The moment that Sheogorath was done speaking to them, dismissing them to deal with his chosen task, Nightmare and Luna were the first ones to leave the palace. They were eager to start their adventure in the Shivering Isles with Pandora, but there were many reasons for them wanting to be away from the Madgod. He had literally taken away half of their powers, sealing away Nightmare's horn and Luna's wings, so he could even the playing field with their companion. Nightmare had no idea how to react to finding someone that was of equal power to Discord, the Spirit that could remove horns and wings from ponies among other things.
Luna, on the other hand, knew that the only way they'd earn their powers back was to get on Sheogorath's good side and pray that he was in the mood to restore their powers.
Neither mare spoke to each other, or to Pandora for that matter, until they were outside New Sheoth, where they could consult the map and figure out where their destination was located. While Luna and Pandora stared at the map Nightmare chose to stare at the landscape, silently daring something to show up so she could cut it down.
"So we basically have to go back the way we came," Luna commented, running her finger along the road until she came to the crossroad they needed to turn left at, "and then we need to head down that road until we come across the rotting fortress that is known as Xedilian. I will admit, I am curious as to what we'll be doing there."
"Oh shut up Luna," Nightmare nearly shouted, more annoyed with the fact that her magic had been taken from her, "I swear, if not for the fact that I'll die when you die, I'd raise my battleaxe and slam you into the ground like everything else I fight. I'd love to be ride of you and your increasingly annoying voice."
An arrow whipped by her head and she snapped around, finding another group of Grummites coming their way and waving their weapons in their direction. Nightmare flared her wings and took off, spiraling through the air before she landed behind her enemies, her battleaxe cutting through three of them with ease. One of them came at her and swung its sword at her, but Nightmare sidestepped the creature and carved its back open, letting it drop to the ground before she moved on once more. It was clear that she was angry at the world, in more ways than one, and she decided that she needed to vent her anger on whoever decided to stand in front of her.
"What's upset her this time?" Pandora asked, wondering how Nightmare could make such a emotional flip with such ease.
"She's angry at me and Celestia," Luna replied, sighing as they followed behind the raging warrior, "Celestia was the shining sibling, but while she was treated with praise from our ponies I was left in the shadows, feared and rejected by those same ponies. I began to sulk in my chambers shortly after I learned what ponies thought of my night, only coming up to raise and lower the moon each day before retiring. I let my rage, my anger, and my jealousy for my sister boil inside of me, building over the weeks until it eventually developed into another personality altogether."
"Nightmare Moon," Pandora exclaimed, realizing exactly who Luna was referring to.
"Yes, and eventually I succumbed to her," Luna continued, watching her insane other half carve a path through the Grummites, "Once she had taken over she sought out Celestia and attacked her, with the intent to defeat her and bring Eternal Night to all of Equestria. In the end my sister resorted to using the Elements of Harmony, six gemstones representing the very aspects of Harmony itself, on Nightmare, blasting the both of us into our prison; our precious moon. For the last eight hundred years we sat on the dusty surface of our moon, where I let Nightmare rant about our defeat, speak about her plans, and store her magic in the moon, while I reflected on our defeat. I came to the conclusion that what we had done was wrong and that we deserved our punishment, but I kept that to myself.
Nightmare thought that she could shatter the bindings that Elements had placed on us, but they turned on us the moment she tried to escape and flung us across the vastness of space. That was when we arrived in the Arena, where Nightmare fought for our lives and eventually earned the right to walk out into Tamriel for the first time. The rest of our tale, as honorable and noble as it can, you and our friends know, though they don't know the dark secret Nightmare carries in her heart."
Pandora nodded and pulled out her bow, nocking an arrow and hitting an enemy, one that was going to hit Nightmare in the back, so hard that it fell into the water and stopped moving. Nightmare barely noticed the action as she continued carving up her enemies, though the moment several of them were caught in a large fireball she knew who was helping her. Luna approached their enemies and blasted several of them with magic, using a low level spell to drive the rest of them off so they could move on with their mission.
"Why did you run them off?" Nightmare shouted, turning to face Luna once more.
"We weren't getting anywhere with you killing everything in sight," Luna replied, turning back towards the road, "Maybe when we actually reach Xedilian you can carve a path through whatever we find, but we really must hurry."
