//------------------------------// // Revelation and Ruin // Story: Doom Slayer // by Thule117 //------------------------------// The creature stared down at the walled and fortified city with a burning hatred. Its thoughts disjointed and incoherent, from a mix of rage and madness, but still lucid enough for some degree of satisfaction. Its thoughts briefly aligning into something akin to sanity. Finally, the creature was here, the home of the bastards who killed Derpy! The fuckers that had the balls to come into its home, attack its family, and then run away like little whipped bitches thinking they could hide! The monster's fingers twitched, as the red mist through which it saw the world thickened. It wouldn't rest till these worthless stains of liquid dragon shit and all their friends paid! It was gonna gut their kids in front of em', stomp the corpses into paste, and ram what was left down their Light damned throats! It was gonna rip off their limbs and stack their bodies in a nice big pile at the center of the city, while they were still alive and screaming! Then he'd coat em' all in oil and watch em' fry! The beast snarled aloud, its fists tightening. It was gonna make sure to give Derpy a grand sendoff, writing her name in fire and gore across the Storm King's entire empire, so nocreature would ever forget her! At the same time, it would make certain Dinky could sleep at night, knowing every one of her mamma's killers had paid for taking her away! The creature would insure that every chickenshit piece of heretic garbage, who thought they were safe as long as they sucked the Storm King's cock, died on their knees, begging for their worthless lives! Then, when it found the Storm King, the creature was gonna take its time. Maybe it would impale the fucker on an iron spike atop his palace, let him squeal as he bled out?! Or castrate him with a blunt knife heated to two thousand degrees?! Maybe the beast would find some lead to melt down, and fix its buddy the king a nice hot drink?! Before that though, it was gonna make the bastard watch, as everything he claimed as his, was turned to ash in front of him! Then it would move on to the traitor, Tempest! Maybe it would hack off her legs one at a time and give her an object lesson of how its species weren't exactly vegetarian. . . it had been awhile since the entity had had a nice steak dinner. . . . "Made it! Thank the wastes!" The creature was pulled from its vengeful, fury addled thoughts, by the relieved declaration of one of the ship's crew. For an instant, a nearly overwhelming desire to spill the loudmouth's blood, assailed the beast, but it held itself back. Satisfying as it would be to butcher the crew of anthropomorphic parrots, it had made them a promise. Even reduced to little more than a ravening force of violence, the creature still clung to some semblance of honor. Nevertheless, it was sorely tempted, as the captain, Ceelmo or something, the creature hadn't really paid attention, and didn't really care, approached with fear in her eyes. The beast let out a low growl. Small wonder the Storm King was able to do what he liked without consequence, with spineless shits like this everywhere. If the common people of this forsaken empire had stood up to the Storm King from the beginning, then Derpy might still be alive! It made the beast's blood boil, and he became momentarily distracted by half-formed fantasies of the horrors he would inflict on the rest of the Storm King's realm. "W-we did as you asked, the Storm King should be in his palace at the foot of the mountain." The voice of the captain, focused most of the creature's mind back on the present, but it still resented the interruption. "You. . . live." The creature growled, its voice no less monstrous for its lower than normal volume. The captain let out an explosive sigh of relief. "Right, we'll land the ship just out of-" "No. . . ." The creature growled. The captain balked, staring at the beast in shock. "What?" She asked, more by reflex than anything. "NO. . . LANDING!" The monster roared, furious at having to repeat itself, as it began moving away. The captain stared, as the creature walked out to the end of the bowsprit. "Keep going. . . then. . . run!" Nodding, the anthropomorphic parrot turned to take the wheel from one of her crew. Celaeno wasn't exactly sure what the being that had hijacked her ship was thinking, but she wasn't going to argue. Around the ship, the nearly pitch black clouds, roared with thunder, as forks of lightning the thickness of trees lit them from within. The wind at the ship's back was strong, and howled lightly as it whistled through the rigging. As the wind sped them forward, the ship rocked to and fro, occasionally shuddering violently. Celaeno and her crew felt a tension in their guts, as the creature on the bowsprit glared down at the assembled army of the Storm King, nearly three thousand