The Equine Scrolls: SkyFiM

by FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 46: After Death

I died that day in Sovngarde, I knew I had. Yet, somehow I woke up lying in a featherbed, staring up at a stone ceiling carved with twisting lines that seemed to move over and under each other, squirming across the tiles. I tried to sit up, but instantly was sent back down to my back as my head started spinning.

“Oh, I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” a strangely familiar voice said.

“Where- Where am I?” I asked, finding my voice.

“You are in the city of New Antiquity, capital of the Shivering Isles,” the other voice responded, and the bed itself began to move beneath me, propping me up so I could see around the room, “And it is the First of Evening Star, Year 2oo of the Fourth Era, by your calendar, in case you were wondering.”

Sitting across from my bed, sitting in a wicker chair, was Discord, dressed in the oddest fashion. He was clothed in gray robes, and a pointy hat much like Star-Swirl’s but of the same color of his robes sat upon his head. In a paw, he held a pipe with which he blew smoke that formed into ships, sending them flying through the open window beside me from time to time.

“I don’t understand,” I said, rubbing my head, “What happened.”

“Well, to put it quite plainly, my dear, you died,” Discord said, suddenly right beside me and without his outfit from before, “But you died already in an afterlife, so things were a bit confusing, and you didn’t know quite where to go.”

“In other words, you were thrown into limbo,” the Draconequus continued, picking up a coat stand and attaching its base to the wall before bending over backwards and shimmying under it, “Lucky for you, I was passing by at the time, and I snatched you all up and brought you to my realm to recover.”

“You all? Are my friends alive as well?” I asked hopefully.

“Yes, yes, they’re resting next door,” Discord said, looking annoyed at being interrupted, “Like I was saying, you are now residents of New Antiquity, in my own personal sphere of the Beyond, the Shivering Isles!”

One of the walls in the room suddenly rolled up into the ceiling, revealing a view of Discord’s realm. Though the walls of a city dominated one side of the view, the rest was utterly fantastical and impossible. Multicolored hills rolled off into the distance, covered in all manner of odd things. On the far horizon, I could just make out the shimmering sea that surrounded the Shivering Isles.

“Isn’t it marvelous,” Discord said, sliding a new wall in to replace the old one, “My own personal realm of chaos.”

“We can’t stay here,” I told him plainly, considering my options now that our plan to defeat Alduin had utterly failed.

“Whatever do you mean?” he asked, slithering out from beneath the covers, “You are in my realm, under my control now, and you shall go when I say you can go.”

“You don’t mean to say you’ll keep us here while Alduin and his dragons are out there destroying the Northlands?”

“Why? Would you rather be there, doomed to die again?” Discord asked, pressing a claw against my horn, “What do you plan to do to stop Alduin? Nothing of your world can harm him.”

“You could stop him,” I said.

“Oh, I hardly think I’d do something like that,” the Draconequus said with a harrumph, “I don’t care to meddle in the affairs of mortals unless it brings me entertainment.”

I considered the situation I was in. No weapon I had could possibly harm Alduin, making him, for all intensive purposes, invincible. It seemed that neither Equine nor Draconequus would be willing to help either. Maybe it really was best to remain here in the Shivering Isles. After all, I had nothing else to do. Feeling defeated, I hung my head and wallowed in my misery.

“Oh, you’re going to get all sad now, aren’t you?” Discord said with disdain and began to walk toward the door, lifting it off the floor, “Glum isn’t my style. I’ll be back when you’re more fun.”

“By the way, that’s a fine necklace you have,” he said just before he passed through the door, eyes appearing in the back of his head, “Wherever did you get it?”

Looking down, I realized I was still wearing the odd amulet I’d picked up in Volsteed. All the rest of my gear was lying beside my bed in and around my saddlebags, restored to perfect condition, but this amulet was about my neck, and still as bland as ever. Yet, I could still feel the difference it provided, the warmness and sense of hope spreading through my body as I stared at it.

“I took it off a dead Draugr,” I told Discord honestly, figuring there was no sense in being rude to someone who’d gone out of his way to save my life, even if he was a nearly all-powerful creature from beyond the mortal realm.

“Interesting,” he replied, stroking his beard, “I thought the Elements of Harmony were all lost.”

