The Dragonborn's Magical Adventure in Equestria

Chapters

1 - The Begining
2 - The Arrival
3 - The Battle
4 - The First Introductions
5 - The Second Introductions
6 - The Day Before
One last word

1 - The Begining

Chapter One

*/\/\/\/*

You want to hear a tale? A story? Bah! You sound ridiculous. What’s that, you still want one? Fine, this one has a tale for you. Khajit doesn’t know if you’ll believe it, most people kjaiit tells don’t, but if you’ll indulge it, then prepare for what may end up being the strangest story you will ever hear. It’s all about a special khajit, armies of deadra, a missing hero, a mean tempered dragon, and a world populated by technicolor horses.

Yes, you heard this khajit right. Horses.

My tale starts, with your friendly khajiit, me, and a pair of fleeing necromancers, and an ancient Nordic ruin, in the middle of Skyrim. They were sprinting, putting all of their effort in escaping danger, drawing in deep fatigued breathes. I chased behind, going at a slightly faster pace, my two hands clutching my swords. The mages were growing tired, their pace was slowing, and the fat one, a Breton, was wheezing. It was inevitable that I would catch them soon.

Luckily for them, they didn’t have to go far. Up ahead, a large metal door stood. I could see the relief on the Bretons face when he saw it, he picked up his pace, closing in on the door faster than both me and the dark elf. The dark elf looked back at me, but a few meters away from him, and screamed before he raised his hand, throwing a glowing green orb behind him. The orb split into several pieces, and flew into several crevices on the walls.

Then there was a flash, and several humanoid figures rose from the crevices, clutching weapons, looking at me with strange glowing eyes.

Draugr.

I paused for a few moments to look at them, moments the dark elf used to flee to the metal door, before stopping and looking back at the draugr, watching the soon to be fight.

The draugr started their approach towards me, neither stopping nor hesitating. I was vastly outnumbered, surrounded and almost cornered, but I showed no fear. A few draugr could never scare me. Not after all that I had gone through.

The first one made its move quickly, raising its ebony battle axe over its head as it brought it down in my direction, only to miss completely, I having dodged moment previously. Before it could retaliate, I swung both my blades in an arch, taking off the fell creatures head. It collapsed to the floor, and rolled several meters away before the body joined it.

The rest of the draugr pressed forward, and I found myself overwhelmed. Three of them swung their weapons at me, one I dodged, the others I parried, before I managed to riposte one’s blade and open its chest as it fell to the ground. Before another could attack, I spun around; swinging my blades in a three sixty circle, cutting down two more of the creatures.

By then there were only five of the draugr left, and me, having wasted enough time as it was, decided the best action was to ignore them. I pulled myself backwards away from the undead monstrosities, and bee lined for the door, my khajiit tail flapping behind me as I ran.

The dark elf, seeing me run at him, both blades drawn, expressionless due to my mask couldn’t help but scream as he turned around and ran through the door, grabbing a chain switch and tugging on it as he ran. Unfortunately for him, I was too close, and by the time the mechanism had the massive door shut, I had slid under, but a mere body’s length from the horrified necromancer.

He broke down right there; fell to his knees and while crying, begged for his life. His red eyes darkened as his coward’s tears fell from them, and his face stained itself with the water’s flowing marks. “Please please don’t kill me!” he practically screamed at me, “I never wanted to do this, I promise! I promise!”

My only response was to draw both of my blades across his throat, spraying the walls with his crimson blood.

I turned away as he slipped to the floor, his hands desperately trying to hold back his blood for a dozen seconds before he faded. I found myself extremely disgusted at the elf; he had dedicated his life to necromancy, a trade illegalised in almost every province. He had sworn to defend his kin, and to fight against any attackers of the lair, but he was no more than a coward. He acquired power they easiest way he could, and when confronted, he broke his oath, broke his promise, and lost his life. The world was better without such fools as him.

I turned away from the carcass and began to run down the room. I soon found myself in, a long tunnel, similar to the hundred others I had found in every Nordic tomb. From ahead of me I could see the Breton. Fat as he was, he was slow, and halfway down the tunnel, a couple dozen meters, he slowed dramatically, and clutched his chest in agony.

I turned and ran after him. When he heard my boots clattering across the floor towards him, he- like the dark elf, emitted an ear piercing scream. He picked up his pace, adrenaline pushing him forward, as well as will. I found myself having to speed up, although not quite as fast a sprinting.

Eventually, after around a dozen seconds, I caught up to him. He collapsed to his knees, but soon turned around as he filled his hand with fire. Before I could get close enough, he had flung them, and at the range we were at, they struck home on my chest, knocking me a good five meters back, and melting the metalworking of the tunnel with the heat.

They were however; not nearly hot enough to stop me.

I stood back up, completely protected by my dragonscale armor, and rushed towards him, sheathing one of my swords, valuing precision over power in this fight. The Breton gasped when he saw this; most likely having never seen someone survive such an ordeal. He readied two more fireballs in his hands, but never had the time to launch them before I reached him and slid my blade through his ribs. Instantly an electric current flowed from my blade into him, jolting his already
wounded heart into a still. He shuddered for several moments, before convulsing off my blade and falling dead to the floor.

Breathing heavily out from my mask, Krosis, I continued down the tunnel. It didn’t take long to reach its end; I had covered most of the ground during the chase. Ahead of me, a smaller wooden door inlaid with iron stood. Luckily, it lacked a lock; I kicked it open with my dragonscale covered foot.

And stepped into hell.

Before me stood dozens of undead, draugr, wraths, and skeletons. I had stumbled into the literal pit of death. Near one hundred of the beasts stood to confront me. It was a sight that would horrify a lesser creature, and even I felt a small sense of fear as I gazed upon them.

The room itself was rather large to accommodate the crowd. It stood with a ceiling that was eight or nine men tall, and around fifty paces wide. Every fifteen paces from the wall lead to several steps that went downwards a man’s height. There were three of these depressions, eventually ending up in the center, the lowest area. From these standing points, the undead stood, staring at me intently. If looks could kill, I’d have died then, but they seemed content to simply keep their gaze on me, and I did the same to them.

This went on for almost an entire awkward minute before a loud cackling sound filled the room. It took me a moment to realize it was laughter, distorted and disturbed as it was. It came from the farthest wall to my front.

Before me undead parted way to reveal a tall golden figure, high elf, yet so deformed and twisted it hardly resembled one. Its face was twisted, part wrinkled and part smooth, as if it couldn’t quite decide on its age. Its body was likewise, it carried a hunch and gait that beamed with age and decay, but also seemed fit and muscular, ready for action, and covered in a black robe. These were disturbing, but nothing compared to the eyes.

Its eyes were deep, black pits of pain. They radiated their golden glow outwards, and yet also seem so unnaturally dull, as if someone had sucked the light out of them completely. Looking into them almost made you pity the creature that possessed them, but at the same time inspired and seduced you.

The creature was undoubtedly old. I suspected its voice would be crackly and hoarse, the laughter it produced confirmed that. However, nothing could prepare me for when the creature stopped laughing, and spoke.

“Dragonborn, might I just ask, to what do I owe the honor of having you in my home?”

The voice was painful to hear, it scratched at my eardrums, visibly discomforting me. I couldn’t help but raise my hands to my ears, if only momentarily. I couldn’t tell what expression the creature wore, its face was far to deformed, but the small creaks on its right lip suggested a smile.

As I lowered my gloved hand, I cleared my throat and said “Linsive Pargrove, now formally known as Dread Lord Pargrove, this one is here to carry out the royal writ of execution, on order of high King Ulfric Stormcloak, against your crimes against the citizens of Skyrim. This one expresses hope that you will choose to go peacefully, and retain your honor, but accepts that this may not be the case.” As with many khajiit, I spoke in the third person, a trait many khajiit shared.

Pargrove seemed to be entertained from my decree.

“Dragonborn, you know I cannot accept your offer for peace. But don’t fear, I would rather you not perish tonight. While my friends” he gestured over the hundreds of undead that filled the room, “May wish your death, I do not. If you so wish to leave with your life, I will allow you to do so, but please hurry, my patience is limited.”

I tilted my head to the right for a moment, before drawing both of my swords, Dragonbane and Oathblade from their sheaths. All around me undead did the same as they prepared for combat. The only figure in the room that didn’t happened to be Pargrove himself, he merely widened his expression, although I still was not sure what it was, a smile or a scowl.

“Dragonborn” he once again said, “This is your last warning. Turn around, run away, live life, love, drink, eat, but only if you go that way.” he pointed at the door I entered from. “If you do not, my minions will descend upon you, and you will die, make no mistake.” As if he imagined I was still considering leaving, he said, “You have twenty seconds.” on queue he started counting backwards from twenty.

I looked to my right, at a large draugr, a death lord holding an ebony long sword, then to my left, at a skeleton in plate mail, holding a pair mace and shield. Then I looked at Pargrove. I shuffled my katanas in my hands, and steadied myself as I waited for him to finish counting.

“Five, four, three, last chance Dragonborn, two…one.” He looked down on me in disappointment, and then waved his shriveled hands at me, “Deal with him.”

The undead around me began to move, all in one wave, towards me. I was a capable warrior, but against so many I stood no chance. My only hope stood in Pargrove. He had to die. Afterwards his summonings would lose their orientation, and while they would still be violent, I would at least be able to sneak away.

But first, Pargrove had to die.

I ran forward, towards him. He seemed even more amused than prior as the undead closed in on me, but I wasn’t about to die, not against undead, and most certainly not for his amusement. I called within myself, brought several thoughts to the tip of my mind as I let out a shout of power.

”WULD NA KEST!”

Then I was flying towards him, he seemed almost shocked as my pace threw me over his head, both of my swords angled for the kill. His dead eyes betrayed his shock as his hands lit up on the first spell he could think of. It flew out of his hands and hit me square in the chest, but didn’t slow me down as my swords flew towards his head, and I flew towards the floor.

That’s when I landed on a patch of grass, and my swords struck a tree, reverberating outwards and throwing me off balance for a second before I straightened myself out. Instinct took over as I went into a defensive position. When it became clear that there were no hostiles, at least nearby, I dropped the stance, and stood up straight before being hit by a very unmistakable feeling. Heat.

I soon found myself peeling off my dragonscale armor, being padded with fur was too much for the heat, although it couldn’t have been higher than room temperature. Not long after, I wore only my clothing, a light black shirt and trousers, and Krosis, my mask. Soon after, that came off too, and I was able to see my surroundings clearly, no longer hindered by the small eye slits on the mask.

I was standing in a forest, heavily wooded, almost like a rainforest. Memories of my time in the argonian homeland, with all its bogs and swamps flashed before my mind. But I couldn’t be in Black Marsh, that’s far to south for any teleportation spell. No mage could hope to cast such a spell, the exhaustion would kill them and the effect would disperse.

But here I was, in someplace very similar to Black Marsh. I let out a feline growl as I leaned against a nearby tree. Something was very wrong with my current situation. What was happening was impossible, it couldn’t be done.

After around a minute, I figured it would be best to simply accept what had happened and start working to resolve it. I had to find my way all the way back to Skyrim, which meant going through either Morrowind or Cyrodil. Before all of that however, I had to figure out where specifically I was. Argonia was a rather big place after all. I needed to study my surroundings, and what better place to do that than the top of a tall tree.

I had a brief look around before I garnered that the largest tree nearby, at least from where I could see through the foliage, actually happened to be the one I was leaning one. It was also the thickest, with many smaller branches that would make climbing easier.

I stretched out my feet while I studied the tree. I had taken off my boots (custom made for my feline feet) due to the temperature, and now was digging them into the cool earth.

When I finally devised my plan, I gathered all my belongings, Oathblade, Dragonbane, my armor, and Krosis, and put them into a tree hallow where no one would find them, should a traveler pass by. The only thing I didn’t leave was a small ebony dagger, which I looped onto my belt. I approached the tree, extended my claws from both my feet and hands, gripped the bark, and began to climb.

It was an easy task, all khajit are acrobatic due to our feline nature, and climbing is one of our best skills. Even the clumsiest khajit is more agile than the most acrobatic nord, and I was very acrobatic among my kind. I ascended the tree with grace unheard of, silently making my way upwards. The only time I came close to falling was when two branches I was supporting my weight on snapped, yet I managed to catch myself on a hollow. The rest of the way was smooth sailing, I found myself at the top sooner than I anticipated; the tree not quite as tall as I figured, but still almost double the length of any nearby.

I climbed the last few branches calmly, and I ended up on the very top branch, completely exposed to the elements, feeling the winds blowing at me lightly. I smiled, just for a moment, at the feeling; it felt like I was at the top of the world.

Then I looked at the land in front of me, and I nearly fell out of the tree.

The place, vast and wide as it was, wasn’t Black Marsh. It wasn’t even close. The swampy forest ended almost a league from me, and after that, pure green fields of grass dotted with trees stretched forward. Behind them, in the scenery, stood a mountain, taller than the Throat of The World, and on it, stood a castle, brightly illuminated in the sunlight. I gasped, losing my grip for a moment as I loudly cursed.

“Where in Oblivion are we?” I said aloud, not bothering to take into account the fact that no one was near me. That didn’t matter at the time, what did matter was that I was far from home, far from Skyrim. Gazing around the land, one thing became sadly clear.

There was no way I was getting home anytime soon.

2 - The Arrival

=====
Chapter Two

/\/\/\/\

What? You question why this one can speak in the first person while telling the story but not during conversation? Well, just let us have a moment. Ahem!

In the end, I can speak normally to people, but this one- pardon me, I, find it easier to converse in third person. It’s a trait many khajiit have, although many do overcome it. For the sake of this story, I will be using first person, but don’t expect me to do so elsewhere.

Now, will this one be allowed to continue its tale, for we assures you, it has only just begun.

I was nowhere near Black Marsh, that much was certain. The landscape was nothing like what Black Marsh was, the swampy forest was similar, it’s true, but there are no plains or mountains in Black Marsh, nor any cities built into them. No I was somewhere else entirely.

But where?

I couldn’t be in Cyrodil, the only mountain ranges there are to the north, and the weather there is a constant snow. Nor was I in Morrowind, after the Red Mountain eruption, the land was nowhere near as alive as this, having been suffocated in a layer of ash.

Looking around myself, I couldn’t help but let a sense of worry overcome me. Throughout all of my adventures in Skyrim and beyond, nothing had come close to this. The more I looked from my perch on the tree, the more confused I became.

Eventually, I subdued my confusion. I returned my thoughts to the matter at hand, and I began to once again scan the environment, once again looking for anything of note. Primarily a sign of civilisation, other than the giant city in the distance. It stood at a remarkably far distance from me, looking little more than a dot in my vision. The fact that I could even see it was a testament to its sheer size.

And so I started to look for other signs of life. I didn’t see anything of note while I scanned the woods around me, the foliage being too thick to see through, but as I looked towards the fields, I spotted something, far off, though not nearly so far as the Mountain. It took me a moment to realize that I was looking at was a village, small, maybe a, hour walk from where I was, plus the climb down the tree that I still had to make.

I didn’t stop my search with the village though, I continued to study the land for several minutes, making note of the stone quarry in the far distance, and the vast rows of tree’s, probably a farm of some sort, that stood near the village proper.

