Twilight woke to the sound of crying, groans, and the trickle of something too heavy and thick to be water dripping onto the floor nearby. She also felt the soothing heat of a fire on her flank… but with what her other senses were telling her, that didn’t entail that she was at all safe.
Opening her eyes, Twilight was met with the sight of a bonfire… and little else beyond that. Her body felt cold, empty… charred...
“What? Am I...” The alicorn looked down at herself, gasping at seeing she had been reduced to a hollow state.
“I died again? But… how...” Twilight whirled around, blinking to help clear her vision. The flames of the bonfire danced off something hanging from the ceiling, something hard and smooth. She approached it, and saw it was a long, downward reaching coating of crystal… Seath’s crystal! Growing on a set of… bars?
Twilight lit up her horn and gasped again as more of her surroundings came into focus. The crystal covered bars extended all the way from one end of her field of view to the other. She was in a jail cell! But where...? And how?
Twilight pressed her face to the bars, trying to cast her light into the space beyond. She could make out the landing of a staircase… and beyond that, just empty, dark air.
“Okay, okay, don’t panic. However dire this looks, there has to be a logical explanation...” Twilight said to herself. She tried to remember the last thing she could before waking up… recalling following one of Seath’s channelers to a wing of the archives… then something attacked them, and...
Twilight’s eyes snapped open again, her body feeling colder still, despite the bonfire blazing away right next to her. She scanned the crystal covered bars, noticing the outline of a door in them. She ran up and tried it, but of course, it was locked.
“No… oh please, no!” She said while turning and bucking the door with her hind legs to no avail. “Seath? Spike? Rarity?”
She pressed her face to the bars again.
“Applejack? Fluttershy! Rainbow! Discord! Somepony?” She yelled. Her voice echoed mockingly through the darkness, till she was able to hear a reply of more faint crying, and the groan of nearby danger.
“Anypony? Is there any soul about?” She screamed. This time she got a much more prompt reply. Unfortunately, it came in the form of a great bladed weapon being smashed against the bars.
“Eeeek!” Twilight retreated back as a figure emerged into the field of light from her horn. She made out the familiar scales and pointed snout of a serpentine face, set atop a humanoid/reptilian body. It hissed menacingly at her, its sallow eyes piercing at her from between the bars.
“Wait… are… are you one of those… manserpent things? The ones Seath created for Sen’s Fortress?” She said, crawling forward for a better look. She managed to highlight enough of the reptilian monster’s features, before it hissed with greater venom, and made to thrust its sword through the bars at her.
“Ack! Please, I mean no harm! Well… not like before! I just… what’s going on?” The alicorn asked. The manserpent stared at her and hissed a third time, turning its head as it picked up on the sound of approaching footsteps. It withdrew its blade and turned to walk away.
“What? Wait, where are you going?” Twilight cried, before having to pause as she listened more carefully to the footsteps. She realised they were close, closer than she previously realised. And not only that, they were coming from somewhere next to her… inside the prison cell!
Twilight turned her horn’s light to reveal a stone wall with a corridor stretching into another part of the cell. From there, she could discern movement… and glittering.
Retreating back to the sanctity of the bonfire, Twilight carefully primed her magic as several hollows covered in crystal and bearing swords and shields, that were likewise covered, approached her. Quickly, she felt for her catalyst, only to realise it was missing, as were her clothes and the rest of the gear she’d picked up.
“Oh no… oh no!” Twilight meeped as the hollows raised their swords for battle. “Okay… stay calm… someone clearly has put you here for some ill intent...”
The hollows charged at Twilight. She shut off her light and charged her horn with a spell instead.
“So clearly, I’m going to have to do as we did before, stand our ground and fight!” She said before firing at the hollows.
***
“Like it isn’t bad enough that it’s pitch black in here, everything has to also be twice the size of what we encountered back in the catacombs?” Trixie whimpered as two giant skeletons stepped into the small pool of light cast by her horn. Both looked down at her as if to gauge whether she was actually a threat, then decided it was better to be safe than sorry, and raised their blades to attack..
“Well, they sure didn’t call it ‘The Tomb of Giants’ just because the name sounds fancy, missy!” Vamos rolled down the length of the town house sized coffin, and joined the unicorn for battle. “Chin up, there’s a bonfire not too far from here. You can die as much as you like without having to worry about retracing your steps.”
