From Lordran to Equestria

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.