Equestrian scrolls I : epic pony tales

by Sanguine Eyes

Chapter 6: Legacies [remastered: v2.0]

Legacies

It was dark, The air was stale with the taste of ozone and frost lit by only the ocasional flickering candle or hanging lantern. The draugr, both on the ground and lumbering about were plentiful and always in the way.

Four hooves clacked loudly over the ancient ruined stone floors. Twilight leaped from the point where the draw bridge had been simply burned down. Her wings carried her to the other side but it did nothing to calm her down as she continued bolting down the halls of the ancient ruin. She could hear the commotion outside, ear splitting thunderous blasts, mild explosions, and the warriors cries as the battle continued overhead, each little rumble or loud boom littering the ancient halls with dust and debris.

Screeching to a halt next to the small puzzle door, her body flared with magic. Hooves became hands, feet, fingers and toes, her soft purple fur turned to a fair skinned display wet with sweat as she came to full height rapidly gripping and turning the puzzle pieces.

"Why in the name of Celestia does this thing have to reset every time somepony goes through it?!"

The last piece clicked into place and she forced the small dragon claw key into the center giving it a stern yank in one direction. Instantly, the door rumbled open as she could hear the humming magic quickly approaching. Her body flared once more and she took to her wings ascending quickly past all the puzzle lined and trap lined stairs and hallways. Landing firmly on all four hooves she blasted down the hall again her wind knocking over teetering displays and long empty bottles. She moved quickly, taking a flying leap down a long hallway which twisted and turned to avoid the collapsed ruined blunt stop which featured a single small opening which she aimed for, her horn flaring up again in mid air. Only just barely fitting the thin human frame through what she could not have made it through as an alicorn. Rolling to a stop the latter half of her deceleration was made on grinding hooves as her horn blasted out a high level ice spell building up a massive layer of destruction magic over the small hole. Slapping four ice runes over the hastily laid down obstruction she continued to run slapping fire and lightning runes along the last stretch before she burst from the hall, the light of the sun coming close to blinding her, she only just barely managed to duck as a headless draugr flew past her and smashed to near nothing on the stones just beyond her position.

Baldir swung is great axe through two of the undead and planted the now slightly more dulled blade into the skull of a third. His thick muscled wrists tensed as his hand tightened over the neck of the old weapon, yanking the battleaxe from his latest vanquished foe he shot a death glare at Twilight.

"DOES THIS LOOK LIKE AND I QUOTE! 'A MANAGEABLE NUMBER OF UNDEAD'!?" His voice was booming and could be heard even over the sounds of the battle.

She had not really figured that the reaction to her adventure would be this bad. She knew that there would be quite a few draugr that woke from her poking around in Labyrinthian, but this was an obscene amount. Baldir and four more companions stood in a circle hacking and hewing the undead as the poured in from every nook and cranny of the massive ruin. Far above all of that Ra'shala's bow was singing. High up on her perch the Khajiit was surrounded by empty quivers. A young dark elf was quickly sticking new arrows into the ground before her only just barely keeping up with the impressive speeds that accompanied her keen eyes and quick fingers. Above even Ra'shala Odahviing who had been emergency called upon had only just arrived moments ago and was gutting the narrow passages between constructs with flames creamating the ancient undead by the dozens.

Twilight let off a nervous forced "oops" smile . "Ah...well..um Baldir..before you get too mad...I um....I kinda..." She swallowed and winced under his angered gaze that shot out at her.

Baldir kicked in another draugr's skull and continued to glare angrily at Twilight. "you did NOT do what I know you did....did you?..."

Twilight let off a nervous chuckle. "oh...it...its not that bad...really it isn't..." She thought back at the dozens of runes she placed over the hall.

The ruin behind her exploded and a dragon priest emerged from the wreckage. Excessively powerful wards burned brightly over its body as stones orbited around it as if they were shields. The residual smoldering black spots on the stones told Twilight that he had simply powered through them without hesitation in attempt to catch up to her.

"The one condition... the ONE BLOODY CONDITION.. that I had for this was that you NOT wake Hijamaar the damned...why in oblivion did you turn out to be just like Taara?..."

From just a few yards back a smaller voice shouted. " YOLTOORSHUL!" The lich turned and faced the blast of green and red flames effortlessly brushing the fire aside with its wards but failing to notice the spinning blade inside the flames that firmly impacted the lich's chest.

