"Wait a minute, your saying that you want to make Pandora a goddess?" Luna asked, trying to wrap her head around the consequences of such an action could have to this world, "Not to mention that she would be a goddess that would command the very powers that you currently wield and control the realm that you created."
"Not a goddess, but a Daedric Prince!" Sheogorath barked, snapping at her before returning to his seat, "A Prince that can do battle with HIM while I'm away. That's the rule; when Jyggalag walks through the Isles during the Greymarch I am not allowed to be here, so I am in need of someone to stand in my place during that time. Ah, but I will tell you more about Jyggalag, the Greymarch, and all the rules that the two of us must abide by at another time, but that time is not now. I have another task for the lot of you to deal with; I need you to go to Cylarne, retrieve the Flame of Agnon, and then bring it back here and light the Great Torch.
Now I'll have you know that the Golden Saints and Dark Seducers are always trying to prove which one of them is more deserving of my attention, in their eternal quest as it is. As such they are constantly fighting over Cylarne, which is really divinely tiresome in some ways. They are your problem now, but I do not want to see any of you until you have the Flame of Agnon. Have fun my dears, otherwise I'll skip rope with your intestines and take your souls!"
As they walked out of the palace Luna kept to herself, trying to wrap her head around the action of a god, or Daedric Prince as the case was, purposely giving up their divine power to let someone else stand up against their enemy. It was possible, as she and her sister had discussed that possibility as a countermeasure against the dreaded Tirek, but they never had the opportunity to test their theory out. Tirek was, thankfully, sealed away in Tartarus, though Luna was worried about what would happen if the demonic centaur broke out of his prison and found his way to this realm...
...she dreaded to think what would happen if Tirek found Tamriel and managed to absorb the powers of even one of the sixteen, seventeen she mentally corrected herself, Daedric Princes.
They left New Sheoth not a few moments later, returning to the same path they had taken when they were on Lord Thadon's quest, though they had decided to leave the poor elytra alone when they passed by Dunroot Burrow. Nightmare had spotted more of the creatures walking outside the dungeon, but Luna told her that she needed to leave them alone before she killed the entire place. Her rage was brief, as Luna promised that she would have her fill of battle when they reached their destination, where she believed that they'd have to choose which side to aid.
Despite the fact that they hated each other, both Luna and Nightmare knew that Pandora was likely to side with the Dark Seducers, mostly due to the fact that she seemed to favor Dementia over Mania.
"So what was that back there?" Pandora asked, curious as to what Luna had done to make Nightmare stop ranting at her like that, "What did Luna do to make the fight between you two stop?"
"The Royal Canterlot Voice," Nightmare replied, walking along side Pandora while Luna stayed behind them, "We and Celestia used it quite frequently during our rule, but I'm fairly certain that our sister has gotten rid of it by now. I wouldn't be surprised if half of our favorite royal rules are destroyed when we return to Equestria...whenever we're able to leave this world behind. Anyway, the Voice can stagger enemies and sometimes shake the ground, not to mention cause a disturbance with the weather depending on how much power is put into it."
"Sounds like the Thu'um in Skyrim," Pandora commented, recalling a story she had read at one time about someone calling a storm into existence by simply shouting at the sky. She guessed that there was some truth to the tales in Skyrim.
Nightmare didn't know what Pandora was talking about, something similar to her Voice located in the province of Skyrim, but she seriously didn't care at that point. It wasn't going to help them in their quest to stop Mehrunes Dagon, not unless someone with the ower came down to the Imperial City to give them aid.
It wasn't too difficult to find their way to Cylarne, the ancient ruin that was supposed to be the old center of Sheogorath's realm, though they weren't surprised to find a Dark Seducer and a Golden Saint standing guard outside two gates. Pandora, already set in her ways, approached the Seducer, who at first seemed surprised to find three mortals in their holy ruin, though her speech changed once she realized why they were there. The Seducer opened the gate and lead them into the ruins, saying that they needed to speak with the Seducer's leader so they could proceed with whatever plan they were making.
While they were walking away Luna couldn't help nut notice that the Golden Saint that had been staring at them was walking into her side's section of the ruin, no doubt to tell her commander what was happening.
They slowly made their way towards the command center of the Dark Seducers, deep in their section of the ruins, though the reason behind their speed was because their guide wanted to make sure that the defenses were prepared for any form of assault by the Golden Saints. Nightmare nodded as they passed by the guards and their traps, noting that they were well prepared for the incoming assault that their arrival might have triggered. Several of the Seducers stared at Nightmare as she passed, their expressions neutral as always, though it was clear that they knew her reputation, no doubt from Sheogorath himself.
Eventually they reached the final chamber, where they found the Commander of the Dark Seducers speaking to one of her underlings, which stopped the moment they approached her.
"Ah, Lord Sheogorath's Champion has come at last," the commander said, turning to face the three of them, "and her chosen companions are ever at her side. I know why you have come Champion; you wish to see the Flame of Agnon relit and take it back to New Sheoth, to light the Great Fire once more. I would gladly aid you in your quest, but I only hold the Alter of Despair, which our enemies, the Golden Saints, continue to try and take from us. We would need to capture the Alter of Rapture and drive the Saints out of Cylarne..."
"Commander, the Aureals are coming!" one of the other soldiers said, drawing her bow and nocking an arrow, "It is time to begin the glorious slaughter!"
Pandora grinned and pulled out her new bow, nocking an arrow before she took up a position between two Seducers, her arrow pointed at the opening they had entered from. Nightmare stood below the bridge the guards were waiting on, her ebony battleaxe gleaming as she waited for something to come and meet their end. Luna, on the other hand, stood behind Pandora and stared at the opening, intending to heal anyone that happened to be injured with her magic. Once they were already they simply waited, all their eyes trained on the opening as they silently dared the Aureals to come charging in to meet their fate.
