Fated

by dragenfire68

inordinate exsanguination

Here at the end, we stand, in the shadow of a creature so great that a single thought could kill, and it forces the heir to choose one to send into the oblivion, thankfully it was not me, instead, it was the merry jester, half-mad and half-brave, but he's gone now, we fight on, the Leper, once a noble, but now a walking corpse, his strength still is a legend too behold, his crushing blows send this abomination screeching, but soon the paralyzing force holds us, another lamb to the slaughter, and this time I am the lamb.

"Come then, the fate that awaits me, it will be no worst then I've endured," I say as the thing's powers take hold, and before I can even scream, or even blink, I am unraveled, take apart, piece by piece.

"Your trials in this world are over, you've earned a reprieve, go now onto your next adventure." a voice from beyond said to me as I felt myself being remade, and reborn, though soon even in the beyond, I feel my new eyes grow heavy, and then close.

"Hello old boy, something tells me we aren't in that old squalor hamlet, no we be far from the poison denizens of the broke forest, by chance did the power above tell you where exactly we be?" A jovial voice said, seeming to bounce around me, a voice I recognized, seems that the power above did not send me alone into this new world.

"I did not get a chance to ask, it spoke to me, then I'm here," I say as I clutch the cloak to my body, the chains that bind me gently clinking as they shifted.

"well, in that case, let's do the thing."

"be careful, we have no idea where we are or if we even are on earth anymore."

I couldn't see the expression of his companion through the mask that he wore, but the mildew clothed jester simply did a little kick in the air and headed off towards the sun, we treaded in silence, the days spent trekking through the dark depths of various dungeons, it taught us well that we must travel in absolute silence, lest we attract any undue attention.

"Did they defeat that thing, the heart, did they break it?" my companion asked after about an hour of traveling.

"That thing killed me before we got that far, though I would like to think they managed."

He didn't answer, because soon I walked right into him, I was about to ask what it was that stopped him until I looked at what got is attention, in the distance, hanging off the side of the mountain, an exquisite castle in the center of the jewel of a city, closer to our left was another exquisite castle, looked like crystal, the structure made us shudder, its crystalline spires invoking the memories of the damnable farmstead.

"There be our destination, but... Wait do you hear that?" He was saying until he grabbed my arm and threw me into a nearby bush before jumping in himself, luckily for him, because soon a massive Pegasi landed where we were, followed by the teleportation of a unicorn, we watched as they examined the area with the precision of a certain antiquarian that perished because she couldn't keep her hands off things that should be left well enough alone.

"anything here?" the first one said, female-sounding, as she checked the ground and surrounding area.

"No Fyre Bright nothing, whatever you saw, is no longer here." The second guard said to Fyre.

"Well, whatever it was, it looked like nothing that I've ever seen before."

"wait I've found something, Come over here, check this out." the unnamed guard said, holding up a goblet of fine silver.

"huh, well I'll be, doesn't look like any cup I've ever seen, let us take it to Princess Twilight, she will have a spell to seek its origins, good work nexus nebula," Fyre said, sticking the goblet in a sachel, before cantering in the direction of ponyville, leaving us alone once again.

"Sentient ponies, with magic, not eldritch in nature, not enough tentacles, eyes, or mouths, hmmm." The jester mused.

"Well, it isn't the weirdest place we've ever been, should we go meet this Twilight?" I asked my companion.

"If you want to see another cage, go ahead, but we must stay hidden for as long as we can, learn what we must do to fit in, and above all else, we must get my goblet back, its a personal possession of mine," he replied.

I did not ask why, because the patched shroud had a story of its own, that I'll get into later, for now, the jester was gesturing that I follow him, I looked over the horizon once more, and turned to follow him, unbeknownst to me, at the time, a pair of eyes followed our backs, before disappearing into the dense forest brush.

Meanwhile, Fyre bright and Nexus nebula having a two-hour head start, they took the goblet straight to Twilight.

"Hey princess, are you home?!" Nexus called knocking on the doors.

