Derp Souls

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Derpy stared timidly down the dark stone corridor, the reddish bricks barely visible in the dim torchlight. The torch scones along the walls were mostly scattered or broken, but from what little light she had, Derpy could still see the end of the hall.

And there were other figures.

Even though she felt oddly weak, Derpy shook off her aches and perked up. With a bit more enthusiasm now that she had been released from her cell, Derpy trotted forward with her head held high.

“Hey!” she shouted to the figure of a sagging thin stallion, leaning with his face toward a wall. “Hey, over here!”

The stallion did not reply, and Derpy furrowed her brows in confusion. Slowing her pace a little and approaching him, she tapped the dirty pony on the shoulder.

“Hey, buddy. Are you okay th-!”

Derpy’s voice caught in her throat as the pony turned to her, his gaunt face and hollow, sunken eyes boring into her.

“Whoa!” she jerked back instinctively. “You don’t look so good…”

The stallion only gave a low moan, shuffling toward her. The closer that he got, the more that Derpy noticed that he gave off a pungent, sickly smell; a rotting stench, one that stung her nose and made her feel like retching. From the matted, thin mane and the almost diseased pallor, Derpy could hardly tell if it was showing expression at first – at least, until she saw that its mouth was hanging open loosely, low moans leaking out of it. The stallion continuously came closer, and closer, backing her further against the wall…!

“Back – get back!” Derpy pushed him in panic, the zombified pony stumbling with the push. No sooner had she skipped backward away from him than the stallion groaned hungrily and lurched forward, sinking his filthy teeth deep into her shoulder.

Derpy shrieked in pain and terror, rearing up and pawing the thing as hard as she could. She heard the sound of cracking jaw as she hit him, and skittered back as she reached for the splintered sword hilt. The stallion lunged with a gaping mouth toward her again, and Derpy gripped the hilt in her hoof. With a hard stab forward, Derpy plunged the jagged blade directly into the undead stallion’s neck, causing it to fall still.

Derpy’s breathing was labored and heavy for a few moments, and she shook mightily as the ragged dead pony sagged against her.

She had killed it.

She killed him.

It left her feeling a little disgusted in herself, and oddly familiar. However, she had little choice; it was either put the poor thing out of its misery, or let it eat her al-

The stallion jerked suddenly, biting her hard in the face.

Derpy screamed, jamming the sword into the side monster’s head again, and again, and again. It fell limp once more, but this time she didn’t let up; Derpy stabbed the unnatural creature over and over. She stabbed until her muscles burned, and her limbs felt weak from the constant effort of ensuring that the thing would never rise again. Tears streamed down her face from the shock and pain, and she hardly even noticed when two more similar ruddy, thin stallions slowly began approaching her from the end of the hall.

“No…” she whispered pitifully, inching backwards, eyes wide with fear as they dragged themselves toward her. The sound of their hungry moaning and dry, cracked hooves scraping across the floor filled her with dread, and she flattened her ears against her head.

“No, no, no!” Derpy shook her head viciously, dropping the bloodied blade. “I can’t do this – I can’t do this, leave me alone! Leave me alone, leave me alone, leave me alo-!”

She didn’t even get the chance to finish, and the last thing she saw was a flurry of teeth.

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Derpy awoke with a jolt, careening backwards.

Her breathing heavy, Derpy’s eyes flew around the little cell in shock.

From the dim light emanating in the hall, she could easily see that she wasn’t far from where she was a few minutes ago; stuffed unceremoniously beneath a broken iron-barred door, along with…

Derpy struggled to escape, the stench of rotting bodies overwhelming her.

One of the undead stallions must have dumped her here with some of the other bodies. She lay stock still for a bare moment, struggling to take in her surroundings without panicking. Everything hurt, but nothing more so than her head. The bite wounds didn’t seem too deep, but when she touched them, Derpy pulled blood away with her hoof.

And then, one of the bodies began to move.

Derpy suddenly found it much more difficult to refrain from panicking.

Jittering up from the ground, Derpy darted into the hall and plowed directly into the same ruddy colored undead stallion from before, not stopping to ease the burning pain from the bite marks. She skidded past another gawking stallion, its foul smell assaulting her nostrils as she shoved past him, her heart pounding loudly in her ears. Legs weak, Derpy forced herself to scramble up a flight of stone stairs, biting back a scream as she ran. However, the undead stallions did not bother to follow her this time, merely returning to staring longingly at the walls around them.

Out of breath, Derpy scooted in the only direction that she could; forward. Through a small arch and into another little dark room led her to a small puddle, and splashing filled the air as she ran. Derpy barely had enough light to see a small iron ladder attached to the circular walls in the dark, but still managed to snag it and begin slowly dragging herself to the top.

“Psst!”

Derpy jolted in surprise, craning her neck to peer up at the shadowy figure above her.

“Psst, miss! Up here!”

Just as had she glanced at the figure that it vanished. Curiously, Derpy cautiously began dragging herself up the ladder. The clinking of her hooves against rusted iron filled the air as she pulled herself upward, one rung at a time.

By the time that she finally reached the top, however, the figure was long gone.

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