//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Gaining entry // Story: Equestrian scrolls II: Return To Nirn // by Sanguine Eyes //------------------------------// The whole city was yammering excitedly. They had no real idea what was really going on but there were those who were fearful that Celestia just hired on a 40% increase in the solar and lunar guard, she even pulled guard ponies from the borders for this event that nopony could even really know for certain. Then there was the leak, a rather too nosy reporter caught an eyeful of Princess Twilight instructing an entire unicorn squad some new type of magic nopony had ever seen before. One of the more infamous reporters managed to sneak into the royal palace and everypony was in shock to hear that instead of being turned around and sent back like most of those who annoyed Celestia with intrusions he was arrested. This sparked dozens of conspiracy theories and for those it did not cause concern in the only thing it sparked was excitement. "Prince shining armor is it true tha-" "No now please step back" Shining could not even get out of the castle to the train station without wading through the mass of ponies either excitedly babbling or demanding answers. Originally they had planned to just say that the regal sisters were planning something special and they didn't want anypony to spoil the surprise. But then that meddling buffoon Snapshot saw one of the guards practicing in his human form. If word got out this soon before Celestia had time to explain everything there would be panic. Granted it would be relatively easy to contain and would somewhat pass as soon as the truth was out. but it would still be very annoying and something they all didn't want to deal with at the moment. The bell tower let out a loud series of clangs announcing the hour. Counting the chimes in his head Shining suddenly froze amidst all the reporters. He had just realized it was two hours later than he thought. A cold sweat broke out as he could almost feel it coming. He flinched at the crack hiss and felt a wing hug onto him. "Wait no no NO I JUST ATE!!!" The crowd stared in confusion and almost got their first line of questioning ready before Princess Twilight zapped in grabbed her brother and zapped out in a long distance teleport. Twilight sighed shifting to human form as Shining armor was relieved of his previous lunch. "I told you I'd do it if you were late...Fluttershy waited with me at the station for an hour....you have no one to blame but yourself... now quit being such a sissy and get up..." Chin on the ground he half mumbled half whimpered "I want my younger sister back..." AJ and Rainbow Dash brutally clashed in the corner of the room while in the other corner Pinkie and Spike practiced other forms of combat, further down the hall Fluttershy rarity and Cadence poured over in study of some hastily written scrolls that taught the basics of Tamerielian magic. There was a big question on why they chose Fluttershy seeing she had no horn but Twilight insisted that the magic of Tamriel could be learned by anypony, and sure as Celestia raising the sun, a week into the studies and Fluttershy had learned the most absolutely basic of healing spells. Granted she could only sustain it for a mere 5 seconds before passing out. Twilight gave her the motivation of thinking about just how many animals she could save if she learned the advanced healing spells. Just down stairs there was a small group of guards whom Twilight had given the human transformation. Spike cycled from down stairs to up stairs to teach the guards and the others how to fight with a sword in hand. All the while in the early morning Twilight would teleport to canterlot and secretly teach a unicorn squad tamrielian magic. This was all in the effort to ensure that Equestria would not only be able to identify and defend against Tamrielian magic but to ready any possibly needed soldiers for the trip into Tamriel. One talking magical pony threw half of Tamriel into wonder and almost got her killed a few times. She could not imagine what would have happened if they opened the portal and a mass of magical talking ponies just plopped down on the high king's doorstep. Without fully understanding why they were there Twilight figured a war would start almost instantly. But a group of humans breaking it in easy with the help of the Arch mage, foal's play. Cadence helped shining up and stood by with a smile as he transformed. She at first was all in hoping to explore Tamriel with the others but after a few long talks with Twilight she was content on going AFTER everypony else made introductions and the initial shock of this particular kind of foreign trade and exploration died down a little. The whole ordeal almost made Cadence panicky. Love and friendship were clearly not on the top of Tamriel's list, even by Twilight's account; peace there was just when one group was not physically capable of attacking another. Cadence gently looked past Fluttershy at the human form Twilight, her nose in a scroll as her left hand jotted down entries in a book, a smile spread across Cadence's face. She was still Twilight, all that hard work and dedication, she had just grown up. Looking back at Shining armor as he stood up and shook off the side effects of long distance teleporting and gathered his gear to go transform and change. Unlike the others here he prefered to wear his usual gear and change clothes when his body changed rather than the enchanted clothes Rarity and Twilight had made for everypony that shifted WITH their wearers. Almost everyone involved in the little project had heard of his pants incident as they began to call it. She smiled trying to draw out her own silly thoughts on the subject to calm her worries. But in the end everything within the current events seemed