//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4: These Shards of a Soul 
// Story: To Keep the Fire Burning 
// by DannyJ 
//------------------------------//

Sitting on that rooftop with Sunset was oddly tranquil. The preceding days had been so violent and bloody that it almost felt strange to have a moment of peace. The setting day sun tinted the sky a vibrant orange, and even the dilapidated ruins of Ponyville looked beautiful in such a light. In the distance, the trees of White Tail Woods swayed in the evening breeze. I couldn't help but smile at it all. No wonder a mare like Sunset had been named for this time.

"So, what brings you to Ponyville, Firelink?" she asked.

I still had trouble looking her in the eye, so I tried to hold the conversation while still watching the horizon.

"It's, uh... It's a long story... I'm sure you wouldn't care for the boring details, but... a friend of mine was captured and taken to the Changeling Asylum beyond the Sea of Ghosts. I went on a rescue mission and... kind of botched it."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sunset's face fall. I hated seeing her look like that.

"I'm so sorry..." she said, placing a hoof on my shoulder. "Are you okay? Did your friend...?"

I froze up slightly, but tried to keep my composure.

"He... didn't make it. I somehow ended up here, and now I have to make my way back home. If... you don't mind, I shouldn't really talk about it. I'm undead now; it's not good for my sanity to dwell on tragedy."

Sunset reluctantly let go. "Of course. Again, I'm sorry."

I waved a dismissive hoof. "Don't worry about it. I'm fine. Really. I just need to... focus on other things."

"So... where are you from, then?" asked Sunset, trying to force her smile back.

"The Griffish Isles."

"Sunless Realms or New Griffonstone?"

I looked over to Sunset. "Sunless Realms."

"I thought so. Your accent isn't quite right for Trottingham. Too rough."

Rough? Is that how I sound?

"Well, you have a good ear then. What about you? Where are you from?"

"Equestria, actually." She leaned back, and returned her gaze to the horizon. "Not many ponies live here anymore, but this land was my home once."

"So are you from one of the coastal cities?"

Sunset paused.

"...Umm, no. An inland town. I'm sure you wouldn't know it, but it was lovely back in the day."

A thought struck me, and I opened my saddlebags to fish around inside.

"Hey, if you're from around here, maybe you can help me with something. Do you know what this language is?"

I pulled out the journal that I'd found back at the Shrine of Sunlight, and thrust it into Sunset's hooves. She lifted it with her magic and opened it up to the first page. Her eyes ran over it for a second, and then she looked to me with a raised eyebrow.

"It's... Equestrian," she said, flatly.

I stared for a moment, and slapped my own head.

"Oh! Duh! Of course!"

"Can you not read?" There was a hint of concern in her voice.

"No, no, I can read. We just don't use Equestrian where I'm from. Everything's in the Griffonian languages."

Sunset looked back to the journal and began poring over it.

"This is... Where did you get this?"

"Found it with this armour, on the roof of some shrine, north of here. I think it belonged to an old knight."

Sunset ran her eyes up and down my armour, until focusing on the crest of the star-tipped rod. Just like when I'd told her about how I lost Notch, her smile slipped away.

"...It's, um..." She cleared her throat. "This journal was written by a unicorn named Trixie. She... wasn't a knight. She was a captain of of the EUP Guard. Equestrian military. The armour you're wearing now was used in the Demon War."

"The Demon War? I've never heard of it."

"Equestria's conflict with the first generation of demons?" Sunset prodded. "The Great Chaos rising in the north? The Lost Empire? The Ivory King? No? Nothing?"

I stared blankly at her.

Sunset sighed. "I guess ancient history like that isn't of much concern to ponies these days..."

I looked down at the journal, which she still held in front of her.

"Could you please read me something from it?"

Sunset slowly nodded, turning to the journal with a grim look on her face. I didn't like seeing her in such a sombre mood, but I had to know about this.

"'...It's been forever since my last show. It isn't fair. I deserve better than this. We all do. I know Equestria needs us, but war was never my art. I miss performing on stage. Once, I was an idol of the masses. Now I'm just another mare in armour. The medals they give me are nice, but they're not the same. I can't feel proud after all the horror. I don't want to be a war hero. I want to go back to the Equestria I remember. I want to see my friends again, and not on a battlefield. But I'm afraid I never will.'"

The journal and the foreign text were not unusually-sized, yet Sunset had turned the page twice while reading that short passage. She had now stopped to stare down at the journal, at a little sketch of two unicorn mares standing together. One, presumably Trixie, bore my armour's crest as a cutie mark, while the other had a mark of a falling star.

I raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Is, uh... Is that all?"

"Pardon?" said Sunset, looking back up at me.

"You're not abridging anything, are you? Only, it seems that what you read isn't enough to fill how many pages you turned."

The corner of Sunset's mouth twitched. She looked back to the journal and shook her head.

"That's just how the language is. It's not very efficient. A word as we speak it, or as we might write it in any other language, would take up a whole sentence in Equestrian. Two sentences if it's a big word. Equestrian writing always sounds shorter than it looks, even if it only uses simple words."

I blinked.

"Two sentences to convey the meaning of a single word? That's insane! How does a language like that even get invented?"

At least my bewilderment made her smile again. Sunset closed the journal. 

"It wasn't even originally a language. Written Equestrian was conceived by the unicorns as a form of art. It's inefficient because all the characters and rules were designed to look pretty rather than be economic with information."

I stared at her, jaw hanging slightly open. She laughed.

"Yeah..." she said. "Probably why the Griffish Isles abandoned it, huh?"

"Yeah. Probably." I placed a hoof on my forehead. "I always thought the conquest of the north was the main reason we switched, but clearly that was just the excuse."

Sunset turned her attention back to the journal, and flipped through several more pages. Then she looked to me again.

"Firelink, would it be okay if, um... if I kept this? ...I have something of an interest in history, and since you can't read Equestrian anyway..."

"Oh, of course!" I answered, perhaps too quickly.

"I can compensate you for it—"

"No, no, it's fine! Keep it! If, uh, that's what you really want."

Sunset packed the journal away in a saddlebag of her own, lying just beside her. I noticed that it was emblazoned with the same sun symbol that appeared on her surcoat. Probably her cutie mark. I wondered what her talent was.

"Thank you. This means a lot to me."

"Not a problem at all! Though, if it's not too much trouble, I'd like to hear more from it later. I'm still wondering how this armour's owner came to be where I found her."

Sunset's smile wavered briefly.

"I'll tell you as soon as I'm caught up."

