//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Sky Guard You, Kuhnviid // by Shadow Lord Malice //------------------------------// Celestia was not happy. Today was the wedding of her niece, Cadence, with the captain of the royal guard, Shining Armour. The wedding had been going perfectly, until her faithful student Twilight Sparkle burst in and halted it, declaring the bride a fake. Twilight had been going on like this since the preparations and rehearsal, and Celestia was deeply disappointed in her student's actions and words regarding Cadence. That is however, until another Cadence appeared through the doorway, much to everypony's shock. The Cadence on the alter then revealed herself to be a changeling, the queen of them to be precise. queen Chrysalis then admitted to her plan of hosting an invasion on Canterlot, then Equestria, to enslave Celestia's subjects and use their love for food. Well Celestia was not going to stand by and let it happen. Confronting Chrysalis, the two locked horns, initiating a one on one duel. Celestia took to the air, while Chrysalis remained on the ground, both firing beams of concentrated magic, aimed at the opponent's horn as to disable further magic use. The two attacks collided, and it began to look as if Celestia would win, only for Chrysalis to turn the situation completely around and successfully overpower the alicorn and strike her horn, bringing down Celestia, this is where we find ourselves now. "Hahahaha, Shining Armour's love has made me more powerful than ever before." Boasted the changeling queen in her distorted voice. Twilight immediately rushed to her teacher's side, trying to help the downed alicorn. "Go, Twilight. Gather your friends. You must retrieve the Elements." Celestia ordered the unicorn, who nodded and rushed out the door with the other element bearers. Once again Chrysalis let out a cruel laugh. "Oh they can try, but they'll never make it. My minions will see to that. Anyway, I'm not done with you yet, oh mighty solar princess." "What do you mean?" Celestia ground out as she tried to get up off the floor, only for a bright green magical blast to smash into her side, slamming her against a wall. "What I mean is, merely restraining you may not be enough. I need a more... permanent means of removing you." "You wouldn't dare kill me." Celestia snarled as she attempted to rise to her hooves despite the pain she was in. "If you do, you would-" "Yes yes, throw Equestria into complete jeopardy due to having no control of the sun." Chrysalis interrupted, rolling her eyes in exasperation. "Do you honestly think I'd do something so stupid. If I were to kill you now, the sun would go out of control and burn the world before we could reign it back in. I was thinking of something else, something you did once in a similar situation." "What situation would that be? I've never initiated invasion, nor caused war of any kind." "Perhaps not, but I wasn't talking about those kinds of situations. I was referring to your little sister's temper tantrum over going unloved. Sibling bond aside, you couldn't kill her due to causing the moon to go completely unstable, so you did the next best thing." "So, you're planning to banish me?" Said Celestia as she managed to stand. "And how, pray tell, do you plan to achieve that? I control a celestial body, the power you would require to contain me would be more than you could possibly conjure." Chrysalis laughed at this. "Well, princess, all that power of yours certainly didn't stop me from laying you down in one blow." She retorted mockingly, then struck Celestia with another blast of magic, sending the solar princess sprawling to the ground. With another mocking laugh, Chrysalis strode over to the battered alicorn. "Ah, right where you should be Celestia, groveling at my hooves." Chrysalis laughed out, then to further insult the downed princess, she shape shifted into the alicorn. "Besides, you're right. Banishing you to the sun would require imprisoning you with locks and seals much too potent for me to even begin to achieve, and banishing you out of the country would do nothing. However, who said anything about imprisoning you, hmm?" "What do you plan to do then?" Celestia growled out, causing Chrysalis to laugh in a tone of cruelty, which was unsettling to hear considering who she had changed into. Chrysalis then disengaged her transformation, emerald flames wreathing her and burning away the disguise. "Well, since you asked so nicely I suppose I can tell you. I'm not banishing you from Equestria, I'm banishing you from Equus outright." At this, Celestia was confused. "What do you mean?" She asked the changeling queen, who snickered. "What I mean is I'm going to throw you out of reality itself. You won't be