Dante’s eyes snapped open and he nearly threw himself out of his bed. His body felt disgusting from being drenched in a cold sweat but he ignored it for the time being, instead frantically twisting his body around. His pupils shrank in horror as he saw his wings were no longer there. He cried out and reached his hand back to touch where they should have been, hoping with all his heart that his eyes were lying to him.
He stifled any further screams as his eyes stared down at his limb. His rapidly beating heart slowly began to calm as what he thought was his hand as instead a furry brown hoof. Memories of the events in Equestria soon resurfaced in his mind and he was about to let out a quiet sigh of simultaneous relief and exhaustion when a hushed voice reached his ears.
“D-Dante…?” Spike asked, sitting up in his basket and rubbing his eyes with his fists, disoriented from being awoken and clearly trying to hold back a yawn.
“Everything’s alright, Spike… Go back to bed.” The Demon-turned-pony offered the little dragon a reassuring smile, unsure if he could even see straight enough to notice it. Spike accepted his word with no argument and wasted no time in returning to the comfort of his pillow and blanket.
Dante sighed again and looked over towards Twilight’s bed. Surprisingly – and thankfully – the Unicorn was still fast asleep. Spike may have accepted his explanation easily enough, but he certainly would have cursed himself if Twilight thought something was wrong.
He sat up, knowing that trying to return to sleep would be a useless effort. He lifted up the ruby that hung around his neck. Etched into the surface by Celestia herself, it allowed him to return to his pony form whenever he wished. However, instead of the Alicorn he had been mistakenly turned into at first, he would only take the form of an earth pony. Of course, earth ponies had no wings… So why did his dream feel so real?
He vaguely recalled a group of men coming into the room. He couldn’t recognize them, but they still felt somehow familiar. Either way, their presence was… unsettling. They spoke but no words left their lips and it was soon clear that they had not come to simply chat. He had suddenly been brought to his knees and watched as both of his wings were severed from his body before they finally executed him.
He dropped the necklace, letting it fall back against his chest. He thought that cutting off the wings before killing someone was a practice no one did anymore. To actually hurt someone’s wings during a fight was right around the same level as hitting someone in the groin; you just didn’t do it. But long ago, before Dante’s time, wings would be cut off before executions as a way of saying, “I hope you can’t fly when you’re reborn.”
Of course, there was no scientific proof to show that the severing of the wings actually caused harm when reborn, and any souls that could actually be tracked well enough never showed any convincing signs of having damaged wings. So why did these men do it?
He looked up towards the ceiling, not focusing on anything in particular. “Hey… you there?” He asked quietly. His brow furrowed a bit when no response came.
“Carnage…” He tried again. Dante knew his former self was there. They were one in the same, how could he not? Sure he was a quiet guy but he rarely outright refused to speak like this.
“Sev…”
I-I’m here… I’m just – I’m here…
Dante frowned. “Don’t leave me hanging like that… I’m already unsettled enough as is.”
Unsettled… Right…
Dante looked down at the mess of sheets that was his bed before looking towards the nearby window. It was still dark outside and the sun probably wouldn’t rise for another hour or two.
“…Do you want to talk about it?”
Carnage gave no response but Dante could all but feel him shaking his head. Dante respected his other part’s wishes and pulled himself out of bed. Taking extra effort not to wake up either of his roommates again, he grabbed his hat and snuck downstairs.
Dante closed the front door behind him as quietly as he could before relaxing a little and turning to look at Ponyville as it slept. The streets were thankfully clean of bodies again and all that was left was the debris from some unlucky homes.
It all could have been worse. It all could have been so much worse. But ponies were so young and so inexperienced in war… What he saw as an acceptable and efficient victory, they saw as costly and some may even say devastating.
“Hm… a pony wouldn’t last fifteen minutes in Hellion. Maybe an hour or two in Haevora though.”
Dante briefly pondered just what a pony would do if found themselves in the city of Angels. A pony like Twilight would probably get picked up right away. They’d agree to answer her questions and sate her curiosity but it would only be a matter of time before they realized her potential and militarized her magic. She could cooperate willing by using her sense of duty towards peace and harmony to destroy those she would be convinced have “evil” intentions or they would find some way to force her to be a weapon, but they would get what they want one way or another.
And if she ever proved too much to handle, then she would be killed. Better a “weapon for good” than something independent and able to fight for what she believes, how she believes.
