Son of Sombra - Journey of a Demon Alicorn

by Prince Star Fall

Chapter 4 - It's not a Mess...

The newly formed trio had spent a few hours moving along the main path of the swamps, still with the intent of heading for the Badlands. The Prince was still slightly annoyed about having treaded off the beaten path, but was glad enough that he could get his hooves dry and stand on stable ground long enough to speed up travel though and out the swamps.

Further up the road, a tall, dark object came into everypony’s view.

“Something’s coming up along the path.” The Prince stated with his supreme power of obviousness.

“What could it be?” asked Princess Luna. No one had an answer except to run towards the object. When they finally reached the object, they all stopped before getting too close, bewilderment in their faces.

A good close look at the object revealed it to be a house. Yet it didn’t look like any average house. From the foundation up, the walls were slanted, going in different directions rather than being built parallel to each other. Even the roof seemed off-kilter. The entire house, in fact, was too small for anypony to actually live in. Nopony knew what was stranger – the design of the house, or its location. Its being built in the Hayseed Swamps was quite freaky alone, and it was placed dead center in a small clearing – a perfect circle of open space to move in. The owner’s desire for seclusion could explain the choice of a location, but why such a strange design?

“Classy place.” Commented Prince Ostrath.

“Very peculiar location to build a home.” North Star said. The Prince then started walking up the structure. “Uh, Master-“

“Didn’t I tell you to stop calling me ‘Master’?” the young Prince interrupted.

“Erm…” North Star began again, “my Prince, what do you think you’re doing?”

“Getting a closer look at the funhouse. I’m pretty curious as to who lives in a jumbled mess of a puzzle picture like this.” The Prince answered as he examined the walls and windows.

“A bit of an intrusion, don’t you think?” Princess Luna had to inquire. “I’ll admit, though, I am a bit curious myself. One can’t help but wonder…”

“Let’s wonder no longer!” The Prince cheerfully and confidently spoke as he knocked on the black door.

Now North Star felt a need to step up in the open. “Now you’re confusing me, Prince Os- er, Rhymestone. If you want to go on this quest so badly, then why take this unnecessary detour?”

“Look at it this way. Whoever owns a weird house like this probably knows a thing or two about legends and myths. Maybe he’s been witness to a couple of strange things around here.”

“Like a shaman!” The Princess added, though she was just as confused as North Star.

“Probably.”

“Now just wait a minute!” North Star begrudgingly started. “I’ve let you off the leash for long enough! I say we should just move on with our journey-“

He wouldn’t be able to finish, as the door swung open and a giant claw reached out from the dark space within the house and grabbed the Prince. It pulled him into darkness and closed the door. The other two were left standing speechless.

“…Prince?”

The Warrior-Prince was being pulled through multiple hallways filled with portraits and mirrors shaped in different ways. Some had no borders; others, no color; more others didn’t even have canvases – only the golden borders remained. The arm dragged him in to a zigzagging hall, going left to right and back repetitively. It made Prince Ostrath sick to his stomach at how fast everything passed by. The house was as much of a funhouse inside as it was on the outside.

The end of the maze led to another painting – one of a pony’s mouth open wide to an unnatural extent, the throat being where the arm ended. The Prince suddenly found himself pulled into the throat and let go, free-falling in pitch-black darkness. He eventually slammed hard on to a solid floor, with only a single light to see above him. The Prince was greeted by a laugh full of delight and insanity.

“Oh, how the mighty have fallen – RIGHT ON TO MY DOORSTEP!” the mysterious voice cackled. With all the shrouded insanity that the Prince experienced, he could not help but be a little paranoid of the voice that echoed around him. “Oh, don’t be scared, little guy. I don’t bite THAT much!”

“WHO IN CELESTIA’S GOOD NAME GRABBED ME!?”

“Now, now, be a nice house guest, otherwise you won’t be treated to my fresh-baked cookies! I made them with extra chocolate chips this time!” The Prince looked all around him at complete darkness. He felt a lingering rush from being pulled into the house, and it showed as he was bouncing in place. “What, do you have someplace to be? Please… stay awhile… I INSIST... meet my friends at the very least…”

Six polyester dolls slowly descended from above, each hanging by thin wires. They soon started to circle around the Prince, who stopped bouncing in place to get a look at the life-like detail of the mare’s faces. The first was of a deep lavender coat with a purple mane & tail, both of which were frayed all around, and her mouth was zigzagging up and down. The eyes were hypnotic swirls made to pull you in. A second mare had a pink mane and a wide, stitched smile with two buttons for eyes. The mane was smooth and straight, completely subject to gravity, and was a darker shade of pink. The third in the circle was golden-maned & coated. Her mane was also frayed, but both the mane and tail were held together by bands. She also wore a worn-out cowboy hat, which looked as if it wouldn’t last the rest of the year. Three stitch lines made her mouth, and “X’s” were in place of her eyes.

