“Dante’s a pony now?”
Twilight could hardly believe what was she saw in front of her. It didn’t help any that the sheer absurdity of the situation was almost mind numbing. The pony in front of her was most definitely Dante; she could comprehend that much. The dual horns on his head, mixed with his currently seething red eyes, was a dead giveaway. If it wasn't that fact that tipped her off, then it was the magical fire that he had been shooting around nearly ten minutes ago. The part that was difficult to understand was what had caused such a transformation to occur in the first place.
The best thing she could do, in hopes that her mind didn’t shut down from shock, was to keep herself calm and collected. "Discord..." she began calmly, turning her head slowly and switching her focus away from Dante who was being poked and prodded by his furred companion.” What are you even doing here and would you like to tell me what made you turnDante into a pony? ?"
The mismatched spirit gave a small yawn as he floated in the air, defying all concepts of gravity to the astonishment of Coppa and Moe. "Well I was minding my own business-"
"I highly doubt that," Twilight interrupted, unimpressed by the look of feigned innocence Discord was putting on. It was highly unlikely that he would just appear unexpectedly for no reason. No, if she knew Discord, then this was part of a bigger scheme. Dante's transformation was part of something bigger. What it was, she couldn't say. Yet she knew that whatever he had planned was as elaborate as it was random. On the other hand, she could be overreacting to the situation. Then again, Discord did have a knack for strange pranks and tricks as well.
Either way, Twilight wasn't sure what to make of the situation. It also didn't help that Coppa's giggles were making it hard to think. The Dwarf was incessantly poking Dante, who looked none too pleased to be in that situation. It seemed that he was the only one who was taking the event in stride, using it as a source of childish amusement. She only wondered how long it would take before Dante snapped back. Moe, on the other hand, had taken a step back and was watching the entire scene unfold in front of him. He was most likely waiting for the same thing she was expecting.
"Coppa, I think Dante would appreciate it if you stopped," Twilight finally said, not wanting to see how far Coppa would push him
"But he makes noises!" Coppa exclaimed, poking him with renewed purpose. 'Besides, this is just too funny!" he added with a laugh.
Twilight rolled her eyes at the observation. Tiny squeaks, much like the sound of a chew toy being squeezed, seemed to come from the stallion's body as Coppa's continued poking him. Now Twilight could see the annoyance that Dante was desperately keeping under wraps. Small veins began to surface along his temple and soon enough, Dante's anger exploded outwards. A quick forehoof to Coppa's chin sent him flying backwards and reduced him to a mumbling mess. Moe sighed as he walked over, irritation in his voice as he began to chastise his slightly disorientated friend. Twilight ignored the exchange and trotted toward Dante. She took a seat behind him, silently watching him brood at his situation. She could tell almost immediately that he was incredibly infuriated about this. Anger seemed to radiate off him like heat from a furnace, and she could even feel her skin prickle from the feeling.
“Oh my, I think you broke him, ” Discord said, shocked at the sudden display of violence. His surprise didn’t last long and before any of them knew it, he was laughing as the dwarf began to mumble nonsense..
"A-are you going to be okay?" she managed to say, only to flinch when Dante turned her way. His eyes, which had been calm pools of crimson only a few hours beforehand, were practically glowing red with anger.
"No, no I am not okay," he replied, digging a trench in the ground with the tip of his hoof. He turned his attention to Discord who appeared to be lazily swimming through the air. "Turn me back now."
Discord stopped his breaststroke and slowly sunk through the air until he was hovering slightly above the ground. He gave Dante a smug look while tilting the dual horned stallion's chin with his birdlike hand. "Aww, is somepony a little grumpy because they look a little different?" he joked, his tone taking that on the sound of concerned parent. A baby blue bonnet appeared on Dante's head with two holes for his horns. Had the situation not been so bizarre, Twilight would have giggled as a bib appeared around his neck and a pacifier was forced into his mouth. She actually did titter slightly, but the situation turned serious as Dante surrounded himself with flames and incinerated the offending items.
