Walker of the Abyss

by lunarstallion

Gathering forces

Princess Luna awoke with a gasp, standing up to find herself inside of her room in the castle. Confusion encompassed her being as she looked around, not fully comprehending what led to her being here. 'Let's see...' She thought, bringing a hoof to her chin in thought, 'Knight Artorias gave me that green blossom to give me stamina, and the bone to crush beneath my hoof...' Looking down at her hooves, she saw no trace of anything that resembled bone. '...'

"THAT SCOUNDREL!"

The entirety of the castle staff, what was still in the castle anyway, was awoken by her deafening shout echoing through the castle. With a resounding crash, Luna's doors were broken open to make way for the furious princess. Spreading her wings, she took flight through the halls and out the front gates, startling the skeleton crew of guards left behind to tend to any problems.

Looking at each other in confusion and mutual understanding, the guards decided it would be best to simply turn around and walk inside, ignoring the royal blue missile heading for Ponyville.

---

Back at Ghastly Gorge, preparations were being made even as Celestia's new allies were being tested. Machines of war that had not been used in millenniums were being brought out of storage and placed strategically by several large dragons. Minotaurs and Griffons were leading the ponies in both training exercises, and cutting whatever came out of the darkness to pieces.

"The Abyss seems to have stopped its spread for now," Celestia said to the other species' leaders, "But we must not let our guard down. As long as this opening is still here, more and more creatures shall come out as time goes on. We will need 24 hour surveillance on the gorge, as well as magical containment procedures."

The Minotaur King hefted his large war hammer, chuckling lightly to himself. "My warriors can hold the line for many days. They've been trained to need little sleep." Strong Arm looked to the black dragon standing to his right, "And I'm sure dragons share a similar ability of needing little sleep, isn't that right Darkscale?"

"You would be correct, bovine." The great black dragon lifted his head and gave a shout in his native language. Two massive red dragons landed beside him, and with a quick command from their ruler, they began flying and circling the Abyss, shooting small jets of flame at anything that looked to be coming from the darkness. "They will be patrolling until they wither away, should I command it. The others that I brought for now are building several ballista from the forest of Everfree."

Celestia gave a sigh, "I wish you had asked me before they began to cut down that forest, but I cannot deny that they will be helpful, should Manus himself come from this opening. Hopefully, Artorias will be able to weaken him, if not slay him altogether."

"Ah yes, and this 'Artorias' you keep mentioning. Who might that be, exactly?" King Gold Feather asked, scratching his beak.

"I suppose I should have mentioned him earlier, but it must have slipped my mind. Artorias is a knight from another world, in fact, he hails from the same world as Manus does originally." The other rulers looked rather surprised at that, and before they could speak up about this, Celestia continued, "He has fought Manus before, and unfortunately lost. After he gave me a demonstration of his powers though, I believe he has a slim chance of victory, perhaps even more than we would, fighting as individuals, anyway."

"And you sent him in, alone, regardless of the fact that he has lost once before with those very same abilities on his side? Oh Celestia, you never fail to amuse me with how unbearably naive you can be." A harsh, dual toned voice added. Looking to the sky, the Changeling hoard had arrived in full, changelings immediately beginning to set up camps and start patrolling. There were some dirty looks from the Equestrian guards, but overall, the armies seemed to get along fine.

Celestia turned fully towards Chrysalis, eyeing the changeling up and down. "I hope my message didn't reach you at a bad time. Despite what happened at the wedding, I would still like to negotiate peace at a later time." Chrysalis visibly flinched at the mention of the wedding, but said nothing. "And for your information, my sister Luna went into the Abyss with Knight Artorias. I'm confident in their abilities."

Chrysalis gave Celestia a confused look, and pointed back towards Canterlot. "Then why, may I ask, is she flying here from Canterlot as we speak?"

"Huh?" Celestia looked and, sure enough, there was a small blue dot rapidly approaching from the capital city. Looking closer, she could indeed confirm that as her sister. "But... how did she..."

The blue dot disappeared, and with a resounding pop, Princess Luna appeared between the two conversing rulers, panting lightly from the flight. She turned to Celestia and began to speak: "Sister, there are many foes in yonder Abyss. Knight Artorias and I slew many, yet only more came. He gave us some sort of plant to rejuvenate our stamina, and a strange bone to crush beneath our hooves. When we crushed it, we awoke in our bedchambers, and returned here posthaste. What is the situation on the surface?"

Celestia shook her head a bit to clear the confusion. Gathering herself, she replied "The situation is as good as it can get under these circumstances. Small groups of Abyss creatures walk out, get incinerated by dragons, and blasted by our mages. With the addition of the Changelings, the defenses should hold indefinitely." As an afterthought, she added "And watch your language Luna, you're slipping back into the old tongue."

