"I will never get used to that!"
Raika coughed a few times before she finally got over the chill that she had felt after traveling through Sombra's Shadow Gate. The best thing about Sombra regaining his memories and learning all the spells in his arsenal was that now they had an option to travel across vast distances in a matter of seconds. The only requirement that they needed was for Sombra to have visited the location they wanted to travel to, otherwise they'd have to pick someplace close and walk from there. As such they opened a gate and traveled from the ruins of Forelhost to the rotting town of Winterhold, scaring the crap out of one of the guards.
The guard, at the time, had cursed them out by saying something about 'damned mages appearing out of thin air' before walking away from the group.
"I hope Tolfdir got that orb we found out of Saarthal," Trixie commented, watching the Shadow Gate close before beginning the trek to the College gates, "cause I'd like to know what that thing is and how powerful it really is."
"Honestly, I just hope Urag has something for us," Raika sighed, feeling as if they were walking into another trap, "because I'm not going to chase this Moth Priest all over Skyrim. And there's still the Imperial Legion I have to worry about. One of these days I'll have to deal with the war and end it before it claims too many more lives."
On that note Serana, having been locked away for way too much time and not being able to state anything about the current age, began to ask question after question about the current sides of the war. Apparently she wanted to know exactly who the contenders were for the 'war of succession', as she called the current civil war. Raika, being the only one who could accurately tell her anything, informed her about how the Empire had been defeated by the Aldmeri Dominion, been forced to ban worship of the Ninth Divine everywhere, and the Imperial Legion that was trying to eradicate the Stormcloaks that still prayed to Talos.
It was during their discussions that Raika learned that Serana was a pure blooded vampire, the tainted creation of Molag Bal, one of the sixteen Daedric Princes that ruled over Oblivion. As such as she had no love for the Divines, who she believed only saw her and the rest of her kind as monsters, but also knew the importance the nords placed in Talos. With that in mind Serana had no idea why Raika, a khajiit, would worship Talos or even enlist in the Stormcloak army, despite the fact that she kept telling her that she was born in Windhelm. Raika knew she would never convince anyone who wasn't a Stormcloak that she was telling the truth, but she did like to remind people of which side she was on.
As they approached the main gates Trixie was greeted by several of the mages, a few of which were her fellow apprentices while the others were the masters. Raika felt glad that Trixie, someone who couldn't fit in with the rest of her own world, could be accepted by some many people who had been rejected by most of Skyrim. She could tell that Trixie felt at home with the other mages, where she could practice her magic and not be mocked by someone who felt she was just pretending. As they entered the Hall of the Elements Raika heard Serana gasp, no doubt because of the giant orb floating in the chamber in front of them.
"The Eye of Magnus?!" Serana said, staring past the door way and focusing on the orb, "According to the ancient legends that's one of the most dangerous artifacts that's scattered throughout Tamriel. I know of several Daedric Princes that would kill everyone in the College to get their hands and claws on something like this."
"As long as they don't know about it then we're safe," Raika sighed, wondering why they had found something so easily, "Come, let's speak to Urag and see where our Moth Priest went."
As they walked up the steps and entered the Arcanaeum Raika heard someone arguing with Urag, though by the sounds of it she suspected that whoever it was was female. And then she heard a familiar voice, one that made Shadow step forward and get a better look at who was up there.
"Calm yourself young Twilight," the second voice continued, "I'm sure that Urag meant that he has no idea where our friends have run off to or when they'll return to the College. Maybe we should wait here for some time and see if they come seeking information, because we actually needed Urag's help to find the Elder Scroll that helped defeat Alduin."
"Nightmare Moon?" Shadow asked, stepping into the open area and pulling his hood back.
Raika and the others turned the corner as well and she was shocked to see that Princess Luna had returned to Skyrim after being away for such a sort time. Standing next to her was a young girl that stood at the same height as Trixie, but where Trixie had a simple horn this girl had both a horn and a pair of lavender wings. Both Luna and the girl turned around the moment that Shadow had said Luna's ancient name, one that she hadn't used since the days of the Oblivion Crisis.
"Shadow, the Knight of the Nine?!" Luna said, almost as if her eyes had deceived her, "I had wondered what had become of you after the Oblivion Crisis, though it warms my heart that you are still alive and well after all these years."
"Yes, there were moments where I thought I'd fall in battle and join Rend in the afterlife," Shadow chuckled, "but every time I came to that point I found that I would suddenly have the strength to move. The Divines willed me to live whenever I needed it, and whenever I finished the fight I was in I made offerings to the Divines as thanks for aiding me."