Eventually though, I decided that I had made enough discoveries to make a goal. It was rather simple. I didn’t know where I was, and without the guidance, my hope of traveling home anytime soon was slim. I decided to head towards the town, and from there ask about my whereabouts. I would decide the rest after.

With my goal settled, I thought up a mental map of the path I would have to take to exit the forest. In the end, the route would be rather scenic, first I had to cross a nearby river, which raged uncontrollably, and then there was an indent in the land, a nice place for something to make a nest. I made a note to loosen my blades while traveling through there.

Then I started down the tree. It was even easier than before. The branches that aligned the trunk were thick enough to withstand my weight and more, so all I had to do was drop down, branch by branch, until I reached the last couple meters, which I simply leapt down, landing straight on the forest floor with a ‘whoomph’.

I turned away from the tree, and went to the hollow for my equipment. Luckily, nothing had happened by, and it all sat in the hollow where I left it. I tossed the blades and sheaths onto my back in an X formation, but put all my armor in my pack, leaving me in my black tunic and trousers. I neglected shoes, preferring the feeling of walking over the soil in my bare paws that with the clunky dragonscale boots of mine.

The only things I wore beside my clothes, was my necklace. It was of simple make, no more than a mound of silver that had been shaped into a smooth oval. It carried a very simple enchantment of luck. It was the only actual worldly possession I truly cared for.

I straightened the swords on my back as I began to walk northward, cutting through the thick forestry before me. As I walked, I contemplated the possibilities of where I was. There was no doubt this wasn’t Black Marsh or Cyrodil. No mountain matched that sheer scale, nor even neared it. This could have been Valenwood, the land of the wood elves; I hadn’t been there, so I wouldn’t know what it was like, but that just didn’t seem right. The bosmer held their forests above all, and they wouldn’t have any plains, the province almost completely covered in foliage.

As I racked over the facts, my mind thought of another possibilty.

I could be in a realm of Oblivion. The deadra princes always loved to play tricks and games with the mortals of Nirn; some would say that was their greatest joy actually. I had played the servant to several, and boasted their gifts as a reward, but they weren’t so much for gratitude as much for symbolism. I doubt any of the gods truly thought my deeds worthy of substantial note, but if I had gotten nothing then they would have been known as ungrateful, or greedy. Perhaps it was merely easier to give me an artifact of theirs than to deal without doing so.

Either way, perhaps one of them, Sheogorath most likely, had brought me here as a game. A trick. Maybe there was no way home aside from satisfying the prince itself. That was a very real possibility; the Prince of Madness himself pulled me into the mind of a long dead emperor for the exact same reason, and only in doing what he asked did I escape, with the Wabbajack in hand as well. If so however, then why hadn’t he already shown himself. Why didn’t he just jump down from the sky and tell me his task.

But if that was true then how did Pargrove get involved? It was his spell that brought me here, not that of a deadra. Was he merely an avatar for one of them, did he even have a hand in this? There were too many possibilities to separate anything, and this whole event stunk of strangeness.

I must have gotten carried away in my assessment, for soon before me, flowed a raging river, larger than any I had seen in Skyrim. To attempt to swim through would end with even the best swimmer being carried downstream, to a watery death.

And as I khajiit, and a feline, I hated water of all forms. My fur took hours to dry, and I was never the strongest swimmer. I could swim mind you, but in such a situation as this, I would prefer to avoid it if possible.

Fortunately, there was.

To the far left, several stepping, or rather, several jumping stones made forth a path across, each one barely above the water, but far enough to stand on without emerging your toes. They looked shiny with moisture, and obviously rather slippery on the foot, but if I took myself slowly then I figured I would be fine.

I bee lined toward them, only stopping when the closest, a large grey slab, lay half submerged in front of me, and I stood on the shore. There was however, slight problem. The nearest, while still relatively close by, was still a fair distance in front of me, farther than my jumping distance. I doubted the tide was strong enough to carry me away should I attempt to walk to it, but I didn’t want to take the chance. Either way, odds are I was going to get wet, either from missing my jump and falling into the river, or by having to wade through the shallow but still fast water and climb up myself.

Not wanting to get my feet wet, I decided to attempt the former.

Taking up position, the stone ahead of me, I breathed inwards and outwards for several seconds. I didn’t want to get too excited, lest I panic and miss my target. Straightening my body, I began to run towards the river, but moments away from the shore.

Then I stopped dead in my tracks.

I didn’t have to do any of this. I still had my dragon shouts, in particular, I still had whirlwind sprint, and using all three of the words of power would be far more than enough to carry me across the water. I doubted I would even get wet.

Once again taking up position on the shore, I stepped forward, slowly, clearing my throat as I formed the words needed.

“WULD NA KEST!”

They carried me across the water at the speed of a hurricane, only touching me to the water once, during which I skipped off wards, landing on the shore, leaving a deep indent as I did so. It took some self-restraint not to laugh in victory then, but I held it back as I stood upwards and once again began my trek through the deep foliage, happy in the thought that I would soon be free of this forest.

In the trees above me, I became aware of the sun, slowly setting downwards. Night was coming, and soon the forest would come alive with the sounds of nocturnal life. I wanted to be free of this place by then, so I hurried my pace.

In Ponyville, Spike stirred.

He had snuck off for a quick nape while Twilight performed some sort of experiment or other. It didn’t really matter to him. Owlicious was helping her anyway (damn that owl twice fold) and he wasn’t needed at the time.

So what better way to pass the time then by sleeping? Twilight made him stay up nearly all night previously, helping her by taking notes while she peered through a telescope. Most times he would have been annoyed, or passed put halfway, a baby dragon needs it’s sleep after all, but she seemed so determined and serious. Gone was her casual approach to most things. She was acting like the time she traveled back in time to warn herself about the future. Or when she lost her list of lists she made. Either or, both had the same effect. She was focused, almost too much so, and the rings around her eyes showed the length of her ordeal.

It almost scared him, to be honest. He hadn’t seen her so stirred up. When he spoke to her, she made almost no sense, merely muttering different phrases and equations to him. Her notes made little sense either and seemed to be nothing more than the same endless and complicated equations, as well as the positions of dozens, near hundreds of stars. He could almost remember the name of them all by the night was done, and even then she didn’t stop, only dismissing him for rest before recruiting Owlicious as a temporary replacement.

He couldn’t argue, he deserved this nap. Let Owlicious help her, he didn’t care. So long as he got his sleep, which he desperately needed, then he was fine with whatever was going on in that room.

And so he found himself on his bed, half passed out before he even fell on it. Sleep came easily to him, as well as dreams. He soon found himself on a date with Rarity, on a quest to slay some monster in a far off land, and several other such fantasies.

His last dream had him on a knight’s quest. He was to find the three shards of the sword of power and return it to the shrine of strength to save the land. He often enjoyed such dreams; they made him out to be a manly and strong figure, often the opposite of his real life self.

At the time, he was fighting a wrath, which held one of the shards. It was large, gloomy and dark, but he defeated it by hitting over the head with his lance multiple times. Then it fell to the floor and dropped the shard. He practically beamed with joy as he leaned down and grabbed the shard. But when he pulled up, the wrath clutched his arm, leaned forward and screamed “WULD NA KEST!”

The words shook him, terrified him, and worse of all, woke him. He jumped upwards from his bed in fright, and emitted a loud screech. When he calmed himself down, he began to think over the what the wrath had said.

It was loud, unnaturally so, even for a dream. The three words that he heard matched none that he knew. They seemed familiar though, so close yet so far from his mind. They seemed to shake the entire room, yet at the same time his base perception told him otherwise. It was he, who was shaking, still feeling the aftershocks of the noise.

And then all was still. He stood up on his bed, disorientated and confused, wondering what had just happened, when Twilight burst into the room, her face lit up in a flurry of emotions. Spike would have contemplated them, but no sooner had she entered, then she ran straight up to Spike, looked down at him, and said “Spike, I need you to take a letter, now!”

She seemed just as disorientated as he did, except it was added onto her already conflicted thoughts, and her lack of sleep. She shook, not from the voice, but from her lack of nourishment, and the sudden excitement. Not wanting her to get upset, or do something drastic, Spike walked over to a cupboard, pulled out a parchment and quill, and sat himself on a nearby stool.

Then she began to speak, and he began to write.

The forest was strange.

From my viewpoint at the top of the tree, it seemed rather small, the exit looked to be a few minutes’ walk from where I was, but as the minutes wore on, the forest seemed to be getting thicker and thicker around me, and I became acutely aware of just how much time I had spent hiking forward; the moon had risen completely, the sun had set, and darkness had fallen all around me.

I had to admit, the dark of the woods was unsettling. In Skyrim, full forests were spacious and open, but this, this was different. The tree’s themselves almost seemed to grow around me, when I double backed to recover my orientation; the paths I once took had filled up. It was as if the forest itself was alive.

As the hours wore on, fatigue kicked in. Before going on my venture to slay Pargrove, I had neglected the need for food, at least until I returned. I regretted my decision, the energy food would have given me would have helped me as I made my way through the forest. I could have hunted on my own there, but no matter where I looked, in the hollows of trees and burrows in the ground, I saw not one animal. No squirrel or boars, no lizards or toads. Nothing.

The lack of life created a dull silence, which only added to the gloom of night. Fortunately, my feline eyes adapted to the environment quickly, and I was able to see, or at least see well enough to make out what was in front of me, but to the sides of my vision, shadows played games with my mind. Every time I glanced right or left, I could swear I saw something moving, dancing along the forest floor for just a moment before moving, and try as I might, nothing could shake the feeling that I was being watched.

Feeling, for the first time in many months, scared, I loosened Dragonbane in its sheath, and stretched out my claws in caution. I didn’t really fear any known creature, although I had seen my fair share of the worst of them. What frightened me was that if this was a deadric prince’s realm, then the normal laws didn’t apply. What I would normally pass off as harmless in Tamriel could tear me asunder here, especially if that was the deadra’s wish.

So I proceeded cautiously and slowly, wafting my way through the mud and grime. Up ahead, I could see the tree’s beginning to clear; the entrance to the indent I had seen previously. That meant that if the forest followed basic rules of distance, I would be about halfway out soon. Once again however, there was no guarantee of that. I could be almost out, or I could have several days’ worth of hiking ahead of me, I couldn’t tell.

Eventually though, I reached the indent in the land, a small canyon, tightly packed with woods around it. Under normal circumstances, I would probably have gone around it, but I needed a rest, and I hoped to find a cave somewhere near, so I walked downwards, entering the canyon. To my sides, the walls rose quickly, leaving me caged inside the tunnel like crevice. I turned around and looked backwards, momentarily, before once again resuming my course.

Thinking over it, I found the hope of finding a cave or shelter both foolish and unlikely. This place did look like a good candidate, from afar, but up close, I saw no indents or hollows in the walls, which only sunk my morale ever so lower. It seemed to me that I would have to either find somewhere else to camp the night, or continue onwards with my trek in the hopes that the forest would end soon.

I didn’t want to take chances though. Pausing momentarily, I studied my surroundings. The walls of the canyon, both left and right, were bare, and lacked any noticeable shelter. For me however, that wasn’t necessarily essential. Anything out of the forest proper was better, and this place lacked the shadows that plagued the forest. I figured that simply laying down on the floor here would suffice, at least until dawn, and it would give me the energy I needed to get to the town.

The place I chose was simple; a flat and dry spot right up against the right wall. It wasn’t overly comfortable, but I was too tired to find anywhere else, and I needed this rest. I tossed both my swords off my back as I laid myself on the ground. All around me bugs were flying, I found myself getting bitten by multiple mosquitoes while I tried to find a comfortable position. When I did, I wasted no time in closing my eyes, ignoring the chirps and creaks of the creatures around me, and falling asleep, hoping that nothing would disturb my rest.

I was never known for my luck however.

My disturbance came in the form of several sounds, footsteps, making their way towards me. My ears picked them up, reverberating them down to me in my dreams. A normal man or beast wouldn’t have woken, or even noticed the noises, but I was no normal khajiit. I woke myself up, forcibly, and jumped off the ground, my claws stretching outwards in attack.

But the creature in front of me boasted far larger claws.

Its front looked like a mountain lion, but with a larger mane. Its body also followed such a shape, but that is where the similarities ended. From its shoulder sprouted a pair of huge bat like wings, and on its back, a massive scorpion tale stretched outwards, as if anticipating attack. Its appearance startled me, but not so much as it’s roar, which it did soon after.

I found myself at a disadvantage. My two swords were at my feet, meaning I would have to bend over or crouch to get them. The creature was right in front of me, which meant trying to do that would probably end with my death. This meant fighting with either magic, which I was very novice at, like most khajiit, or with my claws, something I didn’t look forward to doing.

The creature, which I realized to be a manticore, didn’t seem particularly rushed. It stood, crouched on its back legs, but it neither jumped nor stood, as if waiting for me to do something. I figured my best bets were to try to get my hands on my swords, hoping it wouldn’t attack until I had them.

I crouched down, holding both my hands forward, claws out. The manticore didn’t change its position. When I lowered both my hands however, it pounced.

I barely had my swords out before it sent them flying away with a single mighty swipe of its paw. After, it locked both its eyes on me and began to slowly walk towards me. I stood up, quickly, just before it slammed the tip of its scorpion tale at the ground I was just on. This shocked me, but gave me the opportunity to swipe at it once, giving it a deep scratch with my razor sharp claws. It turned its head and growled at me in response, before running at me and slamming me with its head, knocking me off my feet and sprawling me across the ground. It ran at me again, stretching out its wings to give itself better speed, it lifted its tail once more, and brought it down on me.

This time I barely managed to move in time. The tail hit the floor with a tremendous force, knocking up a cloud of dirt. Before I could give it another scratch, it reared its head and roared with its wide open mouth right in my face, filling my nostrils with the smell of putrefied flesh and death. I gagged momentarily before it lifted a claw and swiped it across my chest, giving me a series of deep scratches, far outshining the one I gave it. The pain winded me, and I fell to the ground, clutching my chest as it walked forward, once again lifting its tail. I doubted I would be able to move this time, I was in too much pain. When it began to bring the tail down, I was almost out of hope. Then I let my mind wander to three words in my mind, I transferred them to my mouth but moments before the tip would have slammed into my chest.

“FUS RO DAH!” I screamed at the manticore, the words picking up power and wind as they left my mouth, until they reached the manticore, knocking the creature off its feet, slamming it into the canyon wall, before it fell to the ground, one of its wings twisted in an odd fashion. The creature seemed stunned, pained. It let out a deep howl as I used the opportunity to retrieve my swords.

Pulling out Dragonbane, I approached it, a smug smile on my face, hiding the agonising pain in my chest. When it realized its situation, it began to let out a cry, and began to howl silently. The sight was maddening for me. It was once a majestic creature, king of predators, and now, it was weakened, and about to die for picking a fight with a creature it had no idea of being its better. I found my sword arm shaking, I didn’t want to kill it, but if I left it alone it would surely just finish me off. There was only one solution. One I would probably regret.

I lifted my blade high over my head, and brought it down as quickly as I could, quick as lighting - right into the ground.

The manticore seemed taken aback. It looked upwards at me, its face still full of pain, in confusion. This only increased when I kneeled in front of it, letting my guard down. Before it could do anything, I dropped my sword and filled my hands with a bright light, magic, although fairly weak. I approached the injured wing, and when it tried to pull away I grabbed it closely and let the light shine over it. Slowly, and painfully, the bones in the wing began to mend, and the creature reacted to this, primarily by shrieking and shaking when the bones straightened themselves out, but soon began to purr in relief as the light dealt with the pain. When I was done, my energy was spent, and I could no longer keep myself awake. Before I let my consciousness fade, I muttered , mostly in jest “You owe us one, we will not forget it."

