The castle was magnificent. It was missing that glossy red stuff, but you could do without it for now.

You know what was not magnificent? Being forced to bunk with one of those horses. Yeah, as it turns out, there's only seven rooms. And, guess what that means? No room for you, bucko. So Twilight (with heavy encouragement from Celestia) allowed you to bunk with her, while Spike decided to switch rooms and stay with Starlight. He didn't seem pleased that you were essentially taking his place.

Whatever. Why should you care?

"I haven't seen your face yet, you've had that mask on this entire time." Twilight said, as you were examining yourself in her bedroom, using her large standing mirror. You looked to her, shrugging. You had the mask on for so long, you hardly even remembered you still had it on. It was almost apart of you.

"You want to know whats funny? I don't even remember when I put it on."

"Really..? That long?"

You nodded. "I don't even remember when I put these clothes on. I remember the emotions I had on my first hunt, for sure. But the act of donning these clothes, the hunter clothes, I don't remember. I would think that's bad, but honestly, it's so apart of me I hardly care."

You could hear Twilight stepping close to you, before appearing at your side. "I-I know that things aren't really in your favor right now.. They aren't for me either. But, I'd like to attempt something here. I want to know about you. If I'm letting you stay with me, I might as well know you a bit, right...?"

She was obviously nervous, possibly scared of your presence. Though, instead of amusement, you felt a little... odd.

"It's not things you'd like to hear. I'm sure you'd like to live without those thoughts in your head."

"I'm willing to take that chance."

You gave a smile underneath your mask. "You've got some balls. Alright, I'll explain a little about myself. What do you want to know?"

She tilted her head in question. "I suppose... what happened before you got here?"

"Heh. Alright."

You had just finally escaped the Nightmare of Mensis. You had been stuck in it for way too long, refusing to return to the Hunters Dream until you were completely finished with the place. You had to admit though, it did get to you mentally. That twisted hellscape was the worst experience you've ever had, other than Ludwig, or that poor Orphan.

You remember appearing in the Hunters Dream and staring up at the Hunters Workshop. It was in flames. A feint melody played in the back of your mind, putting you at ease, but you knew that something was very wrong. And, oddly enough, you knew what had to be done. When you were told that Gehrman was waiting for you at the foot of the tree in the garden, you knew.

You got everything you could. You stacked yourself full of blood vials, little bottles that kept you alive up until that point. You carried as many quicksilver bullets you could hold, and you brought as many firepapers and boltpapers as you could. You knew it wasn't going to be an easy fight, but with each thing you stocked up on, was a point in your favor. The only problem was, the game was rigged.

You slowly approached Gehrman. You knew that the wheelchair was just an act. Once you were close enough, he explained to you what his intentions were. You were given a choice; to forfeit your life, and to allow Gehrman to kill you, in order to escape from the horrible nightmare that you were stuck in. That being, the hunt. Or, you could alternatively refuse, resulting in a fight between the both of you.

Funnily enough, a fight to save eachother. Whoever lost was the real winner.

You knew you were destined to stop this nightmare, and you knew the only thing standing in your way now was Gehrman. You couldn't allow him to simply kill you, and let the nightmare continue on for longer. You knew you were able to do something about it, to do better than Gehrman. The first step would be to allow the very being that played a role in this nightmare to escape from it.

You remember pointing your sword at him. "Fight me, for the first, and final time." Those words were the most poetic words you had ever spoken since you were born. You had always been the funny type, the edgy, humorous type. The type to make any and all situations as hilarious as they can be, even at the cost of respect. Yet, that day, you knew that you had to give respect to the first hunter.

He stood up, pulling his scythe from his back, and his blunderbuss from his hip.

The fight was fast and brutal. Each hit you took, you had to use a blood vial. He hit harder than anything you encountered before, and you knew this wasn't going to be easy. His moves were faster than light, literally being able to use the wind against you. And, not long into the fight, he had somehow regained a bit of his energy from his days of being in his prime. Once you took your last vial, you knew how this was destined to end.

You hated it. You hated getting this far to fail. You were furious, and you wanted to curse the universe for putting you in such a position. The blood-loving universe had turned you into what it desired. A blood-loving hunter, devoid of what he was originally born to be. That, of a normal human. But, look at you now. A hunter, constantly joking at every turn.

Instead of spending your last moments of being angry, you decided to spend them being amused.

With each hit you sustained, you made an insult. You yelled it at the top of your lungs. You were sure you even saw Gehrman smile at the jokes you were cracking, but he didn't relent his attacks. You knew before long, you'd end up as another grave in that garden.

You couldn't completely forgive Gehrman for his actions though. You knew that he played a big role in the nightmare. And, what he and his colleagues did to that poor Orphan, was inexcusable. You had cried during your fight with the Orphan of Kos. A being, that had just been born from its dead mother. A being, that saw you as it's mothers killer. A being that had everything stripped away from it for the simple fact of experimentation. You had heard the story before, and you wished you didn't have to fight it while knowing it.

All of that, for nothing.

Everything else replayed as it was supposed to. You were on your knee's, in the middle of cracking a joke before suddenly, you were beheaded. It was painless, instant, and anticlimactic. Atleast, anticlimactic compared to what everything else in the universe had.

You didn't explain it exactly as you thought, as you knew there were things that the poor horse didn't need to know. That being, you personal feelings. What did a purple horse even care about? You knew your feeling weren't one of them, and you honestly didn't mind.

"W-Wow... That's... Harsh."

"Nah, not really. Other Hunter's have had it much, much worse. Atleast I was able to fail at the end, instead of the beginning. Atleast I didn't go into it knowing I was a failure. Atleast, I got to see what the end-goal looked like before I tripped. I'd say that's much more... well, better."

"I'm sorry you had to live with that." She said, staring at you from the mirror. "I don't know if I, or even my friends would be able to go through something like that. You know, knowing when your time is up? I don't think I'd be able to live with that."

You smiled. "Yeah, I know. I didn't live with it." You joked. That earned you a glare from the mirror. Instead of answering to her rude looks, you simply pulled your black mask down, showing the rest of your face. It wasn't anything spectacular. You were male, with crimson eyes. You had a burn mark from Laurence on your left cheek, but it was feint. Wow, you hadn't thought about Laurence this entire time.

God, you hated fighting that... thing.

"I'm not special. See?"

She stared at you, a little wide-eyed. "You look so different than the one's I was with..."

"Well, I'm not a weird color like the rest of you. I'm ordinary."

"If that's ordinary, I'm Celestia."

"Ew.. Celestia, really? I prefer Luna already."

Twilight shook her head, a little shocked. "What?! She tried to kill you!"

"And that's why I like her."

This earned you a groan.

Author's Note

Short chapter, sorry people.

Also, I must say this...

Demon's Souls

That is all.