Trickster Priest

by Fresnor

Chapter 17

The great doors of Tartarus. None alive know what it is made of but many have tried to break through the doors to little avail. Despite that the once pristine door was now etched with cracks along its surface and other than the gate's guardian no sane creature ventured near. That's why it was odd that something other than Cerberus was near it and even rapped on it with his staff to a tune as old as time.

“Shave and a haircut...” Xellos turned his head to press an ear to the door as something on the other side slammed into it twice before everything went silent. Standing back from the door the monster ran a hand over one of the heads of Cerberus as he looked over the cracks.

“Not good. Not good at all. Looks like you're going to have to earn your keep soon old boy. If you're lucky it won't come to that if the princesses figure out a way to fix it.” With a final pat on the canine's head he started walking along the wall while dragging a hand along it. The wall had fared much better than the door but that was to be expected as it was many time thicker. Even so there was somewhere along the many miles that contained a breach of some sort yet after months of searching he had yet to find it.

“You'd think that it would be easy to find a hole in a wall that separates two realms but I just can't seem to locate it. Either it's not here or something is hiding it would take more power than any of the ones that I know have escaped can pull off.” Moving away from the wall he surveys the desolate landscape around the prison before taking off flying back in the direction of Ponyville.

He was most of the way there when he saw a flash of purple below him which looked vaguely familiar. “Hello... Was that who I thought it was?” Flying backwards while keeping an eye on the location he saw the figure he soon spotted it again and was able to confirm that it was Spike that he saw. “Well this is interesting, I must have missed something while I was gone if he's looking like that.”

He observed Spike as he walked along with a sack on a stick while looking broken-hearted over something. Seeing as it was starting to rain Xellos decided to follow after him in curiosity since he had rarely seen the dragon alone outside of town or even away from Twilight's library. “Hmm, if I remember right when I was exploring the area there should be a cave in the direction he is heading. Of course if he does then things could get entertaining.”

As he had thought the young dragon stumbled into the cave that was in the area where he found a huge pile of gems and other treasures. Shaking his head as Spike started eating some of the gems, Xellos just watched unseen as he waited for things to get worse. While the dragon was swinging a sword around that he had found he didn't notice the giant figure that was awakening from its sleep and had noticed the invader.

What followed was a rather embarrassing sequence of events as the purple dragon tried to act tough in front of the adult dragon nearly a hundred times his size. Xellos was about to step in himself when an owl flew in to save Spike and eventually lead him to Twilight who had been looking for him. He watched as the trio galloped away from the cave but when he saw the larger dragon prepare to give chase he just sighed.

“I wouldn't do that if I were you. I can't be held responsible for what happens to you if something were to happen to them.” The green dragon's head reared back at hearing his voice and he was about to attack the new intruder until he saw who it was that was stopping him. Glaring at the monster for a moment he exhaled a stream of smoke from his nostrils before speaking with a voice full of venom.

“You. What, murdering most of my kind wasn't enough for you so now you have to humiliate us by letting your little pets steal from us now?” With a snort of disgust the dragon walked back over to his pile of treasure before going through it to see what was missing.

“Oh I wasn't talking about me doing anything, though I may have watched for a while, but if anything happened to them then Princess Celestia would be very angry. She has enough to deal with what with Tartarus slowly letting its inhabitants free somewhere.” The last part was muttered but the dragon easily heard it with his enhanced hearing. Grunting in annoyance the dragon dropped down in front of his horde keeping the monster separated from it.

“Hmph, I would say that you would like for your kind to escape from there, but I've learned over the years that there are certain rules that you follow. You would never say or do anything without a reason so why are you here? And don't bother trying to threaten me, I could care less about your precious plans and you won't kill me unless I interfere with your plans.” Xellos just yawned as he twisted a finger in his ear.

“Oh, there's no reason for me to be hear other than curiosity. That dragon is just part of my current entertainment of the century. Still I would hate for you to get nothing out of this encounter so just to show that there are no hard feelings I'll leave this for you.” Setting a heavily gem-encrusted crown on the crown the monster vanished from sight leaving the dragon to his own thoughts. With a sigh he picks up and examines the crown before sliding it on on of his spines.

