//------------------------------// // Chapter 44 // Story: Friendship is Scaleless // by Limescale //------------------------------// White light, heat, pain… Applejack remembered somepony somewhere commented that was what being born was like. All at once the warm, comfortable darkness and silence was interrupted by a sudden influx of sensations from the physical world, and suddenly a pony was crying as they took their first breath, and then took their first step into their new life. Of course, that was still just a hypothesis. No one actually knew what it was like to be born… at least, they shouldn’t… and if they should, there shouldn’t be fire involved, the sensation of the dark suddenly being burned away by a swirling vortex of flames, surrounding and threatening to fry her to a crunchy crisp before she felt herself being hurled out of the void and hitting a solid, ungiving surface at speed. Sadly, poor Applejack got all of the above, and let the world know it with a pain filled cry as the bonfire flames spat her onto the floor of the keep. “AHHHIEEEEEEEE!!!” She wailed as the heat from her body slowly ebbed away. “St-Starry Apples, wha… what just… happened?” The farm mare rose and patted herself over, her face contorting itself into multiple expressions as she sensed something was wrong with her, but it wasn’t on account of being perforated by hundreds of arrows. Rather, it was more how her body felt… cold, her coat thin, skin parched and tight to the extent she could feel her bones poking through it… “What just… no… no please…” The heat slowly left all parts of her body save for one lingering burning sensation… right on the spots where her cutie mark was. “Faust… did Ah…” With shaking hooves, Applejack pulled up the hem of her armored robes. Her sunken eyes stung as she beheld her flank now held the same appearance as Twilight’s after she became undead, and right there, surrounding her apple cutie mark like a brand of shame, was the black ring of the Darksign curse. “Ah did… Ah actually…” Applejack’s parched breath died out as she picked up the sounds of pitched battle below her. She forced herself to her hooves and galloped out of the chamber, finding herself at the same set of stairs that lead to the elevator down to the keep. “Gwyndolin… that… oh Faust, Twi and co are still in there with him!” She said. The farm mare made to descend the stairs, only to find the going wasn’t as smooth as before. Her legs felt… wrong. Like how Granny Smith stated hers felt on certain days, withered and weak, except she was too young to be succumbing to old age… well… she’d BEEN too young… and now she wasn’t likely to ever reach old age, because… Applejack’s increasingly negative thoughts were thankfully interrupted by her stumbling and falling down the stairs. Her body only gave a token response of pain as she bounced and crashed against every step, ending up in a crumpled heap at the bottom. “Ngh… no… no, come on Applejack. Yer friends are in danger. Get up and help them!” The mare shakily got to her hooves again and forced herself to the elevator. Unfortunately, this presented a new problem as she realized said elevator was still all the way at the bottom of the building, where they’d descended to Gwyndolin’s lair. “Okay… look around fer a bit. Gotta be something to call it back up.” Applejack surveyed the darkened surroundings, feeling her spirits lift slightly as she saw there was indeed some manner of lever beside the elevator shaft. “Good, so just gotta pull this, and…” Applejack wrapped her forelegs around the lever and pulled. It refused to budge. “Ergh… and…” She pulled harder, to no avail. Taking a deep breath, Applejack put in even more effort. The lever barely budged. “And… oh come on! This shouldn’t be hard!” She scowled while pulling with all her might. The lever moved slightly, showing it wasn’t jammed or locked in place. Rather, she was just too weak to move it. “Come on… COME ON! Ah’m a darn earth mare! Ah’m stronger than this!” She cried while tugging and tugging. Rather than make the lever submit to their will, her legs just felt like they were going to dislocate from all the strain. Still, Applejack stubbornly kept trying. “Ah moved the lever on the elevator itself no sweat! Ah should be able to do this!” Applejack’s voice went from aggravated to alarm as she still met with zero success. Indeed, eventually her hooves just slipped and she tumbled back to the floor again. “Ah should be… Ah should…” The mare looked at her withered limbs again, the burden of how weakened they were in her undead state now descending upon her. “Mah friends… Ah can’t give up! But… Ah can’t even move a stupid lever…” The mare’s eyes began to sting again, bringing another blow when she realized she couldn’t produce any tears in her state either. Mercifully, she heard the bonfire above bloom again, and the clank of another body falling out of