Equestrian Souls: Fires of War

EQUESTRIAN SOULS
Written by TheCrimsonDM
Introduction: sleep

“Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle.
You already know me by the name Light, although at this point you probably have some nasty nick names for me, but that is not why I am writing you today. I am going to tell you my story. This is not the story I wanted to tell, this is the story I needed to tell. Hopefully by the time you have read everything I have had written, you will understand why I have done all these things. The good, the bad, and the…mistakes I’ve made. Yes I would change a few things, if I could go back in time. Sadly that is not possible. Okay, enough of me being a sap, it’s time to begin. It all started a long time ago…”

***

I sat in the middle of a medical room; the window was open allowing the cold air to breeze in as the storm outside began to pick up. I was not alone in here; my best friend was pacing back and forth in front the window. Reed was such an odd stallion; he preferred to walk on his hind legs. Although Reed’s small stature made him only stand a little taller than me even after rising on two legs. Reed wore long red robes and had a yellow ribbon tied to his right foreleg. He was an earth pony with a light brown coat, and a long dark brown mane.

Reed continued pacing a few more moments as I quietly sat on the cold floor staring at him. He finally stopped throwing a hoof into the air and shouting, “I have it!”

A smile grew on my face as Reed said this, I always trusted him. He grabbed a small jar on the table in the corner and walked over to me. Reed passed me the jar and said. “If we want to stop this, you’re going to need to drink that”.

I held it precariously in my hooves, inside was a dark grey liquid that didn’t smell quiet right. I looked up at him skeptically, asking. “Are you sure?”

He looked at me and smiled. “Of course I’m sure; this potion will help us solve everything.”

“But, how.” I asked a little worried, I trusted him but I did not believe our problems could be solved so simply.

Reed looked outside at the night sky, then back to me. “This war needs to be stopped, if only I hadn’t failed…”

I place my hoof gently over his mouth and gave him a reassuring smile. “It's not your fault, you did your best. It’s just that stress has been rising for a long time now, everything finally exploded, I guess.”

Reed leaned over and kissed me, my entire body began to quiver with excitement before he pulled away. I looked into his deep brown eyes, and he looked into mine. I could have stayed like that for an eternity. Finally the silence was broken when he began speaking again. “Light, you need to drink that potion. It’s the only thing I can think of to help us.”

I looked at him in worry for a few moments before I finally agreed. I opened the jar it smelled worse than I had thought. My long light purple hair fell in my face before I could lift the bottle to my mouth. That was always annoying. I felt his hooves brushing my mane back into place. I drank the potion as he tied my mane into a ponytail with his yellow ribbon.

The liquid substance actually had no flavor, but it had the texture of sludge, and made my head feel weird. “Shh,” Reed whispered into my ear, “you’re going to sleep now, and you won’t wake up for a while, but when you finally do wake up, everything should be in place for our plan. Good night Light”.

I closed my eyes feeling myself fall into his warm loving embrace, as I said, “good night Reed.” Then my world faded to black.

***

Chapter one: awaken

I awoke feeling weak, my muscles ached, and my head hurt. The room I was in was very cold and smelled of mildew. I could hear the sound of dripping water. I opened my eyes and sat up on the old bed had been sleeping on. The entire room was covered in a thick layer of dust. There were water stains on the walls, and an old half rotten nightstand by my bedside. There was also a bundle of rags in the corner of the room, the bundle had hooves.

I sat there feeling numb inside as I stared at the bundle of rags, it was lumped over with 4 hooves sticking out from underneath it. I found myself staring at the body of a dead pony, the rags covering it must have been used in an attempt to keep warm at some point.

I wondered how I could have fallen asleep in a room with a dead body without noticing it, and a sudden pain surged through my skull. I couldn’t remember how I got here or much of anything for that matter, I could remember Reed kissing me, the grey liquid potion and that was about it. Every time I tried to focus on my memories my head hurt, so I decided to stop. I guessed that for now I would simply have to deal with my amnesia, and hope my memories returned soon.

I looked around the nightstand and found a note; the note was very old and yellow with red writing. The note was sitting on top of a blue sword handle, the blade had long since broken off, disappearing to Celestia knows where. The note read
“Hey Light, glad to see you’re awake. Anyway it’s dangerous to go alone, so take this. R.”

I looked down at the handle; this pathetic thing couldn’t do anypony any good. I gave a small laugh at the broken weapon before returning to the note. It was written by R. that must have been Reed, and that must’ve mean that Reed was here as well. I really hoped that I could find him soon.

Looking at the note I decided to pick it up with my telekinesis, it was written by Reed, and that’s enough for me to want to hold onto it. As the note floated in the air before me I noticed some writing on the back. This message read.

“We have something important to do, don’t forget our purpose. W-“ The last word had been a name of some sort, but it was too smudged to make sense of.

I stared at the note for the longest time, my brain would hurt every time I tried to recall my memories, but I just couldn’t shake the idea that something horrible had either happened or was about too. I also wanted to know who this W was. I looked at the dead pony in the corner with guilt, I had seen too much death, or at least that’s what I felt like. I walked to the door, and with a sigh pushed it open.

