The Adventures of Damon Lipton
Chapter II - A (Rude) Royal awakening
Damon blinked a couple of times to make sure he wasn’t dreaming, even going as far as to pinch his skin a few times. He was standing in a vast space of complete whiteness, nothing was there, just himself. He began to walk forwards, his boots echoing around him as he walked through the vast nothingness trying to figure out exactly where he was.
“Am I dead?” He said aloud.
“Not really dead, well you're dead, but you're not dead dead!” A voice replied, “about three fourths of the way there I’d reckon.”
Damon spun on the spot trying to locate the source of the voice but couldn’t see anyone, raising an eyebrow in confusion he turned around before crying in surprise as he came face to face with a grinning man. The man in question was wearing a long billowing black coat with a white shirt and black vest underneath it, a white cravat that dangled elegantly from his neck and the top hat he was sporting was black in colour, two white gloves, long black formal trousers and shoes, and in his right hand was a cane with the head of a fox made from what appeared to be silver. What made Damon slightly nervous was the fact the man's eyes were completely black ,save for a small silver dot that was just barely noticeable where his pupils should be.
“Uhm... who are you?” Damon asked.
The man scoffed and placed hand over his heart in mock hurt, dramatically stumbling backwards.
“Your words wound me, sir! I thought we were friends?”
“I don’t even know who you are, you’re not making any sense!”
“Aren’t you Delaros?” The man asked him.
“No... I’m Damon, Damon Lipton.”
“My apologies my good man,” the man said with a grin, “I thought you were someone else.”
Damon blinked at the man and started to back away slowly before bumping into something, he looked behind him to see the man standing there with a grin still stuck on his face, he looked back and saw that man had definitely moved from his original spot before looking back and seeing the man had vanished, again.
He turned round and cried out again in surprise as the man stood directly in front of him and grabbed him firmly by the hand and roughly shook it.
“The names Dorian, my good fellow,” Dorian continued to roughly shake his hand, threatening to rip it off.
“D-Dorian?!” Damon whispered, his eyes shrinking a little bit, “as in...”
“THE DERANGED? GOD OF MISCHIEF AND SLIGHT INSANITY? WHY YES INDEED!” Dorian bellowed with a loud laugh, “Sooo nice to see one of my followers remembering who I am!”
“Uhm.. I’m not-”
“So tell me, my boy, what brings you to the lovely realm that is the void?” Dorian asked.
Dorian tapped the ground with his staff and the area changed to a large room filled to the brims with treasure ranging from gold coins to large diamonds, in the dead centre was a golden throne with a skeleton of a man wearing a beautiful crown. He walked up to the throne and picked the crown up before tossing it aside.
“Move over old boy.”
He backhanded the skeleton with his cane roughly, causing it to shoot off to the left of him and shatter into dust as Dorian took a seat and grinned down at Damon.
“So, what can I do for you, loyal follower?”
“I’m not-”
“Perhaps I can make you a king? Or a god? Or perhaps even the greatest rat catcher in all of Cyrium? I heard it pays well!” Dorian interrupted.
“But your-”
“OH I know!” Dorian interrupted again, “you want me to give you the power to become the greatest illusionist in order to defeat your long time rival Thimble Tumblelock!”
“...Who?” Damon asked before shaking his head, “look, your... almightiness? I’m not here for any of that, I’m here because I used a spell and I’m not even-”
“Oh, I know how you got here boy, how do you think you found that book without ol’ Dorian’s help?” He chuckled as he twirled his cane.
“But why did you give it to me?” Damon asked him.
“Anything for a loyal follower!”
“I’m not a follower of yours! I follow Varlos for crying out loud!”
“Says you,” Dorian grinned.
“I’m being serious!” Damon protested, getting annoyed with the God.
The room went cold as Dorian glared down at Damon, Damon audibly gulped as the room began to return back to the white void as Dorian rapidly approached him, rage etched on his face.
“How dare you pretend to be one of my followers?! After everything I’ve ever done for you!”
“You didn’t do anything for me except give me that book!”
“But... I gave you that to cure your ongoing curiosity problem...” Dorian said with a frown on his face.
“What are...”
“No matter!” Dorian interrupted, “perhaps we can make this all better if you do me a small favour, seeing as you can’t go back.”
“What do you mean, can’t go back?” Damon asked raising his eyebrow.
“You used the wrong kind of candles, dear boy, such a silly but rookie mistake,” Dorian chuckled, “I’m so proud of you!”