Despite liking history, she didn't seem much a fan of tragedy. I was curious about Trixie, but I almost wished I hadn't asked now.

While I considered her demeanour, Sunset stood up and put her saddlebags and iron great helm back on. A few seconds too late, I realised that she was leaving, and got up to follow her down the ladder. As soon as we were on the ground, we started trotting out into Ponyville.

"So, you said you were trying to get home? Which way were you heading?" she asked.

"Sweet Apple Acres. Some White followers I was travelling with were on their way there. They told me that the locals would be the best ponies to ask about safe passage."

"I'd say that's a good start. That's my destination as well. Let's make our way there together."

I smiled.

"Sounds like a plan."





Chapter 4:
These Shards of a Soul





With another pony by my side, moving through Ponyville was a lot quicker. Between the two of us, no amount of hollows were a problem. Sunset didn't bother sneaking about like I did; she walked confidently through the town, and cut down any hollows in her way with barely a glance. She made it look easy. Meanwhile, I still lacked magic altogether, so I had to swing my sword by mouth, which in turn required leaving my visor up and my face exposed. Halfway through the journey, Sunset became concerned and asked about it.

"So, am I right in guessing you can't use magic right now?"

We were walking through a quiet neighbourhood at the time, Sunset having just finished off a gang of hollows that had charged at us. I sheathed my sword as we moved on past the scene of the battle.

"What, did you think I just forgot I had a horn?" I joked.

"I've seen stranger. So what happened?"

"I faced a tough pair of opponents," I said, keeping my eyes forward. "I died a lot while fighting them. Miraculously, I didn't hollow, but that many deaths could take the magic out of anybody."

"...You really died enough times to completely lose your soul?"

There was a sense of awe in her voice, though I wasn't sure why.

"...Yeah?" I said, looking sideways at her. "I mean, I made it through, though. That's what counts, right?"

We stopped walking.

"Firelink, I don't think you understand. A soul is a lot of magic. You could levitate that sword for a hundred years without totally burning out your soul. Dying takes a lot out of an undead, I know, but that's an incredible amount to lose in one fight."

My face fell. "Is it really that bad?"

"Let me put it this way. You should be hollow right now. If you'd lost it all in one go to a changeling, that'd be one thing, but how many times must you have died in this one fight? Ten, at least? Even with a soul, I've never heard of another undead staying sane past their twelfth."

That was the best I could hope for? Twelve deaths and I was done? Hell, probably not even that, in my particular case. Without a soul of my own to resist hollowing, I would lose my mind even faster. That I had made it this far was already nothing short of a miracle.

None of this boded well for me.

Still, Sunset was overestimating the count.

"I... uh... That's worrying, but... I didn't die that much. They killed me four times in that fight. I've gone through seven overall."

We resumed walking.

"Hmm. That makes more sense. So you already had a diminished soul when you entered this battle, right? What was it? Ferals?"

"I was turned undead by a murderous thief named Trusty Patches. I haven't seen my original soul since, and I doubt I ever shall again."

"But you must've had some magic to have not hollowed after seven deaths. Did you get a new soul from a bonfire?"

"Yes, I—" I paused. "I beg your pardon, what was that last part?"

"...I asked if you got a new soul from the bonfire."

I must have been staring in confusion for too long; a sigh sounded from behind Sunset's helmet.

"Okay. The Fire of Friendship is an eternal burning flame of pure friendship magic, created by the founders of Equestria. The bonfires are manifestations of its power, and they draw magic from the Fire directly to give out to any who ask for it. Changelings feed from the bonfires because they're emotivores who consume love and convert it into magic, and the bonfires give them the same thing, just skipping a step."

"Yes, Sunset, I know this," I said. "My grandmother is a Fire-Keeper."

"But what you don't know is that bonfires will give magic to more than just changelings. Anybody can ask a bonfire for magic, and if it's kindled enough, it'll grant it. If you don't have a soul, going to a bonfire is how you get a replacement."

"...Huh. Did not know that."

We walked on in silence for a little way. I pondered this ritual, and wondered if Gran ever knew about it. She certainly hadn't told me about it before, but then again, Brittlesworth had never had many undead, and very few of them died frequently enough for a lack of magic to be a problem. Besides, while my talent for pyromancy marked me as a good potential Fire-Keeper, I hadn't been formally educated on the nuances of the job. It was just generally assumed that I'd take up my grandmother's mantle one day, and hopefully she would've taught me enough by then.

At the end of our walk, we reached the edge of the village, and came to a stop outside a quaint little building. It was a single-floor house with square windows and a tiled roof, and even though the red paint was peeling off, its decorative motifs of hearts and swirling lines were still clear. On the roof, above the open door, a small bell tower was topped with a weathervane. An expanse of green surrounded the buildings on all sides, and hosted a small playground nearby.

"Is this a schoolhouse?" I asked.

Sunset didn't answer, instead watching the front door.

"...There's light inside," she pointed out.

It wasn't obvious in the setting day light, but she was right. A faint orange glow emanated from within the schoolhouse. Sunset and I looked to each other, and slowly moved further in.

We crossed the threshold together. It turned out that my guess was accurate. School desks and books and chairs were all stacked up on the left side of the room as we entered, along with a telescope and a projector. A blackboard lined the back wall of the room, with the teacher's desk sitting in front of it. An oil lantern on the desk provided the only illumination for the room, as the windows were all covered by blinds.

Most interestingly, a number of cages were lined up in rows along the middle of the room, taking up most of the space in the schoolhouse. Two of them were occupied. By the far end, just in front of the teacher's desk, a hairy creature in black robes and an equine figure in golden armour were imprisoned opposite one another. The pony was leaning back against the bars of the cage as we entered, while the hairy one had its face in its paws, but both of them sat up and looked our way as we came closer.

For a moment, I suspected that they were hollow, but then the creature spoke. He came closer and wrapped his paws around the bars.

"Ponies!" he said in a scratchy and high-pitched voice. "Help Grim. Grim is prisoner. Ponies must help!"

Sunset removed her helmet as we approached. I did as well, and took a closer look at Grim. His fur was wiry and black, the same colour as his aged, torn robes, and his muzzle was canine in appearance. He also had a tail between his legs, which were crossed in a queer way. He looked like he was used to standing on his hind legs. I'd heard tell of the diamond dogs, who spoke and walked upright, but I'd never seen one before. I'd always imagined them being shorter, like other dogs.

"I thought you were hollows for a moment there," I said to Grim. "Ponyville is full of undead locked up in houses like this."

