//------------------------------//
// Chapter One 
// Story: The Thirteenth Alicorn 
// by Monty Python 
//------------------------------//

Erebus pressed the doorbell for the third time in a row. Like what had happened three times before none of his siblings showed up to answer. He rolled his eyes and mentally checked his magic to make sure the cookies he had packed in his basket weren't going to fall. He snorted, annoyed that when his siblings came to visit Mount Mortem, he had always come to the door to greet them, pull them into a hug and invite them for tea and cookies, but when he came, it was a whole different story. He sighed, turned and spread his gaunt skeletal bat-like wings, grimacing as the leathery skin in between the fingers grew in before he cocked them, ready to fly back before he heard a clicking sound behind him. He turned around faster than seemed physically possible, put his nose up to whoever opened the door, and gave the biggest, happiest smile an alicorn with a skull for a face could give. 

With a squee that broke the eardrum of any mortal in a three-mile radius, Erebus lunged forward and enveloped his older brother in a rib-crushing hug, which considering that he was built as heavily as a grizzly bear, was pretty hard. Pulling himself out of the hug he lifted a cookie out of the basket and gave it to his brother, being careful to keep a steady stream of magic to not to let the cookies fall- if there was anything more important in the world to him it was always having cookies to share with his siblings, and that included the alicorn of evil. 

Diablo Malo, looked all the world like his namesake, his fur was the color of freshly spilled blood, and his talent glyph, cutie mark Erebus reminded himself, was a black pitchfork, surrounded by flames. His mane was chopped short in front but flowed like a river of magma down his back. 

"Erebus, welcome." He said, with what sounded like a slight quaver in his voice, he turned and walked into the mountain, turning his head to indicate Erebus to follow, which he did, tripping over Diablo's outstretched leg. As he trotted down the hall he grimaced again as the skin between his fingers receded, before he turned his attention to Diablo's tone. Is he nervous 'bout something? Erebus thought as he walked down the torch lite hall, before laughing internally. Diablo was never scared, even when Flora had turned into a raging she-demon and tried to murder all of ponykind three thousand years ago. He gave a little laugh, as he wiped a tear from his eye with one of his bony wing fingers. 

Finally, the two of them pushed through the bronze doors that blocked off the hallway to the main council room, Erebus went in first with a light spring in his step, while Diablo hung back, his head drooping.

There were ten of them. All of them sitting on thrones made of the purest metals and jewels ever found, arranged in a semicircle.The only exception was Flora, who as usual was sitting on a tree stump eating a raw turkey. Erebus smiled at all of them, looking from face to face before he settled on the throne directly in front of him. It was empty, missing its usual owner, Erebus's eldest brother, Apophis, alicorn of magic

"Um, where's Apophis?"

The alicorn sitting directly to the left of Apophis's throne nodded solemnly. With a start, Erebus realized that it was Lux Bonum, the alicorn of good.

He looked exactly how Erebus had remembered him last, his blonde mane half covering his face and his gold fur glistening in the sun. Where the sunlight was coming from was a mystery since Erebus knew for a fact that the Council Room didn't have a skylight- to Flora's very routine displeasure.

And he realized with another start the new ruler of Immortality. Erebus didn't understand the complex royal coronation that made Apophis the Prince of alicorns, and quite frankly he didn't care. But what he did know that the title would be passed down to the next oldest child, which would have been Flora if Lux wasn't born ten seconds before. Needless to say, there was a little bit of hostility between the both of them

"Hey, Lux." Erebus said as he turned to face him, "where exactly is Apophis, and follow up question," he backed up, took a deep breath and cried out:
"WHO WANTS COOKIES?" 
Almost immediately there was a rush as nine hungry alicorns mobbed him trying to get the cookies. It took some doing but he managed to get everypony one. 

But of course Lux had to mess things up.

"Erebus, what in Tartarus are you doing?"

Erebus looked up at him with a cookie in his mouth, and a trail of floating cookies that was slowly being eaten by Flora. 

"Eadhing?" He said with a muffled mouth as he dumped the rest of the cookies down his mouth, which was a shame since it took forever for Erebus's body to break down organic matter into energy, one of the side effects of being a skeleton he supposed.

Lux looked at him and then sighed deeply and collapsed back into his throne.

"Erebus, I need your help.

Erebus looked at him surprised, Lux had asked for his help before but it was usually for small things, like can you remove your wing so I can find the ball that rolled under the boulder, or can you please reap the soul of that evil tyrant that's threatening that city I favor, stuff like that. But growing up with Lux made Erebus learn that all he ever wanted was to become Prince, but now...

"Look, I know what you're thinking, I've always wanted to be Prince and now I am. But the thing, is I don't want to be Prince if it means that Apophis is missing, it's been a month. A. Month. And we still haven't gotten word from him, yes I know he loves to disappear for days at a time but he tells us beforehand!"

Erebus nodded slowly as he processed what Lux said. It was true that Apophis loved disappearing to meditate or study some arcane form of magic from a different dimension, but to vanish for a whole month? He put his wing hand on his chin and stroked it when was the last time he had come to Immortality? He went through his memories until he chanced upon it, it was two years back but he still felt the magical aftershock. 

"You know what Lux? I agree I will find Apophis, and if anybody tries to stop me I'll reap their soul and drag them to Tarturus myself! One question though, how'm I suppose to find Apophis? My magic pretty weak and we all know that Apophis is the master of all magic."

Lux chuckled and brushed his blond hair out his face,"

"I know two alicorns that might just help you. It's been a while but do you remember Celestia and Luna? Those two fillies that Faust asked you to fillysit while the grownups argued?" 

Erebus nodded absently before he registered what Lux said.

"Lunny and Tia? I loved them! It's said that Faust had to tell them that they had to move to the mortal plain and resume their studies with that weird wizard with the hat.  But I don't know where they went after that, you know how busy it gets in my realm, not mention with my reaping duties."

Flora snorted, and as Erebus turned to glare at her, she rolled her eyes.

"Ereb, sweetheart. You say you are busy but I've visited Mount Mortem multiple times, and I know for a fact that all you do is read comic books, bake desserts and tell awful jokes to the newly deceased, not that I find them awful, it's just... the puns physically hurt me."

She shook her head.

"Back on topic, I may know where Tia and LuLu are, have you heard of the Everfree Forest?"

Erebus smiled and nodded enthusiastically before he frowned and shook his head.

"Right. Keep forgetting you have the attention span of a sparrow, and not even a greater blue one, more like a lesser dusty, or maybe a ruby red chickadee." 

Lux gave an impatient cough, and an get one with it gesture.

"Never mind. There's a castle nestled somewhere near the center, I've felt a large source of magic there, but whenever I ask one of my companions to take a closer look, they never manage to return alive. But knowing the two of them are royalty, and that there is a castle and an artifact or something of great power there, it's a good chance that our cousins are there, we would do it but out of the nine of us, we're pretty filled up with work, but you Erebus have Reapers that do the soul gathering for you, you have Fates that snip Life's cord, and you even have a fully functioning kingdom! Compared to us, who need at least four of us on Immortality to keep it running smoothly, you've got it good."

Erebus beamed, as he ruminated over what Flora said, and set his mind on it. He and Apophis were close, and he knew that he or any of his siblings would do anyhting to get him back. So, Erebus, the one and only alicorn of death looked up at Lux, snapped a sharp salute with his wings and asked:

"When do I start?"