//------------------------------// // 57: A New Beginning // Story: Sunset's Adventure in Skyrim // by Blackdrag-rose //------------------------------// Sunset yawned and stretched her wings as she stared up at the crystal ceiling, where she could reflect on the last two days before having to head out into Ponyville again. Pinkie had been true to her word and hadn't told Twilight about the Staff of Magnus, though she had been careful not to summon the chest since they returned from Sheogorath's realm. She had no doubt that Twilight would have detected the surge of magic if she had decided to summon her chest, so she didn't want to reveal the staff to anyone else. She was somewhat surprised that Twilight hadn't detected the magic that Discord used to stabilize the portal to take them to Sheogorath, but suspected that it was because the Spirit of Discord had some powerful magic of his own and that she hadn't gotten around to studying it. Pinkie had thrown Sunset her 'Welcome to Ponyville' party the day after their return from the Madgod's realm, to which she acted like her normal self and threw the largest party Sunset had seen since her departure from Earth. There were quite a few patrons that weren't Twilight's friends, allowing Sunset to meet ponies from around the town and get to know them for a few hours. She recalled meeting one Derpy Hooves, who had taken a muffin and ate it while talking to Sunset, which had seemed to calm her down after she couldn't find one in the beginning. Princess Celestia had sent a letter explaining that she wasn't about to come to the party, though she also said that she and the other Princesses, including Twilight, were coordinating their efforts to make Sunset's coronation... which wasn't going to happen for a few few weeks. Sunset didn't mind the delay, because it allowed her to get to know everypony without them treating her like a Princess... despite the fact that several of the ponies she met called her by the title anyway. On the second day she, Twilight and Starlight had taken a seat in the castle's library, to which Spike brought in some drinks and snacks before taking his own seat. She had promised to tell Twilight about Nirn, which had led to Twilight telling her that she wanted to know more about the world she had visited, so she merely sighed and got on with her storytelling. She described how she had entered the portal and appeared in Nirn, how she was captured by the Imperials and thrown in a cell, and her initial reaction to meeting Tirek for the first time. She then told them of how she, the demon, and the Stormcloaks had been taken to Helgen to await their fates, before telling them about the arrival of Alduin the World-Eater and how she and her friend Bjorn escaped with their lives. She then went into great detail about the beginning of their adventures, where they went to Whiterun and explained that the people wouldn't accept that dragons had returned, which in turn led them to Bleak Falls Barrow. She described the chills she got from her first trek through a nordic barrow, which eventually ended with the finding of the Dragonstone and her apparent ability to read the Word Walls. The tale turned to returning to Whiterun and delivering the Dragonstone to the Court Mage, which was when they discovered that there was a dragon burning down a nearby watchtower. That was when she and her friend fought a dragon and discovered that, when the dragon died in battle, that Sunset had the ability to absorb the souls of dragons, much to Spike's initial horror. "You killed dragons during your time in Nirn?" Spike asked, though Sunset could hear the fear in his voice as he thought about what she had done. "Not really, I only killed three of them myself," Sunset admitted, a small smile appearing on her face, "besides, I eventually formed an alliance with the leader of the dragons, Alduin himself, and began to recruit others to the cause of defeating Tirek." She went into detail about her travels while trying to save the College of Winterhold, to which her companions' eyes widened when she told them of the Hold's fate. During that part of the tale Twilight nodded her head when Sunset had made friends with the vampire Fiona and her own Housecarl, Lydia, as if she was already connecting the dots herself. Sunset then continued by telling them about how she had managed to collect the fifteen Daedric Artifacts, merely saying that they were objects of great power and leaving it at that, and sealed them in a chest that she and her friends believed to be impossible to open. She then told the three of them about lending her aid to the Dawnguard and the Volkihar vampires, to which she had formed a shaky alliance between the two factions and her own, the Fellglow Alliance. She described, in detail, her journey to recover the missing Elder Scroll, which had been lost along with Serana's mother, before mentioning the venture into the Soul Cairn, where she gained the assistance of another dragon and a powerful vampire. That eventually led to her and her friends discovering the location of Auriel's Bow, during which Twilight whistled when she learned that Sunset had experience with the powerful pieces of knowledge. The Forgotten Vale turned their heads when they learned that Sunset's dark side, the demon called Pride, had destroyed her enemy for her, but before she could turn on her friends Gelebor had crafted special bracelets that looked like the Elements of Harmony. Sunset then revealed the part where she learned that the artifacts she had gathered had been stolen by Tirek, who was in the process of bringing the world closer to the end by draining the Princes. She described how her alliance had nearly come to an end, but the people who had turned against her had merely justified her stepping down so she could focus on learning the skills necessary to defeat Tirek. She then told them about the island of Solstheim, where she traveled to so she could find the former Priest known as Miraak, though when they finally met she revealed that the Prince Hermaeus Mora released the emotions that were restricting her power. She sighed as she explained how the had to find the seven Black Books, where she would defeat one of her emotions before moving onto the next book and the next