//------------------------------//
// Chapter 17 - No greater bonds 
// Story: A Bhaalspawn in Equestria 
// by Thadius0 
//------------------------------//

I had learned many things since coming to magical pony land.  One of the more deeply ingrained lessons in my mind was simple enough: If it looks cute, cuddly, or just plain pretty, don't fucking underestimate it.  When the chips are down, when a pony is pressed for survival, then you would not believe what one of them could find themselves capable of.  I'd come across a member of the Apple clan in Manehatten about...seventy-five years ago.  Girl had been cornered by some thugs (not my fault) and they were after her bits or some other...unsavory things, judging by their leers.  She managed to beat their behinds in so badly they couldn't really call themselves stallions anymore.  I'd offered her a job as one of mine, but she declined.  However, she did keep any that I sent to check up on her informed on the goings-on in the city and well-fed, and in exchange, I protected her from any other similar situations from forming in the first place.  Professional courtesy.

I say this because the one thing that flooded me during Cadence's introduction was sheer, unbridled (heh!) panic.  Not only was she the niece of the Celestial Sisters, but she was ungodly pretty.  For a pony, at any rate.  You could see the effort she took to maintain her appearance.  Which meant one of two things.  Either she was an incredibly vain Princess with no real power, or she had every right to look the way she did because of her power.  And seeing as how she insisted I call her Cadence, not Princess Cadence, I had my doubts as to the first one.  Which essentially meant tread fucking lightly, this is a damn Alicorn with god knows how much power behind her.

"Intriguing," I mused out loud as I stood up and brushed off my pants.  "I've...heard a few legends about you, but nowhere near as many as those of your aunts."

She raised an eyebrow at that.  "Oh?  Do tell."  She stepped a little closer, but halted when she saw me flinch.  It was an involuntary reaction, something about her presence sent the Slayer into a fit, which only I could hear, naturally.  It'd take time to shut him up, so I decided to regale her.

"Well, for the one everyone knows, there's Celestia.  Sol Invictus, Warden of the Sun, Keeper of the Day, Protector for the pony tribes.  She who is not to be crossed, lest all ye hold dear be burned to ash, and then have naught even that remain."

Cadence's eyebrows could not go higher.  "Where are you getting these legends from?"

I waved the question off.  "Oh, my recruits over the years have given me all sorts of stories from all sorts of places.  Griffon, Minotaur, Thestrals, Dogs, so many exotic legends.  I compiled their hear-say and checked it when I got the chances, cross-referencing the more...unique legends with what I could find on their activities."

Surprisingly, Cadence giggled.  "You remind me of a filly I once had the pleasure to watch over.  A more studious individual I did not think I could find, but you're proving to be, at the very least, quite interesting."

I shrugged at that.  "Comes from living as long as I do."

I could tell she wanted to question what I'd just said, but I decided to cut her off.  "And Luna, while...not having been in the public theater for some time, still has legends from the time when she was on this world.  Lunar Ira, Mistress of the Moon, Tide, Stars, and Dreams.  She who is most patient and cunning, and you will only know you have invoked her wrath when all you love falls down around you."

I shrugged as Cadence's jaw dropped.  "Still, a thousand years might give her new titles.  We'll just have to see."

Cadence nodded dumbly at my statement.  "Where...did you get this information?"

I put a hand to my chin and hummed.  "Gods...had to have been when I just got here...so quite a while ago.  I wrote it all down and made sure to keep it as preserved as possible.  Sometimes I had to copy it to another scroll, but eventually I found a unicorn that just enchanted my case with a preservation charm.  Now I don't have to worry about my notes literally falling apart.  Still, I think I hadn't yet begun to write titles or dates on my notes way back when, so I can't tell you."

Cadence blinked at that, then chuckled.  "That's something that she wouldn't do, so at least you have that difference..."

I smiled as I continued my recitation.  "But you...the legends regarding you are...quite recent.  Cadence, Lady of Love and Emotion.  That's all that I know of you, sorry."

Cadence nodded as she realized the topic had turned to her.  "Do you know what Love is tied with?"

I pondered, then shook my head.  "Haven't the foggiest."

"Life," she answered simply, and all the puzzle pieces fell in place.

An Alicorn tied in with Love and Life?  The exact things the Slayer cannot stand?  Luna did well.  I just hope she's ready for me.  Or rather, my other half, because I can feel him stirring in the depths at my realization.

"Allow me to...regale you then, Cadence, so you realize the enormity of the task set before you."

She drew a little closer and sat on her haunches, and I leaned back against the tree and sighed, trying to recall lore from a game I'd only really read once.

"This...is highly paraphrased and simplified, plus some of it may just be plain wrong.  But it's as much as I can recall, regarding the situation...