"Enough!" he shouted while the flames died down. The ash from the bonnet and bib wisped away in the wind, surrounding him as he grabbed Discord by his beard. The Draconequus yelped in pain as his face was pulled down rather violently. To Twilight, Dante's coat seemed to darken, turning the smoky grey fur a shade blacker. His entire body was bristling from head to tail while he growled at Discord. "I am going to give you five seconds, just five seconds to tell me why you did this, or I will personally show you that a burnt tail is the least of your concerns."
"Humph, who knew the normally reserved leader could have such a temper!" Discord exclaimed as his chin hairs rearranged themselves. "It was only a harmless little prank. No need to get your new tail in a twist."
"Five..."Dante said and Twilight could see flames circle Dante's hooves again. Yet, something was off about them. Instead of feeling any heat, all Twilight felt was a cold sensation in the air. Then she noticed something odd about the flames around Dante's feet. Instead of the red and yellow that any open flame would usually be colored, the flames had taken on a hue of purple and black. Discord didn't seem to notice or hear the countdown, or the fire for that fact, and only kept blabbering on.
“Sure, I could have made you into an alicorn, a Pegasus, or an earth pony, but I believed you would have been better suited to be a unicorn.” Discord explained before he held up his tail. “In retrospect, I probably should have seen this coming.”
“Four…”
“Then again, the look on your face when you grew hooves was absolutely priceless.”
“Three…”
“You wouldn’t actually hurt me over something as small as this?” Discords said, fear beginning to creep into his voice. The flames around Dante had grown to about knee height and were taking on brilliant shades of purple as Dante fanned them with magic. Discord looked towards Twilight as though he was expecting her to jump to his rescue. Twilight made no move to do so, only remaining transfixed by the sight of the dazzling flames that Dante was summoning. There was something about them that fascinated her. They were beautiful, dazzling, and rather eye catching. The spell was obviously extremely deadly and she could feel excess energy pouring out from them. However, that wasn’t what fascinated her. It was far from it; something entirely different from the sheer power or beauty of the flames captivated her.
It was the sheer sense of dread and fear she felt seeping from the flames that froze her to the spot.
Dante growled before a small whip of flame tore through the ground “Don’t test me Discord. I am in no mood to play games.”
Twilight took a breath and stepped in between the two of them. “Enough,” she said forcefully, giving them each a hard stare. Discord gulped and stood down, but Dante remained firm and kept the flames raging. “Dante, stop. He’ll change you back,” she promised before she turned to the draconequus. “Turn him back. Now.”
Discord chuckled weakly as he scratched the back of his head with a paw. “I would love to, but I can’t.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“If you don’t believe me, then believe a demonstration would be more insightful,” he said with a snap of his fingers. Dante was enveloped in a bright light that exploded outward with an audible ‘pop’. However, instead of a normal bipedal Dante, the pony form remained. “Do you see what I mean?”
“Why can’t you turn him back?” Twilight asked as Dante struggled with the temporary blindness from the spell. “You did this; you should be able to reverse it!”
“Putting it simply,” Discord began,” he’s too different from what I’m used to, and it seems that the spell is a little more permanent than what I had expected.” He raised a claw and cleared his throat in an effort to silence Moe and Twilight before they could say anything. “Don’t worry though, he’ll change back sooner or later; granted he may have a taste for hay for a bit afterwards.” He then yelped as a column of flames passed by his face, singeing a portion of his eyebrow off.
“Dante!” Twilight yelled. She turned to face him but faltered as the flames grew more violent. Deep down she feared that Dante was going to try to immolate the entire area, and it seemed that she wasn't too far off, judging by Dante's intense state of anger. She was also afraid that there wasn't anything she could do to stop him.
It was Moe that saved her, and possibly every building within a twenty foot radius. "Dante, calm down and breathe. Getting worked up over this is not helping anybody."
Dante seemed to heed Moe's words and Twilight watched as he relaxed his posture. The flames flickered, turning back from the deep purple to a soft orange before dying out. She breathed in relief, satisfied she wouldn't be playing damage control that day.
Dante, on the other hand, seemed to still be quite anxious about his predicament. Rightly so if Twilight was going to voice her opinion.
