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Quick notes: Gudeliva is pronounced: Guh-dell-e-vuh

This is Grimdark, ponies will die and gore is explained.

EDIT: Sorry about the breaks in the writing, work schedule is driving me insane and I don’t have enough time to write long parts at once.

The Sorrow of the Dark Ones

or

Rarity's Lament

By: Josh Hylemon

a.k.a. Vector Haste

-1-

Rarity awoke on a cold stone surface, her head hurt immensely and part of her body felt wet. She didn't want to open her eyes, so she lay on the cool ground and listened. The only discernible noises were the constant drip of water nearby and a low humming noise that sounded to be very far off.

“Where... where am I?” she stammered, trying to sit up to no avail. “You're guess is as good as mine.” the other voice surprised Rarity, who thought herself to be alone. “Who's there!?” she called. “Keep it down, we're not exactly alone down here.” a hoof was placed in front of her mouth to ensure she couldn't say anything else. Whoever the voice was coming from it was male. He bent down to her ear and said “I need to know if you can stand. If you can we have to move right now, you can lean on me but we need to go.” Rarity finally opened her eyes, the warning he said seemed urgent.

Standing above her was a dark gray colt with a maroon mane. He wore a patch over one eye and seemed to have covered himself in armor made of some old leather bits. “You look horrendous.” she said. The male pony now dumb-stricken yanked her to her feet, upon which she wobbled dangerously. “That will do I suppose. Let's get away from here.” he began to trot off down a hallway at the end of the room, pushing her ahead of him as he went.

After they had finally stopped moving she took a moment to catch her breath. He seemed unaffected by the running however. “Now can you just tell me what exactly is going on here?” Rarity asked. “You'll find your answer soon enough, for now we need to get to the safe place.” he responded and once again took to pushing her off through what seemed a ridiculously large labyrinth. At one point he stopped, pulling hard on Rarity's tail to get her to as well. “What is it no-” she began to say but once again a hoof was placed over her mouth. “Get into the recesses in the wall here.” he whispered to her, and walked out into the center of the room that had opened around them.

“When did we get here?” she asked herself as she backed into one of the recesses he had told her of. “Perhaps my headache is making me lose focus.” she stared out into the room, watching the colt move slowly around the room, never in the dim light, but the shadows. Suddenly something walked into her view, it was a strange little creature, purple in color and dragging what looked to be a club behind it. “My word what IS that thing?” she thought to herself, but before she could ponder further on the subject it was laying on the floor about four feet away from it's head.

She attempted a scream at the sight, but managed a sick gurgling noise as she lost against her gag reflex. The colt once again appeared in front of her and seemed to snicker. “Alright, there was only one of them, we're lucky. Let's move on.” he reached in to pull her from the recess, and she cowered from him. “For Celestia's sake, what is it?” he asked. “You... was that you who killed that thing?” she said, still cowering from him. “Yeah, but believe me, you need to or more show up.” he managed to get a hold of her and yanked her out of her hiding place. “My name is Rinto, my friends down here gave it to me. What's yours?”

“R-rarity.” she fumbled, still in a state of half-shock. “Well Rarity, you have an appropriate name, it's not too often we get a new member down here.” Rinto once again took off running, this time slowing his pace so Rarity could keep up. After several minutes of head-splitting agony due to the echo of hooves on stone, the two ponies slowed to a stop in front of a large set of wooden double doors. “Rarity, welcome to base.” said Rinto. She looked around, just now realizing that there were doors everywhere down here.

Rinto went to pull the doors open but Rarity stopped him. “Um, I'd hate to be a bother, but... what is down here?” she shook her head back and forth. “I can't seem to focus and everything seems to warp in front of me... I didn't even see the doors here a moment ago...” Rarity seemed to be pleading for an answer she knew wasn't going to be there. “Oh... that.” Rinto said “It takes some getting used to down here... there's strange things at work. Come inside with me and Gudeliva may be able to fix it.” he leaned over and placed his hoof over her back, and opened the doors.

Blinking furiously at the new-found light Rarity stumbled forward with the aid of Rinto. “Rinto my boy! Who's this new mare?” a booming voice called out from the room which was now beginning to dim. “Her names Rarity.” Rinto called back. Rarity stared around the room that was now dimming about her. “Its a library?” she asked to herself. “The safest place here. We made it our home a while back.” Rinto whispered to her. “Well now, Boom you look terrible.” he called into the room, now that her vision had adjusted Rarity could see the pony to which he spoke, and indeed he did look awful.

The dark blue unicorn that stood on a table in the center of the room was covered in blood and soot. “Well, you try to look pretty after what I went through.” he nodded at his hind section, which had gashes all over it and “Oh goodness!” Rarity shrieked when she saw the ponies missing leg. “What happened to you!?” the colt on the table blinked. “I thought I was loud... Rinto remind me to change my name please. And, er... Rarity was it? This is what happens when you think you're too good for real armor.” Boom tapped his horn, pushing away his orange mane “I usually just float shields around me for defense, and on of the damn creatures got through them.”

Rarity once again felt the urge to vomit, but held it so as not to ruin her first impression. “Rinto, can we please go where I can't see Boom... I feel sick.” she asked. Rinto laughed and turned to her “You need to learn to get used to this you know. It happens a lot down here.” he led her to the back of the library. “You'll like Gudeliva, she's very knowledgeable.” they passed through several rows of bookcases and came to an open area in the back, it was littered with sleeping mats and several chests. “She should be around here somewhere.”