"Hrm," said the golden equine in the other cage. "I'm no hollow yet, but I'm close to it. Being locked up in here with this halfwit could drive anypony to madness."

In contrast to Grim, this stallion's voice was like dark silver. It was deep and refined. Smooth, but also breathy. Also, more than a little sinister. In fact, it was incredibly sinister. It was difficult to describe the quality, but from the moment he opened his mouth, I thought he sounded exactly like a serial killer.

Sunset turned to the stallion. "You, sir. By your armour... you're an Embraced Knight, aren't you?"

He tilted his helmeted head at her. "Indeed I am."

I took a closer look at his armour myself. It was plate armour, covering him as thoroughly as my own set covered me. Several spokes jutted from the knees and shoulders, while others formed a crown around the top of his helmet. It evoked images of the Asylum demon in my mind. The helmet itself was made to look like it had a liftable visor, but in reality, a faceplate had just been sealed on, oddly lacking even an eye slit. Instead, it just had several tiny air holes dotted all over it, which couldn't have been practical to see out of.

The armour's most notable feature, however, was the moulding of a pair of disembodied forelegs on its exterior. They were made to look like they were draped around the knight, as if hugging him from behind, hence "Embraced Knight," I supposed. I thought it looked rather creepy.

"May I ask your name?" said Sunset.

The knight pulled himself up, the cage just big enough to allow him to stand if he kept his head bowed. Hesitantly, he removed his helmet, revealing the face of a middle-aged, bushy-eyebrowed stallion, with a coat just as golden as his armour. His messy grey mane was almost as long as Sunset's, but it was tangled and filthy. He bared his crooked teeth at us, and his eyes glinted yellow. I think he was trying to smile at us, but it just looked wrong.

"Sir Loving Heart," he said, no sarcasm or irony evident in his voice at all.

If we let this pony out of his cage, we are going to be eaten.

Sunset looked between Grim and Sir Loving Heart, as the diamond dog still clutched the bars of his cage. He looked up at Sunset with wide, hopeful eyes.

"Who imprisoned you two in here?" she asked.

"Bandits!" Grim whispered. "Yes! The bad ponies, they came for us! Held us here! Hostages, they say! Want Way of White to pay ransom!"

I looked over to Sir Loving Heart. His eyes darted over to me, and he nodded. He had stopped doing his impersonation of a smile, and had instead settled into a dispassionate look that I found difficult to decipher. His resting face was somewhere between disdainful and bored.

"How did you get captured?" asked Sunset, turning to Sir Loving Heart. "I would've thought an Embraced Knight of Cadance could take a few bandits."

"I was ambushed on my way to the Everfree," he said. "No doubt I have already missed my chance to join the first wave of the crusade by now."

This guy was giving me nothing but bad vibes, and this situation was uncomfortably familiar. It reminded me of Patches. In his cell, he had been perfectly cordial, but after I had released him, he betrayed me at first opportunity. This would almost certainly turn out the same way if I let it. I could picture my next death now, and it was Sir Loving Heart cackling with glee while forcing me down into a wood-chipper.

"Are you two going to free us anytime soon? Only, I suspect that the bandits shall return shortly."

"Sunset?" I said. "Can I talk to you, for a moment?"

Sunset looked at me briefly, and then nodded. We walked over to the corner of the room, out of earshot from Sir Loving Heart, and hopefully from Grim as well, although I couldn't be certain with canine hearing in play.

"What is it?" Sunset whispered.

"I don't trust him," I whispered back. "I really don't trust him. He makes my skin crawl."

Sunset briefly looked over to Sir Loving Heart, and then back to me.

"...Yeah... He seems... shifty..."

"Can we just leave him in there? Is that even an option?"

"But how can we justify that? He hasn't done anything yet. He's just... scary. If he is being held here by bandits, we can't just leave him to their mercy because we don't like him. It's not the right thing to do."

I sighed. "You're right. But I don't like this."

We trotted back over to the cages. Grim made whining noises like a non-talking dog, making me raise an eyebrow.

"I think we've worked out a way to free you," said Sunset. "Both of you stand back from the cage doors."

She turned to Grim's cage first. As instructed, he shuffled back, and Sunset lowered her horn to the lock and applied a heat spell to it. Within seconds, the lock glowed orange and snapped, and she pulled the cage door open with her magic.

"Voila!"

Grim scrambled out of the cage and stood up straight, his tatty black robes billowing around him as he stretched. He was now twice my height. Why was everything bigger than me in Equestria?

"Thank you, ponies!" he said, leaning down to shake our hooves with his paws. "Grim best friend for life! Teach you many spells later!"

"Wait, what?" I said.

Grim leapt over to the desk and grabbed something behind it. From below, he pulled out a long, gnarled, wooden staff, tipped with a blue crystal. Then he also donned a black pointed hat. A wizard's hat. My jaw hung slightly open, and the dog grinned at me.

"Must go now!" Grim said. "Bandits come soon, and must go find Witchcraft, great teacher from back home! Grim find Witchcraft, then Witchcraft teach Grim, and then, Grim will teach ponies as thanks!"

"Bwuh?"

"Goodbye, ponies!" he called as he sprinted out the door. "Grim see you again!"

And like that, he was gone, and I was just left staring. No way had that diamond dog we'd just freed been a wizard.

"...Well, life is full of surprises," said Sunset.

"Ahem." Sir Loving Heart tapped on the bars of his cage. "Forgetting somepony?"

Without comment, Sunset bent down to break the lock on Sir Loving Heart's cage, just as she'd done with Grim's. As the door swung open, the golden knight staggered out and stretched his limbs, including a pair of wings that I hadn't noticed he had. They were armoured as well, covered in thin metal sheets with sharp, bladed edges. I backed away on instinct. His neck cricked as he rolled it from side to side, and he placed his helmet back on after one last joyless grin at us.

"Well, it seems I am in your debt," he said. "I shan't forget what I owe you. I will depart now, before my captors return, but doubtless we will meet again down the road. I will pray for your own safety."

"Uh, thank you," I said.

"Thank you, Sir Knight," Sunset added.

Sir Loving Heart nodded and left, talking to himself on the way out.

"I'm free... Now... I can get back to work..."

He left with something that was more of a cough than a laugh. I didn't let myself breathe again until I was sure that he was gone. His laugh was like dust and sandpaper, the most blatantly evil laugh I'd ever heard in my life. That was how a scheming vizier laughed as they plotted to overthrow their king. That was not the laugh of trustworthy, non-murderous individual. "Work" was probably a euphemism for drowning puppies.

I looked sideways at Sunset, who was equally perturbed.

