To lose a child is to lose a piece of yourself. ~ Doctor Berton Grebin.
Lamp Light Memorial Hospital, Manehatten. One week later.
In room 174 of the hundred year old hospital, a pegasus mare and unicorn stallion were staring each other down while an unconscious unicorn colt was lying in the hospital bed, hooked to a heart monitor. "What do you mean you won't pay for my son's operation!?"
"I mean what I said. I won't pay for your son's operation, I have a responsibility to the shareholders and I can't let my personal feelings get in the way of that..." The stallion glanced at the colt, before letting out a sad sigh. "You have worked for me for thirty five years, and I want to help you, and if it was anything else I would help you... But even if they were able to find a heart small enough to fit in his chest, and one that is the same blood type, the surgery would just cost too much..." The stallion turned around and walked to the door. "The best I can do is offer you some advice... You should spend as much time with him as you can, I don't think he has long..." With that the stallion left and the mare fell on her haunches.
A cough caught her attention. The mare turned and saw the colt was waking up. "Mommy... It hurts..." The mare stood up and walked over to the colt.
"Don't worry Cracker, it will be all better soon, mommy isn't going to rest until she gets you a new heart..." The colt smiled and hugged the mare's neck.
"I love you mommy..." The short beeps started to run together and the colt's grip lightened, he was flat lining.
A nurse was walking by and pulled the mare out of the room. "We need a crash cart here, Stat!" Doctors began to rush into the room and started trying to revive the colt, after ten minutes they pulled the sheet up and over the colt's face. The mare fell to the ground and began to cry.
"I'm... I'm sorry for your loss... We can give you ten minutes before we take him away." The doctors and nurses left the room and closed the door, a few minutes later the door opened once again. The mare looked up from her dead son and saw a reddish-brown pegasus stallion, with a red mane styled like a rooster's comb, standing over the bed. The stallion was wearing sunglasses with a dark red tint. The mare could feel a dark, yet calming, aura coming from him.
"W-who are y-you? W-why are y-you h-here?" The stallion just kept staring at the corpse.
"I can revive him, I can even get him a heart for you, and you won't have to give me a single bit in return." The mare just kept staring at him. "If you swear on your soul that you will at least attempt to do what I ask of you, I will bring him back." The mare stood up and looked at the stallion.
"Can... Can you really bring my little Firecracker back?" The stallion nodded. "Then... I'll do anything you want..." The stallion pulled the covers off the colt's head and placed a hoof on the colt's head. A few seconds later the heart monitor began to show that the colt's heart had started beating once again. The colt then began to quietly to snore. "Are you some kind of miracle worker?"
The stallion gave a happy hum. "I... I guess you could say that... Now then... I want you to kill a certain pony..." The stallion pulled a photo of a dark blue unicorn stallion with a white mane. "By coming to Equestria, and Transylmaneia, as he currently lives in Ponyville, he has put the entire world in danger."
"Whoever he is... If he really has put the world in danger... Then..." The mare looked at the stallion and nodded. "As soon as my son has his new heart, I will end this stallion's life..."
A large grin spread across the stallion's face. "Good. Hmm... I'll tell you what, if you succeed in killing him, I'll ruin the company of the stallion who refused to pay for your son's treatment." The mare nodded and the stallion left, as soon as he was out of the hospital He ran into an alleyway and there was a flash of orange light. A filly walking by was surprised to see a rooster with a comb of fire fly out of the alley.
As Galo, the archdemon represented by the rooster, flew over the city of Manehatten he couldn't help but notice a warm feeling in his chest. 'What is this feeling? It has been there since I said I would get that mare's son a new heart... Could it be... That I want to help her, just to help her, and expect nothing in return... This feeling, it feels good... Maybe... Maybe I can do things like this, just to do them...'
Ponyville, two weeks later.
"You know what I just realized?" Soul turned and looked at his bedridden fillyfriend. Trixie had eaten a strange flower that she had bought from a street vendor in the city's Wood, also known as the Forest, District. As a result of eating the toxic flower she had gotten an illness similar to the flu, but on an extreme scale, as such the blue mare had been confined to her house for three days. Luckily, it wasn't a contagious disease, so she could have visitors. The mare gave a light chuckle. "We haven't gone on a normal date yet."
"Well, as soon as you're over this flu, let's go out for dinner, maybe catch a movie..." Soul smiled at the mare, until he heard a knock at the front door. "One moment." Soul sank into his shadow and Trixie stared at the spot where he had just been standing. She had been dating him for about two years now and she still wasn't used to seeing him do that. Her bedroom door opened and Trixie looked over, smiling when she saw her mentor walk in, along with her children.
"Hello Twilight." Trixie looked from the purple mare to the two sleeping foals in the carrier strapped to her chest. She then glanced down and smiled at Ana, who was standing next to her mother. "Hello Ana."
"Hello miss Trixie..." The grey alicorn filly waved at her godmother, her horn began to glow and as she opened her saddle bags, levitating a small container onto the nightstand next to the blue mare's bed. "I, um, made you some chocolate chip cookies. I hope you feel better soon..."
