Dark Souls: Story of the Blanks

Chapter Twelve
Such Valiant Darkness

Alma began going through Ponyville in the direction she sent the monster that almost attacked Twilight. While scanning the area, her ears twitched upon hearing something heavy land on a nearby home behind her. Turning around she could see the monster on top of a building with a young foal impaled on its spear. The skeletal-like monster raised its spear and tossed the dead child foal at Alma, only for her to quickly catch him, and place the foal to the side.

“Hard to believe that a monster filled with light magic could do something like this. Then again, you were made by Grey Hoof stealing magic from my book.” The bat pony said as she aimed her greatsword at the monster. “I’m going to assume that you're the other pony that Celestia mentioned? Nothing personal, but I’m going to have to kill you.” With that, the monster jumps into and above Alma as he descends toward Alma with the intent to impale her with his spear. The champion of ash quickly jumps backward as the monster’s spear is stabbed into the ground.

Alma noticed the monster having trouble trying to pull its weapon from out of the ground as she charged at it with the intent to run her sword into its chest. The monster quickly released his hold on his spear and roundhouse kicked the charging bat pony to the side and into a wall of a nearby house. Once he did that, he yanked his spear from the ground and quickly charged at Alma. The bat pony feels the monster grab her by the neck, slams her onto the ground, and begins to stab her rapidly in the chest with his spear. The bat pony lets out loud grunts of pain as her greatsword begins to glow and a burst of arcane magic erupts from her sword causing the monster to be pushed away. Alma quickly pulled out her estus flask and began to drink from it. Upon doing so, the stab wounds on her chest healed as she pulled herself up to her feet.

“Okay, guess you have some sense of intelligence,” Alma said before looking down at her chest plate and groaning in annoyance. “And I just got that from off of a corpse back in the Lothric Castle...Saying that out loud doesn’t sound good.” She said before taking off the ruined chest plate and tossing it away. The bat pony quickly jumps into the air to avoid the monster’s spear that he threw. Once she was in the air, her greatsword glowed once more as she fired off a beam blade. The demon sees this while going for his spear, he recoils back after feeling the pain of the beam blade cutting his right arm off while reaching for his spear.

“Not going to happen, demon,” Alma said before bringing her sword up in a thrusting pose as it began to glow brightly. Once it was at the peak of its brightness, she soon thrust her weapon forward and unleashed a giant gust of arcane-like wind at the beast as he was sent flying, along with pieces of the earth and houses around the area where she fired off the attack. The demon took this opportunity to use the force behind the attack to grab onto a nearby lamp post, used it to spin around, and flung himself back at Alma in an attempt to grab her by the head, only for a barrier made of magic to appear around the bat pony as the demon bounced off it and landed a few feet away from his target.

“You need to stop heading off on your own.” Nightmare Moon said as Alma turned around to see her appearing behind her from the shadows along with Celestia who shudders a bit from being teleported.
“Never again will I have you teleport me like that again,” Celestia said before turning her attention to the demon. “I take it, that's the monster that attacked us?”

“Yep, and sadly the monster went on a killing spree while I was making my way here. At least from seeing the monster’s weapon with a dead child on it.” Alma said which caused Celestia’s eyes to widen in shock from hearing this. Her shocked expression soon turned into rage as she tried to fire off a magical beam, only for the white alicorn to wince from the pain she felt on her horn as she recoiled back a bit.

“Idiot. Remember that your horn is still injured. You and I can’t use high-level magic at the moment.” Nightmare Moon said as Celestia glared at her.

“Then what can we do? In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a monster attacking Ponyville.”

“Support magic. Because my knight will need it, given how agile that monster is from the look of it.” Nightmare Moon’s horn glowed for a moment as the champion of ash felt herself feel a bit lighter on her feet as she looked over at the dark alicorn. “Just a little something to help increase your speed.” She said before elbowing Celestia’s side, causing her to cast a small force field around Alma as she looked over at the two. “You’re welcome by the way.” Alma was about to say something, only to be interrupted by the demon appearing at a nearby house. Once there, the demon soon took a knee, lowered his head, and raised his clenched fist towards his head. A circle of golden light erupted from below the demon as his missing arm grew back.

