//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3: Towards Canterlot 
// Story: The Elder Scrolls: Equestria 
// by Talvox 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 3: Towards Canterlot



Equestria wasn’t always a supercontinent, 
but after the Hellgiant... Well, look at Equestria now.


I woke up, feeling rested, and a lot less tired than I was yesterday before I fell asleep. I pushed the blanket off me, and got to my hooves. Even if sleeping on the ground wasn’t too comfortable, it’s better than nothing. I’m glad I at least had a sleeping roll. Lock Pick was still sleeping. I moved carefully out of my tent, so as not to disturb Lock Pick.

My stomach rumbled. I blinked, and realized I hadn’t had anything to eat in a day, except for the food I had before the Hellspawn attacked. I decided breakfast was in order. I undid the straps of my saddlebags and put them in my makeshift tent, wanting to save the food I had brought for until a more urgent time. If I used up all my food, then what would I have if I couldn’t get anymore? 

I moved into the marshy forest, and spotted a rabbit. I spread my wings, quietly, and then realized I forgot my sword back at the tent. I facehoofed silently, and then flew into the air, and pounced on the rabbit, and I wrung its neck. It died, and I had a rabbit to cook now. I moved back to the camp, and I found Lock Pick starting the fire.

“I found a rabbit,” I said, and showed her the dead rabbit.
“That’s a dead rabbit.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s breakfast.”
Lock Pick shook her head and continued with the fire.
“The fire should be ready to cook things in about 15 minutes.”
“Right. I’ll go and skin this rabbit.”

Lock Pick ignored me and continued with the fire. Maybe hunger affected her mood. I moved over to my saddlebags and fished the dagger out. I then found me a comfortable spot near the fire, and sat down on my haunches, and proceeded to skin the rabbit.

I held it still with my forehooves while I skinned the thing with the dagger in my mouth. Eventually I finished skinning the rabbit, and gave it to Lock Pick, who fashioned a spit out of an old branch, and stuck the rabbit on it. We sat in silence, waiting for it to cook..

“I’m going to find another rabbit or something,” I said, not able to stand just waiting for something to happen. I trotted off into the forest, my hooves clopping softly on the marshy ground. Eventually I spotted a fox. I spread my wings silently and flew upwards. I hovered silently above the fox, and then I dropped onto it.

I had kept the dagger because I realized it was stupid to go into the forest without a weapon. I slung the fox over my back, and began trotting back to the camp.

“The rabbit’s done!” Lock Pick announced when I entered the camp.
“I found a fox. I’ll get to skinning it,” I said, and took the rabbit Lock Pick offered me. I munched quietly on the rabbit, alternating between skinning the fox and eating the rabbit. After I finished skinning the fox, I gave the fur of the rabbit and the fox to Lock Pick, and then I put the fox on the spit. I started rotating the fox on the spit.

“Thanks for the furs!” Lock Pick said, and put them in her saddlebags. The fox finished cooking, and I pulled it off the spit. I cut out the bones with the dagger, and then split the fox between me and Lock Pick.

“Thanks for skinning the animals. I can’t stand to do it myself,” Lock Pick said, and began munching on the fox.

After we finished breakfast, Lock Pick did her thing and packed camp up in 3 minutes. She even put the fire out.

“How do you do that?” I asked.
“Do what?”
“You just packed up camp in 10 seconds. I blinked once and half of it was already packed up.”
“Oh that. I don’t really know. It only happens sometimes.” she said.
I facehoofed, and then asked, “Uh... let's go then?”
“Okie dokie lokie!” she said, and began trotting out of our clearing and onto the path. I galloped after her, trying to keep up.


* * * *


Eventually we came upon the town of Leyawiin, around noon. The journey had taken us 5 hours, and we were pretty tired.

“Let’s stop by the Inn first, before we go and see the blacksmith,” I told Lock Pick.
True to her character, she answered happily. “Okie dokie lokie!”

We entered an Inn, which was called the Black Claws Lodge. The Black Claws Lodge was full of occupants, ranging from Diamond Dogs to Earth Ponies. Even a few Thestrals were present. Then I realized that Leyawiin is rather close to Elsweyr’s border and that those mercenaries had wanted to take me to Elsweyr. 

