The Forgotten Castle

The world seemed to be in complete turmoil with itself. The sky was alight with various bouts of lightning, while the sound of thunder seemed to violently tear at the landscape. The wind was violent, whipping the downpour in various directions, anything that hadn't been tethered down was swiftly blown away. It had been a little over a month since this excavation job had begun at this mysterious location and the weather hadn't been better since. Where it had started off as a light drizzle, had quickly turned into a violent maelstrom that threatened to consume all the progress that had been made. Only the very tip of this strange landmark had been uncovered, the tip being that of the highest tower of what appeared to be a castle. Not once had any castle been noted to have been located in this remote location in any book of Equestrian History. The head of this excavation crew had made sure that this was true.

The soft sound of a zipper running against itself rang out underneath the violent bellowing of the natures. The faint outline of a pony slowly strode into their tent, their form soaked from the violent storm that raged outside their front door. A soft, feminine sigh rang out, which was quickly followed by another blast of violent thunder. A soft creak followed by the sound of a match being struck and the center of the tent was soon bathed in light. Even with this new light, they remained within the darkness, the light only bright enough to light up their plans for the dig.

"This weather is almost the same as the weather in the Everfree Forest. It's strange, cause the Everfree is on the opposite side of Equestria so it is impossible for it to have traveled this far." Their voice rang out, eyes looking over the plans for the dig in front of them, gears in their mind working together to find some plausible reason for these turn of events.

"Not even the Pegasi that accompanied me to this dig are capable of controlling this monster of a storm! It only seems to get worse with each passing day!" They exclaimed, frustration in their voice as they realized just how dangerous this storm was for the future of the dig. If it got worse, all that digging would be for naught as the mud would more than likely take the site for it's own once more. Slowly they moved closer to the wooden table within their tent, the light illuminating their mulberry coat, their violet eyes looking over the plans once more. Changes would surely have to be made.

"Twilight!" A child like voice called out, the mare in question quickly turned her head from the plans and to the entrance of the tent. The small form of an infant dragon came running, purple scales with green spines, through the entrance of the tent before quickly zipping it shut. The dragon took in deep breaths, shaking his body slightly as to rid his form of the water which soaked every inch of his form.

"The rest of the crew are concerned. They are afraid that the rain will cause a flood and will ruin all the progress that we have made." Spike said, his emerald eyes staring at his alicorn sister, his form quickly rushing over to the side of the table. His claws took hold a quill and he turned towards Twilight as if expecting her to have some sort of response to the trouble that they had been facing.

Twilight could only sigh in response to the look of expectation that she had gotten from Spike. Her wings slowly rose, flapping very softly to get rid of as much moisture as they could before she took a seat on the floor of the tent. Two towels made their ways to the pair, one dropping over Spike's top spine, the other dropping over and covering Twilight's face.

"I'm not sure what we can do Spike. My magic isn't able to rid the area of this storm and the Pegasi that we have got are incapable of getting rid this storm either." Twilight said, her violet magical aura taking hold of the towel as she began to quickly wipe herself down. "We might have to cancel this dig." Twilight said, every hint of disappointment hung heavily in her tone as she was coming to terms that they might not be able to complete this excavation.

"What if we send word back to Celestia and Luna? Maybe they would be able to send some help!" Spike said, a bit of excitement in his voice as he believed that his idea would surely work if it was followed through with. When ever the trouble was a little bit outside of their capabilities, the princesses always had a way to fix it. Maybe they would be able to send a large group of Pegasi from Cloudsdale. Maybe they would see the Wonderbolts in action! The very prospect of that sounded awesome to Spike.

Sadly, his idea was shot down by Twilight who could only shake her head in response to his supposed answer to their problems. Her hooves scrapped at the ground as she pondered it for a moment, they already had been given some help by some Royal Guards, who were there just in case anything went bad. The prospect of Celestia or Luna doing anything more, outside of showing up themselves, was purely illogical. It was up to them, from this point forward, to make sure that the dig wouldn't be hindered any further.

