Dark Souls: Story of the Blanks

by ElementBrigade

Rating: mature
Tags: Adventure, Violence, Princess Celestia, Crossover, Sex, Profanity, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Death, Alternate Universe, Anthro, Main 6, Other, Romance, Original Character, Apple Bloom, Suicide / Self Harm, Dark Souls
Length: 38035

The Ashen one finds herself in Equestria after being blasted off a cliff by Darkeater Midir.

Ashen one, Champion of Ash, Unkindled one. These were the names given to those who took up the mantle to link the first flame to prolong the Age of Fire and prevent the Age of Dark. After falling off into the chasm with Darkeater Midir, The Ashen One finds herself in small little town in the middle of the forest of the Everfree Forest. Upon waking in the small town she finds herself in a body of a strange bat like pony creature. Will The Ashen One be able to start her new life in the land of Friendship and Magic, or will her past come back to haunt her?

Crossover: (MLP x Dark Souls series)

Published 2018-08-03 01:20:02 UTC
Last updated 2025-02-07 20:20:01 UTC

Chapter Two: All That Glitters

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter Three: Thieves in the Night

Chapter Three

Thieves in The Night

The sun was beginning to fall upon the town of Sunnytown as Alma and Mitta darted from house to house. Making their way to Grey Hoof’s house as they kept quiet to make sure to not be noticed by anypony in town. As they did, Alma took notice of how quiet the town was as she looked around at their surroundings. To her surprise, there wasn’t anyone outside walking about their daily lives.

“Something doesn’t feel right,” Alma said as she and Mitta quickly ran over to the house across from them.

“What do you mean?” Mitta asked as she quickly looked around the house they were at to see if anyone was walking around or out in the open.

“Don’t you think that it’s a bit too quiet out here? Aren’t there supposed to be peo...ponies outside or something?” She asked as Mitta looked over at her for a moment before her eyes widened at the realization.

“That’s….not good….not good at all,” Mitta said as she took the lead and bolted down the street. Alma blinked at this as she followed after the earth pony while taking notice of their surroundings starting to change slowly from the once colorful town to an old, decayed, and burnt-down town the more the sun fell. “We need to hurry before night falls.”

“Is it that bad of a place when it gets dark?” The bat pony asked as Mitta looked at her with a deadpan expression on her face.

“Are you that hard at listening to what I said happens during the night?”

“No, but you’re making it sound a bit overly dramatic. This wouldn’t be the first time I have to deal with something involving cursed towns or something similar to that matter.”

“And where did you come from that has a cursed town in it?”

“.....I refuse to answer that question for personal reasons,” Alma said before looking off at the sky to see the sun going down even more to the point where it vanishes from her sight. “And there goes the sun. Guess that means it’s going to be-” Upon looking back at Mitta, she blinked in an unfazed manner at the earth pony’s rotten decay-like clothes and body. “Oh…..I see what you mean about the whole curse thing.”

“I take it you’re scared of this town now?” Mitta asked as the bat pony turned back in the direction of the street.

“Not really. Like I said I’ve seen worse. Now please take me to where Grey Hoof’s house is located.” She asked as she jerked a thumb over in the other direction.

“....Does anything phase you?” The mare asked before continuing to lead Alma through town. As they continued to make their way to Grey Hoof’s home, the duo quickly stopped when they saw one of the villagers on the path they were walking on. “Oh horse feathers….”

“Mitta…... I thought we made it clear that you can’t stop us from saving every pony that comes to our little town.” The mare said as she cripply walked towards Mitta and Alma.

“L-Look, I’m just here to show Alma here around town. Nothing more, nothing less. So why don’t you just go back to what you were doing, Three Leaf, and you won’t hear from me after that.” Mitta said as Alma noticed a scared expression on her face and her backing up a bit from the mare that was Three Leaf.

“That’s what you said last time, but you made us almost lose a friend. And now you’re planning on taking Alma away from us. This cannot stand any longer Mitta. You must be punished for trying to-” Before Three Leaf could finish, she was cut off by feeling something pierce her chest. Looking down, she saw what looked to be an arrow made of lightning sticking out of her chest. She looked up to see Alma with a bow made of lightning in her hand as she stared in disbelief. “W….What?”

“The hay!?” Mitta finished as she looked over at Alma in shock and surprise at what she was seeing.

“Not gonna lie…..but I am more surprised that I’m able to use magic like this.” Alma said before aiming for Three Leaf with another arrow. “But right now we don’t have time to deal with this. Three Leaf, was it? Care to explain what you were doing following us, or was that someone else following us?”

“You...hit me? But….But I thought we were friends?” Three Leaf said as she extended a hand towards Alma, only for it to be shot off by another lightning arrow. The decaying pony’s eyes widened as she drew her now stub of a hand back and looked it over.

“Mitta told me the gist of what’s going on in this town. You expect me to be friends with someone like you who thinks the mark on my….um….flank right?” Alma asked as Mitta nodded slowly.

“Yeah, you think I’ll be friends with someone who thinks that the mark on my flank is a curse and have you turned me into a walking corpse like you and the rest of these ponies in Sunnytown?”

“But….the mark on your flank is evil. Don’t you know that it will kill you if you don’t let us save you?”

“And how would you know that it would kill somepony? Have you ever seen it happen to somepony?”

“Mitta’s friend died from it. We had no choice but to put her out of her misery because she was suffering from it.”

“You lying bitch! You and this entire bucking town killed her with your own hands!” Mitta yelled as tears made out of blood rolled down her face. “You monsters killed her after she found her special talent….my one and only friend….Oh, Faust, if only I could’ve done something to save her.”

“Listen Alma. Whatever she’s been telling you are lies. We want to be your friend and save you from an awful fate that happened to Ruby.” Three Leaf said as she extended her other hand towards the bat pony as a means to offer her hand in friendship. “Come, let us save you and you can live with us in Sunnytown forever-” Before she could finish her offer, the bat pony shot another lightning arrow into Three Leaf’s shoulder and she was sent flying backward onto the ground. The decaying mare tried to pull the arrow out of her shoulder, only for her hand to be pinned down to the ground by another arrow from Alma.

“I don’t have time for this.” Alma aimed at Three Leaf as she fired more arrows at her so she would be pinned to the ground. “Just stay there and try not to be an annoyance.” She said before motioning Mitta to lead the way again. Mitta shook her head before going back to leading Alma to Grey Hoof’s house. As the duo continue to make their way through the decaying town of Sunnytown, Mitta quickly grabs the bat pony by the collar as she lets out a yelp, and swings over to the side into a bush.

“We’re here,” Mitta said as she made a gesture for her to be quiet and pointed over to the house across from them. Looking over at the house that the earth pony pointed to, the bat pony took notice of a pony exiting the house. He began to adjust himself a bit before walking down the street with a sickly smile on his face.

“I assume it was Grey Hoof that exited out of that house?”

“Yes. He’s the only pony with a smile that would make your stomach turn if you lived long enough to hate him.”

“Mental note, try to figure out who is who when the sun comes out.” Alma thought as she watched Grey Hoof walk off. Once he was out of their view, they quickly bolted over to the leader’s house. Mitta opened the door and slammed it behind them once Alma followed in after her.

“Get your stuff so we can leave. I prefer not to stay here any longer than I have to be.”

“I’ll leave, but you’re coming with me so we can either think of a plan or get help with this problem,” Alma said as she began to search around the house for her gear along with some stuff that she might be able to eat or make.

“You're planning on killing them aren't you?”

“It’s not like I can leave them alone now that they’re going to be doing this to other p...ponies.”

“Do you have speech problems when it comes to saying certain words?”

“I suffer from a few head injuries so sorry if my speech is a bit...off,” Alma said as she made her way over to the hallway which had four doors on each side of the wall. “Hey, which one is Grey Hoof’s room?”

“It’s the one on the end of the hallway with the silver doorknob,” Mitta said as the bat pony headed down the hallway to the door with the silver knob. Once there, she quickly turned the knob and opened the door to see nothing but a dark room filled with darkness.

“Do you have any source of light or something Mitta?”

“There might be a candle in his room, but you’ll have to look around in there to find it,” Mitta replied as the ashen one rolled her eyes and summoned up her bow to use as a means of light. As the bat pony walked through the dark room, she took notice of the stuff inside of it being old, covered in dust, mold, and rot. Well all but a picture in a frame of himself and some ponies next to him smiling. The mare could tell who three of them were, but the rest she couldn’t.
“Might as well take this with me so I can ask Mitta the whole story about this in more detail later.” She thought before taking the picture out of the frame and putting it in her pocket as she continued to look around the room. As she took a couple of steps forward, her foot hit something hard and gave off a metal clink sound. Moving the light from her bow downwards, she smiles upon seeing her gear there next to the closet door. “Found my stuff!”

“Where was it!?” Mitta yelled as she heard some scuffling coming from Grey Hoof’s room.

“Next to what I can guess is his closet! You think he would put it in there and cover it up instead of laying it in plain sight to some degree!”

“....He wasn’t the brightest pony out of the little village. Nice, but not bright.” Mitta said as she looked out the window to keep an eye out for anyone in the area. “Mind hurrying up!? I prefer not to stay here any longer than I need to be!” She asked as she turned towards the hallway and was startled by seeing Alma wearing her armor and her gear. “Oh, that was quick.”

“Yeah...This armor feels weird. Not the bad kind of weird, but the kind of weird that says that it’s been cleaned and repaired for the most part.” Alma said as she tapped the metal part of her boots. “Did you see them do anything while I was passed out for….wait how long have I been knocked out?”

“About three days later, seeing how I overheard somepony in town finding you in the forest somewhere. I’m gonna guess and say that they were planning on giving you your stuff back once you join our community.” Mitta said as she performed air quotes.

“....You know it’s hard to not hate these ponies for doing this, but having them with information like this gives me all the more reason to not care about their kindness,” Alma said as she looked into her bag to see if she had everything she needed or was missing. “So far I have everything that I had on me...except for my throwing knives and bombs.”

“Are they important?”

“No, but I mostly use them as means to knock a pony’s guard down or stagger them long enough so I can deliver a counterattack. But I’ll manage with just my magic and swords for the time being.”

“Alright, now the only thing left to do is leave this place and think of a plan to-” Just as Mitta opened the door to Grey Hoof’s house, she paused as her eyes widened in fear upon seeing what was in front of her. Alma took notice of the earth pony pausing mid-sentence as she popped her head over from the side she saw Grey Hoof and a group of at least twelve ponies standing behind him with menacing red glowing eyes and blood dripping from their open wounds on their bodies.

“Wow...not gonna lie. They’re pretty good at sneaking around without making a sound.”

“Not helping Alma,” Mitta whispered before looking back at the angry mob of dead ponies. “How the hay did you find us so quickly Grey Hoof?”

“Three Leaf told us about what happened. Not to mention what Alma did to her.” He said looking over at the bat pony with a casual smile on his face. “I take it Mitta told you about our fair happy town?”

“The term happy town is an understatement. It’s more of a beautifully cruel town based on a bunch of lies, bodies, and idiots thinking they’d be safe from having a cutie mark that only shows what you’re good at.” The bat pony said casually as Grey Hoof sighed in disappointment.

“As I feared, she twisted your mind on how Sunnytown is. Alma, that mare is lying to you. The mark on your flank is a curse. A sign that will kill you if we do not save you from it as soon as possible and spread to the rest of the world.”

“And how would you know that? Have you seen it kill anypony before?”

“We don’t need proof to know that the mark is evil. It must be purged from Equestria before it will cause the end of all things that we know.” Grey Hoof said as he offered a hand toward the bat pony. “Look, I get why you attacked Three Leaf. You were scared and didn’t want Mitta to think you turned on her, but you don’t have to worry about that anymore. We’re willing to forgive you if you just come with us.” There was a moment of silence between Alma and Grey Hoof as Mitta looked at the bat pony with a mix of worry and anxiety on her face. The Earth pony was about to say something, but stopped once she saw Alma rush over to her and grabbed her by the waist. The earth pony lets out a yelp from feeling herself being picked up and placed underneath Alma’s arm.

“Nope, not in the mood to deal with this!” She yelled before slamming the door in front of Grey Hoof’s face who let out a loud yell of pain from the door hitting his nose.

“....I was not expecting you to do that, to be honest,” Mitta said as she felt Alma release her and placed her back on her feet. “Now what do we do Ms. Knight in rusty armor?”

“Well given the fact that the front door is blocked by undead ponies.” Alma reached for her staff strapped to the holster on her back. “We’ll be going out the back door.”

“And you don’t think they wouldn’t think we'd be going out the backway?”

“Maybe, but for now.” The bat pony aimed her staff towards the backdoor of Grey Hoof’s house as she saw a couple of shadows of the ponies of Sunnytown in the backyard. “Get ready to run.”

“What do you mean by-” Mitta was cut off as she saw arcane magic swelling around the tip part of the staff for a moment before vanishing. The champion of ash blinked for a moment before feeling a surge of magic bursting wildly from her staff before firing off a colossal beam of magic as she held onto her weapon with more strength than needed. The moment the beam slowly shimmers down, the earth pony's eyes widen upon the aftermath of the destructive force behind Alma's attack. From what she could tell, about a good five to ten houses that were behind Gray Hoof's home and parts of the forest were burned to a crisp. Both the bat pony and earth pony looked at each other, then at the staff, then back at each other. “....Are you sure you’re a bat pony...because there’s no way a bat pony can perform magic like that!”

“I’ll explain later. Right now, let’s go!” The bat pony said as she grabbed Mitta’s hand and quickly bolted out of Grey Hoof’s house and off into the forest. While the two made their getaway from the crazy mob of undead ponies, the folks of Sunnytown stared in disbelief and shock at what just happened to Grey Hoof’s house.

“Grey Hoof...are you okay?” Three Leaf asked as she looked over at the mayor’s face and saw a slight manic frown on his face.

“For once….I am not. This mare is even more troubled than I thought.”

“What do you mean?”

“That curse mark on her flank is causing her to act like this. Added to the fact that Mitta poisoned her with her lies about this town and how we save ponies. We must find her and save her from this curse before it’s too late.” He said before looking at the group behind him. “Take the ponies that are injured from that blast and heal them with the ritual.” The ponies nod as they begin to pick up the limbs and body parts of their fallen friends and carry them off into the center of town.

“What about Alma and Mitta?” Three Leaf asked as the earth pony looked off into the distance of the forest. “I’ll have one of the unicorns send a message to Roneo and Gladstone to go search for them. Once they find them, they'll set off a signal for us to go and get Alma back from Mitta.”

“And Mitta? What are they going to do with her once they find her.” She asked as Grey Hoof’s eyes glowed brightly as a frown appeared on his face.

“We gave her a chance to repent, but now that she tricked Alma into helping her...it’s time to say goodbye to our old friend.”

Chapter Four: Fate is a Cruel Bitch

Chapter Four

Fate is a Cruel Bitch

“How long have I been in the forest?” Apple Bloom thought as she sank her teeth into the head of a dead manticore that she killed. It’s been roughly two years since she became an undead pony at the hands of Grey Hoof and the ponies of Sunnytown. Two years of eating nothing but meat from the animals she had to kill in the forest. Granted she has unlimited stamina and strength to rival Big Mac, but all that is meaningless if it meant that she couldn’t return home to her family and friends. How could this have happened to her? Was it because she found the village of Sunnytown? Was it because Ruby couldn’t keep them all at bay due to there being more than just those few ponies? All these questions swirled around in her head for a moment before shaking her head and stopping eating to look up at the now star-lit sky as a tear of blood rolled down the side of her face.

“Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, please, anypony. I want to go back to normal.” She said before seeing a beam shoot across the night sky heading north. The young filly blinked in surprise at this as she wiped away the bloody tear rolling down the side of her face. “What the hay was that?” The young filly’s ear twitched upon hearing the sound of hoove steps heading in her direction as her eyes widened to who she might know who it could be. “Oh horse feathers! I thought I lost them when they found me the first time!”

Looking around for a place to hide, the young undead filly quickly jumped into a nearby bush as she watched to see who it was that was coming in from the side of where the sounds were coming from. As she watches, she soon sees Alma rushing in from the side and Mitta panting as she soon comes to a halt before collapsing to the ground.

“You know for a pony who’s supposed to be undead, you’re really out of shape,” Alma said as she chuckled a bit. Mitta pulled her head up as she glared at the ashen one before snorting.
“I’ve been dead for the past two hundred years or so stuck in a town filled with idiots who think cutie marks are cursed. Do you think I have time to do anything else besides wallowing in my self-pity for failing to save my best friend from dying in front of me?” There was a moment of silence as Alma stared at Mitta with an awkward smile on her face. “Yeah, I didn't think so, jackass.”

“Yeah...my bad for being rude, didn't think about that.” The bat pony said before offering the earth pony a hand to pull her up to her feet. “I think we've gotten a good head start away from Sunnytown. So let’s take a breather before heading off to where we can find an exit out of this stupid forest.”

“That is if we can find the damn exit to this forest….I've never been outside of the forest seeing how we had everything we needed from the plant life in the forest.”

“Shit, then this might be a bit harder to get out and look for help than I thought,” Alma said as she placed a hand on her chin. “Is there someplace where I can get a good enough height to see over the forest?”

“Well, there was that weird-looking castle I kept seeing poking out of the forest through my house window. I always wondered what was inside it, but never got to see it due to my age and….after what happened.”

“Then that will be where we’ll go tonight. When morning hits, we’ll see if we can search around the woods for some clues or something.” Alma said as she was about to walk to their destination, only to pause and look at Mitta. “Do you know which direction the castle is in?”

“Last I can remember, it was north of Sunnytown,” Mitta replied as the bat pony sighed.

“Guess we’ll have to keep going until we see something that looks like a castle then?” The Bat pony said as she began to take a step forward, only to pause again as her ears twitch upon hearing something move in the bushes next to them. Alma quickly picked up a rock near her and threw it in the location where the sound came from as a yelp was heard. “The next one won’t miss. So I suggest you come out so I don’t have to hurt you!”

“Don’t hurt me! I’m not a monster!” Apple Bloom yelled as she quickly popped out of the bushes she was hiding behind with her hands raised and her eyes closed. Mitta's eyes widened upon seeing who the pony was as she placed her hands over her mouth.