I was kind of interested to see what anypony would want with me in Elsweyr, but then realized, that was a stupid idea. I could travel to Morrowind and try to stop that giant portal from being built, but I probably wasn’t able to do it by myself.

Not that Lock Pick wasn’t helpful, it’s just she seems more of a pony who wasn’t much of a fighter. I clopped over to the counter of the Inn, and asked, “Any good rumors lately?”

“Not much these days; oh wait, hold on, I remember hearing one of a civil war going on in Hammerfell,” the Bartender replied, an Earth Pony with a mead flask as his cutie mark. 

I nodded and returned to Lock Pick.
“I think we should head to Hammerfell after we modify my iron armor,” I told her.
“Awwww, but I wanted to see Canterlot!” she said with sadness.
“What’s in Canterlot that you want to see?” I asked, surprised.
“Lots of things!” Lock Pick replied, not really elaborating.
“Is there anything specific you want to see in Canterlot then?” I asked, internally facehoofing.

“I want to go and see the Empress!” Lock Pick announced. This attracted the attention of many of the ponies - and diamond dogs - inside the Inn. This time I actually facehoofed, not just internally. Eventually everypony went back to enjoying their drinks and conversing with one another.

“You want to go see the Empress?” I gasped. “What in Oblivion do you want to go see the Empress for?”
“I don’t know. I just really really really want to see the Empress!” 

By Luna, she doesn’t stop at anything, does she, I thought. It occurred to me, that the Empress was Celestia, Luna’s sister. She’d been living for a long time, nearly 1 and a half thousand years or something. Eventually Cyrodiil would be passed down to one of Celestia’s heirs.

“Weren’t we going to see the blacksmith?” Lock Pick asked me, and I was reminded of what we were doing here in the first place.
“Oh, right,” I said, then I turned to the bartender and asked where the blacksmith was.
“We don’t have one here. Sorry buddy.”

Dammit. I’d have to travel to a different town if I wanted modified armor. Maybe going to Canterlot wasn’t such a bad idea after all. If we were going to Canterlot, I could possibly barter for new and better armor, or just find it along the way.

“Well Lock Pick, I guess we’re going to Canterlot after all,” I said.
“You mean we weren’t going there before?” she asked.
“Uhm. We were going to Canterlot, after the blacksmith modified my armor, but apparently Leyawiin doesn’t have a blacksmith.”
“Oh, okay. I thought you implied that we hadn’t been going to Canterlot at all.”

I sighed, and exited the Inn, Lock Pick practically bouncing with excitement next to me. I had no idea what she was so happy about.

A pony knocked into me, rushing out of the Inn, and he apologized absent mindedly while galloping off into the opposite direction we were heading.

“Hey!” I shouted at him, but then gave it up, realizing it was a pointless task anyways.
“That was weird. I saw him slip something into your saddlebags!” Lock Pick said.
“Wait what?” I asked, and turned my head to look at my saddlebags.
“What in Oblivion…?” I muttered, snapping my saddlebags shut.
“You going to find out what he put in there?” Lock Pick asked, her head tilted at me while we trotted along the road that would lead us out of town.
“Later, when we’re out of town,” I told her. Lock Pick shrugged, in a way that told me that she could wait to see what the note said.


* * * *


Lock Pick and I had been walking down the road for a few hours, when we noticed a bridge, and somepony standing next to the bridge, with leather armor that told me he was probably a bandit.
“He’s going to try and rob us, I think,” I whispered to Lock Pick as we trotted along the road.
“What, really?” Lock Pick asked.
“I’m pretty sure, he just looks like somepony who would try and rob us.”
“Halt!” the Earth pony by the bridge shouted at us. We both stopped trotting, and stood still. I shifted my body around so he couldn’t see my sword, though he had probably already spotted it.

“You need a toll to pass this bridge,” He said with authority.
“That’s horseapples, and you know it, buddy,” I said.
“Yeah? Well, right here it says you have to by order of the Empress!” the Earth pony told me, though I possibly detected some shakiness in his voice. I looked at the paper he had pulled out of his saddlebags, and looked at the signature. It looked very, very sloppy.