“I can see you are already opening up! One look at you, and I would have never thought you were the friendly type.” The voice spoke again with a chuckle. Prince Ostrath was too busy staring at the puppets, which were so heavily detailed, one would almost think that they could come to life... or were alive themselves. The fourth mare had a well-groomed violet mane & tail, both of which curled smoothly. They even sparkled and glittered in the light. The pretty head was tainted solely by a gash that went through her visible eye on the right side. The mouth was also completely missing. The next mare had a faded rainbow pattern on her mane & tail. Stitched lines and scars surrounded her head, with a single dead eye. The last doll was especially difficult to look at – the mane was a light pink; the coat, cream colored. Like the fourth puppet, whose purple mane sparkled in the light, both of the last puppet’s eyes were blank white, but they looked sad, as if she were on the verge of tears. Dark marks looked like bruises, and duct tape covered her mouth. Overall, she looked like a complete mess – a tortured soul bludgeoned for answers that she didn’t have, and for reasons that made no sense.

The Prince’s brain was scrambling to try to figure out what would happen next.

“Do you like them? I met then not that long ago. They’re WONDERFUL to be around. Though, sometimes…” the voice paused just as the heads and limbs of the floating dolls began to rise on their own, looking at the Prince. “…They can get a little testy.”

Metal pins & needles started to grow from the hooves of the puppets. The dashed string lines began to glow on their faces as well. It was there that this strange dream would become a true-as-life nightmare, and the Prince knew he couldn’t wake up.

But he knew he could fight back in this bad dream.

It took no more than four seconds to unhook his chainblade and another three to gain a little spin, which helped keep the murderous dolls at bay around him. The one with the faded rainbow patterns broke from the circle, lunging with fierce speed and tenacity the likes of which the Prince had never seen before. A hoof was stretched outward at him, the metal twigs that represented claws aiming for vulnerable flesh. Ostrath was ready for it, and used the momentum to propel his blade against the doll’s claws, knocking the mare’s front hooves back, but also flipping the puppet backwards. The Prince suddenly felt a hard kick to his face and stumbled backwards. The rainbow Pegasus hung in the air now, as if it were dead again, but the glittering white unicorn found this to be an opportune moment to strike and continue putting pressure.

The Prince still managed to block the attacks coming, but his balance was off, making each direct block more difficult than the last as he simultaneously tried to regain his stance. Yet the force of the puppets would not die down for a single second. Not one chance would come for him to regain balance and go for the offensive.

In a change-up of strategy, the Prince gave up trying to stay up and fell back. Instantly, he rolled off to the side and around the unicorn to initiate a swift back attack. The blade sliced clean across the middle of the body, severing the entire lower section from the upper. White stuffing poured out by the large bits. A short-lived first success, for the other five were still itching to give Ostrath a meet ‘n greet he wouldn’t forget.

Now the lavender unicorn joined the fray. She didn’t swoop in with ferocious speed like the rainbow Pegasus, or with serene grace like the glittering unicorn. She zigged and zagged erratically towards the Prince, who tried to follow her movements and think of a plan of attack at the same time. He instead found himself blocking again, but after some blade scrapes, the Prince managed to force the lavender unicorn onto the ground with a strong, impure hoof. His father’s words echoed in his mind, followed by a hint of questionable disgust.

“Under your hoof.”

The grounded puppet struggled to push Ostrath off as he took a good look at the surrounding five that craved the blood of the powerful being before them.

“Ah, I get it,” the Prince began. He looked down at the unicorn and continued, “You must be the unpredictable smartass!” Looking back up, he started again. “And there’s the Fast Flyer, the Deviant Dressmaker, the Sweet Tooth, the Animal Lover, and the-“

SMACK!

Ostrath felt his entire face break from a powerful two-legged kick that pushed him far back. And it sure hurt like hell.

“Apple fritter…” he spoke with a groan of pain. He soon noticed that the orange doll that had kicked him was coming in for seconds. Instinct drove his muscles to roll his body out of the way, with the enemy crashing straight into the floor. She suffered many cuts and scratches from the broken edges of the floorboards. When she finally pulled herself free, both of the dolls legs were ripped off. The cotton stuffing did not fall fast, but the magical glow of the Apple Fritter’s face seemed to fade away. The Prince took note of this, and gave a curious smile.