feet below. Suddenly, the creature turned back to glare at Celaeno and her crew, his crimson gaze burning into their minds and souls. "See you again. . . you. . . die!" Before Celaeno could even consider a reply, the creature turned away, released the rigging, and stepped out into mid air. As the unquenchable black flames licking across its armor, blazed to new heights. . . . Tempest stared at the oncoming ship, some three thousand plus feet overhead. In only a few minutes it would be over the city, and Tempest immediately began barking orders to reorient the ballista and catapults. Only to suddenly stop dead as she glanced back at the sky. She could not have said how, but in a sudden moment of perfect clarity, Tempest saw a familiar, terrifying outline, standing atop the bowsprit. Eyes like twin volcanic craters, glared down at Tempest with a supreme rage, just before the figure stepped from the ship. The creature fell to earth like an obsidian meteor, as the black flames clinging to it flared outward, to all but obscure the figure at its center. As it hurtled through the air, bolts of lightning blasted toward it from every direction, striking the entity as it descended in a blinding flash of actinic light. In that instant, as Tempest and all of Thunderspire watched, the lightning joined with the creature, arcing and flashing, as the many bolt's on either side of him, webbed together, before joining into a single stream at each of the plummeting figure's outstretched arms. The impression overall, was that the descending monster was spreading a pair of colossal bat wings, forged of pure lightning. Unable to speak, Tempest could only watch in slack jawed horror, as the figure continued its screaming descent. Somewhere in Tempest's mind, she noted the creature had, oddly enough, not aimed to land in the city itself. Instead, angling itself to touch down far outside the wall. Only once the ebon shrouded entity grew closer, did Tempest understand why it would surrender so potent a tactical advantage. With its single gate shut and barred, all the creature had to do to trap the entire city of Thunderspire, was slaughter everything outside its walls. Opening her mouth to call out a far-too-late warning, the walls and towers of Thunderspire shook violently, as the living missile struck the earth like the fist of a titan. Directly in the center of a formation of two hundred frantically scattering storm beasts. Sand, stone, and earth, blasted heavenward, as a wave of black fire like a miniature tsunami, exploded out from the impact point. The lightning chasing the figure grounding out in a massive eruption of pure plasma, as the combined shock wave washed over the storm beasts. Flesh and bone turned instantly to carbonized ashes, bodies were hurled for thousands of feet like pebbles in a hurricane, while others were simply turned to red mist in an instant. In a storm of focused mystical and kinetic devastation, stone was shattered into sand, sand melted into glass, and glass was rendered down to ionized vapor. As the few partially intact corpses of over two hundred storm beasts rained down across the sand and stone leading to Thunderspire, a figure emerged from the partially molten, hundred foot wide crater. It was at that moment, that the last of Tempest's recouped nerve, failed her. Soundtrack: A Demon's Fate by Within Temptation The being that emerged was now so shrouded in black fire, it was all but impossible to see the armored biped that made up its core. Great wings of black flame swept out from its shoulders, no longer a mere suggestion, but fully formed, and churning the surrounding dust and smoke with every ethereal beat. A pair of horns made of blazing obsidian energy, emerged from the creature's helmeted head, as limbs encased and enlarged by semi-solid black fire, extended out from its core. Two flaring orbs of pure crimson, stared out from amid the billowing flames, their gaze consumed with equal parts madness and rage. It was at this moment, that Tempest had a horrifying moment of clarity. Back in Canterlot, when it had swept aside her armada like they were little more than specks of dust. . . this creature. . . had not shown its true strength! Cherishing the ponies and their home, it had sought to shield the city, and all those within, from the true extent of its terrible might! But now, bereft of any such concern, it was free to loose every iota of its brutal power! Instantly, all hope for survival died within Tempest. As in an instant of pure concentrated terror, she realized that all this time, the monster she faced in Canterlot. . . had been holding back. . . . The creature's charge was precipitated by a roar of deific hate, so powerful it actually triggered minor avalanches down the side of the mountain surrounding Thunderspire. Bolts of lightning from the roiling clouds above, lashed across the battlefield, as if commanded by the