In Everfree Forest
Twilight is walking in the Everfree forest, Everfree forest has always been a scary and dark place, especially at night, but ever since she became Lord Of Death, she was familiar with dark, for her now now this forest is just a garden, and creatures that live in this forest are like pets living in her garden... Twilight stopped at a swamp where two creatures growling at each other, a Manticore on the right, a Hydra on the other, she stood silently looking at two creatures glaring at each other, Manticore was standing in a stance preparing to attack while Hydra with four head screeching.
'Hnm... This is the first time I've seen confrontation of creatures in Everfree Forest, watching a battle like this might help me gain some combat experience' thought Twilight. while calmly watching two creatures that any pony would tremble with fear at the sight of them.
'Hnm... Manticore and Hydra? Seems like an unequal fight' Death commented.
'...Perhaps... But it's still difficult to predict outcome of this battle... Hydra is huge and has terrible attack power, but because of its large body, it moves very slow, while the Manticore is smaller, attack power is not great, but speed is very fast, in addition, its tail carries a poisonous substance, although its poison is not enough to take down a Hydra , but still can't take it lightly' Twilight deduced.
'you really know a lot about them, my master' Death said
'I've read some books about creatures in Everfree Forest before, but of course that's just what's written in the books, creatures of Everfree forest are known to be unpredictable creatures, only when they fight do they reveal their true abilities, especially when they are cornered' Twilight said.
While Twilight and Death were discussing two creatures in front of them. Hydra's right head suddenly lunged at the Manticore with its jaws wide open, Hydra tried to swallow its opponent in its first attack, but that attempt failed as the Manticore quickly jumped Backward, Hydra's middle head spewed flames towards Manticore, Manticore quickly ascended then lunged towards Hydra with tremendous speed and crashed into the Hydra's left head, causing Hydra to lose its balance and fall. However, that alone wasn't enough to take down a Hydra, Manticore after knocking down the Hydra, it quickly turned around, charging towards Hydra with its venomous tail brought out about to be stabbed into Hydra's neck, but Hydra used its tail and whipped Manticore's side, sending Manticore flying in opposite direction, Manticore's body crashing into large trees and breaking them, eventually crashing Manticore into a cliff.
Hydra stood up and walked towards its prey, when it saw that prey had collapsed, Hydra opened its mouth to reveal sharp teeth, it rushed to eat its prey. However, at that moment Manticore immediately jumped up, causing Hydra's head to hit ground, then Manticore saw its opportunity, it used its venomous tail to stab Hydra's neck and infuse his venom into it. Hydra hissed in pain as it was suddenly attacked. Manticore's poison quickly penetrated Hydra's body, causing it to slightly lose its balance and fall backwards.
Manticore still didn't give up, it continued to rush towards Hydra with claws and sharp teeth, it grabbed one of three other Hydra's heads, biting and scratching repeatedly at Hydra's face, Hydra tried removed Manticore from its face, but the Manticore stubbornly bit into Hydra's skin, using its claws to scratch at one of Hydra's eyes, causing Hydra once more to hiss in pain, the other two heads turned and spewed fire on the other in hopes of igniting Manticore, but unfortunately, Manticore quickly flew away from Hydra's face, so the flames burned his middle head.
middle head angrily turned to look at the other two, the other two smiled apologetically, fourth head had begun to recover from Manticore's venom attack, all four turned Looking at their prey with anger, they repeatedly attacked Manticore with fire-breathing and thunderous attacks, using their legs and tails to attack Manticore. Manticore continuously dodged Hydra's attacks, it flew up and waited for an opportunity to attack Hydra. Seeing his opportunity, Manticore immediately dived, once again using his venomous tail to attack Hydra, however Hydra quickly spewed fire at Manticore and incinerated Manticore, causing Manticore fall to the ground.
Hydra used its tail to crush Manticore, but Manticore used all of its strength to dodge attack, then flew up to scratch Hydra's face, Hydra hissed and used its tail to send Manticore flying towards swamp. Manticore fell into swamp causing mud in swamp to be scattered everywhere, and while Twilight was standing to watch the battle, she was hit by a cloud of mud, leaving her entire body now covered in mud, she using magic and removing mud from her body, her face remained calm and cold, but murderous aura was spreading all over her body, threatening to kill two creatures in front of her.
Manticore stood up in swamp in a defensive posture, it glared at Hydra, while Hydra looked down at Manticore with predatory eyes... But neither of two creatures knew there was a very dangerous creature is coming towards them... Twilight coldly moved towards two creatures with a terrifying killing intent directed at the two creatures glaring at each other. Just as Manticore and Hydra were about to rush into battle again... Suddenly, they felt something dangerous coming towards them, they turned towards direction of killing intent and their eyes widened as When they saw Twilight standing before them with cold and scary eyes, they felt as if those eyes were looking right through their souls, making them feel cold and afraid.
two creatures had absolutely no idea who creature before them was, although creature resembled ponies that lived outside this forest, but their wild instincts told them pony was standing in front of them was a very dangerous creature, and a creature that could take their life at any moment.