"Look, I'd rather not interrupt this reunion," Urag called from his desk, "but I've got a task that someone needs to run and you guys happen to be the only people near me."
"Hey Urag," Trixie replied, walking up to the desk and placing a few books in front of the orc, "I found a couple of books that were I thought you'd like to add to your collection while I was got. Here's a proposal for you Urag, we go and do whatever task you need us to run and then you share whatever information you have on a Moth Priest that may have entered Skyrim some time ago."
Raika had no idea what Trixie was doing, offering their services to someone without getting some form of payment before they even left the College. If they went through all the effort to do Urag's task and came back to him, only to learn that he had absolutely no idea where their Moth Priest was, than they would have wasted their time. Trixie was practically handing a free service to Urag with nothing in return and Raika wasn't too pleased with how things were developing.
"I will tell you something about this Moth Priest," Urag said, grabbing the new books and stashing them beneath the desk, "He HAS visited Skyrim in the last week. Now, what I need you and your friends to do is go to Mzulft, find the Synod researchers that delved into the ancient ruins, and then find out what they know about the Staff of Magnus. Tolfdir was speaking with the Augur of Dunlain earlier and somehow found out that we needed the Staff to even use the Eye of Magnus without being shackled to it. If you find out anything about the Staff you are to immediately return and report to the Archmage with your findings."
"Why in Oblivion are mages from Cyrodiil exploring a dwarven ruin in Skyrim?" Raika shouted, not understanding what those mages were thinking in the first place.
"What's Oblivion?" Twilight asked, her eyes darting past everyone while not landing on the one stallion she didn't want to see, "And what's Cyrodiil for that matter?"
"I'll tell you later Twilight," Trixie told the latest Equestrian, "Just tell us where Mzulft is and we'll see if there are any members of the Synod still running around. Maybe we'll find where this Staff is in the process."
Before anyone could react Sombra activated his magic and opened another Shadow Gate between where they stood and where Urag was sitting. Luna smiled and leapt right into the shadows, causing everyone else to slowly follow after her until only Twilight and Sombra remained in front of it. Twilight gave Sombra a glance, trying to decide if she could trust the stallion, but came to the swift decision that if Luna could trust him then she could put some faith in him. She sighed and threw herself into the gateway, disappearing before Sombra entered it and allowed the College's entrance to close.
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"Ugh, why do I even use those things?"
Raika dragged herself onto her feet and stared up at what was sitting in front of her face, a dwarven ruin sitting in the side of a mountain with a giant golden door. She had no idea how Sombra had found Mzulft without being there, as that had been the requirement they had been using for all of their travels. If he could just skip to wherever he wanted, even without being there, they could have saved hours and be even further along in their quest to save the world from vampires.
"Dear sweet Celestia," Twilight moaned, throwing up what she had had for breakfast on the side of the mountain, "what in Tartarus was that mass of shadows we walked through?"
"Sombra's magic, capable of teleporting us across vast distances," Luna remarked, staring up at the golden door while holding her battleaxe at her side, "Twilight, there are many things about Sombra that you do not yet know and I promise you that I will try to tell you everything about the stallion he had been, and not the stallion you've come to know."
"Very well Princess Luna," Twilight replied, managing to regain her balance while turning to the elder alicorn, "Still, you have to tell me what this 'Oblivion' and 'Cyrodiil' are sometime soon, otherwise I'm just going to get more confused..."
"Trust me, he's actually a sweet stallion when you get to know him," Luna chuckled, recalling how her sister acted around Sombra, "though I really wish the marriage ceremony had gone uninterrupted and we could have spent the night partying and telling stories of our heroic deeds."
"Marriage...ceremony?" Twilight asked, not having any clue what Luna was talking about.
"For the sake of the Sun," Sombra groaned, feeling sorry for the poor mare now, "What Luna is trying to say is that Princess Celestia and I are, by the old Equestrian laws, married. I'm pretty sure that I left the records somewhere in the Crystal Palace, safe from harm in a hidden compartment that only a select few can open."
"I think I'm going to be sick again," Twilight moaned, not sure if she should be upset over the fact that Sombra had actually been a nice pony in the past or over the fact that he had married Princess Celestia.
"For the love of Talos, let's just get this over with," Raika said, drawing her swords as they began to walk through the golden doors.
The moment they entered the very beginning of the dwarven ruins they came across one of the Synod researchers, who was holding his chest and coughing blood at an alarming rate. He spotted them and handed Raika a key, muttering something about an Oculory and a missing crystal, though it didn't give Raika anything to go on. She pushed open the door and walked further into the ruin, trying to limit how much noise they made so they didn't awaken the construct army that was waiting below their feet.