"In the Forgotten Realms, Godhood and Divinity behave quite differently than they do here.  The more followers a god has there, the more power he has, the more he can do to earn more followers, and the cycle continues.  But in its early days, when trade networks were a new idea...when villages and towns could be isolated for stretches of time...there was one town that had a guardian deity that didn't have many, if any, external supporters.  Eventually a great calamity struck the town, and the deity was forced into his avatar's form, doomed to be forgotten...until the day three brothers came.

"These cruel and violent brothers had hatched a plan, to overthrow the God of Death and claim his kingdom for their own.  But in order to even challenge him, they would need some measure of divinity themselves, which would mean they would need to slay a god.  So they found this old, forgotten god, slew his avatar, and took his divinity for their own, using some sort of ritual or spell."

Cadence's jaw had dropped as the story went on, but she nodded along at the appropriate spots.  I kept an eye on her as I recited, though, wanting to see her reaction to the big bombshell.

"The three brothers Planeswalked to the God of Death's throne and challenged him, and he surrendered...on the condition that they divide his kingdom between them.  The eldest went first, and claimed the Land of the Dead as his own, on the basis that his kingdom would be ever-growing.  The middle child went next, and claimed the Land of the Living, for with proper nourishment, it would never fully pass.  And the youngest child...he pondered the situation, and eventually claimed an Aspect that neither of the other two had thought of.

"His name was Bhaal, and he claimed the Aspect of Murder.  For, unless either of his brothers paid him heed, he could cause one to grow or wither as his mood fancied.  And so time passed.  Until a prophet named Aluando predicted that there would come a time when all gods would be forced from their ethereal thrones and walk amongst the mortals once more...and Bhaal heard that such a Time of Troubles would only end with the death of those gods.  So he hatched a cruel and vile plan."

I looked Cadence in the eyes for the next bit, and she shivered.  "He planned to have as many children as possible with as many females as possible, no matter their race, so that when they all died, the spark of divinity within his children would gather at his ethereal throne.  After which, all it would take is the proper incantations, and the Lord of Murder would walk the Forgotten Realms again."

Ah, there's the gobsmacked expression I was looking for.  Ponies view intimacy, sex, families, kids, and so on to be highly important, to the point where talking about it isn't as taboo as it would be back home, and in fact having a healthy sex life and family are seen as nearly as important as having a healthy diet.  Cadence eventually worked her jaw into compliance again.  "That...That utter, complete monster!  How selfish do you have to be to spawn so many children, just to sacrifice them so that you can cheat fate?!"

I sighed at that and half-looked at the sky.  "Yeah, Father was never big on other people.  'S probably why he became the Lord of Murder, honestly."

Whoops, looks like I broke her.  Just when the warranty runs out, isn't that always the case?  It takes her a good minute to recompose her mind, and when she looks at me again, it's with an expression of sorrow and compassion.  "Luna did say you had family issues...I never expected something like this, though."

I smiled sadly.  "That's only half the problem, though.  There are two types of Bhaalspawn.  Lessers have just a spark of his blood, enough to perform weird talents in certain situations.  Greaters...I would know.  They...they can't stop hearing the voice of his avatar.  They always have the...urge.  To give into their darker desires.  To take the life of another.  And should they give in...they become far more talented at it than they have any right to be."

We shared a look then, and she nodded.  "You're one of those, aren't you?"

I nodded, slowly, but held a hand up.  "I've been wrestling with my darker half for quite some time, and he's only had a few moments of freedom in all the time I've been here.  Carefully moderated freedom.  Save for that episode with Discord.  To remove him is to remove the link to Father's blood, and I've found some here that I could call related to me by such blood."

Cadence actually blanched at that thought.  "More that are as dark as you?"

I shook my head.  "Not as dark, no.  But I found them, and purged them of their connection, their taint.  Something I couldn't do if my connection were cut.  So the task becomes far more difficult."

Cadence smiled and nodded again.  "You hate your other half, but need him so that you can save others.  Yet by keeping him around, you put yourself and others in danger.  And as such, I'm here to help...chain him up, so to speak.  Keep him from moving around so much."

I cocked my head at her and hummed.  "Love and Life are anathema to his elements, that of Murder and Hatred, this is true.  And he has been reacting to your very presence, so I'm willing to give you a shot.  But this is going to require that you enter my mind...and it's not a nice place to be.  Sure you're up to it?"

In response, she drew a bit closer, close enough to lay a hoof on my hand.  Even as the contact sent him raging in the depths, I could feel the confidence radiating off of her.  "I wouldn't be here still if I didn't think I could handle whatever is to happen."

I smiled as well.  "If you can truly aid me in keeping him under control, then I welcome you."

