Perched atop a thatched roof cottage, Paladin stared up at the grey and dead sky. The heavens were empty save for a twisted sun, pitch-black with a surface constantly writhing as if blanketed in eager maggots.
Tearing her eyes away from the sky, Paladin turned her attention to the landscape before her. Homes and shops huddled together among the silent hills, with barely visible farmsteads littering the horizon. The village itself was overshadowed by a solitary and decrepit tower, the warped and twisted beams of its roof like a claw aching to grasp the heavens above.
With practiced ease Paladin slid from the roof, her horn glowing as she slowed her descent. She landed silently and weaved carefully around overturned carts and scattered debris. She froze mid step, wincing as a patch of dead grass crunched underhoof. The sudden stop caused the plates of her armor to scrape together, sending a thundercrack of noise through the otherwise abandoned and silent town.
Paladin briefly paused when reaching the tower, considering the scene before her. The tower was ringed in bones, each clad in twisted and ruined armor . Grimacing, Paladin gingerly crept through the forlorn sentries, their empty eyes looking on. She approached the tower's rotted door, wincing as it squeaked on rusty hinges.
Inside the tower, against the far wall, lay the warped bones of dozens of ponies. Paladin spared only a glance for the scars running up the wall where the ponies had clawed, desperate to escape. She quietly cleared the bones in her path before making her way up the wooden stairs at a measured pace, careful to not step on the odd bone or fall where the planks had given way.
She could feel a soft pressure building in her head, like her brain being pressed in from all directions. Her steady pace picked up into a cautious trot, going ever faster as the pressure increased, until she finally burst out on the exposed top of the tower.
Paladin's gaze was quickly drawn to the pulsating light hanging in the center of the room, weakly shining within a spiderweb of black ooze. Reaching out with her magic, Paladin yanked the glowing object from the web, clearing off any of the sludge that clung to it. The dim glow brightened rapidly, stinging her eyes as she quickly tucked it into her saddlebags.
The pressure in her head grew stronger, now a heavy weight that made it nearly impossible to think. She turned around and rushed down the stairs two at a time, gritting her teeth, leaping past the last few steps. She came skidding to a halt as she saw what awaited her outside.
There, standing among the withered bones of the fallen, loomed a sinister inky darkness that held the hazy form of a pony.
Paladin stumbled, the pressure in her head spiking viciously as her vision blurred at the sudden burst of pain. She quickly shook herself as she pushed through the pain, breaking into a galloping sprint as leapt over the bones. Her sword sung as it flew from its sheathe, bisecting the shadow as she charged, sending the monster tumbling to the ground.
She rushed onward, taking care to wipe away any ink that clung to her blade. Behind her, the monster hissed as it rapidly pulled itself back together.
A heavy rumble rolled across the landscape, the air trembling as Paladin glanced up at the bleak sky. The dark sun was alive with motion, tendrils snaking down into the landscape around her. She put on a burst of speed, pushing herself harder as her pulse pounded in her ears.
A tendril impacted ahead of her and coalesced into the form of a minotaur, blocking her path. Paladin's sword swept out, sending the head splattering to the ground as the body lunged at her.
She jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding the grasping hands. Her horn glowed as she reached out with her magic, her four remaining swords flying out in a whirlwind of steel. The beast hissed as it was hacked apart faster than it could reform, but refused to give ground to Paladin.
An arm suddenly shot from the body, striking Paladin's armored chest with a heavy blow. She let out a surprised yelp as she rolled out of the grab that followed, standing to see the minotaur fully reformed. Muttering a curse to herself, she let her swords fall to the ground, the pressure in her head building as she fought to pierce it. The minotaur lurched forward, its arm flying out for Paladin as a surge of light burst from her horn, blasting the creature into pieces.
Paladin snatched the closest sword as she leapt over the broken form of the monster, soaring over the weak tendrils that grasped blindly at her. Wiping the ink off the blade, she returned it to its sheath before galloping away, monsters pursuing her in an ever growing wave.
Her ears twitched at the sound of a quiet sizzling, and she cast her eyes down to her chest plate. The armor was hissing as a few drops of blackness dug into the metal, burning their way through to her. Scowling, she levitated a knife out and sawed through the straps, allowing the plate to fall behind her as she raced out of the town.
Now out in the open, it was much easier to spot and avoid any of the inky monsters that sought to slow her down. Paladin ran until she reached an outcropping of ancient boulders, each etched with dozens of runes. Skidding to a stop, her eyes squeezed closed and breathing heavily, she again pushed through the harsh presence in her mind and searched. She quickly located her goal, magic radiating from one of boulders, the magic of another pony. grabbing onto the signal desperately, she allowed it to pull her across the vast space that separated her from its owner, and vanished from sight.
Anchored in the sky above, the shadow sun felt the thief whisked away by a burst of magic. It could feel the savory magic of its stolen property, coming from deep beneath a mountain that once held a shining city. For an instant it had felt something else too, a powerful and enticing magic that promised a meal of a caliber the monster had not had in a long time.
The beast that ate the sky once again reached out to the world below, deeper this time, soaking into the soil and stone. Deeper and deeper it crawled, guided by the shining magic of that which had been stolen.