"Is there a reason for walking slow?" Twilight asked, her eyes lighting up as she stared at the ruins around her.
That was when Raika heard it, the scrapping of metal on stone. It was the telltale sign of the construct army awakening from their ancient slumber and starting to seek out whoever had awoken them early. Raika would have strangled the new girl right then and there, but Luna was watching and there was the fact that she was a bloody alicorn, not the one named Cadence. There had been three alicorns in Equestria when Luna had last visited Raika, but now there was a fourth one running around. Raika was beginning to wonder just how many of the godly creatures there were in Equestria, save for the annoying Discord that she hated with her entire being.
It took them about ten minutes to move from the entrance of the ruins, which Sombra decided to seal with his wall of crystals so the constructs couldn't escape, to an open chamber with at least two dozen constructs milling about. Twilight, wanting to get a closer look at what they actually were, moved to the edge of the walkway and stared down at the constructs, who turned and stared at her. One of the sphere constructs raised its arm and pulled back the string on its crossbow, aimed right at Twilight so it could end the intruder quickly. The bolt flew through the air, but never made it to Twilight as a lavender barrier wrapped around her and destroyed the bolt before it could get near her.
Before the construct could move Twilight extended her hand, wrapped magic around it, and squeezed her fist closed, crumbling the construct from afar. Raika had never seen a magical power like that before, though she had seen a legendary dragon, the power of chaos, the abilities of the Sun and the Moon, and a whole bunch of corruptible shadows. Whoever this Twilight Sparkle was she was certainly a dangerous person, as she demonstrated by crushing two more constructs under the weight under her magic. Sombra smiled and stood neat to her barrier, willing some crystals to rise up and sever several constructs against the walls while Twilight crushed the rest.
"Wow," Raika said, seeing the constructs fall to just two Equestrians, "too strong for Skyrim to handle."
Twilight turned to Trixie and nodded, allowing the other Equestrian to join them as they continued down the hallways, magic flying everywhere, literally everywhere, and colliding with every construct they came across. Luna and Shadow stood side by side and followed them further into the ruins, leaving Raika to wonder how much fighting she was actually going to do with so many allies. There were too legendary warriors fighting on her side, all starting with the legendary Queen of Knights of the Oblivion Crisis. Then there was the Princess of the Sun, the King of Shadows, an Apprentice from the College of Winterhold, and then the timely visit from the Hero of Kvatch.
They continued through the ruins, Raika watching the newcomer either crush the dwarven constructs against each other or just fling them into the walls around them. Sombra would do his usual bit, summon crystals and puncture everything that stood in their way as an enemy, including the Falmer they found in later rooms. Trixie, wearing Nahkriin's mask, used her elevated magical abilities to tear through the enemies that the others left behind, throwing them off the edge and piercing others with spikes made of ice. Luna and Shadow took turns slicing enemies down with their rather large weapons, sharing what had happened since the Oblivion Crisis as if it was more important than finding a legendary staff of power.
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Room after room of constructs and Falmer they passed through, though all Raika had to do was watch her friends wreck everything that wanted her dead. While they walked she basically sheathed her swords and enjoyed the sight, that for the first time she didn't have to help anyone fight or regain their memories. She was free to collect magical weapons, pieces of special jewelry that might have some decent enchantments, and a variety of books that she'd hand to Trixie, who would then had them to Urag later on. She was also sure that they had passed by an ancient puzzle built by the dwemer, but her magical friends destroyed it before she could get a good look at it.
They came to yet another chamber filled with Falmer, but Raika knew that she didn't have to wait long until her friends started blasting them against the walls. Raika seriously wished she had Twilight when they were hunting for the first Elder Scroll, as she could have wrecked the construct army that she's sure is still in Blackreach. As her friends moved against the Falmer Raika continued to search all the bodies, eventually finding a rather strange circular crystal sphere, which she assumed was the one the dying man had mentioned earlier. A Falmer got close to her, but she pulled a sword out and lopped its head clean from its body, letting the head roll and the body fall as she got onto her feet.
Eventually her friends broke off to the right of the room, smashing even more constructs as they descended deeper into the ruins, leaving Raika to study the crystal. She was sure that it held some importance to the ruins, though she couldn't figure out what exactly that important role had been before the dwemer had vanished. She stood there for a few minutes before her friends returned, their magic dying away before Trixie stared at the crystal that Raika was still holding.
"This might be the key to finding the Staff," Trixie said, taking the sphere and moving to the left side of the room, "Maybe that key we found in the other room will help with this large golden door."
