//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: Dark Rites 
// by Sporkbacon 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 1


"'Trotsville City Limits' eh?"  I said when I read the sign aloud.  I looked backwards at my hometown.  It still looked so peaceful, even though a few hours ago a Primary Demon had destroyed the inside my house.  Luckily my father had sound-proofed the inside of the house.  With some luck, I could get at least a town over before anypony came looking for me and investigate the crime scene.  I sighed and continued walking.  

After another twelve miles I decided it was time to rest my hooves a bit.  It was beginning to get dark and my eyelids were heavy from lack of sleep.  After another twenty minutes of walking I found a crystal-clear, sparkling lake next to a shady tree.  I sat next to the tree, under the shade, and decided to read one of the books I had retrieved from my basement.  I figured I had better look up some information on demons, considering I would probably be fighting them on a daily basis.

I opened my pack and took out an old, ragged, and thin tome.  The title was simply "Demon".  On the front of the book was a angry looking demon being speared through the torso with a magically levitated spear.  The pony that was levitating the spear looked like my father, but I assumed it was just coincidence.  It was a good enough place to start, given my basic knowledge of demons.  I telekinetically flipped open to the first page.  Quickly, I discovered that it was in fact, a personal journal written by my father.  Realizing that, I flipped quickly back to the cover.  I brushed the dust off the bottom with a hoof, revealing the author and the rest of the title.  I hadn't known my father kept a journal.  It was clear on the hard cover though, "Demon Lore" By: Andro Darkheart.  

Flipping back to the first journal entry, I discovered that he had been a Demon Hunter longer than I thought.  Immediately I thought back to how old he was.  He had married my mother at a fairly old age.  Here he was, slaying demons before he had any thoughts of marriage.  "Barely older than me," I thought to myself.  I felt suddenly excited.  Reading that greatly improved my confidence of becoming the next-in-line Demon Hunter.  Skimming his journal for useful information, I came across a rough sketch of a demon autopsy.  Demon body structures were very different from ponies, yet some of the organs had similar functions.

We have some of the same organs, at least, that's what it seemed like.  The descriptions of the organs themselves were smudged with age.  Sinking further against the tree, I continued looking at the picture on the musty page.  Thankfully, they were color-coded; in the top left corner, I saw what the colors meant.  A chart of all of the colors and their meanings was displayed there.  Looks like red was a vital organ, blue was an organ that the demon could live without, the yellow lines within the drawing were nerve endings, and the green organs were control centers for extra bodily functions such as movement and in some cases fire breath, lightning breath, acid production, and the like.  I had no idea that demons were so complicated.  Being a small town, my education wasn't all that great.  I mean, we had the basics, like how Celestia is the princess and how she raises and lowers the sun and moon everyday.  But, anatomy, biology, science, and topics like that I had to learn on my own.  Most of them being self-taught from my dad's personal library.  Vaguely, I recalled a page from a book entitled "Dragon Anatomy".  They were oddly similar to demons, as far as I could tell.  They both had scales, the organs were mostly in the right places, tails, spikes, and frightening appearances.  I wondered to myself if demons and dragons were related somehow. 

After I finished memorizing the diagram, I flipped to the next page.  There were some notes referencing the previous diagram.  The description of some of the organs that had not fit on the other page.  Techniques about how to disable organs and what areas to aim for.  I cataloged the notes as I continued through to the next page.  
It was almost night time at this point.  I channeled energy into my horn to make a light source.  The book was bathed in my teal colored light, then, satisfied, I continued reading.  Most of the journal was my father noting specific demons, their anatomy, and how to kill them.  I skipped through the lesser demons until I found the section labeled "Primary Demons".  I dog-eared the page and closed my eyes for a second and could barely get them open again.  Learning how to kill beings of such immense power could wait until after I've had a quick snooze.  

