Around the group the fire burned, consuming the forestry like a forest fire would. Every member of the crew struggled to see past the intense blur that the rising heat created. Their only defense against the flames was the icy nunchuks possessed by the red clad devil hunter up front.
"... So you're saying that our supposed portal to hell hasn't just taken us to a new world, but taken us to one filled with magical horses?" Lady glanced skeptically at Nero walking beside her.
"Ponies, actually." He corrected her.
"Whatever. That just makes it sound even worse."
"I just want my sword back. Hyah!" Dante said as he swiped with the nun-chucks to put out some more of the fire and extinguished enough of the fire for them to move onward.
"Yeah, we know that." Lady dismissed his addition to the conversation.
"And you say you met some of them, Nero?" Trish continued on seriously.
"Yeah. They're alright, but there's one of them that seem to be almost completely insane. Pinkie Pie, if I remember rightly." There was a smirk and all looked to Dante who was laughing to himself.
"Pinkie Pie... 'kind of a name is that? Let me guess, it's pink?" He turned to them to add yet another comment.
"Shut up, Dante. If you ain't got anything productive to say then don't say it. Get back to putting out those fires!" Lady attacked him with a restless and tired voice. "Damn, it's getting hot here." Lady fanned herself with a hand and Dante huffed, turning back ahead to give another swipe of Cerberus and douse more of the flames.
"How many did you meet?" Trish asked.
"Just six, all of them female." Nero answered.
"Damn, Nero! Never heard of a six-timer before!" Dante called back from putting out the fire.
"SHUT UP!" All three of them shouted at him with all their frustration vented into their voices. Dante flinched back and got back to work.
"So yeah, I met six of them and they seemed okay. If a bit defensive."
"And you're saying that the whole planet is full of them?" Lady questioned.
"Well i'm not sure about that, but from what I know there's a settlement somewhere near the outside of this forest. And where there's one, there's another." They paused to hear Dante cursing at the flames, as they singed the bottom of his coat trails. He furiously slashed away with the nun-chucks and sent several waves of icy energy at the fire, dousing every flame within 20 meters or so.
"Go on, Dante! You show those flames who's boss!" Lady shouted ahead to the heavily breathing devil hunter.
"Oh, I am!" He shouted back. Lady and Trish let out a light hearted-laugh and then turned back to Nero. Trish spoke out first.
"Did they come with you here? Like, when you came looking for us, you mean?"
"They came with me all the way but I sent them back les' they get in the way and end up being killed. Strange, we found and killed a group of Scare-crows on the way here. Where do you think they're coming from?" Nero asked.
"Scare-crows, you say?" Trish inquired. Nero simply nodded his answer. "Hmm. Not only are the big guys coming through, but it seems they've brought a few lesser demons with them."
"A distraction, maybe?" Lady suggested.
"Nah, we've seen the way that they do things three times before. They're more into the head on approach than the intelligent one. Even the Order of the Sword weren't that sneaky." Trish gestured to Nero. "We have a witness to that here." Nero nodded along.
"Speaking of demons, Berial is probably out wreaking havoc by now." Nero finished up. They all turned to Dante who was looking slightly fatigued by all the constant nun-chuck movements.
"Come on, Dante! Berial will be killing the magical, colourful ponies and we've gotta' stop him!" Lady screamed onward. Dante looked back with a bemused and blank expression, directing it straight at her.
"You wanna' come and do this?" He asked aggressively.
"Maybe I will." She jogged on ahead and took control of the ice cold weapons herself before taking up a stance. "Let me show you how a lady puts out fires! Hiyah!"
Celestia gaped at the sight before her as she made her way towards the forest with her compatriots. 30 guards, some pegasus and some unicorns, were making good progress towards the inferno that was raging away ahead of them. The intense mixture of yellow, orange and a blinding white was getting ever closer the further they went.
She was dressed in full golden battle armour, carrying her signature halberd with her. A long battle weapon forged from the best quality steel and gold there was available, ending in a bladed crescent sun that encased an amber crystal used for harnessing the magical power from the grip and turning it into a ranged energy attack that she could use to fight with.
She had not needed to for... forever now, but she had a nagging feeling that she was going to need it now. Luna came up behind her, dressed in her own teal armour, and a long double edged scythe with a blue tinted blade and it's own saphire crystal in the centre of the guard that served the same purpose as the one in her halberd.
"Are you sure Blue Blood can run Equestria, sister? Even for a few hours?" Luna seemed like she was joking, but Celestia could hear no humour in her voice. But when it came to it, she wasn't actually sure whether he could or not. Besides, Blue Blood is last in line to the Equestrian throne, after Twilight Sparkle of course. He wasn't very pleased to hear that a mare in her 20's who had only just been coronated was to be put in front of him in the queue. So Celestia put him in charge for a small part of the day to keep him happy. The truth was that she didn't trust the stallion. Not. One. Bit. He couldn't be counted on for much, unless it involved his bank account getting bigger, and that generally meant his ego went up into the clouds with it.
"No. But if it will shut him up for a while, then why not? He can't do that much damage to Equestria in less than a day, surely." She said with some reassurance in her voice.