“A…..Apple Bloom?” Mitta said as Apple Bloom’s eyes opened up to see Mitta staring at her with a shocked expression on her face.

“M-Mitta?”

“You two know each other?” Alma asked as she looked between the two ponies with a raised eyebrow.

“She…She came to Sunnytown two years ago...and I told her to run from the town and never return….Dear Faust, what happened to you?” Mitta asked as she began to tremble and tear up. Apple Bloom’s ears flopped down upon hearing the question as she lowered her arms and looked down at the ground in her attempt to avoid the question.

“I don’t mind if you two talk and all, but can we please do it someplace where we don’t have to worry about getting ambushed or attacked by the folks in Sunnytown?” Alma suggested as she looked back at Apple Bloom. “You've been in this place the longest due to the way you look. You know of an easy route that leads to an abandoned castle?”

“Y-You mean the castle of the twin sisters?”
“If that’s what the castle is called, then yeah. That’s where we need to go.” Alma said as the young undead filly blinks for a moment before motioning them to follow her.

“Follow me, and try not to make too much noise. Some of the ponies from that town are out and about and are looking for me.” She said before quickly darting off in the direction of the castle as the two mares follow after her into the dark forest.

(Elsewhere, above the Everfree Forest)

Night time has fallen upon the kingdom of Equestria as a familiar golden chariot flew through the moon lite night sky with two pegasi of Celestia’s royal guard carrying the chariot as the princess of the sun looked up at her sister’s handy work with the star patterns making constellations in the sky. The alabaster white alicorn let out a sigh as she stared at the endless sea of stars.

“It’s always nice to see Luna’s wonderful stars at night. But I kinda wish I could watch them from my room, not from having to make a trip outside of Equestria to other nations.” She thought as she looked over at the royal guards. “Hm, maybe I should ask them to make a stop by Ponyville? They have been flying for a good twelve hours. And it has been a while since I had a chat with Twilight.”

“We’re almost coming upon Ponyville Princess Celestia.” said one of the pegasus guards as it snapped Celestia out of her train of thought. “Would you like for us to make a stop there?”

“Huh, guess they must’ve felt me thinking of that.” Celestia smiled as she nodded to his question. “Make a stop in front of Princess Twilight’s Castle if you could please. We’ll rest there for the night and make our way to Canterlot in the morning.”

“Yes, your highness.” They said as they were about to descend a bit closer to the Everfree Forest. Just as they lowered down towards the tops of the forest, Celestia’s ears twitched from hearing something heading towards them. As she turned her head over to the left, her eyes widened upon seeing an arcane beam shooting out from the west side of the forest. The alicorn’s horn quickly lit up as a barrier appeared around both her and the guards. The mare gritted her teeth from the strain of holding the barrier up as the beam that hit them caused the force field that she made to crack before shattering and causing them to fall into the Everfree Forest.

While falling, Celestia quickly used her magic to create a protective dome around the pegasi as they crashed safely toward the ground. But having done that she took the force of the crash as she fell through a few branches and hit her horn hard on a nearby rock next to the tree she fell next to as she let out a loud painful yell from the impact. The pegsi that were protected from the fall quickly flew over to the injured princess as their eyes widened at the state she was in.

“Princess, are you okay!?” The white pegasus asked as the black one quickly moved over to her.

“I-I’m fine.” She said as she let out a hiss as she felt pain throughout her right wing. Looking over at it, she winced from seeing it dislocated and broken backward.

“Can you stand Princess?” asked the black pegasus as he kept an eye out on the surrounding area they were in.

“Yes, I can stand,” Celestia answered as she staggered to her feet while the white pegasus used himself as support for her to lean on. “Thank you Ivory Stone.”

“Where in the name of Equestria did that blast come from?”

“You don’t think it was from Chrysalis or Tirek do you?”

“I doubt either of them would be able to put out that amount of magic. Not only that, but Chrysalis went into hiding, and Tierk is locked away in Tartarus after being defeated by Twilight and her friends.” Celestia said as she placed a hand on her head. “The moment it hit the shield I placed around us, it felt….wrong.“

“What do you mean?” asked Ivory as Celestia gave off a weak smile at the colt.

“It’s nothing to worry about.” She said before looking around at their surroundings. “We should leave and head over to Ponyville as soon as possible.” Both colts nodded as Ivory was about to pick up the princess bridal style, only to pause as he and the other pegasus heard something move in the bushes followed by the sounds of a filly giggling. Both colts quickly stood in front and behind Celestia as they pulled out their swords and looked at the darkness in the forest.

“Who’s there!?” The black pegasus yelled as the only reply he got was the sounds of footsteps and giggles. “Show yourself!”

“I don’t think they’d come out from you yelling that SouthPaw,” Ivory said as South deadpans at him. “What? Would you come out if you heard somepony yell at you?”

“New ponies....” Whispered an audible voice as the three of them could now see red glowing eyes peering at them from the trees, bushes, and around the trees. A chill ran down Celestia’s spine upon seeing the crimson-colored eyes staring at them, mainly her for the most part. “New ponies means new friends. Grey Hoof would love to meet new friends~”

“I have a bad feeling about this Ivory. Think we can carry the princess and bolt it back up into the sky?” South asked as Ivory shook his head.

“The trees are too close together for us to carry her out, and would take longer if we try to do it. We need to find an opening for us to get her into the air. But given how there are only two of us and the princess’s wing is broken, this might be a problem.”

“Your friend is hurt? Oh no, that's just horrible.” said a bone-chilling voice as one of the figures staring at them began to make its way over to them. Once it was out, the moonlight revealed who the figure was as a decaying earth pony slowly made his way over to them and offered a hand towards them. “Come with us, friends. We will be able to help your friend with her broken wing.”

Celestia, South, and Ivory’s eyes widened upon seeing the undead pony as the two colts quickly took up a defensive stance even closer to Celestia. The princess upon seeing the rotting pony and getting a whiff of its smell slightly gagged a bit as she almost threw up from it, but quickly covered her mouth before trying to regain her composure and looked at the pony.

“W….who are y…..you?” Celestia asked, still trying not to vomit from both the sight and smell of the earth pony.

“I am Brickleberry, we are ponies that live in a town called Sunnytown within the forest. We saw what happened to you and wanted to see if- '' as he took a step forwards, SouthPaw aimed his sword at Brickleberry.

“That’s far enough, pony!” South said as he glared at him. “Take another step and we will strike you down!”

“SouthPaw, lower your sword.”

“But Princess-”

“That’s an order.” She said as South grumbled and lowered his sword. “I’m sorry about that. They tend to be a bit protective at times when seeing somepony….n-new.”

“Oh, it’s quite alright,” Brickleberry said as he walked a bit closer to the group. “As I was saying, we saw what happened to you through an opening in the forest and rushed over to see if you were okay.”

“Y-Yes, we’re quite alright. Thanks for your concern, Brickleberry.”

“Are you sure? We can take you to our home so we can help repair your wing and….horn?”

“O-Oh there’s no need to worry about that. We can go to Ponyville and get help there.” Celestia said as she noticed his smile or at least she thought it was a smile disappeared. The group could feel a sense of dread and doom develop around them as the eyes around them began to glow darker.

“B-But we’re not that far from our town...um.”

“Princess Celestia. Sorry if I didn’t say my name when you introduced yourself to me.”

“Right, Princess Celestia. We’re not that far from town, and it is dark within the Everfree Forest during the night. So wouldn’t it be a good idea to come with us so that the monsters won’t hurt or kill you?”

“That’s why she has us,” Ivory said as he tried to grab Celestia by the hand to try and motion for her to get ready to run. “Now if you would be so kind as to lead us to the path to where the exit to the Everfree Forest is, then we’ll be on our way good sir.”

“....I wouldn’t advise you to leave and come with us,” Brickleberry said as his eyes glowed darker just like the others. “It would be a shame if something bad happened to you-” The earth pony paused for a moment as he looked down at Celestia’s flank to see her cutie mark underneath the somewhat torn regal dress she was wearing. He soon took a step backward for a moment before pointing a finger at the alicorn. “S…..She has the mark…..she has the curse mark on her!”

“Curse mark? Does he mean my cutie mark?” Celestia thought as she heard the other ponies around them start to mumble to each other as she saw Brickleberry with a panicked expression on his face.

“N...No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Grey Hoof will not like this if he were to see you with that curse mark on you. We must save you before the mark kills you.” He said as the ponies that were hiding in the shadows started to make themselves known by circling Celestia and the two royal guards. “You must come with us so we can save you from this curse.”

“What do you mean by that? My cutie mark is not a curse that will kill anypony, nor hurt anypony for that matter.” She said before she heard the ponies chanting the words “Kill and be reborn.” Celestia’s eyes widened upon hearing that as she took a step backward.

“Buck, not good,” SouthPaw said before looking over at Ivory. “We gotta go!”

“Already on it.” He said as he looked over at Celestia. “Your highness, we need to leave. Is there someplace we can hold out during the night?”

“The ruins of the old castle Luna and I used to live in is where we need to go. It may be old, but it should be a safe place to hold out until morning when I can…..Oh.” If Celestia could facepalm she would, as she just realized that the night might stay up a bit longer due to her horn being broken at the moment. The Alicorn shook her head to get her thoughts together as she looked over at South and Ivory. “The ruins will do until we can get out of the Everfree Forest.” Ivory nodded and was about to lead Celestia away from the group of undead ponies, only for something sharp to hit him in the chest.

Looking down Ivory could see a sharp jagged spear made out of wood pierced his lung as he coughed out blood from his mouth before kneeling to his knee from the pain and loss of breath. Celestia’s eyes widened in horror at this as she tried to kneel to help him, only for him to push her away as another spear hit him in the throat.

“Ivory!” South yelled as he looked over at Brickleberry to see the pony next to him that threw the spears at the white pegasus. “Bastards, you’ll pay for what you did to him!”

“You shouldn’t be angry, dear friend. Once we kill you and the princess, you will be reborn as one of us. Free from the curse mark and of death itself. You’ll see. When you’re reborn as us, you will feel free-!” Brickleberry was cut short as SouthPaw threw a dagger from his holster at the earth pony’s head as he fell backward onto his back.

“Princess, I’m going to make an opening for you to escape,” South said as Celestia looked over at the colt with a stern but fearful expression on her face.

“No, I can’t allow you to do that for my sake. You should go and get Twilight and her friends to help.”

“Given the fact that they killed Ivory with surprisingly good marksmanship, they would shoot my wings before I could get the chance to escape.” He said as he tightened his grip around his sword. “This is my job as part of the royal guard. To protect you and make sure you return unharmed to the best of my ability.”

“But-”

“Plus Luna would possibly kill me before these ponies do.” He said with a slight chuckle as the pegasus pulled out a white glowing orb from off his waist and raised it. “Get ready to run!” Celestia quickly covered her eyes upon seeing the orb as she knew what it was as South slammed the orb onto the ground. Once it shattered, the area was filled with a blinding light as the undead ponies' eyes widened before they quickly covered their eyes and let out screams of pain from the light blinding them. “Now run!”

Celestia turned around and was hesitant to run at first. But took a deep breath and bolted it down into the wild of the Everfree Forest. SouthPaw smirked upon hearing the princess running away as the light began to die out. He opened his eyes and glared at the group of ponies surrounding him now.

“Now that was rude,” Brickleberry said as he slowly pulled himself up and pulled the knife that was implanted into his head out and smiled at the pegasus sickly. “You shouldn’t throw things like this at your friends.”

“I am not your friend monster. Don’t think that killing Ivory and wanting to hurt the princess would make you think I’d be friends with you.”

“We’re trying to save her from the curse my friend. Don’t you see that if we don’t save her, she will die from the curse on her flank?”

“I highly doubt that.”

“Well, either way, I forgive you for hurting me and I hope you can forgive me for killing your friend. Once we save all three of you you’ll be more than welcome in our community.” He said as the undead ponies surrounding him started to come in closer to SouthPaw. “But first we must kill you before going after Princess Celestia,” he said as the undead ponies in turn jumped at the colt with fangs, spears, and other various weapons at the ready to kill SouthPaw as he took up a fighting stance.

“I’d like to see you try, monster!”

Chapter Five: Princess of The Moonless Night

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.”

Chapter Six: Tales Beside The Bonfire

Chapter Six

Tales Beside The Bonfire

“There we go!” Apple Bloom said as she clapped the dust off her hands. “It may not be much, but at least this will keep the rain from falling on us.”

“Nice work on fixing the holes in the ceiling and repairing the door-” Before Mitta could finish her sentence, she along with Apple Bloom felt the castle shake followed by a loud booming sound coming from below them. As the Castle shook, the repairs that Apple Bloom did began to fall apart as Apple Bloom fell from off a nearby pillar along with a piece of the ceiling she just fixed falling on top of her. Upon seeing this, Mitta quickly rushed over to the young filly as she began to pull the debris off of Apple Bloom. “Apple Bloom, are you okay!?” As she continued to pull more debris off of her, the young filly popped her head from underneath the debris with a deadpan expression on her face.

“No...No I am not okay. Do you know how hard it is to fix something like this without the proper tools? It’s very hard!” She said before coughing up some dust from her mouth. “Especially now seeing how I have to make more mud to make the bricks stick together.”

“....I get the feeling that Alma must have found a monster hiding out in the castle,” Mitta said as she pulled Apple Bloom out of the debris and patted off the dirt and dust that was on her body.

“What could she have done that could’ve caused the castle to shake like that?”

“Might be a spell that she can use thanks to that sword of hers, but something tells me that she doesn’t need help with whatever she’s dealing with.”

“What makes you say that?” The filly asked as Mitta pointed a finger behind her. As Apple Bloom turns around, she can see Alma making her way through the doorway of the room along with Nightmare Moon and the decapitated body of a cockatrice she’s dragging from behind.

“Look what I found. Food for tonight, and a mare that was trapped in stone.” Alma said as she moved the dead body of the monster to the side to reveal Nightmare Moon. Both Mitta and Apple Bloom stared at her for a moment before the older mare spoke up.

“Why do I get the feeling that you’re gonna be a magnet that attracts a lot of strange ponies?” Mitta said as she looked over at the dead cockatrice. “I take it that thing was the reason why the castle just shook?”

“Yeah, sorry about that. Didn’t think I would find a weird chicken monster that can turn peop....ponies into stone here in a place like this.” She said as Apple Bloom walked over to it and sniffed it. “Is it safe to eat?” Apple Bloom quickly took a bite out of its chest and munched on it for a bit before swallowing.

“Yeah...At least I think this one is. I’ve been in this forest for...some time, and I’ve never seen a cockatrice like this before. They’re usually small...this one is different.”

“Well you weren’t kidding me when you said that I would be surprised. I’m surprised that two of the ponies here are from that cursed town called Sunnytown….well one at least. The other is a trapped soul within an undead body, which I’m surprised is in a state of non-decay.” Nightmare Moon said as Apple Bloom and Mitta stared at the alicorn in disbelief.

“Who are you, strange pony?” Mitta asked.

“Nightmare Moon...Former Ruler of this Castle.”

“Wait, you’re Nightmare Moon? As in the mare who took over Princess Luna’s body and tried to put Equestria into an everlasting night?” Apple Bloom asked as the alicorn nodded. “Huh…..the story was way off on how you look. I figured you would be tall and scary-looking trying to take over Equestria.”

“....I should be insulted that they would picture me as something like that, but at this point, I couldn’t care less about it.” She said before sitting down. “My mood for trying to take over Equestria died nine years ago.”

“Okay Moony, care to explain how you know about Sunnytown and the curse placed on there?” Mitta asked as she folded her arms and glared at the mare. “You wouldn’t have anything to do with it would you?”

“Technically no. How I learned about your town was during my time with Luna one thousand years ago before she and I were banished to the moon.” Nightmare Moon was about to say something, but paused as she looked at her naked self from underneath the cloak she had on.

“Excuse me for a second, I need to change into something that is more...suitable for myself.” The alicorn’s horn began to glow as a blinding light filled the room, causing all three of them to cover their eyes for a moment. Once the light finally settles down and vanishes, they see Nightmare Moon wearing more mage-like clothes, while using Alma’s cloak as an added accessory. “Much better.”

“Not bad. For a second there I thought you were going to make something that was skimpy and skin-revealing.” Alma said as she noticed the alicorn deadpanning at her. “What? Most mages would be wearing revealing clothes or something. It can be a bit annoying.”

“Just...go back to preparing the meal and listen to what I’m about to tell the mare with the red mane.” She said before clearing her throat. “Now then...um.”

“Mitta.”

“Weird name, but I’m not one to judge. How I know about Sunnytown is because Celestia and Luna were the ones that caused the mess to begin with.” Nightmare Moon took notice of Apple Bloom’s and Mitta’s confused expressions as she couldn’t help but smirk at their expressions. “It all started one thousand years ago before my banishment to the moon. There was a small little town in the middle of the forest called Sunnytown. That town was supposed to be a test to see if ponies can survive living in the Everfree Forest. So far the test was going so well. The ponies were able to colonize a small section of the area within the Everfree, craft houses from the trees, and were able to find some very tasty-looking fruits and vegetables. Everything was going pretty well for the ponies in Sunnytown...well, that is until the incident.”

“Do you know what caused it?” Mitta asked as the alicorn nodded

“As you know, with every kingdom there’s always one or more ponies that think their ruler or rulers can’t cut it and take it upon themselves to do things their way. This would be the moment in time when a small group of royal ponies within Celestia and Luna’s circle of trust started to plan for the princess's downfall. So they formed a secret cult as a means to try and take them down for good. I warned Luna about this, and she in turn told Celestia. Like the naive idiot she chooses to not think it’s an issue nor would she believe us about it. That is until Celestia noticed a widespread cutie pox going around within the castle. It was thanks to Starswirl the Bearded that we were able to find out where the cultists were hiding out.”

“Sunnytown I take it?” Alma asked as Nightmare Moon nodded.

“Sadly yes. From what he told Celestia and Luna, they were planning on placing a curse on the two of them that would rapidly drain them of their magic over the years. But somepony bucked up the last spell and ended up causing the spread of Cutie Pox. Seeing how they couldn’t find a cure at the time, and modern medicine was crap back then from what I can remember. Starswirl suggested that they should place the infected ponies with the cutie pox that he calls it in Sunnytown until a cure could be found.”

