Chapter 07: A True True Friend
It was Re-shelving day. It was the meticulous task of taking every book off of every shelf, dusting them, organizing them and placing it back in their proper places. Most librarians loathed this day, but not Twilight Sparkle. Even with unicorn magic, the task would consume most, if not the entire day, but none of that mattered to Twilight. She loved books and she loved organizing. As far as she was concerned, it was a perfect day.
Humming a simple tune, she piled book upon book, creating several stacks that covered almost the entire floor. She quickly got to work, dusting the shelves with a levitating duster. Just as she was developing a nice rhythm there was a knock on the door.
"Spike! Could you please get that?"
There was no answer, and the knocking continued.
"Spike?!"
Still no answer. Twilight grumbled to herself and dropped the duster. If she finds out that Spike had snuck off to sleep away his chores, she was going to be very upset. She reached the door and opened it with her hooves.
"Twilight, Darling! It's good to see you this morning. May I come in?"
Twilight grinned widely at the sight of Rarity, one of her best friends.
"Of course Rarity. Pardon the mess, It's re-shelving day so I hope you don't mind."
Rarity stepped in and raised a hoof to dismiss the apology.
"Of course I understand Twilight. The Carousel Boutique, isn't in any better shape believe you me. That large order from Canterlot has left my shop looking like a tornado run it through. Which brings me to why I am here. Do you, perchance, have any books related to ancient Equestrian fashions or art in general, I am in desperate need of inspiration."
Twilight thought for a moment, for the perfect book to lend her friend. Her face brightened up and she immediately made her way to the opposite end of the library with Rarity following suit.
"I have just the book Rarity, give me a minute."
Twilight began to sort through the books one by one with her magic. She finished the first pile, before shaking her head and moving to the pile of books next to her. Rarity waited patiently by her side when she noticed something.
"Twilight. Dear, are you hurt?"
"I'm fine Rarity. Why do you ask?"
Rarity took a step back. Twilight noticed this and turned to look at her slowly retreating friend. Looking at her curiously, Twilight noticed that Rarity's eyes were glued to Twilight's hooves. Upon looking down at her hooves she noticed that they were covered in blood. Dried, coagulated blood.
Twilight looked from her hooves back up to Rarity.
"Rarity I..." Before Twilight could even attempt to explain, her friend had just back peddled into a closet door. It swung inward and Rarity landed on something hard, when she pulled herself back up, she found herself covered in blood. Rarity jumped out of the closet allowing the light to shine inside, revealing the mangled corpse of a familiar looking bandit.
Rarity screamed, and Twilight screamed with her. The whole room spun and everything went black. The blackness consumed everything until suddenly spots of color began to swirl in her vision before forming the concrete picture of Celestia's throne room. She attempted to move but found that she was chained around the neck to a giant iron ball. Her hooves were restrained by several lengths of rope and to her horror, her horn had been sawed off.
"What's going on?! Where am I?"
A bright flash of light briefly blinded Twilight, and when her vision cleared she saw Princess Celestia sitting on her throne. At first Twilight was relieved to see her, but upon making eye contact felt an increasing amount of dread. Gone were her motherly eyes filled with wisdom and patience, in their place were fiery embers drilling into Twilight's soul.
"Twilight Sparkle, I am very disappointed in you." She spoke, in a voice that was not quite Celestia's, but nevertheless caused Twilight's blood to run cold.
"To think that the element of magic, and my very own pupil could be capable of such acts."
"Princess Celestia. Please. You have to listen to me."
"SILENCE!" Came Celestia's royal canterlot voice at full volume. Twilight folded her ears back instinctively. But the harshness of the princess' words had been felt. Twilight started to sob.
"DO YOU DENY THE MURDER OF THAT POOR CREATURE?"
Twilight tried to speak, but only a faint whimper came out in her defense.
"SPEAK!"
Twilight tried again, but nothing came out this time. She tried drawing breath but nothing could come in or out. Celestia snorted.
"YOUR SILENCE CONDEMNS YOU AS WELL AS THE EVIDENCE. JURY! WHAT SAY YOU?"
There was another flash of white, And Twilight found herself looking up at a very large podium. Standing at this podium were her friends. Twilight's heart swelled when she saw them and for a moment her tears stopped flowing.
"Girls, I..."
"Banish her, Princess."