“Take away their strengths, and they’re sitting ducks. Interesting.” He turned towards the rest of the troupe with a spark of confidence instead of unease. He had hatched a plan that, if he cut the right spots, would ensure victory.

The time to test the plan came when the unicorn that was still grounded to the floor had slipped away from the Prince and got up to try his luck. He figured that he could let loose with any attack – it was just a puppet fueled by magic, after all, and not some living being. So he fired off a black ball of fire from his mouth, charged in quick succession by his broken horn. The challenge was soon met with a bolt of thunder from the doll’s plush horn. When the two spells met, much like last time, an explosion shook everypony inside. The Prince allowed himself to feel the full knockback this time, and was sent flying once more. Having planned for this, he curled up his hind legs to get ready to push off of the wall. Though it was hard to see any wall with only a single spotlight illuminating the center of the room, he knew it was there. The wall did turn up as expected, and Ostrath launched himself straight at the not-so-unpredictable unicorn. Mid-air, he locked his blade in place on his foreleg and hid it behind his back. The unicorn didn’t see the Prince’s next attack coming as quickly as it did, as she didn’t try to block against a lunging stab that went through the plush horn and head in a singular swift motion. With its power of magic out of its grasp, the glow of the lavender unicorn faded away.

“Two down, four to go,” Ostrath said.

The unicorn’s plush body dropped to the ground as the Prince pulled his blade away. The Dressmaker, still only left with its upper half, danced forward to get back in the fight, but she would not last. Immediately, the Prince unlocked his weapon and flung it at her hair, splitting the ends and roots. She tried to counter the blade, but her extreme loss of stuffing made her arm limp and weak. It was easily pushed back by the blade in the end. The Dressmaker soon fell and died just as gracefully as it had lived, falling slowly and waving its arms and claws like a conductor until finally settling onto the ground with the gentleness of a leaf.

The long maned pink puppet – the Sweet Tooth – soon joined in on Ostrath’s fun. She came in from behind with her claws over his eyes. The Prince could have sworn he heard playful giggling behind him. Though he was caught by surprise, he put up a struggle to rip the doll’s arms off, while she clung tightly around his head and neck with her polyester coils. It felt like precious time had been lost before he broke free, when he was greeted with a wide unnerving smile from the Sweet Tooth. It may have just been in his head, but he had heard a wicked scream emanating around the room when he saw the doll’s face. He jumped back in surprise, feeling a strange chill run up and down his spine. When she was noticed, she flew away with her legs spread out as if she were a pegasus, then came back at the Prince with her claws dangling over her head like a ghost. He found no use keeping his chainblade loose and dragging on the floor now and hastily rolled up the chain while dodging the Sweet Tooth’s specter-like sweep from the air.

And none too soon, as he got his blade on his leg and blocked a deadly swipe that came for his neck. In reply, the Prince tried to bite the pink puppet with his own fangs, coming a few inches out of reach. He followed up with his own swipe, making the blade go across the Sweet Tooth’s face. Yet just as his foreleg finished sweeping, his opponent had vanished completely. Suddenly, the previous rush of fear for the unknown surged in his body, lasting until his vision was lost again. He knew who – or what- had caused it.

“Celestia dammit, not again!” the Prince cried out as his enemy giggled away and clung on once more for a blind piggyback ride. But soon, that same fear became a surge of rage that was further fueled by the annoyance of the Sweet Tooth’s playful antics. This new surge gave him a burst in strength that helped him tear away the pink puppets arms and gain a tight grip on her long mane. Here, he made a single swipe across her neck with his locked chainblade, with cotton pouring downward from both the fallen body and the severed head. He dropped it when the magical glow disappeared.

Ostrath could not help but smile when he dropped her head. He felt as though he finally conquered a deep, hidden nightmare. For once, the Prince was at peace. But the moment ended quickly, as he remembered he was still in combat for survival, and turned to the remaining two dolls. He saw the Fast Flyer, with its faded rainbow mane & tail streaking behind once more, already setting out for him, and it was too late to even attempt to block. The Fast Flyer’s claws tore through the side of his face. Fresh blood spurted to the floor, but the damage wasn’t too extensive. When the blood did fall, however, the two puppets went into a frenzy. The entire time, Ostrath seemed invincible to any attack they made; he thought they weren’t trying hard enough to hurt him, let alone go in for the kill. Nevertheless, the odds seemed stacked in the Prince’s favor, so this small exposure ignited a fire in the puppet’s magically-enforced will. The two launched themselves to take on the near-immortal monster that had already slaughtered four of their kind.

