//------------------------------// // 20 - Howling Good Time // Story: Roll for Initiative // by David Silver //------------------------------// The group set off towards the shadowed hills, unsure of what awaited them. Pinkie bounced beside Garbuncle. "Seeing as I'm a bard, which is kinda short for storyteller, have I heard something about this?" Spike considered that a moment. "Well, I suppose that's not impossible. Roll for it." A great twenty-sided die appeared in the air before them and tumbled to the ground. Pinkie giggled with anticipation as it bounced around before slowly coming to a halt. "Lucky thirteen!" she cried, pouncing the great playing piece. "Does that mean I know something?" She didn't even notice Discord's finger detachedly giving her a poke on the noggin. "Oh! I do know something!" She hopped free of the die as it faded away. "That sounds like the creepy wailing of a chernabog, a creepy thing straight out of Hades!" Applejack hiked a brow. "Ya mean it done broke outta there?" Pinkie shook her head. "Nope, lives there. It can get real big and nasty and loves being a big meanie face to 'surface dwellers'. That's us." Big Mac drew his blade free. "Ah'll protect ya." Spike lifted his staff high, magic sparking from the tip. "I'd better put a defensive spell on us. Hades creatures can be quite tricky, and we don't want them in our minds." Rainbow clapped her hooves together. "Yeah, you do that, then we pummel it into next tuesday. We don't need to make friends with some Hades reject." Pinkie stuck out her tongue even as Spike's magic washed over her. "Don't rule it out, maybe it's just making noise because it's lonely." Applejack nudged her hat back. "'Fraid ah'm with Rainbow on this one. Ain't too likely a creepy Hades howler wants to make friendly like." Pinkie blew a raspberry at the very notion. "The last thing from Hades I had a good time with." Spike blinked before it came to him. "Oh, right, the guard dog?" "Exactamundo. He's a real sweetie if you treat him right." Pinkie pronked forward towards the hills. "We just need to have open minds and give the poor thing a chance." She peeked over her shoulder. "Didn't you learn anything from Zecora?" Applejack shrugged as she went along. "Not ta walk right through a bunch of poison joke like it ain't nothin'?" Big Mac smiled, but did not share the source of his amusement even as he chuckled softly. Spike pointed with his staff to a form rising from behind the next hill. "Look!" All eyes were on it as a great horned bipedal figure rose, wings spreading magnificently to the left and right before a loud snap made them all wince. The figure deflated with low rumbling. Rainbow blinked softly. "What the? Hold on, I'm gonna see what's going on." She zipped away from the group in a streak of colors, arriving before the grumbling form of the demonic figure. No longer was it large and towering, but kinda small and aged. "Uh, you alright?" The aged demon looked up at Rainbow and grunted. "Just threw something. Give me a moment and I'll be ready to dispense true and proper horror! You just be patient." It rubbed at its sore back with a clawed hand, grumbling as it paced in a small circle, attempting to coax its old form into cooperation. Rainbow snorted softly through her cloth mask. "So, uh, you're that 'chernawhatsit'?" "Chernabog!" boomed the figure, inflating to half again his size. He would have towered over Rainbow, had she been on the ground. "Master of torment and fear!" "Yeah yeah. I'm terrified. So... what's up?" "I've been informed that some very naughty surface dwellers would be passing by in need of a good bout of terror and torment." He flexed his arms, trying to show off muscles that had long past their prime. "One of them is a small dragon of advanced years, and his companion is a large brute of a unicorn." Rainbow pointed with half-lidded eyes. "You mean those two?" Big Mac and Spike were arriving with the others, looking ready for a fight, except Pinkie. She was pronking directly for Chernabog. "Hey! How's it going?" "Pinkie," he said in a tone both familiar and irritated. "You remember what I told you?" She rolled her eyes. "I didn't try to sneak into Hades, sheesh. I was just bringing back Cerbie. How is he?" "He has worms, but we're taking care of that." Chernabog sighed gently before fixing his eyes on his main targets, his eyes glowing a baleful red. "Now then, you two are the ones in need of a lesson!" Big Mac stepped forward, sword at the ready. "Try yer best, but we got a country t' save." Spike planted his staff in the ground. "Yeah, what he said. We aren't scared of an old demon anyway." Applejack glanced between the geriatric demon-spawn and her brother. "Uh huh, so, mind tellin' us what they did done to earn 'fear and torment'?" Chernabog began to swell and grow, expanding out to truly inspiring size without a repeat of the first time's incident. "They are guilty of pride, wrath, and lust! Three cardinal sins, worthy of at least as many lifetimes of torment!" He clapped great hands together. "And I hear dragons live for a very long time." Discord snorted out a half-laugh. "Please, do regale us with how these two have ever managed to accomplish lust. I'm sure the kiddos want to know." "I'm not a kid," hotly defended Spike even as he looked nervously at the towering demonic form. "Who said I was talking about you?" Discord offered no other explanation. "Is it not obvious?" He directed a massive claw at Spike, hovering it just inches from his face. "He does not ride out with pure thoughts. He adores the princess in most unwholesome ways, like the little brat he is." Spike went the deepest reds. "I just..." Big Mac stepped to the side, putting himself between