Mori Pro Imperio: The Story of Pliton Calleius

When I awoke, I was hanging by my feet, which were held by a chain bolted into the ceiling. I was at the top of the Sigil Keep, where I saw Molag Bal looking out into the horizon. I could almost reach the Sigil Stone, but it was just out of my reach.

“Oh no you won’t.” Molag Bal rapped my hand with a whip, making me pull it closer to me. “We can’t let you touch the Stone now that would be disastrous.”

He chuckled slightly, and said, “Now that you are awake, I can begin.”

“Begin what?” I snarled at him, “What are you going to do to me?”

“Oh nothing,” Molag Bal smiled, “Except for cutting your limbs one by one. And then I might sever your head and keep it as a trophy. Maybe I’ll feed your remains to the Scamps, but I need the blood.”

He drew a dagger, and grabbed my left wrist. He put the dagger to my wrist, and cut into it. The pain was excruciating, and I screamed out in pain, only prompting him to cut deeper.

He brought up a bowl, and filled it with my blood.

“Why do you need my blood?” I snarled at him.

“Oh,” he said, “Nothing, just to initiate a ritual to merge Equestria and Tamriel’s dimensions, thus making Equestria conquerable again.”

“So you lost Baltimare,” I said, smirking, “You’re going to lose Molag Bal. The Royal Equestrian Army has the manpower we need to take you down.”

“I don’t think so.” Molag Bal said, severing my hand off. He put my hand inside a bowl, and put salt on my open wound. The pain nearly made me pass out, but it stopped the bleeding.

“Can’t have you die yet.” He said, continuing on me.

It lasted for another half hour, when he had cut off all my hands and feet, and had gathered enough blood for the ritual.
He then went up to the Sigil Stone, and bathed it in the blood. He said a few inaudible words, and put the Stone back. It was glowing dark red, almost black now. The new power undoubtedly would bring Equestria and Tamriel together.

“Now,” he said, “I don’t need you anymore. I guess it’s time to kill you off.”

“Why me?” I asked, “Why my blood, what’s so special about it?”

“Well,” he said matter-of-factly, “Since you are the Champion of Talos, your blood is holy. This gives it more power than that of the first vampire! With just a drop, I can move Elsweyr north of Skyrim, and with a large bowl full, I can morph dimensions! And now, I can enact the second part of my master plan.”

He then walked up to the Sigil Stone again, and said more words. This time, I could hear them, but I could never understand them.

“Now,” he said, turning to me, “There are no longer seventeen Planes of Oblivion. There is but one, mine. I will reign as the sole Daedric King! My power will be greater than the Divine’s! Do you understand, nothing can stop me now!”

That was when I saw on the horizon, Mehrunes Dagon walk towards the Sigil Keep. Never in my life was I so grateful to see him, this could be my chance to try and contact Twilight to help me.

When Mehrunes Dagon came to the Keep, he said in a booming voice, “Molag Bal, what have you done? My Plane of Oblivion is gone!”

“It is not gone,” Molag Bal chuckled, “It has merely morphed with mine. The same has happened with Boethiah, Malacath, and the others. I am the most powerful Daedra now, bow down to me!”

“Never,” Mehrunes Dagon shouted, “We had a deal!”

He grabbed Molag Bal, and threw him to the ground outside the Sigil Keep. He got up, and shrank Mehrunes Dagon to be his size.

He threw him up into the Sigil Keep, and jumped up after him. He drew his sword from the ground, and rolled his head back in laughter.

“You were once so powerful,” he said, “You invaded the whole of Tamriel. But, two men defeated you! Two men! Now, you were only able to invade with my help, and I have found you very useless. Your forces have seen great defeats, while mine have pillaged, raped, and taken huge swaths of Tamriel. Now, I feel your time has come to an end.”

He laughed as he cut off Mehrunes Dagon’s arms, one by one. Once Mehrunes Dagon was kneeling there, armless and losing huge amounts of blood, Molag Bal cut off his head.

“It is done,” he said, “I am the Daedric King!”

It was then that another Daedric Prince teleported into the Keep. Her skin was gray, and she had no hair at all. She wore a long, red cape, and wielded a large axe.

“Congratulations, Molag Bal, King of the Daedra.” She said, kneeling down before him, “I, Boethiah, have seen that our plan is successful.”