“I shouldn't be anything.” came a voice from above them, startling Rarity. She looked up to see a forest green pegasus with a white mane floating lazily above them. “You bring a new one?” she asked, eying Rarity with suspicion. “Erm... yes Gudeliva. It's the only way to save them you know.” she coughed once to silence Rinto and landed by Rarity. “You ever been struck with a weapon?” Gudeliva asked. “I um.. no.” Rarity answered.

“Ever held a weapon?”

“No...”

“Ever use magic to save your life?”

“Um... not really.”

“Not really or no?”

“No...”

“You're useless.”

With that Gudeliva took off into the air again and left her sight quicker than she could say 'stop'. Rinto laughed “I told you you'd like her.” Rarity blinked up at him, almost disgusted. “Don't worry Rarity, she'll warm up to you. You just need to learn some things.” Rinto than clapped his hooves together “Well, lets get started!”

Later:

Rarity struggled to make the shield float in front of her, Rinto constantly smacking it with both of his front hooves. “Focus!” he yelled, smashing the shield closer and closer to Rarity. “FOCUS I SAID.” and with one final blow kicked the shield hard enough that Rarity was forced to drop it. “Not bad, that was what, thirty hits?” he looked over to Boom who shrugged. “Don't look at me Rinto, I'm kinda not paying attention to anything other than my damn leg.” he pointed down to the nub that used to sport a limb. “Well, either way she did better than you on your first time.” he reached over and patted the exhausted unicorn.

“Why... why are we doing this again?” Rarity asked, breathless from the exertion. “Why, it's so you don't die here.” Said a voice floating above. “Gudel-” Rarity started but was interrupted as she saw the pegasus pony dropping down upon her. -CLANK- the loud metallic sound rang out as a shield suddenly flung itself above Rarity. Rinto looked over to Boom, who also seemed confused, the two than looked to the white unicorn.

She sat still, not even breathing heavily. Gudeliva stood on the shield, mouth agape, she had not expected this to happen either. “I would appreciate it if you didn't attempt to attack me like that.” Rarity said, and the shield tilted enough for Gudeliva to slide off to the side. “That... that was good.” said Boom. “I can't even move anything fast enough to block her.” Rinto smiled and grabbed the shield, “This will do for today, tomorrow, we work on swords.” he tossed the protective metal into the corner of the room. “Who's ready for dinner?” he called walking away from the three other ponies.

The meal sat before her was meager at best, some hay, and what seemed to have once been a carrot. “Took forever to find those.” said Boom, who was sitting next to her. “I hope you enjoy them.” She smiled a polite, albeit fake smile and took a generous bite from the wilted vegetable. “It's... good Boom, I'm glad you shared it with me.” she looked around at the others, all happily eating the depressing meal and sharing stories of their day. “Will someone excuse me for a moment please?” she asked aloud. “What?” said Rinto. “You do something?” he obviously didn't recognize manners. “Er, never mind than.” she stood from the table and backed away into a corner of the library where they could no longer see her.

“Ok Rarity, get a hold of yourself... there's definitely something wrong here. The fact that they even convinced me to participate in that barbaric shield game of theirs is proof enough I don't have a proper hold of myself...” She sat down, beating upon her skull with her hooves trying to think. “How did I get here... how...” for a moment she thought she could remember, but sat back in defeat when no answers came to her. “This is great, perhaps I shall just play along and everything will make itself right.” she sighed to herself. “Let's just say that's the plan.”

-2-

“The first night in a new place is usually scary.” Rarity thought to herself “But this... I think this might be real fear.” she sat in the 'bed' area of the library, the other three ponies seeming to sleep peacefully through the noise. Rarity now realized what the humming was from before, it wasn't humming, it was screaming... a constant wave of horrendous wails penetrated this places every corner. “I think it's the place itself...” she thought with a shudder. “I want to go home.”

About an hour or so passed of her shaking in the corner of the room before she finally got up to look around the library. “Why even bother trying to sleep with this racket going on.” she slowly moved to the main area. “Might as well look about right?” she used her magic to flit a light at the end of her horn. “Perhaps I can read up on how to make earplugs... oh my I'm taking this far too well.” she stopped herself, breathed deep and tried to think clearly again “I need to focus on getting back to ponyville, to my friends. Whatever this... place... is I have to leave as soon as I can.”

She began rummaging around the room, straightening the chairs and dusting the shelves. “Just because this place is a nightmare doesn't mean it has to be filthy.” she said to herself, to justify her obsessive compulsive behavior. “If only I had some wa-” she tripped over something and bit her tongue. “Oh what is it now, AAH!” she shrieked, a dark blue shape lay next to her, it was Boom's missing leg, apparently he had brought it back with him. Before she could even think to move she was being dragged away through the room. “Rarity would you shut the hell up! You're going to kill us all I swear.” snarled a harsh feminine voice. “Gudeliva, Boom's leg...” She was suddenly struck upon the face, hard enough to make her lose consciousness.

“There now, she'll actually get some sleep this way, you sure you didn't want to do that Gudeliva?” asked Rinto, standing above the still ponies form. “While I would have enjoyed that, she'll be less mad at you for it and you know that.” the pegasus pony spat. “Well... what do we do now friends? We're going to have something or other coming to interrupt our night tonight. She was loud enough to wake the Charger I bet you.” Said Boom thoughtfully, the others cringed and stared at each other. “We may have a problem if that's the case.” said Rinto, “I kind of knocked out our strongest asset.”

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