“Wow! Celestia has REALLY bad hoofwriting. It’s like she’s never even used a quill before!” Lock Pick said, surprising me. The bandit pony stared at Lock pick, and so did I.
“I’m pretty sure the Empress can write better than that,” I said, and pulled my sword out. Lock Pick jumped back, away from me and the bandit, and pulled a dagger out.

The earth pony spat out the forged document, and said, “Alright fine, you chose to lose your life,” he said, but he sounded nervous. Apparently I was intimidating this pony.

The earth pony charged me, but I stood my ground, and parried his attack. I pushed his mace back with my sword, and turned around and bucked one of his forelegs. I felt some of his bone shattering behind the force of my bucking.

He staggered back, almost dropping his mace. I charged forwards, and decapitated the pony with a well placed sword blow. I trotted backwards, staggering slightly.

I had just decapitated somepony. I felt sick, and quickly sheathed my sword. I sat down hard, my head spinning.

“Terra Soul! Are you okay?” Lock Pick asked urgently, and rushed forwards next to me.
“I don't know, maybe?” I asked, then fainted.

When I came to, I was in a small clearing, lying on some furs.

“Where are we…?” I asked, dazedly. 
“We’re near the road,” Lock Pick said. “You were pretty hard to carry, so I dragged you into the forest.”
“Oh, okay…” I muttered stupidly.
“What happened?” I asked, regaining some of my senses.
“You decapitated somepony, staggered backwards, and fainted.”

My stomach lurched, and I remembered decapitating the pony. I had felt my sword slice through his neck bone, and it made me want to vomit.
“Oh Luna, I think I’m gonna be sick,” I said, then rolled over and vomited. I emptied my stomach, and found out that cooked rabbit and fox didn’t taste very good coming up as it did coming down.

“Are you alright?” Lock Pick fretted, after I had finished vomiting, and had stood up shakily.
“I think so,” I said weakly. I started trotting forwards, taking each step gingerly.

Luna have mercy on me, please don’t let me do something like that again, I thought. We reached the road, and I moved forwards to the dead pony. I stared at his neck, and blood was still seeping out of it. I almost vomited again, but I averted my gaze, and went to searching the pony for anything of use.

He had 400 bits, most of which probably weren’t his to begin with. He also carried a weak iron dagger, a couple of apples, and of course, his sword, which was inferior to mine.

“Let’s get going,” I said, realizing I had just swallowed down some bile. I looked up and away from the dead pony. Then I realized that nopony else should have to see what I saw. I gripped one of his back legs in my mouth, and began dragging him into the forest. 

I wretched, dropping the pony’s foreleg in the process, and almost vomited again, but managed to keep whatever was left in my stomach, inside. I bit into his foreleg again, and found a spot where nopony else would find him unless they went deliberately searching for something in the woods. His head, however, had rolled off to someplace I didn’t know, and I had no intention of finding where it had gone.

I left the thought out of my mind and continued trotting along the path alongside Lock Pick. Somehow, I felt closer to her. She had seen me in a weakened state, and she had cared for me, and had not run away, like I would’ve expected anypony else to do. I was gratified by that.

“You sure you can keep going?” Lock Pick asked me, sounding concerned.
“No, I’m fine.” I said, starting to trot along the path, albeit with gingerness. I wanted my stomach to settle before I started moving faster, and because of it, I figured we would reach Canterlot by nightfall at least. 

* * * *

My earlier prediction that we would reach Canterlot by nightfall proved false, but we had long passed the wooden bridge where I had… decapitated a pony. I still felt sick about it. My stomach may have settled, but my mind had not.

The sun hung low in the sky, casting long shadows over the dirt path. I saw Canterlot in the distance, the mountain it was built upon looking massive and ominous. Canterlot and its surrounding cities and towns used to be a single continent, but after a massive world-shattering event, other continents surged together into the supercontinent some refer to as “New Equestria,” but most of its inhabitants still refer to it as Equestria. 

This supercontinent formed after the hellspawn invaded the first time, with some form of portal which sent out a single Hellgiant, which stood around 200 feet tall, and pushed the continents together, forming our world as we now know it. It still boggled me that the Black Marsh used to be separated from the rest of the world, and that something was powerful enough to re-arrange continents, and force the inhabitants to claim their land again, remaking what were originally continents now provinces.

