Pain. Pain was all Seven ever felt since the day he was branded with the Darksign. He wouldn’t say that he enjoyed it, but it had become somewhat of a reassurance to the fact that he wasn’t dead yet. The things that hurt the most was seeing his new friends go insane or become Hollows. Three friends had to be cut down by his blades and though he knew they would have approved of his actions, it hadn’t been easy.
His internal thoughts were suddenly cut off as Seven collided with the First Flame. There was brief moment of resistance, a blinding flash, and then Seven felt the weightless sensation that came from falling. Seven’s eyes had stopped processing his surroundings, so all he saw was an eternal blackness and a contrasting solar white. After a few moments of sensory overload, Seven just passed out, content with having completed what he had set out to do.
~~~~~~~
Twilight was in the library reading, as she would often do on a normal Tuesday when she heard loud WHAM and a sickening crunch that sounded like bones shattering. Curious, Twilight went outside to investigate, thinking that it was one of Rainbow Dash’s crashes. Instead it was something Twilight could never have expected.
“Sweet Celestia!” Twilight screamed as she observed the armored form that lay slumped against the tree in a pile of branches and, horrifyingly, a growing pool of crimson.
The creature was in an awful state. There were ribs poking through the armor that Twilight could only assume protected its core, and the left arm was dangling uselessly from its socket. The creature’s hips were twisted at an angle that made Twilight think that it would never walk again, had it survived.
The creature suddenly gave a wet cough and slightly lurched forward, catching Twilight off guard. The thing turned its head towards Twilight and pointed to a pouch that lay just out of its reach.
The thing must want me to give it the satchel before it dies Twilight thought to herself. The poor thing must be in so much pain, the least I could do is give it what it wants.
Twilight used her telekinesis to float the satchel to the creature, whose good shoulder relaxed slightly. When the pouch was within its reach the thing’s right arm snapped out and grabbed it, startling Twilight and causing her to drop the spell. The thing pulled a small green flask out of the bag and poured some of the substance that was inside of it into its golden helm.
Twilight was still in thought about how the creature still had enough life to grab the bag as fast as it did when she was drawn back to reality by the sound of bone rubbing against bone and flesh reknitting itself. The creature merely grunted as this happened, showing that it only felt minor discomfort to this process.
Before her eyes, the creature was already getting up from where it had been paralyzed, an action that defied all logic. When the creature stood at its full height, which was taller than Princess Celestia, it began stretching and cracking its knuckles and joints, producing loud popping noises. After it finished, the thing approached Twilight and dropped to one knee. Twilight was shaking throughout her body, and it took all of her concentration to not wet herself.
When the thing got to eye level with her, it took a slight inhale and spoke in dry and raspy voice, “Thank you. Without your help,” the creature paused either trying to pick out the right words or catching its breath, “I would have been there for a while.”
“Y-y-you’re w-w-welcome m-mister. Please don’t eat me,” Twilight stammered.
The thing stood up to its full height and let out a deep chuckle. “There is no reason for you to be scared. I would never hurt someone who helped me like you did,” the creature said in gentle tone. “You can call me Seven. I would like to know your name little...” Seven paused, actually observing the being who had saved him, “unicorn.”
“Oh. My name is Twilight Sparkle,” she replied in a voice with growing confidence. “I would like to know how your drink, uh, made you better.”
“Well, it is called Estus and I don’t know for sure myself why it does what it does. What I do know is that it only works for Undead.” Seven stated the word Undead like it was something that had little meaning, but Twilight gasped when he said it.
“So y-y-you’re like a zombie?” Twilight asked fearfully.
“Well, since I was branded with the Darksign, I can never die as a mortal man.” Seven’s voice had formed an angry edge. “Where I’m from it is a Curse that plagues the entire land, and those branded are exiled.” It had become clear that this was not a topic that Seven liked to discuss.
Twilight was about to ask Seven another question, when an arrow whizzed through the air and pierced the center of Seven’s helm, causing his head to whip back. Twilight tried to find where the arrow came from when she heard a squelch as Seven pulled the arrow from his face.
“FUCK!” Seven shouted the word with a strange kind of conviction behind it. Then he growled, a low and primal animal sound.