On the other side was a long hallway filled with pools of stagnant black water. The mildew smell was even stronger here, and it was getting even colder. To the left side of the hallway were a series of rooms much like the one I had just come out of, all of them locked, all of them held a corpse or two that I could view from the bared windows on the doors.

On my right side was a series of bared windows that allowed me to peer into an even larger room just beyond, inside was a mound of gold bits. I really wanted those bits. Something moved underneath the pile of gold, shifting the shiny coins, and as soon as it began moving it stopped. I decided that stealth was a virtue in this place. I really didn’t want to meet whatever was sleeping underneath the gold.

I made my way through various hallways, into tunnels, and out of them again. Finally I climbed a ladder that lead into a small room just outside of a courtyard. The courtyard showed me the bright blue sky. There was also a light covering of snow layering the ground. There was also a sword sticking out of the earth, stabbed into a pile of bones. This must have been a memorial to some fallen soldier, I have seen these things before but I wasn’t sure where at. This memorial however looked very old.

I walked past it; this place was making me feel paranoid, and lonely. There were dead ponies, something sleeping inside a giant pile of gold, and it was way too quiet. I needed to get out and find Reed soon. I walked to a large set of wooden doors, I tried pushing it, and although it was moving slightly I still needed more strength to open it. I added my telekinesis to the door as I pushed, and finally something snapped, and the door opened with a loud creaking sound.

Just past the door was a large room, some kind of grand entrance hall or something, the ceiling was gone, along with the second story walkway. Walking along the room I felt like something was watching me, there were two other doors. One door lead to an upraised cliff face covered in snow the other one lead deeper into this building. The snow crunched beneath my hooves making me feel skittish with every. Single. Step.

A horrible howl sounded from somewhere above me followed by a loud earth shaking crashing sound exploding from behind me. I could feel the ground shake beneath my hooves nearly knocking me over. I looked behind me to see a giant creature with gray bulbous calloused flesh standing on two legs, and holding a giant axe.

The creature’s head was higher then what used to be the second story of this room, stood right behind me. For a second I froze in absolute terror. Then it charged at me and I ran. Not the towards the cliff face. I needed the other door. Opening it with telekinesis I ran inside. An explosion of earth from behind forced me up into the air. I hit the stairs and rolled down them. I finally landed with a splash, right into the knee high water.

Rising to my feet I notice another dead pony besides me, this one however was wearing Platemail armor, and had dropped his broadsword. I picked it up with my magic, the amber glow from my magic somehow made this weapon more ominous. It also allowed me to notice the three other ponies surrounding me. There flesh had somehow mummified, and their bodies’ skinny, as though they were dying of starvation. They held swords which were broken in half. They held the sword hilts in their mouths. One of the ponies was down here in the water next to me; the other two were standing on the raised walkway in front of me.

The two on the walkway began walking towards me. I would have screamed if I had not just seen a giant monster, still this was exceptionally terrifying. I backed away from the two in front while the one behind me moved just out of sight. I ducked just in time as his blade cuts the air where my neck had previously been. And in his attack he left his underside open; instinctively I swung the sword still held in my telekinetic grasp at his torso. A large gash opens up in his chest as the blade cut neatly through his bones.

I just looked at him for a moment before he fell over. I faced the other two who were still slowly advancing towards me. I knew it was crazy, they couldn’t be dead, maybe it was some kind of disease, or worse. I don’t know why but after the first one fell, something inside me took over, some primal force that had me moving, and fighting. I was surprised at just how good it felt to fight.

I dodged another slow moving attack. And I retaliated with a swipe to the neck. The attack hit, lopping off the head. Dark red, almost black liquid fountains out of his neck as I refocused on the last one. The final enemy lunged at me, swinging his weapon furiously. I rolled to the side dodging just in time as he lunged past me. I got up and stepped behind him, and plunged my sword down through his back.

After the last one fell to my blade I stood still and unmoving for a few moments. I just watched as the water I was standing in reddened from the blood, but I could still see my reflection in the water. My dark pink coat was dirty, my long purple hair, with its single red streak was still tied in that ponytail with Reeds ribbon. Pulling the sword free from the body, I move onward.

I looked back at these creatures I had just slain, and felt my hart skip a beat. I just killed three pon- monsters with a sword, and I did so like it was nothing. I shook my head trying to shake loose some memory that would explain how I could kill, and not care about it Maybe a memory on how I even got here. When nothing came to me I guessed that the answers would come in time; right now I just needed to get out of this crazy place.

After a few minutes of walking I found an uprising staircase, and hoped that it would take me out of here. About halfway up I heard a loud clanking sound behind me. Turning my head around I see a creature with a pony body, and an ape like torso. The entire body was covered in black armor, lastly he held a long sword in one hand, it was as big as my entire body, and a shield that covered his torso and nearly touched the ground in the other. I quickly decided that running was in my best interest right now.

Running as fast as I could up those stairs I dared not look back as I heard his clanking armor chasing behind me. Finally I got to the top and into a hallway witch lead to another staircase. This time some bucking genius decided to push a barrel down the stairs towards me while I ran. It bounced on the stairs looking for a target to crush. I decided to give it one.