beast's sheer fury. While deafening blasts of thunder, shattered windows, and cracked walls of stone and mortar. As the creature, hurtled forward. Despite moving so fast its image was little more than a blur, the defenders still managed to get a single defensive volley off. Though their artillery had yet to be cranked back into position, thousands of projectiles filled the air. Arrows the size of small javelins were loosed from greatbows, while smaller iron tipped crossbow bolts, and even a few sling stones, hissed through the air as they flew out from the wall. In numbers great enough to momentarily darken the sky, the arrows and stones streaked down toward the rampaging horror of black flame. . . . The creature barely noticed. Not even slowing the beast down, the myriad projectiles shattered like cheap crystal against an impenetrable aura of black fire. Arrows and bolts made to penetrate steel armor, and alchemically treated to ignore mystical wards, were little more than a gentle spring rain in the face of this monster's unleashed wrath. As, with a sweep of its flaming wings, the last of the arrows parted like so many sheets of water, before turning to ash and smoke, as the charging figure reached the first ranks of storm beasts. Arranged in a phalanx with tower shields raised and bident spears set, the ranks of soldier-beasts looked impregnable. But against the coming horror, they were little more than a temporary inconvenience. Spears shattered into splinters, as shields were torn to iron filings, the flaming monster making quick, bloody work of the front ranks in an explosion of violence. One storm beast's shield was ripped from his grasp by an near invisible blur, his spear snapping as the shield's edge was brought down with monstrous force atop his head, splitting him in two. Another was simply sent hurtling back through the ranks behind him, his body a mangled ruin, as he paved a path of broken limbs and destroyed weapons through his fellows. Several others screamed in pain, as a whirlwind of black flame opened up their bellies in sprays of blood. Their organs spilling onto the ground in gory heaps. Ranks of storm beasts were tossed aside like clothing store mannequins in a tornado, from the force of the monster's charge alone. Tendrils of black fire lashing out like the limbs of some unholy cephalopod, to slash through shields and armor in sprays of molten metal, and flesh and fur in sprays of ashen flakes. As with roars of hate from the most vile pits of its soul, the creature unleashed its arsenal. Twin explosive booms preceded the reduction of nearly eighty storm beasts, to little more than chunks of blood soaked meat and sundered armor. A pair of identical twin barreled weapons having appeared in each of the creature's hands. With black fire crawling across their surface, the weapons had blasted a vaguely wedge shaped hole through the masses of storm beast infantry. Those on the periphery of the wedge, barely had time to note their lost and shredded limbs, before their world was erased in clouds of ebon shrouded tungsten buckshot. In a demonstration of unheard of destructive power, the monster banished its twin barreled weapons in a flash of red, only to summon a pair of fresh ones, and fire them in yet another unstoppable wave of mangling, mystically enhanced metal. Before repeating the process with incomprehensible speed. Whirling in place, the monster's hands strobed with bursts of scarlet light and thunderous muzzle flares. Blast after annihilating blast, tearing through the storm beasts surrounding him, and painting the earth a sickening scarlet. In the most brutal act of destruction that Tempest had ever seen, five hundred heavily armed soldiers were turned instantly to mist and mulch before her eyes. Only when the cry of 'catapults ready' was made out over the din of her own terror, did she awaken enough to give an order. "FIRE!!" She screamed. "FIRE EVERYTHING!!" The world was stained red. The eyes of the beast, flicking from target to target in twitching violent movements, could see no other color. Everything, from the sky and clouds above its head, to the sand and stone beneath its feet, was viewed in varying shades of scarlet, ruby, carmine, and crimson. The enemies standing by with raised shields and set spears, the oncoming stones and oversized bolts, the wall and city beyond the foes ranks, all of it was viewed through a lens the color of blood. The creature didn't care, driven forward by a rage that it had neither the desire, nor ability, to control. Roaring out in defiance, as it faced the oncoming barrage. Disconnected images flashed through the monster's head. One moment it saw the smiling face of Twilight, as her flesh and fur burned away, to reveal a grinning skull beneath. In another, it was back on D'nur, entering the home it had had twelve hundred years ago, only to find animated and ravenous corpses, wearing