“Yes,” he said, “Dagon proved, troublesome, but he was taken care of. Now, are your forces ready?”

“Just give the order.” Boethiah responded, standing up. “Your rise to power has been well-received by most, and Hircine is committing the Hunt to Tamriel to further whittle down resistance.”

“Good,” Molag Bal responded, “Very good. I hope our differences have been put aside?”

“Yes,” she said. She then looked at me, and pointed at me, saying “What do you plan to do with him?”

“Oh, him?” Molag Bal asked, “He is worth no more than a Scamp. You can kill him. I must be leaving now, the Summerset Isles are proving very troublesome. Maybe if I turn some Thalmor into Vampire Lords, it will cause some chaos.”

He left, leaving Boethiah alone with me. Once she was certain she was alone, she began to unchain me. She laid me down on the floor, and placed her hands over me.

“Be silent,” she said, “I am healing your wounds.”

“Why?” I asked, “Did you not just pledge loyalty to Molag Bal?”

“I would never do so truthfully.” She smirked, “We were enemies, and always will be. I know that when he conquers Equestria and Tamriel, he will only kill me, consolidating his power as King of the Daedra, and begin preparations for an attack on Aetherius itself. You must be the one to stop him, for Talos and the Nine have said so.”

I laid there, silent, as she healed me of my wounds.

“Now,” she said, “Take the Sigil Stone, and hurry, whoever is leading you must know of this plot. Go!”

I nodded, and took the Sigil Stone in my hand.

I was soon standing in front of Twilight and Ernand, who had piles of dead Daedra around them.

“What the hell took you so long?” Ernand asked, “You were gone for hours, it’s almost sunset.”

“Twilight,” I said, “I need you to get a letter to both Princess Celestia and General Rikke in the Imperial City.”

“Why?” She asked, “What happened in Oblivion?”

“You’ll find out when you write the letters.” I said, waiting for her to conjure paper, ink and a quill.

“To whomever this may concern,” I said, waiting for Twilight to write it down. “I bring you grave news. The threat of Mehrunes Dagon has passed…”

“Wait,” she said, “That’s good, isn’t it?”

“Let me finish please?” I said indignantly, “This is very important.” She nodded, and let me speak again.

“But Molag Bal killed him, and has merged all the Planes of Oblivion into one Super-Plane, where he reigns supreme. He has broad support from the other Princes, and they have sent forces into Tamriel, particularly Boethiah and Hircine. Beware of Werewolves and Vampire Lords attacking your forces.

“Also, Molag Bal has performed a ritual merging the dimensions of Equestria and Tamriel, to make them both conquerable again. Chrysalis and the Changelings are more powerful than ever, as Chrysalis is Molag Bal’s lover. This has given the Changelings newfound power, which will make them more formidable.

“But there is a light in the tunnel. Although Boethiah has sent Daedra here, she is working behind the scenes against Molag Bal, because of an eternal rivalry between the two. This is all I can report to you, but it shall suffice. Sincerely, Twilight Sparkle and Legate Pliton Calleius.”

“That is bad,” she said, “What can we do?”

“Fight,” I said. “And where the hell is Tralen, did he leave us here?”

“No,” Ernand said, “Although we caught him trying to. He’s right over there, we should get going.”

“Tralen,” I called, “Let’s get moving!”

“No dinner?” He called back. “That’s a shame.”

“Shut the hell up, and let’s go.” I replied, climbing on.

He whipped the horses, and they sped away from Roseguard, partly from fear, and partly from fearing my retribution if we went any slower.

“When shall we reach the next town?” I asked.

“We should reach Taneth,” he said, “In about two days or so.”

“Make it a day and a half,” I said, “We’re running low on supplies. And stay on the road; we don’t want to be ambushed by another Oblivion Portal.”

“You got it, boss.” He said. His sudden obedience showed me that he feared the Daedra, which I could use to my advantage sometime.

When we finally stopped for dinner, we ate silently. Our meal was roasted pheasant with a side of cabbage soup. The fire was warming, as the desert winds were deathly cold, as cold as Skyrim.

I looked up at the stars, and saw the Warrior constellation in the sky. That reassured me, because I saw it as a sign that Talos and the Nine were watching over me.

