Twilight let out a yawn as she looked over her latest find, she had been contracted by the crown to watch over, manage, and assist in an archeological dig. The dig site was on the border between her native homeland of Equestria, and Griphos, the homeland of the griffons. She may not be a archologicalist, she was more of a scholar, but she had a long history with the Princesses, and they trusted her to get the job done.

It had been a rather... unsurprising matter as of yet, all her and the dig team had found were some broken buildings and pottery. The only thing of note was the age of the artifacts, none of the craftsmanship nor the architecture matched anything she had seen before in her studies. Whoever, whatever, had built this had to be much older than anything yet to be discovered!

The newest discovery served only to compound her anticipation about learning more about this ancient civilization.

She took a moment to compose herself before she began to look over the new artifact.

It was rusted and corroded beyond measure, but it’s general form and purpose could still be discerned.

It’s top was pointed, it then expanded to it’s widest about a fourth of the way down, then tapered back down to another point at the bottom. It also had a very slight inward curve to it at the edges. It’s handle on the inside was broken from age.

It was a shield, as one of the dig site guards informed her. She had belittled herself after the fact, ‘How could you not have seen that! Your brother’s the captain of the royal guard in Canterlot for Celestia’s sake!’, She had thought.

The guardspony had sensed her ire and put her at ease by informing her that it was like nothing he had seen before.

Now that she looked at it she could see what he had meant. First of all it was massive, almost as tall she was. The craftsmanship was also leagues ahead of the current standard, it’s survival for all this time was testament to that. No, whomever constructed this certainly never intended for it to be used by her kind, she concluded.

She was using a spyglass to get a better look at the in-lays in the shield, though she quickly realized the fruitlessness of the endeavor due to the weathering of the metal, when a mare came in. A unicorn not unlike herself.

“Ma’am?” She called.

“Yes? Is there something you need?” Twilight said looking up from her work.

“We need you to come look at something.” the mare said .

Twilight caught the mare’s eyes looking at the shield with a odd look.

“What have you found?” Twilight asked as they began walking towards the min dig site.

“We don’t know.” She stopped for a moment before continuing. “Though I think it’s connected to that shield...”

“Why would you say that?” Twilight asked.

“We found a... body, it’s holding a sword, well what’s left of one, it would make sense that the two may be connected. Maybe the shield even belonged to this... thing.” The mare elaborated.

Twilight stopped walking and raised a brow at the mare,”’Thing’, so it’s not a pony?”

“No, it’s not a pony, nopony knows what it is.” She confessed.

‘A whole new species... just as I thought... Amazing.’, Twilight thought to herself, picking up her pace a bit.

~=~

“There it is Ma’am.” The mare said, pointing to a sectioned off portion in the center of the excavated building.

Twilight smiled due to the fact that a herd of ponies had yet to form as was the norm with such a discovery.

‘They must be holding off to tell the others.’, Twilight thought.

She moved passed the small group of assembled archeologists and scientists and covered her mouth with a hoof as she let out a small gasp at what she saw.

The body, or skeleton as that would be more accurate, had been fully exhumed. It was obviously bipedal, that much could be plainly seen by even a cursory glance at it’s bone structure. She guessed it would stand at six feet, maybe a bit more.

In what would have been it’s right hand was a sword, it’s bony fingers still wrapped tight around the hilt. The sword was broken near the hilt, what little remained of the blade was corroded and pitted from what she assumed was use in battle, and the passage of time.

‘What... and why was it fighting?’, Twilight wondered.

Her eyes caught something else near the body, and she dusted if off with a small brush and picked it up with a hoof.

‘A pendant?’, She observed.

There were a small number of rings left on the chain that would have been the necklace, the pendant itself was made of stone with blood red in-lays in it’s face. It also seemed to broken, and the whereabouts of the other pieces eluded her.

‘Where’s the rest of it?’, She wondered.

She nearly dropped the broken pendant when a dark blue, almost purple, mist begun to seep from the cracks in the pendant’s surface.

