LESSER EVERFREE
Karen walked forward slowly, shield ready to repel any attack that came at her. Nothing had appeared for a few moments since she’d started down the path, but no chances could be taken. From Lordran to Oolacile, no place had been good to her since leaving the Asylum.
She saw sparsely placed ruins along the way. Her eyes were wide open to anything that would harm her – or help her, as laughable as the thought was. Help in Lordran was sparse, and even that help eventually came back to haunt her.
Solaire…
Karen thought about the knight once again. He had been one of the few undead that hadn’t been depressed out of their mind – one of the few warriors that could be undead and still pursue the dream.
And then those damnable insects in that damnable hell had torn that knight from her. She had admired the incredible knight, even to the moment she had put her sword through his throat.
Enough.
Karen didn’t know exactly what made the undead go Hollow, but idle thoughts like that certainly wouldn’t help. Besides, the landscape had changed.
The path in front of her had turned into a fork, and it was a fork she had to think on. To the right stood a ruined coliseum with the white fog in its entrance. That way led to some incredible beast that could likely kill her. To the left led a bridge over a huge gorge.
Karen thought a moment. The bonfire wasn’t that far back, and if need be she could fight the thing again if she failed the first time.
It was decided. She turned toward the white fog and had her weapons at the ready. Whatever was across that fog was about to die, and didn’t know it.
She pushed through, feeling its strange silkiness on her… coat. It tingled, like always. On the other side, the sight of a humanoid with a bloated head awaited her. The familiar sight made her go cold.
No. Not again.
It noticed her. She stared back, frozen. Suddenly, a knight in silver armor fell on the thing, its sword piercing the thing’s head.
“No.”
The knight waited a moment, then shoved the blade deeper.
“I killed you already. I had your soul in my hand.”
The knight looked at her, and stood up.
“I killed you, Artorias. I saw you die with my blade in your chest.”
But instead of attacking her, he walked forward and fell to a knee in front of her. Karen stared.
“And I thank you for doing so, warrior. Manus defeated me. I fell. But you killed me before I could destroy my honor. You saved my companion. Good warrior, I thank you, and for some reason, I have the ability to do so.”
“I… didn’t want to.” Karen trembled.
“I am dead – I know this. But for some reason, the abyss spread, and its memory of me brought me back for a fleeting moment. And-“
But before the knight could continue, a giant version of the enemy Artorias had felled crashed into the ground behind the warrior.
“Artorias!” Karen yelled. The knight rolled to the side just as an oversized fist fell to the ground where he had just been.
“To arms!” The knight yelled. At the sound of that, Karen rushed forward, and swung her sword at the beast’s leg. It bit, but didn’t seem to cause it pain. It turned, focusing on her, and swung a giant fist at her.
Karen snapped her shield up to block the attack, but it was swept aside and the fist connected with her side. With a yelp, she was sent flying.
Artorias snuck forward, taking advantage of the enemy’s distraction. He sunk his blade into its side, causing it to scream in pain. Its other giant fist fell toward the warrior, but he had retrieved his sword and fell back out of reach.
The thing ran at Artorias, arms swinging wildly. Karen, having gotten up by now, dropped her sword and brought her bow in front of her. She nocked an arrow (not bothering to figure out how she knew what to do with this new sorcery) and let it fly.
Being an incredible shot with her bow had its benefits. The arrow flew true and struck the bloated head right in the back. It lunged forward, and arched its back backwards and screamed again. Instead of turning towards Karen, it began to swing its arms wildly.
“Get back,” Artorias yelled to Karen.
Karen complied, but when Artorias refused to do the same, Karen cried out.
“No! Don’t you dare!”
Over the din of the screaming enemy, Artorias raised his helmet’s faceplate, revealing only darkness within, and spoke in a clear voice.
“Good Warrior, I did not lie when I said a fleeting moment – I am dead. I will use this moment to do a favor to the one who set me free from the Abyss.”
With those words, Artorias charged forward. The beast looked at the knight charging it, and stopped its wild movements. It raised its fist.
Artorias plunged his blade through the thing’s chest with a great jump. As soon as the blade had sunk in fully, the beast’s fist came down. With frightening speed, it pushed the knight into the ground with a final *thunk*.
Karen screamed unintelligibly and nocked another arrow. With rage in her eyes, she let it loose. The arrow hit the screaming beast in the head again, and with this shot, the corrupted human fell to the ground, motionless, its screams dying away.
