The large brown colt, Sawnax, was busy bullying another colt on the school’s playground. “You don’t hoof over your lunch money right now, I gonna pound you! You know that I will, too!”
The stern voice of Miss Whinly, one of the teachers, cut him off. “No, Sawnax, you won’t! You will come with me to see Miss Cherrilee! If you don’t, I will drag you by the ear in front of all the other students! You know that I will, too.”
Sawnax did know. It had happened before. Most unicorns would just grab and carry a miscreant off the playground. Not Miss Whinly. She had mastered the art of grabbing only an ear or other sensitive part to encourage compliance with her orders. Being dragged by an ear was not only painful, it was humiliating. He followed. Steaming but he followed.
Shortly, he was resentfully following his father to the lumber and timbers yard owned by his family. Growling under his breath, he ruminated on the unfairness of it all! He’d been made to give back his whole day’s take and apologize to each of the ponies he’d milked for the cash! Now he had ten days suspension and he couldn’t even enjoy that! He was going to have to work! Sorting and loading out timbers was hard!
Worse, his dad, Carver, caught him short loading a cart of timbers for young Houser! His rear still stinging, he took the lesson to heart! DON’T GET CAUGHT! Might not be the lesson that they all wanted him to get, but he got it!
He grumped that Carver just did not see how it was to his advantage to short loads. Not only was he saving expensive timbers, customer had to come back and buy them again! Money in the till every way! How could his dad be so dim?
There was a lull in timber loading. Instead of cleaning up or doing some other useful thing, Sawnax looked for a quiet spot to sneak in a rest.
He was awakened by a snarl that sounded exactly like his dad in a towering rage! “What are you doing here? You should be doing something useful to make bits for our business!”
Sawnax looked up insolently. “Says who? You ain’t my dad!”
“What makes you think so?”
“First I'da known of him was the strap! Then he’d yap at me! Besides, he’d never say OUR business! The Yard’s HIS and he never lets me forget it!”
Sawnax chuckled mirthlessly, “If you ARE my dad, mom really was the whore that dad always accused her of being! And I am pretty sure that she wasn’t!”
The being sort of relaxed and sat in front of Sawnax. It no longer looked like any sort of pony that Sawnax had ever heard of or seen. His fur was almost scale-like. His jaws, easily as long as any pony’s, had large piercing and rending fangs along its length, easily seen because the gaping mouth opened almost all the way back to the joint. A pair of nearly straight horns jutted up from the top of his skull and his long and pointed ears projected out just below them. His eyes were simply black. No white, iris or pupil.
Instead of a mane, he had spikes or spines of some sort that marched down his neck and on down his back to his tail. That appendage was long, flexible, and covered with spikes on the top and sides Every part of his body was gaunt, almost starved looking.
Much more amicably, it said, “Good job, spotting me like that. I am from Tartaros and I have an offer for you. Let me use your body and I will use it to get you even with all those fools who are tormenting you.”
Sawnax scrunched up his face as he thought about it. “Why not just go mess with them, yourself? Why do you need me?”
The demon responded, “It is a matter of good, bad, and evil. I can’t touch the good, in fact, only a very few of them can even see me. The bad, like you, I can manifest to, but unless they consent, I can’t touch. The evil, I or one of my many associates, already own.”
Sawnax snorted, “That’s why you didn’t hit me with the strap! You couldn’t!”
Calm as the air before the storm, the monster replied, “Correct. However, the loophole is simple. You, rather your body CAN do things to them all. Your dad, with his strap and lectures about honesty, as if that meant anything besides lost bits. Miss Whinly, with her nasty ear pinching and dragging you away from the other foals that you were collecting lunch money from. Miss Cherrilee, with her pretense of disappointment while she gleefully chucks you out of school to keep you from collecting what you are due. Revenge. That is what I can give you if you let me use your body.”
Sawnax paused. He did not want to get even. He wanted to get ahead. “Revenge is all well and good but that ain’t enough for me. I don’t want to just get even. I wants to be so far ahead that they can’t see nothing but the dust of my heels.”