"What a nice pony," I quipped.

That got a wry smile out of her.

"Come on," she said. "Let's get out of here before we start to regret this."





It was a short way from the schoolhouse to Sweet Apple Acres. After a quiet walk down a lonely dirt road, in which nothing else impeded our progress, Sunset and I came to a white picket fence surrounding an apple orchard. As we followed the path alongside the fence, I studied the trees and the ground. The grass was overgrown and full of weeds and rotten apples, and many of the apple trees looked similarly feral. Having worked on an orchard myself, it didn't feel right to see this place in such a state.

Eventually, the apple orchard gave way to a wide open dirt space, where everything else of importance on the farm was clustered together. A tall, faded red barn was the most visible thing there, although with all the windows it had on both floors I couldn't tell if it was actually a barn or just a farmhouse made to look like one. Just in front of the barn, a pink bonfire burned brightly, surrounded by a circle of wooden benches, upon which a red-robed Fire-Keeper and a changeling were sitting opposite one another. A pathway led directly to the bonfire from a gap in the fence, which we passed through.

As we walked over, I glanced around at the rest of the Acres. On my right were chicken coops, pigstys, sheds painted in the same colours as the barn, and the beginnings of the apple orchard we had just passed. On my left was a well, vegetable patches growing everything but apples, and in the distance beyond that was a cornfield. Ahead, past the barn, hills rose up over the Acres. The hills on the right side were full of more apple trees, while a house that looked like it was made from giant wooden barrels sat on the hill to the left side, overlooking a field of carrots.

I shook my head.

Equestrian architecture is so weird.

We stopped by the bonfire, and Sunset removed her helmet again. The changeling looked up at us first. He was small, and clad in a suit of chainmail, a shortsword in its scabbard lying on the bench next to him. He looked just long enough to register our presence, and then went back to ignoring us, burying his face in his hooves without a word. The Fire-Keeper noticed us next, slowly turning her head our way. When she saw us, her eyes widened, and she lowered her hood.

"S-Sunset?"

The pony underneath was an earth mare with a yellow coat and red mane, tied with a bow. She looked quite young. A little younger than Sunset, I presumed. That was unusual for a Fire-Keeper.

"Hey, Apple Bloom," said Sunset. "You're looking well."

Without a word, Apple Bloom shuffled over, inviting Sunset to sit on the bench next to her. She did, and I took a seat as well, remaining quiet while the two talked.

"Celestia, Ah haven't seen you in ages, Sunset," said Apple Bloom. "How long've you been back?"

"In Equestria? Only a few months. If you mean in a more general sense... a while."

The Fire-Keeper's accent was new to me. I hadn't heard anything like it before. It was probably a local dialect.

"Ah heard stories from time to time. They sounded like you and... y'know. But Ah always told myself it couldn't've been. If y'all really were back, surely you woulda come here by now. What took you so long, Sunset? And what about the rest of the girls?"

Sunset sighed and leaned back. She held her helmet in both hooves and stared down at it.

"Duty called. When I came back... The world was ruined. Ponies needed our help, so we founded the Warriors to do what we could. If you've really heard the stories, then you know why I couldn't come right away."

"But... for all this time?" There was a hint of indignance in Apple Bloom's voice. "Y'all were too busy to come back to Equestria for that long?"

Sunset glowered at her. "Yes, I was. I don't know what you've been doing all this time, Apple Bloom, but sitting here and tending your bonfire while hearing about tragedy is not the same as seeing it yourself. I've walked from one end of this world to the other, and everywhere I've been, I've seen things that sickened me. Injustices that you wouldn't believe. Cruelty of the sort that you can't just stand by and watch. Something had to be done, and change doesn't come easy."

Apple Bloom's face fell.

"Ah'm sorry. That wasn't fair of me."

Sunset sighed. "I'm sorry too."

There was a thick silence in the air. None of the conversation had been directed at me, so I was lost for context on a lot of it, but it did make me wonder about Sunset. I recalled Sir Iron, and his mention of having come to Equestria with several of his fellow knights. Perhaps Sunset had been in similar company in the past? I imagined her adventuring across the land with a party of gallant warriors, righting wrongs and fighting evil.

My first thought was of some of the Way of White's lesser-known knight orders. The Blades of the Darkmoon were infamous for punishing evil, and the entire purpose of the Knights of Friendship was to defend the common folk. But Sunset claimed to have founded her group, so I doubted she had been affiliated with either of them. Besides, she didn't seem like a White follower; the sun symbols on her armour were a unique design, not Celestian icons, and I was pretty sure some circles of the Church considered it blasphemous to have non-Celestian sun heraldry.

During the moment of quiet, I looked over to the changeling in the chainmail armour, who had since sat up and taken an interest in the mares' conversation as well. Our eyes locked briefly, but he looked away. A memory flickered across my thoughts, of Notch telling me how changelings can see in infrared and ultraviolet. To their own eyes, changelings are just as colourful and diverse as ponies are. I wished then that I could see as changelings did; to my dull pony vision, all of them were just black. All of them looked too much like him.

"So..." Sunset cleared her throat. "If you don't mind me asking, Apple Bloom... You look... young."

Apple Bloom smiled slightly. "You're wondering what my secret is?"

"I'll admit to being curious."

Reaching into her robe, Apple Bloom pulled out a small purple pendant on a golden chain. Sunset grabbed the pendant with her magic, but didn't remove it from her neck.

"...This is some advanced spellcraft."

"It was a gift from... our mutual friend."

Apple Bloom's eyes darted between me and the changeling. Apparently this was a secret from the likes of us.

"She always was talented," said Sunset. "This looks like an age spell, cast as a permanent enchantment. That couldn't have been easy."

"It weren't. But she made a few of these amulets." Sunset let go, and Apple Bloom stuffed the pendant back down her robe. "They don't make us young, but we don't get older so long as they're on and still got juice. It ain't ideal, but it's better than ending up like poor Mister Cake. He's so old now, Ah can't believe he's still going, but it's not like he can die. The curse ain't that kind."

That's why they said to fear the darksign. Every undead was fated to go the way of Carrot Cake one day, usually as the last step before they hollowed. However, this amulet presented an intriguing possibility. It wasn't a cure for hollowing, but it was treatment. Removing ageing from the equation certainly made things easier. A cautious undead who avoided danger could live a long and fairly happy life with something like that.

Of course, avoiding danger is easier said than done. Stick around long enough, and something will kill you eventually.

"It's not just you then?" asked Sunset. "Are the rest of your family here? Is... Applejack?"

Apple Bloom's expression grew grim.