"Okay, why did these 'dwarves' build everything out of gold?" Twilight asked, following the group to the other door, "Seriously, I've seen enough gold to fund every region in Equestria. These dwarves were a wasteful lot."
Raika was somewhat glad that Twilight hadn't gotten to all the books on all the terrible things the dwarves did to everyone else, because she seemed like an innocent person, or pony, who had stumbled onto Luna's quest. She was sure that Twilight was only staying for the one quest and that the moment they finished with the College of Winterhold Luna would be sending her home almost immediately. The moment they reached the door Trixie unlocked it and revealed a second door at the top of a ramp, which made Twilight sigh in disappointment. Trixie approached the second door and tapped on it, hearing someone shuffle around before the door swung open, revealing another mage who looked incredibly angry at something.
Trixie approached the mage and the two of them exchanged words, the mages almost shouting that he hated the College of Winterhold and the fact that he was ignored by the Archmage about three or four months ago. Trixie somehow managed to convince the mage that she was there to help and that she had the one thing he needed to complete his experiment. So they all followed them into the large chamber, finding a golden orb with weird symbols in front of them, though they walked up a ramp and reached a point where Trixie could place the crystal in the socket it was designed for.
With the crystal in place the machinery started moving, flipping the orb into the air before several beams of light bounced off the walls and connected with the crystal. Trixie shocked the orb with ice, causing the beams to move until they were aligned with the three bands that were at the top of the ceiling. Then she moved to the platform and started pressing the buttons, causing the bands to move until they reflected the beams back at the crystal from a completely different angle. Once all the beams were reconnected they shined down a light below the platform, revealing a map of Tamriel that had only two white spots on it.
"You ruined everything!" the mage shouted, tearing at his hair as he stared at the map, "Blasted College still has some artifact of incredible magical power hidden away from the world. And what's this, the ancient ruin known as Labyrinthian has some artifact hidden away, where no one would think to look for it. The Aldmeri Dominion will take great pleasure in the fact that this mission was a success and that Ancano isn't wasting his time trying to bend the Eye of Magnus to his will..."
That was as far as he got before Raika shoved her daedric blades through his chest, silencing the vile mage before he could reveal any of the College's secrets to the enemy.
"So..." Raika said, turning to Sombra, "We'll need another ride to the College so we can warn everyone about this Ancano and get on with finding our Moth Priest. What's the worst that can happen?"
Sombra sighed, not wanting to tell Raika that asking that question was going to being something bad upon them, but opened the Shadow Gate regardless. All Sombra hoped was that the Archmage didn't need them to actually retrieve the Staff of Magnus and make this quest go on longer than it needed to be. They had a vampire threat to deal with before they could get anywhere near the fiend that sent those Cultists after them a while ago.
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Princess Cadence sighed, feeling bored for the first time since she started ruling over the Crystal Empire. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna dropped off the face of Equestria and left her to fend for herself, giving her no free time to do anything fun. She had Twilight's help in making sure nothing fell to pieces and they had a decent time trying to make sense of Celestia's records. While she focused on her empire Twilight was given majority control of Canterlot, though she had to share her plans with Cadence all the time. Then, one day, both princesses returned and took control of everything again, though not before Celestia sent Twilight an ancient spellbook and turned her into an alicorn.
The last few months were the worst in her entire life, but now that Celestia and Luna were back where they belonged Cadence could finally relax and not have to worry about anything. That was before her hoof brushed against a loose piece of the throne and knocked it off, revealing a hidden compartment that must have some secret of the previous ruler. She didn't know if she wanted any of Sombra's secrets, but her need to know what she had found was much stronger than keeping her innocence. She pulled the pieces of paper out of the compartment and prepared herself for whatever dark secret Sombra had chosen to hide away.
Hmm, what's this? Cadence thought, her eyes scanning over the documents, Let's see here; a copy of Sombra's right to rule the empire by vote of the Crystal Ponies, a list of the various crystals and who he could give them to, a marriage certificate, a plan to keep the Crystal Heart in the center of the empire for generations, a design sheet for...wait, a marriage certificate?!
Cadence stared at the one piece of paper that she never expected to find in all of the Crystal Empire, something that revealed that Sombra actually cared about somepony. It was undeniable proof that he had a heart, something that Cadence had thought that Sombra didn't have when she heard that he had enslaved the entire empire. She had to tell Shining about this latest development with the now destroyed ex-ruler of the Crystal Empire, but first she needed to know exactly who he had married. After a few moments she found the name she was looking for, but once she read it her eyes widened in shock and surprise at the same time.
"CELESTIA!"