Across The Pond

It had been a long morning for the guards of Imperial City. Many reports were coming in from the south, none of them good. According to their reports the Thalmor had established their power in Summerset Isle. They had also caught word of a Thalmor coop in Valenwood. If these disturbing reports were true then Elsweyr would surely be on their list as well.

To make matters worse now there was a large boat flying in the sky. It didn't make sense. But nearly everyone could see it approaching. coming directly for the capital.

"What is that?" asked one of the new recruits. No one had the answer.

"What do you think they want?" came another new recruit.

"Who are they is a better question?" said one of the veteran legionaries. "Who could be so callous with their own life to opening strike against us?"

"Lets not wait around to find out" came a solider whom wore armor similar to all the others, the only difference being his helmet. His helmet had black hair coming strait up from the center into a mohawk, identifying him as the commanding officer of his post. He words were less of sentence and more of a command.

"What should we use?" asked one of the legionaries.

"Use the ballistas, and have our mages light the bolts on fire" said the commander.

"Yes commander" said one of the veteran legionaries with a slight bow then yelled, "alright men you heard him, lets blow them right out of the sky!"

The legionaries loaded the ballistas and a mage set it aflame. The released the bolt, it flew right past the side of the ship. A quick reload and adjustment later and they were ready to fire again. The commander had made them load this thing so much the best of them could get it loaded in under a minute.

The mage lit this bolt on fire then it was released. A direct hit to the bottom of the ship.

As the ship began to lose altitude and a few legionaries cheered. The commander looked towards his men as he said "Go to the wreck and make sure to kill all but three."

"Just three commander?" asked one of the legionaries.

"That is what I said, we have enough problems without trying to look after the injured or keep watch on twenty different people" the guard captain told them.

"Right away" said one of the guards as he, as well as about fifteen others, ran for the gates to capture these unknown invaders.

Everything was quite. Rainbow Dash was disoriented from the initial impact of the water, thought she had remained conscious. Had her friends? Where was everypony? Rainbow Dash's mind raced but soon she found herself only thinking of how much she longed for air.

Rainbow Dash surfaced to see the burning wreck that was once their Airship. She decided to worry about that later and started to look to see if anypony had gotten hurt. She found half of the pegusi guards she was with on shore with all of her friends and Captain Rain Step. Next to Rain Step was a few more royal unicorn guards. Some of the guards seemed to be limping, though none of her friends seemed to have this problem. Dash flew over to speak with them.

"Where is everypony else?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"They haven't surfaced yet, and it's too murky and dangerous too try to find them and pull them out" said one of the pegasus guards.

"What do you mean too dangerous?" Dash asked in shock.

"Well you would have to swim under the boat, find them in the thick water, then resurface without resurfacing into a flame." The pegasus told Rainbow Dash. But Rainbow wasn't listening, she had to help, even if they wouldn't.

Rainbow flew back over to the wreck and dove down below it. It was in pieces now, making navigating in the murky waters all the more difficult. She bumped into somepony, the pony wasn't moving around but Rainbow grabbed on as best she could and pulled, the armor not making it any easier.

Rainbow did manage to get the pegasus out of the water against all odds. Rainbow lifted the heavy stallion up into the air and started for the shore. Rainbow waited for a 'thank you' or a 'your my hero' when none came she turned to see what was wrong. It was then that she noticed he wasn't breathing. Rainbow rushed him to shore Captain Rain Step checked the pegasus' vital signs and after a moment, just shook his head.

"What just happened?" asked one of the guards. The look of worry on all the the ponies faces made it clear they were all thinking the same thing.

That's when a large group of creatures not even Fluttershy recognized ran across a bridge towards them. They were covered in metal and each held a long spear.

They ran up to the small group of ponies then stopped no less than twenty feet away. Just starring in wonderment at these creatures that only existed in legend.

"Umm, hello?" asked Rarity. "Surely you fine creatures wouldn't mind helping out a lady such as myself." The guards just blinked, it was talking, it was really talking. "You see i've lost some important fabric as well as one of my sewing kits with that ship. Would some of you be so kind as to retrieve my bags for me." Rarity finished, pushing one of her curls up with a few gentle lifts of her right hoof.

Everypony was just staring at Rarity. After everything that had happened she was worried about her fabrics? Maybe she had lost it, maybe she had gone into denial? Who knows, it could be any of these things.

"So what do we do now?" one of the heavily armed creatures said to another.

"Well all things considering we should take all of them" replied another one of the creatures.

The same creature that had just spoke then addressed the ponies. "My name is Lurius, please come with us peacefully and forfeit your weapons, no one has to get hurt."

Rain Step looked around at his men, many were injured but, if he gave the order to fight, they would. He thought to his men that had died in the wreck, he would never be able to retrieve them all. He then looked to the bearers of Harmony. He made his decision. "Very well, only if you can promise me some answers as to whose fault it is fell out of the sky and guaranty the safety of my men."

"We can only promise no one will get hurt if you answer our question's to the best of your ability" Lurius said.

"Very well" Rain Step said, motioning for the others to follow him as he walked over to the creatures. The others reluctantly followed.

They led the injured lot to the tower at the center of the Imperial City, one of only a few places where they could speak in peace and have security. They were led to a very large room with a very high roof. In the center of this round room sat a large table. Around it sat many chairs, all of them found a chair and sat. All except Lurius.

"The commander should be here soon then we can begin" Lurius told them.

As if on cue the doors swung open and the Commander strutted in. Lurius saluted in response. For a moment, the Commander only stared. He had hear what his legionaries had told him, about the unicorn and pegasi, but it was still a shock when he was finally in their presence.

"I am Empire City guard Captain and Commander for the legion, Scelian" the guard with the mohawk helmet finally said. "And I am speaking to a bunch of half pint pastel colored horses, some unicorn and pegasi, so you can imagine my surprise when such things fly up on a boat that defies gravity!" Commander Scelian exclaimed.

Rarity looked like she was about to say something when a disembodied voice said "Oh come now Scelian, surely you can understand there are things in this world that we will never understand." As the voice finished talked it became clearer and easier to identify the origin of the sound.

A tall man walked through the large doors. He was wearing elegant robes. The main body of the robes were blue in color, with a prominent red and gold pattern running down the front. In the center of the pattern was what appeared to be a dragon of sorts.

"Hello there strangers, I am Emperor Titus Mede II, and i'm afraid we are to blame for you loss" the Emperor told them.

"Well Titus Mede II, can you tell me why did you do this?" Rain Step asked.

"I fear we are heading for times of war, and the ship you came here on isn't exactly something we are accustomed to, you were coming right at us and we defended ourselves" the Emperor told them. "However we will make it up to you, we can start by making a new ship. It wont be able to fly but you can use it to move across the ocean."

"What makes you think we need to cross the ocean?" asked Rain Step, trying to get everything the Emperor know out of him without using threats or saying what he wants strait out. This was a delicate matter.

"Well I just assumed you did. I image if you lived here in Tamriel someone would have noticed you long ago" the Emperor said. This conversation was going nowhere fast and both parties could see it.

"We lost some good men Titus Mede II" Rain Step told him.

"Please, just Emperor Mede will suffice. But I am sorry for you loss" the Emperor said. "We have a unique opportunity here, we have so much we could learn from each other."

Rain Step looked towards the others, he didn't feel comfortable making a decision like that without the consent of the others. After each one nodded in turn he turned back towards the Emperor and said "very well, let us teach each other."