Suddenly there was a crack of thunder from an incoming storm that broke her gaze away for an instant. When she looked back, the mist was gone.

“Is something wrong Ma’am?” Somepony asked.

“No... nothing, I just need some sleep.” Twilight replied.

There was another crack of thunder in the distance.

“Get these under some covering, will you?” Twilight asked the assembled ponies, who all nodded.

“Cast some waterproofing spells as well.” She added.

~=~

Twilight lit another candle as she prepared to look over the odd pendant once more. It was rather early in the morning, she had just woken up from a long rest.

She had convinced herself that the scare from yesterday was not just a trick of her mind, but the pendant itself.

She could feel the magic coming off of it, and it felt... sick. Not particularly evil, but twisted. Like a old festering wound. Most odd of all though, the more time she spent with it the more... nostalgic she began to feel about the old trinket.

She picked it up with her magic, and the moment she did she instantly regretted it.

She began to feel sick, deathly so, she was about to drop the pendant when the same dark blue/purple... mist appeared in it’s place, obscuring it from her sight.

“What in the world is that...” She said aloud, her voice cracking a little.

She got just a little closer to it when a massive... hand, the same darkness seeping from the pendant rolling off it’s form, burst through the mist and grabbed her tight. It’s momentum making it crash through the table behind her.

She could only let out a muffled scream as it pulled her harshly back through the mist, the mist itself vanishing without a trace.

The... thing was thrashing her around like a wild beast, threatening to snap her in half.

She let out a infuriated scream at the appendage, “Let go of me!”, as she said that she cast the most powerful spell she could think of. Over all her body a small fire appeared, then she released the spell, and the blast of force and flames broke the beast’s hold on her. The smell of burnt skin and fur reaching her nose.

She felt a moment of weightlessness and the sickening feeling of vertigo, also seeing a flash of white light behind her closed eyelids. She felt a rush of air, then as quick as that came she slammed into the ground... hard, forcing the air from her lungs.

She simply laid there for a time, her mind a heavy fog of pain, her only concern getting air back into her burning lungs. Slowly as air flowed into her body once more her mind cleared and then was filled with frantic thoughts.

‘What in the name of tartarus was that thing!?’

She slowly opened her eyes expecting a crowd of ponies, or worse, that damned monster, but neither greeted her gaze.

She appeared to be laying in lush green grass, the sun beating down on her body warming her fur. She was laying on some type of outcropping on the side of a cliff face of a ravine, to her back was the rock wall and to her front was a massive walled city the likes of which she had never seen.

‘Where... where am I?', She thought.

She lifted up her head to see a bit more. She was near to what appeared to be a dilapidated church or temple of some kind, a half destroyed tower reaching up to the sky above with what appeared to be a massive bird nest on one of the outcroppings.

She also saw a small fire with a... sword sticking up out of the ash at the flame’s base.

She also saw something that gave her pause.

Near the fire sat one of the beings from the dig, this one alive and well apparently.

It was also fully armed and armored in heavy looking metal plates, a sword and shield sitting nearby in reach.

She just looked at it for a while, trying to gage it from a distance, not wanting to get any closer.

‘It’s wearing armor, and it’s armed... is it some kind of warrior? Or maybe some type of guard, but why would it be guarding this broken down place?’, She wondered.

It suddenly got up and grabbed it’s sword and shield and began to turn around and she did the first thing that came to mind.

She played dead.

After a short time she could hear the steady thumping of it’s rather heavy sounding footfalls, she could hear it’s armor rating as it moved.

She then felt something cold, hard, and pointy jab her in her belly, right where her ribs stopped, not hard enough to pierce the skin, but hard enough for her to feel a slight pain. She forced herself to stay still.

“What in the name of the gods are you?” She heard a voice ask, muffled by a helm, no doubt a rhetorical question by the tone.

She opened a eye just enough to see it.

The creature kneeled down, not seeing the barely opened eyelid.

“Some kind of animal? Another twisted beast of this accursed land?” The male sounding voice stated.