“The Elements of what?” I asked, intrigued by his offhand comment.

“The Elements of Harmony,” Discord said, tearing the door off the wall completely, and bending it into a chair before sitting on it, “Ancient and powerful artifacts from the beginning of time, said to be so powerful that no one can stand up to them when they are united.”

“Even Alduin?” I asked.

“I hadn’t considered that,” Discord said, though it seemed to me that he may have been lying, “Yes, I suppose so.”

“How would I find them?” I asked, sitting up in bed, excited now that I had a possible way to defeat Alduin.

“Well, there are six of them,” the Draconequus said, counting off on his fingers, “Each represents one of the ancient virtues of honesty, kindness, laughter, generosity, and loyalty.”

“And the sixth?” I asked.

“A mystery,” he replied, drawing a magnifying glass from out of his multi-colored vest, “Though it will only appear when the other five are present, and only if you activate them by demonstrating the virtue they represent.”

“So, which one do I already have?” I asked, looking down at it.

“Oh, it wouldn’t be very sporting of me to just tell you,” Discord said, looking appalled, “No, I think it’s best if you figure it out on your own.”

“Sometimes I can’t tell if you’re with me or against me,” I said with a sigh.

“Why, whatever do you mean?” he said, feigning innocence.

“Well, you saved my life, even though you didn’t have to, and now you’ve told me how I can defeat Alduin,” I explained, “Yet, you seem to constantly block me and get in my way. Why do you do it?”

“I’m a creature of chaos, my dear,” Discord said with a flourish, “Nothing I do will ever make sense to your mind. That doesn’t mean I don’t intend to help, but I’ll do it my way.”

“Fine,” I said, “But it doesn’t do me a whole lot of good to know how to defeat Alduin when I can’t even leave here.”

“Oh, I never said that. You can leave, but only by my terms,” the Draconequus said, stretching out a glass of water on the table beside me until it was a scroll. He then proceeded to unroll it, revealing a long and unreadable contract.

“Okay, what are your terms?” I asked, dreading what I’d be asked to do, but knowing all the same that it was the only way I would ever be able to return to the Northlands.

“Oh, it’s quite simple,” Discord said, gesturing to the ceiling above my head, which became a map of the Northlands, “I just need you to connect my realm to your world.”

“He wants us to do what?” Steadfast asked as we trotted through New Antiquity.

“He wants a more sturdy connection between the Shivering Isles and the Northlands,” I explained, “When Empress Mystica lit the dragonfires all those years ago, it made him unable to open any portals. However, he was still able to establish a few weaker connections, such as the one through Pegasusius’s mind.”

“But now we’re supposed to help him open up a connection with our home?” Mystic asked.

“That’s right,” I said, “It’s the easiest way to travel between the realms, short of an actual portal.”

“And you think it’s a good idea just to let him into our world?” Mephalda asked, “He is a Draconequus after all. Who knows what damage he could cause?”

“I don’t see we really have a choice,” I said, “This is our only way to return as well. We can’t travel through the same connections Discord does. If we want to get home, we’re going to have to trust Discord to honor our deal.”

“So how are we supposed to do this exactly?” Steadfast asked as we left through New Antiquity’s gates.

“Near the center of the island, there’s a tower that holds a crystal,” I explained what Discord had told me, “It used to connect the Shivering Isles to Ponythiah’s realm, but Ponythiah managed to get Discord’s Changelings there to go rouge and shut down the magical linkway. All we need to do is reactivate the tower, and Discord will redirect it to the Northlands.”

“Sounds simple enough,” my earth pony friend said, “I guess.”

After leaving New Antiquity, we made our way to Mount Pandemonium, where our objective lay. Though New Antiquity itself was odd, it had still been built like a sensible city, no doubt to maintain the last slivers of sanity its non-Changeling residents had. Outside the gates was a completely different story.

The Shivering Isles were limited in their shape in space, so things weren’t quite as ridiculous as in Pegasusius the Mad’s mind. Still, gravity didn’t seem to work correctly, the landscape was twisted into fantastical shapes, and random objects, many I didn’t even recognize, dotted the land.

