Fahdon

Chapters

The man with no face
The traveler
The survivor
The lost man
The warrior
The slayer

The man with no face

Fahdon

Chapter One: The Man with no face

Blizzards. If there was one word to describe the northern corners of Skyrim, that one word would come to anyone's mind. And as the rider atop the shadow black stallion cantered quietly into Winterhold, he was inclined to agree.

The destitute little town was beyond saving, no matter what anyone did for it, but it struggled on anyway. The Jarl's longhouse, barely bigger than the Frozen Hearth inn, was all but powerless among the larger and richer Capitols, while the few money makers, the aforementioned inn and a small shop, did little to attract travelers. With a minuscule populous, ruins dotting the town, practically indistinguishable from the buildings in use, and the lack of a wall sending a veil of snow throughout the single main road that cut through the town, made for an unappealing home.

However, towering over the frigid town, silhouetted against the aurora borealis in the night sky, stood the college. Three might towers, an imposing arc marking the borders of college grounds and a crumbling, barely stable bridge would meet man or mer to look upon the mighty structure, and the grand College of Winterhold would stare endlessly down upon the tiny hold it was named for.

Dismounting his horse with a clattering of metal as the weapons sheathed on the horse's saddle rattled in the wind. A black cloak draped over his shoulders and a hood covered his head. He crossed the broken bridge without hesitation, seeming not to notice the abyss below, and set his eyes upon the imposing college as he drew near. Word had come to the striding man of an 'odd goings on' in the hall of the Elements and, as the Arch-Mage, it was his duty to investigate.

Technically, he could have let it be, but given the climate of how the locals felt about the use of magic, he felt it prudent to contain thing before he had another 'incident' on his hands.

The wind picked up as he walked, sending the cloak whipping in the winds, a flash of bone white and icy blue revealed to the world for the briefest of seconds. Boots thudded upon the stone bridge and gauntlets steadied the Arch-Mage as the wind tore at him. A wave of his fingers, layered in a plated, dull ivory, sent the gates to the college swinging open, and the wind ceased as he stepped past the boundaries of the college.

The courtyard was deserted, only the impressive statute of someone the Arch-Mage wasn't sure of the identity of kept him company. He felt it odd, but not unpredictable, given the missive. He glanced around as he walked, the blizzard raging just beyond the college grounds, but inside it was still. Tranquil. The Arch-Mage had always found it a little unsettling.

A pair of doors swung open at his silent behest, only to be greeted by a pair of mages.

"We should get rid of it. Gods only know what this could be, and I refuse to have to deal with another angry Jarl" exclaimed the high elf. The other, shorter and much older, held his hands up, palms out, in a placating gesture.

"Yes, yes, Faralda, of course, but we should let the Arch-Mage examine it first. He has much great experience with such things" he replied firmly, like a grandfather explaining something; gentle, but with no room for argument.

"And what, exactly, will I be examining" the man in armor asked as he pushed through the door. The two mages turned to face him, one's face lighting up.

"Ah, Arch-Mage, it's good to see you" the elderly man greeted, taking his gauntlet in hand and shaking it gently. The taller man sighed.

"Must I remind you every time we meet Tolfdir? You needn't call me that" he explained as he shrugged his cloak off and tossed it onto a coat-rack that wasn't there, the hood hanging on an invisible peg. Tolfdir chuckled.

"And what would you prefer? Harbinger, Dragonborn perhaps" asked with a smile

"Or perhaps Listener or Guild Master" Faralda mumbled under her breath as she turned away. Lightning crackled between the taller man's fingers before he clenched his fist to dispel it.

"Maybe one of my other numerous titles" he grunted, hands on his hips as he shook his head "no, Remus will do just fine" he replied.

"As you wish Remus, shall I show you why I summoned you here?" Tolfdir turned away as he spoke leading the Dragonborn into the main hall. Remus had to admit, he'd expected the Eye Of Magnus to reappear, or a gate to have torn from the ground.

"Well...can't say I was expecting that" was all the most worldly and powerful mage in the college had to say on the matter.

It was...well, it was an arc. Inside the curve of the arc, however, was a burning, swirling portal that leaked fire and spat sparks now and then. Granted, Remus had never actually seen an Oblivion portal before, but there were numerous tomes on the subject, an none were described like this.

Remus strode around the room, Tolfdir breaking off and trotting over to the students, all new faces, while the Arch_mage performed his examination.

"What in the name of Sheogorath's balls am I looking at" he mumbled. A portal, yes, but to where? And why had it appeared? Where had it appeared from? Too many questions, and not his area of expertise; he'd been through a bunch of them but he'd never taken the time to study them. Portals were doors, and one rarely stopped to research a door.

Around the room, the other mages of the college were gathered. The spectral form of Arniel Gane studied the arc up close, the spell most of the college had cast to prolong his stay on Mundus sticking it seemed, while the senior mages were gathered in group off to the side, muttering and discussing between each other. Tolfdir was giving the students a quite lecture, ever a teacher first, while three old friends sat in a row on the steps.

Onmund, J'zargo and Brelyna had note books on their laps and quills in their hands, faces buried in the pages. His only friends from his days as a student here, with the rest of the apprentices bitter at or jealous of his success. Walking silently behind them, Remus peered over their shoulders to look at their notes.

J'zargo's deft paw was working away at a sketch of the portal, capturing the chipped marble, clumsy stone masonry and the ugliness of the craftsmanship. Remus hoped that this was not the best work of the blind man or fool who had carved this.

Onmund and Brelyna had taken notes, both jotting down their observations of the marble portal and their intuitive remarks on the subject.

Looking upon the portal, I feel an odd wave a magika emitting every minuet or so. According to my teachers, this phenomenon is similar to an effect the Eye of Magnus had on the more seasoned wizards on campus, master Tolfdir in specific. Here, however, even I can feel it.

Brelyna's note's intrigued the Dragonborn, and he looked up at the arc again. Focusing, lowering his magical defenses, he too could feel an odd, rhythmic pulsing now and then. With a frown, Remus cocked his head in thought. A portal that emanated pure magicka? He was sure that such a thing would be noted by scholars if they'd felt something similar with the Oblivion portals, but he'd read no such thing.

Running his gauntlet clad fingers down Brelyna's back, she gasped in shock as her spine straightened suddenly.

"So, what do we think" he asked quietly. The three younger wizards looked back to find him, the three of them deflating when they realized who it was.

"Remus" they said at once, Brelyna a touch breathier than the others. He glanced left and right at the Nord and Khajiit, nodding to them, before returning his attention to the Dunmer. She glared at him, and the Dragonborn laughed quietly.

"I will turn you to dust, barbarian" she told him, trying to be angry. Remus only laughed again.

"Maybe, but then you'd have to hear Tolfdir's lecturing about the dangers of magic again" he reminded. The two men chuckled at Remus's remark while Brelyna turned back to her book. "Anything interesting" he asked, motioning at the woman's parchment, glancing at the guys.

""Fraid not. Never seen anything like it before" Onmund said with a shrug.

"This one has never enconutered such a thing either...but J'zargo feels his fur stand on end looking at it. I believe it to be dangerous" he warned it his thick accent. Remus grunted; if J'zargo was weary, then Alduin himself had cause for concern.

"I can feel magic pouring from it but...I'm not sure what it means" Breylna admitted, tensing a side of her mouth in frustration "no tomes I've ever read speak on the subject of other worldly portals entering Tamriel at great length" she mused "and certainly none of this..." she looked back at the portal "design" she finished weakly, the horrendous craftsmanship taking the wind from her sails.

The Dragonborn merely hummed in thought, stroking his hand down the chin of his mask, where his beard would have been. The three students were looking back at him, questions in their eyes, but they dren't interrupt his thoughts; calm, wise and focused as he was, he had a knack for getting distracted and going on wild tangents at the worst of times, and they were loathe to get him started on what was going through his mind.

Breylna's eyes snapped between the Arch-Mage and the arc, and while she couldn't see his icy blue eyes behind the pitch black cloth he wore under the mask, she knew he was staring at it intently; he had a sense of curiosity that knew no bounds, after all.

"I suppose you've all been scouring the Library" he asked suddenly. The three students glanced between each other again.

"Well...this one made an attempt, but was quickly cast out by your brother" J'zargo replied uneasily. A sigh escaped Remus's hidden nose, his head dropping as he rubbed its concealed bridge with his gauntlet-clad fingers.

"He's here" he asked, voice low and annoyed. With a slight swallow from the Nord, all three nodded. "When did he get here?"

"A-a little before you did. Said he felt some kind of 'magical disturbance' in the area while fishing in Dawnstar" Onmund replied. Again, the Dragonborn sighed; one, because he'd have to have words with Tolfdir about keeping him informed of his brother's whereabouts, and two because he wished Onmund would realize his potential and proceed to grow a spine.

"Guess I'd better check on him" Remus grumbled, standing straight, running a finger through Breylna's ebony hair as he did. Striding from the room and up into the Arcanaeum, when he pushed through the door Remus was met with but one thing: pandemonium.

Books lay littered across the floor, in far-too-tall stacks and floated around the room, orbiting the few figures in the room. Raised voices could be heard and the distinctive hum of the telekinesis spell filled the air. He walked forwards calmly, silently, and stood behind one of the three people in the room, the rest having likely been cowed by the argument. A small girl, sat curled up in a wooden arm chair, sweet roll being pulled apart by her small hands as she watched the roaring contest before her.

Leaning against the stone shelves with his arms crossed, Remus glanced down at the small girl absently.

"So...what're they arguing about?" The girl shirked, bolting up right, he hand latching to the dagger on her belt as she looked around, eventually behind her to find the towering monolith of dragon bone, Stalrim and ebony stood behind her, his very presence humming with Magicka, the goliath's face hidden behind an eerie mask of more dragon bone and ebony, Nordic and Akaviri patterns lined with more of the enchanted ice. Hollow, black eyes, trapped in an eternal slumber stared at her, tusks jutting from the 'maw', while the chin was covered in tentical-esqe patterns, giving the mask an otherworldly appearance, something alien and cruel.

"Uncle Remus" she beamed, twisting unto her knees as she made a valiant attempt to wrap he short arms around the colossal figure. Suddenly uncomfortable and awkward under the small girl's affection, Remus simply patted her back gently as he spoke, his tone rigid and his words obviously chosen.

"Well met Sofie, how are you cub?" She released him immediately, sitting back as she looked up at him eagerly.

"I'm great, I love coming to the college, and father never lets me come here. But he said it was an emergency today, but wouldn't tell me what was going on." She looked back at her warring father for a moment before motioning Remus to lean in. "I think it's about the pretty arch in the hall down stairs" she told him in a loud whisper. For several reasons, Remus was glad of his mask hiding his face, mostly however to hide his badly restrained glee at Sofie's description of the presumably hand-less sculpter's work downstairs. Saying nothing more as he tussled her hair (not as gently as he'd meant) he turned to the arguing duo.

One was an elderly Orc, muscles rippling under his robes despite his age in fury, as he stood near nose-to-nose with the other.

A Nord, like no other. Similar to Remus he was wore a mask, however, that's where their similarities ended. He wore a flowing, fluxing robe, sometimes green and sometimes purple, golden scales trailing from the shoulders to the gauntlets. he had an aura of magicka about him, intense and powerful, and when he looked to the last dragonborn, his mask betrayed a twisted visage, that of twisting, clasping tendrils obscuring his old face.

There was a short stand-off between the three men, one panting and enraged, the other silent and radiating malice and the last stood with his weight on his heels, arms crossed over his chest casually.

"Urag" he began, nodding at the Orc before he turned his gaze to the Nord. "Miraak" he continued, less easy. Again, the two shared a stand-off, both masks staring at each other without emotion, silently, intently.

"Zeymah" came Miraak's reply. Again, silence.

Minus the quiet munching coming from Sofie.

"Arch-Mage" Urag began, his tone sharp, angry "I thought I'd made it clear, the Arcanaeum is my domain, and I don't care who you are" he turned to Miraak once more "disrupt my Arcanaeum-"

"And you'll have them ripped apart by angry Atronachs, yes, I've heard as such" Remus interrupted, hands on his hips as he shook his head. The Last Dragonborn turned to Miraak. "I thought you of all would have a deep respect for libraries" he mused, much to the first Dragonborn's aggravation. Miraak crossed his own arms, his right hand gripping his left bicep with enough pressure to crush the muscle as he glowered at Remus from behind his mask.

"Ag hin vum" Miraak grumbled, turning away. Remus simply laughed at the weak insult from his weary friend. He took a moment to look around himself; Urag was still stood, standoffish, while Miraak had simply gone back to his books, the situation apparently defused for now. With a gesture, the books that had been floating around the room and strewn across the floor snapped back to their places among the shelves, much to Urag's gruff gratitude. Remus looked to the old Orc, raising his hand in a placating gesture. "Perhaps we should share our finding in less..." the last watched as Urag stalked back to his counter, where he looked at the books that Miraak had taken from the glass case behind him, the more valuable books in the library, with an angry aura around him "agitated company" Remus finished, trying to further defuse the situation before the fires of hatred flared again.

"Very well" came the metallic echos of Miraak's voice "come Sofie" he called behind. A small 'yes father' was his reply, and a small twitch snapped at Remus's neck at the word leaving her mouth.

How the unorthodox bunch Remus called family had gained its two most...mismatched members was the likes of a tale that demanded a full tankard and a roaring fire to tell. Needless to say, Akatosh had been watching Miraak since his first days on Nirn, and looked for even the briefest of glimpses of him during the first Dragonborn's time in Apocrapha. Upon his defeat, not even the near-insurpassable might of the last Dragonborn could contain the sheer will and power of his soul.

As Remus climbed the stared to the stairs to his quarters within the college, watching Sofie trail after her father, he recounted with bitter fondness the days of death-like illness he'd spent in his bead, incapacitated by Miraak's efforts to free himself. And then, the morning when the sweating and pain stopped, and the first Dovakiin, of the mythic era, lay next to his bed.

With a relationship brokered on a tense respect and a broken pride, the two had been an odd pair for a long while, Miraak's devastation at his defeat and near vegetative state broken only by the unpredictable hand of Sofie. Remus had long suspected the Sheogorath had taken part in the odd chain of events that had brought Miraak out of his shell.

He had little time to ruminate on said thoughts, however, as he had reached his dimly lit chambers and found Miraak staring over the small garden that dominated the room.

He stood next to him, Miraak's stance of his hands clasped behind his back complemented by Remus placing his hands on his hips. One quite, one bold, they made quite the amusing pair for Sofie, who was sat on a chair, giggling at the two.

"Has your research born fruit" Remus asked, after another long silence. A sigh, and a man deflating was his answer, as Miraak shook his head.

"Nid" he answered, voice still ringing with metal tones "none of the Orc's book speak on the subject. I dare even say that the library of Apocrapha was bare of this knowledge" he remarked. Remus found it endlessly amusing, the gravitas of his voice and the true epicness of his tone, and yet he made no grandiose speeches or monologues. Instead he spoke as a scholar discussing his finding. Which Remus largely found him to be, at heart. A man who sought knowledge. He also knew that finding something unknown to him, while Remus saw a challenge, Miraak saw an insult.

"There must be something" the last replied after a moment, stroking where his beard would have been "Tamriel has seen portals before, had instances such as this occur in the past" he mused, staring down vacantly at a mushroom he felt was misshapen.

"We knew what was on the other side of most of them" Miraak argued, stroking the tenticals on the chin of his mask. Remus nodded, glancing around himself in thought before he shrugged and turned away.

"Well, we have now studied, researched and theorized about this infernal portal, and we've gotten nowhere" Remus announced suddenly, turning away without warning "I can now only think of one thing to do" he exclaimed. Miraak turned to follow him, confused.

"Wait, what do you mean brother" he asked, trailing after him, Sofie following the two without prompting. Miraak continued to ask questions, to no avail, of Remus before they found themselves back in the Hall of the Elements, the staff and students all seeming to have grown bored with the seemingly inanimate portal. Tolfdir noticed him first, as well as the direction he was headed.

"Arch-mage, Miraak, what's going on. What's all the fuss" he asked, falling into step at Remus's side. They'd gathered the whole room's attention, all eyes on the two sets of robes and the Goliath covered in bone.

"No fuss" Remus assured, glancing back at Tolfdir "just conducting a small experiment" he explained. At the shocked shouts of everyone in the room, before Miraak could reach out to grab him, Remus stepped into the portal.

Blinding whiteness.

All around.

Everywhere.

"How unoriginal" the Dragonborn mused. Dovahzun, the Dragon's Blade, hung comfortably in Remus's hand, pulsating with crackling lightning, roaring fire and biting cold in a continuous rhythm. The blood-rending, element taming broad sword matched the armour's design, whites, blacks and blues forging its length.

However, in this stark...place, even the most pale of dragon bone stood out like an ogre in an orphanage.

Lightning crackled around Remus's left hand as he stepped in a circle, watching for foes, keeping an eye on the portal. It was...odd, the white void. Blinding but bearable, he could see feint black lines, as though he were in a room...or a box.

Thudding, coming from all around. He turned, turned again, and nothing met his sharp eyes. The ceaseless thudding did not relent, causing the Dragonborn to continue turning, casting a wall of lightning behind him and ready a ward in his off hand.

"An impressive trick" came a voice, from all around. It was feminine, gently and calm...but there was a edge to it, experience hidden in its weary tones.

"I'd be glad to teach it to you" Remus called in reply "show yourself!" There was a pause, long and tense, the last flexing his grip on his sword.

"Very well" came the reply. A swirling of wind, the flapping of wings, and...the trotting of hooves. As though stepping from a curtain, a veil, came...

Remus had seen much in his time, but even he had to admit, a horse wearing a tiara took the sweet roll. Never mind the wings and horn, the idea of administrative work been done my a mare made him want to double over in laughter. He held fast, however, and watched as the mare approached him. Assuming this was who had spoken, that is.

"Greeting" the made said, bowing her head gently, confirming Remus's suspicions as he bowed his head in turn.

"Well met" he replied, somewhat hesitantly. Was this a Daedra he was dealing with here? Had he just walked into a plane of Oblivion? No, it felt wrong. The mare was too welcoming, too pleasant. To simple to look at, given that if this was any Daedra, it was Sheogorath, and he wouldn't be so mundane.

"You shouldn't be here" she advised. That sent Remus's brow a-glaring.

"Is that so" he challenged "why is that, my esteemed steed" he remarked with a smirk, perhaps a bit too proud of his jibe.

"Because there is nothing here for you, and the portal through which you entered is closing soon" she replied without missing a beat, nodding behind him. Remus glanced back, weighing his options; his instinct was to stay, explore, but if this was Oblivion, this could be a trick. He hadn't left when 'invited' to, as such he'd stayed of his own accord. Granted, the idea of being trapped in Oblivion with only his whits (and some of the most finely crafted gear to ever grace Nirn, but still) to aid him sent a bolt of lightning through his gut, but something about this felt off somehow. He couldn't put his finger on it, and it made his teeth itch.

"Very well" he replied after a moment, the horse seeming to sigh in relief as he said so, passing through the sparking lightning as though it weren't there as he backed away, never taking his eyes from her. He paused suddenly. "Are you trapped here" he asked. That seemed to catch the mare off-guard, but before the emotion had fully washed across her face, she shook her head.

"No. I merely wish to see that you are not." Another glare, more a frown really, but Remus decided not to argue either way. The wolf's hackles were stood on end, the dragon in his soul sniffing at the air, the vampire afraid of the unforgiving light, but the man was calm, pushing down all other aspects and setting his mind straight as he retreated, deciding not to tempt fate this time.

His return was heralded with questions.

"Are you insane?"

"Are you alright?"

"Are you still Remus?"

"What was over there?"

"Do you remember us?"

"Do you remember yourself."

His hands up to stop the barrage of questions, the last Dragonborn shook his head free of the odd, muzzy feeling overcoming him.

"I'm fine, i'm fine" he assured, feeling strange all of a sudden, as though he'd been poisoned or been spiked with Skooma. He felt clouds and then fog fill his mind, and through a dull, distant muffle he heard voices, calling to him.

Everything felt heavy, and regret stabbed his gut. He fell to one knee, his armor, usually a second skin, weighing him down like a mammoth on his back.

"What's wrong with him." Miraak demanded, kneeling next to his brother, a hand on his shoulder.

"I-I'm not sure. Colette, can you help him?"

The gaggle of mages was broken up by the Breton, pushing her way through, but it was all so much haze to Remus. He felt nothing but that hazy, obscuring fog. A wolf howled in the distance and bats chirped and squeaked in massive numbers, fluttering away, into the distance. He'd washed the blood of the wolf and vampire from his veins long ago, but for a moment it all came to the forefront.

He remembered the call of the wolf, the burning, aching thirst on his throat. A dragon roared. Several dragons roared, all atop some distant mountain, just barely loud enough for the Dragonborn's ears. Through it all, he heard four words, perfectly, crisp to his ears.

"Zeymah, los hi Pruzah?" Brother, are you well.

Such a simple question, one he could barley bring himself to answer.

"Nid" With that simple word, the Dragonborn fell to his front, collapsing amidst the group of mages, all of the scattering back in shock. They went to his aid, but before they could take a step, a sound that set a boulder in Miraak's gut found their ears; wind whistled, with no breeze to be felt.

Slowly, at first, as though a slight chill on a warm day, but the rush and intensity increased so quickly, many in the Hall of the Elements felt the blizzard might carry them into the night sky. The gale carried no wind however, and Miraak's eyes were locked onto his brother's unmoving back; golds, blues, oranges, reds, a twisting, spiraling vortex ripping from between the armor plates. And blinding, bright yellow flames licking at the air, struggling to escape the dragon bone plates.

Remus lay still, paralyzed but feeling everything, burn of Alduin's own flame, the cold of the Soulcairn, the ripping and tearing of a thousand bears, the piercing of a thousand swords, the pummeling of a thousand hammers, his blood drained by a hundred vampires and his spirit crushed by any number of defeats.

Throughout it all, he felt the pain of his losses; his closest friends, Silas, the Ebony Warrior, befriended instead of slain. Telydrn Sero, the finest of mercenaries coin by, and the finest of friends and man could ask for. Bryn, Farkas, Vilkas, Aela, Babette, Nazir, Tolfdir and countless other friends and allies, too many to remember in his final moments.

Serana. The thought of her almost let him rise again, his hand beneath him, his love giving him strength. But the tails lied, and no gift was sent down from the gods for his pure thoughts, his truest of loves. It burned him, these final second, and in a final act of petty defiance, he managed one last act in the world. One last shout.

Fus, ro dah

The mages were blasted away, dust fell from the rafters, men and women scrambled to their feet, screams were head and spells miscast. Many could feel their eardrums throbbing in pain, the iron gates had been blasted off their hinges and the Dragonbron fell once again.

Miraak cursed in some distant land as Remus felt his vison blur, the dark setting in. Miraak rushed to him but it didn't matter. He didn't wonder where he'd go, because something else crossed his mind. Something Miraak had once asked him.

"Do you think it hurts, having your soul ripped out like that."

Yes, it did.

By the gods it did.

Author's Note

Yet another old project of mine that I'm bringing over here. Love, hate, ect, do your thing internet.

Productive faffer out

The traveler

Chapter two: The traveller

Celestia looked on in horror at the scene before her, which had started moments after she had left her side of the stone cutter's passage; an ancient and powerful artifact that lived among hundreds, if not thousands, of other ancient and powerful artifacts in the bowels of the Canterlot palace. The stone cutter's passage was not, by any means, the most dangerous of the artifacts down here, far from it, but it was one of the more…unpredictable of them; it was made by an amateur marble sculptor and appeared to be rough and amateurish to the untrained eye…mainly because it was rough and amateurish, the first and last piece of work by a unicorn named Marbles. Marbles made this 'arc' as a starting project, something to work up from, a sensible notion in the eyes of many, but as fate had it he fell ill shortly after he finished it. Not wanting his life's work to go forgotten he had a curse placed on it by a less honorable unicorn in his bitterness, a curse that turned his humble arc into a doorway, a portal if you will, that could appear anywhere and that rule was binding; the mind of Discord, or the vacuum of space, this doorway way an invitation to disaster, as any number of things could go wrong with a portal such as this. What was happening before the ruler of Equestria was just the reason for this paranoia.

A skeleton appeared before the princess of the day; it was formed from, what can only be described as, pure magical energy; gold, blue, reds and orange streaks of pure energy swirled with the distant sound of winds accompanying it in its arrival, as the swirls began to form ribs, a spine, four limbs and a skull. Next, like burnt parchment moving backwards in time, skin tissue and muscle started to grow on the skeleton; the body was toned and muscular, strong like an earth pony but also light and nimble like a Pegasus, with the distinct presence of magical power.

