Ch6: Beginning
It has been a good month since the attack on Ponyville, and Celestia doubted that discord and his cronies would ever be back. These assumptions were shattered when several oblivion gates and a great gate opened up in Canterlot.
“Guards, sound the alarms, get the civilians to safety!”
“Right away Princess!”
Canterlot was in chaos, deadra littered the streets, attacking everything. That wasn’t all; a giant metal contraption appeared from the great gate just on the outskirts of town. It shot fireballs, and demolished everything in its path.
“Princess, everypony is safe in the tunnels, what now?”
“Get them as far away from the city as possible, then we will deal with these things.”
“Yes pr-” the guard gasped and started kneeling forwards, the blade of a scythe was embedded in his back.
Celestia just stared at the creature in front of her. It was tall, around six feet, very muscular, and the details she could pick out from its shadow body, she could see it had two tusks forming from its lower jaw, and its face was contorted in an ever present hatred for everything. It took its scythe from the guard’s corpse, and spun it around, revealing another scythe at the other end.
“I’ll give you just five seconds to run runt, if you aren’t gone, then Sithis will have your soul in the void.” Celestia thought that if the thing was alive, its voice wouldn’t be as deep or foreboding, but she was shaking in her hooves from the power she felt from it, she telepathically told her sister to get the rest of the guards out, it was time to leave.
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Discord chuckled at Celestia’s weakness; he found it funny that the most powerful being in equestrian was afraid of a little shade. The now former ruler ran like a chicken, while he took his place on the throne.
“Such weakness, my deadra didn’t even get to bloody their blades. “
“Calm down Dagon, we will find more, soon, the real invasion will begin.” Discord was growing tired of their constant talking behind his back.
“So friends, when is the soonest we can begin the invasion?”
Sithis looked at Dagon, he nodded. Sithis took out a wicked looking gem. “Do you know what this is Discord.” He shook his head. “It is a grand black soul gem, my listener Grognack went and searched for it while we waited to get here.”
“What does it do?” Discord inquired. He stared at the gem, wondering why they would need it.
Dagon then struck Discord with his axe. “What was that for, and why can’t I move!?!”
“You re the next part of the plan Discord. In order for us to continue, we need power, and your immortal soul will be the perfect battery for the perfect black soul gem.” Dagon decapitated Discord's physical form, and his soul then was dragged into the gem, making it emit a hideous black aura.
“Can’t believe the fool didn’t see this coming.”
“It’s not over yet Dagon; we still have some loose ends to tie up.”
“Right, those two Princesses, the Argonians, and those elements. Why don’t I open a great gate over there and get it over with?”
“Because it wouldn’t stand a chance, your deadra are no match for two trained assassins and the power of these, elements, but my listener would make quick work of them, one by one.”
“Fine, send the shade, hope the Orc has fun.”
Sithis nodded to his listener, who left the throne room. He summoned his steed Shadowmere, and rode off towards his next contract.
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Lance was in deep focus. When he heard the news by Celestia and Luna, he knew it would only be a matter of time. He is an ordinary shadowscale, he is also a rare case, and he was born under two birth signs, the shadow, and the atronach. Since his magic doesn’t regenerate fast enough, he must store it. A special necklace that he stole from a noble in High Rock ensured that his magicka well was deeper than an Akiviri tomb.
Concentrating helped him build his power, but he was starting to get distracted by something galloping in his direction. It was heavy, and he heard a loud neigh, he recognized it. He quickly ducked down, narrowly missing being cut by a scythe. His suspicion was true, but he never thought he would have to fight Grognack again.
“I thought you would have given up on killing me back in Morrowind.”
“You got lucky you sack of filth, but since I know you don’t have a mountain to drop on my head, your death will be quick.” He spurred his horse and charged again. Lance didn’t have anything with him other than his dagger to fight off Grognack, and he was only in his scale armor too, when the damn Orc died, he was wearing Deadric.
Lance rolled to the side, and decided to try and make this fair. He sliced one of Shadowmere’s front legs, the horse toppled forward, and disappeared into a cloud of smoke, launching Grognack forward, smashing his face on a rock. He got up, now there is only one thing scarier than Mehrunes Dagon was during the Oblivion Crisis, and that is a pissed off Orcish Listener with muscles like a dragons.