“So it can regenerate with faith magic.” She thought before getting into a fighting stance. “Again, I shouldn’t be surprised by this.”

The monster lets out a primal roar before launching itself towards the bat pony with the intent of impaling her head with his spear. Once it was close, Alma quickly ducked underneath the spear and brought her sword up to try and impale the monster in the chest. Only for him to twist his body around like a spinning top and land beside the champion of ash. He soon pulled his hand back and threw his spear at the bat pony. The moment the spear made contact with Alma, a small hexagon-shaped force field appeared as the spear bounced off it and flew off to the side.

“Never thought I would be glad to have some kind of faith protection spell on me that works,” Alma said as the monster ran towards his spear, only for the bat pony to appear and cut off a piece of his face. The monster stood there for a moment as he felt a piece of his face fall to the ground as he recoiled back from the pain. While doing this, white-colored blood spewed to the side which ended up hitting a nearby pony that just opened his door to see what was going on.

“Oh dear Celestia, what this stuff-!” Before he could finish, the white blood-like liquid began to burn the stallion’s face and part of his body. He lets out a scream of pain and horror as he feels part of his face and upper body burn and slowly begins to mutate. The stallion's body continues to mutate before falling to the ground. Once on the ground, his body jerks around as his arm grows to giant proportions with divine angel-like feathers sticking out of his arm and face upon standing up.

“Oh, you gotta be kidding me…” Alma said as the mutated pony roared at her before charging, grabbing her with his giant hand. Once in his grip, the stallion began to squeeze the life out of Alma’s body before starting to slam her onto the ground multiple times and tossing her into the house that the stallion was in.
“Oh, that’s not good.” Nightmare Moon said before noticing the spear-wielding monster limp over to his spear, picked it up, and began to limp into an alleyway. “And the monster’s escaping.”

“What are you doing? Stop him!” Celestia ordered which caused Nightmare Moon to snort in amusement.

“With what? A rubber chicken? In case you haven’t noticed, we don’t have the strength or magic to bind him. Do I need to remind you that I’ve been in stone for ten years, and your horn is damaged?” Nightmare Moon said, causing Celestia to grit her teeth in annoyance. The dark alicorn noticed Celestia place a hand on her sword as she was about to draw it out, only for the dark alicorn to stop her. “Look, I know you want to do something about this. But you need to use your head instead of letting your emotions get the better of you.”

“...But…”

“All we can do is help Alma as best as we can. So try your best to use your magic to support her.” Nightmare Moon said before noticing the stallion rushing back inside the house he was in. They soon heard the sound of screaming along with the sounds of smashing, slashing, and pieces of the housebreaking apart from the rampage. In a matter of seconds, the noises coming from the house stopped for a moment before Alma was thrown out of the house covered in blood as she landed on a nearby roof. The two alicorns noticed her as they quickly flew over to the bat pony. “You okay? You’re not injured or anything?”

“Not my blood...He...killed his own family when I was pulling myself out of the wall of the house,” Alma answered while catching her breath. She soon looked over at the stallion slowly making his way out of the hole he made in the house. The two alicorns looked over at the hole. Celestia’s eyes widened in horror upon seeing the stallion having half of the young filly’s body in his mouth. “I wasn’t able to save the three of them, but I was able to save the baby.”

“...Wait what?” Nightmare Moon asked as Alma pulled the carrying bag she was carrying from around herself to reveal a baby colt nicely wrapped in a blanket and asleep. “...I’m not even going to ask how you manage to keep the baby safe given the situation you’re in.” She said before noticing Alma handing her the baby.