Celestia frowned; this was like no other power she had felt before. With this realization, the Alicorn backed up, arching her back in a stance that told anypony, or whatever else may be coming through this portal, that she was ready to fight. Now the body's details were starting to take shape, hair appeared on its head and body, the whole length of it becoming covered in its warming layers. After another few minutes of this, rather grotesque act of something being re-birthed, Celestia could make out more details; it was lying on its back, had a very strong physic and was a little rough around the edges. The dictionary's representation of 'regal' took a look between its hind limbs and blushed. He was male, VERY male. It suddenly struck her that this being was not moving and was taking very shallow and strained breaths, Celestia's eyes widened, he may need help, could be dying and here she was checking him out.

She focused her magic on the limp body, a golden glow surrounding the body, and he was levitated onto Celestia's back, she strained and grunted under his weight; he was heavier than he looked. Celestia was an Alicorn and had all physical and magical attributes of all three races, the strength of an earth pony being the one that was least regularly used but it didn't change the fact that she was stronger than the average pony but this one, he was on an altogether different type of heavy. Another golden glow emitted, this one enveloping the one casting it and the one on her back, a flash of light illuminating the room on the lowest level of the Canterlot palace, and Celestia and her passenger were gone.

Not a second later Celestia was in one the spare rooms of Canterlot castle, admittedly even one of the nobles of the capital would kill for one of these rooms but they paled in comparison to hers and Luna's so technically they counted as spare so that was what they were called. Celestia placed the ragged body onto the lush bed in the middle of the room. She straightened up and looked over the one resting on the mattress; she couldn't help but think he was a little handsome, even like this. He also struck her as somewhat familiar; she didn't know how he just… did somehow.

The princess of the sun turned and took her leave, leaving whoever he was by himself. Trotting down the hall she began to wonder just who he was and how he had come to…arrive in Equestria, for there was no doubt about that; he was definitely of another world, if his unorthodox means of arrival was anything to go by, she felt the need to find out more about him but she had day court to attend and other royal duties to perform and Luna was asleep, resting for night court. An idea popped into her mind and her face lit up.

'Twilight.'

The smile on her face would be recognized by any of the staff of the castle; maid, guard or adviser would know the small and motherly smile that marked that the princess had thought of an excuse to see her prize student, without cause for alarm. She trotted merrily to her private chambers, a spring in her step as she went, passing stallion and mare alike, all of them recognizing the smile on her face, each giving a small smile of their own at the prospect of seeing young Twilight again. She stepped into her room and sat at the undeniably royal desk, a piece of parchment ready to be wrote upon, and sat down with a phoenix feather quill in magical grip, ready to wright.

Dear Twilight Sparkle

I require your assistance in a most unusual of circumstances. A body appeared in the storage levels of Canterlot palace; though I know how he appeared, I do not know why, where he is from or even who he is. I need your assistance in finding the answer to these questions, be it through study or asking him when he awakes.

Hope to see you soon.

Princess Celestia.

The princess straightened up and looked over the letter, watching as it rolled up in her magical influence, before sending it on its way with a spell she had learned only so she could stay in touch with her student. Celestia watched the golden mist flow out of her window on its way to Ponyville, her student's new home, and eagerly awaited the reply.

Twilight, as per the usual, was reading. This time she had delved into some of the older books of the library tomes of old magic that she could only begin to comprehend, a bunch of old books on the ancient history of Equestria and the one in particular that she was reading now, one that had caught her eye rather easily and one that even Spike also showed some interest in; it was a short book on the ponies limited knowledge on the dragons, barely twenty-five pages long and most of it what she already knew. What she didn't know however fascinated her greatly, the last five or six page told of the few ponies who would fight them, slay them and defend the land form them. She knew that during the war against Discord, many of them had sided with him; Celestia herself had gone up against more than one single-hoofed and defeated more than that alongside her sister and guards. She devoured each and every word, the book telling of a few powerful individuals that slayed dragons for a living, pretty much all of them perishing at the hands of the so-called 'dragon king' the most powerful of all dragons. When she read this she couldn't help but doubt the stories; she had met the equivalent of teenage dragons and she had almost been turned into a snack, so she could not comprehend how anypony, powerful or not, could take down a fully grown dragon by themselves. By the third time she had read the book she had waved it off as simple old-mare tails, stories and nothing more.

"Hey Twilight, you done with that thing yet" her assistant, Spike the dragon, the equivalent of a toddler dragon, asked from her side. She looked over at him and smiled slightly, she had been reading the book for nearly three hours non-stop, starting at eight in the morning, and the child dragon was beginning to worry about her.

"Yeah, guess I got a little carried away, I just find these stories a little unbelievable" she admitted. The dragoon nodded his agreement.

"Yeah, I don't think a lone pony could take on a fully sized-BUUURP!" He was cut off by a green flash of fire and the parchment that followed it. Twilight seized it with her purple aura as soon as it materialized and began to read it. Spike watched her reaction as it turned from glee, to confusion and finally to excitement as she read. "What is it" Spike asked, unsure whether to be worried or not.

"It's a note from Celestia." Spike's face went flat.

"Duuh." Twilight shot him an annoyed look.

"It's a note from Celestia saying that I should go to Canterlot, she says she needs help with some kind of research project." Her face lit up as she said the last two words. Spike hit his face with the palm of his hand.

"Oh brother…" he said at length as he ran his palm down his face.

"Spike, do you think you could watch over the library while I'm gone?" Spike nodded nonchalantly.

"Sure…wait, what. I'm not coming with you?" Twilight smiled sweetly, causing Spike to reluctantly agree with her.

"It'll be fine Spike, I'll be a few days nothing too bad. Nothing my number one assistant can't handle." Spike blushed slightly as his adopted mother/sister ran her hoof through the spikes atop his head.

The two then spent an hour packing Twilight's saddlebags and making sure she was ready for the journey, once she was set with all necessary supplies she made her way to the train station, luckily a train had just arrived and she hopped right on it. The journey was long and not particularly engaging; she occupied her mind with thinking about what she would say to Celestia when she got to the palace. It would be nice to be able to speak with her teacher when the fate of Equestria was not in the balance, she noticed that she had not spent all that much time with those she had spent it with in her foalhood; Celestia, Cadence and Shining Armour, she had seen none of them as much as she would like to in recent years. She looked over the book on dragons she had taken from the library again as she rode the train, lost in thought she did not notice the time pass and she soon found herself in Canterlot train station.

Hopping off the train and trotting up to the castle she took in all the sights and sounds of the big city; she had to admit it though, after so long in Ponyville she had gotten used to the quietness of the small town and though the Canterlot streets didn't exactly overwhelm her, she found herself wanting the peace and quiet of Ponyville.

She passed a few familiar faces on the way to the castle, some nodded, others smiled and one or two said things like 'welcome back to the city' and 'hello again'. The trot through the streets was, decidedly, uneventful besides the occasional greetings sent her way, soon enough she found herself at the gates of the palace, two royal guards standing to attention either side of the majestic entrance.

"Afternoon boys" she called over. The guards spotted her, smiled and nodded her way, opening the gates to permit her entry. Keeping her pace, she trotted through the palace doorway and into the grand hallway that served as the entrance hall. She saw Celestia almost as soon as she entered, the princess of the day was moving from one room to another with what could only be described as a look of confusion on her face. She turned her head; Twilight could only guess she was trying to get her bearings within the palace when she spotted her, Celestia's face brightening up as soon as she saw her student.

"Twilight" she exclaimed as she saw her student, galloping over to her, in a not too regal manner, and scooping her up into a hug, again in a not too regal manner, but she would be damned if she cared. "It's good to see you again my…most faithful student." Not many in the room clocked the pause in the princess's sentence, even if they had who would say anything anyway she was the princess, but unbeknownst to everypony in the room Celestia had almost said 'daughter'.

"It's good to see you to princess" Twilight told her truthfully, she hadn't noticed just how much she had missed her mentor but it certainly shone through now as she hugged Celestia back in earnest. The two released each other and proceeded to walk down a corridor that Twilight could have sworn the princess had chosen at random.

"I trust you know why you are here" Celestia asked in her motherly voice. Twilight looked up at her and more or less shrugged.

"Well you said that you needed help finding out who somepony is and that you needed me to research where he might be from, just point me in the right direction and I'll get right on it" she said dutifully, causing Celestia to swell with pride.

"Well rather than show the way, why don't I take you there?" Celestia then proceeded to teleport the two of them outside, the 'newcomer's', as Celestia had taken to calling him, room. "He's in there but I don't think he'll be awake just yet." Twilight nodded but raised an eyebrow at her mentor. "He had a very…unorthodox method of arrival and I think it took its toll on him" she elaborated. Twilight nodded again, she moved towards the doorway and opened it with her magic, taking a look at her 'subject'. She was taken aback to say the least; he was like no other pony she had seen before.

He lay atop the sheets giving her a good view of him; he had an unkempt and windswept mane, reaching down to his back. It seemed to have been washed about as many times as it had been combed keeping a greasy sheen that likely would have caused Rarity to feint, the mane was a deep raven black, the only attempt at order being a braid running down the left side of his face. The braid also kept the mane away from his horn that protruded from his fore-head.

Twilight raised an eye brow; she had only just noticed the large body that the unicorn had, he was muscular in the ways of one of the royal guards but had a certain element of nimbleness to him, something that reminded her of Rainbowdash, it struck Twilight that this stallion had the physical attributes of an Alicorn, just without the wings.

His coat was another oddity; it was pure, bright white, the colour reminded her of virgin snow. The white fur reminded her of Celestia's coat, just without the well-kept quality that the princess's always had, also, Celestia did not have the ice blue patterns on her fur; she recognized some of the more flowing lines as simple patterns of fire and the jagged lines as ice. The stallion stirred and turned over on the bed, Twilight caught sight of what had caused Celestia to blush earlier. Turning quickly back to her mentor, eyes wide, she closed the door and looked up at her.

"Well… he's certainly different" she commented. Celestia nodded he agreement, a small smile on her face as she saw her students redness.

"I've never seen those marks on his fur before; they could be nothing or they could be important. That and his means of arrival certainly strikes me as odd."

"Just how did he arrive?" Celestia looked at the door to the newcomer's room, contemplating whether or not to tell her. Taking another look at her pupil's curious eyes, she felt her resolve crumble and told all; giving great detail about the way he had appeared in the room that served as the vault of potentially dangerous relics. Once she was finished Twilight's eyebrows had shot into her mane line.

"Wow…that certainly is…unorthodox" she said at length.

"Indeed, but I think that would be a good place to start in your research." Twilight nodded but hung her head; Celestia figured it was in disappointment that she wouldn't be able to spend any time with her. The princess of the sun felt the same way. "Tell you what" she said a little mischievously "when you're done, what do you say we spend a bit of time together." Twilight beamed in response.

"I'd love that" she responded. The two parted ways soon after; Celestia for the day court and twilight for the library, though only one of them was going to get anything from it. For nearly six hours Twilight poured through books, everything from the markings on his body that had her curious to the peculiar way in which he had arrived, the only bit of useful information she got from her reading being that the portal was not restricted to dimensions so it was entirely plausible that he was from another universe, though she doubted it considering that he was a pony.

All theories aside, the purple mare was beginning to get frustrated with the lack of information in the library, and had taken to slamming her head into the book to try and relive some of the stress. From her left somepony giggled, she looked up and saw Celestia standing with Luna.

"Celestia, Luna" she called, overjoyed that she would be able to see Celestia's little sister again. She trotted over to the princess's and smiled at them.

"How did the research go my student" Celestia asked with a small grim on her face at how she had found her student. The question caused Twilight to drop her smile.

"A disaster, there's nothing here whatsoever; nothing on the way you told me he arrived, nothing on his patterns and there was very little on the stone cutter's passage and even less on the possibility of it bringing somepony over. I did find something on it appearing in different dimensions but I doubt that's the case, considering that he's a pony." Celestia listened to the report, somewhat disgruntled with the turnout of information but she had to admit, she'd more or less seen it coming.

"I see, but enough of that, we will get our answers when he awakes but for now, we have some catching up to do" she smiled down at Twilight, who smiled back in return. The only one who wasn't happy about the prospect of a sleepover was Luna, silently cursing her duties in night court. Celestia noticed her sister's expression; she felt for her, knowing that not many ponies saw her as a pony, rather just a ruler and had been getting lonely as of late. "Luna, why don't you take the night off, I'm fairly sure that I took care of pretty much everything this morning, what with all the ponies that came today and besides" she looked over at Twilight "it's such a rare occasion that Twilight comes to Canterlot and it would be a shame for you to miss it." It was all Luna could do to stop herself from lunging at her sister and wrapping her in a bone crushing hug, all in all she failed anyway, as she found herself embracing her big sister in a not-quite-bone-crushing-but-airflow-stopping hug. "You're welcome sister" Celestia choked out.

In Celestia's private quarters, after Luna had raised the moon and declared that night court was cancelled due to the arrival of somepony important, they sat on Celestia's bed and talked into the night. Unbeknownst to them, a certain stallion was stirring in his bed.

Remus's eyes fluttered open, he immediately felt the change; he knew he was shorter, he held himself on the bed differently and he could feel something brushing against the back of his legs. He noticed he was in a pitch black room, though he made no effort to make it easier to see, be it through mage light or his night eye power that he had retained from his vampirism. He sat up; he could feel a headache developing. No matter how used to this feeling he felt he got, it did not change the fact that he had a rather bad pain building up behind his eyes. He raised his hand and rubbed his temple, in an effort to dispel the pulsing ache that was building up, though he did notice something off about his hand. It seemed…harder somehow. He took a casual look at his appendage and saw the hoof there.

"BY TALOS!" The Thu'um in his words, shook the very foundations of the palace, throwing staff off of their hooves and, much to the dismay of the cleaners of the palace, shook the long forgotten dust from every rafter in the grand castle. The words he roared also caught the attention of the three mares in Celestia's bedroom, knocking them all off her rather sizable bed. Remus took many shuddering breaths in an attempt to calm himself but it was all in vein and resorted to blaring out curses left, right and center in an effort to be rid himself of his anger.

"BY SHEOGORATH'S GREAT HAIRY BALLS AND SANGUINE'S RUINED DAMNED LIVER!" His Thum'um once more carried his words through the castle, electing laughs and confused and amused looks from those who walked its halls. Celestia, Luna and Twilight however, had no looks of amusement on their faces as they galloped to the newcomer's room. None of them dared enter as more of the weird curses rumbled the castle. "Aalhenvo dinok dur rok wo drey daar!" The three mares looked at each other in confusion; the last outburst was rage fuelled and was in a language not recognized by any of them. It further disheartened them and did nothing to encourage them entering the newcomer's room. "The sea will run red in their blood once my voice finds them" the Dragonborn growled.

Remus was not one for cursing so much but he felt he was sort of entitled to it, given the situation. He made his anger known to those who would hear it in the draconic Paarthurnax had taught him during his time atop the throat of the world. He wasn't sure where this rage came from but he suspected that it was coming from the fact that he was now a gods damned horse and that he had taken quite the hit to the pride. Another wave of rage overcame him, this one much more violent than the last and he knew that some simple curses would not suffice to let loose his anger. Turning to the door took great effort; he was not used to this body but his warrior's instinct flowed through him, pumping him full of adrenaline and attuning his mind, if only temporarily, to his hew form. Spying his target, his filled his lungs with air.

Fus, Ro Dah

The blast of raw, unrelenting power that was the unrelenting force shout, powered through the door, blasting it off its hinges and slamming it into the wall opposite it. Outside the room Celestia, Luna and Twilight looked on in horror; the door, that was by no means light, had just been thrown off its supports by three words of immense power. The stallion that had been laying on the bed trotted out, looking like he was either drunk or had awful balance, and turned his head around, looking at the three of them. Remus looked over the horses that surrounded him; one was tall and white, one was short and purple, and the last was dark coloured and around his height. He paid them no mind, looking for someone, pony…whatever, that posed a challenge.

"Who are you" the purple one asked quickly. Remus looked at the, what he assumed to be a mare from the voice, that had spoken to him. The red mist had descended and he did not register that a pony had just spoke to him. He didn't even have time to respond as a group of gold clad horses rounded the corner at a gallop. The Dragonborn recognised them as guards and grinned; some blood would be spilled tonight. He let loose a deafening war cry, the kind of battle cry the Nords were known for, his bellowing roar putting fear into the hearts of those around him and putting them out of the fight before they had even joined it. Celestia's eyes widened as she watched the stallion send a cry to the ceiling, reverberating a putting an unnatural fear in her. She used her magic to pull Twilight and Luna closer to her, putting a cowering Luna under her wing and holding Twilight in a mothers embrace, as she watched the snow white and ice stallion move towards her day guards with a strange sense of certainty in his step. And she knew why, she had felt his power for herself.

Fo, Krah Diin

A powerful wall of frost sped towards the guards and slammed into them, freezing them to the bone and nearly freezing them to death. A few of them fell to the ground, exhausted and weakened by the blizzard Thu'um. Out of the seven that had first advanced, only three now continued with the attack; two of them wore golden armour and one in gold and purple, this one stood out and spoke out 'higher rank' to the Dovahkiin. The two grunts that approached were now nervous, approaching Remus with more caution now, the higher ranking stallion acting much the same way. It suddenly struck the Dragonborn that he was fighting horses and he gave a small smirk.

"What's so funny" the purple clad stallion demanded. Remus didn't answer, instead he attacked.

Holding his left hoof out, an arc of lightning building in power as Remus pumped his large reserves of magicka in to his spell. The violent lightning sparked off of the concentration of magic in the Dragonborn's hoof shattering the tiles that lined the walls and floors as the mage lightning bounced off it, lashing out at other spots of wall and floor as it gathered power, the smell of ozone emitting from the snow and ice stallion. Thrusting his hoof forward the mage's thunder careered towards the three remaining guards, striking out at the tiles as it made its journey towards them. When it hit the stallions they were put down immediately, the lightning flowing over them and electing a bark of pain from one of them.

The lightning spread between them in spider web like pattern that jumped from them and reached for the walls and floors as the powerful spell struck down two of the guards, the grunts, where the captain, as Remus presumed, blocked the spell with some kind of purple barrier or ward. The grunts fell to the floor, skidding a little as the momentum of the spell carried them, and didn't move unconscious but not dead. A small portion of Remus's mind didn't want to kill them with magic, he wanted the final blow to be up close and personal.

The captain looked Remus dead in the eye an unspoken challenge in his gaze, he drew a sword from the air, a long, double edged blade with a purple shimmer around it, reminding Remus of a bound weapon. The Dragonborn cursed mentally, wishing for a weapon of his own, as the stallion advanced, he noticed that this pony seemed to be using magic to use his weapon and that the magic seemed to be flowing from the horn atop his head. When there was no more than fifteen feet between them, the armoured stallion stopped and spoke up.

"I'll give you one chance to back down" the guard captain called over. Remus grunted.

"True Nords never back down" he growled. The two stallions charged each other, the guard slashed horizontal with his weapon, Remus ducked and countered; slamming his hoof into in to his opponent's chest, knocking him back and knocking the wind out of him. Shining Armour was taken aback by the pony's raw strength, more so that he had managed to throw him off balance despite his champion's battle stance. During his shock Remus took advantage of his distraction, pulling his head back and slamming it into the guard's face, causing blood to pump from his muzzle but he wasn't done there; a hoof in his temple, a chop to his neck and an uppercut to his chin, all delivered faster than anypony could properly register, sent the purple garbed stallion flying and the Dragonborn thanking Vilkas for those lessons in hand-to-hand. He looked down at himself. Hoof-to-hoof he guessed. Shining lay on the ground, blood leaking from his snout and mouth, the magical blade dispelled. Remus was about to deliver the finishing blow, he was pretty sure that a snapped neck would do the job, but as he reached for the horse's chin and horn he felt a distinct magical presence behind him; he had begun to notice the strange tingling sensation in his head soon after he had obtained the staff of Magnus and he knew to trust his instinct when it came to this feeling. Turning around he saw he was wise to have done so; the white, tall horse that he had found outside the room he had slept in was charging what appeared to be a great ball of fire, almost like a sun, and was aimed right at him. He snarled, knowing he was not likely to survive a hit like that, and decided a vanishing act was called for.

Gol

The shout, the first word of 'bend will', erupted from his maw, striking not the mare that charged the attack but the ground before her; the tiles cracked and split, a small mountain emerging from the ground as the gold and orange shout made contact, separating the Dragonborn from the raging inferno that was threatening to turn him to ashes. Turning to the nearest window he let loose another shout.

Fus, Ro

The two worded Thu'um shattered the window with very little resistance, he looked out and saw a perils drop awaiting him. With a grunt he turned back as he heard a deep rumbling, the called for his attention; it seemed that the white mare had smashed through his barrier with the spell she had been charging and was now looking Remus dead in the eye.

"Princess at your front, a lethal drop at your back, what do you do?" The 'princess' had an air of sureness about her. Remus merely grunted, turned to the shattered glass and bounded towards it.

Feim, Zii Gron

The shout lashed through the air and the words cast the ancient magic that turned his body from that of a physical one, to an ethereal one, making him immune to and incapable of inflicting damage, namely the hundred foot drop that threatened his life before he had used this shout, one of the shouts that Paarthurnax had guided him in meditation atop the throat of the world; the whole process of thought and contemplation had taken him a month in total, the entire time he barely moved, rarely ate and rarer still slept, what he took from this was the understanding that a Dovah's soul, their spirit, is much more powerful and much more malleable than that of a joor's, a mortal's. What he took from this understand was that, even as a ghost one of the Dov still retained life-like qualities allowing them heal to themselves as a spirit. The main downside to this shout was that its user would still feel pain and Remus was going to feel the hundred foot drop and feel it good. As he threw himself from the window the Dragonborn knew what fate awaited him when he hit the ground; the pain of all his bones breaking at once.

The air whistled past his ears as he went, nothing but a flat look on his face served as his expression as he descended. Crashing to the ground he knew that he would have to make a hasty exit, though as a thief he had more than a little experience with this and as Dragonborn he had more than a few tricks up his sleeve. His deadpan face looked at his bare leg and hoof and he had to fight to stay calm and not tear this world apart.

He looked around himself and realized he was in a city of some sort, he also noticed that he had just rolled down the side of a mountain when he had leapt from, he looked up, a rather magnificent palace. He heard shouts and the sounds of alarm coming from the streets and knew he would have a hard time getting out of here in this form. He grinned at the prospect of using a new shout.

Ven, Mul Riik

The fog, the thick and damning fog that had once served as a soul's snare in Sovngarde, quickly formed in the alleyways and streets of the town he was in, obstructing his presence from any guards that may see him and giving his escape a rather effective and thick cover. It did not go unnoticed, however, that right after the palace had been breached, thick and unexplainable smog gathered faster than any unicorn or Pegasus could form it.

"What's all this" a disembodied voice called from the slate grey mist.

"The buck should I know" another answered. Remus grunted.

'Buck…must be their version of fuck. Huh, wonder what other words have been exchanged for horse related phrases…'

The thought was fleeting as he made his way through the alleyways and side streets of the city, he found it surprisingly easy to stay quiet on his hooves, making careful but fast steps staying silent but not stopping, utilizing skills he had honed since the first time he had sneaked past a bear. He found his way out of the town within about ten minutes, it was there he realized his problem; he had no idea where he was, even with his peerless sense of direction it was the simple fact that he had nothing go on, not a map, directions or anything. He looked around himself, his eyes settling on…well he didn't really know what they were; what appeared to be wooden boards with metal strips laying on top of them, he recognized them from some of the mines he had been but not to this scale before. With nothing else to go on he decided to follow them, wondering just what he had got himself into.

Celestia had been enraged by the escape stallion, the fact that he had escaped and the hate-able sureness he had about himself, but it was quickly replaced by the presence that clung to her chest; Twilight Sparkle was still clinging to her, tears streaming down her face as the weird fear that came with the roar he had gave still holding its effecting her. The princess of the day sat against a wall, cradling the filly with a mother's love.

"It's alright, he's gone now" she soothed to no avail, instead Twilight just pulled in harder, a gesture that Celestia returned. Celestia picked up the purple mare, her little sister and Shining Armour, the latter two with her magic, intent to carry them to her quarters so they may rest. She left the clean-up to guards that had just arrived and just trotted, weary to her room. Laying her sister and captain of the guard on her bed, she looked at the mare she had taken in and tutored for most of her life. Twilight's eyes fluttered open and they took a look at each other for a single second before they embraced once again, in relief and affection. It was lost on neither of them that it was much like a mother and daughter's embrace.

"Do not worry Twilight, I'll be sure to deal with him." A spark of hate ignited in her chest as she felt the mare sob a few times. It was in that moment that she made a rather life changing decision for the both of them but she couldn't deny the way she felt for Twilight. "I'll deal with him personally." Her eyes narrowed at the thought of that stallion making her adoptive daughter cry.

