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// 8: The Greybeards 
// Story: Sombra visits Skyrim 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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	The Greybeards were known far and wide throughout all of Skyrim as being the type of people that welcomed everyone, be they Jarl, adventurers, normal citizens of the holds, and even the High King or Queen, to their monastery. The last time they had any visitors was when the young Ulfric Stormcloak came to their doors to learn the Way of the Voice from them, which he then used in the Battle of Markarth. Ever since then they saw no reason to reject people from their holy temple, but fewer people wanted to leave their families to make the journey up the side of the mountain and even fewer still had the experience needed to get passed all the creatures that wandered onto the walkways.

So when they heard the sound of the Dragonborn's Voice awakening, no doubt in the heat of battle when he or she killed a dragon, they almost immediately sent out their summons for them to come to the mountain. They had almost no way of knowing when the Dragonborn would arrive at their doors, unless they used their Thu'um against someone or something that was in their way so they would know how close they were. That was until they decided to go on their lunch break and locked the front doors of their monastery, where not thirty minutes later they could feel the Dragonborn's anger fill the air. They could almost taste it as she shouted at their front doors, no doubt finding it locked despite the fact that she had been invited just yesterday when she had slain her first dragon. Each Voice was unique and different, so the Greybeards could tell some key facts about the Dragonborn before she had even stepped foot inside the monastery.

One thing they all knew for certain, they needed to welcome the Dragonborn into High Hrothgar before her anger brought the entire mountain down around them and the surrounding villages.

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"I cannot believe they locked us out of High Hrothgar!" Raika continued to fume, despite the fact that none of the others were evening listening anymore, "After we risked our lives, to heed their summons that I get here as fast as possible, how can they just lock us out?"

Lydia and Luna sat on the stone steps behind her, one staring at the cloudy skies while the other was reading her sister's notes on what she had translated so far, but neither cared about the locked door anymore. In front of them stood Celestia, who was just leaning against the stone wall of the mountain, and Sombra, who was sweating thanks to the exercises that Tia wanted him to do. He didn't mind that he was swinging his sword at imaginary enemies to perfect his aim or that he had fired several small bursts of magic at one of the stones they had passed. What he wanted to know was why his memory seemed so fractured that he was starting to think of Tia not as the women she was, but as a beautiful and powerful creature that he could only call Celestia.

There was something that linked the Tia that he had come to know with the mysterious Celestia that was starting to plague his mind and sometimes ruin his concentration.

"Okay, that's enough Sombra." Celestia sighed, staring at him as he finally lowered the weapon that he had been swinging for the last ten minutes, "Take a break before you fall over."

She hated to see her love, the only one that she had fallen for in over a thousand years, reduced to such a state that made him have to go through extensive training to relearn everything that he had forgotten. She meant that every single one of his memories had been either locked away so deep that he had no chances of remembering them or they had nearly been wiped from his mind completely. The way he looked at her reminded her of the way that those who had given up on themselves looked; broken and unable to restore whatever they were missing. He was missing the truest part of his soul and it hurt her to see him suffer in such a manner.

Her student, the young and bright Twilight Sparkle, had asked her several times over the years if she had somepony that she cared about deeply and loved with all her heart, but the response had been once upon a time. She couldn't bare the thought of telling her young student that she had fallen in love with a kind hearted stallion who had later become the tyrant of the Crystal Empire, forcing her and her sister to banish him. She had waited for a thousand years to be reunited with her love, and now she had to help him restore his memory so they could be together at long last.

"Hear that my Thane?" Lydia asked, hearing the slightest click as if someone had unlocked something, "I think someone unlocked the doors."

Raika turned to the door once again and placed her hands on them, pushing open the iron doors and entering the quiet monastery before the others could even move a muscle. As she strode into the open main room her eyes wandered about, looking around for a sign of any of the Greybeards that had dared to lock her out. What she found was one monk, who stood near a pair of stairs and watched her as she neared the exact center of the room, though she heard her comrades entering the room behind her.

"Tell me, what brings you here child?" the monk asked, focusing on her and not the others, "Why have you made the pilgrimage up the Seven Thousand Steps?"

"Because you summoned me," Raika replied, looking around for another Greybeard, "But I would like to know which one of you decided to lock the door and taunt me with a message."

"Ah, that might have been Master Borri," the monk said, putting a hand to his chin as if he had to think about it, "or it could have been Master Einarth. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Master Arngeir of the Greybeards."

"I'm the Dragonborn, Raika," Raika continued, glancing back at her friends, "and these are my friends Lydia, Luna, Tia, and Sombra. I'm the one who came in response to your summons. I assume you wish to teach me the finer points of the Voice and what it means to be a Dragonborn?"

Sombra just stood at the back of the group and watched the monk, who gazed over them as if he was looking for something or someone that happened to be among them. For a moment he could feel the intense pressure of the monk's gaze as he locked eyes with him, which let him know that the monk held a great deal of power within him as he nearly faltered. The next instant it was gone and Sombra felt relief, though he noticed that both Luna and Tia barely moved as the gaze came upon them, as if they weren't effected by it at all. Lydia, on the other hand, immediately fell over, only to be caught by him before she could hit the stone floor.

