//------------------------------//
// The Incident 
// Story: A Fighter's World 
// by Sava Warg 
//------------------------------//


"Come on Fighter! This will be the best adventure yet!"


Today was a great day. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and me and my pals are planning a dive in the Cabin. We all have a glass full of soda, and Quicken was making sandwiches. Piper was working on a special set of screws. She was obsessing over some blueprints and designs for armor and equipment we found in an old unicorn barracks. She was using a spell that gathers natural energy and jams it into a container of your choosing. She was using a few assorted screws and bolts. Wallen was trying to get me to go with him and the others on a trip to an old ruin called the Temple of Banished Souls. Pal was quietly making sandwiches on a decent sized cutting board.

Apparently, there was an artifact there that could be used to to tap into your subconscious mind, increasing your capability to think tenfold just by holding it. It could also be used as a powerful stabilizer for spells. I thought the name of the place was bad enough, but the place has a nasty history. Apparently, there was a village near the temple had a crazy powerful witch in it. She would control ponies and bring them to the temple, where she would sacrifice them for blood to summon a demon. She then would trap the souls of those poor ponies as a tribute to win the demons favor. She kept them in a small pearl, that was black as night. When she was nearing the amount she needed, an elite group of Celestia's guard discovered her, and stopped her. Before they killed her and ended the chance of a demon getting free, she did one last sacrifice: she cast a curse causing every guard to be trapped in an eternal void. She rushed and messed up, and so she was pulled into the void with them. The pearl was so full of souls at the time that the slightest bump could release them all. When the witch cast the void spell, it freed them, but they were trapped in the void as well. It was a very cliche ending, but it still was a bit worrying.

After that ordeal was settled, some of the ponies from the village decided to check out the temple. There were old traps everywhere, placed by the same ancient pony civilization who made the temple in the first place, and the witch put up a few harder to spot ones. When they got to the main chamber, there was a spirit of some giant beast. It was a fail safe guard of the witch. When she died, it summoned a beast of immeasurable strength. Lots of ponies died that day. It wasn't pretty. When the souls left the pearl, it left a magical residue that turned it into a powerful magic foci. Come to think of it, the pearl was probably the artifact they were talking about. 

Wallen had decided to let me think about it, but he said that he would go, even if I said no. Seeing as the guy couldn't go ten steps without finding a problem that he wanted to solve with explosives. His full name is Wall Breaker, and his cutie mark is a broken wall and a huge explosion. You can guess what his gift to the world is. I just wish he wasn't so enthusiastic about it. He just wants to blow things up. He is a good guy, but he can be unstable at times.

We start packing up. I grab some of my best artifacts and gear. Quicken packed food and some medicinal substances. Piper handed out some homemade spectra goggles. Wallen grabbed a couple of his signature assorted bombs. Pal mapped out the rout and grabbed some marking chalk. We were ready before the sun was in the middle of the sky. While we were walking, Quicken found some special mushrooms that, when eaten, boosts your immune system immeasurably for a short while. The rest of the trip was really uneventful, if you could call Wallen blowing up every large object he saw uneventful. I need to take away his gunpowder reserve.

As we arrived at the temple steps, we stop and stash the extra gear and grab the things that will be of immediate use, like phase crystals and our Spectra goggles. Pied piper had set up her charge relay to keep magical items topped off. Pal was clicking his bracers to his hind legs. Wallen was checking the timers on his "Knockers" (called so because he had taken to telling bad knock knock jokes while he armed them.) Quicken and I were checking the area for entrances and for signs of any other divers, me on the ground and Quicken in the skies. We came back, satisfied that nopony else had been here before. With four separate points of entry, one on each the four sides, we had to be careful which one we chose. We decided to go through the entrance to the east, since the sun rises in the east, and we're partially superstitious about that sort of thing.

As we make our way through the door, a sudden chill fills the air. We walk a few steps in, and a crunch sounds from below our hooves. I look down and am shocked. I knew a few ponies had died here, but not this many! What happened here? No matter. These ponies had died within the temple and needed to be properly buried, but that would have to wait until the area was safe. As we made our way deeper the air suddenly became chilly, and I swear I could hear faint voices saying "Turn back." Typical, but nonetheless unnerving. A corner and another corridor takes us to a small chamber, where I think the creators of this place slept. There was a smell in the air. Something old and musty, but also somewhat rancid. Wonder what's making that smell. We stop and look for any supplies, but all we find are a few robes, one bow and half a dagger. Who broke the dagger in the first place, and why put it back in a drawer?  I'm sure we'll find out later, but for now, we must keep going.

We keep heading in towards the center of the temple and we start to see a glow. It's a subtle light, but it is still visible. Following what seemed like the source, we see...  what is that, some kind of... thing. Not sure what to make of it, but  take a can made of copper, grind it to dust, and have a filly try glue it back together, kick it but freeze-frame it when your leg is fully extended through it. Now stick that into the top of a stone cube and twist the whole thing upward like putty. Stick a light in the metal-can-thing and that is what I am looking at. The metal slag/shards orbit slowly around the light. The shadows it casts are very pretty. Almost like you're lying on your back and staring into space. I could have stared at that light for hours if it weren't for the fact that we were looking for something.

We keep going, but the rancid smell becomes more and more potent every step. What is making that smell? Knowing ruins of sacrificial temples or any other kind of haunted place, probably some rotting corpses or a rotting something that isn't a corpse yet. Great. I tell the others to be ready to fight in case if something happens. After all, dead things mean something killed them, and that something could be a baddie. We keep marching onward, echoes of our hoofsteps almost deafening. in the cold stone corridor. Finally, a light in the distance tells us that we are almost there. Ten feet from the end of the hallway, an earsplitting roar fills the air. Not the best sign, and yet we march on.

Five feet from the end of the hallway, I see a figure rise from what seems like a crouched position. It's a big figure. Like Hydra big. I zoom in with my Spectra Goggles to try and see what it is, but it's just a fuzzy outline. I don't mean fuzzy like hair, I mean it like a blurred image behind a foggy window. It turns toward us with a low growl. Crap, it's gonna charge. "Duck to the walls!" I shout, and everyone jumps to the side. The growl gets louder, then stops. Talons scrape stone, then a whoosh.It lands right in front of me, turns towards me, and raises it's claw, and I finally get a good look at this thing. A Shadebeast! Friggin' Great, this won't be painful AT ALL!