3: Hollowed
"Youshouldn'tshootmebecauseweusedtobefriendsbutnowyoudon'trememberbecausetheDarksignstoleyourmemoriesandIjustreallywanttofindallmyfriendsagainandtrytofixthis!"
Twilight panted as Pinkie considered what she had said.
"And how do I know you're telling the truth?"
"I can Pinkie Promise?" Twilight said hopefully. Pinkie's eyes narrowed under her hat.
"Do it."
Sitting back on her haunches, Twilight went through the motions as she made the promise.
"Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." She smiled nervously at her old friend.
Pinkie further narrowed her eyes suspiciously, and stretched her neck forward to look closely at Twilight's face. After a few tense seconds, she suddenly put the bow and arrow away on her hip, and squeezed Twilight in a bear hug.
"That's a Pinkie Promise, all right! I just had to make sure you weren't one of those mean ponies and wouldn't hurt the others before I let you in. Come on out, you two! It's safe!"
Twilight was confused for a moment, but she quickly understood who Pinkie was talking to as a small section of the floor rose up. Out of the crawl space beneath came two small ponies: a unicorn filly, with yellow fur and orange hair, and a pegasus colt, with pale white fur and brown hair. Twilight gaped.
"Pound Cake? Pumpkin Cake? Is that you?!"
The two younger ponies looked at each other, then back to Twilight, and nodded as Pinkie started bouncing.
"Ooh! Do you know them, too? That's so exciting! I knew I had seen them before when we met, but I still have no idea where! Anyway, I decided that since they probably couldn't survive on their own, I'd take care of them! So I've been having them stay here, while I go out and get food for them. They don't have the Darksign, so I've been looking for the absolute best food I can! It's not that hard, actually. None of the other ponies really eat normal stuff anymore, so there's a lot of things just laying around. And it's all still good, too! I think."
Pinkie continued rambling about all the things she had found while Twilight approached the twins.
"You haven't been affected by the curse yet.... Do you remember anything about what happened?"
They shuffled backward slightly, looking unsure of what they were supposed to do. Twilight looked back at Pinkie.
"Pinkie, they can talk, right?"
The other mare cut herself off mid-sentence and shook her head.
"Nope! I tried teaching them a little, but I don't remember the rules very well. I mostly just wave and point."
Twilight looked back at the two foals with shock and pity.
These two... They look like they're almost as old as the Cutie Mark Crusaders. But Pinkie doesn't look like she's aged at all, so that should be impossible. Not only that, but they can't even communicate?! This is just... too much. I can't take this.... I need to find the others, quickly, and figure out how we can cure all this. I just hope all the other foals are still okay. None of them deserve to go through all this.
Twilight looked back at Pinkie, who had continued rambling to herself.
Well, at least some things haven't changed.
"Pinkie."
"Yeeessss?" she asked innocently.
"How long have you been taking care of these two?"
The other mare shrugged.
"Dunno. It's been a while, but it's hard to tell, since the sun doesn't move anymore."
Twilight sighed sadly. This just kept getting better.
"Listen, would you be willing to bring them somewhere else? I'll be needing your help later, and my library has a bonfire in it, so they should be a little safer there."
Pinkie scratched her chin and hummed in thought.
"Well, I suppose I could. But you'll have to do something for me, first."
"What's that?"
"Well, if we used to be friends, you probably remember my pet alligator, Gummy, right?"
"Uh-huh..." Twilight suddenly found herself very worried as Pinkie's expression fell.
"Well, when this all started, something happened to him. He got really big, and really mean, and I don't know why. In just a few days, he went from 'lovable baby alligator' to 'super-mean mega alligator', and I haven't been able to safely get any fresh water from the lake since. He kills anything that comes too close. So, as much as I wish there was some other way, I need him to go away. Which means he has to die. There's no other way to get rid of him, and I can't do it myself. I tried, several times, but I just don't have the heart...."
Twilight approached Pinkie as she started crying, and wrapped her in a hug.
"It's okay, Pinkie. No one would expect you to do something like that. I'll take care of it. Don't worry."
Pinkie sniffled a little, and looked back up at Twilight.
"Thanks. You know, I don't think I ever even caught your name."
"Twilight Sparkle."
"Thanks, Twilight. I'll start getting everything together. Also, I should warn you; Gummy isn't like normal Undead, anymore. He's become really powerful, and the lake he's using got mostly drained into a sinkhole. Once you go into his lair, the only two ways you'll get back out are by either killing him, or getting killed by him. Don't go down there until you're sure you're ready to fight him, because the whole cave down there is flooded, which means he'll have the element of surprise, and you'll have trouble moving around properly."
Twilight nodded.
"Don't worry. I need to explore more of the town before I do anything else, anyway. Anything else I should look out for?"
