Twilight Sparkle the Adventurer

Chapter 10 - False Start

Twilight winced at the noise the door made when she opened it, but no one seemed to care to investigate, which seemed odd to her. The bandits outside seemed to be on high alert… why wouldn’t the rest of them on the inside not be?

They must have figured that no one would make it this far. Or that maybe that I’m just one of their little group coming inside to warm up. It is warmer in here… somehow.

Twilight couldn’t decide if she wanted to stick to the bow or to magic or to actually try melee combat. She was supposed to be broadening her horizons, but she also knew she needed to practice what she was good at. What was the point of having a larger Alicorn mana pool and unicorn reduced spell casting cost if she wasn’t supposed to use it?

And then it hit her.

I’m not supposed to abandon magic… I’m just supposed to learn more. A wise ruler will use all the tools at their disposal. Of course that’s what Celestia meant.

With that little piece of uncertainty settled, she summoned a Bound Sword to her right hand and refreshed her stoneskin and muffle before summoning a second Bound Sword to her left hand. She couched and approached two bandits that were speaking to each other.

A female bandit asked a question. “How long are we supposed to wait for him to come back?”

The male bandit answered. “As long as it takes for him to come back. He said wait so we wait.”

The female bandit shook her head. “I don’t like waiting in a cold abandoned ruin.”

The male bandit scoffed. “Well… I don’t like it much either but if we don’t wait for him to come back then we don’t get our cut. Worse than being out here for days would be not getting paid for it. At least it’s warmer in here than it is outside.”

Twilight smiled at herself as she managed to sneak up on the bandits without being heard. Without missing a chance for extra damage, she jammed both of the summoned blades into the back of the female bandit. Her death was quick, but not silent as she cried out in pain, alerting the other bandit to the threat.

The nameless male bandit seemed to hesitate before the conjured magical blades and that hesitation was all Twilight needed to stab both blades into his chest and then used a power swing to cut off the man’s head. While she was prepared for battle… the extreme act of violence committed by herself seemed to startle her back into a more passive state as she breathed in the stale air of the ruin. She looked around herself for other threats before settling down to think about what just happened.

Did I really just do that? Was I able to stab a woman in the back in cold blood and then cut off a man’s head just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or is the fact that they were bandits enough justification? I don’t like what this place is making me… the law of tooth and fang leaves little room for mercy. Hmm. Is that why Celestia is so merciful? Did she not like this either? And is that why Luna became Nightmare Moon… did she like it too much?

Twilight decided to put those thoughts behind her as she continued on with what she had already been doing. She looted the two recently killed bandits of their gear and deprived them of their ears. She took the time to explore the large open atrium and was disappointed to find only a few skeever corpses, useful only for their tails as an alchemy regent or for their meat if she was desperate enough to eat one. She shuttered at the thought and found herself grateful to have so much mammoth meat still. As much as she hated how much it weighed her down, it would be a cold day in Skyrim before she allowed herself to eat a skeever.

Buck… it’s always a cold day in Skyrim… bad analogy.

There was one chest near the campsite where she had killed the two bandits that was easy to unlock but it had nothing of real value. After a little more searching, she found a third bandit corpse laying on an old table to loot and take the ears from as well.

This third bandit had clearly been dead for a while and was already in the process of rigor mortis. While scientifically, rigor mortis was a natural process regardless of what species you were, in actuality, it could create some very bizarre situations, like the one she found herself in now.

This bandit’s penis was as hard as if he had an erection, fully revealed from Twilight having taken his armor. The shaft was huge, and the head was shaped oddly compared to what she knew of a stallions’ anatomy… her working knowledge of such derived from books… Greymane’s Anatomy specifically. She found herself touching her own sex, safely protected by her armor.

How is something that big supposed to fit inside of me? Hmmm. I wonder how big Hadvar is…

That train of thought derailed as Twilight realized that she was staring at a dead man’s penis while touching herself. She moved back to the camp area by the bandit’s fire to collect herself. After taking a few deep breaths, she realized that she was both tired and hungry, the day already being late with her having done more than her fair share of combat, spell casting, and shopping.

She had a few choices. First choice, she could eat in the ruins and use the bandit’s camp to rest. Or, second choice, she could leave the ruin and return to Riverwood, using the Inn to eat and sleep under the relative protection of a township.