Seven was about to say something when five more arrows hit various places on his chest. The only way Twilight knew that Seven acknowledged the arrows piercing him was the grunt of pain he made as each one connected. Seven switched the silver ring with the snake on his finger with a ring that had a green flower, and began to sprint away from Twilight. More arrows flew towards him, and Seven would roll to dodge them, though a few would connect with him.
Twilight had never seen somepony run with the speed or intensity that Seven did at that moment. She watched as Seven reached the edge of Ponyville and stop to drink some of his “Estus,” taking three more arrows in his back in the process. Seven didn’t even stop to remove the arrows, he just kept running into the Everfree Forest. Twilight was stupefied by the series of events that had just occurred before her.
~~~~~~
Seven had spent the last several hours running from his assailants and fighting any creature from the forest unfortunate enough to attack him. He had found the ruins of a castle, and had almost kept going when Seven heard the unmistakable hum of a bonfire. So this is where he decided to rest and repair his weapons and armor.
The only question that Seven had was who could already hate him enough to try to kill him? Seven had only been here for less than a day, and yet he now had people or ponies trying to end his life. Seven had to figure out a way to avoid his attackers and find the person in charge of this land. But he was exhausted from today’s ordeals, so he would rest and wait for tomorrow.
The thought of a tomorrow caused Seven to chuckle. Back in Lordran, time was convoluted and the day to night cycle seemed to have stopped. There never seemed to be a tomorrow there, and Seven’s plans always used to be extremely short term. This is the first time that he had to make a plan that dealt with a timescale longer than a couple of hours. These were the last things that Seven thought about as he fell asleep.
“A pyromancer's flame is a part of his own body. The flame develops right along with his skill. … When I gave you that flame, I gave you a part of myself. Please take good care of it.” Laurentius said, his voice made him sound like he was pleading.
“I will keep it safe, my friend. I promise.” Seven replied.
The world stretched as the surroundings changed from the somewhat reassuring ruins of the Firelink Shrine to the scummy bog of the Blighttown Swamp.
“Laurentius don’t do this,” Seven pleaded, the tears almost audible. “Please, don’t make me kill you. I don’t want to kill one of my closest friends.”
The thing that used to be Laurentius only growled and began casting fireballs at Seven. These actions were showing that Laurentius was to far gone, he had completely Hollowed. Seven was heartbroken at this, knowing what he had to do to put his friend to rest. He pulled out a long spear with a flat blade for slashing, a Partizan, and began to fight back against his former friend.
The fight was over in just a short while, Laurentius’ clothes did not protect him from the sharp point of Seven’s spear. As Laurentius’ corpse began falling into the swamp, Seven began to sob for his lost friend.
“Please forgive me Laurentius.” Seven whispered, maybe to his friend’s spirit.
~~~~~~
Seven jerked awake, suddenly aware that his helm had been removed and his legs and arms were bound. There were three shapes chittering and clicking just in front of him, talking in insect-like voices.
“What is this thing? It looks like a small hairless minotaur,” one of the creatures hissed
“Doesn’t matter what it is, it’s food for us now,” another chittered.
The third thing just made noises of agreement to the second’s statement. Seven, getting tired of the waiting, clicked his tongue at the three creatures, drawing their attention.
“Hey fuckwads! What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Seven asked angrily. “I mean I’ve seen some fucked up things, but I don’t think that I’m in Blighttown or the Painted World. Would you be so kind as to tell me what type of unholy abomination I’m talking to?”
The first creature, clearly some sort of bug pony, retorted, “We are Changelings, and we feed on-”
“Okay, that’s all I needed to hear,” Seven interrupted. “Also,you should get better rope next time.”
The second Changeling spoke in a confused tone. “But you’re still tied up, so-”
The Changeling’s sentence was interrupted again, but this time by the sound of Seven cutting through the bindings with his Dark Silver Tracer. All three Changelings stood stupefied as Seven cut the bindings from his ankles.
“Okay, now that that’s done, which one of you wants to die first?” Seven asked while doing an all too familiar gesture, pulling out a large hammer that looked vaguely like a giant tooth, the Dragon’s Tooth.
The third Changeling charged and stabbed his horn into Seven’s left thigh, eliciting a sharp gasp of pain from Seven. The Changeling tried to pull his horn from Seven’s leg, but his horn was stuck on Seven’s femur. With a quick yell, Seven pulled the Changeling from his thigh, separating the horn from the bug pony. He then limped over to the incapacitated Changeling and smashed it with a powerful overhead swing, splattering green ichor all over Seven.
