Awkward Silence.
That was the best way to describe the situation I was finding myself in.
We were standing inside, just in the hallway that had let outside to the training grounds.
But despite this silent situation, there were quite a few reactions. These ranged from stink eyes of Rainbow and Applejack, to the nervous shuffling of Rarity and not to mention a fierce glare of Twilight, albeit that effect was lowered by the big cast around her horn. Pinkie was unreadable as to be expected. Though Fluttershy was glaring between the two of us. Mostly at Celestia, who was comically red in the face. If it was from the punching back flying at her face in high speed or the rage that came with it was anybody's guess. I like to think that it was a healthy mix of both. Jason simply scratched his chin, while he waited for the situation to be solved.
And quite explosive of a situation it was back then Celestia finally reacted to the heavy bag on her face...
Celestia’s whole body was twitching in anger. She was truly shaking with pure rage as her horn glowed and turned the punching bag into a crisp, while the sand inside of it was instantly turned into a flexible glowing red glass mass, before hitting the ground with a splat. Celestia’s hair was burning as in a few seconds she moved her fat ass in front of me.
I had to admit it was astonishingly fast for her overweight self.
But before I could contemplate this further Celestia grabbed my windpipe and pushed down, strangling me. Her face was red from rage as her mane was a burning inferno. The temperature was a bit too hot for my liking as I tried to desperately gasp for air.
“I’M GOING TO MURDER YOU!” she screamed, clearly showing her intentions, if her strangling motions weren’t already clear enough.
Just in that moment I could see something pink flit in my peripheral vision, as a second later a buttery pegasus got right in Celestia’s face.
I could feel the pressure lessen as Celestia released me, stumbling back as Fluttershy stared her down disapprovingly. I could hear her scolding her faintly as I started to cough a few times. But what Fluttershy actually demanded from Celestia was rather interesting. It made me smirk slightly, as I was going to enjoy this situation for all it was worth.
Celestia stood there. Her face everything other than pleased as Fluttershy hovered in front of her, waiting for her to finally do what she demanded. Celestia however simply avoided eye contact as she shuffled from hoof to hoof.
“I want you to apologize!” Fluttershy repeated again, making Celestia groan out loud.
“But-!” she tried in vain to counter, but Fluttershy set her hand on her mouth, stopping her weak attempts.
“No buts!” she replied harshly, “You strangled him! An innocent little creature! So much weaker than yourself! And only because of an accident!”
Celestia’s eyes drifted to me, as she scoffed. I simply smirked at her, enjoying this situation for all it was worth. This only made her fume worse. But before she could say anything other harsh Fluttershy interjected her glare and glared back with her expressionate eyes.
“Apologize!” she all but demanded as the Sun Witch couldn’t help but wince. She then let out a frustrated sigh and nodded her consent.
Fluttershy was still looking at her sternly as Celestia turned her head to me in frustration.
“Sorry,” Celestia mumbled begrudgingly and barely audible. Despite that it seemed to still be enough for dear Fluttershy as she nodded approvingly, before turning to me with a smile.
“And now you too.”
I reeled back aghast at this suggestion as I felt aggression within me rise.
“What?! Why should I apologize to this insufferable-“
But Fluttershy instantly landed in front of me, as she interrupted my incoming rant. Her face was stern and left no room for arguments.
“Because you were kicking the punching bag at her. I know this wasn’t intentional and that she was mean-spirited for hurting you like she did, but you should still apologize since it was rather reckless behavior of you.” Her face then softened, as her big soft turquoise eyes stared into me, trying to convince me to this cause. There was truly no anger from her part towards me. “So, please? Can you do that. For me?”
I couldn’t help but sigh. I was of course intelligent enough to know when I was beaten. Fluttershy would get her way. No matter if she tried to be friendly, or to be forceful. Struggling would only postpone the inevitable.
“Tsk. Fine. I will play nice,” I said as I turned my head away from the intense gaze of this mysterious pony.