“That...doesn’t seem like a bad idea?” Apple Bloom said as the alicorn snorted.

“Oh, it was a bad idea. I decided to have a look around the town, so I placed a spell on one of the cultists to see what was going on inside while Luna wasn’t aware of it. When I saw what was going on, I was a bit surprised as they were trying to perform a spell to help cure the citizens of their cutie pox.” Nightmare Moon shivered a bit before continuing. “History seems to repeat itself as the same unicorn bucked up the spell again, and thus caused the spell to start eating away at the infected ponies flesh. I couldn’t continue watching due to feeling my stomach turning from seeing this, and the pony I was watching it from was dying. I suggested that she and Celestia head over to the town to check up on it...it took them a month to finally make time to check up on them.”

“And I take it that they were dead the moment they lowered the barrier they placed over the town ?” Alma asked.

“At first yes, but the moment when they started to come to life and try to make their way towards us, the princesses quickly closed the barrier off and decided to forget about Sunnytown and the ponies inside of it. Makes sense seeing how they pretty much became undead monsters.” She said before looking over at Mitta who looked at her with a death glare.

“So you mean that they knew about what was going on in Sunnytown and sealed it off for all these years!?”

“....If I say yes, you’re not going to punch me in the face are you?”

“No...but I am going to do that to the bitches that made my home like it is now.”

“Oh...well good luck with that then.” Nightmare Moon said as she looked over at Alma who was halfway done with plucking the feathers off of the monster. “Wow, you’re quick.”

“I’m only focusing on a certain area of this monster’s body.” She said before unsheathing her sword and began to cut out a section of the beast's flesh. Once she cut off a good five slabs of meat, she looked over at Nightmare Moon. “Got any firewood or something we can burn?” She asked as the unicorn used her magic to pull a piece of cloth from off the ceiling and some rocks that were off to the side in the shadows she set it on fire while placing the rocks around it.

“Thanks.”

“Please cook the meat because I am very hungry.”

“Makes sense seeing how you were turned to stone for eight to nine years,” Alma said as she placed the slabs of meat on her katana and began to cook it. Well all but one, as she handed the raw meat over to Apple Bloom who tore into it like a hungry beast in the wild. “Well seeing how we’re gonna be here for the night, might as well get to know each other. Anyone willing to start?” She asked before looking at Apple Bloom. “What about you? You did say you were going to tell me as to what happened that made you like this.”

“It's a bit harsh to ask something from a little filly isn’t it?”

“N-No. It’s fine. I don’t mind talking about it, and I did say I would tell you what happened to me and Mitta. So now’s a perfect time to say it.” Apple Bloom said after taking another bit out of the slab of meat before putting it to the side and taking a deep breath. The young filly explained in great detail about how it started with her and Twilight going to Zecora, how she discovered Sunnytown and the citizens within it, how she had almost gotten turned into an undead pony like them, and how Ruby was able to save her and guided her back to Twilight to take her home. The older mares seemed to be relieved upon hearing her getting home safely, but upon hearing the aftermath of it. Their attitude soon changed upon hearing it, mainly Nightmare Moon who was visibly getting angry by the second.

“I am both surprised and not surprised.” Nightmare Moon said as she grabbed an already-cooked slab of meat over to her. “I’m not surprised that the spell that the princesses placed on the town wouldn't last, but surprised that they would be so Tartarus bent on going after you.”

“The dead can hold a grudge upon the living. It would make sense that they would be going after Apple Bloom in the dead of night. Guess that means Mitta’s friend is having trouble trying to keep them from going out of the Everfree Forest seeing how the Princesses barrier isn’t holding up anymore.” Alma said as she looked over at Mitta who was visibly shaking from what she was being told. “You okay?”

“I’ve just been told that my entire town was sealed away due to the princesses' buck up and that my friend is still alive but as a ghost protecting everypony by keeping the ponies of Sunnytown inside for the past one-thousand years….what the buck do you think!?” Mitta said as everyone noticed blood-colored tears rolling down her face.

“Right, stupid question on my part. Sorry.”

“All this time...all this time they knew about what had happened to Sunnytown. And they choose to bury it like Grey Hoof did to my friend. Hiding the truth from everypony else and pretending like it didn’t happen…forget punching them, I want to kill them.”

“Royalty in a nutshell when you think about it. Though killing them wouldn’t make things any better.” Nightmare Moon said before taking a bite out of her meat. “If I had ruled over Equestria, I would’ve done something about it. But alas, that didn’t plan out so well in my case.”

“But, can’t you do something about it now?” Apple Bloom asked. “I mean, I’m sure Princess Twilight might be able to do something about it.”

“Princess…Twilight?”

“Yeah...there was a coronation for her two years ago after fixing some kind of spell or something. Where have you been?” The filly said as Nightmare Moon stared at her for a moment before sighing. “...Oh...um...sorry.”

“You’re going to have to get us all up to date as to what has happened to Equestria over the past couple of years we've been in this place. But to answer your question little filly, do you think Celestia or Luna would be willing to help them?”

“They...are too far gone to be helped. You know what they did to Ruby and experienced their help seeing how you’re reduced to this walking living corpse.” Mitta said as she wiped away her tears. ”I would rather see them burn than help them.”

“I’m in agreement with that given the passing of time and from what I’m looking at due to how you two turned out...no offense.” Nightmare Moon said as the two undead ponies said in union.

“None taken.” They said while deadpanning at the alicorn.

“What I’m more interested in is why this mare is giving off lunar magic similar to that of Luna and me?”

“Wait, she can use magic?” Apple Bloom asked as Mitta nodded. “I thought only unicorns and alicorns like Nightmare Moon or the princesses could use magic?” Alma pretty much shrugs as she raises her hand and shows them a bow and arrow made out of lightning. Both Apple Bloom and Nightmare Moon were taken by surprise as the bat pony made it disappear in a flash.

“....Where are you from Alma.” Nightmare Moon asked as the bat pony stared at the three who were also curious as to where she came from.

“I could tell them where I come from...but I have a feeling they won’t believe me...lie to them for the most part.” She thought before looking over at them. “I’m a foreigner from a different country. How I’m able to use magic was thanks to a curse that was placed on me by my father.”

“What kind of curse?” Apple Bloom asked as the bat pony shrugged.

“Don’t know. So far it allows me to use magic, teleport with the assistance of a bonfire, and bring me back from the dead.” She said before noticing a raised eyebrow from all three mares. “What, it’s true.”

“I might believe the other two seeing how you’re not from Equestria and the magic you’re giving off. But you coming back from the dead is something I don’t believe.”

“Yeah, I have to agree with Moon on that,” Mitta said unamused by this before going back to watching the fire burn the meat.

“I’m undead and even I find that hard to believe.” Apple Bloom added as the bat pony deadpans with a huff of annoyance.

“Makes sense that they wouldn’t believe me...matter of fact, even I don’t know if I can come back to life if I’m killed…better not test that theory anytime soon. Don’t want to look like a fool that died because of it.” Alma thought before breaking away from her thoughts after hearing Nightmare Moon speak

“Amusing as that joke was. My next question would be, where do we go from here?”

“We’re planning on leaving the forest to get help with this situation. Apple Bloom, you know this forest inside and out right? Or at least for the most part. Do you know of any towns or something that’s near here?”

“Yeah I do...but...I can’t go back.” Apple Bloom said as she looked over herself. “Especially given the way that I look now.”

“Well, it’s not like you can stay out here forever given how they’ll be looking for Mitta and me.” The Ashen one said as she poked at the bonfire she made. “Eventually they will end up finding you soon and try to keep you in Sunnytown.”

“Do we need to get help? I mean why can’t you just use that magic of yours to wipe out the entire town already?” Mitta asked as the bat pony turned her attention to the older earth pony.

“Because I can’t go all out knowing that they will try to attack you three. I know you all might be able to handle yourselves, but let me be frank. You Mitta can’t fight so well and your only weapon is a knife, Nightmare Moon has been in stone for the past nine years, and Apple Bloom is suffering from a mental breakdown given the situation she’s been through.”

“I-I’m not suffering from a mental breakdown.” Apple Bloom said as she looked off towards the side.

“I’ve been around p...ponies with facial expressions like yours before. It’s not that hard to tell when someone is suffering from a mental breakdown. Hence I’m saying that we need help with this.” She said as everyone around the fire had an uneasy look on their faces. Alma sighed as she stood up. “Look right now we’re a bit limited at the moment, and I don’t care so much about your emotional baggage. But we have more important things to worry about than your fear, grudges, and whatever. If we don’t get the hell out of the forest, they will soon end up leaving the forest to get more ponies and turn them into their friends. Now I’m going to have a look around the castle so that the area is safe for us to sleep for the night. When I get back, I expect an answer from you three.” With that, the bat pony leaves the castle. Leaving the three of them alone to think over their options.

(Ponyville, School of Friendship)

“Alright class. That will be it for today. Remember that you’ll be having a test on the foundations of friendship tomorrow afternoon, so be sure to rest up and study~” Twilight said as the students began to make their way out of the classroom and to their dorm rooms. Once the last student left her classroom, the alicorn princess began to gather her belongings so she could retire for the night. That is until a familiar cyan color pegasus with rainbow color mane zoomed in and almost crashed into the princess, only for her to crash into the blackboard behind her. “Rainbow Dash, how many times have I told you not to fly around like that?”

“Twenty-seven times, but I have a good reason for it.” Rainbow Dash said as she quickly grabbed Twilight by her hand. “You gotta see what’s going on outside in the sky!”

“What are you-” Before Twilight could finish, she felt herself being pulled out of the classroom and headed outside with her. Once she was outside, she glared at the pegasus for a moment before looking up at the night sky to see a strange aqua-green beam soaring over the sky. The Princess soon followed where the line was going, only for her eyes to widen upon seeing a giant hole in the center of Canterlot Castle. “Dear Celestia! What happened!?”

“That’s what we want to know as well.” Chimed in a familiar Southern voice. Twilight looked over to her right to see Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Starlight, and Fluttershy making their way over to her and Rainbow Dash. “Y'all want to tell us why there’s a giant hole in Canterlot Castle?”
“How should I know?” Rainbow Dash said as she landed next to Twilight. “I was busy sleeping in my home with Scootaloo, and then the next thing I saw was some kind of beam taking out half my home and hitting Canterlot smack dab in the middle.”

“So that's what that sound was? I thought it was Starlight blasting Discord with a magical beam again.” Pinkie Pie said as Starlight blushed in embarrassment from that.

“That was a one-time thing. Also even my magic doesn't leave a trail like that, nor can it even reach Canterlot even if I tried.”

“As much as I like the color it gives off in the night sky, which gives me a few new ideas for a wonderful outfit.” Rarity said as she looked over at Twilight. “This might be a Save Equestria situation seeing how it hit Canterlot.”

“Y-You don’t think Tirek is behind this i-is he?” Fluttershy asked as Twilight shook his head.

“I doubt it. He’s still in Tartarus along with Cerberus guarding him.” She said before looking at where the magic of arcane energy was trailing off from. “From the looks of it, the magic is coming from the Everfree Forest.”

“Seriously? Why does everything weird happen in the Everfree Forest?” Rainbow Dash asked in slight annoyance. “Why can’t it be a normal forest or something for once.”

“Much that I would agree with how annoying it can be for something odd to happen from the forest. We have to investigate this matter,” Twilight said as her horn began to glow. “I’ll head off to Canterlot to see if Celestia and Luna are okay. You girls get what you need for tonight and meet me at the Castle of Friendship.” She said before teleporting off. There was a moment of silence between them all before hearing Applejack walking towards Sweet Apple Acres with her hat covering parts of her face.

“Well, y’all heard her. Let’s get going.” She said before feeling a hand placed on her shoulder.

“Darling, are you okay?” Rarity asked as the apple farmer replied.

“I’m fine, Rarity.”

“Are you sure? You have been kinda quiet since….well….you know?”

“The day Apple Bloom went missing?” Applejack said bluntly which caused the seamstress to flinch back a bit. “You don’t have to sugarcoat it Rarity.”

“I didn’t want to sound rude or anything seeing how it’s a touchy subject. I just want to be sure you’re okay with going into the Everfree Forest.”

“I’ll be fine. You girls get what you need and I’ll meet you at The Castle of Friendship.” Applejack said before continuing to walk off.

“Okay…Just remember that we’re here for you if you need to talk to us.” Rarity tacked on, a worried expression on her face before feeling Rainbow Dash’s presence next to her.

“It’s been two years since Apple Bloom was announced dead from what was left of her. I can’t imagine what could be going on in that mare’s head.”

“Neither can I darling, though at least she’s being more open about it towards us than finding...other means to cope with the loss.”

“It was only when we found her in a dumpster hungover was when she finally decided to let us help her,” Starlight said as she sighed. “You girls weren’t kidding when you said that AJ would be as stubborn as a mule.”

“Maybe we could throw her a cheering-up party to try and make her feel better?” Pinkie Pie suggested as Fluttershy shook her head to her suggestion.

“I don’t think she’ll be up for it, Pinkie. It takes time for somepony to come to terms with losing a family member. I would possibly be the same way she is if I lost my mom, dad, or brother.”

“I’ll be sure to try to ask her about it later during our next therapy session. Right now we should go and get what we need and meet up at the castle.” Starlight said as the others nodded before heading off towards their homes to get what they needed for the expedition into the Everfree Forest.

Chapter Seven: The Wheels of Fate Turns

Chapter Seven

The Wheels of Fate Turns

(Everfree Forest)

Celestia continued to make her way through the rough terrain of the Everfree Forest. So far thanks to SouthPaw staying behind to keep the undead ponies distracted, she was able to get a good enough distance between her and the monsters. Tired, out of breath, and possibly burned enough calories for the rest of her life, the princess of the sun leaned against a tree as she gasped for air.

“Never would’ve thought in one thousand years I would have to run for my life like this. Starting to see why Luna would keep pestering me about getting in shape.” She said before getting into a somewhat sassy pose of Luna. “I told you that you should’ve worked more than just sit on your flank and eat sweets all day. Now look where that got you. Stuck in the forest with a bunch of zombie ponies that want to kill you so they can be your friend~” She said before looking around at her surroundings. “And I’m talking to myself again...swell.”

Celestia looked up at the moonlit sky to see the magic trail of the blast that showed her and the guards from out of the air. She will admit that it does look beautiful with the way the aqua-green color mixed well with the deep blue night and stars. But what worried her the most would be the source behind that attack and where the beam might’ve hit. She knew it couldn’t be Tierk or Chrysalis seeing as one is in Tartarus and the other is missing after her second failed attempt to take over Equestria. So just who was it that caused it? These questions filled her mind for a moment before hearing a twig snap from behind her. The Princess returned from her thoughts upon hearing that as she continued to make her way towards the ruins of the old castle.

“No time to think about what happened just yet. I have to get to the castle that SouthPaw told me to go t, and wait there until he comes back.” Celestia said as she proceeded to run along the trail that leads to the Castle. As she ran, she felt her footing gave way and began to tumble forward down a hill. In a matter of seconds, she soon came to a stop as she landed back first onto the ground. She lets out a loud gasp of air followed by a coughing fit. As she tried to recover from her fall, she heard a familiar sickly sweet voice a few feet away from her.

“There you are, friend! We were beginning to worry that we lost track of you!” said a mare as she and three other undead ponies started to circle the sun princess.

“It’s a good thing we were able to slip by that pony blocking our path. Almost cut off my head if I didn’t duck a second early.” The colt said as he looked over at Celestia, mainly her horn. “Aw, her horn is broken. Don’t worry friend, we’ll patch you up once we save you from your cutie mark.”

Celestia’s eyes widened as she quickly looked around for anything to use as a weapon. She noticed a rusty-looking sword stuck in the mud as she reached over to pick it up and started to swing it around in an attempt to keep the undead ponies at bay.

“Stay back! Don’t come near me you abominations!”

“We just want to help you, friend. To save you from the curse.” The mare said as the colt from behind quickly grabbed her and pinned the alicorn to the ground. The mare begins to struggle in an attempt to escape but soon feels the other two ponies pin her arms and legs down as well. The mare picked up the rusty sword that Celestia had as she positioned herself over the sun princess and aimed the blade near her heart.

“You’re going to kill her now? But shouldn’t we wait until we get her back to the town?” asked a colt as the mare with the sword nodded.

“Grey Hoof said that it doesn’t matter if they’re dead or alive. Granted he prefers to have them alive for the change, but I’m willing to take his lecture when we return. Can’t take any chances with a unicorn. You never know when they could use their magic.” She said as she raised the sword she was holding and was about to plunge it into Celestia’s chest. Only for the mare to get hit in the chest by an arrow made of lightning. Celestia and the undead ponies' eyes widened upon seeing this as the mare holding the sword went limp before vanishing into dust.

“What the-” Before the others could react, the same arrow that killed the mare struck the other three either in the head, chest, or eyes as they too went limp and vanished into dust.

“Wasn’t expecting anyone out here. Guess the ponies from Sunnytown are sending a search party for us.” Alma said as she made the lightning arrow disappear and walked up toward Princess Celestia. “You okay?” She asked while Celestia simply stared at the bat pony in a mix of surprise and shock. Mostly because she saw her using magic. Which was impossible given how she’s a bat pony and not a unicorn or alicorn. “Hey, I asked you a question. Are you okay?”

“O-Oh, um. Y-Yes...I’m fine.” She answered as she tried to pull herself up, only to fall back down on her butt as she let out a loud hissing sound from the pain she felt in her horn. Alma looked over at the alicorn princess noticing the crack on her horn and frowned.

“That doesn’t look good.” She said before reaching down to help Celestia up to her feet. “I don’t know who you are, but coming out here in the middle of the night with undead ponies walking around isn’t the brightest idea.”

“I-It’s not like I had much of a choice in the matter...who are you little pony? You look like one of Luna’s night guards...but you can use magic without a horn...how is that possible?” Alma was about to reply to the alicorn’s questions, only for her ears to twitch upon hearing something moving in the bushes.

“I think we should find a place where we don’t have to worry about getting ambushed or jumped on. Unless you want to have the undead ponies attack you again.” She said before feeling Celestia moving in close to her. “I figured as much.”