Twilight's words died in her throat, as she turned to the one who had spoken. Rainbow Dash, the element of loyalty and somepony she thought she could count on to stand by her side, looked down at her with disgust. Rainbow Dash topflapping her wings and folding her fetlocks looking down at her with intense disgust.
"I'm with Dashie. There's no place in Equestria for a miss meanie murder pants." Said Pinkie Pie, who had her back to her.
"I say hang her. A life for a life. It's only fair." Said Applejack who nodded and turned to Fluttershy, who's pink mane was barely visible above the podium.
"What do ya think sugarcube?"
"Uhm...I just want her gone...If that's alright with everypony else."
At this moment Twilight clamped her ears shut. Not wanting to hear another word but their voices still came through to her as clear as if she wasn't covering her ears at all.
Rarity humphed.
"Although I agree with Applejack that a fair price has to be paid. I refuse to resort to such barbaric practices of justice. A simple banishment should suffice."
Celestia nodded her head accepting their opinions, before turning to the final juror.
"And what of you dear sister? What sentence do you find appropriate?"
Twilight was sobbing uncontrollably at this point, Her hooves over her head cowering before her friends. What she didn't see was Luna's expression. Her eyes were wide in shock and her mouth was slightly agape. Her ears were flat upon her head and her mane did not flow.
"Twilight...why art thou dreaming of such things? What hath transpired?"
"Then it is settled!" Celestia declared, cutting Luna off.
"TWILIGHT SPARKLE! FOR MURDER! I SENTENCE YOU TO BANISHMENT, IN TARTARUS FOR THE REST OF YOUR NATURAL LIFE!" She boomed. The marble floor ruptured and the cold hands of the Draugr reached up and grabbed Twilight through the cracks. Her sorrow turned to horror as she was dragged slowly and painfully through the tight cracks in the floor. Celestia and her friends disappeared in swirls of black smoke as Celestia's throne room started to collapse. Just as she was about to disappear through the floor. Midnight Blue hooves dipped into the floor and grabbed Twilight.
Princess Luna desperately tried to cling onto Twilight. Her horn was glowing as she tried to prevent the dream from collapsing. The last thing Twilight saw was Luna's desperate expression and her mouth moving, trying to speak to her through the chaos.
----
Twilight jerked awake. What greeted her was the feeling of a warm mattress underneath her, and several wool blankets pressing down on her contributing to the warmth. A ceiling made of thick wooden logs and drapes of fur was above her. The dim light of morning mingled with the smoke of a crackling fire as it passed through an open hatch on the roof. After a moment of staring at this ceiling Twilight took a deep, shaky, breath and brought a hand to her face, feeling the still fresh tears making their way down her human cheeks. The finer details of the dream had already begun to disappear, but what remained was a sense of deep, crushing sadness.
Twilight propped herself up from her bed and dried her eyes and tried to get her bearings. The last thing she remembered was screaming for Redguard after being grabbed from behind. She also remembered being struck by something hard on the head. She reached up to where she felt being hit and did not feel any sign of a wound or bump. Twilight checked her other wounds and noticed that they had all completely healed, with the exception of some faint scars.
How long had she been out? Her mind exploded with hundreds of possibilities on how she could have ended up in her present situation. All of those possibilities had one question in common. What happened to Redguard? Pretty soon that was the number one concern on her mind. She looked around the room but saw no sign of him. She became more and more frantic and decided that she should get out of bed and look for him. Just as she was about to move the door opened and in stepped a woman. She was elderly but still retained many features of her youth. Her eyes settled upon Twilight.
"Goodmorning." Twilight said hesitantly, after a brief silence.
Twilight could see the woman visibly suppress a chuckle at her response.
"Good morning indeed. I had expected you to be asleep for longer than a day. It seems that you're made of much sterner stuff than first thought." The woman moved to the side of Twilights bed. Twilight then noticed a steel dagger hanging around a belt on her waist and immediately backed away from her. Twilight's hand searched for a weapon under her sheets but none were found. The woman paused when she saw Twilight's reaction and simply laughed.
"Come now girl. If I meant you any harm, wouldn't it have been smarter of me to attack you while you slept?"
Twilight realized this and slowly relaxed, but only slightly.
"Sorry. I've just been through a lot recently. Would you mind telling me where I am and who you are?"
The woman nodded and sat on Twilight's bed.