“That’s right, mutt. Roll over and apologize,” she said in that insufferable haughty manner of hers, making me growl.
“No antagonizing him!” Fluttershy scolded immediately as she flew straight into Celestia’s face. She only avoided eye contact yet again, clearly uncomfortable and grumbling another half-assed apology.
After Celestia did as she said, Fluttershy gave me the sign to go on.
“Well, I apologize for this truly tragic occurrence of this punching bag meeting your face. It was an unfortunate accident and I will try for it not to happen again,” I said before smirking slightly. I might not have meant any word that I said, but I still did make a proper apology, something the Sun Witch could not. At least her half-assed mumbles are anything but the proper way to do things.
Fluttershy of course couldn’t sense my slight taunt and just smiled at me brightly for like she puts it, showing maturity.
“Now shake hands,” she said to the both of us. Of course I didn’t hesitate, seeing as I wanted to show my superiority over her. Celestia of course hesitated. Almost so long that Fluttershy was short before giving her another scolding. But she managed.
Our hands immediately strengthened as we each tried to crush the others appendage. I was of course at a total disadvantage, seeing as I had lost most of my strength, which made her smirk. It was a smirk I returned to show her that I was still superior, even in my darkest hour.
Our gazes spoke words on their own. A secret language as we were shaking hands. The air was rather tense during this. So much that one could cut it with a butter knife.
‘I will destroy you,’ she silently communicated with me, while I could only smirk harder at her, making her almost burst a vein.
‘You are welcome to try, Sun Witch.’
As we finally had resolved the situation, Celestia finally let her attention stray to Jason and the young Princes. Her glare only hardened as she noticed his humanoid appearance and the different appearances of the youngsters.
“More demons,” she hissed with clear distaste and suspicion.
Jason sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “First of all, I am a jotun thank you very much. Secondly, hello, hypocritical bitch.”
I snorted in amusement at his jab, which of course didn’t help the tense situation. Celestia herself seemed to glare even more fiercely at Jason now, seeming to have expected the insult. Then again, it would be strange if she didn’t, considering the things I was throwing at her on a regular basis.
She was just about to retort when Princess Luna quickly got between them.
“Look at the time! Fenrich has promised us lunch, how about thou join us? We will gladly escort thee!” she hastily said before grabbing Celestia’s hand and leading her away quickly, giving me a meaningful glance and making me sigh as they turned around a corner.
“Well,” I started, “I probably should have seen this coming. I am probably on second place when it comes to people Celestia hates the most. With our similar traits regarding our still somewhat human appearance it was pretty clear she would see a connection and find a distaste for you. This might be a change from what you know in your Equestria, but it is the reality for me in this one,” I finished with a shake of my head.
“I’ll have a nice, long talk with her,” Jason assured, patting my head.
I simply raised a brow, ignoring the patting, “A talk you say? You don’t really know the full story. There is a reason why I am only the second place on her hatred list. Remember how Alexander told you about the Tyrant Overlord Baal and how a mare stopped him?”
I saw Jason nod.
“Said mare was Celestia’s mother. Queen Faust. I only heard stories as I came to this world many years afterwards. The stories were about how a portal was ripped open into this world as Baal found an anchor. The demons of this Tyrant flooded the streets, slaughtering the guards and everyone who would oppose. Celestia and Luna were still fillies back then and the situation was looking bleak. No army could stop this rumored to be strongest Overlord. His levels were simply too high. Just as everything seemed to be over Queen Faust started one last desperate attempt sacrificing her life with one last mighty spell. Baal in her arrogance didn’t take her seriously. A fatal mistake. In the end the body of this mighty Tyrant was divided in different pieces and sealed away to different locations throughout the world. The demons without leader were going into hiding. Of course like Alexander, were there demons that weren’t part of Baal’s army and simply got ripped into this large portal. Not that the ponies saw it that way. A lot of life’s were lost and the hatred for demons was strong. And of course a filly as weak as Celestia was positively eaten up by this rage and hatred of losing her mother. Her suspicions and anger towards demons never lessened. And the necessary coup Luna and I attempted of course didn’t help matters either. Not that it was a wrong decision mind you. We had reasons for acting like we did. I mean, look at Princess Luna. She lost her mother as well but didn’t end up being a, like you stated, hypocritical bitch. I for one believe that this side of hers was always inside her. And I really doubt that she will suddenly start to see the errors of her ways and be nice towards demons. I know her longer than you. Much longer. The things she said aren’t for civilized ears to hear.”
