The world was hazy for Big Mac. The center of his vision was focused, but the further to the sides he looked, the hazier it got. It hurt his head to look in those directions.
Elijah was standing in front of him.
"Come on. You'll be fine. It's just Demon Chills. You probably contracted it when the demon-Applejack jumped on you."
Big Mac attempted to take another step, but the whole world turned sideways, and the hot rocks of hell rushed up to greet his face in a painful highfive of sorts.
Elijah sighed, and walked over Big Mac and helped him back up.
"Come on. I know it's bad now, but the only way to get over it is to keep fighting. If you rest for too long, it takes over your body, and your soul is eaten away."
This motivated Big Mac to get up and try walking again, but he only got three steps before throwing up.
Elijah rolled his eyes.
"Come on. Get a hold of yourself. We can get you through this..."
Big Mac's hearing became filled with a ringing noise. How easy and reliving it would be just to lay down...
A brunt force hit Big Mac in his stomach, and he was forced to his feet.
"No. I'm not letting you fall. Just concentrate on following me, and everything will be fine."
Big Mac focused on Elijah's face, blonde hair obscuring one of his eyes.
"Ok. Steady... just put on hoof after the other."
Big Mac nearly tripped again, and stumbled, almost falling into a lava pool, but steadied himself.
"Ok, good... now follow me..."
Big Mac followed the human, past lava pools and sulphur pits, acid fall and ruins, until they reached a hill that pulsated and vibrated as though alive.
"Alright, climb that hill. Be careful though..."
Big Mac put his hoof to the hill. It not only moved as though it were alive, it also... felt alive. It was fleshy and had veins running through it.
Slowly, he climbed up it, and upon reaching the top of the hill, saw something that amazed and terrified him equally.
A huge, winged animal of some sort was flying towards him. It opened its mouth, and a fiery ball flew forth it kill Big Mac.
This is, if Elijah hadn't shoved him down the hill and took the whole fireball to his chest.
"FUCK!" elijah screamed, and fell down the hill. His shirt was burned off, and his chest charred and blackened, almost like it was a piece of meat someone had dropping in the fire of an oven.
"THAT WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITE SHIRTS, YOU PRICK!"
Elijah grabbed Big Mac, and dragged him down a crevice, and through a small tunnel, eventually reaching a small but sturdy looking shack.
Elijah looked down at Big Mac. He was pale, and breathing heavily.
"Crap."
Elijah though him down on a table, and injected him with a needle. Immediately, Big Mac could feel himself becoming stronger, and the world shifted back into focus.
"Good, it worked," Elijah said, his eyes rolling into his head as he passed out onto the floor.
Big Mac examined the charred skin. It looked bad. He owed Elijah his... what was it? Life? Afterlife? Anyway, he owed him something, and he was going to help him.
Big Mac grabbed the burn cream and lathered it against Elijah's chest. Elijah murmured something about potatoes in his unconsciousness, then was quiet.
Big Mac then peeled the burned skin off to reveal the shiny underskin. He grabbed some bandages, and managed to apply them after a few minutes. Then, he set Elijah on the table, and waited.
A few minutes later, Elijah's eyes opened.
"Damn, I liked that shirt. Big Mac, go get some mushrooms from out back. I'm going to make stew after I get some Bloodwater from a spring near some cliffs a few minutes away."
Big Mac nodded, and headed out back.
Elijah sighed, removed the bandages, washed himself down, applied new ones, and put on his "Nirvana" shirt.
"Nothing better happen to this one."
Big Mac looked at the strange mushroom garden Elijah cultivated. There were brown ones, red speckled ones, blue ones, and these strange technicolored tie-dye ones that gave Big Mac a headache from just looking at it.
He settled on the brown and red speckled ones, and gathered them up. Elijah never said how many, so he decided to take ten of each.
Easier said than done. It took some effort to dig them out of the rocky ground, and bucking them only yielded a broken mushroom.
After about an hour, Big Mac had all the mushrooms, then trotted back to the house.
Approaching the house, he heard Elijah say "Hey, Big Mac, you have the mushrooms for the stew?"
"Eeyup!" he answered, the entered the house.
There he saw somepony he had hoped to never see again.
His eyes going red with anger, he leapt upon Nirvana, intent on choking all the life out of him.