The light slowly returned and Gorrog felt the all too familiar feel of large rough hands pulling him to safety, yet he felt no different from before just slightly uneasy as the sounds of the battle returned to him, the screams of the dying, the roars of the demons, and above all the thunder of bodies crashing into his army.
He regained focus and looked ahead, the ponies had pushed the demons back into the gap and were trying to force their way inside, but they were held at bay by a wall of Hell Knights and Maggots.
Throwing off the arms of his guards he stood up, his body full of vigor and his hands reflexively curling into fists.
“It will take more than that to shut my eyes”
Gorrog, checked behind himself, making sure the flow of fresh bodies was substantial enough to sustain a prolonged fight and pushed forward. Slamming a few smaller demons out of his way, Gorrog made his way to the front lines, the bolts from ballista had stopped raining down on them. He made his way to the front lines and saw the heaving mass of bodies trying to force its way inside, yet he saw none of the flying demons who normally provided support for his soldiers, until he followed the occasional glance upward the ponies would make, he saw the aerial battle playing out, and saw bodies dropping onto the ground as ponies died trying to defeat his demons and every once and a while the burst of fire when they succeeded, the agonized screams when a pony was struck by the lightning expelled from the Cacodemons.
A burst of pain from his leg brought him back to ground as his glaze fell upon a brave pony that had stabbed him with his sword, looking into his eyes he saw the defiance, the challenge, and Gorrog brought his fist down.
The pony rolled out of the way as Gorrog brought down his fist, smashing a few bricks in the process and would have surely broken every bone in the pony’s body if he had hit. Pulling the sword out his leg Gorrog bent it into a hook shape and flung it out into the main portion of the pony army. Turning his attention back to the pony Gorrog turned just in time to see his ram him, his helmet’s hard edge leaving a bruise on Gorrog’s skin, but otherwise barely leaving a scratch. Gorrog brought his foot up and brought it down upon the dazed pony’s neck, grinding his heel into the pony’s back crushing his vertebrae and causing the pony to start to spit blood. Bringing back his fist he started to swing when the pony in spite of his injuries took out his dagger and stabbing him in the foot. Roaring his brought all of his weight down on his back, snapping it in half, and crushing his ribcage.
Gorrog tilted his head up and looked into the eyes of the ponies who had been watching the battle and roared at them, conjuring fireballs and flinging them into their ranks and drinking in the smell of blood.
The flap of a pair of wings caught his attention and looked up, gazing into the dark blue eyes of Princess Luna, and the wrath in them was burning. Gorrog looked into them, his black eyes full of rage and hatred staring into the wrath of an angry goddess.
Bracing himself, Gorrog charged her, his heavy footsteps shaking the ground, and his hand out stretched. Pushing down, he leaped at her, his one and a half ton bulk surging forwards. Green plasma ball forming in his hand, he passed below her, his path a foot under her hoofs.
Smashing into the stone of the walls, he stumbled and whirled around, the faces around him were shocked, that something so large could move so quickly. He fell to one knee and sunk his fingers into the gaps in the stone floor; straining every muscle in his body he felt the stone bulge upwards. Throwing all of his considerable strength into the task he pulled it from the floor as the ponies and a few demons watched in awe, his massive body flexing as he held the stone block over his head.
“Catch” was all Gorrog said as he hurled the stone at Luna. He saw the stone flying towards her and waited for the crunch of bone, but a flash of purple light to his left distracted him as suddenly saw the stone flying towards him.
With what little time he had he jumped off the wall into the stone, shoulder first and heard a crack when they impacted. Gorrog rode it down the ground and first heard the screams of ponies and the hisses of Imps as the stone came down on top of them, than the crunch of crushed bone.
Breathing heavily and enraged at his failure, Gorrog charged the purple alicorn, the one who had saved Luna from him and punched her through one of the thinner inner walls of the fortress. The impact jarred his already damaged arm, and it suddenly went limp, he couldn’t move it and pain shot up it. He smacked at a pony with all the grace of a battering ram and roared, swinging at anything that came too close. He fought his way back to the demon lines, his one good arm, striking down anything that tried to stop him.
