"PUT YOUR BACK INTO IT LASSY!" Screamed the old bastard Sunset got stuck with in this journey. "MY GRANDMA COULD DO BETTER!"

Sunset growled with hate for the old man as she pushed onto the mechanism that rotated the sails. As much as she hated what she was doing, and she wanted to use magic, she already was using it for other tasks, keeping the barrels and supplies that were on deck in place, while she was using her body to do the manual work. As she pushed, she kept screaming back at the Grandpa Grumpy. "WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M DOING YOU OLD FART. MAYBE IF YOU KEEPT THE DAMN SHIP STEADY I WOULDN'T HAV-"

She was stopping from speaking as a big wave hit the ship, causing Sunset to lose her footing and fall on her back. She then began to slide off the ship, luckily, she was saved by the rails. Just as she managed to pick herself up a bit, the ship passed the wave, causing the ship to fall back on the water, and causing Sunset to fall once again. "Damn storm!" She screamed.

Yes, the storm. It caught them by surprise as they were sailing. One moment they were navigating smoothly in calm waters, the next moment they were fighting to keep the ship on the surface of the water and not under it.

As Sunset finally picked herself up and stood on fours hooves again, realization began to arrive, as she just remembered she had to keep the supplies on the ship. She looked around to see what remained of them after that wave. Unfortunately, they were gone, trown in the water by the waves and gravity. Sunset began saying curse words under her breath, before turning her attention to her companion.

"THE SUPPLIES ARE GONE OLD MAN!" She screamed. they had to scream at one a other, otherwise they would not hear each other, as the storm was too strong and intense. The sound of Thunder was deafening and the rain was heavy. The winds were howling and were as cold as if the Windigos themselves showed up.

The old man screamed something back to her, but she could not hear it. The distance between the two of them was about 65 feet, but even with such a short distance, the voice of the two were finding trouble traveling, as the noise of the storm was simply too loud. Seing as she could not hear the old man, and she didn't think the old man could hear her either, she decided to look and see if he was giving her directions trough signs. To her relief, the old man did exactly that, using one free hoof to indicate which direction she should turn the sail to. Nodding in understanding, she began to work once more on the mechanism, but this time using magic.

She was wet, she was hungry, and was tired of the sea, but she didn't come this far only to be killed by a damn storm, no, she would survive, least she wanted to be a laughing stock. Be a laughing stock to who? She thought. To her friends? No. They weren't her friends no longer. Not because Sunset didn't want to, but because they would not accept her anymore.

Having been lost in thought a bit, she didn't realize the old man screaming at her with all his might to stop turning the ship left, and instead turn it right. Luckily she tuned in back in time to hear some curses she didn't even knew existed, causing her to start paying attention once more. Listening to the instructions of the veteran sailor, she did as instructed, quickly changing the direction. And lucky she did so when she did, because if she was a few seconds late, the ship would have been tilted too much by the wave and would have fallen backwards, causing them to die.

"WHAT NOW OLD MAN?!" Sunset screamed, asking for more instructions.

Luckily, the old man heard her. "NOW, NOW WE PRAY TO WHATEVER WE BELIEVE IN AND HOPE WE GET OUT OF THIS ALIVE GIRLY!" He shouted back.

It was a few hours before they managed to get out of that awful storm. Luckily, they were alive, tired, hungry, wet, and overall, not in a great condition. But they were alive, and so, Sunset couldn't really complain. They were back in calmer waters, and having fought with their lives on the line to stay above the water, they decided to take a break.

Sunset went inside the ship and started looking for whatever looked comfortable enough to sit on or lean against to take a quick break. Unfortunately for her, just as she got trown around by the storm like a rag, so did the supplies that were inside. Scanning a bit more carefully, she found what she was looking for, a few boxes that luckily, were in decent shape. She quickly used her magic to make a makeshift bed, hopped on it, and closed her eyes, trying to get some shut eyes.

She tried anyway, but soon she heard the old man screaming to get her flank on the deck. Sighing, she got back up, and made her way there. As soon as she stepped onto the deck, she saw it. Fog in the distance, thick fog. Tall enough to reach the skies, and thick enough to only see a few feet ahead of you. Turning her attention to her companion, the unicorn looked at him with concern. "It's that it? Is this the fog that separates Navalia from the outside world?"