I didn’t bother to see if it responded.

Spike was half way through Twilight’s letter when he heard the voice again. “Fus Ro Dah.” he said aloud, forgetting about his task for but a a moment.

“Fus Ro Dah?” Tilight said in an confused voice.

“What? Twilight what is-“ Spike tried to say before Twilight cut him off.

“Oh, sorry. I just…hmm.” Twilight said. “Listen Spike, I need to check up on something. Why don’t you just, um…” Twilight never finished her sentence, she ran off back into her room, once again leaving Spike alone, this time with a half written letter. The purple dragon raised his left eye in confusion before dropping the parchment neatly on the floor, and curling back up into a ball, preparing to go back to sleep.

That’s when Twilight re-entered.

She seemed shocked, scared. She ran over to him, shook him from his sleep. “Spike, we need to go. Now!” Twilight said her tone more serious than Spike had ever seen. The dragon was up faster than she thought possible, but she kept her thoughts to herself.

“Twilight, what is going on?” Spike asked, obviously confused.

“I don’t know, but there is something strange happening. The stars are changed Spike. They have all literally changed position overnight. And worse yet, magic is acting differently. Spells that teleport things have failed, and some spells are acting differently.” Twilight answered. “And after checking up on every book and reference I could, I think I know what is going on, if only in theory.

“What?” Spike once again asked. He had managed to both gather his belongings and several pieces of parchment, and several quills with an inkpot in case he would need them.

“I think that several split dimensions or planes are crossing over. I know, it sounds odd, but I wouldn’t say this unless I knew.”

“So what? What does this have to do with anything?” Spike asked. By then eh was fully packed.

“Everything Spike. These dimensions could be full of evil creatures. We are blessed with a peaceful world, but what if these are dangerous ones. Spike, we have to get to Canterlot and present our case to Celestia. She has to know of this.”

“Why don’t you send a letter?”

“Because for some reason, no long range message spells are working. I tried to send a message to Applejack, with a spell similar to yours, but with a shorter range. It didn’t work. Something is tampering with magic, and if Celestia is going to learn about this then we need to tell her ourselves.”

Spike seemed confused. “What about everyone else, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, what about them?”

Twilight shook her head, “I already sent Rainbow Dash a message with Owlicious. They’re all going to meet us by the town square in ten minutes. I can’t leave them behind; if we need the elements then we have to stay together.”

Twilight and Spike began their trip downstairs, Twilight levitating a pair of saddlebags onto her back while they did so. Soon after they ended up at the front door. “But Twilight, what could possibly go wrong?” Spike asked Twilight. He opened the door while speaking.

“Well Spike” Twilight said before she cut herself off and stared straight ahead at town center. In the middle, where kiosks and shops normally stood, a huge faint red glow was outlining itself in a circle. Soon after, the glow materialized into stone, and a wall of fire filled the center. ‘A gate!’ Twilight realized, ‘That’s a gate!”

Twilight watched, mouth wide open, and a figure stepped out, clad in red armor, his face distorted and ugly, with a pair of horns on his head, and a large sword slung over his back. He looked at her, then around at their surroundings, before laughing. It turned around and barked something through the flame gate before unsheathing his sword. He lifted his head in pride, showing off the size of his horns as he ran towards Twilight; too shocked to say anything.

From the flaming gate, hundreds more similar figures followed, and the night soon came alive with the screams of ponies.

3 - The Battle

=====

Chapter Three

/\/\/\/\

What, you don’t believe khajiit? You wonder how this one knows what all those ponies in that village were doing? Fine, we learned all of that later, from questions and answers. Now shut up and let us continue.

I awoke rather comfortably.

I still lay on the dirt where I had fallen, but my wounds no longer hurt or bled. My clothes, despite being rather torn apart, weren’t even covered in blood stains. This surprised me, but not quite as much when I learned what was sleeping next to me.

Turning to my right, I gazed upon the manticore, snoring loudly, half its left wing slung over me, as if to protect me. It carried a slight smile on its face, and seemed rather content to just lie there all day. I had other plans though, and I carefully began to weave my way out of its wing.

This of course, woke it.

Its response was different than what I was expecting. The creature was a manticore, a violent species, one that is known for its viscous nature. I expected it to try to finish me off, to try to make me its morning breakfast.

What it did was nuzzle up to me, grip me in both its huge paws, and lick my face repeatedly. Nothing could have confused me more, but try as I might, it had a strong grip, and I couldn’t get out of it. The manticore must have sensed my struggles, for it put me down soon after, and began to pat my head. Then it simply sat back down, and stared at me.

Now that it wasn’t trying to kill me, I had a good chance to get a look at it. For starters, it was far larger than me, my head ended at the top of its shoulders. It had a very, very large shaggy mane, and its face was unmistakably that of a lion. I bent over and gave its sniff, and sure enough, it carried a scent very similar to a lions as well.

After I had had my look over, it knelt forward, and lay down on the dirt next to me. It seemed content, and the way it watched the environment around us reminded me a mother wolf watching over its cubs. Not wanting to seem weak, I leaned over and whispered in its ear, “This one is not your newborn you know?”

To my surprise, it responded. Not with words, but it shook its head in an agreement before leaning close and licking my face once more. I pushed it off me before it could get in another one however.

I let myself sit next to it long enough to catch my bearings, as well as my belongings. Because it was cooler today, I decided to wear my armor, although the fur lining did become uncomfortable, it wasn’t unbearable. Then I threw my swords onto my back, as well as my pack, pulled on Krosis, and began to walk away into the woods.

Then the manticore jumped on me.

At first I thought it had regained its rage, but after several moments, it licked my face again, grabbed me in it huge left paw, threw me on its back, and flew off into the sky.

I have to admit, it was rather amusing. Because of my dragon soul, I have always held an affinity to the sky, and no matter how much thought I put into it, I could never shake the everlasting need to fly. Odd, considering most khajiit and cats hate high places. I guess it’s just a trait dragons have, one that was given to me as well, but know I could finally, for the first time since I rode Odahving, lose the ground beneath my feet and join the clouds.

It was exhilarating.

I found myself smiling, wide. Below my legs, the manticore glided with utmost grace. Its course was obvious; it flew towards the forest edge, to the nearby town. I could see it in the distance, albeit less detailed due to the morning fog. That reminded me, I had no idea what time it was. I checked it, using the sky as a clock. It was just barely over the horizon, so sometime around five or six, give or take an hour or two. I leaned backwards and stared upwards at the sky, knowing that I would not have a chance to be this close to it again for many a year, if ever.

Below me the manticore gave a roar that shook the earth as he crossed the border of the forest. I sat upright and scratched behind its ear, much to its enjoyment. Then I opened my sack, and began to rifle through my few belongings. I didn’t have much, a few scrolls to summon undead, a whetstone for my swords, several potions of assorted colors that I would have to organise later, and a few books, mostly novels. It was a bad collection of items, but I preferred to travel light, not heavily, and for that, it worked. I closed the sack and tossed it over on my back. The manticore was beginning to near the town, another minute at most and we’d be there.

I cracked my neck as I attempted to predict what I would find. Maybe I would find I was in some far off land, or some backwater country. Perhaps I was in a realm of Oblivion, being toyed with by some cruel deadra. Perhaps this was someplace else entirely. Nonetheless, I relaxed a little, knowing that with all that I had experienced, nothing down there would surprise me.

I was wrong.

As the manticore drew close, I spotted three things that through me off guard.

One, the people of the town was not like any I had ever seen. They appeared to be equine, with bright colored hides. Several of them had wings or horns, making them unicorns and pegasi respectively. They walked around doing the same day to day activities as a normal person might do, hinting at intelligence. From where I was, they appeared slightly shorter than me, maybe up to the top of my ribs or chest, but no farther.

Second, I noticed a huge flaming gate in the center of the town, near a house built into a tree and a lavender unicorn. It occurred to me that none of the horses were looking at me instead fixing their attention on the gate.

Third, I saw a dremora walk out of it. This would have surprised me regardless of where I was, but the details on that certain dremora nearly drew me into a panic. He wore fine armor, I could tell from where I was that it was real deadric, not the cheaper and more common form that lesser dremora wear. It was also far larger than any dremora I had ever seen, towering over me, which only served as a testament to how much taller it was than the surrounding horses. There was no doubt about it; this dremora was a Valkynaz, one of the lesser princes of Mehrunes Dagon, a member of the deadra prince’s council and honor guard. One of the most powerful entities to exist, and here it was, in a town populated by colorful horses, something that defied all the laws of Oblivion.

Below me the manticore stopped in place, hovering above the ground. Together, we both watched the dremora lord.

It seemed pleased with itself, it laughed out loud and looked around the town for several moments. Then it did the very thing I hoped it wouldn’t. It unsheathed its sword, a giant claymore the make of which I had only seen in Vvardenfel, and then it motioned at the lavender horse near the tree house, and ran at her.

Then, the flaming gate widened, and dozens more dremora and deadra poured out.

The manticore wasted no time in dashing forward towards the town, seemingly forgetting about me, much to my dismay. The speed at which it moved forward made it near impossible to hold on, and by the time it reached the outer area of the town, I could hold on no longer. My grasp weakened, and I fell from its back, all the way to the ground, two hundred meters below.

To call the fall painful would have been a lie. It wasn’t painful, it was unbearable. I landed on my back and let out scream in agony as I heard a snap. Everything in my body went numb from the back down. At first panic set in before I remembered the potions in my sack. I prayed to the divines as I opened the sack top, hoping they hadn’t cracked or shattered. To my luck, none of them had, and soon I picked out a large red one, topped with a wine cork. I wasted no time in downing in, and soon after feeling returned to my body, and all the aches and bruises I had vanished. I stretched my legs out, testing their mobility before standing up.

The deadra hoard had worked quickly. Already they were near my position, although I doubted the horses had given them much resistance. I sighed as I unsheathed both my swords. When I looked upon this town from the forest I expected a warm welcome, a guide on where I was and instructions on how to get home. Nothing that was happening was something I expected, or wanted. The deadra saw to ruin that, and now, I was going to make them pay. I ran forward, swinging both my swords, towards the town.

The first wave I reached was made primarily of low ranking dremora shock troopers, churls. They barely put up any resistance. I jumped between two of them, swinging my blades as I sliced through the right one’s armor. The left one turned around soon after, but only met a blade to the throat. Then the last of them, a kynreeve and two more churls ran toward me. The kynreeve was strong, stronger than me, and it took all of my skill not to let his blows through, but the churls were weak and undisciplined. I killed the first with a stab through the abdomen and the second with a counter attack to the chest. The kynreeve laughed as they fell, screaming about how weak they were. He boasted a shield and long sword, and the pose he took showed me of his skill.

He made the first move, nearly taking my head off with an overhand swing, but I dodged it and sliced to its side, to which it blocked with its shield. Before I could pull away, it bashed me in the face with the shield, knocking me off balance and allowing it to swing at my unguarded chest. My armor stopped it, but I made note to chastise myself for letting such a blow in.

The dremora obviously didn’t expect his sword to stop at my chest, and his surprise allowed me the moment to get in one good swing, which opened his armor up from gut to neck. It fell down to its knees soon after, and stared straight ahead at me. Before I took its life with one final swing, it had the time to say “Well fought.”

After allowing the deadra to fall, I moved onwards. The main hoard that pressed through the gate ended up numbering at around seventy. In that, I had to engage and fight around thirty. The closest I got to losing a fight was when I had three catiffs fighting me at the same time. One of them, the largest, carried a warhammer, and with it, it knocked Dragonbane out of my hand. I had to use Oathblade instead, this time taking on a more defensive stance. In the end I used the dremora’s hammer against it, dodging its swing, making it over shoot and hit instead its ally, caving in its breastplate. In its rage it swung wildly at me, which I once again dodged, letting it swing over shoot again and smack into the face of the other catiff, shattering its skull. This time it was too tired to pull another swing at me, and I easily slid past its defenses, killing it with a thrust straight through the heart.

Afterwards the rest of the battle was easy sailing. I saved several of the horse-people (Really? Horse-people?) as I made my way through the town, all of whom looked at me strangely, but never saying a word to me as they fled for safety. I didn’t mind their looks; beneath Krosis mine was the same. I pushed all questions to the back of my head. I would have my answers, later, when the battle was over. Looking up at the sky, which by then was red, I wondered if the horses had any sort of ruler or government, and if they would send help. I couldn’t hold back the entire army of Oblivion, not forever, and if I didn’t get help soon then the dremora would overwhelm the town. They would chase down the ones who were fleeing, kill the ones who begged for their lives, and put the town and all in it to the torch.

I couldn’t let that happen.

Ahead of me, in the town center, the Valkynaz I saw enter the gate still stood, cutting down the few ponies who dared to oppose him.

There weren’t many, certainly not as many as the dremora, but several a large and brave ponies had been able to make a sort of makeshift militia, ten or so ponies, fighting with whatever they could find. Pitchforks, shovels, their own hoofs, I even saw a rainbow haired one slam into a churl so fast it generated a rainbow behind it. There was another pink one that shot a kynval in the face with a cannon of some sort. The blast threw it across the town in a comical fashion. I would have been amused if it weren’t for the circumstances.

They seemed to be led by the lavender unicorn, perhaps the smallest of all of them, as she barked orders and loosed spells at the nearby hoard. They were makeshift spells, fireballs, heat rays, and frostshards, nothing especially powerful. I began to wonder just how they hadn’t been cut down yet, until I saw her let loose a golden glow at an injured horse, instantly healing him of his injuries, to which he dived right back into the fray. Whenever a horse got injured, she would heal them, and they would get back to the fighting. It was an efficient method of repelling the attackers.

But sadly not enough.

All around her there were horses she hadn’t been able to save in time, and several of them had run off in fear, only to be killed before they could get ten meters. It was a hopeless endeavor.

Fortunately, the cavalry soon arrived, in the form of dozens of chariots pulled by armored pegasi, in which sat unicorns, also armored. Each one was throwing spells down upon the dremora hoard, but one in particular was having more luck, her spells more powerful and accurate. I glanced around until I saw her, to which my jaw dropped.

She was tall, just under my height, and she wore a sort of golden battle armor, more decorative than anything. Her mane was strange, and seemed to be made out of waves of colors flowing in the pattern of a rainbow, and she boasted not just a horn or wings, but both. Everything about her screamed royalty, that much was certain as the look on her brow as she searched the battlefield, tossing spells down by the dozens, until she saw her target.

“The general,” I said to no one in particular, “She’s trying to kill the general.”

And she was. When she spotted him taking on four horses at once, and winning, she jumped off her carriage spreading wide a pair of wings, and landed ten meters from him. He seemed amused he pulled back his head in laughter as she said “Why are you hurting my little ponies, what do you want from us? Answer!”

That seemed to amuse him more. He yelled something at his army I didn’t hear, earning laughter from the invading dremora, as he leveled his sword with her chest and began to approach her. That was about when I noticed the crowd that had gathered around her. Many of the horses, and many of the dremora, even me, had stopped the fighting, momentarily, to watch the fight that was about to commence. The fight that would decide the fate of the town.

