Absence of Friendship

by MangaKamen

Chapter 2 - Opportunities

Chapter 2

Opportunities

TTT – TTT

Through the countless leafs and brush of the forest, light fell into the gaps of the deep, lush forest. The chirps of crickets, the wind’s whistles between branches, and the occasional snap of a twig were the only noises in the woodland as a single figure trotted through the woods, his breath calm and quiet.

It wasn’t until he reached a rather large clearing between the trees where a small pond stood still. The stallion looked about the area before the horn atop his head glowed brightly with a silver aura, “This place should do the trick. Such a pain in the flanks.”

The silver aura flowed over to the stallion’s sides where a pair of saddle bags resided, the magical light pulled out a pair of items – A large rolled up scroll with a number of holes in it and a spray can – and floated them through the air. The scroll unrolled to reveal that the holes were the outline of a large circle that had several runes in the design.

A sigh escaped the stallion’s mouth whilst the paper was laid out by the pond’s edge. He remained silent as he used his magic to shake the spraycan before it dispersed its contents on the scroll. “But, it’ll be worth in the end.”

With his horn brightened up once more, the faded paper was pulled off of the ground to reveal a bright blue runic circle painted on the ground. After he fitted the items back into his saddle bags, the stallion turned back to the rune and lowered his horn to the edge of it. “Now, just to add a little spark…”

The horn lit up once more and a few sparks flew from his horn. Those silver sparks landed on the runic circle and immediately a small flame erupted on the rune, very slowly, the flame followed the line and burned the symbol into the ground.

“Soon... Very soon.”

TTT – TTT

Mao wasn’t a happy stallion.

Sure, he was in a chariot being pulled by a group of pegasai, the blatant disregard of physics of how four stallions could lift up a solid gold vehicle completely straight without the aftereffects of turbulence was enough to make the demon lord droll with interest. But even that wasn’t enough to pull him away from this reality.

“So, what exactly is the point of this?” the demon lord questioned, his front hooves dangled off the side of the chariot. “Sending me out to… What kind of name is Ponyville anyway?”

Luna rolled her eyes at the stallion next to her, “Please show respect to the town. Until my sister and myself are able to find a spell to return you to your home, we decided that you will reside at Ponyville for the duration of your stay.”

“That’s not answering the question!” Mao snapped back as he turned his attention back towards the Princess. “Why? Why am I being sent to some backwater dump!? Why can’t I stay in the comfort of that huge castle?!”

With a deep breath, Luna turned her head away from the demon. Mao narrowed his eyes, “HEY! I’M TALKING TO YOU!”

Ignoring the supposed demon lord, Luna closed her eyes in deep thought…

“Sister, is it really wise to send him to Ponyville?”

While Mao was losing his mind in the prison cell, Celestia and Luna were in deep discussion about what to do with the supposed overlord.

Celestia kept her gaze on her younger sister as she continued to voice her concerns, “If he truly is a Demon Lord, Celestia, then it would be best that we keep him here so we can keep an eye on him and deal with him accordingly.”

“Hey.”

“All the more reason he should be sent to Ponyville,” Celestia replied with her eyes closed. “If it is true he is a demon, then we should have the Elements of Harmony at the ready in a worst case scenario. Besides, I don’t believe that this is a coincidence that our ‘guest’ is here, so, it would be best if he be in a different environment while we investigate.”

“Sister, I understand thy plan,” Luna stated as she looked away from Celestia. “But is it wise to leave the Elements in the same location of this ‘demon’? If this dangerous stallion were get his hooves on one of them, who knows what could happen if another threat were to appear.”

“I did take that into consideration, Luna,” Celestia answered as she trotted over to her concerned sister. Placing a hoof on Luna’s back, the white alicorn smiled warmly at her sibling. “Which is why I thought this would be an interesting chance for you to…”

“Hey!”

Luna shook her head and pulled her head back when she realized that Mao was only an inch from her face. She could feel the breath from his nose brush against her muzzle, “Uh, art thou a little too close?”