Trixie clutched her throat as the phantom nausea sensations began to gurgle up again in time with the fall of the skeletons’ swords. She rolled out of the way, and felt her breath seize as her hooves passed the edge of a cliff and dangled into nothing beyond. Frantically she scrambled to pull herself back from another fatal drop, and nearly ended up with a decapitated head for her troubles, as the giant skeletons held their swords with both hands, making to slam them down like guillotine blades.
“Mmm, these chaps certainly have more spunk than the last time I wandered down here looking for smithing materials.” Vamos mused with sadistic cheer. “Now I really gotta see what’s got them so wound up!”
The blacksmith skeleton moved to attack his brethren with gusto, giving Trixie a much needed moment to breathe as the giant enemies turned in confusion at the smashing of a hammer upon their dusty bones.
“Mind you, there’s no hard feelings here friends, I just gotta see that these two make it to Nito’s abode. Seems there’s a seriously bad scrap going on down there, and I aim to be part of it!” Vamos cheered as he shattered the leg of one skeleton, causing it to stumble backwards and into the darkness. The other skeleton’s jaw dropped open as it looked down at Vamos, apparently now both shocked and dismayed that one of its own brethren would dare to turn against it. Vamos just shrugged and swung for the fences, knocking the second skeleton off balance, and sending it reeling towards Trixie. With a gasp of fright, the unicorn rolled out of the way again, allowing her opponent to take the fall for her.
“Don’t worry, the entrance to the Demon Ruins will break its fall, along with the rest of its body.” Vamos soothed as he looked over the ledge. “Speaking of which, it’s looking a lot brighter down there than usual. Chaos must be running rampant, tearing the place apart. Mmm, praise Gwyn, it really is the end of the world as we know it!”
Trixie followed his gaze, noticing several streams of lava running through a great many crumbling structures.
“Faust… are… are we going to have to venture down there eventually?” She asked with the utmost dread. Vamos looked at her like she was crazy.
“Not unless you want to find me another ember like that warrior woman did. Personally, I’d rather not waste my time dealing with the degenerate egg sacs who still seek the power of Lost Izalith, but at the same time, there’s no better flame for smithing than that culled from the source of chaos itself.” He said wistfully. Trixie heaved a sigh.
“Fine then, so where do we go next?” She cast her light and noticed another giant coffin leading down to another level. “This way?”
“You got it, though might want to take a step back first.” Vamos looked up at the sound of metal scraping across stone. “Your pink friend seems to be back from wherever she keeps disappearing to.”
Trixie looked up and blinked as Pinkie came sliding down the coffin, riding a shield like a sled and sending sparks everywhere.
“Waaaahooo! Aw yeah, there’s so much neat loot to be found! Can’t believe Miss Aurelia missed all this when she came down here.” The pony skidded off the coffin and wiped out on the plateau. Trixie watched as her shield bounced across the ground, coming to a rumbling stop at her hooves. She looked down at the demonically alien design of the face, feeling her stomach turn again at the sight of a gaping maw of jagged teeth, set under some manner of horned, oval shaped eyeless visage and mounted atop a background of what appeared to be a black spider web.
“Pinkie… how… how did you get back up there? You said you were going to scout out ahead.” Trixie queried as the hollowed pink pony rose and dusted herself off.
“I did! Ran into some pretty creepy and cool stuff. Did you know there’s skeletons here that walk around on all fours like doggies?” Pinkie asked. “I tried barking at them but they just lunged and made to chew me up, so I offered them some cupcakes, but it seems like they were in the mood for meat.”
Pinkie shrugged as she ran to pick up her shield.
“Then there were these skeletons who tried shooting me with their giant arrows, so I fired a few volleys of that multicolored cake batter I had left over from Rainbow Dash’s birthday. Hee hee, they looked so silly splattered with all the reds, and greens, and yellows, and purples.”
As Pinkie laughed and sounded more ecstatic, Trixie just looked more despondent that even worse monsters lay ahead.
“Oh, and then there was this knight guy, dressed all in black and smelling like ash and smoke. His armor looked like it needed a clean, so I offered to buff it up for him. He just declined and tried to cleave me in two with his halberd.” Pinkie sighed. “So I lured him onto the plateau and tricked him into stepping off the edge. Hee hee, he was such a klutz!”
The equine brandished her nightmarish shield with as bright a grin as her charred mouth could manage.