The old man in turn looked back at her with fear, but also relief. Relief in the fact that his journey will finally come to an end. "Aye, that's the one." He said, stopping a bit to look at the fog some more then started again. "Be prepared, as soon as we hit the fog, we won't be able to see much. If we hit something, it could be the end of us."

Sunset gulped. She looked back at the fog. Now she too, felt fear. Deciding her safety was important, her horn glowed with red aura around it, indicating that she was casting a spell. And that she did. She used her magic to envelop the whole hull of the ship, making a protective layer that will protect it from being damaged in case it hit something. After she was finished, she opened her eyes again and realized that they were already in the fog. Looking confused, she turned her attention to her companion and capitan. "Weren't we a good distance from it? How are we already inside it?"

"No ideea. One second we were far, and now were in it. Probably some ancient magic bollocks if you ask me. Now keep yer eyes open, here be dangerous waters we're in." He said while looking around like a hawk. His eyes were focused, focused on finding anything and everything that could do them and the ship harm. Following his approach, Sunset did the same.

She scanned, she looked, she beraly even blinked, yet found nothing. But, she wasn't stupid enough to let her guard down just because she didn't see anything, after all, the waters were deep, and anything could hide benith it, and so, she kept her eyes and ears peeled.

Because they were so focused on their task, none of them realised that the fog was getting thinner and thinner, untill thing suddenly got darker. Snapping from their trance, they got left speechless. As their eyes adjusted, they saw, Navalia, in the distance. None of them knew what to think, or even what to say, but for Sunset, it hit harder. What she saw left her speechless, baffled. She looked at what was in front of her, she saw, but she didn't want to belive it, no, she refused to belive it.

What they saw, was a land of death, a land of disease, rot and decay. The once beautiful mountains, now destroyed, warped, as if space itself was unstable. Floating islands and rocks donned the skies, alongside cracks in space that oozed what she assumed a green liquid with corrosive properties and dark magic, that looked like it was contaminating the very land itself. She saw the once beautiful and lush forests, now turned into lands of rot and decay. Other parts of the land were warped. Pillars of dirt and stone rose up, becoming more and more twisted, as if something pulled the very earth itself as a tapestry, or a mockery of this land. She saw waterfalls of muck, mud and blood ignoring gravity and going upward. She saw the tallest mountain in Navalia, it was as if a celestial being pushed his finger into the mountain, creating a crater that looked like a volcano, and that was not all, there was lightning, all around the mountain. She saw, and was left speechless. Her once beautiful land, turned to this. She felt sick, but she could not tear his eyes from it.

On the other side, Grandpa Grumpy saw the land, and could only think about what horrors his wife and son must have felt and saw. He thought of what manner of creatures are residing here, and hoped that his wife and son met a quick death.

It wasn't long before both of them realised that it was night. While Grumpy wasn't that concerned about it, blaming it on the fact that more time must have passed then they have realized, Sunset knew that it could not happen. She looked at the sky, it was night, but no moon, no stars, yet it was night. She knew for a fact that that when they entered the fog, it was mid -day. Looking more carefully, she realised that she was wrong. looking up, with more attention this time, she did not see the night, no, there was darkness, complete darkness, completely black, as if they were inside of a void, But somehow, there was enough light for them to kind of see. Deciding to finally tear her eyes and mind from such a horrible sights, lest she wanted to go mad, she turned her attention to the old man.

The old man in turn looked at her back with the same look of fear that she had. They looked at each other for a few moments, neither one of them saying anything. It remained like that until they heard a loud roar in the distance. A roar so loud, so primal, and so evil, that it instilled more fear in them then they already had.

Before any of them could say anything, they were both trown to the floor as the ship jerked and trembled. Picking themselves up as best as they could, they started to look for anything under the water that did what it did. "What was that?" Sunset asked as she continued her watch.

"No ideea lad, but be prepared, whatever that was, if it struck once, it will do it again." The capitan said.

As soon he said that, something hit the boat again, this time harder, causing the ship to rock side to side, in turn, causing both of them to lose their balance once again.

Both of them realised that things were about to turn ugly if they moved at their current speed. They had to take measures. Getting back on her hooves, Sunset horn lit in a thick red aura. As soon as she was done with the spell, she released a powerful gust of wind to try and move the ship further, and faster. Having some success, she then increased the potency of the spell little by little. They weren't that far from the shore now, if she kept this up, they could reach it in about six minutes.

