A Tale of the Misplaced Guard

by CyclicStoryWriter

Not in Skyrim Anymore

Not in Skyrim Anymore

Into the battle Ulfgar went with his sword raised high. The manticore took a swipe at the traveler ahead of him and received a full forced punch from the traveler.

"Take that, you ruffian!" She shouted out.

The beast let out a full forced roar blowing back long flowing purple hair.

"My Hair!" she cried before a low growl reminded her where she was and she ran back to her friends.

"Wait." A traveler dressed in a pale yellow attire and a soft pink hair said in a voice so soft Ulfgar barely heard it.

He tried to place the travelers out of his mind and continued towards the creature. With his shield raised, he got close enough to go for an attack. He nearly placed a nasty slice on one of the travelers who had come up from behind him and straddled themselves on top of the beast.

"Yee-haa! Get along, little doggie!" She shouted out as the creature began trying to buck her off of its back.

With one good kick, the manitore tossed the traveler into the air.

"All yours, partner." She said to one to another traveler as Ulfgar began another attempt to attack the manticore.

"I'm on it!" One of the other travelers shouted out.

"Wait." The one traveler with the pink hair said quietly again behind him.

Ulfgar was losing his temper rather quickly. He was just trying to help these travelers but every time he goes for an attack, one of them decides to do something very foolish and nearly gets them killed. Now he was being blocked by a wall of colors. Wind and other debris flew past his helmet as the wall went faster and faster. Ulfgar could see the tail of the manticore rise up and ship down on the wall. The tail connected and sent a traveler out towards the rest.

"Rainbow!" One of the travelers shouted out.

"Enough of this bull..." Ulfgar growled to himself as he raised his blade to make a blow.

"WAAAIIIT!" The traveler with pink hair shouted out making ever creature in the clearing stop and look towards her. Ulfgar was stopped mid-swing as she approached the manticore. The beast roared and raised a paw to attack. Ulfgar moved in to block the blow that never came after a few words.

"Shh, it's okay." she gently said as she laid both of her hands on the paw that was not risen.

The manticore suddenly eased up and lifted his other paw to reveal a thorn as large as the daedric dagger he was carrying around stabbed into its paw.

"Oh, you poor, poor baby." The traveler said as she saw the thorn.

"Little!?" A traveler shouted out from behind him.

"Baby!?" Ulfgar sputtered out.

"Now this might hurt for just a second." She softly said as she reached for the thorn.

With one swift movement the thorn was out and Ulfgar was pushed back by a roar that could have been that of a dragon's voice.

"Fluttershy!" The group of travelers shouted out as he began to regain his footing.

With his stance firm, Ulfgar lowered his shield to see the manticore cradling the traveler named 'Fluttershy' and licking her face as if it was only a small house cat.

"Aw, you’re just a little baby kitty, aren’t you? Yes, you are. Yes, you are." She said after a short giggle.

Out of the corners of his eye slits he could see the other travelers passing by as he waited for the creature release the last one. The manitcore dropped her to the ground and headed into the dark forest, meaning that his sword was no longer needed. When she hit the ground he was there with an outstretched hand.

"Are you alright?" Ulfgar simply asked as she looked up to him.

All he got in reply was a quiet mumble that he could not decipher. She gently grabbed onto his armored hand and pulled herself up before heading up to catch up with her group. He noted that one had stayed behind and asked her something as she passed. As he came up to follow the group the small smile on her face disappeared and she turned to him with a serious look.

"If you need to get to a town then head the opposite way we are going, there is a small town there not far from the forest's edge." She said to Ulfgar as he began heading deeper into the woods, the same way they were going.

"After I saw you and your friends attempt to take down that manticore I changed my mind. You obviously need someone who can deal with the things that live out here." Ulfgar said as he continued to walk forward.

"Look, I appreciate you’re wanting to help, but I think I have enough on my hands working with the others. Not to mention Nightmare Moon trying to stop us from saving our Princess and ending her eternal night. So how about you head back that way and get to where ever you need to be." She said as her magic lifted him up and turned him around.