“Now, which of you shitheads is next?” Seven spoke in a tone that was meant to aggravate the Changelings, and it did.
“You motherbucker!” the first Changeling shouted as he flew at Seven, rage practically oozing from his eyes. “I’ll kill you for what you did Steve!”
Seven chuckled at the Changeling’s threat as he swung the Tooth almost like a baseball bat, connecting with the Changeling’s snout. There was a crunching noise, and the Changeling had folded like an accordion. The first Changeling was dead within three seconds of being hit with the Dragon’s Tooth.
“So, are you feeling luckier than your two friends here, or are you smarter than they were?” Seven inquired.
The second Changeling just vomited to the side, and flew away as fast as it could leaving behind two puddles.
“Smart bug,” Seven muttered, wincing in pain from the Changeling horn still in his leg. “Well, I guess I better get moving before he comes back with friends, and try to gank my ass.”
Seven took a quick sip of Estus, noticing that it didn’t heal where the Changeling’s horn was embedded in his leg. Sighing, Seven got up and left the relative safety of the bonfire and ventured back into the forest.
~~~~~~
“Princesses! There’s a strange creature in the castle coming this way!” The Royal Guard shouted as he slammed the door shut, the panic in his voice clearly audible.
Just then, there was a muffled explosion and the door flew open. On the other side was creature with a gold helmet, a steel chestpiece wrapped in a blue cloth, stone gauntlets wrapped in small chains, and golden boots. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna approached the creature, who was limping forward, cautiously.
“What are doing her-” Celestia began, but was silenced as the thing pushed her out of its way.
The armored creature was making a beeline for the thrones, and was quite intent on getting there.
“Answer our sister foul beast or we shall smite thee!” Luna shouted at it.
The creature stopped and turned to look at the princesses, who each took a step back as they felt the sheer rage in its glare.
“WILL YOU GIVE ME FIVE GODDAMN MINUTES TO FIND THE BLOODY BONFIRE YOU FUCKING SHITS?” The creature roared, continuing towards the thrones.
Luna was the first to recover and respond. “No being shall ever speak to me or my sister that way!” Luna said in the Royal Canterlot Voice.
The creature’s only reaction to the Royal Canterlot Voice was to lean slightly towards Luna, to avoid falling over. After Luna had stopped talking, the creature walked past the thrones to the tapestry behind them. It then pulled out a studded leather bracing, a Caestus, and pulled back its arm as if to punch the wall.
Celestia had finally recovered and flew over to Luna. “What in Tartarus so you think you’re doing?” Celestia bellowed, fury apparent in her voice. “That is a priceless artifact that you are about to dest-” She was interrupted when the thing hit the wall, producing a strange sound, and a doorway formed.
“Now let me rest dammit.” The thing sighed as it walked over to the pile of bones and ash with a strange metal rod protruding from it.
The creature held its hand out by the rod and suddenly the bones lit on fire, startling Celestia and Luna. The creature gave a small laugh at the princesses’ expense, and sat down at the fire.
“Sorry for being rude. I’ve been having a rough time lately. Oh and by the way, my name is Seven,” the thing said. “Do you, by chance, know how to remove a Changeling’s horn from a bone?” Seven asked, glancing down at the black spike in his left leg. “The Changeling tried to pull it out and I tried to help him, but I ripped the horn off of its head and then kinda smashed the Changeling with giant tooth.”
Luna and Celestia exchanged a horrified look, then offered to take Seven to the infirmary.
~~~~~~
“This thing should be dead,” the doctor told the princesses. “It doesn’t even have a constant heartbeat, yet it is alive.”
There was the sound of an opening door and then Seven was in the room. The doctors had wanted to remove all of his armor, but Seven had insisted that he keep his helm on. So, all he was wearing was a hospital gown that was almost too small and his golden helmet.
“Actually, you don’t want to think too hard about that sort of thing when it comes to me,” Seven warned the doctor. “All I need you to do is remove the horn from my leg and that’s it. I really don’t like limping everywhere I go.”
The doctor looked questioningly at the princesses, who nodded at him, and then he sighed.
“Right this way sir,” the doctor sighed, dreading the operation that waited ahead.