"Nah. She was never undead. Big Mac neither. They had amulets too, and used 'em for a while, to keep Granny Smith and I company. But in the end... if ya ain't undead, there's only so much y'can survive."

Case in point.

"I'm sorry," said Sunset. "...How did it happen?"

Apple Bloom sighed.

"Big Mac had an accident one year. Farming equipment fell on him. It was bad, but at least he went quick. AJ was killed protecting the farm from monsters. She fought well for a mare of four hundred, but there were just too many."

Sunset closed her eyes and bowed her head.

"I wish I'd come back sooner."

"It's alright. No need to beat yourself up about it."

"Are they buried around here?"

"There's a graveyard around the back of the orchard. Ah'll take y'all there if ya want to pay your respects."

She looked at me as well as she said that. Suddenly I felt very self-conscious, like I had been eavesdropping on a private conversation. Neither of them had asked me to leave yet, but I was still a stranger to both of them.

"I, uh... thank you," I said. "But I wouldn't want to impose on any more personal moments."

Sunset gave me an uneasy smile, while Apple Bloom just nodded.

"Alright. Sunset, ya coming?"

"Yes, I'll be right there." As Apple Bloom got up and trotted off, Sunset hung back briefly. "I'll be back later to help you with the ritual."

"Okay. See you in a bit."

I was a little surprised as Sunset and Apple Bloom left together. It wasn't like Fire-Keepers never left the bonfire's side ever, but they weren't supposed to leave a changeling to feed unsupervised. Not unless they were considered especially trustworthy.

The armoured changeling was staring at me now, wearing a tired, grim smile.

"New to these parts, are you?" His voice was soft, reminding me a lot of Sir Penance. "Let me guess... Fire of Friendship?"

It took me a while to parse his meaning, but after a moment, realisation dawned. He thought I had come here on a quest, following old legends of the Fire's origins.

"Oh! No. No way. Don't get me wrong, I'd like to do something about it, but I'm not here for any noble reasons. I'm just trying to get back home."

"That's the wiser choice," said the changeling. "The rest of these poor fools are too heroic for their own good. Over and over again they throw themselves at the mountain, trying to reach Canterlot, or else waste their lives in fruitless searches and crusades. In the end, they all end up the same way – corpses, walking or otherwise."

I wondered what had made him so jaded. How many heroes and great warriors had he seen pass through here on their adventures, only to fail or never come back?

"What's your name, friend?" I asked.

"Crestfallen."

Because of course it was.

"Firelink Soul."

"Oh dear." Crestfallen chuckled dryly and shook his head. "That's a hero's name if ever I heard it. You're doomed."

I laughed weakly.

"Well... I certainly hope not."

"Take my advice, Firelink. Leave here soon. Go home and don't look back. If you stay here too long, the hero's life is going to come calling. Don't give it a chance to tempt you."

It was strange. It almost sounded like he was... pleading?

"...I'll keep that in mind. Thank you."

I was just about to rise when a thunderous noise sounded above me, causing me to duck instead. The great phoenix landed atop the barn with a screech. Perching on the edge of the roof, it flared its wings, bathing Sweet Apple Acres in its fiery glow. It was brighter than even the distant sunset, and Crestfallen and I had to avert our gaze for a moment.

"By all the gods!" I shouted at the bird, standing up. "How do you keep sneaking up on me?"

The great phoenix cocked its head. I searched for some hint of a deeper understanding in its eyes, but it merely screeched again and began preening itself.

"...Oh dear," said Crestfallen. "You're a chosen, aren't you?"

I slowly turned back around to face him.

"A what?"

"You were abducted by the great phoenix and brought to Shrine of Sunlight, yes?"

There was a pit in my stomach.

"How did you know?"

Crestfallen sighed and bowed his head. "Because it happened to me as well. Me, and countless others before. Now I truly do pity you."

He sat up and gestured towards the great phoenix.

"Firelink, meet Lordseeker Frampt."

I stared back at the great phoenix, but he was ignoring me now. To think, all this time he had a name. A name and a purpose.

Frampt's preening loosed a few burning feathers, which floated down and fizzled out in the dirt.

"He won't take you home," said Crestfallen, his voice lowering. "He wants you throw your life away here, on some foolish quest. Don't make my mistakes, Firelink. Don't be tempted to follow him and his empty promises. We are fateless, undead and changelings both. No great destiny awaits either of us. Only the grave."

As if in response, Frampt screeched and shed some more feathers, before taking flight and soaring away over the orchard, disappearing from view. I turned back to Crestfallen.

"What is he? Why did he choose me? Why is he following me?"

"To that, I can't answer. Frampt has his purposes, but a more cryptic being you will never meet. I wish I knew why he chose us, but alas, I do not. If you are truly desperate for answers, then meet him in the Fire-Keeper's Dream. In dreams, even a phoenix can have a voice... Just don't expect clarity or sense. Frampt will not impede you, whatever path you choose, but he will never help you. I don't think it's in his nature to actually be of use."

I sat back down on the bench and stared at the ground, wondering what any of it meant.

Life had stopped making sense. And I could name the exact day that it had happened.





The Fire-Keeper, Apple Bloom, returned alone almost half an hour later. I was still sitting by the bonfire with Crestfallen at the time, staring into the flames, and contemplating my fate in sullen silence. She woke me from my reverie by placing a hoof on my shoulder. It took me a second to remember who she was, and to puzzle the sympathetic look on her face.

"Sunset needed some time alone, so she's staying back at the graveyard for now. But she told me about your situation."

"Oh, about... my soul?"

"Yeah... Ah'll tell you what Ah told her. It's possible to restore it from a bonfire, yeah. Problem is, this bonfire's much too weak for that. It ain't been kindled enough to give a pony back an entire soul. That's a lot of magic. Way more than Crestfallen here eats every week."

I felt somewhat crestfallen myself after hearing that.

"So..."

"Hold on, Ah'm not done. Like Ah said, Ah told Sunset this as well, and she volunteered a token for kindling which Ah think will be enough. So we'll do the ritual soon as she gets back. Just... she may take a while, is all."

My heart fluttered slightly. To kindle a bonfire, one needed an item of sentimental value to burn, preferably a gift from a close friend, something that was given with affection. Notch and I would exchange such gifts all the time, in case we ever needed to kindle a bonfire for him to feed. I even brought a few on my trip to the Asylum, only to lose them when Patches killed me. No doubt that rogue was eating well right now because of those tokens. But Sunset was a stranger to me. What had I done to earn such generosity?

