Fahdon

by Productive faffer

The survivor

Chapter three: The survivor

Canterlot, and indeed all of Equestria, was in total lock down. Celestia had pulled out all the stops to find this stallion; all her royal guards, the solar guard, the night guard and the Crystal Empire's Crystal guards were all on high alert, under strict orders to report even the faintest of rumors of this stallion's location to their respective captains, all scouts were on the lookout for a white stallion with ice blue markings on his body and Celestia's own complex network of informants, spies and information brokers were all keeping their ears to the ground for word on this mystery stallion.

It had been three day's and despite all the princesses' efforts, there was nothing; not a scrap of information, not a whisper of a rumor and not even the shadow of passing gossip in an idle conversation could be dug up. She'd even sent word to the griffons, who'd thankfully recognized the direness of the situation and promised to send word should they hear anything. She wasn't sure if she trusted them or not but at the moment she had more pressing things on her mind at the moment.

As Celestia sat in her throne, awaiting reports that weren't arriving and probably didn't exist, she had to admit it; this stallion brought more questions than answers with him, the latest of which was 'how in Tartarus, could somepony drop off the face of Equestria so completely?'

There were others of course; the markings on his body for instance, they were completely unique in all respects, they belonged on no pony or zebra of any race, culture or breed; then there was the magic he used, lightning was a particularly difficult strand of offensive magic but it normally came out as a continuous arc, not the bolt he had produced, but then there was the way he used it, he had formed the bolt in his hoof, not his horn.

It was, technically, impossible to conduct magic through the hoof as only Alicorn the material of which the unicorn horn, the bones of Pegasus wings and the bones of an Alicorn were made from, that being what gave them their unmatched magical power, could conduct magical energy and yet, he had used magic via his hoof like it was nothing, almost like he was used to it, which was impossible. Wasn't it?

Then there was the other thing he had done: those strange words that hit her soul with the force of a wrecking-ball and shook her bones, to speak nothing of what they had actually done; he'd thrown the doors of the room off their hinges and those doors were nothing to scoff at, they were designed by some of the best artists in all Equestria and forged by the best smiths the land had to offer; their purpose was to keep the nobles salivating and any ponies Celestia didn't exactly trust under wraps, the walls of the room were all magically reinforced and the doors were more secure than any prison. At least, they were supposed to be.

The questions continued to mount in her head; that blast of frost that had hit her guards, they described it as their core temperatures being lowered to minus one-fifty for a few seconds, completely draining them and nearly killing them; and that shout he'd used when Celestia tried to stop him, what was the word, Gol? Earth bending troubled the princesses of the day, it was a simple fact of magic that if you could control the core elements; earth, fire, water and wind, you were considered to be on the higher end of the 'powerful ponies' scale, and he'd done it with just a word? She shuddered at the thought of such power. She sat back in her throne, drained.

And then there was the OTHER thing he'd done.

'Just how much can this stallion do, he seems to be as powerful as myself.'

Celestia considered herself to be a powerful being; it came with the territory when you were the immortal ruler of a country, but the way he had crippled her, Twilight and Luna with nothing but a battle cry…It didn't seem natural. Or maybe that kind of ability was no simple magic, there were fear inducing spells in existence, yes, but none of them would work on an Alicorn or a unicorn of Twilight's caliber, due to their intelligence, but this stallion's… whatever he did, struck fear into her very core. There was something off about him though; he trotted about like a stallion who'd had a full keg of cider to himself but then he'd gone on to beat the stuffing out of Shining Armour, who wasn't the captain of the guard for nothing. The blue mane stallion was a certified master at hoof-to-hoof combat, yet the ice and snow stallion had fed him his teeth like it was nothing.

Then there was the way he escaped; the guards had been quick to report the sudden smog that rolled in as he left, it was too conveniently timed to be a coincident, which could only mean he had conjured it himself. He could control the weather. But no unicorn could control the weather, not to the degree of the Pegasi anyway, that said, he was no normal unicorn.