The Prince’s scratch still stung well, and something about it told him to watch himself more carefully. Already, a barrage of slashes was being landed against his blade, coming from two sides at once. Ostrath never thought he would face two enemies simultaneously, yet despite how frightful the dolls looked, nothing stopped him from decimating over half of the group already.

And frankly, he was tired of fighting. So it was time to try something new.

The Prince parried both of his foes and then unlocked the blade again, throwing it around his body in a circular sphere of steel. It once again pushed the puppets back, but it didn’t keep them at bay for long. The Animal Lover slid by the flying blade with gentle ease. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the Prince faced her. She was still hard to look at, and when the doll got close, Ostrath freaked out and stopped spinning the blade. Instead of dropping it, however, it swung around the Animal Lover’s neck and caught on tightly. Naturally, the doll tried to free itself, but the Prince took the chance to finish the job by pulling back. With the two opposing forces going at it, the moment seemed like a struggle. Only one conclusion could come to fruition, though. The blade finally started sliding off, but the sharp tip dragged itself across the neck, cotton once again falling out like blood. The doll kept moving and struggling, but like her sisters, she, too, ceased to move and fell freely to the ground. Her pain-filled face resonated with Ostrath in her last moments.

Now it was just him and the Fast Flyer, who hung still for the moment. The Prince already made a move to pull back on his chain. In an act of desperation, the remaining doll lunged forward. This time, the Prince was too quick for her as he forced the blade forward again, jolting like a whip. Then it went from a whip into a sharp anchor as it tore into her and stayed inside of the body. All that was left to do was pull back one last time. The pegasus was pulled around everywhere as the Prince swung the chain where he pleased. The enjoyment was bittersweet and desensitizing. He finished with a downward snap when he was through with his sick fun, slamming the puppet right into the ground in an explosion of white stuffing and fake skin. It was finally all over.

“Congratulations,” the voice spoke again, “you have survived the blood party, six-to-one.”

“Great, do I get a cookie?” the Prince replied, as wise as always.

“Yeeeeaaaahh… about that,” the voice answered Lumberghishly, “there’s just one problem.”

The bodies of the murderous dolls began to put themselves back together, body parts sewing up with their loose and ripped ends by a magical force. They rose up when they were done, looking at the Prince altogether.
“My friends don’t exactly appreciate being roughed up on the welcome wagon like that. Let’s try this again, shall we?”

The puppets surrounded their only foe once more. History was repeating itself a bit too soon, wasn’t it? For Ostrath, enough was enough. And he had ENOUGH.

“Oh, BUCK THIS.” He yelled, perturbed, as he swung his chainblade around again, more wildly and with a greater range than prior. Soon, in a single revolution, he snagged on a string attached to the foreleg of a puppet. The heat of the long battle caused the blatantly obviousness of the detail to slip his mind. So he kept spinning…

…and spinning…

…spinning stronger and faster…

…catching more of the puppet strings…

…until…

…SNAP!

The strings collectively broke, causing the dolls to fall together again, dead and useless without a master as ever. While the chain was still spinning, the Prince let out a hearty woop for his official victory.

BREAK!

Another break… but this one sounded like metal. Ostrath looked to his left and discovered with dumbfounded surprise that his chain finally gave way to years of use and constant pressure. Then he heard the sound of shattering glass and various falling objects, along with further breaking that went on for seconds.

“OK, STOP, stop, stopstopstopstopstopstopstop!” the voice called out. The lights for the entire room came on, revealing it to be a large living space with furniture of all sorts lined on the walls and ceiling. Absolutely nothing about this house was normal. Not even the owner, who came out of nowhere, was anything close to the word – he was comprised of an assortment of body parts from different animals. Ostrath had never seen such a creature before, but being half-changeling himself, who was he to judge? “Oh, look at this – you broke my mirror! That bad luck is all on YOU, y’know. And do you even realize how difficult AND expensive it is to get reflective glass in this day and age?”

The Prince was still speechless by the literal freak of nature that stood in front of him.

“No. Of course you don’t.” the figure said as he snapped his fingers to make an apron appear with a brush & dust pan in his hands. He went over to the pile of shattered mirror fragments and cleaned them up. The figure snapped his fingers again to make everything disappear again and then turned back to the Prince. “So, do you like getting charge for breaking & entering?”

The Prince broke his silence. “No, that’s not- Erm… well, when there’s a weird looking house in the middle of a swamp, of all places, somepony is bound to get curious.”

“You make a point. Ironic, given that I moved out to gain total seclusion, yet HERE I AM, finding a pony stopping by for Celestia knows what.”

