Chapter XVIII- Charles X-hay-vier reads ponies minds and no one gives him crap for it.

In the inner courtyard of the castle of the two sisters, Bastian and Lielle sat on a stone bench underneath the shade of a tall white magnolia tree where Twilight and Spike had left them while they went to go find Shining Armor. Their presence was largely ignored by the surrounding Unicorns, many of which were students at Celestia’s school. A few had given them polite smiles and brief words of greeting before promptly turning their sleep deprived eyes back to their books and scrolls were they would undoubtedly end up reading the same word twice twice. Apparently, even the sudden appearance of inter-dimensional ape creatures was not enough to distract the students from cramming for their finals. As Lielle’s eyes wandered over the students hard at work, a small smile spread over her lips as she was reminded of the students at the College of Winterhold where nothing short of a dragon attack would distract them from their work. Her gaze settled on Bastian, who had taken out his own journal and from the looks of it, was already trying to teach himself the Equestrian alphabet. If it were not for the very obvious fact that he was not a Unicorn one would have mistaken for another academic hard at work.

“A bit keen aren’t you?” Lielle asked as she reclined back a bit to read over his shoulder.

“You know I have always had a fondness for languages.” He replied absently.

“It’s so strange.” Lielle said, turning her gaze back to a group of unicorns as they talked amongst themselves. “I mean, it just seems a bit too convenient, doesn’t it? What are the odds that modern Cyrodiilic and Equestrian is the same language anyway?”

“Well, considering that the many Mundus Theory proposed by the Dwemer metaphysicist Aknnalk Durogog states that there are an infinite number of alternate planes of Mundus existing parallel to each other in the same space and time, the odds of a world inhabited by magical talking ponies that speak the same language as us is one hundred percent.” Bastian said.

“So…” Lielle sighed and massaged her head in frustration. “So are we in another dimension outside of the known Aurbis? Or something?”

It was Bastian’s turn to sigh and rub his sleep deprived eyes.

“Lielle, you are asking a lot of difficult questions that I do not know the answers to.” He yawned. “If I had had more time I would have been able to modify the archway and retrofit it with a way of setting specific parameters so we could actually have a say in where the portal would send us. However, that may well have taken a lifetime to accomplish. All I know is we walked into a magical portal I barely got working by jury rigging Dwemer science with Ayleid magic and now we have found ourselves in a world full of talking ponies. That is literally the extent of my knowledge on the matter.”

“Our lives are weird.” Lielle said softly as she contemplated the series of events and decisions that led up to this conversation.

“Very.” Bastian agreed. “The simple truth is we don’t know. The most likely answer is that we are in an alternate plane of Mundus as opposed to another plane of Oblivion that we had simply never made contact with before. A reality where the mortal plane wasn’t created by the Aedra and instead of the world being populated by Men and Mer, the world is populated by sentient Equine like creatures. However, since this is all more or less conjecture and we’ll probably never know for certain where we are in the grand scheme of things, debating it is ultimately pointless. Right now, we need to focus on rebuilding.”

“Fair enough, I suppose. So what about the Equestrian’s written language then?” Lielle asked, changing the subject to something a bit more simple. “Does it seem like something we can learn easily enough?”

“These letters are unlike anything I have ever seen, but their language seems to follow similar rules to our own regarding construction and composition.” Bastian replied, taking note that he would be much, much more comfortable referring to the inhabitants of this world as Equestrians as opposed to Ponies. “It should not be that hard to learn. Actually, I could probably argue that many of the languages of Tamriel might be more complicated.”

“As difficult as Dwemeris?” Lielle joked with a light laugh.

Bastian gave a wry scoff of amusement.

“I would not say that it is that hard.” He said. “Most of the modern languages of men have a distinct connection to one form or another of Elvish, which in and of itself is an offshoot of Ancient Aldmeris, which is itself an offshoot of Ehlnofex. Most scholars agree that the Dwemer most likely made their own language from scratch so that their enemies would not be able to read captured documents and schematics and learn their secrets.”

