The second Elisif glared at Cadence before she was consumed by bright green flames, which had erupted from the area around her feet and rose until it had completely covered her. The Stormcloaks watching took a step back and raised their weapons, fearing that a daedra had been living among the people of Solitude without anyone realizing it. Raika and Cadence stood still, watching the flames and waiting for whatever emerged, though Cadence had an idea of what everyone was about to see. When the flames receded into the ground and vanished the Stormcloaks gasped at what they saw standing before them, thought Raika was a bit surprised as well.
A woman stood before them, but where most of the people had light colored skin, reflecting their time out in the sun and the snow, the woman had an ebony tint to her body, which happened to look like the chitin one would find on a bug. There were a couple of small holes dotting her arms and legs, holes that everyone could all see all the way through, and she had insect looking wings on her back. Where Raika had been expecting a normal horn, like Celestia's or Luna's horns, this woman had a jagged black horn, which she suspected could harm someone if used on them.
"Princess Cadence," the woman said, nearly hissing at the Equestrian Princess, "one of the two ponies in all of Equestria that I would rather forget about. Yes, it has been a long time, yet I wish you would have just left me alone instead of chasing me to another world and hunting me down."
"Honestly, I didn't even know you were even here Chrysalis," Cadence replied, shrugging as she realized that the changeling still hated her, "I was just following the Dragonborn and she ended up leading me right to you. Say, how did you end up in Tamriel anyway?"
"Remember you 'little' love spell?" Chrysalis asked, referring to the one event that had ruined her invasion of Canterlot, "Well, it may have blasted my changelings back to the Badlands, but I got blasted right out of the world and ended up here, covered in snow that had somehow broken my fall. I ended up spending the remainder of the energy I got from your precious Shining Armor healing my wounds and giving me a chance to make my way out of the wilds. That was around the time that I met Jarl Elisif, who had been offering a war horn to a shrine of some legendary warrior and immediately raised her weapon to me.
I might have fought back, but after having to hike through the mountain side, without any maps or sense of direction, and fight off some savage wildlife I was exhausted. Instead of running me through with her blade the kind Jarl covered me with a pair of robes she happened to be carrying and brought me back to this city. I then spent the following week regaining my strength, which the Jarl helped me get back, before I spend the next few months tracking down countless bandit leaders and bringing them to justice."
"I find that hard to believe," Cadence said, crossing her arms as Chrysalis recounted her tale.
"Every good deed deserves another," Chrysalis told her, shaking her head, "She saved me, so I gave her and her citizens peace of mind. You and I may not like each other, Princess Cadence, but my time in this world has changed me into a better leader."
"So all is forgiven?" Cadence asked, hoping to get a yes from the Changeling Queen.
"No way in Oblivion are you getting off that easily," Chrysalis replied, staring hard into the Equestrian Princess' eyes, "Now that you exposed me to the entire city I guess its time I packed up and got a move on, though I am holding you accountable for all of this. I'll help you out on one adventure, but then I want a ride home so I can pick up the pieces of my broken empire, whatever is left of it anyway."
Before anyone could stop her Chrysalis turned around and made her way back to the Blue Palace, where Raika assumed that she had been living for the last few months and had stashed any armor she might have had. She honestly had no idea who this Chrysalis was, mostly because none of the Princesses or Trixie had mentioned her during their time together, though she didn't know if Sombra knew her or not. She sighed and knew that she had just added another member to their group, which was a good thing since one of her comrades had fallen in battle and the other had left to go over her new duties as the leader of a vampire army.
As the group waited for their new ally to come back Raika watched her brothers and sisters clear out all the broken pieces of the buildings and the rocks that had fallen on the city. The citizens had been scared as the war had raged outside their houses and places of business, but once the fighting was done and the winner had been decided they had finally come out. They took to the Stormcloaks as if they were still the Imperials, just dressed up differently and praying to all Nine of the Divines instead of the original Eight. It did Raika good to know that all her hard work had been worth it, as now none of them would have to worry about an evil dragon seeking to end the world or a vampire lord wanting to rule over everyone.
