//------------------------------// // ...Or not // Story: The Edge of Grace // by Bold Promise //------------------------------// It was a sunny morning. The birds were singing, Lilly even said she saw a pony. Must be a horse farm nearby. Everything was very bright. Almost like the surroundings were saturated in light. As they approached the city, Dante started to notice something strange. There were no cars, but a lot of carts, carted by ponies of all things. What was even stranger was the way they were staring at the two of them. Almost like they were… Okay, one of them definitely shouted something out before running away, followed by all the other midget horses. Dante did a double-take. “Wait. Did that horse shout? As in, in a language?’ Not knowing what else to do, the two continued down their way to the city. The closer they got, the more ponies they found. All talking their strange language, all wearing clothes and/or doing something else humans are oft to do. Some of them dropped newspapers, a lot of them picked up their children or valuables and made a run for it, and exclusively all of them either ran, hid, or stood frozen still and stared before either running or fainting. “Are we in Gulliver’s horse land?” Lilly asked. “Who’s Gulliver?” Dante asked, bemusedly watching a few of the tiny horses running pointlessly in literal circles. He shrugged and kept going, hoping they’d find something that could help him make sense of what was happening. Eventually, they came upon a mob of armored ponies holding spears. They barked orders in their foreign language as they circled the two, pointing their weapons threateningly. “I don’t think they like us,” the man pointed out insightfully to the girl in his care, who was drawing closer to him fearfully. The supposed officers were shouting at them both, likely some request to surrender peacefully. While Dante was aware it was usually a good idea to comply with the local authorities, he wasn’t certain they would treat the girl properly. “Strange creatures, strange language… It seems last night we were brought somewhere strange.” How he was supposed to get them both back to Earth, he was not certain. He traveled between the human world and the demon world in the past, never anywhere else. It didn’t take long for the ponies to get impatient and make a decision for him. They started attacking. “Hold on tight,” he told the girl as he wrapped an arm around her and jumped over the alien horses. Either the soldiers would try to thrust their spears at the two of them as they sailed past, or the ones with horns would send out bolts of energy at them somehow. The contractor was definitely not dealing with humans, but neither were they demons, so Dante had no interest in killing any of them. Landing on a nearby rooftop, the contractor kept low to stay out of their line of fire. Before he could move to the other side of the building, the sound of beating wings drew his attention to some of the horses flying towards them, spears held tight and anger on their faces. Dante sighed and just ran towards the forest, losing the pursuers in the thicket. Safe again after about an hour of running, the contractor let out a breath in exasperation up in his hiding spot in a tree, Lilly held safely in his lap. “Okay, here’s the plan,” he started. “We got here through demon magic, we’re going to get back through demon magic as well. All we need to do, is find a portal and figure out how to make it send us where we want.” ‘This shouldn’t be too hard. I did manage to find a way out of hell after all. Getting back from here can’t possibly be harder than that… wherever we ended up.’ He puts a finger in his mouth and tests the air current, in a jest to figure out which way the closest rift in reality was. He found one towards the South-West. Assuming the cardinal directions were the same in this strange world. He heard the girl’s stomach grumbling for food, much to her embarrassment. “But first, we should probably get something to eat.” Elsewhere, in the castle Canterlot, the ruler of the realm received disturbing news. The night prior, Princess Celestia and her sister sensed an alien presence arrive in the world. Princess Luna attempted to scout out the anomaly through the dream realm, but only managed to gather the location, Manehattan. Now, the older royal sibling was reading a report of two strange creatures being sighted in said city, who escaped before they could be detained. "Well done, my little pony. Keep up the good work." The guard saluted and trotted away, leaving Celestia to ponder the new development. Princess Luna soon arrived in the throne room in a flash of light, "Sister, I have been informed of what has happened. What shall we do?" Celestia considered the description of the two alien individuals. Both bipedal, furless, similar to apes in appearance. They wore bloodied and worn clothes, and seemed to communicate in an unknown language. One of them appeared to be a child, while the other was a male equipped with a large sword on his back, capable of at the least jumping thirty strides high and running over three times as fast as a pegasi guard could fly to pursue. Its weapon was