Captain felt the rhythm of the steed galloping underneath him, his vision was dark, but he knew what was going to happen, for he had already gone through this countless times before. But something was different this time, although the familiarity of the sounds was there, it was louder. There were more than one steed in close proximity.
"Well then, this is new. I hope only that they are ready." Thought Captain, while noticing something else that was wrong, his armor, he was in his old armor. This built a little more panic in him as he processed this, but what stopped in his train of thought was the feeling of being weaker, not as a result of an illness or disability, he felt normal, as he did when he first felt that rhythm of hooves slamming into the ground.
Then the magic hit, he was flung into the air, no control as he braced himself quickly for the inevitable impact. He didn't have to wait long, the earth met his body, tumbling to a stop leaving him prone. He got up, and instinctively walked over to the dead body that he knew that would be there, pulled out the knife that had embedded itself in the chest, and cut his bindings. Taking off the blindfolded bag that was on his head, he turned around to see who the other gaoler was escorting. What he saw left him baffled. He was expecting maybe one more person, but there were three, three, three other criminals who had been riding to Pardoner's Vale with him.
Their gaolers have died in similar way to his, but he was still stunned by the other criminals who have chosen to become inquisitors, there was a sage that has doubled over lying on their side, a ranger who is prone on their back, and a duelist who seems to have recovered quickly and was sitting up.
With the sage seemingly in the most pain, Captain helped them up first, undoing their bindings and pulling off their blindfold. The first thing he noticed was that the person underneath seems too young to even be an inquisitor, the boy must have committed his crime close to his coming of age. The next thing Captain noticed was his eerie silence and slight calm, neutral look, as though he was putting on a mask while collecting his thoughts and trying to keep calm. When he instructed the boy to help the ranger, the boy simply nodded and got right to it.
Captain then moved to the duelist, while undoing their bindings, he noticed a gold ring on one of their fingers, indicating the crime of sumptuousness. Typical, in his life, he saw only a few duelists that had some modesty, but that didn't matter now. When he took the blindfold off, the thing that grabbed Captain's eyes was her unconventional hairstyle, purple hair with the main portion of it flowing down the right side of her head, along with a gold circlet with the additional decorations of feathers. He knew that purple hair was not uncommon, but purple that vibrant with a visible sheen, was not normal for Altarstone Kingdom.
"What's going on? Where are we? Who are you? Why am I?" The fencer immediately started asking.
"You don't remember why you are there?"
"No, I was just sleeping at Sunny's house and… and… oh, oh those are dead bodies."
"Now what the hay is going on here?!" A new voice said. Captain turned around to see that the ranger had gotten up, clutching her arm. She had blonde hair with a long braid, another style of hair people of Altarstone Kingdom don't usually have, and instead of the standard ranger hood, she had a hat that seemed like a farmer's straw hat.
"I'll start explaining things when we get to Pardoner's Vale, since it seems like things are getting even more strange than I first thought."
"Oh no, don't try to stall on me, all I know is that I am far from home, I turned into some sort of creature, and you seem like you know what is going on here."
"Maybe he's right," the sage said, speaking his first words in a hushed tone, but loud enough to be acknowledged,
"This doesn't seem like a safe place to have a little camp to talk." The ranger looked around, noticing the scorch marks and the dead bodies, her expression seemed to soften, before becoming serious again.
"Alright, but I will be expecting some answers."
Pipp’s Perspective
Pipp Petals was sure she was having a nightmare, before this she was just going to a sleepover at Sunny's house with the rest of her friends, just a night of fun and games. Now, she woke up blindfolded, in an unfamiliar body, and now she was walking to some sort of camp with three complete strangers.
She took a look at three creatures, which she guessed she was one too, hoping to gauge exactly who were the characters she was traveling with. The one who helped her up was wearing a set of gray heavy armor that had some cloth that had a large red stripe, with a helmet which covered his face, he seemed like some sort of guard, valorous and stern. The one next to the guard was wearing black robes with purple accents around the edge of the hood and sleeves, they seemed shorter of all of them, from the few words she heard him speak, he must have been similar to the guard, only less experienced. The one walking next to her felt the most familiar to her, she was wearing a set of simple brown leather armor, along with a hat which reminded her of a fashion choice detailed in one of the stories Sunny always told. She seemed to be the most dependable mare, mare? What do they call mares here? That didn't matter now, she just made sure she stuck close.
That is when she noticed the thing on her back, it was a short spear with a short bar near the tip, with a green cloth connecting the two sides of the bar. Looking back at the two in front of them, she saw they had weapons too. The guard had a simple sword and shield, which had some sort of crest in the middle along with a red column, with the boy having a sword with what seemed like a fancy walking stick which branched out into three columns curling into a point upward. Looking at herself, she wondered what she had also. What she was wearing was a tan shirt with purple stripes going down both shoulders with a cape over the right shoulder, along with simple but comfortable boots and gloves. On her hip was a long, thin scabbard, with a hilt that was of decent make and strong material.
Then a thought struck her, why did all of them have weapons, did they know how to use them, what requires them to be carrying weapons? She was never trained with anything, and she guessed that her beginner self defense lessons would not help her if actual combat was going to happen.
The guard suddenly held up his hand, indicating to stop, and then gestured forward. Ahead were two other creatures, short and with gray skin that held tightly to their bones. The guard whispered to the boy next to him, they both drew their weapons, the boy shaking slightly, and without a word, they charged at the two creatures. They quickly closed the gap and struck the things, taking advantage with the creatures reeling, the struck again where then the creatures crumbled to a blackened dust. But when the small skirmish was seemingly over, the boy took his staff, suddenly glowing white, where then three missiles made of light were sent to another of the same creature, this one wearing a hood and carrying a bow, whereupon contact, was killed in the same fashion.
Pipp was horrified, sure there were minor bouts of violence where she came from, but they were usually childish misunderstandings, guard training, or defense classes. Outright arranged murder was nigh unheard of, only in the stories that were passed around before magic was returned. There was that incident when she met all of her friends for the first time, but that was out of panic, and only a few ponies were hurt. Taking a quick glance at the mare beside her, a similar look was on her face, but one of shock and confusion, with a hint of anger.
The guard turned around and signaled for them to follow, continuing forward, they went through a short cavern, coming to a large open area. Suddenly a monster as large as a house came crashing down in front of them, it had large antlers, with red energy coming down its arms ending in large claws, wearing red rags over its shoulders and legs that resembled misshapen pony legs. The same red energy that wrapped itself around its arms came together in front of its skeletal face and suddenly spewed out toward Pipp, making everything fade away into darkness.