Silver Spoon and Babs followed close behind the group as they descended the depth of the Parish towards the Ash Lake. Despite being the easier of the two choices to get to the witch it would still be no easy task.

Their first task was to find a way to descend into the furthest depths of the Parish. Then the would have to brave the undead hordes that lived there, and then brave the Ash Lake itself.

Silver Spoon listened while the adults spoke about the horrors they would face, and it made her feel uneasy. Her training was still coming along, but she was still lacking in confidence in her abilities. She was more worried about her friends than anything, the guilt of surviving after Ponyville weighed heavily in her heart. She saw one who was her best friend lying cold in the streets with her family.

It was a small comfort, but she was happy that Diamond was with her family in the end.

Silver still clung to the hope her family was still alright.

Loreane followed behind Sir Alonne as he lead the group to a section of ramp that sloped slightly downwards. Nearby a tall wooden toch stood derelict and unlit. Sir Alonne lit the torch lighting the immediate area with a brilliant orange glow. Like much of the areas they came to here it was nothing but makeshift stands and platforms of wood from various ages long past. Old paths and new paths overlapped in a complex almost randomized way with paths that lead to nowhere and circled back around at several intervals.

Thankfully, Sir Alone and his knights were quite familiar with most of the areas here and the journey was faster with them leading.

As the torch lit however there was trouble waiting in the darkness. Babs barely had a second to react when a jagged broken sword came down towards her head. She stepped back with a loud gasp and brought her War chime down on a armored hollowed warrior.

The bones snapped and the aged armor cracked as the hollowed knight was smashed under the war chime.

“We got undead!” Babs yelled, sweeping the undead knight away from her with her hammer.

As the war chime rang with the sweep Silver Spoon cast a force miracle as the group centered around her. Like a well oiled machine the group was circled around Silver protecting her as she cast her miracle. After a quick word she used the powers of old and created a close outward blast of energy that shot from her all around in a spectacular bright light.

Several grunts and moans were heard from all around the group as the force dissipated. Trixie cast several candlelight spells all around illuminating the area with a bright glow. All around them the undead limped around dully. The sudden light however drew their attentions. One hollow undead wore a tattered robe and carried with it a bell. With a twist of its wrist the bell rang. The sound echoed over the entire area as it knelt down chiming its bell over and over.

A bright golden sigil appeared around the hollow undead and the rest of the hollowed began to glow with a dull golden light. Sir Alonne drew his long no-dachi and readied himself as did his knights. Trixie prepared her fireball, Lorane flicked her wrist and summoned a long flame whip, and Babs, was ready to smash.

With a loud shrill cry the undead charged the group from all sides.

The undead's armored feet clanked as they drew near, with each step the group was counting ready to strike as soon as they came within three steps of them. Trixie however didn’t wait.

Trixie cast her fireball into the oncoming group and blew a small group of five away with her spell. She then cast a powerful magical beam that cut through several more of the hollwed undead killing them instantly. Silver Spoon stood ready, keeping her tail wrapped around Babs and held on. Babs looked over her shoulder for just a moment to catch Silver Spoon’s gaze. With a reassuring nod they steeled their nerves as Sir Alonne gripped his no-dachi firmly in his grasp.

“Attack! Send them all to the next life!” He ordered chagin forward.

Sir Alonne sprinted towards the closest allowed. With a swift strike his blade became a blur and cut through his enemy like it was wet paper. His knights too were swift as the were deadly. Their blades were as fast as lightning striking down their foes with great skill and precision. Loreane watched as they moved. It was watching a well choreographed dance, something she’d never seen before now.

The way they moved with such skill amazed her.

Returning her focus on the fight she brought the fire whip up and with a swift snap of her write the flames extended out hitting a undead knight in the chest. The full armor it wore was burned through easily and cut through the rotten flesh beneath. As the dead knight fell over Loreane whipped around on her ores, spinning around in a circle, the fire whip spinning around her as she did.

