Chapter 4
A Crazy Party
The room was fairly extravagant, although that was to be expected when Rarity’s personality was considered. It consisted of a bed – that barely fit his frame –, a window covered in what appeared to be expensive golden silk lined curtains overlooking the street below, a connecting bathroom full of expensive shampoos, soaps, and conditioners, and loads upon loads of decorations. All in all, it was quite a step up from sleeping in a forest clearing, no matter how much pink was in the room.
Setting his beloved blade on the bed and removing his other belongings, Vergil decided for a bath. After all, even the demon world had water to bathe in – granted, it wasn’t very clean water, but it was better than not bathing at all. When you are walking around a place rife with demons, it’s best if you don’t stink to high heaven: demons have a nose for such things.
The sound of running water was heard throughout the boutique.
Meanwhile…
Back at the library, the rest of the girls talked amongst themselves, until the major question finally presented itself out of Twilight's mouth. “So…what do you girls think of him?”
“I think he’s…scary” Fluttershy meekly announced.
Rainbow Dash scoffed. “Oh come on Fluttershy, you think everything is scary.”
“I don’t know Rainbow Dash, I’m kinda with Fluttershy on this one,” Twilight shrugged. “Vergil just seems kind of creepy to me.”
“Oh come on Twilight, not you too!” Dash sighed. “I think he’s cool. Well… not as cool as me, but still cool.”
“Well, growing up in Canterlot I was always intimidated by the royal guards because of the swords they carry. They are designed for that purpose, broad and heavy and generally looking intimidating. Vergil’s sword is the exact opposite. It’s meant for use, not intimidation.” Twilight shivered. “Do you really think someone that carries a blade like that isn't at least a little scary?”
“You heard him Twilight.” Pinkie chimed in. “He has to be scary like that because everyone is a mean meany-pants where he comes from, which makes him a grumpy-pants, and I don’t want one of my new friends to be a grumpy pants, so we’ve got too throw him a super duper special surprise, party and make him smile!”
“Ah agree with Pinkie. Jus' coz' the feller grew up around some bad ponies... er, humans, it don’t make him one, and Ah’d hate to have a good fella like that have a bad time here in Ponyville, no matter how many of mah apples he got for free.”
“Yes, I know he’s not actually evil, but I still just find him a bit creepy is all,” Twilight shook her head, ”but I’m getting ahead of myself. We should welcome him like any other pony and we will make more observations at Pinkie’s party tonight, agreed?”
The response was unanimous. “Agreed.”
“Alright, it’s my job to plan a super duper special surprise party for Vergil! I need you girls to be at Sugarcube Corner at seven o’clock , okay?” Pinkie asked her friends.
Rainbow Dash waved her off. “Yeah, yeah, we got it, Pinkie. You make a party for every new pony in Ponyville and you’ve always had us come at seven.”
“Oki doki loki, just making sure coz we have to make this my best surprise party yet! I’m off to plan the party!” With that, Pinkie bounced her way out of the tree-library.
“I’ve got to go too Twi, there’s some important napping for me to catch up on.” And Rainbow Dash flew out.
“Oh, I have to go too, my animal friends got no breakfast this morning, the poor dears!”
“Ah got to go too, sugarcube. Big Mac’s been doin' all the work today, an' ah have to go help him now.”
As the last of her friends left the library, Twilight was left by herself. “Spiiiiiiike, did you reorganize the books yet?” she called to the other room, hearing an exasperated sigh come from it. She giggled. “Come on, Spike, you know they need to be reorganized today.”
“Fiiiiiine” Spike grumbled a bit as he got up and began reorganizing.
Meanwhile…
Having just finished his shower, Vergil emerged from the bathroom wiping his hair. Someone knocked on his door, and he replied with a quick, “Come in.”
Entering the room, Rarity saw Vergil with his back turned to her as he put on his coat, his hair was still moist and draped down over his eyes. “Is there anything I can help you with, miss Rarity?” he asked, sweeping the bangs back up to their usual spiky style.
“Oh yes, darling. You see, I’m off to pick up my younger sister from school and I just wanted to let you know that her friends are coming over with her.”
“How many?” Vergil asked.
“There are three all together, my sister included.”
“Well than could you please tell them that my room is off limits? I know how children can be.”
“Oh of course, darling! Celestia knows I wouldn’t want those three snooping around in my room, either, they tend to cause trouble wherever they go.”