“Will you stop it! Just send me back already!”
“I can’t, but I can do one better!” Dorian grinned.
“Define better...” Damon asked, not really wanting to hear it.
“You see, I have this bet going with a dear, dear friend of mine. You may of heard of him? Chap goes by the name of Discord, God of chaos.” Dorian replied.
“Who?”
“Oh, I’m sure he would be hurt with a reply like that,” Dorian chuckled, “but anyway, he made a bet with me that he could prove to me that his chaos was more powerful than my mischief!”
Damon stood there, listening to the God as he continued to talk, leaning on his cane for support as he made a cup of tea appear and sipped from it.
“Anyway, long story short, he’s a statue now.”
Damon raised an eyebrow in curiosity, wondering how a God wound up being incarcerated in stone.
“And the little dickens was able to contact me, using a variety of chickens, pink clouds and an exploding glass,” he looked at Damon’s confused expression but shrugged, “and asked me to give him a helping hand at getting out.”
“So?” Damon asked, stupidly.
Dorian chuckled as Damon heard something behind him and saw a portal open up, he suddenly felt himself being pulled towards it and turned round to look at Dorian.
“You can’t do this!” He protested.
“Actually I can, see, you got yourself stuck here because you used the wrong candles, reading helps kid, trust me,” Dorian chuckled, “but here’s the kicker, if you help my good chum out and at the same time have fun with the locals then I promise you that I will tell you how you can use six specific, pretty gems as a way to get back.”
“What the fuck are you talking about!?”
“All in good time my not so loyal follower, all in good time... but first, I think we should change your appearance, I find being human is a bit boring and overdone these days, so lets spice it up!”
Dorian tapped his cane on the ground and Damon cried out in agonizing pain as he felt like his skin was being ripped from his very body
Now, enjoy your new look! Don’t try and scare too many of the locals! TA-TA!” Dorian waved before punting Damon into the portal.
Damon screamed as he fell into the portal.
‘What was that all about...? Damon thought to himself.
He felt something soft underneath him and sat upright, looking around and seeing that he was in a large bed in a large regal looking room. He slipped off the bed and walked a few feet forwards, all the while admiring the architecture as well as the colours.
‘Interesting... I know I should feel confused and slightly concerned right now but... I feel different... almost... giddy.’
He then placed his hands on his hips and let out an impressed whistle, as he noticed the fine artwork on the ceiling of the room.
“Man... this place is fancy.. wonder where the heck I am anyway? Certainly isn’t the temple...”
Damon then heard a gasp from behind him and turned around, looking in surprise at a blue pegasus with a horn staring right back at him. They stared at one another for a while as Damon tried to process what was going on or in fact what to say.
“Uhm... hi?” He said feebly with a wave.
The horse's ears lowered and it opened its mouth, Damon sensed that it was about to scream and brought his finger to his lip and shushed her.
“Please don’t scream!” He asked.
He covered his ears as the female screamed, panicking slightly he looked to the door and ran for it, just as an entire bookcase flew over his head and smashed into the wall. Yanking the doors open he spotted several heavily armed ponies charging towards him, each looking slightly confused, startled and afraid.
Slamming the door shut, he was greeted by his robe being violently pulled towards the female, a blue glowing aura on his robes. He flailed as he tried to get free and accidently cast a fireball spell that rocketed from his hand onto the bed setting it alight, the blue aura vanished as the female began to put the fire out.
Damon looked around trying to find a way out of the room and saw the window just as the door to the room burst open and the armoured ponies rushed inside, seeing no alternative, Damon ran full pelt at the window covering his face with his arms and crashed straight through it. The horses in the room blinked in surprise as they stared at the now broken window.
“I didn’t think this one through!” Damon cried out as he plummeted.
He felt the wind rush past him as his speed increased towards the ground, now regretting that he had jumped out of the window. Damon had prayed that the room he had been in was on a ground floor but that wasn’t the case, it was actually a tower he had just thrown himself out of.
He tried to think of a spell that would prevent him from becoming a stain on the ground but nothing came to his mind, he began to panic as he flailed in the air as the ground came closer and closer and he closed his eyes, ready to embrace death. But it never came.
Damon noticed that the wind had stopped rushing past him and he slowly opened his eyes and blinked as he came face to face with another pegasus with a horn, only this one was white and its horn was glowing gold. He looked down to see that they were a few feet off the ground and hovering in mid air, he also noticed the ground below him was swarming with armed ponies.