The flaming whip cut through the undead with ease hacking off limbs, armor, and the area around them in a fiery wheel of death, and with each fallen foe their souls collected in the soul vessel on Loreane’s belt. The undead horde was easy enough to dispatch by the tiny band.

At this time Sir Alonne and his knights had all but eradicated the horde when a loud series of clanking noises could be heard coming near. Trixie stopped and heard it too. She then cast another candlelight spell and threw it behind her in the direction of Alonne and his Knights.

From the darkness past another derelict wooden bridge the candlelight spell slowly floated over it and down revealing a large number of heavily armor clad warriors. They were large easily standing over eight feet tall. They wore tattered heavy metal armor with large chest pieces and shoulder pieces that looked massive with large red capes strung on their backs. Their helmets were full headgear with foldup visors that gave an almost crow like appearance. Some had large shields and swords, some had long elegant rapiers and bucklers, many more had crossbows.

Alonne and his knights readied themselves as the armored knights marched towards them. A few were carrying banners with a large crest on the tattered cloth. It took a moment for Loreane to recognize the banner, but when she did she visibly tensed up.

She recalled in her early schooling years to become a Firekeeper many of the old kingdoms and empires of long past. That included their crests and banners. These were the Balder Knights.

“Trixie, get the fillies and stay close to me!” Lorenae yelled dispelling her fire whip.

“What do you mean, Loreane?” Trixie asked gathering the two foals by her side. “What are they?”

“Balder Knights,” the firekeeper replied darkly.

Alonne and his knights backed off from their attack, and took several steps back from the closing Balder Knights. The archers drew large crossbows and took the front. Trixie gasped seeing the sheer amount of bodies before her. There had to be over fifty archers! Each readied their crossbows took aim in the sky as the rapier and sword wielding knights stood still, ready to charge.

Then without any warning the archers fired their arrows into the darkness above. The whining of their feathers cutting through the darkness was eerie as the group huddled together and Trixie quickly erected a azure blue magical barrier around them. The arrows rained down on them hitting the barrier and creating small ripples through the barrier. The rain of arrows and the ripples were so close together that no one inside realized the Balder Knights had charged them.

When the arrows stopped the barrier had significantly weakened and drained Trixie’s mana strength. The drained unicorn felt dizzy, swaying from side to side until she collapsed into Loreane, who grabbed her and picked her up as the barrier went down.

The next moment she caught a glimpse of a long straight blade coming directly at her head.

Unlike the others her reflexes weren’t as honed through years of practice and use. Before she could react the rapier blade pierced her shoulder as the Balder knight put all its weight into the thrust digging the tip into the bone. Lorenae cried out in pain gripping the area around the blade and created a seething hot touch with her pyromancy that melted the blade tip off.

Sir Alonne struck down the knight just a second later as they were rushed by the rest of the knights. The group quickly realized they were outnumbered and outmaneuvered. Quickly they grabbed the others and made a hasty retreat from the oncoming knights.

“Come! We must retreat and find another way through!” Sir Alonne said with urgency.

“Right! Silver Spoon, Babs, let’s go!”

Loreane shifted with Trixie over her shoulders as the group turned tial to run before the swarm of Balder Knights caught them. Babs and Silver followed close behind.

The sudden shift in weight caused part of the wooden planks to bend at almost a 90 degree angles. Suddenly many snapped from the sudden weight put on from all the knights mindlessly charging after the group. The large wooden platforms began to give away from the heavy weight until many of the leg supports snapped apart.

The sudden shift in weight put a huge stress on the neighboring supports. The aged ropes and various materials used to tie the aging structures together snapped under the stress and caused the entire section to start and sway back and forth, and thus halting the two groups from advancing further or risk falling to the darkness below. Many of the Balder Knights fell into the depths below immediately while the others managed to retain their footing.

“Guys!”

Babs called other group as they were separated, reaching for them, but was held back by Sir Alonne.

“We have to help them!” Babs yelled still trying to reach for them.

“We can’t help them!” Sir Alonne said holding the surprisingly strong filly.