Sadly however, it was over before it began.

The royal horse started by throwing a fireball at the dremora, which he deflected with his sword. Before she could make another one, he lunged at her, holding his sword with both hands in an over hand swing. She summoned a mystical sword from thin air, and blocked the blow at the last second, but she seemed to flinch at the force. She continued to block the dremora’s swings, but she soon grew tired. Her levitating sword began to slow, and after a particularly strong swing, she ended up in a lock with the general.

They stared at each other for several moments, before the dremora pressed all his force down on her bound sword. In a flash of light, it vanished, accompanied with the crack of shattering glass, and the royal horse fell to her knees. When she tried to rise, he butt her just under her horn with his pommel, and she fell to the ground. She repeated this twice more, and by then, she was barely conscious.

It was clear to the crowd, to the shock of the horses, she had lost. In front of her the dremora raised his sword, a wide smile on his face as he swung downwards with all his might at her head.

Instead his sword found Dragonbane’s edge.

His shoulders shook from recoil as pulled away from me, snorting in disgust at my defense of the royal horse. I heard her sigh from behind me, half in joy and half in fatigue. Around me the deadra and the horses stared, especially the horses. I had a sneaking suspicion that they had never seen a khajiit before, but I neglected to say anything to them, although my tail shook nervously. Instead I spoke to the dremora general, using first person instead of my preferred third to get my point across.

“If you want to fight anyone today, then make it me. I cannot let the weak be abused, and I will not let your deeds go unpunished. So raise your sword, this goes to the death curr.” My threat was accompanied by a feline growl.

Behind me I heard the royal horse stand up and make her way back to the crowd. She seemed confused, something I expected. When she was back in the crowd, next to the lavender pony from earlier, she looked at me and nodded. I nodded in response as well, and cracked my neck. In front of me the dremora prepared himself, taking up a fighting position.

I let him have the first move. It came into reality as a side swing with both hands, which I barely blocked with both my swords. Next he threw an overhand attack, which I sidestepped. Before he could get another attack in, I stepped close and slid Oathblade against the back of his knee, cutting through a small layer of chain mail and giving him a very small but deep cut.

If he felt the slice, he didn’t show it. He elbowed me in the face, hitting Krosis instead, but the force was enough to push me backwards several meters. Then he was on me again, this time putting an extra bit of power in his wings, now that he knew I was a legitimate threat. The horses around me winced with every blow, but the dremora cheered their leader onwards, which he responded to by adding even more power to his swings. I found myself struggling to keep up with his movements, and finding very few opportunities to get a blow in, and those that I did hardly scratched his armor.

Eventually, I failed to block one of his attacks, and it struck me on the shin, cutting straight through my dragonscale, and soaking the fur underlining with my blood. I let out a growl in pain, much to the amusement of the dremora, and the horror of the horses, but to me, the wound only succeeded in putting me into blood frenzy. The world glazed over as I began seeing everything as red, everything, except the general.

Then I reversed the table. I put myself on the attack, swinging my two swords in different motions, catching him off guard and getting numerous, albeit minor hits in. They hardly made any marks on his breastplate, but one hit his thigh, and when I pulled back my blade, there was a small smear of blood on it.

The dremora reacted exactly as I expected him to, pulling his sword around and pressing the attack. This time however, he was almost without grace, pulling his energy from rage. That made every swing the more powerful, but also made him clumsy. He missed several swings, and I found it easier to dodge them than before. I eventually missed a dodge, having to resort to my swords to stop the blow, a diagonal chop, which ended hitting the back of my left shoulder, forcing me to drop Oathblade. The horses gave a wail of despair; all expect the royal one and the lavender unicorn. They instead seemed more focused than ever before.

Not bothering to react from the wound, I pushed the general’s sword off me, and took up Dragonbane alone, this time holding it with both hands. I ended up blocking more attacks than I could before, but the general didn’t seem to tire. He seemed more dedicated than before, and every blow shook my foundations. Once again, I found myself tiring before his onslaught, until I was practically on my knees, clutching my sword with one hand, completely out of breath. The general stepped in front of me and took up the same stance as when he had attempted to finish the royal horse. He had a wide smile on his face, something that just looked wrong on a dremora, and I could tell he was about to enjoy what he was about to do.

I knew I wouldn’t, so I called upon my last inner strength as I stood up and yelled right into his face “Fus Ro!”

A sudden burst of air hit him, completely throwing him off balance, his swing missing me by meters. I lunged at him catching him unaware and slicing open his leg from his thigh to his ankle. He let out a grunt of pain, and stuttered a set to the left. This allowed me to get a single swing in.

That turned out to be a terrible decision.

With unsung precision, he lifted his sword, knocked mine off course to the right, performed a spin and struck me straight in my side, punching through my armor. The horses in the crowd winced all at once, none of them wanting to imagine how much the strike hurt. I couldn’t help but scream out in pain as his sword made its way through my armor, embedding itself just under my ribs, around an inch into my flesh. He pulled it out and stepped towards me. I didn’t let myself fall to my knees, if I did that this time then I was dead, there was no doubt about that. So I forced myself to stand through the pain, leveling my sword at his chest.

The Valkynaz attacked faster than he ever did before. He threw an underhand slash at me, which I parried, and then a side swing. When I tried to dodge it, he hit me in the shoulder, taking a chunk of my dragonscale armor off and cutting down to bone. Before I could retaliate he leaped forward and thrust his blade straight through my abdomen. The pain was unbearable, I yelled as my mouth filled with blood. I spit it out right before falling to my knees in front of him as he pulled his sword out of me with a sick “shlick!”

The general once again took up his overhand chop stance, and I knew it was over. I couldn’t hope to block or dodge that attack. I had tried my hardest, but I couldn’t defeat him. There were worse ways to go I supposed, I went trying to save a village from doom, and I could live, or in this case, die happily in the knowledge of that. I gave up; I just sat on my knees and awaited the blow that would end it all.

Then I caught a glance at the lavender horse’s eyes, her strangely human eyes. She seemed sad, worried. She knew that with my death also died the hope of her town, her friends. A single tear appeared in her right eye before she blinked it away, and then looked away from me.

I couldn’t let her stay like that. The wounds I had suffered were fatal, that much was certain, I was bleeding too much to deny it, but I could at least die after saving this town. That much I knew.

The dremora general began his downward swing at the same time I jumped forward, towards him, holding my blade behind my head horizontally. When the deadric sword swung over me, it caught Dragonbane, and with a single twist, I had it locked in position.

And with it, the general’s life.

I had locked him in what a friend of mine called the death grapple. The attacker’s sword would be held behind my head, but prevented from hitting me by my own sword. Once that happened, there was no going back, if the attacker tried to pull his blade out, he would leave his head completely exposed and defenseless. Nothing could counter the death grapple save from outside interference.

And that was what had happened to the general. He didn’t realize it at first; he just stared at Krosis, but mere inches from his own face. Then I watched as he discovered what I had done and realization crept up on his face. Then he sighed, growled and mouthed something in a language I didn’t know to me. All around me dremora and horses held their breath’s in anticipation.

After several moments the dremora closed his eyes, opened them, looked straight into mine, through Krosis, and nodded.

Then we pulled out of the grapple.

As he did so, I swung my sword around my head, picking up momentum as Dragonbane’s edge approached his neck, bit by bit.

And then it passed right through him.

I stepped away as he dropped his sword and fell to his knees, his mouth open and his eyes closed. Straight ahead of him the royal horse stared at him. She continued this until he fell to the ground, and his head rolled off his shoulders, silently making its way across the floor until it rested just in front of her.

Everything in the area was silent as I stepped back into the center of the circle, sheathed my swords, and looked straight at the lavender unicorn.

She wasn’t crying. She was smiling. It was something I could live with. I tore off my mask and looked at her for a second, looking at her without the mask slits, with my own eyes. I was at peace. I was content. I was mortally wounded. I was falling. the world was spinning, its colors were red.

I fell to the ground in a pool of my own blood. Around me, horses approached to get a glance at me. The lavender unicorn was shouting something, and I could see the dremora running away towards their gate. The royal horse walked up to me, parting way through the crowd until she was at my side. A gurgle and a mouthful of blood came out of my mouth when I tried to say something. She held her hoof to my mouth and told me to be silent, to be still. She turned her head and shouted for someone, but I didn’t hear the name. Everything was going dark, and I found it difficult to focus on anything. Then the lavender unicorn was at my side. She knelt down next to me and whispered something, something I wasn’t expecting.

“Thank you.”

I stopped holding on. I was too hurt. Ahead of me, a white light was forming. I focused on it, and it grew lighter. It called for me, told me to stop trying.

So I did, and died.

Game Over

(Note: The story is not over. I left this reminder out originally because I thought most people would see the incomplete tag and make the connection. One person apparently didn't, so I have decided to post this. There is more to come, so don't ditch this. As before, please like or dislike, and feel free to leave a comment.)

4 - The First Introductions

======
Chapter Four

/\/\/\/\

To be honest, death wasn’t so bad.

I don’t remember much about the actual dying part, one second I was on the ground bleeding and in agony, the next; I was standing on a stone floor with both my swords in their sheaths. The stone floor was built upon a hill that lead down into a mountainous forest. Glancing upwards, the sky was a radiant vortex of light, leaking bright colors down onto the world, like the aurora borealis I had seen on dark nights. When I looked to my sides several people of all races walked by me. As I reached out towards them, they dispersed and floated upwards, into the sky. Out in the distance, I could see a large, tall structure, and before it, a bridge made of bones.

That was when I realized where I was. A small smile filled my mouth as I began to walk down the hill. I carried no fear; the days of such a feeling were long gone.

I was dead, and this was Sovngarde. Paradise.

The forest floor crept up on me faster than I was expecting, it was as if Sovngarde itself was calling me, pulling me, aiding me as I strode down the path laid before me. I saw several more people as I went, Imperials and Nords, Wood Elves and Altmer, walking the same path as I, but they broke off into other directions, directions I knew were not for me. The only path for me was down the hill, across the bridge, and into the mead hall, for all my days to come.

Eventually the ground cleared and before me stood Tsun. The giant armored guardian nodded as I advanced, and moments later stepped aside, revealing the whalebone bridge. He gave me a nod as I stepped onto it, and soon I had begun my way across.

I paused for a moment as I reached the end, before me, past the bridge, sat the hall of heroes. It shined a bright light, so amazing a spectacle. I felt it, pulling me forward, calling out to me.

My small smile widened as I started to approach it. When I reached the door, I lifted my right hand and placed it on the smooth surface, running my fingers over it for several seconds. Looking behind me for but a moment, I had a sudden feeling of satisfaction. I had made it. The world was saved, by me. I had left my mark on history, and would spend eternity with the greatest heroes who had ever lived. Not a single better ending for my life came to mind, I was, for once, content. I pushed against the door.

Nothing happened.

I pulled the door instead, throwing all my strength into it, but it wouldn’t budge. It wouldn’t move. I hit it lightly, than hard. I rammed into it, I kicked it, punched it.

But the door would not open.

I fell to my knees, confused and worried. I had died; I was supposed to go there. It was my home, it was calling to me. This wasn’t right, this couldn’t be right.

Then I felt a hand touch my shoulders. I whipped around and saw… well, I can’t really say. The face that greeted me was so, so… pure, so fine, so utterly perfect that it defied all explanation.

My mouth dropped as he raised a finger to my mouth, preventing me from speaking. Before I could do anything, he said in a calming voice, “Relax, your days are not yet over.”

Then I felt the floor around me vanish, the eyes that moments prior I had been looking into vanished amidst a plume of smoke, everything went black-then bright white-before falling back into darkness.

I awoke in pain. All around me the horse people stood. One, the lavender horse I saw earlier, stood behind them. Her horn was glowing a faint violet and shooting off sparks in every direction. Seconds after opening my eyes, the pain from my wounds hit me. I gasped, my mouth filling with blood as I did so. My side was in agony; my gut was bleeding my life out onto the floor around me, and my shoulder hurt whenever I tried to move. I couldn’t stand it, I tried to rise, to do something to end the horrible pain, but when I did, I fell back down. The horse people wasted no time, one of them, a rainbow maned pegasus that I barely recognised as female, leapt forward. I thought she was going to try to help me at first, but instead she grabbed my left arm, and with a single shove, had it pinned to the floor. “Come on guys,” she yelled, “Twilight told us we have to hold it down!”

I tried to kick the horse off, but when I lifted my leg, an orange horse with a hat galloped forward and slammed it to the ground. I tried to yell at her to move, but when I did all I succeeded in doing was opening my mouth and letting a stream of red flow out, down my chin and all over my armor. When I attempted to make words, my throat felt dry and rough, and I instead ended up coughing up a bloody wad of something.

Just then I felt a sudden burst of pain. I yelled as loudly as I could, despite my throat’s rawness. The pain was so great that I managed to lift the leg the orange horse was holding down. When she tried to grab it again, I kicked her in the gut and she fell backwards with a groan.

“Rarity, Fluttershy, I’ll need your help with this one!” I heard the rainbow haired horse shout. I was about to punch her, knocking her off me like I did with the orange one, when I felt another hoof grasp my hand. I shook it in an effort to get free, almost worked; it was obvious the horse holding it down hadn’t tried to restrain someone before. But, ironically, as they say, close only counts in horseshoes.

I was about to break free when, with a snap, the orange horse had a rope around my limb. She tugged it forward, and, to my surprise, was strong enough to prevent me from pulling it back. My hands started to shake and I felt a sudden warmth in my throat. Turning my head sideways, I spat out a steady stream of blood across the ground. My vision began to fade, just like before, when I heard another voice, this time from the lavender horse.

“Girls, hold it down!” The others doubled their efforts to keep me on the ground, and were joined by a pink horse and yellow pegasus, both of which were stronger than they looked, and each held a limb down by themselves. A white one rushed forward and pressed herself against the wound on my gut, keeping the bleeding down.

“Any minute now, Twilight!” she pleaded in a worried tone, “I don’t think we can keep it down for much longer.”

“I know, just let me think!” The lavender one shouted in response as she approached me, “Alright, keep him tight. He’s going to convulse, badly. You need to keep him as still as you can.”

“Twilight,” the orange one answered, “Not tah sound rushed but” she paused to keep my arm down when I jerked it up suddenly, “We could use that spell of yours right about now!”

The unicorn nodded her head slowly as she walked right up to me, leaned down until her horn was touching my head, and told me, “Keep calm, this is going to hurt.”

Then the spell shot a spark forward. It leapt right over my head, and landed on my body, where it seemed to slowly twist its way inwards. At first I didn’t feel any different; I was still in agony and struggling to get out of the hold of the horses. Leaned my head back and spat out another glob of blood.

That was when the pain really started.

I have been hurt before. I’ve been stabbed, shot with arrows, burnt, and more, but let me tell you, nothing was as bad as this. It was unbearable. Dozens of wounds all over my body knit themselves together without heed to my torment. It was the most agonizing thing I have ever felt. I screamed, using all the power in my body, filling the sky with a pain-forced shriek that could have been heard all the way in Morrowind.

It hurt so much that I managed to muster the adrenaline to throw all the horses off me, I even managed to cut the rope on my arm with a swipe of my claws. When I started rolling around, cramping my arms toward my chest and shrieking, shaking, and flailing from the pain, the horses jumped forward to get me back down.

