//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7: This is familiar [remastered: v2.0] 
// Story: Equestrian scrolls I : epic pony tales 
// by Sanguine Eyes 
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This is familiar


Four times, Twilight had left Skyrim four times now. Once she went to Dagger fall, but that was just a quick trip just barely across the border. And again she crossed over just barely managing to make it to Bruma in Cyrodiil. Then finally she had made it all the way over to the Cynod who were all too eager to be able to see a magical flying purple unicorn, once there she gave a long and detailed lecture on Equestrian history and magic. Though all the attention was a bit overwhelming it was very flattering for her to have so many so eager to learn from her. However, the fourth time was planned so suddenly. She was driven all the way down into the Niben bay just outside Bravil. Their small boat made landfall on a small island with a very odd looking structure coming from it. Three conjoined faces, mashed together. The mouth in the middle was open wide but showed only bare stone within.

"Taara?...why exactly are we here?..." Twilight stepped out of the boat hopping up to the same level as the agape mouth. She had been asking that very question off and on for about four days but Taara would just avoid the question. Twilight was unsure if Taara was just being very discreet or if she was just being herself and teasing Twilight with the prospect of hidden knowledge.

"You remember the book I got you on Aedra and Daedra yes?..."

Twilight nodded happily, it was mind blowing the stories of this world's creation. The book lead her to hours and hours of entertainment and a fair amount of worry. Though now was not a time for a book party. "Yes... and judging by this statue up here, I assume your plan has something to do with the Daedric prince...." She hesitated remembering a certain somepony she knew that she was ALWAYS reminded of when she read anything to do with this dark God. "...Sheogorath...the mad God..."

Taara grinned and stood just a little taller. "Yes indeed...are you ready?" Taara chuckled as she pulled out a thickly wrapped item that Twilight could only guess to be a staff.

"Well sure but how is this statue going to get us into Oblivion Sheogorath doesn't even have access to Merunes Dagon's plain of existance....does he?" Twilight's mind bubbled but she resigned to the fact that she would have to just sit back and wait for the answer from Taara who as usual preferred to do things with a flare for the dramatic. Twilight was always patient, and spending time in this world had done many things to her, one of the more notable things was the fact that she learned to be patient with Taara which meant that she would have to wait days, and sometimes even months for an answer of something she was holding just for her own amusement, it was sometimes like dealing with Pinkie pie.

"This is not a statue... its a portal. A portal into Sheogorath's realm of existence, The Shivering Isles. Only..." She ground her teeth as she look over the three merged faces displaying an array of emotions at once. "Its been closed for a couple hundred years..."

Twilight sighed, Taara was a good friend but sometimes any world was too small for two magical introvert savants. But Taara always had her fair share of redeeming qualities, this was generally how Twilight had developed so much patience for the older woman. "Ok....so how are we going to get into Sheogorath's realm and why?"

Taara grinned happily unwrapping, revealing a dull gray color and an array of faces on three sides of the staff almost identical to the dead portal. Clacking the staff against the ground then giving it a twirl she cleared her voice. "With this, and because he has something we really really need..." She thrust the staff towards the open mouth of the three faced construct. "You see Twilight, this... is the Wabajack. It's a staff that Sheograth hands out to certain lucky fools who happen to stumble upon him and come out of the even while still in one piece...not turned inside out or with any extra limbs..."

Twilight cocked an eyebrow and held her gaze steady on Taara."Then how did you get it?..." 

"Me?...well its a....short but very odd story...suffice to say I once met Sheogorath...and he said something very peculiar. I did some research when I got back home and now that knowledge is paying off... or at least I hope it will be paying off." The Wabajack slowly began to melt with an intense dark glow. Bleeding its physical form, dripping down and flowing up like vapor for the dead doorway to consume.

"This doorway was shut by Sheogorath's will. And just like all other Daedric artifacts this staff too is constructed of a Daedric prince's blood and their own will. If Sheogorath's will can close the door it can open it too."

The melting staff bubbled and fumed as it began to flare magic. The same three faces the doorway showed were also displayed at the tip of the staff. The staff melted like a candle, tip first and only just barely melted past the eyes before the mouth of the three faced statue lit up with an eerie blue glow.