During their wait she also noticed that Trixie and Cadence were discussing something, but whatever it was they decided not to tell her and kept it between themselves.
"I am present," Chrysalis announced, stopping right behind her before taking a look around, "Now, where are the rest of the ponies at are traveling with you?"
"Well, Princess Cadence and Trixie are discussing something important," Raika replied, turning to face the creature that would be joining them, "and Sombra is, well, just leaning against a wall, waiting for the others to finish."
"Right, as if I'm going to believe that the Demon of the Crystal Empire is here in Tamriel," Chrysalis said, though Raika had no idea how she was overlooking Sombra when he was literally right behind her, "Sure, he may have been a kind hearted stallion that gave me and my subjects a refuge one winter when we were forced to move the location of our hive, but then one year he became a monster. I'm glad that my subjects and I managed to get out of there with all of our hides intact."
"He's right behind you," Raika commented, pointing right behind her.
Chrysalis turned around and her entire body went still as she realized that she had been wrong, that Sombra had been standing there the entire time and she had overlooked him. She was used to feeling the fear of those she hunted down and brought to justice, but whenever she looked upon the King of Shadows she could feel fear grip her heart. Sombra got out of the position he had been standing in for the last hour and approached the two of them, but where Chrysalis was expecting to find the monster she found the kind hearted stallion she had met a long time ago.
"Queen Chrysalis, it is a pleasure to see you again," Sombra said, giving her a little bow before straightening up, "I am pleased to say that the darkness that once clouded my mind and made all of Equestria hate me has been completely cleared, returning me to who I was before Discord tried to destroy me. I'm sure that Celestia will make a treaty with you once she hears of all the things you have done for the people of this realm while you were here. So Raika, what's our next objective?"
Raika sighed, knowing that she had absolutely no idea where she and her friends could find another Cultist or where their base of operations was located. All of the previous evils that she and the others had taken care of had basically come with instructions on how to find out where they were located and how to defeat them. The Cultists had sprung up out of nowhere and demanded that Raika die for 'pretending to be the Dragonborn', as their master would be the end of her. She was almost half dragon at this point, so pretending wasn't something that she could actually hide at that point, though she wished that she had an idea of where to find her last enemy.
"Honestly, I have no idea," Raika admitted, sighing as she noticed Trixie and Cadence approaching, "but how hard can it be to hunt down a group of Cultists and get some information out of them?"
"Actually, we need to make a stop at the College," Cadence said, surprising Raika bit before she sighed, "and then we need to visit where Princess Celestia and Princess Luna left Tamriel. I swear everything will become clear once we've gotten that far."
Raika held back a moan as she beckoned for Sombra to open a gateway for them, which would take them back to the College of Winterhold for whatever reason Cadence was withholding from them. Sombra nodded and the shadows parted to reveal the gateways that they had used for the last couple of days, saving an incredible amount of time in the process. Raika walked through the shadows, followed by Trixie and Cadence, though Chrysalis stared at Sombra for a moment before following the others through the shadows. Sombra nodded, made sure that no one was coming to look at the gate, and then entered it himself, flowing all the way across the land to their destination.
-----------------------------------------
Raika stepped into the cold wind of Winterhold, but she barely felt any of the chilling winds and knew that the blame for that would be shifted to what was happening to her. The guard that was patrolling the small town glared at her before sighing and moving along, just as the rest of her group appeared from the gateway behind her. Once everyone was accounted for, including their latest addition, they made their way up to the gates of the college, passing over the rotting bridge before entering the courtyard. Trixie made sure to ask one of the other teachers where Tolfdir was, where she was then pointed at the main building and proceeded to open the doors.
Lucky for them that they managed to find the old man when he was finishing up a lesson, giving them time to ask him whatever they needed to before they moved on.
"Ah, Archmage," Tolfdir welcomed, respectfully bowing to Trixie as they stopped in front of him, "it is wonderful to see you and your associates again. Is there anything I can help you with?"