The survivor

Chapter three: The survivor

Canterlot, and indeed all of Equestria, was in total lock down. Celestia had pulled out all the stops to find this stallion; all her royal guards, the solar guard, the night guard and the Crystal Empire's Crystal guards were all on high alert, under strict orders to report even the faintest of rumors of this stallion's location to their respective captains, all scouts were on the lookout for a white stallion with ice blue markings on his body and Celestia's own complex network of informants, spies and information brokers were all keeping their ears to the ground for word on this mystery stallion.

It had been three day's and despite all the princesses' efforts, there was nothing; not a scrap of information, not a whisper of a rumor and not even the shadow of passing gossip in an idle conversation could be dug up. She'd even sent word to the griffons, who'd thankfully recognized the direness of the situation and promised to send word should they hear anything. She wasn't sure if she trusted them or not but at the moment she had more pressing things on her mind at the moment.

As Celestia sat in her throne, awaiting reports that weren't arriving and probably didn't exist, she had to admit it; this stallion brought more questions than answers with him, the latest of which was 'how in Tartarus, could somepony drop off the face of Equestria so completely?'

There were others of course; the markings on his body for instance, they were completely unique in all respects, they belonged on no pony or zebra of any race, culture or breed; then there was the magic he used, lightning was a particularly difficult strand of offensive magic but it normally came out as a continuous arc, not the bolt he had produced, but then there was the way he used it, he had formed the bolt in his hoof, not his horn.

It was, technically, impossible to conduct magic through the hoof as only Alicorn the material of which the unicorn horn, the bones of Pegasus wings and the bones of an Alicorn were made from, that being what gave them their unmatched magical power, could conduct magical energy and yet, he had used magic via his hoof like it was nothing, almost like he was used to it, which was impossible. Wasn't it?

Then there was the other thing he had done: those strange words that hit her soul with the force of a wrecking-ball and shook her bones, to speak nothing of what they had actually done; he'd thrown the doors of the room off their hinges and those doors were nothing to scoff at, they were designed by some of the best artists in all Equestria and forged by the best smiths the land had to offer; their purpose was to keep the nobles salivating and any ponies Celestia didn't exactly trust under wraps, the walls of the room were all magically reinforced and the doors were more secure than any prison. At least, they were supposed to be.

The questions continued to mount in her head; that blast of frost that had hit her guards, they described it as their core temperatures being lowered to minus one-fifty for a few seconds, completely draining them and nearly killing them; and that shout he'd used when Celestia tried to stop him, what was the word, Gol? Earth bending troubled the princesses of the day, it was a simple fact of magic that if you could control the core elements; earth, fire, water and wind, you were considered to be on the higher end of the 'powerful ponies' scale, and he'd done it with just a word? She shuddered at the thought of such power. She sat back in her throne, drained.

And then there was the OTHER thing he'd done.

'Just how much can this stallion do, he seems to be as powerful as myself.'

Celestia considered herself to be a powerful being; it came with the territory when you were the immortal ruler of a country, but the way he had crippled her, Twilight and Luna with nothing but a battle cry…It didn't seem natural. Or maybe that kind of ability was no simple magic, there were fear inducing spells in existence, yes, but none of them would work on an Alicorn or a unicorn of Twilight's caliber, due to their intelligence, but this stallion's… whatever he did, struck fear into her very core. There was something off about him though; he trotted about like a stallion who'd had a full keg of cider to himself but then he'd gone on to beat the stuffing out of Shining Armour, who wasn't the captain of the guard for nothing. The blue mane stallion was a certified master at hoof-to-hoof combat, yet the ice and snow stallion had fed him his teeth like it was nothing.

Then there was the way he escaped; the guards had been quick to report the sudden smog that rolled in as he left, it was too conveniently timed to be a coincident, which could only mean he had conjured it himself. He could control the weather. But no unicorn could control the weather, not to the degree of the Pegasi anyway, that said, he was no normal unicorn.

Celestia massaged her temples with her hoof, recent events notwithstanding, life about the palace had been general torture anyway; the nobles were getting on her back about her decisions in recent months: first it had been Discord; they didn't seem to like the ancient god of chaos roaming the palace pulling pranks on them or those types that thought they were something special; it was those she hated most, the ones who didn't treat Luna like a princess, who had insisted that she take Cadence as a nice rather than a daughter, what had they said? It would cause a shift in the royal family that nopony is prepared for.

Celestia knew what was behind those honeyed words, they were all waiting for something to happen to cause Celestia to step down from the thrown and her having a daughter would make the process of one of them gaining power longer process. Sniveling wannabe-tyrants, the lot of them. Well, most of them, Fancy Pants was the only noble she even vaguely liked. With a sigh she pushed the thoughts from her head; she had enough to worry about as it is.

She slipped down her seat until she slouched rather un-regally in her throne; grateful nopony was around to see her in a moment of weakness. What she wouldn't do for a tankard of cider right now, something Twilight's friend Applejack brewed or maybe an Appaloosa mugging.

At the end of the hall the doors flung open and in came the four ponies she wanted to see most; Shining Armour, captain of the royal guard, Princess Cadence, Alicorn princess of love, Princess Luna, Celestia's beloved little sister and Twilight Sparkle, Celestia's most prized student and newly declared daughter, although Celestia hadn't actually mentioned that detail to her yet. Watching the purple unicorn with a mother's loving eye, a single thought entered her mind.

'Soon…'

Celestia had her guard captain stay in Canterlot with his sister; he'd been here accessing the new recruits. Technically, he needn't do that anymore, what with him now being a prince now and all, but he claimed to enjoy breaking in new troops and his wife seemed to relish the prospect of a vacation from the Crystal Empire.

Twilight was also staying due to her mentor's orders, she didn't want Twilight straying from her side with that stallion about and Luna, who had been under Celestia's wing ever since the stallion had used that…she still wasn't sure what it was, never letting her out of her sight for more than a minute. Celestia got out of her throne, meeting her friends halfway. She wrapped Twilight in a hug, bending down slightly.

"Good morning Twilight, Cadence, Shining Armour" she disengaged from the hug "Lu-Lu" she said with a grin at her little sister.

"Morning" they relied in unison, Luna cringing slightly at her sister's pet name for her. It was after this the atmosphere darkened noticeably. "Capitan Armour, anything to report?" The stallion looked down.

"Nothing Princess, I'm sorry but he seems to have dropped off the face of Equestria" he tells her, sounding ashamed. Celestia hummed her understanding, nodding a few times.

"Understood. After the way things have been going, I'm not all too surprised."

"Auntie" Cadence piped up, nuzzling Celestia "what Shining, told me…the way he just…" she wrapped her adoptive aunt in a tight hug. Celestia had always liked Cadence's hugs, that said; when you're the pony embodiment of love, you're bound to be a great hugger. "I can't believe he would just do that to you."

"We have to find him before he does anything else. He's a threat to security and I won't have anypony else hurt by this…newcomer" Celestia declares. Shining looked up at his boss.

"But we've already got all the day and night guards, the royal armies and even the Crystal guards combing all of Equestria, and we haven't found hide nor hair of him." He looked around the gathered ponies. "I don't think it'll be as easy as 'just finding' him." Everypony silently agreed with him.

"What does Discord have to say" Twilight asked, speaking up for the first time.

"He claims to know nothing about this stallion, even he appreciates just how…unpredictable the Stone cutter's passage can be. He tells us he will be on the lookout for this stallion" Luna answers.

"Isn't there anything we can do? Look for clues or something, I mean, nopony can just disappear like that, nopony, I don't care who, nopony just vanishes." Luna wanted so much to agree with Twilight, she had been feeling cooped up and useless in the palace doing nothing, but she wouldn't know where to start.

"What do want us to do Twily? We haven't a clue where he went or why he attacked us like he did. For all we know he's trotting the plains of Tartarus by now" Shining argues. Twilight looked at her hooves without answer.

"We must start somewhere, none of our resources have any information whatsoever, I say we take this into our own hooves" Celestia decides. Twilight brightened up.

"Should we send for the Elements of Harmony" Cadence asks her Aunt. She shook her head.

"No, not yet, and I want to avoid involving them in this if possible." They all looked taken aback at that.

"Why" Twilight exclaimed "wouldn't it be easier than just trying to take him on?"

"I understand where you're coming from Twilight, but this stallion; he assaulted my sister, my guard captain and yourself. He's made this personal." Twilight blinked, she had never seen Celestia like this before.

"Princess, no matter what we say or do, it doesn't change the fact that we have no clue where he is, or the full extent of his abilities. I know for a fact he hasn't shown all he can do, he may have fought me off with his hooves, but he flinched and looked annoyed when I pulled my sword. I get the feeling he knows how to use one."

"But that doesn't make sense; if he knows how to use a sword why would he need to be so skilled in magic" Twilight argues.

"And the way he escaped, he sneaked out of Canterlot like it was nothing and the fog that rolled in was too thick to be Pegasus controlled. I don't like the idea of somepony controlling the weather like that. How did he even do it" Luna adds.

"I think it was something to those…um, shouts I guess. I mean it stands to reason if he can 'shout' a door of its hinges, he may be able to change the weather at will" Twilight ventured. Shining rubbed his fore-head with his hoof, a smirk on his face.

"You're not making me feel any better about going up against this guy Twily."

"PRINCESS CELESTIA, PRINCESS! Err, Captain Armour, Miss Sparkle, Princess Luna and Cadence." The grey Pegasus day guard, Stone Wing, had burst through the door of the throne room, galloping up to the five of them.

"Yes" Celestia replied without missing a beat.

"I-I-I just outside, something big- It was!"

"Soldier, calm down. Breath, gather your thoughts and take your time" Celestia soothed. The Pegasus guard took a deep breath, swallowed and took another breath before continuing.

"I just saw, outside Ponyville, it was a…a."

"Do you have something to report about the newcomer" Celestia prompted, leaning forwards slightly. The guard flinch.

"See, that's the thing; nopony knows. We aren't sure whether this is connected to the runaway stallion or not." The princess nodded patiently.

"Just tell us what you saw; anything right now would be helpful."

"I saw" He swallows again "a dragon!" Twilight blinked.

"A DRAGON!" Her words shook the ponies around her.

"Y-yes Miss Sparkle but like none I've heard of before. It didn't…look right."

"How so" Luna asked, now curios.

"Well, as we know, dragons stand as bipeds, right?" They all nodded. "Well, from what I could see, this one had two legs, or claws really, and a pair of wings on his back. It looked more like a lizard than a dragon we know." The princess of the day nodded, holding her hoof to her chin.

"A Wyrm" Celestia said at length, hoof to her chin as she thought. Luna could tell Celestia was holding something back, though she chose not to raise the subject yet. She looks around the ponies surrounding her, Twilight looking up at her mentor.

"It's the same as the fog; the timing is too convenient to be a coincident. A dragon, a rare one at that, doesn't just show up at the same time as somepony like that and not be connected." Shining hummed in thought.

"Dragons aren't known for working with ponies, in fact, from what I know about Wyrms they'd rather bite you in half than help out."

"Shining" Cadence exclaimed before she collected herself. "Surely you don't think this is just a coincidence?" The guard captain frowned; he knew they had a point but it didn't feel right.

"Guard, where was this dragon headed? If he doesn't have anything to do with the newcomer, he might know something" Celestia said in way of planning their next move. She didn't like the way the guard flinched again.

"There's something else; when I saw the dragon, I took to the ground and asked around, trying to find anypony who might know anything. The only thing I got was from a local weathermare, Rainbowdash I think" Twilight smiled at the thought of her friend. "She said she saw something, or somepony, on the dragon's back. Forgive me for assuming captain, but if a dragon, possibly with a pony on its back, is a coincidence I don't know what isn't." The jaws of Shining, Cadence, Luna, Twilight and even Celestia hit the floor.

"Y-you mean, that stallion was…riding that dragon?" the guard swallowed again, more nervous than before.

"I'm saying it's possible, Twilight."

"When was he spotted" Celestia asked.

"About a day after he escaped Canterlot, I'm sorry, I got here as fast as I could but with all with all the commotion going on after everypony heard about what happened here I got held up a few times. I'm not sure if he's still there or not."

"This changes things" Celestia declared "if this dragon is an ally of the newcomer he could be anywhere in Equestria by now. It throws a whole new spin on things. Guard where was the dragon headed?" Stone Wing glanced at Twilight for a second.

"The Everfree forest." Twilight took a second to digest this information.

"Wait a minute, if he's heading to the Everfree forest from Canterlot then that means he'll fly right past-"Her eyes widened for a second before she galloped for the doors without finishing. Celestia watched as she went, confused as to her sudden outburst. Her eyes widened and put a hoof to her mouth in shock as it clicked.

"Ponyville!"

The clouds, the air and the sky. These three things, were all Remus-the featureless lived for now. His first time riding a dragon, Odahviing, had been heralded by true words.

"Be warned Dovahkiin, forwhen you have flow the skies of Keizaal as the dragons do, your envy of the dov, will only increase."

How right he had been. After the events of Skuldafn and his first experience with flight, he'd spent a lot of his time dreaming of soaring in the clouds once more. Ever since he'd learnt the final word of the shout 'bend will' he'd been meaning to thank Hermaeus Mora for teaching him and returning the gift of flight to him. He relished the thought of flight now; he put it down to the Dovasos in his veins that made him love the feeling of being so high in the air. One thing was for sure though; it was definitely better than trying to walk with this body.

He'd been running, galloping…whatever for about two hours before he'd gotten tired of falling flat on his face every five steps. His inability to move to any great degree was causing problems; after having the skills of a master assassin and thief, he'd gotten accustomed to the natural grace he'd been working on and mastered ever since the first time he'd sneaked past that bear and to have his skills taken along with his body was an insult.

Before long he'd gotten frustrated and decided to spare himself any more humiliation, thus was the road he set on to calling Durnehviir and riding him through the skies of this place. Gods, that had been awkward, summoning the great dragon guardian of the soul cairn as a horse; the dragon had looked at him, blinked once and laughed until he got the message that Remus was apocalyptically angry with his reaction.

After that Durnehviir had remained remarkably stoic about the whole situation, almost like he was completely unfazed by it; he probably could have fooled Remus into thinking he didn't care had he not been the subject of the Dragonborn's first experience of a laughing dragon.

As he rode his undead dragon ally, he took time to examine his new…appendages; the 'hooves', he guessed, were fascinating by design; they looked like simple stumps but felt and acted like a claw of sorts, as if his fingers had been tied together. Of course there was the lack of thumbs, which would be hard to get used to, but he got the feeling that would grow to feel natural over time. Fine motor movements weren't hard to grasp; it was, thankfully, very similar to using his hands for his fore-hooves and his ankles and feet for his hind-hooves. Remus examined his hooves as he rotated his hoof, getting to know them.

"Qahnaarin, you seem troubled by something" Durnehviir pipes up. Remus looked over at the dragon that had turned his head back to the Dragonborn slightly.

"Wouldn't you, if you woke up to find yourself a horse?" The dragon grunts, shrugging his winged shoulders.

"I have lived a long time Qahnaarin, little fazes me." Remus grunted.

"Zu'u nid lingrah jul. I'm no longer man, you would be no longer a Dovah. I get the feeling you would have torn the place apart fahdon." Once more, Durnehviir shrugs.

"Kah los sahlo ol pogaas mulaag Dovhakiin. Pride is weakness as much strength Dragonborn, you would do well to curb it, or suffer the same fate as Alduin, hmm." Remus raised an eyebrow.

"All that time alone give you a taste for philosophy?" Another shrug.

"When one is forced to roam a place as desolate as the soul cairn for all eternity, you find yourself with much tiid wah mindok. Time to think, fahdon." Remus couldn't argue with the dragon; he'd let his pride get the better of him when he'd awoke, tearing apart those who'd been outside his room hadn't been very…nice of him.

He leaned back on Durnehviir's spines, sighing as he did. Now that he thought about it, those horses had likely given him a place to rest and treated him hospitably when they didn't even know him. His guilty thoughts were interrupted when Durnehviir loosed a roar to the heavens, signifying he'd spotted something on the ground.

"Fahdon! I see a settlement below us, a village."

Looking past the dragon's head, Remus saw what he spoke of; a village…or town? It was by no means a city; most of the buildings were made from wood and had thatch roofing, but the scale of it didn't permit it to be called a 'village'. It also didn't have any defensive measures; not a wall, no watchtowers, he couldn't even see any guards. No threat.

"Leave it be, there is no worthy prey down there." The dragon nods, another roar and a particularly powerful beat of his wings following as they flew over the village. Remus dared look over the side of his neck; even from this height he could see the masses of horses down there, looking up and pointing up at them, thanks to his enhanced senses.

Shaking the thoughts from his head, Remus looked ahead and his eyes caught sight a deep, foreboding, eerily quiet and downright evil forest.

"Durn, head for that forest. It'll make a good place to hold up." The undead dragon looked towards what his rider had pointed out and took a dive, levelling out just above the treeline, gliding over the deep sea of forest green. The dragon spotted a clearing, large enough to house him and Remus. Beating his wings and dropping into the open area with a large 'thud', the Dragonborn dismounted.

Remus looked around himself; the clearing was on the path of a small stream, a thick wall of trees on all sides. The sun could penetrate the canopy above, but did little to illuminate the clearing.

"This will do" he decided. He trotted forwards, having trouble keeping his balance, before he found a patch of land he decided he liked.

'First things first; set up camp.'

Gol

A shot of earth shot up, shaped like the walls of a triangle, until Remus willed it to stop. A tent, a little rugged but it would keep the rain off of him. Turning around he eyed some stones at the edge of the stream, putting them in a small circle, before gathering some sticks and putting them in the circle of stones before lighting them with a simple flame spell.

His simple camp set up, Remus took a long breath. The scene was familiar, a campsite such as this, but the stage was by no means what he was used to. A dull heavy, thudding came from behind, signifying large, clumsy movements from behind him. Turning he found Durnehviir resting on his front, the dragon version of relaxing. As Remus watched him settle, a thought entered his mind and a frown creasing his brow.

"Say, Durnehviir, shouldn't you have returned to the Soulcairn by now?" The dragon turned his full attention to Remus.

"I have thought of this" he explains as Remus sets about setting up runes to defend the small campsite. "I believe that with the differences between this land and Taazokaan, Tamriel, my stay will be more permanent than most others." With this revelation, Remus miss-cast his ice rune, causing it to explode in his face.

"What" he demanded, pulling a shard of ice from his face nonchalantly.

"Tell me, Dovahkiin; you are a fellow Nahgahdinok, necromancer, are you not?" Remus nods, his preferred schools of magic were destruction, restoration and alteration but he knew plenty about illusion and conjuration. "Pruzah, then the answer is simple. This land of keys and Taazokaan are not one in the same, tillah los ni fin med, their magics are not the same, thuri." Remus was unsure of the truth of his words, but nodded all the same.

"Perhaps" he mused "but it seems too simple" he grunted "and its never simple." Durn merely shrugged, as best a dragon could anyway.

"My day as a kro are long behind me, I delve little into the...scholarly arts naan lingrah. Perhaps I am correct, perhaps not. Nii los vomindok wah dii. It is unknown to me." Remus nodded, settling down under his makeshift tent. Night was falling fast, and the silver light of night was quickly setting in.

"Perhaps" he echoed, lost in thought for a moment "do you think anything may have changed with Lucien and Arvak?" The dragon shrugged.

"Again, I do not know. The reactions of the key and krivaan may be similar to my own or hold many differences." Remus looked at his hoof as a thought came over him; concentrating on a spot between him and Durnehviir, spoke a single word.

"Lachance" he called, the word snapping at the air, a great whooshing of wind and the sound of an Oblivion portal opening as Lucien Lachance stepped through. He was clad in the black robes of the Black Hand of old, an array of steel weaponry at his ghostly hip. Lucien's expression was that of confusion before he realised just what had happened.

"My listener" he asked the darkness around him, likely assuming his summoner was hidden in the shadows. He spoke in an incredibly smooth and deep voice that sent chills down Remus's spine whenever he spoke. Turning his head, he spotted the dragon resting nearby. "Ahh, Durnehviir" he greeted with a polite bow. If there was one thing Remus admired about the long dead assassin, it was his impeccable manners. The two had met on one occasion when the Dragonborn was in need of a distraction of peculiar tastes. "I trust Remus is is otherwise occupied?" The dragon nodded in the direction of the tent.

"Over here" the Dragonborn called out. Lucien was quick to spot the snow white and ice blue stallion in the stone tent. With a frown he strode over to him.

"Whatever happened to you" he asked with a small chuckle, quickly ridding himself of the disrespectful laugh. He sat down next to him, cross legged, and looked over Remus. "You have changed some my Listener" he pointed out.

"You don't say" he deadpanned in response.

"What happened?"

"You tell me. One minute I was in the college of Winterhold, having just examined a portal of sorts, the next I wake up like…this. A horse of all things." Lucien leaned back against the stone tent.

"Forgive me listener, but you may be wrong in that respect." Remus raised an eyebrow. "You are no horse, but a…"

"Spit it out Lachance, I'm pretty sure I'll be fine with a little more bad news." A small grin worked its way across Lucien's face.

"You, my listener, are no horse but a pony." As the word left the assassin's mouth, he could see Remus's expression become more and more murderous.

"Great" he said, in a remarkably calm voice. "I'm in a land of GODS DAMNED PONIES." His cry was punctuated by the thu'um in his voice, the seer power and rage behind the shout sending a crash of thunder through the sky.

"Be calm listener, else you bring forth the wraith of the dread father himself." His words were met by death ears; Remus had buried his face in the ground, rocking it from side to side muttering some foul curses.

"Ponies…Ponies…Ponies…why…did…it…have…to be… ponies?" His words were followed by him smacking his head on the floor in frustration. "Are you sure?" Lucien shrugged his see-through shoulders.

"Your build and size would suggest so, and your mane and tail have been styled, which supports my claim. I may be wrong but that is what my instincts tell me" the assassin admitted. Remus breathed hard through his nose, or muzzle he guessed.

"Damn it" he muttered. "Either way, I'm pretty sure I've got bigger problems than my current form."

"What do you mean, listener?"

"I'm pretty sure I've just spat I the faces of this place's monarch." Lucien laughed his deep, creepy laugh that suited his spirit form.

"You have changed less than I first assumed" he joked.

"Yes, well. Either way I've been on the run for the whole of the day. I need rest." Lucien nodded his understanding, taking it as his cue to shut up, Durnehviir following suit soon after. Resting his eyes on the unfamiliar night skies and their stars, he felt himself drift to sleep and Vaermina's clutches in strange and alien world, wondering just what fate had charged him with.

The lost man

Chapter four: The lost man

Twilight darted down along the halls of Canterlot palace, moving at speeds Rainbowdash would be impressed with; her hooves cast the sound of rapid hoof-steps along the tiled halls, her standard 'clip-clop' of calm trotting replaced by the sounds of a pony galloping way faster than they were used to. It was no real surprise when thought about; she was fuelled by the fear of her friends and home being burnt to the ground by a dragon, or demolished by the newcomer. As she galloped, her adrenalin and fear stricken mind cast images of a smoking crater instead of the pleasant and peaceful hamlet that was Ponyville. She tried shaking her head to free her mind of these distressing images, but almost ran into a wall for her trouble.

Her blurred form rushed past guards and staff, throwing their manes and tails in a gale of panicked wind, and she took a corner too fast; she lost her hoofing and tumbled over her back before she landed back on her hooves, skidding along the length of the hall before she managed to stop herself. Twilight jutted to a halt on her left hooves before her rights returned to the ground and she started galloping again. The ponies she passed were looking at her now, watching her go past with confused and worried looks on their faces as she barrelled past in a flurry of purple and pink; Twilight had never galloped so fast in her life, not even at the Running of the leaves had she moved so quickly. If she hadn't been so panicked, she might be impressed with herself.

Behind her, she heard the sounds of pursuit; Celestia, Luna and Shining Armour were after her, and the three much fitter ponies were gaining fast.

"Twilight" Celestia called after her "wait!" The purple mare considered complying with her, but with her friend's homes and possibly lives on the line, she wasn't going to stop for anything. There was suddenly a flash in front of her, and Celestia appeared from nowhere. Twilight's heart skipped a beat as she tried to stop, leaning back and using all four hooves to stop herself, to no avail, before she managed to clear her mind enough and teleport herself behind her tutor. Celestia looked behind her to find Twilight stumble back to her hooves and continue galloping for the palace entrance. A worried Luna and Shining Armour passed her by as she watched her student and soon to be adoptive daughter go. The princess of the day pulled herself from her stupor and stood up on her hooves and started after Twilight again.