"How am I going to do that?" he snapped. "I am a pony now for god's sake." He raised his hooves, shaking them as though he were trying to prove the point of his transformation again.
"He said it's only temporary," Moe countered. "You just need to wait a bit and you'll be back to normal."
“Moe," he began calmly, "he is the embodiment of chaos and disorder. Are you actually going to trust his word on this?"
Discord only seemed to scoff at Dante's words, hiding his snout behind a paw as he laughed. "That's rich coming from the boy turned pony who was talking to the voices in his head for a full ten minutes. Who was it you were going to destroy again, hmm?"
Confusion overtook Twilight and she looked towards Dante. Voices? She thought as Sam's words rang in her head. Perhaps this was what he was speaking about after all.
"Shut up Discord!" Dante yelled. For a moment, much to Twilight's astonishment, his eyes flashed into an inky black before quickly reverting to their original red. "Don't try to change the subject. How do you expect me to work on getting us home when I have to worry about changing species and possibly ruining our only chance at returning?"
"Perhaps your friends don't want to go home?" Discord said as though he were giving a lecture to a child. "Did you think to ask them? Last I saw, your pointy-eared friend was doing well for himself. I think the furred one was also thinking about staying here."
Quick as lightning, Dante's head swept toward Moe. The elf was no longer looking towards him. Instead, he was busying himself by staring at the ground while trying to hide a blush.
"What is he talking about?" Dante asked with more force than was needed. "Moe, tell me you aren't actually considering staying."
"I don't see what's forcing us to go," he replied with no hesitance his voice. "I actually like it here. We don't have to worry about much and we have enough to live comfortably. Besides, we could even build a big enough house with what we have, and I'm sure we could get whatever else we could possible need."
Dante seemed almost shocked by Moe's casual statement. "You have got to be joking. We cannot stay here Moe."
Twilight wasn't sure what hurt more. The fact that Dante was so eager to get home, or that he seemingly didn't care enough to even consider staying. The fact that he was also forgetting her presence as he continued to argue his point didn't make it any better. In fact, she was almost at her limit in terms of Dante's behaviour. Yet it seemed that she wasn't going to get that liberty.
"Moe we don't belong here," he said in an almost pleading tone. "It would never work out..."
Now it seemed like it was Moe's turn to be angry. He stood up, now slightly taller thanks to the height difference provided by the transformation, and advanced on Dante.
"Don't give me those excuses," he retorted, jabbing a finger accusingly at Dante. "You're the only one who hates it here. Sam, Coppa, and I have at least given this place a chance. We made friends here. Good, honest, and kind friends who care about us and love us for who we are." Moe breathed as his voice quieted. "But why should you care? You never give anyone that chance. You never let anyone know what you’re thinking and you chase away anyone who tries. Maybe I'm giving the guy who comes from a race of perpetual loners too much credit."
Both Twilight and Discord gasped, more in an exaggerated sense on Discord's part, as Moe's statement settled in the atmosphere. Dante took only a second before his astounded look gave way to fury. This had become more than just about going home, this was the culmination of five months tension between all of them.
"You have no idea what I've done..." he growled. "We should not even be here."
"Please stop you two," Twilight said. She needed to stop this. The exchanges, Dante's transformation, Moe's tirade, they were doing nothing but threatening to divide the group. "You two are supposed to be friends."
"I think that word might be absent from his vocabulary, Twilight," Moe scoffed as he crossed his arms. "Dante doesn't even know the meaning of it."
"We are going home one way or another," Dante said as he glared at Moe. "I was put in charge and this is not up for negotiation."
"Oh, I didn't realize this was a dictatorship," Moe snapped back. "You never had a problem with us making our own decisions before, what's changed now?"
"I-"
"Is it the fact that you can't stand the idea of a new student taking your spot as Feinman's favourite? Or is it because you're afraid of the fact that maybe for once in your life, you don't have control over something?"
Dante took a moment to recollect himself. "Don't talk as if you understand my situation. You don't know anything about me."
