//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: The Elder Scrolls: The Battle for Gryphus // by Urimas Ebonheart //------------------------------// The Elder Scrolls: The Battle for Gryphus Chapter 3 "So... who sent you?" I ask. I notice something tucked away in his armour. I pull it out to see it's a sheet of paper. If you're reading this, I have been taken captive by the Equestrians. The assassination failed and both agents have been taken down by the same creature who killed our agents in Ponyville as well. I'm being sent back to Aerastrad via Airship, there should only be a small escort, you can handle that right? Your job is to free me and get me back to the safe house, don't leave any witnesses. Make sure you disguise yourselves as bandits to make it look like a robbery, don't want too much attention on this. My anger rises. "That son of an frost troll!" I put the paper in a pouch and punch the griffin between the eyes knocking him out again. I walk over to the next cell and hold the paper in front of Razor Beak’s face. "You and I need to have a little chat," I say as I grab him by the back of his neck, he grunts from the rough treatment but remains defiant. "So, how did you get word out about this?" I ask. {70%} He just snaps at me, his beak bouncing off my helmet. I lean back and head butt him right in the face, the guards behind me wince at the sound. A small trail of blood runs down Razor Beak’s face but he remains silent. "Not going to say? Well, no problem, we have plenty of time till the ship can move again," I tell him. I raise my left hand and prepare the Sparks spell, my hand starts to release small charges of static showing the spell is ready. Razor just growls while looking at my palm. "You ain't got the gall to do it you filthy ape," I frown as I let go of his neck. "Celestia isn't here to stop me this time." I give a quick discharge zapping him for a split second. He tenses up and shakes violently as he falls to the floor with a few sparks of static jumping around him. "Care to tell me now?" I ask as I grab his neck again and lift him up. He coughs a few times but still glares at me. "Fine, I'll let you think about it for a minute, I've got some other ideas to loosen that tongue," I say. I let go and walk over to the guards. "You got any spells to read minds or memories?" I ask them, the unicorn nodded. "Yes, but only the Princesses are able to cast them, and they've made it clear that they detest such spells," he replies. "Can you send a letter to Canterlot from here?" "Sure but it might take an hour to get there." I smile. "Good, I'll write a letter quickly, can you send it for me when I'm done?" He nodded and I head off to find a quill and paper. I reach the ship’s study area: there's a desk in the centre of the room, a couch to the right, and bookshelves along the walls filled with books and scrolls, a couple of Ponies are browsing through the books. I grab a piece of paper and a quill and sit at the desk. Dear Princesses. We've just been attacked and the ship has been grounded, we suffered some casualties but over all fine. We were attacked by what I believe are Razor Beak’s subordinates in an attempt to free him, we've captured the leader and Razor Beak refuses to talk. I was hoping one of you could come over and read their minds and find out what's going on here. Farengar I fold the paper and head back to the cell, I arrive and hand the paper to the unicorn. His horn glows and the paper disappears in a flash of light. "Keep an eye on them, I'm heading to the deck to wait for the Princesses, any sudden movements from either of them, knock them both out, got it?" I tell them. They salute and do as instructed. I head up to the deck and see the earth pony and unicorn guards surrounding the railings keeping an eye out, the pegasi guards are flying over head watching the skies. I then spot Dash napping on a cloud that's hovering ten metres above the ship. For the next ten minutes I stand watch waiting for the Princesses to arrive or at least a reply. "GRIFFINS INCOMING FROM THE TOWN!" a pegasus yells to the ship. I look towards the town and spot five griffins flying to the ship in what appears to be chainmail armour with spears or swords and shields. I draw my sword and fly up to dash and poke her. "Huh? Whazat? Farengar? What's going on?" she asks with a yawn. "Griffins are coming, get below deck now." She looks ahead and sees them. "Err, sure, just be careful alright." I nodded and she heads down. A few minutes later the griffins land in front of the ship. "Hail! We saw the attack on your ship and have come to aid you," the middle one says as he looks at the pile of dead griffins. "Though it seems you have the situation under control," he says in a more surprised tone. "Who are you?" I ask with my sword still drawn. He looks at me but looks shocked, probably from my armour or my body shape. "Bertram, Captain of the Kalda guard," he replies. "What took you so long? Or were you waiting till the fight was over to come here? Surely you heard the cannon fire from this distance," I ask him. "We've been having our own problems within the town, more of these bandits are causing trouble with robberies, murders, and kidnappings," he says clearly