"That's... great!" I said, smiling at the Fire-Keeper. "Thank you!"

She smiled back at me, though hers was a sadder, pitying smile. I cleared my throat and rubbed the back of my neck.

"So, um... While I have you here, do you mind if I ask about how I might get back home?"

Apple Bloom sat down on the bench beside me and lifted her hood.

"That's a tricky question. Ah reckon you'll want to talk to Granny Smith. She handles all the business on the Acres, and... well, she'll explain."

"Where might I find her?"

"Around the barn, on the left side."

I thanked her and rose from my seat, also giving Crestfallen a silent nod as I left.

I went around to the left side, as instructed. Another sentence of indecipherable Equestrian caught my eye as I passed by the front of the barn. It was spray-painted on one of the doors, which were held shut by a padlock, but since I couldn't understand it anyway, I shrugged and moved on. Just as Apple Bloom had promised, Granny Smith was waiting around the side of the barn, nestled away by a pile of straw. She looked out over the carrot field from her rocking chair, which swayed gently back and forth.

Granny Smith was a small, wrinkled earth mare, old, but not corpselike as Carrot Cake was. Her coat was still a colourful green, and her mane, while it had gone white, looked well cared for. On her flank, a cutie mark of a pie joined with the brand of the darksign, and around her neck she wore an amulet just like Apple Bloom's.

When she noticed me, she gave a warm smile.

"Howdy there!" she said, cheerfully.

"Hello," I replied as I trotted over. "You must be Granny Smith?"

"That Ah am. What can Ah do yer for? Apples? Corn? Moss? We got a lot of moss. In a variety of colours too!"

I wasn't sure if she was joking.

"None of that, I'm afraid."

Granny Smith narrowed her eyes. "It ain't carrots, is it? 'Cause the carrot field ain't ours. You'll wanna go over to the other house and ask Mrs. Harvest if that's what yer after."

"I'm not here for carrots either. Actually, I wanted to ask about transport."

"Transport?" She raised an eyebrow.

"I'm from the Griffish Isles. I ended up here by accident, and I have no idea how to get back home. I was told I should ask you about what to do. Do you know any way that an undead could get safe passage across the sea?"

Granny Smith looked up at her forehead and continued quietly rocking back and forth for a moment.

"Errrrr... Ah reckon... Fillydelphia would be yer best bet. Last Ah heard, they're still undead-friendly, and that's on the coast, so you could get on one of them ships. 'Course, news is slow to travel these days, so if anything's changed in the last few years, Ah wouldn't know."

"Okay..." Not much to go on, but it'd have to do. "Do you know how I'd get there safely?"

"Safely? There ain't no safely. Most places between here and there went the way of Ponyville, and bonfires ain't common in dead villages. That means hollows, ferals, and Darkwraiths. Maybe even a demon or two if you're unlucky. Travelling that way by hoof won't end no way but badly."

Great.

"So... you're telling me I'm stuck?"

"Ah didn't say that," said Granny Smith, leaning forward and slowing down the rocking chair. "Ah just said it's a bad idea to go by hoof. There's a rail line between here and Filly that may be up and running soon. Still ain't safe, but you won't be in danger for as long."

I actually had to stifle a laugh.

"You're kidding me. You have working trains out here?"

"Not yet, but we will do soon," she said proudly. "My grandson is helping to restore the old Friendship Express. Another couple weeks at most, and it'll be ready."

"That... That's fantastic!"

The wait was inconvenient, but I couldn't complain about a direct route home through all the dangerous country in-between. This was the best news I'd heard in a long time.

"We got rooms if'n you plan on staying here in the meantime. It's free the first two nights, but after that, Ah'll probably have to start charging rent. The Way of White pays highly for those rooms while they're staging their crusades here, and the second wave will be arriving soon."

That explained Apple Bloom's comment about Granny Smith handling the business, but I was in such a good mood now, nothing else she could say would put a damper on it.

"Fair enough," I said. "How much?"

"What've you got?"

I opened up my saddlebag and fished around inside until I found the pouch of bits.

"How's this?"

Granny Smith took the bag and looked inside. She pursed her lips and removed one of the coins, before trying to bite it. When it proved solid, she dropped the coin back in and gave the pouch back to me.

"That'll do ya for a few weeks."

I tentatively took it back.

"Uh... okay. So, where's this grandson of yours now? Can I ask him about this train thing?"

"He's probably at the old station in Ponyville right now, with the others who're workin' on the train. But he might be back soon. He does the metalwork, y'see? Needs to come back to his forge every once in a while. Just wait a while, and he'll be here."

"Right. Well, thank you very much. You've been a great help."

"Don't mention it."

I made my way back to the bonfire, but stopped halfway. A bushy salt-and-pepper beard with a red earth stallion attached came lumbering out of the orchard, pulling a cart ladened with sheets of twisted, rusty metal. The grandson, I presumed.

Speak of the Devil and he doth appear.

I stood by the barn doors and waited for him. He frowned slightly when he first noticed me, but it morphed into a genial smile by the time he came in speaking range and unhitched from his cart. 

"Hullo, stranger," he boomed, as he started unlocking the doors. "Can I help you?"

He was a great hulk of a pony, only slightly smaller than Sir Iron, and his beard was even more impressive. It was the mightiest beard I had ever seen, even blackened with coal dust as it was.

"Are you the one that's working on the train?"

"Eeyup. Y'can call me Anvil."

The doors swung open. It was definitely a barn rather than a farmhouse inside, on the lower floor at least. Anvil had set up a forge and workshop here. A few dying oil lanterns kept it lit, hanging on the walls besides elaborate blueprints of devices that I didn't recognise. An anvil with a large, round red gem embedded in the top sat beside a pit of hot coals just near me. Over in one corner, piles of ore, scrap metal, and coal surrounded a cold smelter. In another, hay bales and wooden barrels sat beside open crates full of apples. The rest of the barn's space was filled by weapon racks, stacks of metal ingots, and benches cluttered with tools.

The anvil was what gave me the most pause. The surface of it was still smooth despite the addition of the red gem, but I doubted that a gem would be as resilient to a blacksmith's hammer as the metal around it. What was its purpose?

"...Nice place you've got here," I said, running a hoof over it.

"Thank you kindly."

While I inspected some of the blueprints and weapons, Anvil pulled his cart inside and started unloading the rusty metal onto the scrap heap at the back.

"So, this train of yours... I wanted to know, when do you expect it to be running by? Only, I need to reach Fillydelphia soon, and your grandmother said that your train would be the best way there."

