The Elder Scrolls: The Dragonborn of Equestria
Chapter 6
I wake up with a smile, remembering the dream again. I then yawn as I get out of bed.
After another morning routine, I head out to the dining hall for breakfast, the guard shadowing me again.
"You've been keeping an eye on me for about three days now, and I don't even know your name," I say to him. He looks at me and replies.
"My name is Armoured Honour," he replies. He's a grey earth pony with a short black mane and tail with a light grey highlight through it.
"Nice to meet you, do you mind if I just call you Honour?" He just snorts unamused, but nodded.
We both arrive at the hall and I take a seat next to Luna as Twilight is next to Celestia again.
"Good morning, Farengar. I hope you won't mind, but today is going to be slightly hectic. The wedding of my niece and Shining Armour will start being prepared today and we'll be busy setting everything up for it," Celestia says. Twilight just looks happy with a wide smile.
"Oh, well I was thinking of joining the guards again for another training session," I reply as the doors open.
Five mares walk in, I notice Rarity among them. The others are an orange earth pony with a blonde mane and tail that's tied at the ends and a mark of three red apples.
A cyan pegasus with an unkempt rainbow mane and tail with a mark of a cloud and colourful lighting bolt.
A pink earth pony with a poofy darker pink mane and tail with a mark of three balloons.
And a yellow pegasus with a long bright pink mane and tail with a mark of three pink butterflies.
The yellow one see's me, gasps and runs over to me looking excited.
"Oh my, I've never seen a creature like this before, where did you find it princess?" she asks, I just stare at her with a blank expression,
"Actually, I just popped in to say hello three days ago," I say to her. Her eyes go wide as she squeaks and runs to hide behind Rarity.
"I-it can t-talk?" she asks, barely above a whisper.
"Yes he can, His name is Farengar and he's a guest at the castle," Celestia informs them.
The rainbow one is hovering right in my face with a suspicious look.
"So, just what are you anyway?" She asks.
"I'm a nord warrior," I tell her.
"A warrior huh? Have you killed anypony before?" I look confused, anypony? I have not harmed the ponies yet, unless you count Blueblood.
"I've killed others before, but not any ponies." Rarity and the yellow one look a few shades greener with horror filled eyes.
The pink one looks like she's shaking as she stares at me, then after I blink she's in my face with a massive grin.
"Hi! My names Pinkie Pie, would you like a welcome to Equestria party? Oh oh oh, what's your favourite kind of cake? Do you like cupcakes or muffins more? Do you li..." She's cut off by an orange hoof, Pinkie's still mumbling through the hoof though.
"Simmer down, ah think ya'll are just confusing the poor fella. Howdy, mah names Applejack, it's a pleasure ta make yer acquaintance," the orange mare says, holding out her hoof. I shake it and she points to the others.
"This ere's Rainbow Dash, Rarity an' Fluttershy." She points to the cyan and yellow ones.
"It's nice meeting you all as well, I've already met Rarity, and again thank you for the clothes. I would pay you, but I doubt my money would work here." Rarity looks like she's back to her normal colour again.
"Think nothing of it darling, it was an interesting challenge," she replies with a smile and a wave of her hoof in a dismissive manner.
"Do you have any of your currency on you now?" Twilight asks with intrigue.
"Huh? Oh sure, here." I pull out a Septim from my pouch and toss it to her.
She catches it with her magic and examines it for awhile, her eyes widening as she looks at it.
"This is made from pure gold!" The room gasps at that. "How many of these do you have?" she asks.
"Last time I checked was about, eighty-six. Why? What do you use for currency?" I reply and ask. She levitates a coin from one of her bags.
"We use a brass coin plated in a small amount of gold to give it some value. From what I can tell, just one of your coins is worth at least fifty of ours." I just stare at her with a dumb look.
"You're pulling my leg aren't you." I reply, still looking like she's joking with me. Celestia floats the Septim in front of her and looks it over.
"No, she's right. This is worth about fifty to sixty bits per gold coin. Should you wish to exchange them, you'll have quite a lot of bits," she confirms. I just blink and pull out the pouch with the assorted gems.
"Then what about these?" I pour the gems onto the table, there's ten of them about the size of a pebble. Three rubies, four sapphires, two emeralds and one diamond.
Rarity gasps and runs over and lifts the diamond, she examines it for awhile then has a look of shock.
"This diamond is flawless, there's not one imperfection in it." She looks over the others. "They're all flawless... Where did you come by such perfect gems?"
"What? The gems here aren't that high of a quality?" I asked.
"Not all of them, only about ten percent of the gems I find are near flawless, but this is the first time seen such a perfect diamond." She continues to look into the diamond with a look that says she wants it.
"You can have it if you want it, think of it as payment for the clothes." She gasps and places it back down.
"I couldn't accept such a thing for a few clothes darling, that diamond alone is worth around nearly a thousand bits!" I think I'm about to faint at the amount this is all worth.
"Well then, take it and you can just make me more clothes should I need them." She looks at me, then the diamond and back again.
"Are you sure?" She asks, looking back at the diamond.