troubling. While the stun spears their soldiers were equipped with were clearly designed to deliver a single paralysing strike, a massive hunk of metal could only be intended for cleaving into flesh and crushing bone. However, it appeared the alien did not wish to use its- his weapon even when surrounded with spears. He didn’t act on the threat, he merely took his charge and left. Either he wished for the child’s safety, or he didn’t want to declare himself a mortal enemy of an entire race, which he potentially had as little prior knowledge of as they did of him. “Set patrols along the edge of the Everfree Forest. When the two visitors come forth, we shall seek an audience with them personally. If they prove hostile, we will detain them. If they act reasonably, I’m certain we can come to a mutual understanding.” The younger royal furrowed her brows. “This is troubling, sister. We do not know what they are capable of.” “No, we do not. We don't know how dangerous this being is, if it poses a threat, or what it even wants. Which is why I would argue this deserves our immediate attention.” “I agree," Luna retorted. "I merely wished to make sure you’re aware of the risk involved, after the millennia of peace you’ve led in my absence. After all, since my return, you’ve yet to take anything into your own hooves, so I was beginning to wonder whether you remember how to deal with threats.” Celestia would offer a retort in turn, but decided better of it. “Do you truly think this will devolve into bloodshed?” Luna made a shrugging motion with her wings. “Frankly? I do not know. But is it not wiser to go in prepared?” The white alicorn remained silent, considering her sister’s intuition. It was true that a millennia of peace has dulled her senses, so perhaps it would be better to forego appearing as non-threatening as possible in favor of facing the armed, unknown element, equipped with their own weapons. A compromise. “Very well. I will retrieve my armor. I trust my spear won’t be necessary.” Luna shook her head, “If it becomes evident it will be necessary to bring down mountains, I believe we should at least try to imprison the strangers first. Besides, do you even remember how to swing it properly?” “I am a little rusty,” the older sibling smiled. Being in agreement, Celestia sent a letter with instructions to the royal guard, then teleported to her Aspect to gather the parts of her strength she’d kept separate from her being. It was a massive creature, easily three stories tall while still on all fours. Its roar was loud enough to be heard for hundreds of feet easily. Its claws and fangs were as long as Dante's Rebellion and sharp enough to cut foot-wide grooves in stone. Its hungry eyes were monstrous enough to bore holes into a sane man’s soul, though Dante had no trouble doing the beast in with a single lightning-quick decapitation. Its pelt was stronger than marble, but it was no issue at all to the demon hunter. They made camp inside the cave which the monster had formerly owned as a lair. While the food was getting done, Dante successfully fashioned a crude bag and a couple of cloaks out of the beast’s pelt. Taking in the way Lilly was digging into her meal despite her initial apprehension, Dante decided the weird chimaera was delicious despite lacking any condiments. Or maybe she was just really, really hungry. Actually, it became quickly apparent that the girl had either attained a demonic metabolism, or she was absorbing the beast into energy similarly to the way Dante absorbed Red Orbs. After a while, thee girl stopped eating abruptly, staring into space. She was evidently still shell-shocked, unable to process something. Dante had personal experience on the matter. He put aside his morsel and leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. He really wasn't any good with talking about sensitive subjects with others. "You should know, your parents probably wanted you to be safe." He looked to the girl and found her green eyes focusing on him intently, desperate for something. Keeping up an even smile, he looked away to the campfire and went on, "I don't know what happened, when and how they died. So I can only ask you what you think they'd want. All I know is that parents generally care about their kids, so it's a safe bet they'd be happy to know you're alive and well.” He could hear the girl crying again. He figured that meant he was doing something right, so he kept going. “If you want to honor their memory, then live your life in order to make up for their deaths as well... then again, each at their own pace. Take it one step at a time." He stayed silent for a few minutes until Lilly stopped crying on her own. The devil hunter realized that the girl probably needed someone to be at her side, but he'd rather not get involved with her any more than necessary. When she calmed down enough, Dante got up and stuck his sword in the stone floor. He put some of the leftovers into the makeshift bag he made and threw one of the two cloaks over to the girl. "Ready to go?" Lilly wiped her tears and nodded, though her tears didn't slow down. Dante picked the girl up to ride on his back. She held onto his