Nadene looked up at the castle with starry eyes. It was beautiful, and it was huge! The whole city, for that matter, was amazing. Colorful, luxurious buildings on every corner, and fancy decorations hung in ever window. She got lost in it's beauty for a moment before Golam brought her back to reality.
"Snap out of it, Nadene! We're on a mission if you forgot." Golam said coldly.
"Ugh, yes sir. I just wish we could enjoy the town more!" Nadene faked a pout.
Golam sighed. "There'll be time enough for that once we've gotten rid of all our obstacles. I'm not sure how we got inside this city unnoticed with all the guards around, but you two need to get up to that castle and find that idiot of a Breton."
"I don't see why we should bother. He only get's on our nerves anyway." Halius said sourly.
"Yes, but he is the only one of us capable of opening the way back to our world. Let's just hope he can keep that cocky mouth of his shut." Golam retorted. "Go, you two. I'll get the guards riled up while the two of you get in and find him."
Halius nodded, and he and Nadene ran off towards the castle. Golam gave a evil grin as he and the nine pegasi ran out into the open. He looked around and already five guards had spotted him.
"Okay, how DID we get in without being noticed? These ponies are everywhere!" He thought as the approached.
"Hold it right there! You are under arrest! The Princess has given orders that no two-legged creature except Ra'zaan is allowed in the city! You're coming with us!" One guard announced. "All of the pegasi with you are to be detained as well."
"Is that so? Well, if you think you can take me by force, I'll gladly come with you!" Golam laughed maliciously as he and the pegasi charged at the guards.
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Halius and Nadene ran silently through the streets of Canterlot. Nadene had training from the thriving Dark Brotherhood* in the province of Skyrim, and Halius had training from the Thieve's guild in Cyrodill, so they could both easily hide in the shadows. They passed within two or three feet of guards without even being noticed. In no time at all, the two mages reached their destination. Halius looked at the front gate. Four guards sat at the gate, two more at the front door, and several others we scattered throughout the front courtyard.
"We'll have to find ---" Halius started.
"...Another way in? This way!" Nadene finished his sentence for him, then darted along the wall that was the fence enclosing the castle.
Halius hurried off after the excitable Dark Elf, hoping she knew what she was doing. They came to a dead halt and looked over the wall into the side courtyard. There were still too many guards, and the duo continued their sprint. They came to the back of the castle wall and again looked over it.
"Two guards at the door, and two more patrolling the courtyard..." Halius described the area.
Nadene giggled a little. "I can see perfectly fine thanks, old man! Oh, and you missed the one directly below us..."
Halius, froze, and slowly looked down at the ground... directly into the eyes of a guard. The unicorn guard started to sound an alarm, but Nadene was too quick for him. Within seconds she had him flat on the ground, out cold.
Halius just stared at the scene in front of him. "Nice job..." He said slowly.
None of the other guards seemed to notice the commotion, and instead continued their patrols.
The duo looked at each other before nodding and splitting off in different directions. Nadene dealt with the two patrolling guards the same way she'd dealt with the first, and Halius stealthily moved in on the two at the door. He slipped behind them and slammed the guards' heads together, putting them out cold instantly.
"That was easier than I thought!" Nadene smiled.
"These guards are nothing compared to the guards in Cyrodill." Halius grinned. "I swear, those guards had a sixth sense! They knew you'd done something even if no one was there to see you do it!"
"I know! Those guys were horrible! I couldn't get away with anything without having to pay them off!" Nadene laughed.
Halius suddenly remembered why they were there. He looked up at the castle. Searching something that big could take hours, and Golam could only hold out for so long before he would have to pull out. Halius looked at the moon. By where it was in the sky, It was about midnight.
"Nadene, all joking aside, can you sense Kynan's energy?" The high elf asked.
"Hmm? Let me check." She focused her attention and searched for Kynan's aura. "That's strange... I can't find him anywhere..."
"Ysura did say she had seen him in a sphere of magic... Maybe that's interfering?"
"Possibly. But that means we'll have to search the castle for him. You know the detect life** spell, right Halius? Nadene asked.
"Yes. Give me a minute..." Halius said as a red light appeared around his hands. "The spell only works on me, so your going to have to trust me."
"Well, of course! I can't really work with you if I don't trust you!" Nadene said happily.
Halius smiled. Nadene always had a cheerful attitude, no matter what the situation was. "Alright, here goes nothing! The High Elf said.
The High Elf's hands lit brightly for a moment, and his eyes turned solid black. They cleared and went back to normal a few moments later, and he looked up at the castle.
"There are... Several life-signs walking through the halls... Probably more guards... Two large signs in the towers... A room with... Nine-life signs... and right next to that... Got 'em!" Halius yelled louder than he meant to.
"Oooooh, what did you find?!" The Dark Elf asked curiously.
"In the room next to the nine signs, I see two. Both humanoid figures... Oh no... That means..."
"We get to see Mr. Cat again? Great! We still have so much to talk about!" Nadene said with a big smile.
"Nothing scares you... does it?"