"I'm sure." She squeals and picks the diamond back up and looks it over repeatedly.
"So what are the rest worth?" I ask. Luna picks up a sapphire and looks it over, Celestia answers.
"Well, I'd guess that the rubies are around six-hundred each, the emeralds around three-hundred each, and the sapphires around five-hundred each," she tells me. Now I pass out.
I wake up on a bench in the dining hall, I blink a few times before I remember what happened.
"Welcome back," Luna says smirking next to me.
"Were you lot serious about what they were worth?" I ask, just to make sure it wasn't a dream.
"Very, seems you'll be quite wealthy and able to buy your own home in Canterlot should you wish to." I just have another stupid look on my face.
"How long was I out for?" I ask.
"Oh, not long, about an hour. We did some calculating during that time, all your coins and gems are worth eight-thousand and fifty bits." I almost pass out again, but manage to stay awake.
"Where are they?" I ask her.
"Oh there right here," she says and levitates the two pouches back to me.
"Thank you, so where did everyone go?" I ask.
"They went to start the preparations for the wedding," she replies. Oh yeah, that.
"Well now that you're up, Armoured Honour will be watching you now as I need to sleep, have a pleasant day." She smiles and walks away.
I get up and head to my room and put my armour on and head to the training grounds.
When I arrive, I start working out. I do some lifting, then some laps and have a few more sparing matches.
About four hours later, I worked up a sweat and thirst. I say goodbye to the guards and head back to my room.
Along the way, I bump into Fluttershy. She looks at me with horror as she looks at my armour. She can see the patches of leather and fur, she looks like she's about ready to cry and runs away down the hall.
I just look at Honour and he just shrugs.
I enter my room and remove my armour. I then take a bath and put on a fresh pair of clothes, a white shirt with blue loose fitting trousers.
Honour and I head back into the dining hall and see Celestia, Twilight, Shining Armour and a pink alicorn with a three toned mane and tail with what looks like a crystal heart as her mark.
I sit on a chair and stare at the pink alicorn, I'm not sure why but something seems off about her.
"Hello, Farengar. This is my niece, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza," Celestia tells me. The pink alicorn just looks at me and replies.
"Please, just call me Cadence." She smiles as she clings to Shining's left foreleg, I keep staring at her unable to shake the odd feeling.
"It's nice to meet you," I finally say as lunch arrives. "So how's the wedding plans coming along?" I ask.
"It's going well so far, the wedding should be ready by tomorrow," Celestia replies, Shining looks like he's spacing out a bit.
"Shining, you okay?" I ask him.
"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm fine. Just a slight headache, nothing to worry about," he replies with a smile, I'm not convinced though.
"Alright, if you say so," I say unconvinced. I eat my lunch and excuse myself. Honour and I leave the room and walk down the halls, I know something's wrong here, I'm just not sure what it is.
I shrug and head to the archives and do a bit more reading on the races of Equestria.
I'm reading up on the minotaurs, they're similar to the ones in Tamriel but shorter legs and broader shoulders. They're like the dwarves from Tamriel, expert blacksmiths with greater technology and automatons.
I spend three hours reading about them. I then yawn and put the books away.
Back at my room, I equip my armour for another training session and head to the field.
Walking down the hall, Honour and I hear some arguing coming from a room, we share a look and head over to it.
"What's wrong honey? Why are you being so mean to the castle staff? They were just trying to help prepare for tomorrow," Shining Armour says.
"I'm sorry, I'm just nervous is all, I'll apologise tomorrow at the rehearsal," Cadence says. She nuzzles him and her horn glows green, Shining's head and eyes glow green for a second and he stands there like a zombie.
"Hey! What are you doing to him?" I ask as I walk in. Cadence looks at me with a shocked expression, then scowls at me.
Her horn glows brighter and she blasts me with a green bolt, everything turns dark as I fall unconscious.
I don't know how long I've been out for, but I wake up with a splitting headache. Honour is next to me still out cold.
I get up and stretch, I kick Honour in the flank and he bolts upright.
"NO SIR! I wasn't flirting with your sister!" he yells with a shaky salute, I just groan and slap the back of his head.
"Keep it down, you're making my headache worse," I tell him. I remove my helmet and rub my temples while looking around.
I'm in a cave with multicoloured crystals everywhere. I can hear crying echoing throughout the cave, Honour shakes his head as his eyes roll around, yeah that's not creepy at all.
I put my helmet back on as both of us walk through the caves. The crying is getting louder and after five minutes of searching we find Cadence crying and pretty beaten up.
I raise my arms as I step closer ready for a fight. Mine and Honour's footsteps cause Cadence to look up sobbing.
"Please don't hurt me!" she cries out, covering her face with her forelegs.
I raise my brow, I'm not getting that odd feeling from her anymore. I look to Honour and he's just as confused.
"What happened to you?" I ask her. She looks up with a tear stained face.
"I was with Shining yesterday. We were talking in our room, then there was this green flash. I woke up here to see the Queen of the Changelings, she told me her plan to take over Canterlot at the wedding by feeding off the love Shining has for me to make herself stronger," she says, calming down a little.
