Prologue
The first few seconds of consciousness were hazy and my first instinct was to try to figure out what the hell had happened, regardless of my caffeine-starved brain. It wasn’t until I opened my eyes that I was enlightened to just how little that actually mattered. Oh it was important, to be certain, but of equal - and arguably more - importance was the fact that there was a dull green forest rushing to meet me as my freefall came to a not-so-grinding halt.
“Oh fu-”
I winced as I crashed through the canopy, followed by the wind being forced out of my lungs as I rag-dolled through the lower branches, spun head-over-heels a couple of times before the - is that a tent? - hard ground greets my face. The last thing I saw before fading into blackness was a Quake 2 logo on my ass. That was certainly new.
***
“Quit your complaining, you look fine!” I glanced balefully at my friend and the only reason I was here: Clyde Pierce. With a grunt, I shifted the rune-etched pauldrons resting on my shoulders uncomfortably.
“I never even beat the damn game,” I complained as I followed him through the convention center, taking in the various other nutcases that had dressed up. I’d never admit it to Clyde - I had lost a bet and ended up here against my will, after all - but I felt pretty badass, despite the fact that I was baking alive in the outfit, to say nothing of the twenty-pound sword replica I’d been forced to carry around for the last three hours.
“Can I go home yet?” I glanced over at Clyde as he stalked over to a nearby table run by someone dressed as the Merchant, from Resident Evil 4, complete with the tattered trenchcoat and purple face-cover.
Clyde huffed and dug out his wallet as his eyes settled on a small handcrafted figurine. “Fine, fine. Just lemme get you a souvenir or something, so you can at least remember you came.”
“Yeah, no, this is definitely something I want to remember.” I shifted my gaze as another Resident Evil 4 character walked by a short distance away, this one dressed as Ada Wong.
No amount of alcohol would ever make up for seeing a middle-aged man dressed up as Ada Wong.
“You should thank him, stranger.”
Huh, cockney accent and all, I thought in amusement. That’s dedication.
“You’ve got a good friend.” The merchant took a twenty from Clyde and threw a small figurine towards me. On instinct, my hand reached out and snatched it out of the air, rolling it around in my hand.
“I don’t think ‘good friend’ are quite the words I’d use,” I commented mildly as I rolled the figurine over in my hands. I smiled slightly when I realized it was a small-scale replica of Ruin - the steed of War, my character - with a keychain hooked through its tail. “Gotta admit, that’s some damn fine craf-” I noticed the colors of the room blur and fade to black as I fell backward, a sudden weightless sensation overtaking my body.
Just had to make me go to the damn convention, didn’t you Clyde?
Chapter 1
“Stay back!”
I didn’t spare the effort to actually glance back at the lavender unicorn that I’d noticed in my peripheral vision. I was simply too happy to have the mutt back to care. Watching as the massive hound tore his way through waves of demons towards the doors, I grimaced and reared up onto my hind-legs -heh, hind legs, man that had been a trip- and felt a familiar line of runes flare up along the sides of my neck as I brought them crashing into the ground with a force that shattered the ground around me and opened a fissure in front of me, the giant rift passing right through the fire and towards the gates of Tartarus.
Nearly all of the ground-bound demons lost their footing and the vast majority of them that had been trying to funnel out of the opened gate fell into the fissure.
With a shout of pain I felt the runes on my shoulders light-up, followed by the familiar molten cracks lacing their way up my legs. I grimaced as I felt the power I’d forced into myself trying to break free. It’d been a long damn time since I’d pulled anything like this. Didn’t exactly have access to the sun inside of Tartarus. Once more I reared onto my hindlegs and brought them crashing down on each side of the fissure, the molten cracks running up my four legs raving into the ground beneath them, causing my hooves to smolder painfully as the energy departed. After nearly three seconds of nothing, I smiled as a deep rumbling sounded through the deep fissure and copious amounts of sunfire erupted from the fissure, melting the edges of and clearing out any demons unfortunate enough to have fallen in. Around this time, Cerberus managed to slam the door shut with a hard hind leg and quickly moved around to close the other door as soon as the demons quickly backed away into Tartarus in fear of one of the few things that could truly bring their existence to an end; the pure, uncorrupted fire or a friggin’ star.