Then, as if their collective dares had summoned them, a large number of Aureals entered the chamber, their weapons drawn as they descended on where the Seducers were waiting. Nightmare shouted and leapt forward, swinging her battleaxe at one of her enemies and taking their head in one swoop, dropping the body to the ground before moving on. Pandora, seeing her friend in action, moved her bow to the entrance itself and started loosing arrows, hitting any unfortunate Golden Saint that showed their face before the rest of the archers joined her assault.
Several of the remaining Seducers drew their weapons and leapt into the battle, being extra careful to avoid Nightmare's weapon while they fought their enemies. As Nightmare fought one enemy managed to get a lucky blow on her as an arrow tore into her side, but she snapped the arrow in half and slew the archer where she stood, letting her head roll. Luna staggered for a moment, feeling the blow from where she stood, but shook her head and continued healing their allies, keeping them alive as much as she could. Pandora also repaid their enemies by loosing as many of her arrows as she could into the chamber opening, eventually stopping as the Golden Saints stopped pouring in.
The commander, seeing the opportunity, commander her soldiers to continue and they immediately pressed onward, cutting through the defenses of the Golden Saints and moving into their section of the ruins. Nightmare and Pandora were at the head of the charge, Nightmare cutting down any enemy unlucky enough to fight her while Pandora's arrows fought the hearts of their enemies. Luna threw fire at whoever wanted to sneak up on them, as she had gotten tired of being ignored and wanted to do something other than healing for once. Together the three of them smashed through the rest of the Golden Saints and took the head of their leader, effectively taking the rest of the ruins as the Seducers slew whatever resistance remained.
"What a glorious battle that was!" Nightmare exclaimed, slamming the base of her battleaxe against the floor, "I am glad that were able to be of some assistance!"
"Yes, and now to rekindle the Alters," the commander replied, having lead them back to the Alter of Despair, "One of my soldiers has been tasked with lighting Rapture, but it will be by my sacrifice that Despair is lit once more. I shall return to the waters of Oblivion and bring glory to the Mazken."
Pandora waved to the Mazken leader as she stepped into the Alter, her body burning away as the flames consumed her, filling the area with its glow. Once that deed was done they retraced their steps, stopping at the site of the corpse pile near the entrance so Pandora could restock on her arrows, before stepping out into the open air. It was there that they found the Flame of Agnon, the eerie green and orange flame in the center of the ruins, though neither Nightmare or Luna found any form of method to carry the flame with them. Then Pandora walked into the flames, though she stepped out a moment later with an aura around her body, which the two former alicorns assumed was the flames they came for.
"It tingles," Pandora said, beckoning for her companions to follow her once more, "Let's get this back to New Sheoth and see what Sheogorath has for us next."
As they walked down the path that would lead them back to New Sheoth Luna noticed that Nightmare was starting to fall behind them, asking once or twice for them to slow down so she could catch up. She knew that her other personality had been wounded in the fight against the Aureals, but whatever it was couldn't have any devastating effects on a former alicorn like they were. For the most part Nightmare wasn't experiencing any side effects that were causing her companions to worry about her, though Luna kept an eye on her. Pandora had no idea what was going on, but she assumed that if anything happened to Nightmare then Luna would be feeling the same thing that she was.
Eventually the trio returned to New Sheoth, though by the time they did Luna was beginning to see that Nightmare was sweating and continued to have her hand over where the arrow hit her. She asked several times if she could see the wound, thinking that there might have been poison on the tip of the arrow, but Nightmare continued to deny her. They passed by the citizens of Bliss and entered the Sacellum Arden-Sul, the area of the city where the Great Torch was supposed to be located. Once inside they found two empty areas, each of which was guarded by a priest of some kind, though they were eager to have the torch they protected get lit.
Pandora asked them a simple question, which was the Dementia torch, and the priest that protected that torch beckoned for her to light it, filling the chamber with an eerie green light. As Pandora did that Nightmare took a step and tumbled to the floor, her battleaxe clanking around as Luna realized that something was definitely wrong. Luna rushed to her other personality's side and pushed her onto her back, before moving on and gently pulling her hand off of the wound she had been keeping from her. The area around the wound was an angry red, though Luna knew that there must have been some poison attached to the arrow that had hit her.
Luna sighed and summoned her magic, letting some of it enter the wound to stop the poison from spreading while she searched for anything else that could be hurting her. That was when she found that there was an arrowhead stuck in Nightmare's side, from when she snapped the arrow out of her and continued her assault. As she worked she made sure that the blood had stopped bleeding out of her, making sure to seal up anything that happened to get cut as she gently eased out the arrowhead. She beckoned for Pandora to bring over a cup, to which she dropped the arrowhead into before depositing a vial of venom, the same that had been infecting Nightmare. Then she used her magic and patched up the wound, returning Nightmare's side to how it had been before she had been wounded in battle.
"Why did you help me?" Nightmare asked, aware of what had happened and absolutely hating that Luna had taken it upon herself to heal her minor wound.
"Because, if you die then I die," Luna replied, shaking her head slightly, "Now I recommend that you rest for a few hours, because that wound's still fresh and any stress might open it back up. I would have sealed it completely, but without my alicorn magic this is the best that I can offer you."
"Fine, you win for now," Nightmare said, laying her head back and staring at the ceiling, "What's the next job anyway?"
"Hello kiddies," Sheogorath replied, appearing behind Luna, Nightmare, and Pandora, "Whose ready for another mission in helping me save my realm from total destruction?!"