Luna and Shining were neck and neck in their chase of the filly; the main problem was that they were both soldiers, so they were used to long distance galloping rather than such speeds over a short distance. Shining Armour could only wonder how his little sister had suddenly become a champion sprinter. Luna waited until they were going down a moderately long straight hallway before she closed her eyes and pictured herself next to Twilight; in a flash of light and magic she found herself there. Twilight glanced back and saw the princess of the night right behind her; her eyes widened as she registered the dark mare so close to her.

"Twilight" Luna panted "slow down" she begged between ragged breaths. Twilight shook her head as best she could before she looked back down the hall.

"Can't" she answered simply. The princess of the night growled slightly in frustration before she tried to lung for Twilight; a good plan, had Twilight not skidded around another corner. Luna landed on her front and slid along the ground until her face became very well acquainted with the wall. Twilight kept going, unawares as to Luna's predicament and Armour kept after her as the staff and guards helped her up. Celestia galloped past as well, sparing a glance at her poor sister before she kept going, unwilling to let Twilight find the newcomer before she did. Meanwhile, Twilight had almost made it to the doors; they were still open, thanks to the hot weather today, and the unicorn was about to barrel through. Celestia had caught up with Shining Armour and was galloping next to him; she suddenly found herself wishing she hadn't taken a fondness for cake in the last few years. She then remembered they were in Canterlot palace, where most of her day guards tended to hang around a lot.

"Guards" she shouted to the gold-clad ponies either side of the door. They looked up and spotted Twilight galloping from Celestia and Captain Armour. "Stop her" she finished. They looked back to Twilight and moved into action; there were four guards in all, two unicorns and two earth ponies, a unicorn and an earth pony each side and they moved in a perfect group. The inner two covered the door, while the flanking two moved forwards; the biggest earth stood his ground, a big wall for her to try and get around. Twilight panicked, tripped and slid on her front, right underneath the earth pony and between his legs. As she slid beneath him, the bewildered guard followed through with his head, his head ending up looking between his own legs. Twilight stumbled back to her hooves, again, and kept going. The first unicorn stepped up next, and tried stopping her with magic.

Even though he was a well-trained soldier of Celestia's personal solar-guard, it was a bad idea to use magic against Celestia's top and personal student; a silver/grey aura appeared around her and she couldn't help but slow, but Twilight's own appeared around her and pushed out against the guard's as she dispelled it before she rushed past him. The last two guards readied themselves as Twilight galloped towards them; the earth cantered towards her in an attempt to tackle her, he lunged for her and made a grab for her, his fore-legs swinging in and clutching at air. He looked around and found himself hanging in the air, suspended by a light magenta glow; he followed Twilight with an impressed glare as the filly stuck her tongue out at him as she galloped for the door and the last guard.

The other unicorn set into a stance as Twilight approached and set himself to stop her with a spell; a dark blue wall of magic appeared before him and the door, but just as Twilight was about to hit it, she teleported again, reappearing outside the palace.

Celestia and Shining continued their pursuit, wearing an annoyed grin and impressed glare respectively, the gap between them and Twilight no smaller. Celestia teleported again, outside the walls of the palace and right in front of Twilight Sparkle. The purple mare screamed and tried to stop herself, again to no avail, and couldn't muster enough magic to teleport again quickly enough. She crashed right into the princess of Equestria. Celestia grunted as the air was pushed from her and was forced onto her back from Twilight's momentum; she rolled over again with Twilight still in her grasp until she landed on her other three hooves before she sat back on her plot again with Twilight wrapped in her fore-hooves again. The purple mare struggled a bit before in Celestia's hold.

"Lemme go, please! I've gotta get to my friends" she exclaimed as she pushed her hooves against the white mare's chest. Celestia continued to hold Twilight, right in front of the palace, where many ponies could see them no less, as she tried to sooth her.

"Twilight" she said softly, her words falling on deaf ears. "Twilight" she said again, slightly louder as she tried to get through to the purple mare. Twilight kept at her attempts to escape Celestia, all attempts in vain, as she grunted, growled and cried out in attempts to free herself. "Twilight" Celestia whispered, directly into Twilight's ear. This either got through to the mare, or she just gave up as she relaxed against the white mare.

"Celestia, princess, please" she begged "I've gotta get back to Ponyville! My friends, Spike, the town could all be in danger" she tried to explain. Celestia loosened her grip slightly so she could look into Twilight's eyes properly.

"I know how you feel Twilight. My concern for my friends is only rivalled by your own, but we must all remain calm if we are to properly capture or, if need be, defeat this newcomer" she soothed. She pulled Twilight into a hug as she stroked the back of her mane. "I promise you, my dear student, I will personally deal with him." She paused for a second. "And the dragon, alone if I must" she assured. Twilight's panic and resolve suddenly crumbled as Celestia's words met her ears; it suddenly occurred to her what the princess of the sun was telling her: that she'd go after this stallion alone if it meant protecting her friends. She suddenly felt bad about rushing off the way she had, possibly jeopardising their efforts to find the newcomer. She started to hug Celestia back, resting her head against Celestia's chest.

"I'm sorry princess, it's just…" she trailed off, unsure where to take her sentence.

"Do not worry, Twilight. I understand your reaction; you acted justly considering your relationship with your friends." Celestia still hadn't released Twilight, and she didn't really have much intention to do so either, but when Shining, Luna and Cadence showed up, she thought it only proper. They were quite a sight; Cadence was pristine and proper, having not pursued Twilight; Shining was out of breath and looking down right pissed off; while Luna came trotting behind, holding her sore muzzle in her hoof.

"You done now, Twily" Shining asked her, his eyebrow raised. Twilight laughed sheepishly.

"Y-yeah, I guess I am. I just got a little…worried" she answered, scratching the back of her neck. Celestia had approached Luna.

"You alright Lu-Lu" she asked her sister, who was still rubbing her nose.

"I'm just fine Tia" she answered. Celestia moved her hoof away to take a look at her.

"I could kiss it better, if you like" she offered. The princes of the night blushed and shook her head. Celestia giggled at her sister's reaction, laughing into her hoof, before she hugged her sister to try and make her feel better. Cadence spoke up next.

"Well, if we're done with this brief panic attack, shall we head back to the castle" she asked them all. Celestia nodded and the rest of them followed suit, trotting back to the palace, Twi, Shining, Luna and Cadence in tow behind.

"So, what are we going to do sister? The only lead we have is the information the guard gave us, and it's a rather flimsy lead at that." Celestia turned her head to Luna, her expression requesting an explanation. "Well, think about it; the Everfree forest is a big place, and very little is charted, if at all, we actually know about even less of the place than we have mapped out; secondly, Shining Armour made a good point earlier, this Wyrm is about as likely to be working with the newcomer as he is a coincidence in this whole matter, it just doesn't add up with me; finally, he's got at least a three day head start on us, and if that dragon is working with him he could be anywhere in Equestria by now, anywhere in the world, and even if he isn't, Twilight is right to be worried, he could be in Ponyville or, if we're lucky, somewhere in the Everfree, and that brings us back to our first problem." Celestia had stopped trotting and was looking at her sister with a bit of a blank face.

"Luna" she started "that's…that's…that's a good few points actually" she admitted. Luna gave an apologetic smile.

"I'm sorry to have poked any holes in your wishes to find this stallion sister, but I'm simply trying to be realistic here." Celestia nodded her head understandingly before she looked to everypony else for their opinions on the matter; none of them said anything, but they all seemed to be leaning towards Luna's reasoning, even Twilight.

"I see" she mumbled. "Well, we'll talk more on the matter inside" she said. The all nodded and trotted to the palace, arriving shortly. "Let's head to my chambers" Celestia suggested "we'll have more privacy there" she added. They all nodded silently and followed her lead upstairs.

"Make sure we're not disturbed" Luna told the guard on duty. He nodded and saluted as she passed him by. Celestia pushed through the door to her bedroom with her hoof and trotted over to her bed and dumped herself on it; she hadn't realised just how tired she was from all the galloping. Twilight hopped onto the bed besides her.

"So, what are we going to do" she asked, echoing Luna's question. Celestia blew a few strands of her mane out of her face with a quick puff of breath.

'I haven't a clue.'

"Well, first thing we should do is try and find him" she stated. Twilight blinked and frowned at her tutor's…vague set of instructions

"Alright but…what do we do when we do find him" she pressed. Cadence, Luna and Shining Armour had gathered around by now, waiting for some kind of direction to go with. Celestia had sat up, maybe so she would at least seem to know what she was talking about.

"We try to talk to him, and if he isn't willing to cooperate…well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it" she said, not exactly cryptically. Luna looked to the side in thought, biting her lip as she did so. Celestia caught the motion. "Something the matter sister?" Luna looked at her sister with conflicted eyes.

"Tia…are you sure we can take him on? He beat us when he appeared to be drunk; I mean, it's as Captain Armour says, we haven't an idea about what he can really do." Celestia smiled slightly at her sister's reasoning.

"Luna, last night he took us by surprise and yes, he may have beaten us with just these…" she glanced at Twilight "shouts, but now we know he can use such magic, if that's what they are. Also, we won't be alone this time" she said with a grin on her face. Twilight cocked her head slightly.

"But what would we do if we did beat him? Send him back through the portal?" Celestia shook her head.

"No, I'm afraid not; the stone cutter's passage is…Twilight, do you know its curse?" Twilight put a thoughtful hoof to her chin.

"Only what I've read; I know that it can bring anything from anywhere through, but that's about it" she admitted. Celestia nodded.

"Yes, what you know is true, but it's not everything to know about the passage" she revealed. Twilight raised an eyebrow. "The stone cutter's passage is a one way door, anything that comes through isn't going back through that way" she explained. Twilight gaped.

"What, then what are we going to do?" Celestia shook her head.

"I'm not sure Twilight."

"But…but how does that even work? How can door only go one way, if he came through the portal why can't he go back through the portal?" Celestia took a deep breath, and Twilight knew to prepare for some kind of lengthy explanation.

"Twilight, have you ever heard of a 'doorway to nowhere'?" The magenta mare nodded, her eyebrow raised. "Well, the stone cutter's passage is a doorway from nowhere; as you know, the other side of the portal can appear anywhere it likes, anytime it likes. In theory, that fact could be very useful for exploration of other worlds and times, but preventing that is the fact that nothing can use the portal from this direction" she explained.

"But surly if he walked through the portal one way, it should be just as easy as going through the other" Twilight argued. Celestia shook her head.

"Not necessarily" Celestia countered "the stone cutter's passage is no normal doorway" she told her student. Twilight looked to be waiting for something. "Here's how it works; when somepony passes through the portal, they find themselves in what is basically a space between all worlds, think of it like a waiting room of sorts, before they cross into Equestria. Anything to go through that side will have an opening behind and before them, to Equestria and back to their homeland, but that matters little; anything foolish enough to go through isn't going back through the portal, and unless they can find another way back, they're stuck here…or trapped here, depending on their opinion" she finished. Twilight seemed to deflate a little.

"So…that's it then? The only way we're getting rid of this guy, is either reasoning with him, or killing him" she clarified. Celestia pulled her in with her fore-hoof.

"I'm sorry Twilight, but I can't see any other way out" she admitted. Shining Armour scratched the back of his neck, wondering what to do.

"With respect princess, we don't have much of a plan; try to find him and when, if, we do, we try and talk to him? And if that doesn't work we try to fight him? I mean; how do we find him, what do we even talk to him about? And if that doesn't work, how do you expect us to beat him? You've already seen that he can beat me in open combat." Celestia looked him right in the eye.

"Capitan Armour, I thought I'd already said that we won't be alone in this" she retorted. Luna raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean by that" Luna asked. Celestia let a small, devious smile stretch across her face.

"I mean what I say, Lu-Lu; we won't be alone in our endeavour this time" she answered cryptically.

"So who will be with us" Luna asked. The door to Celestia's room swung open.

"Why yours truly of course" said Discord as he meandered into the room, a dark smirk on his face.

Remus didn't know much about this place, but what he did know just made him question what he did know. When he reviewed his last trail of thought, he decided he didn't like this place.

"Ahh, two day. Two days and I already hate it…that's gotta be a new record" he mumbled from beneath his stone tent. He frowned.

'Or is it three days?"

He'd lost track already, the days had melded together, the boredom working at his sanity.

The more he thought about this place in fact, the more he realised just how much he hated it here; he'd been turned into a pony, he'd been snatched from his home and his only friends were an undead dragon and the ghost of an assassin. His only friends were dead people; that said a lot about his social life. It had been a full night since he, Durnehviir and Lachance had made camp in the middle of what was no doubt a very dangerous forest. Still, he'd be damned if he cared about the dangers of a dark forest, at least he knew how to handle that; with a sharp point and a few ancient words.

The last Dragonborn felt his stomach grumble at him and decided to undertake an old hobby of his: hunting. Yes, this could be considered a rather mundane pastime, considering where he came from, but he felt a certain relaxation when stalking his prey. Remus stood from beneath his stone tent and looked around; Durn was still sleeping and Lucien was still mediating, his version of sleeping. He stood up and went to the edge of the clearing. Dispelling the rune he'd cast on the spot he walked over, or trotted over he guessed, he stepped into the thick of the forest.

Almost immediately, his vision was taken by the pitch black darkness cast by the shade of the canopy of branches overhead. Trying to move through this forest was nearly impossible, given that the trees were so compact that they formed walls sometimes and their vines and other inconveniences made just trying to take a step a risky venture. The more he traversed this environment, the more he felt he liked it; that fact that he was unfamiliar with it put him on edge, that there could be any amount of creatures lurking in the darkness made him paranoid, that he didn't have a weapon made his muscles clench and the distant roars of fellow predators gave him an adrenalin rush.

He liked it in this forest, simply because it was new to him. He traipsed all across Skyrim, and knew it inch by inch, but this place was new, different and possibly dangerous. This must have been how the Champion of Cyrodiil felt when he'd gone to the Shivering Isles.

He moved through the dense plant life like a shadow, his natural skills as a thief and assassin shining through in his new form. He had to admit it; it wasn't as bad as he first thought it'd be. Perhaps it was because he'd grown into his new form, maybe because he was adapting into an animal's body that worked much like human's. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad like this, or at least until he got back to Skyrim.

He continued to trot and before long he got tired of trying to see through this impenetrable darkness; he closed his eye for a second, squeezing them shut, before he opened them again, the spell filling his head with the sound of magicka rushing through his body, and found the forest revealed to him in a grey and silver glow. All in all, it was a rather useless venture, seeing as the trees impeded his vision to such a degree that he couldn't see further than ten feet in front of him. Or at least whatever a foot here was, anyway.

The last Dragonborn leapt over a fallen log and found himself in another clearing; it was smaller than the one he'd made camp in, and the branches of the trees reached over and blocked any light that would attempt to get in. He figured it to be a nest of some kind, given that the scent of animal waste and slain prey clung in the air, while twigs, leaves and dry grass was scattered along the ground. Finding nothing else of interest around, Remus shrugged and went to turn away, wondering what was nesting here, when a snapped branch and growl caught his attention.

The last Dragonborn looked calmly to his left, finding yet another wall of timber blocking his view. He peered around the nest again, wondering if what had just growled at him was the owner of the nest he'd just meandered into. His loitering must have angered the creature further, as his question about what creature he'd angered were soon answered as a creature he wasn't familiar with stalker through the vegetation. Normally, Remus would have sunk back into the shadows, but upon sight of…whatever it was, he couldn't help but remain in place as his curiosity got the better of him. Remus cocked his head and he took a step towards the creature.

It had the body of some kind of lion, as well as its head, legs, paws and, most importantly, claws; on its back was a pair of, what the Dovahkiin could only guess, were dragon wings; at its rear end was the tail of a scorpion, or at least he presumed it was from the stories he'd heard from those Hammerfell mercs.

With a cocked head and a raised eyebrow, Remus rounded the creature, taking it in from all angles; when he stepped on a spot the creature apparently didn't like, it started growling again, baring it's maw of many teeth and letting its drool run down its chin as it did. The animal stepped forwards, closer to Remus and sniffed at him a few times; it, for whatever reason, didn't seem to like the way he smelt and its growls turned to snarls. The last gulped slightly as the tip of its tail reached over its head, aimed at the snow and ice stallion.

With a mental sigh, Remus narrowed his eyes. The simple act caused the animal to roar its displeasure as it tensed for a second before it lunged for him. Remus raised his hoof and waited for contact; the creature landed on his hoof and a pulse of green ran through its system as it was paralyzed. The lion/dragon/scorpion fell to the ground, its out stretched paws and legs acting as a stand for its body, erect wing and solid tail. Remus meandered over to it and pushed it onto its back before he snapped his hoof to the side and conjured the bound dagger.

He calmly stepped over to the creature and looked into its confused and enraged eyes as he put the ethereal dagger to its neck and drew it across, painting a blood red smile on its neck. He looked down at the translucent weapon in his hoof, wondering why he hadn't used the spell in the palace. He shrugged the thought away and dispelled the weapon before he took the creature by the mane and dragged it along behind him.

A few minutes of plodding back to the camp later, and his hunt was completed. He dropped the creature by the remains of the fire and looked up in sudden thought.

'That was boring' he noticed, suddenly disappointed with his hunt. Not exactly the turnout but the experience, it had just been dull. He looked around again. 'Yeah, I still hate it here.' He looked back to the creature he'd killed sighed; how was it that something like hunting was boring to him here? He loved hunting; the arrow flying through the air, the snap of the neck, stalking the dear, taking on wolves with nothing but a dagger. He leant against his kill, a distant look on his face. 'Good times.' Before he'd fallen too deep into the bottomless pit that was his memories, he stood up again and took in his prey; big, muscled with some fatty spots and plenty of meat, he was also fairly sure he could make some armour from the leather he'd get from the hide. Re-conjuring his dagger, he set to work.

He'd been skinning and filleting animals for years, ever since his days in the Companions he'd been going out into the wilderness, maybe with Aela or Vilkas, and just taking down a few critters. Or that one time it had been a mammoth, that had been fun, if a little nerve racking. They'd also taught him the finer points of skinning animals and turning an animal into a set of fine leather armour or food. Half-way though the proses of skinning his kill, Durnehviir woke up to a half skinless monster.

"Drem yol lok, Qahnaarin" the dragon greets. Remus looks up from his work and nods at the Dovah. Durnehviir raises himself and looks over the Dragonborn's work, finding half the creature he was skinning bare of fur and skin and the other half in the proses of losing it. "You have been busy, Dovahkiin? The nir, the hunt,was bountiful, was it not?" Remus shrugged at him and returned to running the bound dagger down the side of his kill.

"Depends on what angle you look at it from" he answered. Durnehviir cocker his head to the side.

"Something troubles you, Dragonborn?" Said stallion glanced at the dragon before he looked around the clearing.

"I'm not sure, this place, this land of keys, of horses…it troubles me" he looked at his hoof, rotating and gazing at it from every angle "it's changed me…"

"Ko zii ahrk ko kopraan, in soul and in body" the dragon finished for him. "More that you anticipated, hmm?" Remus had faulted on his next stroke, the blade going into the meat instead of gliding along the fur.

"Damnit" he grumbled as he pulled the spectral blade out as carefully as he could. There was an out of place gash in the muscle; he glared at the mistake in his work before he glanced at Durnehviir. The dragon was watching him with a cocked head, awaiting his answer. He sighed deeply before he spoke. "I suppose you're right, the soul will follow the body. I mean, when I was hunting just now, I found it boring" he revealed. That actually seemed to surprise the undead Dovah.

"Words I never thought I'd hear from a fellow Dovah" he admitted. Remus grunted to himself, his eyes swivelling to Durnehviir. The dragon seemed to be in thought. "Faal hahdrim do faal Dovah los daal hahdrim do faal ah. The mind of the dragon is the mind of the hunter; Dovah or Dovahkiin, your mind is attuned to dominance, to the hunt. You kill, you hunt, you fight and you stand naturally stand above all other joors… perhaps your…" he fished for an appropriate word "new form, has altered your perception of life and the views of others and the way you see yourself in their company." Remus had returned to his work, soon pulling the skin off of the beast in a few good pieces of hide. He hung the hide from a few branches sticking out from the trees before he returned to his kill. Durnehviir had watched him the whole time his eyes expecting an answer once again. Remus rolled his eyes and sighed.

"I can only suppose that you're correct, fahdon. I haven't the chance to really go over it but…I don't know, when we were flying yesterday I felt myself feeling guilty about attacking them; I've done things like that, worse than that, before I haven't given the faintest hint of a damn, I mean, I've fought and killed before, and it's never left me feeling so conflicted." With a low hum of thought, he cast it from his mind. "Maybe these ponies just aren't as violent as a Nord or dragon." A spine tingling voice from behind them cut their conversation short.

"I beg to differ, listener" Lucien posed. Remus turned around to him and Durn looked over at the assassin; he was leaning his back against the stone tent, his left leg along the ground and his right propped up, his arm resting on the knee.

"How so, dark brother?" Lachance shrugged and stood.

"If creatures such as this" he pointed at the beast Remus had slain "live in a place such as this" he gestured around the forest "then I doubt the…" he glanced at Remus "beings of this land are strangers to violence. Did you not say yourself that you spat in the face of this lands monarch? One can presume they were protected" he posed. Remus grunted and nodded. "Guardsmen, hunters perhaps. War and combat are two forces that will never be vacant, no matter where you go listener." Remus smirked.

"We can only hope" he answered as he sliced a strip of meat from the creature and carried it over to the fire pit before he remembered he hadn't got anymore fire wood. "Damn" was his only word before he tossed it in the direction of the dragon with a quick 'catch'. The meat slapped against the undead Dovah and slowly slid down his un-amused face until it plopped onto the floor. Although he hadn't watched the act, Remus still had a smirk on his face as he gathered up a few pieces of wood and kindling. He carried the wood back to the circle of rocks and dumped them within its confines before he threw together a makeshift split above the soon-to-be flames.

Another chunk of meat found itself off of the body of the beast and being carried on the last's back towards the fire pit. He lit the kindling in the same fashion as last night before he stabbed the supporting stick through the meant and set it over the flames, the scent of sizzling meat soon filling the clearing. Remus left it to cook before he meandered over to the side of the stream.

"Alright" he said after a while "we'll-no-I'll eat then we'll get on the move again" he decided. Lucien stood next to him and watched the water go by, his ghostly hands inside the sleeves of the opposite hand.

"Move where, listener? Do you plan to keep running from these horses? Confront them? Do we try to get back to Tamriel?" Remus turned his gaze up to him, a clearly angered look on his face.

"You have a better idea" he asked.

"The krivaan speaks wisdom, Qahnaarin. Running from your foes is not the way of the Dovah. Either stand and fight, or face them with reason but do not take the nivahriin, the cowardly, way out." Remus had stood and turned to Durnehviir.

"Pardon, Durnehviir" he demanded "you dare call me a coward." The dragon stood his ground.

"You cannot argue with the truth, Dovahkiin" he shot back, rising from his stomach and standing over the stallion. The snow and ice stallion wasn't intimidated by the dragon's superior size, nor his Thu'um. He wasn't going to stand around and be accused of cowardice.

"Care to back you words with steel" he challenged. "I'll shout you back to the soul cairn you son of a-"

Liss

A flow of ice shot from the dragon's maw, striking the Dragonborn and freezing him solid mid-sentence. Remus's hooves were frozen to the ground, keeping him upright as Durnehviir snaked his head forwards and stared down into his eyes.

"A coward, is he who runs. I have not called you a coward, simply warned you against the path of faas, of fear." Lucien stepped up beside him and raised his ghostly boot before kicked Remus in the side, shattering the ice and throwing him to his side. Remus got back up, ready to rip the two of them apart.

"Listener" Lucien said pointedly, his hand on his short-sword "you have few allies here, I suggest against trying to kill those you do." The last growled like an animal for a second before he cursed savagely and slammed his hoof into the ground in frustration before he pushed past them and towards the fire pit again.

"Whatever" he growled. He sat down next to the cooking meat, turning it slowly with his hoof. "Never thought I'd feel so outnumbered against an undead dragon and a dead man" he mumbled as he rotated the meat on the spit. He looked up at the dragon and assassin. "Well what do you suggest we do then" he demanded. Lucien shrugged and sat with his back against the tent.

"I suggest we act as the assassin" he told them. Remus raised his eye at the ghost as he sliced a piece of meat from the carcass.

"What" he asked as he placed the meat in his mouth, enjoying the juices and feeling of food in his mouth but not the tastelessness.