Anvil came back over to the forge and pulled up a tiny wooden chair to sit on. I was surprised that it supported his weight.

"Eyup. The Styx is probably your best bet, alright. But we won't be done with her for a week yet, and that's assumin' that the work don't get interrupted, which it will. Once the second wave of crusaders get here, Ah'm gonna have to fire up this forge again. I don't get paid otherwise."

"Okay... so, realistically speaking, how long can I expect to wait?"

The smith hummed, leaning back in his chair. "Don't rightly know. Ah'd say a week and a half is reasonable."

I mentally cursed the wait ahead of me, but Granny Smith had said that my money would cover a few weeks, plus the days I got to stay here for free. It seemed that I would be fine.

"Alrighty. I suppose I'm in for a long stay then... Unless there's anything I can do to help speed up the work?"

Anvil's eyes ran over my armour.

"Ah don't rightly reckon there is," he said, carefully. "Pardon me for assumin', but Ah'm guessing that your skills ain't technical, and we already got a pony running guard duty. All that's really left is heavy lifting."

I shifted.

"I could do heavy lifting... Well, after my magic returns, anyway."

Anvil nodded. "Well, whenever you're up for it, we'd appreciate the help."

Just then, a hammer on a nearby bench shimmered, becoming a tiny lizard with a sky-blue gem embedded in its back. I blinked. It looked at me, hissed, and then jumped off the table. My eyes followed the little lizard as it scurried away into the darkness at the other end of the barn, and disappeared behind the barrels.

That was random.

"...What the hell was that?" I asked.

Anvil laughed, not looking surprised.

"Imp," he said.

"...Pardon?"

"A lesser Equestrian mimic. Family pet. Don't worry; he's harmless."

I opened my mouth to ask one of the several questions which came to mind, but decided against it. This, I told myself, was not the strangest thing I'd seen recently, and I had better things to be confused by. I just shrugged, turned away, and went back outside.





I returned to the bonfire to find that Apple Bloom had left again. She was over by the edge of the orchard instead, having a very serious-looking conversation with a black-garbed pony, grey of coat and white of mane. Although he wasn't wearing one of their distinctive helmets, I immediately recognised him as being a Pardoner of Luna, one of another of the Way of White's many orders.

Just as the Ministers of Love preached love and conducted marriages in a community, it was the duty of the Pardoners of Luna to attend to all matters of sin and justice, unburdening the confessors while sitting in judgement upon the unrepentant. I never liked their order. Brittlesworth's own resident Pardoner was a sour old bastard named Brimstone, who was as holier-than-thou as they came, and never ever shut up. Most Pardoners of Luna, I later learned, were not so bombastic as he was, but they were all judgemental in their own way. In their view, there were only two types of pony. Ones who confessed regularly, and ones who were shamefully hiding their sin.

I supposed it only made sense there would be at least a few Pardoners along on a crusade, but it still annoyed me to see one here.

"What's going on?" I asked, sitting down beside Crestfallen.

He was watching the conversation with an idle curiosity, and did not break his gaze to answer me.

"That's Honest Heart, one of the Fire-Keeper's great great grandchildren, with a few more greats added on. He's come with some sort of warning."

The Pardoner was an Apple? That was strange; he didn't look anything like any of his other relatives, at least any that I had met. His colours were much too muted, he had a leaner frame, and he was a unicorn. Then again, I supposed that after many generations, family looks would begin to fade... 

I still found it strange to think that Apple Bloom was that old. Even with her earlier conversation with Sunset, I kept thinking of her as being closer to my age, because that's how she looked. And yet she had children, and grandchildren, and great grandchildren, and who knew how much further her line went?

"A warning, you say? About what?"

Crestfallen made a dismissive gesture with his hoof. "Two prisoners of his escaped. Some rogue knight and a Dimondian spy. I didn't hear much more before they left to speak in private."

The hairs on the back of my neck pricked up.

"Uh... huh... You don't say?"

Crestfallen only grunted an affirmation.

Damn, I thought. Damn, damn, and damn.

"They weren't... dangerous, were they?"

"Mmm... The Way of White crusaded against the diamond dog nation once before, and theirs is a long and bitter rivalry, but Dimondia is no threat to you or I. As for the other, I know little of the rogue knight, save that he was a crusader. But the Way of White doesn't usually imprison their own unless the matter is very grave."

Wonderful. Sir Loving Heart is probably an axe murderer, and we set him free.

I was never distrusting my instincts again. I could tell that he was evil from the moment we met. If I ever met another pony who was that overtly sinister again, I was going to stab them while I still had the chance.

While I was thinking, Anvil emerged from his forge in the barn and locked up. He gave me a wave before hitching himself to his now-empty cart and heading back towards Ponyville, stopping only briefly to exchange a few words with Apple Bloom and Honest Heart. Crestfallen and I waited in silence for several minutes more. The two of us stayed by the bonfire until the Pardoner eventually left and Apple Bloom returned.

"Ah'm sorry, Crestfallen. Family matters. You understand."

The changeling warrior nodded without comment.

"Um, I understand that the Pardoner you were speaking with lost some prisoners?" I said.

"Yeah..." Apple Bloom sighed. "That was my grandson. He worries for me, but Ah'm not sure we're in any real danger."

"Who is it that escaped? Did he tell you much about them?"

"Just what he knows. One is a suspected Dimondian spy, and a wizard, way he tells it. Wields this old staff that lets him cast spells like a unicorn. They're pretty common among diamond dogs these days, but Ah don't think Dimondia will trouble us none. The Way of White's another matter, but we don't usually make their problems our own here on Sweet Apple Acres."

"And the other?" I prodded.

Apple Bloom snorted.

"Sir Loving Heart," she said, a bite of sarcasm in her tone. "He was a turncloak who used to be an Embraced Knight of Cadance. Until he killed several of his fellow crusaders, that is. Honest says that they think he's gone Darkwraith, but... ain't no way to tell without his red eye orb on him. Ah think he's just gone over to the Forest Guardians, myself. Wouldn't be the first time one of their knights turned traitor in that forest."

Yep. We screwed up big time.

"Um, well... Let's just hope he doesn't come here, then."

"He wouldn't dare," said Apple Bloom, giving a sly smile. "Sweet Apple Acres during a crusade is the safest place in Equestria. Always has been..."





For lack of things to do, I went to sleep on the bench when the conversation ran out. Crestfallen wasn't feeling chatty anymore, and Apple Bloom and I had little to say to one another, so I let myself drift away beneath the orange sun. When I dreamed, I dreamed of Sweet Apple Acres, dark and moonless. It was just like my experience at the Shrine of Sunlight, only Sir Black Iron was not there to give me comfort and explain things. But that was okay. I felt I'd learned all that I wished to know today. Everything was beginning to look up already.

