I remember the beginning of the end of my life.
As I stand here before The Nightmare, faced with an impossible choice, I can’t help but reflect on the day where everything began. Back when Shining Armor was my closest friend, and the closest thing to a father I ever had. Back when things were simple, as simple as making sure the fires that light the endless night stay lit.
I am faced with an impossible choice, I turn to the flame, its multi-colored hue filling the crystal cavern with promises of life, love, harmony. I turn away, away from the light, towards the dark and ponder.
I remember in the beginning I was faced with a choice no less life changing, no less important. It feels like a thousand years have passed but I know in my soul that it hasn’t. My life before was so simple, it feels like. I feel like I am a different pony now than I was all that time ago…maybe I am…
The smell of embers burns my nostrils, and I turn back to the fire, the fire that ponies claim to have been the First Flame, the fabled Tree; but to me this is just the last...the first was so very long ago.
“Time to wake up, Hazel. It’s morning. Probably.”
I groaned. Shining’s voice had a way of cutting through the blissful sleepy fog in my head. Mornings were never fun with that old stallion around. If you would even call it that. Not like there’s a sun in Tartarus anyway.
“Give me… five more minutes” He won’t. I know he won’t but I have to try because there’s just a slight chance of— “Oof!”
He’s not wasting anytime this morning. With a clatter and a crash a pile of weapons and other miscellaneous equipment fell over my prone form. “Whyyy?” I moaned. All I wanted was five more minutes.
“Quit your complaining and get up,” To anypony else he would sound threatening or even dead serious, but we’ve been through this routine for weeks and I knew on the inside he was laughing a little at my antics.
“Yes, dad.” I saluted sleepily, slapping a hoof to my forehead.
I could hear him puff air out his nostrils suddenly. Maybe calling him ‘dad’ wasn’t the best move, but he would get over it. It’s always been a touchy subject.
With a huff, I got off the hay that made up my “bed” and shook off the remaining straw that had found its way to stick on my skin.
I breathed in deeply. Smells like he made estus soup. Again. Brimstone and a touch of rosemary. I vaguely remembered what real food tasted like and that hot mess wasn’t real food.
Rubbing the sleep from my eyes I sigh and open them, hissing as the light of the bonfire hits my light deprived irises. “The light, it burns!” I hissed as I began to writhe on the ground, eliciting a quiet chuckle out of my normally stoic caretaker.
I cracked open one of my eyes to see him standing over me with my armor and weapons floating silently above me, encased in a faint pinkish purple glow, along with a bowl of that accursed soup that he was so fond of.
“Quit fooling around, Hazel, and eat,” Shining Armor admonished, though I could tell his heart wasn’t in it. “We’re leaving soon to check up on the other fires and we’ve got a lot of ground to cover in such a short time.” He unceremoniously dropped the armor and other equipment down onto the hard-stone floor and shoved the bowl towards me.
Grumbling I sat down on my hunches and accepted the bowl, downing it in one gulp, ignoring the burn that followed because of the heat, it was liquid fire after all it would never cool down. Coughing a little as the soup went on its journey and now fully awake I turned to Shining Armor and asked “Why do we always have Estus Soup in the morning Shiny, wouldn’t it be simpler to just drink some from the flask?”
I didn’t receive an answer to my question, my mentor just rolled his eyes and turned back to the bonfire, giving me privacy once more to change and get ready for the day. Shining had a strange sense of modesty and privacy to me, after all we were both ponies, physically the same in all but our genders, the horn on his head and my lack thereof. He was always a bit ridiculous, as far as I knew I had always looked like this. After putting on my armor and telling Shining that I was dressed we set out on our daily routine.
Our routine mainly consists of patrolling the three bonfires that reside inside the Tartarus Asylum, including the one we had made camp at, to make sure that Tirek hadn’t tried to devour the magic and souls that kept them alight. It was always tedious making the trek across the asylum to the different bonfires. While the two of us, being undead, could see lit bonfires no matter the distance, that didn’t make it any easier to get to them. We still had to make our way across miles of rock and earth surrounded by the corpses of long dead demons and monsters from an age long since gone. Not to mention the hallowed undead wandering the halls, wailing in ceaseless hunger for souls and magic.
That day’s trip had started off like the rest, we left our bonfire and walked down the stone stairway that connected our campground to the rest of the asylum. Below us was a branching path that would take us one direction or the other, leading to two separate bonfires, one led deeper into the asylum, the other led directly to the only exit that still stood.
“Dibs on visiting Cerby!” I clapped my hooves in excitement and Shining just shrugged and began walking down the left path.
Cerberus was one of the three constants in my life, and outside of Shining Armor, my best friend in the whole world.
