Barriers Crossed
I wait. I can feel it coming. I can feel its presence even before it enters my domain. First an arm reaches through the fog, then a head, the legs follow afterwards. Before me stands another fool. Its undead eyes shimmer with nativity and inexperience. It is not ready for me. It is not ready to face my horror.
The undead fool raises its shield, as if the bent piece of dented metal can protect it from my fury. It approaches cautiously, a skinny sword at its side. I would tell it to run, but there is no escape. Not even for myself. The thin layer of fog that separates my domain from the rest of the feeble world is all but impenetrable. I know this by watching those who try to escape. After realizing the horrible mistake of challenging me, they try to run, but it is already too late. The fog is only passible from one direction.
I truly do not know if my power could penetrate the fog wall, but even if I had the will to try it would be impossible. The first factor regards to my will to keep the feeble world safe. The world is in enough of a dire state without my power running wild. The second factor regards to my body. I do not speak so boldly of myself the way I do because I hold myself it such high regard, nay. The truth is that I no longer hold control over my actions.
I once served a mighty lord by the name of Gwyn, the lord of sunlight. With his fellow kings the age of dragons came to an end. I was honored enough to accompany Gwyn to the battlefield on more than one occasion. I was one of his most trusted knights. With the great Lord Gwyn at my side and my most trusted friend Sif, I was unstoppable. Or so I thought.
One fateful day a sorcerer from Oolacile came to the kingdom with knowledge of the abyss approaching on her homelands. It was no secret that I despised the abyss and the Darkwraiths that worshipped it. It also came as no surprise when I offered my hand in aid to Oolacile. With Lord Gwyn’s blessing I headed for Oolacile to hold the spread of the abyss.
With a resolve of unbreakable steal and my companion Sif at my side, I entered the abyss. It could have been months, it could have been mere hours, I do not know. Time seemed to have no hold on the darkness of the abyss, but all things have a time to end.
Sif and I were cornered by a dark being of unspeakable evil. The people of Oolacile referred to it as Manus, the father of the abyss. Sif and I fought gallantly; I had never seen such courage and determination from my companion, but our efforts could not hold a flame to the horror of Manus. In a last effort to save one of us, I bestowed my great shield to Sif. The stubborn wolf howled and cried, but it was already too late for me.
For longer than I can remember I have been trapped in my own body, fighting for not control of my body, but fighting my inevitable corruption by darkness. More than once my body has tried to escape its prison that is the coliseum, but luckily I have been shot down by my old friend Hawkeye Gough, another valiant knight of Lord Gwyn, unmatched with his mighty great bow.
I have been reduced to an empty shell of my former glory, waiting for an honorable death. Waiting for a true warrior to traverse the fog gate and put an end to my suffering. This inexperienced undead is not my salvation.
My body leaps across the battlefield, great sword held high. The undead fool barely manages to roll out of the way in time. A sensation of pain emerges from by back, but I merely grunt in annoyance. My body spins two full circles with my great sword held at full length. The undead manages to block one strike, but its battered shield crumples under my raw strength at the second blow.
The undead is sent to the ground. My body then somersaults through the air and my great sword is thrown with the brutish strength of a man who has lost his mind. The undead is not fortunate enough to dodge the blow. The undead is no longer of this world, and my decent unto darkness continues.
* * *
“C’mon you slow pokes, we’re almost there!”
“Dash, ya done said that an hour ago…”
“Well I mean it this time!”
This is third time a variation of this conversation had taken place. I would use the position of the sun and the shadows it casts to get a proper measurement of time, but here it the Everfree forest the sun rarely shines.
My name is Twilight Sparkle and I am currently trudging through the Everfree forest because one of my best friends, Rainbow Dash, claims that she has found the discovery of the century. Personally I believe she may have read one too many Daring Do books.
“Dash, why don’t ya fly up and see if ya can find this… Whatever it is yer tryin ta show us?” Applejack suggests. Dash gives a mock salute and darts above the canopy, out of sight. Thankfully Applejack opted to come along on this wild goose chase for extra protection. She’s already chased away a pack of timberwolves and caught Dash before she trotted headstrong into a patch of poison joke.