“Just seems unnecessary.” Lielle said. “I mean, why not just invent a code or a special shorthand as opposed to creating a whole new language?”

“Where is the fun in that?” Bastian asked returning to his notes. “Besides, it is not much more complicated than the dozen or so variations of creole that make up the Bretic dialects.”

“Fair enough.” Lielle conceded. “I’m ashamed to admit it, but my Bretic’s a little rusty.”

While she had spent the last few years exploring all of Skyrim and much of Tamriel with her companions, she had not seen her homeland since she was a little girl and even now in the beautiful land of Equestria her heart still ached for the rolling green hills and rocky crags of High Rock, of the smell of the sea air and gazing up at a blue sky that seemed to stretch on forever.

Okay, maybe not the blue sky. Wistful nostalgia aside let's just be realistic here. High Rock was renowned for many things throughout the empire, but bright sunny skies simply were not among them. Sure, it was home to the Adamantine Tower, which was possibly the oldest structure in all of Tamriel and the Temples of Julianos produced some of the mightiest battlemages and sorcerers the empire had ever seen. High Rock was also home to shrewd merchants, a complex political system that made little, if any, sense to an outsider and a history of conflict as bloody as any other of Tamriel’s provinces but the summer season lasted perhaps four or five days, the rest of the year the sky was obscured by dreary overcast.

But it had been home and for a moment Lielle dared to let her mind drift back to High Rock, to recall the too few accounts of cheer in a life that was otherwise overwhelmed by misfortune and strife, to recall the face of a mother, a father, and siblings that the unforgiving land of Skyrim had stolen from her. So lost was she in thought that she didn’t notice Bastian when he tried to get her attention.

“W-what?” She asked, looking at him. “What’d you say?”

“I asked how you have been feeling since this morning.”

“Oh. Er, well a bit… overwhelmed to be honest. Now that… now that it’s all had time to sink in you know? Also in a bit of a state of shock as well I think. It all feels like a dream. Like none of this is real. I keep expecting to wake up back in the college or something I guess. I don’t… I don’t know what I expected when I walked through the portal, but talking ponies and giant scorpions were the furthest thing from my mind. It all seems impossible and even though I don’t feel as if I am in any real danger I cannot help but feel afraid. Bas I know that you’re hesitant to take on this responsibility, but you’re the most clever one among us, even Master Aren thought so. If there’s anyone who can make sure we survive and flourish here it's you.”

“I appreciate the vote of confidence Lielle but I was referring to your connection to magicka since the battle yesterday.” Bastian said.

“Oh.” Lielle said, her voice lilting slightly. “Right. Of course. Actually, now that you mention it, I feel fine. Well, I don’t know about fine. Being here in this… plane or whatever you want to call it. It’s… just different. I don’t know how to describe it. But I feel better I guess. Uh, well a bit hung over, but fine. What do you think caused that?”

“Drinking heavily the night before.” Bastian replied.

“I meant our stunted magicka clever man.” Lielle said, giving him a playful shove. As soon as the words left her mouth, she felt her heart drop into her stomach in panic at referring to Bastian by the petname his brothers had given him. She immediately changed the subject. “So, do- do you think it could have been the portal itself?”

“I do not know. Maybe.” Bastian said quietly. He suddenly felt as if someone had punched him in the stomach, but he ignored it. She didn’t bring it up and neither did he. “We poured so much of our magicka into it, it is possible that the portal drained us more than we thought and temporarily stunted our body’s ability to draw magical energies from our environment. It could be a side effect of stepping through the portal itself or even because we are on a new planet with different stars and a new sun. Honestly, I don’t know. I will admit to you Lielle, a part of me was so sure that the portal wouldn’t work I had never even entertained the possible side effects of using it.”

“Really?” Lielle asked.

“Either that or dragons would kill us before we got it working. Or bandits. Or Draugr. Or we’d starve to death. Or disease would spread. Or the frost would get us. Or the gods would banish us in a manner similar to the Dwemer.”