it. Shelving her despair, the mare ran back up to the chamber, gasping at the sight of the Chosen Undead lying prone on the ground by the flames. “Aurelia! Oh starry apples, what happened?” She said while running over. The undead warrior coughed and groaned as she rose from the floor. “A-Applejack? Oh… oh no.” The hollowed female looked up at her surroundings, then at the likewise emaciated and shriveled pony before her. “An old… ’acquaintance’ got the drop on me while I was fighting the Darkmoon Knightess. Took my blade, and with it then my head.” She scowled while standing up. “What happened to you?” Applejack looked at herself and her head sank. “Ah… Ah got careless. That Gwyndolin bastard was ready fer us, like you said. He goaded Seath into attacking him. Ah tried to intervene an… he sprung something Ah didn’t expect.” The mare sniffed. “He… he’s more powerful than any of us were thinkin’… Ah tried to get back but… Ah’m too weak…” The Chosen Undead nodded softly. “That’s how it is being undead. Took me a long time to build my own strength back up to how it was when I was alive.” She dug in her pack and pulled out a humanity sprite. “Here, this will at least help for the moment. Hopefully enough that you can aid me in assisting your friends.” Applejack nodded as she took the black flame, crushing it between her hooves and sighing as it indeed made her feel a bit more energized like her old self. “Ah just… that happened so fast… one second, Ah’d disarmed that monster… the next, I was here.” The Chosen Undead nodded as she made for the stairs. “That’s how it was for me too. Years upon years of training for battle, and one surprise ambush cut my life short in less than 20 seconds. Wasn’t even anyone notable… just a bunch of bandits using a hollowed corpse as bait.” She sighed while grabbing the lever by the elevator and steadily pulling it into the activated position. Though it was visibly an effort, Applejack felt her spirits sink that the female could do what she could not. “That… that a fact?” She said, if for no reason than to give herself something else to focus on. “Indeed. It’s funny in a sense. Until that point I’d never seen a hollow. I stopped and knelt for a closer look, because I had to see if it was like the tales had said. Even now I can remember the body perfectly. It was wearing a set of finely crafted plate mail, the kind elite knights are equipped with and many would covet to own. The head was bare, its skin parched and wrinkled, and it was bald.” The Chosen Undead sighed as the elevator platform rose up into view. “I got down on my knees, leaned over to touch a dark splotch on its cheek… and then I saw it. The Darksign… flaring into being under my fingers.” Idly the female warrior rubbed the identical brand on her neck as the two got on the elevator. “An ember rose from the flames… a tiny little fleck of pure light… of life. I reached out and closed my hands and then…out of nowhere I felt a blade being sunk into my back, then being ripped out. I tried to turn but the bandit stabbed me again and again… till I was dizzy from blood loss, and collapsed.” The Chosen Undead grabbed the handle and twisted it around to make the elevator descend again. “Last thing I remember was their comment that I didn’t look like anyone special, that I probably didn’t have anything of value… and the next thing I knew, I was waking up by the bonfire near my parents’ house…” Applejack’s hollowed sockets widened as best they could as a fresh stab of despair made itself known. “Yer… yer parents?” She asked. “Yes, two of the most notable souls in all of Lordran…. saw to it that I was trained to be their perfect heir… heh heh… seems they didn’t factor in that others might not approve of me.” The Chosen Undead said with a hint of venom. “Didn’t do a damn thing to argue when I was subsequently rejected for being proof of them tarnishing their stature. Something about how one of them shouldn’t have been breeding with the other… about how I was an abomination… like Priscilla…” The elevator at last came to the technicolor walkway, still flowing with the alternating rainbow of light from Discord’s gas lamps. The Chosen Undead scowled that it was now deserted again too. Of course Shiva wouldn’t be one to stick around once he’d claimed his prize, and his first kill with it. “So the purpose I was told would be my destiny from birth got denied to me. Parents just let that be the case, not arguing in my favor at all, and told me I could seek out my own purpose in the world now. I did… and I died.” The Chosen Undead laughed morosely as she hunted in her pack. “But… but what happened after? Ah mean… if you don’t mind mah asking?” Applejack queried. The Chosen Undead drew out a giant sword that looked to be made of craggy rock, with strange runes glowing along its uneven surface. “My parents expressed their sympathy, their sadness, and then they