Sunset Shimmer - The Princess of Lordran

by ratedoni

Home is Where the Bonfire is

The enormity of the city made everything seem lonelier, darker and grittier. It made Sunset feel like a small animal lost inside a house that had been abandoned by its previous owners. Houses everywhere with winding and almost maze like corridors and stairs directing one to every single place inside the Burg. This was a place where hundreds lived. Now only the echoes of those residents survived, but with all the fighting inside the houses, more and more destruction was left behind by both master and student as they carved their own path among the hollow horde roaming the ghost city.

Broken wood barriers filled the courtyard in splinters as the glint of the unmoving sun on her axe traveled through the air until the rotten and coagulated blood erupted from the skull of the undead. The crack echoed as the head split in two, letting a small rain of blood and brain parts burst up in a second. It said something about Sunset’s mind as the action didn’t even make her blink. She couldn’t blink, she couldn’t think about something else but the fight and the rest of her enemies still pouring from all sides.

She heard a metal clang as Madeleine shielded Sunset from a bolt that had been shot from the other side of the stairs. As one, Madeleine stood right at the beginning of the stairs making it impossible for the rest of the hollows to go after Sunset. The redhead meanwhile took the steps up and turned to the right finding herself face to face with the shriveled face of a hollow as this one was trying to recharge his crossbow.

With her shield up Sunset struck the hollow right in the chest sending it reeling backwards until it almost tumbled over. Instead, the hollow regained his footing, but it was too late. Sunset’s war axe struck it in the chest getting stuck inside the flesh of the hollow. With a mighty kick Sunset send the hollow right into the edge and it sailed down until it struck down a cart left behind.

The redhead immediately put down her axe and quickly took the crossbow on her hands. With a quick inspection, she found one bolt on the floor and put it in the already prepared crossbow. Looking downwards at the three hollows closing into Madeleine she pressed the trigger, sending the arrow flying through the air, crossing the distance until it met its target with a sickening crush. The bolt had found its target, piercing the hollow right on its jaw, sending it to the floor.

For her part, Madeleine had already taken care of one of the hollows and with a quick move of her shield she opened the defenses of the armored swordsman before piercing the cursed warrior’s gut. The white armored woman raised her spear with the undead still on it and with a mighty heave she threw the hollow over the edge until felt right on top of one of the multiple fire pits. The sound of burning flesh and the screams of the hollow made the girls watching on in another dimension wince or shiver. After witnessing the different fights of Sunset, they were sure that no horror movie would ever scare them. They had already seen the most gruesome and scary things in existence. Poor delusional girls, for the horrors were barely starting.

The one remaining hollow finally recovered its wits and was about to stand up before an armored foot was set firmly on its chest immobilizing it. Madeleine raised her hand and in one swift movement the spear was driven right into the hollow’s chest. A couple of twitches from the hollow and then nothing. All sounds of battle were soon replaced by the same stillness and emptiness of the ghost town.

Madeleine pulled back her arm and her spear got unstuck with a loud squelch of blood and meat. Shaking the silver weapon a couple of times to get it rid of excess blood, the woman followed the stairs until she was in front of the young undead.

“New toy?” she said with something akin of humor. It was a feeble attempt at best, but Sunset understood that it was Madeleine’s way of making her relax after the fight they had been a part of. Taking a few seconds to recover her wits and finally calm down, Sunset wondered if warriors of old from Equestria felt like this every time they had to fight against the gryphons and minotaurs, or heck, among the different tribes before Celestia took control of the planet; either way, it was not something she thought she would get to know. Better notch another point in the list of things she never thought she would be part of.

“I just grabbed it.”

“I think it fits you. After all, long range weapons can be quite devastating if you know how to use them, and sadly you need a very thorough training to be able to use most of them, like short and long bows. Crossbows are really good alternatives since you only need to pull back the string or to crank it back,” Madeleine said taking the weapon from Sunset’s hands and inspecting it. “This thing is as old as Lordran itself, or it has seen a lot of action. With the way the world is now, I think it’s a combination of both.”

“Do you think it can be repaired?”

“The only thing that can’t be repaired is a soul. We just need to find a good smith and this thing would be top notch.”

“A smith? Where in the sun’s name will we find a smith in this place?!” Sunset all but screamed while pointing with her hand the bleak and desolated burg around them.

“Oh ye of little faith, there is always a smith closeby, no matter where you go. I bet you my fiefdom that we will find someone working a forge soon. Well, I would bet it if I still had it that is,” Madeleine said looking around before something caught her attention.

“You have lands?”

“Well, most knights in Astora had land. Of course, all of that changed when the curse appeared and we became sieged by countless horrors. I’m not even sure if titles and lands still work… or if Astora still exists. That’s the problem of spending so much time in Lordran,” Madeleine said walking in the direction of a small alcove at their left inside a tower. “Like I told you before, time moves differently inside Lordran. It’s like everything is happening all at the same time. It even pulls people out of their timeline or even worlds and realities. One moment you are talking with a person just to walk into the next room… and then you find their rotting corpse and realize that the new friend you made was alive two hundred years ago and is now a ghost.”

“Has that happened before to you?” Madeleine’s eyes behind the masquerade looked as if she was looking at something that had happened years ago, that thousand yard stare she had seen on many pictures or heard about, and it made her shiver.

“Just pray it never happens to you. If you meet someone, cherish those meetings, because you never know if you’ll ever meet them again. Even now I’m not even sure if we are living at the same time or this is just a cruel prank done by the gods… but enough of dark thoughts, let’s rest for a bit… Who knows? Maybe we can find home in this place. I get tired of sleeping on top of rocks.” Madeleine’s look of distaste made Sunset laugh for the first time in a long time.

Author's Note:

Once more, thanks to my amazing editor in chief, XIII Hearts, you buddy are a life savior.

Comments

[the other sans]

Just two found:

With a mighty kick Sunset send the hollow
over the edge until felt right on top

1. Sent.
2. Fell.

[Dustchu]

Ohohoo, quite the chapter well done, nice job on this man, nice job!

[Dream Dusk]

“Just pray it never happens to you. If you meet someone, cherish those meetings, because you never know if you’ll ever meet them again. Even now I’m not even sure if we are living at the same time

And enjoy a jolly good co-operation!

Just a question... are you writng this as you play the game and writing down your adventures?

[ratedoni]

7952292 I don't think so considering I've been playing the Dark Souls games for years. I know most of what happens in the game and while I play the section to see what i should write, most of this is already planned.