"Ha!....I told you. This arch mage is on the list!" She grinned a special grin that Twilight knew as the 'probably not a good thing smile'.

"List?" Twilight looked at her a little worried.

"Yes.. the rather short list of people who have successfully broken into Oblivion...and by the time this is done we are doing it again. At least once more." She chuckled and stepped through with a confidence that Twilight was and would always be jealous of. 

"Are you certain that's a good list to be on?" Twilight looked back for a moment at the boat. Almost no one knew where they were going or what they were doing for that matter. But even so , Twilight had waited years for this and was not about to chicken out now.

Hopping head first through portal Twilight landed splat on her face. Gently Alteration magic lifted her and set her carefully on all four hooves. "yeah...ALMOST as graceful as me. Now if the notes were accurate...I think this place is called the fringe..."

Taara started forward with Twilight close in tow. Almost no one even seemed to care that there was a small purple alicorn walking through the town following a mage. The few people who dotted the fringe certainly were used to the less than normal events.

"Twilight!...up there..." The old Breton's fingers aimed up a ram on the side of the small town towards the vast wall which seemed to be up to protect the town, or rather one spot at the base of the wall. 

"What? Is that wall where we are going to climb over?" She peeked around not seeing any other way out of the village.

"Twilight?" Taara waved a hand slowly.

"Yes?"

Taara lowered the hand to almost exactly Twilight's eye level then raised it, keeping it horizontal until it was level with her own eyes. 

Twilight flapped her wings a little hovering in place to see a set of doors on either side of a massive abomination of a creature. "Ohhhhh.... yeah, sorry. I have been a little irritable lately."

"I understand but you know as well as I do, at the foundation of any great mage is patience. Getting impatient wont get you home any faster."

Twilight grimaced landing softly. "I understand, its just been a little rough. Now then, how exactly do we get past that thing? I did in fact notice the giant walls around us. But I mean I do have wings, I can fly and I can probably get you over the walls too, but looking over the construction of this place, something tells me that we are not supposed to do that, and perhaps a certain God of madness would not be too keen on us breaking the hypothetical rules like that..."

"Indeed, we will have to get past the gate keeper, but honestly I doubt that even 100 of those things can stand up to both of us. Not to boast or anything but I am a living legend of magic and you are no chopped liver yourself. So lets go decimate that walking skin graph and enjoy a stroll through the islands."

Twilight nodded and calmly walked up the path coming to a stop before the great abomination. The ground all about was littered with the decaying and decayed bodies of all those who had tried in the past years. There was nothing new on the ground which made sense considering how difficult it was to enter, these bodies either belonged to the village below or more likely, just from a much older time when the gate was still open. But her mind burned with questions on how long ago it was closed vs how long the bodies had remained here with the thought that perhaps doors opened in other locations every now and again.

Twilight stood firmly staring up at the massive creature which paced to and fro with slow lumbering steps. It looked like it was stitched together from two dozen people and animated with Celestia knew what else. Taara came to rest next to her and with a bit of finesse her hand whipped out, a flame sparked up in it, her other hand came to her back and slid her staff off, twirling it gracefully in her fingertips she leveled it carefully at the massive monster. Twilight just smiled with a short bit of focus and the floor rumbled, the weapon of every failed warrior in their presence raised. Rusted, broken or preserved the swords, axes, spears, and bows all raised and aimed at the gate keeper. For those who could feel it, the display was also shown through an overwhelming flare of magica. But, that was when everything stopped going their way. Mere seconds before they instinctively decided to attack in unison, a skeever fell from the sky and splattered to its death four feet from them.

"Oh... damn." Taara's eyes stared at the sight as she grimaced.

Another landed six feet behind the gate keeper, then another and another then a full cow which exploded into cheese when it made contact with the ground. Taara sighed and stepped back  ready for literally anything. Twilight however just Grumbled. "It's not chocolate milk, but I am certainly getting a really strange sense of nostalgia..."

"yeah dont get too happy... it seems a certain Mad God has noticed us...."

As if on queue there was a burning blast of light within the raining skeevers and exploding cheese cows and there stood a well dressed old man, his eyes glared with an inhuman frightening power and with a thick accent he grinned wide and spoke

"Why helloooooooooooo mortals!"