Ponies Souls

Twilight heaved the key up to the lock, it weighed far heavier than how light the knight made it look. She rested it in the lock and looked to her right at the knight, who leaned against the door.

"This thing is a lot heavier than it looked." The knight laughed as he planted his hands against the door, ready to push. Twilight twisted the key and the door clicked. The knight pushed on the door, opening it with ease. He walked out and looked around, Twilight followed close behind.

"Never thought I would get out of there." Twilight nodded in agreement as they walked forward, the path bordered on both sides by a steep drop that neither would return from if they took a tumble. Twilight looked at the knight before grabbing onto his arm.

"Before we get anywhere, I need to know some things." The knight turned and looked her in the eyes, and nodded.

"Where am I, what am I and who are you?" The knight sighed, and stood against a piece of broken wall.

"Obviously you are not 'from around here' if you ask what you are. You are a human, ten fingers, two hands, stands upright, all that stuff." Twilight had a confused look as she turned and looked across the landscape.

"So that crazy pony was right? Humans are real?" She whispered to her herself, the knight leaned forward.

"As for who I am," He balled his fist and placed on his chest, "I am Knight Oscar of Astora, I came to free any undead who hadn't hollowed from this dreaded place." He looked at the asylum and shuddered.

"Hollowed?" Twilight turned and faced him. "What do you mean 'Hollowed'?" Oscar looked down at her with worry.

"The curse of the undead that slowly takes us all? You don't know of this?" Oscar finished then remembered that Twilight was 'new.'

"Right, an unknown plague that swept across this whole land, taking all who died with it, bringing them back as empty shells with no will or mind of their own, hence being 'hollowed.' All who are cursed with this," Oscar pulled down a piece of cloth covering the back of his neck, showing a dim circle that glowed slightly with the same color of the fires.

"The dark sign," He added, "All who have it are branded outcasts and pariahs and brought here to rot." He pulled the cloth back up and looked at her. She moved her hand to her neck, making Oscar chuckle.

"Don't worry, I didn't see one on you, so how you ended up here is beyond me. Maybe fate destined that we meet." Twilight laughed, making the knight tilt his head.

"Maybe, Oscar, maybe." Twilight smiled, taking in the calm of the moment, only her and Oscar. He turned to continue down the path, waving for her to follow him. She followed him closely, looking around at the architecture, memorizing every detail about it, and the difference from the buildings back home. She stared at them as Oscar kept walking, approaching the broken off ledge of the pathway.

Twilight caught up with him and stood by his side. She looked from the valley to Oscar.

“Now what? There’s nowhere left to go.” She looked at him closely, hearing a faint whisper from his helmet.

“What are you….” She was cut off by an ear splitting shriek, both Twilight and Oscar recoiled from the ledge. They looked over the ledge as a massive shadow flew up from the depths below and into the sky. Twilight watched as the shadow slowly expanded, pitch black wings extending as it turned to head straight at them. As it flew closer, Twilight saw a beak open and let out another shriek.

When it came within feet of the cliff, Twilight came upon the realization that this thing was a bird, a raven almost as large as a dragon back home. The shriek from earlier hit her as she cowered and covered her ear, her eyes tightly shut. She felt the ground below her quickly disappear as her ears stopped ringing, she lowered her hands to hear Oscar grunt in surprise and she opened her eyes to finally realize, the raven had somehow gently lifted her in her scared state without moving her an inch. Twilight looked down and screamed, gripping onto the ravens talon, seeing she was above the clouds, not being able to see the ground below her.

In any other situation, she wouldn’t have freaked out, but now she didn’t have wings or a method to break her fall. Twilight looked over at Oscar, to see him passed out and hanging limply in the ravens talon, causing Twilight to crack a smile.

“How am I handling this better than him?” She kept her grip on the talon, as a child holding onto its mother. Holding the raven somehow calmed her enough to look around, seeing several places pass below. Massive castles, some barely standing but most were crumbling ruins. But one with thin remnants of what looked like fog covered it, which intrigued Twilight but she decided against wanting to explore it.

After several hours of flying, the raven shrieked again as it descended, below the clouds and closing in fast on a grouping of trees on a pillar of stone, surrounded by almost all sides by a smog far down below. Twilight tensed up as the raven showed no signs of slowing as it neared the ground, she screamed when she though they would hit, only to drop softly on the damp grass below them. She looked up to see the raven drop Oscar limply next to her. It flew over and landed on a ridge of what looked like a ruined building.

Twilight looked in front of her to see sword in the ashes, she smiled and started dragging Oscar over to it. She held out the palm of her hand, the ashes lit up, only much larger this time, covering almost the entire sword. Twilight looked at Oscars still unconscious body and laughed, deciding to take a look around. She looked around, finding a man sitting on a pile of rock and rubble, wearing a strange looking piece of armor, compared to Oscar and the guards back home.

Twilight cautiously approached the man, who looked up at her with a droll look, his half lidded eyes looking her from head to toe.

“You are not undead are you? Why are you here?” She shuddered, he seemed half as likely to kill her as he would hold up a conversation. She stammered as she thought of how to respond.

“My name is Tw…Twilight Sparkle. I don’t know why Im here or what im doing here.” The man smiled looked her dead in the eyes.

“If you don’t know why you are here, than we have nothing to discuss, Miss Sparkle.” He scoffed at her name and waved her away. Twilight stared at him angrily and was about to start unloading on him when she noticed his sword on his belt. She backed away and turned around to keep looking, she opted for the stairs leading up. She passed by Oscar, who still lay on the ground, slowly coming to. She hopped up the stairs and kept looking around. She entered the building next to the one the raven landed on. She found a rather ‘bulky’ man leaning against a wall with a solid looking mace on his waist. He looked at her and smiled.

“Ah, another one come to this cursed and forgotten land? A lost and lonely soul seeking a meaning?” He pushed off the wall and started towards her, a warm smile calming Twilight into walking forward. The man bowed to her and looked up meeting her eyes.

“Im am Petrus, of house Throrlund,” He stood above her, “A pleasure to meet you m’lady.” Twilight blushed slightly at the formality from a complete stranger.

“I am princess Twilight Sparkle, a pleasure to meet you as well.” She bowed back, but on the word ‘princess’ reaching Petrus, he stumbled back and looked at her.

“Princess? But you are but a child, how is this so?” Twilight looked at herself then to Petrus. She was about to answer when Oscar called from behind her.

“Twilight! There’s someone here I want you to meet!” She turned to Oscar and smiled.

“Im sorry, sir, but I have to go. We shall talk another time.” She sprinted back down the stairs to Oscar, who sighed and started towards the man on the rubble. He turned left down a staircase Twilight hadn’t even noticed. The stair case wrapped around to an open area overlooking the pit. Oscar stopped in front of a small cage, a small yet familiar whimper came from a shadow inside. Twilight walked towards Oscar and looked in the cage, causing the shadow to move. Twilight tilted her as a hooded woman crawled towards the bars. She stopped suddenly, a few strands of pink hair falling out from the hood.

“Twlight? Is that really you?” A mall squeaky voice called to her.