“I need to get this close to get some answers!” Mao growled as he leaned closer to Luna, to the point that their noses actually touched. Mao didn’t notice that Luna’s face now sported a slight blush. “Where the hell are we going?! What’s the big idea of loading me up into this thing?! And…”

A deep blue aura wrapped around Mao’s body before he was forced to the side of the chariot, almost being forced off of the golden carriage. Luna on the other hoof had inched to the opposite side and turned away from the black stallion. “Thou shall receive thy answers when we land, so please be patient.”

It took a few tries, but Mao was able to get his balance back to make sure he didn’t fall from the chariot. The black stallion growled under his breath as he looked about the chariot, in an attempt to try to find something to alleviate the boredom (Unfortunately, his Slaystation VITA’s battery had run out hours ago, so it was just a hunk of worthless plastic, wires and data that he couldn’t access at least until he could access more of his powers).

That’s when his red eyes fell upon a rather fancy blue case that had a number of jewels embedded on its’ sides with a lock on the front. Mao turned towards Luna, who’s attention was kept forward. So with a smirk, the demonic pony slowly inched his hooves towards the box and…

BZZT!

“GARGH!” Mao was propelled back with bright blue sparks around his hooves.

Luna had turned just in time to see Mao slammed up against the front of the chariot, his hooves now slightly charred from the sparks. “Thou should know better than to mess with others’ possessions.”

“Shut up,” Mao growled as he breathed on his hooves.

‘At the very least, that barrier spell is working,’ Luna thought to herself with a roll of her eyes.

TTT – One Hour Later – TTT

It was a calm afternoon as the pegasi drawn chariot landed on the grassy plains near a lush deep forest – the moment that it touched ground, Mao leapt from golden chariot and slipped on his new hooves. The demon growled under his breath as he pushed himself up from the ground. ‘Damn these hooves! I shouldn’t have to get used to these things, but if I’m stuck like this then… Then… GRAGH!! How do other demons do this?!’

After he regained his balance, Mao noticed that the golden chariot was being pulled away by the pegasai guards into the air once more. “Hey! Great! They dumped me into the boons of this world!”

“I hardly qualify this as ‘the boons’,” Luna stated as she trotted alongside Mao, her horn glowed a bright blue and next to her floated the same box that had zapped Mao minutes earlier. “This town is located directly next to Canterlot and has a lot of very profound citizens of Equestria in it.”

Mao’s eyes dulled at the sight of the blue alicorn, “And you’re here too – Just what I needed.”

“Thou’s sarcasm is noted,” Luna pointed out as she floated the box down to the ground once more. “Thou whine a lot for a supposed Demon Overlord.”

“Whining? This isn’t whining!” Mao spat back with his gaze turned away from Luna. “This is complaining! It’s completely different!”

Luna sighed under her breath, this stallion didn’t act like a being with the title of ‘demon overlord’. Then again, he just looked like a regular stallion as well. But there was truth to some of his words – while Mao was knocked out, he was examined by some of the medical professionals of Canterlot.

No wings, no horn (there was a large red scar where a horn would be though) – Physically, Mao was just an Earth Pony. But he wasn’t just some regular Earth Pony – Not with the magic he was able to perform, it broke the physical laws of Equestria. Another oddity was while the medical examiners were observing Mao, they took note that his body healed faster on its own and seemed to be much more durable than the average pony.

He was barely scratched by Luna’s magic by the time the stallion was brought to him, even though he was knocked out by her attack.

Everything about this stallion seemed to contradict this world’s knowledge.

‘This is why sister took such precautions,’ Luna thought to herself as her blue aura from her horn slowly graced over her form. ‘Still, I am a little unsettled about this plan of hers… But we have no other options at the moment.’

A blue flash of light lit up the area, at first Mao just blinked in confusion at the light behind him. But eventually, he turned around and raised a brow at the mare behind him. “What the?”

In place of Luna’s tall, dark blue alicorn form stood another pony. In contrast to Luna – this mare had a navy blue coat with a light blue mane that resembled that of her flowing mane, only this one stood still. Gone were her crown and royal garb, also missing were her wings, and she wasn’t as tall as Luna…

In fact, she only reached up to Mao’s neck if the two stood alongside each other.

At her flank, the mare still had Luna’s black fur pattern and with the crescent moon mark that adorned her backside.

Mao tilted his head slightly as his glasses slowly fogged up.