“Is that a fort in the distance?” Lock Pick asked, bring me out of my thoughts.
“Uh… Oh, I think it is, I’m not completely sure though,” I answered.
“It looks like it’s directly on the path to Canterlot. We might have to pass through it to get there.”

Oh. It was one of those forts.

“In that case, I believe it’s a bandit fort,” I said, with just a little bit of anxiety.
“Like the buck who tried to rob us back at the bridge?” Lock Pick asked.
“Yep. Like the buck who tried to rob us back at the bridge. Except there are at least 19 more of him in there.”
“Should we try to go around it?”
“No no, they’d know that we know that they’re bandits and would shoot at us. Let’s see if we can go through the fort.” I said, boldly stating my insane plan.
“Okie dokie lokie!” Lock Pick said, bouncing up and down along the path.

Even now, Lock Pick’s “I’m always happy! WOO HOO!” type of attitude still puzzled me. Though after the last two days, I’m not even sure how she could still keep this up.

As we approached the bandit’s (assumably bandits, I wasn't sure.) fort, one of the archer ponies called out to us.

“Halt! Remain where you are, and your hides will remain free of arrows.”

That was a relatively calm greeting, compared to the ones I had gotten from the Zebra slavers and Iron Shield. In the background, however, I saw a flash of magic, and saw an alicorn disappear from the tower.

I leaned over to Lock Pick and whispered, “They have an alicorn as their leader. It’s likely her magic will be more powerful than the magic the zebra slaver used.”
“I wonder if she’s telekinetic…” Lock Pick wondered.

She probably is, I thought to myself, awaiting the arrival of the bandit pony who would “greet” us.

“What are you doing here?” the lavender earth pony asked.
“We are travelling, heading to Canterlot,” I said. Lock Pick stood next to me, staying for the most part, quiet.
“We will escort you through our…” the lavender pony said, trailing off. 

I turned my head around to see what had distracted her, and saw a pegasus flying towards the fort pretty quickly, and looking out of breath. He had probably been flying along the path for the last two hours or so. The yellow pegasus pony landed on the tower, and disappeared.

Uh-oh. He found the bandit I killed back at the bridge.

I guessed right. An arrow flew past the lavender earth pony who was escorting us to the fort’s gate, and it buried it into my fur armor. My right shoulder bubbled with pain,  but the arrow hadn’t managed to bury itself too deep.

“RUN!” I shouted at Lock Pick, waving my hoof frantically for her to get away. Looks like I had to kill a fort’s worth of bandits. Oh boy. This was going to be fun.

I pulled the arrow out of my armor with my teeth, chucking it onto the ground, then pulled out my sword, crouching into a combat stance. The lavender pony who had been escorting me and Lock Pick was turning around to attack me, a small axe in her mouth, when I interrupted her movement, slashing my sword across her side, leaving deep cuts.

She fell to the ground, dropping the axe by her head. I jabbed my sword through her heart, killing the earth pony. Another arrow hit me, this time in my back. I was so very thankful for the fur armor I had acquired. If it wasn’t there, I would probably be paralyzed.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lock Pick flying up to the tower. I internally facehoofed, too busy to actually facehoof because of all the arrows flying past me She was insane! 

I spread my wings, and took off, knowing the gate would hold against my attempts at opening it through force.

I shot through the air, aiming to attack one of the archers, this one a magenta earth pony. I scored a hit, creating a gash along the stallion’s side, causing blood flow out of his side.

I turned around to fight the other archer, this one a grey unicorn. I rushed towards her, but she dodged out of my sword’s length. I flipped around in mid-air, still travelling backwards, though now a bit slower than when I was actually facing the right direction.

I flapped my wings and landed on the fort’s wooden ramparts to engage the unicorn archer in closer and more accurate combat than hit-and-run flybys. I charged the grey mare who was shooting arrows at me, ignoring the few that managed to pierce my fur armor, spurred on by adrenaline.

After I was within striking distance, I swung my sword, managing to cut a very shallow wound across the unicorn’s left forehoof. She stepped back, limping a little, pulling an arrow out of the quiver attached to her back, the previous arrow shooting past me, impaling itself in the now dead magenta earth pony. 

I flapped my wings, propelling me forward, and I drove my sword into the mare’s heart, causing her magic to fail, and drop the bow and the arrow she had been about to fire. The arrow shot out of the now unsupported bow, the originally aimed shot now going wild. If I had moved just a millisecond slower, the arrow would’ve gone through my skull.