Taking a moment to catch my breath, I turned towards the purple mare who was staring at me with a completely dumbfounded expression. Later, I decided, as I turned my gaze towards the three-headed hound, my expression hardening as I stalked towards him.
“Are you out of your damned mind! You nearly doomed Equestria! What in the actual hell were you thinking!”
Cerberus whimpered and reeled back slightly, barking lowly several times.
“You’re fuckin’ kidding me. You got bored? I…” I pressed my hoof to my forehead, prompting a dull thump as the two made contact. “I should stick your ass in there with them.”
Cerberus only whimpered in response, bowing his heads.
I grumbled irritably to myself as I held the hoof in front of me, inspecting my fur. It was short, incredibly coarse, and like the rest of me, dry and matted. Couple thousand years with your only bath being in the blood and fire of demons tended to do that to a pony I supposed. Glancing up irritably at the dog one last time, I turned my back to him and made my way towards the purple mare.
Glancing the mare over carefully, I finally began, “So, I guess I have you to thank for bringing Cerberus back to his post?” She seemed to cower back slightly before nodding uncertainly.
I chuckled slightly and fell onto my haunches, “Relax, I’m not going to eat you.”
“Uh sorry,” the mare started, her soft voice making me almost giddy. It had been a long damn time since I heard a voice belonging to anything other than hellspawn. “You’re just really intimidating.”
“Sorry about that, I can’t really turn that off.” I shifted my gaze skyward. It sure was taking her a long time for something this serious.
After a moment of silence the mare began again, “So are you a demon as well or…?”
“Uh technically, I guess. Never really figured out the specifics of that whole thing. I’m a demon but…not from this universe I guess?” That perked the mare’s interest.
“You’re from another universe!” Her childlike expression elicited another chuckle from me. The expression was a damn-near carbon-copy of Clover the Clever, and I told her just that.
“Oh boy, I’ve seen that expression before right before Clover grilled me for twelve hours about everything. Thanks for the scholarly interest, but no thanks.” I grimaced inwardly at the mare’s crestfallen expression. “Besides, we don’t really have time for it. Tia should’ve been here by now.”
The mare raised an eyebrow to me questioningly. “Princess? White, big-ass, spear on her head? Her sister’s a blueberry?”
The mare actually giggle-snorted, causing a wry smile.
“You know, she still hates that name.”
I whipped around fast enough to give a normal pony whiplash as a familiar voice spoke, the same warm tone from forever ago. I couldn’t help the massive grin that spread across my face as the immaculate alabaster mare approached me with an almost teary-eyed expression of my own.
Like Celestia, I carefully made my way towards her. The slow walk we had quickly built up a trot and the pair of us quickly met with a heated kiss and colliding bodies, charred and black hide meeting Celestia’s pristine white coat, our lips searching each other out. As far as I was concerned, nothing else existed in this moment...that was, until Cerberus whined and both of us became aware of a lone lavender pony watching us, eyes nearly bugging out of her head.
Finally I asked, “Someone you know, Celly?”
Celestia blushed and nodded firmly. “It seems we’ve much to discuss.”
“Yeah…” I trailed off, my gaze drifting to the gates of Tartarus sadly. “The gates are going to need some work. Plus a few of them got out. When Cerberus left, the demons decided it’d be a great time to swarm. They got the gates open and started to flood out. Managed to cut most of them off but a few of’em got away. A couple you’re going to be really interested in. So, how do you want to do this?”
I took a step back as Celestia’s horn flared to life, a testament to the mare’s power. The gates of Tartarus were enchanted to negate any and all magic within a set distance. That she could cast a spell at all was incredible, much less that she was effecting the gates directly.
“That should hold for a few days. I’ll have Luna pay a visit sometime soon to further reinforce them. For now, we should reconvene at Canterlot.”
“Uh,” I raised a hoof. “Canterlot?”
“It’s atop Mount Canter, which you may remember from our travels. It’s almost directly north from here. Can you meet us there?”
I felt a dull ache in my chest at the thought of being away from the mare for any period of time after such a short reunion, but nodded in assurance. Bigger things were at stake here than rekindling our relationship. “I’ll meet you there.” Turning my back to the two mares, I took off a light gallop before jumping and angling my face towards the ground. I imagine the purple mares expression was widening right about now but I didn’t get to see it myself as I disappeared into the earth with a burst of flame.