stood idly by again when Gwyn’s knights came to drag me off to the asylum.” The Chosen Undead gripped her massive weapon with white knuckles, hefting it and letting out a low exhale as she got a feel for its immense weight. “Apparently after that, I fell into a coma, or something, for 300 years or more, until I was awakened by the arrival of a good soul that has now also been forced to pay for his benevolence with his life!” Applejack’s ears wilted. “Ah see… geez, Ah… Ah’m sorry Aurelia… Ah didn’t know…” The Chosen Undead shouldered her weapon and shook her head. “You couldn’t have known. I’ve not shared that with… well… anyone. Haven’t had anyone around as of late who seemed like they’d care to hear such a story.” She sighed again. “Strange how you equines seem so much more eager to listen… and easier to talk to than any of my homeland’s inhabitants…” Applejack felt her body tremble with something a little more familiar, another faint ember of her normal self being fanned back into flame. “Yeah, well, we try to be friendly with folk, and that’s what friends do. Jest like they’ll charge back in to help each other, no matter what.” The mare grabbed her bow and smiled slightly at seeing it at least hadn’t been affected by her fiery resurrection. “So let’s get back in there and do that!” The two took off running across the bridge, with the Chosen Undead stopping as she came to a glowing bloodstain. “One second…” She knelt and touched the blemish upon the ground, absorbing the glowing aura into her body. “One crucial tip is to always look out for those if you die. While your equipment may stay with your body, the souls you’ve acquired from your enemies won’t. If you don’t reclaim them from where you fell they’ll just disperse to find other bodies to inhabit. That may be another reason why you’re feeling so weak.” Applejack looked down at the stain. She grimaced at the thought of there being a pool of her own blood sitting pretty somewhere up ahead. “Right, Ah’ll… erm… be on the lookout for that.” She said before her ears picked up on the sounds of battle… and of Discord. “Fore! Fore!” There came the sound of a golf club smacking a ball, which then pinged off the metal body of an enemy. “Five!” Another ping. “Six!” Another. “Seven! Eight! Nine! Ten! And all the way up to five million!” The metal body was suddenly ringing like a phone from being pelted with a maelstrom of golf balls, finally collapsing under the barrage. “Hmmm, that had less effect than I was hoping for. Maybe if I tried something softer?” Applejack and the Chosen Undead ran into the tomb to find the Chaos God staring inquisitively at a massacre. Blue phantom bodies and painting guardians were piled five deep around the bonfire, riddled with everything from suction cup darts, to miniature swordfish, to champagne corks, and there was one individual who appeared to have been tarred and feathered, with so much tar that they were completely immobilized. “Ah, how about you three? Do you know what pi cubed is?” Discord asked to a trio of phantoms freshly emerging from the bonfire. They responded by raising hammers and axes in preparation for battle. “I’ll take your silence as a no. Don’t worry, it’s very simple. Basically you take several dozen pies, and make them into cubes.” The chaos god replied as multiple versions of his eagle talon and lion paw suddenly appeared from the ground, each of them brandishing a fresh baked perfectly cuboid shaped pie in a square tin. “The right angles make them particularly good for knocking one off their feet, ensuring you have time to laugh and make a hasty getaway. Particularly if you use a very heavy cream!” Discord chortled as the trio of Darkmoon Blades were promptly splattered with pie until they fell down dead from the sheer weight of the baked pastry and cream filling. “Naturally you have to make sure you do this on March 14th to get the full effect but exceptions can always be made.” He smiled while clapping his hands. “Right, who’d like to next learn about square roots, and how effective they are at doing one’s head in? Literally and figuratively speaking, of course!” The Chosen Undead looked at the carnage let out a disturbed exhale. “If I’m not being rude in asking, am I meant to laugh at your patchwork friend’s antics, or be horrified by them?” She asked. Applejack held a hoof to her throat as she looked likewise sickened. “Take yer pick. Pretty sure he’d deem either one a compliment to his skill.” The undead mare replied as she forded through the slowly vanishing bodies. “Havin’ fun here, Discord?” The chaos good looked up from where he was raising multiple tree roots with very acute 90 degree angles, sharp enough to cleave the legs off whoever was unfortunate in tripping over them. “Oh… well… my time out here with these good folk has been simply marvelous!” He smiled, before the smile lost some of its mirth. “Given you’re