Staring at the plate of pancakes Artorias pondered on how they manage to create something this delicious, without a second thought he shovelled another forkful into his waiting jaws. Luna stared in disgust at his table manners all the while Celestia tried to not burst out laughing, nearly choking on her cup of tea. Cadence and Shining Armour stood nearby, trying to process what is going on in front of them. “So, what is your name?” Celestia asked.
“We already know that…” Her younger sister rolled her eyes, earning a small slap on the back of her head.
“Let him speak his name to us, so we can be sure.”
Taking a second to swallow the remains of the chewed up mess that was his pancakes Artorias coughed slightly, taking gulp of the cup of water nearby him and taking a sigh of satisfaction. “My name is Sir Knight Artorias, or Artorias the Abysswalker, m’ladies.” He bowed his head. “And I thank thee for thine generosity.”
“It was our pleasure.” Both princesses replied at once, bowing their heads in return.
“What are your duties if we may ask?” Luna enquired, leaning in to listen clearly with a curious smile. “And don’t be so formal, good sir, relax.”
He was not sure if he should tell them, lest they panic at the thought of his enemy probably following him into this dimension. They however seemed mature enough…or at least he hoped they were considering that they bicker half the time like children, the rivalries of siblings never change. But he would give them the benefit of the doubt for his tale.
“My duty was to eliminate a threat that could have taken over the land of Lordran and send it into eternal darkness and despair. His name was Manus, Father of The Abyss. A primeval man driven to madness by the foolishness of the people I had the unfortunate pleasure of protecting, sadly their foolishness lead to the downfall of Oolacile and the death of all it’s inhabitants. Fearing that The Abyss would spread outside of Oolacile, Lord Gwyn sent me on a pilgrimage to create a covenant with the creatures of The Abyss, allowing me to traverse freely. This earned me my title as The Abysswalker.” He sighed and sat back, clearly the next half of his tale had more woe than he was willing to say. “With my companion, Sif, we travelled into the town. It was a sight of destruction and disease, those creatures known as Bloatheads were once human, once citizens. I had no choice but to cleave my way through them, their blood spilling all over my armour and tainting it with the corruption of The Abyss itself. Once we reached the chasm all we could do was run, those phantoms of what humans call ‘humanity’ ran rampant through the caves as well as Bloatheads deeply corrupted to the point of pure animalistic instinct. As a result I had to leave my shield behind to protect Sif and face Manus alone with only my sword, the battle to his domain left me weary and, I was no match for him even if I had my shield. He did this to me with only one arm.” Pointing to his shattered arm, which seemed to be healing a little. “The rest I do not remember apart from meeting an undead who ended my misery and from what I can gather, slain Manus in my name if he has succeeded.”
This was certainly a fable of epic proportions, if Manus had followed him here The Abyss would most certainly overtake the world if he was not stopped. This was something Celestia was sure of, it had to be sealed and sent away before any serious damage is caused. “Is there any way to stop this spread if it happens here and get rid of it?” Artorias shook his head, something that disheartened her immensely.
“There is however a way to stop it from spreading, just not contain it, not the source at least.” He replied to ease her thoughts.
Luna tapped her chin. “Well, most likely is this Manus creature followed through a dimensional rip. If he did make it through the best solution should be to banish him back though the portal and find a way to sever the connection between our worlds.”
“Good luck with that,” Artorias replied. “You would have to be godde-. Oh. Well even so it will be a very draining task indeed.”
“You’re right.” A voice replied, definitely not one of the princesses. The Abysswalker stared all over the room to find the source of the voice. “Over here.” Was his spoon…talking? Two pairs of mismatched eyes appeared on Artorias’ reflection in the utensil, getting jumped a bit he dropped the spoon on the table. “Ow!” A head replaced the spoons face before the whole thing expanded, transforming into a large serpentine body. “Hold on a second.” Raising the end of the tail which had a fuzzy section creating a finger using the universal hand sign for ‘wait’. Taking a deep breath the face puffed it’s cheeks as an antler and dragon horn appeared in it’s head with two pops, four more pops were followed with an eagle talon and lions paw showing up for hands and a cloven hoof along with a lizard tail foot for legs. The figure coiled up into the air before resting back on the air like a hammock.
“State your name!” Artorias yelled, standing up to face this creature. Luna and Celestia were dumbfounded, nopony or nobody had addressed Discord in such a threatening matter without a weapon in centuries, save for the Element of Harmony, Fluttershy.
Discord flew down to come face to face. “My name is Discord,” He stepped back midair and bowed in an exaggerated manner. “God of all things chaotic.” The self proclaimed chaotic god conjured a stiff piece of paper between the fingers of his lions paw before handing it to Artorias. “Here, my business card.”
Cocking an eyebrow at the spectacle that was a business card Artorias could not resist giving it a closer inspection, once he was close enough the image of Discord holding a party popper on the card came to life and pulled the string, sending confetti flying out the card and into Artorias’ face. “…Amusing…” He grumbled.