Karen panted a moment, looking around. Artorias’ armor was nowhere in sight. He’d been right – the smallest of threads had kept him around, and now his time was truly up. It meant the world to her that the corrupted knight had had a few last moments free of the Abyss, free to return a favor he could never have expected to return.
She had to find the one who had spread the Abyss – this Manus, the beast she had thought she’d defeated.
The coliseum was silent around her. The beast they’d killed leaked blood on the ground, refusing to die away into pure souls like many of her enemies. Karen felt the souls from the beast enter her, but its corpse still existed, perhaps mocking the memory of the proud knight.
She’d heard so much about the knights of Gwyn, and she realized that she’d felled nearly every one of them. She was glad to have truly met one.
Her side hurt. She drank some estus, gasping as the pain in her side subsided and filled with a pleasant burn. Her wounds healed, she-
“aaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!”
Above her, falling from the sky, seemed to be another horse. Frowning, Karen wondered at its origin. She then realized that it was falling and might die.
Without thinking, she used the mysterious sorcery she had developed to try and catch the thing – to her surprise, it worked.
She gently lifted the horse, another weird looking horse! thing down to the ground. The horse’s eyes were shut tightly. Karen took the opportunity to study it.
She noted the horn almost immediately. Unicorn? Interesting. The abyss must have had some strange things in it. It was almost completely white, with a bluish mane and tail.
It opened its eyes and stared at her.
“Hello,” Karen ventured, wondering if it could speak like her.
“I… I’m not dead.” It COULD talk. Good news.
“No, you’re not. You’re welcome. Where did you fall from?”
Karen was used to meeting others in strange circumstances, so was easily adapting to the situation.
“I fell from Canterlot Castle… wait, where am I?”
“How should I know? You’re in some strange coliseum in some strange forest. That’s all I know.”
The unicorn got to its feet and looked around. “Everfree? But Canterlot is… I don’t even know anymore.” He looked up and seemed unsurprised to find nothing but sky above him.
“Name’s Shining Armor. I’m captain of the guard up in Canterlot.”
“Canter… lot. Hm. Well. I’m Karen, nice to meet you.”
Shining Armor looked at her, wondering at her armor and gear. “Why are you in full armor?”
Karen laughed, confusing him even more. “Why aren’t you? Why am I a horse? Countless questions, unnecessary answers. We all just go on and do our duty. Learned that from a smug bastard I had to kill.”
Karen started walking out of the coliseum, ignoring him. She made her way back to the bonfire. Shining Armor, confused, followed her. “What’s going on here?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Why are we horses?”
“Horses?” Shining was confused. “We’re ponies. But why don’t you know that?”
“I’m human,” Karen said, not bothering to look behind her. “On that note, why can I use sorcery?”
Shining, still confused, shook his head. “I don’t know what you mean. You’re a unicorn. Magic is natural.”
She looked back at him sharply. “Magic? We can’t do magic anymore. Just Sorcery, Pyromancy and Miracles.”
The confused stallion just shook his head. “What in the world are you talking about?”
The two broke into the clearing that held the bonfire.
Karen simply walked to the bonfire and sat down, letting it calm her. Shining Armor walked over as well and sat on the other side.
“You know nothing of Lordran? Of the Undead curse?”
Shining Armor shook his head.
“Well then. I’ll relate what I know…”
Karen ended up saying everything she knew about her curse, and then followed up by relating the events that had followed her journey to Lordran. Shining Armor sat at attention the entire time.
When she had finished relating her tale, Shining Armor spoke up.
“So. You can’t die.”
Karen nodded. “When I die, I lose my humanity and souls. If I don’t find them before I die again, they disappear.”
“I don’t see why that’s so terrible.”
“That’s the thing. I can’t die. Even if I wanted to, I can’t. I think that’s why so many of us go hollow.”
The stallion pondered those words. “Then you have no idea what’s going on here?”
Karen shook her head. “None at all.”
Shining Armor in return related what he knew of Equestria to her, so she would understand her form and why she could do what she could.
He was silent a moment after, then looked sharply at her.
“Well, my wife is somewhere in this mess that used to be Equestria. I’m going to do what I can to fix this.”
Karen looked at him, then nodded. “Then let’s go defeat the Abyss together.”