"Presumably, they chase us. They are bound to find us eventually, so I suggest we wait for them." Remus raised his eyebrow, once again. "We let them find us, and then let them decide the cause of action; they attack" a grin Mehrunes Dagon would cower under stretched across his face "we rip their eyes out. They decide on more…peaceful measures, we talk with them. But know this brother; should they attempt to draw blood, we will send them to the void" he growled, prompting a grin from the last Dragonborn.

"Then let's hope they go for the first option then."

"Y'know Celestia, the last time I saw you in that armour was our first date together" Discord commented as said princess donned her gold/bronze battle suit. Celestia took a sideways glance at him, a glare in her eye, but couldn't supress the small grin.

"That wasn't a date, Discord" she clarified for the god of chaos. She tightened the last strap on her stomach with her golden magic before she covered the buckles on her stomach with the metal plate there, tying that down with another strap. She turned to him and trotted over to him, her eyes half-lidded and a sultry grin on her face. "But, the fires of battle are renowned for igniting the fires of lust" she whispered as she ran a hoof down his chest. Discord's grin had gone from devious to curious. He ran his paw through her mane, their faces getting steadily closer until Discord felt a sharp pain in his gut. With a cold look on her face, Celestia pulled the hoof she'd struck him with away from his abdominal and watched him double over in pain, holding his gut. She grabbed him by the antlers and hauled him to eye level. "The last time you saw me in this armour, was one of the few times I found you on the battlefield" she spat "and the next time you try something like this again, hope you succeed" she pulled her combat dagger from its sheath and put it between his legs "else you'll have no reason to try again in the future" she told him. "Do I make myself clear" she asked him, way to calm to for the situation.

"Crystal" he answered. Celestia let him go and returned to the armour stand.

"Good" she said simply. Holding his head and stomach, the god of chaos straightened up and watched Celestia don her armour.

"You really are a two sided pony, you know that" he said as he started flipping a coin he'd pulled from the ether. Celestia glanced back at him.

"Coming from you" she retorted over her shoulder as she pulled a thick, brown cloak over her shoulders and secured it to her armour. Discord had laughed at her statement.

"Yes, coming from me, of all draconequus's" he confirmed. Celestia turned back to the mirror in the armoury, placed there to make sure no errant straps or buckles were loose and found Discord as her reflection. "Me, the pure embodiment of disharmony, is calling you out Celestia as a pony with mental flaws." Celestia cocked her head to the side.

"I realise that, and the only reason I'm not breaking you right now is because I don't want seven years bad luck" she told him. Discord flew from the mirror and merged with the wall, looking like some kind of moving mosaic.

"Excuses, excuses" he replied before he stepped from the wall. Celestia simply grunted in amusement as she pulled the last greave up her leg.

"Are you going to do something about it, Discord?" Said draconequus perched himself on a table edge and crossed his arms.

"A little defensive today, Tia?" Celestia shrugged as she tied her mane back.

"You have a problem with that Discord? You're asking a lot of questions today" she observed. He shrugged.

"I guess I am, but I promise to burden you with only one more, princess" he assured. Celestia sighed deeply once before she turned to him.

"Yes, Discord" a smile on her face so sweet it was sour. The look on his face troubled her some; it was deeper, more inquisitive than she'd ever seen before, a look of pure thought that looked very out of place upon his face.

"You, and dear Twilight…" he trailed of, and Celestia knew where this was going "you seem to be getting much more…physical with her lately" his grin came back as he cocked his head "I mean, when I showed up you were holding her like you'd hold a-" he stopped his sentence when it all fell into place in his mind, a grin that stretched further than his face should have allowed melting into his expression as it clicked. He hopped off the table and paced back and forth. "Dear, oh dear, Celestia, surly you know better than that" he scolded, that grin still on his face.

"Oh, shut up Discord" she told him. The draconequus of disharmony put a claw to the corner of his mouth and dragged it along his mouth, rather literally 'zipping it'. Celestia shook her head at his nonsense and put the finishing touches to her armour; she brushed some stubborn soot from the equestrian symbol on her chest, attached the black scabbard to her back, slipped the white-hot bladed Dai-katana inside said sheath, threw her cloak over it and rotated her body in the armour, making sure it was appropriately loose and manoeuvrable. She turned to the side and checked that her cutie mark, engraved into the flank of the armour, was in proper position. She turned back to Discord. "There, how do I look" she asked. The god of chaos leaned back and took her in.

"Honestly? Stood there in you battle armour, armed to the teeth and, if I'm not mistaken, ready to kill somepony?" He snapped his claws and in a flash he was stood on a small wooden stage, a red-brick background to it, black hair tied back in a ponytail and a grey suit jacket on his shoulders with a microphone in his claw. "I'd say you look drop-dead gorgeous, what's up with that" he said in a Manehatten accent. A sky blue octopus wearing a Rasta hat did the 'ba dum,tiss'tune after he'd made his gag. Celestia smirked and shook her head again before she trotted past him.

"Thank you Discord" she said as she passed him by. Discord chuckled and hopped off the stage and followed her out.

"So tell me Tia; what made you want to take Twilight in all of a sudden?" Celestia glanced up at him, not turning her head.

"What made you want to take over Equestria? I just…did, there's no real reason. I mean, I've always felt we were close but I never knew just how close until a few days ago" she admitted. Discord crossed his arms and looked down at her.

"Have you even told her" he asked. She shook her head.

"No, not yet, I can't just pull her away from her family like that…not yet anyway."

"Ooo, is there a little scheme at work in that pretty little head of yours" he asked as he floated by, lounging in mid-air. Celestia halted, turned to Discord and clamped her hoof over his mouth.

"Discord, if you want to live to see your next birthday, you'll do well to be quiet." She went to release him and turn away before she looked back. "Oh, and if you say a word of this to Twilight, Luna, Cadence, Shining Armour or anypony else" she paused and narrowed her eyes at him. "So help me" she finished quietly. Discord's eyes were wide in a rare look of shock as she let him go and straightened up. He watched he go before he spoke up.

"Celestia" he started. She groaned in frustration and turned back to him.

"What" she demanded. Discord cocked his head to the side.

"Why so serious?" She took a calming breath and looked at him properly.

"Because I love her like she's my own, but I don't know how to tell her" she admitted. The god of chaos grunted and smirked.

"Oh, look at you; getting all emotional in you battle suit. Let's go throw some rulers off their thrones, that normally cheers you up." Celestia glared at him before turning away and trotting for the throne room. Once there, she found Twilight, Shining, Luna and Cadence stood, talking to each other in hushed tones. A room that was normally bustling with nobles and peasants, here to gripe and request assistance in more practical matters respectively, was filled with only five ponies and a draconequus. Luna was outfitted with her own armour, more or less the same as Celestia's except the black and midnight blue colour and that her cutie mark was on the flank, while on her back a halberd was sheathed. Shining Armour wore his standard Captain's armour, a long-sword on his back.

"I still don't see why I can't go" Cadence was saying.

"Because if anything goes wrong, Equestria will need you" Celestia answered from the doorway. They all looked over and smiled slightly, Celestia returning their silent greeting. "All of you" she finished. Shining raised an eyebrow.

"All of us" he echoed "what do you mean by that, princess?" Celestia stepped closer to the group, Discord lingering at the doorway.

"What I mean, Captain, is that Equestria needs a princess to lead her" she said, looking at Cadence. "She also needs harmony, the elements" she added, looking at Twilight. "And her armies aren't going to organise themselves" she finished, looking at Shining Armour. The guard frowned.

"With respect ma'am, I'd gladly die for my country. I should go with you."

"Maybe so, Captain, but would you leave your wife alone so gladly" she asked. He looked to said alicorn as she nuzzled him, swiftly changing his song.

"I…no, I guess not" he submitted. Twilight spoke next.

"But what about the elements of harmony? I'm still not sure why you won't let me and my friends help you." Celestia smiled warmly and leaned her head down to Twilight's level.

"Dear Twilight, the elements of harmony may be Equestria's greatest means of defence, but those who wield them are far from soldiers" she told her good-naturedly. The element of magic looked at the floor, shuffling her hooves without an answer. "Twilight, me and my sister can fight the newcomer if necessary, but you cannot and I'd hate to see anything happen to you or your friends" she told her.

"Okay" the purple mare answered.

"Thank you Twilight" the white mare whispered before she straightened up. "The three of you will stay in Canterlot until me, Luna and Discord return" she told them. Luna and Celestia said their goodbyes.

"Be careful auntie" Cadence told Celestia as she embraced her, the princess of the day returning the hug.

"Don't worry Cadence, I will be" she assured. Luna and Twilight stood next to each other.

"Good luck out there Luna, I know Pipsqueak wants to see you next Nightmare night" she told her. Luna giggled slightly.

"And I him. Don't worry Twilight, it may have been a while since I last fought but I don't think I've lost my touch" she assured. Twilight giggled back as they made a friendly embrace. Discord slid up to Twilight when Luna went to Cadence.

"Listen, Twilight, should anything happen to me, I'm sure nothing will of course, but if it does…send my regards to Fluttershy, won't you?" Twilight grinned softly.

"Of course" she told him. Discord nodded appreciatively and noticed the rest of the gathered ponies staring at him.

"What" he demanded before he turned into a cupcake and ate himself. When all other farewells were done with, Celestia spoke quietly to Twilight.

"Goodbye Twilight" she said quietly as she wrapped her fore-leg around Twilight.

"See you princess" she replied. Celestia pulled back slightly.

"Come now Twilight, we're close enough to drop these formalities" she tried. Twilight smiled slightly.

"See you, Celestia" she said. Warmth filled the princess's heart when she heard that, pulling Twilight into another hug. It wasn't lost on Twilight how long it was, but she didn't really care. Done with the goodbyes, Luna, Celestia and Discord took to moving for the door.

"Is it really just the three of us" Luna asked quietly, as to not spoil the atmosphere.

"No" answered Celestia "there will be a company of twenty-five solar guards and twenty-five night guards" she answered. Luna nodded lightly. Half-way to the door, Discord spoke up.

"What was with all the dramatics anyway? You made it look like we're going on a decade long campaign or something" he commented. Celestia narrowed her eyes slightly.

"Because Discord, I fear that what we are about to go up against, is no normal foe" she answered before she looked left and right at the two of them. "Should we lose to the newcomer…I fear to think of what might become of Equestria" she told them. Discord grinned, Luna swallowed and Celestia's expression just turned grimmer, as they marched away from safety, and into the clutches of the unknown and an enemy that could spell the end of Equestria and its rulers.

Remus held the pieces of stitched together leather up in his hooves; it was ugly, rough and the leather stitching could be easily seen in the middle of battle, but it was armour and it was his. The thick leather would go over the chest, back and fore-legs and while it had been more or less easy to design and cobble together, the hind-legs and his backside remained unprotected, asides from the uncomfortable boots he'd fashioned. It had taken him a good few hours to piece this thing together, and when he'd completed it, he wasn't sure if he was happy with it or not; he was used to dealing with the finest quality metals and leather, working over the Skyforge, sometimes with dragon bone at his side, but here he'd been forced to work with leather and hide he'd taken from an animal he didn't even know the name of. That said, it was damn good leather, thick, strong and heavy, but it was no mammoth hide. The main good side to the situation was that he hadn't used all of the fur or hide, so he'd been able to fashion himself a hood and cloak, in case the weather decided take a turn for the worst. The only thing he was lacking now was steel at his hip.

"What do you think" he asked his company. Lucien shrugged.

"I've seen worse" he told him.

"As fluent as a fellow Dovah" Durnehviir mused, commenting on the assassin's wise choice of words. Remus grunted and looked back to his impromptu garb; it consisted of the aforementioned cuirass; a belt with which he hoped to sheath weapons with; two pairs of boots sat by him, one pair for the fore-hooves and one for the hind-hooves. That he'd had to throw away the gauntlets he'd accidently made just annoyed him further. The fur cloak and leather hood lay besides the boots. As he looked over the armour he'd assembled, he couldn't help but think it was incomplete without a sword or dagger lying on top. Durnehviir seemed to read his mind.

"Your voice is your weapon, as well as your power, Dovahkiin" he commented. The last grunted and glanced at him with a slightly annoyed look on his face but faltered when he caught him looking over his head.

"What" he asked as he turned. When he did, he frowned; Lucien seemed to be looking at his outstretched palm, which seemed to be alight, smoking with a ghostly mist, more so than usual. The vapour coming from his body made him look like he was in the process of spontaneously combusting.

"That's concerning" Lucien commented absentmindedly.

"Here, here" Remus agreed as he stood and trotted over to his dead friend "Lachance, you alright" he asked. The long-dead speaker seemed to lose his balance as he stumbled back a little.

"I'm not sure" he murmured "but I feel the dread father calling me, Sithis and the void…" he seemed to feel a sudden pain in his chest as he suddenly clutched at it, grunting slightly. When he pulled his hand back Remus started to get worried; there was a hole. Not a wound as such but an actual hole, turning him from translucent to literally transparent.

"Holy…" Remus trailed off, suddenly regretting his choice of words. Perhaps instinctively, Lucien put his hand back to the gap in his chest, checking for blood that wasn't going to leak; when he pulled it back his hand had disappeared as well.

"What in the void" he demanded. It struck, Remus how calm he sounded. He suddenly had a distant look on his face. "Sithis" he whispered at length before he fell from existence. Remus stared at where he'd been stood for a while before he spoke again.

"Well" he started, pausing for a long while before he spoke again "shit." Durnehviir seemed to agree. "Great" Remus started again "we're a man down, and I haven't a clue why" he observed. He picked up a rock and tossed it into the air.

Fus, Ro Dah

The stone launched into the air and sailed towards the horizon before it disappeared over the curvature of whatever the name of this planet was. With a long, majorly pissed off growl he made his way to steam and slumped down beside it before he glanced back at Durnehviir.

"Let me know if you're planning on leaving too, will you." The dragon said nothing back to him; instead he simply gave a low growl of thought. The last ran a hoof over his face as he followed Durn's example, growling to himself. "I. HATE. This place" he exclaimed "everything seems to be going wrong here, I was turned into a horse, pulled from my home and now one of my very few allies had gone for no good reason" he listed.

"Kos nahlot" Durnehviir roared "cease with your complaining, be grateful for what you have, and stop dwelling on what you don't." Remus turned back to him.

"Just what is your problem" he demanded "I can't help but notice that you've been getting pretty damn testy with me as of late" he growled as he stood and pointed a hoof at him. Durn stood up and stalker over, his heavy steps making loud 'thuds' as he stepped.

"Because you act like a vahdin, a housewife, you complain and go on and on-"

Fo, Krah Diin

The burst of frost and ice shot across the distance between them, striking the dragon square in the face and freezing his blood and bones.

"You want to join the list of dragons to fall to my voice" he growled. He seemed to have annoyed Durnehviir, who strode around the camp as the dragon and stallion stared each other down, neither combatant's pride allowing them to stand down; Durn stepped through the fire and stood on the stone tent as he circled Remus, while said Dragonborn stepped through the spot the Dovah had been sleeping on.

"Tell me, Dovahkiin, would you do this if the assassin were still here?" Remus snarled.

"I do what I please" he told him before he barked another shout.

Fus, Ro Dah

The shockwave slammed into the dragon, causing him to growl and screech as his head was thrown back. Durnehviir growled and roared at the dragon slayer, the blast of air and bad breath throwing the snow and stallion's mane and tail around him.

Diil, Qoth Zaam

The shout struck the ground and three skeletons rose from the ground, brandishing weapons forged from bone and ebony. The three of them were garbed in an ancient style of iron armour and held a claymore, battle-axe and war hammer between them, clumsily advancing on the Dragonborn. Remus rolled his eyes.

"Is that all you've got" he taunted.

Gaan, Lah Haas

The purple wave of dark magic passed over the skeletal beings, ripping their life from them and quickly killing them. Or at least dispatching them. The shout didn't make it to the dragon, but instead it stopped just before him.

"Alright Durn" Remus started "let's see what an undead dragon can do" he roared before he charged forwards. The dragon snaked his head forwards and snapped his jaws at the stallion, Remus dodging out of the way before he leapt atop the Dovah's head, grabbing one of his slime drooling horns and summoning a bound blade to his hoof. "I've defeated you once before, Durnehviir, and I'll do it again" he shouted down at him. He swung the weapon down at the dragon's head, the translucent sword scrapping down his decaying scales and doing little damage. The dragon gave a violent throw of his head and threw the dragon slayer off his head. Remus picked himself up and suddenly had to dodge out of the way of a dragon trying to eat him; Durn's head dived down for him, his jaws and teeth crashing together as he tried for a chunk of pony. Remus had rolled out of the way, the Dovah following him and going for another mouthful, the Dragonborn leaping over his head. Durn whipped his head up, cracking the back of his head into the stallion. Remus was thrown over the clearing, landing on his back and rolling onto his hooves. With a bloody face and snarling maw, he glared at the dragon.

"Y'know what Durnehviir?" The dragon cocked his head to the side.

Durnehviir, Zii-Los D-

Remus was cut off when a flash of black shot across his vision and he felt a sharp connection of boot to muzzle, cutting off his Thu'um and throwing him off his hooves, quite possibly breaking his jaw in the process. He grunted as he rolled over his back and skidded along the ground on his side, his fur getting coated in mud and dirt. He stood up rubbing his jaw, and growled at who or whatever had struck him. He looked around and spotted Durnehviir, stood remarkably still as a being of pure darkness stood before him, holding a blade to his eye.

"Alright Durnehviir, we'll put our differences behind us and take on this guy before we kill each other, agreed?" Durn nodded.

"Geh, drem" he agreed. The two then heard a dark chuckling.

"And what do you plan to do" the voice asked. Remus raised an eyebrow.

"Wait…who are you?" The dark figure turned his gaze to Remus.

"I live…again" the flesh and blood Lucien Lachance told him.

"So where do you think he'll be, Ponyville or the Everfree?" Celestia looked to her sister, the one who had posed the question, and thought about it. It was a good, simple question, but yet another she didn't have the answer to.

"I'm not sure sister, but I don't think he has remained in Ponyville, else we'd know about it" she answered. Luna nodded her head, understanding the reasoning.

The three of them, plus the company of guards, were now on the outskirts of Ponyville, having gone by train so they could transport the princesses, Discord and all the guards in one go. The alicorns and draconequus were stood in the foremost first-class carriage; Discord was relaxing into one of the long, red silk fluffy seats while Celestia and Luna were stood. The princess of the day was staring out of the window, watching the scenery go by with a grave look on her face that hadn't left her features since they'd left the palace. There was an unnatural silence throughout the room, not even their individual breathing audible over the steady 'chug-chug' of the engine.

"You two should really lighten up, y'know" Discord told them from his position. Luna glared at him before she returned her concerned gaze to Tia. The god of chaos chuckled slightly before he got out of his seat. "I'm just saying" he told them.

"Well don't 'just say' Discord. Can't you see we're tense" Luna told him sternly. Her horn started glowing and an apple gained a midnight blue glow as it raised to her mouth. The princess of the night to a bite from it, but when she went to take another she spotted Discord's face in the bite marks.

"Well if you weren't so tense, and you'd probably be able to relax. Maybe even get some rest before you find yourselves in a battle neither of you have had to face for years" the apple told her. Luna gagged before she tossed the apple out of the window. Disord sniggered before he floated over to Celestia. "Maybe we just need to…get some things off our minds" he said slyly. Celestia responded by slamming her fore-hoof into his face without looking back. Discord blinked before he leaned back, a deep , hoof shaped, indentation in his face.

"Well, if you're going to be like that" his dented face muttered. Celestia went to the door at the head of the carriage and opened it and flew around the coal carriage and into the train cabin.

"What's our ETA" she asked of the train driver, very officially. He train driver looked back at her from the knobs, gears and pipes that were bolted to the wall before him.

"Maybe another five minutes princess, not long now" he answered. The white mare nodded.

"Good. Thank you." She didn't linger long; instead she just went back to the carriage and found herself a seat before slumping into it.

"You alright sister" Luna asked of her. Celestia gave her a small smile.

"I've been better Lu-Lu. I'm just…just a little nervous about this" she revealed. The princess of the night raised an eyebrow.

"Why's that, sister?" Tia shrugged and sat up.

"I dare say it's because Discord's right" she answered, never thinking she'd say those words. "We may be experienced warriors, but it has been a very long time since the last time we fought such a foe." Luna stood a little straighter.

"Tia, why are we acting like this?" Celestia frowned. "We keep going on like this newcomer is a god of some kind, he may have taken on Captain Armour and even made us scared, but that's it. So he's got a few tricks up his sleeves, so what? So does Discord, and I doubt he'll ever be able to take us on face to face." She put a hoof on her sister's shoulders. "When he felt he was beaten, he ran. Like a coward. He'd nothing but a rogue, not a fighter, not like us" she reassured. Celestia smiled at her sister again, fuller and more sincere. She surprised her sister when she pulled her into a hug.

"Thank you Luna, I needed that" she told her. Luna smiled slightly as she returned the embrace. The sounds of gagging from across the carriage caught their attention, and they looked to find Discord gagging, pointing a claw down his throat. Celestia picked up a pear in her hoof and threw it at him, watching it impale on his antler.

"Score" Luna exclaimed, throwing her fore-hooves into the air. Discord looked less than impressed.

"Celestia, are you going to let her get away with that" he demanded, but Tia was already laughing into her hoof.

"N-no" she said, stifling a laugh "b-bad LunHAHAHA!" She fell of her chair as she burst into laughter, Luna falling to her flank and joining her.

"Well, at least you've lightened up" he mumbled as he pulled the fruit from his horn and tossed it into his mouth. By the time Luna and Celestia had stopped laughing, they'd arrived in Ponyville. The princesses untangled themselves from each other and stood up, trotting outside. The guards were already there, looking well rested and alert. The pair of princesses stood side by side, casting their gaze over the stallions and mares before them.

"Alright ponies, let's move out" she called out.

After a brief parade through Ponyville, prompting some gasps and estranged looks, Celestia and her forces arrived at the edge of the Everfree forest. The Everfree loomed over them, prompting some gulps and nervous hoof shuffling from the guards. Celestia didn't blame them, pretty much everypony knew the stories revolving around the Everfree forest, that it was home to some of the greatest threats to Equestria, that the weather was completely self-controlled and that few who had spent any prolonged amount of time in there were rarely heard from again. With a calming breath, Celestia turned to the company of troops.

"Well, it's not like the Everfree is coming to us" she told them as she took a step in. As she crossed the borderlines of the forest, Celestia couldn't help but notice the change in atmosphere; cold air gathered around her, darkness replaced her light, despite the fact that her sun was casting warmth and light over the whole of Equestria. She couldn't help but shudder slightly. Luna and Discord stepped in behind her as she continued trotting, the guards behind them. They moved quietly through the trees and vegetation, Celestia and Luna not making a sound as the moved gracefully around and between them; Discord had his claw and paw clasped behind him, looking like he was out for a stroll and moving unnaturally quietly; while the soldiers with them weren't as quiet, feint clanks and creaks sounding as they moved, some of them quieter than others.

"How far in do you think he went" Luna asked quietly. Celestia glanced back at her, her body hunched down and the brown cloak melting into the shadows, while Luna's dark armour removed the need for one.

"I'm not sure, but I doubt it'll be very far; the further into the Everfree we go, the smaller and less abundant the clearings will be" she answered before she spotted Discord. "Oh, come now Discord at least make it look like you're trying" she implored. Discord sighed like a child.

"Fine" he said at length, before he started snaking through the forest like a rather suddenly intimidating predator. They sneaked on for a while before Discord made his way to Celestia, clinging to one of the trees like a lizard. "There should be a decently sized clearing not far from here, that should be a good place to start" he suggested. Celestia glanced at Discord, impressed with the fact with that his idea made sense. She shrugged and nodded.

"Alright, may as well" she mumbled. They stalked over to the clearing Discord had suggested, who had a surprising apt knowledge of the place, and lingered at the treeline. Celestia eyes shot into her mane-line; they'd found him.

"That was easy" Luna whispered. Celestia nodded without speaking. There were two of them, the stallion and the dragon.

'So he was working with him' she thought as she did the easy math. She looked left and right; Discord was looking ever so slightly smug while Luna had narrowed her eyes at him. She made hoof motions to back up, the two of them following her lead. She turned to the guards and spoke in a loud whisper.

"Earth ponies and Unicorns will circle around and ambush him, Pegasi will take to the air. While I, Luna and Discord will move in" she instructed. The troops saluted and took positions while the winged ponies flew to the higher branches and perched on them, waiting for their cue. "Let's move" she said to the alicorn of night and draconequus of disharmony. They nodded and moved in, stepping not-so-eagerly into the clearing. Celestia trotted to the stallion and stood over him. "Wake up" she told his sleeping form. He snored at her. Discord and Luna had gone to the Wyrm, Discord simply watching him while Luna was pointing her halberd at him with a fierce look on her face. "Wake up" she growled at him, much more sternly. When he snored again, she snarled and went to nudge him, but instead of pushing him, the hoof went right through him. Her face dropped and became one of confusion and…well it was just confusion really.