That was about when I passed out.

I didn’t dream. Not a single whisper, not a single sound. I didn’t even know I had passed out until I awoke sometime later, in a dark room, on what appeared to be a bed.

My awakening wasn’t uncomfortable. The first thing I noticed was a deep and impenetrable veil of darkness. Then it began to fade, slowly wearing itself out as my eyes began to open and take note of my environment. Before I inspected my surroundings, I tried to move, but my efforts were in vain. My limbs felt heavy, and loose. When I attempted to lift my arm, I ended up only barely managing to lift a finger. I took solace in that small movement. The rest would hopefully come later.

I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with air. The wounds I had suffered hurt no longer, in fact I felt rather good. Better than I had in ages actually. It’s hard to describe, but I felt, alive really. I had come so close to death-but a hair’s grasp from it-and yet here I was, alive and fine.

Since it appeared I wouldn’t be able to do a whole lot soon, I began to test the limits of the control of my body. Opening and closing my eyes was easy enough, but looking around felt almost sluggish. For some reason I wasn’t able to get my night eye working and the room stayed in darkness. I tried to move my hands again, and this time succeeded in curling up my ring finger. That was good, that was progress-if rather minor.

I soon tried the same with my feet, but I had yet to regain feeling of them. I couldn’t even tell if I was moving them or not, especially with the darkness. After three attempts I stopped trying at all, and instead diverted my attention to my hands again. Not only was I able to curl up my finger, but now I could make a fist, with both hands too. Lifting an arm up was still beyond me though, so instead of moving them, I simply continued to lift and close my fingers, slowly but efficiently working feeling back into their joints.

When I could finally move my arms, I rolled them over numerous times. Then feeling returned to my toes, and I wriggled them freely. A smile appeared on my lips. I cracked the stiffness from my knuckles as I rotated my neck. My natural night eye was returning to me, but somehow it still wasn’t powerful enough to pierce the darkness, which concerned me. It didn’t bother me though, nor did it distract me enough from my task of sensitizing my limbs.

It was several minutes after I had woken when I had regained enough control to attempt to sit up. Pushing my hands to my sides, I lifted myself upwards, albeit with more difficulty than I should have had. When I was fully up, and in a sitting position, I rotated both my shoulders, and sighed when I felt the joints relax. I lifted a hand to my shoulder, feeling for a wound, of any kind, but I found none. I did the same for my chest and abdomen, with equal results.

I opened my eyes widely while I threw my legs over the side of the bed. After stretching my arms wide and letting out a loud feline yawn, I hopped down, expecting my legs to catch me and hold me upright. I guess I was expecting too much from them, for when they touched the ground they buckled and I fell down with a ‘thump.’

Swearing as I rolled onto my back, I stared upwards at the ceiling, wondering just how I had ended up here. My thoughts went to the lavender pony and her spell, her painful, painful, spell. The mere memory of the agony it had induced was enough to make me shudder. Nothing should hurt that much, nothing. I wouldn’t wish such pain on my worst enemy.

I tried to stand up once more-this time I nearly succeeded-but when I was about half up, I slipped and had to catch myself on the bed side to prevent myself from falling to the floor. It was almost annoying, I knew I would have all my faculties back after some time, but seeing myself tripping around like a fool was infuriating.

After several minutes of leaning against the bed, I figured I was strong enough to stand. I was right, but barely. It took all my strength to keep myself up, and even then my legs shook from the strain.

The sudden lack of strength in me was concerning, but not very. I wondered how I had ended up so paralysed, so weak. I obviously wasn’t crippled, nor was I cursed. No explanation I brought up made any sense which brought even more frustration upwards, I hit the bed as hard as I could, which wasn’t very hard in that condition, and winced as a shock of pain shot into my fist.

Pushing off the bed to steady myself, I opened my eyes and closed them multiple times, scanning my environment as my night eye slowly returned. I was in a small room, there was a window, but something was blocking my sight from behind it. Next to it sat a small table, plain, made of metal, and on it stood nothing but a small candle, unlit. I didn’t see a door.

Figuring that more light would help me, I walked towards the candle, holding my arm against a nearby wall for reinforcement. By the time I was halfway there, I let go of the wall, and continued unaided. Not wasting any time, I conjured up a small flame in my hand, and lit the wick. I raised a hand to my face as the sudden light shined into my eyes, making me leap backwards from the shock and land on the bed, cursing all the while. It took me about a minute to get my eyes adapted, and by then, I had most of my strength back. I could stand and walk easily, and my legs shook no more.

That was about when I noticed another person in the room. It took me several moments of staring to realize it. Whatever the watcher was, it was using an invisibility spell to keep itself concealed, but unfortunately, it was trying to hide from one of the best thieves in the world, and I had spotted it in moments, and stared at it with a curious demeanor.

There was an audible, but quick gasp as the cloaked thing spoke. “Thou hast seen me!” It sounded surprised.

My response was immediate, “No, but Do’Jzir doesn’t have to. The dust in the air isn’t flowing through you. A good guardsman would have spotted you in seconds.”

The cloaked thing gave a grunt and something shined from under its veil, then the particles in the air shimmered momentarily, but floated through the space it had left.

I chuckled. “You are now behind Do’Jzir, to khajiit’s left.” I heard a grunt of frustration.

“How hast thou seen me this time?” The thing asked, more of anger than curiosity. It had a female voice, strangely accented, similar to that of a high born.

“You cannot be seen with the naked eye now.” I turned to look straight at the invisible shape to my right, despite not being able to see it. “But you still make plenty of noise.” I parried.

Another grunt, another flash of light, and even the noise the invisible female made was gone. I walked towards where she was previously, and sure enough, where once something stood, now was thin air. “Better.” I explained to the space in front of me, “But not good enough. You are to khajiit’s direct left, hiding behind the table.”

This time I got an angered half-yell. “I beseech thee, how doth thou spot me?” the female queried, I could tell she was not used to being caught when invisible.

“Some secrets are for Do’Jzir alone.” I answered.

“As if thou could do better.” The female taunted. It brought a smile to my face, I hadn’t been challenged to something like this in months, and I could use the practise, I’d been neglecting stealth recently.

“We can, and more.” I walked over to and blew out the candle, filling the room with a shadow of darkness, “Just watch us.”

I heard a snicker of laughter as I crouched, turned, and rolled across the floor. Halfway through the roll a veil of darkness took me, and I vanished from all sight. The invisible female huffed and began to search the room.

She checked the table, top and bottom, the corners, the ceiling, every little crevice was searched by her. The process took several minutes, and when she was done, she made an irritated grunt and stomped the ground with her leg. “Fine, where art thou hiding?” she surrendered.

“You should have turned around; this one has been behind you this whole time.” I replied while lighting the candle in the center of the room once more. “Now, khajiit believes introductions are in order, no?”

The cloaked female made a final grunt, and removed her enchantments. Standing before me was another of the horse people, as I expected, but like the royal horse I saw before; she was both a unicorn, and pegasus. Unlike the other one, where it had a bright shimmering mane and hide, hers was a dark, almost depressing blue. She wore a scowl on her face, but it appeared fake, forced. I stroked my chin, “Curious.” I opined.

“What?” the dark blue horse demanded, “What is curious?” she almost appeared offended. Almost.

“You.” I answered. “Or rather, everything here is curious, or rather, it appears curious to Do’Jzir, he hasn’t seen anything like this before.”

The blue horse shook her head for a moment, “I could say the same of thou. Why doth thee speakest in such a manner, it is most confusing.” She asked.

“Many a khajiit speak like this.” I cleared my throat, “I can change, if it pleases you.”

She furrowed her brow, “No, if it is inconvenient don’t.” she studied me with her eyes, “How art thou awake?”

I glanced down, at myself, examining myself in the same fashion as she did. I was dressed in my black shirt and trousers, both of which carried numerous blood stains. My other belongings were nowhere to be found. “What do you mean? Is khajiit not meant to be awake?”

She nodded, “Twilight said her spell was to keep thee sleeping for nigh a day. It’s yet to be a quarter.” She pulled her eyes away from me, “But that is unimportant. I am getting ahead of mine self, my name is Luna, Princess of the Moon, Co Ruler of Equestria. Thou art…?”

I rolled my eyes, “Do’Jzir, of Skyrim.” I paused, “Khajiit.”

She raised a hoof to her chin, “Khajiit?”

I nodded, “Yes. Khajiit is what this one is, like you are…” I paused for several seconds. I was about to say horse, but they were much too small, too compact. “Pony.” I finally finished, the name suited it well and rolled off my tongue easily.

“Ahh. Khajiit is thine species?” I nodded.

“Well, Do’Jzir, since Celestia is away,” Luna continued. I raised an eyebrow at the name, “It falls to me to welcome thee to Equestria.” She stretched out her left foreleg, a handshake, albeit with a hoof. I took it for several seconds and retracted my hand.

I leaned back against a wall as she continued. “I would like to say this, very informally of course, but I thank thee for saving mine sister.”

I thought back to the royal horse fighting the Valkynaz, “The one down in the village, during the attack?” I asked, getting a nod as an answer. The gesture brought a smile to my face, “Do’Jzir cannot ignore those in need. He is happy to be of help.”

Thinking now of the royal horse and the dremora made me think about the town. “What happened to the town, after this one passed out?” I asked, “We hope they repelled the attackers.”

She waved a hoof in front of her, “Do not worry; with thine help we expelled the creatures back into their gate. All is well, although the gate hath yet to close; naught hath come out of it.” That worried me, the gate would have closed if they were done with it. My thoughts were cut short as Luna continued speaking, “Now that thou hast mentioned it, I pray thee, what were they? It is obvious neither thou, nor they art from this world, doth thee have any knowledge of them?”

I lifted my hand and inspected my claws to give me something to focus on, “Yes, this one knows much of them, but he would rather speak of it later, with the other princess, Celestia, so you say her name is.”

Luna grunted, “Why? I hold just as much authority as Tia, pardon, Celestia.”

I stretched out my right hand index finger claw, it was cracked, probably the dullest of all of them, “That attack is only one in a series of events. Deadra lords do not simply open gates to Oblivion for no reason.” I lowered my hand to my side, “There will probably be more, they will increase in number. For a while you may be able to repel them, but there will be more and more. If this one is to tell you of everything now, then we want both you and Celestia to hear, both of you need to know this.”

Luna gasped, “I understand, but how shall we stop them?”

I rubbed my hands together nervously, “Khajiit….does not know. We are sorry.”

Luna's eye spiraled downwards into a frown, she seemed worried, “How canst thee be sure?”

“An event very similar to this happened to Do’Jzir’s world hundreds of years ago. It took the death of one of our rulers to fix, and even then, we lost hundreds of people, and one of the largest of our cities was destroyed.” I pushed myself off the wall, “It all started with one town, and soon these gates were spread across the land. Just like now.”

Luna looked shocked, “I must speakest with the others of these tidings. Art thou sure?” She questioned.

“As sure as any can be.” I responded.

“Then come with me,” her horn lit up and a door I hadn’t noticed before opened wide, “We need to converse with Twilight and Celestia about this.” She ran out. I looked to both my sides, shrugged, and followed.

(This chapter was a bitch. (Editor’s Note: Especially Luna’s vocab!) I don’t know why, it just took so much more effort to write than any of the others. I just couldn’t decide how to do it, I ended up with four different drafts of this, each with a completely different scenario, but this was the sole one that worked, and even that was rough. If you feel it was lacking in quality, then please accept my apologies. I’ll try to make them better as they go on. Special thanks to WesternWxyzvv for editing, I'd never have gotten rid of half of the errors if it hadn't been for him. Feel free to like or dislike, It helps me either way. Oh, and comment. Sorry for the delay, I'll try to release more chapters sooner.)

(Editors Note: Blackjack hates lists, I feel this is important to know people ;) Inside joke)

5 - The Second Introductions

=====

Chapter Five

/\/\/\/\

Luna and I had been talking since I gathered up and donned my gear from the hospital store rooms nearly twenty minutes ago. She had filled me in on everything I’d missed while passed out.

Apparently the town I was in was called Ponyville, for lack of a more creative name I suppose, and it was populated by little more than a few hundred ponies. Most of them were without horns or wings, and supposedly lived primarily off farming.

When the daedra moved in, they were hardly prepared to fight them off; most of them probably hadn’t even been in a fight before. Even the purple unicorn that was healing the resistance was working on spells she had hardly ever used- a fact which told me of her great mastery over magic.

Despite the purple unicorn’s prowess, Luna stressed over how I’d saved the town with my arrival, how even with her spells they wouldn’t have lasted long enough for the military to arrive. I wasn’t sure I believed her, Twilight Sparkle-the purple pony-hardly seemed to be breaking a sweat, and the other ponies near her; the pink one and the rainbow haired one, were doing just fine on their own. Luna shook these statements off, claiming that even together they would never have been able to defeat the Valkynaz.

I was inclined to believe her, even I nearly died in that fight-hell to be honest I did. The dremora was inhumanly fast and strong, and it shook off pain with nary a grimace. Fighting the thing was terrifying, I had no way of predicting its moves, and I could hardly block most of them, let alone dodge any. The move I used to finish it was more trickery than skill, if I hadn’t done so it would have won, easily.

The creature’s power struck me as odd, I’d fought many dremora before, conjurers have a love for summoning them in combat, but that one was different. It was faster, stronger, more agile, more endurable, and more brutal than any other Valkynaz I had seen before, and most of Mehrunes’ bodyguards were tough enough as it is.

Luna seemed enthralled as I told her this. She listened with keen detail, interrupting once or twice as we walked to ask a question, but otherwise she was rather silent. At least until I finished telling her of them, then there were many questions, but their points generally ended up at, “What are those things?” and “why did they attack Ponyville?” I could only give her a simplified version, that they were beings from another dimension or world, like me. She asked me once if it was my dimension. I answered that with a shake of my head and by saying, “There are numerous realms of Oblivion; khajiit is from Nirn, these dremora are not.”

When she asked what I had done towards the end of the fight, when I shouted at the general and threw him off balance, I simply said, “Do’Jzir has the power of the voice, an ability of each Dragonborn has.” She made a noise that sounded like “hmm” and went silent.

After a few moments, she turned towards me and asked, “Do’Jzir, thou hast mentioned something called a Dragonborn numerous times, pray tell, what is that?”

I raised a hand to my brow, bending over to run my fingers along the ground near a building; the once brown dirt was now painted black with ash. “A Dragonborn is-” I stopped to think about my answer, “This is a long story, princess of the moon, are you sure you would like to hear it, khajiit could tell you of other more important things.”

Luna raised a hoof into the air in protest, “We hath the time, it is the middle of the night, and Tia could use the extra rest, after all.”

I furrowed my brow as I wondered just how it was already night, despite only having been asleep for a few hours. “Luna, when Do’Jzir passed out, it was still morning. Could you explain just how it appears to already be midnight?"

Luna chuckled half-heartedly before going silent, “Celestia used up almost all her energy in the fight, so much so that she could nary hold the sun up all day. I lowered it and brought the moon up early so she could get the rest she needs.”

“Interesting, khajiit would think the princess of the sun would heal in daylight, but it appears to be the other way around.” I said while stroking my chin with my right hand.

“Indeed,” Luna agreed, “But thou art avoiding mine question, just what is a Dragonborn Do’Jzir, I am truly curious.”

