Only Embers Remain

by Gapeagle

Chapter 5: The Hollows of the Dark

The warrior climbed over a large rock, using what little light she had from the tunnel's entrance. This cave seemed to have no end as it went straight forward into darkness. It was at this time she wished she had brought a torch with her as she began to trip on the sharp stones and uneven floors. Each displaced pebble rung echoes up to the high ceilings. If there were beasts in the cave, they already knew she was here.

The insufferable heat quickly diminished into surprisingly cool still air. It was actually a pleasant change of temperature. The warrior carried on down into the darkness, always on the alert for anything that wished for her death. So far nothing could be heard except her own noises. The silence was indeed ominous, but it did not deter the warrior in the slightest.

She soon came up upon a pony-made bridge. It was wooden and not in great shape, but the alternative route included a black pit that one could not see the bottom of. There was some sort of divide in the cave that caused this crevasse. The warrior stopped before the wide bridge, carefully testing the first step.

"Seems sturdy..." she commented.

With her whole weight on the bridge, it creaked once, but held firm. With the little light she possessed, she cautiously made her way across. About halfway, her hoof met dead flesh. She paused and focused her eyes on the wood. There was not just one body, but many stacked on each other They were piled up as if it was a wall that prevented the bridge from being crossed. All the bodies were ponies in armor. The warrior put her front legs on the pile and pushed with all her might. To her surprise, the bodies were far heavier than she had expected. Being an earth pony, she was not going to let an object be too heavy for her natural strength. So she slammed her shoulder into it again and again. The pile, instead of being knocked over, wobbled in a rubbery manner. None of the bodies fell off the pile.

The warrior then searched for an individual body to shove off. She found legs, heads, and torsos, but something was wrong. There seemed to be no body loose from the pile. Their rotten skins were attached to each other as if fused together. The warrior's eyes bulged out as she found the wall of bodies to be one entity of dead, decaying matter.

To make matters worse, the mass of corpses started to move. Hooves were being put to the ground and the mass was turning itself around. The heads of the dead ponies began to groan and their mouths hung open. There was no front or back of the hideous creature as all the bodies seemingly acted as their own mind. The rattling of the armored ponies was by far the loudest noise in the black cave.

"What are you?" the warrior gagged as she looked at the corpses before her.

It made no reply, but came closer to her by moving all its legs in a centipede-like manner. With it taking up the whole bridge, the warrior had no choice but to back away from the beast of bodies. She pulled her sword out and readied for a fight. The pile of bodies growled at this and begun to fling its many legs about and gnash with its many sets of decaying teeth.

"Wah!"

The warrior charged and stabbed the moving corpse with her sword. The blade easily sliced through the dead corpses, but the creature did not even react to it. A wild leg struck the warrior on the skull, making her retreat from the corpse pile. She looked at her blade for the marks of blood, but the bodies were so rotten that there was nothing on the sword except a few scrapes of white flesh.

The corpse kept crawling forward. The bodies at the bottom of the pile were being constantly crushed by the legs from above. More than one head was stomped into waste by the haste the pile made. It was an unholy sight to behold. The warrior flung her sword at it again, chopping some legs and heads off with one clean swipe. Once again, it was as if nothing happened to the corpse pile.

The warrior backed away and paused. There was something off by this, even by the standards she was now accustomed to. She could not feel any souls in the pile. They were not hollow ponies. They felt no pain because they were not of the living. Something else was controlling them. A being that could reanimate corpses at will. This thing possessed no souls, it was not worth her time, she concluded.

She put her sword back in its sheath. She then scratched the ground with her hoof. A violent snort came from her nostrils. With a great jump, she leaped onto the pile of corpses and landed on the top. The legs of the creature tried to grab her, but she was quick to jump off again on the other side of it. It was too slow to catch her and the groans of the dead ponies wailed.

"Nice knowing ya!" she saluted the pile.

With the creature out of her way, she easily crossed the bridge. She made sure she went quickly to put as much distance between her and it as possible. The possibility of seeing it again made her shiver.

As she continued down the cave, she could not help but wonder about the pile. What being could have done something like that? It was a haunting thought. The aspect of a being out there that was reanimating all the corpses was one the warrior did not look forward to. She could only shake her head clean of the thoughts and move onward through the darkening cavern.

"I guess I'll have to find that out..."