Phit

A see-through arrow of what appeared to be magic flew past her face and stabbed into the ground with a 'thunk' and vibrated in place. Celestia drew her weapon and crouched into a battle stance, casting her gaze around the clearing.

"Come out" she ordered. She felt Luna and Discord back up to her, and they all stood in a triangle. A metallic 'thunk' echoed through the clearing and Celestia looked back to see Luna with an arrow in her armour, though she didn't seem fazed by it. "Where are you" she demanded. Another arrow shot from the trees, right in front of Celestia, and she put her sword in front of it, deflecting it.

"Impressive" a voice said. The three of them snapped their gaze up towards a tall rock and saw a shadow atop of it. The shadow hopped down and landed in a small cloud of dust. "I wondered how long it would take for you to find me" the Newcomer said as he stood from his crouch.

Fifteen minutes ago

"Lucien you're…" Remus couldn't think of what to say. A small grin had found its way to his face, and he couldn't hold it down. He crossed the clearing to Lachance and Durn until he was stood by the robe-clad assassin.

"Nahlaas, alive" Durnehviir suggested. The Dragonborn nodded soundlessly.

"So…care to explain" Remus asked as he took hold of the assassin's robe; it was thick, warm, black and, most importantly, it was real.

"The dread father, Sithis, has fund a new purpose for me it seems" Lucien answered, a smile on his face as he continued to examine his gloved hand. "The Sithis, it seems, has taken interest in my apparition here. He wishes me to extend the Dark Brotherhood into this world." Remus cocked his head.

"Why's that, surly the chapter in Skyrim is doing its job. Why establish one here." Lucien hesitated.

"Simply to increase the flow of souls he receives" he answered. The last nodded; he knew Lucien knew more than he was letting on, but he dropped it anyway, it probably wasn't important to the situation anyway.

"So why bother bringing you back just for that" Remus asked, changing the subject. Lucien seemed to have lost interest in his hand and finally lowered it, instead he took to checking his weapons.

"According to our father, my stay here was to be more permanent anyway" he answered "Sithis simply made things less of a strain on the void, oh, and he wanted me to give you this" he added as he reached into his robes and pulled out a dagger Remus was very familiar with; it had a curved blade with scale-like groves on the back; the handle was wrapped in red leather, the pommel and guard reaching around to form an incomplete knuckle-guard. The Blade of Woe. With a grin on his face, the last took it in his hoof, the weight reassuring in his hoof.

"I appreciate it" Remus thanked "anyway, you were saying?" Lucien seemed to perk up.

"They're coming" Lucien whispered. The Dovahkiin frowned; he was dodging the point. But, what he said was important to the situation. He looked around.

"You can hear them? See them?" Lachance shook his head.

"An assassin's instinct is never one to be questioned" he retorted. Remus shrugged.

"Fair enough" he murmured as he took to donning his armour and slipping his weapon between the belt and cuirass. "Alright" he started "I've got an idea" he announced.

"Voth Onikaan Meyz Suleyk, with wisdom comes power. What is your plan, Dovahkiin?" Remus turned back to them and ushered them to stand aside; when they did, he judged the size of his space against the clearing and did a few quick calculations.

Gol

A shot of earth rose from the ground, and kept going until a small cliff face had formed from nothing. Pleased with his work, Remus invited them to follow him up. Upon arriving at the peak of the tower of stone, the Dragonborn turned to the dragon doing a surprisingly good job of hiding in the trees.

"Tell me, fahdon, you can use the spectral clone shout, correct?" Durnehviir nodded.

"Geh, Dovahkiin, why do you ask?" Remus grinned.

Fiik, Lo Sah

The shout struck the spot he'd aimed it at, a random spot on the ground, and a perfect replica of his equine form appeared. It was black in expression, and didn't even breathe. The wind didn't even rustle its mane. Remus remembered the first time he'd seen that shout; the Greybeards had used it to form targets for him the first time he'd visited High Hrothgar. An interesting Thu'um generally used by the more tactical dragon; one word created the spectral clone, two a clone that could only stand, and the third word allowed you to give it basic commands, though the commands had to be in draconic.

"Praan." Sleep. The clone obeyed and lay down where it stood, instantly going to sleep. Remus looked to Durnehviir, who had been watching Remus, and held his hoof out in invitation. Durn followed Remus's example, and before long they had a perfectly good trap set up and waited to pounce.

Celestia watched as he circled them, the three of them did, and narrowed her eyes.

"As princess of Equestria, I order you to stand down and place any weapons your carrying and surrender." She didn't like the way he grinned.

"Princess of Equestria" he repeated. Celestia suddenly recognised his voice. "Where have I heard of you before" he muttered. He seemed to lose interest in that trail of thought and shrugged it away. "Either way, I severely doubt you expect me to just stand down, do you?" Celestia narrowed her eyes.

"Not exactly" she muttered. "But I don't want to fight you" she called over. I lie if the Dragonborn had ever heard one.

"Neither do I, which is why I've gone for this rather clever ruse" he answered. Discord and Celestia suddenly noticed they were down one, and looked around for Luna. Celestia looked directly behind them, and suddenly wished she hadn't; there was a…biped, a man on two legs dressed all in black holding her sister with his hand over her maw and a blade to her throat.

"Luna" Celestia shouted, momentarily forgetting the Newcomer. When she turned, an earth shattering crash erupted next to her, sending rock and dirt into the air and dust into her face. When the dust had settled, she saw Discord struggling in the maw of a dragon. "Discord" she shouted again. She whipped her enraged gaze back to the newcomer.

"So" Remus started "what shall we talk about?"

The warrior

Chapter five: The warrior

There was a flash of white lightening, the clash of metal following soon after.

The sound of metal meeting metal was like nothing heard before; comparing it to thunder did the explosion of lightening too much honour. Trying to put it on equal standing as a volcano erupting was like comparing the 'pop' of a bubble to the sound of thundering hooves. Saying it was the roar of a dragon was the same as saying the scream of a banshee was the same as a kitten's yawn. This was the hammer of time pounding on the anvil of creation. This was a sound that would echo throughout time as earthquakes and thunder storms, the kind of sound that created life and death. The sound of Celestia's metal meeting Remus's was the sound of death meeting life.

The sound of an immoveable object meeting an unstoppable force.

Celestia glared into the face of the newcomer, her face barely an inch from his as she whispered in a deadly tone.

"How about your funeral" she seethed. Remus grinned. He turned his blade under her own, slipping beneath her defence and opening her up to offence.

Fus, Ro Dah

The second shout Paarthurnax had guided him through. At the end of his meditation, the shout had held greater power through the first and second word, though it went further than that; his balance had been massively improved by his knowledge, this ability extraordinarily useful through his life, as both an assassin and thief. Using larger weapons had become easier too, given that when he swung them he could regain his footing after falling on his head with the grace of a dancer.

Celestia shot out of the clearing, Remus soon following after her. The two left Luna, Lachance, Discord and Durnehviir back in the clearing; Luna held Lucien's arm in her fore-hooves, not sure if she was trying to pry him away or hold herself up. She wasn't sure what had happened; one second she'd been at Celestia's back, waiting for the moment to strike. Then she'd felt the…thing now restraining her disarm her and wrap his appendage around her throat. She could barely breath, couldn't move and could feel the cool metal tickling her jugular. Who, and whatever, this was knew what he was doing.

Lucien couldn't hold down the slightly impressed grin. The white mare had moved with speeds he hadn't seen in an age, not since when his old apprentice had killer the listener of his era; she'd left nothing but a white blur in place of movement, nothing but the deadly scrape of metal on leather that was the unsheathing of a blade. He didn't know much, if anything, about these ponies but he was at least glad to know that he'd been correct in his assumption that the inhabitant of this land would be familiar with combat.

Durnehviir was slightly uncomfortable; he wasn't used to taking hostages and he didn't like the feeling of having prey between his jaws and being unable to completely close them. It was almost like being teased, having his snout tickled and being unable to stop it. It made him want to bite something in half.

Discord was asleep.

There was a clash, a small explosion and the sound of another shout being loosed from the piece of forest Remus and Celestia had disappeared into. Lucien glanced at Durn, who had glanced his way, and pondered assisting Remus or not.

"The Dragonborn need not our assistants" the dragon said, his voice muffled some by the creature in his mouth, reading the assassin's mind.

"Dragonborn" Luna asked in an attempt to glean information.

"That is not yours to know" Lucien retorted. Luna shuddered slightly. She did not want to have to hear that voice again.

"Then who are you? What are you" she asked anyway. She felt that if she could find something out about the…things threatening her and Discord, this wouldn't be a total waste; admittedly, she wasn't so concerned about what the dragon was, she already had a general idea, but she hadn't a clue what was holding her now. Lachance decided he didn't like this mare; she spoke too much. When the black clad biped didn't answer, Luna spoke again. "Why are you here?"

"Will you stop talking" he growled.

"Then answer my question" Luna implored. She wouldn't let herself be held captive by this thing and not at least try and get information from him. Lucien responded by growling again and digging the blade in a little.

"You are in no place to make demands" he reminded her. The threat was all Luna needed to decide that this thing didn't like being spoken to, at least by its hostages. She needed to get the guard to advance, needed to send a subtle message to them and have them attack; they were too well disciplined to just attack to just take matters into their own hooves. Or too simple minded. She cast her eyes slowly along the shrubbery the troops were hidden in, trying to catch one of their eyes. Another crash from the forest nearby made her filch, sending birds into the air; then it struck her. Birds. She looked up to find the Pegasi, loitering just behind the tips of the trees. She didn't know if they were watching her or Celestia, but she had to try; she nodded her head the smallest of amounts, her neck feeling the steel of the blade pressed against her neck again. In response, the forest exploded around them.

Ice whites, fire reds and lightening blues flared around them as the runes Remus had cast on the grounds detonated as the guards stepped on them. The unicorns and earth pony guards were quickly incapacitated the spells placed by the arch-mage. The resulting explosion, however, was all Luna needed to slip free from Lachance. The assassin was blinded slightly by the runes, his instincts flaring as his arms rose to cover his eyes and protect his head; Luna planted the knee of her left fore-leg into Lachance's stomach, pushing the wind out of him and forcing him back as her magic grabbed the halberd laying besides them, the weapon raising to her assailant's body. The Pegasi took the blinding explosions as their cue and cover to attack, the lot of them advancing on the dragon; Durnehviir, as anyone would be, wasn't impressed by the insistent beating upon his scaly head. It wasn't exactly painful, simply annoying. He looked up at them to with plans to beat them away with his armoured head, but a certain draconequus had other plans; Discord snapped his claws and was suddenly mad of repulsive goo, the horrific taste prompting Durnehviir to spit him out. The Pegasi above to their turns in swooping in and beating their hind-legs against the back of his head; now, however, Durn's mouth was empty.

Fo, Krah Diin

The blast of frost and ice flowed over the airborne ponies, more than half of them taking it dead in the face. Several dull 'thuds' signified the fall of no small amount of the guards falling from the skies. Luna and Lucien were staring each other down, but it was no lie; the tables had just turned drastically. Now surrounded by Discord, the princess of the night and another five guards, Durnehviir and Lucien stood back to back, as best as they could, and cast their gaze over their adversaries.

"Well then" Lucien murmured at the sudden change, his short sword hanging in his hand as he coated it with poison. Luna took note of his actions, but did nothing to stop him; it wasn't worth it just yet.

"Wah fin dinok, to the death" Durnehviir posed. Lucien just grinned.

"As always." That was all Luna and her company needed.

When Remus stepped into the dark treeline, he quickly regretted it; the shadows were cut by a flash of white that had a taste for the blood of a certain Nord. He hopped to the side to avoid a face/ body splitting attack. The flash of light followed him as he skipped back, slashing up along his body, taking branches and leaves with it. Another whistled went past his throat. The third almost cut off his braid. The fourth his right fore-hoof.

Celestia swung her blade wildly, combat training taking a back seat to killing her foe; each and every slice came close to taking a limb or opening his throat; but close wasn't good enough. Every effort she made to end this stallion came just a millimetre to far away from his fur, from his skin and arteries. She growled and snarled and snorted and spat, none of which helped her in her efforts to kill the newcomer. She let the blade swing farther down and catching the earth; she flicked it up and cast dust into his face. Taking advantage of his temporary blindness, she brought it down on his skull; the clang of metal on metal and the vibrations that ran through the sword told her what had happened even before the dust settled. Celestia and Remus's blades locked, the stallion holding his blade in an inverted grip against his leg, Celestia putting both her fore-hooves against her own, at the tip of the blade and at the handle, as she pushed against his weapon; Remus's other leg went to the hoof holding his hoof, pushing against his foe's weapon and offence with a strong defence.

'Njada, I'll never call you a bitch again.'

"Come on" he snarled, his effort-strained face slowly morphing into a grin "I know you want my blood" he hissed "just try and take it." Celestia growled again. She reared and took her weapon by hoof and brought it down on Remus execution style; the last slipped out of the way and slashed his weapon across her chest, the armour casting sparks as they met. Celestia, weapon back in her magical grip, swung her weapon at Remus once more. The Dovahkiin, done with defending, took her strike on the arc of the Blade of Woe, parrying it past him and opening her defence again.

Ven, Gar Nos

The sudden tornado tossed Celestia off her hooves, throwing her into the air and through the branches of the trees around them. Leaves and twigs fell with her as she came down, grasses and leaves flying up as the cyclone passed by. Celestia growled as she looked up to the newcomer, but found nothing but darkness in his place; the solar princess snarled again as she stood up, her katana held beneath her head as the tip of the blade reached above her head. She slowly turned her head, searching for her foe.

"Come out" she called, panting slightly "you don't seem the type to hide" she said. Remus, meanwhile, was stalking the treeline around the small clearing that he and Celestia fought in. His crouch kept him in the deep shadows of this forest easily, his head peeping over the bushed and between the trees to keep an eye on the white horse. Or pony, he guesses.

"I'm not" he called back, throwing his voice (the greybeards taught more than just the Thu'um) "it's called a 'tactical situation assessment'" he told her.

"Where'd you read that one" she goaded. Remus had to smirk.

"I'll have you know, Kodlak Whitemane taught me that. Not a damn clue what it means, but it sounds good" he told her. Celestia forced down the grin with another glare. Her head whipped to the side when a bolt of lightning shot from the treeline; faster than lightning, her sword intercepted it and deflected it, her own bolt of magic cutting through the forest like a knife through hot butter. The slight smoke blew away to reveal nothing but more forest. She snarled a lip as she continued to search for the newcomer. "Impressive" the newcomer's voice taunted from all around Celestia "what other tricks can you do." The princess of the day smiled.

"I have a good one" she answered. Before Remus could answer, she swung her blade in a wide arc, the weapon seeming to grow in length as she sliced the forest around her; when the weapon cut down the trees, flames grew where the weapon had once been. She searched through the forest fire, finding nothing yet again.

"I have to admit" Remus called out, causing Celestia to growl in frustration once again "most thugs and guards I know would have given up looking by now" he told her. Remus crawled through dense overgrowth, the grass swaying ever so slightly as he passed. He came to a pause in a spot to the side of the mare, watching her continue to search for him. He absently glanced to the side and found an orange flower growing; he picked it and popped it into his maw, chewing it a few times before he swallowed it.

'That would make a great poison.'

Done with his brief alchemy experiment, he looked back up at his foe and got an idea. He took the Blade of Woe by the blade and tossed it at a still standing tree; the weapon hit it by the pommel and bounced back into Celestia's bronze armour. Aela's archery training had been more than just accuracy. The blade stabbed into and through the protective metals covering Celestia, making a shallow wound in her side; Celestia grunted and whipped towards the direction the weapon had come from. When she did, Remus stepped from his cover.

Raan, Mir Tah

The shout hit Celestia in the back, the force stumbling her a bit. She turned back and glared into his soul, fire in her eyes. She pounced and Remus gulped; this, wasn't the plan. She barrelled into him and forced him through the fires and trees behind, pinning him to his back. Her hoof shot down at his head, Remus moving his head out of the way; the force of her attack cracked the hard mud beneath the last's head. Remus frowned up at the mare; why didn't that shout affect her? She was an animal, right? He quickly came to the conclusion that the shout didn't go by race, but mental ability. No matter, he had just the shout for that. Meanwhile, Celestia had put her weapon to the Dragonborn's neck and had no intentions of keeping it clean.

"This, is what happens to those who cross my family" she seethed. Remus wasn't intimidated; he'd rested his head on the headsman's block and stood up before. He gathered magic in his hoof, the abstract shape that was the embodiment of alteration magic flared and a glow surrounded his body as his skin became as hard as ebony. He put his hooves to the blade and pushed, the well-tempered weapon cutting into his hooves a little as he pushed; he slowly lifted the weapon away from his neck, Celestia watching in disbelief before she put her own hooves to the blade and pushed back. Celestia knew she was strong, stronger than her body showed, but this stallion had the strength of an adrenalin pumped berserker. Slowly, but surly, Remus lifted Celestia off his body, his fore-legs trembling slightly with the strain; this was another side-effect of meditating on Unrelenting Force.

"Push the world harder, than it pushes back."

When he needed it most, he seemed able to call upon a…second wind of sorts, his strength augmented by a powerful adrenalin-like burst. It had saved his life more times than he'd like to count.

Remus slowly pushed Celestia up off of him and rolled on his back slightly, putting his hind-legs against her chest and pushed, keeping her away.

"This, is what happens to those who cross a Dovah."

Yol, Toor Shul

The fire breath shout. This was the final shout that Paarthurnax had helped him better by guiding him through mediation and igniting the fire within him. The original shout had been nothing more than an intense blast of fire, but now, with his deep understanding of the shout and the primal power that it embodied, it came out as the shout of the dragons were best known for; the infernal blast of flames that were known for melting through steel and laying waste to towns in a single breath hit Celestia square in the face, the fire tearing past her and face and hood, licking her mane and turning her perfect face to cinders. She screamed and inhaled flames, turning the air in her lungs to fire. She reared and roared in pain, falling onto her back and beating the flames out with her hooves; she whipped her cloak and hood off, tossing it away. The flaming cloak landed next to the dry trees, setting them ablaze along with the others around them. She growled as she planted her face into the earth and put the flames out with no small amount of dirt and moist mud, leaving her white fur less than clean as she withered around in the mud, knocking the Blade of Woe from her side as she did. As she did so, a flaming branch fell from the trees and landed next to Remus, and it was then that Remus absentmindedly noticed that they were battling in the middle of a blazing inferno as his telekinesis spell dragged his weapon over to him. Meanwhile, Celestia had put out the fire on her face and whipped her head furiously in the snow and ice white stallion's direction. Her multi-coloured mane was singed and blackened around the left side of her fore-head. Her eyes narrowed in hatred, her head angled so she looked past her horn slightly.

"It. Is. On." She lunged and swung her blade in a wide, angry arc, Remus taking the clumsy haymaker on his weapon; the strength of the attack beat the Blade of Woe from Remus's grip, the blade impaling into a tree as Celestia swung the weapon around again and brought the blade down again; Remus watched it happen in slow motion, he couldn't dodge in time, Ebony flesh had already dissipated, he hadn't the time to summon a bound weapon or cast another armour spell and the leather armour wouldn't block that blade. He raised his fore-leg in instinctive defence and Celestia didn't pause nor falter.

The weapon imbedded itself into his fore-leg.

And stayed there.

There was another metallic 'clang', this one punctuated with the soft cutting of flesh, and the katana went no further through Remus's fore-leg. Celestia frowned at the fact that her weapon had been stopped, but even more so at the sound. Remus grunted with pain, a thin trickle of blood dripping from the wound as he held still. He recognised the confusion on Celestia's face and took advantage of it; frosty mist appeared in his hoof as an icicle formed, though no sooner had he thrust the cold weapon into Celestia's armour. By pure luck, he hit a space between two armour plates, the icicle shaving down until it was nought but a thin bladed dagger, and stabbed her in the chest. Unfortunately for Remus, he hadn't hit anything important, but he had slowed her down some. Celestia growled and staggered back, her hoof going to the icicle in her chest; warm blood wept around the weapon, tinting the ice blue a deep red. She took it by the hoof and yanked it out, the blood trickling down her armour steadily. Meanwhile, the last had retrieved his weapon and turned back to Celestia; he didn't find her. He looked around the dark forest in the same way Celestia had, thanking Brynjolf for his lessons in observational skills. He didn't have too long to search before a white mare barrelled towards him and rammed him in the gut, sending the both of them through the shrubbery.

His eyes slowly opening, Remus found a rather grand battle in progress; Lucien was in the middle of a duel with the dark mare he shot with his bound bow, while Durnehviir was in the air, battling a bunch winged ponies and the creature while his skeletons were offering support to him and Lachance with their dragon bone bows and arrows. It was rather useful, being capable of raising an army of dead men with a shout. Remus didn't have much more time to admire his battle brothers, because he soon felt himself lifted from his back by Celestia and quickly slammed to the ground.

The solar princess beat his head into the mud three times before he figured out what was happening; upon doing so, his hoof caught alight and he thrust it into Celestia's chest. The armour that protected Celestia was strong, but even the royal smiths couldn't forge something to withstand heats that matched that of the Skyforge. The symbol quickly melted, the marble turning to magma, while the protective plates turned to a liquid resembling molten bronze as his hoof pushed through; when hoof met fur, Celestia screamed in pain, hopping back in shock. She put a hoof to her chest and looked down at it, finding the scolding hot metal quickly cooling, now that there was no mage fire to fuel it.

"Alright" she whispered "if that's the way you want to play it…" Her horn flared to life with magic, the glow quickly discharging as she fired the beam of magic at the newcomer. He dodged out of the way of the first, the second burnt past his cheek and the third was stopped by his ward. Celestia fired four more beams into her opponent's shield before she conjured up another spell; the vines and leaves around the clearing suddenly grew a mind of their own as they all darted at Remus. The leaves were suddenly razor sharp and the vines reminded the last of Hermaeus Mora's tentacles. They lashed at him like bullwhips, racking along his leather clad back. The leaves slashed his fur and skin, opening his veins and letting blood leak from him. The Dragonborn grunted and growled as they continued to attack him, waving his hoof as though to be rid himself of a fly as flames burst around him; the small cyclone of fire quickly burned away the assaulting shrubbery, but it seemed his efforts were for nought. Celestia had been using the spell to distract him while her horn glowed a blinding, hot white; she approached him slowly and the vegetation kept him distracted. She dispelled the incantation and he looked up to find her stood over him. He raised his hoof to strike her or cast a spell of his own, but Celestia had already bowed her head and aimed her horn at him; she thrust and the Dovahkiin felt the pain of being stabbed and branded at once. His blood boiledslightly around the Alicorn's horn, the fur burning away as the skin sizzled; the solar princess raised her smirking head, the snow and ice stallion held up by the horn stabbing through the right side of his chest. Remus could do nothing but groan in pain.

Lachance's blade slipped between his body and the dark mare's halberd, catching it against the base of the blade and flicking it up and away from him. He stepped past her defence and beat her head with the pommel of his blade and went on to angle to same weapon to stab into the back of her skull. But he made the mistake of looking over at Remus; the stoic and ice cold assassin, known for his brutality, cunning and dark manner, couldn't stop the ever so slight widening of his eyes; he was struck by sudden conflict. Help the listener, or kill his foe. In the end, the decision was made for him, as he kicked the mare in the back and drew a small dagger with his left hand and whipped it in the direction of the white horse; the weapon embedded itself deep in her side, the penetration helped by the hole in her armour already made by Remus.

Celestia grunted in displeasure as she turned to the assassin, finding him advancing on her with his short sword held beneath his hand. The princess had met all kinds of would-be assassins over the years, as such, she practically knew them by sent now. This biped was an assassin, back in his world, and judging by her sister's condition, he knew what he was doing. He closed the distance quickly, Celestia letting the newcomer drop from her horn as her weapon gained a golden glow as she held it in defence. His short-sword sung across the small distance between them, his under-arm grip putting more force behind the charging attack; Celestia's block held him in place as they glared into each other's eyes before she pushed him back, Lucien flipping his weapon to an over-hand grip before he retaliated. Sparks flew as their blades met, singing and screaming as they flew and met. Their strikes bit into metal and deep black fur, leather and cotton, but no flesh nor hide. Lachance met Celestia's back swing with a fore swing, the blades bouncing off each other and sending them both recoiling. She thrust her weapon through his guard, his blade catching the curve of the katana and pushing it away, though not before it tasted his flesh and blood. The wound wasn't deep, but enough to give him pause for thought. He took a step back and put his hand to the wound, the black glove clad hand coming back bloody. He looked up and snarled at her grinning face.

