Nothing.

That was all the being knew and felt as it floated in an endless void of pitch-blackness. Time, as the entity knew it, seemed to have forsaken its role in this plane; while it had floated for what felt like eons, in reality the being could have been in this place for only a few seconds or minutes. At one point, it tried to see what kind of body it had, only to see the same nothingness that it had started to grow accustomed to.

Where this place was or why the being was here, it could not think of an answer. It's mind was bereft of anything and everything, save for the fact that it knew that it simply was. Frustration and despair filled every fiber of its being as its thoughts wandered towards darker, madness-inducing paths. Was it a prisoner, exiled to this empty realm as some form of punishment? Had it died in some previous life or existence, and this was what had awaited it from the moment it first came to be? Did some higher power place him here for its own sadistic amusement?

A faint, almost unnoticeable sensation appeared in the back of its consciousness, a feeling of uneasiness that made the entity feel as if it was being observed. Dismissing it as nothing more than the beginning of its inevitable descent into madness, the being turned its focus back to doing the only thing it could really do in this vacant, isolated space: think.

For a while, it entertained itself with thoughts of how it could escape this realm and what it would do afterward. It imagined what kind of places or other beings could possibly exist outside of the void that it was trapped in. Eventually, though, it grew tired of that and wracked its mind for something else it could do to pass the time.

After some time, it finally decided that it needed a name, because at least then it would have an identity to use if it ever escaped from this empty place. As it went down the list of names from what little that it could recall, it had almost reached a decision when that same sensation of uneasiness resurfaced, much to the being's annoyance.

When it turned its "head" to subdue that damnable feeling of being watched, for a split-second the being could have sworn that it had seen a flicker of...something appear in the corner of its vision. Thinking that it had been only a hallucination born from the desperate need of its own psyche for some form of stimulus input, it returned its attention to where the anomaly had supposedly been, expecting there to be nothing there.

If the being actually had a physical form, it would have let out a primal scream of pure fear as its vision was suddenly taken up by a nightmarish figure that seemed to fill the void around it. What seemed like horns or antlers the color of tarnished silver stretched high above the rest of its body from its shoulders, their surface dotted by blood-red eyes that glared at the being and seemed to pierce into its soul. The rest of its body was a shade of black just light enough to be distinguishable from the dark emptiness around it, but it made very little difference. It's left hand was grotesquely oversized, and what appeared to be enormous grey teeth covered every inch of its palm, like a second gaping maw. Clutched in its right hand was a jet-black weapon of some sort, perhaps a halberd or an axe, that looked to be made of bone or some chitinous material.

As the being gazed at the abomination, terrified and unable to look away, many smaller figures slowly began to appear from behind the massive horror. Whatever these things were, their bodies had almost certainly been twisted or corrupted in some way: the joints of their arms were bent backwards and articulated at awkward angles, every movement eliciting a low shriek of either rage, agony, or both from the creatures. A massive domed head sat upon their shoulders with varying amounts of glowing red eyes scattered across the surface of their "faces" that seemed to look everywhere and nowhere at once. Behind these twisted mockeries of life floated large torso-shaped clouds of black mist, a shimmering white outline surrounding their bodies and two small pinpricks of white light marking where their eyes were.

Whispers echoed endlessly from all directions, the unintelligible sounds filling the being's mind and threatening to consume its sanity until nothing but a husk was left. The massive horror reach out towards the being with its horrific left hand, a grating shriek that filled the entirety of the abyss escaping its mouth as the tooth-filled palm inched closer and closer to the being; with every inch that the hand approached, the whispers rapidly grew louder and incoherent until all that could be heard was a cacophany of monstrous shrieks and roars.

No matter how hard it tried to look away, to move out of reach, to do something, the being was frozen in place as absolute terror radiated off of it in waves. It could do nothing but watch as its certain demise approached it slowly and torturously, feelings of helplessness and desperation filling its thoughts as it braced itself for whatever fate awaited it.