“All right, I get it.” Lielle said with a nervous laugh. “We’re just lucky to be here, huh?”

“Very.”

“But the fact that we can still use magic at all when we are not on Nirn, and the energies of Aetherius are not flowing down to us, the- the implications are huge!” Lielle said. “Does this mean we don’t actually draw magical energies to us from Aetherius at all, or that their sun and stars are also portals to Aetherius? Bastian, this completely changes how we view magic!”

“We shouldn’t jump to any conclusions just yet.” Bastian said. “We know almost nothing about this world and how things work here. Everything is new and to be fair, we knew very little about how magic worked back on our own plane. It was largely a matter of debate between wizards and scholars. All we know now is the how. We know how to use magic, however, why we can use it seems is a mystery that continues to elude us.”

He held up a gloved hand and blue sparks of electricity began to arc between his fingers, then red flames and finally frost as if he was clenching a small blizzard between his fingers. He clenched a fist and ended the spell. With a wave of his hand, one of the scrolls glowed, slowly levitated into the air and then folded itself into a paper bird before flying around above their heads, tweeting excitedly. Following Bastian’s lead Lielle conjured a sharp dagger made of ice and twirled it around her fingers. As she twirled it, it transformed into a rose made of crystal clear ice and then into a proper one, as if she had just plucked it from a bush.

“Seems to be working fine now.” Lielle said, laying the rose on the bench between them.

“You know,” she said. “Most would look at the story of the Dwemer as a cautionary tale about not messing with the natural order of things. Flying too close to the sun and all that.”

“That’s stupid.” Bastian said. “I’m not saying we should make a habit of messing around with the heart of a “god” or anything like that-“

“You do remember how we got here right?” Lielle asked with a light laugh.

“What I’m saying is,” Bastian continued with an agitated sigh. “That there is a vast difference between trying to tap into the power of an artifact you don’t fully understand and learning how to harness steam power. Imagine how our world could have been had we simply devoted more time and energy to science instead of waging holy wars on each other. If we could reverse engineer even a fraction of the technology the Dwemer left behind… maybe things could have been different. For everyone.”

“We got here in the end.” Lielle said gently. “That’s what’s important.”

“It’s not enough.” Bastian said. “We barely have enough numbers to maintain a population. Elves reproduce at a fraction of the rate of humans. Their blood is probably going to die out within the next few centuries. We have a no idea how this environment will affect the Khajiit. Remember the accounts during the void nights? And there is no guarantee that the Princesses will allow the Argonians to plant a new Hist Tree.”

“There’s nothing we can do about that Bas. Whatever happens, happens.” Lielle said, placing a hand on his shoulder. “It’s not your responsibility to plan for every little-”

“Yes, it is Lielle.” Bastian snapped. “If I’m going to be playing Jarl, or whatever the fuck it is the princesses expect me to do, it is exactly my responsibility to plan for everything. I have well over three hundred lives that, like it or not, are going to be depending on me. If anything goes wrong, it is entirely my fault! And don’t give me that whatever happens, happens shit. It’s just some horker shit excuse people say when they’ve decided to give up and leave things in the hands of fate.”

Lielle was thrown off by his sudden outburst but her shock quickly gave way to anger.

“Bastian, if you really think you’re going to be doing this on your own after all that we’ve been through together, then I don’t care if you made a portal to a universe with talking sweet rolls. You are a bloody idiot.” Lielle snapped back.

She pushed herself off of the bench and walked a few steps away, arms crossed and fuming, refusing to even look at Bastian. He exhaled through his nose and rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger.

“We have always had your back Bastian.” She said quietly. “All of us, and we’ll have it now. Nobody asked you to carry the weight of Nirn on your shoulders so stop acting like it. We made it through because we all came together.” She turned to face him, her expression a scowl. “While the rest of the world was going to shit, we stood together. Kept each other safe. Just like we are going to do now. You aren’t going to be doing this alone, so stop being such an ass!”

He just stared at her. She scowled and looked away.

