How Death Lived

by Crimson Wisp


Prologue part 2

I had been sleeping in my mother's bed for what I assume had been just a few hours when I heard what sounded like the ice cap of the northern lakes creaking and groaning in the winter. The noise was loud, making my sensitive ears beg me to shield them. 

When the noise had seemingly stopped, it rang out again. The horrible sound was coming from outside. As I made my way outside, I shuddered to imagine what could have been making such a horrible sound. Traveling with my father, I had seen many creatures and lands far from our little piece of the woods. 

The sound that kept resonating through our home shook with each impact. I had seen leviathans before, creatures so massive that they could level a whole city with little to no effort, but I threw out that idea when I realized that there were no leviathans for miles of our home. The closest one was a massive sea creature at the bottom of the Elven Gulf that could drink the sea itself and swallow ships whole. 

Doing my best to cover my ears, I fumbled groggily over to the living room where I assumed my parents were. There was no way they couldn't hear this racket, right? 

As I passed the kitchen, I caught my mom at the edge of my peripheral vision and stopped before I back-peddled towards her. She had been holding what I think was a glass of milk, her eyes darting about, scanning the roof in a vain attempt to find the cause of the repetitive impacts.

"Mom! What's going on!?" I shouted, hoping she would take notice. Fortunately for me, she did. 

She looked at me with a look of dread that shook me to the bone. She wasn't answering me...

"MOM!"  I tried again, hoping to get a response. 

The response I got was her pointing to a window behind me. I turned around and walked over to the window and what I saw next confused me as much as it amazed me. 

I could see the barrier being struck by what looked like... Falling stars? No... They were spheres of magic. Small ones arced over the treeline where I knew the barrier ended and fell on the shield harmlessly. 

Ripples, much like when you toss a stone into a lake, spread out over the barrier before dissipating. Then, from a barely visible pillar of smoke I hadn't noticed earlier, a much larger orb of fire shot into the air and exploded when it smashed into the barrier. 

The impact made that dreaded noise which I had thought belonged to a leviathan. Cracks spider-webbed across the area of impact before slowly reverting back to their epicenter and disappearing from the barrier. As this happened I heard the front door burst open with a bang and before I could register it, my mom was taking a defensive stance in front of me and the hallway that led to the main entrance. As my dad rounded the corner, I noticed his clothing was covered in dirt and his hands and face were drenched in blood. He was breathing as if he had been running after a boar, but the look on his face didn't imply that he'd been chasing after something. He was surrounded by the stench of decay and I raised my arm in hopes that it would mitigate the smell. It didn't.

"Azazel, go to your room and hide as we've practiced."

He ordered as calmly as he could between breaths.

"Bu-"

"NOW!"

He yelled. Dad had never yelled at me for anything particularly important, an example of that would have been my mother's garden. But this... This was bad. 

He didn't even finish barking his order before I began scrambling for my room, my wings knocking over anything hanging on the walls. I went inside and locked the door. 

When mom and dad made our house, they had passages that led out of the main structure built into each room in case something like this happened. 

He also made me a bottomless bag with an assortment of tools and things I would need to survive in the wild. I pulled it from under my bed and left it near the center of my room. It was no bigger than a watermelon, but it weighed as much as my dad. 

To be fair, I am quite strong. Mom always said that I needed to learn my strengths and how to harness them, so I did my fair share of exercise. I was used to pulling my dad's cart filled with supplies whenever we headed to some trading post on our way to the black mountain or went through the outskirts of Moonshine city. 

I never bothered to check the contents as I always thought dad was a little too paranoid and that I'd never use it. I would be proven wrong as the impacts suddenly stopped, and a ghastly silence filled my home. Not even the insects of the forest dared make noise, a weak breeze flowing in through my window was the only sound I could hear for what felt like a few minutes. 

I walked over to my window and saw what looked like a focused beam of sky blue energy tearing through the shield, releasing a sound akin to a thousand baby wyverns roaring all at once in my ears. 

The barrier shattered with a blast of wind that shook most of the leaves of the nearest trees and combined with the awful cacophony, I fell on my back in agony, doing my best to dull the sound by placing my clawed gauntlet and free hand over my ears. 

Once the ringing in my ears stopped, I got to my feet, wrapped my quiver around my waist and began filling it to the brim with arrows from my small reservoir in my weapons chest. When I was going to head over to the window and are if I could spot our assailants so I could fill them with arrows, I heard a voice I didn't recognize, or rather I didn't recognize as friendly.