He turned around to find her jogging deeper into the woods to catch up with the others. A few things ran through his head. First off that girl was a mage, so he would have to remember to keep his distance from her in the future. Secondly was that this group was heading through a forest, and that meant that things are waiting out there to catch someone off guard. Thirdly was that she mentioned someone called Nightmare Moon, obviously a powerful mage if they could bring about eternal night. All of these things pointed in one direction, he would have to follow them to help defeat this powerful mage. Thoughts of his childhood flooded into his memory as the plan called for stealth. When he was young he was only a poor orphan who may have learned about the ways of the shadow and he may have made some connections with some shady characters that helped him with those skills. He made sure that the mage had disappeared from sight and then went into the foliage at the side of the path and followed along. The trail went deeper into the forest and slowly began thin to where a group the size that he was following would have to move into a single or double-file formation to move ahead. This allowed him to be able to catch up with them much easier. The tree canopy continued to thicken and the lights from the starry night disappeared and darkness took over. Ulfgar's sight adjusted to the darkness and allowed him to slip through the the trees as quietly as he could with all of his gear. Even though he was not as quiet as the shadows it was easy to follow these girls because they were talking so much that what little noise he made was a silent breeze. As he followed them he began to notice that they seemed smaller than he was. Even the mage had to look up to him.

"Oh wait. Ah think ah stepped in something." The traveler that he almost sliced open said with a strange accent.

A screech went out as a low red light began emerging from the darkness. The trees around him began to glow with an eerie light.

"It's just mud." The Traveler replied before her face was light up by one of the nearby trees.

From Ulfgar could see was that the trees seemed to have grown faces. None of them were moving and not one tree began talking, they just had faces on them. Confusion slowly crept on him as he witnessed the small path brightened and saw the five of the travelers huddled in a tight circle, including the mage. The one traveler not joined in with their fright was making faces to a tree he was standing near to. She had hair that was large and bounced with her every movement. Her clothing seemed to be made of any type of pink. He dared not moving one muscle in hopes that she would not notice him standing right there. Luckily she was too concentrated on making faces at the tree than noticing a armored man with a sword and shield standing only a few yards away.

"Pinkie, what are you doing?! Run!" The mage he had met earlier yelled out to her companion.

Her pink friend gave a small wave to him before turning her attention to her friends.

"Oh, girls, don't you see?" She said as music began to fill the air around them.

Along with the music the darkness began to be lifted and light began flashing throughout the trees. Ulfgar had many thoughts about what he saw. 'Why was the mage backing away from these trees, where are the music and lights coming from, and most importantly how is this woman standing upside down, in the air!?' He decided to leave the scene and follow the path ahead of the group, because frankly all of this was making him thinking that either this wasn't Skyrim or he had died and gone to some distorted hell. After some time he had finally left the music behind him and came across a river. He checked his pack and his straps before wading into the river. The river began to rapidly change from a calm flow to white rapids in mere seconds. Ulfgar's body was tossed against multiple rocks in the river before he washed ashore. Slowly he pulled himself up to shore as he pulled off his helmet to spit out water. Taking a look down river he could see the travelers talking with a giant purple sea serpent with half of a mustache. The sea serpent's tail thrashed about wildly causing the rapids which he had attempted to cross. He got up and began heading back down towards the trail while watching the silent conversation. Slowly words began to be heard over the waves until they began forming their own sentences.

"Oh Rarity! Your beautiful hair!" The mage said.

"Oh…it’s fine, my dear. Short tails are in this season. Besides, it’ll grow back." The Traveler who wore the fine white dress and flowing purple hair was cut back to her shoulders.

The mage began to walk across the river shouting out. "We can cross now! Let’s go!"

Suddenly she began rising from the water as part of the sea serpent gave them an easier path across his back.

"Bloody river with it's bloody sea serpent. I can't wait to start heading back to Skyrim." Ulfgar mumbled to himself as he began picking up the pace to catch up with the travelers.

Back into the woods he went drenched with water, he made a mental not to himself to give his armor a good cleaning after all of this is said and done. Going down his mental list he almost forgot he was following the group and was shaken back into reality when the purple mage shouted out.

"There it is!"

"The ruins that hold the Elements of Harmony. We made it!" She continued as the dull sound of footsteps increased in frequency.

"Twilight! Wait for us!" Shouted out the traveler with the strange accent.

'Twilight, interesting name but she is a mage so that is partially anticipated and nothing in this place seemed to make any sense.' Ulfgar thought to himself as he began running faster to keep up with them without blowing his cover.

"We’re almost there!" Twilight shouted in reply.

He could see the edge of the forest come up very abruptly and he slowed down to find out a sudden drop ended the forest where it was. A yelp came from the mage as he watch her almost fall off the edge before her friend with the hair of a rainbow came up and pulled her back. On her back was a pair of soft blue wings folded up.

"What’s with you and falling off cliffs today?" She commented as she looked at friend.