“The elders are going to want to know about what he said about Tartarus. How humiliating, first having my horde raided by a whelp and then being forced into being a messenger for him.” Shaking his head the dragon got to work sealing his home before taking his long trip across the world.

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“Come on, Twilight! Why can't I keep it? It's the perfect size for me and you know how hard it is to get something like this that I can use.” Spike kept a tight grip on the sword that he had found in the dragon's cave as Twilight tried to pry it away from him.

“And I said no! You don't know how to use one of these and you could really hurt yourself.” Twilight yanked her head back trying to pull the weapon out of her assistant's grasp but no matter how much she tried he just wouldn't release it.

That was the situation that Xellos found when he arrived back in the library much to his amusement. He was curious why it took them until the morning to have this argument but at least he knew a way to end the argument. Appearing between the two he grasped the hilt of the blade and pulled it out of the scabbard to examine it. As Twilight's magic had been focused on the sword itself, Spike was sent flying backwards with the scabbard in the wall. “Huh, this is in pretty good shape for something that was sitting in a dragon's horde for who knows how long.”

Releasing her magical grip from the blade, Twilight just glared at the monster before letting out a sigh. “Xellos, now what are you doing here? Don't you have something better to do than bother me?”

With a shrug Xellos handed the sword back to Spike blade-first who wrapped his arms around it tightly much to Twilight's shock as she let out a yelp of panic. Rushing over to the young dragon she closely examined him for injuries but when she found nothing she leveled another glare at the monster. “What? Do you really think a simple blade like that would harm a dragon? Even one as young as him? Besides there are still many books I haven't gotten around to reading so the library is the perfect place for me to be.” Shaking her head Twilight just sets her assistant down before looking at him.

“Fine, you can keep it Spike but you better be careful with that and not treat it like a toy. If you hurt anypony with that then you'll be grounded for a year.” With a squee the dragon darted out of the room with the blade to find somewhere to practice with it. Shaking her head at her assistant's exuberance she turned back to the monster who had stepped away to browse the books. “Now why are you hear Xellos? For real this time.”

“Well if you must know I'm just seeing how the preparations for Pinkie's special day are. She's practically family so I thought it would be a good time to catch up with her a bit.” Twilight grimaced at being reminded at the reminder of the monster's connection with one of her friends and the headaches that came with it. She was still suspicious of Xellos as most encounters with him ended with a headache for one of the ponies involved.

“That's it? Just a little family event? No pranks or dangerous events this time?” Vanishing from where he was, Xellos appeared in front of the unicorn and poked her nose causing her to brush his hand away with a hoof.

“Not all all. If I did stuff like that all the time it would start to get boring. Though I guess it wouldn't hurt to have something prepared just in case, with her sense of humor she probably wouldn't mind.” Twilight just gave a deadpan stare at the monster before sighing in exasperation.

“Fine, if you're going to be here I might as well let you in on what we are planning. That way at the least whatever plans you have won't interfere with it since you don't seem to want to hurt her.” After making sure that the pony in question wasn't around she let him in on the plan the group had for the upcoming day while he listened intently.

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“Oh dear. I thought that their plan was too good to be true. She respects them enough not to pry but her imagination is just too much for her sometimes.” Xellos watched from the shadows as Pinkie sat at a table with various random objects that she had found around Sugarcube Corner. The only thing at her little pity party that made any amount of sense was her pet Gummy.

Shaking his head he stepped out of the corner in order to try and cheer the pink mare up. “Hey there Pinkie. How's my favorite party mare of Ponyville?”

Pinkie Pie barely glanced over from her conversation with a pile of rocks to see his appearance. “Oh you, are you here to abandon me as well like my so called friends?”

Xellos just lifted an eyebrow at the flat-maned mare. “Well, someone sure has the case of the grumps, especially today of all days. Good thing I have just the thing to cheer you up.”

The only reaction from the pink mare was a twitch of her ear as the monster started digging around deep into his satchel. “Now where did I put those. I just finished looking through them yesterday so they should be somewhere around here. I really need to sort this thing out so that... Ah ha!”