"That there is," Trixie said, summoning the Staff of Magnus and holding it out for him to take, "my time in Skyrim is drawing to a close and I wanted to make sure that this staff had a good home in the College. Also, I managed to recover all of the masks of the Dragon Priests, so I was hoping that we might be able to keep them here for students to study one day."
"Wait, what?" Raika asked, causing Trixie to look at her, "Why are you leaving? When were you planning on telling me this?"
"Only alicorn's can open the way between worlds," Trixie told her, repeating the same thing that Princess Celestia had told them after Alduin's defeat, "Princess Cadence is returning home and she offered to take me with her. While I'd love to stay in Tamriel and practice magic for the rest of my life, there are ponies waiting for me in Equestria that are special to me. I know you'd love to have me stay for one more adventure, but I'm afraid that I'm a little tapped out at the moment. We were planning on telling you a day or two ago, but we got so involved with the Dawnguard that it must have slipped my mind until now."
"So I'll be left with Sombra than?" Raika asked, wondering why everyone was suddenly leaving her.
"Not to mention Chrysalis," Cadence replied, patting the changeling on the shoulder, "She'll made an excellent addition to your group with whatever abilities that she has acquired."
Chrysalis huffed as Trixie handed over the Staff of Magnus and all the masks that she had gathered, entrusting them into the care of one of Skyrim's finest mages. Trixie had no doubt that some pesky apprentice, namely J'zargo, would be staring at the masks after she was gone and thinking about swiping them, so she spent the next hour with Tolfdir. They made a plan that would keep the items safe until they were needed again, safe from the hands of those who would use them to do harm to the rest of Tamriel. Once the deed was done Trixie moved to hand back the Archmage robes she was wearing, but Tolfdir insisted that she kept them, just in case she decided to return to them one day.
Once they were done with that Raika beckoned for Sombra to open a gateway for them, which was designed to take them to the peak of the Throat of the World. However, when they stepped through it Raika found that they were at the foot of the mountain, standing in the center of Iverstead and making Raika wonder what happened.
"Great, they locked onto the gateway," Sombra commented, pointing out the Cultists that were holding crystals in their hands, "Guess what Raika, we managed to find the Cultists you were after."
"You might as well give up False Dragonborn," one of the Cultists shouted down at them, "We have spent the last few days tracking you across Skyrim, all so that we could destroy you and allow our master to rule over all."
"Great..." Raika moaned, just as an idea popped into her head, "So tell me, who is your master and where is his hideout located?"
"Our master is Lord Miraak, the First Dragonborn," the Cultist proclaimed, as if she thought that they could take down the Dragonborn, "who rules over the island of Solstheim. We came to Skyrim aboard a ship called the Northern Maiden, where we docked in Windhelm before coming and searching for you. Now that we have found you we are going to take great pleasure in destroying you and returning to our master with victory in our hearts."
Raika leapt into the air and landed right before the Cultist, her hand tearing through the chest almost immediately and ripping the heart out in seconds. The other Cultists stared at her as she crushed the beating heart and pushed the dead Cultist backwards, letting her hit the ground before moving to face the others. One enemy came right at her, but Raika simply picked her up and tossed her backwards, letting her friends deal with that one as she moved on. The last two Cultists came at her from both sides, intending to ruin her before she had the chance to defend herself, but Raika raised her hands and caught them with ease. She grinned as she forced each of their weapons into the others body, making sure that they were both put down before dropping them to the ground.
"So," Raika said, stepping in front of the Cultist she had wounded, "The Northern Maiden in Windhelm?"
The Cultist nodded and Raika snapped her neck, ending the foe in a second before she let out a sigh of relief. She had worried that she wouldn't be able to find her last enemy, but then they happened to find the Cultists and now they knew exactly where to go next. She actually thought it was funny that her enemy had given her the exact whereabouts of his hideout, as if he was inviting her to come and play. She was going to take great pleasure in dealing with this 'Miraak' and then take a break for as long as possible.