"Now what?" The Pink traveler asked as they looked at the remains of the broken rope bridge.

"Duh!" The rainbow haired traveler said as she flexed her wings out.

"Oh, yeah!" The Pink one replied as the wings must have slipped her mind.

Without another second wasted, she dived down into the canyon and returned from below with the other end of the bridge in her hands. She had one tied down before a fog began to drift in from the trees on the other side and she began to look for something.

Ulfgar only caught one sentence that she shouted out from the other side. "I ain’t scared of you! Show yourself!"

This was enough for Ulfgar to pull his bow back out. The golden bow faintly glimmered in the streaks of light breaking through the leafy canopy above him. He saw three figures come out and start talking with her. She seemed somewhat alright with these other figures. The traveler began to move towards the rope bridge again and the other figures said something that caught her attention. The tension in his bow was slowly eased until he heard the mage shout out.

"Rainbow!"

In a flash his bow was back to being fully drawn and strained his ears for a target.

"Don't listen to them!" The mage continued as the fog suddenly thickened around the figures and her friend.

After a few seconds he let loose an arrow into the fog and heard the unsatisfactory sound of the arrow digging itself into a tree. The mage seemed curious about his arrow but put the thought aside as her friend returned form the thick fog. They all cheered for their friends return.

"See? I’d never leave my friends hanging." She said to the mage as they made their way across the bridge.

They continued up to the ruins ahead as he quickly made his way across the bridge. As he reached the trees the mage drew her curiosity to his arrow that was lodged into a tree almost by the ruins entrance.

"Watch ya lookin' at there?" The one traveler said as she saw her friend stopping to look at the arrow.

"I don't know but I think were not as alone out here as we thought." The mage replied as she slowly continued her way into the ruins.

"Of course not silly!" Pinkie said as they headed inside.

Slowly he made his way up to the ruins. Off to one of the sides he saw a stairway leading up to a high tower. 'If the mage is weary of presence I guess I could take a quick look around in that tower over there.' Ulfgar thought to himself as he listened in on the conversation inside.

"Whoa…come on, Twilight. Isn’t this what you’ve been waitin’ for?"

"The Elements of Harmony. We’ve found them!"

"Careful…careful…"

"One, two, three, four…there’s only five."

"Where’s the sixth?"

"The book said, 'When the five are present, a spark will cause the sixth Element to be revealed.'"

"What in the hay is that supposed to mean?"

"I’m not sure, but I have an idea. Stand back."

" Come on now, y’all. She needs to concentrate."

Ulfgar heard the last sentence as he made his way up the stairway. As he was heading up he heard some strange noises from below him. A few seconds later, similar noises came from farther up the stairway. Curiosity drove him as he quickened his pace up the stairs. At the top he saw not only the purple mage from the travelers group but also another figure covered in decorative armor with a matching slithering sword similar to the appearance of a snake. The figure also had black magical wings and her left hand emitted a dark magical glow along with five stone spheres floating around her. As with most power hungry magic wielders she had an air of superiority around her and a low evil chuckle. The purple mage had gotten up and began charging magic in her hands.

"You’re kidding. You’re kidding, right?" The evil sorceress replied shocked by the idea of this one low mage going up against her.

Twilight charged forward towards the sorceress, who also began charging forward. Ulfgar pulled out his sword and charged out of the stairway. If this mage was going to go against something way above her head then he would try to help her succeed. When the two would have crashed into each other, Twilight disappeared into a flash of purple light. He grinned as he bashed his way past the sorceress. Turning around he faced up against the recovering sorceress. Ulfgar then charged into a duel with this mage, his only focus being on the fight. Within a few seconds he had only landed only three blows that slide through her heavy armor while he himself received some hits of his own. Ulfgar persevered though, and ran in for another charge. This ended him up thrown against one of the many pillars in the room. The Sorceress held out her free hand and shot out a bolt of lightning. Quickly he rolled out of the way and planted himself in between the sorceress and the mage he was protecting. The pillar was struck by the lightning and began falling apart in large chunks. Pain rushed through his body as he was slammed into the ground from behind. Slowly he began pushing himself and the other body off the ground.

"NO! NO!" She shouted out before vanishing into a mystical tornado and flew right over him

Ulfgar felt a hand press on his arm for a moment before a quick squeak and the weight quickly lifting off of his back. He wasted no time getting back up to his feet to watch as the stones now sparked at the feet of the sorceress and then blinking out.