“Keep the baby safe while I deal with him.” She ordered as they heard the sickening crunch of a stallion eating the body of a little filly. He soon dropped the lifeless body of the filly he was eating to the ground as the monster soon lunged itself at Alma. The bat pony along with Celestia and Nightmare Moon quickly moved out of the way of the raging monster as they landed onto the streets of Ponyville. Her sword began to glow while wildly spewing out arcane magic as she aimed it at the stallion. The stallion turned around as he was about to launch himself at her, only to be met with a large beam of arcane magic as the bat pony thrust her greatsword at him. The stallion cried out in pain from the attack as he soon fell to the ground wailing in pain for a moment before pulling himself up and glaring at her.

“Full burst it is then.” Alma thought as Celestia noticed the greatsword’s magic increasing more and more by the second.

“Wait, you can’t do that! There are still ponies in the area you’re about to unleash that attack.” Celestia stated as it caused the magic in Alma’s sword to dim down slightly.

“You’re not making this any easier on me, you know?” Just as she took a step forward, her left ear twitched upon hearing something coming from behind. She quickly turned around and parried a thrust attack from the spear-wielding monster that limped away earlier. Celestia and Nightmare Moon were taken by surprise by the bat pony’s reflexes and hearing as they quickly took to the sky to avoid the combat that was about to take place.

The moment the monster recovered from his staggering due to having his attack parried by Alma, both the skeletal monster and mutant stallion stood in front and behind her. Both monsters let out a primal roar as they soon charged at the bat pony with the intent to kill her. Inches before they could land a strike on the mare, she quickly placed her weapon on her back and dodged each of their respective attacks before jumping backward to gain some distance between the two. Once she was a good distance away from the pair of demons, she quickly summoned a bow of lighting into her hand and began firing a barrage of arrows at them. While the spear demon was able to dodge and parry the oncoming attack, the mutant stallion didn’t as he tanked the attack head-on.

The demon and mutant let out a cackling roar as they both rushed toward Alma with the spear demon taking the lead. Once he was close, the spear demon unleashed a barrage of thrust attacks at the bat pony. The sound of the protection barrier Celestia placed on Alma was cracking as the demon managed to land three vital strikes to her chest, left leg, and right arm. The bat pony winced from the pain she felt but was caught off guard by the mutant stallion delivering a haymaker to her face and slamming her into the ground. The moment she was dazed and on the ground, the mutant began pummeling the bat pony into the ground before grabbing her by the leg, spinning her around like a rag doll, and throwing her into the air.

Once in the air, the spear demon shot up into the air and attempted to impale the bat pony in the chest. Moments before he could deliver his attack, the bat pony quickly made the lightning bow disappear, placed a hand on her greatsword, and spun around to parry the spear demon’s attack. The moment she parried the attack, the greatsword lit up instantly as she delivered multiple strikes to the demon. There was a moment of silence in the air before lines of emerald green arcane energy appeared on the demon. It let out a bellowing roar before exploding into a pile of white blood and flesh. The moment the mutant saw his companion reduced to nothing but a pile of mesh, he brought his fist back and was about to deliver an earth-shattering punch to her face. Just as he was about to punch her in the face, his arm soon exploded into pieces. The monster recoiled backward due to the pain he felt as the bat pony landed safely on the ground.

“Finish him off!” Nightmare Moon said as the bat pony looked over to her right to see an exhausted alicorn with her horn slightly glowing due to the spell she used to destroy his arm.

“For what it’s worth if you can hear me in there.” Alma brought her sword up above her head as arcane magic started to gather into the blade once again. “I am sorry.” She said before charging at the mutant. Once she was within striking range, she brought her weapon down upon him and sliced him in two. The mutant looked down at Alma for a moment before collapsing to his knees. He soon looked up towards the moonlit sky as he slowly began to return to normal, except for his skin, hair, and eyes being completely white.

“T-Thank…y-you…” He said before disappearing into a burst of particles of magic and feathers.