I trotted down the right path with a grin, my armor clinking and clacking each step of the way, I loved visiting Cerberus, Shining doesn’t get it, he thinks of Cerberus as just a guard dog, I saw him as a big puppy.
I finally get down from the stairway that led from our camp and into the dark hallway that connected to the Asylum exit, as well as Cerberus’ chamber. Pausing for a moment, I rustled through my bags finding the oil lantern and lighting it quickly I continued my trek forward, hooking the little lantern to my belt as I went.
Living in the darkness of the Asylum all my life, I never held a fear for the dark; the shadows that danced because of my little oil lamp always made me giggle when I was younger and to an extent the shapes still entertain me even now.
There was very little that scared me as a child, thinking back on it. I remember being afraid of some of the tales that Shiny shared with me, about Before, with characters in them like Nightmare Moon or Discord. When I asked him if any of the stories were true, he’d just laugh and ruffle what little mane I had.
“No, Hazel, they aren’t real, not anymore…” he’d say, but I could always see a little hurt in his eyes when he’d say that, but I never pried into it… I wish I had.
Shaking off the past and returning to the present I looked to my surroundings and began to take note of the hall. I had been down that hallway countless times, either to visit Cerberus or to stand guard in his place when a break out called him away from the door. Now though the hall was different, eerily different. My ears turned slightly, trying to hear the chains of the undead ponies as they wandered aimlessly in their cells, or the wails of demons in the distance calling for blood and magic, but there was none.
Turning my head, I drew my gladius and continued forward, slower now, trying to make out why the corridor was so silent, why the Asylum was so silent. There was always noise within the depths of the prison, that was the first thing I recognized growing up here, noise was good, no noise was bad.
The last time the Asylum was silent was when a siren had broken out of her chains, she had used her song and what little magic she had left to put the entire Asylum, including Cerberus, to sleep. Shining and I had heard the song but thought nothing of it at the time, thinking the siren was just trying to drain magic from one of the hollows nearby, we were wrong.
It took us all day to find her, and we wouldn’t have if it weren’t for the bloodied hoof marks against the wall leading from her emptied cage towards Cerberus and the Asylum’s exit. We found her laying down next to Cerberus, hooves bleeding from their use to bludgeon her way out of her cell and chains. She died of blood loss not twenty feet from the door.
After that Shining and I made sure to not to take any form of silence lightly, some ponies might have called us paranoid, but Shining called it constant vigilance. I stepped lightly into the main entrance, the chamber that housed Cerberus, and I scanned the room.
The chamber was colossal, it had to be to not only leave room for Cerberus to safely prowl, but also to make way for some of the larger beasts that used to be herded into the Asylum. Looking to the right side of the room, I could see another opening that would lead me further down into the Asylum, towards the holding cells that mainly held the undead. I took a deep breath and exhaled through my nose, trying to calm my heart down, something was wrong, something was horribly wrong with the room, with the Asylum. Looking to the left I could feel my heart stop and the cold touch of fear set in.
I ran forward, my armored hoofbeats echoing across the room. I made a sharp left turn and came to a sudden halt. I looked fearfully down at the coiled sword that lay broken and forgotten in the soot and bone, and realized with fear in my heart that the Bonfire was out.
Author's Note
Special Thanks to Sandcroft for editing and pre-reading.
It was foretold, long before my time, and even the time of those who came before me, that the world would one day fall to ruin. The Princesses of the Sun and Moon would prove unable to provide for the land forever, and the stars would weep with their passing. Regardless of the preparations of the occupants of the Princess’ country, their land collapsed under the weight of the two dead monarchs. Day and night were thrown into chaos and disharmony.
And so, the inevitable came to pass.
The revered Tree of Harmony, despite being well taken care of in the years leading to the Great Cataclysm, grew sick. The attendants of the tree, the Elements of Harmony, were powerless to save the harmony that had provided them with life for so long. One dark night, the tree burst into flames, unable to hold strong under the stress of so much chaos.
But the Tree of Harmony was not keen on departing from the world without a gift. A gift that would extend the lives of the world’s dying races. A gift of fire and prosperity.
Bonfires sprouted across the land, their glowing embers forming the last bastions of harmony this world would ever know. But with this gift came an awful curse, the marks that Equestrians held so dear, the ones that gave a pony their calling became marred by the accursed Darksign. The bonfires, while bastions of harmony and magic, could not completely heal the terrible gash left by the destruction of the Tree of Harmony, and as the light began to fade, the undead rose from their graves, seeking the light that they so desperately crave. The Gates of Tartarus burst open, flooding the land with monsters the likes of which had not been seen for millennia
As the fire flickers and dies, sacrifices are made and pacts are formed. The world is dying, being consumed by the dark. But there is one brave undead, chosen by fate, that will bring back the light, or plunge the world into darkness..