I grabbed the barrel with my magic and heaved it over my head and behind me. It crashed into the black armored thing, and exploded. Splinters came off of it, and peppered my tail end. I continued running forward at a full gallop. At the top was another dead pony holding yet another broken sword, I paid him no heed only running past him.

A door frame opened up into a balcony overlooking the cliff face, and a sharp L turn. I took the turn and saw a line of dead ponies holding crossbows pointed at me; I saw another door frame leading back into the building. I dived into the door frame as the archers opened fire. The arrows made a clinging sound as they simply bounced off the armor of the black pony ape thing behind me. I got up and ran. Just in time too, as one giant sword swing later. The spot I had just vacated became rubble.

The door frame opened up into the large entrance hall below, but no walkways or anything on the second floor. With one evil monster behind me, I had no choice. I jumped down below rolling as I hit the crushed stone tiles on the ground floor beneath me. I looked up at the Black armored thing. It jumped as well, going further then me and over towards the courtyard entrance.

Then the giant monster with the giant axe jumps down to the floor in front of me causing the earth to shake with his landing. Side by side with the black armored monster they began advancing. Finally I noticed a horde of the dead ponies walking in from the courtyard, some of them even fell off the second floor entrance landing with a crunch.

I had no idea where any of these monsters came from or where I would go now.. I stood up and I scream in frustration and fear. I turned around and ran towards the cliff. As I approached the ending of the cliff, I heard a stallion shouting above me. “Jump, I’ll catch you”.

I didn’t have much choice, I either died here by the monster horde or by falling to death. So I jumped off the cliff. For a second I felt like I could fly, that feeling was gone the second I began falling. The thick white clouds below me threatened to eat me, they lust for my death. Suddenly I felt something wrap around me, jerking me to a stop and then accelerating away from the building behind me. I looked up to see a brown feathered griffin holding me, flying me to what I hoped was safety. I was about to say something when a sudden surge of pain hit my skull, and blackness became my world.

***

I found myself standing inside of a castle made of gold, the night sky was shining through the mural’s on the walls. An empty throne sat in front of me, and I heard something growling off in the distance. I couldn’t place exactly what it was but it had me scared.

I waited quietly for a few moments, a black dagger was being held in my mouth. I knew the monster was coming for me any moment, and I was determined to be ready for it. I waited as the growls increased. Finally I saw something in the shadows moving. After a few seconds I realized that it wasn’t in the shadows, it was the shadows!

The shadows took the form of an alicorn and charged me, the monster was taller than me but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I prepared my dagger and charged.

***

I woke up finding myself lying on a bed inside of a dark green tent. I must have passed out, and I found that that was concerning. First I had amnesia, and now I am having painful blackouts. I really hoped that this would get better. I examined my surroundings; I could see a pack lying on its side in the corner, and some sun light coming through the crack of the tent flap.

There were two voices talking just outside, the first one was very young sounding. “I don’t see what the problem is; she was in trouble so I helped her.”

The second voice which sounded much older began speaking with some resentment in his tone. “You can’t just run around doing these kinds of things. From your report, it sounds like she was being attacked by both a black knight, and a demon. A demon, Storm, I mean why would anypony even want to mess around the asylum in the first place. She is dangerous; she can’t stay here.”

Well it sounded like I was welcome. I got off the bed, and began to head towards the front flap of the tent. I stopped as the head of a brown feathered griffin poked inside the tent. He took one look at me, and smiled brightly. Judging by the lack of other voices outside I assumed his conversation with the other guy was over. “Hello,” he introduced himself, “My name is Storm Feather. How are you feeling?”

I sighed, not sure if I was doing better or not, my head wasn’t hurting at the moment, and that’s a good start. I straightened up and introduced myself. “Much better. It's nice to meet you, my name is…Light” I felt like I was missing something when I said that, like some part of me was gone. I really didn’t like amnesia.

“Well I am glad to see that you are up and about Light, some of the others do not like having a new pony here. Though if you were to join the Crusaders I am sure they would change their minds” he explained.

“What are the Crusaders?” I asked hopping to get a better picture of my situation.

He rubbed his chin for a moment with his talons before answering. “There kinda like an adventurer guild, ponies go out into ruins and find cool stuff to bring back so that our merchants can sell it. Of course we are allowed to keep whatever we find, but if we kept everything we wouldn’t make any bits.”

I could understand the concept, looting the old castles and ruins had become a profession, not a bad thing either. A lot of nobles would pay dearly for paintings and such, or so I guessed. Either way I had more pressing concerns, I needed to get to Reed and the sooner the better. I walked out of the tent alongside Storm Feather.

Storm Feather was wearing some platemail armor, and had a battle axe equipped to his back, along with an old plain looking shield on his side. I wondered just how he could fly with such heavy looking armor on. He also stood quite a bit taller then me, and I was a little big for a mare.

During our walk I noticed that there were a few old buildings that looked like they had recently been repurposed; there were also a lot of tents surrounding the road we were walking along. “Where are we?” I asked.

“Welcome to Camp Hope, where we try to rebuild civilization one step at a time” he said matter-of-factly.

“What do you mean rebuild civilization?” I asked again, very curiously.

Storm Feather looked at me skeptically for a moment but then answered. “Ever since the demon war, when everything went to Tartarus, there have been problems trying to rebuild. We have the Princess somewhere off in the old castle building an army, then other groups like ours who are trying to build small villages.”