Just as she touched her horn to my forehead, I figured something out and gasped.  Her eyes widened at the same time mine did.

"Creation.  You're tied in to Creation, which would make me-"


-----


"DAMNIT!  Cadence, you here?"

Silence passed for a moment before the pink alicorn appeared from nowhere next to me.  "How did you figure it out?"

I sighed and walked forward, absently willing our jaunt to take us to the Slayer's prison while puzzling out how to answer her.  "Normally you only see that reaction when extreme opposites meet.  Something holy meeting an undead beast.  A fire elemental having to cross a body of water.  The Slayer, my other half, is born of Hate and the desire to cause death to another; in essence, a facet of Destruction.  You...are his opposite.  His exact opposite, which means that Life and Love are tied into Creation.  Which makes this little operation of ours all the more dangerous."

Cadence nodded as we came upon my mind's version of my guild.  "I would be highly surprised if he didn't fight back."

I paused and placed a hand on the wall of the building, concentrating on making the underground maze mirror the one that now existed, rather than the one that had existed.  Things shifted around, rumbling was felt, and the Slayer's prison ended up moved but no less secure.  "A warning.  Since he and I have shared the same mindspace all this time, there may be instances where he seeks to guide you away and will be capable of doing so.  Illusions of sound or light only you can perceive.  If I don't react to it, then don't react yourself.  Otherwise, I can't promise you you'll come out unscathed."

She slowly nodded as I opened the door and moved briskly to the stairs down.  "Come, quickly.  The less time we spend standing around, the better."

Cadence looked around briefly, shuddered at something only she could see, and hurried along after me.  She flinched every few seconds, but the worst offender was in the target range, where she stood still for several minutes, just gawping at something.  It took quite a bit of prodding before she managed to move again.  When we got to the obstacle course, I pushed the hidden master override button, and heard the traps deactivate.

Which of course is why it was a surprise that I walked into one.  Apparently, the Slayer really didn't want Cadence getting in!  I would have to dodge all my traps and deactivate them one by one, which would take for-flipping-ever!

Or not.  Cadence merely let out this animal growl, and with a wave of magic, all the traps in front of me were set off.  I blinked at that, then looked back to her.  "What...What is he sending you to make you that angry?"

"You don't want to know.  Suffice to say, when we're in the waking world again, I will have plenty of questions for you."

After a short walk to the end of the course, we were met with a door that didn't exist in the waking world.  Opening it showed us a void, what I'd pictured the deepest depths of space to be like.  Save for the central feature of the room, you could almost stare at the non-euclidean architecture here and lose yourself.

From the nothingness that made up the walls, chains came out at random intervals and wrapped around the Slayer, looping and locking and forming complex knots and bindings.  He struggled constantly, and every time he did, sparks flew down the chains to shock him into submission.  It wasn't working.

Cadence and I floated closer, and Cadence charged her horn.  "As my ancestors would say," Cadence stated, quite angrily, as her horn built up a charge, "Requiesce in pace, monster!"

"Monster?  Monster?!  I'M THE MONSTER HERE?!  YOU COME INTO THIS ONE'S VERY SOUL AND SEEK TO BIND HIS NATURE, AND I'M THE MONSTER?!  GET A MIRROR, YOU OVERPOWERED PINK PUFFBALL!  BECAUSE WHEN YOUR BINDINGS FAIL, I'LL SHOW YOU A MONSTER!"

After the Slayer had his little rant, Cadence's spell hit him full on, and the chains around him glowed blue.  After which, he was still.  I smiled at that, finally feeling the urges vanish after so long, and the mindscape fell apart around us...


-----


Both Cadence and I gasped as we came to, and we looked each other in the eyes as we pulled apart from one another.  "So, little miss facet of Creation.  What would you like to know?"

She blinked, blushed, and coughed a few times.  When she composed herself again, her face was serious.  "At first, it wasn't that bad.  The ground floor was...decorated with...trophies of animals from the Everfree."

I nodded at that.  "Seems reasonable.  He would like to keep score."

"And when we walked down the stairs, in the room before the target range, he showed me...a pile of dead Diamond Dogs, saying something about their doom being wrought at your hands..."

I sighed at that and ran a hand through my hair.  "Really, they wouldn't listen to reason, and wanted to attack Manehatten.  I told them to run.  I warned them.  And they decided to ignore me, my warnings, and my threats.  I don't regret what I did that day.  But he probably likes it because that was one of the, very few, times when he got to act through me."