“You ok there sugar cube? Ya look a mite tired,” Applejack asks, concern in her voice.
“I’ll hold up Applejack. I just hope Dash isn’t dragging us around as some form of prank. I almost expect Pinkie Pie to jump from the bushes at any second to scare us,” I sigh. The truth was that I had a stack of books and a list of studying to get done by this weekend, but somepony just had to drag me out on an expedition.
“Girls! It’s just right through these trees, c’mon,” Rainbow Dash says as she emerges from the blanket of leaves blocking the sky. She then confidently trots to a line of bushes and pushes her way through them. Applejack and I eagerly follow in Dash’s path and freeze at the sight before us.
A structure bigger than anything in Ponyville and even some of the largest buildings in Manehatten sits before us. It is made of tan stone and is at least seven stories high. At least it probably used to look that way. To say the coliseum-looking structure was old would be an understatement. The coliseum looked like it had survived the beginning of time itself. Vines strangled the coliseum from bottom to top and pieces of stone were missing from various places. The tan coloring of the stone had even been stained by the sands of time and possibly more.
“Twi… Twi!” Dash practically yells in my ear, breaking my analysis, “Pretty amazing right?”
“T-that’s an understatement,” I reply when I find my voice. Of course Dash wouldn’t be able to comprehend the importance of her discovery, archeology wasn’t her forte. There was only so much that is discussed by a fantasy novel like Daring Do.
“So does this mean I’m the next Daring Do?” Dash asks with her chest puffed out.
“You’re defiantly on the right path,” I answer and head to the entrance of the coliseum. Rainbow Dash and Applejack follow behind and we find the inside of the coliseum to be as eroded as the outside. Patches of grass push apart the stones in the ground and vines snake up the walls.
Something was odd about the inside if this was a coliseum. There were no seats. Where would the public sit? Surely not on the battlefield. Maybe this was not a coliseum at all, but where we stood was defiantly a battlefield. Long and thin depressions in the stones on the ground indicated weapons of sorts, whether it be claws, swords, or otherwise.
“Hey Twi!” Dash yells from across the coliseum. Seems my analysis would have to wait.
“Yes?” I answer as I trot over to her.
“What do ya make of this?” Dash says. She then indicates a glowing mark on the ground with her hoof, “I just stepped on it by accident and it started glowing white like that.”
The mark itself was etched into the ground, but unlike a cut. Black lettering was surrounded by a dull white glow, but the language was in a tongue that I could not understand. Then it vanished, just like that. There was no after mark, no etching, or any sign that the mark had ever been there.
* * *
I can feel it coming. First the arms, then the head, and lastly the legs. This undead looks… Promising. It regards me with a look of understanding in its eyes and readies its great sword and shield. My body leaps through the air and our great swords clash. The great strength of this undead becomes apparent as we lock blades and fight to overcome one another. The undead drops its shield and grasps his great sword with both hands. My body is pushed back and the undead warrior’s blade grazes my chest, easily cutting through my chest plate.
My body then somersaults through the air and brings my great sword down. The undead warrior rolls to the side and uses his momentum to swing his great sword through the air where I once stood. The undead warrior decides to charge in my direction and swing its great sword in a horizontal arc. My body responds by leaping a short distance backwards and lining my blade parallel to the ground. With inhuman speed my body lunges forward and the undead warrior holds up his great sword to defend.
The sound of our clash echoes through the coliseum. The undead staggers from the blow and my body takes a single step forward and thrusts my blade again, catching the undead in the stomach. The undead tumbles to the ground and my body somersaults through the air again, preparing the finishing blow. The undead warrior rolls along the ground, out of harm’s way and sends a scorching wave of fire from its shield hand. The flames lick my body and momentarily lite the tattered cloth of my once radiant armor.