"You two don't fight anymore?" Twilight asked coldly.
two creatures were startled by the question, they could understand pony's language, they looked at each other for a moment before shaking their heads repeatedly. "Good, now go" after hearing those words from Twilight, they quickly left, afraid that if they stayed any longer, they would be killed by Twilight.
After Manticore and Hydra left, Twilight continued her forest walk,... Suddenly her eyes widened in surprise as she felt a faint trail of emotion appear in her heart, she realized what was that feeling,... It was fear, she quickly regained her cold expression and asked Death. 'Did you feel it too, Death?'
'Yes, master... But that's impossible,... With that curse, how could such a piece of emotion be missed?' Death wondered.
'You mean the curse from your power?' Twilight asked.
Death sighed before replying 'actually, it's not really a curse from my power... At least that's not my original...'
'What do you mean?' Twilight asked.
'Like I said, I was created by universe with ultimate power of death, but... Universe didn't create this curse,... This curse was put on me ten thousand years ago ... By Spirit Of Darkness, also known as Dark Queen...' Death explained
'Spirit Of Darkness, Dark Queen? You mean soul keeps balance between dark and light? why didn't you tell me before?' Twilight asked.
'... Because Dark Queen asked me and Crystal Of Destroy not to tell our masters about her past. She told us to just tell our masters that our powers were the gift of curse, told us to explain that accepting our power would be the same as accepting a curse, will made our masters's soul and heart empty, that no emotions will exist in their heart, except endless darkness , and tell us to let our masters choose whether to accept our power or not,' said Death.
'but why would she want to hide that from me and Eternal Master of Crystal Of Destroy? You said she didn't want us to know about her past, did something happen in the past that caused her to create this curse?' Twilight asked
'... She not only cast curse on us... But she also created curse on herself... Before creating this curse, she also has feelings... she used to be like you, master,... She also had friends,... But then...' Death started to remember what happened in the past more than ten thousand years ago.
Death flashback ~~~~
Inside the castle of dark world where demons, and ghosts gods exist there is a girl sitting on black throne with black flame burning on top of the throne, girl with Charming beauty with two sharp red and silver eyes but mixed with a sadness when looking down at those who are pointing weapons at her. The girl is known as Dark Queen, queen of dark world, the master of Dark Void, and Spirit Of Darkness that protects the balance between darkness and light in the universe.
"Dark Queen! The time has come for you to step down from your throne and hand over your power! You are not worthy of that power, you are not worthy to sit on dark throne, you are not worthy to be queen of dark world. Today will be your end, we will slay you, take your power and engulf this universe in darkness forever! We will rule this entire universe in darkness!" said a demon holding sword pointing at Dark Queen.
Dark Queen stood up, she walked towards demons shouting to kill her. Her long, wavy black hair hanging down her back, her long, wavy bangs obscuring her red eye, her silver eye light up when the moon of dark world shines in, she wears a long black off-shoulder dress that hugs her body, three curves of her body along with her pale snow white skin made her even more attractive, bottom of dress was cut up to her thighs, revealing her long slender legs, she wore a pair of black crystal clogs. She stopped ten feet away from demons, she stared at the army of demons, who had sworn allegiance to her forever, whom she had considered family, her last consolation to her soul,... But now all were pointing their weapons at her, all for sake of gaining power, the dark throne and title Lord Of Dark...
Dark Queen recalled her happy times with demons in front of her,... She had long viewed her existence as a curse to her, she had always had to kill, and destroy to protect balance of universe,... Every time she destroyed a certain unbalanced world, burden of destroying that world always weighed heavily on her soul, if not for her demons standing in front of her, she probably soon fell into despair and lost control of herself, for her they were the only consolation for her broken soul,... But now, all that have disappeared.
"Why did you betray me?" Dark Queen asked coldly, but there was bitterness in her words. "Didn't you all swear allegiance to me forever? You all once said that if no world accepts me, if I have nowhere to return,... Then stay this place, that you all will always wait for my return, that I will always be your queen,... Then why you betrayed me?"