now out here too though, and looking quite a bit less ‘perky’ than normal, I might gather the little chat with Gwyndolin isn’t going so well?” Applejack looked to the brick wall, beyond which lay the fog gate leading to the Dark Sun’s domain. “Sorta. Think he needs someone who’s good at using harsher language. Mind helping me with that? ‘Cause Ah’m aiming to beat him down with his own snake legs for what he did to me!” She scowled. Discord smiled in a manner that was borderline psychotic. “My word Applejack, a few moments being dead and look what a difference it’s made to you! Kind of makes me a bit choked up to be honest.” He said while clasping his hands to his face. Several more blue phantoms emerged from the bonfire to try and get in on the moment of cheer. “Oh I’m so sorry everyone, but class has been suspended for some private discussions with your boss. You’ll all have to wait outside.” Discord snapped his tail and all the present Darkmoon Blades vanished in a flash. There then came the screams of several dozen bodies plummeting to their deaths. “A crying shame the architects of this place didn’t include anywhere to stand beside that walkway leading to the door, eh? Such terrible disregard for health and safety. I love it!” The chaos god snickered as he turned to the brick wall. Grabbing it with both hands he rolled it into a huge ball of taffy and popped it in his mouth. “We’d better restore our humanity. If Gwyndolin is holding his own against all of your friends I don’t want to leave anything to chance.” The Chosen Undead knelt and reached to grab the coiled sword in the center of the bonfire. Applejack did the same and both felt themselves be reinvigorated along with their normal appearance. “Oh I’m sure he’s just being a typical rambunctious youth. You know how it is!” Discord loftily described as he descended the stairs to the fog gate. “Never listening to his parents, always wanting to be a ruffian…” Applejack and the Chosen Undead followed through, to behold the hallway looked even more smashed to bits than before. “Causing thousands of bits in property damage… forcing others to conduct mid-battle surgery… eh?” Discord paused as he beheld Priscilla biting down on the length of her scythe. Behind her, Flutteryshy was hastily tying a tourniquet around the mid-point of her tail while Spike held one of his curved dueling swords over the lower half. “So… there’s a blade… inside your tail? An actual cutting weapon implanted under the flesh?” The dragon asked lightly prodding the fluffy length. “T’is not an uncommon practice amidst these lands. Velka did desire to see I was armed for any manner of opposition, and many doth share a weakness to weapons of an occult status.” Priscilla explained impatiently. “Right… just… a sharp edge, inside your tail… sorry, the idea makes me a bit queasy.” Spike said while gagging. “Okay so, I just cut right here… one quick stroke… like slicing a tomato in half… sort of…” Fluttershy tested her tourniquet, and confirmed it would quickly stop the bleeding. “Please make haste, noble Spike. Mine father’s rage is great as any beast, but against Gwyndolin, I fear it may not be sufficient.” Priscilla looked down the hall, cringing as Seath blasted away at the retreating Dark Sun, who simply teleported himself away from every attack then pelted the dragon with return arrows and sorceries. Crystallized blood was raining onto the ground in great cacophonous piles from Seath’s open wounds, yet still he pressed onward. “I’m trying… I just… I’ve never done this before. Not on anything living!” Spike took a deep breath and tried to still the shaking of his hands. “Okay just gotta focus. One quick stroke. I’m a dragon, I’ve already killed like a dozen bad guys already…” Spike raised his blade, then let it fall again as his arm shook even more. “Dammit. I’m sorry! I… whenever I did this before it was always to just put the darn hollowed out of their misery. Keep swinging and cutting them till they stop moving. It’s not the same trying to make a precise non-fatal incision on a living being!” With a sharp inhale, Fluttershy walked over. “Then let me do it, Spike. I’ve had to operate on animals before… oooh… not that I mean you’re an animal, Miss Priscilla! Just I’m a caretaker for the fauna around Ponyville and sometimes a few of them need a bit of surgery to fix what’s wrong with them. You, you’re a fine, upstanding sentient being of course!” The pegasus whimpered as she tried to desperately recover from her faux pas. Priscilla sighed and nodded tersely. “Please, perform the duty I ask of thee, and all shall be forgiven.” She said. With another heavy breath, Fluttershy grabbed Spike’s sword. “Right, okay here goes.” The pegasus placed the edge of the blade on a spot just under the tourniquet and mentally marked where to cut. She then raised the blade and brought it down, slicing off half of the