Trixie was tossed accidentally by Loreane as she tried to regain her own footing. She saw Sir Alonne and Babs managed to get across the rickety wooden platforms to a stable portion with the other knights, but Silver Spoon, Trixie, and herself weren’t so lucky. The platform beneath them gave way and was doing a balance act on three legs at the center under Loreane and Silver Spoons feet/hooves. Trixie remained unconscious by their side as Lorenae and Silver tried to shift their weight or not fall away from the other platforms. Their hope was to get the platform to fall towards another set but as luck would have it it toppled from beneath and slid down the sides of the other platforms.

Sliding down Loreane grabbed a screaming Silver Spoon and put the filly into her robes and tied her down to her chest, while she held Trixie close to her and the platform as the slid down through the layers of the Parish. Loreane and Silver only caught glimpses as they passed, but each layer looked different from others. It was like looking through layers of history and various styles of architecture as they slid down deeper into history.

Had the ride not been deadly, they may have enjoyed looking at all the various styles around them.

The platform slid against a larger section of the ruined Parish sending many unnamed of the depths denizens to their dooms while they continued to slide in a rampage down into darkness. It wasn’t long when stone walls became visible and tall dead trees started to appear. They were close to the bottom and a smell of decaying swamp water made its way into the groups noses.

Only a few seconds later the platform came to a sliding halt that sent them all flying off the platform which shattered into hundreds of pieces. Trixie went flying off into a smelly swamp water. Loreane was flung into another platform nearby the water, and Silver Spoon fell into a dark pit screaming as she faded into the darkness.

Loreane watched in horror as the poor filly disappeared from view into the darkness. She didn’t have a chance to try and save Silver Spoon. All she could do was stare in a daze as she fell into a dark pit where the swamp water poured into.

Loreane stared in horror until sometime later Trixie came up behind her and rested next to her. It took a while before Loreane was able to tell Trixie what happened to Silver Spoon. Once they were able to move again after the initial shock Trixie and Loreane decided to move on fearing the worst and left without a word to try and return to the others.

*Sometime Later*

Silver Spoon awoke to the sound of crackling fire. Near her a large human figure wearing armor much like the Abyss Watchers that attacked Ponyville. She had one of their greatswords laying nearby her side between herself and Silver Spoon. Silver Spoon noted the crescent dagger in her gauntlet hand was firmly grasped and occasionally she would use the dagger to poke the blazed wood. Every prod sent embers and ash into the air that quickly faded away into the darkness around them.

Silver Spoon sat up and watched the embers and flames as the armored woman flicked her long black hair away from the flames as she prodded he fire. Silver was contemplating if she should stay or go, but a firm voice stopped her thoughts of escape.

"Don't run filly. You won't make it far before the darkness consumes you," the woman said in a harsh tone.

"EEP!"

Silver Spoon flinched with a loud squeak. wo large hands then scooped her up and lifted her up. Silver Spoon tried to run away her tiny hooves ran in place as she was lifted by the woman. She chuckled at the cute filly trying to run away in mid air.

"Oh, stop that now. I'm not gonna hurt you," She said putting Silver Spoon over her shoulder like she were a babe. "Now behave or I'll throw you into the darkness for the darkdwellers."

"The, d-darkdwellers? What are those, and who are you?""

Silver Spoon shrank under the woman's piercing gaze. She had a large scar over her left eye which looked a dull grey in contrast to her other light blue eye. Somehow it made Silver Spoon feel at ease seeing her eyes. Something about here eyes spoke to Silver Spoon in ways she couldn't describe. The woman didn't look old, but her eyes held a look of longing, worn, and tired. With a smile the woman set Silver Spoon down and bowed to her.

"I am Lady Diana of Anor Londo."

Author's Note

Hey there everyone!

I was almost on time this time! I blame my lazy butt and video games for this. With the Ringed City coming out I was esstatic to play DS3 again. Now, the time is near! So, Diana has Silver! What's she planning!? I know a lot of you hate her and stuff so... yeah. What is going to happen?

Shit gets real that's what.

I'm drunk.