“Do not be alarmed, for it is I, Luna, that stands before you,” the younger looking mare announced as she lifted a hoof towards Mao. “This is just a precautionary form so that none of the ponies in town will…”

“AMAZING!”

Luna reeled back slightly as Mao pushed himself to stand on his hind legs, his fore legs held out at the sides. The demon lord in question’s eyes were completely covered with fogged up glasses, and there was a drunken smirk on his face. “You can change appearance at will?! You’re just like that one cosplay demon of the Diez Gentlemen!

“Why not just do that to me so I can get back my original form? It’d save us a lot of time and effort with this!”

The smaller Luna sighed with her gaze on the rather freaky-looking stallion before her. “I would, but this spell is not as easy to cast on others as it is for I. There is also a few other matters – for one, I do not know what thou’s real form looks like. Secondly, there is no telling what this spell could do with a being with your abilities.”

“That’s not a problem!” Mao laughed as he stepped shakily towards Luna on his hind legs. “Just let me examine and study this magic of yours! I might be able to…”

Using one of her front hooves, Luna lightly tapped Mao in the chest. The freaky stallion stumbled backwards and fell onto his back with a smack against the wet grass. “GAH!”

“I would allow no such thing!” Luna scoffed before she turned away from the stallion to lift the bejeweled container from the ground with her magic. “Now, enough of this, you are to follow me – We have some pony to meet in Ponyville.”

“Ponyville?” Mao questioned as he rolled back to his hooves. “Gee, I wonder what’s in there.”

As Mao followed Luna over the grassy plain, a devilish smile slowly crept onto his face. ‘I’m still interested in that magic she’s got – I can’t let a single chance pass me to experiment on it! And while I’m at it, I might as well experiment on her as well! Who knows when I’ll get a rare chance like this again?!’

It was then that Luna felt a shiver run down her spine.

While the two made their way to the small town in the distance (the two needed to stop every few minutes since every few steps, Mao slipped on his hooves and crashed face first into the ground), a shadow covered stallion watched the two before he slipped back into the woods.

TTT – TTT

The birds chirped happily.

Ponies roamed the streets to fulfill their daily deeds.

The sky was clear, save for the odd rainbow that sped across the blue.

Ponyville was having one its blissful, peaceful, autumn days – A day where nothing could go wrong, where everypony had a smile on their face, and where a song could be almost be expected to be heard from at least one of the town’s citizens.

Needless to say – Mao didn’t like it. He didn’t like it at all.

He could feel the bile well up in his throat as he watched all the ‘cute’ ponies around him, most of them greeted him and Luna when they passed the two.

“Good day!”

“URK!”

“Howdy!”

“Gargh!”

“How are you two doing today?”

“AAAH!”

“Oh will you just stop it?”

Luna watched as Mao writhed in pain on the ground before her. With the way he flailed his legs about, it reminded Luna of when a filly acted up when they didn’t get their way. “You’re acting as if you’re being poisoned.”

“That’s because I am!” Mao replied as he pushed himself off of the ground again. “To a former honor student and dean of Evil Academy, a greeting is just like getting punched in the gut! It almost made me hack up a lung when I greeted you and your sister!”

“Lovely imagery,” Luna muttered under her breath. “Must you be so vulgar?”

“To a proper demon, vulgarities are necessary in demon etiquette,” Mao replied with a large smirk. “Hell, it’s the only way to actually greet someone at the academy without gagging on your own tongue!”

“You sound more like a delinquent than an honor student,” Luna replied.

“Don’t even joke about that!” Mao barked back as he stomped up to Luna to glare at her. “I wouldn’t dare become a delinquent! Always attending class, donating blood, giving charitable funds to the poor, or even… Graduating!”

‘Wait, if you didn’t graduate, how’d you become dean of the school?’ Luna pondered as she watched Mao shiver in front of her. ‘And why do things at this school sound so… Convoluted? It’s almost as if this Evil Academy’s culture is just to be the exact opposite of what expected here. It’s actually rather lazy, I would’ve expected a demon culture to be a little more refined in a sense.’

“Whatever the case, just endure it,” the disguised Luna scolded Mao as she turned back to their path. “We need only reach the Golden Oaks Library and I shall explain what we plan to do.”