Nightmare growled at her, but once she realized that Luna was right she huffed and sheathed her weapon, following her calmer counterpart towards their destination. The trio approached the crumpling ruin they had been sent to, but as they walked across the rotting bridge they noticed that there weren't any enemies to deal with. Luna chucked it up to the fact that Nightmare killed nearly everything to get to this place was they opened the door to carry out the Madgod's will.
Once inside Xedilian Nightmare and Pandora pulled out their weapons, preparing them as they heard the sound of Grummites milling about around the corner. Sure enough they found several of the creatures running around, though they didn't seem to notice the trio until Nightmare took one of their heads. The creatures turned on them in an instant, but Pandora was eager to pin several of them to the walls as Luna simply burned whoever came her way.
It wasn't easy for them to progress, as the moment they reached a chamber, after passing through two doors they opened with hidden buttons, they were assaulted by a shaman of some kind and his allies. Luna noticed that the shaman carried an interesting looking staff, and so she made it her task to be the one to bring the shaman down as Nightmare and Pandora sealed the fate of his allies. The shaman, seeing how deadly things were going for him, used a last ditch effort by lighting up the area with the staff's magic, but Luna's own magic surged forward and slammed him into the wall, instantly killing him and causing the staff to drop.
"Now how do we move on?" Pandora asked, staring at the sealed door while she and Nightmare looked for the button that would allow them to move on.
"I don't know!" Nightmare shouted back, frantically searching for the button, "Luna, I know that you have something in mind, so be a dear and HELP US!"
Luna had picked up the shaman's staff and had spent a few minutes studying it, along with the strange contraption that sat in a corner that rested before the door. The staff had a crystal at the top, but when she snapped it off, by accident, she decided to place it on the strange alter and watched it snap into place. She heard a clicking sound and the door opened before their eyes, causing the her companions to turn and look at her.
"What?" Luna asked, tossing the staff's shaft away, "You asked for my help and I've given it to you. Now lets move on."
Pandora nodded and the trio moved on, eventually coming to an area where they found a statue and dropped into an area below the tunnel they had walked through. They continued through the rotting fortress, cutting, blasting, and shooting their way through the seemingly endless army of Grummites that called the place home. At one time Pandora seemed to run out of arrows, but before she could resort to her own daggers Luna tossed a quiver of arrows at her, briefly explaining that she had been collecting them for her. It was there that they somehow found a second shaman, but Luna knew what he carried on his staff and made sure that he was swiftly put down.
With the staff, and its precious crystal in hand, Luna repeated the process that she had done on the first alter and soon they were on their way, heading deeper into the bowels of the rotting fortress. They came to a large door after that, though when they entered the new area they were surprised by the continued amount of Grummites that appeared in their way. Yet again they continued down the path that was laid out for them, though they came across one more shaman that commanded an even greater amount of followers than those before him. Instead of hitting the shaman immediately Luna decided to help her companions cut a path towards her target, until they finally managed, through some well placed blows, to end the army they faced.
Luna smacked the shaman with her magic and collected the staff, placing what she assumed was the final crystal in its alter and opening the way towards the end point. The final chamber had three more Grummites running around, but Pandora was quick to pull three arrows out and place them in her enemies hearts. At the back they found a rather large crystal, though they made sure to study it and the surrounding area for any clues before they pulled out the item that Sheogorath gave to Pandora. She approached the crystal and tapped it, backing up to watch the crystal unfold and awaken, emitting a strange sound that seemed to echo before disappearing.
Once the crystal was awoken they heard another gate open, revealing what appeared to be a teleport pad of some kind that lead them to enter it one at a time. When they all appeared in another chamber they were greeted by a dark elf that seemed alarmed that they were even there to begin with, but seemed to calm down when he noticed the item in Pandora's hand.
"Ah, you've restored the Resonator," the dark elf, Kiliban Nyrandil, said, turning his head as if he was hearing something, "and just in time too. It seems that a nearby group of adventurers have heard the Siren's Call and have come to claim the 'treasure' for themselves. Now it seems that you'll have to decide their fates, using the buttons that represent Dementia and Mania."