A Princess building an army, that sounded so familiar, had I seen something like that before? I began to open my mouth to get more details when he spoke again cutting me off. “So as you can probably tell, when I brought you here, it caused a bit of a stir,” he said as he gestured to a few ponies around us. Some of them looked angry, others scared, and still some more curious, and all of them looked at me.

“Why” I asked softly, trying to avoid there gazes?

He rolled his eyes as he explained “No pony ever comes out of Asylum, but you did”.

I looked at him feeling a little confused, but also somewhat intrigued. “So that place I woke up in, that was Asylum?”

He looked confused for a moment, then gave a short chuckle, and explained. “Yes that place is called Asylum, its chalk full of Demons, black knights and hollows. It’s nothing but a death trap now, although I have always wanted to explore it. Could be an adventure, whatdya say. Want to go adventuring in Asylum with me?”

I looked at him with as stern an expression I could muster for almost a minute before he sighed and said lamely. “No pony ever wants to do go adventuring with me”.

“Look I have nothing against fun adventures, but I don’t ever want to have to face a demon again. That giant monster with the axe, that was a demon right?” I asked.

“Yep, not a very tough demon, but still a demon none the less. And asylum is full of much stronger ones then that” he explained. I gasped at the thought of that giant monster being a weak demon, if they got worse than that then I never wanted to see them again.

We had stopped in front of a small 2 story house built with white painted wood, a matching awning stretched out covered in green vines. The entrance was too dark to see inside properly but it seemed so inviting. Storm Feather began talking to another griffin about some aerial moves they were practicing. That was the first time I noticed it.

The world felt different here, odd, more powerful. I wanted to reach out with my hooves and touch this force that was inside of me and outside of me at the same time. I had been so tired before but now I felt invigorated. I believed this was raw untamed magic. It’s hard to describe what raw magic feels like to outsiders, but for me it feels…similar to walking through water. It also feels kind of like an Orange purple color, yes when it comes to magic you can feel colors, and sometimes a whole lot weirder sensations.

I approached the buildings front entrance, and the feeling increased, I felt a warmth run through my entire body. I kept walking forward until I ended up inside the building. Then all of a sudden the feelings of magic had all but vanished.

Inside the little building seemed to be a shop, there were a lot of books on the shelves, and some scrolls behind the counter. I didn’t see anypony at the counter, but there was a little bell that had a small sign in front of it. The sign read.

“Do not push unless, 1. The world is about to be destroyed, 2. You are mortally wounded, 3. You’re a really cute young mare and are seeking love”
I couldn’t help but laugh a little bit when I read the sign, but regardless I was curious so I pushed the bell. After a few jingles a stallion came out. He had a blue fur coat, and a long red mane. He also wore a masquerade mask of blue and gold. I noticed only after he appeared, that there were all kinds of masks on the back wall, he seemed to be a collector.

“Yes my dear.” He said in a soft warm voice, almost seductive. Despite not being able to see his face, I found him quite attractive; maybe it was the mask adding a mysterious factor that made him alluring.

I could feel myself blushing as he looked at me, or at least I think he looked at me it was kind of hard to tell with his mask on. “I, um...” all of a sudden I couldn’t find the words I needed and blushed harder feeling like a foal.

He gave a small laugh and asked “is the world about to end?”

I shook my head.

“Are you mortally injured?”

Again I shook my head.

“Ah so you are looking for love then?” he asked in a very appealing voice, a tone that also offered a proposition.

I was about to shake my head again, or nod maybe, just to see what would happen. When I remembered what I was supposed to be doing. “I need to find Reed” I said to myself trying to focus on my task.

He rubbed his chin after I said that and his ear twitched, I didn’t know what that meant, but for some reason I felt like it could be important. “Well I haven’t seen that boy in a long time, last I checked he went up to Clippers for something important”.

I stared at him for a few moments in shock, he actually knew Reed, better he just gave me direction to find him. I smiled as bright as I could before saying thanks. He stopped me as I was about to turn and asked “Are you going to follow him, like that?”

I looked down at myself, then back up to him. “Like what exactly”?

He smiled and said. “Here, let me give you a few things before you head up there”.

He reached down and pulled up a long sword, and a saddle bag. He set them on the table and pushed them towards me saying, “Here you are my dear.”

I looked at him skeptically for a second before asking. “So you’re just giving me these things, for free?”

He gave a small laugh before saying. “Of course, I wouldn’t want a cute mare like yourself to go get hurt”.

I smiled, and blushed. I wasn’t used to getting such treatment, or at least not that I can remember. I thanked him before trotting out the door, he waved his hoof at me saying. “Good luck, and stay out of trouble Light”.

I was smiling and happy as I went out the door, then it hit me. He knew my name, yet I had not given it to him, maybe he knew who I was? Or how I ended up here with amnesia? I turned and went back inside, only to find that the entire building was empty. From the amount of dust that had gathered on the floor, this building has been empty for a long time now, not even any hoof prints, even my hoof prints were missing. It was almost like I had never been inside here before.