“My thanks, miss Rarity.”
“Think nothing of it, darling. Oh, and I also wanted to ask you if you would like to come along.”
After pondering the situation, Vergil decided to decline. “The townspeople seem to be frightened by me. I’d rather wait for a while before I go out – it’s still the afternoon, so there will be plenty of ponies to gawk at me, and I'd rather not deal with prying eyes.”
“I understand.”
With a promise of a quick return, Rarity left, leaving Vergil to wait.
Despite saying she would be back shortly, Rarity was gone for hours, and with the mare away there was nothing for the half-devil to do. Finally, after what seemed like eternity, Rarity returned with three small fillies in tow. Their voices made it hard not to eavesdrop, which was exactly what the son of Sparda did.
“Now, I don’t want you bothering Vergil or going into his room. He is our guest and we should respect his privacy, is that clear?”
On cue, three voices replied at the same time, “Yes Rarity.”
“Excellent! Now then, I’ll go see if he’s willing to introduce himself.”
Seconds later, the white mare was back with the half devil in tow. Vergil casually observed the fillies before him: there was a yellow earth pony with a red mane and a bright red bow, a white unicorn with a curly, pink-and-purple mane, and an orange pegasus with a purple mane, all staring up at him.
“Girls, this is Vergil. Vergil, this is my younger sister Sweetie Belle,” Rarity said, pointing a hoof at the filly in question, “Applejack’s younger sister Applebloom, and their friend Scootaloo.”
“Hiya, mister Vergil, we are the CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!” they all shouted at the top of their lungs.
Vergil responded with a quirked eyebrow. ”A pleasure, I suppose.” One thing struck him as odd about these three, more specifically the lack of a flank mark. “What exactly is a… cutie mark?” The words left an unpleasant taste in his mouth.
Scootaloo approached with an incredulous look on her face. “Wait, you don’t know what a cutie mark is? It’s only one of the most important part of pony life! How do you not know this?”
“Uhhh…Scoots, he’s an alien, remember?” Sweetie Belle deadpanned.
“Well yeah, but if he doesn’t get a cutie mark, how will he know what his special talent is?”
“How should I know?”
“Well you’re the dictionary!”
“A dictionary states the meaning of a word, you dodo!”
“See?! Just like that!”
Interrupted by the sound of Rarity clearing her throat, the girls abruptly stopped arguing and turned to face her. “Girls, Vergil had a question for you and it’s impolite to keep a guest waiting.”
“Sorry Rarity, sorry mister Vergil…” Sweetie Belle spoke for the two.
“A cutie mark is a special symbol that appears on a pony’s flank when they discover their special talent,” Scootaloo explained, “and me, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle are on a crusade to find our own.”
Rarity rolled her eyes. “Yes, these girls are on their everlasting ‘crusade’ to find their cutie marks, despite that we’ve always told them to just let it come naturally.”
“Well, that’s… answered some of the questions on my mind,” Vergil thought aloud. After the introductions were finished, he turned to Rarity with a slight smirk. “Might I ask what happened to ‘I will be back shortly?'” he half joked, half asked.
“I’m dreadfully sorry, but on my way back I ran into Pinkie Pie who required my utmost help in what she was doing.”
“And pray tell, what was she doing?”
“Oh nothing, just something personal for her.”
Vergil accepted the answer, and Rarity took the chance to change the subject. “Well now that it’s getting late, I doubt that anypony will be out right now. Would you like to come on a walk with me and the girls?”
There was only one answer to be given by the half-human hybrid, who was starting to feel claustrophobic in the boutique's enclosed space. “Why not?”
Rarity’s assumption was correct, Vergil noted there was not a single pony walking around. He filed it as knowing the right time to go for a walk.
Not two minutes had passed before Rarity gasped. “Oh, let's visit Pinkie Pie! I forgot to grab something when I left!” She received a shrug from Vergil and eager nods from the fillies, and with no complaints, the group headed to the bakery.
The entire building was dark. “Are you sure we are allowed here like this, miss Rarity?”
“Oh it's fine, I assure you. Now come on in.”
Shrugging, Vergil entered. The presence of many ponies, lurking in the dark, made themselves felt. The blue-clad demon was instantly on alert.
“SURPRISE!” The shout came without warning, and it was only the cheer it carried that only barely kept Vergil from circling himself with summoned swords. As it was, it didn't stop him from somersaulting backwards, his coat flapping with the sudden motion. He fell in a terse combat stance, his right hand ready to pull out Yamato.