Given the opportunity, I explored the dream in my oddly lucid state. Being in the Fire-Keeper's Dream was not like other dreams. It was like being in reality, except that everything felt... lighter, I supposed? There was a weightlessness, and a sense of ease and serenity about me. It must have been a quality of the bonfire's light. Except that... Brittlesworth had a bonfire as well, and I'd never had dreams like this back home. The Fire-Keeper's Dream seemed to be uniquely Equestrian in nature. Where had it come from?

As for my experience, it was uneventful, in spite of its uniqueness. Lordseeker Frampt was nowhere to be found, so I simply walked around for as far as the dream let me. That being halfway into the apple orchard on one side, and all the way to the barrel house on the carrot field hill on the other. I tried to enter the buildings in the dream, but they were locked tight, so that put a damper on my exploring. And then like that, my time was over, and the world began to fade again.

"Firelink?"

"Nyurghhh..." I mumbled.

I opened my eyes to find Sunset Shimmer standing over me. She kept a neutral expression, but I could tell by the red around her eyes that she had been crying recently. I blinked several times to wake myself, and then scrambled to sit up.

"Uh! Hey, Sunset! Um... you alright?"

"Yeah.... I'm fine," she said, putting on a smile. "I'm back now, so I thought it was about time we did this ritual?"

"Y-Yes! Certainly."

Why was I so bad at talking to her? I had talked to attractive mares before. This wasn't difficult, but I kept making a mess of it anyway. No more, I vowed. This stuttering and nervous talk would get me nowhere.

Sunset took a seat beside me, while Apple Bloom sat on the opposite side of the bonfire, hood raised and looking grim. I looked around for Crestfallen, but he had disappeared. I soon realised why. The sky had grown darker, the orange hues fading away as the sun finally set after a long day. This state of semi-darkness would last another several hours. Setting night had begun. And tomorrow would be a dark day.

"Ahem," said Apple Bloom. "Y'all know why you're here. Ah shouldn't need to walk you through it, but Ah suppose if we don't practice tradition, it gets forgotten."

She stood and raised a hoof over the fire.

"A lost undead calls for a new soul. By rite of the Accords of Need, let it be granted."

The bonfire flared angrily, pink flames lashing out from the main body of the bonfire, which curled around the sword buried in the ash pile. The ashes were filled with small bones and bits of metal, gold and silver and red-hot iron alike. All tokens of friendship sacrificed to it before.

"The bonfire calls for nourishment." Apple Bloom pointed at Sunset. "By rite of kindling, let it be granted."

Sunset reached into her saddlebag. She drew a small book from within, the journal that I had given her just that morning. I stared at her. She smiled grimly at me, and levitated it over the fire.

"By rite of kindling, I offer a token of friendship," she said, "given with affection by a friend most dear."

I blushed. Sunset gently dropped Trixie's journal into the fire.

The pink flames licked at their pages and peeled them back, just as curious as I was to what words they had inside. As the journal slowly crumpled into ash, the bonfire flared again, once, twice, thrice, and then once more. With each burst, the fire kept rising higher, and when it was finished, the flames burned tall and remained as such. They did not recede, as they had when last I had seen a bonfire kindled, back with Notch in Woods' End.

I stared dumbly at the great bonfire before me. Did I really gift that journal to Sunset with so much feeling? Or did it really mean that much to her? Or was it just that the journal was the culmination of a mare's whole life, bound with all the feeling that an entire life brought? I never knew Trixie, the soldier who had died so that I could wear her armour, but in that moment, I mourned for her.

"Friends sacrifice a lot for each other," Apple Bloom declared. "The Fire accepts your sacrifice, and knows you for its friend. Now it will make a sacrifice for you, as agreed."

The bonfire flared one last time. Around the base of the fire, the ashes began swirling, spiralling upwards as if a tornado were forming within the flames. They came together as one, the ashes of Trixie's journal last, and white light emanated from them as they compressed together. I held a hoof in front of my eyes for a moment, and lowered it when it was finished.

For a second, a small crystal floated inside the bonfire. It looked just like what Trusty Patches had pulled out of me, but light pink instead of orange. I knew right away what I was looking at. A soul in crystal form.

As soon as the glow deserted it, the crystal dropped to the floor, landing with a light thud in the tiny pile of ashes that still remained. The bonfire began to recede as well, its flames dying down at a frightening speed. For a moment, I feared that we had extinguished it entirely, but when the fire had finished shrinking, a few tiny flames still persisted. In amongst the ashes and melted metal, where no natural flame had anything left to burn, the last of the bonfire's strength still crackled away, with pink embers glowing in the dust around it.

Sunset picked up the soul crystal with her magic, and floated it over to me. I held out my hooves and caught it as she dropped it in front of me.

"Here," she said. "Just crush it."

I looked down at the crystal. Seeing it up close, it was strangely beautiful, pale pink and cloudy. It was round, but not entirely smooth. Light spilled out from within, moving as if a glowing sprite were dancing inside it. I held it gently, turning it over in my hooves, and gave Sunset a long look.

"Thank you," I said, with confidence this time. "It's one of the best gifts anypony's ever given me."

She smiled at me. With one final look down at the crystal, I held it between both my forehooves, and crushed it between them. A strange, cold burning feeling formed a ring around my heart, lasting only a few seconds. Then a sensation of power, beyond my ability to describe, spread through my whole body. It started at my burning heart, and went all the way to the tips of my hooves and the top of my head, all as fast as I could blink. I gasped as it finished, and reeled forward.

"Wha...!" My eyes were wide, and my breath was short. "What the hell?"

It wasn't a bad feeling. In fact, it was incredible. I was just stunned by it. I had not been expecting anything so... that.

"Firelink? Are you okay?"

I turned to Sunset. She lifted a small stone with her magic, and held it in front of me. Gingerly, I closed my eyes and reached out with my own magic. I opened them again when I felt the old familiar surge through my horn. The rock now floated in a pale pink aura, the same colour as the soul crystal. It was different from how my magic used to be, but it was perfect.

I'm back. I'm really back.

Whatever goofy grin I was making must have been amusing to Sunset, who tried to restrain a giggle. I leaned over and pulled her into an embrace.

"Thank you," I said.

She hesitated for only a moment before returning the hug.

"Anything for a friend."





"The way I see it, our fates appear to be intertwined. In a land brimming with hollows, could that really be mere chance?"