It’s hand reached down and ran across her fur.

“Hmm? What’s this?”

It moved her foreleg a little and pulled out the broken pendant. It looked it over in it’s hand for a time before putting it in one of the pouches on it’s belt.

It suddenly stopped and it’s armored head snapped to hers.

“Alive are we?”

She closed her eyes and held her breath.

“No use in hiding the fact now... What manner of peculiar beast are you?”

It was talking to her like she was an animal, but it sounded nice enough.

She opened her eyes all the way and lifted up her head.

“I... I’m a pony... a unicorn.” She said, her voice nearly failing her.

As soon as the words left her the beings hand moved to a small dagger on it’s belt, but it did not draw the blade, but the hand hovered near the grip.

“Gods... you talk.” It was not a question, but a statement.”How... peculiar.”

She was about to ask where she was when a strange sound reached her ears, like the sound of stressed metal. She jumped back onto her hoofs.

A fair distance behind the biped a red circle was on the ground that was not their before, a blood red mist emanating from it.

Every instinct in her was telling her to turn tail and run, but fear kept her rooted to the spot.

Razing up out of the ground was another of the bipeds, this one covered in a red aura, the same crimson mist flowing out of the new arrival. She also noted that it was armed with a sword, but no shield.

The biped had long since turned to face the new creature, shield and sword at the ready.

The red aura'd being let out a truly mad sounding cackle and pointed at the armored being in front of her.

“Invader, leave this plane! A Knight of Astora stands before you, fight me and you shall die. I give you only one chance, leave, or be destroyed!” The ‘Knight’ said.

The ‘Invader’ let out another laugh and charged.

“So be it!” The Knight said.

The Invader jumped and tried to hit the Knight with a downward swing, which the Knight blocked with his shield. The Invader recovered and spun and attempted to decapitate the Knight with another swing, he blocked it once more and the Knight took a swipe at the Invader who jumped away. As the invader hit the ground he jumped at the Knight, getting past his shield and slicing open his arm, the Knight letting out a grunt of pain.

The Invader pulled back and stabbed at the Knight once more. This time the Knight spun on his heel, his shield coming around just in time to knock the Invader’s blade away. The Knight kept his momentum and slammed his straight sword into the Invader’s chest all the way to the hilt. The Invader’s legs buckled under him and he fell to his knees, the sword still impaled in his chest. The Knight of Astora placed a armored foot on the Invader’s chest and kicked him off the sword, the Invader’s body slowly turning to ash and wafting away.

Twilight found herself and began to take in what had just occurred not ten feet from her.

The Knight turned to face her, his armored chest stained a deep crimson, his shield arm bleeding.

Twilight slowly backed away from the Knight, terrified of him, her mind not used to seeing violence of that calabar.

He took a step forward, putting the sword in its scabbard as he did so.

“Stay away from me!” Twilight yelled, horn glowing.

“Calm yourself! Panicking here will only hasten your death.” His voice level.

She let out a blast of magic at the ground in front of the Knight, kicking up a plum of dirt and rocks.

She turned tail and ran up a rocky trail towards some type of bride that ran to the rocky wall on her side and the city on the other.

“You insolent fool!” the Knight called from behind her.

She could hear him chase after her. She sprawled to the ground as she slammed into something. She looked up to see what it was.

She let out a long blood churning scream the the sight. What looked like a walking corpse of one of the bipeds, clad in torn up rags and holding a broken sword snarled at her, and razed it’s blade intent on ending her life.

It’s actions were stopped as a sword came bursting though it’s chest, almost catching her face as well. It’s blood splattering her face and coat.

The Knight’s gauntleted hand pulled the monster off the blade, the now unmoving body falling to the ground.

Her own body not far behind as she fainted from the ordeal, the last thing she saw was the Knight battling another walking undead, grabbing it’s wrist as it swung at the Knight and throwing it off the cliff by rolling it over his shoulder, grunting as he did so.

Author's Note

Will spoil basically EVERYTHING about Dark Souls, you've been warned.