"Yeah. Don't get too close to the forest. There are a lot of things in there that wouldn't mind taking a bite out of you. Oh, and before I forget, there's an extra pair of saddlebags in the room at the other end of the hall. You can take them, you'll need them more."
"Alright. Just try to make it to the library in one piece, okay? You remember where it is, right?"
Pinkie nodded.
"Good. I should get going, now. I have a lot of work to do."
"Okay. Good luck."
-----------------------------
Twilight carefully walked through the empty streets of Ponyville towards the lake. After the debacle in Sugarcube corner, she wasn't going to take any more chances that someone would be waiting for her with traps set and weapons at the ready. Obviously, she wasn't planning on taking down Gummy yet, but she needed more information on both him and his lair before trying to fight him. As she got closer to her destination, she saw something odd. There was a corpse on one side of the street, curled up on its side. What really got her attention, though, was what it was holding.
Between its hooves, there appeared to be some sort of fire, like the pony had died holding a flame. The strangest part, though, was the color. The flame was black, with white swirls appearing every so often in random places. She poked the corpse a couple of times to make sure it was actually dead. It didn't move, so she pried open one of the legs and gingerly pulled the flame out. It was soothingly warm, and pulsed slightly, like it was alive. She stared at it for some time, mesmerized by the shifting patterns. They seemed to be calling to her, like there was something the flame wanted her to see, but it was concealed by mist. After what seemed like several minutes, she finally shook herself free of her trance and held it at arm's length, trying to figure out what the flame was. She nearly fell to staring at it again, but managed to keep herself from looking too closely.
"Okay, this is too weird. I don't remember anything about anything like this, even from the library in Canterlot. It doesn't seem particularly dangerous, though, so I might as well take it with me. Maybe Pinkie or Rarity will know what it is." Deciding it wasn't hot enough to set the rest of her things on fire, she dropped it in her saddlebag, but waited a moment just to make sure it wouldn't hurt anything. Satisfied her belongings were safe, she resumed walking. Looking around the next corner, she saw something strange.
It was an earth pony, a mare, but she looked diseased. Her skin was a dark, sickly shade of green, and her eyes were little more than dark, sunken pits, with the eyeballs themselves reflecting an eerie, red shine. She was gnawing monotonously on what appeared to be a broken sword, but was otherwise perfectly still. Twilight rounded the corner fully, and called to the mare.
"H-Hello? Are you okay, over there?"
The mare suddenly stopped gnawing, and turned towards Twilight. She then got up, and started to approach, moaning incoherently as the sword she was holding clanked against the ground with every step. Twilight backed up a few steps cautiously.
"Um... Okay, you're kind of starting to freak me out, here. Could you please say something?"
"Brrlllaaaggh."
"Not what I had in mind. And seriously, please stop coming closer. You're really making me uncomfortable, here."
"Hhrrraaaarrrggh."
"Okay, really. Stop moving. I don't want to hurt you, but I will if you make me."
"Hhrrrrnnnggh."
"I warned you!" Twilight charged her horn, and fired a small bolt of magic at the mare's chest.
poff
It impacted the mare, then dissipated harmlessly, not even slowing her down.
"What!" Twilight fired a few more bolts.
poff poff poff
All of them returned the same result, as Twilight backed up right into a wall. She spun her head around in surprise, then returned her attention to the mare with the sword. The mare suddenly picked up speed, and raised the sword high in the air. Thinking quickly, Twilight ducked under the raised foreleg, and repositioned herself behind the mare, regaining her distance. The mare turned around, and continued her advance again. Twilight looked around for a weapon, suddenly very afraid and unsure of herself. On a nearby balcony, she spotted what she was looking for. A shortsword, precisely, which appeared to be embedded in another corpse. She got close and attempted to grasp it with her magic, but something was interfering with her normal telekinesis, and it wouldn't budge. She looked back at the other mare, and found her much too close for comfort. Deciding it was worth the risk, Twilight shoved open the door to the house, and sprinted up the stairs to the sword. Along the way, she noticed two more ponies in similar states to the mare currently chasing her.
I guess I'll have to take them down too, huh?
She made it to the balcony, and quickly yanked the sword from its resting place. She tried to hold it with her magic, but the sword merely slipped from her magic field, like it detested the feel of being held by anything but a hoof. Hearing the other ponies coming closer, Twilight had no problem obliging that desire. She picked it up with a hoof, and prepared herself for a fight. She didn't have to wait long, as the mare from before came through the door and onto the balcony. Not wasting any time, Twilight jabbed at her with the sword, the small space available to her making it difficult to slash with. The point dove into the mare's chest, and a dark bile seeped from the wound. Holding back her gag reflex at the sight, Twilight pulled the sword back out and stabbed the mare again, this time in the shoulder. She could feel the blade grind against the mare's collarbone, and yanked it back out as the mare stumbled back a step. Finally, Twilight stood up on her hind legs, holding the sword with both hooves, and put her full weight behind the last attack, running the entire length of the blade into the mare's eye and out the back of her head. She pulled the blade free, and the mare slumped to the ground in a heap as a white mist floated off her body. The mist coalesced, and then sped towards Twilight, startling her. It wrapped around her body, and then sank into her skin. It scared her at first, but she suddenly felt much better than before. It was as if her muscles had been cramped the entire time since she woke up, and then suddenly relaxed. She shook herself a little.