not liking my tone. "Well as you can see, we're fine, but we'll need some fresh supplies, we have the bits to pay for it," I tell him. "Very well, we'll just head back to town then, just be careful, there's more of them about," he replies, and with that they fly off back to the town. I walk over to the Captain. "How bad is the damage?" I ask him. "Not that bad ta be honest, juss gotta patch up the balloon and we're good ta go. Though the damaged propeller will take some time fixin'," he tells me. I watch as the crew takes out the balloon and starts repairing the holes in it. I keep watch for another forty minutes, nothing happens and all is quiet. Dash even came back out and resumed her nap. A sudden flash appears behind me, I turn to see Luna and Celestia standing there looking around, Luna spots me and tackles me with a hug. I chuckle as she nuzzles me. "Glad to see you too," I say with a smile. I remove my helmet and hook it to my belt. "Glad you could make it, I take it you read the note?" I ask. "Yes we did, what kind you casualties did you take?" Celestia asks as she looks at the pile of griffin corpses. I frown. "Eleven injured... Three dead," I reply. She sighs. "We'll take back the bodies with us to Canterlot for a proper burial, but as for the mind reading, we must refuse, there's a reason we don't do it since it could damage the mind of those we look into, it's one of the reasons we never did it on you," she tells me. I look down in thought. 'Then how are we going to find out how they found out about the ship?' 'You could place my amulet around their necks, I have the ability to read the mind of the one who wears it, it's how I'm able to communicate with you... and before you get angry, I have not read any of your memories,' Solnara tells me. I frown but believe her. 'Alright, it's worth a shot, but why didn't you say so earlier?' I ask her. 'I thought you would like to see Luna again,' she replies with a giggle. I open my eyes with a slight smile and look to Celestia. "Apparently, Solnara says she can read the memories of those wearing the amulet," I tell her. Celestia raises an eyebrow at that. 'Please tell her I didn't read her mind when we spoke with each other,' Solnara quickly says. "Solnara says she didn't read your mind when you both spoke with each other." Celestia nodded, happy with the answer. We all head below deck and head to Razors cell, I step inside as I remove the amulet and place it around his neck, he looks confused but then his eyes go wide as he looks around for something. "Who's there? Where are you?" he demands. After five minutes of him shouting and threatening the voice with promises of death, I remove the amulet and put it back on. 'So, what did you find out?' I ask Solnara. 'He is indeed the one in charge of this criminal organisation, he also had another agent we did not know of when he was in Equestria with a pre-written message that would be sent should anything happen to him,' she informs me. I flick Razor Beak in the forehead where I head butted him. "Thank you for your cooperation," I taunt him. I then head into the study area where Celestia and Luna were waiting. I called out Solnara who tells them the information. "Then this changes things, his little organisation has caused many problems all over Equestria as well as other nations, was there anything else?" Celestia asks. "I'm sorry, but that was all I was able to get from him, the moment he knew what I was doing he fought back and blocked me from his mind," Solnara says. I'm sitting down on the couch with Luna sitting next to me with her forelegs wrapped around my right arm, she's acting really clingy for some reason. Celestia hums in thought. "Well, now we have rights to charge him for crimes against Equestria, despite his title as a Prince of Gryphus... but we have no solid proof of his crimes," she says with a long sigh. It's true, the note could be referring to anyone and it's probably not in his hand writing. "So what do we do then? Continue as planned and inform the king about his son?" I ask. "Pretty much, we'll continue to investigate back in Canterlot and try to find some evidence," Celestia replies. "Also, we won't be able to teleport back to you for a couple of days since it takes a lot of magic to travel this distance," she tells me. I nodded in understanding. "Alright, so do we carry the bandit leader with us to the Capital or dump him off with the town guard?" "It would be better to drop him off here so he won't pose a problem later on..." She's cut off as Luna lurches forward holding a hoof to her mouth. She manages to calm down and asks where the bathroom is, a guard then guides her down the hall. "Is she alright?" I ask with worry. Celestia's eyebrows rise. "Oh... She's fine, just an upset stomach, she ate too much ice cream yesterday." I can tell she's not being entirely truthful. I can hear Luna throwing up down the hall, I frown as I want to go and check on her. "So where are the bodies of the fallen guards?" Celestia asks. I turn back to look at her. "In the infirmary, they're being preserved by one of the unicorns spells," I reply. She gets up and walks out the room, I wait behind for Luna to return. After a few minutes, Luna returns with a