the disintegrating faces of its lost family. However, the image that lingered longest, was of a kind and gentle, grey and blond mare, turned to crystal before its eyes, and then shattered into shards. As the flames on its body blazed out of control, the monster felt ever greater might surge through it, as it drowned in its hate. . . . Meanwhile, deep within the mind of the beast, a second consciousness felt only grief. With cries of sorrow, his thoughts turned to how he had once again, failed to protect those he loved. Derpy had believed in him, put her faith in him, counted on him, and in the end, just as he had twelve hundred years before, he had proven too weak. It had been his responsibility to protect Twilight, and where had he been? Posturing and preening like a Light damned peacock! His entire being was consumed by pain and guilt, and he embraced it. Pain was what he deserved. Pain was what he was due. Pain. . . was all he had the right to receive. For the millionth time, the mind within the beast recalled the image frozen on the crystallized face of Derpy Hooves. It was kind, resigned, sympathetic. Even in death, she had tried to make him believe her end wasn't his fault, that she alone was responsible for the loss of her life. It was so like her, kind until the end. Hers had been a heart that made even angels seem cold and unfeeling. Derpy's had been a soul of pure love. . . and he had let her die. Though Derpy doubtless had wanted to spare him guilt, there was no question who's fault this was. He did not deserve her kindness. He had failed the Light, he had failed the seraphim, he had failed his friends, and he had failed his family. Most of all however, he had failed Derpy Hooves. As he heard the distant roars of the beast through a haze of grief, the mind within felt tears stain his cheeks anew. It couldn't be helped, he needed to protect what remained, and only one being, had never failed in that task. Let the monster rage, if it brought his home and family safety. . . then he did not care what the cost was. Tempest Shadow, had never been religious. She did not believe in the idea of gods, or a benevolent creator, nor did she subscribe to the idea of an afterlife. You lived, you died, you rotted in the ground. There was no mystery, and no reason to care or think about it. However, as the battle continued to play out before her, Tempest suddenly found herself praying. As the flames on the creature's right arm flared, and it swiped it through the air so fast it almost appeared to teleport. As the ballista bolts hurtling through the sky were scattered like matchsticks by a booming shockwave, that cracked the stone beneath the monster's feet. As hunks of rock over two feet across, shattered into slivers against its aura of indestructible flame. As an almighty titan stampeded towards phalanxes of the best soldiers the Storm King's empire could produce, like they were little more than prey to be devoured. Tempest couldn't help but believe. . . god was real. . . and he hated her. . . . Tempest watched with a sort of numb detachment, as the battle continued. As she stood and stared, a trebuchet behind the wall managed a direct hit. . . or so it seemed. The projectile, a boulder nearly as tall as its target, and at least twice as wide, impacted the monster with a force that should have crushed it into paste. Instead, the massive hunk of rock came to a sudden, juddering stop, its momentum bled away in an instant. Despite everything, Tempest felt her eyes widen in shock, as the creature hefted the boulder overhead. Its fingers punching into the stone like steel pitons into moldy bread. As the flames from the creature's body engulfed the hunk of rock in a wave of flaring ebony, some of the storm beasts nearby, broken and brainwashed though they were, turned and ran. Further away, a phalanx of two hundred fresh soldiers, charging into position as the barrage from the wall ended, were stopped dead by terror induced awe. Trembling from horn to paw, they watched, as, with a soul searing roar of psychotic malice, the monster heaved the stone at them. The flaming hunk of rock streaking across the one hundred fifty meters of distance, in the space of three seconds. Had the ordered ranks of storm beasts had the wherewithal to scatter before the stone was cast, they might have stood some small chance. As it was however, frozen in formation by combination of fear and mental conditioning, and rendered unable to react, they hadn't a hope in Tartarus. The flaring rock detonated with the force of a keg of black powder, the center of the storm beast formation instantly torn to ribbons by shards of stone moving several times the speed of sound. Those warriors closest to the impact seemed almost to evaporate, as the rows of soldiers surrounding them were turned into mosaics of blood soaked fur and lacerated flesh. Agonized howls and screams echoed across the