The red phantom spun with its two swords held out, narrowly missing the human Applejack met a few minutes ago and slicing a small gash on Applejack's chest. The human immediately retaliated, slashing with his katana as fiercely as humanly possible, breaking through the phantom's guard.
Applejack took time to drink from her flask as the phantom lost its balance and staggered backwards. The human sheathed the katana and rushed towards the phantom with a dagger, grabbing his head and stabbing the knife into its throat several times successively and let it fall to the ground where it dissipated like mist.
Applejack relaxed, observing the "mist" of the phantom pour into a black crystal that the human was holding. Eh, it's probably just some crazy magic from this place Applejack thought, disregarding the scene.
"You can call me Anon." the human said. Applejack nodded, replying "Alright, Anon, i'm Applejack."
"it's a pleasure to meet you. You uh...didn't do so well in that fight, I guess it isn't something you do often?" Anon inquired curiously. "i'm sure I could teach you a thing or two, give you advise at the very least." Anon continued
Applejack contemplated for a few moments, it would be false to say that she hadn't fought before, Equestria isn't all planned weather and crystal ponies! Well, maybe some of it is..."well, I can fight just fine with my bare hooves but-"
"Speaking of hooves!" Anon interrupted. "I think you could use these, though I have no use for them because of my delightful black crystal." He walked closer and presented the thing known in Lordran as humanity and laid it onto the floor in front of her. "Crush it with your hoof and you will become a human."
Applejack's pupils dilated, finally realizing how she had become human before. She stared at for a moment and crushed it under hoof, she closed her eyes, once again feeling the tingling start in her legs and proceed throughout her body until it reached her head. She opened her eyes, looking over her human form.
Anon clapped once, gleefully, at the sight. "Wonderful! now, tell me, prior to coming to Lordran against your will, what did you do on a normal day?"
"I bucked things, every day." Applejack grinned facetiously
"Wut?" Anon asked, intentionally miss pronouncing the word, Applejack giggled, clarifying that she bucks apples on a farm; Anon nodded. After some conversation, Anon concluded that the best thing for human Applejack to use was a blacksmith's hammer
"It's about as blunt as you, so it should do nicely" Anon joked. "ha! I've got a large, unused hammer that i'm just itching to try out!" Applejack retorted humorously.
Anon beckoned to Applejack, "Let's see what you can do."
-----------------
Fluttershy's sandwiches were really good!
Fluttershy had left earlier, it was easy to tell she was still worried about Applejack, she only looked at the mirror once and immediately averted her gaze, requesting to eat in the dining hall or anywhere except the mirror room. Fluttershy had been keeping herself busy the past few days, making sure everything was perfect for her animals and stocking up on everything she might need in the next four months; she stated that her storage areas, being her cupboards, drawers and general storage spaces, were almost over flowing; clearly trying to keep her friends absence off of her mind. poor thing.
Twilight had been watching Applejack interact with a human male since then. Lordran was amazingly dangerous, it wasn't very surprising that all of its inhabitants have died at least once!
It was getting dark and Twilight would soon be retiring for another night, not feeling much closer to freeing her friend. In her peripheral vision, Twilight noticed movement like that of some pony levitating an item near her satchel, she elected not to look until the movement ceased; Twilight walked over towards her satchel, noticing her book on Lordran was missing, peaked around the corner of the only entrance to the room, catching a glimpse of a blue translucent tail.
It was pretty obvious who the culprit was but Twilight wanted to know why she took the book. She cautiously followed Princess Luna to a room deep within the castle, a place in which she would likely not be disturbed. Twilight stayed outside, listening on the princess; she heard the ruffling of pages and, eventually, the sound a portal makes when someone walks through it.
Twilight pushed the door ever so slightly with her muzzle and saw a small black orb floating in front of Princess Luna, who looked rather impatient. The orb expanded, a face appeared; whoever was on the other end was not of the same species and seemed to either be wearing a mask of some sort or had very pointy facial extrusions.
Only its head and shoulders were visible, it was wearing a white piece of clothing on its body and, assuming it was not a natural part of its body, had a "necklace" and "mask" with multiple long, pointy pieces sticking off, reminiscent of a rose except the "thorns" were much longer. Said pieces were a dull golden color as opposed to the beings pale white face. Its hair was difficult to see but it almost reached the beings shoulders and was either white or light blonde.
I have no idea if that's male of female Twilight thought, eyeing the being in the orb. It Spoke.
"Good eventide, Princess Luna. Dost thou need help?" The being asked
The voice sounds like a young boy or maybe a female?
"Good eventide, Gwyndolin. yes, what doeth thou know about 'the first flame'? I stumbled upon it in this book from the last time our worlds connected" Princess Luna inquired.
