Ponies Souls

Twilight opened her eyes to see the sword, now realizing that she had fallen asleep within the warmth of the flame. She lay there, staring at the formless fire wax and wane around the sword. Twilight smiled and felt genuinely happy for the first time in this world.

But her small moment of peace was broken when a voice echoed from somewhere behind her.

“I’m glad to see you made it out safely!” Twilight turned to see the armor clad person that had freed her was standing high above her on the roof.

She stood up and looked at him, now seeing his full body. She could tell the person was much larger than her and his voice was somewhat masculine, from what she could hear through his helmet.

“Thank you! You saved my life!” Twilight shouted back, eliciting a laugh from the man.

“Don’t thank me just yet,” The man kicked a back down to her, “We still have to get out of here.”

Twilight looked at the bag and walked over. She opened it and saw a pile of clothes inside. She pulled out a tunic, two shades of brown, with a row of buttons hidden under a cover around the neck line.

“Why did you give me these?” Twilight looked up at the man.

“I hope you realized you’re kind of, well, naked.” The knight rubbed the back of his neck as Twilight looked at herself in confusion.

“Is that a bad thing?” Twilight slipped into the tunic, which fit perfectly.

“Better safe than sorry, anyway keep going and I’ll try to get to you.” And with that, the knight ran off out of sight across the roof. Twilight slipped into the pants and boots, putting the gloves on but leaving the hat off. Twilight stood up fully clothed and ready for anything.

Twilight looked around the courtyard, taking note of a red gate off to the right of the massive gate she was looking at right now.

“Might as well try this way first.” Twilight moved towards the red gate, not trying to get her hopes up. She reached the gate and pushed on it, the gate rattled but didn't open.

“I knew it, well,” She walked back over to the large gate, “Let’s get to it.” Twilight walked up the steps and shoved on the door, barely cracking it open. She pushed more and opened the gate enough to poke her head in. She looked around and saw nothing but a large empty room filled with pillars and vases. A large opening spanning almost the entire room dominated the ceiling, but other than that nothing seemed hostile and she squeezed in.

As she did, the room rumbled, knocking some of the vases topple over and shatter on the cobblestone floor. The rumbling was quickly followed by a loud crash, Twilight assumed it came from the courtyard behind her. She tried to stay calm as she surveyed the room more, taking note of an open hall to her right as she approached the large door, just as big as the last, on the far end of the room.

Twilight tried shoving against the door, but it didn't budge. She kept trying but kept getting the same result.

“Either it’s locked or its way heavier than the last door, either way, I need his help.” She sighed and went to the open hall, hurrying as she heard something moving on the roof, something big.

When Twilight made it into the hallway, an iron gate fell behind her, blocking her off from going back and forcing her forward. She slowly stepped down the stairs into a water filled room that looked like the one she climbed out from earlier. Twilight looked around the room and noticed a dim, yet familiar outline. She reached out for it and as she hoped, a small flame lit up the room, and casting out the warm feeling she knew.

But Twilight remembered that she had to keep moving, and against her instincts, kept moving. She followed the path around the pool, her boots getting soaked and letting in a bit of water. Twilight groaned as she turned the corner into what looked like more prison when an arrow impaled into the wall a few inches from her head. She screamed and hid behind the wall as another flew through the spot she was just in.

“That was too close.” Twilight peeked around the corner, looking down the hall and seeing another one of the corpses from earlier, the living ones, and it was shooting at her. She ducked behind the wall when the thing loosed another arrow at her. After flying through the door, Twilight looked again and saw an open cell, hopefully empty. She looked at the thing and decided to make a run for it. She dove into the cell and into more water but safely avoided the arrows.

Twilight noticed another body in the doorway, thankfully this one was fully dead, but something was shining on its belt and this body didn't reek like the others, so she approached the body to closer see what the object was. She grabbed a hold of it and yanked it off the body’s belt, it was a small dagger in a sheath.

“I would say ‘only for worst case scenarios’ but now seems like one.” Twilight hooked the sheath onto her belt, unsheathing the dagger and gripping it firmly. She took a few deep and hugged the wall, slowly looking around the corner, looking at the thing draw its bow, counting down the seconds. It fired and Twilight ducked behind the wall, hearing the arrow impale into the wall with a solid thunk.

Twilight counted down the seconds to hear another thunk in the wall, she ran for her life towards the thing, it drew another arrow and almost loosed it into her head, only Twilight beat it to the punch and plunged her blade up into its chin, screaming as she did. It dropped the bow and arrow as a spray of blood showered her arm and some of her face as it fell back, Twilight kept a hold on the dagger as it drew itself out of the things chin, covered in dark red blood. She stood over the body in udder shock at what she had just done. Twilight gagged and almost threw up again, she had just killed something, something alive.She stood there, motionless. She was still holding the dagger tightly enough to turn her knuckles white. She stared at the body in front of her, before stumbling around it.

“What have I done?” Twilight walked past it and found a hallway leading upstairs to a wall of white fog. She walked closer to the wall, uneasy about it, as if it was warning her about something. She pressed her hand to the fog and it seemed to pull her in. Twilight stumbled through, she looked back and saw the fog gate had disappeared.

“Strange,” Twilight turned to see another iron gate with rubble blocking the other side. A faint movement on the other side drew her closer, she leaned in to look through a crack in the rubble.