battlefield, as those merely wounded by the attack fell to the ground. Slivers of stone, some as long as a claw-length, embedded in their twitching bodies. However, all this was merely a distraction from the creature's true assault. As a weapon like an oversized tuning fork, was summoned to its waiting claws. . . . Tempest was forced to dive for cover, as a beam of black light, surrounding an electric blue core, lanced into a nearby defense tower. In an explosion loud enough to drown out the roar of thunder overhead, the tower was blown into the sky. Mortar and stone turned to molten spray instantly from the heat of the beam. While the force of the impact sent square blocks of stone the size of a storm beasts head, hurtling in every direction. Each moving fast enough to punch through even fortified structures like they were made of paper. A moment later, another tower suffered a similar fate. The ballista and catapult crews at its summit were erased from reality, as the top twenty feet of the structure were either flashed into pyroclastic vapor, or sent screaming in every direction as oversized shrapnel. As tower after fortified tower was turned into a semi-molten ruin, blocks of stone, sent soaring thousands of feet into the air, began raining down on the wall and its surroundings. Tempest just barely managed to dodge a rock that shattered the stone beneath her hooves like glass, as next to her, several storm beasts holding crossbows, had their skulls caved in by the falling debris. One such unfortunate, close enough that Tempest was splattered by a mix of pulverized bone, brains, and blood. Leaning over the side of the wall, Tempest vomited up the contents of her stomach. As more blocks of stone rained down around her, she stared bleary eyed, just in time to see three more phalanxes of storm beasts converge on the monster from the sides and front. Again feeling a sense of numb detachment overtake her, Tempest watched the slaughter unfold. Switching weapons again, the ebon shrouded horror sent a swarm of what looked like miniature stars wrapped in black fire, into the front ranks of its attackers. Any storm beasts hit by the flickering projectiles, were instantly reduced, weapons and all, to clouds of ash. Scores of them incinerated so quickly, it almost made it seem like the charging warriors weren't real. As if the soldiers were merely an illusionist's conjured phantasms being dispelled. By the time they closed the distance, the hoard of six hundred, had become less than four hundred. If anything, the close quarters battle was worse than the war at a distance. The creature had abandoned all semblance of technique. Swinging its arms in broad arcs, as if its limbs were little more than clubs attached to its body. The effect was devastating, as the obsidian clad limbs, sheared through flesh and bone as surely as any blade. The shock wave of the blows was no less destructive, as storm beasts mangled bodies were sent flying away like missiles by near or glancing hits. Sometimes the monster would bring its fist down in a hammerblow, cratering the earth beneath it, as a blast of its flaring aura, either tore its attackers into bloody fragments, or burned them into cinders. Running forward in a staggering drunken line, the creature seemed to grow more brutal whenever the ranks of its foes thinned even a little. The extra space giving it room to exercise all manner of personalized cruelties. Reaching out with a strike like a black lightning bolt, the unstoppable biped punched its fingers into the sternum of a charging storm beast, before ripping the front of its rib cage free in a spray of blood. As the pitiful warrior reflexively tried to hold in its lungs and heart, the monster whirled on its next target. With a low sweep of the annihilating monster's arm, it knocked a storm beast's legs out from under it, snapping them like twigs as it was spun perpendicular to the ground. Before cleaving it in two with a downward chop so swift it broke the sound barrier, the two halves of the storm beast exploding into mist from the sonic boom. Another storm beast was simply grabbed by the face, the monster's blunt claws punching into its eye sockets and nasal cavity as if its skull was a bowling ball. The two hundred fifty pound gurgling soldier was lifted off the ground as if it weighed no more than a feather. Its neck snapping like a twig, as it was hurled into a second storm beast warrior with force enough to turn every bone in both their bodies, into a mass of splinters no bigger than a toothpick. Prowling forward, the blazing monstrosity howled amid piles of the dead and dying, gore on its flaming body turning instantly to smoke, as it sought fresh prey. Before Tempest's numbed gaze, one storm beast had its intestines ripped out and wrapped around the throat of another. The obsidian shrouded creature using the bloody, ropey mass, as both garrote and