I stood there for a second, eyes crossed. After regaining my composure, I shook my head and blinked rapidly, getting my eyes to face the proper direction again. All in all, I think I reacted pretty well to almost being shot through the head.

I saw a flash of green through one of the tower windows, and then a thump. 

Lock Pick! I pushed off with my hindlegs, sending me into the air, while using my wings to send me upwards to the top of the tower, ignoring the other bandits who were just climbing onto the fort’s ramparts to attack me. 

I landed on the tower, then located the stairs. I galloped down to help Lock Pick. Whatever the case was, I couldn’t leave my friend to die. I heard a BZZZAT! of electricity, and a scream of pain. I sped up, galloping down the stairs even faster.

I rounded a sharper corner that wasn’t the round shape of the tower’s fault, and I saw Lock Pick slumped up against a corner, twitching occasionally, some of the electricity still arcing through her.

“YOU BASTARD!” I yelled, charging the pale white alicorn who had killed my friend.
“Ah, I thought I saw another thestral attacking,” the alicorn said casually, spreading her wings in a majestic looking manner.
“You killed her!” slamming into the wall that the alicorn had moved away from, my head just a little bit dazed.
“Oh, I wouldn’t dream of doing that. I wanted to wait to see if you would come and save her first,”

Wait, what? Lock Pick was still alive? Having realized this, I jumped in front of Lock Pick to prevent any further damage to her.

“I’ll be killing two birds with one stone then,” the alicorn said in a ridiculously calm manner, a fireball forming at the tip of her horn.

In a desperate last attempt, I threw my sword at the alicorn. The alicorn’s eyes went wide, and stared down at her chest, which had my sword impaled inside of it. Her spell failed, the fireball dieing down, leaving a dead alicorn.

I turned over to Lock Pick, doing my best to fish out a healing potion to help her. After finding it, I opened her mouth, and emptied the potion, forcing her to drink. A few seconds later, Lock Pick spluttered, breathing heavily, her eyes fluttering rapidly.

“You’re okay now; I’ve killed the alicorn,” I said, pointing a hoof at the dead alicorn. I noticed my sword was still impaled in her chest. Lock Pick looked up at me thankfully, telling me with her eyes what words couldn’t express.

I helped her to her hooves, steadying her shaky body against mine. With a wing wrapped around her to help keep her steady, we trotted over to the dead alicorn so I could retrieve my sword.

I pulled it out, then sheathed it. It was at that point that I heard the rumble of hooves that told me that some bandits were charging up the stairs to us.

Well dammit. Lock Pick was too unsteady on her hooves for us to run out and fly off the tower, and I’m not sure how many bandit ponies there were. 

“See if you can find a bow, I’m going to do my best to fight them off,” I said, waving one of my hooves vaguely around the room.

“Okay, I’ll see what I can find,” Lock Pick answered, with uncharacteristic weariness. I pulled my wing back, and she limped away to find a bow or something to help me fight off the bandits who had so easily trapped us.

All I could do was hope that there weren’t very many of them. If I was going to make a last stand, I at least was going to make it so Lock Pick could escape. I grabbed a shield I saw that was hanging on the wall, fashioning it around my left forehoof, then trotted out of the room, preparing for anything.

I stood at the top of the landing, waiting. The rumble of galloping hooves was getting louder, and around the corner I saw one, two, three, four, five bandit ponies. 

Five wasn’t too bad, I thought to myself, before registering the pegasus that just turned around the corner, still looking out of breath from having flown all the way from the bridge to here.

…Dammit.

I readied myself into a combative stance. The first bandit tried slamming into me, but I pushed him back, using my sword to slice at his chest. He backed away quickly, but not before I managed to make a relatively deep cut across his chest.

Another swung a mace at my face, and I raised the shield I had found.

CLANG! The mace scraped across the shield, making a small trail of sparks. I lowered my shield and swung my sword at him, managing to score a gash across his face. He brought a forehoof to his face, wiping the blood out of his eyes, ignored the pain, and took a swing at me again. 