I backed out of the building really slowly, I don’t know what just happened but I was sure it was not good. I noticed the strange feeling of raw magic was now completely gone, maybe there was a connection. I was both angry that he was gone, and very worried, I decided to forget that this every happened.

I met up with Storm Feather again just in time to hear him finish talking with the other griffin. The two said good bye and the other one left. Storm Feather looked at me with a little bit of worry, he then asked. “Are you okay; you look like you just saw a ghost?

I nodded and smiled at him, he relaxed a little, and then he admired my sword. The sword was old but not broken, a few chips on the blade where contact had been met before. There was also a mark on the bottom of the handle. The mark was that of a blue star, with a gold crescent moon inside it. It was still surprisingly sharp and that was very useful. I slid the sword back into its brown leather sheath before we continued onward.

“So,” I began to say, “I need to get to Clippers”.

I heard the griffin walking next to me laugh before saying. “You don’t want to go to asylum, but you want to go to Clippers. Why would any sane pony go there?”

I looked up at him; he was about a foot taller than me after all. I sighed and said. “Because Reed is there.”

He looked a little disappointed when I said that, then he asked me. “So this Reed guy, is he your special Somepony?”

“I don’t know, I mean we kissed, but I don’t really remember much of anything. I just woke up in the asylum, began running for my life, and you saved me. That’s all I really remember, thanks for saving me by the way.” I explained.

He smiled and said, “no problem”.

“So,” I asked him “where is Clippers, and what should I expect to face there?”

He scratched his head with his talons while he answered me. “It's just up the old mountain, near enough to the Great Grays to be filled with Hollows, far enough away to not be filled with Demons, so we should expect a bunch of hollows, hopefully no demons, a quick in and out and we will be fine. Sounds like an awesome adventure to me”.

“What is a hollow” I asked, I had heard that word several times now.

He smiled and explained. “A hollow is an undead pony, there not dumb by any means, but they are murderous. I hear they want to kill the living because they envy us.”

I took that in for a moment; I guess undead ponies were real. It must be some sort of dark magic. Then I realized what he had just said. I looked at him curiously and asked. “We?”

He gave me a childish grin before saying. “Of course, I can’t leave the damsel in distress. It’s against my code of honor.” I didn’t care why he was going to fallow me, I was just glad to not be all alone.

We approached the end of the village, the tents had become sparse, and a small booth sat at the end of the road. A pale green earth pony with a dark green mane was sitting behind it, he had a box next to him and looked vary board. His cutie mark was a turtle sitting on top of a tree, or a tree that was growing a turtle? It was an odd mark. We approached his table, and he looked at us. In a somber voice he regarded Storm Feather “Out on another adventure Stormy, be safe now, not that you will listen”.

Storm Feather looked at him, then back to me, then back to him before saying “Actually T.G., I was taking this girl here out to Clippers today. I’m going to be her personally body guard” he then pointed at himself while grinning.

I nearly face hoofed.

“Going to Clippers are you, and without proper equipment. Might as well take this, hopefully it will make your journey more painful” T.G. said in a dull boring monotone, as he handed a red and gold trimmed flask to me. I picked it up and eyed it with a little concern.

“More painful” I wondered aloud.

“Yes” T.G. explained” it will heal you, that way you can suffer twice as much pain before dying”.

I was a little more concerned now about this pony’s point of view on life, but I took the gift anyway. If things were as bad as I have heard so far, then I could do with a little bit of healing. As we began walking away T.G. said something else that chilled me to my bones. “Be safe out there, I wouldn’t want to see you go hollow” and then he let out a dry creepy laugh. I was glad to get out of that village after all the weirdness I had seen in there.

***

We continued walking for about an hour before we arrived at the foot of the mountain; the surrounding country side was covered in rolling hills of pale green grass, and a river ran alongside the plains. The mountain however stood imposingly as it rose sharply into the air and pierced through the clouds. There was an old cobblestone road going up the side of the mountain as it wound its way around. In the far distance I could make a small village built alongside the mountain inside a large crevice.

There was a small camping area near us, and although the clouds were covering the sky, Storm Feather had convinced me that they were not rain clouds. Apparently the sky here was not maintained by any pegasi, so the mountain just collected clouds.

We took a break at the camp site, a few logs had been placed around a campfire, the so called camp fire was actually a sword sticking out of a pile of bones, and ashes. I felt a ping of guilt as I looked the bones, another warrior had died here, and I guessed that was all too common in this place. I noticed my companion looking at me with a little worry in his face. So I explained,” I am a little saddened by these grave markers, it’s a shame that ponies have to die in battle.”

He shook his head at me. “These are not graves or anything, or at least not anything recent. These things have been here for a long time, a few hundred years I think. A lot of ponies use them as resting places while on adventures, of course that makes them targets for the occasional bandit. No idea what they’re here for, maybe they used to be for the Solar Legion, most ponies call them Altars” he explained.

A few hundred years, that’s a long time to just be sitting here. The bones should have been gone a long time ago, and the sword shouldn’t still be standing, unless magic was involved. I was curious about why these things were still here, so I reached out with my magic to pick up the sword and examine it. As soon as my magic connected with the sword, the entire sword caught aflame burning with magical fire. The bones now seamed to look almost like wooden sticks for a bonfire.

