Seath the Scaleless, White Dragon God of Verdite, Traitor to the Everlasting Dragons, Duke of Anor Londo, Grandfather of Sorcery, and now the new friend and mentor to Twilight Sparkle? What will happen when two like-minded souls from opposite ends of the morality spectrum match wits? And what will remain in their wake?
A somewhat more meta twist on a MLP/Dark Souls cross-over, inspired predominantly by a few pictures I found of Seath and Twilight together, and my bewildered discovery that for all of the stories on this site that cover these two franchises, there's only one that focuses on Seath the Scaleless and so far it hasn't seen any updates in over a year ( http://www.fimfiction.net/story/68621/scales for those curious).
For those who haven't played either the King's Field or Dark Souls games worry not. I'll do my best to either explain the lore of both in the story itself, or add an author's notes for anything that gets referenced.
UPDATE: New custom cover art at last! Courtesy of Cryophase ( http://cryophase.deviantart.com/ )
Editing is courtesy of lunarstallion
Well, I am definitely intrigued to see where this goes. I wonder what kind of sordid things he's going to be teaching Twilight...
Cut his tail, get free Moonlight Greatsword. Should be stuck onto his back by Discord, then see how long it takes for Rainbow and Luna to run nuts.
This is interesting, and I can't wait to read more! Good work mate!
I must say, this is an intriguing idea! Only one minor suggestion: When it comes to Applejack, please don't write her words phonetically. It tends to read a bit wonky. Other than that, I must say good job, and looking forward to more quite a bit!
Truthfully I don't believe Seath would ever look back on his betrayal of the Everlasting Dragon with anything even close to regret. At least, not on his own. And the truth of the matter is I can understand why he did it. Envy is an absolutely destructive force and unlike Luna who's envy was based on her sisters popularity, Seath's was born from being born without immortality, something that all of his kin had. They never quite said how the other dragons treated him through, did they?
You mentioned that Neto would be reappearing in the story at some point. Is that Neto himself or his current reincarnation?
5861256 Truthfully I wasn't aware Nito had more than one incarnation, least not among FROM Software's games. If he does I'd love to know about it cause that'd tie beautifully in with later events as they unfold.
And while I fully agree Seath would have few regrets about what he did in the past, there was more that motivated his betrayal than pure envy. Indeed as will become apparent, part of what lead to his eventual insanity is he's not entirely sure if the choices he's made were even his own, or if he was simply acting out the wishes of another power
.
Spike nodded that this was a fair point.
5861499 Dunno if I'll read this, but... (Dark Souls franchise spoilers ahead.)
Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2 are, according to one interpretation, set in the same location separated by an unfathomably vast amount of time; the whole deal with the four Lord Souls and the First Flame is a cycle with no end. Drangleic just happens to be the latest revolution of the cycle, and it's managed to drag things on longer than they should have. The four Lord Souls were gathered, but they were sequestered away rather than used to rekindle the First Flame. I believe the 'latest incarnation' Klue Jin was referring to is The Rotten. Upon defeat, The Rotten drops the Old Dead One Soul, which is presumably the remnants of Nito's Lord Soul.
“Okay so the chemical formula for estus is stated to be ‘Su-Ni-D’, and if I remember my periodic table correctly that means I need one measure of liquid suncorium, one of ground nitrius, and one of powdered despair.”
I see what you did there.
Praise the sun!
>>Orpheus Hmmm, interesting. Also a tad embarrassing I didn't make that connection myself.
Ah, well that's why I have fellow DS fans to fall back on.
If I may just ask another spoiler heavy query: Where is it confirmed that there are four Lord Souls? I always thought there were only three (Lord Gwyn's, The Witch of Izalith's and Gravelord Nito's) plus the Dark Soul found by the Furtive Pygmy. Any other great souls/humanity in the games are just fragments of one of the above.
Honestly this is highly unlikely due to the fact that Seath is literally insane, not...whatever this is.
-1 for OOC
+1 for originality
5871087 Insanity comes in many forms, some of them more subtle than others. Seath may not be right in the head, but if his actions in-game are anything to go by, he still managed to maintain a better mental grip than the other lords (he's the only boss who thinks to use your ability to resurrect at the bonfires against you, by placing a bonfire in a locked cell in his dungeon, then cutting it off from all the other fires so you can't just teleport out).
Also Seath's now had two of the major contributors to his insanity removed (the Primordial Crystal and his self-induced exile) so he's got a chance, however slim, to try and crawl his way back to a more stable state of mind in a more welcoming and less volatile setting. Whether he'll succeed, or even make an attempt though....well, we'll just have to wait and see.
ah yes twilight, whats a little sacrifice for the persuit of knowledge?
after all.....the ends justify the means
Oooh, this is intriguing.
Celestia clearly has some memory of Seath's practices, though they were clearly repressed.
I wonder if Discord knew Velka? Or maybe IS Velka who went mad over aeons of loneliness?
Put celestias soul into an estus flask!
Asshole Chosen Undead is Asshole. I know Quelaag were required to go certain area but this one is thinking of killing Fair Lady. Atleast she gave her humanity.
5903739 Would you believe that's kind of intentional on my part? Not without reason, I assure you, the Chosen Undead means well, she's just become a tad jaded from having to deal with all the crap Lordran keeps throwing at her.
Trust me, her better attributes will eventually shine through...she may have to suffer a bit more first though....
This easily makes 10/10.