"We-I wouldn't be surprised if he completely empties the royal treasury before we get back." She slipped into her Old-Equestrian for a moment at the beginning of her sentence and blushed a little in frustration at herself as her big sister smiled lightly back at her.
"Getting better, Luna." Celestia teased her sister as the smaller blue mare returned her angry gaze to the burning forest while grumbling something inaudible under her breath.
The bigger sister shook her head and smiled. The humour was short lived as she saw the forest again. The trees were much closer by now, and there was maybe only half a kilometer left before they reached the Everfree's borders. Great smoke plumes rose high into the sky and far beyond, as the black pillars extended past the highest clouds and into the cold thin air, far above any habitable zone.
Celestia wondered if the pegasi living in Cloudsdale or the weather factory had noticed the smoke, and were on their way to lend a helping hoof in the matter. "-Of course they can see it...-" She thought to herself. "-... There's no they could miss it.-"
The forest was only a few minutes walk from there on, maybe less. But the way they were travelling, they may reach the Everfree in only 1 minute. She was sure that the scouts would be waiting for her to give a report on just how much damage the raging flames had dealt, and if they had reached the tree yet. While she was wondering, something in the smoke changed.
The smoke seemed to be quickly turning orange... like a fire-ball was going through it and was about to come out of the toxic black plumes. She nudged her sister and the armoured alicorn turned to face her.
"Hmm?" Luna acknowledged the nudge. Celestia pointed at the increasingly bright smoke with her hoof and the moon goddess cocked her head when she saw the odd colours. "What in the name..?" She questioned and looked to her older sibling for clues. Celestia just shrugged and turned back to it. By this time the guards had noticed as well and the sergeant trotted up to the princesses' side. He gave a quick bow before carrying on.
"We have noticed something strange about the smoke, your highness." He said in a deep, monotone and powerful voice.
"We have too, sergeant. Thank you for the concern." Celestia dismissed him and he walked back to his troop.
They were less than a minute away from the tree-line when something burst from the smoke, causing everypony to stop and look in it's direction. It didn't take long for the princesses to identify it as a living being. from there, they could see a huge rock creature with massive wings of fire and lava pouring from it's back.
"What is that thing?" Luna asked her sister in surprise. The creature turned to their direction and began to hover over. Metal sliding through metal was heard as Luna readied the large scythe with magic and rested the tip of the blade on the ground. Celestia glanced at the weapon and Luna caught wind of her look. "Just in case." She added. Celestia let out a sigh and readied the halberd with her own magic. More metal was heard as the guards followed suit. Here they overlooked the forest from a hill no more than 100 metres away from the tress as the beast made haste towards them.
"I CAN SEE YOU!" An angry shout sounded from the monster's direction. "GET OUT OF MY WAY, OR DIE!" It blasted out again. The forest beneath it caught fire as lava set the trees alight in a growing blaze. There was no doubt this had caused the fire. It's shape grew larger and larger, becoming increasingly defined. Now they could see it's burning eyes, glowing red with hatred for something.
Suddenly, six shapes burst from the trees moving quickly towards them. They were immediately recognised as the six bearers of the elements of harmony, and Celestia gestured for them to head over. Rainbow Dash was there within seconds, however it took a little longer for the other mares to catch up. All looked well out of breath. Their faces were red and they could barely get a word in.
"Celes-*Huff*-tia!" Twilight managed to construct a sentence. Just. "We need-*Huff*- your help." Celestia put a hoof on her shoulder. "Why are-*Huff*- you here in-*Huff*- armour?"
"We are here in force, just in case of a situation such as this." She pointed to the beast rapidly approaching them. Twilight turned and her expression dropped at the sight of a demon coming towards them. The rest of the mares gasped and Apple Jack came up to them.
"Twilight, you must tell me what you were doing out in the Everfree near this monster." Celestia inquired. Twilight staedied her breathing before answering.
"We were out looking for some dangerous individuals-*Huff*-that we were tipped off about. Our source was out with these... creatures trying to fight that thing. judging by how much of it's hide is missing, I'd say they did a number on him." Celestia frowned at some of her word choices. "However I fear that they... may not have fared too well."
Fluttershy gasped at the thought. "Oh no! If What if Nero is hurt?" She turned to the princesses. "We need to help them!"
"Creatures? And who is this 'Nero'?"
"Well Nero came about quite recently. Him and his friends are basically monster hunters who go out to slay demons. With his help and guidance, we went out looking for them, however we weren't expecting Berial to be there..." Twilight replied. Suddenly the crossbow guards were organised into a firing position on the approaching demon and the sergeant shouted.
"Ready!" He raised a hoof that he would drop as a signal to fire.
"... But the thing is that they're not ponies. They're some kind of tall primate we've never seen before. Said they got sucked into a portal of some kind and ended up here." She finished off her sentence.
"Ha! That is ludicrous to the point of insanity." Luna suggested but Celestia gave her a stern look.
"Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." Twilight swore her Pinkie oath as the pink earth pony jumped up in the air behind her at the sound of her personal oath phrase. "I'm not lying to you, Luna. I don't think they were either." Luna narrowed her eyes in suspicion.