“No more games, time to send you to the void.” He charged again, yelling the standard Orc battle cry. He swung the scythe like a reaper would, and nearly sliced Lance in half. He had to keep dodging, there was no way he would be able to get close to Grognack, he was too skilled with that scythe.
Lance got a great idea just then; he would try to steal one of Grognack’s backup weapons. He rolled backwards, picking up sand along the way, and when Grognack was lining up a swing, he threw it. Lance took his chance when the Orc was slightly dazed, he rolled forward grabbed his sword, and rolled out before he got a scythe to the back.
“Insolent little wretch, I will enjoy picking the flesh from your bones.” He charged again, and then Lance blocked, while locked up with the assassin, he took a good look at the blade. It was jet black, and looked hungry, if a weapon could do that. It emitted a purple haze, and seemed to burn through Grognack’s scythe, but he saw it too, and kicked Lance backwards. “Not even Umbra will save your hide.”
Lance felt power he never had before coming from Umbra, he looked at Grognack, and time seemed to slow down as he charged. Lance took a defensive stance, as soon as the Orc readied a swing, Lance struck. He drove the blade deep into Grognack’s stomach, then brought the blade upwards, slicing the upper part of his body in half. The strangest thing happened though, instead of disappearing into a cloud of smoke, Grognack’s shadow form seeped into the blade, empowering it, and Lance at the same time. Grognack’s corpse lay on the floor, all the color returned to it, and bled as if he were alive again. Lance looted the scabbard from the body, and sheathed the dark sword.
“Good job, but did you really have to use that sword?” his sister appeared behind him; he nearly unsheathed the damn thing and killed her.
“You show up at the worst times. Did Sheogorath arrive yet?”
“The portal opened up, but it seems that he won’t be present until tomorrow, some fellow named Haskill said that the Mad God needed some time to ‘prepare’ for a grand entrance, whatever that means.”
“Let’s get going then, don’t want to leave him waiting.”
“From what I heard, I would rather not even see him; I’ll be out of sight while he is here.”
“Suite yourself.” With that, Lance left his sister in the clearing, to go and great Haskill, and wait for the mad God to make his big entrance.
To be honest, Swift didn’t like the mad god, even though her grandfather was his champion once. She turns away from where her brother was heading, and walked, she had her own preparations to finish.
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Everyone, excluding Swift, was looking expectantly at the portal to the Shivering Isles. It seemed as though Sheogorath wouldn’t come, but then his guards marched through the portal, one side had the Dark Seducers, the other had the Golden Saints. On a raised platform being carried by servants, was Sheogorath, in his customary two colored suite, and balancing his cane on his right hand.
“Well hello mortals, it nice to see you again, oh, and you too celestial. Is your mother still around, we still need to have tea and talk about the rights that my subjects have in this realm.”
Sheogorath reminded Celestia of Discord, in a more, controlled way. He didn’t seem dangerous, no chocolate milk raining cotton candy clouds, or other chaos going on. Something finally clicked in her head, discord, how could she have forgot about him. “As you can see, she is no longer with us. We would give you a formal welcoming, but it seems that we are at war, and don’t have time for it. Discord could also show up at any moment.”
“You don’t need to worry about him, Dagon and Sithis trapped him in a grand black soul gem, he won’t be a problem, but the other too, they are bad news. No fun either, I remember a wonderful Deadric gathering that Dagon ruined by bringing one of his siege machines to the party. Boy, did Molag have a mess to clean up after that! Okay now, what were we talking about?”
“The aid you said you would give…” Celestia was annoyed at how off track he got. Then, a certain blue mare with a screw for a cutie mark ran up to Sheogorath, jumped on him, knocked the platform into the dirt, and proceeded to lick his face. The guards who were supposed to restrain her stared in shock, then started backing away, fearing the worst.
“Down girl down, sheesh, I was in mid thought there for a moment. Wait, I remember you, your family was the one left behind in my last visit.” All he got was an excited bark from the pony. “Good to know, now, those reinforcements will be here in a day or two; it takes a while to make a portal to another world.” Celestia sighed with relief. “Now, on to some personal matters, there is an Argonian I need to see, I have armor to give to him.”