My body howls in defiance, but not out of pain. My mind exploded in agony as the howl fills the coliseum with a tone of anger and hate. The abyss attacks my mental state again and a wave of dark force is expelled from my body, knocking the undead warrior to its back where its shield was previously discarded.
My body lunges forward for the finishing thrust with its new found hatred. The undead warrior’s hand grazes its shield and realizing this, it grasps its shield as it rolls out of harm’s way. My body throws a vertical slash at the undead warrior, but it is ready. The undead warrior takes its shield in both hands and lets out a pained grunt as it not only deflects my blow, but uses my own momentum to push my sword to the side.
There was an explosion of pain as the undead warrior plunged his sword into my corrupted form. The abyss, knowing that its host was dying, felt no remorse in stacking its pain atop my own. In essence, I felt the death of two beings at once. It was unexplainable. With a scream of my own vocalization filtered through the abyss’s darkness, I fell to my knees and thrust my sword into the earth to keep my balance.
The undead warrior gripped his great sword with both hands, placed his foot upon my breast, and removed his great sword from my body. The same pain returned, but it felt dulled somehow. My body fell to the earth and the abyss snaked its way out of my body to return from where it once came.
I remember the undead warrior glancing over my unmoving body with remorse in its eyes. I wanted to thank it. I wanted it to know that it allowed me to parish with my honor intact. My throat let loose an unhealthy groan. It wasn’t much, but I think the undead warrior understood. Then the undead warrior did something most peculiar. From a satchel he produced a large white stone and broke off a small piece. It then tucked the piece of stone in my breastplate and placed my purified great sword in my hand. From then, everything went white.
* * *
“W-where did it go!?” I cry aloud.
“Twi! Look out!” Rainbow Dash yells in response and tackles me. I don’t know what caused this action, but I remain on the ground with my hooves shielding my face. My mind begins to think of various situations of danger like a pendulum cutting through the space I just occupied or maybe a hole in the ground appeared that leads to a pit of spikes. I cannot see, but Dash’s breathing comes in harsh breaths.
“Uh… Jus what’re you two doin’?” I hear Applejack ask from my left. Rainbow Dash removes herself from me and helps me to my hooves. I looked around to see if anything had changed, but alas no pendulums or pitfalls.
“I thought something was gonna happen! Something always happens when a trap is activated and that was an activated trap if I ever saw one,” Dash explains. I want to give Dash a lecture about how Daring Do is a fantasy novel and it does not apply to real life situations, but I bite my tongue. I had thought the same thing.
As Dash and Applejack continue to argue about who is in the wrong, my eyes glance back to where to marking once was. To my surprise I notice a pinpoint of light. I take a step forward and the point becomes a circle. Then the circle starts to expand.
“Umm… Girls?” I clear my throat. A lump of mass starts to emerge from the ground. The entity is glowing white like the marking was and it continues to rise from the ground.
“Girls?” I speak again. The entity is starting to look like a creature covered in metal and cloth. My eyes are drawn to the large sword resting on its figure.
“Girls!” I shout, causing the two to glance my way and gasp in surprise.
“Woah!” Dash exclaims and takes a step forward before Applejack can yank on her tail and pull her back. The three of us watch as the creature starts to twitch and move. As the creature is fully revealed the light vanishes and I can pick out the dents and scars of the creature’s ‘armor’ as it were. Dark blue cloth is torn and burned and its sword is stained with blood. I take a step back as a foul stench takes to the air.
The creature rolls over with its back to us and a sound similar to coughing is heard. The creature’s sword clatters to the stone ground and it quickly fumbles to grasp it. The three of us watch as the creature tries to push itself to a sitting position, but one of its hooves buckles beneath it as if it is broken. Instead the creature plunges its sword into the ground and pushes itself to two hooves, or legs.
“Uh, Howdy partner,” Applejack smiles awkwardly. The creature did not acknowledge Applejack’s greeting, but it did rear its head back and roar. The sound was guttural and loud, but it was not the cry of a beast.
I want to speak to the creature, but I am frozen where I stand. The four of us regard each other in silence before Applejack and Rainbow Dash decide to charge.