//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: History // Story: Kurai the Forsaken : Rise of The Abyss // by Seth Typofather //------------------------------// Snoring quietly in her king sized bed, Luna, the Princess of the Moon had her work cut out for her as of lately. Paperwork up to her horn and day by day they still pile on, to sleep was a luxury for somepony like her. A small screen flickered in the dark with a game controller laying next to the alicorn’s muzzle. —————— Trotting quietly through the many doors that lead to dream upon dream of every sleeping citizen in Equestria, as they woke and slept a door would unlock or seal. A grin grew upon her muzzle once she saw Celestia’s door, taking a peek inside she saw her older sister sitting at a table in a fancy restaurant laughing as if heard the funniest joke. On the other side was Twilight Sparkle, chatting away. “You never seem to learn dear sister.” Luna chuckled, watching as Celestia placed a hoof on Twilight’s. At this point she saw enough and shut the door to leave Celestia to her privacy, trying not to giggle. “I’ll let her work things out for once.” Turning around to walk down the hall of doors once more a single door stood out, it was not here before she was sure of that. The frame of the door was lined with steel and what seemed to be a sword covered by a shield on the door itself, a dark glow was emanating from it. In dreams a nightmare was seen through a door as a leak of dark energy, while a really good dream had a specific warmth glowing from it. Tapping on the door with a hoof it swung open, her mind getting sucked inside the swirling portal to see the dream first hoof. —————— Sitting on top of a gazebo Luna watched the empty arena, wondering what she came here for if there is nothing to see. The architecture was flawless but the building itself was slowly crumbling, withering away with age. Arguably the most interesting detail perhaps has to be that white gate of fog obscuring the entrance, making out a figure lumbering into the arena. It’s head was bloated and had completely malformed arms that looked more like incomplete bat wings, both ended in gnarled twisted claws ready to pierce the flesh of whoever decides to face it. Cocking an eyebrow of interest and disgust at the creature Luna wished she could approach and observe closely, sadly dreams were not as easy to manipulate to remain unseen so the best she could do is stay out of the line of sight. A rumble echoed through the gazebo, the fog gate split to let through a figure very similar to the disgusting creature in the middle, only with much more proportional limbs and coated with a thick shell of armour. Squinting to look closer at who the figure is her eyes widened. “Kurai…?” Luna whispered, leaning forward to make sure her assumption was right. Surely enough there he was, his iron chest plate and helmet glowing in contrast to his dull stone gauntlets and leggings bound in chain. In a flash of a second the monster was struck down by an unknown figure, a giant sword deeply embedded into it’s body as it struggled for dear life. The figure pulled the sword back up and thrust it down, finishing off the monster with a painful crack of it’s spine with blood splattering all around. Taking a second to compose itself the figure stared up at Kurai, heavy breath being drawn through it’s obscured lips. Luna got a good look at the figure, it had a helmet shaped like a wolfs head with a blue tattered scarf surrounding the neck, the rest was standard armour which was quite damaged. The damaged sections all oozed a strange substance, especially from the left arm which hung uselessly like an accessory. A dark mist approached the figure and surrounded it, screaming as the mist enveloped it the figure spun and shrieked, tossing the limp body attached to the sword at Kurai who recoiled. “Sir Artorias, calm thyself!” The stone and iron clad knight called out, readying his blade. “Sl-Slay me…” Artorias growled, his voice raspy and weary. With that he hunched over and shook slightly, leaping at an impossible height before shooting downward like a stray comet. Rolling the the side Kurai barely dodged the area where the sword struck, the ooze splashing out and hitting Artorias’s opponent in the arm corroding a bit of the gauntlet. “Forgive me… I can’t stop myself!” Raising his sword to strike the distracted Abysswalker he was too late as Artorias rolled away himself and brought his sword back and thrusted forward, the sludge creating a slight boost in momentum to slide forward. Seeing no other choice Kurai raised his shield, the tip of the heavy blade breaking the simple kite shield in two and knocking the chosen undead back into the ground. “Gack! Now I see why your blade is so legendary…!” Kurai grunted, getting up and quickly switching out to Havel’s Greatshield. Charging forth, greatswords raised both knights swung. The clash could have broken mountains had Artorias been using his left hand with the sheer force alone. Artorias and Kurai now stood at opposite sides of the arena after their clash, the silence itself was deafening. “Not bad…” He coughed, putting away his Gravelord Greatsword and brought out a chaos imbued washing pole. Spinning on his heel to face Artorias once more Luna gasped at the sight, the left side of Kurai’s armour had a gash in it, a red streak forming on the flesh. “Heal, undead… You must survive this match…” Shaking his head Kurai readied himself with the katana in both hands, the cutting edge facing a worthy opponent. “I shall not, for me to heal in such a one on one would impede your quest for an honourable death. Raise your sword and fight!” Hanging his head low Artorias chuckled, then started laughing maniacally. The Abyss had finally taken over his mind. “You brave fool.” He roared. “Very well, undead, I shan’t hold back.” As soon as those words were said, everything went black, it would appear that he did not remember those moments. Luna pointed her horn aloft and was about to cast a spell to leave the dream, the light being the only thing illuminating her face along with her flowing mane. The gazebo reappeared once more, distracting the Princess of the Moon. There lay Artorias, barely alive as his opponent knelt over him, gripping his hand. “I promise, I will find Sif and destroy Manus. Rest assured your sacrifice shall not be in vain, brave Abysswalker.” Kurai spoke calmly, his armour riddled with gashes and marks. “Th-thank you… what ist thy name?” Asked Artorias, his obscured face staring back at Kurai’s iron helmet. Standing up and bowing respectfully Kurai looked up. “My name is of no importance, good sir. All that matters is you are remembered as you lived, a fighter.” The dream came to an end and the dark blue alicorn was ejected from the dream, as if the owner of the dream had awoken. —————— “This cross-dreaming was a great idea. I didn’t know you could enter dreams too.” Twilight cooed to her mentor, or in this case her secret marefriend. Chucking the vanilla coated alicorn took a sip of her tea, her eyes locked with Twilight’s as they held hooves. The blissful moment didn’t last long as a door from nowhere burst open, Luna standing there and breathing heavily like she ran a mile. “Sister?! T-This isn’t what it looks like!” Celestia panicked, shyly hiding behind her large mane. “Ok, it’s what it looks like but-“ “He’s alive.” “Who?” The lavender alicorn questioned, her cheeks as crimson as her secret date. “I don’t know if it was his dream of this Artorias person or Kurai, but Kurai might be alive!” Celestia gaped at her younger sister, unable to believe what she is hearing. “Are you sure you haven’t been staying up too long playing your video games again and just fell asleep?” “NO!” Luna shouted in her Royal Canterlot Voice defensively, stomping her hoof down. Truth was she had fallen asleep in the middle of her Pony Fighter marathon from fatigue after a sixteenth win. “Just,” She calmed down after taking a few breaths. “hear me out. Either Kurai is alive or there is a new human in Equestria and we need to find him!” “Slow down,” The Princess of the Sun patiently began, seemingly striding across the room and placing a hoof on her younger sister’s shoulder. “And start over. What happened?”