“Might I recommend we head towards my old castle until the sun rises? It should provide a means for us to stay and to take cover in.”

“Sadly we have to leave the castle before sunrise and make our way to a nearby town or something.”

“Wait, why leave something that could provide us protection?”

“Because those undead ponies will start looking over here,” Alma said as she pointed to the remains of the ponies that attacked Celestia. “I don’t know if they can communicate via magic or if they have a hive-like mind. But they will notice the group I killed missing, and they will notice their friends are gone. Which means that they will see the castle off in the distance and head over there where I and the others are in.”

“There are other ponies out here than just you?”

“I just met them due to them helping me out or vice versa...fair warning try not to let their appearances scare you.”

“Why’d you say that?”

“.....Just informing you beforehand is all.” She said before leading Celestia towards the castle of the two sisters. “Come on. We have a long road and night ahead of us.”

(Castle of the two sisters)

“So...What are you two thinking?” Nightmare Moon asked as she noticed the two mares looking at the fire. Though Apple Bloom is just poking at the fire with a stick while Mitta just glares at the flames dancing.

“I don’t want to leave...especially with how I look.” Apple Bloom said as she tossed the stick into the fire. “But...I don’t want anypony to end up like us.”

“I’m...conflicted. I want to kill them for what they did to us...but I can’t because we need their help...but I want to kill them.”

“The ponies of Sunnytown or Celestia & Luna?” Nightmare Moon asked as the older mare deadpanned at her.

“Both, but I know Alma would be annoyed if I were to kill the princesses...maybe I could just punch them in the face as a means to quell my anger...for the time being at least. What about you?”

“I’ve given up on trying to take over Equestria. My revenge went downhill the moment I got turned to stone for the past nine years. Still disliked the princesses...but my anger and rage died off for the most part. I’m just here to finish something that the Princesses failed to do.”

“You’re going to help us?”

“Might as well seeing how I’m curious as to how this little adventure goes. That and this will be something to add to my list of things that I can outshine them both in.”

“I thought you’d given up on the whole revenge thing?” Apple Bloom asked as the alicorn smirked.

“I may not be able to kill them, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do passive-aggressive stuff like this~”

“Why am I not surprised by this...then again who am I to judge seeing how I might do the same if need be,” Mitta said as she leaned back against the stone pillar. “So it’s agreed then? We’re going to ask the...Princesses for help?”

“Seems like it. As much as I hate to say it, we’re going to need help with this. Which reminds me, we all might want to put on some different clothes if we end up going to Ponyville.”

“What’s wrong with what we have now?” Apple Bloom asked

“You two look like something from a horror book. Do you think anypony wouldn’t be scared of you two? I might be able to sway the masses with my charms to try and talk to them, but they will keep their distance from you two sadly.” Nightmare Moon’s horn glowed as she pulled off pieces of tattered cloth from the ceiling and pieces of old scrap metal from off to the side of them. “‘I’ll have to make something for you two so you won’t be seen as much of a threat...better make something for Alma as well given how old and rundown her armor and clothes are.”

“Never knew you were this good as a seamstress and smith,” Mitta said as the alicorn smirked.

“There are a lot of things you don’t know about me.” She said as the cloth and armor pieces she gathered started to glow and filled the room they were in with a blinding light. Once the light vanished, both Apple Bloom and Mitta were wearing a different set of clothes than the ones they had on moments before the light filled the room. The mare and the filly looked over at each other for a moment, then back at themselves for what they had on. Apple Bloom had on a black long-sleeve shirt, a red bandana around her neck, a pair of dark tan-colored overalls, and a metal pole in a holster on her back.

“Wow, these clothes feel much better than what I had on before.” Apple Bloom said before smelling herself causing her nose to scrunch up a bit. “Though I kinda wish it didn’t have the smell of something dying.”

“Better than running around in tattered clothes and having it come apart in a matter of seconds,” Mitta said as she looked over herself. She was wearing the same shirt as Apple Bloom, only hers was red, a pair of dark blue jeans, an apron, and a frying pan hooked to the side of her waist. “....Really?”

“Well you’re not a fighter, so why not give you something that seems comfortable to you.” The alicorn said as the earth pony flipped her the finger. “You’re welcome~,” She said as her ears began to twitch. “Seems like the bat pony is back...and she brought somepony with her.”

“About time. I was beginning to worry that she might’ve gotten lost or something.” Mitta said as she looked over to her right to see Alma walking into the room they were in. “So, got anything from your trip in the forest?”

“Other than a unicorn I found in the woods that almost became the next victim of the undead,” Alma said as she moved out of the doorway to reveal Celestia to the group. Celestia’s eyes widened upon seeing the group, mainly Nightmare Moon as she glared at the alicron in anger.

“You! How are you still alive!?” Celestia yelled as Nightmare Moon smirked and leaned back against the wall she was brushed up against.

“Never thought I would see you again Princess Celestia. Fate is a fickle mistress I see.”

“Wait, that’s Celestia? As in the bitch that caused the whole mess in Sunnytown?” Mitta asked as Nightmare Moon nodded while Apple Bloom tried to hide herself beside the dark alicorn. “....Alma, I want to punch her in the face.” She said as Celestia flinched back a bit in surprise from hearing that.

“You know I can’t let you do that.” She said before looking over at Celestia who was now glaring at her. “What?”

“How could you side yourself with the mare that took my sister away from me, and tried to take over Equestria!?” Celestia asked before continuing with her rant. “You can’t trust that mare. Especially with what she has done in the past.”

“I can give you a lot of reasons why I’m helping her. One, she’s no longer evil or trying to take over Equestria. Two, we have undead ponies trying to come after us. Three, we need to stick together to escape the Everfree Forest and Apple Bloom is the only one that knows the way out. And last, because you need to help fix a huge mistake that you caused all these years ago from what Nightmare Moon said when she was still fused with this Luna pony.”

“What do you mean by my mistake?”

“....You don’t remember do you?” Nightmare Moon asked as she chimed in on the conversation. “Does the word Sunnytown mean anything to you?”

“No, why would something like that mean anything to me?” She answered as Mitta gritted her teeth and caused the dark alicorn to sigh in disappointment.

“Think hard Princess. One thousand years ago you and Luna conducted a test to see if ponies can survive living in the Everfree Forest and you named the colony Sunnytown.” Nightmare Moon said as Celestia continued to stare at her like a deer in headlights. “Okay, how about the cutie pox incident? Where Starswirl suggested you seal the town up until there was a cure for the sickness, but some idiot cultists bucked up the spell to curse you and Luna?” She said as Celestia’s eyes widened in remembrance of Sunnytown hitting her like a ton of bricks a grin appeared on Nightmare Moon’s face. “There we go~” Celestia looked over at Mitta for a moment before noticing Apple Bloom hiding behind Nightmare Moon as she peeks out from beside her before hiding back again. She stared at her in shock before walking over to Apple Bloom to get a better look at her.

“You’re Applejack’s sister. The one that she said went missing two years ago, aren’t you?” Celestia asked as the little filly sighed and moved away from Nightmare Moon to reveal herself to the sun princess.

“H-Hi Princess Celestia.” Apple Bloom said as she gave a weak smile and waved toward the white alicorn. Tears began to well up around Celestia’s eyes as she placed a hand over her mouth from seeing this.

“Mother of me...how could I...I didn’t-”

“Yes, let it all sink in. I may be a monster to you or any other pony, but even I wouldn’t have done something like this.” Nightmare Moon said with a smirk still on her face. “You left these ponies to suffer for the past one thousand years and did nothing to save them. Just cast them aside like all things that don’t suit you or your kingdom-”

“Not to ruin the moment of sudden realization or whatever, but we need to leave,” Alma said as she walked over to gather her belongings. “The ponies from Sunnytown are getting close to the castle, so we’re gonna have to step up the plan on leaving the forest.” She said as Celestia turned her attention over to the bat pony.

“W-We can’t leave. One of my guards who told me to wait for him here is still out there after we crashed into the forest. We can’t just abandon him to his fate with the undead ponies.”

“You crashed into the forest? How in Tartarus did you crash into the forest?” Mitta asked as she folded her arms.

“A beam of pure magic that came from out of the forest hit us. It was almost as powerful as one of my own if I was in my prime. And because of that, my horn got damaged and I can’t use my magic as well until it can recover.” She said as Mitta and Alma stared at each other with nervous expressions on their faces for a moment before the bat pony looked over at Nightmare Moon.

“Moon, could you make Celestia something to wear as a means of protection?”

“I can...that is if I’m allowed to do so and if the armor I make can fit on bubble butt over here.” She said which caused Celestia to blush and glare at her. “What? You’ve been on your flank for over one-thousand years and I was able to foalnap you easily when I returned from the moon. If that’s not saying something about how strong you are, then I don’t know what is.”

“Just make the armor for her, please. We don’t have time for you two to argue like a bunch of yapping dogs.” The bat pony said before looking over at Celestia. “Will you allow her to do that? Because given the way you’re dressed, you might need it so that your clothes won’t fall off and reveal certain things.”

“I….I will allow it.” Celestia said before noticing Nightmare Moon motioning her to the other room. The moment Celestia and Nightmare Moon left the room, Apple Bloom looked over at Alma and Mitta with a concerned expression on her face.

“Is something wrong?”

“We...or in this case, I might’ve been the cause of Princess Celestia crashing into the Everfree Forest.” She said as Apple Bloom’s mouth dropped open. “It was an accident! I didn’t think the moonlight greatsword would be that powerful to fire a beam of that caliber…”

“Do you know how much trouble you’ll be in if Princess Celestia knows it was you!? She might send you to the dungeon...or worse...to the sun!” Apple Bloom yelled as Alma and Mitta quickly covered the filly’s mouth before looking at the doorway. They sighed in union due to not seeing Celestia busting into the room as they looked back at Apple Bloom.

“Celestia doesn’t have to know about this. Got it? We’re going to keep this a secret and not say anything about this.” Alma said as she and Mitta removed their hands from off of the filly’s mouth.

“But what if she finds out?”

“She won’t, we’ll take this secret to our grave if possible,” Mitta said before looking at Alma. “We might want to have a plan in case the secret comes out from one of us.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. But for now, gather your stuff. We’ll leave in about two hours, so that will give the guy that Celestia came with enough time to get here.”

Chapter Eight: The Black Hammer of Ivory

Chapter Eight

The Black Hammer of Ivory

“What’s your game in all this?” Celestia asked as Nightmare Moon paused in her measurements as she looked up at her.

“I don’t have a game. Being in stone for the past nine years makes a mare think over a few...life choices in her life.” She said before going back to what she was doing. “Was planning on getting revenge on you and your elements of harmony, but after thinking it over...and going insane after the fifth year I gave up on doing that.”

“And you expect me to believe that? You took over my sister’s body and forced me to send her to the moon.”

“True, but even if I hadn’t taken over Luna’s body this would’ve happened either way.”

“What do you mean by that?” Nightmare Moon grinned upon hearing that as she looked up at Celestia.

“Your relationship with Luna was broken. How you would ignore her pleas for letting the nights be longer just a little bit, how her subjects favored you over her, how she cries at night because her sister ignores her. Granted, I shouldn’t be the one who judges a mare’s actions toward her sister. But given how bad it was, it was bound to happen.” She said as her grin formed into a frown. “You hurt Luna, so it seemed fit that I hurt you back for what you did. How was Equestria able to last with a ruler like you that’s too blinded by her own sun to not see what lies in the shadow she cast upon the land she rules?”

“You have some nerve to speak to me like that. Especially-”

“Do keep in mind I only did two things to you. One in the past, and the other when I was released from the moon. You, on the other hand, kept an entire village hidden and sealed off from the world. Which didn’t last long seeing how the barrier you cast broke and they’ve been gathering gullible ponies to be their friends.” Celestia paused as she went silent upon her words. “I can name a lot of things that you’ve done, but right now we have more important things to take care of.”

“The ponies of Sunnytown?”

“Correct.” Nightmare Moon finished her measurements as she pulled away from Celestia. “How good are you with a sword.”

“.....Um…I might be a bit rusty on that.”

“.....Please tell me you kept up with your fighting for the past one thousand years?”

“I have been...busy.” Nightmare Moon deadpanned at the sun princess. She walked over to her, raised her hand, and smacked her upside her head causing her to let out a loud yelp.

“Busy doing what!? Getting somepony else to do the work for you while you sit back and fill out paperwork and eat cake!?” She said as Celestia looked off to the side with a blush of embarrassment. “....That would explain why it was so easy for me to kidnap you and seal you away when I got out of the moon.”

“To be fair I let myself get captured to help my former student Twilight in finding the elements of harmony.” She said which caused the dark alicorn to smack her on the nose as she yelped again. “Stop hitting me!”

“Stop being stupid!” She said before channeling magic into her horn. “Now hold still so I can put something on you.” With that, the pieces of cloth and metal gathered around Celestia for a moment before clinging to her body and engulfing her in a ball of magic. When the ball burst into a flash of light, Celestia was wearing knight-like armor similar to that of Alma but was more shiny, well-fitted, and not looking old.

“....I won’t lie and say that I’m not impressed by this...but this doesn’t change the fact of how I feel towards you.”

“Like I give a flying feather on being friends with you. Do keep in mind that I’m only doing this because Alma suggested we all work together to get out of this forest.”

“I take it she’s one of your subjects?”

“No, I figured she was one of yours when we first met. But it turns out she’s from outside of Equestria. Don’t know, she didn’t explain much, but I’m sure she’ll tell us...or not. I’m not complaining about it.”

“Do you at least know how she’s able to use magic?”

“Something involving a curse or something. I wasn’t paying much attention due to lack of interest, and I was still trying to wake up from being stoned.” She said before finishing up her examination of Celestia’s garments. “That should keep you protected to some degree. You’re welcome by the way.”

“This doesn’t change the way I feel about you. You know that, right?”

“And here I thought you were supposed to be the pinnacle of friendship and giving ponies a second chance. After all, you did give Discord a third chance after betraying you in helping Tierk.” Nightmare Moon said as Celestia stared at her in surprise. “The little filly told me about what’s been going on in the world during my stoned imprisonment for the past nine years. Now if you’re done with your attempts to scare me, we should go meet up with the others so we can wait for your so-called knight who may or may not be dead.” She said before walking back towards the group. Celestia stared at Nightmare for a moment before shaking her head and following the dark alicorn to where the others were. Once there, the two see the other three gathering up supplies from the surrounding area that were salvageable. Nightmare Moon cleared her throat as they turned their attention to her and the now-armored Celestia.

“Good to see you’re wearing something that isn’t so revealing,” Alma said before handing her a makeshift backpack. “Here, you’ll need this to carry your supplies in.”

“We’re not leaving yet are we?”

“No, we’re gathering what we can and waiting for your friend to get here. If he’s not here within an hour or two, then we’re leaving without him.”

“We can’t just leave him in a place like this? He might be injured or worse!”

“Well, we can’t stay here for very long. If the ponies from Sunnytown surround this place, then we’re in trouble since only one of us can fight.” She said before noticing Celestia was about to speak up, only for her to shut her up. “You can’t use magic due to your horn being injured, Nightmare Moon is still recovering from her stone prison so she’ll possibly be useful as support, Mitta isn’t good at fighting other than swinging a knife or stick around, and Apple Bloom isn’t trained well to fight even though she has monstrous strength that almost rivals mine to some degree. I’m the only one with any fighting experience in this group and who isn’t weak or injured...offense everyone.”

“....She has a point.” Mitta agreed. “And unless you can handle yourself in a place filled with undead ponies, then you best come with us when time is up.” She said as Celestia looked off to the side. “Look, I’m not trying to be an ass. But given the state we’re in, we can’t afford to stay here any longer than we need to. Especially seeing how this is...well...buck it. It’s pretty much your fault.”

“Mitta!” Apple Bloom said with a stern gaze towards her.

“What? How do I say it without sounding like a pony’s flank?” The undead mare said as she scratched the back of her head. “I kinda developed a habit of being blunt towards ponies.”

“Back to the matter at hand,” Alma said as she interrupted the conversation. “Everyone got what they needed that can be salvaged from this place?”

“For the most part. We’re still gathering some stuff around here that is salvageable.” Apple Bloom said as she continued to look around the room they were in.

“Be quick about it.” The bat pony said as she walked over towards the hole in the wall to survey the area. As she was keeping watch, she noticed something moving in the bushes as she quickly summoned her lightning bow into her hands.

“Something wrong?” Celestia asked as she walked over to Alma, only to pause upon seeing red glowing eyes peering from the forest. “Oh…”

“Yeah, looks like time’s up,” Alma said as she turned her attention toward the others. “We’re leaving!”

“But what about-”

“We’ll come back after we lead them away from here. Right now, we need to leave.” She said before she noticed the undead ponies making themselves visible from the shadows of the forest. Alma looked over at Mitta and the others as she motioned for them to get over to where she was.

“I do hope you have a plan. Because As you said before, you’re the only one who can fight at the moment.” Nightmare Moon said as the bat pony looked back at the group of undead making their way through the bushes only to stop once they were visible in the moonlight. “Wait, why did they stop?”

“There are many reasons why. One might be because of me, or they have something coming here to kill us and be made into their friends.” She said as the bat pony’s ears began to twitch. “Anyone heard that?”

“Hear what?” Apple Bloom asked as she placed her hands on her ears to see what she meant. There was a moment of silence as the ground around them shook a bit. “Now I hear it. You don’t think they brought a monster here do you?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m being honest,” Mitta said as she moved over to see where the stomping was coming from. Upon hearing the sound of branches breaking to her left, she turns her attention toward it only for her eyes to widen upon seeing a humanoid-like creature appearing out from the darkness of the forest.

“Mother of me! What is that thing!?” Celestia yelled as she flinched back from seeing the creature.
“Don’t know...but I have a feeling that it came from one of my books that they stole when they found me in the forest.” Alma said as Celestia turned her attention to the bat pony.

“...What kind of book would make something like that!?” The Princess asked with a stern gaze on her face.

“I’m...going with one of the darker books that I have...one that most p...ponies shouldn’t read unless they want to go mad with madness and turn to darker thoughts.” She said before noticing everyone looking at her with a deadpan expression on their faces.”Hey, don’t fucking judge me! You guys aren’t exactly perfect. Or need I remind you of what you all told me of what you did..minus Apple Bloom because she’s a victim of this mess.”