Celestia massaged her temples with her hoof, recent events notwithstanding, life about the palace had been general torture anyway; the nobles were getting on her back about her decisions in recent months: first it had been Discord; they didn't seem to like the ancient god of chaos roaming the palace pulling pranks on them or those types that thought they were something special; it was those she hated most, the ones who didn't treat Luna like a princess, who had insisted that she take Cadence as a nice rather than a daughter, what had they said? It would cause a shift in the royal family that nopony is prepared for.

Celestia knew what was behind those honeyed words, they were all waiting for something to happen to cause Celestia to step down from the thrown and her having a daughter would make the process of one of them gaining power longer process. Sniveling wannabe-tyrants, the lot of them. Well, most of them, Fancy Pants was the only noble she even vaguely liked. With a sigh she pushed the thoughts from her head; she had enough to worry about as it is.

She slipped down her seat until she slouched rather un-regally in her throne; grateful nopony was around to see her in a moment of weakness. What she wouldn't do for a tankard of cider right now, something Twilight's friend Applejack brewed or maybe an Appaloosa mugging.

At the end of the hall the doors flung open and in came the four ponies she wanted to see most; Shining Armour, captain of the royal guard, Princess Cadence, Alicorn princess of love, Princess Luna, Celestia's beloved little sister and Twilight Sparkle, Celestia's most prized student and newly declared daughter, although Celestia hadn't actually mentioned that detail to her yet. Watching the purple unicorn with a mother's loving eye, a single thought entered her mind.

'Soon…'

Celestia had her guard captain stay in Canterlot with his sister; he'd been here accessing the new recruits. Technically, he needn't do that anymore, what with him now being a prince now and all, but he claimed to enjoy breaking in new troops and his wife seemed to relish the prospect of a vacation from the Crystal Empire.

Twilight was also staying due to her mentor's orders, she didn't want Twilight straying from her side with that stallion about and Luna, who had been under Celestia's wing ever since the stallion had used that…she still wasn't sure what it was, never letting her out of her sight for more than a minute. Celestia got out of her throne, meeting her friends halfway. She wrapped Twilight in a hug, bending down slightly.

"Good morning Twilight, Cadence, Shining Armour" she disengaged from the hug "Lu-Lu" she said with a grin at her little sister.

"Morning" they relied in unison, Luna cringing slightly at her sister's pet name for her. It was after this the atmosphere darkened noticeably. "Capitan Armour, anything to report?" The stallion looked down.

"Nothing Princess, I'm sorry but he seems to have dropped off the face of Equestria" he tells her, sounding ashamed. Celestia hummed her understanding, nodding a few times.

"Understood. After the way things have been going, I'm not all too surprised."

"Auntie" Cadence piped up, nuzzling Celestia "what Shining, told me…the way he just…" she wrapped her adoptive aunt in a tight hug. Celestia had always liked Cadence's hugs, that said; when you're the pony embodiment of love, you're bound to be a great hugger. "I can't believe he would just do that to you."

"We have to find him before he does anything else. He's a threat to security and I won't have anypony else hurt by this…newcomer" Celestia declares. Shining looked up at his boss.

"But we've already got all the day and night guards, the royal armies and even the Crystal guards combing all of Equestria, and we haven't found hide nor hair of him." He looked around the gathered ponies. "I don't think it'll be as easy as 'just finding' him." Everypony silently agreed with him.

"What does Discord have to say" Twilight asked, speaking up for the first time.

"He claims to know nothing about this stallion, even he appreciates just how…unpredictable the Stone cutter's passage can be. He tells us he will be on the lookout for this stallion" Luna answers.

"Isn't there anything we can do? Look for clues or something, I mean, nopony can just disappear like that, nopony, I don't care who, nopony just vanishes." Luna wanted so much to agree with Twilight, she had been feeling cooped up and useless in the palace doing nothing, but she wouldn't know where to start.

