//------------------------------// // I need a favor // Story: Burden of Love, Curse of Hatred // by Knight of Crows //------------------------------// Estarossa (Jack) POV So I actually spent a bit more time in the castle embracing my 'inner Alucard' and tilted all the paintings in the hallways as well as scaring everyone with 'demon shadows' or whatever you want to call that kind of shadow puppet. Mael scolded me after, but it was worth it. Flying up I expected to see Ponyville immediately, probably needed to get higher so I flew straight to the top. After spotting the town I chose to ask Mael something that's been bugging me for a while now. "Hey Mael, quick question about the Commandment." I said out loud after checking that we were alone. 'What do you want to know?' He asked. "When you got your Commandment, did you become weaker? I know losing Sunshine took a lot of your power, but I should clarify. Taking into account Light and Dark counteract each other hence neither being able to actually heal the other and your mental degradation, did your base power without Sunshine decrease?" I asked feeling like I should already know the answer. 'No, my base power was higher than without Sunshine or Love, but it's not a price I would pay willingly.' Mael responded. "I doubt anyone would after everything that's happened. Power may come with a price, but that price should only be paid if it's obtained out of desire, not necessity or if it's forced on you." I said, flying over Ponyville. I kept my wing size as small as I could manage with the altitude I was at. After everything that's happened today the last thing I need is to be spotted and guilt tripped by Pinkie or God(dess?) forbid Fluttershy. Okay, maybe none of them would do that, but I'm not taking chances anyway. I honestly don't know where I'm going, I don't think the show ever said which edge of town the Everfree was at and since all these trees look the fucking same, I'm stuck looking for something else. Since I can't remember where we left the forest then, that leaves the only landmark I do remember. Finding the castle after around 20 minutes of looking I finally landed (not crashed) where it all began. I kept walking with Rebellion in hand as I looked for anything important along the way outside. I'm not going out of my way to explore, but I'm still going to take quick glances along the way. Not finding anything of value along the way I reached the bridge that no one wants to cross. Fun fact, I'm scared of falling, which now that I think about it is actually a little ironic coming from a guy who can fly at the speed of sound. It's actually amazing how I didn't panic the entire time I was falling then. Moving on, I jumped over the gap and made my way into the forest. I wish I knew where I was going, I would try to ask any of the animals, but I didn't see any the first time nor am I seeing any now. After about an hour of searching I heard something behind me. Looking back I didn't see anything, not that it would do any damage to me. I kept moving forward looking for either giant pits leading to caves or any animals at all. Having no luck for a while I thought of the possibility that I may have been going in circles, I cut an X into a tree to confirm it, but I didn't come across that tree again. 'We are being followed.' Mael informed me. "I thought as much. It's not a threat as of yet though, it could just be a curious animal or a predator deciding if I'm a threat or not." I thought to him as to not avoid scaring off a possible lead to the tree. 'Be on your guard anyway, animals don't usually track prey for this long unless already injured, unknowns even less so.' He warned. "I had no intention of lowering my guard anyway." I responded. Continuing my search for a few more hours I was starting to lose my patience, how hard is it to find a 20 ft deep 50 ft wide pit WITH STAIRS and a crystaline tree in a damn cave? It's already about the time the castle chefs would get started preparing dinner. "Maybe I should call it a day, start early tomorrow." I said out loud. 'Nothing said you need to find it today.' Mael reminded me. "Still would have helped a lot. If my math was right, you and the others should have been at around 60-70% of your base powers when you killed Meliodas. Galand likely proved that with his power being 12k higher than with Truth, though the dragon soul most likely played a part in that. He was at what I believed his base power would have been with Truth so he was actually at about 55% before, not to mention the possibility that Commandments empower Demons more than any other race especially Goddesses. How strong will the others be if I'm at least 30-45% weaker than I'm supposed to be WITH that power?" I pointed out. 'You may still have Light to call upon.' Mael once again reminded me. "You've got me there, though there's no guarantee it will do anything more than just give me more to work with. My point still stands though, if other Commandments appear we'll be in more trouble than we originally thought if the weakest among them was able to surpass us in raw power. Zeldris would probably have a power level of at least 84k without Piety if my math is right, let's add at least another 28k to that if he does have Piety, God forbid Indura Derrieri or Monspiet!" I'm not helping myself here. 