Dark Souls: Story of the Blanks

Chapter Five

Princess of the Moonless Night

(Castle of the Two Sisters)

After making it past a few of the citizens of Sunnytown that were patrolling the area close to their home, the group finally made their way over to the castle of the two sisters. Alma gave off a small whistle to signal her being impressed with how old this castle was and able to stand up for this long.

“Huh, never expected to find a castle in the middle of the forest,” Alma said as she examined the broken-down castle. “Well if we’re going to stay here, then we’re going to have to reinforce this place a bit.”

“With what?” Mitta asks as she walks up to the front door of the castle and pushes it open. A mist of dust flew out from inside as she caused all three of them to cough for a moment. “We don’t have many materials to reinforce this place. And I sure as hell don’t think any of us have any skill in carpentry.”

“I….Kinda do actually. Not a whole lot, but I know how to fix and repair a few minor things.” Apple Bloom said as she uses her hand to knock away some of the dust around her as she walks inside the ruined castle. “It might take me a bit to reinforce the front part of this place, but it shouldn’t be a problem to do this.”

“Guess that’s one problem taken care of.” The bat pony said as she walked inside. “Let’s have a look around first before we do anything to this room.”

“And why is that?” Mitta asked as she followed the two inside and closed the door behind herself.

“Because seeing how this place has been abandoned for who knows how long, there might be some monsters or something living here that might be a problem for us if we choose to relax or sleep,” Alma said as she placed a hand on her Ringed Knight Straight Sword and started to walk through the castle. “You two see if you can find some firewood or something to make a fire and light this place up a bit. I’m gonna see if this place is secure and possibly find some food or something.”

“Try not to break anything that might make us noticeable. We are trying to stay out of sight of the other ponies from Sunnytown.” Mitta said as the bat pony waved her off before heading into the darkness of the castle. The Earth Pony soon turned her attention towards Apple Bloom as she knelt a bit towards her and gave her a motherly smile. “Apple Bloom. I know this is a bit much to ask, but could you tell me how you ended up in the state you’re in?”

Apple Bloom looked towards the ground upon being asked that as she kicked the stone that was next to her. Her facial expression contorted into a mix of anger and melancholy. She looked over at Mitta as she bit her lower lip as tears swell up around her eyes.

“H-Hey, if you’re not comfortable talking about it then-”

“N-No….no…...I’ll tell you what happens...just….let’s just wait until Alma comes back while we set everything up if you don’t mind?” She asked, the undead mare nodded and began to look around the room they were in for something to burn.

“Yeah, that would be a good idea seeing how you would’ve been forced to tell your story twice.”

(Elsewhere in the Castle)

While Mitta and Apple Bloom were busy doing their part in trying to reinforce the room they were in, Alma began looking around the other parts of the castle for anyone or anything hiding out in any of the rooms. So far the only things she could find in the rooms were either small mice or spiders with weird star symbols on their backs as they crawled around the rooms minding their own business without a care in the world.

“Never would’ve imagined I'd find myself in a place like this inhabited by weird talking horse people.” She said before looking over herself. “Nor waking up in a body like this...Though I will say I don’t mind it, it just feels strange.” Alma suddenly paused for a moment before looking around and sighing. “I need to stop talking to myself like this.” As Alma continued to make her way through the castle, she soon felt the ground underneath her begin to buckle as she fell through the floor. Before she could hit the second floor of the room she fell in, she quickly recovered and landed on her hooves. “Graceful like a cat.” She smirked, though that smirk quickly vanished as she felt the second-floor buckle, fell through the floor, and landed in the basement of the castle on her back and groaned. “Graceful as a drunk cat after having a couple of drinks at the bar.” The Champion of Ash staggered to her feet as she soon started to take notice of how well she could see in the darkness of the room she was in.

“Huh, guess being a bat pony creature thing has its advantages.” She said before placing her sword onto her holster on her waist and began to explore the giant room she was in. While exploring, she took notice of seven strange stone statues standing in different areas of the giant room. One was still intact while the rest were broken or they were missing a piece of their limbs or heads. “I’m gonna take a shot in the dark and guess this was where they keep the garden statues?” She asked before walking over to a statue that resembles a pony. Though this one had on what appeared to be mage-like clothes. “Huh, must’ve been made for someone important if it looks like a pony.”

Before the mare could continue to examine the stone statue, she soon felt the ground shake and a primal screech echoing throughout the room causing her to cover her ears for a moment. “Fucking hell!” She yelled before looking over to her left to see the source of the screech and foot stomping.

“....As if this place wasn’t weird enough,” Alma said as she took notice of the monster’s eyes beginning to glow she quickly rolled out of the way of an oncoming eye beam heading towards her and hid behind a stone column. “Yeah, I need to learn when to keep my mouth shut when dealing with monsters that I’ve never dealt with before!” As the beam died down, the cockatrice let out another scream before charging after Alma hiding behind the column. The bat pony quickly rolled out of the way of the charging monster, but was soon sent flying into a nearby broken statue by the cockatrice’s tail. Once she pulled herself up, the cockatrice’s eyes glowed again as it fired another eye beam at Alma. She quickly jumped out of the way of the beam, but it grazed the cloth part of her armor as she quickly moved behind another column. The bat pony looked down at her dress to see that it was partly turned to stone and groaned before hitting it against the column she was hiding behind to turn it back to normal.