Ow ow ow ow. Pain exploded across my right flank. I was too caught up in the fight against the pony with the mace that I forgot there were 5 more ponies attacking at me. I turned to face the pony who had hit my side, only to find that nopony was there.

Damn pegasi.

I turned back to face the pony with the mace, only to find a pony holding a sword stood in front of me, her sword arcing towards my neck. I ducked and pointed my sword upwards, managing to parry the blow. Her sword glanced off of mine and I took a swing at her. My sword sliced across her neck, and she went down, a pool of blood forming around the dark yellow mare.

I lurched sideways, almost falling over onto the dead mare. Bad news, I think I broke one of my ribs, and good news is that I found the pony with the mace.

I staggered, fighting to remain upright, using my wings to help me. After a second or so of precarious balancement, I managed not to fall over. The pony with the mace was charging me, when an arrow hit him in the side of the head, killing him, and he slid towards me, stopping about a foot in front of me.

I looked around in bewilderment, and saw Lock Pick fitting another arrow into the shortbow she had found. She grinned at me, and fired another arrow out of the room, aimed for the pegasi, but it hit the wall instead.

Oh, right, the pegasus. He divebombed towards me, a feat which I thought impossible in a staircase, but apparently he had practice divebombing people in enclosed staircases. That’s not a skill I ever want.

I raised my shield at the last second, and he flew right into my shield. I pulled my shield away, to leave a dazed looking pegasus in front of me, then jabbed my sword through him, and he plummeted the remaining two feet to the ground, dead.

I pulled my sword out of the dead pegasus, and saw the remaining three bandits gallop towards me, for some reason just sitting there, watching the fight happen. I would never understand bandit logic, and I don’t think even the bandits understand it.

I charged right back, slamming one of them with my shield, and slashing another with my sword. The pony I had shield bashed staggered backwards, forgetting about the stairs and he tumbled down. The other pony had a deep gash in his side, and I bucked him over. 

Another arrow flew past me, and hit the third pony directly between the eyes. He faceplanted, the arrow shaft breaking, leaving the arrowhead buried inside his head. One bandit was left. I turned to face him, and he had murder in his eyes. He swung his axe at me, managing to bury it inside my side.

I screamed out in pain, flailing my hooves around, dropping my sword. I heard a galloping of hooves as my vision slowly filled with red.


* * * *


I came to, coughing up a little blood, the pain in my side and left flank still evident, but less so than it had been… How long had I been out?

I tried getting to my hooves, but my legs were too weak, and I collapsed against the stone floor.

“Oh, good you’re awake!” Lock Pick said happily. I blinked. I still had no idea where we were.

“W-w-where are we?” I asked, coughing up a little bit of blood.

“We’re still in the tower. I killed that last pony who tried to finish you off after you fainted. And there were 3 more, but I killed them all with the bow you told me to find.”

That explained why I had woken up here and not someplace else. 

“Why are we still here then?” I asked, coughing more blood up. That shouldn’t be healthy.

“Also, I could use a healing potion,” I said, my face almost lying in my own blood.

“Oh, oh, sorry about that, let me get one,” Lock Pick said, and began scrounging around in her saddlebags. She gave it to me, and I drank it up greedily. The pain in my side and my left flank lessened to almost none, feeling my lungs heal themselves, also feeling one of the bones in my ribcage re-align itself.

Lock Pick began scrounging around the room, looking for extra healing potions.

I rolled away from the blood I had coughed up, and lay on my back, staring at the ceiling.

Already, Equestria changed me. I had killed 7 ponies, one of which I had decapitated. The little pony in my head squirmed, not sure what had changed me so that I could kill. It was just self-defense, I argued. But that doesn’t change the fact about the pony at the bridge! the pony in my head argued back.

Should I feel… guilty? I wasn’t sure what to feel. What I did know, was that I was rather tired.

Sleep was calling to me. But before sleep overtook me again, I wondered what this fort’s original purpose had been. I was pretty sure that it wasn’t to rob passing travellers of their bits and other various possessions.

I had no idea what to think. So I let sleep overtake me.

Skills Increased:
Bladed Weapons increased from 33 to 37.
Flying increased from 28 to 29.
Speech increased from 17 to 19.
Defense increased from 17 to 24.

Level Up:
New Perk: Shield Wall Novice: Your blocks are 15% harder to break through.