Clearing her throat, Luna nodded and turned to the rest of the gathered leaders. She bowed her head slightly, "I apologize for not being here to greet you all, but I was in the Abyss with Artorias, and otherwise preoccupied."

"Think nothing of it, my dear." Gold feather said with a wave of his talon, "You were on the front lines. As much as I would like to be upset with you for not being here, being in the Abyss is a rather good excuse."

"What do you intend to do now, Princess?" The minotaur asked, glancing once again to the gaping darkness that is the Abyss, "You cannot be considering going back in there, can you?"

Luna shook her head. "We had traveled far from the place we landed first. I am afraid that, even with my powers over darkness, I cannot navigate too well in the Abyss. I will stay up here and conduct military matters." She began walking away, only to turn back with a rather sly grin, "My sister has never been one for tactics, her strengths lie in politics."

Celestia rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. She had been found out.

---

Artorias strode through the rocky terrain of the Abyss for hours upon hours. Time was strange in this place, that is true, but the Knight would not be denied his final battle. Creature after creature were slain by his blade. Bloated excuses of humans, Chained prisoners, humanity sprites, and any other foul beast the Abyss could throw. All were cut down in Artorias' deadly march towards he who ruled the Abyss.

Artorias came across another drop off. Sighing heavily, he stepped back, dashed forward, and leaped through the air, dropping below. Yet again, he dropped for what seemed like an eternity, until finally his boots hit something that could be considered ground, although it just seemed like he was standing in the inky blackness, hovering in place. Looking about for any landmarks, and finding none, Artorias continues to move forward before a sudden screech stops him from walking.

Turning to face the noise beheld a massive grey warrior, seemingly covered in petrified spikes. It simply hovered through the darkness, going well below where Artorias stood, and well above his height. In its hand was a massive, gray wavy sword that didn't seem too sharp. It gave another ear splitting roar, and began hovering towards the Abyss knight.

'So... the Four Kings are here as well... So be it.' With a roar of his own, Artorias rushed forward to meet the charging king, only to quickly roll to the right as a beam of purple energy shot toward him. Standing back up from his dive, Artorias was quickly knocked down yet again by a stab from the king.

It was quite clear that Artorias wasn't as prepared as he thought he was.

Taking his talisman out, he quickly charged a lightning spear and hurled it at the king, taking a large chunk out of its side, and causing it to emit a third screech, this one of pain. Rushing forward, Artorias weaved out of the way of the kings sword, and sliced through its exposed side. The king let out a final cry of pain as it faded away, white mist signaling its death.

Before Artorias could catch his breath, he was knocked violently to the ground by a wave of purple energy. Spinning around, he saw yet another king hovering in place, this one charging up more dark magic.

Thinking quickly, Artorias attempted to reach for his silver talisman, only to have to dodge several dark magic beams before he could grab it. The king lunged forward, and grabbed the stunned Artorias.

The Knight felt his very being begin to be torn from him. Unable to move in the clutches of the King's grasp, he could do nothing but writhe in place and scream as his life was sucked out. The king dropped him after a good while, and disengaged as yet another king appeared, smacking Artorias aside with his sword.

Upon getting up, Artorias was met with the sight of two identical warriors floating in the dark nothingness of the Abyss. He grimaced, and steeled himself for the battle ahead as the two kings of darkness rushed forward to meet his blade.

Author's Note:

I know you're all probably a bit disappointed with the length of this chapter after having to wait for so long for it, but to be honest, this story is beginning to stretch out a bit too far, I've noticed. I need to start making things happen a bit faster if we ever want to get to any kind of final showdown or something, although I will definitely be making the next chapter longer to make up for this rushed smattering of garbage.

Here's the Chain Prisoner if you don't remember what it is, lord knows I needed to remember what they were called, the weird fucks.

Anyway, have fun with the new chapter. I'm glad I actually got around to writing this, although I feel like I could've done better during the fight with the Four Kings. I don't know why, it just seemed to go by too fast or something, let me know if I'm right in that respect.

Comments

[lunarstallion]

I appreciate you all being more or less patient with me. I know I'm not exactly the most well known for my punctuality with chapters, but I'm working on it as best as I can.

[Black_Knight]

7371835

I'm already glad to see this story still going despite the delay between the chapter. I'm a very patient and have anyway a load of stories waiting to be read.

The fight with the Four Kings? eh it's okay. Reminds me of how most first attempt goes. Beat the first get blind sighted by the second, then get overwhelmed by the third.

[flufpufhuf]

I'm happy that someting came up I know I have about 200+ storys I'm reading but it's still nice to see something pop up once in a will