Nightmare Moon Crashes the Oblivion Crisis

by Blackdrag-rose

13: Understanding Madness, Mania

As it turned out Lord Thadon was asleep the moment Pandora and her companions entered the House of Mania, which they learned once they asked one of the Golden Saints where he was. So, with nothing to do until the morning arrived, the trio left the House of Mania and returned to the palace entrance, where they set up a small camp away from the main door. They wouldn't be in anyone's way when the morning arrived and they would be able to see what Lord Thadon wanted before he could sit down to have breakfast. Both Pandora and Nightmare were annoyed that they would have to wait until morning to continue their quest, though Luna, on the other hand, was indifferent to the amount of time they'd have to spend.

While they waited a servant approached them, by Haskill's orders apparently, and gave them a platter, one that was filled with all sorts of meats, fruits, and assorted cheeses. Pandora and Nightmare split the meat between them, though they did share quite a bit of the cheese with Luna, who had taken the majority of the fruit. While her companions spoke about their next course of action Luna stared up at the sky and wondered which star, out of the vast number of them, was her home. She wanted nothing more than to end their business with the Madgod and go home, so she and Nightmare could spend the next two hundred years finishing their punishment.

When morning finally arrived the trio was ready to go, as they opened the doors to the House of Mania in time to see the servants preparing for their master's morning meal. Before they could ask any of them where Lord Thadon was their question was answered, as a fancy bosmer and an argonian entered the chamber.

"Ah yes, THERE you three are," the bosmer, Lord Thadon commented, walking up to them with the argonian not far behind, "You cannot imagine how long I have waited for you to arrive. So little to do, in so much time. Hmm, could you, in fact, imagine how long I have been waiting for you to show up? I don't think any of you do, though I might be wrong. I might also not care. So, which is it?"

"You haven't waited long at all," Luna remarked, causing Thadon to turn towards her, "after all, Lord Sheogorath only just received your request for aid yesterday and sent us to help you out."

"Haven't I?" Lord Thadon said, almost as if he didn't have the answer to his own question, "Hmm, perhaps not. It sure felt like a long time, but then again long times usually get longer when your just standing around thinking about them. A curious thing that is. Long roads get longer then more you think about them, but what about long words? They don't seem to change nearly as much. Long and short...it all ends up the same in the end. Just dust and tears. Usually the tears first and then the dust, as dust cannot cry. That would be....well, amusing. Do you know what's NOT amusing? Not having my Chalice of Reversal, which always makes me sad, which eventually leads to me not really carrying about anything at all."

"The Chalice of Reversal?" Pandora asked, not sure what the artifact was, though she sensed that Lord Thadon was going to send them on a quest to retrieve it.

"Oh, you've heard of the Chalice have you?" Lord Thadon replied in turn, "One of my favorite toys. Does wonders for creativity. Well, not by itself, but it helps. Those Elytra, clever little bugs that they are. Is this making sense? Look, you eat the Felldew, then use the Chalice, and find the world a much brighter and happier place. Honest. But I don't have it. So I can't eat Felldew, because that would just be bad. I mean, really bad. Damn her!"

"Her?" echoed Pandora's voice, knowing that he was going somewhere with his ranting.

"Yes, yes!" Lord Thadon loudly replied, though he caught himself and lowered his voice once more, "Surely you know of her, seeing how she's part of Dementia's very own court!"

"Lady Syl!" Nightmare breathed, discovering a hidden secret that the Lord of Mania and Lady of Dementia were keeping, from their own subjects no less.

"She is locked away from me, just like my precious Chalice is!" Lord Thadon said, returning them to their main conversation, "Maybe Wide-Eye can tell you the tale of the Chalice, I just want it found and returned to me!"

As Lord Thadon walked off, heading towards the dining table, the argonian remained by their side, looking as if she wanted to tell them something, but had to be careful about it.

"Lord Thadon's Chalice is precious to him," the argonian, Wide-Eye no doubt, said, "and I see why he didn't want to tell you where to find it himself. Your destination is Dunroot Barrow, a glorious place for your glorious quest. I shall mark its location on your map."