I stood back up and ran a hand along the hilt of Dragonbane, “If you please.” I turned and leaned against a nearby wall of a burnt out building before speaking.

“Khajiit’s world is old, very old, and yet as old as it is, dragons are older. Back when the species of the world were just starting out, the dragons already populated much of the land. When they found us, they immediately took control, and ruled over the world’s people with sheer might and cruelty.

Over the years, the people tried many times to free themselves from the dragons’ rein, but each time ended in failure. Eventually, they placed their trust in the gods, and prayed to them for a way to free themselves.

And the gods answered with the dragonborn, people born not with the soul of a man, but with that of a dragon. They gained the power of the voice, the ability to use all of the dragons’ abilities and magical powers.” Luna’s eye widened as she heard this. “With this, they rose up against the tyrants, shouting them out of the sky in a furious battle. When it became clear that they wouldn’t win with force alone three people gathered together and issued a challenge to the leader of the dragons, a huge black monster named Alduin. They set about the daunting task of slaying him.

But even with the combined strength of the world’s three finest warriors they couldn’t defeat the ancient dragon. When this became clear the surviving Dragonborn called upon the power of an Elder Scroll, a figment of creation itself, to cast Alduin away upon the stretches of time, banishing him from the face of Tamriel.”

The princess of the moon stirred uncomfortably as she heard that detail. “I have heard of similar things before…” her tone changed to that of sorrow for but a moment, but changed back as she said, “Do continue.”

“Not long after the people managed to slay almost every living dragon, ending the war, but at the cost of an entire species. This was thousands of years ago, and since then, almost every Dragonborn has died. We thought them to be permanently gone, but when Alduin himself reappeared with the threat to end the world in a blaze of fire, one more was born.” I pushed off the wall and gestured at myself, “That one Dragonborn is Do’Jzir- me.”

Luna’s eyes were wide open; she looked as if she was expecting more, “But Do’Jzir, what happened to Alduin? He couldn’t have possibly succeeded.” She said while lowering a hoof to the ground in a stomp.

“No, he didn’t, but that is a tale for another time, Do’Jzir does however believe that the princess and the others are waiting for us, so shall we hurry this up?” I gestured toward the treehouse in the distance, right next to the still open but dormant Oblivion gate. I could see many ponies surrounding it; several of the unicorns were occasionally casting spells at it.

“Khajiit awaits this meeting eagerly.”

Luna sighed for a moment, then turned and walked off towards the building, passing me as she did so, “Such a shame, thou art a fascinating individual Do’Jzir, if I might say.”

I chuckled as I jogged after her, “We have been told this before.”

I could hear voices from the inside of the house as I approached it, “Twilight, I know you want to fix this, but you must get get some sleep! Those bags under your eyes are practically black! How long has it been since you last slept?” said a female voice that sounded rather over-dramatic to me.

“Rarity, I have to double check my calculations, I can’t have more of these things just popping up all over Equestria! Besides, you hardly look any better, were you up late again working on another dre-” A voice I recognised a Twilight Sparkle replied before being cut off.

“Twilight dearest, you have to get some sleep. These equations will be here in the morning.” The pony apparently named Rarity told Twilight, this was accompanied with the sound of hoofsteps across the floor.

“But Rarity I-” Twilight sighed, a sound which turned into a yawn halfway, “If I don’t get these done then I won’t be able to predict when another gate opens.”

“Twilight, dearest, we don’t even know if another will open, and either way, you’re helping nopony without proper rest.”

I heard another yawn, it was distinctive, obviously form Twilight. “Rarity, you just don’t understand...” Another yawn, this one deeper, “I just have to get them done…” I heard the sound of a body hitting the floor.

“Twilight? Twilight are you all right?” I heard the sound of more hoofsteps. “Hmm, poor mare, tuckered yourself out didn’t you, well just let me get you upstairs dear, I do think your bed will be more comfortable than the floor.” A sparkling sound came from the room, and then a series of hoofsteps went upwards, followed by a door opening and closing.

“Well,” I said with a sigh, having overheard the whole conversation through a window, “There goes the plan to tell them tonight.”

Luna chuckled lightly, “Wilt thou blame them? Twilight hath been up for days, I think she deserves a rest.”

I rotated my shoulder as I peeked in through a window, “She lives in a library?” Luna nodded, “Hmm, must be rather dedicated. So tell us moon princess, what is it we do for tonight then?”

Luna looked me over, “It depends, if thou shalt sleep thy can probably introduce thineself briefly, I’m sure there is some room in there for thee.”

Somehow, I couldn’t deny the fact that I was still incredibly tired despite having just woken up from a quarter day nap. I didn’t want to bother anyone however, so I tried to stop Luna from interrupting the ponies’ well-needed rest.

“No, Do’Jzir wouldn’t want to invade upon their hospitality.” I told her right before I yawned, which made me take a step backwards and lean against a wall, “Khajiit would prefer not to be a burden.”

Luna shook off my protest as if she could tell how tired I was despite my best efforts concealing it, “No, I think with these circumstances they shan’t mind.” She turned away from me and knocked on the door before I could say another word. Moments later, it opened, and a small lizard like creature stood in the doorway.

“Yes?” The lizard asked while rubbing sleep out of his eyes right before he realized who he was talking to, “Oh! Princess Luna, what are you doing-” He stopped speaking as he spotted me standing next to her, fully armored with two blades and a dragon priest mask hooked onto my side. The lizard’s mouth fell open as he stared, transfixed, at me.

“Spike, I would like to introduce to thee Do’Jzir, of Skyrim.” She gestured towards me with a hoof, “And Do’Jzir, meet

Spike, baby dragon and Twilight Sparkle’s assistant.”

Twilight Sparkle had a dragon... as an assistant! My mind flooded with countless objections about just how much of a bad idea that was. Dragons don’t make good friends, aside from Paarthurnax and Odahviing, every dragon I’ve met has tried to kill me. I may be biased by distrusting them, but I can’t help it. Despite having a dragon soul myself, I find myself uneasy around almost every dragon I see. Even the ones that I merely glance at flying in the sky make me reach for Dragonbane’s hilt.

So when the little dragon named Spike held out a hand to greet me, I found it rather difficult to keep myself from drawing both my blades. I resisted the urge though, and bent down to shake the creature’s claws a second later.

“Hey, nice swords!” The dragon exclaimed before he walked forward to look at Oathblade, strapped around my waist, “Where did you get them?”

I stood up and stretched out my back before responding, “Do’Jzir got them from a friend.”

Spike furrowed his brow, a task I thought impossible to do without eyebrows, “Doe’Jez-what?” The little dragon attempted to say, but he found it difficult to pronounce my name with his accent.

“Do’Jzir.” Luna corrected, “He speakest as if he was a third pony, but other than that he’s rather normal, truly.” Yes, because a katana wielding bipedal cat in armor made from the scales of dragons was normal.

“Oh, okay.” Spike opened the library door wide and the three of us walked inside, “Twilight’s upstairs with the rest of the girls, Celestia is with them. Oh, and Shining Armor is here too, he wouldn’t let Celestia put him anywhere else.” Spike stopped walking and turned around to look at us, “That’s what you wanted to know, right?”

Luna chuckled before responding, “Yes, thank you Spike.” With a nod the baby dragon turned and wobbled off on his stubby legs.

“Khajiit wishes you told him.” I whispered to Luna once Spike had entered a different room and was out of earshot, “that Spike is a dragon.”

“Yes,” Luna responded as she ran a hoof through her strangely fluent hair, “But it all turned out, well did it not?”

I sighed as I looked towards the stairwell nearby, “Do’Jzir supposes, but still wishes he knew. It is a rare occurrence to meet another of the Dovah; he gets rather nervous around them.”

Luna looked at me with a face of confusion, “Pardon me, but what is a Dovah exactly?”

I chuckled, “Apologies. Dovah is dragon tongue for dragon. Khajiit admits, he doesn’t speak much of it, but he knows enough to understand basic speech.” Luna made a ‘hmm’ noise when she heard this, but before she could speak, “I pointed towards the staircase, “So, moon princess, how will we do this? The meeting, khajiit means.”

Luna thought things over for a few moments, “How drastic is the situation, do they have to know right away?” She asked me.

I thought over the answer over. To be honest, I had no idea how severe the gate was. I’ve heard of Oblivion gates opening up in Tamriel aside from the crisis two hundred years ago, but those were small, and closed not long after. This one was somewhat large, and it had yet to close. “Khajiit does not know. He doesn’t believe it is much of a threat now, but it would be best to deal with it soon.”

The deep blue alicorn frowned, “I suppose it can wait then, as for where you can sleep…” She leaned her horn down and there was a bright light before a voice spoke up.

“Yes Luna?” It voiced. I recognized it immediately as the sun princess from before, Celestia.

“Tia,” Luna answered while she walked forward and stood next to me, from this range I could see the tip of her horn was glowing, a telltale sign of a passive spell. “I’m in the tree house with our ‘guest’, He’s rather tired however, be there any room in the tree house for him to rest the night?”

Not long after the light responded, “Why doesn’t he stay at the hospital, I’m sure there is room there for him, he did stay there for quite some time.” I recalled the bed in the blank room being strangely uncomfortable- not just the bed itself- but the plainness of the room. I nearly objected, but fortunately, Luna butt in before I could:

“I think he wouldst prefer to stay somewhere other than there sister.” she opined.

Celestia waited a moment to respond, “There is an extra room up here, but I think Rainbow Dash is patrolling the halls, she may wake the others if she spots him.” I thought back to the rainbow haired pony from earlier, she seemed the most likely to be named ‘Rainbow Dash".

I figured I might as well speak up, “Why should Do’Jzir care about being caught?” I asked the light, leaning against a nearby bookshelf as I did so.

“Hmm, I suppose it isn't of much importance, but try to avoid waking Twilight and the elements. They've been up nearly all day, and deserve their rest, especially Twilight and Rarity-I don’t think they've slept for days.”

I tapped my fingers against a nearby table as the light spoke, “Very well, khajiit will try to be discreet.”

There was a flicker form the light, “Good luck khajiit, we will speak in the morning.” The light on Luna’s horn glowed brightly for a moment, and then went out with a flash.

“Seems like, we hath formed a plan.” Luna stated as she walked up to me.

“Indeed.” I agreed with her.

Needless to say, I was not discreet.

I figured the best thing to do was to simply introduce myself to Rainbow Dash, explain my situation, and bid her farewell. When I told Luna of my plans, she agreed with me and followed me upstairs, staying a few meters behind me as she did so.

I wasn’t a foot into the room before I was tackled by a vaguely pony shaped object.

The force threw me off my feet, knocking me into a back wall. I slid down the wall and fell to the ground afterwards, clutching my chest and wheezing as I forced air into my suddenly deflated lungs. I was almost recovered when my attacker, who I recognised as the rainbow haired pegasus, Rainbow Dash, was on top of me, pinning me to the floor with a single hoof.

It surprised me by how impossibly strong she was; being but half my overall size and yet still strong enough to keep me pinned. I attempted to say something, to explain to her what I was doing, but she cut me off.

“Just what do you think you’re doing?!” She interrogated me with a threatening undertone, “Why are you sneaking around so late? What are you up to?!” I was about to speak, when once again I was cut off, this time by Luna.

“Rainbow Dash, please, allow me to-” Luna tried to say, only to be drowned by the sound of a door opening behind her.

“Rainbow, you simply must keep it down, there are ponies trying to get their beauty sleep over here!” A small unicorn with a violet mane and white coat said as she stepped out of the room, only to spot the three of us, me and Rainbow Dash pinned to the ground, and Luna standing not far away. At the sight of the moon princess, the unicorn went a shade of crimson.

“Oh pardon me Luna, I didn’t mean to disturb!” She voiced right before turning her attention to me and the colorful pegasus, “Rainbow, what are you doing?” she asked just in time to see me throw her off and pin her to the ground in a carefully practised move, holding her left foreleg halfway behind her back.

“Ack! Get off, you-!” Rainbow yelled in protest, but I didn’t listen, instinct had taken over, and logic took a back seat. I pulled her hoof upwards, and she cried out for a moment, then without warning bucked upwards and kicked me flat in the gut. I didn’t feel the blow through my armor, but the sheer force was enough to push me away from her.

Before she could attack again, both of us were surrounded by a deep purple glow, and Rainbow Dash was levitated off the floor, protesting all the while. I however merely felt a strange sensation of slowness, my arms and legs felt sluggish.

I turned to Luna, slowly, because of the spell, and saw her standing still, her horn was glowing brightly, and she was pointing it in my direction. After a few moments, she gave up trying to lift me, and instead just kept up with her current attempt.

“Halt thine quarrels!” she yelled, her voice magnified by magic, and easily loud enough to awaken everyone else in the house, “Cease fighting, thine Princess commands it!”

The purple glow subsided and Rainbow Dash fell to the ground, catching herself at the last moment with her wings and floating upwards, glaring at me all the while.

“Rainbow Dash, this is Do’Jzir.” she told the pegasus, “Do’Jzir, this is Rainbow Dash,” I looked at her, almost mesmerized by her deep pink eyes.

“Do’Jzir would like to apologise for that, he means no harm.” I said to her in an attempt to defuse the situation we were in, but she merely scoffed at me.

“You could have just said something! I coulda hurt you!” She floated close to me and gazed into my bright golden eyes, as I looked into hers, both of us wanted to say something, but neither could think up the words.

It was the white unicorn that broke the silence, “Terribly sorry to interrupt you two but…” she walked in between both of us, pushed us apart, gave me a shove to the chest, not nearly enough to move me, but it got the point across that she was upset, “I must agree with Rainbow Dash, what were you thinking!” She poked me in the chest with her hoof, as if examining my armor, “You simply cannot walk around in such ugly apparel, have you no fashion taste?”

What was she talking about? That wasn’t even related to the matter at hand. “What?” I said in disbelieve as she continued to investigate my chest plate.

“Is this bone, actual animal bone?” She gasped in disbelieve, “Who in their right mind would wear such, such…” She turned away and swayed as if suddenly dizzy.

“I simply must lie down; I can only bear to look at such hideousness for so long.” As if on cue, she collapsed on a nearby lounger, which until then I hadn’t noticed was in the room.

Looking at the white unicorn nearly crying on the lounger made me drop my jaw, I just couldn’t believe her reaction. Her friend and I were but a hairs length from killing each other but moments ago, and she was more concerned with the appearance of my armor, which might I say is also a terrible insult; I take much pride I the appearance of myself, thank you very much.

Shaking my head, I turned to Luna for answers, “Is she always like this?” I ask, more out of curiosity than anything.

“From what I have seen” Luna paused and sighed, “Yes.” She then took the small break to let me know she hadn’t met the ponies here many times before. I was about to respond to her when another door opened, and out from it came three other ponies, the lavender unicorn, who I now knew as Twilight Sparkle, an orange pony with a hat on, and tiny yellow pegasus with a yellow mane; she was hiding behind the others and doing her best to remain unseen.

Twilight took one look at Rarity, and then at Rainbow Dash, who was still glaring at in my direction; turned to Luna and in a surprised voice asked, “Princess Luna, what happened?”

Luna sighed before responding, “Rainbow Dash and Do’Jzir,” she spoke while waving a hoof in my direction; I raised an eyebrow in response, “Hath gotten off to a rough start, and Rarity is under the opinion that his armor is ugly.” So the white unicorn was named Rarity, interesting.