***
In hindsight, I should have thought twice at the thought of breaking up through the cobblestones of the mountain-city but after a solid eleven-hundred years being locked in Tartarus fighting hordes daily I was simply too giddy to care. Well, I cared slightly when the guards at the front-gate of the castle rushed me, and even-more-so when the populace began to panic and scream in horror. Ah well, time to worry about that later.
Scrapped Prologue
“Oh…goddammit…” I groaned tiredly and rolled upright onto my hands and knees. My everything hurt, most notably my ribs and head. After a couple of pained dry-heaves, I made an effort to stand, only to realize my head was chained to a peg in the ground. Along with both of my… “Oh hell no,” I made to jerk my newly discovered hooves upwards. After a brief moment of resistance from the pegs, the chain - peg and all - jerked out of the ground and smacked me square in the…muzzle.
Stay calm…deep breaths… I could feel my heart and lungs begin to pump faster as I fought back the impending panic.
“The demon is escaping!” A voice ripped me from my concentration and my head jerked around. My first reaction, likely wasn’t the best. I didn’t run, or try to argue the point. I glared at the stallion in obvious irritation - a light golden horse with a dark yellow mane in a set of fairly comprehensive armor - as I made an effort to stand up onto my four new legs as another half-dozen horses - each more ridiculously colored than the last - only to fall flat on my face, wincing as the impact jarred my already aching-head and causing one of them to snort in poorly concealed laughter.
“Fuckin’ horses…” I mumbled as I struggled back upright, wobbling unstably as I fell backwards onto my ass. “Fuckin’ Clyde and his fuckin’ convention…” Satisfied that I wouldn’t fall over again, I took in the various horses around me - a dozen of them, ranging from regular horses to pegasi and unicorns. “Can’t even panic, too much damn absurdity.” Carefully balancing myself on four legs and trying to balance my newly proportioned body, I glanced up angrily at them.
“Fret not, we shall subdue this demon!”
Throwing my hooves up over my ears to try and blare out the loud voice, I realized too late I needed those on the ground as I fell forward and face-planted for the second time. With a tired groan, I glanced up at the offender with tired eyes, taking in - go figure - another friggin’ horse, this one notably larger than the rest, sporting both wings and a horn, as well as a dark flowing mane and tail, complete with stars and a moon on her ass.
“I quit.” I closed my eyes sorely, hoping it would all go away, despite knowing that it wouldn’t; the pain I’d felt thus far had been all too real.
“By the gods, it talks!” the blueberry called out. “Tis’ unheard of, for a demon to speak! Private, go seek out my sister, tell her I require her counsel regarding this creature!”
“Can you little bastards stop referring to me as an ‘it’ or a demon?” I shot upright, surprisingly having little issue this time. Only now, when a pair of the small horses rush in front of the Blueberry did I realize I towered over them, Blueberry included. While the smaller ones were clearly nervous, Blueberry only matched eyes with me, glaring right back.
“Be still and silent demon, our sister will soon help us sort this out!”
“Get bent, Blueberry, I don’t take orders from you.” I began doing circles, trying to get a good glance at my ass and side. The Quake II logo - I think - was the only thing worthy of note, with the exception of my hind-hooves seemed to be on fire. They didn’t feel hot but at this point I honestly had no idea what the hell was what. “Yeah, okay.” I glanced down at my front hooves which were also flaming slightly, flames occasionally licking their way up my legs. “Any of you got a mirror?”
“Sister!” Another really loud freakin’ horse, because why not. Another winged horse, this one white with a multi-hued mane and a sun on her backend. I likely would’ve commented, if not for the mark on my own ass. The white horse glared at me with the same intensity that the blue - purple? - one had, this time however I stared back with a plainly disinterested stare.
“Should I put on a pot of coffee? Any other freaks of nature I should know about?”
The white horse drew her head back in surprise and turned to Blueberry to ask a question, only for an ear-shattering screech to rip through the clearing all of us were standing in and cut her off.
All of the ponies visibly cringed and collapsed, throwing their hooves up to try and drown out the sound with the exception of himself, Sunbutt and Blueberry, the latter igniting their horns and turning skywards. As the light erupted outward from their horns and bathed the clearing in their respective colors, the screeches died out and a multitude of shadowy black figures appeared in the dimly lit canopy.