"The best we can do for now, Spike, would be to sleep and hope that everything is alright tomorrow. If the site has been returned to how it previously was, then we will head back to Canterlot and piece together a larger crew for the dig." Twilight said, slowly her hooves clicked against the floor of the tent as she made her way over to her sleeping bag. Her form slowly wiggled into it, her magical aura zipping it up as Spike did the same with his own.

"Good night Twilight, I hope everything turns out for the better tomorrow morning." Spike said, turning over in his sleeping bag as he tried to get some sleep.

"Good night to you too Spike." Twilight simply said, her magic extinguishing the light of the flame as another rip of lighting and thunder tore apart the sky. If anything happened, she was sure that the guard would alert the crew if the storm grew to violent and attempted to swallow the camp site through her protective shield. She could only pray, that everything would be alright in the morning.

The Next Morning

Like always, for the past month, the storm had dissipated once the light of the sun began to touch the earth once more. It was a countless cycle, the storm would leave in the morning only to return, much worse than the previous night, with the night. Almost as if the night itself was trying to keep any secrets within this location hidden. Luckily, for the past month, there had been little to no damage from the storm but last night had been particularly bad. As everyone got up from their slumber, they feared that all their work would have been ruined from the storm.

They would be surprised at what they would discover.

Twilight stood on the ridge of the site, her eyes wide at the sight which was before her. Even though the storm last night had threaten to rip the very earth apart, not a single hair had been disturbed from the location. It took a couple quick rubs to the eyes with her hooves to finally come to terms with what she was seeing.

"Just... How?!" Twilight asked, looking at the other crew members who stood, just as dumbfounded, as herself. Each glance to each member was met with the same answer, a quick shrug of the hooves. No one could come to any sensible conclusion as to why the storm hadn't completely desecrated their work. It just didn't seem possible.

"Well, Princess, I did see that the ground was absorbing the water rather rapidly. Possibly an empty reservoir of water beneath the earth or some sort of enchantment." A voice rang out, the faint sound of flapping wings ringing in tandem with the words as one of the Solar Guard Pegasi landed in front of Twilight. His eyes turned out towards the excavation sight, one eyebrow raised, before looking back towards Twilight.

"I lean more towards the latter, Lieutenant Swift Blade." Twilight said, believing that there might be some sort of enchantment on the lands that was keeping the area safe. With a rain like that, flooding would have easily occurred and swept away what ever was in the area. Had it not been for her own enchantments, the camp site would have easily been swept away. If it wasn't for how far the camp site was from the dig site, she would have tried to protect it the night prior. It meant that there was some sort of ancient magic still at work with this area. What that could have been, she couldn't tell.

"Well, I think it is best that we get back to work." Twilight said, turning to her crew members, each member bowing before racing off to continue their work on finding something on this castle. Twilight herself took to the site and began to help in anyway she could with removing the dirt as carefully as she could from the site.

It had only been a few hours before an opening had been discovered. A large window, one that had once been likely filled with colorful glass atop the highest most spire. It was a good thing what ever enchantment was here still was. A whole month of work had looked forward to this day and Twilight was the most excited with exploring something new. It was especially lucky that the dirt had some how managed to stay out of the spire, though, the wooden steps that had once been there had long since rotted away.

"Alright, I will need a little group to help me excavate the inside of this supposed castle. I can't guarantee that there isn't any traps or your safety from this point forward. Those who wish to help, please step forward." Twilight said, the group in front of her looking to one another before a mere six had stepped forward. Two unicorns, two pegasi, two earth ponies, Twilight was actually happy that it ended up like this.

"Alright, so first, we are going to secure a sturdy rope into the side out here and will take the rope down into the depths of the castle. The pegasi will help the other groups safely reach the bottom while I scout ahead to make sure that there is nothing dangerous below." Twilight said, earning a nod from the six ponies before she quickly leaped into the air and soared down into the abyss below. It had almost been as if the darkness was swallowing up the light itself.