When the trio walked outside the House of Mania Pandora opened her map and looked over it, searching for the location that Wide-Eye had marked until Nightmare rested a finger on the small black cross. As it turned out their location was due north of the Mania section of New Sheoth, Bliss as it was called, and it looked like there was a road that would pass by it. Pandora grinned as they walked out of the palace area, passing by the Golden Saints and Dark Seducers that protected their Lord against whatever evil tried to attack him. They briefly said hello to the town of Bliss, and its seemingly cheerful residents, before they passed through its gates and entered the Shivering Isles once more.

They followed the road out of town, Pandora and Nightmare drawing their weapons in case of an enemy attack by the Knights of Order, until they eventually came to an area where Pandora decided it was time to diverge from the path. She lead them into the mountain, where they spent some time climbing before they noticed the rather large tree that they happened to be heading towards. As they approached the tree they found a couple of large mantis like creatures walking outside what they assumed was the entrance to their destination, though one of them decided to attack while the other remained neutral.

Nightmare, seeing the enemy coming their way, pulled her wings out and prepared to launch herself into the sky, while Pandora pulled an arrow out and prepared to loose it into the enemy. Luna, on the other hand, tossed a lightning bolt through the air and it slammed into the elytra's chest, knocking it into the side of the tree and killing it instantly. Both Nightmare and Pandora were surprised that Luna had beaten them to the punch, though she really didn't seem to care as she approached the tree and the remaining elytra, who had a green aura wrapped around it.

"Ah, I believe this is our key," Luna spoke up, just as her companions joined her and noticed she was pointing to the strange creature, "Look, it approaches the door and it opens wide for it, but when it walks away, either on our side or the other side, it closes up tight. Best guess is that we want to keep these green auraed elytra alive so we can progress through this dungeon. So Nightmare, please restrain from killing everything in sight, otherwise we might not be able to go any further."

Nightmare growled at Luna as the trio followed the glowing elytra inside the tree, where they found themselves on an lower level of an area that had two stories. While they moved further inside Pandora beckoned for Nightmare to take the top story and was surprised when she actually headed up there, her battleaxe swinging as she ambushed a group of aggressive elytra. Pandora and Luna moved forward, arrows and lightning hitting any elytra that wasn't friendly while making sure to follow those that apparently wanted them out of their home.

As they progressed Pandora thought it was weird that one of their enemies, the neutral ones, were so willing to help them out in their quest, as if they knew what they were looking for. Or maybe, Pandora thought, they knew the side affects of the Chalice, which none of her party knew, and they wanted it gone before something bad happened.

Eventually Nightmare rejoined them, a smile on her face as she enjoyed smashing many of the elytra that stood in her way into the floor and the walls around her. She would never admit it, but she did kill many of the neutral elytra on accident, mostly due to the fact that she missed their aura color until her weapon was buried in them. The door they found lead them into another area of the dungeon, where they found a bunch of red plants surrounded by what appeared to be knee high water. Luna, not wishing to tell their enemies that they were there, summoned a ball of lightning and cast it into the water, watching the lightning reach out at the three elytra's and pull them to their deaths.

The trio quickly made their way across the water, crossing to the other side of the cavern and arriving at a crossing of sorts, though they decided to choose the right. They followed that tunnel, dispatching all aggressive enemies that wanted them dead, until they arrived at yet another intersection, choosing the right pathway once more and continuing their chosen path. More elytra appeared in their way, though Nightmare enjoyed watching her battleaxe dance as she and Pandora put many of them down and left their broken bodies in their wake. Luna spotted several fading green auras as she passed, hating how easily Nightmare could toss aside the very creatures that allowed them access to the dungeon.

After their second turn they eventually reached the door that they assumed would lead them further towards their destination, leading them to another area that seemed to have a bunch of intersections. Nightmare, now officially getting annoyed with the dungeon, pulled her battleaxe back and started hacking at the barriers that were keeping them from moving on, causing the elytra to scream. Luna's faced paled, it was clear that they were, somehow, linked to the tree they lived in and were currently in pain by her alternate personality's decisions.

"Stop it," Luna shouted, grabbing onto Nightmare's shoulder, "Your killing them!"

That was when Nightmare turned around and slammed her fist into Luna's jaw, knocking her off her feet and into the nearby wall, catching both her and Pandora off guard.