“Hehe… You are Spirit Of Darkness, but it was unexpected that you was so stupid, this is why you are not worthy of power you possess, you so weak, you were born with a gift that all creatures in the universe had dream, you are master of all darkness in this universe, but you are too weak, with that strength you can easily rule all the universe, even world of light can't stop you, but instead of using your power to rule the universe, you only know to protect the balance,... At that time we swore our loyal with you because of power you possess, we think that under your leader we can rule the universe,... But you so foolish to believe all those words, if as you wish to have such a family, then you should have ruled the universe with us, but whenever we mentioned this you always deny it,... But now we don't need you anymore, we will kill you and take your power, and when you die there will be no one left to protect this universe, this universe will be ours forever hahaha" demon laughed evil.
End of flashback
"then What happened?" Twilight asked.
'...after that, she destroyed entire army of demons,... But then, she also gradually changed, she isolated herself in Dark Void and only appeared when there was threat to the universe,... Destroyer and I have always been by her side, and since we were born from the darkness of the universe, we have a connection with her soul,... We could feel her soul slowly collapsing in despair... She feared that one day her soul would collapse completely in the madness of her emotions, then she would lose control of herself and the universe would be destroyed, so... She used her power to create a link between Dark Void and her soul, for darkness of Dark Void has ability to devour everything including emotions, she had used that ability of Dark Void to erase all her emotions including madness... '
'Because Destroy and I had linked to her soul, so everyone who receives our power, their emotions would swallow by darkness of Dark Void... Then she let us go to find our master, and tell us to keep what happened a secret, so only Destroy and I know the truth behind the thing called 'the curse of power'...' Death explained .
"Why did Dark Queen keep you in the first place? Why didn't she let you go find your master sooner? if you could find your master sooner then you would be able to share burdened with her to protect the balance of the universe" Twilight asked
'I and Destroy asked her the same thing, and I still can't forget her answer until now' Death replied.
Death flashback
'Dark Queen? Can we ask you something?' Death asked.
Dark Queen raised her eyebrows at question, then replied "of course."
"Why do you keep us by your side instead of letting us find our masters like two Crystal Of Light and Crystal Of Space-Time?" Death asked
"So you won't have to bear the burden from destroying the unbalanced worlds alone, we can share that burden with you, wouldn't that be better?" Destroy asked
Dark Queen was a bit surprised by the question, she looked up at night sky of dark world with sad smile and replied "hnm... Maybe... Because I don't want any souls in the universe becomes like me... You're right, if you two could find your eternal master, it would be better for both me and the universe... But... It will destroy lives of souls that will become your eternal masters forever... They are unlike me and Light, we were created by universe without any choice as to what we become, about life and what we want to do..."
"... But they are different, they are inherently normal souls, they have lives, have families and friends of their own, they have places to return to,... And I don't want to take all that away from them,... I don't want them to become like me now... Maybe... Those traitors are right, I'm so weak... Sometimes I wonder,... Why did universe create me with these emotions? Are these emotions a curse the universe created for me? To torment me?" Dark Queen wondered with a tear of blood flowing from her silver eye.
End of flashback
'...Even when she let us go find our eternal master, she told us to tell our eternal master that our powers are the gift of curse and let our eternal master to choose.' Death recounts what the Dark Queen said before leaving Death and Destroy to find their eternal master.
"So what if we don't want to be Lord Of Death and Lord Of Destroy? Is she going to continue to take on all responsibility of maintaining the balance on her own?" Twilight asked.
'I guess that's what she wanted, master' Death replied
"But why are you telling all this to me now? Didn't Dark Queen ask you to keep it a secret?" Twilight wondered, she didn't understand why Death was telling her all this.
'because there is a small piece of emotion appearing in your heart, although it is very faint, it proves that the link between Dark Void and Dark Queen's soul is weakening, because inherently all your emotions should be swallowed by Dark Void' Death explained.
"Is that bad?" Twilight asked
'that's very bad, my master... Unless Dark Queen can control her emotions and escape the madness or not, once Dark Void can't continue to devour her emotions, she will lose control of herself, and that will be the end of universe' Death explained.
"You said that you and Crystal Of Destroy are affiliated with Spirit Of Darkness, So if she loses control, what will happen to me and Lord Of Destroy? Will we out of control? " Twilight asked
'Fortunately that won't happen, even though we have a soul link with her, but if she loses control herself, the link between us and her will be severed' Death replied.
"Then we can stop her from destroying the universe, right?" Twilight asked thinking about the worst case scenario where Spirit Of Dark went insane.
'I don't think so, even if she out of control herself, she still Spirit Of Dark, she still master of all darkness in the universe, no one will be able to defeat her, even if all Crystal Of Balance and Spirit Of Light combined could not stop her, only she can stop herself.' Death said
'Anyway we should investigate more about emotional piece that has appeared in your heart, my master' said Death
"I see, I think we should go back to the ruins first and then we'll start investigating" Twilight returned to the ancient ruins.