“Guards, fall back to camp! Captain, gather the unicorns and put up a magic barrier, nopony gets in or out until my sister and I return!” Sunbutt thundered out. Without hesitation, all of the guards rushed to follow the command..
“Sister, cover me while I prepare my fire!”
I backed up slightly, heart starting to race as my brain went into overdrive, still not having had the time to process…well, much of anything really.
As the horses fled the clearing, I found a dark blue bubble around myself, blocking out my vision of the event and boxing me in. “Oi! Lemme out of here you bastards!” Thrusting a hoof at the shield only sent slight ripples around it. “No, no no…” My throat tightened slightly as the feeling of dread set in. “Let me out!” Like a true claustrophobic, I began to panic. “Let! Me! OUT!” I punctuated each word with a swing of a hoof, the ripples glowing casually. I felt a slight twinge of pain starting at my shoulder and running up into my neck, though I was too busy hyperventilating to really care. With a grunt, I hunched forward and threw both of my hind-legs, bucking at the barrier as well as a newly-born horse could.
With the sound and feeling of a thin pane of glass shattering and an intense burning feeling erupting from my body, followed by a scream of pain from Blueberry, I realized the small barrier was gone. Taking a few deep and unsteady breaths, I glanced uncertainly around the clearing. Blueberry looked visibly charred, her fur smoldering as she laid unconscious on the ground. Marshmallow looked better off, being hidden behind a magical shield of her own. Beyond those two, the clearing looked like it had been reduced to ash. The treeline had been pushed back significantly and the ground was devoid of grass and dirt. The clearing was little more than a solid-black surface, with a trio of ponies inside of it, the creatures nowhere to be found.
Glancing nervously at Marshmallow, I braced myself as the barrier faded.
“What have you done?” Her voice was low and dangerous as she looked around the remains of the clearing and the near-cooked body of her sister heaving on the ground.
“Uh…” I hesitated, glancing from the body to the dangerous gaze - and glowing horn - of Marshmallow. “Oops?” My world faded to black as a bright light discharged from her horn and sent me ragdolling through the forest, caving in a pair of trees before I slumped to the ground.
***
What are you?
My eyes shot open as Blueberry’s voice reverberated through my head. Glancing around there was nothing but white in every direction, doing little favors for my headache. “Dead, apparently.” I commented idly to the voice, closing my eyes to block out the white.
“Dead?” The voice sounded…amused. “You’re not dead, you’re dreaming.” The voice began to chuckle.
“If I’m dreaming then what the hell are you doing in my head Blueberry?” I snapped back, irritation getting the better of me.
The laughter died down almost instantly, causing me to smirk slightly.
In a far less amused tone, she answered. “We want to look through your memories.”
I felt a slight probe…somewhere, in my head. Almost immediately I focused on one image to the exclusion of all else. I couldn’t remember which book I had read it in, but one book had it’s characters use this as a method to protect their minds against intrusions.
Luckily for me, it worked and the probe seemed unable to find any purchase in my…head. Unluckily for me, the image that served as my mental defense had turned out to be the last thing I saw before this whole dream-thing. Marshmallow. Or, for some reason I couldn’t yet fathom, Marshmallows ass, big sun and all. At this point I wondered whether Blueberry had stopped because of the mental defense of because I barred her with a picture of her sister’s ass.
The silence and inactivity born from the event was quite palpable. For nearly five minutes the two of us -me physically and Blueberry…in spirit, I guess, stood there, completely unspeaking. Finally, Blueberry spoke.
“You…seem to think very highly of my sister’s…posterior.” It was a stunted, awkward statement.
“It was the first thing that came to mind.” I defended lamely, “She’s the reason I’m…asleep? Unconscious? Here, I guess.”
“Unconscious.” Blueberry confirmed for me.
“So, uh…yeah. Not really comfortable with anything poking around in my head.”
Blueberry snorted in irritation, “Many would take that to mean you’ve something to hide.”
I actually snorted in response, “I’ve got plenty of stuff to hide.” Another brief silence, “Can you uh…get out of my head? This is weird.” I inched my eyes open to the white once more, only to see it broken up by Blueberry.
“You’re a lot less…crispy, than I remember.” I commented uncertainly.
“Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to cook you. I don’t handle tight spaces well.” That much was the truth. Tight spaces freaked me the hell out.