//------------------------------// // Chapter 18 - Dealing with Demons // Story: The Pony Dreadfuls // by No one is home //------------------------------// “I have a job to do Discord.” Celestia let her royal facade slip and he voice rang with annoyance as she stood on the palace balcony raising the morning sun. “Whatever you want can wait.” “Want? Tia, dearest soul, what-ever makes you think I want anything?” The Lord of Chaos smirked coyly as he loomed over the ruling diarch. “Maybe I just dropped in to see how your little family is getting along. Obviously some pony's not getting her beauty rest. Is your strapping new alicorn prince keeping you up late? Hmmmm?” “Perhaps you should be less concerned with my protege and spend more time worrying about your own creation… or did you make your little abortion of an alicorn just to sulk about a changeling hive regretting the mess you made of him?” The imperious voice of Princess Luna preceded the Princess of the night herself. “Oh Lu Lu, do you think it’s that gloriously handsome body I gave him that haunts his troubled mind?” Discord coiled close around the dark alicorn. “Honestly how many times has he complained about his looks? Well aside from that one time YOUR guard tried to bury him alive in a burning pit… but that was hardly MY fault, now was it?” “Enough, Discord! I will not allow you to play on my sister’s guilt for her part in your mad experiment!” Celestia stamped her hoof in anger as the sun brilliantly cascaded over the horizon. “Your right Tia, Lu Lu has nothing to feel guilty about.” Discord winked broadly at the Princess of the night. “She never even once took a lost, mentally unbalanced human and deliberately turned him into a killing machine. No that was all on you, dear. And that wasn’t even Nightmare-Celestia, that was just what you did when you had to face Sombra without your prize pupil. I will spare you the horrors of what SHE did. By comparison your crimes were downright tame.” -=-=-=-=- “The world is going to break, because I am going to break it!” The giant cloaked stallion screamed across the Belfry, only to be tapped on the withers by a pale horse of an earth pony that rivaled him in sheer mass. “You’ve had enough Train Wreck,” DeadLift place a massive hoof over the pitcher of bitter ale. “Come on man, pull yourself together. You're scaring the customers, and with our customers that’s really saying something.” “Do you know what she told me Jimmy Jack? Do you?” The massive beasts speech was slurred and nearly incoherent as he addressed his friend by his abandoned human name. “Naw Ki, I don’t, I just know you're upset. And you're drunk. And it’s my job to keep the peace up in here. Why don’t you tell me what she said..” The circus strong-pony looked his friend in the eyes. “Just stop the drinking and tell me what she said?” “She said my depression was poisoning my family! F- fast Change, I thought we were friends. She stood by me through everything, man. The fire. The burns. When Surprise died she was there!” An addled serpent darted from the things maw snatched the pitcher from under the earth pony’s hoof and splashed its contents across it’s face. “She handed me a train ticket! She said my family would be happier if I ‘caught a train’, Jimmy.” “That… doesn’t sound like Fast, dude.” DeadLift voice grated like nails on a blackboard. “She was right though, depression is poison for a changeling.” Train Wreck’s head wobbled as he spoke. “I’m poisoning them. Diane… she’s tasted enough poison. And Z… my poor… simple… brilliant, Z-978… she could be so much… I’m killing her, man. A- and little Zilia…” “Look dude, just go home,” Deadlift pleaded with his friend, “Whatever went down, it was a misunderstanding…” “No… Carrot already bailed,” the beast sobbed helplessly. “She got accepted into Baltimare University man! You were just here Tuesday telling me how proud you were! Nothing you’re saying now makes sense Ki! Hell you made more sense in the looney bin when the plague hit! Something evil has done crawled up in your head man.” Dead lift argued uselessly with his friend, who simply stood and stumbled for the door. “They don’t need me, they’re better off if I’m gone. I have a train to catch.” Train Wreck Pastel stumbled through the door without a single look back. -=-=-=-=- “He’s out of the picture,” Night Shift scuttled up to the cyan maned changeling affectionately. “It went down just like you said it would.” “The ‘Unbreakable’ Unspoken Prince.” Iam Noone chuckled merrily. “Everything has it’s breaking point. I assume the infiltrators are in place?” “Everything is set to play out just like you planned boss.” Split Shift nodded eagerly. “After the Circus, the ponies think they know exactly which bugs are on their side.” “Of course they do. The cute little hole-free bugs are good. The ugly little spiny bugs are evil. Poor Diane, I really miss you so much. It’s a shame this is what it takes for you to see how things really are.” The Nopony whispered with the chorus of his hive. “Come home.”