Thankfully we ran into few of the exceedingly insane Changeling and pony residents that lived out in the wilderness. Those that we did tended to ignore us, or float on by, lost in their own madness.

After passing through a school of flying fish and chopping through a jungle of combs, we finally made it to Mount Pandemonium. In the middle of fairly flat land (for the Shivering Isles), the mountain towered up, bits of it jutting out at odd angles. At the top was a stone tower that resembled the architecture of New Antiquity.

Changelings, in their true forms, patrolled the only path leading up to the tower. To see a Changeling as they truly are was a strange sight indeed. They looked much like ponies, except they tended to resemble insects more than equines. A hard black exoskeleton covered their bodies, with holes punching all the way through on their legs. On their back fluttered a pair of insectoid wings, and a knarled horn sprouted from each of their heads. Their eyes were solid disks of blue light, staring though everything.

The first guardian fell as an arrow from Mephalda’s bow punched clear through the hard, black carapace on its head and into its brain. The second guardian refused to be taken out so easily and dodged my ice bolts, rolling across the ground. It hissed as Steadfast charged it and dodged his swing, jumping over him and hovering momentarily. As it did so, Mystic managed to roast it with her fire magic, leaving the smell of burnt bug in the air.

The guardians at the base dealt with, we continued up the precarious path. It was nearly vertical in places, but somehow we managed to hang on as it looped around up Mount Pandemonium. We were about halfway up, and nearly hanging upside-down, when we saw more Changelings.

A trio of them patrolled the path before us, this time with armed with their own weapons. I drew Calcion’s Cleaver as we approached, hoping for a surprise strike. We had no luck, as one of them noticed us advancing up the path and sounded the alarm for the others, using a bizarre clicking language.

Mystic and I both began shooting lightning at them as we charged, but it hardly seemed to faze them other than causing their outlines to shimmer slightly. Steadfast charged in and attacked one with a sword. Swinging his hammer past the Changeling’s weapon, he crushed the wings upon its back before swinging his weapon back around and knocking the creature off Mount Pandemonium. It squealed as it fell, unable to stop the fall with its damaged wings, and was impaled on the knitting needles jutting up from the ground.

As Mephalda shot arrows at another, it brought a shield up to block. I charged it, and with Calcion’s Cleaver I knocked the shield aside. The Changeling’s mace hit me in the shoulder as I did so, but my armor took most of the damage, and I was able to block before it could get a swing in on my face. Pushing back with my weapon, I forced the Changeling away from me until it exited the block.

A shudder went across my armor as the third Changeling struck me with its war axe. The one with the mace I had been fighting gave up on fighting me and instead turned to face Steadfast, who was attempting to crush it like he had the first of the creatures. I focused me energy on the Changeling with the war axe, swinging at it until our blades met. As Mystic blasted it with flame, heating up its exoskeleton, I hooked my sword under the Changeling’s weapon and relieved it of its axe. A kick knocked it directly into the path of another one of Mystic’s attacks, killing it.

After retrieving the Changeling’s war axe to replace the Axe of Whitetrot, we continued up Mount Pandemonium. At last the tower came into sight, a massive stone structure that looked exceedingly out of place. But I suppose it was one of the few places anything even resembling order was allowed in the Shivering Isles, so it was bound to look out of place.

Heavy gates of adamantium barred the entrance, keeping us from entering the tower. However, a few Changelings milled around the gate, and as we watched, a few even passed right through, the gate shimmering as if it were a waterfall being parted. It seemed that it was merely a trick, and not as substantial a barricade as it appeared at first.

Before we approached it, I focused my magic and summoned a flame atronach. The fiery pony galloped toward the crowd of Changelings, spouting flames and throwing the guards into disarray. Leaping over the overlarge cooking pot we’d been hiding behind, we charged in toward the confused Changelings.

The first one I met, Calcion’s Cleaver took the head off of in a second. As my blade came around though, it met the sword of another Changeling. As I shot flame at its head, it swung its blade around toward my legs, forcing me to jump back. The next time it swung at me, I batted its sword to the ground. It pulled it out from under my own with a shriek of metal and made to cut at my throat.