"What do want us to do Twily? We haven't a clue where he went or why he attacked us like he did. For all we know he's trotting the plains of Tartarus by now" Shining argues. Twilight looked at her hooves without answer.

"We must start somewhere, none of our resources have any information whatsoever, I say we take this into our own hooves" Celestia decides. Twilight brightened up.

"Should we send for the Elements of Harmony" Cadence asks her Aunt. She shook her head.

"No, not yet, and I want to avoid involving them in this if possible." They all looked taken aback at that.

"Why" Twilight exclaimed "wouldn't it be easier than just trying to take him on?"

"I understand where you're coming from Twilight, but this stallion; he assaulted my sister, my guard captain and yourself. He's made this personal." Twilight blinked, she had never seen Celestia like this before.

"Princess, no matter what we say or do, it doesn't change the fact that we have no clue where he is, or the full extent of his abilities. I know for a fact he hasn't shown all he can do, he may have fought me off with his hooves, but he flinched and looked annoyed when I pulled my sword. I get the feeling he knows how to use one."

"But that doesn't make sense; if he knows how to use a sword why would he need to be so skilled in magic" Twilight argues.

"And the way he escaped, he sneaked out of Canterlot like it was nothing and the fog that rolled in was too thick to be Pegasus controlled. I don't like the idea of somepony controlling the weather like that. How did he even do it" Luna adds.

"I think it was something to those…um, shouts I guess. I mean it stands to reason if he can 'shout' a door of its hinges, he may be able to change the weather at will" Twilight ventured. Shining rubbed his fore-head with his hoof, a smirk on his face.

"You're not making me feel any better about going up against this guy Twily."

"PRINCESS CELESTIA, PRINCESS! Err, Captain Armour, Miss Sparkle, Princess Luna and Cadence." The grey Pegasus day guard, Stone Wing, had burst through the door of the throne room, galloping up to the five of them.

"Yes" Celestia replied without missing a beat.

"I-I-I just outside, something big- It was!"

"Soldier, calm down. Breath, gather your thoughts and take your time" Celestia soothed. The Pegasus guard took a deep breath, swallowed and took another breath before continuing.

"I just saw, outside Ponyville, it was a…a."

"Do you have something to report about the newcomer" Celestia prompted, leaning forwards slightly. The guard flinch.

"See, that's the thing; nopony knows. We aren't sure whether this is connected to the runaway stallion or not." The princess nodded patiently.

"Just tell us what you saw; anything right now would be helpful."

"I saw" He swallows again "a dragon!" Twilight blinked.

"A DRAGON!" Her words shook the ponies around her.

"Y-yes Miss Sparkle but like none I've heard of before. It didn't…look right."

"How so" Luna asked, now curios.

"Well, as we know, dragons stand as bipeds, right?" They all nodded. "Well, from what I could see, this one had two legs, or claws really, and a pair of wings on his back. It looked more like a lizard than a dragon we know." The princess of the day nodded, holding her hoof to her chin.

"A Wyrm" Celestia said at length, hoof to her chin as she thought. Luna could tell Celestia was holding something back, though she chose not to raise the subject yet. She looks around the ponies surrounding her, Twilight looking up at her mentor.

"It's the same as the fog; the timing is too convenient to be a coincident. A dragon, a rare one at that, doesn't just show up at the same time as somepony like that and not be connected." Shining hummed in thought.

"Dragons aren't known for working with ponies, in fact, from what I know about Wyrms they'd rather bite you in half than help out."

"Shining" Cadence exclaimed before she collected herself. "Surely you don't think this is just a coincidence?" The guard captain frowned; he knew they had a point but it didn't feel right.

"Guard, where was this dragon headed? If he doesn't have anything to do with the newcomer, he might know something" Celestia said in way of planning their next move. She didn't like the way the guard flinched again.