A small set of claws connected to a purple hand reached back and drew a secondary blade which really was just a large dagger that fit for his size. With utmost pride and confidence Zeikkinzukjoor, or "Spike the impaler of mortals" as the small dragon came to call himself stepped forward in his armor that one of the companions had made him. Smaller than even a child's armor he was still overwhelmed with pride every time he put it on.

"Spike! get to the central structure and tell them to signal the arch mage!"

The 'oh so illustrious' Zeikkinzukjoor snapped off a solid salute before dashing off to tell the mages back at the rendezvous point the plan as Baldir leaped through the air and began brutally clashing with Hijamaar the damned. His axe shattered stone and his heavy legs propelled him forward trying to gain ground on the undead priest who wisely tried to distance himself with the ungodly angry Nord. Twilight however was very busy with turning the tide of the battle. None had fallen yet thankfully, but the small group of companions were exhausted. Landing between them all her horn flared with magic closing all minor wounds and healing the small bruises they had gained from the battle. Though most of all the spell as she intended restored their vigor giving them a hefty second wind.

"Fall back!...we have to get to the rendezvous point...Arch mage Taara surely has the portal open by now..."

With a nod all four of them quickly began to fall back. Nearly that second, the arrows from above stopped and Ra'shala leaped down, her claws dug into the old Nordic walls, sliding just a bit her hand shot out and grabbed the young dark elf who had attempted to do the same but failed do to lack of claws. Ra'shala no matter how strong and able did not stay in one spot as this happened. Her claws popped loose from the wall and she hugged the elf tightly as her lips parted and she shouted. "Feim zii gron!" The pair blurred and seemed to turn a into a ghostly image before smashing into the ground. Getting up unphased the pair darted to the center building just as the effects of the ancient magic wore off.

Twilight and the four companions had just reached the building as well when they heard Baldir's thunderous Thu'um followed quickly by the usual "HA BITCH!" His Thu'um echoed again with a loud crackling "WULD!" and he seemed to snap into place above them. In one hand his dulled battle axe, in the other, the severed head of the ancient dragon priest Hijamaar the damned. Quickly entering the building Baldir was the last of them. Two of the college's finest sealed the door with heavy wards as the last of the companions and the dark elf had just gone through. Twilight trying to avoid the angry Baldir hopped towards the portal almost instantly Baldir's hand shot out. But they both ended up plopping through at the same time.

The hazy vision was a side effect from the portal based travel. Happily years of teleporting before her arrival in Tamriel gave her the upper hoof over Baldir who was stumbling about. A chuckling Taara nudged him with her staff making him fall over as the last of the mages came through and the portal snapped shut.

"If I could see straight...Talos as my witness I would strangle you both. Damned mage...Damned purple horse!...."
Taara laughed snapping her fingers just as Baldir had gotten to his feet, she thrust a bag of coins into his hand as she summoned a portal behind him.

"Thank you so much old friend but you did the job I paid you to do, so bye bye!" An extra push sent him stumbling through the portal and the not so angry yet slightly more dazed companions nodded their thanks and hopped through the portal to follow Baldir.

Taara closed the portal and with a happy grin turned to Twilight. "Please tell me you got it. Oh please oh please..." The older woman's eyes seemed to twinkle with joy at the mere thought of a new discovery, especially one of this significance.

Twilight grinned happily, her horn glowed and a weathered book barely held together by a long rotting leather binding raised from her saddlebags. "Right here! And its just as we thought, back in the first era Shalidor met a foreign mage during a trip into oblivion. A mage called Starswirl the bearded apparently was exploring Oblivion and they found each other in the hellish landscape."

Taara almost let out a squee of joy. She loved uncovering the lost histories just as much as Twilight did. "Congratulations Twilight, after seven years we FINALLY made real progress to getting you home."

Twilight sighed a happy and revealed sigh. The seven years had passed so quickly It was hard to remember everypony's voices back in Equestria. But this book was the starting point. With the knowledge contained within she would be able to find out how to locate the mirror again. Spike too longed for home, he was quite happy with his life in Skyrim but like Twilight he too did not belong on Nirn. Even though Twilight had ascended to master wizard and spike had come to be known as an actual warrior. He had long since graduated from Twilight's assistant and the friendship between them matured into more of a brother sister friendship. Rarely did he ever run to her for help anymore, and likewise rarely did she ever call to him to write letters or clean up messes. She easily saw him as a worthy adult capable of carrying his weight and looking out for himself as well as her when she needed it, likewise he saw her as a precious sister he would die protecting if he had to, seven years with dragons and Nords certainly toughened him up mentally and physically.