The demon did not even miss a beat. “Not a problem. I have to admit that I like your style. That means that we need to sort out what you mean, exactly. Wealth? Power? Strike them down physically?”
Sawnax rubbed his jaw with a hoof as he thought about it. Before this, all his ideas of getting the better of the ones he was having so much trouble with had been pretty nebulous. Totally short on details, actually. He looked about him and saw the yard for what it could be, for the first time. Money. Those timbers were effectively cash. He would need to learn how to actually run the yard, where to get the timbers. Money from it would put him in the position to get on the school board. From there, he could crush both Cherrilee and Whinly. It would let him track down and pull money out of his schoolyard marks, too. Not to mention, his dad would never beat him again.
He nodded. “OK, here is how I want it to go down.”
He filled the demon in all that he had thought out.
The creature of Tartaros nodded thoughtfully. “A long term contract. Your plan will take years to fulfill but it has the added advantage of making many ponies miserable and easily turned to badness and evil. I like it. With your permission, may I enter your body to begin this revenge?”
Sawnax asked in surprise, “What? No contracts? No signing in blood or other fancy rituals?”
The creature shrugged. “We can, if you like. Whatever you want. None of it is necessary, though. All that I need is your explicit permission to enter your body. We are agreed on what you wish. I can start to fulfill it as soon as I am in you. It is that simple.”
Sawnax nodded gravely. “I see. OK, let’s do it. You enter me and we begin my revenge.”
As the demon turned to a smoke and flowed around Sawnax, he felt an almost sensuous sensation. The smoke soaking in felt like sliding into a comfortable, warm bath. It was the last pleasant thing that the young Sawnax felt.
His body convulsing! Horrid heaving was bringing up thick greenish goo! Every inch of his body burned like he was being dipped into flames! He screamed!
Blubbering, he demanded, “What are you doing? We had a deal!”
The demon inside him gloated, “Isn’t it obvious? I am killing you. Slowly. Very slowly. I adore the taste of your pain.” With a sinister chuckle it added, “Deal? Really? What am I? Good or Evil?”
Whining, Sawnax returned, “Evil. You are a monster!”
With high good humor, the beast within snorted, “Correct! I am Evil! Our deal? My promise? I lied! Really now, what did you expect? Honesty? Honor? What part of Evil do you not understand? Of course I lied.”
Sawnax could do nothing but scream and cry in his agony.
His screams brought Carver and his work crew. Carver called over Sawnax’s screams, “What’s the matter? We gotta get you out of there!”
More screams and crying were his father’s only answer.
His father reached into the recess where Sawnax was hidden. His face screwed up, lips pulling back and eyes squinting in distaste. “Lyle! Go get me a priest or preacher of Celestia or the Twins. Whatever is happening in there ain’t something for a doctor. Felt like I was reaching into a load of spiders or something crawly like that.”
Lyle paused long enough to ask, “You mean like that Hortimer feller? High Priest of Celestia, so he says.”
“NO! You see what Celestia herself says about him and his church? Go get that new guy over at the Assembly of the Twins, what’s his name? Smallflower, I think.”
Lyle took off at a run on his errand.
Shortly he returned, followed by a spare white pegasus with a flat black hat. The pegasus trotted up and pointed to Sawnax’s hiding place. “He is in there? I shall see what is to be done.”
He reached cautiously into the nook. Pulling his hoof back, he said courteously, “Please give me a name to call you.”
A deep voice like a load of rock rumbling down an incline replied, “Why should I? PLEASE? Are you trying to make me laugh?”
“No. I am Reverend Smallflower. Do not mistake courtesy for weakness. If I do not have a name to call you by, then with the Authority of the Twins, Celestia and Luna and their Mother/Creator Skyglow, I shall cast you out and nameless you shall be destroyed. I would rather not do that.”
Clearly shaken, the rumbling voice demanded, “Why not? You know that I am an Evil being.”
“I do indeed. I also now that Mother Skyglow created you. Destroying you is to destroy a part of Her Creation. A name, please.”