"But…where’s the sixth Element?" Twilight questioned to herself more than to any of the other two people in the room

After a full throttled laugh and crushing the five stone orbs with just the force of her foot. "You little foal! Thinking you could defeat me? Now you will never see your Princess—or your sun! The night will last forever!"

"As a guard of the land, I beg to differ." Ulfgar said as he took up a stance in front of Twilight, who was just shocked at what had transpired.

"I don't think I have ever seen a guard dressed like you are. Albeit you are better trained than those foalish guards Celestia uses." She replied as she began to look him over from head to toe. "But nonetheless, I will not be stopped by a girl with some knowledge of magic or a mysterious man claiming to be a guard."

Twilight seemed to have recovered as the sounds of her friends sounded from the stairway entrance. "You think you can destroy the Elements of Harmony just like that? Well, you’re wrong—because the spirits of the Elements of Harmony are right here!"

The shards of the orbs began to glow in six different colors. Ulfgar could sense that Twilight was going to move on, so he decided to finish up what he began before.

"You have done crimes against Skyrim and her people. What say you!?" He shouted out before the mage behind him could continue.

"What?" She only replied after some time.

A long silence enveloped the room as he stood there with his sword and shield ready. He dared to move to show that he meant what he said. The silence quickly became awkward when he realized that no one was even responding.

"Um, Skyrim? Isn't that a place where children are taken to if they misbehave?" Twilight asked as she broke the silence.

He turned around and looked back at her in disbelief. 'Skyrim, a fantasy world? That can't be possible, I was born and raised there. Sounds like someone has had more mead than they could handle.' Ulfgar thought.

Twilight shook her head and looked back at the sorceress.

"Applejack, who reassured me when I was in doubt, represents the spirit of honesty! Fluttershy, who tamed the manticore with her compassion, represents the spirit of kindness! Pinkie Pie, who banished fear by giggling in the face of danger, represents the spirit of laughter! Rarity, who calmed a sorrowful serpent with a meaningful gift, represents the spirit of generosity! And Rainbow Dash, who could not abandon her friends for her own heart’s desire, represents the spirit of loyalty! The spirits of these five girls got us through every challenge you threw at us!" She explained as shards began to move and hover around her five friends.

"You still don’t have the sixth Element! The spark didn’t work!" The sorceress frantically replied.

"But it did. A different kind of spark. I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear you, to see you. How much I cared about you. The spark ignited inside me. When I realized that you all are my friends!" Twilight answered as she turned to say most of it to her friends.

"You see, Nightmare Moon, when those Elements are ignited by the…the spark that resides in the heart of us all. It creates the sixth Element. The Element of magic!" Twilight Sparkle continued as a sixth orb appeared before them and floated down above Twilight's head.

Hearing magic being charged behind him, Ulfgar turned to see the girls were lifted up in the air and powerful magic fizzled in the air. Twilight was brought closer to her friends and now wore some crown on top of her head. Two streams of rainbows burst forth from the group of six and shot down on the sorceress. A tornado of color surrounded the sorceress as she let out a desperate shout. When her eyes opened they were filled with a magical white light and a force wave blasted through the room. Pain stabbed through Ulfgar as he tossed into another pillar and soon blackness filled his world. The darkness was thick and solid until some noise began to break through. Light began to fill his world again as the noise turned into words being said.

"Gee, Twilight. I thought you were just spoutin’ a lot of hooey. But I reckon we really do represent the elements of harmony." A voice said from the light.

"Indeed you do." Said a new voice he had never heard before.

"Princess Celestia!" A voice he had heard of before.

'Twilight? Yes, I think that was her name.' Ulfgar thought as the light began to grow until he stared through the eye holes of his helmet.

"Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student. I knew you could do it." The new voice replied.

"I thought you told me it was an old folk tale?" Twilight Sparkle questioned.

"I told you that you needed to know to make some friends—nothing more." Princess Celestia answered in a soothing voice.

Ulfgar began to move his head when a shot of pain stopped him. He began to question the pain until all of the memories from before began to suddenly flash back in his head. Ignoring the pain, he looked down at his chest to find the sword impaled near the top right corner of his chest. 'The blade probably stabbed right between the top two ribs, nothing fatal but can kill if not carefully removed. I hope that mage is trained in the restoration arts.' Ulfgar thought to himself as his thoughts were slowly beginning to be filled with raw pain. The words that were said around him began to slur into mumbles as his world was driven into one of agony. Only one thought ran through his pain-addled mind. Get. This. Sword. Out. His hands fumbled down to the hilt of the sword and began pushing. The pain multiplied as the blade very slowly made its way out of his chest. His arms were almost fully stretched out when he realized his feet were not touching the ground.