From the surprised look on Storm Feathers face I imagined that this didn’t normally happen. “So uh…what does it mean if it’s on fire” I asked a little worried myself?

He looked at me and then back to the fire asking. “Did you do that?”

I wasn’t sure, but I told him what I had tried to do and he seemed as puzzled at this now flaming…bonfire as I was. We sat there for a few minutes, admiring the Altar while I explained my amnesia to him. I explained that the only memory I had was of Reed giving me that potion so that we could do something, ending a war was my guess.

I left out the passionate kiss, he seemed to get depressed when I talked about it last time, and I guess he was really hoping I was single. I looked the griffin from top to bottom; from his powerful physique I kinda hopped I was. For some reason I couldn’t explain, I felt a deep attachment to Reed though, like we were connected in some special way, so I needed to find him first. And then I would know what to do about my fine feathery companion.

I felt my mane and found the ribbon that had been in my hair holding my ponytail, Reed had given this to me, a golden yellow ribbon. I retied my ponytail, and drank some water from one of the canteens that were in my saddle bag, there was a surprising amount of free stuff in here. Food, water, some bandages, and even an empty journal were in here amongst some other stuff.

I looked at my rump after finding the bandages, remembering the splintered wood that peppered my uncovered hide. I found that there were no marks to show for what happened, I could have sword that I would have had at least some bruising. I caught the griffin looking at me a little oddly, which made me blush. I guess examining one’s own hindquarters does look a little weird without explanation. We continued up the road after our rest.

***

It took another hour but we finally arrived at the small village of Clippers. Clippers was a small village built into the side of the mountain. The village rested inside a crevice that rose slowly towards the cliff wall in the back. The entire town was surrounded by sheer cliff walls extending upwards, except for the front end of the little town.

There was one main road that led straight through the town, rising upwards towards a large church at the very back surrounded by tall iron gates. The buildings were mostly made of grey stone brick, and dark wood. Abandoned wagons littered the place, and a few barricades had been hastily erected. This place was also very quiet.

Storm Feather looked at me for a few moments, making me feel a little bit odd, finally he began explained. “Okay, I am now a little worried about not having given you armor. Are you good at fighting?”

I remembered how I fought in the asylum, it seemed to me that I was pretty good at it, although I wondered how. I must have been trained before I lost my memories and been reacting on muscle memory. “Yeah, I took out three hollows by myself, at the same time in Asylum,” I said proudly.

He then frowned at me which made me worried. “We may have to fight a lot more than three of them at once.” He was quiet for a few moments as he thought to himself, then he began smiling, and explained a plan to me. “Okay, you have at least one really good advantage here. Your quiet, not wearing armor makes you light on you hooves and quiet. So the plan is that you can sneak around the hollows, there kinda dumb so it’s not hard. If we do get into a confrontation, just keep moving, you’re fast and light so agility is your best friend here. Stealth and speed, think you can do that?”

I nodded and grinned, this may not be the wisest thing I have ever done, but sneaking into a town full of undead monsters was probably the most entertaining.

We were moving up the road, heading towards the church as it was the largest building, and would offer us a good view of the surrounding area. We hadn’t gotten very far when we came across an abandoned wagon, left here when the town’s population had left. Storm held out his arm stopping me from moving forward, I looked at him feeling a little worried at his serious expression.

He nodded for me to go next to a wall just behind us, and around the corner. After I had moved there I watched him jump into the air, his wings flapping powerfully as he flew into the sky about twenty feet. He then came back down in a dive, landing behind the wagon. I heard a crashing sound and watched as a hollow came flying through the wagon towards me.

With the wagon now destroyed I could see the three hollows that had been hiding just behind it, excluding the one thrown towards me. All of which held the same broken swords from before. The one that was thrown towards me had a large gash in its face, where I assumed the griffon’s axe had smashed it.

My companion was now facing the other three hollows with his axe in one hand the shield in the other. He was half flying around his opponents, using his wings to help him keep balance as he stood on his hind legs, and dodging with a wing propelled jump. Despite his heavy armor he moved with great speed.

He would block one attack with his shield, and attack while his opponent was recovering, devastating whatever he hit with that battle axe. One of the hollows managed to hit with an attack, although there weapon simply pinged off his armor.

After a few seconds of this Storm Feather had taken down all of his opponents, none were left standing. He smiled at me as I approached him, and his blood soaked armor, and weapon. “Told ya, adventuring is fun,” he said with excitement.

We continued onward moving a tad more slowly, and a lot more cautiously. As we continued moving Storm Feather explained that Hollows always tried to set up traps, and ambushes. Apparently they could wait in ambush for years before moving, they didn’t have any need for food, drink, or sleep so they were really good at sneak attacks. Of course they were also slow moving and not very intelligent, so they tend to set up really obvious traps, and were easy to kill individually or in small groups. A Hollow’s real strength was in there large numbers, I was beginning to feel like I was in some sort of horror movie.

After about ten minutes of walking we found ourselves in the crossroad just in front of the church gates, there was another Altar in the middle of the road, surrounded by a barricade of wooden crates, and bushels of hay. The barricade was set up in a box shape around the Altar. It looked like this barricade had been sitting here for a long time now, and several skeletons were laying about wearing armor.