crossbreed’s tail neatly and with a minimum of bloodshed. “Th-Thank you.” Priscilla said tearfully as Fluttershy applied a wad of gauze to the bleeding stump. “Spike, hold this while I extract the weapon.” The pegasus ordered. Spike did so and swallowed nauseously as Fluttershy picked up the severed length of tail and plunged her hoof into the wet, bloody muscle tissue. “Okay… I feel something… yeah, I think that’s it. Just need to get a grip, and…” Fluttershy pulled her hoof back out, revealing a long, gleaming dagger, really more of a short sword, with a lethally sharp, curved blade. She shook some of the gore off it, and exhaled at how the blackened metal of its construct gleamed in the pale light from the windows. “Wow… and… eewwww. You had that inside you?” Spike said. Priscilla looked at him, not quite believing he needed to have it explained to him again. “Right, right, I already asked that. Let’s just get you patched up and see about putting it to good use.” He said hoarsely. With a sigh, Discord stepped forward. “Well if you’re going to be that squeamish about it, then allow me to solve the problem.” He snapped his fingers and the severed part of Priscilla’s tail flashed back onto the remainder, just without the dagger inside it. “A tail as fluffy looking as that shouldn’t be desecrated anyway!” Priscilla blinked in amazement and wiggled her tail. The only discomfort she got was the tightness of the tourniquet, and even that ceased to bother her when Discord gave her tail a long, teasing stroke to check the nerves along its length were functioning properly. “I… while it would have grown back on its own… thou… thou art kind indeed to expedite the process.” She said in a slightly squeaky voice as Discord rubbed the tip of her tail. “Well it seemed a worthwhile payment for giving us another toy to play with.” Discord smiled at the dagger as Fluttershy cleaned it of blood. “So what makes this hidden weapon of yours so special?” Priscilla held up her scythe. “That which maketh it a fitting counterpart to this. Imbued art both with mine own power of Lifehunt. For every strike dealt by they, mine enemies blood runneth twice as much. With the dagger’s occult status, no resistance to magic nor miracle can hope to oppose the damage it deals.” Spike nodded. “Right, so no matter how tough Gwyndolin may be, that’ll still stop him in his tracks. Question is, how do we get close enough to stick him with it?” Applejack looked down the hall, feeling her anger rise as she saw Gwyndolin detonate another soul bomb, sending Seath flying back into Twilight just as she tried running from cover to his aid. “Ah got an idea. Discord, think you can maybe see that Gwyndolin stays in place fer a few minutes? Just so we can catch up to him?” Applejack queried. Discord reached up and tapped one of the broken walls with his eagle talon. “I’m sure I could. Impressive as this whole construct is, I’m willing to wager my left arm it’s about as real as that three headed, duck billed rabbit I conjured up for the Ponyville pet competition.” Discord looked to his lion paw and popped it off his body, laying it on the ground as an ante. He then pulled a duplicate lion paw out of his chest fur and snapped it in place. “Fortunately, I have spares if I happen to be wrong about that.” He chuckled. Applejack let out a long, angry breath. “Jest see what you can do to stop that monster from teleporting away. Ah’m gonna try and help keep him distracted.” She said while twanging the taught string of her bow. The Chosen Undead looked to the arrows in the mare’s quiver, tsking that they were all of the relatively light feather construct. “You’re going to need something that hits harder for that sort of tactic. Here.” The warrior reached into her pack and drew out a quiver of larger steel arrows. “These don’t have as great a range, but they’ll definitely cause a lot more damage.” Applejack looked and snorted at the big, very dangerous looking projectiles. “Ah’ll put ‘em to good use. Thanks, Aurelia.” She swapped quivers and charged at the blizzard of blue sorceries being traded back and forth. “Revel in thine agony, dragon. Feel the suffering that thou hast heaped upon all of Lordran!” Gwyndolin taunted as he dodged a flurry of dark beads and countered with another wave of pure magical energy. Seath dove for cover and roared as his wings were seared from the intensity of the attack. “I assure thee, these injuries thou deals, thine efforts to punish me for mine trespasses, is all done in vain.” The great white dragon scornfully replied. “For millennia longer than thou hath I drawn upon these lands, throughout the Age of Ancients, amidst mine brethren, the Everlasting Dragons, and all that time hath I known only hate!” Gwyndolin swept his catalyst across the hall, unleashing another wave. Seath just let this one hit him, too angry to pay attention to the pain. Cringing, Twilight