“Ponies that reside inside the castle! We are here to take you to Sunnytown so we can cure you of the curse that you have on your flanks!” yelled the undead earth pony as he moved over to the monster. “We would prefer if you come with us peacefully, less we would have our friend here come in and force you to come with us.” Celestia squinted her eyes upon seeing something on the monster's chest. Her eyes soon widened as she saw the symbol of the royal guard on its chest.

“Ivory?” Celestia said as she turned her attention to the earth pony. “What did you do to Ivory you monsters!? There’s no way that thing is him!”

“But indeed it is. For you see, we cured him of his curse and gave him the gift of everlasting freedom and friendship. His new body with the help of that book that Grey Hoof found three days ago, granted us the ability to give ponies much stronger bodies. However that only applies to those that are new, not the older generations mind you. It may be a rushed job, but this quick ritual will have to be done for now.” He said before the demon known as Ivory let out a bloodcurdling roar that caused Apple Bloom to hold onto Mitta out of fear. Celestia could only stare in shock at what this creature was, yet still couldn’t believe that they would turn somepony into an ungodly abomination of darkness and malice.

“Please tell me you have a plan because right now the only option we have left is to give up and go with them to Sunnytown.” Nightmare Moon said as she had a worried expression on her face.

“....You have enough magic to create a barrier around you and the others?” Alma asked as the dark Alicorn raised an eyebrow at her.

“Yeah, why?” She asked before noticing the bat pony placing a hand on the handle of her greatsword. “You’re not planning on fighting that thing are you!?”

“Well, it’s not like we have much of a choice. If I take down the monster, then they leave so we can make a break for it.”

“You can’t do that!” Celestia protested. “That’s one of my faithful guards. What if he is still himself in there and can be turned back?"

“Doubt it seeing how he’s been cursed by a spell in my book. No way of returning him to normal.” She said before making her way towards the undead group. “And right now is not the time to be thinking about saving someone already dead.”

“She has a point.” Nightmare Moon said as she cast a barrier around them as they watched the bat pony walk towards the group of undead ponies. Once Alma was close enough to them, she stopped and placed her sword standing up in the ground as she folded her arms and stared at the group.

“I take it you’re the leader of this search party?” Alma asked as the undead pony nodded.

“Indeed. I am Mello Jello. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He said before eyeing Alma up and down. “Hey, aren’t you the bat pony we found some time ago?”

“Nice to see that I’m starting to be known a bit. Shame that it’s you guys and your sick leader.”

“Hey now. Don’t be that way. Once we save you and your friends from the curse mark, we can be friends forever and ever!”

“And if we refuse your most generous offer?” Alma asked as the demon slammed his hammer onto the ground to her response.

“Then we’ll have to take you in by force,” Mello said as he ordered the demon to charge at her. As the demon charged at the bat pony, Mello along with his group quickly made their way back into the darkness of the forest as they watched the fight take place in front of them.

“Hope I can come back from the dead if I get killed by it.” She said before bringing up her greatsword as a magical aura wildly burst from out of it before she fired off a large beam of lunar energy at the demon. The demon quickly jumped out of the way of the beam but was sent flying backward from the force behind her attack as it landed on a nearby tree branch that could support him from a distance. Alma blinked in surprise upon seeing the giant hole she made in the forest where the demon was standing as she looked over her weapon. “Okay, I can work with this.”

The demon lets out a primal roar before launching itself off the branch and flying towards Alma like a bullet. The bat pony’s ears twitched upon hearing the demon flying towards her before quickly rolling to the side of the oncoming monster, then hitting him with the flat part of her greatsword and sending him flying off to the side and into a nearby tree which he crashed through. During this time, Alma began to gather magic into the sword as it once again bursts wildly with the same magical aura from before. The demon soon pulled himself back up and quickly launched itself at Alma again, only for the bat pony to fire off another magical beam of lunar energy at the monster. Upon making contact at close range, an explosion was set off as the force behind it caused Nightmare Moon, Celestia, Apple Bloom, and Mitta to be pushed back into the force field that Nightmare Moon made for them as a means of protection.

“Mother of me,” Celestia said as she pulled herself off of Nightmare Moon. “Just who is that mare?”

“I would like to know as well.” Nightmare Moon said as she along with the others pulled themselves up from either the ground or each other. “I know ponies have certain magical properties, but what pony other than unicorns or alicorns can perform feats of magic like this!?”

“I think we should save the questions for later,” Mitta said as she pointed over at Alma flying out of the explosion and towards the sky. “We need to follow after them.”

“Wouldn’t that be a bad idea?” Apple Bloom asked as she looked at the bat pony flying off in the distance. “We might get caught up in the fight.”

“It would be, but we might need to make a quick getaway in case Alma gets in trouble during the fight...that and I prefer not to have the undead group attack us while Alma is distracted.” Nightmare Moon answered as she motioned for them to follow after Alma.
The cloud caused by the explosion moved a bit and the demon soon followed Alma as he grabbed her by the face and slammed her into the wall of the upper tower of the castle. Once the demon had a good footing on the wall, he brought up his hammer and slammed it down onto Alma; she was sent crashing down the inside of the tower as it crumbled. Before the debris could fall onto the duo, Alma was sent flying backward by the demon as she skidded across the ground, and was sent flying into the air by the demon surprisingly appearing behind her. As she was sent flying into the sky, the demon soon followed as he was about to send her flying into the ground. Only for the bat pony’s wings to open up to quickly recover as she soon hit the demon with another magical beam of magic at point-blank range it caused another explosion that sent the demon crashing towards the ground while Alma slowly descended. Once the bat pony landed, she let out a low grunt from the pain she felt in her ribs.

“Geez, even with the armor I have on this bastard hits harder than Yhorm. And he’s a fucking giant compared to this demon.” She said before pulling out an estus and ashen flask as she began to drink them one at a time. Once she was finished, she soon heard the demon’s body crashing down onto the ground covered in magical flames and a few limbs and pieces ripped off from his body. Alma let out a sigh of relief at the sight of the demon dead, only to deadpan upon seeing the demon’s eyes glowing as he soon stood up its body began to glow. Once he stood up, a dark crimson aura erupted from the demon as his limbs and wounds began to regenerate at an alarming rate before letting out a primal roar. “Of course...why wouldn’t it have a second wind.”

The demon rushed over towards Alma flailing its hammer around like a madman as both their weapons collided with each other causing the ground to crack and buckle a bit from the force behind their attacks. Alma could feel herself losing her footing as she used the magic in her sword to parry the demon’s hammer off to the side as she fired off another large magical beam at the demon. Just as Nightmare Moon and the others made it to where the two fighters were, the dark alicorn used her magic to push them all down as the beam Alma shot off flew passed from above. Once the beam flew past them, the group pulled themselves up as they looked at each other in both shock and surprise as they looked back at the fight.

As the group continued to watch the fighters fight, Alma was soon pushed back by the demon sending her flying as she skidded across the stone-covered ground. The demon soon shot up into the air as he fired off a barrage of fireballs down upon the bat pony. Alma took notice of this as she placed her sword back onto her back as she summoned up a bow made of lightning which she used to fire off a barrage of lightning arrows at him from the ground while dodging the barrage of fireballs. The demon easily dodges the oncoming arrows as he soon lands near the section of the tower he broke. Once he was there, he quickly lifted a large piece of it and hurled it over towards Alma.

The bat pony’s eyes widened upon seeing it heading towards her as she quickly dismissed her bow and pulled out her greatsword to form a large magical blade to cut it in two. As the large debris was cut and shattered into pieces, the demon soon appeared behind Alma in an attempt to hit her from behind. The bat pony’s ears twitched as she quickly turned around to block the incoming attack from the demon. The floor she was standing on buckled from the force as she felt herself falling. Before she could react, she felt the demon grab her by the face and slam her onto the ground, and started to drag her along it while hitting pieces of stones sticking out from the ground breaking from the force of the demon’s strength.

Alma let out cries of pain from being dragged through the ground and pieces of the floor as she soon felt herself being thrown into the sky. Before she could recover from the throw, the demon darted after her once again he grabbed her and slammed her onto the ground. The force behind his slam caused the ground to buckle again as he soon started throwing her around like a ragdoll against the ground and pieces of the earth that were sticking out from the ground. Through the pain, the champion of ash managed to get a grip on her greatsword to be able to fire off another magical beam of lunar energy at point-blank range causing a pillar of said energy to erupt from the ground as the two were sent flying off towards the garden part of the abandoned castle. Alma would be the first to land as she tumbles onto her side covered in burns and bruises while the demon would be in the same condition as the life in its body was starting to fade away but was still able to fight.

“Time to end this.” She said as she staggered to her feet and brought her sword up above her head with one hand as she began to gather up magical energy from her body and unknowingly from the surrounding area around them. The demon lets out a primal roar as he begins to pull himself up and launches himself towards Alma getting ready to drop the hammer onto the bat pony’s chest. His hammer soon hit something metal, he looked down to see that he hit the shield that she pulled out from off her back as she parried the hammer off to the side, causing the demon to stagger as Alma quickly placed her hands onto the handle of her greatsword as it soon reaches its maximum output as magic wildly burst from her sword. “I'm sorry, brave knight. May you find peace in oblivion.”

With that, she brought down her sword to unleash the magic stored up in her greatsword the beam sent the demon flying off into the distance of the direction she fired at causing it to destroy part of the area she fired upon as the demon’s cry of pain was slowly dying off as his body began to turn to dust. The beam began to slowly die down, the others began to quickly head over to the bat pony as she soon collapsed to the ground.

“Is she going to be okay?” Apple Bloom asked as Nightmare Moon looked her over for a moment as Mitta and Celestia quickly moved to pull the unkindled one up for support.

“Well, she’s breathing from the looks of it. But I’ll have to look over her body to get a good look at what we’re dealing with.” The dark alicorn said as she looked over at Apple Bloom. “Is there someplace that we can take cover in? Apple Bloom places a hand on her chin for a good few seconds before her eyes widen at the sudden realization.

“Zecora!”

“Who?” The three mares said in unison as Apple Bloom motioned for them to follow her as Celestia and Mitta carried Alma and her gear along with them.

“She’s a Zebra that lives in the Everfree Forest! Why didn’t I go to her sooner about this problem I have!?”

“Could be because you died and were on the run from the ponies of Sunnytown for the past eight years.” Nightmare Moon said as Apple Bloom, Mitta, and Celestia stared at her with a deadpan expression. “What? You know it’s true given how you’re still a little filly.”

“Can we please go before the undead rejects of Sunnytown come out of the shadows and try to capture us?” Mitta asked as the group quickly made their way through the destroyed area that used to be the ruins of the castle of the two sisters. Only for Celestia to pause to the sudden realization.

“Something wrong Celestia?” Mitta asked as she noticed the white alicorn look over the damage, then back at Alma, then at her sword.

“....She’s the one that blasted me and my ponies out of the sky wasn’t she…?” She asked as all three of them paused and looked at each other with worried looks on their faces.

“One of the ponies from Sunnytown did that,” Mitta said as Celestia looked over at her with a raised eyebrow. “Blame Grey Hoof and his curiosity for stuff like this. He didn’t think the sword held any power or anything until he fired off a blast by accident.”

“...I am going to need a long warm bath when this is over...and to reflect upon my past mistakes.” She said before going back to carrying Alma. As she walked close to Apple Bloom leading the way towards Zecora’s hut, Nightmare Moon and Mitta moved towards the rear as they whispered to each other.

“Nice save with the whole blaming your townsfolk thing. Was beginning to think she was going to figure it out sooner than expected.”

“I’m not in the mood for more drama than needed. Right now I want someplace to feel safe without those idiots from Sunnytown following us.” Mitta said as she picked up the bat pony’s greatsword and began to follow after Apple Bloom and Celestia. “And right now, I’m tired and want to sleep.”

“You can sleep?” Nightmare Moon said as Mitta deadpanned at her. “...Sorry.”

“Let’s just go before I say something I’m going to regret saying.”

Chapter Nine: A Quick Reprieve

Chapter Nine

A Quick Reprieve

“Alright girls. Something is causing trouble within the Everfree Forest. We must head in there and find the source of who or what hit Canterlot Castle.” Twilight said as she looked over at Applejack. “You know you don’t have to come with us Applejack...especially since...well.”

“You don’t have to sugarcoat it Twilight. I’m going in with y’all because it’s my duty as a friend to help y’all out.”

“Right, sorry...Um...back to what I was saying. Whatever is going on in the Everfree Forest, we need to find out what it is and stop it ASAP.”

“Shouldn’t we get Princess Luna to help us on this matter?” Rarity asked. “I mean, did you not see that beam that hit Canterlot?”

“Yes, hence why we can’t call on her yet. Seeing how the beam hit Canterlot, ponies are sure to be in a panic from the sudden attack. Which means, Princess Luna will be busy trying to do damage control.”

“What about Princess Celestia? Shouldn’t we ask her for help as well?” Rainbow Dash asked as the alicorn shook her head.

“Celestia hasn’t returned yet from her important meeting outside of Equestria. Which is another reason why we’re the ones who are going to handle this problem ourselves.” Twilight answered with confidence in her voice.

“So, what’s the game plan, Twilight?” Applejack asked. “Because I hope it isn’t we just walk right into the forest and just hope we run into whoever it is that’s causing the beams of magic?”

“I’m glad you asked AJ.” The alicorn’s horn glowed as a moveable blackboard appeared next to them with notes on it. Just when she was about to explain her plan, the group felt the castle beginning to shake along with the sound of magic heading towards the castle. The group of friends looked around to see where it was coming from, only for Starlight to notice the cracks in the crystal wall appearing behind Twilight as she quickly put up a barrier around them. Once it was up, the beam of magic blasted through the wall and hit the barrier that Starlight put up.

Twilight blinked in surprise as she along with the others stared in shock at how quickly Starlight was able to put up a shield and the magical beam they saw hit the castle and almost hit them. In a matter of seconds, the beam slowly began to dim, as something hard hit the barrier with a loud sicking thud. They looked to where the sound was heard as they flinched back in fear upon seeing a torn-up-looking creature slamming against the barrier before sliding down onto the ground. Fluttershy and Rarity were the first ones to let out screams of horror while the others were staring in shock at the now-dead creature.

“What the hay is that thing!?” Rainbow Dash asked, pointing a finger at the burnt creature.

“I...I don’t know.” Twilight said as she took a step towards the creature. Once she was close, she tried and reached towards it to touch it. Only for Starlight to pull her hand away with her magic.

“Are you crazy Twilight!? You don’t know if that thing is still alive or what it might have on it.” Starlight said before casting another barrier around the dead creature.

“Something weird is going on in the Everfree Forest,” Applejack said as she looked out the giant hole in the room they were in. “This is the second time that we saw that beam coming out of the forest, and now this creature came out along with that beam. We need to go in there and stop whatever or whoever is causing this.”

“You girls go on ahead. I’ll keep an eye on this creature and make sure there aren't more of these around town.” Starlight said as the group nodded in agreement.

“No time to wait everypony. Let’s go and find out what’s going on in the forest.” Twilight said as she and her friends began making their way into the Everfree Forest.

(Everfree Forest)

“This mare is surprisingly heavy. Even without the armor and gear she was wearing.” Celestia said as she along with Nightmare Moon and Mitta followed Apple Bloom through the Everfree Forest.

“Might want to be careful with what you say. Just because she’s passed out, doesn’t mean she can’t hear us...At least I hope she can’t hear us.” Nightmare Moon said as she kept her eyes on their surroundings.

“Hard to believe you let the forest get this out of hand Celestia.”

“That’s mainly because I don’t live in the Everfree Forest anymore. Things have changed over the past couple of years during your slumber.”

“Yeah, I kinda notice from what Apple Bloom told me. And I gotta say, I am very disappointed.”

“Care to explain?”

“You became a lazy fatass.” Nightmare Moon said bluntly which caused Mitta to snort a bit in laughter.

“Excuse me!? Who are you calling lazy?”

“Pretty much you. I mean from what Apple Bloom has told me about you, you’ve been doing nothing but sit in your little castle and doing paperwork and sun court. I mean really? Is that what you've been doing for the past one-thousand-nine years while I was away?”

“I don’t have to justify how I spent the past one-thousand-nine years. Especially to somepony that took over my sister’s body.”

“Oh like you’re the perfect saint? Do keep in mind what happened to the ponies of Sunnytown?”

“You know what-”

“Will you two shut up?” Mitta said as the two alicorns looked over at the undead earth pony. “Seriously, you two are acting like immature brats.”

“She started it,” Celestia said as Mitta glared daggers at her causing her to flinch.

“Well, I’m ending it. If any of you start to argue again, I will personally hit you upside the head with a frying pan. GOT IT!?” she yelled as the two alicorns nodded quickly.

“And Applejack said I act immature.” Apple Bloom added before noticing a light off in the distance. “There it is. That’s Zecora’s home.”

“....Creepy witch house much?” Nightmare Moon which got her a smack upside her head from Mitta. “What? I’m not the only one that finds this kinda creepy looking, right?”

“It’s rude to say something like that. Especially when we’re going to have to stay there for the night.” Mitta said before taking the lead toward Zecora’s hut.

“I’m just saying. It’s giving off a creepy vibe seeing how it’s in the Everfree Forest. Not saying that I won’t sleep in it, just giving my opinion on it.”

“Zecora’s not a bad pony. Nor is she a witch. She’s nice once you get to know her a bit...though it might be a bit awkward at first.”

“Mainly because we have two undead ponies, a foreign bat pony that can use magic, a former villain of Equestria, and the princess of Equestria who isn’t good at doing her job right,” Mitta said before noticing Celestia’s deadpan expression. “Like me being an undead pony isn’t your fault.”

“I said I was sorry, didn’t I? I was young and inexperienced when I was ruling over Equestria with my sister.”

“Yeah, I think your apology is about one-thousand-nine years too late to undo the damage.” Nightmare Moon said before noticing they were getting close to Zecora’s hut. “Okay, we’re here. Let’s try and act like adults for the time being until we leave this horrible place of a forest.”