“Arch-Vile, pull back along the corridor, fighting withdrawal, this place is too large, back to the Hell Hole.”
“Gorrog, we cannot allow them that close to Hell, it will draw out your enemies from the pit and we cannot afford that.”
“Then make them pay with their blood for every step.”
His Guard stepped back into formation and a wall of fire erupted from the Arch-Viles as the ponies closed ranks and raised their shields to defend against it. Fireballs rained down on them and soon Gorrog saw the bulk of the dragon appearing in their ranks.
“You Imps, on the ceiling, NOW”
Gorrog watched as pegasi started flying inside the hall and attacking the demons from above. He smiled knowing how much Wraiths loved jumping on their victims from above. He gave the order and watched as the small and vicious creatures dropped from their positions on the ceiling, their scythe like arms ready to stab into the flesh of the pegasi who dared to attack their master’s army.
Gorrog and the front lines were slowly retreating as the ponies pressed inwards but both sides were taking heavy losses. The demons were backed up against a wall and fought liked cornered animals. Gorrog, despite his arm and various wounds maintained his position at the front of the demons, focusing on his uninjured side and fought one handed.
A Hell Knight went down, pulled down by a knot of spear wielding ponies and impaled on them as he fell. Imps and maggots were dying much more frequently as they were far smaller than the larger demons and more vulnerable to the ponies as a whole.
A ballista bolt impacting near him interrupted Gorrog’s observations and brought him back to commanding his army. He looked ahead and saw that they had set up a small battery inside the corridor and were trying to force the demons into cover.
Gorrog grabbed a pony by the head and crushed its skull in his fist. He was infuriated by this, and despite a little nervous, he knew exactly what this defeat would entail, the complete destruction of his army and his high probable death.
Turning to one of his guards he spoke
“When I give the order to retreat, take yourself and the remaining portion of m army back to hell, from that point I grant you full control over it, Abkesh”
The Black Hell Knight was visibly taken aback, this while not without precedent was a very rare and high honor for a Demon to be named and given control over such a large group of demons.
“I shall hold them here with a few Hell Knights, withdraw back to Hell and lay low I will return.”
And as Gorrog finished his guards roared over the demon army, their call spreading the order to the bulk of the demons, who quickly back pedaled to avoid being crushed as they surged to the Hell Hole.
“You stand with me, we must hold them here.” Gorrog had with him enough Hell Knights to hold the area but how long would depend on how determined the ponies were to fling themselves into his grasp.
He heard the thump of a ballistae firing, and saw the bolt start flying towards him, sidestepping it the bolt.
The pony’s ranks rippled as they charged into his and at their head leading the charge Gorrog saw the form of the dragon, his armor dented and blackened from the fighting, and his helmet had a large rent in it, allowing Gorrog to see one of his eyes, only he saw none of the fear or wonder of their first encounter and in its place he saw none of the hate and anger that drove him only grim determination.
Gorrog picked up the bolt and braced it against the ground.
Then he brought it up and thrust it through the plate of a charging pony, the surprise in his face as he looked down at the bolt piercing his armor, the unicorn dropped to the ground and Gorrog stamped on his chest, crushing his ribcage and killing him outright.
The heavy armor of the first line of ponies made them clumsy and the Hell Knights took advantage of this, but what they didn’t expect was how proficient these ponies were at fighting Hell Knights, and saw several go down quickly,
“Pull back, NOW” He and the Hell Knights around him, fought a fighting retreat every step of the way the soaked in the blood of ponies, until Gorrog found Spike facing him, having just cut a Hell Knight down.
He conjured a plasma ball in his good arm and hurled it at Spike, and knew that soon when Spike engaged him, that he would be at a severe disadvantage thanks to his broken arm. The screech of metal against stone drew his focus as he saw the blade scrape the ground.
His back hit the metal door to the Hell Hole chamber and he knew that soon they would be fighting to protect their brother demons as they withdrew to Hell.