ran out into the line of fire and threw up a barrier to deflect most of it away from her teacher. “Hate for mine feeble form, hate for mine stark pale skin, hate for mine mortality, mine blindness, mine desire to utilize intelligence rather than strength. Whatever suffering thou hast endured, ne’er could it compare to mine own!” He spat at Gwyndolin. The Dark Sun tilted his golden headdress down in a reproachful manner. “And thus thine acts after art justified? Thine kidnapping of maidens across the land? Thine experiments to subject them to a life of endless torture? Thine self-imposed exile and abandonment of thine dukedom to rot?” Gwyndolin challenged as he readied his bow. “Dost thou believe past tragedy excuses present sin?” “No.” Seath turned as a flurry of steel arrows flew past him towards the Dark Sun. Gwyndolin dropped to the floor, charging his catalyst to counter as the projectiles nicked the spikes on his headdress. “But given what you’ve been doing to get rid of us, it marks ya as one heck of a major hypocrite!” Applejack stated as she galloped up to Seath’s side. Twilight gasped and dropped her catalyst. “Applejack! But… I saw… you…” Twilight stammered. Applejack nodded grimly. “Ah did… Twi. Ah did.” She said while pulling up her robe to reveal the Darksign on her flank. Twilight gasped and felt her eyes start to tear up. “Applejack… I.. I’m so sorry!” She meeped. The farm mare just glowered as she spied her glowing bloodstain and smashed her hoof onto it. Almost instantly she felt more like her old self as all the souls she’d collected previously infused themselves back into her body. “Not yer fault, Twi. Noponies fault but this bucker.” She said while notching more arrows into her bow. “Don’t care how justified yer hatred of Seath may be. Yer gonna pay for what you’ve done!” Gwyndolin shook his head in disappointment. “Mine debt is great indeed, for being a fool deceived by those cloaked in good intentions, for not persuading the Great Lord that a plague sat waiting in his own house… for not making right by my status as Anor Londo’s last god, and wiping out that plague with all haste!” Gwyndolin beat Applejack to the arrow contest by pelting her, Seath and Twilight with his own bolts. The farm mare dodged and rolled behind a pillar. “In due course shall I pay what I owe, but to they that art my rightful collector. Not to the hollowed!” Gwyndolin shot another arrow into the air. Recognizing what this meant, Twilight erected an enormous magical dome over her, Applejack and Seath. “Not to thee, mindless followers of the undead flock!” Applejack pulled her Stetson down over her head and silently prayed as the downpour of arrows clattered relentlessly off her friends’ barrier. “And most certainly, not to the traitor I foolishly once embraced as teacher, and friend!” Gwyndolin finished, sighing as his arrow avalanche ceased with the intended targets still huddled together under their pitiful magic dome. He charged another bomb to blast them all to smithereens… only for a new contender to then somersault over the dome and attempt to cut him down where he stood. He teleported away again as a massive blade sliced through the air before him. “How about to me, then? The one you apparently wanted to succeed in her quest?” The Chosen Undead challenged as she wrenched her dragon greatsword out of the deep fissure it had cut into the floor. Gwyndolin stared at it in disgust, then at her in disappointment. “Thine quest charged thee to serve the gods, not destroy them! Thou endangers all of Lordran with this act!” He said, scoffing as the Chosen Undead rolled under his next flurry of soul spears and forced him to deflect her blade. “So you say, but given you deceived me with the illusion of Gwynevere, and the true purpose of my becoming the bearer of the Lordvessel, I have to wonder how much truth there is to any of your statements.” The warrior scornfully replied. She executed an overhead swing. Gwyndolin caught it with the middle of his catalyst. “Certainly doesn’t paint you in a very good light as a god of Lordran.” Gwyndolin grit his teeth as he struggled against the undead’s weapon. “Do not believe, for a moment e’en, thou art capable of comprehending a higher being. No human nor beast can conceive of the sacrifices the gods hath made for the Age of Fire, what pacts I hath made in defense of Anor Londo.” The Dark Sun seethed. “Like they who cometh afore thee, thou art a tool to make possible a solution. No more, and no less!” The Chosen Undead raised an eyebrow, and her grip on her weapon slackened slightly. “Those who came before me?” She asked, before being blown back into Seath by Gwyndolin detonating his still charged soul bomb. “Didst thou believe thine status unique? That thine quest was charged to thee because no others were worthy?” Gwyndolin smiled again. “How pitiful art the lower life forms of Lordran. All