dead, so the sun will remain stable. As for moving it, well, unicorns did it before you took over the job Celestia, so it won't be much of a stretch to say we changelings can figure it out." "Throw me out of reality? What you claim is impossible, changeling. Not even the greatest minds of Equestria could figure out how to do such a thing." Chrysalis' grin grew ever so slightly at this. "Well then, I just have to prove you wrong." She said, then turned to several of her changeling drones. "Prepare the array." She commanded, and the drones leaped to work, using their magic to begin creating an array of runes. "I won't let you!" Screamed Cadence, who had been forgotten for the moment, and she rushed to stop the changelings from completing the runic array. "Restrain her." Commanded Chrysalis in a bored tone, and using her magic, grabbed Cadence and flung her against the wall. Three drones then bound her to the wall with a green resin. "Now now Cadenza, wait your turn. After Luna has been dealt with, I'll then deal with you." She said. A drone then flew before the queen, bowing in respect. "Your majesty, the array is ready." It buzzed out, causing Chrysalis to grin darkly. "Marvelous. Move Celestia into the array." Bowing once more, the drone rounded up his companions and together, lifted a weakly thrashing Celestia and placed her in the center of the array. Chrysalis' grin got wider, and her horn ignited with bright green magic. "Now Celestia, let me explain what will happen. The array you are in amplifies whatever spell I cast into it tremendously. I'm going to cast a powerful portal spell, which normally warps beings that pass through across long distances. The array however, will allow me to open a portal into dimension itself, and I'll cast you within." Soon, Chrysalis' horn was completely charged with potent magic, and with but a thought, she released the built up power into the array. The runes began to glow, and a ring of viridian fire surrounded the outside of the array. Soon, the glowing runes twisted and converged into the center, opening what could only be described as a black hole. Soon, golden energy began to expel from the ivory alicorn and be sucked into the gaping void of the portal, and the flames rimming the circle closed in. "I swear to you Chrysalis, I will return. I don't care how long it takes or what I must do, I'll be back. And when I get back, there will be tartarus to pay. You may have won this day, but I will be back. So make no mistake, enjoy the time you have, for when I return, the dawn of that day will break in flames!" With that, the flames covered Celestia and dragged her down into the black abyss of the portal. Once it was accomplished, the fire vanished, leaving nothing behind. "Hahahaha, goodbye to you as well Celestia, and I can assure you, we will never meet again." Said Chrysalis. Just then the doors were opened, and the six element bearers were brought into the room, captive to the changelings, and without the Elements of Harmony. Cadence could only look away; they had lost. A void of infinite darkness, that was the only way Celestia could describe wherever she was. Throughout this void were pinpricks of light, like the stars of the night sky. Celestia had no means of movement, all she could do was drift uncontrolled through the vast expanse of darkness. As she moved, she realized that the pinpricks of light were actually large spheres up close, though every time she came near one, an invisible force would push her away, setting her adrift into a new direction entirely. The time that passed could have been seconds or eons, Celestia had no idea, when suddenly she was being pulled towards an orb instead of being repulsed by it. Faster and faster she moved, until she was rocketing straight towards the target orb. Having no idea what to expect, Celestia braced herself, and was swallowed into the orb with no resistance. In what could have been an instant or an age, the blinding light retreated, and Celestia slammed into the ground hard. The sudden sensation of pain from the impact and the freezing temperature of the snow she had landed in nearly drove her unconscious, and she slid across the snowy ground, coming to a rest at the lip of a ledge that her head hung over, allowing her to see that it was a very long way to the bottom. She then heard voices, though she was unable to make out anything, and soon she was struck by extreme exhaustion, that compounded with her pain began to drive her into dark unconsciousness. the last thing she felt before the darkness overtook her, was the feeling of something strange and warm touching her. The sun was slowly retreating below the horizon, it's rays painting the land below a myriad of reds, oranges, and violets. Upon the highest