Spike and that huge claw as he shoved Spike back. "Don't you make funna my friend. If he likes Rarity, so what? That ain't a crime any." Rainbow snickered suddenly. "Don't you mean 'Schmarity'?" The claw remained as it was, now pointing at Big Mac. "You are a betrayer of your kin, having impure thoughts towards one that is unfit for your line." Applejack perked right up. "Say what now? Whattaya mean by that?" Pinkie hopped up on Big Mac, using him as a soapbox. "Hold on there! You're outdated. None of those things are even sins anymore." Chernabog drew his claw back a little, a perplexed look on his face. "What are sins do not casually change!" Pinkie shook her head with confidence. "Nuh uh, they sure do. It's a new age!" She reared up on hind legs and threw her arms wide. "So long as it's between two adults that want to be there, there's nothing wrong about it, so there." Chernabog's face creased into a new scowl. "This is unacceptable! The world decays around me! Very well, then we shall move on to a more clear of sin, wrath! They both take arms and are ready to fight, to kill. They are guilty and there is no excuse for this. Tell me not that ponies accept thugs and murderers among them." Applejack slid up besides Big Mac. "What'd he mean by that?" "Uh, just game stuff," he mumbled out, not meeting her eyes. Spike shook his staff at the big demon, hoping it would hide the tremble in his arms. "I-I haven't killed anypony. I've broken skeletons before, but they're already dead. You can't 'murder' them." Rainbow flew up beside the face of the great, aged, demon. "Say, so, who told you to go after those two anyway?" "That is none of your affair, mortal." He swatted at her casually, but she darted around the slow swings. "Aw, c'mon. Wait, let me guess. He had eight arms, and he was good with magic." "Maybe," agreed the demon in a pouty tone. "What about him?" Discord lifted his shoulders. "Guy's a great big bag of cardinal sins, if you ask me. He even has sloth down, making you do his dirty work for him." "I am Chernabog! I do no--" His angry outburst was suddenly interrupted with heaving coughs. The elderly demon shrank back to a little over a pony in size as he struggled to regain his composure. "Dang it all." Spike pointed into the distance. "You should make sure nothing bad happens in Hades. We have a squizzard to teach a lesson to, and a country to save." Pinkie hopped down from Big Mac and bounced over to pat Chernabog on the back. "That sounds really bad. You should get some nice warm tea." "I do not need to be coddled! I am a demon, timeless and horrifying!" "I'm completely terrified," assured Pinkie in a joyful tone. "But it's mostly for you. C'mon. Cerbie would be so sad if anything happened to you." She threw a leg over Chernabog and turned him back towards Hades. "I'll keep an eye on those two for you, promise." Rainbow lowered on slow wings, descending to land on the ground lightly. "So we aren't pummeling him?" Chernabog snorted, sulfurous smoke billowing from his nostrils. Pinkie hugged him close. "I'll keep an extra close eye on her. Now get home. I bet everyone's missing you right now." She released him as he began trudging back towards his home. "Have a safe trip!" Spike rubbed behind his head. "I'm not complaining that you handled that, but that was not how I expected it to go." Pinkie twirled in place to face Spike. "A good surprise or a bad one?" "I'll vote for good." He gave a powerful thumbs up before he clapped his hands together. "With him out of the way, we can set up proper camp for the evening." "And so they did that," said Discord in a bored tone. With a snap of his fingers, the sun peeked over the horizon. Spike peered at the sun. "Huh, well, hope everyone enjoyed their sleep!" Applejack lifted her shoulders. "Don't expect no real sleep 'till we get back to the farmhouse. Ah'm ready to go." They resumed their trek, free of any great demon lords. It seemed like a fine day for travel, until the clattering of bones made it clear they were not alone. "Ambush!" called Rainbow, pointing at where skeletons began bouncing free from hiding places, still as flat as the day Spike painted them into being. "Now we're talking!" She darted for one as she drew a small dagger on the way, slicing a skeleton cleanly in half as she flew past it. Discord drew out his bow and began peppering the advancing enemies , one arrow landing in the skull of one just as a ball of fire impacted with the same, sending it into pieces. "Nice shot." Applejack backed away, unsure of what was going on until she bumped into something with her rump. A glance over her shoulder showed it to be a large skeletal pony, bringing its mace up high in its mouth. She yelped and did as startled ponies did, lashing out her powerful hind legs. The skeleton exploded into pieces, fragments of the paper that made it up fluttering to the ground all around her. "Huh, that weren't so bad. Hold on, I'll help!" She waded into the battle them, fighting alongside the others. Pinkie pulled free her lute as she hopped over a skeleton. "It's time for a bone-chilling good time!" she announced. With a strum of her hooves over the strings, she began to play a lively melody. "Show them what they're missing." The rest of the party felt new power filling them. With the power of music, the skeletons fell before them. Big Mac cleaved three in half with a grunt, looking around for others. "Are we clear?" Rainbow came down on the last one with her dagger, cutting it in half from the top down. "Clear." Spike frowned as he shouldered his staff. "We'd better watch out. The Squizzard surely knows his standard skeletal soldiers are no match for us. It will only grow more fierce from here."