The obstacle in her way was a flight of steep steps carved from the cave's floor. Each step was almost as tall as she was. With effort, she started to climb upward. For some reason, there this part was not as dark as behind her. Something at the top of the stairs was emitting light. This made her heart leap with excitement. She started to climb the stairs faster. With every step ascended, the soothing feeling of fire was growing stronger.

"Fire....Souls...."

She had to squint her eyes as the light from the top met her. Just a few more steps stood in her way. It was arduous work to climb them. She placed her front legs over the last step and pulled herself up and over. The first thing she saw was the sword stuck in the stone and the fire around it. The second thing she saw was the hollowed ponies that kneeled in humble submission around the fire as if they were praying to it. Two hollows walked around the fire holding torches in their wings.

One hollow looked up and saw the warrior. With a wild scream, it alerted the other praying hollows. The hollows all turned to look at her with their white, pupil-less eyes. The rotten ponies dug their hooves deep into the cave's floor and stood up, making vile grunts and hisses all the while.

The warrior pulled her sword out. They had no weapons, not even knives or daggers. They did not wear armor like all the other hollows she had seen, but reddish robes with hoods. Only two unicorns were in the group as the rest were earth and pegasus ponies. The unicorns stepped backwards as the other hollows swiftly charged the warrior.

The warrior swung her sword and chopped through the hollows. They tried to rip her apart with their hooves, but she did well to keep them at bay. The pegasi with the torches swung the fire at her, but met the same fate as the others. Souls were being quickly consumed by the warrior as she sliced their heads or any decaying body part from the ponies. It was a bloody mess and the floor was now full of corpses.

The warrior was struck by a bolt of magic. She tumbled over onto the stone. The unicorns in the back were charging up more spells to throw her way. The magic had hit her in the shoulder, leaving a burned spot on her armor. The pain she felt made her furious. She stood up and sliced through the remaining ponies in her way before violently charging the unicorns. Her sword went deep into one unicorn's chest, making it scream before dying. The other unicorn fired an icy spell, but the warrior dodged it and attacked the hollow swiftly to end the skirmish. As the last unicorn fell to the ground in black blood, the warrior looked over at the newly made mess.

"Damn this cave..."

She walked over to one of the torches. The fire was not soothing. It was a natural flame and not fueled with Hope. However, it gave her light in the darkness, and she could not ask for more. Using the robes from the hollows, she made a holder for the torch and attached it to her side. Her vague memories told her that there were better ways to hold a torch, but without wings or magic, she could not think of a better way at the moment.

The warrior sat at the ember of the First Flame. Just like the other fires, it relieved her of any tiredness she possessed. The pain in her shoulder from the magic was healed by the embers. The fires begged her to stay and rest. Perhaps it was this calling that kept the hollows near it for maybe hundreds of years.

"I can't stay here," the warrior told it. "You have helped me and I appreciate that, but I must reach the end of this cave."

The warrior reached her hoof into the small flames. It jumped up to reach the hoof. The fires were hot to the touch, but the warrior did not remove her hoof despite the pain. The soothing feeling was greater than the pain and that was what counted.

The warrior stood up with a sigh. She adjusted the torch on her side and inspected her sword before marching forward towards the dark of the cave. This cave was not endless, she could reach the end. All she needed to do was not stop. Continue or go hollow. Never stop or go hollow.

"Don't go hollow..."

~~~

Comments

[Not so New Brony]

That abomination on the bridge, while grotesque and horrific, sounds like a pretty cool monster. Nasty, but cool.

Whether or not those hollows have been there at the campfire for that long, their presence seems to tell an unspoken tale of tragedy. Were they refugees seeking safety in the remnants of Equestria but were denied entry and forced into hiding, turning hollow over time. Or were they deserters trying to leave Equestria in a desperate attempt to escape whatever turned the world into ruin but were trapped by the abomination on the bridge, with any attempt to get through failing and accelerating their 'hollowfication'.

So many tragic tales, so much mystery...almost makes me want to get the game and see if this kind of stuff happens in the game for myself. Almost.

[badninja]

Not good for our hero. Hopefully she can increase the embers soon.

[Gapeagle]

7460571 what you just did is all what the game is about: interpretations. There are so many untold tales in the games. The abomination could also be an attempt to seal off the bridge before it became a monster. But what was it blocking? What made it a monster? That's what the game is about: questions and mysterious answers.

7460602 it's prolly a long time til then.

[Not so New Brony]

7460919 Well, if one of your goals was to convey that part of the game, then consider it a success.