"There's something else; when I saw the dragon, I took to the ground and asked around, trying to find anypony who might know anything. The only thing I got was from a local weathermare, Rainbowdash I think" Twilight smiled at the thought of her friend. "She said she saw something, or somepony, on the dragon's back. Forgive me for assuming captain, but if a dragon, possibly with a pony on its back, is a coincidence I don't know what isn't." The jaws of Shining, Cadence, Luna, Twilight and even Celestia hit the floor.

"Y-you mean, that stallion was…riding that dragon?" the guard swallowed again, more nervous than before.

"I'm saying it's possible, Twilight."

"When was he spotted" Celestia asked.

"About a day after he escaped Canterlot, I'm sorry, I got here as fast as I could but with all with all the commotion going on after everypony heard about what happened here I got held up a few times. I'm not sure if he's still there or not."

"This changes things" Celestia declared "if this dragon is an ally of the newcomer he could be anywhere in Equestria by now. It throws a whole new spin on things. Guard where was the dragon headed?" Stone Wing glanced at Twilight for a second.

"The Everfree forest." Twilight took a second to digest this information.

"Wait a minute, if he's heading to the Everfree forest from Canterlot then that means he'll fly right past-"Her eyes widened for a second before she galloped for the doors without finishing. Celestia watched as she went, confused as to her sudden outburst. Her eyes widened and put a hoof to her mouth in shock as it clicked.

"Ponyville!"

---

The clouds, the air and the sky. These three things, were all Remus-the featureless lived for now. His first time riding a dragon, Odahviing, had been heralded by true words.

"Be warned Dovahkiin, forwhen you have flow the skies of Keizaal as the dragons do, your envy of the dov, will only increase."

How right he had been. After the events of Skuldafn and his first experience with flight, he'd spent a lot of his time dreaming of soaring in the clouds once more. Ever since he'd learnt the final word of the shout 'bend will' he'd been meaning to thank Hermaeus Mora for teaching him and returning the gift of flight to him. He relished the thought of flight now; he put it down to the Dovasos in his veins that made him love the feeling of being so high in the air. One thing was for sure though; it was definitely better than trying to walk with this body.

He'd been running, galloping…whatever for about two hours before he'd gotten tired of falling flat on his face every five steps. His inability to move to any great degree was causing problems; after having the skills of a master assassin and thief, he'd gotten accustomed to the natural grace he'd been working on and mastered ever since the first time he'd sneaked past that bear and to have his skills taken along with his body was an insult.

Before long he'd gotten frustrated and decided to spare himself any more humiliation, thus was the road he set on to calling Durnehviir and riding him through the skies of this place. Gods, that had been awkward, summoning the great dragon guardian of the soul cairn as a horse; the dragon had looked at him, blinked once and laughed until he got the message that Remus was apocalyptically angry with his reaction.

After that Durnehviir had remained remarkably stoic about the whole situation, almost like he was completely unfazed by it; he probably could have fooled Remus into thinking he didn't care had he not been the subject of the Dragonborn's first experience of a laughing dragon.

As he rode his undead dragon ally, he took time to examine his new…appendages; the 'hooves', he guessed, were fascinating by design; they looked like simple stumps but felt and acted like a claw of sorts, as if his fingers had been tied together. Of course there was the lack of thumbs, which would be hard to get used to, but he got the feeling that would grow to feel natural over time. Fine motor movements weren't hard to grasp; it was, thankfully, very similar to using his hands for his fore-hooves and his ankles and feet for his hind-hooves. Remus examined his hooves as he rotated his hoof, getting to know them.

"Qahnaarin, you seem troubled by something" Durnehviir pipes up. Remus looked over at the dragon that had turned his head back to the Dragonborn slightly.

"Wouldn't you, if you woke up to find yourself a horse?" The dragon grunts, shrugging his winged shoulders.

"I have lived a long time Qahnaarin, little fazes me." Remus grunted.

