Chasing Echoes

A black soul gem, the next part of your journey...or your normal ways?

That the was choice that Twilight had before her, and that was the moment she lost her soul.

In a literal sense, actually. Hermaeus Mora had legitimately sucked out a portion of her soul, as no fully living being could enter the Soul Cairn, which, according to Mora, was a land of the trapped souls from his main realm, the planet of Nirn.

But she had also lost her soul in a metaphorical sense, as she had taken a gamble where the odds certainly were not on her side. To learn her ultimate fate, and an attempt to change it. By coming here, she had made a deal, one with a being that seemed inherently evil, and toying with her like a Master of Puppets gleefully pulling on her strings. And now she was here, a realm for the tortured, and she had no idea how to start her journey.

And so, she began to walk.

One thing for sure, it certainly looked like a realm for the tortured. The sky had an eerie purplish-bluish color Twilight was certain she hadn't seen before, and the sand beneath her was a dark grey. In the sky hung a orbital object, a meteor or a moon, that looked a lot like her planet's own. Black plants, all looking sickly, sprouted from the ground, and a tall castle could be seen in the distance. Twilight noticed something else, however.

It was small building, off to the left.

It looked like one of the places of worship from before the times of the royal sisters. It was a cylindrical stone building, not at all tall but fairly wide. A pentagonal shaped door almost half as tall as the building itself seemed to be the only entrance into it; it had an odd cross shaped pattern on it. It looked ominous, as if entering the building would be sure to kill her off; Twilight didn't seem to care, as she was a curious mare.

As she got closer, she realized how daunting the building actually was. The door was big from a distance, but huge up close; in fact, her judgement about the height of the building was off as well. It was tall, she found, and that made it all the more creepier. But that did not draw Twilight to the place; it was something far more complex, that she couldn't explain if she tried.

It felt as if fate itself was puling her towards the place, and she didn't know if that was a good thing or a terrifying thing. None the less, she went inside the stone structure, the door creaking terribly as it opened.

The room she was greeted with was very, very dark, giving Twilight a feeling that there was something terribly wrong with the place. She was about to cast an illumination spell when the dark room promptly did it for her.

A bolt of lightning slammed down right in front of her, and it made Twilight fly back and hit the door behind her. It was enough force to move it, and she flew out of the castle and was greeted with the cold, hard ground upon her arrival. Groaning, it took more time than she would have liked to finally get back up. She saw the door open, and the pitch black void that she had previously been in staring her down.

The gut feeling she had in her stomach earlier was throbbing now; she knew it was a really bad idea to go back into the building again. That building had a roof on it, so that lighting did not come from the outside. If she knew anything about this strange world, she knew that something would be in there waiting for her.

Something that might be able to help her with her goal. She couldn't pass up that chance, could she?

And so she trudged up to the door step again, and was greeted with the same empty void. Twilight was beginning to wonder if it was a substance, and not just the lack of light; she supposed she would find out when she stepped into the room. Twilight heard herself gulp before entering the room again.

Quickly as she could, she made sure to cast that illumination spell. The darkness slowly began to wash away as the contents of the room were revealed.

The room was very empty. It was almost hexagonal in shape, and black pillars lined the walls. There was no floor, as Twilight remembered when first coming in; it was just dirt, and nothing else. In the center of the room was a gate on the ground that lead to seemingly nowhere. That wasn't important, however; the thing right in front of it was.

It was a pedestal, and looked like a much smaller version of the black pillars on the walls. Atop it was some sort of drop box, and next to that were three shiny purple shards. Twilight immediately recognized these as fragments of a soul gem, the thing Mora took part of her soul with, though she had no idea what they would be here for.

Upon further examination, Twilight found that the soul gem fragments would all fit perfectly into the drop box that rested on the pedestal. She levitated the gems with the magic, and winced at the slight ongoing pain that came with running two spells at the same time.

"I've got a bad feeling about this..." muttered Twilight, before looking at the drop box once more. Upon bringing the shards close to it, a purple beam shot out from the drop box, yanking the shards from her magical grasp. She jumped back in surprise, and then watched as the shards were slowly swallowed by the drop box.