“Then I found this on a corpse where he was standing. It’s called an ‘Effigy Shield’, or possibly a ‘Xenomorph Aegis’, forged to try and help steal Gravelord Nito’s power. It says it was designed by a guy called ‘Mat Gunn’ as part of a contest. Can you believe that? They have contests to design shields here? We need to do something like that for when we get back!”
Trixie furrowed her brow as Pinkie bounced and clicked her hooves.
“You’re sounding a lot more like your usual self.” The unicorn noted. Pinkie giggled as several strands of her withered mane fell.
“Yeah, well, can’t give up now, ‘specially not after those stupid skeleton dogs snuck up while I was admiring this thing and ate me.” She said. Her mane promptly deflated and her eye sockets widened.
“I told you to use your cannonballs on them, but nooo, we always gotta do things your way!” She said before her mane re-inflated.
“They acted like they were hungry! My cupcakes are always the perfect thing to help with that!” Pinkie said, apparently to herself more than her friends.
“Yeah right, not the way you make them! If you’d just once let me handle the cooking, mmmm, we could whip up some… ’quality’ baked goods.” The pink mare said, flashing Trixie a truly monstrous grin as her mane again went limp. Immediately she switched from that to a horrified look and proceeded to punch herself in the face with both hooves.
“No… No! NO!” Pinkie grabbed her head and made as if she was trying to twist it off her neck like a champagne cork. “I’m not letting you do that! Not again! Nrrrrghhh! I WON’T LET YOU!”
Vamos idly stroked his beard in contemplation as Pinkie threw herself onto the ground, thrashing wildly while still talking to herself.
“Hee hee, you think you still have control over me? It’s too late now, wimp!” The mare growled hoarsely. “I’ve found a new calling here, serving Nito’s whim! Hee hee, you can’t imagine how good it felt when you accepted his offer, like an old friend coming back to lend a hoof! He really did know what was best for us!”
Pinkie screamed and grabbed for a nearby rock. To Trixie’s horror she began smashing herself in the face with it.
“GO AWAY! GO AWAY!!” She wailed, blood flowing in place of tears as her skull began to cave in from the blows.
“Nrgh… why? I don’t want to harm… argh! Harm any… YARGH! Seriously stop! OW! You’re acting like a damn foal… GRAAARGH! GRRRR, fine I can see you don’t want to listen now. ARGH! We’ll pick this up later! NRGH! Bitch.” Pinkie seethed as she hit herself with the rock once more for good measure. She held the bloodied chunk to her face for a few seconds, her body quivering with pained sobs. Trixie just stared in horror as Vamos let out a dry exhale.
“Huh… strange, it’s usually less of a spectacle when one finally loses it.” The blacksmith said as Pinkie finally dropped the rock, revealing her face was now a mosaic of bruised hollowed flesh, blood, and broken bones.
“Pinkie?” Trixie said cautiously. The mare placed her hooves to her shattered cranium, letting out a few more sobs as she reached for her saddle bags.
“S-Sorry. She’s… she’s gone again.” The mare whispered as she pulled out an estus flask and greedily drank from it. A series of sickening cracks echoed through the darkness as fire flowed from Pinkie’s wounds, forcing the bones to snap back together and the flesh to heal. “I told her to go… and she did. That’s… that’s never happened before.”
Despite her better judgement, Trixie approached her friend as she wiped her eyes.
“You’re sure you’re okay? This isn’t something we, perhaps, need to talk about, before it ends up getting us killed? For the… 20th… 30th time?” The unicorn said accusingly. Pinkie shied away from her tone.
“I… I’m sorry. I just… I don’t know what’s happening to me anymore.” She whimpered. Vamos gave a shrug.
“Whatever it is, it’s getting results. Don’t see what you’re so broken up about.” He replied. Pinkie looked at him in horror.
“You… you don’t know. You don’t know what she’s like! What she’d do if I don’t… if I don’t keep her contained!” The pink mare cried. Vamos gave another dry shrug.
