Netherworld Tartarus, Nocturne's throne room
A week has passed since my trip to Newvale and completion of my first summoning contract since being released. To say I was conflicted would be to say a man who won the lottery was just amused by the results. It felt good... really good, but it made me a bit sad at the same time.
Apparently peace had caused Ponies to lose what fighting instincts they had, not that there was many to begin with being herd animals, but that's also where they shined. Ponies were stronger as a group, which was why my battle style was to always wage full scale battles wherever they occurred like a magical chess game, much like the game my powers originated from.
Sadly this posed a problem, as with a weakening fighting spirit the purity of the species Mana would degrade as well. This was due to Mana being the run off or blank magic left behind during hostile encounters, like the shell left behind when a gun is fired. No confrontations meant that less Mana would be produced, less Mana means my people would starve.
How to change that was another matter. Sure I could easily use more war torn worlds as a source of Mana, which was the purpose of tossing the pages of the summoning book far into the Rift and scattering them so that allies, and enemies of mine alike would find them easily. When a page is recovered I would know exactly where their world was in the vast span of the rift and could accurately appear there with the assistance of the Gatekeeper.
It wasn't a perfect system, as it allowed others to find my world rather easily but, at least that meant conflict as I returned them whence they came, meaning more Mana for my people. All rewards come with risk as they say.
I was woken from my trance like brooding by Sandy rushing into the Throne room. "Tyler! We've got trouble... well, it's more like the Pony's have trouble but... you know what I mean, another one of THEM has shown up in Ponyville!" the emotion in her voice told me more than I needed to know as I grabbed my new weapon. A battleaxe crossed with a Guitar I decided to partake in after reincarnating Myself with the Perfect stat bonus of 100 extra points to start with thanks to the generous contribution of that Omega fellow's invasion.
"Right, I'll be back in an hour or so. Same drill as always." The smile on my face at fighting another of THEM never got any less creepy after the first time I defeated one. They felt pain, they bled, they even cursed me at times. But when slain all they did was fade and smile. I loved them for their countless attempts to invade and thanks to them I was as high level as I was, now I only really reincarnated to try out different ways of fighting as I'd discovered something unique about myself.
Maybe it was due to the way this world was different, or the Mana in Equestria or something. But, instead of all my weapon skills and abilities remaining the same I'd always have a random weapon stat set value from F to S and a Musical Instrument/Weapon attuned to the S rank stat.
This time the lucky weapon was the Axe... kind of my favorite as it was a badass guitar that shredded like the devil himself was playing it and a Battleaxe all in one. Which I gave a quick strum producing a lick of flame before holstering the weapon into a few straps on my back between my cape wings.
With my weapon now tucked into it's holder on my back and a quick kiss to Sandy as I ran past her and leapt into a mirror I was off, and it was gonna be AWESOME!
Ponyville Town Square, Seventeen minutes earlier. Sandy's perspective
Today was a great day in Ponyville, after a... rather sloppy introduction a week ago to my Granddaughter I had been trying to get to know her over a series of... well let's just call them speed runs. I mean with it known publicly that I was a demon I wasn't exactly welcome in the town thanks to the less than tactful grudge propaganda by Celestia.
This was doubly true thanks to the fact her Faithful Pet, and newest Princess of Equestria. Twilight Sparkle happened to reside in said town, I was told her accession into Alicorn Princess was recent, like... just a few weeks ago recent. Which brings me to the conversation we're currently involved in.
"So... you're saying that she was crowned Princess for creating new magic and yet refuses to see that Demons are pretty much magic personified?" I asked my granddaughter and her 'Companion' see what I did there? Sweetie Drops a.k.a. Bon-Bon getting a nervous smile from the earth mare while Lyra just nodded.
"Y-Yes ma'am. She supposedly created a spell that harnesses the energy of friendship in it's purest form and as such gained ascendance." Bon-Bon explained with a nervous tone. It was probably the fact that I sort of growled when I asked the question, and from what I could tell she was a gossip nut.
"I don't understand it, I mean it's like nopony even cared that she practically destroyed her friend's lives before fixing it and making the spell work." Lyra said with a sigh. "I mean if I had been just a little bit pushier with keeping in touch when we were kids I could have been in that gaggle of destiny swapped parallel ponies."
This caused both me and Bon-Bon to turn and look at her with something that seemed to be programed into everypony, the 'are you serious right now?' eyebrow raise. Sadly before I could actually voice the question I heard a noise... it was a dreadful noise that ensured fighting was going to be on the horizon.
"Girls, you need to get home right now and find a full body mirror I can use to go see Nocturne. There's about to be trouble." I said a bit worried by Lyra's almost happy expression. Oh sweet Mana she's just like her Grandfather, crazy and fight hungry.
"But, Grandma we could help... I'm not sure how but, we could!" Lyra said as she looked for the source of the sound her grin only growing as her horn lit up with a golden aura calling her instrument to her. Yep, just like her grandfather.
Before I could try to dissuade her any further, the message ripped through my being making me pray that after I managed to get the message to Nocturne there would still be a Ponyville to save.
Toxic_To_Touch Has Invaded!
The message blinked three times as the red letters sprawled across the bottom portion of my vision, one of THEM had appeared.