Watching as Spike closed the distance between them Gorrog noticed how few Hell Knights still stood around four of the original twenty who had stayed back with him were still alive.
Gorrog, ducked under the swing and grabbed Spike by the throat, his fingers slowly bending the plate inwards and he pulled Spike towards him, trying to crush his windpipe. The dent was slowly deepening and Gorrog saw the desperation filling Spikes eyes as Gorrog’s fingers closed in on his throat.
Then the door opened and he stumbled, and Spike kicked him in the chest, and wrenched free of Gorrog’s now weakened grip.
Staring around Gorrog watched as Spike took in all the features of the chamber, its vaulted ceiling, the corpses mounted on spikes, and the crowning feature the massive swirling pool of magma and his gaze returned to Gorrog, his jaw tightened and he picked up his discarded sword.
Standing up Gorrog called on the strength of Hell, and felt his broken arm throb as the energy vaulted into his body. He looked back to the door and saw the group of six ponies who froze the Guardian and had tried to turn him to stone, they entered the chamber and surrounded him, only this time Gorrog had his brethren backing him, only one Hell Knight was left standing, he was standing behind him, staring down the ponies and was waiting for the order to attack, but seemed less eager as more and more ponies entered the vast chamber.
Gorrog stared at Luna, their gazes locked and he felt the presence of another demon in the room, but where he could not say. Rising to his feet Gorrog surveyed the area around him, and knew he was outnumbered, vastly. He then charged her, hurling himself into the fray, the thump of a ballistae warned him something was wrong when, the bolt punched through his chest, breaking bone, and flinging him back twenty feet. He looked down and saw it sprouting from the center of his chest and he grabbed it pulling on but it was embedded in the rock behind him.
Spike was walking towards him sword raise to deliver a decapitating stroke, and he saw the six closing in on him and started pulling on the bolt harder, much harder. But his efforts barely budged the bolt. He saw the orange pony walking towards him, half of his face burned and for the first time Gorrog felt the cold bite of fear.
As Spike brought the sword down, Gorrog pulled the bolt out and hit Spike in the face with the haft of the bolt. Gorrog pushed Spike down and started towards the six ponies, but as he closed the distance with a few short steps, he felt something impact him.
Tripping, Gorrog looked up at the orange pony and felt the sudden increase of heat as his body hit the surface of the Hell Hole, the orange pony on top of him caught fire and he screamed. It stopped when the hot magma enveloped his throat and he exploded, the water in his cells turning to steam, and pushed Gorrog further into the Hell Hole.
His journey downwards was short as something pushed him back up, some sort of irresistible force, and he soon found himself emerging from the magma, and he dug his hands into the rock around the Hell Hole and pulled himself out of the Hell Hole, and he roared, his injuries gone, and his strength had returned to him.
“How is that possible?”
Gorrog looked at Spike and lunged forward his renewed strength pushing him forward and he tackled him to the ground. Gorrog slammed both of his fists into Spike’s chest plate and he bite down on the joint in Spike’s armor, crushing it and rendering his arm immobile.
“This is what happens when you oppose Hell, you feel the wrath of its children.”
He ripped Spike’s helm off and was about to bite down on his throat when a burst of magic sent him off his feet. Turning he saw the horn of the purple alicorn glowing, its pulsing glow, readying for a second blow.
“Gorrog, it’s over, you have lost, give up”
“Not until the last demon has died and I am still standing.”
He charged them, ignoring the sting of the cold that now surrounded him, and shrugging off the arrows that had begun pelting his body. Gorrog saw the glow of the jewelry adorning the Ponies and was about to smash the purple one when he felt a blinding pain erupt from his chest.
Looking down he saw the blade of Spike’s sword sticking out of his chest.
He took a step forward and the power of Hell washed over him, and his pentagram glowed red, as did his eyes. He reached for her, only to be blasted by the beam from her crown.
Staggering backwards, he impaled himself more on Spike’s sword.
Gorrog tottered as the dragon punched the back of his helmet, sending him forwards and onto his knees.
Gorrog looked up, just in time to the flash of light and than darkness…