Mao took a deep breath and growled rather loudly. But the growled ended as he chuckled, “Fine, then I’ll play your game for now – but know this, I don’t think I can kept underfoot for too much longer! This place is starting to get to me and…”

“Oooh! Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!”

Mao’s eyes widened in surprise when a large amount of pink and… Darker pink entered his field of vision. The dark stallion pulled his head back to see that it wasn’t just pink in front of him, but rather there was a pair of large blue eyes and an ever growing grin. Before he could question just what the hell he was looking at, the pink blurred before him and disappeared.

“What the hell was that?” Mao questioned with a raised brow.

“I think I know,” Luna admitted but kept her head aimed towards where the pink blur dashed off to. “But that is for another time. Come, the library is not too further.”

Mao tilted his head slightly, “Too much pink energy is dangerous.”

The demon chuckled for a moment before he followed after the disguised Alicorn princess. But then he stopped and turned back towards the forest he and the princess were dropped off. His ears twitched slightly as he narrowed his red eyes at the woods in the distance. “…”

“Sir Mao, please do not lag behind.”

Mao huffed and slowly trotted after the disguised Luna.

TTT – TTT

Meanwhile, in the forest known as Whitetail Woods…

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“C’mon, Sweetie Bell, it’s not we’re in Everfree Forest.”

“Sides, it was your suggestion to get our marks in deno… Denro… What ya call it again?”

“Dendrology.”

“And what’s that supposed to be again?”

“The study of plants.”

Through the rather well-traversed woods, three little fillies trotted past the fallen trees with their hooves crunched down on the orange, red and brown leafs that fell to the ground. The purple mane pegasus who led the trio deeper into the woods, sighed loudly, “Great, that sounds perfect.”

“Scootaloo, maybe you should try getting a cutie mark in sarcasm,” the young, yellow earth pony filly retorted.

“What would a cutie mark look like for that?” Scootaloo asked with her brow slightly cocked at her fellow filly.

“Ah… Ah don’t rightly know,” the earth filly answered back

“Uh, girls, do you hear that?” the white unicorn questioned with a loud gulp.

The three mares stopped in their tracks and listened to the woods – Several loud snaps and cracks echoed through the light forested area. The young unicorn stepped back slightly, “C-Could it be a Timber Wolf?”

“Timber Wolves don’t live in Whitetail Woods, Sweetie Bell,” the earth filly answered back her red mane (complete with cute pink bow). “Ya don’t need to worry ‘bout them.”

“But, Applebloom, if it’s not a Timber Wolf,” Sweetie Bell replied as her legs shook slightly. “Then what could it…”

A heavy footstep slammed through the air, followed the much closer snap and splinter of wood. Another footstep sounded and the three fillies drew together as a large dark shadow slowly appeared amongst the trees before them. “So… Much… MANA!!!”

TTT – TTT

The disguised Luna sighed with relief as she stopped in front of the door embedded in the tall tree. Admittedly, the walk wasn’t what tired her out, it was Mao who had caused her frustration and anxiety – What with his constant complaints, every few moments he’d trip over his hooves (and she had to use her magic to help him back up), and…

Luna shook her head of those thoughts as she brought her hoof up to the door and tapped against the wood a few times. ‘The sooner I get this over with, the sooner that Mao can be returned to his ‘Netherworld’ and…’

In the middle of her thoughts, the door opened up to reveal a young lavender unicorn with a long purple mane (complete with pink and dark purple highlights), and kind purple eyes that looked at the disguised princess, both deep orbs seeped with curiosity. “Oh, hello! Welcome to Golden Oaks Library, can I help you?”

“Twilight Sparkle,” the disguised Luna coughed out, trying to keep her voice down. “Thou may drop thy act.”

“Excuse me?” Twilight questioned as she pulled her head back.

Luna tilted her head slightly, “Twilight Sparkle, I commend thee for thy dedication to the act, but please allow us to enter thy residence post haste.”

“Um, sure,” Twilight replied, blinking a few times.

With her muzzle scrunched, Luna raised a brow at the studious unicorn’s actions, “Did my sister not inform you of our coming? How we were to arrive in this form? Have you not…”

A loud burp sounded from inside the library, with both Twilight and Luna looking up to the second floor of the library. Twilight lowered her head slightly, “Oh, will you please excuse me for a few moments? I believe that’s for me, feel free to come in though.”