The blade missed as I deflected it with Calcion’s Cleaver. Lightning shot from the tip as the swords met, shocking a nearby Changeling to death. Giving a hiss, the Changeling I was fighting kicked me back with its forelegs. As it jumped toward me, sword held out in the air, I galloped toward it, sinking my blade into its soft underbelly. Its wings gave a few flutters after my sword protruded from its back before going limp.

As another Changeling, this one with a battleaxe, charged me, I pushed my latest victim off my blade, causing my new opponent to chop through the corpse of its fallen compatriot. Hissing, it brought its battleaxe down toward my head. I blocked with Calcion’s Cleaver, lightning flying between the blades. The Changeling was stronger than me, however, and began to push me back toward the edge of Mount Pandemonium.

Just as I was about to fall off the edge, an arrow struck the Changeling in the eye. As it tossed around, trying to remove the shaft, I was able to knock the battleaxe away from it and run it through with Calcion’s Cleaver.

No more Changelings remained outside of the tower, so we proceeded inside, shivering a bit as we passed through the ethereal gate. Inside, the tower’s style shifted dramatically. On the outside it resembled an Imperial fortress, but within the style was closer to a Minotauran temple. It was impossible to see exactly where the two meshed, no doubt due to the chaos that permeated the land.

More Changelings waited inside up the ziggurat-like steps, surrounding a massive floating crystal. Light glowed from deep within, but at the moment it served no useful purpose. Of course, when we were done here, that giant diamond would be our ticket home. Eager to return to the Northlands, I charged up toward the assembled Changelings.

Wickedly barbed arrows instantly began to shoot toward us as they saw us. I raised a foreleg to protect my face as the deadly darts rained around me. As I neared the first Changeling, I drew both my swords and cut through its chest. It didn’t even have time to draw its greatsword before it fell to the ground dead, its sticky green ichor coating my blade.

The next Changeling I faced was wielding twin war axes. I knocked them both to the sides with my swords, but wasn’t able to get a strike in on the otherworldly creature before it brought its axes back up toward my chest. I jumped back before striking both blades down with Calcion’s Cleaver. A moment later, I stabbed the Blade of Hoofingar through the Changeling’s chest.

As a Changeling ran toward the crystal, magic building at the end of the staff it was carrying, I ran to intercept. As it attempted to send raw magic up into the crystal, I tackled the creature to the ground. Rolling across the stone, it kicked at me with its forehooves, knocking my helmet off. I struck back, hitting it in the face with the butt of the Blade of Hoofingar.

I swung Calcion’s Cleaver down toward the Changeling’s neck, but it shifted at the last moment, and my blade became lodged in its shoulder. Ichor poured out all the same, wounding but not killing the Changeling. With a hiss, it lunged up and bit into my ear using its fangs.

Giving a shriek of pain, I pushed the Changeling off. Placing a hoof to my ear, it came away bloody, and I could feel a piece of it was gone. I had no time to heal before the Changeling pounced at me again, fangs ready to strike a second time. As it dove at me, I pulled out the Blade of Hoofingar and drove it through the creature’s chest. Its teeth came to a stop just a hair from my nose as it died.

Pushing it aside, I tended to my wounded ear. The flesh was bubbling slightly from whatever was in the Changeling’s drool, but thankfully a few healing potions stopped any further damage from being done. My ear refused to regrow the missing flesh, however, and blood continued to trickle from the wound. I wrapped a bandage around it for now to staunch the bleeding.

All the Changelings now gone, we could reactivate the tower. Recalling Discord’s instructions, I trotted around to each of the four stone pedestals that surrounded the crystal and placed my hoof to them. When the last one lit up, the crystal began to glow brighter than ever and lift higher off the ground. As it became level with the tower’s roof, a beam of light shot from it into the sky, completing the connection.

“I guess that wasn’t so bad,” Steadfast said, cleaning ichor off his weapons.

“Now we just have to hope Discord honors our deal,” I said, looking toward New Antiquity.

The trip back to the Shivering Isles’ capital was uneventful (or as uneventful as things could be in a realm of chaos.) As we passed through New Antiquity’s gates, the statue of Discord within came to life.

“Congratulations, ponies!” Discord praised, stepping down onto the cobblestones with us, “I must say that was quite a good show.”

“We did what you asked,” I told the Draconequus, “Now send us back to the Northlands.”