Tapping his foot, Jason looked down at me. “So, what you’re telling me, the simplest solution to this problem, is too just bring Faust back?”
“That is not how things work here, in case you have some dragon ball powers.”
Jason gave me a very, very, very hard stare. “I can turn into an alien that can make entire universes. Reality is my bitch.”
“Fine, fine. Reality is your bitch. But this world has rules and a flow of life. I don’t know what happens to your souls after someone dies, but here we have a specific lifecycle. If a soul has sinned throughout its life it gets turned into a prinny. A penguin looking demon that has to serve the different races in order to earn money and pay off their sins so that they can be reincarnated. Good souls of course get reincarnated just like that. No doubt Queen Faust has long since moved on with her soul in a new life. A life that probably has already ended again and was reincarnated again and so on.”
“And I can just ignore that, because I can alter the very fabric of reality. The rules of a universe are meaningless to me.”
“Good to know. But still risky. You didn’t play Disgaea 4 so you might not know that, but there was an antagonist that tried to destroy the human world in the game. Plan after plan was masterfully eradicated by the group of (mostly) demons. But the last plan was special. At the last instance God himself actually took part and activated a system that absorbs malice to give it a physical shape and destruct the human world. This system is called Fear the Great. So you can assume that this world has a god too. And while the line in Disgaea 4 of ‘Kicking God’s ass’ sounded rather alluring, they simply fought against his plan, Fear the Great, and not against god himself. I can only imagine that your messing with the very fabric of reality might lead to god activating his destruction protocol onto this very world, or maybe God goes as far as to go for a deadlier plan even. And no matter how much it might also lift up Luna’s mood it is not a risk that should be taken. There are powers that are not to be messed with. And believe me, I know this better than anyone else in this world.”
“Celestial sapians are void dwellers,” Jason informed. “Their higher up than gods.”
“Very well. It seems like I can’t keep you from trying. But know that you are responsible in case anything goes wrong and have to clean up in case god tries to erase this world.”
Jason paused, looking lost in thought. “Right. Consider it dropped then.”
I couldn’t help but sigh in relief, “I certainly am glad you listened to me.”
“Hm?” Jason asked, looking down at me. “Oh, I wasn’t talking to you.”
That made me arch an eyebrow at him, looking for clarification, “And who were you talking too?”
He smirked, shaking his head. “Don’t worry about it. Still, I think I should try talking to Celestia. I dunno if it’ll help, but, you never know.”
I hummed in thought, “Well. You can certainly try your luck. Maybe you can even lift up the restrictions that are laid on us now. You might not know this, but Luna as well as I are forbidden from leaving Ponyville after we were defeated by the Elements. Celestia’s orders. I just heard about this today by an incompetent guard.”
Jason nodded. “Yeah, I can guess who that is.” He stepped foreward, heading after the princesses. “You can come if you want. Only warning, there's going to be spoilers.”
“We have to go to the dining room anyway. So I don’t mind. You were promised lunch after all,” I said following along and moving with Jason towards the dining hall. I could only hope things would stay peaceful with that threat of the Sun Witch actually being here.
Soon enough we reached the large dining room doors that were guarded by a pair of guards. They quickly opened the door letting us in and starting the last part of this Episode. Or I assumed it was at least close to it.