"ASTOSHAN!!! COME OUT AND SURRENDER THE DEMONS YOU'RE CONSPIRING WITH YOU FILTHY HEATHEN!"

The voice was distinctly masculine, deep and gruffed. Whoever this was, they were mad, and worst of all, they knew my father's name. 

I knew that other races didn't like demons, but People could get hurt needlessly, particularly my family over this incoherent stupidity. I looked over to the window tentatively before opting to take the smarter spot. I wrapped the bag of tools around my waist letting it rest next to my quiver and opened one of the floorboards that acted as a trap door to a passage that led to the cellar, and out towards the back of the house. Before I headed out, I needed to know who these people were. I walked to the wall between me and the outside world and pulled on a loose stone brick. Freeing the brick from its spot, I could safely see what was going on. I peered through the rectangular hole and immediately spotted several humans clad in silver armor. Most of them held spears, the rest held either crossbows or some strange weapon I hadn't ever seen. It had a hilt, much like a sword, but where the blade should be was a long chain with what looked like a small sphere with spikes on it at the end of the chain. Their shields branded a tapestry of runes with a backdrop of a night sky, and an ornate moon adorning the shield

"Surround the building, make sure nothing gets in or out." 

One of the armored humans ordered in a whisper that I nearly missed. Seventeen of the thirty or so warriors I could see began spreading out and disappeared out of my limited sight. I heard the front door of the house open, and my father came out with a very familiar elven woman by his side. Shapeshifting is an ability the demon lords of the nine hells passed on to my mom. I only inherited my mother's look and ability to breathe fire. My affinity for necromancy, my desire to learn, and my relatively cheesy/morbid sense of humor come from my dad.

"What brings the astral guard to my corner of the woods?"

My father asked with a hint of venom to his words. One of the soldiers stepped forward, I assumed he was the one in charge due to the black cape with white dots draped over his shoulder spoke up in the same booming voice I had heard earlier.

"I, Deus Vult, Captain of the Astral guard am placing you under arrest by decree of Queen Elizabeth Solaris the first!"

He barked. I could feel the necrotic energy within my dad begin to seep into the ground as he tried to keep himself calm.

"On what charges!? The sun goddess agreed to leave me alone if I routed the orc marauders that were invading your Capitol! I held my end of the deal! What makes you think you can just waltz in here and threaten me and my family!!!" 

The soldiers standing behind Deus lowered their spears and aimed their crossbows at my mom and dad. I felt my slit pupils narrow, and it took every last ounce of will power to keep me from tearing down the wall and ripping their heads off. 

I could hear the voices of the souls of bandits and thieves that had tried to kill me and my father on our supply runs howl and scream for bloodshed. Dad told me to consume those I killed, not their flesh, their souls. They would allow me to access more and more power from my inner well of necrotic power. As I stood there, trying to silence the souls within me, I did my best to hear the conversation outside.

"While it is true that our Queen made a deal with you. That does not absolve you of your crimes of hiding a demon from Queen Solaris' judgment and creating an aberration against nature itself. Not to mention your extensive list of times you've used the dark arts to maim and desecrate the bodies of Solarian citizens and guards alike."

Deus finished and drew from a hidden sheath, under his cape, a sword which engulfed itself  in a fire that alternated between orange, yellow, and white. It radiated holy light that was blinding to my eyes.

The armored captain took his flame wreathed saber in his hands and released his cape from his armor, letting it fall onto the ground as he assumed a combat-ready stance. 

The guards behind him began to surround my mom and dad, and that's when I lost all semblance of control. The anger I felt towards these self-righteous bastards was being fueled by the howls of the dead, wailing to me to break his bones and rend his flesh. My quiver was emptied as every metal arrow I had hovered free off my lower back and a rapid-fire volley of hatred fueled death began to tear through the nearest guards' armor. Eight of them died instantly and the rest that surrounded my parents turned to see what in the nine hells was happening. 

I blasted through the wall and using a telekinetic spell I retrieved my arrows. They stared at me, frozen in place as a very angry juvenile demon stared back at them with nothing but black hatred in his eyes.

The primal roar I had been trying to stifle earlier escaped my lips as I took out my anger on the paralyzed soldiers. My arrows hovered around me at the ready, but I was too angry to fire them, so I opted to use my bare hands to destroy those that would dare hurt my family. 

The guards tried to fight back and I would grab their spears before they could stab me while their swords shattered against my hardened wings. Their leader shouted something I couldn't make out, due to my victims' pleas for mercy, then what felt like a sizzling stream of wind slammed into me. 

