the wedding…but what?”

“But what, indeed Miss Once in a Blue Moon!” said a sudden crazed voice.

Author's Note

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