leash, dragging around the suffocating warrior, as it fended off the attacks of its comrades with blasts from one of its many weapons. The victim of the initial disembowelment screaming in horror as it bled out. The storm beast tangled in its guts went quietly limp, its face a swollen purple. As the monster finished off the few enemies within easy reach, Tempest watched the remaining storm beast formations converge around the flaming biped. At this point, the only strategy left, seemed to be trying to overwhelm the creature with sheer numbers. It was a laughable idea, reflecting just how desperate the situation had become. It was at this moment, that Tempest began to cry. Her long caged emotions suddenly returning with brutal abruptness. Strangely, with the specter of imminent death before her, she came to realize a long buried truth. One she had hidden so deep, she had all but forgotten it. Terror and despair, inexplicable as it was, parted her resentment, self delusion, and learned callousness like a blade. Letting her recall with heart wrenching suddenness, all she had buried. She didn't want, and had never wanted, any of this. All Tempest had wanted, truly wanted, was to go back home. To have the happy life she had enjoyed before her horn was destroyed, and her supposed friends had abandoned her out of fear. The pony Tempest Shadow had originally been, had never wanted to be a conqueror, never wanted to be a villain. . . she had just wanted her life back. But over time, desperation and resentment, had transformed her into a pony, her younger self would never have recognized. As tears streamed from her eyes, Tempest felt years of suppressed regret come to the surface. All the times she had hurt somecreature and pretended not to care, all the times she betrayed and acted like it was just business, all the times she had been cruel and claimed it was simply for survival. At that moment, Tempest realized that this was the result of a life spent blinded by anger and grief. She had turned herself into a monster to bury her pain, unwilling to face or fight against it. Now. . . after all this time. . . she had finally met a monster more horrific than she could ever be. And, illogical as it seemed, its terrible presence, had brought her revelation. . . . Wiping her eyes clear, Tempest felt a strange calm settle over her. She didn't want to die, but as she accepted responsibility for her actions at long last, and recalled who she truly was, her fear inexplicably vanished. Turning from the wall, Tempest felt a profound sense of inner peace. She was going to die, and she had no one to blame but herself, she understood and accepted that. She wasn't going to run anymore, and with what little remained of her time, she vowed she would live as the pony that, in truth, she had always wanted to be. She had lived for a long time as 'Tempest Shadow', the Storm King's most feared and ruthless enforcer. But, if she was going to die, she chose to do so as Fizzlepop Berrytwist, lost daughter of Equestria. And, if at all possible, she would make sure hers, was the last death in this war. . . . The monster roared as it jumped fifty feet into the air, scattering the clawing hoard around it with the sheer explosive force of its leap. Summoning a rocket launcher to each hand, it devastated the ground below in a flurry of barely aimed shots. Turning the earth into a semi-molten ruin, and letting the combined shock waves from the blasts carry it still higher. The beast smashing into the ground nearly one hundred feet from where it started, as a wave of black fire, vaporized another thirty of its foes as it landed. Running forward with a bellowing howl, the beast rammed its fist into the gut of a staggered enemy soldier. Fingers like living knives, tore through flesh and fur as if it were warm wet paper. The lupine wretch of a foe bleating out in pain, as its eyes filled with terror. The monster reveled in that fear, as its questing hand tore through the creature's diaphragm, its fingers closing around its prize. Ripping free the squealing weakling's heart in a soothing spray of ruby liquid, the monster smiled. As it shattered the skull of a pitiful foe charging its rear with a casual backhand strike, the monster stared at the still pulsing organ in its hand. The monster could feel it! Derpy was smiling! She was resting easier, knowing the creature was ensuring her death was not in vain! The creature would not allow further mistakes, it would make certain that Equestria was secure, the enemies of the seraphim would be laid to waste. Raising up the now stilled heart, the monster stood as if offering it to the heavens. It wanted Derpy to see, to see that she and her death would never be forgotten! For just an instant, the creature's vision cleared, the red haze fading slightly, as tears stung its eyes. Then it heard more enemies approaching. . . and the haze returned, stronger than