They turned around to the open room and watched the three adventurers walk down the stairs, each of them approaching the seemingly harmless tree creature in the middle of the room. Pandora pulled out the book they had been given and flipped to the first chamber, where they discovered that to drive them insane all they had to do was press the red button, while the blue would result in death. The trio spoke quickly, though it was quickly discovered that two of them, Nightmare and Pandora, preferred to just kill them and be done with it, so Luna let the vote slide.
After pressing the blue button a large group of tree creatures appeared, converging on the group and attacking them without delay, much to the horror of the adventurers. The warrior and mage managed to drive back the creatures that wanted them dead, but the rogue was swamped and slain before his companions could save him. Once they briefly mourned their companion the duo moved on, quickly moving away from the chamber before the same fate befell them. Pandora and her friends followed Kiliban into a second teleport pad, where they appeared above a second chamber, only this one had a large iron cage filled with treasure.
Once the two adventurers entered the room and discovered the cage they approached it, each speaking about how they would spend the riches to further their own ambitions. Nightmare, already disgusted with them for allowing their companion to fall in battle like he did, barely wasted a second as she placed her hand on the button that represented death. She looked back at Pandora, who nodded, and pressed the button, igniting a fireball that slew the mage before he even realized what was happening. The warrior vowed to kill whoever was responsible for the death of his allies before he moved on, heading away from the treasure that had distracted him from the dangers that rested around him.
The three of them followed the elf into one more teleportation pad, appearing in a chamber that looked as if it had been filled with recently slain bodies and stained with blood. The warrior approached the chamber, cautious as to the dangers that might lurk around the corner, before he slowly made his way through the area. Before either Nightmare or Pandora could approach the final set of buttons Luna beat them to it, stepping forward and tapping the death button once more.
"Best put him out of his misery," Luna commented, turning around so she didn't have to watch what happened, "I'd rather not watch such a proud warrior fall in this manner."
The dead bodies rose from their slumber and seemed to double in number, turning from six undead creatures into twelve undead creatures, each of which seeking to end the warrior's life. The orc fought against the odds, slicing whichever enemy dared to get close to him, but it was clear that he wasn't going to make it by himself. In the end he fell to the horde of enemies, who stood there for a moment to make sure that their mission was done, before they crumbled back into the heaps they had been in before the button had been pressed. The elf lead them through one last pad, causing them to appear in an area that was close to the entrance to the fortress, though he mentioned there was a chest filled with the gear of the fallen.
As Pandora opened the chest Luna reached in and pulled out the strange blade, the one with the dragon maw, that she had seen the orc warrior carry. There was something about the blade that compelled her to take it with her, though as she sheathed it she noticed that neither of her companions really cared for the weapon. Once the treasure was collected the trio entered the area they had crossed in the beginning, only they stopped as they noticed several crystalline warriors coming their way. Luna, wanting to be of more help than she currently was, pulled out the weapon and approached the first warrior and pushed it back, throwing it down the stairs.
The second one came at her, but she ducked under its blade and cut into the back of its leg, weakening it for the moment before it decided to come at her again. As she spotted the third warrior coming at her she decided to use the two of them against each other, ducking as their blades passed overhead and hit each other in the chest. As they staggered she turned the longsword on them and pierced one of them in the chest, breaking through the armor before she had to deal with the other one. The second warrior, recovering from the shock, came at her again, but she ducked and blasted it with a blast of magic, causing it to back up, before she pierced it as well. The third warrior, who had finally gotten back up, came at her, but before she had a change to do anything Nightmare's battleaxe pierced it in the chest, shattering it into pieces.
"Can't let you have all the fun," Nightmare growled, walking passed Luna and collecting her battleaxe, "Apparently these were Knights of Order, souless and emotionless knights at kill anything and everything that follows Sheogorath's rule, so it seems we have finally met the enemy he mentioned. Now all we have to do is return to New Sheoth and tell the Madgod that the Knights are back...and maybe we'll figure out exactly whose trying to destroy the Shivering Isles."
As they left Xedilian Luna had to wonder if a rival Daedric Prince, a being that would be equal in power to Sheogorath, was the one that was responsible for what was happening. And, if one of the other fifteen Princes was the one responsible for all of this, she had to wonder which one of them wanted the Isles completely destroyed in the event that Sheogorath called the Greymarch. One thing was certain, they would eventually figure out who was behind this and stop them before they destroyed the realm they stood in.