“Oh no!” A man in a suit of armor was writhing in pain on a pile of bricks, light from a hole in the ceiling making him clearly visible. Twilight tried to pry the gate away but the rubble held it firm against her attempts. She looked around the corner to see if there was a way to get in, she sprinted to the wall opposite of the knight and noticed several missing bricks in the wall. Twilight threw all of her strength into knocking it down, but she groaned as it didn’t even budge. Twilight looked around for something to help, she looked up the stairs behind her and smiled.

The knight sat on the pile of bricks, his body broken and useless in his armor. He stared at the hole in the ceiling, cursing his horrid luck and feigned pride. His breathing became heavy as his vision started to fade. He was on the brink of death when a metallic sound caught his ear, he looked down at the wall in front of him. The sound grew louder and louder, the knight tensed up, expecting something to come and finish him. A loud crash drew his attention a few feet to his left, an iron ball, wider than him and much heavier than him broke through the wall and indented into the wall next to him. He watched the hole as a familiar girl in a brown tunic ran through the hole, covered in blood and panting as she looked at him.

“I guess we’re even now, huh?” The knight smiled through his helmet at Twilight who smiled back.

“Not yet,” She walked over to him and crouched down to look him in the eyes, “We need to get out of here first.”The knight laughed, his voice becoming sickly, causing Twilight to frown in worry.

“I’m afraid I am of no help anymore. I can even move.” Twilight kept looking at him, tears starting to well up. The knight motioned with a nod at a satchel on his belt.

“Take what’s in there, the estus and the key. You’ll need them.” Twilight reached in and pulled out an emerald colored vial with golden liquid inside.

“That can heal you from almost any wound, should you need it.” The knight laughed as she looked from the estus flask to him. Gaining a sudden burst of hope, she reached up to his helmet latch and opened it.

“Open up!” Before the knight could protest, Twilight was pouring the estus into his mouth. He groaned as his wounds starting healing and his bones were being fixed. Twilight smiled as the knight reached up and moved her hand away to stop her from pouring. He stood and roughly popped his misplaced bones back into place and looked at Twilight.

“I owe you my life, I have died enough already.”  Twilight stood next to him, he flipped his visor down and sheathed his sword.

“I promise to explain everything once we’re out of here.” Twilight nodded and got up. They both walked out if the room, the knight having a limp from his injuries still not being fully healed.

“Now, Im guessing since you’re here, you already ran into that locked door down there, right?” The knight pointed at the gate by the fire. Twilight nodded and leaned against a wall as he spoke.

“I know where the key is but I need your help, and you may not like my plan.” The knight reached behind him for something.

“What is it?” Twilight mentally prepared herself for what he might ask.

“I need you to distract it, draw it out and keep it occupied until I can get the drop on it.” He pulled a staff looking object, and held it out for Twilight, who carefully took it.

“That is a catalyst, a form of weapon that allows people of certain magical attunement to cast soul sorceries, all you need to do now is hold it forward and focus.”

Twilight nodded and faced away from the knight, held out the catalyst and focused down the hallway. As she focused harder, the far end of the catalyst began to glow a bright blue and launched a bolt a magic.

Twilight shouted in success as she turned back to the knight, who nodded at her.

“Well done, you’re a natural. Now, go downstairs and through that gate again, you’ll know when im ready.” The knight started up the stairs when Twilight called up to him.

“What is it we’re fighting?” Twilight had a worried look in her eyes as she asked.

“You’ll see soon enough, but a quick tip, look up.” And with that, the knight ran up the stairs and past the bloody corpse of the one that tried to stop Twilight from helping him.

Twilight walked down the steps to a familiar red iron gate, she lifted the latch and walked through to the courtyard. She checked her estus flask, and made sure her dagger and catalyst were on hand when she gets through. Twilight took a deep breath and slipped in through the opening she made earlier. She remembered the tip and looked up and gasped at the new addition to the roof. She had no way to describe it, fat, almost all of its weight seemed to be in its stomach, blue-green looking skin with sharp teeth and what looked like a tree trunk.

She slowly stepped forward, keeping her eyes on the monster above her. As she got closer to the other large gate, the rumbling from earlier hit the room again as the monster jumped from the roof and landed in front of Twilight, causing her to scream and scramble away. The monster roared and jumped at Twilight, swinging the weapon in an arc at her. She jumped to the side, narrowly escaping the deadly blow. She ran around behind it to the other end of the room.

Twilight was freaking out now as she looked for a way to keep it busy, when she heard a whistle from above her. Twilight looked up to see the knight on a balcony waving his sword to get the monsters attention, and it worked. The monster ran towards them as the knight took a few steps back and Twilight ran to one side. The knight sprinted full speed and leaped off the balcony, and plunged his sword down, and landed in the head of the monster.

“Aim for the head, now!” Twilight aimed her catalyst and focused intensely on the space between the monsters eyes and fired, yelling as the magic bolt launched. The bolt made contact, causing the monster the roar and topple over, leaving a scorched hole in its head. The knight pulled his sword from the monsters head and turned to Twilight.

“Nice shot, are you ready to get out of here?” Twilight happily nodded and the knight cut a piece of rope around the monsters neck that held a massive key for the locked gate.