"Fair enough questions. My name is Agnes. You are in my home in Aivarsted, of the hold of Falkreath. My nephew and I stumbled upon you and your friend as we entered the tomb. It seems that we owe you a great debt."
Twilight was a little confused, but before she could ask what for Agnes continued.
"If it weren't for you and your friend I would most likely be dead. Vals Veran would have killed me and the rest of Aivarsted with his army of draugr.
Twilight cut her off.
"I'm sorry. But you said me and my friend. Did you mean Redguard? Uh I mean, the Redguard that was with me?"
Agnes nodded.
"We helped him bring you hear. He instructed us to take good care of you and was even willing to pay. But we simply could not accept payment after what both of you have done for us."
"I...I see."
Twilight sighed. Redguard had left her behind. She recalled the argument they had prior to collapsing into the ruin. She was only slowing him down. She would get herself killed. Even after everything they had been together in that ruin and by the bandit camp, he had decided to abandon her. That feeling of crushing sadness grew even more. Twilight took another deep breath and released it, this time it was to keep her composure. Her now dry eyes were just about to well up with tears.
"He didn't leave anything for me did he? Like a note, or instructions?" She asked turning her head away from Agnes, just in case she failed to keep the tears from forming.
Agnes scoffed.
"Dear girl, I never said he left."
Twilight paused for a moment before looking back at Agnes.
Agnes nodded to the foot of Twilights bed. Twilight moved to a crawling position and peered over the footboard of the bed. Sure enough there was Redguard. Sleeping against the stone wall. His chest rising and falling slowly. Twilight suppressed a grin. He was the most silent sleeper she had ever seen.
"He's responsible for resuscitating you. He's a very talented healer."
Agnes stood up from the bed.
"I'll let you decide if you want to wake him, I have some fruit and dried venison waiting for you when you're ready."
She moved towards the door and went to shut it before adding. "You're lucky to be alive." Twilight sparkle nodded her thanks before slipping our of the bed. She wore only the under tunic of her novice robes, noticing that they were wrinkled, she straightened them out the best she could and gently patted down her bed-head hair. Content that she was at least presentable. She made her way around the bed and knelt down in front of Redguard.
The crushing sadness was gone. In it's place was a feeling Twilight could not really describe. The closest feeling she could come up with was intense relief. Yes that had to be it. After debating whether or not to wake him up, Twilight decided to just let him sleep. As she tried to pick herself up to leave she found herself stopping and being drawn back to her friend by some kind of curious force.
This was the first time she had really seen Redguard asleep. His face, that was normally partially concealed by his hood had been lowered, revealing his brown skin and jet black hair. His jagged features were relaxed and looked much more boyish than she remembered. He just looked so peaceful. Twilight had to stop herself. She was inches from his face, examining all the little details from the small scars to his hairline.
"This is wrong. And admittedly, very creepy." A voice in her head scolded her.
"But it's for science! You'll never get this close again!" A more eccentric voice responded.
"Very Creepy!" The voice scolded her again.
"S.C.I.E.N.C.E. SCIENCE!" The eccentric voice cheerfully responded.
"Wrong! With a capital W! How would you like it if somepony examined your facial features in such intricate detail!"
"You know..." Interrupted a third voice. This one sounding very alien to her. "...he would make for a very strapping stallion."
Twilight jerked back and just about slapped herself in the face. Instead she settled for a long release of a breath she didn't know she had been holding. Twilight came to the decision right then and there that it would be a good idea to just wake him up. As she moved her hand to gently shake him awake. She froze. Redguard was staring right at her with both eyes slightly open. An amused grin forming on his face.
"Goodmorning."
He greeted.
Twilight tried to responded but her body was pumping so much blood to her head that it was almost impossible to say something and not sound like a complete idiot. Redguard yawned as he slowly got up, stretching his arms to his side and turning his neck to relieve it of stiffness.
"How are you feeling?" He asked.
Twilight finally got her voice back.
"Good."
"Perfect. I want to get out of here and reach High Hrothgar as soon as possible. We've already had one too many delays."
Twilight smiled and crossed her arms.
"So it's been settled then. I'm coming with you."
Redguard pulled the hood over his head as he chuckled.
"Yeah. You are." He offered his hand to pull Twilight off the floor. Twilight remembered the time in the ruins when he had offered his hand to her. The strength he offered her was not unlike the strength her friends had given her. It was different of course, but at the same time it was very similar. Twilight grabbed his hand and was pulled onto her feet.
