//------------------------------// // The One Dragons Fear 03 // Story: The Many Destinies of Sunset Shimmer // by ratedoni //------------------------------// Even through the thick walls of rock and mortar, Sunset Shimmer could still hear the sounds of battle outside the keep, faintly but there, as a reminder to the young redhead that she had just barely escaped with her life, but not everything was right. Looking at the place where she and the young guard had entered, but now it was only a bunch of rocks and wood after the entrance was destroyed by the dragon. Sunset was still trying to get her head around that simple fact. She knew about and had met dragons before, but that was when she used to live back in Equestria. This was Tamriel and dragons were just things written on books about history and mythos, no-longer-alive type of creatures after the war against them. So, why one of those mythical creatures that everyone said was completely extinct had appeared at Skyrim? Well, if a unicorn came to Tamriel why not a dragon, right? Bad joke, but her mind was still processing the situation. Breathing a couple of times to get herself under control, Sunset Shimmer took a look around the room where she and the soldier were trapped in. It had a low ceiling and the only light were several torches put strategically to make it barely illuminated. A line of beds filled both sides of the room with chests placed at the end of each of one. A couple of desks with wooden plates and utensils alongside the ever present green and ember bottles containing the liquor of choice among soldiers were found not too far away. The last few pieces of furniture were a table with a couple of chairs and a weapon rack at the other end of the room. All in all, it was obvious that the place the soldier had pushed her in was some kind of barracks for the local garrison. “I think we are safe… well, as safe as we will get with that thing roaming around. Oh right, let me help you with those ropes,” the girl with the armor said as she took her sword out of its sheath and with a quick flick the ropes felt to the ground. Sunset Shimmer took a few seconds to massage her tender wrists and quickly cursed at the way she had been treated since she entered Skyrim. “Why did you help me?” was her only question as the rainbow haired girl took one of the torches from the wall. “What do you mean?” “According to your superior I am some kind of traitor to the empire and is supposed to be executed,” she said making some air quotations with her hands at the end of her sentence. “Yeah, what an excuse of officer I had… last I saw her she was charred to the bone,” Rainbow said with a slight grimace at the memory of the empire officer “look, you don’t look like a Stormcloak and you looked pretty much clueless the whole time, besides, have you ever committed a crime inside Skyrim?” Committed a crime? Yes, she had, inside Skyrim? That was another thing. “You guys arrested me as I was entering Skyrim for the first time, that’s the one thing I had been repeating those idiots the whole time!” “Well, there you go, consider it your non-official pardon, not that I believe people will start looking for you to chop your head… at least I hope so.” “Wait, that’s it? You’re alright with that? What makes you do something like that? I don’t get it!” “Look, I’ve been training since I can remember, probably since I was able to walk according to my mom, so I know when people can be trusted on a fight, call it a gut feeling, I just now. I mean, a friend of mine is really good at the whole interrogation thingy, but I don’t think you will try to kill me, at least not yet with that dragon outside, so come on.” “Sure, I will like to if I wasn’t practically naked beside these rags,” Sunset said still slightly surprised at the way she had been dressed for the execution. It was so unfair the way she had been treated by those guards. First they took her notes about Tamriel, they took her robes and the few coins she had been able to acquire for the travel to Skyrim. “Oh, yeah, that. Why don’t you take some armor while you are here?… I don’t think people will complain about it with the dragon, the deaths and all that.” “Wow, that was a little too dark, and I am a bitch,” Sunset said looking inside one of the chests. The first armor that she found was obviously one used by the scouts of the legion due to how light the thing was. It was basically made out of layers of leather with some parts of iron for the final touches. Lucky for her the armor seemed to have been made with a female in mind because it fit her, maybe not perfectly, but for something basically scavenged this was perfect. “I am still in shock over everything that has happened so far. Anyway, I never introduced myself, I’m Rainbow Dash.” “Sunset Shimmer, but you already knew that,” she answered back as she looked at the pair of legion standard swords on the wall. So far at that land, Sunset Shimmer quickly understood that it was quite smart to be armed all the time, but, being serious, there was no way things could get worse for her after that whole dragon attack. ----- Someday Sunset will have to learn how to not say those kinds of things. The whole fate tempting thing was too dangerous. First it was Stormcloak soldiers not caring about a truce or trying to survive together, even after Rainbow said over and over again they were not going to attack. Beyond the whole gang attack by those idiots, there were more cave-ins, fucking giant spiders and even a bear! Today had not been Sunset’s day, that’s for sure. At least Rainbow and she could breathe the fresh, cold air of the mountains while they watched the black dragon fly away. “Well, that happened,” Sunset said not knowing how to continue from that point. She had just survived the attack of a dragon, but here she was, at one destroyed town, with nothing except a couple of weapons and armor that she had took, with basically no money or items, she was basically screwed. “Yeah, look, maybe this whole thing didn’t start in the right way, but we survived. Hey, if you don’t have were to go, why don’t you come with me? The friend I told you about lives not too far away from here.” “Sure, why not? How long till we get there?” “Maybe an hour or two.” How Sunset hated not being capable of teleporting, she just hated this world.