Twilight quickly trotted away, which left Luna to roll her eyes before the herself entered the library, ‘Celestia, have you just now sent the information?! In all of Faust’s holy name, why?!’

“Ohmygosh!”

Luna’s ears perked slightly when she heard Twilight’s cry and turned her attention towards the stairs where Twilight galloped down towards the disguised princess. The young mare gasped and skidded in front of the disguised Luna and kept her head down, “I… I’m so sorry, Princess Luna! I… I didn’t know you were coming! If I had I would’ve informed the town and… And…”

Luna sighed as her horn glowed brightly and her disguise slowly faded away to reveal her taller, more regal form. “That is quite alright Miss Sparkle, there is no need to fret – I suppose my sister had her reasons for not telling you until just now. But have thou learned of the reason why we are here?”

“I didn’t really read all of the letter,” Twilight admitted with a small blush on her face. “When I saw that you were going to be here, and disguised, I wanted to apologize!”

“It is no trouble,” Luna assured with a wave of her hoof. “All will be explained very soon, but first, I must introduce you to somepony who will…”

It was then that Luna came to a realization – One that could possibly rock the entire foundation of Ponyville, nay, Equestria! The implications of what could happen because of this fact shook Luna’s very core.

Mao was gone.

TTT – TTT

“RUN!”

“WHAT IS THAT THING!?!”

“DOES IT REALLY MATTER?! IT’S SURE NOT FRIENDLY!”

The three blank flanked fillies galloped as fast as their little legs could carry them through the forest, but the large shadowed creature that gave chase after them, didn’t have to try hard to keep up with the fillies. Every sixteen steps they took, the large creature only took one, so the trio couldn’t get too far from the massive monster that chased after them. “Don’t run! I can sense the Mana from you!”

“What’s it going on ‘bout?” Applebloom yelled out.

“Do you really want to find out?!” Sweetie Belle replied.

“Good point,” Applebloom admitted.

“STOP!”

Both Sweetie Bell and Applebloom stopped, with Scootaloo right in front of them. The yellow earth filly turned to her pegasus friend, “Scootaloo! Why are we stopping?!”

Scootaloo didn’t answer, but rather tackled into the two fillies just out of the way as a large dead log crashed into the dirt road where the fillies were moments ago. Fragments and splinters flew through the air over the three fillies with Scootaloo making sure that her friends weren’t going to get hurt.

“… Noble,” A gravelly, yet hollowed voice sounded from above the three fillies. “But, pointless…”

The three young mares looked up to see the being that chased the from the woods now loomed over them – It was a colossal creature that stood on two hind legs with long arms that ended in dirt covered hands. Its body seemed to be covered with jagged, wooden armor while the ‘skin’ of the creature seemed to be more akin to that of roots and soil combined in one. From the top of its head, a single, large leaf protruded through the air and its dull green eyes look down at the three fillies.

“Mana…” The wood creature growled as it slowly pulled its right hand back. “So… Much… Mana...”

The three fillies closed their eyes just as the large creature quickly brought is hand down on them, each of them trying to scream, but the fear of this odd monstrosity drawing ever closer by the second paralyzed them.

WHAM!

“What…?”

“Heh, I thought I sensed something familiar over here. Didn’t think it’d be a Wood Golem though.”

All three of the fillies opened their eyes to see that the Wood Golem’s hand was being held back by a single hoof that easily managed to prevent it from coming any closer. Connected to that hoof was none other than Mao who stood before the fillies, his coat billowed in the wind.

The Wood Golem growled as it clenched its fingers around Mao’s hoof, “Don’t… Interfere…”

“And you need to stop talking like that!” Mao growled before he leapt up and slammed one of his hind legs into the Wood Golem’s head. “Quit being so overdramatic!”

The Wood Golem’s eyes widened when the hoof connected with the side of his head and he stumbled about having released Mao’s hoof. The large monster fell to the ground as Mao landed in front of the three fillies, his face curled up into a large smile, ‘He may be over dramatic, but he’s a demon! That’s something I can use here!’

TBC

Comments

[nightmaster0]

Good chapter.

[Dirty Bit]

Too bad it wasn't Kotter Sensei that got owned.