evidence is made clear to thee, yet like the traitor, thou art blind to it all.” Seath grumbled weakly as he pulled the Chosen Undead out of his chest, feeling his bones ache from the impact of her heavily armored body. The two regarded each other, and nodded they really were reaching their limit of how much they were willing to hear Gwyndolin talk. “Thine voice hath strengthened since last we spoke. Never didst thou have so much to say before.” The dragon replied as he fished out his estus flask at the same time the undead did. Both drank and healed themselves in a manner that almost came off as camaraderie. “For too long have I wallowed here with none to hear mine confession. If thou wilt not heed my warning and seek to end my life, then no further cause hath I to hold mine silence.” Gwyndolin said with greater gravitas. “Time doth flow through Lordran like the Great Lord’s flames, chaotic and without direction. For centuries I hath seen thousands come from many realms and many worlds, all charged to be they who at last linketh the fire and save Lordran, and all finding their doom when at last the curse claims their flesh…” The Chosen Undead held her blade at the ready, yet her stance still wavered. “What are you saying?” She demanded. Gwyndolin bowed his head solemnly. “Thou deems thyself THE Chosen Undead. I know thou art only A Chosen Undead. One of the many sent by Frampt to keep the Great Lord’s flames burning.” The serpentine human sighed. “T’was his and mine aim to see that a rightful king take the place of the Great Lord in the Kiln. T’was fate’s own sinister machinations to see that now, after endless attempts, we still fail.” The Chosen Undead’s dragon greatsword slowly alighted on the ground, dragged by its weight eventually overpowering her muscles. “I’m… you… thousands of undead have been chosen to do this?” She said breathlessly. “Aurelia, don’t listen to him! He’s trying to confuse us… probably telling us more lies!” Twilight intervened. “Yeah… I dunno. If that’s the case… Ah may have to ask Pinkie if she still has that mouthwash. Thinking we let Frampt off too lightly if that’s what he’s been up to.” Applejack seethed. The female warrior looked back at Seath. “Have… have others faced you like I did? How many times have you fought warriors like me?” Seath looked down in confusion. “None… though that confirms not that there were never others seeking my demise. Again and again, souls invade from other times and lands… and in those other times and lands, these events repeat. T’is not impossible to believe there were others before thee…” The dragon contemplated sagely. He looked to Gwyndolin in demand for more answers. “This thou knowest as truth?” Gwyndolin nodded as he gripped his catalyst for comfort. “The gods know all that occur in all times… here, and beyond Lordran. Many Chosen Undead of equally little worth there were before her…” The Dark Sun then spun himself around unleashing alternating waves of blue energy at the party. “And many there will be after!” Equines, humans, and dragons alike were flung like dolls through the wreckage of the hallways. Gwyndolin teleported himself away again as everyone picked themselves up out of the collapsing masonry. “Okay… that’s it, Ah am through listenin’ to this creep’s blabber!” Applejack swore as she bucked broken pieces of statue off her. “Cover me, everybody. Ah got a mouth to pin shut! Seath likewise pulled himself from the rubble, and hastily began searching for Twilight. To his relief, the alicorn revealed herself by blasting the head of another fallen statue off her body. “Right behind you, Applejack.” Twilight swore as she pulled out her own estus flask and healed herself up. More soul spears and arrows burst out from the shadows of the hall. Twilight threw up her barrier and forced her way through them, while Applejack adopted the zigzag approach her friend had suggested earlier. “Ah don’t care if you’ve been sending folk to die fer a cause only you support, Ah don’t care that you’ve got so many dirty secrets about everyone to spill, Ah don’t care if Seath really is guilty fer all the things you say about him…” Applejack rolled and dashed through the relentless storm of projectiles. “What Ah do care about is you clearly ain’t worthy of being a god and ruler of this place, and you ain’t worthy of being spared after what you did!” Gwyndolin sighed and fired another arrow into the rafters. Realizing what this meant, Applejack tried a new tactic: that is she vaulted over a broken pillar and galloped with all her might to get up close and personal to the Dark Sun. Though the torrential rain of bolts did their job in stopping Twilight, this time they didn’t save Gwyndolin from getting a well-deserved buck in the ribs from the alicorn’s friend. “Yer joinin’ Tirek and the others down in Tartarus, you monster!” Applejack declared as she sent the Dark Sun flying.