After a moment of consideration, she remembered that the bandits she had killed was waiting for someone to come back to share whatever loot he was gathering… so therefore it wouldn’t be safe for her to stay in the bandit camp. Her only choice was to backtrack to Riverwood and hope that she didn’t miss catching the bandit.

Twilight opened the door to the Sleeping Giant Inn and closed it behind her.

Delphine raised an eyebrow at her. “I wasn’t expecting you back so soon. What brings you here?”

Twilight gave the Innkeeper a tired smile as she made her way to the counter. “I finished a few tasks in Whiterun and I gained enough experience to want to try my hand at Bleak Falls Barrow. However… I’ve had a long day and I feel like my odds of success will go up fully rested and on a full stomach. Do you have a room to rent by chance?”

Delphine nodded. “10 gold and it’s all yours. Feel free to use the cooking stove to make your own meal if you have the ingredients to do so. I never liked pressuring guests to buy my food…” She leaned in to whisper. “… neither myself nor Orgnar are very good cooks. Whatever you can make yourself would probably taste better… although I do stand by the quality of our ale.”

Twilight giggled as she put down 10 gold and went to the cooking pot. Adding the ingredients, she made herself another 7 servings of the tasty mammoth stew that she had grown fond of, counting her blessings that she wasn’t cooking a skeever, though part of her wondered if she shouldn’t harvest the meat anyways.

Surely any homeless beggar, like Brenuin, would take even a cooked skeever over having nothing to eat?

Twilight’s only regret of the evening was having nobody to share the stew with. She had gotten accustomed to sharing with Lucia and it still unnerved her not to have her friends or Spike with her. She wasn’t sure if Hadvar was still at Alvor’s house, and she was reluctant to check after her earlier thoughts at Bleak Falls Barrow.

No, as much as I want to explore that more, now isn’t the time.

Her stew cooked in the normal amount of time, and she ate one serving alone, washing it down with some cheap wine. Having finished eating and having nothing better to do, she went to her rented room and went to sleep.

One final thought crossed her mind as she fell asleep.

I can’t afford more delays… Lucia is counting on me to get back to Whiterun in three days or less… and now I’ve used up a whole day already. Tomorrow needs to be better.

The next morning came faster than Twilight had expected, and she found herself rested from sleeping in the bed provided by the Inn. She opted to quickly eat another serving of the mammoth stew from the previous night but abstained from the wine, knowing she would need to be ready to fight.

Delphine asked her a question as she was preparing to leave. “Are you going to sell off your loot before returning to the ruins?”

Twilight paused at the question. It sounded simple but it really wasn’t. “I was going to wait until I returned to Whiterun… is there a reason I should sell my loot now?”

Delphine shrugged while wiping down an already clean bar counter. “Ancient Ruins can have some valuable loot in the main chamber. It would be ashamed if you had to leave some behind because of some random bandit loot. Most adventurers don’t explore the same ruin twice so you can’t count on being able to go back for what you left behind. Or worse, have some other adventurer tail you and steal what you earned.”

The advice sounded sincere, and Twilight couldn’t fault the reasoning behind it, but she still hesitated. “I’m not sure that Alvor or Lucan could afford all the loot I have. I have looted no less than ten bandits.”

Delphine understood the problem. “You have two choices then. Either buy something to offset what you’re selling or if they have nothing that you need… then only sell them what they have the coin for and hold onto the rest. Skyrim might surprise you in how much good equipment costs, especially enchanted equipment. In one-on-one battles… skill is only half the factor. A person’s equipment often decides a contest. The good guys don’t always win here.”

Twilight left the Inn and considered the information. She truly had a problem with this one. She couldn’t risk dying just because she was cheap with buying equipment, but she also needed to be able to afford a house for Lucia. She still had less than 1,000 gold, given that she had traded a lot of ‘loot’ for skill training instead of outright selling it like she probably should have. There were several other quests within Whiterun she could do for more coin as well.

And then, as if fate itself would have to directly intervene, a wolf pack ran into the sleepy little town. This wasn’t a problem for Twilight, as she was more than prepared to fight wolves… but they weren’t heading for her… they were heading for the town’s children… Alvor’s daughter Dorthe and another boy that she didn’t know.

Twilight called out a warning. “Wolves!”