“I’m surprised that anypony would want to be away from everypony else for any reason at all.”

“Yes, well, I didn’t move away by choice, exactly.”

The Prince felt awkward by this, but replied regardless. “Oh… so… other than the obvious question of identity, I saw this house and wondered if you may have seen anything out of the ordinary, like some sort of falling star that may have landed near here?”

The slender creature ruffled his chin and spoke. “Well, first of all, I should be asking who YOU are. But yes, I’ve taken notice to a couple of strange events happening outside my window.”

“Outside your window? Haven’t you ever actually went outside? I hear there’s a better view that way.”

“No. Believe it or not, I am magically bound to the interior of this house. I was long ago forced away by a certain god-like individual whose name shall go unspoken specifically for crimes of a great magnitude.”

“What could you have possible done that-“

“I murdered a king and sent this land into decades of complete chaos.”

“…And all you got for that was imprisonment inside a funhouse?”

“Ah-ah-ah! MY funhouse. You should have seen what it was before I gave it the extreme makeover.” The figure remarked with a witty laugh. “But yes, I’m quite lucky; the punishment for such a crime is much more severe now.” He laid back in the air on an invisible hammock, making a glass of apple cider appear in his paw. “Were it not for that, my “nephew” would have exacted his full revenge.”

“…Um… yeah…” The Prince felt a need to respond. He felt awkward once more.

“But why would you ask me something you already know about?”

“Huh?”

“Yes, I can tell you know about that little ‘fallen star’ that landed not far off from here. In fact, just from you mentioning it, it must mean something to you.” The Prince was surprised that a complete stranger could possibly know something more just from a first impression. “Just tell me who you are and what’s so special about this fallen star,” the figure continued.

With a sigh, he got his answer. “I am Prince Rhymestone of the Flankerlands. That star may contain a part of a gemstone that I was told will help me become king someday.”

“Ah, a mystical quest to become a king – how cliché.” The figure sipped the glass itself, keeping the apple cider in its shape. He subsequently threw the cider away. “Well, I’ll just fix that chain of yours and you may be out of my hair already.” With the snap of his fingers, his will was done. Ostrath’s chain was repaired and made unbreakable by a chaotic magic. The blade was back on his foreleg soon enough.

“Thanks. No business being here anymore, then.” The Prince walked off to a door that had opened. He stopped just before stepping out for one last statement. The slender creature smiled at this and spoke very clearly.

“Discord – Lord of Chaos.”

North Star and Princess Luna had patiently waited outside by the strange house. The Princess sat still, her eyes closed as she was lost in thought, while North Star paced back and forth in such worry over the Prince.

“Oh… dear… do I go in to look for him, or do I get help? What a predicament…” He rubbed his head nervously. Princess Luna looked to the old earth pony to speak her mind.

“Not to sound unconcerned, North Star, but I think he’ll do OK on his own… don’t quote me on it, though.”

“Yes, he has some survival qualities, indeed… I just can’t help but worry for him. I made a promise to raise him as my own child.”

This caught the Princess off guard all of a sudden. “Oh… so he’s-“

“…Yes.” North Star knew what Luna was getting at, and it made the both of them fall silent. Soon, the front door of the house opened. The Prince came out with but a scratch, and North Star was the first to respond. “Oh, thank heavens, you are OK.”

“I had a feeling you’d make it, but I was a tad worried, to be honest.”

“Y’see, Star,” Ostrath said, “the Princess, who’s barely been with us, already is confident in my abilities.” He gave a smug look as North Star rolled his eyes.

“Look, guys, a path just opened!” Luna said, pointing west of the house. An opening had indeed appeared in the swamp forest, which hadn’t been there before. North Star took one good look at it.

“Macintosh Trail – our way to the Badlands.”

“Excellent,” said the Prince. “Let us move.” The party continued through the path to the Trail as the Prince explained what had happened inside the strange house.

Discord looked out from a front window as the travelers walked on the previously hidden path, which revealed itself with the snap of a finger. He then thought back on the conversation he had with the Prince. The reasons he gave for his passing by made him laugh. Heck, the entire thing amused him. It had been so long since he had thought of his old acquaintance, which Discord immediately saw in the Prince. He wondered if the two were, in fact, related, and when the Prince battled the puppets with mastery of magic, weaponry, and strategy, he was sure his thoughts were spot on. So it was then that he smiled once more, that devious smile of his, tips of his fingers touching together, and spoke aloud.

“If you really are his son, then this journey could mean more than just a rite of kingship…

…Prince Ostrath.”