'You're not helping yourself with all this thinking, perhaps you should hurry on back. I'm sure Princess Luna is eagerly waiting for you.' He recommended. "*sigh* You're right. We'll continue the search tomorrow." Just as I brought out my wings I heard movement in the bushes. Keeping still for a few moments I saw a fox slowly pushing it's head through. It looked at me as if ready to run or fight at a moments notice. I slowly put away my wings and knelt down just as fast as to not startle it. After about a minute it took slow steps in approaching me until it was just out of arms reach, I removed one of my gauntlets and extended my arm to allow it to sniff my hand. It looks like I made the right things since after a few minutes of keeping my arm in place it lightly pushed it's head against my hand. "Hey buddy. This might sound like an odd question, but you wouldn't happen to know about a tree in a cave would you? One that looks like it's made out of crystal specifically?" I asked softly. The fox nodded and signalled for me to follow. "Mael, conveniently intelligent animals are convenient." I said, following the fox. 'You don't say.' Mael responded almost like that meme. The fox lead us to the tree, but not without having fun along the way. Turns out foxes can be pretty mischievous when they want to be. Maybe foxes and kitsune have more in common than appearances I thought, not that I knew much about kitsune in the first place other than mostly being female, having 2 breeds, and the name Inari. Shaking my head of these thoughts I approached the tree in the hope of contacting Faust. Having no luck with anything I did, I had 2 ideas left. "Mael, I'm going to see about giving you temporary control." I said out of the blue. 'What? How? Why? You do realize we are still being followed right?' Mael asked in shock. "I trust Light more than Dark being in contact with this tree. I can't use Light yet so I'm going to take a step back and let you do it. And yes, I know we're still being followed." I don't know how I did it, but my vision sort of faded out and I woke back up in the dream. I never did find out the name of this place, but I see Estarossa is still chained and I can view the world through a sort of window. So this is how he sees the world. Mael POV Collapsing on the ground, "Damnit Jack." I said out loud. 'Hey, you should be enjoying this! You have your body back if only for a little while.' Jack said. "How do you expect me to contact Faust?" I asked, choosing to ignore his comment. 'I don't know, maybe make a link or something out of Light between you and those giant gem slots in the tree?' He suggested. "Why do you believe that would work?" This is unexpected, especially for you Jack. 'It's this or Darkness. Everything I thought of including prayer and hugging the tree didn't work and I don't know about you, but my final idea involves intimacy with a crystal tree. And I see no holes.' You're mind is disturbingly creative Jack. "Alright, but we're not doing THAT with a tree, or at all with anything while we share a body!" I relented. 'Sorry, my body now so my rules. If me and Luna become intimate like that then tough luck for you because I'm not holding back!' Jack said, not backing down. "Do you want my help or not?" I asked impatiently. 'Yes please.' Finally. I reached for my Light, though it was more difficult now than before when I had 4 Commandments. Perhaps 3 souls or personalities and a Commandment in the same body have something to do with it? Finally grabbing hold of my Light I did as Jack asked and made links to the sockets he spoke of. Moments passed and nothing happened. "It didn't work." I said bringing back in my Light. 'I guess we are calling it a day then.' Jack said disappointed as he retook control. Estarossa (Jack) POV We found the tree at least so that's something. Though that's not helping much with this feeling of frus- no, anger. I didn't just come this close only to have it slip away. First the timeline fucks itself, then Galand, Rainbow, Twilight being more of a bitch than Rainbow, and now my only means of obtaining power that won't screw me over, just screwed me over. I summoned Rebellion and kept throwing the blades enchanted with hellblaze straight into the air as they detonated and reappeared in my hands so I could continue. "WHAT THE HELL FAUST?" I shouted as I stopped throwing Rebellion. I looked back at the tree with only one thing to say. "Maybe your help just isn't worth it. You know if you wanted me to eat Galand's soul you could have just said so!" I said pulling out the demon's soul and just as I did so it slipped out of my hand and into the tree. Panic immediately found it's in me as the tree shined so bright I had to cover my eyes and moments later I felt myself collapsing as I blacked out. Waking up in the same place I met Faust the first time I was