Darkest Dungeons of Canterlot

A thick blanket of black smog covered the sky, the sun hidden and incapable of piercing the dark veil settled for letting a few stray rays trickle through, casting the whole town in a dim fiery light. Into this hellish gloom the four little mares who dared to defy the empty city ventured, their heads full of ill gotten gains and prestigious fame for succeeding where armies had failed. Needless to say these dreams were painfully dashed against the cruel jagged rocks of reality.

"Well we're off to a great start," Scootaloo grumbled from atop a small pile of rocks.

"Not the time Scootaloo," Babs grunted as she lifted Applebloom free of the spike trap she'd fallen in.

"I mean seriously, we've barely gotten through the front gates and Babs has already broken down sobbing and Applebloom has gotten her leg mangled in some ancient trap, maybe we should turn back."

"Scootaloo we're fine," Applebloom grunted, "Sweetie, a bit of healing?"

"Oh right, sorry." Sweetie Belle began her soft sonnet.

Scootaloo took this time to look around at the ruined town spread out before her. The shining white town of gilded glory that she recalled from the times she had visited in the lost era of Sunshine and Peace was far from how she recalled it. The gilding had fallen away with the white plaster covering the buildings to leave only graying stones in the rough memories of streets and buildings. What few splashes of color that she could find were muted under the thick ever present gloom that blocked out the sky around the old city like a thick burlap bag. Foul scribblings and and weathered bloodstains covered the walls and streets where they were not covered by old armor and shattered bones. Scootaloo's eyes drifted up to the most shattered or the ruins sitting like a slumbering dragon above the city, the blackened and broken castle of Canterlot. Scootaloo swore she felt it watching her.

"Better?" Sweetie asked breaking Scootaloo from her staring contest.

"Good enough," Applebloom grunted favoring her leg still red with blood, "We don't have time to get me at one hundred percent out here. We could be attacked at a moment's notice by-."

"Skeleton soldiers!" Babs shouted slamming her visor down and drawing her sword.

"I was going to say crazed cultist, but that works to," Applebloom said likewise dropping her mask over her face and moving in front of Sweetie Belle.

The group braced themselves as several of the broken bodies around them seethed an ugly black aura and rose to form a pale mockery of the ponies they had once been in life, a trio of mercenaries and one skeleton dressed in once fine clothing smiling toothily as it clutched a shining goblet in a flickering aura. The skeletal ponies carrying a club and rusty sword advanced to the front as the one with the crossbow moved to cover the laughing noble. For the briefest of moments the two sides simply glared at each other neither willing to make the first move. They each waited, waiting for the other side to make a mistake, to trip, to flinch, to blink. Despite the stalemate lasting for only a second, the moment seemed to stretch towards infinity as the leather grips on weapons creaked and the smallest bit of sweat dripped down Babs' face.

Predictable Scootaloo was the one who broke the stalemate, "I call dibs on that chalice!"

She darted forward drawing both blades and pistol as she swept past Babs and fired are round into the skull of one of the skeletons up front causing it to howl and stagger back a step as she swept past it and charged the noble. The noble simply laughed at her and tossed its goblet full of wine in her face. Scootaloo screamed back pedaling rapidly as the long rancid wine burned her face like acid and she was knocked flying as she felt a club smash her in the jaw.

"Scootaloo!" Sweetie screamed.

"Hold the line Babs!" Applebloom shouted casting a worried look down at her injured friend before snarling and flinging a caustic vile at the injured skeleton, smiling as it glass shattered covering the skeleton with a thick green slime. The skeleton screamed and thrashed as it slowly dissolved into a pile of mush. Her smile was stolen away as a bolt slammed into her shoulder.

"Applebloom," Sweetie Belle gasped drawing a breath and holding out her holy symbol.

"Scoots first," Applebloom snarled.

Sweetie Belle flinched and turned to the pained pegasus whimpering out a small hymn as Babs swung her sword through the club wielder and scattering it across the pockmarked road. She was rewarded with a swift dagger to the gut, thankfully for the tan earth pony her armor absorbed most of the rusty implement's blow, but a nasty bruise would remain to remind her of the attack.

"Surprise you undead asshole!" Scootaloot roared springing away from Sweetie Belle's ministrations, her orange coat already regrowing. Her wing blades tearing at the noble's clothing and leaving deep chips in its weathered bones. It snarled angrily back at her, but continued smiling as the crossbow wielder approached from behind and stabbed out at Scootaloo, only to find its blade digging into Babs armor. The skeletal crossbow paused, almost seeming to be confused until another green vial slammed into its head filling the air with a painful hissing sound.

"Enough of this," Babs grunted dropping her sword to pull out a holy symbol of her own, "May Faust strike you blights on her land down and deliver you to your just rewards!" The symbol sparked and shown with a powerful golden light that pulsed with an almost palpable pressure. The remain dead around her recoiled as if struck and shattered falling once more into inanimate bones and rusty weapons. And with that, the brief battle ended and the streets fell once more into silence aside from a slow weary wind that seemed to carry a pained moan wherever it went.

"Well that was a lively twelve seconds," Applebloom grunted ripping the bolt free of her flesh with a grunt.

"Somepony want to explain to me how fighting a couple bones can hurt so much?" Babs asked, collapsing to the ground and softly poking her injuries.

"Evil black magics?" Sweetie Belle offered laying her holy symbol against Applebloom's injury.

"I wasn't looking for an answer Sweetie, just grumbling in general."

"Well quit your grumbling and let's get a move on it," Scootaloo said, "chances are there's more than enough bones for whoever raised these shits to make more."