---
Universes away. A sleeping Celestia was awoken by the pounding of hooves on her window. Celestia sprung out of bed and Galloped to the window, not bothering to use magic to swing it open. Luna looked utterly horrified and hugged her sister with all her might.
"Dear sister, what is it? Do you have news of Twilight? Is she alive?"
Luna broke the hug and nodded. A flash of joy spread across Celestia's features, but it quickly disappeared upon seeing Luna's countenance. She took a step back to let Luna compose herself.
"Thy dear student...My friend. I found her...but..."
Celestia placed a gentle hoof on her sisters muzzle.
"Say no more dear sister. I think it is best that we contact her friends. I made a promise that as soon as I had any news of her that they would be the first to hear of it."
Luna nodded and wrapped her forehooves around her sister. Celestia nuzzled her back. For once, since Twilight's disappearance, she had hope.
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Nice. A bit short for how long we wait between chapters, but still nice to have an update. Keep up the good work, please.
Nice chapter mate its been a dry spell without any good skyrim or masseffect updates.
Good chapter, now comes the debate: TO play XCOM:Enemy Unknown, which I recently acquired all the DLC for, or Civilization 5, which I just acquired the last of the DLC for?
Great chapter. Looking forward to the new update.
This is truly a great story in the making. great thanks to you author, who has dedicated time and work to give us this piece of art.
Brilliant chapter, but the name of the town is spelled "Ivarstead" not "Aivarstead". Just wanted to point it out.
Lol Dream Tyrant Celestia ignored Luna completely.
3688469
xcom:Enemy unknown, especially if you have Enemy within.
3699015 I have ALL the DLC, I just got done stealing an alien battleship, now I'm sending rookies armed with titan armor and laser guns to assault another downed alien craft, I am sooo going to lose them all.
3702354
Try a squad of 4 hover shivs and 2 kinetic mecs.
oh, and upgrade the shivs with plasma cannons
3704610 All the vets were hospitalise by EXALT, face wraps and dapper dressing shouldn't half all damage.
3702354 Try to send some of the more experience guys with them
3704610 No you also need some infantry with your squad, and 4 hover SHIV with plasma cannon are extremely expensive
3688469 Civ 5 for sure!!
3738037
gradually buy a shiv, one weapon at a time 
Ya don't "need" infantry
And yeah it's expensive, obvious
Also, crysalids
3738031 They were in the hospital at the time, and these rookies proved to have been able to hit anything on the first try. 1% chance to hit? Scores a fucking critical.
3738105 I don't need infantry, but I have them because they have more health than my MECs, which are now armed with particle cannons.
More please
I NEED MOAR!
Just wait for the dark brotherhood, the thieves guild, oh and don't forget the fight with Alduin. Twi will freak out!
FUS RO UPDATE! !
3867288
yeah poor twily and also i hope she meets Sheogorath or Sanguine.
2082167 yes
HaHAHA!!! I knew Twilight had that part in her! And please make more... Their both hilarious and jaw dropping awesome!
After seeing what she did, it's no wonder Luna freaked and went STRAIGHT to Celestia. Wow I can't wait to see how THAT conversation goes (and by that I mean Celestia and her friends finding out in detail just what Twilight was dreaming about. . . . and what happened at the end).
*cough* Draugr *cough*
Still Alive. College work is...well...college work. I'll get the next chapter done in the next couple of weeks. It's already well under way.
I hpe this gets updated soon. You are a phenomenal writer and more work would be appreciated
. Also, in an earlier chapter, I think it said that twilight was absorbing the dragon soul too. Double Dovahkiin?
I hope so
Have the next dream involve both Luna discord and sheogorath
Think of the hilarity
i love this story, its been on my read later list for a while because i was unsure of how a skyrim/MLP crossover would go, but it works out great!
MUST...READ...LATER!!! Looks very cool, don't get me wrong. It's just that I'm so busy. Please don't hate me for that.
I think you mean Ivarstead.
I wonder how much weight Twilight can carry. Imagine all the weapons, indigerents and miscs she has to carry for days. If she ever returns to Equestria, Big Mac's going to be jealous of her muscles
I hope this gets updated soon
An enjoyable and fun read. I'll be watching for the next update. ^^