He couldn’t help but start smiling to himself as he imagined a pony more like princess Celestia appearing in that world. Even having never seen her in a real fight, he knew that if there was anypony that could put some of those high and mighty Angels in their place, it would be her. After all, you don’t often win an argument against something that can move a nearby star all on their own. At the risk of being smited for thinking her the lesser sister, Dante would bet that even princess Luna could hold her own.
A cry in the darkness startled him, breaking his chain of thought and causing him to reach for his sword. A few moments later a light began to shine from behind a pair of barely open window shutters. Dante creeped forward and lifted his ear towards the open crack. From what words he managed to catch, he felt relief knowing it was nothing more than a foal’s nightmare.
He then heard the growing sound of hooves against a hardwood floor. Dante stepped back just as the window was opened by a rather tired looking dark blue stallion. He didn’t even notice Dante there at first until he blinked a few times.
“I apologize for eavesdropping,” Dante said quickly lest the stallion start assuming. “I just heard the scream and thought-“
“It’s quite alright,” he said with a wave of his hoof and a soft sigh, resting his hooves on the window sill. “Dante, was it? You trained my brother and the rest of the militia.” When Dante nodded, he began to laugh quietly, “I guess even heroes have sleepless nights, huh?”
Dante shrugged softly, “A hero is just somebody that was in the right place at the right time.”
“That may be,” the stallion replied, “but it takes guts to stand up to a horde that even the royal guard couldn’t stop and still come out on top. And for that, I have to thank you. If not for stepping forward and saving all of our lives, than for keeping the nightmares as nothing more than that: just nightmares.”
Dante gave him a gentle smile and bowed to the praise, to which the stallion returned the smile before closing the two shutters. He turned and continued his way through the town just as the light showing from the cracks in the shutters was snuffed out. He made his way down towards the town hall and approached the quiet river that flowed nearby.
Peering over, he was only just able to make out his own features in the water, He was honestly thankful for the dark clouds overhead that hid most of the moon as he probably looked terrible thanks to that nightmare. He fell onto his haunches and let out a tired sigh.
Call me a hypocrite, but you know I’m here if you need someone to talk to.
“I know, I know, it’s just… Things are catching up with me, I guess. Me, Vice, War, Horrus… We’re all stranded here in this world where we don’t belong and who knows if we ever make it back?”
Odd, you seemed quite content calling this place home earlier.
He shook his head, “It was just one of those spur of the moment things, you know?”
Do you want to go back?
Dante opened his mouth to answer but no words came and his mouth slowly closed and his eyes fell back down to his reflection.
If you had the opportunity to go back to Hellion right now with all the others, would you take it Dante?
He bit his lip softly, “I should say yes.”
Yes, but how often are what you should do and what you want to do the same thing?
“Can you blame me? I mean, look at this place!” Dante swung his hoof out, gesturing towards the peaceful town, the beautiful night sky that anyone could tell was so full of stars despite the clouds, and the quiet river that he currently overlooked. “The silence, the peace… You can’t find something like this back home. We’re raised to watch our backs in Hellion. You can’t often tell the difference between the truth and the lies until it’s too late. But here, with these ponies, it feels like everything is okay here. None of them are ready to stab you in the back to get ahead.”
Dante took his hat in his hooves and held it out in front of him. It was older than any of the ponies here and he had gone to great lengths to ensure it stayed intact but still had a tasteful amount of aged look to it. “The old man would have loved it here,” he said more to himself than the voice in his head, a small smile coming across his lips as he recalled old memories.
“You… should put that back on…”
Dante twisted around and almost couldn’t make out War in his Unicorn form in the darkness. Before Dante could ask what he meant, he felt a drop of water land on his muzzle. He looked up just in time for another drop of rain to fall on his forehead. The remaining stars had been snuffed out by black clouds that now loomed overhead.
As the rain began to fall, War’s horn began to glow and a shield appeared over his head like an umbrella. He turned away without another word, only his white mane and the glow of the shield making him visible.
Dante shook his head and put his hat back on. He wondered just how long the giant had been standing there and he was quite frankly surprised that he had not noticed War sooner. But War’s presence brought up an important question: even if a way home appeared and even if he was willing to put his duty to Hellion above his own wants, would War be willing to do the same now that he had found someone? Would Vice agree to go home after supposedly finding another Serena?
He sighed and pulled himself back onto his feet, making his way back towards Twilight’s library. It didn’t do him any good thinking about what he’d do if a way home appeared if a way home simply didn’t exist. He tossed the thoughts and scenarios from his head and put on a smile, choosing to focus on a morbid little rhyme from his world.
“Rain, rain, here to stay… Come and wash the blood away…”