"There is no pain in the void" he growled as he brought his weapon up, over his head and brought it down with all his strength; it broke through the horse's defence, the assassin following it up by bringing up his spare fist and introducing it to her muzzle. She staggered back and regained her hoofing a second before he followed through with a graceful rotation, bringing the sword around in a powerful roundhouse. Her own weapon raised to meet it, though it did little good as he beat it out of the way and brought the blade across her body. The flesh exposed by the hole in her armour opened as his steel tasted blood. Celestia grunted and stepped back again as he reared his weapon back in preparation to thrust it forwards, though her chest and eventually her heart. His attack was cut off when the dark mare barrelled his was and rammed him off his feet, pinning him down with her halberd. The assassin and lunar princess spat and snarled into each other's faces as Celestia controlled her breathing and regained her hoofing. She looked back at where the newcomer lay dead-

Her head whipped left and right. He was gone. She searched for him almost frantically before she heard thunder strike and an earthquake seemed to hit. Her head whipped up and she saw dark clouds roll in faster than natural, the angry blacks and greys covering her skies. She frowned, knowing that the Everfree dealt with its own weather, but never before in this manner. Thunder boomed again and a flash of lightening forked into the earth, dirt and mud exploding besides Celestia. With a growl, as her vision cleared, she looked up to see the newcomer. He was stood, a brutal and ugly looking scar where she'd stabbed him, looking like it had been knitted together by powerful healing magic, and had a fire in his eyes.

She glared back and advanced, the princess of the sun raising her weapon to defend herself and end this stallion. She stood before him, a few meters between them, and cracked her neck to the right once. Her wings flared as she charged, a battle cry roaring from her maw. The newcomer didn't move, instead he drew a breath.

Mul, Qah Diiv

Celestia skidded to a halt as she watched the snow and ice stallion explode into light, similar to the light she'd seen form this stallion when he'd first arrived. The light formed a dragon-like mask/skull over his face, scale-like armour on his chest and fore-legs and what appeared to be-she took a double take. Wings on his back? Even his tail had gained armour of sorts, formed by a dragon-like tail. He cracked his own neck and took his weapon in hoof before he placed it in his maw; he pushed himself up off his fore-hooves as the same hooves were doused in flame. Wobbling slightly as he adjusted his centre of gravity, he went on to perform a strange ritual of sorts, an ancient dance. As he continued, Celestia watching in fascination, the flames about his fore-legs grew stronger as he came to the climax of his dance; he gathered the power into one hoof and slammed it to the ground. Celestia then recognised her mistake as the air around her caught fire and exploded around her; Lachance, having reengaged his duel with Luna, had seen his listener and lunged for the dark mare, holding her as a meat-shield to take the brunt of the spell. Celestia, Luna and Lachance were flung back due to the force of the spell, the trees around the arch-mage being reduced quickly to ashes. He looked up from the now smoky, blackened ground and found his foes lying on their backs, thoroughly regretting their life decisions. Remus had entered another state of mind; Celestia had drawn blood, and that was something he no longer stood for. Anger had been replaced by a silent rage, fuelled by cold hearted adrenalin. He approached Celestia slowly, his foot, hoof…whatever, steps slow and deliberate. She looked up at him and glared, taking her katana by the hoof and swinging it widely. His hoof shot up and the blade was taken on the curved dagger, slipping harmlessly off the curve. His hoof went to her chest as he pinned her down, his dagger hanging over her eye. He closed the distance between their faces.

"Dragons, are the apex predators. I. Hunt. Dragons." Celestia wasn't deterred by his words, but the dagger hanging above her head unnerved her slightly. He brought the dagger up and swung it down, but, to his further enragement, his leg was stopped by something. He looked up and found the creature Durnehviir had held in his maw holding his fore-leg in one of his hand-like appendages, the paw-looking one.

"Ah, ah, ah. I don't think so" he grinned. Remus held his gaze for a second before he yanked his fore-leg sharply, pulling the creature off his foot and hoof before he spun the dagger in his hoof and pushed back, the creature falling onto the tip. His face went from bemusement to shock as he felt the Blade of Woe push through his stomach, his blood dripping from the wound. Remus got up off of Celestia and twisted the weapon, bringing the creature to his knees.

"Zu'u dreh." He pushed the creature off his weapon and let him flop to the ground. He turned back to the mare on the ground and found her stunned face watching the fallen creature.

"D-Discord" she said shakily, momentarily forgetting the stallion atop of her. She tried to get up, but was pinned down when the newcomer stabbed his dagger through her mane, pinning her down.

"May Sovngarde take you" he whispered. His hoof waved and a sword, the blade serrated and wide, appeared there. He raised it above his head and thrust the tip down to her face. Instead of drawing blood, there was a small 'clang' as she caught it between her hooves. Remus growled in frustration, getting tired of these persistent stalls, and put both hooves on the handle of the weapon; Celestia growled back and pushed back, holding the weapon away from anything vital, but the glowing around his fore-hooves seemed to have augmented his strength. She knew she would lose this battle of strength. She suddenly turned her hooves to the side and the soft, ethereal metal of the weapon snapped at the tip; the flat edge stabbed into her cheek, cutting into her but going no further. She put her fore-hooves to his chest and pushed hard; he flew off like a ragdoll before he landed in a heap. Celestia reached back and yanked the blade holding her hair down out and tossed it aside. She leapt up and found that the stallion had done the same; they lunged at each other, no weapons or magic between them, just hooves, and fell to the ground, beating each other like ponies who belonged in a mental ward. As hooves, blood, spittle and sweat flew, Celestia put her hooves beneath his stomach and threw him off, the stallion landing on his hooves again. Lightning blew up the ground to Celestia's right and threw her to the side, Remus taking the opportunity to advance again. Celestia had landed next to her sword; she took it by her hoof and swung blindly. She felt slight resistance and smelt blood in the air. She looked behind her to find the newcomer with a gash in his chest, the ethereal armour incapable of stopping her strike; the lower fur, leather armour and skin drooped slightly, revealing the glistening red muscle beneath it. He growled and roared in pain, but as he loosed his cry another fork of lightning struck the ground, coming too close to Celestia for comfort. When she looked back, she found a set of walking armour, the same ethereal armour the newcomer was clad in, but what hit her was that this walking armour had the posture and body of the assassin. What drew her attention though, was the battle axe of the same light held in hands she couldn't see. The axe swung for her neck; she ducked under it and went to retaliate with her own weapon, but was interrupted when fire burst around her. She was thrown to her flank by the force of the shout, only just managing to raise her sword to stop the incoming axe. He followed it up by swinging the pommel of the staff towards her face.

The dull wooden 'clunk' told whoever would listen that Celestia had just been hit in the face by a stranger's wood.

The armour spun with the axe, a roundhouse style execution aimed at her neck again; Celestia ducked and aimed her sword up, driving it at the armour's ribs. The armour rotated his body, the blade slipping past him, and watched as Celestia tried to regain her balance. He raised his axe and swung it down, another execution, and it was all Celestia could do to leap gracelessly to the side to avoid being decapitated; landing in the dirt, Celestia picked herself up quickly as another axe blade came down at her neck. The blade buried itself deep into the ground, the armour's strength digging the axe at least four inches. Celestia took advantage of the armour's predicament, charging forwards with her sword aimed at his chest.

Fus, Ro Dah

The solar princess was, once again, thrown off her hooves by a shockwave of power that slammed into her side. She growled and grunted as she rolled across the ground, digging a grove into the ground with her skidding body. She looked up to find the newcomer, his chest healed as brutally as when she'd the spot she'd stabbed him with her horn, trotting towards her, and that the spectral armour had vanished. She stood and stared down her opponent; lightning gathered in his hoof as he aimed at her, but before he could fire Luna barrelled into him again, taking him off his hooves. A ghastly, ghoul-like roar ripped from the black robed biped's mouth as he followed after Celestia's sister, his blade catching the sun as he swung at her. The solar princess found herself next to the biped before long, her blade intercepting his as Luna and the newcomer exchanged blows, scrapping on the ground besides them.

While the Dragonborn, speaker, princess of the sun, and moon duked it out on the ground, casting dust into the air until nothing could be seen but flying hooves and errant curses were the only thing to be heard, Durnehviir had finished off the last Pegasus guards by biting one in half, casing another one in ice and watching him shatter on the ground, ripping one limb-from-limb with his claws and finishing the last by swallowing him whole. He didn't like the taste of horse, he'd always been more impartial to sheep then equine during his life. Durn looked to the battle below, finding it having devolved into little more than a brawl the drunken mortals got into. He looked down at his alleged foe, finding the creature that had consistently named himself 'Discord' during their battle lying half-dead on the ground, a little ways away from the main brawl. He descended until he landed next to the creature known as Discord, his weight sending a large 'thud' through the clearing, though the combatants seemed to care very little. The undead guardian of the Soul Cairn gazed down at the now pitiful creature and watched as he tried to regulate his breathing.

"Gahvon, ahrk hin dinok fen kos aaz. Yield, and your death will be merciful" the Dovah told Discord. The draconequus looked up at the dragon and smirked.

"Oh please, you think this'll keep me down? Tis' but a scratch" he assured. Durnehviir snaked his head down and glared at the aspect of disharmony.

"These claws have rent many foes on the field of battle, siigonis. Do not test me" he growled. Discord laughed.

"My, oh my, you sound just like my old geography teacher" he mused. Durn shook his head in sheer disgust at this thing's attitude on the battle field and decided he'd had enough; he bared his teeth and went for a chunk of Discord. As he got close, the goat-headed monster snapped his claws and Durnehviir's teeth were turned to rubber. As the Dovah clamped his jaws around the creature, Discord laughed like a madman as the undead dragon's teeth bent around his body. "What, did you think it would be that easy" he asked, his body in a longing position as he tweaked the dragon's nose. Durnehviir roared in frustration and spat the aspect of disharmony out.

Rii, Vaz Zol

Discord sidestepped the blast of purple energy, whipping his hand and beating the dragon across the face with the back of his hand. Or at least, that would have been the plan had Durnehviir not opened his maw and caught the backhand in between his re-boned teeth. Discord grunted slightly as he pulled back, his hand popping off as he did. He looked down at the stump that used to be his hand with disapproval, he shook it a little, the paw coming back again.

"Tut, tut, didn't your mother teach you to never bite off somepony's hand. It's rude" he scolded. Durn spat the hand out again and roared.

"Kos nahlot! Cease with your jests" he ordered.

"And talking with your mouth ful-"

Fo, Krah Diin

Discord stepped out of the way of the initial blast of ice and frost, but couldn't avoid the flow that followed; shards of ice cut through Discord's skin and scales while sub-zero frosts froze his blood in his veins. While he was stunned, Durn advanced on Discord and pinned him to the side of a tree, the draconequus holding his maw back with his claw and paw.

Meanwhile, Remus had claimed the upper hand, hoof…whatever, on the dark-armoured mare he fought; his fore-head was stained with blood after the amount of times he'd head-butted her and her muzzle was weeping blood because of the same reasons. He picked himself up and staggered away, their fight leaving him slightly brain-dead. He shook his head and gathered magic in his hoof, a golden glow sparking and flashing as he cast the healing spell, feeling the dent and gash in his head close and re-form and his muscles drain of lactic acid as his stamina returned to him. Cracking his neck, he took in his surrounding; Durn had the creature he felt Sheogorath would like to get to know against a tree and Celestia pushing her blade against Lachance's. Remus looked around for the Blade of Woe, finding it stabbed into a tree at the side of the clearing; he raised his hoof to pull it over to him with telekinetics but found that the spell wouldn't work. He grunted when he realised how low on magicka he was; he was too used to the enchantments of his armour keeping his magicka pool full and quickly re-filling. Not to mention that he had no potions on him.

He rubbed his head a little, the pain of his wounds hitting him. Healing magic closed wounds, it didn't get rid of the pain. He looked around himself; thunder crashed through the sky, lightening forking to the ground while the battles around him continued; Remus observed Celestia as she disarmed Lucien and took him by the throat before she slammed him into a tree. He didn't interfere; he knew that the black-robed man wouldn't drop that for days.

Celestia turned back to him, the two of them having already established themselves as enemies during this fight, and stared him down. Each pony was already a fighter down, Lucien having slumped against the tree, out cold; Luna was having the same problems as the assassin; and Remus knew that the creature and Durnehviir would keep each other busy for a while. This was between them now, just the two of them; there was no respite now, nothing coming to help them, nothing coming to their aid, no time to rest and nothing to keep them from death. Nothing but their own skills. Remus's hoof flashed and a rock rocketed at Celestia; it hit her dead in the face, drawing blood from her lip. When she looked up, she found that the newcomer had disappeared, watching the leaves and shrubs flow slightly as she followed them. She saw the small flash of white as he vanished around a tree, once again following after him.

"Quit running" she called after him.

"Tactical withdrawal" he said from besides her; his ethereal dagger went for her neck as she looked over at him. Celestia's eyes widened as she hopped back, her wings spreading as she took to the air. Remus watched as she took to the skies, the canopy of trees appearing to bend out of her path as she did so. Remus didn't even blink, his experience with dragons leaving him unfazed by it; though thanks to the same said experience, his instincts kicked in as he drew breath.

Joor, Zah Frul

Even before the shout had struck Celestia, he'd growled in frustration; he knew that the shout wouldn't work against anything none-Dov, as such, he would never have expected the mare to scream and fall to the ground.

Celestia watched as the shout charged towards her, her eyebrow raised as she watched the newcomer; he seemed to growl in frustration, as though annoyed with something. But when the sky blue glow struck her, something tapped into her head, something struck her thoughts, something made her mind victim to something she couldn't understand, couldn't fathom, couldn't even begin to comprehend. It showed her mortality. The anguish of having an end hit her like a brick, made her feel the uncertainty of knowing that one day, a day she would never know, she would die. Her existence would simply cease, and after that, what would there be? An afterlife? Purgatory? Would she be sent to Tartarus and be kept there, forever locked in torture and pain? Or would there be nothing, just an end, just darkness, and she would cease to be? The scream that ripped from her throat was not one of pain, not one of anguish nor sorrow, but fear, the fear that came with a lack of knowledge of a dangerous wonderment. Her concentration faltered her, her wings giving up trying to keep her airborne, the Alicorn of day plummeting to the ground, her screams of fear following her.

She lay on the ground, shuddering in fear and tears. Remus blinked a few times; that was not what he was expected. Remus had no problems with killing, with stealing, with mugging people, inspiring fear in his enemies or beating them senseless, but there was something about this mare lying before him, who not a second ago had been the image of a truly great battle-maiden, quivering on the ground in total terror. It gave the drums of war hammering in his chest a bad tune.

Remus approached her slowly, his will to fight dissipating with the dragon aspect that surrounded him. He stood over her, victorious, and spoke down to her.

"Leave me, and my allies, be and I shall leave you and yours be" he told her. He had no quarrel with these ponies now; they knew that he was not to be trifled with, and he had no need to take the fight to them. Celestia looked up at him, very small tears in her eyes. The shout had worn off, but the questions lingered; how could he cope? Knowing that one day, perhaps one day soon, his life would come to an end, and that would be it. There was no coming back from death.

She swallowed once, her resolve having not crumbled, but having shattered with the shout that lashed out at her, at her soul and at her very being. She couldn't fight the newcomer in this condition, didn't want to, and simply nodded her head. She stood up, her head hung in defeated shame, and trotted past him.

Back in the clearing, all was calm; the dragon had Discord held down by his tail and back, the Wyrm's teeth threatening his neck, and Luna was still unconscious. The Pegasus guards were dead, ripped asunder by the same dragon that was holding Discord down, and she wasn't looking forward to writing out the letters of condolence. She could only hope the other guards were at least in one piece. Tia looked down at her sister, finding her distressed, yet peaceful face, likely having bad dreams about the battle she'd just been in. She picked her up and lay her on her back. Meanwhile, the newcomer had followed her out, keeping a cautious and respectable distance, and motioned for the dragon to move, letting the creature up. Discord picked himself up and brushed himself off, holding his jaw. Remus shadowed Celestia from a distance, a limp developing in his left hind-leg. He hobbled to Lucien and shook him awake, the speaker grumbling to himself and looking up in time to find the white and dark mares and the creature back away into the forest.

He picked himself up and followed after his Listener, standing by his side as Remus stood by Durn's. Celestia glanced back at Remus, a sorrow in her eye the Dragonborn didn't understand, before she turned away and into the forest to limp away, lick her wound and nurse her fallen pride.

Trotting slowly through the clearing, Celestia found where her troops had been holding out; she was glad to find that the earth pony and unicorn guards had set up a small camp at the side of the clearing to lick their own wounds, mainly because they hadn't had to fight and they'd avoided further casualties. The white mare looked over them; some of them had bare hooves, their boots having been melted while their bellies were covered by only leather, the plating having suffered the same fate. Others had drawn close to a large fire they'd made, shivering violently, covered by blankets too thin to help. Others sat by themselves, and with good reason; every now and then, the ponies would twitch and judder, their electrical impulses interrupted by the mage-lightening.

Taking a brief headcount, Celestia found that she'd be writing a few more letters. She didn't blame them for not attacking; they'd been exposed to magic they weren't familiar with, not to mention, the ones that were shivering seemed very tired. They all looked up at their ruler, and quickly figured out that they'd lost. With slight shame, they stood as best as they could, most holding wounds, all with their heads hung. Even Discord seemed to have lost his humour. One of the older earths piped up.

"Where are the Pegasi?" Celestia looked over at him; he showed signs of age and experience, his navy-blue fur rigged with wrinkles and a few scars. Celestia knew he'd come close to death more than once, and she both pitied and envied him; he would one day die, but he'd cheated death. When she registered the question though, her head dipped again, and it was all the soldier needed. He sighed once. "Orders, ma'am?"

"Back to Ponyville. We need to rest and tend to the wounded." They nodded but didn't salute; they didn't have the energy.

The trip back to Ponyville was marred by failure and shame; Celestia had been beaten before in both war and combat, but never in mind. Never once before had she been so broken down by a foe, not even Discord or Sombra had gotten so far into her mind, or done such damage. Spurred by slight fear of the newcomer coming up from behind them, and the trip masked by thought, Celestia and her company quickly found their way back to the small town; they weren't met by anypony, but Celestia didn't care. It suddenly struck her that she didn't know where to go; the troops were in no condition to make the trip back to Canterlot, neither was she nor Luna, but there was nowhere for them to stay.

"Celestia" a voice mumbled from behind her. The princess of the day turned her head back slightly.

"Yes, little sister?" The dark mare shifted slightly, getting comfy on Tia's back.

"What happened, did we win?" The white mare's mood dropped again, her head doing the same.

"No" she answered simply. Luna didn't say anything in return, but she felt her loosen slightly and her fore-hooves wrap around her neck in a tired hug. Celestia decided her sister needed rest and mentally shrugged. She guided her company through Ponyville towards the large oak tree in the centre. She hoped that Spike would be home so she could just pass out on Twilight's bed. The only consolation was that the working day was in full swing, and most of the ponies were either at work, school or indoors. Those who weren't, however, were met with the sight of Princess Celestia, her head hung in defeat, Princess Luna riding her big sister, Discord, holding his jaw and limping slightly and no small amount of the night and day guards missing. When they were a but a few steps away from the door, it opened of its own accord.

"Celestia" Twilight exclaimed. Celestia frowned; that wasn't who she'd been expecting.

"Twilight" the white mare murmured "what are you doing here?" The purple unicorn started to look sheepish, but when she saw the state of her teacher, the blackened mane, the melted armour, the cuts and gashes all over her body, it turned to a look of fear.

"Oh my gosh" she whispered, cantering up to her teacher "what happened?" Celestia didn't answer, instead she just kept her head hung, staring emotionlessly at the ground. Twilight wrapped her fore-hooves around Celestia's chest.

"Why are you back" Celestia asked again, her own fore-hoof around the back of the purple unicorn.

"I-I got worried, so I came after you" she explained, her voice still worried "Spike wouldn't let me follow you into the forest, but he agreed that it was a good idea to wait for you and the newcomer." She gave Celestia one last squeeze before she released her and stepped back, looked past the gold clad mare at the other ponies with her before she frowned. "Where is he?" Celestia didn't answer, the smaller pony suddenly understanding why her teacher was so quiet, not to mention why she was so battle-damaged. "Would you like to come inside" she asked quietly; she didn't need to ask what had happened. Just looking at her teacher's expression told her everything, not to mention the fact that her little sister was on her back, never mind the wounds. Celestia nodded once.

"Please. Me and my company need rest" she answered. Twilight nodded and stepped back, bidding them enter. It didn't take long for the troops to get comfy; when the troops trotted inside, they didn't bother looking for seats and just plopped down wherever there was room, some of the forming small circles and leaning on each other's backs. Most of them pulled their boots off and examined their hooves, most flinching upon sight; those who didn't have horrible burns had frostbite, and those who didn't have frostbite were blackened by the lightening, the fur standing on end, some of them even having small sparks crackling around them. It hit Celestia in a strange way that even Discord wasn't taking the time to be remotely humours or annoying, instead he just sat against a wall and buried his face in a book he'd randomly picked out to mask his shame, loss of pride and the pain of his wounds. The solar princess didn't have the heart to tell him it was upside down, but even so, the behaviour unsettled her. Once they'd gotten settled, Celestia looked at her student. "Do you have somewhere for Luna to sleep?" She nodded and guided her to the spare room. Once they were there, Celestia pulled Luan's armour off of her before she lay her down on the bed, delicately laying the covers over her. Once settled, she quickly fell back to sleep. Celestia lingered for a second, watching her sister sleep; she brushed a piece of frazzled mane out of her eye, the hair matted with sweat.

"You look like you need to lay down too" Twilight noted from besides her. The solar princess made no argument as her student guided her to her room and sat down on the bed. Twilight sat down on the stool she normally kept by her writing desk. "What happened" she asked cautiously. Celestia sighed again.

"Twilight, forgive me, but I really don't want to talk about it" she answered. Twilight nodded once in understanding.

"That's alright" she answered "I'll just leave you to your thoughts" she said as she got up. She didn't get very far before a hoof on her shoulder stopped her.

"Twilight" Celestia started "could you keep me company for a while. I just…really don't want to be alone right now" she explained. Twilight smiled slightly as she took her teacher's invite and sat next to her. Celestia didn't bother being subtle; she quickly put her fore-hoof around Twilight and pulled her in. The metal was cold and hard but her embrace was warm and comforting. "I wanted to thank you for housing me, Luna and the troops" she said. Twilight nodded, smiling slightly.

"Don't mention it. I can tell you've all had a…a really bad day" she answered. There was a period of silence for a while before either spoke again. "So…was that dragon working with him" she asked, trying to answer a few of the questions they'd amassed. Celestia nodded.

"Yes, and it seemed your brother was right as well; he didn't demonstrate half of his powers in the palace, and I'm not all together sure he did all he could back in the forest" she answered. Celestia sighed as she released Twilight and her horn sparked to life, her armour gaining the same glow as she removed it piece by piece. "He also knew how to use a sword" she added.

"What about those shouts?" Celestia had pulled off all her boots and examined them; they were partially ruined, melted in no small places, and placed them in a neat row besides Twilight's bed.

"He had many more of them. I get the feeling they and the dragon may be connected" she answered.

"Why's that" she replied as Celestia pulled off the breast plate and gazed through the hole, setting it to the side.

"The dragon seemed to be using the same kind of magic, the same sort of shouts" she answered. Twilight raised an eyebrow.

"So now he has the same powers as dragons?" Celestia deflated slightly as the realisation hit her.

"Goodie, more questions" she drawled as the rest the battle suit came off and got dumped to the side, Twilight giggling with little mirth. Celestia looked down at her student; she would die one day, and there was nothing she could do about it. No spells truly conveyed immortality without a catch. And she had no idea when her time would come; but when it did, there would be no turning back. She'd miss everything that would come after her, she'd leave nothing but a memory and Celestia would miss her opportunity to tell her how she really felt about her. Celestia put her fore-hoof back around Twilight and the purple mare leaned into her.

"Celestia" Twilight started, prompting the solar princess to look down at her "I'm glad you're alright." Celestia swallowed slightly, her affection bubbling over slightly. She pulled her daughter in closely, hugging her tight.

"Twilight, there's been something I've been meaning to tell you" she said shakily. Celestia had never been more anxious in her life, and this was just after she'd come from a rather massive and nerve wracking battle. She took a long, calming breath, and steadied herself.

"Yes Celestia" Twilight answered. Celestia took another breath, and opened her mouth to speak.

That was when they heard the roar.

The slayer

Chapter six: The slayer

Remus checked the perimeter one more time.

He had to be sure.