“Call me Claficus. What would you have of me?”
“Bring forth young Sawnax and come with me to the Assembly to deal with this possession in a reasonable manner.”
“You would take me to your Holy place?”
“Over the door of the Assembly it says in plain words, All Are Welcome. That includes you. All that live are Creations of Skyglow and ruled by the Twins. If you can think of a greater consecration than that, I should like to know of it.”
“You are a strange one. You have not a bell, book or candle, yet I feel in you a greater power than those symbols confer. I will come with you, Reverend Smallflower.”
Sawnax emerged from his hiding place. His steps uncertain and legs shaky. His eyes pleading pitifully. He was surrounded by an aura that seemed like what disgust and vileness might appear if they were a visible miasma.
As Sawnax was following Reverend Smallflower up the streets of Ponyville, Revered Smallflower commented, “Claficus, you can stop tormenting Sawnax for now.”
Puzzled, the gravely voice of Claficus asked, “For now? Only for now?”
“Indeed.”
Sawnax’s steps became easier and suddenly sure again.
It was not long before they came to the Assembly building. It was a rambling one story structure set about with newly planted saplings. Gesturing to them, Reverend Smallflower pointed out, “Given a few years and some minor tending, these saplings will grow to give us good shade. There is a principle there that applies to life as well.”
Passing under the sign over the door that proclaimed, ALL ARE WELCOME, the demon looked about in wonder. “Amazing. You really mean that! I can feel the binding to do no harm to any here, but I am not forbidden to come in.”
Reverend Smallflower replied, “I told you that. This is a house of peace. So long as you observe that, you are welcome. My office is back here, through this door.”
The office, like its occupant, it was plain, though comfortable. Hospitably, Reverend Smallflower offered, “Since you are occupying a physical body at present, would you like some tea while we sort this out?”
The demon blinked Sawnax’s eyes in surprise. “That would be very nice. Two sugars, no cream, please.”
The Reverend puttered about, fixing and steeping the tea. After he poured and both had a chance to sip some, he stated, “You being in Sawnax is breaking the rules about possession. You know it and so do I.”
Claficus retorted, “I can’t be here without invitation and you know it! This is a rotten brat and you know that too!”
“Right, Claficus. Unfortunately, Sawnax being bad does not excuse you taking him like this. You should have waited. He has to be able to understand what he is getting into. Basic freewill issue. He cannot make a true freewill choice if he is too young to understand it.”
“He still invited me into his body! That makes it MINE.”
Reverend Smallflower sipped at his tea before responding, “True. However, this was poorly done, even for one of your sort. Remember those trees out front? It takes time and nurture for them to grow.
“I have the simple power to cast you out. That could easily harm both you and Sawnax. I would rather not. What I propose is simple. We shall set it in writing, which if you sign it, even by this use name that you have given me, you will be bound to its terms.
“You leave Sawnax for now due to his age. For taking him too young, you grant him twenty years grace time. If he should change his ways and become even as good as an average pony, you relinquish your claim. If he does not, at the end of his grace period, take him quickly and with a minimum of pain.”
The Reverend gave an expressive shrug. “AFTER you take him, do as you will.”
Sawnax’s lips curled into a smile. “What about, um, tending the tree? Will you be trying to steer him away from me?”
The Reverend smiled in return. “Freewill. NEITHER of us will do anything to alter his life course unless he comes to us without coercion. Let him decide by his own choices.”
Claficus sat and thought it through slowly. “Deal. Draw it up and I will sign it. Um, can I hang about in this body long enough for another cup of tea?”
Reverend Smallflower paused in his writing and poured. When both had finished sipping their tea, they signed.
Claficus withdrew from Sawnax, who promptly bolted from the room and ran back towards the safety of his dad’s lumberyard.
The miasma that was Claficus looked about the office and commented, “You really do mean that welcome. Mind if I try to see if I can manage some more tea?”
Quietly pouring, Reverend Smallflower said, “Of course. Take your time and feel free to return so long as you harm none under this roof. Who knows? Even you might choose to become good. That is what freewill is all about.”