Taara turned the pages in the old book reading at an accelerated rate. "Goodness, Shalidor's note are very very detailed. It looks like your Starswirl the Bearded came through as a pony as well, or rather at least not as a humanoid. But seriously, they really hit it off." Her fingers carefully turned the pages on the old book as Twilight hovered over her shoulder reading with her.

"I didn't figure Shalidor to be that much of a drinker, but well what do you know, three whole pages... drinking games more drinking games, guessing what went into Starswirl's special brew. I figured their friendship would have been based on magic and not so much, you know... booze."

"Well I for one know that legendary mages can grow quite tired of writing about their experiments and their epic quests. Sometimes you just want to sit down and knock back a brew with a friend. Speaking of which!" Taara smiled clapping the book shut and pulling up a bottle of spiced wine.

"Alright, but we drink while we read." Twilight smiled and shifted to human form. It was much easier to sit in chairs and to hold a cup in this form. After seven years she had grown quite accustom to both human form and drinking, as well as the magic of this land. In the years spent in the college she had quickly risen into and beyond the expert level spells in every school of magic. With a wave of her horn she could animate a dozen skeletons or heal a dozen soldiers. Or just as easily burn/freeze/electrocute a dozen enemies. At first she was appalled by the violent purpose of destruction magic and the seemingly dark and twisted aims of conjuration. But in time she matured into it seeing it as necessary tools to survive. She had grown emotionally far past her naivety. She was still the princess of friendship, but her mind was honed, her sense of self was fuller. She was wise beyond her years and her power was well beyond the definition of vast. Not that it was easy to go past the point of no return, she was haunted for months the first time she was forced to take a life. But she had good friends who helped her through it. It still wasn't easy, but this world was dangerous and violent, if she had to take a life to save a life, she would without hesitation.

As the two drank and other mages took notes and made calculations, Ra'shala sat in the corner sharpening her knives while speaking to her grand daughter who had come to the college just two years previous. Twilight herself took on the young Khajiit as an apprentice, this however was mainly due to the fact that the little Szrezi was an Alfiq Khajiit. As small as a house cat, Szrezi walked on four paws and when Twilight was in the college the little Khajiit would follow her everywhere. Save for when her grandmother showed up to chat. Something about talking to another quadruped about magic put her mind in a better state of ease.

Taara set the book to one side sipping on the last of her wine as she looked to the ceiling in thought. "Well...from the looks of things we have three options... and right away..one of them is completely out of the question...."

Twilight peeked up looking at Taara who had hastily thrown together the plans in her head. Twilight gestured for her to continue and happily she did. "According to Shalidor's texts... Starswirl the Bearded appeared in Merunes Dagon's plain of Oblivion, the deadlands. Just like you did, its safe to assume he used the same mirror. Which means we have to get into the deadlands. So we either need to break in ourselves or get help. Soooo I propose we either use a Daedric artifact to tear a hole into Oblivion and enter. However, this is both unwise and might be impossible to do."

"What other choices do we have?..." Twilight grimaced as if knowing where Taara was going with it.

"We have to ask permission to enter the deadlands....Or we have to ask for help to enter it..."

Twilight shuttered. She only once had the displeasure of meeting a Daedric prince, and it was far from pleasant. Hermaeous Mora had approached her in her dreams and made such grand offers in exchange for all her knowledge of Equestria. She had not quite known what the Daedric prince was infamous for yet but when a dark and twisted abomination came to her dreams offering what sounded like a deal that was WAY too good to be true she decided it was too good to be true and as such she woke up and asked Taara who shared with her how good of an idea it was not to do anything that the Daedric princes wanted her to do. Over the years she learned from first and second hand accounts that just about every one of the Daedric princes were not to be trusted.

"Who in Oblivion are we going to ask? Merunes would want blood tribute and would probably ask us to kill each other. If we asked Clavicus he would banish us forever to Oblivion and laugh for the next age. No one would really be willing to help us without us paying a price we cannot afford..."

Taara nodded coming to the same conclusion but then grinned. "There is one Daedric prince who just might help us. Though its going to be a little hard."

Twilight looked up at her in confusion, about to speak, but Taara laughed loudly.

"Pack your bags girl, you get to reunite with the first person you met in this world."