"Nope! Now come on! I can teleport us to the floor they are on. From there, you lead the way!" Nadene smiled.
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Ra'zaan sat in the holding room with Kynan. The only problem was, he was asleep.
"Heh, stupid cat passed out after dinner. Well, guess I better try to find a way out while I can..." Kynan mused in his head.
He searched the sphere up and down, but found absolutely no flaws he could take advantage of. He attacked the side of it with kicks and punches, but the Breton didn't even scratch his magical prison.
"Damn, how the hell am I gonna get out of this? I can't use my magic or I'll wake that damn Khajiit... Kynan couldn't take being in the bubble much longer.
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Nadene landed in a hallway, with Halius right behind her. She glanced around. No pony was anywhere nearby. The duo saw doors lining the hall, but Halius had a pretty good idea which door was the one they were looking for. He walked up to it, and whispered to Nadene.
"Here we go, this should be it...be quiet now..."
The High Elf cracked the door open, and his eyes laid on nine sleeping ponies. He shut the door as quickly and as quietly as he could.
"Yeah... Wrong door..." He said shakily. "That means it has to be this one over here..." He walked over to the door next to the first. He turned and looked at Nadene, who nodded uneasily. He opened the door slowly.
"Well, about time you got here..." A familiar voice said quietly.
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Golam was having a blast. The Dark Elf and the pegasi he had under his control were causing all sorts of chaos. Wave after wave of guards showed up, and Golam welcomed each group with malicious joy. He held a bound bow*** in his hand and stood in the center of the battle while having the pegasi fly around and keep the guards at a distance. One pegasus in particular kept Golam entertained. The gray-coated, golden-maned pegasus he'd watched tumble before they left Ponyville was giving some of the guards a really hard time. The Dark Elf only now realized she had a picture of bubbles on her flank. She was dropping random objects on the guards from the sky.
"Get the creature! Ignore the pegas -- ahhh!" One guard exclaimed before having a heavy-looking crate on his head.
Golam, meanwhile, was firing arrows like a mad man, missing almost every shot but making the guards lose focus. He wasn't missing accidentally. He was trying to hold their attention so none of them left to get reinforcements from the castle. Golam wasn't worried about himself, he was worried about his subordinates being found too early. His battle wasn't going as well as he'd hoped, though, as five of the pegasi had already been subdued.
"Well, you guards aren't as weak as I'd first imagined! Looks like I'll have to work a little bit harder!" The mage smiled darkly.
Golam dispelled his bound bow and his hands sparked with electricity. He looked over at the gray pegasus mare and called her over while the remaining three battled with a little over a dozen guards.
"We aren't going to be able to hold out much longer here, Miss. Let's give 'em hell, alright?" Golam handed her an elven dagger. "By the way, what is your name?"
"Okay! And ponies just call me Derpy or Ditzy! I don't care which one you use!" Derpy said happily, although her eyes were still dull from being under the control spell.
With that, Golam turned back to the guards with the gray pegasus, and saw that the other three pegasi had been defeated and tied up. "Ah, well. They fought pretty hard even though they weren't soldiers." The mage thought to himself.
"Do you surrender now, or must we take you in by force?" A guard asked.
"I'm sure by this time, you already know the answer to that." Golam retorted.
The guards charged at the two that were left standing. Derpy flew directly into the group of guards slamming into one and knocking four others back in a domino effect. Golam, meanwhile, attacked with quick blasts of lightning from his hands, hitting guards left and right to try to keep them from capturing his last fighter. Derpy flew out of the crowd and dive-bombed another guard, knocking him to the ground. The guards were losing, and badly.
"I might just grow to like that little pegasus. She can really move!" Golam thought happily to himself. He was starting to want to keep Derpy around.
Another guard showed up quietly and readied himself to attack Golam. He crept closer and closer to the Dark Elf, sword drawn. Golam never even saw him. Someone else did.
"Look out!" Derpy screamed, knocking Golam out of the way and getting hit with the sword herself.
"What the hell? Ditzy!" Golam yelled. He ran over as fast as he could to where the guard was standing and grabbed the stallion's head with both hands. He then sent electricity from his hands into both sides of the guards head, frying him and killing him instantly. Afterwards, the mage ran over to Derpy. "Ditzy, are you alright?"
"I'm okay! Wait, no, not really... my side really hurts..." She said painfully. Her side had a long slice down it.
Golam did his best to heal the wound with a healing spell, but it wouldn't seal the cut completely. He stood up and looked over at the group of guards he'd been toying with. He didn't know why this one pegasus got to him the way she did, but one thing was certain. He wasn't just going to toy with these stallions anymore.
"I'm done playing now. I hope you're happy, you little bastards." The malicious happiness that had been in his eyes had dispersed, and rage replaced it. "I'm going to enjoy this." He said angrily.
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"So the Khajiit is out cold, huh? Why don't we just kill him now and avoid another fight with him?" Halius asked in a low whisper.