I could imagine that this was someponies final stand against the undead, and the demons. I found myself both pitying them, and honoring them for their brave sacrifices. Not many ponies would be willing to die for a cause, especially in the face of such great peril. I realized now that I didn’t know much about what had happened to Clippers, and after seeing this old barricade I wanted to know more. Was I right in assuming that the demons and hollows attacked the town, or was there something else, and hollows simply moved in afterwards?

I was about to ask when I noticed that there was something moving behind the barricade, quickly me and Storm took cover behind one of the wagons on the side of the road. Five different hollows walked towards the barricade from the street left of us, while another hollow walked out from behind one of the bushels of hay on the barricade to greet them.

They hissed at each other, and made some gestures to the barricade; I assumed this is how they spoke to one another. There was one that seemed to be giving the orders, he was wearing some rusty chainmail, and had a red cape on his back that was baring a gold colored symbol of the sun. The other hollows were wearing chainmail as well, but there’s was in far worse shape, full of holes and such. The one with the cape had a long sword at his side, three others had short swords, one held a spear, and the last one had a loaded crossbow in his mouth, and quiver on his side. All their weapons looked to be in rough condition save for the long sword, and the crossbow.

They began moving into positions around the barricade, and the thought struck me. Maybe not all of the defenders of this barricade had not been the skeletons, what if the hollows before me, were the actual defenders? Feelings of sorrow, and remorse ran through me at the thought. These brave soldiers were probably still trying to protect their home, even after death. I no longer wished to fight them, would they listen to us if we tried to talk to them, could we even understand each other? T.G.’s words echoed through my head. “I wouldn’t want to see you go hollow”.

I looked toward Storm Feather for some idea on what we could do, but he was looking very serious at the situation before us. He was examining the enemies and trying to figure out a strategy while I was feeling hart broken for these creatures. I looked back at the hollows before us, now I knew they couldn’t simply be monsters, but rather they were cursed.

Cursed with un-death, and cursed to hate the living. The only thing I could offer them now was the death that was so cruelly stolen from them in the first place. An honorable death in battle would be the greatest gift these ponies would probably ever receive.

I was about to ask Storm for ideas on how to deal with them, when I noticed a building across the street. It was small bar from the looks of it, some stairs lead downward into the sub street level building. What made it stick out to me was the old banner that was drawn up and pined to the side of the building just above the door. The banner was red and had six symbols in a circle around the symbol of the sun; the symbols themselves were of six elements.

At the top of the banner was a white circle for light, and in clock wise rotation were, on the right side were, a small flame for fire, and a droplet for water just underneath that. At the bottom was a black circle for dark, then on the left side some wavy lines for wind and a mountain for earth. I remembered this symbol from somewhere, and the more I looked at it the more familiar it felt.

***

Suddenly I was no longer standing by Storm Feather, but rather I was standing in a dark circular room. The windows around me showed a city underneath and a dark night sky, the moon shone brightly upon the beautiful city of white stone buildings. I stood at the edge of a table, Reed stood across from me looking down at a banner exactly the same as the one from before. He was smiling as he stared down at it. “So are you happy with the new guild?” I asked him happily.

He looked up at me, and replied with excitement in his voice. “I can’t believe it, the elements of nature. She actually made our guild official. Now we can help fight all the evil that threatens our Equestria.”

I smiled at him, but I felt a little sad as I explained. “Not we. I’m not part of the elements remember.”

His happy smile faded a little bit, and then he looked back at the banner saying. “You should be happy that you’re not part of this. It’s not always as much fun as I make it sound. I’m just crazy enough to love this job, but you would hate it. You were always better at leading from afar, then at getting in the middle of everything. When stuff gets messed up in our group, it’s my job to fix. I can’t count how many injuries I have sustained by simply protecting them from harm. If I ever lost someone, Light…the blame would be on me…I think it would destroy me.”

I walked around the table, and sat next to him. I laid my head down on his shoulder nuzzling his neck. I sighed before saying. “Yeah, I think your right. I always envied you a little bit for being able to go out and fight. But I’m an egghead not a fighter, as Blackout would put it.”

He wrapped his leg around me, pulling me in closer asking me. “Has she been giving you trouble again?”

I closed my eyes and murmured something that was supposed to sound like a yes, I was quite tired. He kissed my forehead, and said. “Don’t worry about it, she is just jealous, I am the only one of us to have such a special Somepony after all.”

I began nodding off to sleep, I didn’t get very much sleep with my work keeping me so busy. My studies and research were all a jumbled mess in my head. The last thing I heard from Reed before I fell asleep was him singing poorly. “Hush now quiet now, it’s time rest your sleepy head.”

You’re singing it wrong, I thought to myself

***

With as sudden as it was the first time, I found myself standing next to Storm Feather again. I thought for a few seconds about what had just happened. I had been standing next to him, and suddenly I was somewhere else with Reed. The only explanation I could come to at this moment was that I had just experienced one of my memories. I guess I might be prone to black outs while this happened, I hope it doesn’t end up causing trouble.

The memory was happy one at least, but I felt a sad feeling inside me. a feeling guilt that I couldn’t quiet place, but maybe that would be explained soon. I felt a tear running down my check; I quickly rubbed it off with my dirty pink hoof.