"Yeah she's here, but she is in the Library, need me to get her for you?" Spike answered.

"Take us to her, we have something she may want to see." Nexus replied.

"Sure," Spike said before opening the door all the way, letting them in.

Neither had seen A castle quite like twilights in the entire time they have been in the guard, an entire castle that seemed to be made from living crystals, the reflective surfaces making them feel as if they were going mad, the almost infinite reflections of the corridors and its doors, their walking now autonomous, they felt themselves getting lost in the endless mirror maze, that is until spike shook them to get their attention.

"we're here, by the way, protip, don't stare at the walls," Spike laughed as the guards shook their heads.

"Princess, I saw something like nothing else near the path, there were two of them," Fyre informed Twilight

"did you get a good look at them," Twilight asked

"one had a cloak, looked like leather, so he had to be foreign, but he also had chains and manacles, they were spiked with skulls, a prisoner, the other had simple jester clothes on, nothing more."

"if you got that good a look at them, how did you fail to reach them in time?"

"The jester, he saw Nexus, his gaze froze him in place, he kept him frozen until a cloud from the everfree obscured his view, I was busy trying spells to unstick him, by the time I look back they were gone, but one of them did leave this," Fyre said, holding up the goblet in a red magic aura.

"We're pretty sure you have a spell that could grant us some insight," Nexus said.

Twilight thought hard about this, that is until she Teleported, again and again, soon she had three spellbooks around her.

"Princess, what are you doing?"

"Well, if its a treasured family heirloom, there has to memories on that thing, so I'm gonna try to lift the memories, or at least try theorized memory ghosting."

Twilights horn lit, and soon the Goblet was glowing until, finally A girl, or at least the ghost in front of them looked like an extremely attractive girl, but she looked so young, and she was see-through.

"Where am I?" she asked, looking around the room.

"You're in Equestria, and I think you're dead," Twilight said to the girl.

"Duh I'm dead, the ancestor murdered me, or at least murdered my body, left my mind in tack, fate worst than death." the little waif said.

"The jester murdered you?!"

"No, the man that carried my vessel around, he's a hero, he freed the many souls that the ancestor twisted into monstrous horrors, and in return, we owe him an eternal debt."

"Alright, what about the chained one?" Nexus asked.

The girl's face fell at the mention of him, a deep sadness seemed to surround her, as she recollected what she learned about him since her defeat.

"A misunderstood man shunned for a curse he didn't ask for, but still choose to face down the horrors, whether, for money or redemption, he didn't have to stand up to the horrors, but he did, and they hated him for it."

while Twilight questioned the girl, the guard's questions for Twilight were piling up, but they elected to wait until after she is done.

Comments

[Jest]

Fantastic! Wonderful! The only two complaints I may level is that you have not written enough, and that you need to slow down quite a bit. I was left wondering many things. Such as they seemed to know exactly what a human was. Was this on purpose or did you just glide through that section so fast you didnt notice the implications? Several other queries compound within my head but they are all minor.

[dragenfire68]

9166432

Well I wrote it with the idea that people who are interested know what Darkest dungeon is, and I wouldn't have to explain that, as for guards they are holding their tounges while Twilight runs her experiment, Twilight knows what a human is, since this takes place before the friendship school season, but the guards are holding their tounges, since next chapter will go into a lot of what I glided over, I left a few things vague on purpose.

[Jest]

9166438
Fair, but two quick lines like
Guard A leans over, Twilight's face an impassive mask of utter conentration. "Should we ask her about X?" He whispers.
Guard B shakes his head. "Better wait untill after the spell."

And then we have addressed why it wasn't brought up, while also keeping up with your plan. As not talking about it assumes knowledge, which they dont have. Minor thing I know, but those little additions make readers feel like their concerns are being directly adressed and it eliminates misunderstandings that might otherwise be confusing. I noticed a few other points a single line would have really made things clearer.

As for not explaining the cross over part, thats totally fine as if you are clicking on a cross over story, it assumes you know at least a little about the game.

[Paper Mache Man]

I'm intrigued.