emotion. She then described, in great detail, the fight between her and Pride, to which the two of them destroyed a good portion of that section of Apocrypha, before she was told that Tirek was going to ruin the island. Once she revealed that the island was destroyed she and her soldiers returned to Skyrim, where she managed the evacuation of the people of Whiterun before Tirek arrived. She then went into great detail about her fight with the dreaded demon, which brought about the destruction of the city of Whiterun and High Hrothgar when Tirek gained complete control of his power. She then told them about how she summoned her army and started a two way war that pitted her forces, which included the dragons, the people displaced by Tirek, and apparently the forces of Sovngarde, against the enemy, the Daedric Prince known as Jyggalag. She didn't go into great detail about the end of the fight, because she had been told that the three of them had seen the fight while staring at the mirror, but she did describe the feeling she got when the Warden appeared before her. Once she had finished her tale she could see the sheer awe in Spike's face, as if he had imagined the glorious adventures she had gone through and wondered what it would be like to lead his own adventure. Twilight also seemed impressed with what Sunset was able to do, though she could tell that her friend wanted to go back to Nirn so she could find the Elder Scrolls she had left behind and learn what they had to offer. Starlight, on the other hoof, clearly had the hunger in her eyes for an adventure on the other side of the mirror, the same look that Sunset knew she had been wearing when she had seen the mirror for the first time. She wondered if she had tempted the mare into heading into the mirror at some point in the future, so she was determined to make sure that it didn't happen... otherwise she'd be following the mare to save her. "Well, I can't believe that we've been sitting here all day," Twilight commented, despite the fact that they had paused for lunch and a light dinner during the story telling, before looking at the pile of notes she had created, "Celestia is going to be interested in reading all of this... when she has the time to do so. We had better get some sleep, because I'm sure that you're tired from all the information that you gave us, Sunset." Sunset nodded and bid her friends goodnight, before walking through the hallway and approaching the crystal mirror for a moment, wondering if she should have told Starlight about her experiences on Earth, before starting in on her journey through Nirn. She sighed before heading to her room, where she closed the door and climbed into her bed, but she made sure that she kept her ears open, in case something happened during the night. ------------------------------- After a few hours of sleep Sunset heard the sound of hooves running down the hallway, to which she threw off her bed sheets and rushed to the door, tearing it open with her magic and heading into the hallway. She immediately started to look around for whatever she heard, but as she did so she found that Twilight was also running down the hallway as well. "Twilight, what's wrong?" Sunset asked, looking around for anything that was out of the ordinary, during which she followed her friend towards the library. "Someone's gone through the mirror!" Twilight replied, though Sunset figured that Twilight could feel the power of the mirror being accessed, as she had the most experience between the two of them at this point. Sunset worried that it was Starlight that had gone through the mirror, but she decided to wait and see what they found in the library before saying anything. When they arrived at the library they found that the mirror was returning to its natural state once more, indicating that it had been used in the last few minutes, but as they looked around Twilight indicated that she found something. Sunset walked over to where Twilight was standing and looked at what she found, discovering that it was a note that had been written roughly ten to twenty minutes ago. "Dear Twilight," Twilight read, levitating the note in front of her, "Please don't be bad at me, but after I heard about Sunset's adventure I decided that I wanted to know more about the worlds that she visited for myself... or maybe one that she hasn't been to before. I don't know when I'll return, but when I do I will have quite a bit of knowledge to share with you. From Starlight. Is she serious? Doesn't she know how dangerous traveling through the mirror can be, now that its no longer attuned to Earth?" "Well then, I guess I know what I'm doing next," Sunset said, sighing as she pulled out the bracelet Discord had crafted for her and attaching it to her front right leg, "Twilight, tell Princess Celestia that Starlight's traveled through the mirror and that I've gone in after her. Once I've found her I'll find a way to return through the mirror, though that all depends on where the two of us end up and where the actual mirror rests." Twilight clearly wanted to say something to talk her out of heading into the mirror, but then shook her head and discarded whatever she was about to say. She knew that Sunset was Starlight's best chance at finding her way back home, as she knew it had taken her friend some time to find her way through Skyrim before coming home. "Then be safe Sunset," Twilight said, draping a wing over her friend for a moment, knowing that it would be some time before they saw each other again, "and when you find Starlight, and I know that you will, make sure that the two of you get back here in one piece... because she is getting a lecture when you return." Sunset nodded and approached the mirror, which started to swirl as she stepped up to it, as if it knew that she was following Starlight and was merely showing her the way. She sighed for a moment and looked back at Twilight, who nodded once more, before bracing herself and throwing herself into the mirror, allowing the magic to take her to where Starlight ended up. She closed her eyes and waited for the magic to end, not knowing that Discord's bracelet activated the spell he had woven into the metal. She was off to save Starlight, and that was all that mattered to her at the moment.