“Sounds like the same struggle any other undead goes through, trying to hold onto their few remaining embers of humanity. No point, I say, ‘specially not if we’re all about to be wiped out.” He replied, giving a dusty sigh at Pinkie’s horrified expression. “But at the same time, the end of all things isn’t a reason to lose one’s grip on their sanity. Take a breath and steady yourself, I’ll see you both through to your goals down here.” Vamos shouldered his hammer and pointed the way down to the next level. “Come on then, no doubt your death and resurrection at the flames has brought back whomever you killed up ahead for a second round, my pink friend. Let’s go see if they’re hungry for another helping.” The skeleton ran down the coffin with notable enthusiasm. Pinkie reached into her mane and drew out her gravelord greatsword.
“Sure thing. Hmph, those meanie pants stole all my XP, and I aim to get it back! Come on Trixie, we’ve got boneheads to deal with!” Pinkie tossed her shield onto the coffin and rode it down like a sled again, leaving Trixie to just stare despondently at the streaks of sparks in her wake, and listen to the creaks and groans of death all around her.
“Trixie is doing this to prove she’s a good mare. Trixie is doing this to prove she’s a good mare.” The unicorn repeated to herself as she headed down to the next level. Almost immediately, she heard the sounds of battle and charged ahead, only to be blindsided by another giant skeleton stumbling towards her from the darkness. On instinct, Trixie charged a force miracle and made ready to cast, only for the skeleton to trip on something and fall onto her, exploding into its respective body parts.
“Ooh! Whoops! Sorry!” Pinkie reappeared from the darkness to see Trixie with a massive pelvis bone on her head, and her hat lying under a ribcage and shattered fragments of spinal column. “I swear I thought that was going to collapse in the opposite direction.”
Trixie grit her teeth and ground her hooves into the dirt, her horn flaring with rage fueled magic. Pinkie promptly meeped and ran over to her.
“Seriously, I’m sorry! I just… I mean...” Pinkie started, then stopped as Trixie held up her hoof. With an iron glare she levitated the pelvis off her body and grabbed her hat from under the other bones.
“Just understand this, Trixie is only going as far as wherever this trapped soul is down here. Once she finds them, she is gone. You want to keep pursuing that bag of bones and murdering everything in sight, you can do it alone!” The unicorn spat. Pinkie’s ears wilted, along with her mane, and what remained of her tail.
“I know, Trixie. And I also know I’ve been acting pretty loopy… well, more so than usual.” Pinkie put down her sword and reached for her saddle bags. “Here, take this. The lore entry states it can be used to instantly travel back to the last bonfire you stopped off at. Might help make the trip back to the surface a little easier.” Pinkie pulled out a small ashen bone fragment. “And for what it’s worth, I promise, whatever is happening to me, I won’t ever allow myself to hurt you.” The mare said while doing the Pinkie promise gesture. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!”
Trixie looked at the bone ash, feeling her impending rage smoulder ever so slightly. “And you believe you can uphold that promise on pain of losing me as a friend forever...” She said.
“Yep… FORRRREEEEVER!” Pinkie replied, as another copy of her popped her head over the ledge. Vamos paid the second Pinkie a curious glance as he emerged from the darkness.
“Come now you two, let’s not be lagging too far behind. Bonfire’s there if you need a moment to collect your thoughts. Otherwise, we’d best press on. Skulls don’t go smashing themselves in, you know!” The skeleton commented.
Trixie sighed and took the bone ash.
“Fine, give me a moment to store this in a safe place, and I’ll catch up.” She said. Pinkie nodded, grabbed her sword and followed Vamos back into the breach.
“Let’s hope that trapped soul isn’t too much farther ahead.” Trixie lamented as she pulled out a square sheet of parchment and very carefully folded it around the crumbling bone fragment.
“Ah, oh? And what’s all this about a trapped soul?”
Trixie paused, then promptly whirled around, igniting her horn to full strength. From the shadows emerged a rather spindly, haggard looking individual, dressed in a set of smooth black leather that covered all of his body, save for his pale, bald head. Upon seeing the unicorn with her horn blazing like fire, the human went wide eyed and threw up his hands.
“Whoah! I mean, whoah there horsey! Hee hee, didn’t mean to startle you! Just couldn’t help overhearing what you and your friends were chatting about.” He said. Trixie grit her teeth harder.
“What? You were spying on us? Who are you?” She demanded, prepping her force miracle again. The human took note of this and looked even more unsettled.
“Well now, I wouldn’t call it spying exactly. I just came down here looking for trinkets, and found the place was getting a bit more ‘lively’ than usual, hee hee. Had to find a place to hide myself until I was sure it was safe to make a break for the safety of the shrine above.” He replied. Trixie arched a suspicious eyebrow.