greeted by three sights this time. First was Faust actually having a body this time and laughing, the second was there were a lot of souls, and the third was Galand's soul becoming a toy to Faust. "I was wondering when you would figure it out." Faust said calming down enough to have a conversation. She saw everything... And she did nothing... WHAT THE FUCK???? "... Words... Cannot... Begin to describe... How frustrated I was." They really can't. "Words don't need to, your tantrum did so well enough." She said while giggling. "I'm trying to prepare for threats that can and are likely enough to try to ruin this world and you're just sitting there laughing???" I nearly shouted in disbelief. "I'm sorry, you are right. So lets get to the reason you sought me out." Faust said, regaining her composure. "Yeah, minor (major) problem with Galand which means several problems are more than po-" I started. "I'll be able to help with your power problem, giving you some now and some later. You'll receive the other portion when you help Loyalty." Faust offered. "How can I help Rainbow then? You've basically just confirmed the doctors can't help her and I can't use Light as of yet." Seriously, how? "Learn to use Light, then help her. You only other option is finding a way to remove your Commandment and treating her with your blood. I would ensure she survives." So option 1 then. "If I gave her my blood she would be getting the easy way out, not to mention I would essentially be rewarding her for what she did. Say what you will, but I'm going to make her wait. The only way she'll learn from this is if the feelings of despair and fear are burned into her memory, the time it takes for me to learn how to use Light should be long enough." I said coldly. "The choice is yours, as long as you help her you'll obtain the power you think you'll need." Not going to ask about that 'think you'll need' part. "So about Galand's soul?" I asked. "He'll be going to Tartarus soon enough, the Demon King will have a field day with him." What? "Come again? Did I hear 'Demon King'?" Oh God no. "Don't worry, he's nothing like the one you know. The resident demons of this world keep the worst criminals and the souls of the damned in Tartarus, they mostly keep to themselves. Though kirin, thestrals, and umbrum are results of the occasional demon leaving." She said, bouncing Galand's soul on the ground as if it was a ball. "Sorry, that's not what I was going to ask though. I was going to ask about how he was that strong? I doubt the dragon's soul was worth THAT much?" I asked. "The magic in this world, losing a Commandment basically left a 'void' in his power that the soul and the magic filled up. If he received a different Commandment though it would have done the same thing." That's disturbing, and good to know. "So what you mean to tell me is I can get as strong as Mael was with 4 Commandments while only being in possession of 1? That is bullshit and I love it!" I said with excitement until my vision started becoming discolored. "It seems our time is up for now, you'll wake up with 20% more power and the other 25% after you help Loyalty." Faust informed me. "See you next time then." I said losing my balance. "Oh, one last thing. I brought a fellow Commandment to this world a few years ago, be prepared." WHAT???!!! "WWWWWWWHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTT??????" I screamed loud enough Canterlot had to have heard it. Luna POV "HUZZAH! We ran out of medals again!" I said after getting my second one in a row in Destiny 2. "HAAAAAAAATTTTTTT???!!!" I heard something shout. "What was that?" It sounded like Estarossa. Celestia POV "I'm sorry Ms. Golden Crust, but banishments from the castle against Jet Set and your daughter Upper Crust are final. Now I must ask that you le-" "AAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTT???!!!" A voice that sounded like Estarossa's shouted. Estarossa (Jack) POV 'Jack calm down!' Mael shouted. "How do you ex-. You know what? Fuck it." I brought out my wings and flew back to Canterlot. Luna was waiting in the courtyard and I immediately calmed down. I landed and she wasted no time tackling me, even though she can't knock me down I still let myself fall. "I got you." I said, trapping her in my arms and scratching her behind her ears. "So how was it?" She asked nuzzling me, not caring about our position. "Your mother is a troll, but I got the power and more on the way after I unfuck Rainbow's fuck up." Whenever that will be. "So you didn't have to resort to THAT?" She asked hopefully. "Nope, now I believe I did say I was going to-" my stomach growling interrupted. "After dinner then?" She asked/ offered. "After dinner." I let go of her and followed her to the dining hall. Some of the guards were smiling at us(?), none were dropping their weapons. I looked up at the doors and was terrified for a split second during their shift change. One guard with a light brown coat and what looked like the roman numeral for 3 as his cutie mark had a PL of over 70k. I looked back and he was gone. What the fuck was that