I tried to concentrate on what had happened, but my stomach broke my train of thought.  Remembering that I hadn't eaten for many hours and haven't slept for nearly a day suddenly hit me.  Sighing, I looked around.  Nothing edible in sight.  Looking up, I discovered I had been sitting under a pear tree the entire time.  Grasping a ripe pear with my magic, I pulled it off the tree, with my magic and hovered it to my hoof.  My light source flickered out and I realized I was out of magic.  With my stomach growling angrily, I shrugged and blindly bit into it.  As I nibbled experimentally, I saw that the fruit was not like any pears I've had before.  Shrugging, I took a second bite.  "Must be a different type of pear," I mused internally.  It was far juicier than I expected and a sweet smell filled my nostrils as I chewed.  I swallowed the chunks down and savored the flavor as I took chunk out of it.  "This is the strangest tasting pear I've ever tasted, though." I thought to myself.  My magic wasn't back at full strength, but I brought out my light again, the much-needed food fueling my glowing horn.  Turning the fruit over in my hoof I realized that it was clearly not what I thought it was.  It was a tear-drop shaped blue fruit with a sickly green color showing through where I bit into it.  Instantly I stopped chewing.  Unexpectedly, I couldn't breathe, and I felt my legs fell limply against the ground.  A short time later, I felt my eyelids close.  The last thing I saw was a dark vaguely pony shaped figure hovering over me, then I blacked out.

I woke up to the warm sunlight in my face about six hours later.  "Ah...Good.  You're finally up." Somepony said with a voice could swear I heard before, but I couldn't place the name.  Remembering that I had lost feeling in my legs I tried moving them.  They moved slightly under a blanket, I guess that fruit was something to avoid.  I found that I had been in a bed.  Where had this pony moved me?

A sudden image struck through my mind.  It was like a cataloged entry of a book on herbs and plants.  A voice manifested in my mind along with the data entry.  "Parafruit," it said. "A blue teardrop shaped fruit that paralyzes whomever consumes the sickly green insides." It continued.  "Commonly seen near lakes, this fruit grows on trees and should be avoided at all costs."  I knew this voice, slightly chastising, motherly, and tender.  Then realizing that this was my mother talking to me from within, I quietly listened to the description of the fruit. "Used mainly as a poison on weapons, a natural painkiller, and to induce a patient into a sleep.  This fruit is coveted for it's medicinal uses."  "Learned that the hard way," I sighed to myself.  

"What was tha?  You say somethin'?"  "No," I slurred quickly, then opened my eyes to look at my captor.  The stallion in front of me was a dull gray, had a dark mane, with gray streaked through it, styled like an old pony that wanted to keep up with the times.  His tail was cut short, but streaked with gray just like his mane.  He also had a beard, nice and curly, flowing from his chin.  From just looking at him I could tell he was about middle age.  He was wearing a brown country-style hat that was clearly his favorite, holes and tears strewn within it.  He was also wearing a plain vest with a white undershirt.  His cutie mark was a picture of a pint of cider. What surprised me is that he was wearing a concerned, yet inviting expression on his face.  My eyes hadn't fully focused yet and my vision just now started to clear.

Slowly, I rubbed at my eyes and said, "So, who are you?"  The fruit's effect finally wearing off enough that I could communicate.  "Awww, dun be like tha', you should reckonize your favorite uncle.  It's me Spellflash, your Uncle Joel!"  Squinting my eyes slightly, I realized it was him.  I hadn't seen him in over five years.  He must have brought me to his old farm.  I guess he found me passed out next to the lake, while he was on a late night walk or something.  I was lucky that it had been him, instead of some crazy demon.
I rubbed at my eyes more, suddenly saddened by the thought of me forgetting a relative.  My thoughts jumped to the note that I had found with my new outfit.  It had said to tell every relative about my parent's deaths.  

"Uncle Joel!  I have terrible news!" I practically shouted at him.  "Now hang on a sec'nd, hold your horses.  Calm down and tell me what you need to tell me."  I breathed in deeply and calmly exhaled.  "My parents are dead." I told him without emotion.  "Yer parents?  Awww, tha's to bad, yer pappy was the bes' Demon Hun'er I've ever had the pleasure to meet."  "I suppose he lef' you tha' letter in case one of his spells went awry," I nodded. "Ah, well, I suppose you should come with me then.  I've a few tricks learn ye."  He turned then walked out of the room.  Before he turned however, I saw a slight tear in his eye at the thought of his brother's magic finally getting the better of him.  Slowly, I followed him.  I looked around and saw my satchel, the stack of books, and my boots in the corner.  Knowing that it was safe, I followed him through the door and down the stairs into a wide living room with him standing in the middle.  He gestured toward a bookshelf. Joel then pulled one of the books out, which made the bookshelf slide into the wall, then sideways, revealing a door. "A secret passage...?" I trailed off, wonder in my voice.  My uncle only nodded with a smile on his face.  As we descended, I decided that all demon hunters had something like this, where they kept all their gear.  We stepped though the door at the bottom and I was welcomed with familiar smells of herbs, demons, and un-death, just like my basement.