ever. It was still not enough! Until all under the Storm King's banner were slaughtered, until their bodies were piled high upon the ruins of their heretical kingdom, until all that they cherished was ash and dust. . . . Until then! The creature would not, must not, stop! Until all of the Storm King's empire, drowned in the spilled blood of its vile citizenry, the creature could never know rest! Crushing the disembodied heart into pulp and throwing it away, the creature ripped the spear from a charging enemy's grasp with its other hand. Reversing the bident, the monster rammed the head through the belly of its foe, impaling it, before twisting and pulling. The tines of the weapon snagged in the flesh of his screaming enemy, as the monster reveled in the dying storm beast's desperate and pleading expression. Then, the monster's face, once more became a mask of insensate rage, as it used its impaled attacker as a massive screaming mace. Whirling the impaled creature over its head with the force of a cannonball, the flaming biped sent dozens of storm beasts flying, their limbs bent and broken, and their organs a lumpen slurry. Casting aside the improvised club, the monster clutched at its head, as images appeared, in a wave of pain. . . . Lady Derpy and Miss Dinky were sitting with Lady Twilight, Lady Starlight and Master Spike, at a table in Ponyville. It was a beautiful day, with a shining sun, and nary a cloud in the sky. The creature grit its teeth, as, with a stab of agony, the image sharpened. For some reason, they had been discussing the creatures of the Everfree forest. Twilight had been commenting on some of the more dangerous flora and fauna, and Dinky and Spike, though they tried not to show it, had become a little scared. The creature heard as Dinky had expressed her fear, wondering if any of the monsters would attack Ponyville. . . . Derpy placed her hoof around her daughter in a gentle hug, as she looked right into the creature's eyes without a shred of doubt. "Don't worry sweety, don't forget Derran is here, he'll keep us safe from any monsters." The creature's mind was lanced with pain, as it saw Dinky stare at him. "Really?" "Of course, I would never allow anything to happen to you." The creature stood, clawing at its helmeted head and mouthing the words as the image played out. "You promise?" She had asked, with an innocent smile. The creature felt as if it was being swallowed by an abyss, as it unconsciously mouthed the words of the response. "I swear it." The creature's body shook, as the blood in its veins burned like molten rock, its eyes blazing like pools of hellfire, and its breath steaming as its saliva boiled. Then, with a roar that shattered the very earth beneath its feet, the creature hurled itself at its foes, in an almost eighty foot standing leap. Coherent thought became an impossibility, as the monster descended into a frenzy of battle madness. With every strike, an enemy was turned to a bloody spray, weapons were summoned and fired at random, with no thought given to their use save that they kill something. Foes were torn apart like sacks of paper filled with bloody meat. Blasted into mist by rockets and haphazardly thrown grenades. Evaporated by sprays of plasma fire and railgun shots. Or shredded into blood soaked heaps of ground meat, by streams of hot lead. Yet still, it wasn't nearly enough to quell the creature's white hot fury. The city wall loomed before the maddened beast's gaze, just over a hundred meters away. Before it, were the last of the defenders, the elite guard of Thunderspire. Clad in heavy plate armor, and wielding two handed axes and greatswords, they were a three hundred strong wall of metal and muscle. All the creature saw, was vague figures in a carmine fog, as it summoned its final weapon. The wall of soldiers braced at the foot of the fortification, just behind the spiked moat, preparing for the monster's next move. The more fortunate of them, had a split second to marvel, at the birth of a second sun of black and green. Just before emerald tendrils of fusing plasma, cocooned in an aura of black fire, reduced them to subatomic particles. The detonation of the mystically enhanced ball of super-condensed plasma, shook Thunderspire, and the mountain behind it, nearly to pieces. The ground cracked open to partially swallow entire city blocks, buildings collapsed into rubble by the hundreds, wood turned to ash instantly, stone and metal melted, and a massive avalanche from the mountain above, buried nearly a third of the city under crushed stone and soil. When the dust and smoke finally cleared, a glowing crater of molten rock, nearly two hundred and fifty feet wide and forty feet deep, stood amid the broken and melted remains of the supposedly invincible, Thunderspire wall. Moving forward into a fog of smoke, powdered stone, and sedately floating ashen particles, the monster reached its