"What not going to loot them first?" Babs smiled ruefully as she rose back to her hooves.

"Already did," Scootaloo smiled back, "And a couple of nearby buildings. You really need to pay attention Babs."

"What? But how? When?" Babs cast a confused look to Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, both of whom seemed as surprised as Babs.

"Come on fillies, we need to get moving if we want to finish this quest the Betrayer gave us." Scootaloo said giving Babs a small push.

"And what exactly was this quest?" Applebloom asked pausing to peek into a nearby house and grimacing at what was inside.

"She just told me 'Wander the streets of your ancestry, once familiar, now foreign.' and then looked at me like it meant something. Way I figure it we'll clear like three streets and then call it a day."

"Well I admit it hardly looks like it did the last time we were here," Sweetie Belle said looking sadly up at the topple building that blocked the road before them, "The town was so pretty back during the wedding, I wish it was like that again. I'd even keep the part with changelings attacking everything, at least we kinda know what they are and that we can beat them."

"Sweetie we know what these monsters are," Babs grunted around her sword as her, Scootaloo, and Applebloom quickly dispatched a small swarm of overgrown maggots that had sprung up from under a large rock, "The *nrrg* False Goddess and her sister in their hubris dabbled in the darkest of magics and unleashed these horrors on the world. Faust, she even admitted as much in her latest cry for others to fix her mistakes. Shit those things just eat right through armor."

"Are you okay?" Sweetie asked worriedly.

"I will be," Babs looked worriedly at the several bit sized holes in her leg not speaking her silent thoughts.

"At least it wasn't YAARG!" Applebloom howled in pain as another of her legs became trapped in a horrid net of spikes.

"Damn did the guard leave this crap behind thinking it would help stop these monsters?" Scootaloo asked jamming her blade into a small piece of the trap and giving it a small twist letting the trap fall to pieces.

"I doubt it," Applebloom grunted quickly bandaging her leg, "It looks to recent, I think someone else laid these traps. Probably the same jerk that went and did that bit of necromancy back there."

"You think they're watching us now?" Sweetie Belle asked, casting a worried look at the countless darkened windows in the crypt like houses glaring spitefully down at the four intruders.

"Undoubtedly," Scootaloo said her trained eyes catching numerous shadows moving like sentient things, curtains blowing in absent winds, piles of bones and armor rising from beneath a large pile of rubble, "Shit! More skeletons!"

~~~~*~~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~

"Okay that didn't go to badly," Applebloom said shaking the bone dust off herself.

"Speak for yourself," Babs snorted as she helped Scootaloo remove a bolt that had pierced the pegasus' leg, "Whatever those things have in their goblets is nasty, and I think there's still some in my armor. It stings like the world's worst sun burn."

"At least Scootaloo found more treasure right?" Sweetie offered as she once more applied her holy symbol to Scootaloo's wound.

"Hardly," Scootaloo grunted trying to not scratch the itch her regenerating flesh was making, "A couple hundred bits and a couple family crest."

"I still want to know where you're finding this stuff in the time it takes us to take stock of our injuries." Babs muttered spitting out the bloody bolt.

"Let's just get moving before we," Applebloom stopped as she was brought up short by Scootaloo grabbing her tail, "What's up Scoots?"

"You almost stepped on another trap," Scootaloo said stepping in front of Applebloom and jamming her knife under a rock. The reaction was instant, another nest of blades shot through the rubble covering the road attempting to pierce a limb that wasn't there.

"Okay this is getting ridiculous," Applebloom snarled.

"Yeah, that trap wasn't there before the fight and I didn't see anyone moving about while we fought." Scootaloo said leering at the countless windows again.

"Okay now you're just letting the city get to you," Babs chuckled walking past the pegasus, "You sure like to pretend you know what you're doing but you're really *nrg*!"

"Feel like finishing that thought?" Scootaloo asked smirking at Babs.

"Shut up!" Babs snarled forcibly ripping her leg free of a second spike trap, "Fuck that shit hurts."

"Hold on Babs, I can fix this," Sweetie Belle said holding out her holy symbol.

"Forget it Sweetie," Applebloom said lowering her mask once more as she quickly stitched up Babs wounds, "We need to start heading back. We're tired and its becoming obvious that someone is both toying with us and trying to lure us into a trap. I say we call it a day and fall back."

"I'm fine," Babs snorted, "I can keep going." Babs feel silent as she caught a brief glimpse of two somethings up ahead, one of which looked big. "Right," she slapped her visor down, "Calling it a day. Let's go."

"That bitch better pay us for this," Scootaloo muttered her gaze lingering on a shadow where the roof of an old town house had fallen away to reveal an empty attic. She snorted and quickly turned to follow her friends.

From those shadow emerged a single mare. Her face obscured by a tarnished silver skull cap shaped in a cruel mockery of the sun, with voluminous black and red rolls of fabric flowing out from beneath its cruel light. She watched the four injured ponies make their way back towards the ruined gates and a wide cruel smile slipped out from beneath her scull cap. Why not give them one last parting gift?

She reached behind her and clutched her golden staff in her hooves. She muttered a few quiet twisted words into the scepter and, despite the lack of horn or wings, caused it to become surrounded with a thick black tar-like aura. She pointed the scepter towards a pile of rocks and chuckled as a new batch of undead rose and attacked the four. She turned away with a quiet hum. If this was like the last few times, she'd have plenty of opportunities to properly begin playing with these foolish little ponies that dared try and defy her and her masters. She cackled quietly as she imagined tearing the foalish little creature body, mind, and soul.