"Wow. That felt good. I wonder if that was this pony's soul? That would match with what Rarity said, at least." Any further musings were cut off as she heard hoofsteps and moaning from inside the house.
"Well, let's test that theory."
Also, I just had a thought concerning the discussion in the comments: what if Sen...
...was a woman?! 
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twis pretty nonchalant about the whole "soul" thing.
4140551
There were also only three or four lines about souls.
I wonder what is blocking Twilights magic, I blame the darksign but for now I don't really know, as for Sen... that could be true though I wonder more about the snake men running around the fortress.
4139554 I doubt that, though he does seem to be the first boss
4140551 yep, though I doubt she has the time to think about it, and like she said it does feel good
4141727 True, though I hope some of the bosses will be unique.
4141727
4141841
Most of the bosses will be originals. There will be a few that are obviously based on bosses from the game, but for the most part, it's all going to be stuff from Equestria.
4142404 That's what I thought you were going to do, truth be told the MLP series (G4 and G1) does have a good number of evil beings.
4140919
Well, what other area in the game has man-serpents? That's right, Duke's Archives.
Sen's Fortress was taken over by Seath at some point and his man-serpents started to run the show down there. Big Hat Logan let himself be taken captive, as he figured he would be taken to the Archives like the captured maidens were and from there he could free himself and start to research Seath's crystal magics. Which, of course, backfired horribly.
Anyway on the actual story... Looking quite nice. Gummy as a boss/miniboss is so obvious it makes me jealous that I hadn't thought of something like that for my Souls fic.
So when you say they're holding weapons in their hooves, is it "unexplainable magic grip to the bottom of the hoof" or the wrapping their forelock around the hilt?
4143239 True, though they don't seem like something he would make, and I would question why he would be interested in the fortress in the first place, then again the Old Monk from Demon's souls was also big into magic and half his level was a giant prison filled with torture devices and the other half was filled with failed experiments.
4143672
As far as I can tell, Seath was afraid the Chosen Undead would actually succeed in meeting Gwynevere and from there move on to kill him, so he sent his man-serpents to Sens to block the way and his channelers to the Parish and the Depths to keep an eye on your progress.
4143722 That dose make sense, though part of me still wonder's if they were there own species or just another experiment by Seath, they really don't seem like the latter.
4144045 the only natural species seems to be dragons, humans, and gods.
4143536
Natural magic hoof-grip. It was one of the few things I didn't want to deal with in this story, so I could focus on more important things.
Oooooo, red eyes, that can never be good.
4144153 Really, what about the ....?
4146012 Haven't gotten that far yet. SHHHHHHHHH!!!
4146048 ok, sorry about that
4146107 t'sokay.
4146143 have fun
, I know I am, and I can hardly wait to play Dark Souls 2.
4146225 Me too! I'm so excited.
[youtube=wgUzd305P5o]
4146232
Plaything though Dark Souls and Demon Souls has been a great help to me for containing my excitement, by the way were are you at in Dark Souls?
4146497 Seath's library. I'm actually just about to challenge him. (When I finally get a way down that doesn't waste all my spells. Those Crystal golems are a real pain. -_-')
4147172 Really?, then how didn't you know about.... never-mind.
anyways I am preparing to enter the New Londo ruins to kill the boss there.
4147587 are yourreferring to the blacksmith? Because if not, the game is very non-linear, so it's easy to miss things like that.
4149290 nope, I mean the rest of the level, I am right now preparing to go in there and beat the boss.
Hrm, I was not notified of this update.
4160262
I accidentally published it early, so it didn't update properly when I actually published it.
4161438
Ah. I was wondering why the chapter before it popped up in my alerts but this one didn't. Thought maybe I was having that 'fic updates but won't tell me' problem.
So... a Dark Souls Ponification... that's cool though you really should state as such if you're not gonna have actual characters from Dark Souls running around (It still counts as a crossover though it's a crossover of a different breed.)
Also you seemed to be missing this so enjoy the Dark Souls musical goodness. PRAISE THE SUN!
That's weird. I seem to have missed the third chapter somehow... oh well, that means there are two chapters for me to read!!!
Anyway, it's good to see that Pinkie is still, well, Pinkie. I half expected her to put an arrow through Twi's eye.
Poor Pound and Pumpkin are there too, huh? I wonder what happened to their parents. Maybe they've gone hollow? I'm kinda hoping they'll fill in for Ornstein and Smough