“I’m sorry Lielle.” He said quietly. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“What, that we’d all just walk away, dump this on your lap and go on with our lives?” She asked.

Maybe. The cynical voice muttered in his head.

“I don’t know.” He muttered with an exhausted shrug.

She scoffed.

“You’re an idiot.” She sighed.

She walked back over to the bench and dropped down next to him.

“Ow.” She said blankly as her butt hit the hard stone.

They sat in an uncomfortable silence for several minutes. Bastian pretended to read, too timid to risk saying anything else he would regret and invoke the red head's wrath even further. After a few uncomfortable minutes of this silence, which may as well have been an eternity, Lielle finally spoke.

“Why’d you give her the sword?”

"What- what do you mean?" Bastian asked.

“We must have a hundred magical artifacts tucked away in storage.” Lielle said. “Of all the things you could have given the Princess, why’d you give her his sword?”

“I already said why.” Bastian said.

“But…” Lielle sighed and fell silent. “I just figured you might have wanted to keep that.”

“And do what with it?” Bastian asked. “Wear it on my belt as a sign of office? Hang it on my wall like a trophy so I have to look at it and think about it every single day? You told me I needed to let go of what happened, to move on. This is me letting go. This is me moving on. I don’t want to carry it anymore Lielle. It isn’t some kind of sacred artifact to be revered and immortalized in song to me. It’s just a thing with a lot of bad memories and regrets tied to it.”

“So what?” She asked. “That’s how you let go and move on with your life? Don’t think about it?”

“Yep.” He said apathetically.

Lielle stared at him for a moment, shook her head to herself and looked away, unsure if she could bring herself to argue the point any further. Every person had their own way of dealing with grief and she couldn’t decide if her’s was any better or worse than his. Life in Skyrim could be brutal and short. It was considered by many to be a land of proving, a place where heroes were forged in the land's rough terrain. She remembered the pale look of horror on her mother's face when her father proclaimed that they were moving from High Rock to Skyrim. It was this land that had forged Bastian into the man that was sitting next to her now. She could vaguely recall a time when Bastian wasn’t this cold and aloof. That seemed like a lifetime ago now. She didn’t want to argue about this anymore. She went back to people pony watching. She watched a Unicorn scrunch up her face in concentration. A folding fan suddenly poofed into existence, shimmering with a magical light. She watched in amusement as the pony waved the fan and caused one of her friends scrolls to roll up and roll away. The two mares chuckled.

“I’m curious as to exactly how a Unicorn’s magic works.” Lielle said turning her gaze to a small group of mares chatting at another bench a few yards away. She narrowed her eyes in concentration and began to see the magical glow that radiated off all living creatures. “Twilight is definitely stronger than her peers. Most of the guards I’ve seen around here as well now that I think about it.”

“She’s definitely a cut above the rest.” Bastian agreed. “Which I imagine is why the Princesses have taken a special interest in her. Did you try to glimpse their aura?”

“I didn’t have to.” Lielle said with an awkward laugh. “Just being in the same room with them was enough to sense their power. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It was like… standing in a broom cupboard with a thunderstorm. Why, did you?”

“Yes, I did.” Bastian said vaguely.

“Well? What was it like?” Lielle asked curiously.

“A bit like staring into the sun.” He replied. “I was seeing spots for the first hour or so of paperwork and my headache came back.”

Lielle laughed as she recalled how odd Bastian had been acting earlier that morning now that she knew the reason behind it.

“I noticed you were blinking quite a lot.” She said.

“I didn’t even bother trying to view Princess Luna’s aura when she arrived.” Bastian said. “Even if she’s only half as powerful as her sister, I doubt my eyes could have handled it.”

“You may have been stricken blind.” Lielle snorted.

“Very possibly.” Bastian agreed. “The last time I encountered something that powerful it was flying and shouting fire at me. At any rate, I feel comfortable saying that we can indeed trust them. They genuinely want to help us.”

“Bastian Bellrend, whatever gave you that impression?” Lielle asked abashed. “Why, between the extravagant feast they threw for us, the medical attention provided by their healers, the free clothes fit for nothing less than a noble and the gift of a substantial piece of land, you just know they are planning something dastardly.”