And then, of course, one of the most terrifying things Twilight had ever seen rose from the ground at the edge of the room.

It was extremely tall; it had to be about eight feet. It was ethereal looking, but not like most ethereal beings Twilight had seen in this place; it had a raven black tint as opposed to the light blue she had seen so far. Every aspect of it was almost completely covered; it had a hood that went down a little bit past the neck, and some sort of robe. It's gloves barely made it up to it's elbow. The only thing not colored were it's feet, which were skeletal. It had a massive axe at it's back. None of these were more frightening, however, than it's bright red eyes that seemed to pierce through her soul.

It stared at her, completely still and mute, for what seemed like an eternity. It would not speak, so Twilight took a deep breath to calm herself before saying the first words.

"Um...hello. W-Who are y-you, exactly?" she asked, barely managing to get out the words. The figure was silent for a few moments before slowly answering Twilight in a loud, whispered voice.

"I, am the reaper. You, are a plaything." it said.

Twilight took a moment to forget she was petrified from fear to become momentarily confused. It had just called her a "plaything"; what was that supposed to mean? It must have seen her confusion, because it spoke once more.

"You are merely a toy of Herma Mora, sent here for his personal pleasure. I know this because I served the same purpose, once." When he said these words, Twilight could somehow detect a sense of sympathy and sorrow through the whisper voice he used. Twilight was about to respond when, before she knew it, the creature was right in front of her.

At the sight of his piercing red eyes inches away from her, Twilight hopped back with a yelp, before looking at the Reaper in utter fear. It cocked it's head sideways as if in confusion, but somehow Twilight knew that it wasn't her sudden leap back that was the cause it.

"You, however, are here for something else...I can feel fate slowly tugging at your soul, little one. I assume that it has brought you here, to me." Slowly and warily, Twilight nodded an affirmative. The creature merely nodded in response, and continued talking.

"It is my job to harvest the souls of those that...misbehave. A soul had brought his horse into the Soul Cairn, and has been using it to stir up trouble and disturb the souls that rest here. I was able to track him down and vanquish him, but his horse...alas, it evaded me."

At those words, the shards rose back out from the drop box, in it's completed form as a soul gem. It levitated over the head of the Reaper and made it's way in between it and her, stopping to levitate in the air.

"I am tasking you with finding this horse and capturing its soul. I cannot guarantee that you will complete this task alive. Once, if, this task is completed, I will bring you to the next step in your journey for your fate. You are not obligated to do such a task, though I must warn you; should you deny this challenge, you will likely end up aimlessly roaming the Cairn, as confused and yearning as the tortured souls that inhabit this realm. You've obviously made a difficult choice before this, so make one now."

Twilight began to stress over the decision, but quickly stopped at a realization. She cocked her head to the side and raised one eyebrow, once again momentarily forgetting that this creature could most likely destroy her at a moment's notice.

"Hold on; so I take up your offer, and I go outside. Won't I be roaming aimlessly anyways? This horse you talk about could be literally anywhere, and, based on what I've seen so far, I'm willing to bet that this place doesn't exactly...end. So what's the point of all that trouble?" The Reaper seemed to be expecting the question, as he answered almost immediately after Twilight had finished asking it.

"The horse is close, this I know; I fear that I am not fast enough on foot, and my teleportation is failing me recently. At any rate, that soul gem is enchanted to glow when you are facing it's intended target; it's soul is directly attached to the soul gem you now see in front of you. You look like one who thrives on knowledge, little one. Is there anything else you would ask of me before I make my decision?"

Twilight looked up to the ceiling, thinking hard on the previous statement. Finally, she looked back towards the Reaper, a glint of determination in her eyes. Magically, she grasped the soul gem; she could feel a slight pulse as she knew it was under her control now.

"I will do this task for you, in return for your help. Where should I start?" Twilight asked. The Reaper simply pointed to his right.

"The North shall serve you well, little one. Now go, lest I change my fickle mind." At that statement, Twilight sheepishly smiled and scooted out of the castle to meet the harsh environment once more.