frown. "I'm never going to get used to that," she mumbles to herself. "Are you alright? Celestia told me you ate too much ice cream... whatever that is," I ask her. "Oh... Erm..." She now looks a bit nervous. "I'm fine, yes I ate too much ice cream, it's a cold desert," she replies. I'm not buying it, something is off about the way she's acting as she sits back on the couch and snuggles up to me, she wasn't this clingy before. I just stay silent, I have to admit I'm enjoying it as well. Ten minutes later and Celestia returns. "The bodies have been prepared for teleportation and I've sent some guards to deliver the bandit to the town guard as well as collecting supplies," she tells us. "Alright, once the ship is repaired we'll continue on to the Capital, do you want to write a letter to the King about what's going on?" I ask. "Good idea, this will take just a moment," she replies and sits at the desk. A few minutes later and she has a piece of paper floating in front of her as she reads it over. Once satisfied, she rolls it up and stamps it with a seal. "Here you go, it's not to be opened by anyone but the King," she tells me. I nodded and take the paper, I'll put it in my cabin when they go. We all head up to the deck to see three black bags that look pony shaped, I realize it's the bodies of the fallen guards. I hear Luna and Celestia talking quietly as I look around the ship. "You know why you can't stay, you're in no condition to be gallivanting around," Celestia says to Luna. "I'm fine Tia, it's only been about a week now, it won't be months until it'll start to show," Luna replies. "You've been having these strange cravings as well as your little mood swings, they wouldn't go unnoticed." Luna puffs out her cheeks looking a bit angry. "Well, that's his fault not mine! I don't know why, I just want to be with him!" "That's normal, a pregnant mare instinctively wants to stay by their mate for comfort and protection, it's just your hormones playing up," Celestia says trying to calm her down. Luna sighs and hangs her head and nodded while I continue to look over the railings of the ship. 'Luna's pregnant?' I glance back at Luna who looks upset, I'm not sure on how to respond but I get a determined expression and walk over to her. She gasps as I wrap my arms around her neck. "I don't mind her staying for awhile, at least until the ship is fixed," I say. Their eyes widen in shock. "D-Did you hear w-what we just s-said?" Luna asks in a shaky tone. "...Yes," I reply. Luna starts to tremble and hugs me back quietly sobbing, I stroke her mane and try to calm her down. "I promise, as soon as we're done here I'll come back, but until then, we still have the Dreamscape right?" She stops crying and nodded. Over the next hour, the balloon is repaired and with Celestia's help, so was the propeller. The guards returned with fresh supplies, free of charge for removing the bandits from the area. I talked with Luna as she tells me about the trouble her pregnancy has caused her so far and about names she's been thinking off for the baby, she's came up with few herself and asked me to come up with a few as well, I still can't believe she's going to have a baby. We're all on the deck as Celestia and Luna stand beside the body bags. "Well then, we must be off, we still have matters to discuss as well as finding new council members that we can trust, the nobility has already found out about the old councils dismissal, they're very angry about it, especially the houses whose members were on the council," she says with a tired look. I shake my head, nobles are all the same. Luna gives me one more kiss before she leaves. "Be careful alright," she tells me, I nodded and smile. Their horns start glowing, I can see the focus on their faces as they charge up the spell. After a few seconds, Celestia, Luna, and the body bags start glowing in a mix of night blue and gold. After ten seconds they vanish with a bright light back to Canterlot, the Captain then walks up to me. "We're good ta go now, supplies are restocked and the balloon is repaired," he tells me. "Alright, I'm heading back to my cabin then, let me know if something else decides to attack us," I tell him. Before I head back though, I fly up to Dash. She's laying on her back tongue lolling out with a trail of drool down her cheek, her left hind leg twitching now and then as she snores lightly, I smirk as I lift one finger and channel a small Sparks spell. I poke her left hind leg and she bolts into the air with a yelp from the light zap {95%}, I chuckle as she comes back down and rams me, but only manages to send me back a metre or two. She slides down my armour and flops onto the cloud she was napping on. "Rise and shine, Dash. We're moving out," I tell her. "You jerk! I'll get you back for that!" she says rubbing her head. "Well until then, get on the ship, we're leaving." I drop down to the deck and head to my cabin with a grumbling Dash going below as well. I enter my cabin and place the scroll into the desk's drawer and lock it, I look out the window and watch as the ship raises into the air. My thoughts are drawn to Luna and my unborn child, a small smile forms on my lips as I watch the moon just starting to rise from my cabin's window.