Just before the abomination's hand made contact, something deep within the being roared to life as a sudden warmth spread throughout its form and a brilliant orange glow flared around it. The numerous smaller horrors recoiled in pain and fear as the fierce light burned away their bodies, frantically scrambling over each other to get away from the deadly glow. Within seconds, only the largest monstrosity remained where it stood, ignoring how entire patches of its flesh were burnt to ashes by the blinding light in favor of letting out a roar of intense hatred and fury before everything around the being disappeared in a flash of white.

---{}---

The being was momentarily blinded by the sudden flash of white after so long of being suspended in an endless black void, a wave of throbbing pain sweeping through its mind as its vision slowly came back.

When the being's vision finally returned, though it was still fairly blurry, the first thing that it noticed was that it was no longer in the emptiness of the dark void. Although it was simply in a white void instead of a black one, it was by no means empty: countless black outlines of various shapes and sizes covered the landscape and cast light shadows on the ground, and high above the white horizon were the outlines of...clouds, if it remembered correctly, that floated through the sky through some unseen and unfelt wind.

The scenery was quite a welcome change for the being, its vision taking in everything it could with almost childish glee as its instinctual need for interaction between itself and its environment was finally sated. It shifted its position towards the silhouette of what it recalled was a tree, and gently reached out its hand to feel the tree's rough surface.

It took a moment for the being's mind to register that it had a hand, and by extension a physical body, for the first time that it could remember. It brought both of its new hands up to its eyes, noting that much like the trees and the rest of its surroundings, its hands and arms were little more than black outlines. As the being continued to examine its new body, it saw that on the back of its right hand was a black ring that seemed to slowly send spirals of black mist or smoke outwards from the center.

For a brief moment, nothing else existed but the being and the marking on its hand. It was mesmerized by the mark, by the thick tendrils of mist that it constantly spewed forth from, by the strange warmth and cold that it caused, by the endless depth that the mark seemed to possess...

The being was torn from its trance when it sensed...something deeper within this tree-filled area; something that was ancient yet new, something weak yet powerful...and most of all, something that felt so familiar and inviting. Whatever this was, it was making its presence known to the being and calling out to it like an old friend.

Drawn towards the silent calling, the being walked further into the trees and watched as earth and trees eventually gave way to a small clearing, where an old wooden bridge connected two sides of an almost bottomless ravine. From where it stood, it could see the very top of a structure nestled behind the treeline on the opposite side of the ravine. With no other visible option in sight, the being let out a silent sigh within its mind and somewhat nervously crossed the bridge. Each creak and groan of the planks beneath its feet elicited a wince and a pause in its advance towards its destination, not wanting to accidentally make the bridge collapse beneath it. As it approached the halfway mark of the bridge, a plank suddenly gave out beneath it and gravity almost dragged the being's left leg down into the newly-created gap. Unwilling to risk the same thing happening twice, it sprinted the rest of the way across the bridge.

When the being reached the other side of the ravine, it cast a single loathing glare at the deathtrap of a bridge before it continued on its way. Very quickly, forest and nature gave way to stone and brick as the being climbed a ruined stone path up a hill. As the structure that it saw earlier came into view, the calling that had been resonating in the depths of its mind rapidly grew louder and louder until it became a dull roar. The only sounds that could be heard were the sounds of the being's footsteps as it walked through the halls of the...castle, it supposed the structure could be called, and took in its surroundings.

After what seemed like an hour of aimlessly exploring the castle in search of the source of the strange calling, the being eventually came upon a half-collapsed passage that was partially blocked by debris from the ceiling above. Assuming that it was just going to be a dead-end, it was about to continue walking when the calling suddenly shifted from a broad area around it to a single point down the hall. The being stared at the collapsed passage, uncertain of whether it should proceed or not until finally, with a mental sigh, it ducked below a chunk of stone leaning hazardously against the wall and continued on.

As the being advanced further and further down the hall, the abundant rubble that had nearly blocked the path gradually disappeared until only a few small stones remained strewn across the floor. At the end of the hall, it could see a set of decaying doors that lay slightly ajar; it took little effort for the doors to be pushed wide open, the ancient doors letting out a screeching groan as their hinges ground together after many years of disuse.