Once she got outside, she looked at her soul gem, which wasn't lit at all; she turned north, and the gem suddenly flared to life. Smiling, Twilight slowly began her trek towards the rouge horse, and continued the trek towards her destiny. Despite the things she had seen, she was still confident that she had made the correct decision; nothing she saw yet had convinced her otherwise.

However, she started to feel a little regret when three purple glowing skeletons with bright purplish eyes, along with full battle armor and large battle axes came flying out of seemingly nowhere with the apparent intention to destroy her.

Thankfully, they were all coming from the same side; had they not, Twilight wasn't sure she would have been prepared.

Twilight teleported to the spot they had seemingly came from, leaving the skeletons collectively running into nothing. Slowly, they turned around, and were greeted with a massive fire wave.

Twilight had primed the spell in their moment of hesitation, and released it when the turned around. Naturally, them being skeletons, she expected them to be blasted to pieces; this was not the case, however, as the skeletons merely flinched at the wave. Their purple bones got a little bit blacker, and they began to make her way towards her again.

Obviously, the magic of this place was keeping them together until they became damaged enough and fell apart; Twilight would just have to deal with them. Using all her might, she made sure to cast the fire wave again, but with more power this time. It worked, for the most part; two of the skeletons fell to pieces, while the third was obviously injured but not done yet. Naturally, he charged once more.

Ugh, you've got to be kidding me! Twilight gave a sigh before turning around and cocking her legs back. When the skeleton got close enough to bear, she shot her legs forward. They hit the body armor, but it was enough; the various parts of the skeleton flew in the air. Panting heavily, Twilight took a moment to sit down and think.

I really need to find this horse, and soon. I'm not getting the impression that those are the only skeletons here, so I would gladly accept the Reaper's offer and take the fast track. But where do I start?

She looked down at the soul gem to find it glowing very brightly. Her eyes widened, she looked up to find what she presumed was the very horse she was looking for about thirty feet away from her.

It had to be. It, too, was skeletal, but it's bones were all black. In the place of a mane was pure magical energy, which, like pretty much everything in this realm, was purple. It was frighteningly elegant, and it kept Twilight staring for about a minute before she realized what exactly was happening.

"Hey!" she shouted, before taking flight and darting towards the horse. The horse quickly galloped away, and it was then that Twilight finally saw why the reaper couldn't catch it; it was fast. Climbing Mora's fire mountain gave her wings a good workout, and she was sure that this would, too.

It was during that conclusion that she realized something. Upon this realization, she chuckled to herself a bit before powering up a teleportation spell; along with this was a soul trapping spell, which Mora had given her for an unknown reason (she knew now), creating a double corona around her horn. Activating the first spell, she teleported to the spot she assumed the horse would end up.

When Twilight appeared, the first thing she registered was that the horse was about five feet in front of her. The second thing Twilight registered was that she had to cast that spell, and she had to cast it now.

"Ahh!" she let out, before putting her horn down and quickly casting the spell. In a flash of light, she flew backwards and hit the ground with a thud.

She had a massive headache; Twilight had cast the spell too quickly after using the magical energy from another spell, and that would leave her dazed for quite a bit. That was not her concern, however; she looked down at the soul gem she had kept magically attached to herself, and saw it swirling inside, glowing brightly; she got the horse. Smiling and groggily getting up, she evaluated her next options; they weren't good.

Teleporting back would work, but would leave her in more pain than before, as well as the spell being agonizing. However, she also had to take in the account of the Boneman that attacked her earlier; she didn't think she would be able to defend herself if they came upon her like they did previously.

I've always got to make these hard desicions...Twilight thought before looking around the environment once more. No, she definitely didn't want to face the Boneman again, which left her the other choice. As much as she didn't want to do it, she knew that it was the best course of action.

She was going to cast the spell and teleport to the Reaper.

Twilight took a deep breath before beginning to cast the spell. It stung at first, and slowly became more and more agonizing. She tried to stifle her cries, but to no avail; she began wailing in agony as the spell was nearing it's final stage.

I can't give up now...I can't give up now...

Suddenly, all was black.

* * * * * *

Twilight slowly awoke, which was understandable; the pain in her head was almost twice as bad as it was.