I help her up and wave Honour over to us.
"I need you to get Cadence to safety," I instruct him.
"What are you going to do?" he asks.
"I'm going to ask Celestia for my sword back," I reply. I ask Cadence if there's a way out, she mentions an exit behind one of the walls but is too weak to break through.
"Hold still," I tell her. I place my hands on her back and start healing her. After thirty seconds and half my magicka later, she's strong enough to blast open the wall.
"Stand back, I can only do this once," she says as her horn glows pink and a light forms at the tip. She releases the magic and blasts the wall away revealing a tunnel.
I thank her and head down the tunnel. As I near the exit, I can hear screams and explosions.
Canterlot is under attack from bug like ponies, I see corpses near the front gate to the city and check for survivors.
I can hear shallow breathing to my left and see a guard with holes in his side. I rush over and start healing him.
"Don't waste your time. *cough* You need to help the Princesses. *cough cough* Hurry before it’s too... la..." He stops breathing and I hang my head low, anger forming on my face.
Next to the guard is two swords, I pick them both up and head into the city.
I enter the streets of the city, bodies lay on the paved road, pony and changeling alike. I head to the Castle and spot a guard fighting three changelings, so I move to help him.
As I approach, I leap into the air and hold a reverse grip on my swords and thrust them into a changeling as I land on top of it.
The other two turn to me as the guard swings a large hammer into one of the changelings, turning its head into paste.
I pull my blades out and dodge the charge from the changeling and swing a sword at it, I cut off one of its hind legs and it hisses out in pain.
The guard swings his hammer down on the changeling with a nasty squelch, he nodded at me before heading back into the fight with the other guards.
I continue down the streets and I'm ambushed by two changelings, The first tackles me from the left out of an alley, the second lands on my back when I hit the floor. My armour prevents the changeling's horn from stabbing me.
I roll over so I'm on top of the changeling and head-butt him with my helmet, cracking the carapace on its forehead.
The first changeling blasts me with a bolt of green magic that sends me flying through a window of a nearby house.
Feeling slightly dazed, I shake my head and get my bearings. I'm in a fancy looking kitchen, looks like I slammed into the table and shattered it.
I can hear crying coming from one of the cabinets, but before I could check, the changeling flies in and lands on me. It's trying to bite my face off.
I've lost my left sword, but managed to keep my grip on the right one. With my left hand, I grab its throat and jam the sword through its eye.
It screeches in agony as I twist the blade, dealing as much damage as I can.
Once it stops moving, I throw it off me and pull the sword out. The crying stopped, but I can hear a light snivelling now. I walk over and open the cabinet the noise is coming from.
There's a little dark blue unicorn filly with a silver mane and tail, red eyes and no mark. She's looking up at me with fear as she shakes in a balled up position.
"Please don't eat me!" she begs and starts crying again.
I look around and see two ponies laying on the floor in a puddle of blood in the next room, must of been her parents.
"I'm not going to hurt you, but you can't stay here any more," I tell her as softly as I can. She looks at me as I smile at her.
"Okay," she says, barely above a whisper. I pick her up and cradle her in my left arm as I grip the sword with my right.
I look out the door and see no one there. I head out to the Castle killing changelings as I protect the little filly on the way.
The Castle gates come into view, but a changeling jumps out and fires a magic blast at the filly. I turn my back to the changeling and take the blast in the back, sending me to the floor. I'm holding the filly tightly so she won’t get hurt.
"AAARRGGHHH!!" I roar in pain. Smoke comes off my armour as I stand back up. I'm panting as I turn my right side to the changeling, the filly is crying and shaking again as I glare at the bug pony with bared teeth.
It snarls at me as it flies up, covered in a green glow and dives straight for me.
As it's about to hit, I throw the sword at it and cut a wing off. It doesn't even have time to scream as it slams head first into the floor.
I fall to a knee as I'm breathing heavily, the filly is crying her eyes out, I place a hand on my chest and start healing myself as best as I can.
After a minute of healing, the filly calms down as I stand back up. I'm out of magicka and still slightly sore, but press on to the Castle Gates.
The doors seem to have been blown off their hinges as I walk past them, guards and changelings lay dead on the floor.
I head to the throne room door and peek inside, a large changeling with a disfigured horn and green eyes is standing by a window, overlooking the city.
Celestia is on her side and her horn is scorched, Shining is standing by the throne zoned out, while twilight and the others are in cocoon like pods.
I slowly creep towards Celestia while the big bug pony is ranting on about what she'll do to the ponies.
Once I reach Celestia, I shake her shoulder. Her eyes open, but she looks weak.
"Sorry I'm late, I was imprisoned in a crystal cave with Honour and the real Cadence. Celestia, I need my sword, can you give it back to me?" I ask her. She nodded and her horn barely glows. My sword appears in front of me and she passes out.
I take the sword quietly and tell the filly to hide behind one of the benches. After she's hidden, I grip my sword with both hands and charge at the changeling queen.