"That's exactly it; none of us know anything about you. We don't know a single damn thing!" Moe said with more force than Twilight thought might have been necessary. "You know all about us but we know nothing about you." He pointed to Twilight who gulped as Dante turned his gaze on her. "Twilight's been asking about you all day and we couldn't give her anything. Why is that? What have you done that is possibly so bad, that you have to shut out anybody who actually cares about you?"
For once in their brief stay, Twilight watched as Dante had nothing to say. No words of intellect, no reassurances filled with confidence, just nothing. Moe had pretty much hit the head of every issue and all Dante could do was stand in silence.
"We... I... Don't... deserve this," he said, his words failing him. Then he turned and shot off, galloping unsteadily down the street.
Moe sighed as they watched Dante disappear. "It had to be said..."
"I guess I was mistaken this time," Discord pouted as he attempted to fix his eyebrow. "I'll need to talk to Celestia about who she lets in. At least the last one she brought over had a sense of humour."
Both Moe and Twilight looked towards Discord. "What are you talking about?" they asked at the same time.
Discord tittered in attempt to be mysterious. "Oh, nothing you need to concern your pretty little heads with." He snapped his fingers and began to crumble into dirt. "But if you really want to know a little more, then I suggest you look at what your guest picked up a few days ago. Could be rather helpful!"
"Discord, wait!" Moe shouted. The Draconequus raised an eyebrow as Moe walked to him. He cupped his hand around Discords ear and whispered something to the spirit. Discord's face lit up like a Hearths Warming Eve tree. Moe grinned as well and with a snap of Discord's finger, Coppa's body became enveloped in light. “He is going to be so angry when he wakes up.”
Twilight turned away as the sound of balloons expanding filled the air. She didn't have time to concern herself with whatever it was Discord was doing now, she had bigger things to worry about. If Discord were right, then there'd be answers to her questions within the tree house.
She just hoped that what she was about to do wouldn't bite her in the flank later on.
*****
A good four-minute jog had placed Dante as far away as he needed to be from Moe and the others. When he finally did stop, he found himself within Ponyville's market square. It was mostly quiet with the exception of a few stalls that were experiencing a rush at that moment. Surprisingly, he only managed to catch two or three ponies staring at his horns, which meant the rest could care less or they were much more discreet about it. Either way, Dante still felt discomfort at being so exposed in his new form.
Unfortunately, his discomfort didn't stop the sound of a rather loud and extended gasp coming from behind him. He barely had time to blink before a wall of pink was pressed up against his muzzle accompanied by the smell of what might have been bubblegum and cake. A pair of hooves grasped his own and began shaking them at record speeds.
"Hi," a voice which could have only belonged to the town's resident party planner said. "I'm Pinkie Pie, and you have got to be new here. Y'see I've never seen you before and if I've never seen you before that means you're new, 'cause I know everypony, and I mean everypony in Ponyville!"
Dante rolled his eyes as the jittery ball of pink practically vibrated in place. Then she stopped suddenly and pressed her face into his. "But if you're new, that means you haven't met anyone yet, and if you haven't met anyone yet, then you must not have any friends, and if you don't have any friends then you must be lonely." she said, blathering on despite Dante attempting to tune her out. "But I know someone you might like! Even better, he has two horns like you! He might be a little mopey sometimes but I'm sure you get along so well! His name is Dante and he lives with-"
"Pinkie, I am Dante..." he said, pushing past her. When the mare wouldn't move he gave her an exasperated look. "Pinkie, move out of the way."
He watched as she tilted head but remained firm by planting her rump on the ground. "Wait, you're a pony now! This is so superfantabulously great! Now we can have a party for you."
Dante shook his head before he went around her. "No Pinkie, I don't want a party. I just want to be left alone right now."
"Why? Did something bad happen? Why don't you tell everypony? We're all your friends and we can make you smile again.”
Friends? Don't make me laugh. You don't deserve that pleasure, the harsh voice rang in his head. Dante cringed as he placed a hoof to his temple and grunted in pain. Monsters like us have no use for them.
"No! Why can’t you just shut up and stop talking to me!" Dante shouted. "I don't need this! I just want to be left alone! I don't need you telling me what to do anymore!"
