//------------------------------//
// I. 6 ponies  
// Story: Fiend of the Apples 
// by Eon Seb 
//------------------------------//

	Applejack was pacing in the barn waiting for the girls. They had been through so much together and, with Twilight now having a castle in Ponyville, she - no, all of them - needed to know about the secret that had kept this town alive despite what tended to  happen around it. She had not been in contact with 'him' for a while because they had the Elements but the deal was still in place as much as she did not like it. He had always kept his word, "unlike those no good Flim-Flams". Now she just had to wait and hope her friends did not hate her after this.

Meanwhile

"So what do you think Jackie wants to tell us?" Pinkie was bouncing along next to the others without a care in the world.
"If I knew that, I'd have just stayed home to finish my nap" Rainbow was flying along at a lazy pace and looked half asleep. She had been up until the early hours practicing again so was not in a good mood when Shy came to wake her.
"I hope everything is okay with the farm." Fluttershy still got spooked some times due to the bat incident but was getting over it; much better than she would have a few years ago.
"She told me it had something to do with the history of Ponyville. I'm so exited! I  brought a stack of papers to record everything." Twilight had been collecting books to restore the library and an old story about the town would be a perfect addition to it.
"I'm sure everything will be just fine, dears. Ah, here we are, so lets see what the fuss is about."

Walking into the barn to see their friend pacing next to what looked like a complicated ritual circle was not what Rarity, or any of them had been expecting.. After staring for a moment Rarity cleared her throat "Um, Applejack darling. What exactly were you wanting to tell us?"
AJ stopped pacing, saw her friends staring at the circle and sighed "Y'all know how nothin' seems to hurt the orchard permanently no matter what happens? Includin' beavers, bats and everything in between." -She waited till they all nodded before continuing.-"That's because the Apple Family made a deal along time ago and we keep to it. Year after year -  generation after generation - we pay the price and our farms,  our towns and our businesses survive all that comes at them."
After she finished Jackie just waited and watched to see her friends response.
The girls (other than Pinkie ) all had looks of confusion on their faces.  Twilight gained a look of comprehension before her face paled in horror. "T-the only thing that could keep a deal like that going would be, gulp. A demon right?"
When Applejack nodded, the girls went ballistic. "Was your family insane? What? Did they have to promise the souls of themselves and all their kids!?" Rainbow had seen a lot of movies and so knew the denizens of Tartarus were bad news.
"How could you maintain such a ghastly thing, dear?" Rarity was holding her self up on shacking knees. She had heard many stories about gem hunters tricked by the flamed hooved fiends of the depths.
Fluttershy, just hid behind Rainbow, and Pinkie "So who'd you make the deal with?"
The others paused and gave her incredulous looks- "What? My parents had to make a deal with a demon to save me when I was a foal. He still checks up on me from time to time." the girls gained increasingly traumatized expressions as they thought about some of the time they had seen Pinkie 'talking' to herself. "Oh, don't worry. Murphy is really funny and actually a decent guy as demons go, as long as you don't piss him off. "
AJ looked up at the name 'Murphy? That's who we have our deal with. I guess your folks learned of him from  our family connection."
Twilight had regained the ability to speak "Where you going to introduce him to us? Is that why there is a circle here?"
"Yeah I was, but if Pinkie already knows him, that's one less introduction to make. You don't happen to have a surefire way to get him to show up, do ya? He tends to show up  only when he wants to for me."
Pinkie grinned, it was not as happy as normal, her hair went flat and she unleashed a noise that could only be described as a scream of the damned. The next moment her hair was back to normal and a dull pink pony in a hat and trench coat with cloven hooves walked in the door rubbing his ear. "What was that for? I was only on the other side of town. Anyway what did you want, Pinkie?"
Murphy looked around taking in the scene before him including the  terrified faces of 4 of the ponies and the circle "Sigh, You wanted to introduce me to your friends in a 'safe' manner right Jackie?"- 'Jackie' just nodded.-"and Pinkie here just called me to get me here faster. Great." Murphy turned to the girls who all took a step back and with a flash his outfit was gone revealing a pony who was such a dark shade of pink he almost looked red, when coupled with the ram horns, no cutie mark and the split hooves, his appearance left little doubt to what he really was. "Hello my names Murphy, Imp lord of Tartarus. Nice to meet you all".
It was going to be awhile before they gained the courage to respond.

Later

After several minutes of staring, Fluttershy's head popped up from behind Rarity. "P-please don't eat us, Mr. Murphy, sir."
Murphy looked at them for a moment before he fell over laughing.
"Y-you actually think I want to eat ponies? My favorite food in the world is apples. That's why I made a deal with the Apple Clan - so I could have a good supply of them all year round."
Murphy continued to laugh as the girls looked at AJ "It's true. We pay him a cut of the gross every harvest and he protects the farms and if we pay him extra he will protect any nearby town as well."
The girls took in this information before looking at Murphy, who had finally stopped laughing and then looking at Pinkie. 'So Pinkie what deal did your parents make with him?"
Pinkie just smiled with a hint of sadness "He gave me earth pony magic in exchange for my wings." the resounding cry of "What?" broke one of the windows and was heard on the other end of town.
"Why would you ever give up your wings Pinkie" Rainbow was confused she had learned that Pinkie was in fact born a pegasus, that had been a sad story for all of them. But she never told them how she lost her wings.
"Because she was dying."-the girls turned back to Murphy. Gone was the grinning fool from before. In his place stood a stone faced pony- "She had a lethal  case of feather flu. The only way I could cure her was to replace her magic and that made the wings useless in the first place. So I took them so she would not have to deal with never being able to fly on her own while still having wings which look like they should work."
The girls all paused to take in that sobering thought. After a moment Rainbow looked up "Wait. You said he was supposed to protect the town to right?"-After AJ nodded Rainbow rounded on Murphy-"Then where were you when Tirek attacked us!?" The girls turned to him for an explanation only to back up a bit at his haunted expression.
"I was in the lower levels of Tartarus stopping a group of demons from reaching the door. I had to fight off an army of bats, a group of random chaos spawn and a crazy nacho with one eye! By the time all was said and done, the area was littered with bodies from both sides. I had lost many comrades and had to pull the eyes out of an enemy, break two down into their basic components and make one explode like a water balloon. " By this point the girls were staring at him as he continued to go in to detail about the carnage of the battle, Rarity passed out from fright along with Fluttershy. Pinkie's hair had gone flat while Twilight was crying as he described how his fellows  were torn asunder by their enemy. Rainbow stole AJ's hat to throw up in  just as he finished his story. 'So that is why I could not help you."
Twilight looked at him "Why were you leading the charge against those maniacs anyway?"
Murphy gain a snobbish look. "Because I'm the imp king. It's my job to make sure the creatures of the lower levels stay put."
While the girls were just looking at him trying to absorb the massive  amount of information they had just received, the door to the barn  flew open and a trio of blurs knocked Murphy off his hooves.