“Thank you.” Discord bowed. “Now back to business, a space time rip is really a pickle to patch up, it takes dimensional thread and magic precise enough to sew it together.” A strand of white energy appeared in his hands, now in a grandmother costume knitting the thread on a cotton candy rocking chair. “And it can be tiring too.” The clothes and thread dissipated. “BUT!” Holding a finger from his lion’s paw up. “It can be possible with the right tools and magic, but the question is where is this portal located?” Discord began pacing the length of the table, his body stopping where Artorias sat. The knight that sat at the table did know which to focus on, the oddity floating in front of him or the set of legs pacing on the table without a body. “You wouldn’t happen to be able to sense where portals like that come from?”
“Isn’t that your job?” Luna interjected with a scowl.
“Hellooo? Anypony home?” He started knocking her head with a cane shaped like a fist on top. “I’m still practicing how to work with Lordran’s aura frequency.” The chaos god’s body split from his head and flew to Artorias with arms folded and a face appearing on the belly right below his crossed arms. “Back to where I was, can you?”
“I… I’m not sure if I can, I was once corrupted by The Abyss. If I was corrupted I would be able to sense it.”
Discord’s body parts reconnected. “On the contrary, you still are.” This caused The Abysswalker to recoil in horror, if he was still corrupted why hasn’t it taken total control? “It reeks of moon butts’s cold pizza still in the fridge.” Waving a talon in front of his nose which scrunched up.
“Hey!”
“Either you’re too far from the source or the source is toying with you or it is currently too weak. I prefer the first choice, either way the sooner the source is gotten rid of, the sooner you can be saved.” He sounded serious, dead serious. And very rarely was he this serious. “But first, I think we would fare better with your companions.”
“You’re saying my captain and comrades are here too?!” Artorias questioned, resting a hand on the table as he got up again. The notion of his comrades alone being in this world had the knight excited.
“I don’t know that for sure, but the gryphon squad and the wonderbolts have been deployed around the planet.” A small globe of Equs rotating between his hands. “And once they are found,” Discord tossed the globe like a basketball into a hoop that appeared out of nowhere and into a small sack. “The rest is in the bag. Any more questions?”
“Yes, how did you clean my armour?” Abyss sludge was difficult to clean and it spread like a pestilence, unfortunately for him it clung to him and his armour like glue.
“Well, it took a while but with Celestia’s and moon butt’s help we did seal the residue inside this sphere.” He help up a sphere with the sludge inside it, writhing like a mass of worms. As soon as Artorias was within it’s sights it beat against the transparent sphere relentlessly, even letting off a squeal of desperation to return to the warmth of it’s host. “I named him Venom.” Discord added with a goofy grin.
——————
“Grr! (We’re here!)” Growled Sif, standing in front of a large crumbling castle that for whatever reason had stayed intact for thousands of years. Ciaran hopped off his back, her belly and arms sore after such a ride through the forest. Sniffing the air one last time to be sure of the location he caught another faint scent, his usually stoic expression lightened and now he was panting like an excited husky.
“Are…you ok…?”
Bounding in without another word, or growl, the sounds of laughter and cheering between two creatures were heard. Curious to what is going on, Ciaran searched for her Gold and Silver Tracers yet they were nowhere to be found. Of course. She gave them to a human in return for his generosity in giving her Artorias’ soul, which was also gone. Entering bare handed the assassin was met with quite a sight. Sif was on top of someone licking happily at his face while her comrade, Hawkeye Gough laughed heartily. The laughing died down and Sif got off the victim of his slobbery tongue, sitting on his haunches. Ciaran’s footsteps were now audible to Gough who turned to her. “Lord’s Blade Ciaran! You’re here too?”
Nodding slowly, trying to adjust herself she was met with whom Sif had slobbered all over. Recoiling in surprise she was met with the true unsung hero for slaying Manus, Kurai Mokusei, towering over her. “Human?!”
“Faceless?” Kurai joked in return to her address of him, something that earned a chuckle from Gough. Her face was always obscured by a porcelain mask with ivory hair so little was known of her true form apart from her being a female, as a result she was thought of as faceless.
“So, you’re here too.” Ciaran began, a hint of spite in her voice. Obviously her distrust of humans getting the better of her. “What are you doing here?”
“Living here. I can’t go hollow, death is final in this land and I wish to spend the rest of my days in solace.” He replied almost mockingly, shrugging. The light flickered on to his body a little more, giving her a full view of his body. This was not the armour he always wore, it seemed much more streamline and reminded her of a certain marvellous fellow. Only without the hat and mask, his facial features displaying a man in his late twenties with slicked back white hair and a small white beard. “So,” Bringing out two souls which flew around Ciaran and Sif. “I think you need a long awaited audience with a certain monarch.”