I flicked my wings around to shield me from the heat, but soon they too began to hurt with the same burning sensation. I staggered back, not knowing what was going on, and then it suddenly stopped though I could still hear what was happening.

As I unfurled my still smoking wings, I saw my mom and dad casting a shield spell that was being assaulted by a jet of holy fire. I then noticed that the Captain from before was aiming his sword at us, the beam coming from the blade.

"AZAZEL! USE THE WARP STONE IN YOUR BAG!!!" My father ordered, struggling along with my mother to hold the barrier. I blinked as it donned on me what I had to do. A warp stone could teleport me anywhere I wanted along with what I had on me and two other willing beings. My hand dug into the bag and blindly rummaged around for a glass orb.

"AZAZEL!!! HURRY!!!" My mother pleaded through her strained breathing. 

I panicked at her cry and the fear I had been repressing with my rage enveloped me as I desperately searched through the impossibly deep bag. 

When the barrier finally broke, I found what I was looking for. I pulled out a tangerine-sized sphere that glowed with a faint white light and felt like polished glass in my clawed gauntlet. As I looked up from the orb in my hand, I saw Deus Vult aiming his blade right at my face a few feet away from me and my parents, who had fallen to their knees. The flames that engulfed his sword turned sky blue and I had a vague idea of what would ensue after his blade finished charging up.

"Any last words wretch?" He snarled. 

I was scared beyond belief, but then time slowed down to a near halt. There was no sound, only my own breathing and my heart thumping away in my chest. I felt my mother's hand on my chest, my father's hand on the sphere in my hand. They were looking at me with a face of tender love and... Are they crying?!

"Be strong Azazel, remember to fight for what's right, to live, and love like only you can..."

My mother spoke in what seemed like a whisper. My mind was racing, I couldn't make sense of what was happening. 

"W-what!? What's going on!?" I managed to say. It was impossible to move any faster than that of a snail's pace.

"We've taken you this far... Now you have to carry on without us... Try to not make enemies, and stay away from sun goddesses, ok?..."

My dad's voice was as quiet, I could tell he was holding back tears as well. Before I could make another question, I felt my mom pour into me as much of her life force as she could. I felt stronger than I had ever been, but that wasn't my priority at the moment. They sounded like they were... No...

"I wish we had more time..." My mom whispered tears were now running down her cheeks. 

Before I could regain my bearings, my dad poured power into the warp stone, which began to shine and glow in a rainbow of colors that didn't seem natural but had I been in another circumstance, I would've found it to be beautiful.

"We love you..."

They spoke in unison. That was the last thing I heard them say before I heard the sound of glass shattering along with a sound similar to lightning, and time sped up to its normal speed. 

I felt the power of a star slam into my chest as my ears pick up Deus shouting something along the lines of 'sidus igne maxima' before the roar of the holy fire rammed into me and disintegrated my parents. 

I expected to slam into the ground and die, burning alive, but what happened next confused me as much as the holy flames burned against my chest.

I was sent flying through what seemed like shattered glass and as I fell through the hole, the cold night air hit my wings. 

The only thing that kept me from trying to correct my course through the air was the insistent stream of holy fire that kept pushing me along like those powder-filled tubes the dwarves have in their kingdom. "Fireworks" is what I think they called them.

As I was dragged farther from the hole ripped in the sky, it began to close back up like the cracks of my father's barrier. When the hole was no more I slammed into something hard, what I would later discover to be the side of a mountain. 

The impact shook said mountain and left me winded. when the stream of holy fire ended its assault on my chest, gravity peeled me off the mountain and I began to fall straight down. I don't remember much of what happened in those few seconds I was falling, but what I do remember was the pain and my entire body yearning for the sweet release of death. 

As soon as I hit the ground, everything fell to darkness. And I found it near impossible to take a breath. The last thing that I remember going through my mind as I felt the life seep out of me, was my parent's last words. 

"We love you..."

/////////////Princess Luna///////////////


I had just raised the moon and finished painting the beautiful tapestry of the night sky when something caught my eye. 

In the distance, high up over the Everfree forest, magic swirled with bolts of electricity leaping between the clouds of wild magic before exploding outward towards Canterlot in a spray of what seemed like ethereal glass. 

From the epicenter of the broken magic, something flew through the air like a crazed bolt of stray magic towards the base of our mountainside city, leaving a trail of light blue flames in its path. 

The object crashed into the mountain, shaking the castle and the entire city with a thunderous boom. When the earth stopped shaking and the city showed no signs of collapsing or falling of Mount Canterlot, I used a teleportation spell to travel to my sister's room. 