“That only answers one of Trixie’s questions, mister!” She scowled, to an overly eager grin and a nod.
“Yes, yes, of course! Needn’t fear me, I’m just one who let greed get the better of him and lost his way down here. Heh heh. Temptations eh? They can overcome a soul.” He replied, taking a step back as Trixie looked ready to blast him off the platform. “Seriously, there’s no need to whip out all the fancy cleric magic. I’m Trusty Patches, the one and only!”
The human made a polite bow, keeping his hands up and visible the whole time. Trixie narrowed her eyes but held her fire.
“I’m the Great and Powerful Trixie… though, I’m not really a cleric.” She said. Patches stared at her in amazement.
“Really? Well, that’s a twist! Only folk who come down here wielding miracles are the type who’re on a pilgrimage or a mission.” He said, glancing at some undetermined point in the darkness behind Trixie. “Kind of like those Way of White folk whom I spotted earlier.”
Trixie’s eyes went wide, then narrowed again. Patched carefully noted this reaction.
“Those folk… wait… you saw them? Where did they go?” She demanded.
Patches now looked disturbed.
“Oooh nowhere good I’d imagine. There’s a lot of places where one can lose their footing down here, or their mind, or their lives… or all three!” The human laughed, then promptly silenced himself as the blaze of Trixie’s horn intensified. “Last I saw them they were near a great hole that I know was full of treasure. Not saying that’d tempt them as it did me, but you never know. A cleric’s cloth may be pure, but the flesh underneath, well, it’s as weak and wanting as the rest of us!”
Trixie knitted her eyebrows together, flexed her mouth, and did several other facial expressions as she weighed up this information.
“This hole… where is it?” She asked. Patches nodded into the darkness behind her again.
“Not much more than a couple steps that way.” He replied, smiling as Trixie cancelled her miracle.
“Don’t suppose you could show me?” She asked. Patches gave a shrug.
“So long as you’re willing to take the lead. Much as I’m partial to walking out of here with some riches, I’m gathering all is not well amid the dead.” He replied. Trixie nodded.
“That would be putting it lightly, which is why Trixie has sworn to rescue whom she can from this place if possible.” She declared. Patches rolled his eyes and indicated the way.
“A noble sentiment, my love. Just mind it doesn’t become your undoing.” He replied as the two headed off.
***
Ironically, back in the prison cell, Twilight was finding that her enemies’ own sentiments were proving to be about the only factor that finally lead to their undoing. Unlike the other hollowed creatures she’d encountered before, her spells seemed to have a markedly lesser effect on these crystal ones. She could only theorize that the crystal covering their bodies and weapons was absorbing some of her attacks, meaning she’d had to hit them a lot harder and a lot more frequently to even get them to stop their advance.
The fact that two of the hollows now lay dead on the floor, and the third was limping towards her, seemed like a small miracle, and had come about mostly because none of them had the foresight to dodge and evade like she had.
“Ngh… I don’t know who put you up to this… or why… but I am going to have a very severe talk with them once I get out of here!” Twilight grumbled as she flew up out of the way of the crystalline warrior’s sword, letting it exhaust its stamina by swinging wildly at her, then turning to execute an aerial kick to its head.
“We’ve come too far to let anything stop us now!” The alicorn swore as she landed. Pain shot up through several cuts on her legs as she rested her weight on them again, the result of her not having quite enough room to dodge attacks from three different directions at once. "Grrrgh. Worry about about that later, Twilight. Let's see about getting out of here!"
Twilight closed her eyes and focused on casting a teleportation spell. The painful weight on her legs was momentarily alleviated as she felt herself dematerialising from the cell.
Then suddenly the alicorn was beset by a rush of heat, and the return of the pain as she tumbled out of the bonfire and onto the cell floor again.
"Ow! Wha?" The alicorn pushed herself onto her hooves. She tried to teleport herself out again. Again she was rewarded for the effort by having her leg wounds further aggravated by her second fall out of the cell's bonfire.
"Ngh...but how?" She grumbled turning around to view the blazing flames. Her eyes narrowed as she scanned them with her magic. "Is...Is this bonfire different to the others?" She bit back against her wounds and stood up again to get a closer look at the flames. "Yeah, something feels off...like it's been tampered with. But how could it also be affecting my own abilities?"