"B-but I thought we were friends..." Pinkie said as her bottom lip quivered. Tears had begun to form at the edges of her eyes and her mane showed signs of flattening out. Dante looked away guiltily. He hadn’t meant to hurt her, but his outburst had done the trick.
“I… I’m sorry, Pinkie,” Dante said, leaving the mare to shed her tears alone. He didn’t look back as he took off. He ran past house after house before he eventually reached the outskirts of the everfree. Rage boiled within him, mixing with a sense of dread and futility that were beginning to bubble over. Moe’s words rang through his head, stoking the intense fury within him. Had he looked down, he would have also seen that dark wisps were beginning to form around him, and that a tiny ball of black was beginning to take shape between his two horns. It grew with each passing second, becoming bigger and bigger as the voices in his head became louder and louder.
It’s all yours…
“No…” he squeezed his eyes shut as he grabbed his head
Yours to toy with…
“Be quiet…”
You’re nothing but a monster. Born to kill and destroy that which is in front of you...
“I won’t allow it!”
Release it and let me take away all your pain… Give in to what we really are--
“Shut up!” he finally screamed. The dark ball condensed before returning to its original size and shooting a single thin beam towards the everfree. It seemingly passed through the front rows of trees, reaching out nearly thirty feet into the forest. With a twist of his head, the beam moved to the side, phasing through the trees as though it didn’t exist at all. Eventually, the black sphere and beam petered out. A moment passed before the sound of splitting wood hit Dante’s ears and he watched as a sizable chunk of the forest in front of him fell down, the trees disintegrating into ash before they even hit the ground. Dante only stood there, panting and staring at the square he had created in the forest. He ground his teeth slightly before he turned around and came face to face with a grey mare sporting a purple mane with white streaks.
“My, my, I've never seen something like that before!”
*****
Twilight sighed as she rummaged through Dante’s bag. All manner of things rested on the large desk within his room. Strange looking artefacts to books written in languages native only to her guest lined the top of it, even spilling onto the floor below. Twilight groaned as she pulled her hoof out of the bag, coming out with nothing but another hoofful of what looked to be scrap pieces of paper decorated with arcane symbols. Deep down, she knew it wasn’t right to go through Dante’s things, but she was growing desperate. The enigma that was her guest was frustrating as it was confusing, and his belonging were shedding about as much light as a snuffed out candle.
A sudden shout of surprise, followed by the sounds of Coppa screaming words like “What did you do to me?” and “Why do I sound like my sister?” caught her attention and made her giggle slightly before she turned back to her work. A second shout, most likely Moe’s, announced the end of the scuffle before Coppa finally wailed in defeat.
“He has to have something in here,” she told herself as she placed her hoof back into what seemed like the endless void inside Dante’s bag. She was going to have to ask what sort of magic the bag was enchanted with, because it seemed as though all the things that were inside it must have added to at least a hundred times Dante’s own weight. However, she would have to catalogue those questions into the back of her mind. At that moment she had to control herself and work as quickly as possible to find what she needed. “Aha! Here it is,” she celebrated as her hoof brushed up against something hard. Upon pulling the item out, her smile widened and she carefully blew off a bit of dirt from her treasure.
Discord had said to take a closer look at what Dante had picked up those few days ago. The only thing Twilight could have remembered that fit the context of the statement was the stone golem. It seemed that Discord was right and that Dante had picked up a piece after it had been destroyed. Carefully, Twilight levitated the piece in front of her with her magic, examining and taking mental notes of every feature. It seemed like an ordinary piece of stone at first, but to Twilight’s surprise, she found herself looking at a symbol etched into the surface. It was almost invisible, faded from time and weather, but it was still there for her to see.
A shining sun, much like that of her wise and royal teacher’s cutiemark.
Twilight gasped and the piece of stone hit the ground as she backed away. Her mind could hardly comprehend the ramifications of the revelation. Even so, a million questions without any possible answers swirled throughout her head. Most prominent of them however, were two very specific ones. Why would Princess Celestia’s cutiemark be on that statue? Better yet, why would Celestia’s cutiemark be on a humanesque statue that had nearly killed Sam?