The children turned and screamed as they saw the threat bearing down on them and Twilight raised her hands with Sparks ready to go but she couldn't cast the spell so close to the children. She opted for a bound sword instead and charged the wolves… yelling and making as much noise as possible so the wolves would rightly see her as a threat and either run… or attack.

As luck would have it, the four wolves did move to attack her, leaving the children alone. She ducked and weaved, striking down the wolves with her conjured blade. The children watched in awe and clapped when the battle was finished.

“Thank you for saving us, miss!” The young boy exclaimed,

Twilight lowered her hands, releasing the conjured blade and smiled. “It was no problem. I thought the Jarl dispatched guards here… where are they?”

The boy frowned. “There is no guardhouse here, so the mere three guards dispatched here have sleeping bags on the ground outside the lookout posts. While they aren’t on duty… they are out hunting for food to feed the detachment… Or in the Inn drinking. Honestly? I don’t feel any safer now than before they got here… Gods help us if a dragon really attacks us here.”

Twilight felt her stomach tighten. “Do you have no other means of defending yourselves?”

Dorthe sagged and answered her. “My father can’t justify giving us daggers. Not only would it hurt his available inventory of things to sell, but he doesn’t want us to do anything stupid… like attack each other with the weapons or be heroes if wolves or bandits appeared.”

As a pony who hadn’t been a parent personally, she could see the logic in the argument presented. However… as a pony that had witnessed the many actions of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, she could see the holes in it.

Twilight smiled at both of them. “You are both smart enough to know that daggers are weapons and not toys, right? And you are both also smart enough to work together to take down dangerous wildlife, yes?”

The boy smiled. “Of course! We’re real Nords!”

Twilight could just barely picture Spike having said something similar, and her heart ached.

“Okay then. I’ll make you some weapons and armor so you can defend yourselves. How does that sound?”

Dorthe hugged Twilight. “It sounds like a lot of fun!”

Twilight grinned. “Not for the person working the forge… this is going to be a lot of work.”

Twilight led them both to Alvor’s forge and she sat to work. Using leftover steel from previous weapon melts, Twilight forged three steel daggers. Then. She measured both children for armor and using the bandit loot she had acquired, she made three sets of child-sized fur-lined leather armor. The armor she made was similar to her own armor with one set for each of the Riverwood children and a third set for Lucia, ever present in her mind. Once the armor and weapons were finished, she outfitted them and ensured that everything fit. She was pleased with herself when the children proudly wore their armor and drew their daggers.

Dorthe proclaimed proudly. “Let’s protect Riverwood!”

The young lad agreed cautiously. “Yes. Let’s protect our home! Daggers in their sheaths until we need them. We wouldn’t want to disappoint Twilight, would we?”

Dorthe sheathed her dagger. “Of course… we wouldn’t want to get carried away. Shall we play a game of tag?”

The children ran off while Alvor greeted Twilight. “It was a fine thing you did, outfitting the children to protect themselves. Even I wouldn’t have expected wolves in town but I expect that the military and the bandits are forcing the predators to hunt inside of towns now that wild game is less available. Is there anything I can do for you?”

Twilight sighed. “I have some leftover bandit loot that I didn’t use to make the children’s equipment. Would you buy it from me?”

Alvor nodded. “I’ll take a look.”

A few minutes later gave Twilight another 500 gold but reduced her inventory of everything bandit related except for the equipment that she forged for Lucia.

Twilight smiled at Alvor. “How’s Hadvar doing?”

Alvor rubbed the back of his head. “Hadvar headed back to Solitude not too long ago. He hasn’t sent a letter saying that he arrived, but I suspect that he’s okay.”

Twilight bit her lip but nodded. “Okay. I guess that’s good news. What do you think I should do now?”

Alvor frowned. “It’s getting late. Maybe you should rest at the Inn again and get a fresh start tomorrow."

Twilight nodded. “I don’t want to delay further but it seems like I have little choice. Thank you, Alvor, for everything.”

Alvor nodded. “Of course. Gods watch over your battles, friend.”

Twilight walked back to the Sleeping Giant Inn and dropped another 10 gold on the counter. She ate another bowl of mammoth stew and went to bed early, one thought lingering on her mind.

Tomorrow for sure. No more delays. I promised Lucia, I’ll get back in time.