He, Lucien and Durnehviir had left the clearing a little under an hour ago, preferring not to be around when this world's armies came back in form of reinforcements. Predictably, both Lucien and Durnehviir, Lachance more than Durn, had questions for the last Dragonborn about what had happened. Why did they run, was at the top of their list and Remus was more than happy to answer such a simple question. Only, he didn't know the answer himself.

One moment they were fighting, the next she was about as fearsome as Sofie. When she was sleeping. Numerous theories had gone through his mind; that the ponies here were simply within the shout's targets of effected? Unlikely, the shout was specifically designed to combat the dov of Tamriel. That this was all a ruse? No, he'd seen it in her eyes…something had happened to her, something had broken her spirit. That she was…

No, he shook that preposterous thought away before the seeds of doubt could even take root. Throughout his travels, Remus and his cohorts had come across many strange things, and met many strange beings, but none of them had been cursed or blessed with everlasting life. The dragons were another matter, they lived forever, the currents of time their domain, because they were the sons and daughters of Akatosh. Vampires on the other had were not so much immortal, as they were undead. They were already 'dead' so they couldn't die, they never grew old nor sick, but the trade-off was their inability to truly live. Sunlight and being unable to bare children were the things that came to the forefront of Remus's mind, after Serana of course. That all said, both these things had one thing in common, in that Remus knew he could kill both dragons and vampires permanently. To meet something he couldn't kill because of its inability to be killed, whether through curse or blessing in their eyes, made a chilling sensation of an emotion he told himself he no longer felt run down his spine. To find a friend or, worse yet, a foe who held such an advantage over him made his eyes narrow in thought and…something else he was unwilling to truly take into account.

Either way, the reason for his perimeter was not because of his worry of stumbling across an immortal in this forest, instead, it was because of the almighty, ungodly roar he and his companions had heard moments earlier. It was like nothing neither Remus nor Durnehviir had ever heard before, both of whom had prior experience with Alduin's Roar, the same fabled roar that he'd somehow merged into a shout that split the sky and brought fire raining from the heavens. Naturally, both dragon and Dragonborn had both jumped to the assumption that the hells damned World Eater had somehow followed them to this place, though that was another thought that Remus had soon banished, as he knew for a fact that even the first born of Akatosh couldn't roar so greatly as to let it carry beyond even the eyes of a Dovah. The reason for this reasoning, was because of Remus's position at the moment.

The last, the undead and the Speaker had all moved through this forest to some degree, their estimations of distance vague at best considering they weren't sure if they'd gone deeper into, away from the core or just left or bloody right in this Oblivion damned forest. Right now, however, Remus was atop one of the tallest trees he'd ever seen. To put that in perspective, Remus and Serana had once journeyed to Valenwood at the guide of Niruin where the last had seen the tallest trees in all of Tamriel, and those trees had nothing on this one.

Perches aside, Remus scanned the horizon thoroughly, looking for anything that may be out of place. Not exactly an easy task, given that he didn't know what was in place. Nevertheless, there was at least no immediate sign of Alduin or any other dragon he'd slain in his life. A disgruntled look found his face as he wondered what it could have been. His first though beyond the return (again) of Alduin had been one of the creatures of this forest, such as the beast he'd hunted and slain earlier today.

Gods, this day had gone by slowly. He was used to his days filled with either travel, combat, training, taking care of the guilds, running errands for the guilds, forging, enchanting, reading, any number of his other hobbies or just one of his days he just spent with Serana, relaxing on the shores of Lake Ilinaltawith his vamperic lover. It suddenly struck him just how much he'd been thinking about her, and he came to a somewhat painful realisation. He missed her. One of the few people, make that only people, he'd ever admit he loved. Without lying, he'd been with many women over his life thanks to the snake tongue that lived in his mouth, ranging from tavern wenches, the fair Ysolda of Whiterun, Alea, Vex (though she made him promise never to mention it, loath was she to let her love of cuddling with a partner out) and Senna, the priestess of Dibella whom had woken him up after that night with Sam Guevenne. Though throughout all of them, he could never admit to loving them. Serana was different in every respect. A respected friend, a powerful mage, a capable warrior and a woman capable of being soft and warm-hearted despite the cold, hard world they lived in.

He shook the thoughts from his head, pressing a hoof to his muzzle as he chased the memories of his lover away. He'd been gone three days, and he already missed her more than anything. By Oblivion, what was wrong with him? He'd been away from home for months on end in the past, none of his family nor friends for company, and he'd been perfectly fine with it. Though, perhaps it was because he knew he could retune to them at his whim. He looked around himself again, finding nothing of interest, and decided he'd lingered up here with his thoughts long enough. He dropped to a lower branch without looking, landing with a wooden 'thud' as his hooves met the thick of the branch.

As he descended, he considered his options. At its simplest were two choices: investigate the roar he and his had heard, or continue to look for a better place to set up a more permanent camp and take better consideration as what they should do. Landing on a low branch, he looked down to see the Speaker and dragon that stood with him at the moment. Lucien was sat cross-legged against the tree he was in, Durn laying on the ground before him. They were silent, the Speaker declining to speak while the being who's power revolved around speech refused to make conversation. They'd both gotten quiet after their questions. Remus wasn't sure whether to be relived or stressed with the prospect of silent companions. Remus leapt at the expansive trunk of the tree and slid down it, leaving his lower stomach and the front of the leather cuirass dirty with moss and other likely undesirably stains. He felt better when he found the dirt on his otherwise pristine, snow-white/ice-blue coat. He didn't like being too clean, it made him feel disconnected from Kyne and nature as a whole. That, and only milk drinkers liked being completely clean of Nirn's elements.

Both Lucien and Durnehviir looked over at Remus, Lachance's expression hidden by the shadow of his hood, Durn's the scales of his race.

"No luck" Remus said without prompt as he trotted towards them. The three of them were silent again, both assassin and dragon watching him with a slightly eased glare. Remus looked between them, his head slowly turning between them as his stance tensed. "Something the matter" he asked steadily, his own gaze turning to a glare as he looked between them all.

"You want to go after the source of that sound, don't you" Lucien said. His voice was darker than normal, more an angry grumble than his normal speaking voice. Remus turned to him slightly. He took a long breath before answering.

"Yes" he admitted. "Why?" Lachance stood, his size which Remus normally easily towered over with both height and sheer muscle now beating his to a pathetic pulp as he looked down at him, his arms crossing impatiently.

"We could ask you the same thing" he replied shortly "we should find a place to rest, to think. Also, I seem to remember the direction that sound came from being the same direction the horses retreated towards" he noted curtly. Remus cocked his head.

"I don't see what the problem is. Are you not curios? A strange new place, likely filled with equally strange new things. I only wish to find out what it is" he told them. Lucien narrowed his eyes slightly more, his stance tightening. Remus's own glare went deeper. "You don't want me helping these ponies if it's a threat, do you? If it turns out to be something like a dragon, no? I never said I would-"

"It is in your nature" Lucien interrupted. Remus raised an eyebrow, the Speaker always having the courtesy to let someone finish speaking in the past.

"And what is that supposed to mean? That my helping and protecting of others is a character flaw?" Remus heard Lachance growl quietly.

"Perhaps I should remind you, Listener" he began, using the title with disdain "that here you are no hero. You are a villain, through and through. You are not the man who stopped the return of Alduin, the rise of the vampires and reformed the first Dragonborn. Here, you are just a pony, a pony who has attacked the monarch of this land. You're not a well-liked man anymore" he reminded. Remus grunted.

"Then no better reason to investigate the prospect of a threat to this land" he persuaded. Lucien grunted like he'd been struck, turning his head away. The Listener was right, no matter how much venom that snake of a tongue of his had just bit him with.

"Fine" he grumbled, heading towards Durnehviir and standing beside him "my blade is yours, as always, and I shall follow you on this pointless venture." Remus raised an eyebrow again, Lachance catching the meaning behind it. "I very much doubt that you will be met with open arms in this endeavor" he said as he climbed upon the silent and still Durnehviir with an unnatural grace and agility. Remus blinked after a second.

Had he just made a joke…?

Celestia's breath and words caught in her throat. Her eyes went wide as the pupils dilated. Her jaw came loose and hung barely a centimeter below her upper jaw. Her senses dulled and became numb.

To the casual observer, Celestia had either had an orgasm or was suffering from supreme stress.

Unfortunately for the solar princess, it was the latter.

As her mind came back to her, Celestia drew a breath and swallowed as she felt Twilight tense in her grip. She released her and trotted for the window, looking out to find a shadow looming over most, if not all, of Ponyville. She swallowed once more, turning away from the window and trotting past Twilight towards the door to her room. She pushed the door open, looking down at the guards gathered down there patiently.

"TO ARMS" she roared, the guards jolting from their relaxed and weary activities, all of them lunging for their weapons and armour, most of them leaving their boots behind in favor of keeping their sore hooves out of anything that may hurt them further. Celestia galloped for the room her sister was sleeping in, bursting through the door to find her wrapped up in the sheets, likely finishing off the bad dream she'd been having before. Celestia cantered towards her big sister, putting her hooves on her shoulders and shaking her awake rather violently. "Sister, Luna, you must wake up!" Her words fell on deaf ears, Luna just stirring slightly. "LUNA" Celestia roared in the Canterlot voice, the princess of the night jolting from her slumber, swiping her hooves at the air blindly.

"Who, what, how where" she spluttered before she realized what was happening, her head darting left to right with her gaze before she found her sister, groaning before she fell back to sleep. "Five more minutes Tia" she begged for her semi-sleep state.

"No, now" Celestia ordered, whipping the covers from Luna's body "Ponyville is under attack!" One of Luna's eyes shot open, the rest of her quickly springing upright as news that her favorite little hamlet was under threat.

"What, who's attacking" she asked in panic, her tone edging on demanding "is it the Newcomer again" she replied, her eyes narrowed. Celestia was at least glad to see her sister having found it in her to reignite her fighting spirit. Though what she said troubled her; if the Newcomer really was back, on the offensive this time no less, she doubted the hooffull of guards stationed at Ponyville, her and Luna's troops, Discord and the two princesses themselves would have a hope of fighting him off. Of course, that wasn't saying much, because unless it was a hoard of evil, cuddly sheep, she doubted the inexperienced guard, weary troop, beaten Draconequus and defeated royalty had much hope at all. And, considering the giant shadow looming over Ponyville, she very much doubted it was evil, cuddly sheep.

"I don't know, and I sure hope not" she answered her questions respectively as she trotted out of the room and trotted towards the exit of the Library. Discord had stood and was next to the door, looking more serious than either princess had ever seen him before.

"Dragons" he said flatly "more of them" he droned. Celestia swallowed gently once more, hiding the reflex from her guards, and trotted outside with her guards. Outside, it was as Discord had said: dragons. Two of them, both stood in the clear land on the outskirts of Ponyville, looking down at the small town. Celestia, Luna, Discord and the guards all galloped/ran towards them, Luna at the front of the pack while everypony else just tried to keep up with her. Once the arrived at their landing sight, they found that most of the town had gathered around them or fled, most of the town guards with them. Luna and Celestia pushed their way to the front, Celestia shouting orders back to the guards to get rid of the crowds.

"By Tartarus" Luna breathed as she looked up the dragons. Before, both princesses had taken on one dragon at a time alone, two between them at full strength, maybe more when they were accompanied by large platoons of guards. But, never before had they see two, fully grown, eleven thousand-at least- year old, heavy-scaled, steel-like spines, razor teeth, sharp eyed dragons. They loomed over everything in sight, gazing down at the little ponies at their feet with vacant interest and bemusement. They were around the same height, the one on the left of deep, fire red scales over his back, arms and legs, while his stomach was covered in a lighter shade of the same colour. The one on the left was of green scales, forest green over his back and legs, while his stomach was a deeper, murky green, that of a bog or forest leaves at night.

Celestia looked around herself, finding that the guards had managed to push the civilians back, giving them some room, but little else. She, Luna and Discord stood in a triangle, Celestia leading them in their gazing up at the dragons.

"What do we have here" the red dragon said to his companion "puny, little ponies all coming to see the big, bad dragons" he mused in a deep, rumbling voice. His wings flexed a little when he spotted the two Alicorns and the aspect of disharmony stood before him. "Ahh, the slaughter of the sun and the murder of the moon. If I am not mistaken, you both are responsible for the deaths of so many of my brothers and friends." Celestia and Luna narrowed their eyes at him as he turned his gaze to Discord. "And you, the false king. Overthrown by these…" he looked at the regal mares with clear disgust in his eyes "mares, so easily." In response, Discord shrugged.

"What did you expect? I had you on my team" he replied in a bored tone. The dragon growled, smoke billowing from his jaws as he glared daggers-or claws-at Discord.

"Do not, test me" he seethed.

"Why are you here" Celestia demanded before things got out of hoof. The green dragon snapped his gaze to her.

"Did we say you could speak" he snapped in a venomous tone, his voice strained and sore. Celestia narrowed her eyes again, wishing this could have happened tomorrow, when at least she would have been strong enough to take one. With Luna, they probably could have taken them both. Alas, it was not tomorrow, and neither princess was at full power.

"Will you answer my question then" Discord asked, slipping his claw and paw into the pockets his thighs had formed casually. The sight rather unsettled Celestia. The dragons looked at him with hateful gazes, but nodded ever so slightly either way. "Why are you here" he asked in a disinterested voice. The red dragon blasted a jet of fire from his snout in annoyance, but complied either way.

"We felt the presence of another dragon nearby. We were dispatched to investigate" he paused as though finished for a second before he spoke up again "I should point out, our orders were very, hmmm, open ended" he finished with a dark grin, his companion giving a dark laugh.

"We know where this dragon is" Luna said calmly, garnering the attention of Alicorn and dragon alike. "It stands with one of us, a pony, and something else, a biped of some sort. If it is your goal, we sanction your hunt. They are all enemies of-"

"BE SILENT, pony" the red giant spat "I did not ask your opinion, nor your information. Furthermore, I will lay dead before I do your dirty work, muck" he snarled. Luna took a breath, regretting her attempts at a 'diplomatic' approach.

"You will watch you tongue when you speak to my sister" Celestia growled, her eyes narrowed and her teeth bared to the dragon in a threatening manner. The green dragon let a ghastly sneer stretch across his face.

"Ahh, some fight still left in you, hmm?"

"Round one, ding, ding" Discord muttered from the corner of his maw. As the Alicorns and Draconequus took stance, the dragons followed suit, the red opening his maw and letting fire build in his throat while the green let his claws extend with a 'shink', green venom dripping from them. Before the first blows were struck, however, a roar echoed through the air that was familiar to only three of the combatants. Everypony/dragon looked to the sky, the citizens in confusion and horror, Celestia in horror and dread, Luna in dread and apprehension, Discord in apprehension and worry and Twilight-now joined by her friends-in worry and confusion.

Celestia whipped her head across the sky, looking for the source of the noise. She found it when somepony behind screamed 'WHAT THE HAY IS THAT' at the mountains Canterlot rested on. Following the aim of her scream and pointing hoof, Celestia saw something both incredibly aweing and impossibly fearsome.

It was the dragon from before, ghastly, undead gunk dripping from every spine, horn and limb, flapping his rotting wings and roaring into the heavens, his maw going wide to reveal razor sharp teeth, dirty and ugly thanks to lack of care, as he sored through the winds and skies against a backdrop of the majestic city of Canterlot, towering Sunrise mountain and the skies of Equestria, white clouds dotted across it. It made for an impressive image, not to mention an entrance worthy of Father Time himself. Celestia squinted her eyes and confirmed her prior suspicion; the Newcomer, and the biped, were riding the dragon flying towards them. With another unearthly roar, the dragon swooped low, gliding on its wings around Ponyville. Though there was too much distance between them to be sure, Celestia could feel the eyes of the Newcomer glaring back at her as he flew. After twice circling the hamlet that was Ponyville, the dragon descended steadily before landing between the dragons and the rulers/mischief-maker of Equestria.

Feeling somewhat insulted that somepony would dare stand in front of her, Celestia cantered around the dragon until she could see its head and the beings dismounting it. Luna and Discord had soon joined her, watching the Newcomer and biped get off of the dragon. The Newcomer didn't even spare a glance at them, but the biped looked over and grunted before turning back to the dragons.

Celestia watched with bated breath as the Newcomer looked the dragon up and down with an impassive expression on his face. He muttered something in a language she couldn't understand and barely hear, and the dragon behind him moved, thudding around in a circle until it faced the crowds. Celestia's eyes widened when she saw it take a breath, fearing it about to burn, or whatever moldy scales dictated, her ponies before it loosed another mighty roar at them. The ponies promptly screamed and galloped for cover, all but her dear Twilight and her friends, leaving them alone. It suddenly occurred to Celestia what he'd just done: he'd scattered the crowds, within seconds. She looked back at Luna, who was watching with just as much surprise as she was.

Given some room to maneuver, the dragon backed up with his companions, all three still looking up the gargantuan beasts. Celestia heard the sounds of galloping hooves and found Twilight and her friends galloping towards her, the princess of the day letting Twilight dash into her protective hold.

"Celestia, what's going on? Who is he, isn't that the Newcomer?" Her questions hit Celestia thick and fast, though she barely felt them register in her mind.

"Yes, I think it is. And, I've no idea, Twilight" she answered, her responses backwards in relation to the question's order. All three watched as the Newcomer found a better vantage point, still gauging the dragons.

"Greetings" Remus called. The dragons exchanged a look before they looked down at the Remus again.

"What do you want, little pony" the red one demanded. Remus shrugged.

"Simply to make your acquaintance" he replied evenly. The dragons both snorted.

"And what makes you think we would make yours" the green one sneered. Remus cocked his head.

"Zu'u kiin se dovsosse, Dovahkiin. Gein se hin." The dragons looked at him in irate confusion before turning to each other.

"The pony speaks gibberish" he told his equally estranged companion. Quickly, Remus's expression changed to something akin to a glare mixed with a frown, his head snapping back to Durnehviir, who was looking up at these 'dragons' in much the same way.

"You do not understand the dragon tongue" he demanded. Both dragons laughed.

"You speak nonsense, pony, not the dragon tongue" the green one laughed. Remus growled, but kept it under wraps.

"In that case, would you be so kind as to share with me your language?" Both dragons snarled as though he'd just called their mothers a whore.

"You dare ask of our language" the green beast screeched in anger. He curled his great body to the ground before he snaked his head towards the Dragonborn. "You dare not ask that" he hissed. Remus took a calming breath.

"In that case, would you be so kind as to bless me with your name" he persuaded. The green dragon straightened up, looking back at his cohort with a smirk.

"You may, pony. You stand before Virifall. Cower or die" he snarled. Remus nodded a few times, as though in thought.

Virifall-

Everypony and dragon, asides Durn, all frowned at him.

Zii-los, dii, du

The shockwave of the shout careered towards Virifall, striking him in the stomach. He soon doubled over and screamed in pain, arching his back as he roared for the heavens once again, for the last time, as the area around his stomach burned away as flaky, golden skin, flittering away on the wind. Then, the sounds of a rushing gale swept through the clearing as orange, reds, blues and golds swirled in a tight vortex before they rushed towards the last, clinging to him as they transferred from the dragon to Remus. The dragon continued to roar in pain as his sole was devoured by the Dovahkiin, his legs and most of his front now reduced to naught but a skeleton. The gold flaking soon reached his arms and back, then his wings, ripping away the scales and skin as it continued to slowly crawl over him. With a final snarl and a glare in his eyes aimed at Remus, the dragon's eyes and face were taken by the golden flows of energy and he was very much dead. For a second, the skeleton teetered on its skeletal feet before it fell back, crashing into the ground with a deafening clatter of bone and fallen scales.

Everypony and the red dragon looked on in both horror and confusion. Nopony but the Newcomer and the Newcomer's companions had a clue what he'd just done, and very few even wanted to know.

When the dust settled, the red dragon found himself staring down at the skeleton of his friend in confusion. He blinked his wide eyes in shock before he turned to the pony before him.

In blind rage, he roared in sheer anger, his wings extending as his arms and claws tensed and flexed to reveal his muscles, posing a threatening sight to any. Apart from Remus, Durnehviir and Lachance, who all heard only one word of that sentence. Posing.

The dragon reared its head and breathed a jet of fire down on the Newcomer. The biped dive-rolled out of the way, the dragon taking flight, while the Newcomer remained still. Celestia, Luna and Discord all took flight too, the winged Elements of Harmony holding themselves up while Celestia carried Twilight, Luna carried Rarity and Pinkie while Discord held a slightly annoyed Applejack. For all of fifteen seconds, the dragon continued his stream of flames, Lucien taking cover behind a convenient rock, his sleeve covering his face, while Durnehviir hovered in the sky, unwilling to interfere without a request from the Dragonborn. Once the dragon had stopped his flow of fire, the grass around the stallion remained on fire, setting the silhouette of a pony stood in a ring of fire against it. Soon enough, the flames cleared to reveal Remus, the leather armour having been burned off of him, a few patches of black soot here and there, but was otherwise completely unharmed. He brushed a patch of black soot from his shoulder nonchalantly before he spoke.

"My turn."

Gol

Two spike of earth shot from the ground beneath the dragon's feet, impaling him to the ground. The dragons responded with a pained roar to match that of his cohort easily, howling into the air. At an unseen command, Durnehviir swooped down and caught the Dragonborn as he hopped up, making him vanish in a blast of dust. Before anypony knew what was going on, Durn had flew up the length of the dragon, hung for a second over his maw and the last had leapt off.

"He did not just…" Luna began.

"He bucking did" Celestia replied in a mutter.

The last fell into the dragon's open mouth in a free fall, his hooves snapping to the side as a pair of swords materialized in his hooves as he fell into the dragon's mouth. Shocked for a second, the red dragon swallowed instinctively before hiccupping.

"Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods, oh gods" Remus chanted as he slid down the dragon's throat. Purple and red muscles surrounded him, all wet with saliva and likely something twice as repulsive. Streaks of red and blue marked veins and arteries, the walls of the throat expanding and contracting around the Dragonborn as he crawled down the seemingly endless neck. I'm not even going to try and describe the smell. When he decided he'd had enough, Remus posed he swords against the wall of the dragon's throat and thrust both. His ears rung and his whole body shook as the dragon loosed another roar of pain, this one much more panicked as he felt it thrash about wildly, ripping its claws into its own chest as Remus cut through the windpipe in a sawing motion. Another ungodly roar as he progressed, blood pouring from the dragon's internal wounds. Remus pulled himself thought the opening, feeling blood splash all over him, only his mane protecting his eyes. Using a rough guess, Remus dragged himself, using his ethereal swords through the dragon's chest until he found himself around where he felt the heart would probably be. He slashed through a random piece of chest and found himself in what he assumed to be the place this dragon's heart live. He assumed right.

Above his head was a rapidly beating muscle of red and blue, its speed indicating panic. Now that he thought about it, he could hear the dragon shouting 'get it out, get it out' through the walls of his chest. The last just grinned.

"Heeeeres Remus" he goaded as he summoned a bound axe and swung it over head, feeling it land in the heart with a satisfying 'thwack!' Yanking the ethereal Daedric axe out of the heart, another rush of blood followed after, covering the slightly maddened Dovahkiin in the dragon's vital fluids. Rearing the axe once more, he swung it overhead, watching it hack deeper into the heart again. Another of pain, this one accompanied by a second, much more extensive gush of blood as the heart beat wildly, forcing blood from the wounds in gallons. Heaving the axe out and swinging it again, the blade ran right through the arteries, severing them and leaving the heart hanging from the veins on one side. Remus soon solves that as he ripped the heart clean from its blood vessels, more blood and roars pouring into the chest from outside the cavity in the chest.

Outside, Celestia and everypony else could only watch as the dragon thrashed around, clutching at its chest in something that made it look like it wished for agony instead of whatever it was suffering now. Its eyes opened wide as something happened inside it, its maw opening but nothing coming out. It teetered on one foot for a second before it fell back, still holding its chest. Everypony and the Newcomers companions all hurried over to the body of the dragon; they could all here the sounds of rushing winds coming from the dragon, stopping when the sounds were loudest.

The biped was stood closest to the dragon, its black cloak and hood obscuring its body and face, the dragon to the left, forming a towering vigil of wing and muscle, waiting for somepony to make a wrong move. The sounds of the gales rushing by intensified as the outside scales of the dragon began to burn away, revealing a skeleton and a pony, covered in blood and grinning like a mad-stallion.

The Newcomer trotted calmly out of the dragon' corpse, his breathing controlled and looking remarkably healthy for somepony who'd just slaughtered his way through a dragon. Standing between the dragon and biped, the red stallion cracked his neck left and right, looking at the ponies stood before him.

"It seems we got off on the wrong foot…"