Its name is Gwyndolin, well, this really doesn't help! I choose girl. Gwyndolin is a girl until proven otherwise! Twilight continued to listen into the conversation. By the sounds of it, Princess Luna was looking for a way to "cure" the dark sign, mentioning something about "the flame of humanity" or some metaphor like that, and Gwyndolin, regardless of the Princess's attempts, denied any possibility, becoming slightly more agitated per suggestion.
"Gwyndolin! I know this is the key to solve this issue! Hath thou no faith? Hath thou no will?" Princess Luna exclaimed, prompting a response from Gwyndolin.
"what-chya doin'?" The high pitched voice made Twilight's ears retreat to her head. She glared at pinkie who, with no consideration to potential circumstance, almost yelled into Twilight's ear.
"Thous hast a visitor Luna, I must be gone." Gwyndolin stated, dissipating the black orb and ending their meeting.
----------
Applejack stood alone before a large fortress with three gates separated by pillars, she had never been here before but the gates were open. She stepped cautiously inside, observing the architecture of the very first room. It was only really a few pillars and stairs, nothing fancy.
*Click*
Applejack felt her foot sink into the floor a little, a tile had gone into the floor slightly. She heard some mechanism begin to operate and promptly received three large spear like objects into her chest and stomach, dying before she touched the ground.
Consciousness returned. "Woo! who don't love an itch of sudden death?!" Applejack said very sarcastically, getting upon her hooves. "Lets see here... got a mace and sword for my pony self, a good ol' hammer for my human self and a shield to boot!" A quick inventory check and she trotted back towards the fortress.
She carefully looked around for the pressure plate and any other traps, walking past them and up the stairs. She almost walked head long into a tall lizard thing resting on one of the pillars, it noticed her and she immediately attacked it. It was almost dead when she noticed a second one begin attacking her, saving the other lizards life; they died quickly enough and Applejack walked into the next very large room. there was a thin bridge structure with another of the same above it going in the opposite direction.
Crossing a bridge isn't normally an issue, unless there are large axes swinging ever so close above the bridges. Applejack carefully timed passing the first of the three swinging axes, observing the darkness below that she would fall into should she be hit. She got past the second axe as well but the third one proved to be too much, not because it was faster or larger or anything like that but because something used magic to electrocute her as she tried to walk by, stunning her long enough for the axe to hit her and knock her into the darkness below; except it wasn't darkness, it was a very thick black substance.
She slowly got up, barely able to move from the electricity and giant axe in her side, looking around she noticed the entire floor was made of this thick stuff. she spotted an exit and began to move and maybe if this wasn't a place where death could happen ever few minutes, she might not have heard something else moving through the gunk, she might not have had to worry about a large headless demon jumping at her with the intent of impaling her with its weapon easily twice her size. But this is Lordran and she did have to worry about that, be it good or bad, she didn't have to worry for long.
Applejack opened her eyes again to see the bonfire before her, she began to laugh, a lot. She began to ROFL all over the place, burning herself on the bonfire a time or two which only induced more laughter! She calmed enough to stand, she decided to use some of the humanity Anon gave her, the tickling encouraging her fit and walked across the bridge again towards the fortress, still giggling like a mad mare.
She entered the fortress, by passed the pressure plate and got the attention of both lizards. Her giggling intensified as she backed up towards the pressure plate, luring the lizards to stay back on to the trap.
*Click*
Applejack stopped on the pressure plate, shield raised, giggling more as the trap shot two of its spears into one lizards back, killing it, and the third spear into the remaining lizard who fell forward in front of Applejack. Her eyes dilated significantly at the opportunity presented before her; a long, outstretched neck just waiting to be severed from the body it was attached to. Her giggling turned into outright laughter as she swung her sword at the lizards exposed neck with all of her might, cleaving it clean through its flesh and spinal bones.
She groaned euphorically as the deed was finished. She glared at the corpses, smiling in a way reminiscent to Pinkamena. I've gone buckin' nuts! She continued to smile and giggle, running past the three large axes without fear or hesitation, only slowed by a lizard on the bridge who's sword collided with Applejack's shield and was promptly shoved off of the bridge. She murdered another lizard and made it to the second bridge which still had three large axes but a magic using lizard awaited the other side. Applejack bolted by the axes, dodged a bolt of lightning, punched the lizard in the face, because why not? and shoved him over the edge as well.
She did not hesitate to enter the next room and begin assaulting another lizard resting on a wall, however she was unable to. Activating another spear shooting, pressure plate mechanism, tends to prevent someone from doing anything but dying. Applejack couldn't agree more with herself as she fell to her knees, still smiling, eye twitching, and death consumed her again.
Applejack woke, once again, to the bonfire. Thankfully, her senses had come back seeming to have skipped one life time. Applejack sighed.
I need help... Serious, professional, help...
She was, of course, referring to summoning someone and not her mental position. She absorbed another bit of humanity and sat, waiting for a summon sign.