Twilight sighed before she looked at me, head to boot, her eyes opening in fascination, “Wow, I’ve never seen anything like you before!” She pulled out a piece of parchment, as well as a, pen and quill, seemingly from nowhere, “What species are you, where are you from, Oh, just think of what we can learn from each other!” Her sudden excitement almost scared me. Almost.

“Khajiit would appreciate it if he could be left alone for the night,” I yawned, remembering how strangely tired I was, “He thinks he could use the sleep.”

Twilight twisted her head to her side, before writing down something on her paper, “Speaks in third pony.” she dictated aloud, almost as if no one else was there, “Hmm, fascinating!”

I took a step back as the orange pony with a mark of three apples on her flank trotted towards me. I contemplated asking what those were about, but she spoke up before I could.

“Hmm, ya seem all right.” The hatted pony squinted at me before she stuck out a hoof, “Nice ta meet cha, ma name’s Applejack, sorry for how the others been treating ya.”

I smiled, this pony looked sane enough, “We thank you Applejack; this one is Do’Jzir.” I shook her hoof.

The orange pony smiled as she pulled her hoof away, “Don’t mind Twilight and Rarity none, they ain’t got much sleep in a while, so they just need some shut eye.” She looked over at Twilight, who was viciously writing down notes about me despite shaking so much from exhaustion that she could barely stand, and then to Rarity, who had actually managed to fall asleep on the lounger in the middle of her drama queen act, “Trust me on that one.”

I had to fight to supress a wild smile, “Khajiit thanks you for the advice.” The orange pony nodded her head before turning and walking back to the small group; the pegasus cowered behind her when she was close enough.

“Now, now Fluttershy,” she claimed while stepping aside so I could see her, “He ain’t gonna hurt ya.”

The yellow pegasus, who I now knew to be Fluttershy, merely leaped back around Applejack, “Don’t mind her neither,” the pony affirmed, after rolling her eyes, “She’s just a little shy with newcomers.”

I wasn’t sure her fear would qualify as ‘shy’, but I approached her nonetheless. When I was a small distance away from her, Applejack casually stepped aside, only for a small white bunny to take her place. At first I was just going to walk by it, but then I glanced at its face. Unlike any other animal I had seen, this one’s face showed emotion, thought, and most importantly, anger. It stomped its leg impatiently, as if waiting for me to turn around and leave.

Seeing no other option, I knelt down and look the bunny straight in the eye, “Khajiit isn’t going to harm Fluttershy.” I assured while extending my hand, “You have our promise.”

The bunny took a moment to glance at Fluttershy, who at this time was cowering in fear, before it looked back at me and shook its head.

I pulled back my hand as I thought over what to say. After a few moments, I had it, “So you’re loyal to her?” The bunny nodded its head, “Do’Jzir can respect that; you must care for her a great deal.” Another nod, “Well then, if you care for her so much can you answer this, do you think khajiit is going to harm her?”

The bunny looked backwards toward Fluttershy, then back at me. It sighed, turned, and then hopped away, much to the yellow pegasus’ amazement, her mouth opened in surprise as he hopped over toward Applejack. With my path clear, I walked towards Fluttershy, who recoiled into a ball and shut her eyes tight as I knelt next to her.

“Khajiit doesn’t want to hurt you Fluttershy,” I held out my hand, but she made no motion of accepting it, “Is there anything Do’Jzir can do to make you know this?”

Fluttershy seemed to move slightly. She slowly lifted her head off the ground and opened each eye, one at a time.

Then she nearly burst into laughter, the rest of the group looked around suspiciously, as did I, until the pegasus finally stopped long enough to form a complete sentence.

“You look just like the animals down at my cottage.” She said as she stood up, “Almost like Rarity’s cat.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond, deep down I was rather annoyed at being compared to a household animal, but I wasn’t really angry, more confused at her sudden change of demeanor.

After a few moments of contemplation, she sat down and explained, “I love and understand all animals, and I can see it in you, you only want to do good.” Her voice was hysterically quiet and soft, almost as if it were delicate. I found myself feeling sorry for approaching her like I did earlier, I might have simply scared her more, if there was something I wanted to do, that was surely not it.

After my pointless self-monologue, I heard a sound coming from the lounger as Rarity moved in her sleep, and then Applejack was at my side, “Hoowee, Ah ain’t never seen no pony befriend Fluttershy that fast before.”

I stood back up to my full height, about two heads above the tallest pony, not counting Luna. Rolling my shoulders, I yawned aloud as I asked, “So, anyone else for khajiit to meet?” Turns out there were two answers.

One, a male unicorn, revealed himself by stepping out of the room Twilight and the others had come from, accompanied by the sun princess herself, Celestia, wearing full plate armor and carrying a sheathed sword on his back. I figured this to be a guard of some kind, and I stepped forward to meet him, only to get shot in the face by a gathering of confetti. That turned out to be the second.

The party decorations knocked me backwards as I stumbled over my feet, until I came to rest a few meters away from where I stood. Next thing I knew, there was pink everywhere.

Turns out that the pinkness was another pony, a normal wingless and hornless pony named Pinkie Pie, who appeared to be bouncing, literally bouncing-not jumping-off the floor right in front of me.

“Oh, a khajiit, I haven’t seen one of you in soooooo long!” The pink pony said while flying up and down near me, “Ooo, I wonder where you came from, where did you come from khajiit? OH! What’s your name, that’s more impor- HUUUUH - we should throw a welcome party for you!”

I was surprised by how much the pony was saying, but not quite so much as when I realized she wasn’t speaking in any normal language.

She was speaking dragon tongue.

“Pinkie, what in tarnation did you just say?!” Applejack exclaimed confusedly while walking towards her.

I turned my head to the side, absolutely dumfounded by her ability to speak in a language even I could barely understand. “Indeed, how can you speak that? And perhaps more importantly, how do you know what a khajiit is?”

Applejack and Twilight looked at me, “You can understand her?” They both said in unison, to which I nodded, “Hmm, what does she want?”

I raised a hand to my chin, “She wants to throw a party, or at least that’s what Do’Jzir thinks. She was talking rather quickly, and he hardly understands that language to begin with.”

Before anyone else could speak, the pink pony did.

“Oh, sorry!” the pink pony apologized while she halted her constant bouncing, “I forgot to change languages, silly me.” Her sentence was accompanied by a series of giggles. What was strange was that none of them seemed forced, each one sounded completely genuine. I didn’t know much about this pony, but so far, she was creeping me out.

After I was allowed a few moments to examine the pink pony, she spoke again, this time in a language everyone understood, “Hey Twilight, can I throw a party for Do’Jzir can I-can I, can I, can I!? I mean almost everypony in town left and all but I think there are enough of us to throw a single tinsy weenie party for just one special occasion!” The pony rushed in one breath, without a single break. Twilight, who for the first time in minutes, seemed to realize that everyone else was standing in front of her, rolled up her parchment, and cleared her throat.

“I don’t think so Pinkie, this isn’t a normal day for Equestria, and I’m afraid we simply can’t throw any parties until we have dealt with the situation at hoof. Speaking of which…” She turned away from Pinkie and looked towards me, “I think I can take more notes on you later, but for now, do you have any information on what that…gate out there is?” Twilights said, her tone becoming more serious and concerned than before.

I was about to respond when Celestia spoke up, “My little ponies, please, this visitor is our guest. We should allow him to rest; he hasn’t gotten any natural non-magic induced sleep for quite some time. I think we should show him to a room and discuss this in the morning when we are all better rested.” So magic induced sleep doesn’t make you any less tired, interesting.

The rest of the ponies agreed with Celestia without argument, all except the armored unicorn by her side, who said not a word. I recognised his gaze from the dozens of similar looks I had gotten from town guards over the years; that determined gaze they had as they scanned their surroundings for any hint of danger. Except that his eyes also carried with them the look of experience, it was almost enough to make my pre-thief instincts go crazy.

“I see you’ve spotted my brother.” Twilight remarked, suddenly appearing at my side. I leaped away from her in sudden fright before she spoke again, “He’s the Captain of the Royal Guard, here to act as personal bodyguard to Princess Celestia herself.” She sighed as she turned away, “I wish he went on a less dangerous mission, I hardly ever see him these days.”

Twilight’s sudden change in tone surprised me, “Do’Jzir wouldn’t know, he has no siblings.” Twilight perked her ears up as I spoke, “But he thinks that following what you believe in is always the best way through things.”

Twilight turned to face me, “What do you mean?”

I took a few moments to think before responding, “Your brother is the Captain of the Royal Guard, honor guard of the one of the two rulers of Equestria, khajiit would be proud to have him as a brother. He earned his rank through experience and skill. He will be fine.”

The lavender unicorn looked up at me, “You really think so?” I nodded, and Twilight looked at the ground for a few somber moments before looking up.

“Do’Jzir, do you really think we can win this? Can we really close the gate?” She asked me.

I looked to the ground and kicked it with my boot, “Khajiit is uncertain, but he does know one thing.” I knelt down to look at the unicorn face to face, “He knows that the best way to save the future is to have hope in it. Do you have hope in the future Twilight Sparkle?”

She looked away from me for several seconds, and then looked back, “Yes.”

“Then there is no need to fear little pony.”

I stood up as someone put a hoof on my shoulder. Looking over, I spotted Luna gesturing me towards an empty room not far from where I stood. “Come on Do’Jzir, let me show thee to thine quarters.” She pulled me gently across the floor as everyone else dispersed back to their rooms, all except for Rainbow Dash and Rarity, the former trying vainly to awaken the latter.

As I entered my room Luna shoved something into my hands. It was a small silver band with a topaz in the center; it was about the size of my fist, if slightly larger, “Here, take this. It’s enchanted to allow thee to speak with me or mine sister from any distance. It was meant to be donned upon forelegs, so it should fit thine arm pretty well.”

I shrugged before taking off my right hand gauntlet and slipping it on over my wrist. Instantly my mind became a swirl with a variety of colors, until at last, they settled down into normal shades again.

Then I heard a voice in my head, “See, it works rather well, does it not?” Luna’s voice, obviously, but her lips weren’t moving, which meant the charm on the band was working.

I thought up a few words to tell her, and when I focused them on her, I heard them echoing across to her, “Interesting, khajiit hasn’t seen an enchantment like this before.”

Luna thought a few words back to me, “It is working. Good. I must depart now, I hath duties I must attend to, but I wish you a good sleep Do’Jzir of Skyrim.” With that Luna turned and exited my room.

I wasted no time in settling in, removing my armor down to my clothes, I slipped into the nearby bed, this room appearing to have been a guest room of some kind, and relaxed as I entered a peaceful, natural sleep.

Miles away from Ponyville, a figure stood atop a hill, flicking a bit up in the air with its keen and nimble fingers. “You’ve met your match Dragonborn,” the coin landed face down, and the figure laughed, “You just haven’t realized it yet.” Slipping the gold piece into its coin purse, the figure turned and headed downhill.

////

(Author's Note: Well there you have it folks, chapter 5. I hope you liked it just as much as I hope you didn't discover the dozens of plot holes that came with it. As always like/dislike if you could, and if you really liked it, please considering faving or leaving a comment. Thanks for reading.)

6 - The Day Before

I have to admit, I have seen many, many odd things. From the daedra of Oblivion, to the most demented forms of madness. I have seen far more than any mortal has a right to in our short, seemingly insignificant lives.

And yet, this place, this weird, colorful, and bright land topped all of them. There is no other land in the world where creatures such as manticores and monsters can live in such ways, where the concerns of daily life are focused on love and peace, rather than fighting and death. And now a piece of that violence, that evil, had brought itself here, and all of these denizens were relying on me to save them from it.

Frankly, I had no idea what to do. I’ve saved and killed so many people, stopped invasions of undead and dragons, but even I was a little out of my league here. These people, these… ponies, needed me, they’d die without me. I had no clue as to how to help them, how to stop these daedra, but no matter what happened, I was at least going to try.

It’s the least I could do.

Two days after the attack on Ponyville.

The sun shined down on me, shining its bright glow into my eyes. I raised my hand to my face, shielding it from the heated rays. The day was hot, and I was unused to the heat. My dragon bone armor was too insulated to wear in this temperature, and I’d left in it my room.

I lowered my hand and gazed outwards at the horizon, turning my back to the town proper. I could see the massive mountain city at the edge of my vision, resting on the side of the colossal figure. Luna had called it Canterlot, in keeping with the theme of horse pun related city names. I imagined what it was like in there, watching down, hearing news of an apparent attack on a small town nearby.

If they were like every noble I’d ever met, then they’d probably be more focused on themselves than this town. At most, they’d be worried that the creatures would attack them after wiping this town off the map. It was expected, very few of them would be thinking of ways to help the situation down here, and why would they? Money and cities were more important than one small insignificant town.

There was a flash to the side of me, and I turned to it, coming face to face with a short dark blue alicorn. Luna smiled and walked up to me, taking short strides as she did.

“How goes things Do’Jzir?” She asked me, stopping a body’s length from me, her long glowing mane flowing to a still as she did so.

“Well enough, moon princess.” I answered, turning to her for a moment, my right hand stroking they hilt of Dragonbane on my waist. Luna nodded and took notice of my watching of Canterlot in the distance. “And you?” I asked her.

“As good as can be expected. Twilight and Tia are trying to close the portal again, but neither of us believes they’ll be successful.” She sighed, “It’s odd to think that only a few days ago everything was normal. I wish things would go back, if only that was possible.”

I nodded, “Khajiit often thinks the same.” Luna raised an eyebrow, but didn’t respond. I focused once again on my surveillance of the surroundings. My eyes wandered to the forest I’d come out of, Everfree. It’s dense and bushy front was blocking my view into its interior, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was watching me whenever I looked at it. I turned away.

“What are you looking at?’ I heard Luna ask me, walking up and following my eyes as they wandered across the landscape.

“Nothing in particular,” I responded, “But this one believes that knowing the land’s layout would be very much helpful in certain circumstances.”

The princess nodded, “Yes, I agree with that, but…” she walked up to me and poked me in the chest, making me wince slightly, “You were looking at Canterlot, you were rather focused on it actually, what was that about?”

I rolled my eyes and returned to my activities. Luna waited impatiently for an answer, and I was working hard, attempting to come up with a good answer.

“It’s unlike anything in Tamriel.” I finally said, “But at the same time, every about it is like Tamriel. Khajiit is having trouble figuring it out.”

Luna raised an eyebrow, confusion clear on her face. “How so?” she asked after a brief moment.

“The way it is built, the way it is made. Khajiit has never seen anything like it. Yet he knows that if he were to travel to it, to speak to the residents, to the people, he will find a stark similarity to his own land.”

Luna looked even more confused than before, “I still don’t quite get what you’re saying? What do you mean?” She asked.

I closed my eyes and thought of how to say what I meant. “This land is very different from Tamriel. It’s not a violent, as dark, yet khajiit knows that if he bothered looking, he would find just as much conflict, selfishness, and evil. It’s just better hidden. Less focused on.”

I looked down at my feet while I waited for a response. After several long moments, Luna spoke, “That’s a bit of a grim view Do’Jzir. Is this place you come from really that bad?”