"You know what this calls for!" A voice shouted out through the pain.

"Wait! Where is that man from before?" Another voice asked before the pain began growing like never before.

Looking back down, he watched as the slide back down the blade and fell down to the ground. When he touched the ground he instantly crumbled down to his side. Pain seized his muscles only for a few seconds before his arms moved back to the hilt and pushed the blade out. All around him he could hear the sound of footsteps and the sight of his own blood on his hands. The light from the windows was blocked by the travelers that he had followed to watch over.

"Oh, my... What happened to him, Twilight?" One of the voices said as his vision began to blur.

"I don't know, I think he might have tried to go against Nightmare Moon when I tried to activate the elements." Another voice said as the world slowly became black.

Ulfgar thought that this was it. Soon he would be sitting among the other warriors in Sovrengard. Just as the darkness was about to envelope him color burst into field of view. The pain he felt was now going away and he stared up at a new face that held her hands over his chest with a magical blue glow. This one looked similar to the sorceress but had none of the armor and had a more normal voice.

"I am so sorry! I never meant to do this." She said to him when she noticed his eyes were open.

"Don't worry. This is not the only time I have taken a sword to the chest." Ulfgar said as he began to look around

"Who are you anyways?" Twilight asked from above him.

"My name is Ulfgar, former guard of Solitude. I guess that doesn't matter now since I'm not in Skyrim anymore." Ulfgar said as he began pushing himself up.

"Stop! You shouldn't be moving right now, you need to rest!" The healer said to him.

"I have taken more than you could imagine. I think I can walk it off from here." Ulfgar said as he stood back up.

"Well Ulfgar, I guess we might have to find you some place to stay for a while." Another new woman said who was easily taller than the rest and had wings larger than the other two friends of the Twilight.

"Ah could always have another helping hand on the farm." The Traveler with the accent and a hat responded

"I think there is an extra room in the library you could use." Twilight replied as she went into thought

"There is a spare room in my shop. We would just have to tidy you up first."

"Thank you all for your offers, I’ll need think about them. There are actually a lot of things I need to think about." Ulfgar replied as he felt the area where the blade had stabbed him through.

No scar could be felt in the area. Looking down he saw that he was covered in blood. He tried to wipe of as much as he could so that he looked presentable in the town they talked of before. Looking back up he watched as the others began their way back outside. Before moving on he picked up the blade that once held him and tied it down with some of the other stuff he held. The one that healed him was lagging behind from looked like exhaustion and also guilt. Ulfgar walked up behind her and lifted her up.

"No lollygaggin'!" Ulfgar ordered as he lifted her up and carried her out of the room on his shoulder.

Comments

[CyclicStoryWriter]

Now we get to the meat of the story! Any suggestions or advice would be helpful because you could say I am knew to this stuff. Chapters will be taking more time to come out because I am about to head back to school. So hang in there!

[Crackshot]

I have to say, you're getting better since the last chapter, but again you need to add more description in general. It's a good story so far, and a very interesting concept. Considering I'm already back in school, I think I can wait a bit for the chapters.

[chaorock]

This was good.
On his last line however I instantly yelled BIATCH and punched the air. There's nothing wrong with me.

[SGT Barn]

Its ok but if its just going to be a continuse re-wright of the hole sieres, well I can say I'd be a little more then disapointed.

[Sjogras]

Interesting but lacks development or transitions. Chapter one was shaky but chapter two lost me. Fair idea but lacks support.

[Equin0x27]

1214636 I have just started writing a story of my own, and i know how you feel. i would appreciate if you could read it, but I realize you might not want to read it. If you do, then yay! Also, I know I'm coming in a bit late, but is this anthro, or human? If it's Anthro, then the characters keep some of there pony parts, like wings or horns. If it's human, then the characters have NO pony aspects, meaning no horns, wings, or tails. Just trying to help. It's a great story. I love it so far.

[Xx-Sniper_Masters-xX]

at first i thought i was reading the first chapter but turns out it was the 2nd chapter. [FAIL]

[TheScrollChaser]

? I expected him to somehow have mehrunes razor and kill nightmare moon.

[gamer4COD]

No lollygaggin', no excuse!

[Autumn breeze24]

No lollygaggin', no excuse! To true! But what will the guard do! And is there even a law against lollygaggin' in Skyrim?