Ugh, I must have passed out...did I get where I wanted to go?

Her question was answered immediately upon opening her eyes, as the horrifying figure that was the Reaper was staring right at her. It took Twilight a tremendous amount of effort to not scream, and she slowly got up to see that the Reaper held the soul gem in his hand.

"I thank you, little one. With the Arvak's soul, I was able to release him into the wild once more, this time free of his master. I was going to show you the process, but you came to me in an unconscious state. Now that you have completed the task I have commissioned you, are you ready to take your next and final step in seeking your path to your very fate? Or do you have questions for me before it is time?" Twilight, still bothered by her headache, merely chuckled a little before answering.

"No, I'm very well okay. Just...just get me where I need to go.

With that, the Reaper nodded. Blindingly fast, he whipped out his battle axe and began to swing it at Twilight. Her eyes wide, Twilight could only began to start a scream before the axe hit her, once again bringing her into the blackness of unconsciousness

* * * * * *

Twilight Sparkle had met dragons before. Her best friend and companion, Spike, was a baby dragon, and she had to get one off of a mountain when his sleeping was billowing smoke all over Equestria. That being said, when Twilight opened her eyes, she was understandably frightened at the sight of a massive dragon with it's flesh falling off greeted her vision.

Also equally frightening were the shadows in full armor, also with weapons, glaring at her with their dark purple eyes. Twilight got up quicker than she thought she could with her headache and began to back away, until the dragon began to speak with her.

"You've gotten yourself into quite the mess, Princess Twilight Sparkle. I was told by Herma Mora that you were here to search for your fate, and to change it." With those words, he pointed to what appeared to be an offering Altar. It had two things on it; what appeared to be another soul gem, and a mysterious scroll. Twilight was about to ask about these objects when the dragon explained them to her.

"One is a Soul Essence Gem, which will restore part of the soul you are missing. Use it after you use the second object, which is an Elder Scroll. This will show you your fate, Twilight Sparkle, but I must tell you a story before you do such a thing, so that you may make one more choice. Are you willing to hear my story?" Twilight nodded the affirmative, and so he told her.

"I used to have a different name, but now I am Durnehviir, Cursed with Undeath. I was a very powerful dragon, but I, the fool I was, wished for more. Thus, I went into the art of Necromancy, in order to become one who could raise armies of the perished among my foes. Alas, I could not do such a task, and thus I went to the Ideal Masters, the rulers of this realm. They offered me this gift, but I had to do something in return. All they wanted, so it seemed, was for me to guard a woman named Valerica, and I would have my power. And so I accepted...but they were deceitful. I still am guarding her today, Twilight Sparkle. Valerica is a vampire, and thus immortal. So you see, Twilight Sparkle, what happens when one makes deals and messes with fate; I am here for eternity, rotting away quite literally. Herma Mora gave you a choice, and now so do I; Ignore that scroll and take back your essence, returning to your home, or read it and possibly be cursed with what you find."

Twilight looked back to the altar, and saw the two objects again.

I could forget this. I could stop this, and be completely unaware of what my fate is. I wouldn't be paranoid trying to change it, like I did when I visited my future self that one time. However...It is so, very tempting. If I knew what it was, I could change it and live that much longer than I already will...

Twilight walked over to the altar, and saw the two items. The scroll was rolled up neatly, it's paper looking smooth. Twilight inspected it closer, to see that it looked fairly new.

Yes, it was waiting to be opened.

So Twilight Sparkle opened it. She was prepared for anything; a horrible accident, the end of the world, things like that. She wasn't, however, prepared for what she saw in the scroll.

Twilight Sparkle stared at the scroll. And from the scroll, Hermaeus Mora stared back.

He was in his pony form, and he had the most evil glint in his eyes. It was even more sinister than the moment he had offered her this choice. Twilight stared at the scroll a little bit longer, trying to understand what it was telling her. And that was when she realized the deceit that Mora had laid upon her.

She would never understand.

Author's Note:

There it is, the (for now) conclusion of Twilight's hunt for her fate. I say this because there is a 95% chance I will never write another one of these again, but we shall see. Thank you for following these stories, and I hope you enjoy this one.

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