"Zu'u nid lingrah jul. I'm no longer man, you would be no longer a Dovah. I get the feeling you would have torn the place apart fahdon." Once more, Durnehviir shrugs.

"Kah los sahlo ol pogaas mulaag Dovhakiin. Pride is weakness as much strength Dragonborn, you would do well to curb it, or suffer the same fate as Alduin, hmm." Remus raised an eyebrow.

"All that time alone give you a taste for philosophy?" Another shrug.

"When one is forced to roam a place as desolate as the soul cairn for all eternity, you find yourself with much tiid wah mindok. Time to think, fahdon." Remus couldn't argue with the dragon; he'd let his pride get the better of him when he'd awoke, tearing apart those who'd been outside his room hadn't been very…nice of him.

He leaned back on Durnehviir's spines, sighing as he did. Now that he thought about it, those horses had likely given him a place to rest and treated him hospitably when they didn't even know him. His guilty thoughts were interrupted when Durnehviir loosed a roar to the heavens, signifying he'd spotted something on the ground.

"Fahdon! I see a settlement below us, a village."

Looking past the dragon's head, Remus saw what he spoke of; a village…or town? It was by no means a city; most of the buildings were made from wood and had thatch roofing, but the scale of it didn't permit it to be called a 'village'. It also didn't have any defensive measures; not a wall, no watchtowers, he couldn't even see any guards. No threat.

"Leave it be, there is no worthy prey down there." The dragon nods, another roar and a particularly powerful beat of his wings following as they flew over the village. Remus dared look over the side of his neck; even from this height he could see the masses of horses down there, looking up and pointing up at them, thanks to his enhanced senses.

Shaking the thoughts from his head, Remus looked ahead and his eyes caught sight a deep, foreboding, eerily quiet and downright evil forest.

"Durn, head for that forest. It'll make a good place to hold up." The undead dragon looked towards what his rider had pointed out and took a dive, levelling out just above the treeline, gliding over the deep sea of forest green. The dragon spotted a clearing, large enough to house him and Remus. Beating his wings and dropping into the open area with a large 'thud', the Dragonborn dismounted.

Remus looked around himself; the clearing was on the path of a small stream, a thick wall of trees on all sides. The sun could penetrate the canopy above, but did little to illuminate the clearing.

"This will do" he decided. He trotted forwards, having trouble keeping his balance, before he found a patch of land he decided he liked.

'First things first; set up camp.'

Gol

A shot of earth shot up, shaped like the walls of a triangle, until Remus willed it to stop. A tent, a little rugged but it would keep the rain off of him. Turning around he eyed some stones at the edge of the stream, putting them in a small circle, before gathering some sticks and putting them in the circle of stones before lighting them with a simple flame spell.

His simple camp set up, Remus took a long breath. The scene was familiar, a campsite such as this, but the stage was by no means what he was used to. A dull heavy, thudding came from behind, signifying large, clumsy movements from behind him. Turning he found Durnehviir resting on his front, the dragon version of relaxing. As Remus watched him settle, a thought entered his mind and a frown creasing his brow.

"Say, Durnehviir, shouldn't you have returned to the Soulcairn by now?" The dragon turned his full attention to Remus.

"I have thought of this" he explains as Remus sets about setting up runes to defend the small campsite. "I believe that with the differences between this land and Taazokaan, Tamriel, my stay will be more permanent than most others." With this revelation, Remus miss-cast his ice rune, causing it to explode in his face.

"What" he demanded, pulling a shard of ice from his face nonchalantly.

"Tell me, Dovahkiin; you are a fellow Nahgahdinok, necromancer, are you not?" Remus nods, his preferred schools of magic were destruction, restoration and alteration but he knew plenty about illusion and conjuration. "Pruzah, then the answer is simple. This land of keys and Taazokaan are not one in the same, tillah los ni fin med, their magics are not the same, thuri." Remus was unsure of the truth of his words, but nodded all the same.

