To End a Curse

by darkstone57


Prologue - The Nightmare

As Luna opened her eyes, all she could in front of her was a forest pathway. Trees reaching for the sky, stood to her left and right and continued along the footpath. Sounds of birds chirping filled the air, it was quite serene. What she quickly realised was that she was moving along this footpath against her will.

'This is odd.' Luna's thoughts began, 'How did I come to this place?' She could feel her back legs move her forward one foot in front of the other, one at a time. Her front legs were hanging by her side and what was even more strange - she could things hanging off her front hooves, like they were trying to use her front hooves for support.

She tried to move her eyes to see what she was doing, but she couldn't it was as if she had lost control of her entire physical being. What was more puzzling was, that her body felt heavy. Like an extra amount weight was placed beneath her neck line, covering her from shoulder to hooves. To add to the confusion, she could hear the sound of metallic footsteps below her. Was she wearing armour?

'What trickery is this?' her thoughts demanded an answer. As if on cue, the footsteps came to a halt as the sound of twig snapping beneath her was made. Through no control of her own, she began too look at front right hoof as it began to shake wildly. Taking the chance to observe what her sightings she saw that her hoof was covered in armour and five long claws attached to it. 'What is going--'

Her thoughts were cut off immediately when the hoof transformed suddenly into a larger brown hoof that had three large talon-like claws on it's end. The claws momentarily retracted into her hoof, then it tried to strike in the face. Only to be stopped by her other hoof, against her will. Luna was taken back by this as she that the hoof returned to it's previous state.

Taking another good look at herself, she could she that the rest of her body was indeed covered in armour, but a brown cloak seemed to hanging down by her sides that reached to back thighs. Her vision was forced back to the pathway in front of her, she could feel her teeth gritting together as her right hoof was still trying to gain control again.

For some reason, she could feel an emotion flow into her as she stared down the footpath once more - anger. Luna was at a loss for words. Why did she feel this way? What was that brown claw supposed to be? What was going on!?!

"Siegfried..." a demonic beckoned to her from somewhere. Luna's mind began to feel more rage seep into her, through no action of her own.

Suddenly, the world around her started to burn. Not matter what direction she could see, through no action of her own, flames engulfed around. Beyond the flames, she could see only darkness. Pitch black darkness.

"Soul Edge...!" she spoke, though her words weren't her own. Her voice sounded deep and masculine, filled with rage as it spoke those two words. As her vision was brought back to her front, she could see a large sword floating a few feet in front of her. It was hanging in the air, it's tip pointing to the ground below. From it's tip, up it's right side it was covered in metal that seemed to rise diagonally up to it's hilt. The left of the sword seemed to be covered in veins from it's tip up to the hilt, a shade of brown was beneath the veins but that was irrelevant at this point.

At the centre of the sword was a single eye. Sitting their, like it was a part of the sword. It was moving and it was staring right at Luna.

"You..." it began to speak once more, addressing Luna. "Siegfried..." or was it addressing this 'Siegfried'? Luna eyes blinked for a moment, as they opened once more the sword was on a mere inch in front of her face. All she could see was the eye, staring right at her, she could feel overwhelming darkness flow out of it as it hovered right in her face. "Belong..." as it spoke once more, the fires seemed surround the eye, like it was becoming part of the eye itself. "TO MEEEE!!!!" it roared at Luna, shaking violently as the flames began to complete her vision until it was the only thing she could see.

"NO!" the masculine voiced yelled, breaking the flames away. The forest path returned to her sights once more. "I am myself...I will find you Soul Edge," the hoof that was shaking before was now a mere couple of inches, she seemed to be staring at it as the claws clenched in to her hoof, "and I will end your existence!" the masculine voice proclaimed.

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Luna suddenly jarred herself up and gasped for air. She looked around to see that she was in her royal bedroom once again.

"A dream...?" she spoke suddenly, her voice was her own again. She looked at herself just to be sure. No armour on her body, no claws on her hooves. She was indeed back in reality again. "That seemed too real..." she said quietly. "It was a dream, right?" she asked herself aloud. Sitting upright for a few moments, she began to think about it again. A being named Siegfried, tormented by a demonic sword? What was even more peculiar was that she could feel all of this being's movements and emotions. The information seemed to concrete for it to be a dream. Suddenly, she could feel her right hoof shake, against her will.

"What is this...?" she asked as she looked at her right her hoof shaking more and more violently. "Is this... fear?" she couldn't make out what she was feeling all of a sudden. Then, the world around her went black. Aghast, she tried to look around to see what was going on. Every where she looked, she could see darkness. Then as she brought her vision to her front once more, like in the dream, the eye of the sword was staring right in her face.

"DROWN IN DARKNESS!!" the eye bellowed at her, "YOUR SOUL WILL BECOME MINE! PRINCESS!!" it was indeed addressing her. How did it get here? Did it follow her through the dream? Luna shook her head violently, slamming her eyes shut. After a moment she opened them again, to see her bedroom once more. She could feel her entire body shake, the power that sword radiated was truly something fearsome.

Taking a few deep breaths and a chance to collect her thoughts. She knew for certain, this was no dream, that sword existed - Soul Edge. Finally regaining control of her body and her emotions, she looked at her right hoof once more before confirming her thoughts with a nod.

"I must do something."

TO BE CONTINUED