“....Yeah, that’s not gonna happen given how we all are. Well, mainly the adults. Apple Bloom and Alma are at least decent and don’t let their emotions get the better of them.” Mitta said as she paid attention to Apple Bloom who was making her way over to the front door of Zecora’s hut and began to knock on the door. There was a moment of silence in the air before the light appeared from the window as the door to the hut opened.

“Yes, how can I-” Before she could finish, the zebra was taken by surprise by the group in front of her. “Apple Bloom…is that you?”

“Hey Zecora...it’s um...been a while, how’s it going.”

“Dear Celestia. What happened to you, my dear?” Zecora said as she quickly rushed over to the filly and examined her. “It’s like somepony used dark magic to bring you back to life.”

“That’s kinda what happened,” Celestia said as Zecora turned her attention towards the rest of the group that Apple Bloom was with. “Hello, Zecora. How are you doing tonight?” She said as Nightmare Moon and Mitta smiled and waved their hands at the Zebra. Zecora did the same if not awkwardly before turning her attention back to Celestia with a raised eyebrow. “I’ll explain, but for now can we come inside? We need a place to stay for tonight or at least until we can get to Ponyville.”

“....I’ll prepare some tea for you all,” she said before motioning them to come inside. Once inside, she quickly closed the door while reaching for a bag hanging from the side of the door, and poured a green powder-like substance in front of it and the windows. Once she was finished, she made her way over to what appeared to be a stove to prepare some homemade tea. “Care to explain why Apple Bloom’s soul is stuck in her own dead body, why Nightmare Moon exists yet again, and why there is an undead mare that looks like she’s in menopause?”

“Hey, buck you lady. You try living your life when the mare that caused it is right next to you.” Mitta said as Zecora looked over at Celestia.

“Long story short. I made a mistake in the past that involved a test to see if a town could survive in the Everfree Forest...but things went wrong and Mitta and Apple Bloom became the result of my mistake.”

“To make matters worse, we have a town full of undead ponies chasing after us that want to make us their “friends”. And by “friends”, I mean them wanting to turn us into them. Well, Celestia, Nightmare Moon, and Alma.” Mitta added as the zebra looked over at Nightmare Moon with a raised eyebrow.

“I got turned to stone for nine years after my defeat with the elements of harmony. You lose the will to try to take over Equestria when you’re stuck in stone...and possibly gone insane for the most part.” She said before levitating a cup over to herself as she drank the contents of it. “Huh, mint mixed with wild berries from the forest. Not a bad remedy for stomach problems.”

“Well, that answers a few of my questions. For the time being, but is there a reason why you couldn’t just fly away or teleport out of the Everfree Forest?”

“Apple Bloom and I are earth ponies, so we don’t have magic. Celestia and Nightmare Moon can’t use magic or fly all of us out of the forest. And Alma can’t fly due to not being taught how to fly due to past family drama or something.” Mitta answered as she pointed over to the bat pony who was being placed on a bed of some kind. What took the zebra by surprise was the sword she was holding as she walked over to examine it with interest.

“This is rather an interesting sword. I take it the weapon is from Princess Luna or Nightmare Moon?” She asked as Celestia shook her head.

“Neither I nor…Nightmare Moon have ever seen anything like this. Nor have we heard of a bat pony that can use magic.”

“This mare can use magic? But she isn’t a unicorn or an alicorn.”

“I know. We don’t know how she does it, but she can use magic.” Nightmare Moon answered. “Which makes me think she either has a curse on her that can make her use magic, or something else.”

“I would like to ask this bat pony some questions. But it would seem I will have to wait until she wakes up.” Zecora said as she walked back to the stove and poured the tea into four cups. Once she was done, Nightmare Moon levitated the cups towards herself, Mitta, Celestia, and Apple Bloom.

“I don’t think Mitta and I can drink this?” said Apple Bloom as she sniffed the tea that was given to her.

“What makes you say that?” Zecora asked before looking over at Mitta drinking the tea, only for the liquid to spill out from what used to be her stomach as she deadpans. “Ah, right...Forgot that the two of you are dead. But you seem to be still intact.”

“For the most part. But everything tastes awful besides animal meat and water. That’s pretty much what I’ve been eating for the past two years.”

“And yet you don’t look like you’re decaying or have pieces of your body breaking apart. Why is that?”

“Might be because of her age and the fact that they did a botch job at the time,” Mitta answered as she placed the cup to the side. “Grey Hoof has a spellbook that allows him to make ponies look like me. Only when he did it to Apple Bloom, he was only using half of the requirements to perform the ritual. And because of that, she’s pretty much a soul stuck in a corpse body. It’s kind of a double-edged sword in her case.”

“How is there a positive side to being a living corpse?” Celestia asked as Mitta rolled her eyes.

“Super strength, durability, and super speed. Downside, she’s weak against fire.” She answered as Nightmare Moon raised an eyebrow at her. "Gray Hoof tested it on animals first a long time ago just to see if it would work. It did, but the animal's body didn't last long, nor did an adult pony's body. Guess it works better on underdeveloped ponies."

“....I'm sorry, and you're saying I'm a monster for wanting to bring eternal night to Equestria?” Nightmare Moon asked while looking over at Celestia who rolled her eyes at her comment.

"Now's not the time for petty remarks. We can hide out here until morning comes.” Zecora said as she started to place more powder from before around the inside of the hut they were in. “The powder will protect us from any evil that might come our way. Be they physical or spiritual.”

“I’m evil so that stuff won’t work on me sweetie~” Nightmare Moon said in a teasing tone, only for the zebra to throw a small ball of the powder at her face, causing the dark alicorn to sneeze and glare at Zecora.

“To be fair, you should’ve seen it coming,” Celestia said, trying her best not to laugh.

“It only works on weaker evil spirits. And seeing how you’re not weak, it should work on those undead beings that are chasing you.” Zecora said before finishing up with placing the powder around the house. “For now, drink your tea and get some rest. You all are going to need it seeing how you’ll need the strength to make it to Ponyville.”

“Technically, Celestia and Nightmare Moon need the rest. Apple Bloom and I can’t sleep. What with us being undead ponies and all.” Mitta said before getting adjusted near the window as she looked out at the forest. “I’ll keep watch while the rest of you get your rest.”

“Oh, I’ll help too!” Apple Bloom said before moving to the other side of the hut to watch out of the window.

“Guess that takes care of the night watch.” Nightmare Moon said before finishing up her drink and started to drift into slumber. “I’m going to go to sleep. Might be a good one for once that doesn't involve me being trapped in stone...again.”

“Weren’t you asleep for the past one-thousand-nine years?” Celestia asked as Nightmare Moon glared at the princess.

“Being trapped on the moon for that long doesn’t mean we were asleep for that long idiot.” She said before noticing a sudden shocked expression on her face. “Now, good night.”

“....Yeah,” Celestia said before finishing up her tea as she got herself ready for sleep, futile it may be with the new knowledge she now has.

Chapter Ten: Covenant Of The Stalwart Moon

Chapter Ten

Covenant Of The Stalwart Moon

Alma's eyes slowly opened, and her vision blurred momentarily before quickly returning. She looked around to see where she was. She noticed Mitta and Apple Bloom looking out the window while Celestia and Nightmare Moon were sound asleep, with blankets covering them both. The champion of Ash pulled herself up before letting out a hissing sound from the pain she felt in her right arm. This caused Mitta and Apple Bloom's ears to twitch as they looked over at the bat pony with a sigh.

"Nice to see you're up," Mitta said as she and Apple Bloom approached her. "I figured you would be knocked out for the rest of the night."

"Yeah, especially after what happened with that monster throwing you around like Big Mac tossing a barrel filled with apples around the farm. How are you feeling, by the way?"

"I'm Sore, but I'm fine...at least I think I'm fine," Alma said while slowly pulling herself up from the bed. "Where are we?"

"You're in my home," Zecora said as the bat pony looked to her right to see the zebra girl wearing tribal attire walking over to her. "Nice to see you're okay. I am Zecora. The zebra Apple Bloom mentioned to you before coming here, no?"

"Yeah, she did... I'm sorry, just...how long was I knocked out?"

"A good five hours," Mitta answered. "Which you needed given the fight at the ruined castle...which I'm surprised. A normal pony wouldn't survive a beating like that, nor have a body as durable as you...are you even a pony?"

"Let's just say that having a potion to head you in your mouth can be useful." The bat pony answered.

"Ah, so you secretly drank something and kept the liquid in your mouth just in case of emergencies. Not a bad trick, but also a dangerous one, seeing how you would have choked on it or spat it out if that monster punched you in the stomach."

"I…trained a lot to endure stuff like that," Alma said while stretching her limbs, causing her to make loud cracking sounds from her bones cracking a bit. "I only drank the flasks to replenish my magic and health during the fight, and I don't remember drinking it afterward, seeing how I passed out. Could it be the magic of this world affecting my body... I'll have to test that out later when I can get the chance." She thought before noticing Nightmare Moon and Celestia sleeping against each other unknowingly. "Did you guys set them up like that?"

"That would be your friend Mitta who did that," Zecora answered as the bat pony looked at her with a raised eye.

"Not much room in this place, plus I'm still angry at Celestia for what she did to me and my town," Mitta said as Alma walked over to the two alicorns and lightly tapped their faces.

"Rise and shine, ladies. It's time to get going before the folks in Sunnytown track us here." Alma said as the two alicorns started to slowly wake up. They blinked momentarily before looking at each other for a quick second as they backed away while glaring. "Nice to see you're up. Hope you got enough rest? Because we'll be leaving in a few minutes or so."

"We're leaving? But shouldn't we stay here, seeing how it's still nighttime? Not to mention, Zecora did place a barrier around her home with the powder dust she made." Celestia said as Alma cracked her neck.

"Normally, that wouldn't be an issue. But seeing how those idiots stole certain magic spells from my tomes, scrolls, and books I carry, they have means to slip by stuff like this...which Zecora will have to come with us as well." She said, which took Zecora by surprise.

"Is it that bad that I have to leave my home in the Everfree Forest?"

"Do you have ways of stopping or defending against a demon made from the body of a living pony?"

"...That would explain the loud roars I heard earlier," Zecora said as she started collecting her things and placing them in a bag off the side of the counter.

"Well, while she's doing that. I would like to do something first." Nightmare Moon said before walking over to Alma and touching her shoulder. Upon doing that, everyone in the room, minus Zecora, blinked in confusion before seeing the dark alicorn pull her hand away to reveal a purple soul in her hand.

"What do you think you're doing!?" Celestia yelled as Nightmare Moon smirked.

"The soul of your knight that was the demon Alma fought." She said before looking back at Alma. "For some reason, this pony has a lot of souls within her body. It would be impossible for a normal pony to have more than one soul within their body. I take it as another thing your father's curse on you can do?"

"Yeah, anypony or monsters I kill, their souls go right into me. Guess you could say. The more I kill, the stronger I get, in a way." She said as Celestia stared at her in horror and shock. "It's not my fault I'm like this. If I had the means to remove it, then I would. But I came to terms with this."

"This... let's just get going before I mentally break down from all this," Celestia said as Nightmare Moon rolled her eyes at her reaction.

"We will. I just need to do something first before we go." Nightmare Moon said before turning her attention back to Alma. "I can turn this soul along with the other souls you have into weapons that might help you in this upcoming battle that we're sure to be involved with, or power to increase your already astonishing strength now." She said as the bat pony raised an eyebrow at her.

"But there's a price for it, right?"

"Indeed. I want to make a pact with you, a foreigner from a strange land." Nightmare Moon said as the bat pony was about to reply, only for Celestia to speak up.

"Out of the Question! Do you think I will let you trick this pony into forming a contract with you? For all we know, you could be just using her for your evil goal to take over Equestria."

"Yeah, because taking over Equestria would be so easy. I already told you that my desire to take over this country pretty much died eight years ago due to my stone imprisonment. You can believe it if you want. I don't really care at this point."

"Also, I wouldn't be talking smack about her mistakes. Need I remind you about what happened to Apple Bloom and me?" Mitta asked as the white alicorn was about to say something, only for the earth pony to speak again. "Bare in mind, you pretty much got us killed. While Nightmare Moon only wanted to make the nights last longer." She said before going silent. "Yeah, that's what I thought."

"Thank you, Mitta. I'll be sure to pay you back for that." Nightmare said before going back to Alma again. "So, care to take up my offer? Seeing how you have souls inside you, you do need some weapons made out of them? Can't rely on the same weapons you have now, no?"

"You make a fair point...Alright. I'll take up your offer." Alma answered as Nightmare Moon smiled. "Do you have something to make it official, like blood or something involving writing?" She asked as the dark alicorn summoned a jet-black color goblet before her. The bat pony took the goblet and looked inside it to see the dark blue liquid inside it.

"Drink from the goblet filled with my blood, and our pack will be complete. Now, fair warning, there might be some-" Before she could finish, the bat pony quickly drank down the liquid, which took Nightmare Moon by surprise. "Side effects...wow, not even worried that you might be drinking poison."

"Is it poison?"

"No, but you could at least let me finish my sentence before guzzling it down like a dehydrated pony in a desert." She said before continuing. "Side effects include slight appearance changes, mainly your eyes and hair. Eternal youth, which I can say will come in handy over the years, and a vast reservoir of magic inside you. Not unlimited magic spells, don’t get the two confused."

"Will it happen now or possibly later?" Alma asked as Nightmare Moon shrugged. "Great... let's hope it doesn't happen while we leave this place."

"Not before I can make you a weapon that can be helpful to you." Nightmare Moon said before motioning for Alma's greatsword. "Mind if I see your sword?" The bat pony, without question, hands over her weapon to Nightmare Moon as the dark alicorn places the soul within the sword. Once inside, her horn began to glow as a burst of arcane magic erupted from the moonlight greatsword. The light slowly faded from within the hut, revealing the greatsword's new appearance. She could see that the blade was thinner, the guard straight and not curved backward, and the handle a bit longer. A smirk appeared on Nightmare Moon's face as she snapped her fingers to place the sword inside of a sheath that she made appear out of nowhere before handing it over to her. The bat pony eyed the newly looking moonlight greatsword as she poured some magic into the sword. Upon doing so, the greatsword began to glow brighter than it was initially, which caused Alma to stare at it in amazement.

"Wow, it's as if you returned it to its former glory. No, better than its former glory," She said before placing her weapon on her back holster. "Guess you weren't kidding about being able to make new weapons."

"Technically, it's still the same weapon. Just more refined and not covered in rust due to aging over the years and infused with Equestrian magic. If you have or find any souls from monsters or something, just bring them to me, and I'll make, enforce, fuse, or refine weapons to your liking."

"I'll be sure to let you know if I do. But for now, let's get going. You got everything you need, for the time being, Zecora?"

"For now, yes. But what is your plan for dealing with what's happening in the Everfree Forest?" Zecora asked as the bat pony shrugged.

"I just want to get out of this forest before they send a monster after us. Because I can't fight while worrying about you all, seeing how you can't defend yourselves to some degree. Once we're out, we'll think of a plan or something to deal with them." She said as she noticed Zecora finishing packing her belongings. "Sorry, but you might not be able to return to your home for quite some time."

"It is fine. I am friends with the ponies of Ponyville. So getting a temporary new home shouldn't be an issue. That or if Twilight and her friends are willing to let me stay with them until this matter is resolved."

"Well, that's good to hear." She said before looking at everyone else.

“Is everypony ready?” Mitta asked as she took her eyes off the window to see everyone nodding. "Good, because three of them are watching us from behind a tree."

"...Okay, time to run." Apple Bloom said as she was about to run towards the door, only for Celestia to use her magic to levitate her off the ground and place her next to Mitta.

"Pretty sure they're not that much of a threat, seeing how they haven't done anything so far. But right now, we should leave before they tell their friends about this place." Alma said before looking over at Apple Bloom. “How far is it to Ponyville?”

"It's just a straight shot down the dirt road that leads down from Zecora hut to the entrance of the Everfree Forest."

"Perfect." The pony walked over to the window Mitta was looking through. "So they're hiding behind that tree?"

"Yeah...wait, what are you going to do?" Mitta asked as she noticed Alma's hand charging with electricity and forming into a bow. She soon takes aim at the tree the three zombie ponies were hiding behind and fires an arrow at it. Once the arrow landed, the tree burst into flames as the zombies hiding behind said tree quickly bolted off to the side and tried to run back into the forest. Only for the bat pony to shoot two of them down by knocking their heads off.

"Damn, guess two out of three will have to do for now." She said before making the bow disappear and began to head towards the door to the hut. "The fire will spread, which will act like a blockade for the citizens of Sunnytown. So they'll have to go around it, which will give us some time to get to Ponyville."

"... I'm a bit impressed...though wouldn't it take some time before the fire spreads?" Celestia asked.

"I wouldn't worry about that," Apple Bloom said as she pointed over at the forest, which quickly caught on fire, taking everyone by surprise.

"Okay, now we can haul flanks and run." Mitta said as everyone quickly bolted out of the hut and down the dirt road to Ponyville.

Chapter Eleven: Such Black Light

Chapter Eleven

Such Black Light

(Entrance of The Everfree Forest)

“Alright girls. Whatever is going on in the forest, it might lead to the reason why Ponyville and Canterlot are being attacked.” Twilight said as she and her friends were standing in front of the Everfree Forest entrance. “Is everypony ready?” She asked as her friends nodded. Upon seeing this she turns her attention to Applejack who has an uncomfortable expression. “Are you sure you want to go with us, Applejack? I...know you’re not that comfortable with going into the forest. Especially after-”

“Will you stop bringing that up!? I said I’m fine, and I mean I’m fine. So will you stop asking me about it almost every day!?” Applejack said as it caused everyone to flinch. “Look, we have a mission to do. The sooner we get this over and done with, the better.”

“Right...s-sorry. I’m just making sure that you were okay with-”

“I’m fine. End of discussion.” Applejack said before pushing past Twilight and the others. As the farm pony went ahead, Twilight looked at her friends with a worried expression.

“I’ll keep an eye on Applejack.” Rainbow Dash said as she quickly followed after Applejack, only to notice the earth pony stopping. “Is something wrong, Applejack?”

“Something is moving in the forest.” She said as Twilight and the other walked over to her.