The alicorn sighed as she realized what this meant, regardless of the reasons as to why and how.
“Okay, so we can't just teleport out of here. Fine, let's take a moment, get ourselves together, then figure out another way to escape.” The alicorn looked down the corridor where the hollows had emerged from. She gingerly trotted down it, only to find it lead to another prison cell, one that didn’t even have the luxury of a door set into the bars.
“The crystal indicates this has to be somewhere in, or at least near, the archives. Sooner or later, your friends are going to notice you’ve been gone for far too long, so waiting is an option… though not a good one.”
Twilight ran back to her own cell.
“However, there’s a door here, and where there are doors there are keys. Only question is, how far is the latter from the former?”
Twilight sat herself down by the bonfire to think.
“Forcing the door didn’t work, but maybe if I gather my energy, I could try blowing it off at the hinges? Or possibly fashion a lock pick from the crystal, and...”
Twilight was jolted from her thoughts as she felt the bonfire bloom slightly, and felt the pain of her wounds leave her body. On any other occasion that would have been a relief, but remembering what typically followed such an occurrence...
“No… no, no, no!” Twilight jumped back to her hooves as the bodies of her slain enemies promptly vanished in a flash of fire. Immediately, she heard the approaching footsteps of freshly resurrected hollows, ready to face her in a second round.
“Faust, okay, waiting is no longer an option. I gotta get out of here now!” She turned to the door, aiming her horn at the hinges and blasting them with the strongest spell she could muster. To her horror, the magical energy just dispersed harmlessly across the crystal.
“No, please!” She blasted the lock, and got the same result. From the darkness the hollows emerged, closing in on her.
“Come on!” Twilight looked for some other weak point, turning to buck the crystal bars again out of desperation.
This time she got the dual aggravation of the crystal shrugging off the blow with nary a crack, and the manserpent smashing its sword against the bars again, hissing at her to stop causing a racket.
“Out of the way, you!” She yelled. The manserpent cocked its head, unable to comprehend that a prisoner would honestly think it had any right to order its jailer about. It looked at the hollows as they moved in to cut Twilight apart with their swords, and deemed this was a sound course of action to follow.
“Ack! I mean it! Stop!” Twilight ordered as the reptilian hybrid began to drive its blade through the bars again, seeing if it could help cripple her so she’d be an easier target for her cellmates. It again just hissed at her in dismissal and resumed trying to help the hollows cleave their target up into bloody chunks, shaking its head as Twilight frantically tried to dodge the attacks.
“Ngggh… that’s it, I am through playing nice!” The alicorn finally growled. The manserpent promptly stopped, caught off guard by the sudden monstrous outburst, quite unbecoming of the prim little hollowed pony.
Twilight wasted no time in making her enemy's mistake cost it dearly.
The manserpent let out a now pain wracked hiss as a powerful blast of magic hit it from inside the cell. It stumbled backwards, clutching at the charred mess of scales on its chest. Twilight just glared and blasted the damn reptile again, letting out a disappointed sigh as it tumbled lifelessly to the ground.
“And you three...” Twilight said, turning to the hollows. “Back off!”
Where the crystal covered husks had fallen before, they now fell again, their enemy hitting them with everything she had. It wasn’t the most tactful use of her energy reserves, but with fear, and now anger getting the better of her, Twilight could be forgiven for lashing out.
“Okay, now, before I have to go through that a third time, how in Faust’s name do I get out of here?” She said, returning her attention to the door. Taking a deep breath she retreated several steps, then rammed her shoulder into it. Again, the wrought iron and crystal-coated structure mocked her plight by not budging an inch.
Twilight took a few more steps back and rammed the door again. She was rewarded with a painful shuddering jolt to her hollowed skeleton.
“Come on! There’s gotta be some way.” She said in rising despondency. Nursing her bruised shoulder, the alicorn sat down again and stewed. After all she’d been through, she could very well let something as simple as a prison cell be the end of her. She had to think of something!
Or… alternately, something could present itself to her?
Twilight blinked as she saw something sparkle beyond the crystal, a momentary twinkle of light that was just a little too far to have come from the coated bars.
The alicorn crept closer, and noticed something lying by the manserpent’s corpse. It was a key!
Instantly, Twilight snared it in her magic and carefully pulled it through the bars. There was a broken loop of metal through one end, possibly indicating it had fallen off the manserpent’s body during its death throes.