peak of the world stood the warrior known to the people below as the Dragonborn. Clad in armour designed by the greatest smiths of tamriel, the Orcs, the warrior was a dark imposing figure in the twilight. Strapped on his back was a wicked looking two handed battle axe, crafted from the same metal as his armour, fine orichalcum. If one looked closely, the weapons and armour appeared to be faintly glowing with an inner light, signifying the items to be enchanted. Though the warrior's helm obscured their face, the eyes were still visible. They were the colour of honey, a brilliant golden brown, and seemed to glow with an inner fire. Standing atop the highest mountain in Skyrim, with a blizzard howling around them, one would think the warrior would be freezing, but the warrior did not even so much as twitch. The blood of their ancestors flowed through them, and their people had made this land their home for millennia, the cold was nothing to them. The Dragonborn currently stood before the master of they Greybeard monks, a being whom had taught mortals the Thu'um, whom had helped overthrow the tyranny of the world eater himself, the ancient dragon Parthuurnax. The ancient dragon had asked the warrior a deep question, why did they wish to fight Alduin? The Dragonborn had answered to this that they liked their world the way it was and would fight to stop it's destruction. Even if it was destined for destruction they would fight tooth and nail to change that destiny. Parthuurnax was satisfied by the answer, and soon the Dragonborn asked for the shout that could defeat Alduin. Unfortunately the ancient dragon could help little with that, for only mortals could learn and use the shout. However, Parthuurnax told the Dragonborn of Alduin's first defeat, that the nords of old used the power of an elder scroll to banish Alduin into the currents of time itself, and by doing so shattered time in the area of effect. "If you could bring back the kel that was used to banish Alduin, it would resonate with the time-wound and allow you to 'look back' to it's origin." "Do you know where this scroll is?" The Dragonborn asked. "Krosis, I do not. Much of my time has been here. I am, such to say, ignorant, of the world below." Answered Parthuurnax, causing the Dragonborn to curse. So much for things being easy. "However, perhaps Arengir may know." Finished the dragon. "Very well. I shall defer to Arengir. Thank you, Parthuurnax." Said the Dragonborn, when suddenly the time wound began to pulse and ripple, catching the undivided attention of the two. It came as a huge shock to both of them when something flew out of the rip in time and smashed against the ground, sliding across the snow and coming to rest at the lip of the summit. "By the nine, What was that!" Exclaimed the Dragonborn, Rushing over to the strange creature, and placing a bare hand on it to check for signs of life. The Dragonborn let out a breath of relief when they felt the thing breathing, but it was something they had never before seen. Pulling the creature away from the ledge, the Dragonborn examined the odd animal. It looked very much like a horse, only it was much smaller than any found in Skyrim, smaller than any horse used in Cyrodil as well. It's coat was an ivory white, and it's mane was strangely a bright pink. The biggest things though, were the pair of wings furled at it's sides, and the long conical horn jutting from it's head. "Tiin hakvith akroth!" Exclaimed Parthuurnax when he saw the creature. "How in mundus did a Kuhnviid get here?" "A Kuhnviid?" Asked the Dragonborn in confusion, having never heard of such a creature before. "Just as we Dovah are the children of Akatosh, Dovahkiin, the Kuhnviid are the children of Kynareth." Explained Parthuurnax, causing the Dragonborn's eyes to widen. "Krazah ahk marr, this makes no sense. How could a Kuhnviid appear in Tamriel, through the time wound of all things." Then Parthuurnax noticed something. "And I know for a fact that no Kuhnviid have any sort of mark depicted on their flanks." The Dragonborn looked to the Kuhnviid's flank, and saw a depiction of the sun. "What should we do then?" The Dragonborn asked. "Take her down to the Greybeards. When the Kuhnviid awakens, shout for me, and I shall come. I will speak to her, and hopefully shed some light upon this strange occurrence." With that, Parthuurnax took to the air and descended the mountain to hunt. Sighing, the Dragonborn got to work, and lifted the Kuhnviid off the ground. While she was lighter than any horse had any right of being, she was still quite heavy. "Oh, curse that dragon's gnarled hide, you could have stuck around to help first you old coot!" The Dragonborn hollered to the winds, and began the long painful trudge down to the monastery.