“Sarcasm is unbecoming of you.” Bastian said.

“I learned it from watching you.” Lielle replied simply.

“Fair but after spending the past several hours peering into everyone’s mind whenever they happened to wander by I’ve come to the conclusion that they are not planning anything sinister.”

Lielle’s cheeks flushed pink again, but not from embarrassment this time. The small girl seemed to swell in annoyance at her friend’s blasé attitude when referring to barging into someone’s mind like a drunken Nord kicking in the door to a tavern.

“Bastian!” she hissed. “You said that you wouldn’t do that anymore! We talked about-

“You talked.” Bastian corrected in an apathetic tone. “I’m not about to simply take perfect strangers at their word, regardless of how kind they may seem to appear. If anything, their hospitality made me more suspicious.”

“You’re paranoid.” Lielle scoffed. “These ponies have been nothing short of welcoming to us and here you are, almost literally looking a gift horse in the mouth.”

“I am cautious.” Bastian countered. “There is a difference. Only a fool trusts a stranger without verifying their good intentions. Besides, I just agreed that they can be trusted didn’t I? And it’s not like I can even dive that deep, even if I wanted to. I’m just getting a feel for their emotions and surface thoughts. Most of the ponies from Ponyville are perfectly friendly and understandably a little flustered by our arrival. The Unicorns down below in Canterlot however, simply tolerate us because we were traveling with Twilight to see the Princesses.”

“You didn’t try to read their minds did you?” Lielle asked horrified.

“Do you think me a fool Lielle?” Bastian frowned. “I am not about to go poking around the mind of a being that is the closest thing to an actual goddess that I have ever encountered. I merely read Twilight’s mind long enough to verify that the documents we were signing did, in fact, say what they claimed.”

“Bastian, it’s a huge invasion of privacy.” Lielle said. “And it’s dangerous on both sides, why else would it have been outlawed?”

“Because the empire was extremely paranoid about spies being able to see directly into a high ranking official’s mind.” Bastian said. “Or do you really think it was outlawed because the empire gave a skeever’s ass about an individual’s privacy?”

“Regardless of why it was outlawed, what if you got caught?"

"The only way they could know I was a telepath was if you or I told them." Bastian said dismissively.

"H-have you ever read my mind?" She asked nervously.

"No."

"Are you being honest?"

"Probably."

"Bastian!"

Bastian sighed, closed his notebook, using his thumb to mark his place, and raised his hand as if to swear an oath.

"Lielle Marabeth Evalyne Ervine, never have I ever read your mind without your knowledge." Bastian said. "Besides, it's not like you're very hard to figure out."

She grabbed the rose she had placed on the bench, turned it back into ice and threw it at him, causing it to shatter against the side of his head.

"Ow!"

"After everything that the Equestrian’s have done for us, I doubt that they would appreciate having their minds read and if the Nords find out you are a telepath they may very well try to lynch you or burn you at the stake or something.” She said as Bastian ran a hand through his hair to get the ice shards out. "That power more than others is considered evil witchcraft."

Laughter rang out throughout the courtyard. The two looked over to see Twilight and her brother Shining Armor trotting towards them, chatting and laughing away.

“So was basic math before they settled in Tamriel. What's your point?” Bastian said rising to meet them.

Lielle sighed in agitation and grabbed the pile of scrolls that had been sitting next to her and briskly walked to meet her equine friends.

“Hey guys, sorry to keep you waiting.” Twilight said.

“It is no problem.” Bastian said. “Hello again, Shining Armor.”

“Hey there.” He said with a grin. “How’d your meeting with the Princesses go?”

“Very well, thank you.” Bastian replied. “We have our land and we plan on starting construction as soon as possible.”

“Hey that’s great! You guys are gonna love it here in Equestria. Twilight told me a bit about what you guys went through and I just wanted to let you guys know that if there’s anything I can do to help, don’t hesitate to ask.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Bastian replied.