neck, her face buried in his scruff as she continued to mourn her loss. The contractor tied the bag on top of the girl, took his sword in his hand and started walking. He intended to get the both of them out of the forest by nightfall. The devil hunter walked around for a while in the Everfree. A long while. He couldn't even tell the time of day due to the thick canopy. Eventually he got frustrated with how long it was taking. Fortunately, the girl had tired herself out and fell asleep holding onto his back. The forest wasn’t normal, his senses were being thrown off. Not like he could do anything without waking up the girl besides continue walking, and try keeping it in a straight line. ‘...If it wasn’t for the kid, I’d just tear straight through the damn place…’ he internalized. And considering the many demonic souls he’d assimilated through his career, he could very easily burn and tear the ancient wood to oblivion. Soon enough, he could hear the familiar growl of hungry wolves. He tightened his hold on Rebellion. Out of the thicket stalked a group of yet another supernatural creature, massive wolves made of dead wood. Eerie green glow coming from the gaps where their eyes were supposed to be, thick sap flowed out of their maws in hunger. ‘They probably smelled the dry blood on our clothes,’ the man reasoned. ‘I should probably finish this quickly, otherwise we’ll be here all day dealing with every hungry animal in the forest.’ Dante leaned forward, readied his sword arm, and rushed forward. In the blink of an eye, the wolves were sent flying, cut clean through into multiple pieces. The devil hunter humph in annoyance. As he kept walking, he heard wood hitting on wood, and turned around. He found the broken pieces of the wolves gathering together into three, very much larger pieces. Dante suppressed a groan. “Are you going to just keep coming back?” he complained as he gathered energy into his sword and swung it once, hard. The energy he gathered shot forward in a wave, scattering the assembling pieces into the thicket, then he turned around and started rushing in the opposite direction. Lilly remained silent, despite her breathing no longer being as rhythmic, evidencing she was awake. “Sorry for waking you up, kid, but I decided to try and hurry this along.” The girl hummed in confirmation, and just settled in for the ride. Lieutenant Scarlet Sweep was bored. She’d been posted at the edge of the Everfree, ordered to stand guard waiting for a couple of strange creatures to exit. She and her squad were sent here via teleport at noon, and have been eagerly waiting for some action for about two hours. After two hours, their anticipation devolved into boredom. I was nearing sunset now, and their boredom had turned into frustration. Of course, they wouldn’t make it obvious. Outwardly, they were as professional and stalwart as any of the Royal Guard. It was just that, waiting immobile in the halls of Canterlot Castle was different from waiting on duty for some strange and possibly dangerous creatures to appear. It was a tense wait, one that wore down on them the longer it lasted. Their orders were to send a dragonfire message as soon as they sighted the targets, which they received descriptions for, then try to delay them for as long as possible. The orders were also to not risk their own safety unnecessarily, but they were trained for this. It was their duty to risk their own well-being in service of the country. Scarlet straightened her posture. She didn’t know what they were dealing with, but she wasn’t going to- “Over there!” Her train of thought was cut off by one of her subordinates shouting out, pointing at an area above the forest canopy. There were birds flying away. Actually, more and more were flying off, progressing towards their area. They could hear a distant crashing sound, then another, closer. Another, this one accompanied by distant splintering of wood. There was distant roaring. Her subordinates mumbled nervously. The crashing of trees and animal cries drew closer. “Hold your position!” Ordered the lieutenant, sending the dragonfire message. “We only need to wait for the Princesses to arrive! We’re not letting these things get through!” A chorus of affirmations rang out as the two dozen soldiers fell in line behind Sweep. They were few, but they would stall the creatures for as long as they could. Sweat dripped down the lieutenant’s brow. The noise reached a peak as it arrived near the forest’s edge. This was it. Out of the canopy… a bipedal creature came running with a child of its species saddled on its back, a few dozen beasts hot on its trail. “Wait, what?” Noticing them, the biped appeared to increase its speed and ran right past the barricade before anyone could react. Deciding the bigger threat to Equestria was if such a large group of creatures suddenly decided to move their territories outside the forest, Scarlet gave the order, “Forget the parent! We need to contain the Everfree beasts!” They held their own for a total of ten seconds before Princess Celestia and Luna appeared in a flash of light and took control of the situation. By then, the two-legged parent was nowhere to be found.