"Because, on the off chance we wake him, there won't be any way we could get out of here! You should have seen it when they brought me in! There were guards literally everywhere! Just get me out of this damn thing, please." Kynan said quietly.
Nadene walked up to the sphere and examined it. "I'm not really sure how to get him out... This took some mastery level magic..."
"Then take me and the sphere with you! I just want to get out of here!" Kynan raged louder than he'd meant to, but Ra'zaan still slept.
"Hmm... that isn't going to happen. It would slow us down way too much. Maybe we could try to dispell it with counter-magic? Halius pondered.
"Maybe... We should both try at the same time though. Here goes nothing." Nadene said.
The duo's hands began to glow and the elves pressed them to the sphere. A very loud bang rang out and the sphere shattered in a magical explosion. The three mages recovered as fast as they could and tried to make for the door, but Ra'zaan, who had woken up by this time, was standing in their way.
"Well, that's the last time I fall asleep on the job!" The Khajiit smiled, drawing his glass dagger out.
"You think you can fight three of us on your own?! You must be out of your mind, Cat!" Kynan laughed.
"No, if I tried to fight you three alone I'd probably be killed. But with backup..." The Khajiit grinned as Twilight and friends showed up behind them.
"How did they get in? Guards were everywhere!" Iron asked.
"Training in stealth is easy to come by in my world." Ra'zaan answered. "Now what will you do, mages?"
"Hold on, you two! I'm getting us out of here before things get ugly!" Nadene said, readying a teleport spell.
"Oh, no you don't! You're not getting away again!" Ra'zaan yelled as he charged at the group with Rainbow close behind.
Ra'zaan grabbed Nadene's wrist and Rainbow tried to tackle Kynan, but all five of them vanished as the teleport spell finished.
"Where'd they go? We've got to go after them!" Iron ran to where they just were.
Twilight knew what had happened. "They got caught in the that woman's teleport spell as they tried to leave."
"Well? What're we waitin' for? Let's go git our friends back!" Applejack yelled.
"And how exactly do you suppose we go about doing that? We have no idea where they went! We don't even have a general direction!" Rarity said.
"Everyone calm down. I'm going to go inform the Princess on what's happening. Everypony else should split up and search the city. She couldn't teleport too far with five people, so they should still be in Canterlot." Twilight said calmly.
"You heard her, girls! Let's go find Ra'zaan and Dashie!" Pinkie screamed happily.
Applejack and the Captain started off with the group, but Twilight called over to them.
"Oh, no. You two stay here, you need to rest up!" The purple pony said.
"Well, it was worth a shot Ah guess..." Applejack said as she and Iron trotted lazily back into their room, knowing that Twilight wouldn't take no for an answer.
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Halius, Nadene and Kynan all landed on a street in the city with Ra'zaan and Rainbow Dash. All five of them looked on in horror at what they saw playing out in front of them. Dozens of guards lay on the ground, many dead or dying from scorch marks inflicted by Golam's lightning magic.
"Golam?! what the hell are you doing? I thought you weren't going to kill anything!" Halius was dumbstruck by what he saw in front of him.
"Why? So they'll just have more soldiers to fight us with? I'm going to kill them all!" Golam tried to make that his excuse, but behind it he was just venting after Derpy had gotten hurt saving him from a sword to the back.
Suddenly, the fact that Ra'zaan and Rainbow had been teleported with them was recognized. The three mages jumped away from the two enemies.
"Golam, sir! Our mission is complete! We've got to get out of here!" Nadene exclaimed. "I'll hold them all off! You get Kynan and Halius back to Ponyville!" Nadene said confidently.
"You sure, Nadene? Alright, you two, let's go!" Golam looked at Derpy on the ground. "They'll be better equipped to fix her up. I can't carry her and get out of here anyway." He thought as he and the other two mages took off towards the town exit.
"Guards, go after them! We can handle this woman!" Ra'zaan yelled as he drew his katana in his right hand and his glass dagger in his other.
Two guards ran over and picked up Derpy's unconscious body, and, together with some of the other guards, carried her and the other pegasi towards the castle. Ra'zaan, Rainbow, and Nadene were the only life left on the street.
"Looks like we get to fight after all, 'Kitty Cat'!" Nadene smiled darkly.
Ra'zaan cringed at the nickname he hated. "Careful what you wish for, girl. Ready, Rainbow?"
"Hay, yeah! I've been wanting a rematch with one of these mages since Kynan knocked me out!" Rainbow copied Nadene's dark smile.
Ra'zaan readied himself for a fight. He was going to enjoy this much more than he probably should.
TO BE CONTINUED
Dark Brotherhood*: Group of assassins that specialize in hiding in the shadows. The people in Skyrim and Cyrodill both fear and respect them, and they are called upon all the time to assassinate all sorts of people. They're even credited with assassinating the Emperor.
Detect Life Spell**: When used, this spell allows the caster to see faint red glowing lights even through walls. These lights are showing how many people or creatures are in a room, and where they are.
Bound Bow***: Spectral bow formed using conjuration. When this spell is used, one hundred arrows are also created for a short period of time.