“Maybe it’s an animal?” Fluttershy said as she was about to walk over to where the sound was coming from, only for Applejack to place a hand in front of the Pegasus.

“I don’t think that’s an animal Fluttershy,” Twilight said before noticing the sound getting louder. “Change of plans, girls. We might have to deal with whatever it is that’s coming at us.” Just as the girls quickly got into formation in preparation for what to come, Alma’s sword erupted from the bush causing the girls to jump backward as the bat pony along with Celestia made their way unknowingly in front of Twilight and her friends. The solar princess blinked in surprise at this as a smile appeared on her face as Twilight and her friends' eyes widened in surprise.

“Princess Celestia!?” Twilight and her friends said in unison which caused Alma to cover her ears a bit from the yelling.

“What are you doing here in the Everfree Forest?” Twilight asked before noticing the solar princess’s attire. “What happened to you? I thought you weren’t supposed to return until tomorrow morning?”

“Originally I was...but things...kind of went into a spiral of chaos and mayhem for us.”

“You mean for you and the bat pony with you?” Fluttershy asked as she and the other looked over at her which caused her to smile awkwardly and wave at them.

“Well her and the others.” The girls looked at each other in confusion as Nightmare Moon, Mitta, and Zecora made their way from behind Celestia and Alma. Upon being seen, the girls gasped in shock upon seeing Nightmare Moon and Mitta’s undead-like appearance as Rainbow Dash was the first to charge at the dark Alicorn. Only for Celestia to stop her with her magic and cause her to flinch from the pain she felt from her weakened horn. “Easy Rainbow Dash. Now’s not the time nor place to start a fight.”

“Are you crazy!? Nightmare Moon is right there and could be planning to stab you in the back or something!” Rainbow Dash said as she struggled in the magical grip she was in. “We need to stop her before-”

“Now is not the time! We’ll talk about this once we’re away from the forest for tonight.” Celestia said as she looked over at Twilight. “We’ll head over to the Castle of Friendship tonight and explain what has happened. Under no circumstances, are any of you allowed to bring harm to her and the others along with me.”

“Um, okay. B-But just a fair warning...there’s a giant hole in the side of the castle.” Twilight said as it caused Celestia to pause. She soon released her hold on Rainbow Dash as she looked over at Alma and stared at her with a deadpan expression.

“Blame Grey Hoof that summoned the monster,” Alma said, causing Celestia to sigh in slight annoyance as she motioned for the group to follow her. Alma was about to follow after the two groups, only to stagger a bit as she felt Apple Bloom quickly move underneath the bat pony’s cape. “Hiding behind me isn’t going to help Apple Bloom. Nor will I allow it.”

“B-But….”

“They’re going to find out eventually. Might as well be now, or would you rather deal with the ponies of Sunnytown? Because given how they are...I’m pretty sure you've been through enough.” She said as Apple Bloom paused to consider her choices. However, that moment of pause ended when she felt the bat pony pick her up by the back of her shirt. “Time’s up, let's go.”

“H-Hey! Put me down, consarnit! This is no way to treat a filly!”

“I’m pretty sure you lost that right when you met me. Now quit your whining and let’s go. I prefer not to stand here and wait for something else to come out of the Everfree Forest to try and kill us...again.”

“Put me down you jerk! I told you that I don’t want-”

“Apple Bloom…” Apple Bloom’s eyes widen upon hearing Applejack’s voice as she and Alma look over at the older farm mare that is staring at the two. Mainly Apple Bloom’s zombie-like appearance. “N-No...i-it can be you...can it?”

“H-Hey sis….H-How’s it going?” Apple Bloom said as a nervous grin appeared on her face. Applejack simply stared at her younger sibling for a moment before collapsing to the ground. Fluttershy was the first to hear the farm pony fall to the ground as she turned around and gasped in shock. Before she could head over to her fallen friend, she looked over at Alma who was holding an undead Apple Bloom in her arms as the young filly waved awkwardly at her.

“Fluttershy, come on. We have to-” Before Rainbow Dash could finish, she looked over at where the pegasus was looking, causing her eyes to widen. “Holy Celestia! Apple Bloom!?” She yelled as they turned their attention to Alma and Apple Bloom. They gasped in horror from seeing the young filly’s undead-like body.

“Apple Bloom...is that you?” Twilight asked as the young filly nodded while looking away. “What on the wide earth of Equestria happened to you?”

“You,” Rainbow Dash said as she turned her attention to Nightmare Moon. “You did this to her, didn’t you!?”

“Quick to go assuming I had something to do with this. Why don’t you ask your princess about it? After all, she is the reason why she and Mitta are like this.” She said with a devilish grin on her face as the girls glared at her.

“You expect us to believe that? Especially coming from a monster that almost took over Equestria?” Twilight asked as the dark alicorn laughed diabolically. “What’s so funny?”

“Oh, nothing. Just thinking which one of us is the true monster here in this story.” She said before looking over at Celestia. “Right...Celestia~?” The white alicorn stopped to look over at Nightmare Moon with a tired glare before continuing to head over toward the castle of friendship.

“We should leave. Lest you forget that we’re still in need of a place to sleep until the morning.” She said before using her magic to levitate Applejack as the group began their walk toward the castle of friendship. As they were walking, unknowingly to the group. A small wisp-like ball would be watching them from the side of the forest entrance. It would look at the group for a moment before quickly following after them while keeping itself hidden from them and others.

(Castle of the Twin Sisters)

“This is not going so well.” Grey Hoof said as he looked over the destruction of the castle ruins. “Never knew that Alma was this talented in combat. We need to make her into our friend.”

“Is that wise Grey Hoof?” Three Leaf asked as she looked over at some of the undead ponies that were caught in the fight between the bat pony and demon. “You saw what she could do with that sword, not to mention the books she’s carrying?”

“Indeed, which is why we need her asap.” He said while walking over to Ivory Stone’s mangled body. “I’m sending our new friend here to retrieve her. Let's hope he can do the job SouthPaw couldn’t do by himself.” Gray Hoof’s hand began to glow a crimson blood color as he thrust his hand into his chest. Upon doing so, Ivory Stone’s body jerked a bit as he stood up. He lets out a gurgling sound as a white liquid substance pours out of his mouth and soon forms a sphere around him. In a matter of seconds, the sphere shatters to reveal a monstrous tall being standing in front of Grey Hoof.

“Wow, I didn’t know you could do that Grey Hoof.” Three Leaf said as she admired his work.

“Not fully complete, but thanks for the compliment.” He said before looking at the angelic demon. “Bring Alma and her friends back to us. Do not return until you do, my friend.” He ordered as the demon vanished in a ray of light.

“You think Ivory Stone will get them?”

“I hope so. I would hate to have what happened to Southpaw happen the same to Ivory. All we can do now is wait and hope he’ll win.”

(Castle of Friendship, Map Room)

Once the hole in the wall was fixed with the assistance of Starlight, Celestia began to explain tonight’s event and her past mistake to Twilight and her friends in the room. Where Celestia couldn’t reply due to the lack of knowledge of the Sunnytown incident, Mitta filled in along with Nightmare Moon. Though they didn’t believe most of what the dark alicorn said, Celestia was willing to back her up by telling the truth. After a few minutes when Celestia was done explaining what had happened, the room was filled with an awkward silence as Twilight and her friends looked at each other with worried expressions on their faces.

“So basically what you’re saying is, that's because of Celesita’s past mistake. We now have to deal with a bunch of undead ponies from a lost forgotten town in the middle of the forest, who can turn ponies or animals into monsters thanks to them stealing your magic books, and are now going to try to turn everypony into undead ponies like they are because they think cutie marks are curse marks?” Starlight asked as Mitta nodded.

“Pretty much, yeah. Anypony that comes into Sunnytown that’s new, Grey Hoof turns them into what I look like.”

“But you look different than how you were outside. Is there a reason why?” Twilight asked as the Mitta shrugged.

“During the daytime or in an area with enough light, we look like any other pony. But during the night, that's when we look like the undead. But that is beside the point. We need to take down Grey Hoof or else more ponies will suffer the same fate as I have.”

“Is that all? That doesn’t seem too hard. Especially when we have four alicorns and us. So I say we take the fight to them and knock them all out in one fell swoop!” Rainbow Dash said as Alma chimed in on the conversation.

“Three alicorns. Celestia’s horn is chipped due to falling out of the sky, so her godly magic is weakened until she recovers.” She said as Celestia nodded while Fluttershy was patching her horn up. “They also copied some of the darker spells from the spell books I carry with me, they have the uphill advantage over the Everfree Forest seeing how they lived there for a very long time.”

“Not to mention going in there without a plan would just give them more ammo. Because they set up traps that were originally used to keep the animals of the Everfree Forest away. But now they use them to capture or kill anypony that gets near the town. So sending ponies into the unknown would be bad.” Mitta said before leaning against the wall of the crystal castle. “Much as I want to see the place burned and destroyed, we need to think this much clearer and not rush it.”

“M-Maybe we can try and talk to them?” Fluttershy asked which caused Mitta to look over at the pegasus. “I’m sure we can reason with them if we can tell them that a cutie mark isn’t something to be afraid of.”

“Oh! Maybe we can throw them a party as a sign of friendship! No pony can say no to a party like I do!” Pinkie Pie added as the undead earth pony snorted in annoyance.

“You two can’t be serious, right? Talking to Grey Hoof would be like trying to tell an earth pony that you can’t turn an apple into an orange.”

“Darling, aren’t you being a bit...well dramatic. I don’t want to sound offensive to you. But we’ve saved Equestria countless times while you were in the Everfree Forest for a long time. I’m sure we can figure something out just by talking to him so we can reach an under-”

“Talking to Grey Hoof isn’t going to do or solve anything.” Apple Bloom said as Twilight and her friends looked over at the young undead filly. “I should know. I tried to tell him that, even showed him that a cutie mark isn’t dangerous by showing him mine...it didn’t end so well.” She said while her body began to shake. “All it did was make him angry...angry to the point where he did this to me...worse part of it...I was awake and alive when he performed the ritual on me two years ago...H-He removed parts of my skin, replaced my organs, cut off parts of my limbs, and replaced with somepony else. I begged him to stop, but all he did was smile and continue.”

“He did that to everypony that has a cutie mark on them,” Mitta added as Twilight and the other stared in shock at Apple Bloom. “While some manage to come out with their sanity in check, others aren't so lucky and are kept within his basement.”

“And where in the Everfree Forest are they?” Applejack said as she walked over to Apple Bloom to comfort her.

“Mitta knows. But I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t tell you seeing how you’ll end up going after them alone given what happened to your sister.” Nightmare Moon said which caused Applejack to glare at her. “Or do you want your family to mourn over the fact that you got yourself killed by an undead sociopath?”

“You expect me to just stand here and do nothing! Look what they did to Apple Bloom!?”

“Yes, I can see that. But like with Rainbow Dash’s plan. You’ll end up getting yourself killed in less than a second if you let your rage get the better of you.” The dark alicorn said as she leaned back in her seat. “We need to wait a bit until we have a plan. When that happens, then we can go to town on them. But for now, we’ll wait until Celestia and I can recover.”

“Wait, you’re joining this?” Rainbow Dash asked with a raised eyebrow. “You expect us to believe that you turned over a new leaf just like that?”

“You were able to give Discord three chances, what’s so special about him that you’re willing to trust him more than me?”

“Well...um...that’s because...um….Twilight helps me out here.”

“I hate to say this, but she’s right about that...though how did you know about Discord and what had happened for the past nine years?” Twilight asked as Moon pointed a finger at Apple Bloom who sheepishly smiled and waved at them after Applejack calmed her down a bit. “Well, that would make sense. But, Nightmare Moon is right. If we give Discord multiple chances to change, then we should give Nightmare Moon a chance to change her ways as well. And seeing how she’s willing to help us with this problem, then this is a good way to show that she’s changed.”

“Plus we need all the help we can get. And having someone that can use magic is very helpful.” Alma added as the cyan pegasus looked over at Nightmare Moon who winked and blew her a kiss. Rainbow Dash shivered upon seeing this as she huffed in annoyance.

“Fine, but I got my eyes on you Nightmare Moon.”

“Well, I didn’t know you had a thing for bad girls like myself~,” Nightmare Moon said, which caused Rainbow Dash to Blush as she moved away. The dark alicorn smirks before looking over at Celestia. “Seeing how you and Luna have more power in the authority of this land. You’re going to have to inform your royal guards about this and have them form a barrier or something at the entrance of the Everfree Forest.”

“But doing that means Zecora won’t be able to go back to her home until this matter is taken care of,” Twilight said as Zecora simply smiled at the group.

“Sadly that is true. But this is an evil even my potions can’t protect me from for long. For the time being, I will be living with Fluttershy seeing how her home is near the Everfree Forest, but in an area where I can make stronger potions and stuff to ward off the evil that is from Sunnytown.”

“Okay, so other than that. What else are we supposed to do now?” Starlight asked before noticing Alma walking over to the window of the room they were in. “Is something wrong-” Before she could finish, Alma raised a finger at her as a means to keep her quiet for a moment. The bat pony’s ears twitched a bit as she placed a hand on her greatsword.

“Something’s coming this way,” Alma said before looking at the group. “Those who can’t fight, should leave and warn the ponies of this town.”

“Wait what do you-” Before Twilight could finish her sentence, a burst of blinding light erupted from the center of the room. The light caused everyone, safe for Apple Bloom, Mitta, and Alma to cover their eyes as the burst of light quickly vanished to reveal a bone-white monstrous being with gold hair and a spear in its hand. While everyone was still trying to recover from the light, Alma took notice of the creature about to impale Twilight with its spear as she quickly unsheathed her greatsword, fired off a beam of arcane magic at the monster, and sent it flying out of the castle.

“What the hay was that!?” Applejack asked as she was the first to recover from the sudden light blinding her.

“Grey Hoof summoned another monster. And this one looks like it’ll be a problem.” Mitta answered before looking over at Alma as she quickly gave chase after it.

“Where’s she going?” Rainbow Dash asked after recovering from the light next.

“Knowing her, she went after it,” Celestia asked as she looked over at Twilight. “Wake Spike up and send a letter to my sister to come to Ponyville asap.” She said before she and Nightmare Moon decided to go after the bat pony and the monster. “We’ll try to assist Alma as best as we can! You girls get to work on getting as many ponies away from the fight!”

“Right,” Twilight said before looking at the others once her vision came back. “Applejack and Zecora, you two take care of the west side of town. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, take care of the east side. Rarity and Pinkie Pie, take care of the south side. Apple Bloom and Mitta. I hate to ask this, but I need you two to take care of the north.”

“Wait a minute. You can’t just send my sister off to do something that dangerous.” Applejack said as she held onto the young filly tightly. “What if somepony tries to hurt her or worse?”

“That’s why I’ll be with her as we do this,” Mitta answered as she pulled out a frying pan from her side. “Plus, if we can scare them to leave their house for a time, then that can be helpful.”

“I know this is asking for a lot, Applejack. But right now, we need to help out Ponyville first before more ponies end up in danger from the monster Celestia’s fighting.” Twilight said as the farm pony stared at her for a moment before sighing.

“Fine, but once I’m done with my end of things. I’m going after my sister so she doesn’t hurt herself. Got it?”

“Got it,” Twilight said before turning her attention to the group. “Alright everypony, let’s go save Equestria!”

Chapter Twelve: Such Valiant Darkness

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.”

Chapter One: Welcome To Sunnytown

Author's Note

Like I said in my blog. I'm doing a rewrite for my stories due to grammar errors after looking over some of my older works. Anyway, hope you enjoy the much readable chapter. ^_^;

Status:

Class: Knight

Build: Mage Knight

Vigor: 40
Attunement: 100
Endurance: 40
Vitality: 60
Strength: 50
Dexterity: 60
Intelligence: 300
Faith: 60
Luck: 20

Weapons:
Lothric Knight Sword, Moonlight Greatsword, Court Sorcerer Staff, Lothric Knight Shield, Dragonslayer Axe, Dragonrider Bow

Spells:
Soul Stream, Lightning Arrow, Darkmoon Blade, Magic Weapon, Great Heal, Homing Soulmass, Soul Spear, Old Moonlight, Great Soul Dergs, Twisted Wall of Light.

Chapter One: Welcome To Sunnytown

Chapter One

Welcome to Sunnytown

(Ringed City, Path to the Spear of the Church)

Pain radiated through the Ashen one’s body as she was thrown into the side of the entrance that led towards the entrance of the path she was on. A gasp of air escaped her body from the impact as she fell to the ground. Groaning, she tried to pull herself up from the ground, only to feel herself being set on fire by Midir’s fire breath. The Ashen one quickly pulled herself up and lunged herself off to the side near a formation of rocks that made like a cover for her to avoid the heated flames of the corrupted dragon.

Wincing from the pain of almost being burned alive and possible second to third-degree burns. The Ashen one quickly pulled out her estus flask and began to drink from it. Upon doing that, her wounds began to heal themselves as she smirked from seeing her body recover. Though that smirk would quickly fade away as the flask that held the estus was now empty and no longer glowing.

“Well shit. Bad time to run out of Estus stuff to heal me.” She thought before looking over the side of the stone wall she was hiding behind. Her eyes widened in surprise as she pulled herself over to avoid the wave of fire that Midir unleashed on her as she gritted her teeth in annoyance.

“The one time I chose not to bring armor that doesn’t have some kind of resistance to fire. Aright Alma, think. What can you use to knock this bastard off this path?” Alma quickly looked into her bag to see what she had to use. So far she had a few throwing knives, six bombs, green blossoms, a blooming purple moss clump, divine blessing, Church Guardian Shiv, and Ashen Estus Flask.

“....If it wasn’t for the dark sigil on my chest, I would’ve died a long time ago.” Alma sighed as she pulled out a bomb and the Shiv in her other hand. “Guess I’ll have to hope for the best that I can make him lose his footing by knocking one of his claws off the path.” She soon takes a deep breath as she quickly rushes from behind the stone wall she was hiding behind and rushes towards Midir.