"Forgive me for testing all of you," Arngeir said, bowing his head as three more monks appeared around them, "I wanted to be sure that we weren't hosting anyone who would use the power of the Voice to do harm to the rest of Skyrim. I must ask that you give us a taste of your Thu'um, Dragonborn."

The moment that the monk asked Raika to give him a taste of her voice she gave him a taste of the power she had learned from the slain dragon, 'Fus', and nearly tore the robes off of him. The only reason it was stronger now was because she was still mad that they dared to lock her out of the monastery and there was no telling how long it would take for it to cool down. The monk straightened himself before staring at her again, as if he was deciding what he wanted to do with her and the raw power that she contained.

"Come, Dragonborn, we will teach you the second word in Unrelenting Force," Arngeir said, turning to lead them out to the outside, "Your friends are welcome to stay here and rest their weary legs while we impart our knowledge to you."

Raika figured that this was how it was supposed to be, seeing how the Greybeards seemed so scared that someone could come along and use their secrets to cause harm to the province. She quickly told Lydia to stay behind and followed the monks out the back doors, leaving the rest of them to do whatever they wanted until she returned. Lydia moved to one of the empty chairs, set her weapon next to it, and took a seat before she fell asleep and made the others shake their heads. Luna headed to one of the tables and continued her reading, allowing her sister come time to do whatever she wanted with Sombra before Raika and the monks returned.

Celestia, on the other hand, moved to one of the empty rooms to the right of the main chamber, hoping to find someplace where she and Sombra wouldn't be disturbed for some time. If she tried to teach Sombra how to properly fight with the sword they had given him it would take them at least a year for him to get through the basic moves that he had learned once upon a time. In order for them to have another skilled swordsman in their ranks, or a mage if she dared to unlock more of his magic, she needed to bring some of his memories back to the surface. The only drawback was that by unlocking his memories she might trigger the darkness that rested inside of him and bring something more terrifying than the dragons into Skyrim.

"Tia?" Sombra asked, following the women into the empty room, "What are you doing in here?"

"I'm going to help you remember how to fight," Celestia said, pulling him into the center of the room and making him sit on the stone floor, "At the rate your going Raika's going to leave you behind, despite the fact that she agreed that your following Luna and I, not her. We need to show her that you can contribute to the group's success and not fall behind us all the time."

"And just how do you plan on unlocking my memories?" Sombra asked, staring into her eyes, "I cannot recall anything since the time I woke up a few days ago."

"That's where I will help you," Celestia said, her pink eyes shining just a bit as Sombra began to fade out, "We'll unlock your memories, together."

That was when Sombra fell into the depths of his mind, his body going stiff in Celestia's hands.

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When Sombra came to he found himself in some sort of hazy place, where all he could see was some sort of mist that made it nearly impossible for him to see anything around him. He could feel the presence of Tia somewhere near him, but thanks to the mist he had no idea where she was, what she was doing, or how she was going to help him recover his memories. He took a small step forward and fell right through the mist, dropping out of the sky and descending towards a snow covered land that seemed to stretch on endlessly in every direction. He expected the impact with the snow to hurt a lot, but when he actually hit the snow he found that there was absolutely no pain and pulled himself out quite easily.

When he looked in front of him, however, he found something so strange and bizarre that he refused to believe that what he was seeing was something that actually existed. Standing in front of him was a huge kingdom, what he assumed was a kingdom, that appeared to be made completely out of some sort of crystal and shined as the sun hit it. The largest structure sat in what he assumed was the center of the kingdom, so he assumed that it had to be some sort of palace. Before he moved even a step someone approached him, but when the person appeared Sombra was shocked by what he saw. Standing on the inside of the kingdom's border was a grey coated stallion that was clad in some sort of steel armor and wore a red cape on his back, but what caught Sombra's eyes was that the stallion had a horn coming out of his forehead.

A horn that looked exactly like the one that Sombra had on his forehead.

"Who are you?" the stallion kindly asked, his voice sounding as if he was a kind and just ruler, "Why have you come to the Crystal Empire?"

This is an Empire? Sombra thought, making ready to respond to the stallion when he realized that the stallion wasn't looking at him. Rather, he seemed to be staring at something had was behind him, so he turned around and was surprised for a second time.

Standing next to him was another horse, only this one was larger than the stallion was and, unless he was mistaken, he was sure that this one just happened to be a mare. The white coated pony was wearing a set of golden jewelry on her hooves, around the base of her neck, and even had a crown set on the top of her head. Where's the stallion had a simple black mane the mare had a mane that consisted of blues, greens, and pink, but where the stallion only had a horn the mare had a longer horn and a pair of large wings. On her flank was what appeared to be the symbol for the sun, but whatever it meant was lost on him.

"I am Princess Celestia of Equestria," the mare answered, walking right past Sombra as if he wasn't there at all, "I heard rumors that there was an Empire out here in the Frozen North and I wanted to see it with my own eyes. I must say, this place is beautiful."

"Its not everyday that we get guests up here," the stallion said, "Let's get you out of the cold and get something to eat, then maybe we'll take a tour of the rest of the Empire before you have to depart."

"That sounds lovely," the mare, Celestia, said as she approached the barrier, "So, does my host have a name?"

"I am Sombra," the stallion replied, causing Sombra's blood to run cold, "King of the Crystal Empire."