Unfortunately for them, things started to go bad, as a massive fleshy tentacle burst out of the water, slamming into the ship's deck. Another one rose high, then enveloped the ship and began to drag it down to the dephts. Sunset stopped what she was doing, and used her magic to teleport near her makeshift bed. She then began to search for her backpack. Quickly finding it, she got out all of her weapons and teleported back to the deck, only to almost be crushed to death as another tentacle slammed onto the deck, mere feet for her. She jumped back, and used one of her greatswords to try and cut the tentacle, however, it had little effect as the blade bounced back. Seing as blades would have no effect, she then conjured a ball of fire, then laughed it at the target.

The fireball hit as intended, causing a small explosion that was enough to blow the tentacle apart, causing the creature to start tightening it's grip around the ship and send more tentacle to try and kill whatever it was hurting it.

Seing this, Sunset took a few moments to use an enchantment spell on all of her weapons. She covered the blades in a very thin but strong coat of magic, causing the blades to be much sharpener then before. She then created a fireball, but did not launch it, instead, pulling the fireball apart to cover the weapons in a fiery aura. She finished just in time as more and more tentacles rose up to envelop the ship. Quickly getting into action, she started moving and slashing. Moving around the ship like a she was dancing, dodging and weaving between the attacking tentacles while cutting them up, while simultaneously using fire balls to destroy the ones that were dragging the ship into the sea.

As she kept her assault, she kept giving glances at her companion. While Grumpy was old, he was not defenseless. He too was moving and slashing at the tentacles, however, while his blade was of the highest quality, the best it could do is scratch the tentacles, but the old man wasn't a fool. He kept attacking the same spots, and after a few hits, he managed to cut one. Seing as his plan worked, he kept doing it.

Both of them fought hard, and little by little they could see that there were less and less tentacles. Realizing that, both of them fought harder, before just a few tentacles remained. But just killing the tentacles wasn't enough, no, they had to do something. Sunset realised that they had to get the ship moving again, and the only way to do it, was to use the wind spell. But there was just one problem, while the spell was active, she would need to be stationary, and that was dangerous considering the position she was in. Quickly thinking of a plan, she stopped her attack and focused on enchanting Grumpy's sword. After she was done, and she could see Grumpy's eyes lit up in satisfaction she began to scream at Grumpy. "Old man, we need to get the ship moving! I can do it, but you'll have to protect me." She said, as she already started to prepare the spell.

"Be right there lass!" He said before he cut another tentacle. After he was finished, he started running towards Sunset to help her. Unfortunately for him, as he was running, a giant tentacle rose up from the sea, high into the sky, then slammed into him, crushing him, and cracking the skip. Blood, limbs,organs and debris started flying.

Sunset stopped casting the spell as something hit her. She opened her eyes and put a hoof on her face. Blood, it was blood and flesh. A few moments later, something hit her hoof, looking down she could see that it was the head of the old man, crushed and full of blood, but she could still recognize it. Just as she was about to scream, another giant tentacle rose up, then slammed into the ship, breaking it in two, causing it to launch Sunset into the water.

As soon as she dived in the sea, Sunset casted a quick protection spell on her eyes, to protect her from the salt and other things. As she opened her eyes, she realised what a huge mistake that was. Now that her eyes were protected, she could see what was attacking them. It was a huge creature, a massive creature. It's body was huge, larger then any living creatures in Equestria, no, larger then most buildings in equestria. It's body was covered in mouths, eyes and tentacles. So many tentacles. Seing that, she realised that what was attacking them was only a small portion of it's total amount of tentacles. She saw how the creature took one half of the ship and ate it whole, using it's big mouth, full of teeth the size of houses to tear the ship apart. Sunset panicked. Seing the mangled corpse of Grumpy, the ship being destroyed, and looking at a creature so disgusting and vile that it did not make any sense, it broke her. She lost her cool, and so, she panicked. Thoughts running trough her mind, like 'What the fuck is that?' and 'I'm going to die!'. She screamed, or tried to anyway. She started kicking the water in an attempt to get away from the abomination before her. Luckily for her, the abomination was too preoccupied with eating the ship, so Sunset, had enough time to get to the surface.

As she reached the surface, Sunset saw tentacles rising from the dephts to take whatever, pieces and scraps they could get a hold of. Realizing that it probably won't be long for her to be it's next target, she started swimming as fast as she could. Luckily, she wasn't far from the shore.