Looking to the door, Twilight spotted the lock and took another deep breath. She inserted the key and turned it.
The click of the door unlocking and swinging open was as much a shock as it was a blessed relief.
“Okay… heh… praise Faust, you’re still watching over me.” She bleated while cautiously stepping out of the cell and onto the platform beyond. Now that the bars were no longer blocking her view, she could take in a bit more of her surroundings, discovering she was standing on a winding staircase that snaked its way up through several more floors of prison cells, all of them surrounding a pit that remained shrouded in darkness. Twilight carefully turned around, igniting her horn to cast as much light as she could upon the area that was looking more disturbingly familiar by the second. She could swear she knew this place, having seen it somewhere before.
“Seath? Priscilla? Spike? Rarity? Anypony?” She called out again. As before, she heard nothing but echoes, and that constant, hopeless sobbing from somewhere far below her.
Or rather, that was what she heard before something new presented itself, the shrill, ear bleeding clang of a bell being rung, over and over again.
Twilight screamed and clapped both hoofs to her ears wincing in pain as the ominous tolling continued. She spied movement to her right, and turned to see several more manserpents scrambling up the steps towards her. On instinct she spread her wings and flew off the stairs, elevating herself far out of the hissing reptilians reach. She cast her light around her, trying to determine which direction promised the fastest means of escaping this mad house.
A sudden salvo of crystal bolts clarified that up definitely was not an option.
Twilight meeped and dove down out of the way of the comet-like projectiles, throwing herself full speed into the darkness below. The light of her horn cast the shadows aside, revealing a distant floor area strewn with scrap metal and bits of machinery. As another salvo of bolts homed in on her, Twilight decided that, if nothing else, at least nothing could attack her from underneath if she landed, and thus she picked the cleanest looking spot and brought all four of her hooves down onto it.
The awful, ill tuned bells were suddenly silenced as the alicorn steadied herself and looked around for new threats.
“Hmph! Well, at least you figured your way out of that prison cell faster than the Chosen Undead did. So rude she was to get herself captured, leaving me to wallow down there for what felt like days, until she finally thought to check if the guard had the key on him.” A voice grumbled from high above.
Twilight cast her light up, and gaped as the familiar form of a sorcerer in a massive black conical hat appeared on an overhead balcony, pushing a gramophone aside to stare down at her in loathing.
“Wha… Master Logan? What’s going on? What is this place?” She demanded, leading the sorcerer to groan and shake his head.
“Really now. All this time you claim to be his student, yet he never trusted you enough to tell you the truth of what went on in his hallowed sanctum? Well, in hindsight, perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised.” Logan muttered. “A test is what this is. A test of your worthiness as a sorcerer, and whether you are indeed what I have come to expect: a soul that has no right being here, and will only cause further suffering for Lordran the longer you remain!”
Twilight blinked and gaped.
“Wha… what?” She bleated as Logan raised his hand and made some manner of a gesture.
“So much of my life I have dedicated to the arts laid down by our mutual Grandfather of Sorcery. Year after year I have let him know of my loyalty to his cause, of how I could benefit him if only he would trust me. When after so long he still refused to answer my pleas, I sought to travel here, to avail myself of the fountain of knowledge he had built, and thus perfect the craft he made possible.”
Logan scowled in the shadows of his hat as Twilight heard a new threat in the darkness, the wet schlurp of something smooth and slimy moving across the floor.
“At first I thought he had merely made the ultimate sacrifice. The sins and madness present in these Archives I believed were evidence that Seath had given his mind and his life to the pursuit of sorcery. Thus when the Chosen Undead told me she wished to slay him, I thought it only right. Now, however, I see an even more evil machination was at work, an affront to the gods and Lordran even more destructive than the fading the flames. You!”
Twilight looked up again as Logan pointed an accusing finger at her.
“Again… what? What are you talking about?” She cried, glancing between him and the shapes emerging into the light of her horn. Logan let out a raspish exhale, his hatred growing stronger at the alicorn’s ignorance.
“Truly you are as blind as your teacher, then? Unable to see the truth of what is really happening, and who you really are?” The sorcerer chuckled wearily. “Then I am indeed right to do this. To exterminate you and your friends before you can cause further harm!”