“What are you?” The horse spoke in a calm, yet authoritative tone.
“Damon,” he replied casually.
“You’re a Demon?!” She suddenly cried.
“DEMON?! WHERE!?” Damon cried out in alarm, frantically looking around him.
Damon felt the magic aura around him suddenly constrict him tightly as he choked slightly.
“YOU SHALL RETURN TO TARTARUS FOUL DEMON!” She bellowed in a powerful booming voice.
“I’m.... not... a.... demon!” Damon gasped.
“YOUR LIES WILL NOT FOOL ME, FOUL DEMON!”
“I’m... a... human! My name... is Damon!”
The horse glared at him for a moment, as if she was looking over his entire being which made Damon slightly uncomfortable. He then saw her smile slightly and felt the grip on him loosen and they slowly began to levitate downwards.
“Although your appearance is... unsettling, I can sense no harmful evil within you. I apologise for this but, I must ask you to come with me for questioning, namely why you were in my sisters bedroom.”
“Wait, what’s wrong with the way I-”
Before Damon could finish, he was struck in side by a powerful blast of magic that sent him hurtling him across the courtyard and into a wall with a mighty crash, causing it to crumble around him.
“HOW DARE YOU BREAK INTO MY ROYAL CHAMBERS AND TRY TO HAVE YOUR WAY WITH ME! YOU FILTHY BRUTE!”
“Luna!” The white horse shouted in surprise.
Damon groaned as he stood up, shaking the dust of his robes and startling the horse who were shocked to see him get up seemingly in no pain at all.
“Look, you strange horsie thing, I’m sure all the stallions are trying to ‘get it on’ with you,” Damon replied with air marks, “but I wouldn’t even think about trying to do that with a horse, I have morals, thank you.”
The whole area went deathly silent, everyone slowly turned to look at the blue horse whose face was slowly turning red as she began to grind her teeth, her eyes alight, twitching with anger, fury and embarrassment.
“Well... he’s screwed,” Damon heard a nearby guard whisper to another.
Damon’s eyes shrank as he quickly turned round and began to run like a man on fire as a large blast of magic incinerated the wall behind him, he screamed as the blue horse chased after him, shooting blast after blast of magic from her horn.
The white horse stood there blinking, before trying her best to stop herself from bursting out in laughter.
“Princess Celestia,” one of the guards said, “should we arrest that creature?”
“I think, my dear lieutenant, we need to rescue the creature from my sisters wrath. Don’t you think so?” She tittered.
The lieutenant nodded with a slight smirk as he barked an order and the guards quickly dispersed in order to locate the creature before it could be destroyed by Princess Luna. Celestia watched her guards run after her sister and the skeleton, keeping a calm expression on her face as she turned and headed back inside the palace.
‘Although I don’t sense any true evil from it... I’m concerned that it showed no signs of damage from Luna’s attack...’ she thought to herself, ‘I need to find out why...
Damon panted as he hid behind a wall, trying to regain his breath. He had managed to lose the one called Luna as well as the guards and finally had a moment to think about his next step.
“Ok... now what?” He wondered aloud.
As he tried to think of his next plan of attack, he remembered what the white one had said to him about his appearance. looking around for something reflective, he saw a bucket nearby and quickly walked over to it. He waved his hand over it and muttered under his breath as it began to quickly fill up with water. Looking into the bucket he was surprised as a skeleton’s head with two small green flames where his pupils would have been stared back at him and he cried out, throwing the bucket at the wall smashing it.
“WHAT THE HELL DID HE DO TO ME?!” Damon cried out.
He began to hyperventilate which scared him as he realised that he must not have any internal organs, which made him panic even more as he felt his face with his bony hands.
“Ok Damon... remain calm,” he started, taking a deep breath, “I’m sure there’s a reason for this, all you gotta do is find a quiet place to pray to Dorian and ask him what the fuck is going on, no problem!”
“Oh... there is a problem...” a female voice whispered coldly into where his ear would be.
Damon slowly turned his head and came face to face with Luna, her eyes wide and pupils shrunken, a slight twitch in her eye as she grinned manically at him.
“Hello...” she whispered.
“Good bye!” Damon replied.
He launched himself into the air using an air blast just as Luna blasted the spot he was sitting and landed on the castle wall, quickly dashing along the wall as he heard the sound of wings flapping and an enraged female roar.