Fantastic work.
hmmm....this fic is going interesting places
Twilight and Seath trading magical knowledge? This I have to read.
Sorry about the delay in response.
When I said that Nito might make a return, I meant in the sense of how the souls always seem to return in one shape or another; In Dark Souls 2, four of the bosses are reincarnations of the big players in the first game (Nito's being the Rotten) and you can even get the lord souls on the NG+ runs. Several bosses are shards of Magus's dark soul.
It's not clear if those who gain a lord soul take on the characteristics of the lord soul or if the lord souls seek out someone who already has these characteristics...
5931154
All I can say is you're on the right track with your thinking there, but not in the way you're hypothesizing.
Well Discord is redeemed at this point, so hopefully we won't have an army of demons running around Equestria unless he seriously screws something up. I always assumed the chaos bug thing/former witch of Izalith was more a mindless beast than actively evil. If the 4 kings get dragged over though, there's gonna be trouble.
Is Nito gone for good? Nito meets ponies seems to good a concept to pass up by having him die so early, especially since he would probably get on just fine with them. I liked that in a game as dark and depressing as souls, the lord of the dead was actually a pretty chill guy who just slept all day long keeping an eye on things.
5955208 I assure everyone, Gravelord Nito will return. Can't guarantee he'll have a huge role to contribute, but he is most certainly not gone for good yet.
5955494 It's just my way of phonetically expressing Applejack's southern drawl.
Solaire, What have you done !!
Erm am i being paranoid but i have a feeling that Luna and Celestia are Gwynevere and Gwyndolin i am probably horribly wrong however.
TwiSeath the ScaleLight for life!
Would that crucial plotpoint be that the hand is the hand of manus (but not in the way we think)?
Because I'd just assumed long before that it was his hand.
I wish it'd only be Seath coming to Equestria but it'll still be entertaining I think.
5955288 I imagine Nito to do what he always does. Sit in a big hole in the ground and be indifferent to everything that happens outside the hole and maybe feel obliged to give people things when they refuse to stop giving him orbs of death XD
I pity that girl that poor chosen undead.
5981513 She'll get her own back, just you wait. Life may not be fair to her but she's no quitter.
5981680
Judging by the action of the phantoms and shadow hand, I think their goals is to allow Age of Darkness.
5982106 We shall just have to wait and see. Anything and everything of the above is possible.
....though I may still just go lesbian in the end. Sorry, but I've read too many good Twilestia clopfics to not want to indulge my curiosity.
With the anger problems this chosen undead has, I won't be surprised if she sets her own untimely end by murdering a pony for being yet another strange creature she has encountered to vent rage on. That and since they're friends with one of the targets she's hunting. Considering the girl was contemplating murdering the Fair Lady... Also adored the phantom gang up moment, thought it was a bit of just deserts and karma for the Chosen undead being an all around jerk. Yay.
5982845 I find it fascinating that folk are so put off by the Chosen Undead contemplating murdering just one character, when Seath has either thought of or tried to kill someone in every chapter to date. Does the fact that she ended up not acting on her inclinations and instead helped ease the Fair Lady's pain not redeem her in anyone's eyes?
5983067 She does have a name and it will be revealed soon. Indeed the upcoming chapters shall reveal much about who she is, not to mention showing her more paragon like attributes.
5982976 I think its the market difference between Seathe being portrayed here as socially decayed, and improving versus the blood thirsty portrayal that we've been given of the chosen one. Seathes attempts to 'kill' so far have been kept in check as he grows to control his temper, Meanwhile in contrast, the Chosen undead goes around to release anger by beating down several baby skeletons and follows through with his anger to release stress.
Hardly paints a pretty picture of our Chosen undead when he treats babies as rats instead of a tragedy don't it?
5983209 I see. Well if I may, I posted this for people to include their own thoughts for the next few chapters:
http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/485282/what-makes-a-villian-in-your-eyes
Feel free to comment if you'd like.
Oh my god I can't believe how slow I am! I think I just figured out who's relocating all the Lords and my eyes genuinely went wide XD.
Well now that chosen undead is in for a nasty beat down, having no weapon or anything and just a shield pretty much gonna leave her with very very little chance to win. Sure she could punch him and if she avoids harm enough to not get killed and be healed back up by the shield she got, she can very very slowly by war of attrition win via a `death of a thousand cuts` situation.
Also Luna...girl you better shield your mind, since considering the things found in the Duke's Archives. Well lets just say there is a high chance it going to get full on twisted horror show in Seath's dreams.
Will Seath ever lighten up? He seems so "heavy" and weighed down by his past mistakes; that and still somewhat evil in that he wanted to kill Pinkie and the Foals just so he might get their souls. I am sure this will only end in tragedy, once Luna finds out what he's done.
6007065 I think a more important question is does Seath WANT to lighten up? He's currently caught in a struggle between his old psychopathic tendencies, a latent depression at all that's gone wrong in his life, a developing sense of self-loathing at some of what he's done previously, and possibly some suicidal motivation brought on by the sense that the best course of action now would be to just remove himself from the picture. He needs a bit more than just to 'lighten up' if he wants to find peace from all of that.
Fortunately I do plan to throw him a bit more of a bone later so it won't be all doom and gloom. Just most of it.
hard knock life.
what of his daughter the half-breed?
I hope Priscilla shows up soon, maybe she makes it to equestira
that would be crazy great
6034167 Don't know about soon, but she will turn up at some point, just wait.
Aurelia? I've named a few characters that.