Shadowmere

Shadomere stared at the door. The door was shut and would remain shut until the Dark Brotherhood was reborn. But that was not to be.

Events had after the Oblivion Crisis overtaken Sithis's faithful and one by one their hidden sanctuaries had fallen. Internal strife had weakened the Brotherhood after the Crisis and their demise was quickened after the death of the Listener in the Cheydenhal sanctuary.

Others fell one by one to the Thalmor or were abandoned. Even the Shadowscales of Black Marsh, formerly government-licensed assassins were re-branded as somthing to be that Dragonborn's ruthless betrayal of Astrid and the systematic extermination of the Dark Brotherhood was somthing Shadowmere could not leave unpunished.

Not even Cicero had escaped, he had been cut down by the Thalmor while they burned the body of the Night Mother.

And one by one they had fallen. Commander Maro had been first, lured into a Stormcloak ambush.

The Emperor was next, pulverised into oblivion by Shadowmere's hooves.

And one by one those responsible for the death of Shadowmere's family perished. Not even the legendary Dragonborn could do much against a immortal horse.

The legend of the black horse circulated throughout Skyrim and soon enough the rest of Tamirel. Some went after it, either eager to harness it's power for themselves like the Volkhiar or to defeat a great foe like the Dawnguard.

None of the expeditions came back.

Shadowmere was a loose cannon, massacring the Thalmor one moment before turning on anyone nearby.

Yet once his revenge and vengeance for his family was complete and he had brutally massacred his way halfway through the Illiac Bay and back to quench his thirst for blood, he only had the memories. Lucien Lachance, the first to show him proper respect. The Hero of Kvatch, famous for ending the Oblivion Crisis yet infamous and less well known for the 'Amputation of the Hand' and the murders he had commited in Sithis's name.

Those were the only two people he could truly say he respected and they respected him. Both were long dead.

So Shadowmere layed in the forests of Falkreath, the shadows of his past looming large over his mind as he stared into the Shadow Pool. Not even killing could stir him any more. He was a blank, emotionless, wreck of a once-proud entity. Sometimes he wondered if they were his memories or someone else's.

Yet he felt a tingle in the back of his scarred mind. He was as intelligent as any Man or Mer, so he knew what it ment. Either somthing big or magically potent was coming towards him, or the Eye of Magnus had decided it was a good idea to rip a tear in the fabric of reality again. The last time that had happened, giant scorpions had wrecked havoc in Morthal.

As his keen sense of hearing couldn't hear anything and his innate ability to sense living and undead creatures wasn't showing anything, he presumed it to be the latter. Or someone worthy of being his rider had been born. But although that had happened many times, they either died stupidly or did somthing worthless to him, like farming.

He sighed and rose to his hooves, eager for somthing to do other than reminisce on what he had lost.

This portal had to be the strangest thing he had ever seen since... He couldn't think of anywhere to compare it to.

It had none of the grim sense of foreboding a portal to a Daedric plane usually produced and rather than one dominating colour, it alternated between a sun-lit gold and the dark blue/inky-black of the night sky.

Nothing had come out of it yet, or at least Shadowmere hoped.

The portal gave no clues to what was waiting on the other side.

With the prospect of a chance to begin again and forget his past, Shadowmere stepped into the portal.

At the other end of the portal...

Twilight stared at the portal in her basement. According to the spell, which she had found after days of painstaking research from multiple sources from across Equestria, it should have been coloured gold and black rather than this pile of colours which made her eyes water.

It was constantly switching between green, red, black, blue and all the shades in between.

Yet the fact it was there proved the spell worked... Or at least she hoped it would.

The other end of the portal was not what Shadowmere had expected. Rather than a grand summoning circle or a plane of oblivion, he found himself in a rather small basement staring at a small purple unicorn who appeared to be backing towards the door, away from him.

The basement was crowded with strange-looking machines, harnessing various types of magicka and unknown energies. He had no idea of their purpose.

But magical machines of unknown purpose either did two things- kill their creator or someone nearby after a tiny thing goes wrong.

And as he was the only one nearby, he swiftly set about destroying everything he didn't like the look of in terms of purpose or energy harnessed.

Twilight bucked the door shut before sliding the bolts she had installed as a precaution just in case things just like this happened. She panted for a few seconds before her mind started to work again. Who was that massive pony? Why did he walk out of the portal? One thing was for certain though: she wouldn't be able to deal with this one on her own. She would need help.

Shadowmere slid the bolts into place on his side of the door. Two could play that game, he mused in his strangely coherent thoughts.