target. Its body twitching unnaturally, as it walked forward at a slow and steady pace. . . . It found the residents of the city at its center, where the damage from its assault had been minimal. There were at least a few thousand of them. They were wretched figures, many clad only in chains and filthy rags, all clearly malnourished, and wearing expressions of terror, as they clutched at one another. Most bore a strong resemblance to the storm beast soldiers, save these creatures were more lithe, and had more of a simian appearance, rather than the lupine one of their warrior counterparts. The vast majority were very old, or very young, with only a smattering of adult looking specimens, split evenly between male and female. The creatures shrank away from the monster with tear filled eyes, as he leveled his weapon at them. Young or old. . . sick or strong. . . male or female. It was irrelevant. . . all sinners must die,. . . . "WAIT!!" The figure who stepped from amid the wretched mass, almost made the creature pull the trigger there and then. However, for some reason even the monster itself couldn't fathom, it paused, as Tempest Shadow presented herself. "Please!" She begged. "Just listen!" The creature held still, but did not lower its weapon. After a pause of a few moments, during which the monster stayed seemingly frozen, Tempest continued. "I know. . . I know I hurt you. . . hurt Equestria!" The creature continued to stand there, unmoving. Tempest let out a deep breath as she continued. "I. . . I don't have a good excuse. I've hurt a lot of innocent creatures, and done a lot of things I'm not proud of." Tempest declared, the flaming figure, amazingly, still letting her speak. "But these creatures shouldn't have to pay the price for what the Storm King and I did!" The crimson glare from beneath the monster's helmet was completely unshifting, yet still, it did not pull the trigger. "These creatures never wanted to hurt Equestria! The Storm King tricked them! Lied to them! Promised them he would make their kingdom great! Then, once he had power, he took every able bodied citizen and experimented on them! He used alchemy and brutal conditioning to turn them into mindless monsters to enforce his every whim! Then he enslaved everycreature who was too young or old to be turned into a soldier, or who were needed to maintain a breeding population!" Tempest's expression and tone were pleading, but passionate. "They never wanted to hurt anycreature! So PLEASE! If you have to kill me to make this right, then fine, I've earned my fate! But I'm begging you, to let these creatures go!" For some time, there was silence, and for a moment, Tempest dared to hope. Then, in a growling voice, that seemed to scratch at the souls and sanity of all who heard it, the creature spoke. . . . "No. . . ." Tempest's eyes widened in horror, as she frantically tried again. "Please! These creatures have done nothing wrong! They-" Tempest was silenced by a roar like unholy thunder, a flash of lightning from the roiling sky above, only emphasizing the thought, as the monster spoke. "LET STORM KING HAVE POWER. . ." Tempest shook her head frantically. "Please! I told you he tricked-" "DIDN'T FIGHT!!" Tempest felt tears of frustration burn her cheeks as she kept trying. "By the time they saw his true plan it was-" The creature kept talking, as unstoppable as an avalanche. "ALL GUILTY. . . ALL SINNERS. . . ALL DIE!!" Tempest sobbed as she screamed in desperation. "JUST TAKE ME YOU BUCKING BASTARD!! JUST LET THEM. . . ." Tempest froze, as she met the creature's gaze, her voice dying in her throat, as she realized it was useless. This creature's eyes. . . there was no pity. . . no understanding. . . no concept of forgiveness. . . only rage, vengeance, and madness. Tempest suddenly realized she had been wrong. . . this was no god. . . it truly was, a monster. "Please no." She whispered, as the creature's finger tightened on the trigger of its weapon. "Make. . . you. . . repent." The words, though still filled with rage, sounded almost calm, yet were as cold as the darkest depths of the ocean, as the creature's weapon started to hum. Tempest stared down the device's barrel, a faint green glow just barely visible at the end. She closed her eyes, waiting for the embrace of death. Then. . . a flash of blinding white light. . . obscured the world. "STOP!!" The voice, feminine, but thunderous and commanding, seemed almost to freeze time itself, halting the monster in its tracks, as surely as if it had been encased in ice. As the last three figures Tempest ever expected, appeared between her and her executioner. Princesses Celestia, Luna, and Twilight Sparkle, stood before the monster with manes and tails flaring, their expressions set in looks of heavily restrained anger and sorrow, as they glared at the beast before them. "Stand down Doom Slayer!" Celestia bellowed. "That. . . is an order!!"