It was more than many ponies: it looked like the entire town had been stuffed in the establishment, now decorated with streamers and balloons of all vibrant colors he could imagine. The room had gone quiet at the impromptu acrobatics show; somewhere, a cricket was chirping, even as Vergil fought the urge his blood had to climb up to his cheeks and announce his embarrassment over his own overreaction. He looked over the crowd, which was still as a set of statues, most also slack-jawed as they still processed the display of agility, and relaxed his stance. “Well,” he coughed on his hand, “that surely was a surprise.”
At that, everypony relaxed, and the collective murmur filled the room. “Well, the secret's out now, I suppose,” Rarity smiled. “I took so long getting back because Pinkie wanted my help in setting up your surprise party.”
A calculated smirk crossed Vergil's features, until a certain pink pony appeared right in front of his face. “So Vergil, did you like it? Did you? Huh huh? I sure hope you liked it because it took us HOURS to set everything up just right because we didn't know if you would like it, I mean a pony sure would but you're not a pony and-”
The pink mare's rant was cut off by an orange hoof on her mouth, which didn't stop her from trying to talk, although only muffled, unintelligible sounds came out. “Pardon her, sugarcube. Its just that once this one gets all winded up, she ain't stoppin' by 'erself.”
Now that his ears weren't being assaulted by a downpour of words, Vergil could think and analyze. Before, Pinkie reminded him a little too much of Arkham for him to relax. But now, he could see the glee and playfulness was genuine in the bright smile on her muzzle, from which she had pushed Applejack's hoof away. He allowed himself a tiny, but true, smile. “Yes, I liked it. Thank you.”
The bubblegum mare froze, the gleam of her teeth growing to twice its intensity. “YAY! He likes it! Alright everypony, LEEEEET'S PAAAAAAAARTYYY!” With that, she was off in a cloud of smoke and streamers.
3 hours later…
Through gritted teeth, Vergil suffered through the party games. He knew the party had been thrown in good heart, but its childish mood became grating after a while. Despite how much he protested, the girls insisted he be part of it. It was his party after all, they all said.
“Come on Vergil, why don’t you wanna play pin the tail on the pony?” Pinkie asked.
“Because I don’t enjoy games like this.” Vergil responded simply.
Pinkie asked again, “Pleeeeaaaaasee?”, this time making her trademark puppy dog eyes. “I bet if you played some games it would turn that frowny upside downy!”
Sparda's heir didn't seem moved, so Rainbow Dash decided to speak up. “Hey, I had to stop napping because Pinkie wanted my help to set it up, you better play at least one game!”
Vergil sighed, not eager to deal with an annoyed tomboy pegasus nagging his ear off on top of the pleading pink pony by his legs. “ I suppose I can play one, if it will get you to leave me alone about this.”
Five minutes later, it was Vergil’s turn. He was blindfolded and spun around, and everypony was waiting for him to stumble along, which would be extra funny.
They were rather surprised when he calmly walked forward and pinned the tail directly in the mark. A second of relative silence, and Vergil lifted the cloth off one eye. He admired his work, then turned to face the first six ponies he met. “Satisfied?” he deadpanned.
Pinkie's grin faltered a little at his obvious exasperation. “Didn't you have fun?” she asked.
Vergil sat down on a nearby stool. “As I told you, this is not my kind of fun. I thank you for trying, but I'll pass from now on.”
The dark slayer contented himself with watching, being left alone by the now slightly reluctant ponies. It wasn't long before the guests started saying their goodbyes and the party wound down. Pinkie Pie was still energetic, but the same couldn't be said of her friends. A slightly ragged-looking Rarity approached him. “Vergil, darling, I've had my share of this celebration. Would you accompany me home?”
“Of course.”
After saying their goodbyes, the duo left to Carousel Boutique, determined on getting some rest and starting yet another new day in Ponyville.
A/N
Holy crap its been a while, unfortunately it was my own laziness that made this chapter take so long
i can haz forgivness?
And before someone asks, no Vergil will not be paired with anyone in this story, if you want that go read Dusk Stalkers story. I mean Vergil? In love? IMPOSSIBRU!!!
And you know what else? DMC crossovers are starting to broaden, but you don't see very many Metal Gear crossover's, someone needs to get on that. stat.