She had been startled awake, her rainbow mane was suffering from the worst case of bed mane I had seen in years. 

"Sister! Something has slammed into the mountain!" I exclaimed using the Canterlot voice to inform my dear sister of the urgency I carried in my words. Tia was still trying to get a hold over what was happening.

"What?.." She groggily asked, trying to rub the sleep from her eyes. 

"Sister, we are under attack!" I managed to say in a stern, yet quieter in tone. My sister finally wrapped her head around what I was saying.

"What?! By who?! Is it the changelings?!"

Getting off the bed, her mane flared up like a raging fire before calming down as I answered her question with the details of what I had just seen. 

She listened at the edge of her proverbial seat as I explained and her face went from a concerned and frightened mare to that of the brave and focused leader I knew my big sister to be.

"We'll go together to see what the damage is. Guards!"

The moment she called for her solar guard, a golden clad stallion and mare rushed through the door and stood at attention a few hooves away from either of us.

"Alert the rest of the guard. Get everypony to safety, that is your number one priority. Once everypony is safely out of the castle, meet us at the base of Mount Canterlot."

She ordered. The guards saluted and left as quickly as their hooves would allow them. Tia used her magic to levitate her regalia and crown on and looked at me with an icy glare that reminds me of the times we headed out to face monsters that threatened our little ponies in centuries past.

"Let's go."

I stated. And with that, we flew out through my sister's balcony overlooking the land of Equestria as we flew to make sure the city would not fall. Whatever had slammed onto the mountain, it missed the city and it's pillars completely and simply hit the magically strengthened stone with little to no damage. My eyes are much better at seeing in the dark than my sister's and at the foot of the mountain I spotted a small crater with a small plume of blue flame and smoke,  what I assumed was what hit the mountain. 

"Luna! There!" 

Tia exclaimed, pointing at the smoldering crater. 

As we flew down near the crater, the wind of wings extinguished the flames. Through the smoke, a very faint crimson light shined at the bottom. 

We got close, horns at the ready to either teleport or blast whatever this thing was straight to Tartarus.

With another round of wing flaps, the smoke cleared to reveal a creature unlike any we had ever seen. At first, I thought it to be a dragon, but its wings looked too heavy and unnatural to achieve flight. 

The blood red glow from before was a portion of its chest that was reduced to a bloody crater that was slowly healing itself. The creature had clawed feet with three toes on the front and one on the back. The bulk of its broad torso was a creamy white. Its limbs seemed to be covered with hard red scales. 

It had a long tail with the same coloration as his other limbs and a spear like a barb at its end. The creature's head was strange, it looked to have the same type of creamy white flesh over its face with a long brown mane that reached down to its chest and its back. 

Its face was flat, with the exception of its nose, and had no fur anywhere aside from its long mane. Jutting from the creature's forehead were two dark red horns that curved up and over it's head before following it's long mane down before curbing back up. smaller spine-like protrusions rose from the top of both horns in a descending pattern of size before ceasing half way along the horns. 

It wore a battered belt with metal trinkets dangling from small chains across its waist with what looked like the remains of a quiver, a small white satchel with a strange black rune, and worn black drapes covered its thighs and what remained of a melted gauntlet that covered its forearm and its clawed hand with five digits. It was barely breathing, and covered in what I hoped was its own blood.

"Luna?.."

Tia looked at me both bewildered and concerned.

"I'm just as lost for words as you are Tia.."

My sister's gaze returned to the creature. We simply stared at it, the hole in its chest healing completely and chest rising and falling as it breathed weakly.

"Princesses!" A pegasus stallion clad in armor called as he descended with four other guards in tow. He landed behind us and led the small march towards us.

"The last of the ponies in the castle and the city are being mobilized into the shelters as you requested, what are your orders?"

He asked, standing at attention. As he spoke, more and more pegasi landed behind them. Shortly after, a large group of unicorns and earth ponies either teleported or ran towards the princesses as quickly as they could. 

Once they reached the Diarchs, everypony stood at attention, silently waiting for their princess to give them their next orders. 

Whatever the creature me and Tia were looking at was, it was intelligent and was wounded. We turned to look at each other and with a simple glance, we confirmed that our thoughts were on the same page. 

"Bring a team of paramedics and a carriage used to carry luggage," I ordered turning to face the unconscious creature.

"We're having a guest tonight at the Palace," Tia said with a smile before doing the same as me and waiting for the paramedics.