to portray a slight sense of dread. She couldn't shake it but she would keep doing her duties until she was needed elsewhere. "Twilight... seriously you have got to stop doing that... the public is high strung enough with all the unknown going on. Jumping out and teleporting me everywhere while they are trying to bombard me with questions.... well is only half unpleasant but it makes them all think that we are hiding something." He plucked the training sword off the rack and turned his neck till it gave a soft pop. His left hand tightened his belt. He was nothing close to as clumsy in this form as he once was. "We are hiding something remember?" She sighed and smiled, despite how hectic it all was she was very grateful that this time around she would be with those she knew and loved when she entered Tamriel."Aye... practice again Shiny?" He smiled and hefted the wooden sword with a quick and decisive swing accompanied with a hero's pose. "You are so on Twily.." Twilight returned the smile and stood up. A staff with a very large Gem atop it flew to her open hand and she playfully rushed forward. The speed was clear in her attacks but the strength was both sub par and held back. She didnt want to hurt her brother and she was clearly not a warrior. However, she had a surplus of spells she could obliterate Shining with had he been an actual enemy. With Shining's skill in magic as well as his martial skill she knew he would become a great spellsword. AJ and Rainbow Dash took a short break to watch the two scuffle back and forth. Even spike took a moment to enjoy the sight. Twilight had very little skill in melee though she supplemented this lack of skill with her extreme magic prowess. Just as Shining's blade slashed evenly in a wide horizontal arc Twilight rushed in thrusting the staff up at Shining's face. Shining's blade came back quickly to swat the staff away but met only air as Twilight reappeared behind him continuing the same thrust which to Twilight's honest surprise made a loud clack and sizzle. Shining stared back with a smile as the shield that he had raised over the back of his head dropped. "Amazing Shiny... you are really good at this..." Twilight smiled happily, she didn't like sparing but it did give her time with her big brother. She had not seen him in seven years, and then there was the whole bit where she found out he was dead. And now she returned to Equestria even older than him. Granted the longevity effects of being an Alicorn meant it was unlikely anyone could just tell she was older than him just by looking. She was about to raise her staff and continue when the sounds of claws and paws scuffling up the stairs made her peek back in interest. The door opened and Rono popped in. An older Griffin that had moved to Equestria ages ago and eventually decided in his youth to join the royal guard. He was always thrown out as a liaison between Griffinstone and Equestria for whenever or if ever anypony actually needed to talk to the Griffin kingdom. But now he was here and though he wanted nothing to do with human transformation or Tamrielian magic he was a very fast flyer and a very heavy lifter at that so he was very handy in having around, especially when it came to moving the Obsidian Mirror. "Princess!....The mirror has been secured and everything is in place. As you commanded I am here delivering the report as the elite guards are mustering to secure the..." He stumbled a bit trying to remember Twilight's exact words. "...Inter-dimensional gate within the Dremora Citadel." "Ah.. good thank you Rono... anypony up for taking a peek?" She chuckled and teleported downstairs into the depths of the castle. Quickly her friends and brother joined her, after they ran down all the stairs. As the door opened they looked inside to see Twilight just tearing free the seals that Celestia placed upon the great magical artifact. Shining Armor stepped up some concern on his face. "Twilight....we are not going in yet." She hesitated looking back before nodding "Y...yes ... I know, its just... so close..." She stared into the abyss like darkness of the mirror before snapping out of it. "Guards...don't let ANYTHING come through this mirror Tomorrow at noon we are entering and taking the Citadel. Then Im going to need Luna's help at very least..." She turned around and leveled her eyes at Rono who snapped to attention. "Go back to Canterlot and relay this information Spike will deliver a specified report and request later but when you get there specify that I personally desire that Celestia and Luna both be present, I need their magic." Rono nodded and quickly darted off and exited the door a little annoyed to see reporter ponies camped out in front of Twilight's castle. They tried to give him a shout but he blasted off with his traditional warrior screech which made the lesser pony shiver in fear as he continued towards Canterlot at top speed. "Alright, everypony wrap up, finish your drills and get to bed with a good meal in you and sleep long and sound. We have a job to do and we are not going to fail." Twilight beamed with confidence and eagerness. ------------------------- The rooster crowed and Shining armor yawned. Stretching he rolled over giving a quick kiss to cadence who creamed him with a pillow rolling back over for more sleep. He smiled warmly and slid out of bed silently. Exiting the room he put a sound proof spell on the doors so she could sleep in peace. Moving gingerly along he pushed gently on Twilight's door to peek in. Expecting her to be stumbling around looking for her things as she shook of the morning sluggishness he was surprised and somewhat concerned to find her at her desk. At LEAST five dozen crumpled papers lay on the ground by her chair, around five uncrumpled amazingly advanced diagrams hung on the walls then there was a mass of