With another gateway they managed to get to the top of the Throat of the World, where Chrysalis finally reached over a rock and threw up from the amount of gateways they had been walking through.
Cadence approached the area where Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had summoned their portal back home and let her magic fill the mountain top. The area before her began to bend and break, forming the same hole that the other Princesses had summoned and before Raika knew it the portal had stabilized in front of them. Cadence nodded and Trixie quickly said her goodbyes before approaching the mass of magic, the light covering her entire body before she disappeared. Cadence looked back at them for a moment before stepping into the light, vanishing from Tamriel and leaving Raika to sigh as she turned around.
She didn't get very far before a hand touched her shoulder, causing her to turn around and find none other than Princess Celestia, in all of her shining glory, standing behind her. As she stared at the solar princess the portal closed behind her, though she did notice that Chrysalis was trembling as if she didn't like what was happening.
"Please don't hurt me." Chrysalis said, falling to her knees as Celestia came near her.
Raika watched Celestia kneel beside the Changeling Queen, whatever that happened to be since no one explained what a changeling was to her, and embraced her. Chrysalis was caught off guard by the gesture, though over the next few minutes her trembling finally stopped and her regained the composure that she had earlier. Once her was calm again Celestia released her and looked up at Sombra, who she immediately embraced and wrapped her wings around without delay. Raika was glad to see the two of them together again, knowing that Celestia would be enjoying the moment until someone ruined it for them.
"Your not in trouble Chrysalis," Celestia chuckled, finally releasing Sombra and helped the changeling monarch onto her feet, "in fact, Luna's busy laying the groundwork to allow changelings to become citizens in Equestria if they chose to. You wouldn't have to hide behind a disguise anymore and could live whatever life you wanted. I imagine Cadence will have quite the shock when she discovers this, but that's for her to find out and for Luna to help her deal with."
"And him?" Chrysalis said, pointing at Sombra.
"Oh, you mean my husband?" Celestia replied, nearly laughing at the shocked face that Chrysalis had, "We got married over a thousand years ago and all the groundwork to let him live a normal life are in place, just waiting for him to return. Now, Raika...what in Oblivion happened to you?"
"Just my destiny as the Dragonborn," Raika said, shaking her head, "destroy dragons and become one yourself. We've already dealt with the Dawnguard and the vampire menace, so all that we need to do now is take a ship out of Windhelm and travel to the island of Solstheim. There's someone named Miraak on the island that sent those Cultists after me, so we're going to pay him a visit and see if we can't get him to stop harassing me."
Sombra took the cue and summoned another gateway, taking them right to the city of Windhelm, where Raika knew they would be able to find the ship that the Cultists used. Raika had to admit it though, having Celestia back increased their odds of wrecking whoever Miraak was and destroying his plans, if he had any.
-----------------------------------------
Apocrypha, the realm of Knowledge, home of the Daedric Prince known as Hermaeus Mora. A place where all knowledge was hoarded by the Prince, which was protected by his guards, the creatures known as Seekers to mortal men, and used to lure people to their doom. The Seekers roamed the plane of Oblivion, moving things around while beating those that sought the knowledge they guarded, who weren't blessed by their lord and master. The black waters stirred every now and then, the hidden denizens waiting for some foolish adventurer to make their way to their realm so they could devour them whole.
At one of the peaks a man, wearing a dark green robe that had golden pieces scattered about it and a special golden mask that covered his face, stared at a floating orb in the middle of the area. It showed him one person at a time, from anywhere in all of Solstheim and Skyrim, though there was only one person he wanted to watch at the moment. He had felt her the moment she had awakened and had met with the Greybeards in their mountain hideout, which was right before he had sent a few Cultists to invite her to his island. Now the person he was watching was boarding the same boat his minions had used, which would bring her right to the island and let her search for him.
"Come Yolrahtoor," the man said, his voice echoing just a bit, "come home, my old friend."