"Oh just shut up already!" Nightmare snapped, slamming the base of her battleaxe into the tough wooden floor, "They're enemies and, as such, they deserve to be erased before they overwhelm us. Stop acting like everything is innocent and learn to realize what needs to be erased and what can be spared until a later date."

"Your killing the creatures that wanted us to get the Chalice out of here!" Luna returned, rubbing her jaw as she stared at Nightmare, "Just like you did with the Changelings; they took one of our sister's artifacts and, instead of trying to reason with them, you burst forth like a raging tide and slaughtered them."

"They were weaklings that were seeking to empower themselves," Nightmare fired back, "Had I not done so they would have declared war against us and our 'dear sweet' sister. What I did saved countless lives and saved us many headaches that would have come from having to deal with a war and being ignored by the public."

"You killed ninety percent of the Hive!" Luna shouted, using enough force to shake the area around them before calming down, "When I regained my body I spoke with the newly crowed Changeling Queen and found out that she had already talked her mother into returning the artifact to Celestia. They were more than willing to listen to reason, yet you destroyed them! I wouldn't be surprised if they attack our capital after our return, or maybe they already have, in retaliation for what you did to them."

Nightmare growled and swung her battleaxe, severing the barrier that was impeding their progress and passing through it, leaving Pandora and Luna behind. Luna moaned and picked herself up, pressing her hand against her injured jaw before the healing spell took affect, patching herself up as Pandora stared at her. It was clear that she was concerned for her well being, though at the same time it seemed like she was slowly becoming aware of everything that Nightmare had done in their home world. Luna sighed and followed after Nightmare, pausing to offer her condolences to one of the remaining neutral elytra's that had avoided Nightmare's destructive path before carrying on.

Thanks to Nightmare's actions the remaining barriers that stood in their way opened the moment the trio approached them, while both the aggressive and neutral elytra's stayed out of their way. Luna had been right in a regard, the elytra seemed to be connected to the tree they lived in and now that it was injured they wanted to tend to it, though they had to wait until the invaders were gone. Luna felt sorry for them, as she knew that Nightmare didn't care about the pain that she caused to the local populations that lived on the Shivering Isles. Eventually they reached a cathedral like area, which told them that they had escaped from the tree and had left the poor elytra alone to rebuild their home.

The trio walked further into the cathedral, walking up some stairs before they came to an opened chamber that also held the artifact that they came for; the Chalice. Surrounding the Chalice was a group of addicts, each of which looking like they were slowly going insane from whatever drug they happened to be on. One of them, the one that Luna assumed was the leader, turned his head and looked in their direction, before shouting an order at the rest of them and causing them all to pull out their weapons. Pandora was quick to put two of them down with well placed arrows, while Luna smacked a few of them with basic magic spells to conserve her magic.

It was over and done with before they knew it, though Nightmare wanted more to fight and was disappointed to learn that their quest had come to an end.

"So this is the Chalice of Reversal," Pandora commented, picking up the strange golden cup, "Well then, I guess that we had better get this back to Lord Thadon and then see what Lord Sheogorath has planned for us."

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Lord Thadon was more than pleased to have the Chalice back in his possession, though he had no treasure to give to Pandora for completing such a dangerous quest. Not that Pandora really cared at this point, as she was more concerned with the next step in Sheogorath's plan for stopping Jyggalag and his Greymarch. With both Houses of New Sheoth aided the trio returned to the palace, where they found both Sheogorath and Haskill in their usual locations, almost as if they hadn't moved since the trio had departed the previous day.

"Well then, it seems that you have experienced both shades of madness," Sheogorath shouted, as the trio approached him, "Now, onto what you'll be doing next for me...though I am fairly positive that someone's going to die. But that's to be expected, seeing how you'll be stopped the Greymarch from occurring, and Jyggalag in the process. My dear sweet Pandora, you are my CHAMPION! You shall grow to be powerful. You shall grow to be me, a new Sheogorath! Or you and your companions will die trying!"

Comments

[Sonata Blaze]

Wait a minute...so its Nightmare Moon's fault that the Changeling Hive decided to attack Canterlot during Cadence's wedding.
And Luna calls upon the Royal Canterlot Voice...awesome!

[the_Doc]

6513769 Yes, it is.

[Vigilant of Stendarr]

The Royal Canterlot Voice... this story got even more awesome.