The corrupted dragon sees Alma coming at him as he takes a deep breath before firing off a beam-like attack toward the ground which causes Midir to move his head causing the beam to come toward The Ashen One. Alma’s eyes widen in surprise at this as she rolls to the side of the blast. But was soon sent flying into the sky by the trail of explosions caused by the beam as she yells in both terror and pain. Once in the air, Midir tried to grab her by trying to bite at her. Only for her to toss a bomb into his mouth and throw a Shiv at the bomb causing it to explode and making Midir recoil his head off to the side.

Alma soon felt herself crash against Midir’s neck as she quickly pulled out her sword, and jabs it into the dragon’s neck. The dragon lets out a roar from the pain as he begins to thrash around a bit to try and get the human off his neck. To his fortune, he was able to fling the human off his neck. But soon felt his grip on the path loosened upon his thrashing about. Just as he was about to cling back onto the rocky path, Alma quickly summoned a bow made out of lightning and fired at the claw that Midir was using to latch onto the bridge.

“Wasn’t the plan I was going for, but I guess it’ll do for now.” She said before aiming at his other claw and firing upon it. Midir roared in pain from the lightning arrow hitting his claw as he lost his grip and began to fall off the bridge and into the chasm below. Alma blinked in surprise as she quickly walked over to where the corrupted dragon was as she saw him fall into the darkness below. “Looks like you’re the one who’s falling over today. Eh, get it?” She asked as she looked around to see no one. The only response that she got however was the sounds of crickets making a sound. “....It sucks being alone in this awful place…”

With a sigh, the ashen one turned her attention back to the path that led to the spear of the church. Well, her attention was on the path, until a familiar sound caught her attention. She looked over the bridge to where the source was coming from. Only to be met with Midir’s beam attack at point-blank range as it blew up the part of the bridge that Alma was standing on. She began to roll off to the side from the force behind the blast and she soon felt the ground missing from under her as she fell. As she fell, she hit the side of the mountain that the bridge connected to as she tried to reach into her bag with whatever strength she had left to pull out the divine blessing potion to drink it.

“Come on, where the hell is that stupid thing!?” She yelled as she soon felt the potion and quickly pulled it out. “Haha! Got ya! Now I just need to time the fall and drink this before I hit the-'' Before she could finish her sentence, she felt a sharp pain run through her chest. She looked down to see a sharp piece of rock sticking out from the side of the mountain and impaling itself into her chest in an upwards jagged position. “W-Well….this was...unexpected.” She said as she felt her breathing slowing down along with her vision slowly fading. “Guess that….makes seventy-five times...I got m-myself killed.”

Alma’s body began to slowly turn to ash, as she once again heard a high pitch noise coming from Midir as he fired another beam from within the darkness of the chasm. Only this time he was shooting it off in many different directions instead of aiming at the ashen one.
“.....Lucky shot.” She said before her vision faded into darkness and her body disappeared.

(Equestria, Everfree Forest)

Alma’s body felt warm. Which was kind of a surprise given how she would normally feel cold and empty. Then again when you’re pretty much a corpse that can come back to life with the help of a curse, it shouldn’t be surprising that she would feel warm. She guessed that she was near the bonfire from where she lit it before fighting Midir. But as she slowly opened her eyes, she soon found herself in what looked to be a colorful room. Blinking in surprise as her vision became much clearer, she pulled herself upwards a bit as she soon found herself sleeping in a bed. Another surprise seeing how most places she would find solace in would be worn down, infested with monsters, or laying with skeletons of humans or dead monsters decaying.

“What the hell?” Alma said as she looked around the room she was in. From what she could tell, it looked like she was in a well-furnished room with a nightstand, a lamp, a working fireplace, and a bookshelf with an array of books. “I don’t remember lighting the bonfire in a place like this?” She said before quickly pulling the covers off of herself. Upon doing that, however, she took notice that her pale dark skin was now covered in a gray-colored fur-like substance. “The hell!?”

“Oh good, you’re awake.” Alma’s ears twitch upon hearing a voice coming from the doorway to the room. Looking up she saw a pony-like humanoid with black hair wearing a gray long-sleeve shirt and brown cargo pants standing there with a smile on his face. “I didn’t think you would wake up anytime soon when Three Leaf found you passed out near the entrance of our town.”
Alma simply glared at the earth pony creature as she slowly looked around the room to see what she could use as a weapon. The Earth pony simply tilted his head, still smiling as he slowly walked over to the unkindled one.

“Is something wrong? Did I say something that you might take offense to?”

“Where am I and what the hell did you do to me?” Alma asked as the pony stopped.

“Well, you’re in our small little town called Sunnytown. As for what I did to you, you’ll have to be a bit specific.”

“What the hell did you do to my body!? I was not covered in fur, nor did I-.” Alma paused for a moment before looking over at the mirror next to the bed on the nightstand as her eyes widened in surprise to see her looking like a mixed breed between a horse and a bat-like creature. “Nor did I look like a freak of nature! Now tell me what the hell did you do to me?”

“I don’t think I can help with that strange bat pony. But all we did was we took you into our town to make sure you didn’t get eaten by the wild animals in the forest. How you look, you might want to talk to your parents about that if that’s the case?” The stallion said as he walked over to Alma. “Did you hit your head on something?”

“No….No, I did not.” She said before shaking her head at this sudden turn of events happening to her this quickly. Alma took a deep breath before exhaling and looked over at the pony. “Forget what I said about what you did to me. Mind telling me who you are?”

“Oh! Sorry about that. Where are my manners.” The stallion said as he extended a hand towards the bat pony. “My name is Grey Hoof. I’m the mayor of this small little town called Sunnytown!” Alma simply blinked at this as she looked down at his hand before looking up at him.

“Sunnytown?” She asked as the stallion nodded his head. “Did you name the town that or?”

“Heavens no. The town was named that by the founders who built it long ago.”

“And those are?”

“Um…..I honestly forgot their names.” Gray Hoof said as he chuckled awkwardly. Alma deadpanned to this before leaning back in her bed.

“Not a very informative one are you?” She said before trying to figure out where her stuff was.

“Where is my stuff? More importantly, where are my clothes?”

“What clothes?”

“Don’t play dumb with me. You found me in the forest right? So you know I was wearing something when you brought me here. Now talk. Where is my stuff?”

“Umm are you sure? I didn’t see any clothes when I found you.” He said as Alma raised an eyebrow at the stallion. “I-It’s true. I wouldn’t lie to you if that was the case.” She stared at him for a moment before snorting in annoyance.

“Whatever….do you at least have a set of clothes for me then? I’m not going to walk around naked. Did it once…..it wasn’t pleasant.”

“What happened? Did you try it in the middle of winter or something?”

“Just give me some fucking clothes! I’m not here to answer something that I’m not willing to talk about.” Gray Hoof almost fell over from her yelling as he quickly leaves to find her something to wear. “Something about him….doesn’t feel right.” She thought before looking outside the sunny-like environment of Sunnytown. “This whole thing doesn’t feel right at all. What the hell even happened to me? One minute I found myself being pierced in the chest by a gagged spike sticking out of the side of a mountain, and the next I woke up to find myself here in this little town in what I’m guessing is the middle of the forest...In the middle of an unknown forest in the body of a weird pony bat creature humanoid thing…” The unkindled one paused for a moment as an idea hit her head. Raising her hand, she quickly slapped herself in the face to see if what was going on was a dream. Sadly however the pain she felt upon doing that was real as she crossed that thought out for ideas to see if she wasn’t dreaming.

“Okay, not a dream. So this is real life and I’m stuck in some unknown place in the middle of the forest...Fan fucking tastic.” She said with a groan. “All this is so fucking confusing. The first thing I need to do is to find my stuff and figure out where I am.” Alma’s ears twitched as she heard the steps of hooves heading towards the room she was in as Grey Hoof entered with a set of clothes for her to have.

“Sorry. These were the only things I could find that would fit you, or at least I hope they fit you?” He said as he presented her with a blue-colored long-sleeve shirt and a pair of black shorts.

“....You don’t have….anything else?” She asked as Grey Hoof shook his head. A sigh escaped her mouth as she extended a hand toward him and motioned him to hand the clothes over.

“Fine, but you’ll need to leave so I can put them on.” Before the stallion could leave, he looked back at Alma with a smile.

“Before I forget. What’s your name if you don’t mind me asking?” Alma was hesitant at first but decided to tell him as she cleared her throat.

“Alma Andrea….now please leave.”

Gray Hoof nodded as he quickly left the room. Leaving the human-turned-bat pony alone as she began to put on the clothes that he gave to her. As he was making his way out of the house that they placed Alma in, he noticed a green-colored mare wearing a dark green short sleeve shirt and long lime-green-colored dress walking up to him with a smile as she bows.

“How is she doing?”

“She’s up. Though she might’ve hit her head on something because she thinks we turned her into a bat pony.” Grey chuckled as he scratched the back of his head. “I get the feeling that gaining her trust will be a bit more difficult than I expected.”

“She might’ve been lost in the forest for quite some time. I mean the stuff she had on looked old and covered in dirt, blood, and who knows what else.”

“I know, why did you think I hid that stuff in my house Three Leaf? Poor thing must’ve been through something fierce.” Grey said as he placed a hand on his chin. “Hm, maybe you can talk to her to see if she can open up a bit more. You always did have a way of getting ponies to open up more.”

“I’ll try. But I can’t make any promises if she doesn’t want to talk much.” Three Leaf said as she looked over at the house, then back at Gray Hoof. “Do you think she’d join our little town like the others?”

“She might. We’re still trying to find the little filly that we were able to help protect from that….disease after all. Gladstone and Roneo will tell me if they found her once they return. For now, let’s get everything ready for the party today.”

“Party?” Three Leaf said as she paused for a moment before her eyes widened. “Oh! You mean the party for Roneo and Scarlet?”

“Yep, that’s the one. We have to get everything ready for them seeing how they just announce they’re going to get married soon.”

“Aw, that’s so sweet of you to host a party for them.” She said, jabbing an elbow into his side which caused Grey to blush.

“W-Well I figured I’d do something nice for my best friends.” He said, looking away for a moment before looking back at Three Leaf. “Anyway after you’re done talking with Alma, you and Scarlet get the decorations and food set up. I’ve got some things I need to do before the party begins.” He said before walking off near the back part of the town.

Alma stood in front of the mirror that was next to the window in the room she was in. She had to admit. The shirt was surprisingly comfortable and matched well with her fur color, though what she didn’t like was the fact that she was wearing shorts that were a bit too revealing for her legs.

“I mean seriously? How can people, eh, horses wear something that rides up their butts?” She thought as she tugged on her shorts a bit. Just as she was about to look around the room to see if there were another pair of pants that she could feel comfortable wearing, she heard a knock on the door followed by a feminine voice behind it.

“Excuse me. May I come in?” The mare asked as the bat pony turned her attention to the door.

“You can come in,” Alma answered as the door to the room opened as Three Leaf entered the room.

“Hello, are you okay?”

“I’m fine...mind telling me who you are...Ms?”

“Oh! Sorry! My name is Three Leaf. Grey Hoof sent me here to see if you’re okay and needed anything, or if you’re up for it I could give you a tour around our small little community?”

“A tour around town doesn’t seem like a bad idea. Would give me a chance to get a good layout of the place, and a means to find my stuff once nighttime comes...at least I think this place has nighttime...right?” Alma thought as she nodded her head to Three Leaf’s questions. “I guess a tour around town wouldn’t be a bad way to start.”

“Wonderful!” Three Leaf said as she began to walk outside of the house. “I’ll be outside waiting for you when you’ve finished getting yourself ready.”

“Yeah, I’ll be there in a bit,” Alma said as she waved the pony off before looking at the mirror and sighing. “Just play along Alma. There’s something wrong with this town.” She thought as she noticed the fur on her body standing up. “Especially if the fur on my skin is standing on edge just being here. The moment night falls here is the moment I will leave this place before something bad happens to me.”

Moments later after Alma got herself prepared to meet the town, the bat pony soon exits the house she was in as she quickly covers her eyes from the light coming down on her from the sun.

“Damn, never actually took notice of the sun being brighter than I remembered.”

“Well from my knowledge of bat ponies, they don’t usually go out during the day. Which kinda surprises me that you’re not inside or trying to find something to cover your head with.” Three Leaf said as Alma rolled her eyes at that.

“I've...been out during the daytime due to having a job.” The bat pony lied as Three Leaf shrugs, not questioning the mare any further.

“Anyway, come with me if you would?” Three Leaf motions for Alma to follow her as she begins to lead her around town. “I know it’s a small little place, but the folks here are very friendly if you ever need somepony to talk to.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Alma said as she looked around at the houses they passed by. She did have to admit that this was a very colorful town. Compared to the undead settlement that she explored after dealing with Vordt of the Boreal Valley, this was somewhat calming for the most part. What got her attention was the many colorful ponies walking around town either waving at each other, talking to one another, or helping each other with something that involved lifting something heavy or repairing stuff.

“Everyone is so...friendly to one another,” Alma said as she waved back at the ponies that waved at her and Three Leaf.

“Well of course we’re friendly towards one another. We all grew up together in Sunnytown so we pretty much know almost everyone.”

“Almost everyone?”

“Some of the ponies here are new. Mostly because they got lost in the Everfree Forest and can’t get out because...well we've been nice to them and they just couldn’t part with our fair little town.”

“I….guess that makes sense if you think about it. Have you ever been outside of the forest before?” Alma asked as she noticed Three Leaf stop moving for a moment before looking at her with a somewhat creepy smile on her face.

“Why would I ever leave the forest? I have everything that I need here in Sunnytown after all.” She said before turning back around and continuing to walk. Alma raised an eyebrow at Three Leaf reacting to her question and would've asked why the personality changed. But given the fact that she didn’t want to run the chance of getting kicked out, she decided to push that question off to the side and decided to ask something else.

“S-So your friends with Grey Hoof, right? How long has he been mayor of this little town?”

“About two, maybe three years now? I kinda lost track of how long he’s been the leader of our town. But so far he hasn’t had anyone run against him during those years.”

“Why is that?”

“Because he has been doing such a good job, no one chooses or decides to run against him to become mayor themselves.” She said as she noticed a light gray earth pony with an orange mane & tail, and was wearing a light orange shirt and gray colored dress.

“There you are, Three Leaf.” The pony said, catching her breath as it appeared to Alma that the mare was running a long distance or so around town trying to find Three Leaf.

“Ah, Scarlet. Just the mare I was looking for. I take it you ran into Grey Hoof and he told you to come to see me right?”

“Yeah, he said that he had a job for us to do and that you’ll explain what it is,” Scarlet said as she looked over at Alma. “Oh! You’re the mare that Roneo and I found in the forest!” she said before extending a hand toward the bat pony. “I’m Scarlet by the way. Nice to meet you Ms...?”

“Alma Andrea,” Alma said as she shook the earth pony’s hand. Upon shaking her hand, however, she felt something off about it. “Something’s not right about her. More correctly, her and Three Leaf.” She thought as she quickly released her grip around Scarlet’s hand.

“Is something the matter, Alma?” Three Leaf asked as the bat pony looked over at her with a fake smile on her face.

“Oh yeah, everything’s fine. Just...um...a bit hungry is all.”

“Oh! I thought it was because I was smelly because of all the running I did.” Scarlet said as she chuckled.

“More like you’re radiating all kinds of wrong that I’m sensing off of you...almost like you’re a hollow.” Alma thought before hearing Three Leaf speak up.

“Well, you’ll get plenty of food to eat once we get the party set up.” Three Leaf said before looking over at Scarlet.

“So that’s what Grey Hoof sent me to help you with?” Scarlet asked as Three Leaf nodded.

“Grey Hoof is hosting a party today for you and Roneo.” The green mare said as she walked next to Scarlet and jabs her playfully in the rib. “Seeing how you two are going to be married in about a week or two~.” She said as a blush ran across Scarlet’s face.

“Geez Roneo. That pony can’t keep a secret if his life depended on it.” She sighed before looking over at Alma. “But wouldn’t the party be for Alma instead of Roneo and me?”

“We’ll plan that afterward. For now, I need your help telling the others so we can start on getting everything set up for when Gladstone and Roneo get here from their search.” While the two mares were busy talking to one another, Alma took her attention off them as she looked around the area they were in. As she did, she took notice of a mare with dark gray fur, red mane & tail wearing a long-sleeve shirt-like dress that was the same palette as her mane and fur color looking at the two mares with a disgusted expression on her face.

“Weird, maybe she has some kind of grudge against them maybe?” Alma thought before noticing that the mare was looking at her up and down for a moment before her eyes were drawn near her flank. The bat pony blinked in confusion before quickly turning her attention to the two mares in front of her as if nothing happened.

“Alma, I know I was supposed to show you around town. But I need to help Scarlet with the decorations and setting up the party. If you'd like, you can have a look around town to get to know the ponies in Sunnytown. You might even find a friend here if you’re nice enough.” Three Leaf said with a chuckle. “Who am I kidding, you’ll make friends here in this town. Everypony here is nice and open towards others.”

“Okay, I guess it shouldn't be a problem. How long will it take for you to be done getting stuff set up for the party?”

“An hour or two depending on if anypony isn’t busy with something else. But I’ll try to get back to you once I’m done. So feel free to walk around or relax!” Three Leaf said as Alma turned around and walked in the opposite direction. “What an interesting mare. I do hope she decides to stay with us in Sunnytown.” She said before looking over at Scarlet with a scared expression on her face. “Is something the matter, Scarlet?”

“Three Leaf….look at Alma’s leg,” Scarlet said as she pointed at Alma walking off. Three Leaf squinted her eyes as to what Scarlet meant by that. Once she got a good look at the bat pony’s leg, her eyes widened upon seeing to her what could be known to them as a curse mark.

“N….No….it….it couldn’t be.” Three Leaf said as she began to tremble with fear from this. “How did we not notice that on her before?”

“Do you think she knows about that….curse mark?”

“I don’t know. Maybe she does; maybe she doesn’t.” Three Leaf sighed as she looked back at Scarlet. Her eye color changed from green to crimson red. “Go inform Grey Hoof about this, I’ll keep an eye on Alma.”

“What about the party for tonight?”

“It will have to be on hold for now. We need to cure our soon-to-be new friend of her curse mark.” Scarlet nodded to this as she quickly ran down the street to find Grey Hoof. As she did that, Three Leaf followed Alma in secret. “Don’t worry my friend. Tonight, we will cure you of your curse mark.”