The blue mare smiled and picked up one of the cookies. She took a bit and her eyes went wide, after she swallowed she looked at the grey filly's flank. "These... Are possibly the best cookies I have ever tasted." Ana smiled and have the mare a small hug. Trixie finished the cookie before looking at Twilight. "So, how have you been doing? Oh and before I forget, how far along do you think Grogar is in his studies?"
"Apprentice rank, spell 25 of book three." The blue mare went wide eyed.
"He's only five spells from his test for the Adept Rank? I'm only on spell 3 of book one of the Adept Rank, I need to step up my game." Twilight shook her head.
"Trixie, you know it's not a contest... Right?" Twilight's words went unheard by the blue mare, she was already planning her studies for the next week.
Meanwhile Soul and Fang were talking in the house's kitchen. "Dude, does Lepus have any idea which archdemon is coming after us next?" Fang shook his head. There was a knock at the door, Soul stood up, walked over and opened the door. Standing there was an orange pegasus mare with a blue mane. "Hello, can I help you?"
"A-are you Tamashii Souto?" The shade nodded and felt something enter his chest, looking down he could see that the pegasus mare had driven a butcher's knife through his skin. "I... I'm so sorry, but... He said he would get my son a new heart if I did this... And he kept his promise..." The mare pulled the knife out of his chest and tried to back away, only to be stopped by Fang, who had teleported outside after he saw the mare stab Soul.
"Drop your weapon." The mare gulped and left the knife fall to the ground. "Get on your stomach and put your forehooves on your head." The mare did as the alicorn said. Fang looked at Soul and blasted him with a ball of energy, healing his wound. "Go get a guard, I'll watch her, she won't get away."
"I'm not pressing charges... I just want to know why she did it." Fang raised an eyebrow. "Come inside, I'll get the other Elements of Harmony, I think they should all be here for this... I think she interacted with an archdemon, I can sense a very powerful demonic aura on her." Fang sighed.
"Very well then, get Grogar and Lepus as well... I have a feeling that the rabbit will be able to identify the aura." Soul nodded and sank into his shadow, shocking the mare. Fang sighed and led the mare inside, to Trixie's room, he thought she deserved to know why the mare had deserved to know why she had stabbed her coltfriend.
One hour later.
"Ok, what's your name?" The orange pegasus sighed and looked at the group of ponies who had gathered. She was especially nervous because of Grogar, she had seen him steal a stallion's youth the first time he got free.
"My name is Oceana Sand." Soul nodded.
"Ok, now you said something about how he said he would get your son a new heart if you killed me, who is he?" The mare sighed.
"He didn't tell me his name, he just offered to get my son a new heart, as long as I at least attempted to take Mr. Souto's life." Twilight coughed and got the mare's attention.
"Ok, first of all how old is your son, and why did he need a heart? And secondly, you would rather get help from a shady pony who wanted you to kill someone else, rather than get your son a new heart legally?" The mare sighed.
"It's not as simple as that. My boss, Guidebook, wouldn't pay for my son's operation, even though our insurance with the company covered it... He said he couldn't do it because 'it would cost too much' and 'he had a responsibility to the shareholders'. But the fact that he wouldn't pay for the operation isn't the worst part..." Fluttershy walked over and wrapped a wing around the mare, who seemed like she was about to burst into tears.
"Um... if it's not too hard could you tell us what the worst part is? I mean, if that's ok with you..." The mare sniffled and nodded.
"The worst part is that a few minutes after he left, Firecracker passed away in my forelegs... The worst part... Is that Guide... He let our son die..." The mares, excluding Trixie, gave a collective gasp, not knowing how a father could just let their child die while he had the ability to do something about it. Something in Fang's mind snapped and he looked at Oceana.
"Don't worry, I believe that my little sisters will be able to do something about it..." Fang pulled out a piece of parchment and blasted it with a spell Twilight had never seen before. After he had done so, he sent the letter away. "He will pay for what he has done to you... And probably numerous others... Now... Please tell us, the pony that got your son a new heart, what did he look like?"
An hour later the mare left and went home to Manehatten, Soul hadn't pressed charges and told her to go and be with her son. Fang and Soul looked at Lepus, the rabbit sighed, knowing that the group wanted him to tell them which archdemon was after them now. "It sounds like the one who is taking my place is Galo, the Wrathful Rooster. He keeps his comb in pony form, but he puts an illusion on it so it looks like a pony's mane... Do you all remember how I said I was rank 8 of the archdemons?" The entire group nodded.
"It's going to be harder for you all from here on... Galo... Is rank 6... He is a pyrokinetic, he can start fires with his mind, and if he gets in a direct fight with you, let's just say that... If you play with fire, you're gonna get burned..." Lepus looked out the window and saw a rooster on the roof of the house across the street. The bird quickly burst into flames and disappeared.
That night in Manehatten.
Galo watched as Oceana tucked her son, Firecracker into bed, and couldn't help but smile, knowing that he had helped a pony whilst trying to destroy the shade prince. He then looked at the ground, or more specifically, a manhole cover. 'This warm feeling... Perhaps this is what Shǔ feels as he watches over the orphans he protects... The longer I spend in this realm... The more is see the kindness of the ponies of this day and age... The stronger this feeling gets, but... What is this feeling?'
Without a family, man, alone in the world, trembles with the cold. ~ André Maurois.