She swam as fast as she could, not ever daring to look back. Not after what she saw.

It wasn't long before she made it to shore. Getting out of the water, drenched and exhausted, she plopped into the muddy earth. Tears soon began to form in her eyes, but she quickly wiped them out. She would not cry, she could not cry. No! She refused to do so, otherwise it would be a disservice to her lost companion.

He risked his life to come here, he knew the dangers. He wanted this! *Sniff* H-he planned on coming here e-even widout me! *Sniff* It's not my fault! She tried her best to not cry, she wanted to convince herself that she was not responsible for the old man's death, yet she was failing. Tears started streaming down her face, soon after, those tears became more and more, and she could not stop it anymore. She tried to build a dam around her heart, she tried to bottle her emotions up, yet that poorly constructed dam only held for a few seconds before it came crushing down, letting tears and feeling flow. "THEN WHY DO I FEEL SO FUCKING SHITTY?!" She screamed while she began punching the mud and dirt out of anger and frustration. "WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DIE?" she punched some more, her hooves getting cuts from the sharp rocks hidden beneath. She did so until her body was too exhausted to punch and wail. "Why did you had to leave me as well?" She said in a low tone, her anger subduing little by little, and in place, guild, fear and loneliness took it's place.

As she was laying down, crying silently, a few debris from the ship found their way onto shore as well. Amongst those debris, there was also one of Sunset's great swords. Arriving with a small wave, bringing it close enough to hit Sunset's back hooves.

Sunset shot up in an instant, immediately in a battle stance. it took a few seconds for her to realize what had touched her. Realizing that it was one her weapons and not the abomination coming to finish her off, she calmed down a bit, closing
her eyes and taking deep breaths, in and out. She opened her eyes, and stared into the weapon. She picked it up in her magic and placed it on her back using a spell to hold it in place untill she needed it, and from what she had just encountered, she would need it.

She turned around, away from the sea, and witnessed what awaited her. A forest, but not like any other. Massive trees around 300 feet in hight, made from not wood, but gray stone. She looked up and she could see that the leaves were blood red. She looked down, and all she could see was mud, puddles of weird looking water and vines, also made of stone.

She sighed, and closed her eyes. Now that her mind and heart were a bit calmer, she began to build the dam around her heart again. Little by little, piece by piece. Stronger and bigger.

She slowly opened her eyes. "Never again." If the pain of getting close to people was too much, she would suppress it. If the pain of trusting others, only to be trown aside, hurt her, she would suppress it as well. She was done having her heart broken, she was done with half baked promises of friendship and love. She wanted to block the pain of loss as well, but she thought of the old man. As annoying as he was, she grew to like him. He swore like a griffin and smelled like a dead rat, but at least he was honest, he was brave, and he didn't put on a mask. He fought and died besides Sunset, and to block the pain of loss she felt, was to disgrace his sacrifice. She will remember the old man who wanted nothing more then find his family and die alongside them. She will remember him as a friend. And so, she made a promise to herself. "Don't worry Grumpy, i will find your family, and i will bring them home. This is my vow, my promise, to you."

She looked at the forest one more time. The time for being scared was gone, The time for panicking like a child was gone. Now more then ever, eyes filled with determination, she began her journey into foreign lands. Taking her first few steps into what she believed to be madness incarnate.

Author's Note

First of all, i have no excuse. The reason it took so long it's because in my free time, i was playing Elden Ring. So yeah, sorry it took so damn long, but the Elden Ring called, and as a tarnished, i had to answer.

Second of all, let me just say, i did not plan for this fic to turn so dark. But Elden Ring had a big influence on how i wanted the story to go. I just fell in love with the dark fantasy that the game presents, and as soon as i started writing again, i just knew how i wanted the story to go. The sense of loneliness, the sense of dread, and the fact that there are no happy endings, that's the type of story i want to write. And so, buckle your bridges, bitches, it's time for pain.

Also, i will change how i write the chapters. I previously said that i would do one chapter with Sunset and one with Rarity and AJ, but i decided to change it. Mostly because when i tried to write the Rarity and Applejack chapter, i couldn't do it. I had no inspiration for it, no ideea how to start and how to write it, and so, i decided to just write another Sunset chapter. Next chapter will probably still be with Sunset.