“Seems like the fight is over.” Nightmare Moon said before landing next to the bat pony with the baby in her arms. “A shame that the outcome turned out like this.”

“Could’ve been worse. If left alone, this entire town would have suffered a worse fate.” Alma said as she placed her greatsword back into its sheath and placed it onto the holster on her back. “A couple of dead ponies out of the whole town of ponies isn’t so bad when you think about it.”

“..What is wrong with you?” Celestia said which caused Alma and Nightmare Moon to look over at her. “Do you not understand what happened here? Countless ponies lost their lives because of that monster and a baby colt lost his family! How can you not be horrified by something like this!?”

“Because the monster with the spear would have made more monsters like you just saw when his blood spilled onto that innocent bystander. Which would’ve made fighting even harder on my end than it already was.” She said before walking over to the remains of the spear demon she extended her hand out, coated it in a pale-blue aura, and started to destroy the remains of the demon.

“What are you doing!?” Celestia asked as Alma walked past her to get the other remains of the spear demon.

“Burning the remains of the demon. If there’s one thing I learned about something like this, if you leave it alone for too long, it will turn into some kind of disease that can infect an animal, turning it into a monster, and then spreading it to lord knows where.” She answered before making her way towards the house where the family of ponies were, only for Celestia to stop her by blocking her path.

“Look, I am grateful that you...helped, but this is going too far.”

“Too far? Just a reminder, that you caused this mess to begin with? I’m willing to admit that I may have my part in this mess due to Grey Hoof stealing my magic, but you’re the one who locked up an entire town full of ponies trying to bury your mistakes. But look how that turned out?” She said before pointing a finger at her. “The blood that was spilled in the forest and this town, is on both our hands. So I don’t want to hear you trying to take some kind of moral high ground when you’re the one behind all this.”

Silence, that all Celestia could do or say. She couldn’t come up with an excuse or lie. How could she? The bat pony was right. Had she only thought of something else other than what she agreed upon about sealing away the town all those years ago, then maybe things might have turned out differently. It was only when they heard Nightmare Moon clear her throat and turn their attention towards her.

“As much as I love to see you call out Celestia like that. I’m going to head back to the crystal castle.” Nightmare Moon said before feeling the baby squirm a bit. “Mainly because the baby is still asleep, and I don’t want him to wake up to all this.” She said before taking flight and headed off towards the castle. Alma and Celestia turned their attention back onto each other for a moment before Celestia moved out of the way and began to follow after Nightmare Moon.

“What have you gotten yourself into Alma,” Alma said before setting the house on fire. Upon doing that, seven souls each of a different color would appear around her. As she saw this, she reached out towards the two larger souls that were from the spear demon and mutant and ate them. She soon looks over at the other souls hanging around. “Leave, your place is someplace else than to live inside a vessel like me.” She said as the souls flew up into the night sky before vanishing. “May you find peace in the afterlife of this world.” After taking a swig from her flask to heal her injuries, the champion of ash was about to head off towards the castle, only for her ears to twitch upon hearing someone appear behind her from above. It caused her to turn around to see a dark magical beam coming at her. Alma quickly performed a backflip to avoid the beam coming at her as she landed a safe distance away from the newcomer. Looking up at the sky, she can see a dark blue alicorn clad in armor as she slowly descends toward the ground. A death glare was visibly noticed on the alicorn’s face as her horn began to glow.

“We don’t know who you are, creature of darkness. But you will pay for what you did to Ponyville and Canterlot Castle!” She yelled before summoning a blade into her hand, “FOR YOU WILL NOW FACE THE PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT!” She yelled which caused a force of wind to be expelled from her upon expanding her wings out.

“First undead ponies, then demons, and now a god,” Alma said as she unsheathed her greatsword. It was then engulfed in arcane magic. A slight wicked smile appeared on her face as she looked up at Luna. “This land is just full of surprises.”