I looked at Storm who was still examining the situation in front of us. I asked him. “How long was I out?”

He spared me a slightly confused glance for a second before saying. “What are you talking about; you have been standing here the whole time.”

At least my memories were not putting me in danger, yet anyways. I looked at the hollows before us, and back to the bar with The Elements of Nature banner on it. Reed must have been in that building at some point, maybe he made that into a safe house or something. I had to get in there, but at this point if we left our wagon to cross the street, the hollows would see us. These hollows looked rather dangerous and I did not want to mess with them.

I sighed and told Storm Feather about the building across the street, and how it was related to Reed. After a few moments of discussion we only had one plan to deal with the hollows, we attack.

Storm Feather again jumped into the air flying upwards, before diving back down straight into two of the enemies. His armored body knocking them to the ground where he easily finished one of them off with his battle axe. I watched as the one with the spear charged Storm, spear in his mouth, and jabbed at him. Storm deflected the spear, and swung his battle axe at the spear hollow. Taking off its head! The head fell to the ground still holding the spear, as a dark red spray erupted from its body.

I noticed that the short sword wielder was sneaking up behind Storm, I had to do something. I snuck out from behind my cover while drawing my long sword with my amber colored telekinesis. I got right behind the short sword hollow. And thrust my sword into his back! The Hollow I stabbed went down.

There were two more hollows to deal with now. The long sword hollow had now engaged Storm in melee, the two of them were attacking and dodging each other. Wait where was the crossbow hollow? I looked around and found him standing on top of the barricade aiming his crossbow down at Storm; I was not going to allow that. I charged up to the crossbow hollow, jumping on top of the bush he was standing on and plunged my sword into his side. The hollow let out a rasping scream before falling off the bush, I grabbed his Crossbow with my magic before he fell.

I looked over to see the long sword wielding hollow being beaten down by multiple axe blows. I also noticed that one of the hollows knocked down by Storm was getting back up with his sword drawn. I aimed the crossbow at the hollow as it got up. And pull the trigger. The bolt flew true, hitting the hollow in the skull, and continuing its trajectory out the other side. Stopping only after it hit the ground behind the hollow. The hollow simply stood there for a few seconds looking clueless. Then he falls over dead. The last hollow, the one with the long sword was now lying in a pool of dark red liquid. I looked at Storm and felt a smile grow on my face, as he smiled back at me covered in hollow blood.

After taking the crossbow and bolts, we made our way after that into the old building; I avoided the unlit Altar because I didn’t know what it did. Better to avoid a potential problem if I could. The inside of the old bar looked the way you would think a bar should. There was a counter with multiple stools sitting in front of it, bottles of various alcohol hid behind the counter.

I was a little surprised that Storm was completely avoiding the liquor. I of course have no such reservations, as I grabbed a few bottles of dark liquid and placed them not so carefully into my saddlebags. There was also a light brown cloth cape, complete with hood. After poking at it for a few seconds I decided it would offer at least some protection from attacks, for the next time we fought some hollows.

I put on the hooded cape, and noticed that it covered my cutie mark and tail. My tail had a strip of red running along the top of it, while the rest of it was purple. My cutie mark was a purple rose, with a black stem. I couldn’t remember how I got my mark, and that bothered me deeply. I knew that a cutie mark was a sign of who you are, and what your special talent was. What was my special talent, did I have a green hoof? I wish I could remember, but maybe that will come to me in time. It seemed like I was getting my memories back one at a time.

In the corner of the room was a wall decorated with various pieces of paper. Thumb tacks and strings were drawn across the pages of hand written notes as they stuck to the wall. I was not sure what they were for, maybe if I had time to study them I could figure them out, but right now I needed to find out more about Reed.

I found some of the notes on the wall had his signature on them; the most recent looking one actually had a drawing of two bells. The writing on this page was talking about using the two bells; it said that ringing them would grant access to some fortress full of artifacts. I actually had a hard time trying to read them because a lot of the writing was faded, but I began to see a picture of what he was doing here.

He was trying to ring these two bells, so he could get into this fortress. I didn’t know why he was doing this, or even where this fortress was, but I did find out where one of the bells was located. There was a note, and a map of the town. And a circle was drawn around the church here. I looked out the window at the church, and at the top of it was indeed a bell tower. If I could simply get up there maybe I could find out more about where Reed had gone next.

I walked over to the window overlooking the street we had just gotten off of. Storm was keeping a lookout using the windows. I looked at the orange sky, and realized that it would be dark in few hours; we may not have time to get back to camp before dark. I pointed this out to him. He sighed before looking at me, and saying. “You know the reason why ponies use Altars as resting areas is because they seem to ward off the evil monsters. Hollows can get close to them, but only if there in small groups, I think. There are far worse things out there at night then one can imagine. If the sun ever left us…we would be so screwed.”

I shuddered at the thought of a world with no sun light; than I thought I would try and cheer him up, now that he was being all serious. I looked at Storm Feather, and grinned as I asked “Do you wanna go on a crazy adventure?”

He looked at me for a second before he began grinning back at me and nodded. Oh this was going to be fun.