I let out a soft chuckle, “Such a view is needed to survive in khajiit’s world. It is as dark as he says. There is constant fighting, wars are commonplace, bandits and outlaws wander the lands, monsters and undead hunt down everyone they can.” My tone grew more and more dark, and I realized that I’d been gripping Dragonbane tightly, not even noticing as I got caught up in my speech. “Khajiit did not learn to fight for any reason other than that he had to.”

Luna looked like she was about to say something, she opened her mouth to speak, then closed it and look down to the grass beneath her hooves. I turned away from her and refocused my view on the land; despite having been there for over two days, I had never had time to get out and get a good look at my surroundings, I’d always been too busy keeping an eye on the oblivion gate or speaking with one of several ponies.

Luna most have been reading my mind, about the talking to ponies thing that is, “I know that you’re probably a little busy know, but I’ve been told Captain Armor wishes to speak to you, he wouldn’t say why.” I looked at her in surprise, Armor and I hadn’t talked more than once since I arrived here, and it was hardly a conversation.

“And what is it Armor wishes of Do’Jzir?” I asked her. She shrugged and turned away.

“I know not. It may be best to ask him yourself.” Without letting me say another word, she teleported away in a bright flash. I shook my head, straightened my sword on my belt, and turned to head back into Ponyville.

As I walked inot his office, Armor turned to me, his eyes looking me over from head to toe. I’d seen others with the same gaze as him, bodyguards, town watch, and the most skilled of warriors, all of them had held that determined gaze at one time or another. I realized that he was sizing me up, checking how much of a threat I was. It was something I expected, this was the first time he’d seen me up close, every other time I was at a distance, or blended into a crowd. The captain looked tired, worried even, but still he carried that look of toughness to him.

“Is the Armor’s inspection over?” I asked after a period of time, “This one was called to speak with it.
”

The first thing Armor said was not what I expected, “Do not call me that.” He said. Not asking me but telling me. His voice was rich with authority, it was the voice of one used to issuing demands, not receiving them.

“But that is what he is. Armor, a shield, defense. There is no better suiting title.” I responded. Armor glared at me, annoyance in his eyes.

“My name is Captain Shining Amor, and you will address me as such.” He spat out at me, “And if you do not then-” I cut him off.

“Shall he send his men at khajiit? You’ll fight him yourself?” He continued his glare, and opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off before he could, “Khajjit does not wish for conflict, but he is not one for orders. He is not a will-less lackey to be ordered around. Armor has called for Do’Jzir’s attention, it is advised he speak his business while Khajiit still has time for such things, for there are far better things he could be doing.”

Armor grunted in annoyance, then shook his head and looked straight at me. His lips opened numerous times, and his eyes wandered across the room, attempting to think of a way to say what he wanted. After several moments, he sighed and looked down at the ground, his tough demeanor falling off like a mask without strings to hold it.

“We are not warriors.” He told me. “None of my men are ready for things such as this. War…death; these things are foreign to our land. None of us are well practiced in conflict, none of us have every fought in a battle.” He sighed and looked up at me once more.

“What I’m trying to say is that I – we, need your help. You’re an amazing warrior, among the best I’ve seen. I saw you kill that creature, the one that Celestia couldn’t even defeat, and I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t save my ruler, I couldn’t do the very task I have dedicated my life too.” I spotted something in his eyes, something I knew too well; guilt. “I want to ask you, as a leader worried for his men, as a stallion worried for his land, could you try to teach some of what you know to my men.”

He wanted me to train his men? I didn’t know what to say; I lifted my hand towards my chin and rubbed it in thought. I supposed I could. I’d never done such a thing before, though, but how hard could it be.

“Yes.” I said, and Armor staggered as if from recoil, he was probably expecting resistance.

“Really? Did I hear you right? You will?” He asked, his amazement clear in his voice.

“Yes. Khajiit will. If the Armor believes it will save lives, then he will. When does he think Do’Jzir can start?” I answered and asked him. Armor looked for once, hopeful, a thin but still noticeable smile spread across his mouth.

“You can start today? Heck, you can start now! My men have set up in the town hall when they’re not on duty. They’re probably training right now, I’ve started them on a new regimen, in case this whole thing becomes a serious threat, but now that you’re helping them this should be much easier.” There was an odd new tone to Armor’s voice. I wasn’t expecting it. Gratitude.

I followed Armor as he walked across the floor and opened up a door using his telekinesis; he walked through and turned around to me. “You coming?” He asked. I nodded and followed him out. This should be easy, I thought to myself, I just had to teach a few techniques to the soldiers, and help them get them down. Easy.

The pegasus in front of me jumped to the side, trying to dodge my swing from the practice sword Armor had provided. He was successful, the blade passed by him and he leaped at me, holding a wooden sword in his two hooves (I have yet to discover how they do that), swinging it at my chest. He was overconfident though, when I blocked it with the flat of my sword, he was thrown off balance, and he staggered backward, passing the sword from his hooves to his mouth, using his front feet to land on the ground.

He looked up just in time to see my swing at his side knock him off his feet. He looked up at me from the ground of the ring, and sighed. “How did I not get that in?” He asked, standing up and walking to the end of the ring. Several other ponies who were sparring looked at him for a moment, but they resumed their activities not long after.

“You must not give away defense for offense,” I told him, always be prepared to block any blow, and never lose your balance.”

The pegasus nodded and took up his position again, holding the sword in his mouth. While the fighting styles and stances we took in fighting were vastly different, seeing as I couldn’t hold a sword in my mouth if I had too, the basics were applicable. Enough so to teach the ponies the basics.

The pegasus was the first to attack. I let him get close, but when he swung his sword to my side, I lifted the mine and his sword once again hit the flat of it. I redirected his to the side, and its tip clanged against the floor. He struggled for a few moments before I slipped my blade past his and struck him straight on the chest before he could recover.

He let out an “oomf” and pushed away from me. To the side, a blue unicorn laughed, “Wow Red Wings, he’s annihilating you!”

The pegasus looked at the unicorn with an annoyed expression clear on his face. “I doubt you could do any better,” he said when he had collected his breath, “This guy could beat anyone here.”

I shrugged and looked around at the ponies that had gathered near the ring. The unicorn lifted his snout (?) in the air and huffed. “I bet 10 bits I could. He doesn’t look so tough. More of an overgrown cat than anything.”

My eye twitched.

Did he? Yes he did.

He called me a cat.

I opened my mouth and charged him, screaming a battle cry while pulling out my sword and cleaving him in two with one swing, spraying his entrails across the grass.

…

Okay, no, I did not do that.

“Khajiit is not a cat!” I almost yelled at him, attracting the stares of all present. He looked at me and nearly laughed.

“Alright, you up to a little fight then, cat?” He stepped into the ring and lifted up a practice sword with telekinesis. I took a deep level and calmed myself before responding.

“And stoop to your level? Khajiit would rather not.” I said to him, picking up mine and turning to Red Wing. “Now, some advice for your form is to-” I heard the sound of air whipping behind me, and I rolled forward just in time to avoid a downward swing from the unicorn.

“I challenged you!” He yelled at me, “By honor of Canterlot chivalry you have to accept.”

I chuckled, “And what makes you think you can defeat khajiit, all that will be gained is your humiliation, and what will be lost is your dignity.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that.” Armor said as he walked to the side of the ring, “That’s Keen Stroke, and believe it or not, he’s probably the best of us. Even better than me if you’ll believe it, the kid is a natural.”

I turned to Armor, and he nodded back at me. Rolling my eyes, I stepped back into the center of the ring. “Very well.” I said, “Khajiit accepts your challenge.”

Keen smiled; a cocky look that suited him. “This’ll be over in seconds. No sweat.” He walked to the center of the ring, facing me, and took up his sword, levitating it close to his head, the blade angled upwards. All other ponies exited the ring, creating a circle around us. The time was right for a fight.

Except neither of us attacked. We stood there for several seconds, before someone in the crowd, someone I recall looked to be Red Wing, yelled out, “Aw get on with it!”

That was when Keen rolled his eyes and charged me. This took me by surprise, he was faster than I was expecting, and I barely managed to duck under his entry swing. He didn’t lay off, he went with the flow of his swing and turned it into an overhead slash, which I leaped to the side of. He let out an angered grunt.

“Fight me cat, stop running like a coward!” I let out a chuckle and he slowly stepped forward. For a moment it looked like he was about to leap at me again, but then he changed style, and angled his sword downwards.

I braced myself for an attack, and he swung his sword to my right. I prepared to block it, when he suddenly pulled the attack back and rushed me, taking me completely off guard; he smashed into my chest, nearly impaling me on his horn in the process, and stabbed forward with his sword. At this range, I was nearly defenseless, but I managed to pull my leg up just as he was about to land his blow, and kick him straight in the chest, sending him off his feet and throwing him to the end of the ring.

He grunted as he landed, but before I could get in closer to attack, he was back on his feet, looking only slightly winded from my attack.

“You’ll have to do better than that if you want to beat me, cat.” He taunted, circling the ring with me in in the center, “Because I think you may have met your match.”

I took the initiative this time, I ran forward, straight at him, and he braced himself for an attack, lifting his dull metal sword to block my swing. But I didn’t use a normal attack; I tossed my blade up into the air and caught the flat steel in between my hands. He looked surprised for a second, and I swung the upside down sword’s heavy pommel at him. He tried to block it, but the weight sent his guard far lower and smashed the hilt into his head. Before he could do anything, I closed the distance and kicked him in the face with all the strength I could muster.

His head rocked backwards for a second, dazing him, and he blacked out for several moments. Seconds later when he came to, he found a sword at his throat, and his laying on the ground a fair distance away. The crowd was speechless.

“You won.” He said out loud, whether to himself, I, or the crowd, I do not know. Then he stood up on his legs and looked at me for a moment with a strange expression, before he bowed down, his face nearly touching the ground.

“I was wrong about you. Please forgive me khajiit. You are worthy of my respect.” He said.

I looked to Armor, who shrugged, before I turned back to Keen. “You’re apology is accepted.”

Keen stood up nodded to me before going to retrieve his sword. I took the moment to glance around me at all of the ponies; their silent gazes were almost creepy.

Finally, someone spoke up. “With you on our side those things from the gate don’t stand a chance!” And with the barrier broken there came a massive current of cheers and shouts. Numerous counts of them asking me questions, advice. They were willing, and they had potential, that much was clear.

I could only hope they lived up to it.

Hours later, Armor and I leaned against a wooden fence on the rim of the ring, watching as two of his men, two pegasus ponies, battled with practice swords and armor, the sound of metal on metal ringing through the air. Amor was looking onward with a certain satisfaction, earlier this day these two were green as grass. Now, well, they were still inexperienced, but there was an improvement.

“You’ve done so much in such little time,” I heard the captain say to me from my left, “I’ve never seen somepony get so much better so soon. It took me years to become as proficient as I am now, but if you can keep this pace up then, well, they’ll be ready for the worst of wars in days.”

I smiled, “You give khajiit credit where none is due, all he has done is given some advice, a few tips. No great task.”

Armor turned to me and gave me a look of disbelieve, “Do’Jzir, look at those two now,” I did; one of them executed a counter, nearly landing a blow on his opponent, “One day ago they’d have stood no chance in battle. The royal guard has been lacking these days; we’ve gone so long without war that we’ve softened. You are helping us turn that around, and you’re doing a very fine job of it.”

I nodded, then looked past the two fighting pegasi, at the other ponies near. Many were talking to one another, about the training, about the gate that still stood in Ponyville.

“These are good men you have. With a little training, some practice, they could become warriors. Good ones.” I sighed and looked downward, “If only such things were not necessary.”

Armor looked up at me. He opened his mouth and for a second I figured he was going to say something. Then he closed it and looked off into the distance toward the massive flame spewing orange gate. It seemed so out of place, like it was simply torn from another world and dropped in this one. Which was remarkably close to the truth, both for it, and me.

After a while Armor looked up at me, “Hey, Do’Jzir, do you ever wonder how you got caught up in all this?” he paused and looked awkwardly at the ground, “I mean, what are the odds of you being plucked from your world at the exact same time as those - those things decide to invade?”

I nodded, “Yes, khajiit has thought of such things, but he has yet to declare an answer. He figures that he simply has a habit of getting caught up with things such as this.”

The captain made a curious noise, “You have a more fascinating life than I. You really aren’t worried about this; you’re just going to go along with the flow? Don’t you want to go home?”

I recoiled from his question. Time seemed to slow as I thought over the same question in my head again, as I had countless times. Did I want to go home?

The answer is not immediately clear. This land was…nice, different. If it weren’t for the daedra it’d be downright pleasing. My mind reeled back to my countless adventures in Skyrim, to my best moments, to the moments that I felt the land was truly worth living in, from when I plunged my blade into Alduin’s skull and banished his evil from the land, from when I took the head of General Tulius for both Ulfric and lady revenge, to when I was granted the artifacts of the daedra time and time again for my efforts, to… to -

To the countless friends I’d lost because of my stupid damn adventures. The dozens of wanderings that had ended in the deaths of those close to me. Mjoll, Lydia, my friend, Kharjo, and more, all lost due to my idiocy. My mistakes.

Did I want to go home? Did I want to continue the life of murder and death, fighting and chaos? Once, there was a time every day, when I would pause, a time when I would ask myself if such a life was worthwhile.

And now that I was there, I think I knew the answer.

“No.” I said to Armor, taking a step away from the ring and letting out a deep breathe, “Khajiit does not care for home. Not anymore.”

Armor’s eyes opened wide, “Really? I couldn't imagine the situation you are in; I’d want to get back home as quickly as possible. You want to stay?” He asked me in disbelief.

I nodded. “Some homes are a shelter, others a prison, khajiit thinks it is time to leave it; no one will miss another vanished hero.”

“Are you sure? You don’t think anyone will miss you?” I nodded again, ‘Well then, I hope – hey! Knock that off you two!” He turned away from me and to several ponies that had exchanged their sparring swords for sharpened ones, and ran off after them, leaving me alone in the light of the slowly setting sun.

My eyes wandered across the landscape, finally setting on the gate in the center of town. There would be a time for me to worry about it, but not now, I thought as I looked at the sun in the distance, for now it could wait until tomorrow.

Author's Note

To start, I am really, really sorry for the massive delay in getting this out. I just got really lazy. I'm not going to rant on about how my hiatus started, as I've done that elsewhere. I only hope you can forgive the time gap.

As for this chapter, there are a few tiny differences from the old chapters. I've decided that, if I manage to actually continue this, that this story will be separated into separate related acts. There well be no official act 1 act 2 or anything like that, but the title chapters will correspond to the act, like the previous two, The First and Second Introductions, those were one segment. The current one is The Day Before, The Day, and The Day After, which is going to be when the story actually really starts to progress forward, in the next chapter which will just be called The Day... I promise, I will get it written if I have to sacrifice other daily activities to do it.

Also, I unLunafied Luna, so no more old english. Writing her dialogue is a pain (I totally didn't get my friend to do it and merely don't want to have to trouble him anymore), so I made it into something different. Just ignore it I guess, imagine she spoke like this in previous chapters. Also, I'm not sure I got Shining Armor's dialogue down as in the show, but this is my representation of him, and it's the best I can do. If I could motion through text, I'd ponyshrugg, but instead I'll say meh.

Also, if you can think of any way I could improve my writing, please tell me. I'm a very amateur writer, and any help I get is definitely welcome. As always, feel free to like and dislike. Thanks for reading, and thanks for putting up with me being a lazy git.

One last word

Goodbye