He started looking through the collection of magically powered machinery and what he would destroy. Shock rod? No way. He wasn't going to be electrocuted again. Wierd fiery sphere thing? Why not? Shadomere backwards kicked it over plunging the room into darkness and burning his hooves.

After several minutes of fumbling around in the dark, burning, freezing and electrocuting himself on various bits of machinery and nearly impaling himself on the shock rod, he heard the sound of the bolt being slid back before a voice said

"Looks like he shut it from the other side. AJ, buck it down, will you?"

"Y'sure about this Twi? Ah mean, if there is a stallion th' size of Big Mac, what ah we goin to do 'bout it?"

"Just buck it down."

There was a loud crash as the bolt broke and the door swung open, letting light into the darkened room and revealing the carnage that the massive black stallion had obviously caused.

The machines that Twilight had made to test various magical theories lied scattered and broken all over the floor with the occasional lightning spark passing between parts.

In the back of the room, leaning against the wall, was the collosal black stallion.

"By Sithis, you are small."

"No, you're just massive."

"Applejack! I apologise for my friends uncouth talk." A white unicorn with some gems on her flank said.

"Apology accepted. Anyway, do any of you mind telling me which plane of Oblivion this is, and are there any dragons or giant scorpions around here?"

A cyan... Was that a pegasus? stepped forwards. This world really liked throwing supposedly extinct species at him. She (Or Shadowmere thought it was a she) said "This is Ponyville in Equestria, not some fancy 'plane of Oblivion', whatever that is. You got any idea what he's talking about, Twilight?"

Twilight, who turned out to be the one he had scared earlier schrtched her snout with her hoof before saying "Nope. Mind if I see your Cutie Mark?"

Cutie Mark? Did no one have any concept of proper, non-childish names around here? At least he was his normal, black-haired self rather than some garish shade of bright green.

"No sign of any. Or at least in the same place as yours is."

Twilight tilted her head. "Then where is yours if its not on your flank?"

"Look on my back and look closely."

The collection of ponies stared intently at his back except for a bright pink one that suddenly realised somthing and ran up the stairs. The others didn't seem that bothered by this so he let it slide.

Twilight noticed the faint red marks first. They appeared to form a line running across the center of his back.

They looked like... Hands?

"Why do you have a line of red hands for your Cutie Mark?"

"They are the symbol of my family. The only thing I have left of them."

"What's your name and who were your family?" Twilight continued with pressing questions at Shadowmere.

"My name is Shadowmere and my family no longer matters to anyone or anypony. I am the last."

"That's a strange name pardner."

"No stranger than yours were to me."

A yellow pegasus that had been hiding at the back of the group spoke up.

"Wha... What happened to your family?"

Shadowmere sighed. He knew he would have to tell the story at some point but he doubted these little ponies were ready for the amount of blood, death and betrayal that had occoured over his 400 year life. He knew he wasn't. So he would give them the simple version.

"My family's rise and fall is long and full of blood. The simple version is after the death of the Emperor and all his heirs, a major war wracked our land. During this war, a large amount of my family were killed by a certain person called Argus Goldscale. He, and his master, Lucien Lachance, were the only two of my riders I have ever respected. Argus had been tricked into murdering them by Mattheu Bellamont, one of our families leaders. Later, Lucien was killed as the others thought he had ordered Argus to kill the other ruling members. Mattheu later killed three of the remaining 4 leaders and attempted to kill the Night Mother, our leader. Argus stopped him and went on to become the Night Mother's second, the Listener."

Twilight motioned for him to continue.

"After the war's end, unrest spread throughout the Empire. Gangs fought for control of Bravil and several of my family died trying to defend the Night Mother." Shadowmere ommited the part about the Night Mother being dead. Thay wouldn't take that well.

"The Listener after Argus died during the defence. Several of our other holdings were abandoned and the Shadowscales were all but wiped out. A vicious power struggle between rivals killed off all in the Cheydenhal Sanctuary while pirates and the Thalmor destroyed the Wayrest sanctuary. Soon only our stronghold in Falkreath remained. That was destroyed last year and the Night Mother was burned alive as punishment by the Thalmor. I was the only survivor."

The yellow one began to cry while the cyan one asked "What did you do after that?"

"I tracked down everyone of those merciless bastards and killed them. In the most slow and painful ways possible. And before I killed them, I killed those closest to them. I burned down their houses, destroyed their buisnesses. Ruined their lives. Now I have nothing except my memories and the ghosts of my past."