Her train of thought however, was broken by a rapt knocking at the door. “Oh, shoot,” she chided herself before quickly stuffing everything back into Dante’s bag. She levitated as much as she could handle, stuffing it into Dante’s bag in hopes he wouldn’t notice anything amiss. In her haste and panic, a single book dropped to the floor before she could jam it into his pack. It bounced and opened up, revealing scribbles and drawings in Dante’s own writing. She knew it was his hand that had written in the book because she had seen him transcribing notes and had taken note of his style of writing.
Curiosity overtook her desire to rush downstairs to answer the door, and she approached the book almost in a cautious manner. Quickly, she deduced that the book was some sort of journal from the few words she could actually understand. Things like the words study, magic and the name Feinman regularly popped up. Yet there were other words she could understand that confused her as she flipped the pages. Words like orphanage, darkness, voices in my head, and the continued reference to demons puzzled her. Eventually, her continued skimming of the journal yielded something other than cryptic messages.
A tiny slip of paper, no bigger than the bottom of her hoof, fell from between the pages. On it were the faces of Dante and a strange female covered in armor that had him in a headlock. Long crimson hair, much like the colour of Dante’s eyes, flowed down from her head and reached past her shoulders in the form of a large ponytail. Two braids framed her face as she seemed to mock the one caught in the crook of her arm, but the look on Dante’s face made it seem as though he was enjoying slightly, albeit reluctantly.
Who is this? Twilight thought as she flipped the picture over. A quick gasp made her lose concentration and the picture fluttered to the ground. Tiny, almost indistinguishable dots, of red formed a random pattern around a huge stain of red on the back of the picture. The smell and taste of iron punctuated the air and Twilight took a step back before the sound of laboured breathing caused her to turn around.
Her eyes widened as she caught sight of the figure behind her, shivering like a leaf. Dante sat there, human once again, resting on his knees and staring at the ground with a pained expression. Blood covered him from head to toe, coating him in a slick, wet shroud of ruby red. A small knife was clutched tight in his hand and Twilight could see to her horror, the thick and jagged line that ran across Dante’s neck that it had caused. She watched as Dante retched, bending over and heaving as more red flowed out onto the floor in a thick puddle. A cry of pain came from him and Twilight stood frozen as a choked sob came from him.
"Dante? What happened? Why are you back to normal already?" she asked, extending a hoof to touch him. It passed through him, causing his image to ripple like water. She quickly brought it back and saw the illusion restore itself.
“Why? Why won’t you just let me do this?” His tone was ragged and Twilight watched as he tightened his grip around the knife. With an almost inhumane lack of care, he aimed the knife at his chest. She closed her eyes as the blade flashed forward, but her ears still caught the pained and frenzied grunts along with the sound of liquid splashing on the ground. Twilight’s scream died in her throat as Dante looked at the ground with a pitiable expression. “Why are you doing this to me? I shouldn't even be alive!"
This can’t be real. This can’t be real! Twilight mentally screamed, shutting her eyes and placing her hooves over her ears. Even then, she could make out the sounds of a second voice.
“You won’t escape so easily, nature has made sure of that” the voice said, causing Twilight to crack open one eye. A second figure, shrouded in black mist had Dante by the shoulder with a skeletal hand. The blood on the ground and boy then began to turn a dark shade of black. The boy struggled, feebly stabbing and slashing the arm with the knife, but to no visible effect. “Do not worry, you will meet your end soon enough, but only when we have attained our inheritance. When I have what I need and the world falls to ashes beneath our feet, then you will get my permission to die. But until then, you, and those around you will suffer just like they did.”
The spirit then looked up and Twilight locked eyes with the skeletal face beneath the torn and beaten hood. Glowing eyes of red met hers and she could see the mocking grin made up jagged and cracked teeth. Misty breath bled through the cracks and Twilight became very aware that this had become more than just some illusion. No, the thing wasn’t staring at the space she was standing on by coincidence. It was staring directly at her, boring into her soul with glowing red eyes.
“Just like your world will, Twilight Sparkle…” was the last she heard before she collapsed to the ground, her consciousness fading into nothing but darkness.