"Perhaps" he mused "but it seems too simple" he grunted "and its never simple." Durn merely shrugged, as best a dragon could anyway.

"My day as a kro are long behind me, I delve little into the...scholarly arts naan lingrah. Perhaps I am correct, perhaps not. Nii los vomindok wah dii. It is unknown to me." Remus nodded, settling down under his makeshift tent. Night was falling fast, and the silver light of night was quickly setting in.

"Perhaps" he echoed, lost in thought for a moment "do you think anything may have changed with Lucien and Arvak?" The dragon shrugged.

"Again, I do not know. The reactions of the key and krivaan may be similar to my own or hold many differences." Remus looked at his hoof as a thought came over him; concentrating on a spot between him and Durnehviir, spoke a single word.

"Lachance" he called, the word snapping at the air, a great whooshing of wind and the sound of an Oblivion portal opening as Lucien Lachance stepped through. He was clad in the black robes of the Black Hand of old, an array of steel weaponry at his ghostly hip. Lucien's expression was that of confusion before he realised just what had happened.

"My listener" he asked the darkness around him, likely assuming his summoner was hidden in the shadows. He spoke in an incredibly smooth and deep voice that sent chills down Remus's spine whenever he spoke. Turning his head, he spotted the dragon resting nearby. "Ahh, Durnehviir" he greeted with a polite bow. If there was one thing Remus admired about the long dead assassin, it was his impeccable manners. The two had met on one occasion when the Dragonborn was in need of a distraction of peculiar tastes. "I trust Remus is is otherwise occupied?" The dragon nodded in the direction of the tent.

"Over here" the Dragonborn called out. Lucien was quick to spot the snow white and ice blue stallion in the stone tent. With a frown he strode over to him.

"Whatever happened to you" he asked with a small chuckle, quickly ridding himself of the disrespectful laugh. He sat down next to him, cross legged, and looked over Remus. "You have changed some my Listener" he pointed out.

"You don't say" he deadpanned in response.

"What happened?"

"You tell me. One minute I was in the college of Winterhold, having just examined a portal of sorts, the next I wake up like…this. A horse of all things." Lucien leaned back against the stone tent.

"Forgive me listener, but you may be wrong in that respect." Remus raised an eyebrow. "You are no horse, but a…"

"Spit it out Lachance, I'm pretty sure I'll be fine with a little more bad news." A small grin worked its way across Lucien's face.

"You, my listener, are no horse but a pony." As the word left the assassin's mouth, he could see Remus's expression become more and more murderous.

"Great" he said, in a remarkably calm voice. "I'm in a land of GODS DAMNED PONIES." His cry was punctuated by the thu'um in his voice, the seer power and rage behind the shout sending a crash of thunder through the sky.

"Be calm listener, else you bring forth the wraith of the dread father himself." His words were met by death ears; Remus had buried his face in the ground, rocking it from side to side muttering some foul curses.

"Ponies…Ponies…Ponies…why…did…it…have…to be… ponies?" His words were followed by him smacking his head on the floor in frustration. "Are you sure?" Lucien shrugged his see-through shoulders.

"Your build and size would suggest so, and your mane and tail have been styled, which supports my claim. I may be wrong but that is what my instincts tell me" the assassin admitted. Remus breathed hard through his nose, or muzzle he guessed.

"Damn it" he muttered. "Either way, I'm pretty sure I've got bigger problems than my current form."

"What do you mean, listener?"

"I'm pretty sure I've just spat I the faces of this place's monarch." Lucien laughed his deep, creepy laugh that suited his spirit form.

"You have changed less than I first assumed" he joked.

"Yes, well. Either way I've been on the run for the whole of the day. I need rest." Lucien nodded his understanding, taking it as his cue to shut up, Durnehviir following suit soon after. Resting his eyes on the unfamiliar night skies and their stars, he felt himself drift to sleep and Vaermina's clutches in strange and alien world, wondering just what fate had charged him with.