Her eyes widened, and I elaborated.  "I can...loosen the chains.  Allow a bit of his nature through.  One loose boosts my combat capabilities, but in return, he tends to talk more and louder sooner.  Two allows some of his traits through, like a layered voice, blackened eyes.  Five is what I used the day the Dogs attacked, and it was a merger between me and him, one where I had to cling to who and what I was, so that I could return to it when the merger was over.  Reforging the chains takes time.  Either via doing good deeds, so that he can't break them, and they fade eventually, or via doing evil ones, and he breaks those over time."

Cadence slowly nodded as my logic sunk in.  Then I remembered that she had been talking, and I prodded her verbally.  "And in the target range itself?"

She drew a deep breath.  "That was when he went into what could have been.  All the targets were replaced with members of the Royal Guard...but one was replaced with its captain.  My fiancee.  Shining Armor.  He said to me, 'He could have done this to me, Cadence.  Why are you helping someone who could have done this to me without a second thought?'"

I growled at that: threatening good people with the potential harm of their loved ones was a dirty, underhanded tactic, and the Slayer fucking knew it.  Which is another reason why I hated him: he had no qualms about abusing others' morals and values.

"And when we started to go through your obstacle course, three fillies showed up, saying that you could have left them to die, and that I should do the same for you.  It was said again by Fluttershy and Pinkie...though they didn't quite look like themselves.  I tried not to pay attention, but their words..."

I sighed.  "Technically, all those words are true.  They were all things that the Slayer whispered to me when those scenarios showed up.  He wants nothing more than to find his brothers and sisters and take their power for his own.  Because that monster you saw isn't his most powerful form."

Her jaw dropped then, and I continued.  "The Slayer is the manifestation of Bhaal's taint.  Should a Bhaalspawn nurture their powers, strengthen them, and slay their brothers or sisters...then their power grows out of control.  Turning from the Slayer to the Ravager, Bhaal's favored avatar for dealing with mortals.  In that form, he's much harder to ignore or resist, and he tends to...walk the land, murdering freely, regardless of whoever he might have been before."

I turned to face her then and said the next words with such sincerity that they could be mistaken for actual facts of the universe.  "He wanted you gone from my mind because you were his opposite.  He would dig up anything about me, about what I've done, about what I could have done, or what I've done only under his influence, just to win.  He doesn't have morals.  He doesn't care how he achieves his goal of walking freely again.  But now I won't have to worry about that, so thank you."

Cadence smiled a bit at that and waved a hoof at me.  "Technically, the binding I placed on you is more of a long-term thing.  At least for me it is.  It's a small drain on me to keep the binding active, and while it was hard to set up, it'll be negligible to maintain.  I shouldn't even notice."

I smiled and stood up.  "Well Cadence, it was fun meeting you.  Perhaps we can do this again sometime, when I'm not a wanted felon or wrestling with a demon in my head."

At this, she tittered, then tilted her head, as if considering something.  "Perhaps a wager?"

I quirked an eyebrow at her.  "Go on."

She smiled at that.  "In a few weeks time, I'm getting married.  I propose this: should you manage to elude all the guards of the city, all our security measures, and find a way to attend my wedding, I'll intervene on your behalf and see to it that your charges are, at the very least, reduced to the point where you wouldn't find attending a trial for them to be a bother at all."

I crossed my arms, waiting for the other shoe.  "And if I fail?"

Here her smirk turned mischevious.  "Then you get pressed into service as a trainer for the Equestrian Military, so that we know how to not only employ your tactics, but also catch you.  And afterwards, you'll be forced into community service...most notably, helping any victims of your crimes."

I smirked at that.  A bet like that...how could I resist?

I stuck a hand out to her.  "We have an accord, Princess."

She took it with one of her hooves and we shook on it.


-----
(Somewhere, over a desert...)


The Queen was displeased.  This was a common sensation.

They'd recently managed to abduct a few ponies who'd been exploring the Badlands, along with their guard escort.  No real amounts of love in them, none that they could access anyways.

However, the information they'd gotten from the guards had been...interesting.  Their captain had a marefriend who, more likely than not, would be marrying him soon.

After many hours of...interrogation, one of the drones learned the name of the marefriend.  It caused a sort of shockwave to ripple through the Hive when it was learned.

Cadence.

Chrysalis' eyes opened wide at that.  She knew that name.  The Alicorn of Love.

She gained a wicked smile and called the drone who'd learned the name to her, cooing to it all the while.

"Yes...my spawn...your grandfather would be so pleased..."

Her eyes and horn burned green as she granted the drone a promotion.  His chitin thickened, his fangs grew, and he grew, a good foot taller, with added bulk to match.

"Come, Commander Polistes.  Gather the swarm.  Let us show Equestria the might of my spawn."

The newly promoted commander chittered and flew off to do as his queen bid.  Within him, a great power had begun to be awakened...