half finished ones in front of her as she scribbled and stared. "Twilight?... have you been up all night?" He stepped in as her staff quickly came to bear in a flurry of spells. She teleported up and reversed her personal gravity so she could stand on the ceiling with waist high walls of ice up protecting her as she stared down, horn and staff leveled at Shining. "oh... ohh um.. s.. sorry just ... ah... just... some.. ah.." Her eyes were bloodshot and she had a heavy twitch. Shining walked in further as she reversed all the spells and settled on the ground with a few flaps of her wings. Shining brushed away a few of the crumpled papers to find a very large pile of empty coffee cups and more dirty mugs stained with coffee on the desk. "Um... Twilight... I think... um... I think" "Nononononononono! ImfineImfine! Isolvedtheproblemwiththecitadel!!!!" Shining stepped back a little and sighed. "Twilight... first I cant understand a word you just said and second... you were supposed to get some sleep..." Twilight quickly rummaged through a few draws before downing the contents of a small white flask. She promptly turned invisible. "Dangit... holdonholdon!" the draws rumbled more and she flashed visible again before pulling out another white flask and downing it. Almost instantly she froze with her eyes wide. "Um... twilight?....you... ah.. you ok?" He extended a hoof and poked her. She promptly fell over. Not moving a single limb as if she was frozen in place or turned to stone Shining's eyes were wide and he was about to explode in concern before calling for a medic but Twilight relaxed and coughed. "Whew... nothing like Paralytic poison to slow you down..." "YOU DRANK POISON?" "Yeah.. how else was I going to lower the level of caffeine in my system... Shiny you have a lot to learn about alchemy...Though in your defense I reacted the exact same way when Taara first did that in front of me." She giggled before rushing back over to her desk. "Here shiny!!! this is it... this is how we are going to make Oblivion safe!... well first we have to fight and clear out the citadel but we are outright going to remove the Citadel and the other side of the Mirror from Oblivion and into a small pocket dimension. You see I thought it was going to be hard to manage the time portion of this getting the time to fast forward on their side only, but that's it our worlds are not anchored there is no comparing our time line to theirs unless something from one stays in the other!!! So all we have to do is magically reach out and grab the time line where we want it to be. The artifacts I brought back should settle us just around the point I first arrived. Be thankful for Starswirl's notes I mean my Celestia I would have been lost on the idea of how in Equestria I would grab hold of a time stream through the vortex...Not to mention trying to avoid any ethereal debries shedding from our time line and theirs... or heck any other time line. No pony knows what would happen if we just trying to dive right in without understanding what an inter-dimensional collision would cost us." She nearly squeed before hopping back into her chair and continuing. "You see the anchor will set as soon as we activate the gate and ANYTHING from this world enters that world. At first I was really worried about the things Taara gave me when I came back, the sigil stone the soul gem all that and stuff though a deeper study suggests that these items alone are suspended in time seeing that they either don't exist yet or already exist in a separate location. Time travel brought them here and as such they are separated completely from the flow and existence of time! Oh but the time connection here is unscathed and we can connect the two worlds easily by refreshing the commands and passing through. But you have to look out for anchor dragging as Taara called it when she was tearing the portal open. Its when the anchor gradually slides allowing the times to pass faster or slower on one side. It has a lot to do with exactly how you open the gate as well. The level of power commanding it the complexity of the command and the level of soul commanding it. But that's not the interesting part no no no. You see If we just force our way into the deadlands sooner or later the Daedric prince of destruction will notice us and flush us out before most likely destroying Equestria. So the goal here is to separate the citadel from the deadlands! and as such I have made just that. This spell will seal off the entire citadel and trap it in a further reaching point in Oblivion. But that might not be far enough, I need Celestia and Luna both to move it further. Hopefully we can get it as far as Aetherius! then we can find the tear that leads out of Aetherius and teleport the Citadel to Nirn. Now I know what your thinking Shiny!!! 'how are we going to teleport a whole bunch of ponies millions of miles from a sun to the surface of Nirn!!! Because Even me teleporting myself and MAYBE one more pony even a few dozen miles is EXHAUSTING!!! but a hundred ponies and a whole castle millions of miles no wayyyyy!!! but then I remembered what Aetherius is!!! its an entire dimension of magical energy. All we have to do is open ourselves to that energy and bam Ill bet the citadel will teleport itself!!! and the mirror will then be on Nirn instead of inside oblivion which I still have absolutely no clue whatsoever as to why its in there I mean who made it!?!?! why?!?! When!?!?!? But no you are not interested in that you want to know how your little sister found out how to tamper with the space and dimension spells and create a spell matrix powerful enough to encompass an entire citadel!!! you see here when you tear space its not so much tearing it as creating an-" Shining Armor pushed the white flask into her face. "Drink more.... you lost me at Oblivion"