“Not so fast,” he said, hopping over us until he was standing in front of the gates, “The job is only half done.”

“You promised if we opened a path to the Northlands you’d send us home!” Steadfast fumed.

“Yes, but the path is not open.”

“What are you talking about?” I said, pointing through the gates, “The tower is active, you can see for yourself!”

“Well, yes. This tower is active,” Discord said, and with a snap of his fingers the gates slammed shut and reopened to reveal a completely different landscape, “But this tower is not.”

Instead of the sunny and fantastical world the gates had opened onto before, they now showed an equally ridiculous land, but one that was filled with darkness and decay. In the distance was Mount Pandemonium, and atop it was another tower, this one without a beam of light protruding from its top.

“What did you do?” I asked.

“You really should have done your reading,” Discord said, depositing a copy of a book entitled A Visitor’s Guide to the Shivering Isles into my saddlebags, “The Shivering Isles represent both sides of chaos, and therefore exist in two places simultaneously. You’ve managed to activate the link from Mania, the joyful side of chaos, but not the one in Dementia, the more grim side. To return to the Northlands, you’ll have to activate this tower too.”

“Why didn’t you mention this sooner?” I asked angrily.

“I can’t be expected to be responsible for everything,” Discord said with a smirk, drawing out a parasol, “Now I’d get going if I were you. I feel like a cola storm’s brewing.”

“What’s cola?” I asked, but Discord was already gone, no doubt having returned to his palace.

“Don’t worry, Sapphire,” Mephalda said as I hung my head, “We did it once, we can do it again.”

Nodding that she was right, I turned and led the way out of New Antiquity back into the wilds of the Shivering Isles.

Between the two sides of the Shivering Isles, I think I far preferred Mania. At least there everything wasn’t constantly trying to kill you. Trekking through Dementia, we had to watch our step as deadly blades whirred by overhead, and the very ground threatened to give way underhoof.

At last we made it to Mount Pandemonium and ascended to the tower atop it. Here the tower seemed severely damaged, threatening to slide off the mountain at any time. Carefully, we trotted inside through razor-sharp gates that thankfully turned out to be another illusion.

We didn't see any more Changelings, at least not until we reached the top of the tower where the crystal floated. There was so much buzzing in the air from their wings that it was palpable. The four of us split up, preparing to come at the swarm from different directions.

<<<WULD~NAH~KEST!!!>>> I Shouted, quickly reaching the swarm, my swords even dismembering a few before I came to a stop.

I found myself surrounded by Changelings and shot fire from my horn while spinning around. Many of them lit on fire, though a few seemed unaffected. As one with a warhammer burst through the flames, I drew my swords and blocked. Pushing it back with Calcion’s Cleaver, I slashed through the chest of another that tried to come from behind with the Blade of Hoofingar.

Sheathing my ebony sword, I shot lightning into the face of the Changeling with a warhammer. Its bright eyes lit up, and a sickly green fire surrounded its body as it began cycling through different forms. I stabbed my sword through its heart as it began to take the form of me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a Changeling knock Steadfast’s warhammer from his grasp. As he jumped for it, the Changeling melted it into slag with its magic. Grabbing the warhammer the Changeling I’d been fighting with had dropped, I slid it across the floor to Steadfast.

<KRII!> I Shouted, staggering the Changeling standing before my earth pony friend.

Grabbing the Changeling warhammer in his mouth, he swung it up at the creature, breaking its jaw. Another swing caved in the side of its head. As one jumped on my back, I sent a blast of fire out from my horn before it could get at my ear and slashed my swords at where I thought it was standing. My blades hit flesh, and the Changeling slid off my back, leaking ichor the whole way. Wiping the sticky life-juice off me, I sent an ice spike into the last Changeling in the tower, who was fighting Mystic and didn’t see my attack coming.

Once more I trotted around the room, activating the pedestals until the crystal lifted into the sky, shooting a beam off into space. This time, however, things were different. As the beam began to build in power, I felt myself pulled off the floor. Mephalda, Mystic, and Steadfast also began to levitate, drawn toward the beam. Though I struggled to escape, it was no use, and I was drawn into the beam anyway and shot off to Marea knows where.