Almost immediately, the being's eyes were drawn to the most prominent feature of an almost completely empty room: a small, flickering fire that rested in front of a tall broken window. A thin sword protruded from a pile of ash that seemed to feed the fire, though how the ash acted as fuel, it did not know. What it did know was that the calling was undoubtedly coming from the fire, the presence in his mind all but screaming in confirmation.

The being was overcome with a sudden, burning desire to lay its hand against the fire, as if it was always meant to do so. Walking forward until it stood almost directly in front of the fire, it reached its hand out towards the flames, a soothing warmth spreading throughout the being's body as its hand approached.

When its hand made contact with the flames, the being's mind and body were overwhelmed by a multitude of new, indescribable sensations. As the world around it transformed, the being suddenly remembered everything that it had unknowingly lost.

Its -- no, HIS -- name was Richter Douglas. He was a human, he was 27 years old, and he had been attending a convention for the Souls series in North Carolina when he was approached by a eerie old man dressed as the Merchant from Resident Evil. The Merchant had offered Richter almost perfect replicas of various items from Demon's Souls, Darks Souls, and even Bloodborne. He...he had bought the Elite Knight set from Dark Souls, the Astora's Straight Sword, the Defender's Shield, and even the seemingly useless pendant from the first Dark Souls game.

After he had bought the gear and shook hands with the Merchant to seal the deal...he found himself in that black Abyss.

Richter looked down at his hands and saw them clad in the Elite Knight Gauntlets, the once-polished metal now scratched and worn as if ages had passed; burned through the back of his right glove was the Darksign, marking him as an Undead. The rest of the Elite Knight set covered his body from head to toe in bradden steel, and attached to his back was his sword and shield.

While he gazed in disbelief at himself, the world around him became clear and whole compared to the purgatory-like world that he had been in minutes prior. From below the horizon, a fierce orange glow emerged as the sun rose into view and began a new day.

---{}---

From a balcony overlooking the rest of Canterlot, Princess Luna gazed out at the Everfree Forest with a concerned frown etched on her face. She had woken up after she felt a strong disturbance coming from that accursed forest, something that was entirely unknown to her despite her millennia of experience.

Her sister had not yet woken up, which Luna guessed was for the best. While she loved her sister to death and appreciated her help with various matters after her thousand years of imprisonment in the moon, the Lunar Princess felt that it would be more advantageous if only herself and maybe the Elements of Harmony were to investigate. If the ponies were to see their Princesses flying towards the Everfree, the skittish populace would likely start an unwarranted panic.

Luna walked back into her room and levitated an old quill laying on her desk, dipping it in fresh ink and quickly writing out a letter to her sister's pupil, Twilight Sparkle, before rolling it up and sending it to the intended recipient with a flash of light. With luck, young Sparkle would be able to show some discretion and gather her friends together without alerting the entirety of Ponyville to the situation.

Luna returned to her balcony and spread her wings, giving them a few powerful flaps and then lifting herself a few feet off the ground before flying full-speed towards Ponyville and the Everfree Forest.

---{}---

Somewhere far away, beneath a sea of sand, an ancient and powerful evil arose from its slumber.

Author's Note

Hello, everyone. I know that those of you who actually READ my other shitty story are probably waiting for the next chapter to come out for it.

The truth is, I'm kind of a scatter-brain when it comes to writing: I tend to start a story, work on it a bit, then put it on hiatus and start a new one. Rinse and repeat.

This is a quick little 'experiment' that I'm doing to gauge whether or not I'm better off being a reader, a writer, or both. Any feedback you can give would be appreciated, but I understand if you don't want to.

However, if you DO leave a comment/feedback, then PLEASE keep everything you want to say on ONE message. I do not want the same user to spam 12 responses in a row in the comments section like one user did on my other story.

One last note for you readers: For this chapter and part of the next, there will be very little dialogue because (A) I feel that it sort of adds to the atmosphere and (B) I'm not the best at writing dialogue, so I'm waiting until it's absolutely necessary to have the characters talk for more than a few lines. I hope you all understand.

Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you all in the next chapter!