It took a whole two minutes before she had reached the stone bottom of the structure, her hooves clicking softly against said stone as her horn shone with a bright light. Her violet eyes looked around the room, which appeared to be a hallway, before locking onto the piece of rope which dangled down from above.

She slowly stood away from the rope, watching it wiggle in the air as pony after pony slowly began their decent while being watched closely by the pegasi. It took a total of about twelve minutes for the ponies that were incapable of flight to descend the rope to her level. Before she knew it, the whole group stood around her, light from herself and the other unicorns keeping the area lit.

"Alright, let's move forward and see just how much of this castle was spared from the elements." Twilight said, glancing over her shoulder at the group, all of which giving another firm nod, before she slowly began to trot forward. The hallway, barren in appearance, most of the wood had rotted away due to years of disuse and no one caring for it. The castle itself seemed to tell a faint story, carvings among the walls in a strange language that took more to the form of pictures. Twilight was just about ready to attempt to pick apart this strange language, but found it better to continue forward. There was an entire castle to be searched.

Deep Within the Depths of the Forgotten Castle

It had felt like hours had passed by, the darkness being the only friends of the seven ponies that dared explore the abyss of darkness, which was locked within this long forgotten place. They found had found very little, bits of thread, some old armor, the only piece that hadn't rotten away from age was a red flag that had the picture of a quill dipped within an inkwell. What that could have meant, Twilight wasn't sure.

They had found themselves deep into the castle, the stairs that they had taken laid behind what had once been massive doors in the foyer. Even now, the stench of decay grew heavier in the air. Each pony's stomach felt the need to evacuate themselves at the stench of death and rot. The rusted bars which surrounded them told Twilight that this was likely the dungeons. The only thing that seemed to be within each cell was dust of the past. Anything that might have once found this place home had long since fell prey to the harsh mistress known as time. Their trek had one last room before they could return to the surface and bring the rest of the crew down into the pit. In front of them stood iron doors, a large bar of iron slammed down to keep what ever had once been locked away, locked away. Twilight's magic quickly took hold of the iron, slowly lifting it to the upright position which allowed the doors to slowly swing open. The sight that befell the groups eyes, was terrible.

What met their eyes was a massive room, most of which was shrouded in darkness but what could be seen were the various shackles which hung from the ceiling. A way to keep the more riotous of ponies subdued meant hanging their forelegs and hind legs from the ceiling and floor. It was a truly gruesome sight, especially the sharp smell of death that permeated the room. The group slowly went to take a step into the room, at least until one of Twilight's wings shot up. Her eyes were wide, violet spheres pierced through the slightly lifted darkness at the form on the other side of the room. Upon the ground, sat a pony, at least what appeared to be a pony.

It wore upon it's form tattered clothing, a shirt which had been ripped multiple times, a skirt which was torn to shreds and had what appeared to be a smaller version of the stocks locked onto it's front legs. Yet, the most unnerving part for Twilight, was the pale white mask which lacked any features besides holes for the eyes that rested upon it's face.

"Guys... I want the six of you to turn around and run as fast as you can." Twilight said, her eyes never leaving the form in front of her as it seemed to twitch at the sound of her voice from within the darkness.

"Get help from the surface." Twilight muttered, the form once again twitching as the soft sound of liquid began to meet the floor from in front of them.

"And what ever you do, don't look back." Twilight said, the light from her horn cutting out just as the being ahead of them lifted it's head, an unholy screeching filling the room as the crew of six ponies turn and ran with every bit of energy that their muscles could produce.

Author's Note

So, here is the beginning to a new story that came to mind while I sat around and did absolutely nothing productive with the time that I have on hand. I certainly hope that any readers of this tale will stick around to see just what exactly this thing is and where it will end up heading in the future. As always I hope all of you have a wonderful day! Also, yes this is slightly inspired by Dark Souls 2 but outside of the mask of the Undead Pony, the location where it was found and the magic it will know there will be no other mention of Dark Souls 2 cannon or otherwise.