Twilight’s breath caught in her throat as the new enemies finally came into sharp focus, and she immediately realized why the area around her looked so familiar.
Deep blue tentacles writhed and twitched over glistening, slimy, snake-like bodies. A long sharp protrusion of bone shot out from several of the creatures like a lance at the alicorn as the creatures drew closer. From the darkness under the tentacles, the same pitiful crying was heard, the creatures throwing their heads down as if gripped by an insane despair at their state of being.
Theses were the pisacas! The failed results of Seath’s experimentations with the humans his channelers had kidnapped from all across the land.
Twilight tripped as she felt her back hooves hit a crumbling mess of metal objects. She turned her light to reveal a giant mountain of destroyed machinery.
“Oh Faust...” The alicorn whispered as she recalled the dream where Seath had confessed his sins to her, where he’d shown her this exact prison and what manner of insane science he’d conducted in it.
“Yes, you recognize them do you? The victims of a mind warped by centuries of greed, power, and insatiable lust.” Logan stated. “Are you repulsed, little pony? Or is this scene perhaps all too familiar to you? Reminiscent of similar crimes you yourself are guilty for?”
Twilight scrambled backwards as several of the pisacas lunged at her. She tried to fly out of the way again, but Logan raised his catalyst and blasted her back to the ground with a well aimed crystal missile.
“No, you are not running away this time. I will have my answers, or I will have your life.” Logan swore. “How many will you kill to survive? How many more ways can I find for you to die?”
Twilight slowly picked herself up off the floor, whimpering as blackened feathers fluttered down from her burned wings.
“Are you truly Seath’s student, or not?” Logan queried. “We shall see!”
***
“Hey Starlight, take a look at this.” Gretel flew over to the unicorn with a scroll in hand. “I think this is Seath’s writing.”
From where she was trying to read through multiple pages of notes at high speed, Starlight turned as her griffon friend spread the parchment out across the desk.
“There’s a lot here that’s in Seath’s writing, most of it just cataloguing his observations on ponies, Twilight’s studies, and his sorcery.” She said despondently. “Most of it’s a major headache to read too, and tells us nothing of note.”
“That’s what makes this stand out for me.” Gretel pointed to something at the top of the page. “Seath lists all the aspects of our world that match what’s on his world here, and under that is a rather poignant thought about who we might want to ask about it.”
Rubbing her eyes, Starlight trotted over and began reading.
“Pine resin… moss… formulae for estus… repair powder… hmmm.” Starlight furrowed her brow as she kept reading.
“When first the world was new, Vallad didst create mine brother, Guyra, and I as dragons and gods of the humans. Across the reign of the Golden Kings, dragons still taught those who were worthy their secrets. Whence next the world was shrouded by fog, t’was dragons again who ruled over all. T’was a dragon, I, who made possible Gwyn’s Age of Fire and the art of sorcery, and in the deepest recesses of Lordran there is tell of a dragon, the last I did spare, who seeketh to bring enlightenment once again to all lesser beings. If similar circumstances hath shaped this world of equines dost such a font of knowledge exist here too? Twilight’s whelp knows little, but there exist others like him. Whence next possible, I should strive to seek out they, and take from them, by force if needed, whatever they may know of this land.”
Starlight made a face.
“Well, that sounds pleasant. Guess it was to our good fortune Seath never got around to trying to find the other dragons, if that’s how he was going to introduce himself.” The unicorn groaned.
“Yes, but doesn’t it sound like something worth chasing up? More so now that you and Luna have helped Princess Ember become the new dragon lord and open up diplomatic negotiations?” Gretel queried while adjusting her glasses. “This Seath may have a few screws loose, but going on what else we’ve found of his teachings, he’s still a genius and worth listening to.”
Starlight turned to the piles of books and scrolls she’d been pouring over, all the myriad of research and insane ramblings both Seath and Twilight had been getting up to during their time together.
“And Luna still wants to know if there’s any connection with the sword of moonlight, or whatever that weird glowing blade that was left in her care was called, hmmm.” Starlight rubbed her head and settled back on her haunches. “I guess if you truly want to know a dragon, the best soul to ask is another dragon. Alright, take a letter, Gretel.”
The griffon immediately whipped out a pad and a quill as Starlight began dictating.
“Dear Princess Ember, I know it’s only been a few months since you assumed your new title, but as it happens, we find ourselves in need of your wisdom....”