If there was one thing Celestia noticed right away about the Upper Cathedral Ward, it was that the place was eerily quiet. Celestia had expected it to be bustling with activity, much like Canterlot's Royal District, but instead found an empty street, a few empty buildings and the whistling of the wind.

Whereas the Royal District was densely populated, at times more "functional" than Celestia liked, and buzzing with activity, the Upper Cathedral Ward's construction was sparse, stately, decadent even, and the place was utterly empty. Tall spires peaked from each building's rooftop, competing with each other and the rest of Yharnam, artwork of mares pouring pitchers and other seemingly ceremonial actions were depicted in excess, gilding on metal railings, elaborate wood carvings and other grandiose architectural details displayed the importance of those who lived and worked here, yet the Upper Ward was silent, as if noponylived here.

The only other living beings she had seen so far were the Church Doctors; large, pale ponies who stood on their hind legs, supporting their weight with canes. Eustace had interacted with a few as they passed on their patrols, but their speech, for all Celestia could decipher, was as simple as grunting and rasping. She found them highly unnerving, and vowed to stay away from them as much as possible.

"So, what do you do here, Eustace?" Celestia said, more or less to ease her own growing unease.

"Later. Keep quiet, and walk calmly. I don't like it here either," he half-whispered back, "nopony likes it here, but the Doctors like it less when ponies start running."

So she kept quiet and followed the sage green stallion through the Upper Cathedral Ward, keeping herself focussed on anything other than the growing sense of wrong. She didn't know what it was, but something about this place put her hairs on end. Maybe it was how quiet it was?

The rest of the trip was short, not more than five minutes before they reached the bridge out of the Upper Cathedral Ward, and already her coat hairs were standing up straight. Not much could affect her like that these days, but that place, something in it scared her, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know what.

"We're not going back through there, are we?" Twilight asked Eustace as they all crossed the bridge. She had stayed quiet the whole time they'd been in the Upper Ward, but she could see the purple pony wasn't in any good mood coming out of there either.

"Not if I can avoid it. The place has always given everypony but the Choir creeps the willies, even us Hunters," he replied. "Lucky us, we can take the long way back up once we're done doing whatever it is you two need to do."

"Are you sure that's wise?" Celestia asked, "We told Astral we'd return by nightfall, didn't we?"

Eustace stopped on the other side of the bridge to give her a blank look. "You want to go through that place again?"

Celestia's ears flattened and she shook her head.

"Then we go the long way and say we're sorry once we get back," he said plainly, turning to his left and down some stairs. "Just through here is the workshop, where we'll get your weapons. From there, we'll use some of the less traveled routes to the outskirts."

Eustace stopped in front of an ornate door, clearly designed for ponies of his and Twilight's size and not Celestia's, and knocked before inserting a small brass key and pushing the door open, beckoning them in. "Hey, Arthur! We got visitors!" Eustace called down the hallway, closing the door and locking it again.

"Aye, thought I'd heard somepony come in!" a gravelly voice called back. "Visitors? Precious little of them these days! Or are they recruits?"

Celestia walked into the large circular room at the end of the hallway. Along its sides were all sorts of shelves and cupboards, and saws of various shapes and sizes hung from the ceiling. Weapon stands, mostly empty, were arranged haphazardly throughout the room. Sitting in a wheelchair amongst the stands was a grey pony wearing a top hat, and in his lap was, for lack of a better term, a larger scale model of whatever was attached to Eustace's foreleg.

"Ooooh, and she's a big one in't she?" he said, his beady yellowed eyes giving her a thorough raking from behind the stands. "Nice and big! But you're here for weapons, aren't you? Looking to get in on the hunt while the getting's good, eh?" he finished off his statement with a manic laugh, turning towards the nearest row of stands and beginning to mutter to himself, between chuckles, as he eyed all of their contents carefully.

"Don't mind him," Eustace said coming up beside Celestia, "Arthur might be mad, but he's brilliant with weapons. Everything you get from him will be top quality, you've just got to deal with... well, everything else."

"You're sure about that?" Twilight asked from behind them both.

"Hey!" called Arthur, "You can call me mad, but don't question my workmanship! These here –" he brandished, for lack of a better term, a curved saw with an elongated handle "– are the best cutters you'll find in Yharnam! Even if I can't get out there and kill the beasts anymore I take pride in knowing my workmanship is facilitating their deaths!" Once again, the old stallion descended into manic laughter, this time punctuated with a few coughs.

Eustace looked at Twilight and shrugged. "He's not wrong, there's a reason he's the workshop's quartermaster," he said before motioning that they should join the old stallion in selecting weapons.

"Arthur, meet Celestia. Celestia, Arthur," Eustace introduced after the three of them managed to navigate the maze of stands to Arthur's small clear spot. "And this is Twilight."

Arthur spared the two of them a nod, before returning to his close inspection of his weapons. "Whaddya need, Eustace? Tell this old codger so he can get you out of his workshop."

If Eustace hadn't been expecting that, he didn't show it. "We need the best you've got, Lady Astral's orders."

Arthur wrinkled his nose at mention of Astral, giving Eustace a displeased look. "Choir? Boy, I told you to stay away from that lot, and let me guess, these here are some of their cronies?"

"Not at all, they're outsiders."

Arthur wrinkled his nose even more. "Bah, even worse! And you want my best? Tell me why I should give it to you, or them."

"Because if you don't, the Choir might pick this workshop as the next place to run their experiments," Eustace said, a sharp edge of warning in his otherwise smooth tone.

Arthur turned around in his wheelchair to look at the three of them, once again raking his eyes over them all. "Threats? Not idly made, I'd say, either. The Choir isn't known for keeping it's snout where it belongs, especially that Astral mare. Fine, you'll get your tools, at least that's more blood out on the hunt tonight. Now, what'll it be?"

"I was thinking something heavy for Celestia," Eustace offered to start.

"Like what you've got? Eh, she's certainly got the size," Arthur said, wheeling himself closer and jabbing a hoof into her upper forelimb, "and the muscle, too. Big it is, and the little one?"

Arthur wheeled himself towards Twilight, giving her a thorough look, tail to nose-tip. "Cane. She's a cane type, I can tell."

"Actually, Arthur, I was thinking she'd get a rifle. Something powerful, of course, like a Piercing Rifle."

"Aye, but she needs a weapon for when the beasties get too close to shoot, Eustace. Cane it is," he added before Eustace could interject again. "Trust me, Eustace, she'll need it, especially tonight. Everyone can smell it, this is the big one."

Author's Note

Not 2k, but it felt right to end it here. Next we finally get into the Yharnam Streets.

A note about the UCW's construction. It's been significantly changed, where it used to only consist of the Orphanage and a gated off section across the bridge (which presumably led to the scenic overlook down the street from the Church Plaza and the Hunter Chief gate), most of the Upper Cathedral Ward will now be centered along the side of the Grand Cathedral, behind the Research Hall and behind the Orphanage. The entire thing, much like the upper levels of Old Yharnam, is built on platforms and other buildings. It's connected to the Research Hall by a large set of doors opposite the First Floor Balcony. The Church Library's entrance sits directly opposite this door.

I probably will do sequels to this once Astral is established as a character and this story has wrapped, haven't decided but I've got ideas floating around that want out. They're practically leaking from my eyeballs.

Edit: SEPT 4: Corrections that SHOULD have been saved by the doc, but weren't. Gives me conniptions.