Now, let me clarify something, I do respect the Empire’s laws, but I never obeyed the ban on Talos worship. I regularly prayed to him, and felt his blessings whenever I went to a secret shrine near Skingrad. My reverence had paid off, as he was watching over me in this war, if it even was one.

When we went to sleep, I had Twilight cuddled up next to me, to help me lull to sleep. Today was one of the days I would always try to forget, but would always be with me. How I had gotten away from the grasp of Molag Bal was only through the luck of Boethiah not being loyal to him. She was the Prince of evil plots, after all.

When we awoke, we ate a meager breakfast of cabbage and pheasant before we loaded the carriage and strove to reach Taneth by nightfall.

Tralen had the horses going between a fast canter and a slow gallop, as we were moving fast, but not fast enough to wind out the horses anytime soon.

All the while, I had grown intrigued by magic, and had asked Ernand and Twilight to teach me a few novice spells. I was naturally adept at Destruction and Restoration Schools, which were predictable, as both could be used in battle.

I took a particular liking to fire spells, and had the hang of a novice fire spell by noon, and an adept one by late afternoon.

Twilight tried to teach me her magic, but since I wasn’t Equestrian, she could only teach me spells that don’t require a horn, like seeing into one’s mind and seeing people in reflections of mirrors and water.

Ernand was my teacher for the rest of the magic, and he and I bonded over the teachings, but I felt that Twilight felt out of place. I thanked him for the lessons, and began to talk with her.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Oh nothing,” she said, “It’s just that I feel left out, and I know so much magic, but I can’t teach you any of it!”

“Hey,” I said, “It’s alright. I never expected I would be able to learn any Equestrian magic, that’s why I asked Ernand, and not you. I didn’t mean anything hurtful, and you know that.”

“I know,” she said, “But it’s so frustrating when you can’t teach somepony something when you know so much about it!”

She then turned away, not letting me talk to her. I turned to Ernand, who only shrugged.

“We’re not that far from Taneth!” Tralen called back at the best time ever. “We’ll be having a real dinner there that I’m not paying for!”

We all laughed at that, and Tralen sped up the horses a little, so that we would reach it before the sun set.

When we entered Taneth, the atmosphere was very different from Rihad’s. The people here must have heard about Roseguard, and they were undoubtedly afraid about the Daedra.

When we jumped off the carriage, a small group of Redguards surrounded us, asking about Roseguard.

“Don’t worry,” I said, “We have dealt with the Portal; Taneth is safe. What you need to worry about is that there may be Vampires and Werewolves attacking with the Daedra.”

That scared the crowd. Feeling bad, I told them, “But they won’t be coming from Roseguard. You can rest easy tonight, the Daedra won’t attack here!”

They walked away suspiciously, leaving Ernand, Twilight and I in the middle of Taneth.

We wandered through the town, looking for a place to rest our heads. We finally found one in the poorer part of town.

We sat down, and ordered some Venison Chop with Nord Mead. We ate silently; there was just nothing to talk about. The Venison was cold and the Mead was warm, it really wasn’t worth the twenty septims we paid for it.

Twilight and I went into our room, and we stripped down to our undergarments, abandoning my armor and her robes on the foot of the bed. We were too tired to fool around, so we blew out the candles, and fell asleep in silence.

The only thing I could think about was what Molag Bal had done to Oblivion and what he would do to Equestria and Tamriel.

That thought kept me up for some while, and I woke Twilight with my tossing and turning.

“Pliton,” she said, nuzzling up next to me, “Molag Bal has invaded all of Tamriel, but your mind should be free from him. Don’t think about him.”

I nodded, and wrapped my arm around her body. I closed my eyes, and I went back to a fantasy of living with her in Equestria, having a family, and not worrying about Oblivion or Daedra or Changelings or anything.

I fell asleep at those nice and calming thoughts.
I don't lie when I promise action. To keep track of where Pliton, Twilight and Ernand are, here is a link for a map of Hammerfell: http://www.imperial-library.info/content/hammerfell-map-zephyr It is a bit hard to navigate, but it is the best map on the site, because it shows every town and village in Hammerfell. So, I guess I'll see you when you finish the next chapter when you begin reading these boring author's notes!