“Stone monsters. Of course, it would be something that can turn you to stone with just a glance.” She said before pulling out her sword and quickly charging at the monster. The cockatrice took notice of Alma as it used its tail to lash out at her. The bat pony quickly dodges and parries most of its lash attacks as she quickly counters by throwing her sword into the cockatrice’s chest. “Come on….Come on and die already!” She said as the monster’s eyes started to glow and fired an eye beam at her. “Seriously!? What does it have more than one heart or something!?” She asked before quickly using the moonlight greatsword to block the beam. The monster continued to shoot its beam at her as she felt herself being pushed back from the force behind the attack.

“I need to end this quickly. But how am I going to close the distance between us?” She thought before noticing the beam that she was blocking was deflecting off her sword in many different directions. Her eyes widened to an idea appearing in her head as she soon tilted her sword a bit to the side as the beam the cockatrice was shooting hit its leg and turned to stone in an instant. The cockatrice felt its leg crumble under its weight as it let out a cry of pain and stumbled to the ground. Once it was on the ground, Alma quickly lifted her sword as arcane magic wildly lashed out from her sword as her eyes were set on the monster’s neck. With a smirk on her face, she brought the sword as a wave of arcane energy sliced the monster’s head off before hitting the wall and causing a giant hole in the room which caused the castle to shake a bit.

“...Okay, might want to put a lid on the hole using magical spells, items, or weapons,” She said before placing the greatsword onto the holster on her back and walking over to the decapitated cockatrice. The head and body continued to move and flail around a bit before she reached and pulled out the ringed knight sword from out of its chest. Upon doing so, the monster quickly bled out from both its neck and chest before the body stopped moving and died. “On the plus side, I did find something for us to eat…At least I can eat it. I don’t know about the others though.”
Just as she was about to leave the room to get the others, her ears twitched upon hearing the sound of stone beginning to crumble. She quickly looked around on the ground to see if the floor was going to give way due to the weight of the cockatrice, but soon turned around to see the mage-looking statue starting to tilt a bit. She squinted her eyes at it as she saw the stone statue turning into a moving breathing pony. Alma quickly rushed over to the mare as she grabbed the female pony into her arms and kneeled gently to get a better look at her.

“Guess you weren’t meant to be a statue in the garden. Hey, you okay? You’re not dead are you?” Alma asked as the mare let out a small groan and slowly opened her eyes. The mare’s eyes widened for a moment before pushing Alma out of the way and vomiting off to the side of her. “I guess that answers my question.”

“W-Where...am I-” Before she could finish her question, she soon vomited again as Alma kneeled and patted her on the back for some kind of support/help, only for the mare to knock her hand away. “Where….am I!? Who the hell are you!? And how did I get here!?” she said while spitting out any bile that was left in her mouth while gasping for air.

“Geez, not even going to thank me for unknowingly freeing you from your Stoney prison?” Alma thought as she sighed. “To answer your first question, you’re in the Castle of the Two sisters. Second, my name is Alma Andrea. And third, what I can guess is that you got turned to stone by that weird chicken-looking thing that I just killed.” She said before jerking a thumb at the headless cockatrice. “Also you’re welcome by the way.”

“....You….killed a cockatrice?” The mare asked as she stared in disbelief at what she saw. “How were you able to overcome its ability to turn ponies into stone? Not even I nor my subjects could’ve figured it out.” She said before looking at the statues that were once her loyal subjects and grimacing at the site of them being destroyed.

“Figured it out while I was deflecting the beam with my sword. Turns out you can deflect its laser beam eye thing right back at it. You think it would be immune to its own attack seeing how it can turn peo...ponies into stone? So mind telling me who you are?”

“Like I would-!” The mare paused for a moment before letting out a sigh. “Nightmare Moon, but I doubt it would matter to you.”

“And why is that?”

“Celestia or Luna must’ve sent you here to finish me off right? Why else would you be here in the first place?”

“Don’t know who these Celestia or Luna characters are, but I can say for certain that we’re not here to finish you off as you put it.” Alma said as Nightmare Moon raised an eyebrow at the bat pony in confusion. “I’ll explain once I take you back to the others. Maybe you can tell us who you are and how you ended up here as a means to get to know each other?”

“I….guess that wouldn’t be so bad...how do I know this isn’t some kind of trap?” She asked before sniffing the air around her. “You give off a strange darkness from within you. It’s almost similar to mine...but much worse….and otherworldly...where do you come from Alma?”

“I’ll tell you if you come with me.” She said as she offered the Alicorn a hand. Nightmare Moon had a worried expression on her face as she slowly extended a hand towards her. Once it was close, she felt Alma pull her up onto her hooves and quickly removed the robe part of her armor. Once removed, she would give it to Nightmare Moon for her to cover herself up.

“Why are you giving me this?”

“Because you're buck-ass naked that’s why,” Alma said as she pointed down at Nightmare Moon’s body, whose face burned bright blue as she quickly covered herself up with the robe. As she was doing that, the bat pony walked over to the dead cockatrice and began to drag it along toward the doorway of the room.

“You’re bringing that along with us?” Nightmare Moon asked as she blinked in amazement at how strong the bat pony was and a bit of curiosity.

“Well, I did say I would scout around the castle to see if there was anything dangerous hiding out here,” Alma said as she wiggled the tail of the cockatrice a bit. “And seeing how this thing is dangerous, that part is taken care of along with the food. So it’s a win-win in my book of finishing up my part.”

“....You do know that ponies don’t eat meat right?”

“Trust me when I say that this group of ponies might surprise you.”