//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 
// Story: The Equestria Scrolls 
// by Speven Dillberg 
//------------------------------//

	Qa’Dar’s ears twitched. At first he dismissed it as the normal sounds this forest made. When the sounds refused to stop, he turned around, sure that his mind was simply playing tricks on him. What he saw in the distance, from where they had come, was proof to the contrary. “We have company,” he hissed at his friends.
Avik and Llevana exchanged glances. “More wildlife?”
“Could be,” the Khajiit replied. “I can’t tell yet.” He slowly drew a dagger as the Redguard hefted his ebony axe. The dark elf focused on her majicka, her hands filling with fire and lightning. The three stood ready to fight, sure they could take down whatever came at them.





Storm Surge raised a hoof, signalling for the two unicorns following him to stop. “I don’t know what these things are, so be prepared for the worst. Arcane Light, get ready to put up a barrier. Firebolt, if they attack hit them with everything you’ve got.” Both unicorns nodded, understanding their orders. “Worst comes to worst, Nimbus will show the reinforcements where to strike. Do Equestria proud, boys.”





“Here it comes,” Avik whispered.
“Don’t attack straight away,” Llevana hissed.
“Why not?” Qa’Dar asked.
“It could be harmless. Or killing it would only bring more. And we don’t have enough potions to keep us alive if we get swarmed.”
“Llevana’s right,” the Redguard replied. “I’d rather run from a battle we don’t need than get caught in one we could have avoided.”
“Wise words,” the Khajiit said, nodding. “Being around Llevana is rubbing off on you.”
Normally, Avik would have risen to words like that. He was far too preoccupied, though, with worrying about what was coming through the trees towards him and his friends. He thought he saw something metallic in the shadows, making him tighten his grip on his weapon.





Storm Surge caught a glimpse of his quarry, a gleam of metal, likely from a drawn weapon. “Get ready,” he whispered. He took a deep breath and stepped out into the open, keeping his head high to make it seem he was more confident that he actually was. Close behind him and to his left and right Arcane Light and Firebolt did the same, Arcane’s horn glowing in preparation.





Llevana had done many things in her rather short life. She had fought Draugr, taken down an Dwarven Centurion single-handedly, contracted Sanguinare Vampiris and explored more ruins than she could remember. None of this, absolutely none, could have prepared her for what she saw in front of her.
She had seen armored horses before. One didn’t move through the Empire without seeing a few soldiers on horseback. What was odd was that these ones were wearing helmets. What was even stranger was that two of them appeared to be unicorns, but not like the unicorns she had seen in Cyrodiil. They were not pure white, but grey. And they seemed smaller, closer in height to the miniature horses noble families bought for their daughters. And the one in the middle, the one she thought of as their leader... Wings? she wondered. How?
She almost collapsed from shock when the winged one spoke. “Halt,” it said in perfect Tamrielic.
“By the Divines,” Qa’Dar muttered. “I must have fallen on my head. Why else would I see a talking horse?”
The winged one cleared its throat. “State your business in Equestria.”
“That’s the name of this place?” Avik asked.
The horse thing raised an eyebrow. “You don’t know?” The other two shared what Llevana imagined to be curious glances. It felt strange giving such qualities to such animal-like beings. All three relaxed visibly, their confusion defeating their discipline. “Well, I am Lieutenant Storm Surge.”
“I am Llevana,” the dark elf replied, thinking how strange this entire situation was.





Storm Surge was unsure what to do: there was nothing in any of the manuals about what to do when encountering a new race, lest one that didn’t even know where they were. That all three spoke perfect Equestrian was even more unnerving.
All three looked vastly different, despite their similarities. The one with the axe had reddish-brown skin, what little could be seen under the bronze armor. The one with fire and lightning in its claws had red eyes, pointed ears and purplish skin that made her (the voice seemed to suggest it was a female) more intimidating than the armor the red-skinned one wore, despite the thin blue robes she wore. The last... the only way he could think of describing it was ‘cat-like’. It had a grey and black coat, it had a tail, it had gleaming yellow eyes and what suspiciously looked like actual claws. These differences led him to believe that he was dealing with three completely separate species, as opposed to sub-races like the ponies were divided into.
They seemed peaceful enough, though the way they handled their weapons with ease filled him with dread. He could tell he was dealing with experienced warriors, and that he and his colleagues stood little chance. The Royal Guard had seen little in the way of actual battle in decades, and all he had to fall back on was tactics that he was sure were useless against bipedal foes. Diamond Dogs, maybe, but Diamond Dogs were never this well armed.
Arcane Light leaned close to Storm Surge. “Sir, what are your orders?” he whispered.
After a moment the pegasus responded. “I ask that you sheathe your weapons. Failure to do so will be seen as an act of aggression and we will act accordingly.”
The armored red-skin chuckled. “I think we can fight against a bunch of talking horses.”
Storm Surge was taken aback at the sheer rudeness of that statement. It took a moment for him to regain his composure. “You may wish to take back those words, stranger.” As he flared his wings Firebolt’s horn began to glow a dangerous red. “As strangers to our land you are obviously unaware of what we are capable of.”
“Like what?”
Storm glanced up and saw that Nimbus had done exactly as he had asked. The pegasus sat atop a large black storm cloud, surveying the situation from above. Storm nodded and Nimbus pushed a hoof into the cloud, forcing from it a large crack of thunder and a bolt of lightning that struck not three feet behind the guard ponies. “Weather control,” Storm Surge said calmly as the three jumped backwards and looked in awe. “I’ll ask again. Sheathe your weapons.”





Llevana couldn’t believe what she had just seen. One of the horse things had created actual lightning! Not mage-sparks, but an honest-to-Kynareth lightning bolt!
She turned to Avik, who had lost his balance and dropped his axe in shock. “If you do anything to aggravate them, Avik, you are on your own,” she said menacingly.
“You heard the horse-thing, Redguard,” Qa’Dar muttered as he sheathed his dagger. “You should listen. I don’t want to see you fried.”
Avik simply sat on the ground and gaped. He had felt fear before. It was natural, with the amount of fighting he did, to be scared. Scared of injuries, scared of losing, scared of death. But this, this was something much worse, something he couldn’t describe. Some instinct, something that had been forced into dormancy had woken.
These horse-things, they were more terrifying that trolls, than Daedra, than even his own mother.





Storm Surge was dimly aware of Nimbus Strike descending and landing behind him. He was amazed at how easily the three strangers had been subdued. Shock and awe was always a good tactic, but even he had underestimated how effective it would be. Now that they seemed to be much more cooperative, and peaceful, he decided it was time to get out of the Everfree.
“If you wish, we shall lead you out of the forest and take you to our Princess.”
“Thank you,” the dark-skinned one known as Llevana said. “This place makes me uneasy.”
“A princess, you say?” the cat-thing asked. “We get to meet actual royalty?”
The red-skin slowly stood up and took a deep breath. “If you can promise us safety, then we will follow.”
Storm Surge saw that as a reasonable request. “We shall do what we can.” He turned to Nimbus. “Go ahead and inform the others of our guests. It shouldn’t take long for us to arrive.” 
Nimbus took to the air, saluted, then vanished from sight as he flew at full speed towards Ponyville. 
Storm turned to the others. “If you’d care to follow,” he said politely.