With an exclamation of triumph he pulls out a small box and sets it on the table near Gummy. Pinkie was facing away from him at this time with her hooves crossed in front of her but her head was turned slightly to see what he was doing. Seeing how Pinkie seemed to be hallucinating new friends for herself, Xellos decided to play along with it by using a couple items he made out of boredom.

“Since you are collecting new friends how about a few that I've found while I've traveled. Let's start with good old Applejack.” Pulling from the box was a large bottle of the amber liquid with a wig and tail much like the pony but sized for the bottle. It didn't draw much of a reaction from the mare other than a lifted eyebrow but she she did continue to watch as the monster reached into the box for another item.

“Next up we have the fashionable Pearity.” Following his statement was him pulling a pear that had the matching style of the unicorn it represented. This one drew more of a reaction from Pinkie as the corner of her mouth twitched upwards.

“Then there's Buttershy, she can't stay long though as she tends to melt into the background quickly.” Yet again another item appeared with the look of the corresponding pony, this time attached to a stick of butter. Pinkie's mane started to twitch at this one as she let out an involuntary snort. Xellos grinned at this as he was looking away into the box again for the final item as he couldn't think of something for one of the five ponies that weren't around.

“And lastly we have this magnificent beauty, Toilet Sporkle” This last one finally cracked through the mare's grumpy exterior as the snorts became a chuckle that devolved into full blown laughter as she fell onto her back and started kicking her hooves up in the air. Xellos was proud of his work on this one as he had to actually convince someone to actually invent the spork and then he needed to get enough of them to bend around into the shape of a toilet.

Once Pinkie recovered and wiped a tear from her eye she bounced up and wrapped her hooves around Xellos in a hug. “Oh silly uncle. You always did know how to cheer up the family. At least that's what Granny Pie always said.”

Patting the mare on the back Xellos looked towards the window and saw a familiar rainbow mane zipping by before a knocking sound was hear on the door. Pinkie stiffened up at the sound but when she looked up at the monster he just nodded to her and waved a hand to the door causing it to open. Rainbow Dash took a moment to take in the view of the room and raised an eyebrow at the items on the table as well as the position the two were in. “Did I miss something here?”

Separating from the honorary uncle of the family, Pinkie slowly walked towards the pegasus before slowly passing her by while giving her the stink-eye. Rainbow Dash was confused about what was going on and pointed her wing at the pink mare while looking at Xellos for answers. Shaking his head he just ruffled the mare's mane as he walked by making her flail her hooves at him before leveling a glare at him.

Taking another glance around the room and at the various items she did a quick lap of the room before flying out the door causing it to shut behind her. Gummy blinked before licking at an eye as he stared at the three items on the table, the bottle of amber liquid having gone missing.

Soon the group arrived at the barn where Pinkie found that her friends were avoiding her to set up a surprise birthday party for her. She had forgotten that today was that day what with all the planning she did for the rest of town and even many others in other places. Later when the party started winding down Xellos approached the mare with a small stack of boxes. “More presents?! But you already gave me one when we opened the ones from everypony else.”

Xellos just grinned as he set them down before pulling out a postcard that had a picture of a bunch of gray-toned mares and a brown stallion. “Oh I'm just delivering a few things from some important ponies that couldn't make it today. A Happy Birthday just isn't the same without something from family, now is it?” With a gasp of surprise and happiness the pink mare grabbed up the biped in another hug while the rest of her friends watched in bemusement at the two unpredictable beings.

Author's Note:

Could it be?! An actual update of this after nearly 5 months?! I'd like to say I'd update this more often now but my whims of whimsy won't let me plan ahead like that of what I write. Of course I do plan on another chapter of this one soon, though it's looking like only a touch of the season 1 finale will be in it just for a small bit of info for something else while it will focus more on Discord. Just don't expect the usual lovable one as I may have to add a gore tag just for that chapter.

Comments

[Balewood]

Woohoo! Thanks for the new chapter!

[Hoppa_21]

This is soooooo sweet of him! Cheering her up and then even taking the time to bring the presents of the rest of her family! That's one great uncle!

[SeventhBrony]

It's nice to have family that's worth a darn

[Oberon of the Nightwatch]

Ohhhh... Dashie's gonna be SO Drunk!