“In the meantime, why don’t we all grab some lunch?” Shining Armor asked. “My treat.”

“It had better be.” Twilight laughed. “You still owe me from last time.”

“I left my money back in the barracks!” Shining said defensively.

Twilight’s laughter rang out over the courtyard, amplified by the fact that everyone else there had suddenly fallen completely silent. A second ago it was alive with the sounds of ponies chatting, the hum of magic and the skirting of quills, the bubbling water from the fountain in its center and the faint sound of harp music but now it was as silent as a tomb. Behind Twilight and Shining, Bastian could see Princess Luna staring at them from the doorway to the castle’s interior. Everypony else had nervously fallen silent and a brave few were quickly gathering their things to leave. With a look of determination, Princess Luna trotted across the courtyard, her eyes staring directly into Bastian’s in an attempt to ignore the crowd around her. As she passed the ponies they quickly bowed before her, a few nearly cracking their heads on the stone ground before scampering away from Luna as if she was a royal plague victim. She reached their group and nodded her head in greeting.

“Good day to thee again Twilight Sparkle.” Luna said.

“Ah! P-Princess Luna!” Shining said with a quick bow.

“Rise Guardstallion.” Luna said. “Mister Bellrend, we are pleased to find that thou are all still here. Since we are going to be co-operating with each other, we thought that it would be prudent to discuss things in more detail while we have time together. We imagine thou will be quite busy in the days to come.”

“It is as you like your majesty.” Bastian said. “However, you need not devote all of your free time to us.”

“As our sister hath already observed, we have a great deal of free time at our disposal. More than we care to admit.” Luna said with only the faintest hint of remorse in her otherwise regal voice. “If thy party wouldn’t mind our company we are at thy disposal, at least until this eve, when we must attend to our royal duties and take our leave of thee.”

Shining stammered a bit and raised his eyebrows at his sister. Was he seriously about to have lunch with a Princess? Well, okay, technically he had done that before. Lots of times. Just the other day actually, but dining with one of the royal sisters was a totally different story. When he looked over at her and saw Princess Luna awaiting his response he quickly obliged.

“Absolutely!” He cried. “I mean, uh, sure we’d be happy to have you! Your majesty!”

“Excellent.” Luna said, trotting ahead of them without a second glance. “Come. We can take this moment to visit the Gryphons we spoke of earlier and see if any arrangements can be made for thy people’s… particular diet.”

“Particular diet? What does she mean?” Twilight asked.

“Uh…” Lielle said giving Bastian a nervous glance.

“We eat meat, Miss Sparkle.” Bastian said with the raw blunt force of an Orc swinging a hammer.

Even Bastian’s patience for tact had its limits and at the moment he was much more focused on sinking his teeth into meat that hadn’t come from a large rat-like creature or even more questionable sources. Besides, as long as the Princesses didn’t care, he didn’t hold much value for the concerns of their subjects. He began to close the distance between Luna and himself, leaving a thunderstruck Twilight and Shining Armor behind. Lielle gave them a half shrug and followed Bastian.

“Carnivores. Okay. That’s…cool…They- they aren’t going to eat us, are they?” Shining laughed nervously.

“Uh… N-no. No of course not! Don’t be silly!” Twilight said.

The two exchanged nervous glances and cautiously trotted after their companions.

Author's Notes:

Yay another chapter! So, obviously writing dialogue for Luna is going to be something of a challenge for me until it gets to the point where she no longer speaks like a Shakespearian Literature major so please, don't judge me. My biggest fear is trying to write for Zecora. I'm not exactly a poet by any stretch of the imagination. Anyway, I know that this story is slow in progress and I'm not just talking about updating. the story is called Iron and Flesh for a reason so that when it starts to get real, it get's REAL. I was also planning on going back and retconning the bit about Bastian's telepathy, due to a change in the direction I'm taking the story but I decided to keep it in and simply limit its usefulness. This decision is in no way a reflection of my general laziness. Anyway I hope you're enjoying it for what it is so far.