Berial was close now. No more then 30 seconds and he would be upon them to wreak hell to the guards. Speaking off which, were looking incredibly nervous about going up against such a large opponent. Some of them glanced over to the princesses for some sort of reassurance or moral support.
"Twilight, I need you to go back to your castle and wait there with your friends and your guard. We will fight this foe for now and come back when it is safe. You may be your own princess now, but I can't risk you getting involved with something like this. We'll talk about this later on." Celestia ordered and Twilight obeyed. Joining her friends to run along back to Ponyville. Celestia watched them run away until she was provoked into looking back by the shouting of orders by the sergeant.
"Prepare to fire!" he told the crossbow users as they all leaned into their weapons a little and took up aim at Berial.
"Sergeant, don't fire yet. I need to see if I can talk with our friend here." Celestia said to the stallion and the sergeant replied.
"Retain steady aim, hold your fire!" He shouted, and Celestia gave him a nod. Berial was now past the trees and he looked down. Once he gathered himself, and then stopped flying. His cumbersome body dropped like a stone to the floor and sent out a shock wave that would be enough to give headaches after a while. He grunted and looked up at them. The unicorn's horns lit up and the remaining fire fighting pegasus took up combat stances.
Berial began to slowly trudge forward, each footfall making so much noise, Ponyville could probably here it even though it was nearly a mile away. He walked up and the princesses stayed stoic, looking at him sternly and without fear. He stopped a short distance away and looked down at them.
"Did you not hear me? Who are you to defy the conqueror of the fire hell?" He asked aggressively.
"I am princess Celestia and this is my sister, princess Luna. Who are you to step foot on my land and burn down my property?" She said defiantly. Berial growled and pointed at them with a digit.
"I do not care for your land for I am not in a good mood, back down and you will be spared." He offered an ultimatum and Luna laughed a little.
"This is our country, not yours. And we will defend it with our lives!" Luna readied herself into a combat stance, her scythe in position to attack. Celestia followed suit.
"Your arson stops today, Berial." Celestia ended the short talk as the crystal in her and her sister's weapon lit up with magical energy. Berial sprouted his wings and let out and almighty roar. The ground shook with the sound and Luna began to spin her scythe, pulling it back ready to unleash the fury of the night.
"Fire!" The sergeant dropped his foreleg and crossbows rained bolts down on Berial, peppering him with enchanted shots. However he stood against the barrage and shrugged off the assault. Luna launched her weapon forward, still spinning, and a wave of blue energy was sent forth towards the fire demon. Berial quickly thrust his wings side-ways and dodged the attack with ease. Luna huffed and prepared for another blast of magic when Celestia fired her own.
A golden beam fired at Berial and he tried to dodge again, but as he leaped over the laser it caught his previously damaged ankle and he lurched back onto the ground in pain.
"I'll get you for that!" He growled and dashed forward with a punch aiming at the two sisters. The guards retreated out of the way and the princesses leaped away from his fist just before it hit the floor. It landed with a crash and sent out plumes of dust upon impact.
Luna, who landed close to the fist, attacked the appendage ruthlessly. She hacked at the arm with all her might and sliced through the rock hard skin to cause several bits of lava blood to spurt out. The jumped out of the way to avoid being burned and Berial recoiled his arm. He roared and swiped at her.
The attack landed home and hit her away from himself as she skimmed across the ground until she finally came to a stop a short while away, her weapon landing beside her.Some guards steeled themselves and bravely ran to her defense. Celestia saw this and screamed out in fear for her sister.
"Luna!" She cried. A beam of energy again fired at Berial, this time with uncontrolled malice. Berial dodged and weaved this way and that. Narrowly avoiding the beam of burning energy that more than once skimmed his hard skin and singed it. Crumbling away onto the ground. He got close enough that it become impossible to avoid being hit any longer, and the laser hit him in the face.
He recoiled and shielded himself with a hand until a thought came to mind. He used the bright light of the laser to hide his form as he ignored the pain and lunged forward at the sun goddess with another mighty punch. Celestia stopped beaming and raised her halberd up horizontally, and when the punch hit, she was sent sliding backwards. Creating two long skid marks along the ground until she came to a halt.
She looked up at Berial with pure anger and she saw something embedded in his chest. Somehow, sometime, a sword had been rammed into his skin and it was still lodged in there. The sword was seamless and in perfect condition so it must have been recent. "-This 'Nero' and his friends must have been hunting Berial.-" She realised and came back from her thoughts to see him advancing on her. She had no time to react and braced herself from the blow.
She was surprised when it never came, but was happy to see that her sister was back on her hooves and had attacked him with magical energy to knock him away from her. She sliced the air with her scythe over and over, breaking away chunks of his skin around the raised arms, drawing more lava blood that spilled onto the ground.
"Fire!" The sergeant called again, and more crossbow bolts flew threw the air. When they landed, some hit weak spots on him that his fight with the princesses had opened up, causing him to roar in more pain. Luna ran up to her sister and and stood next to her, breathing heavily and appearing slightly in pain.
"Are you okay, Luna? Are you hurt?" She scoured her sisters body for injuries but could find nothing but bruises.
"Tis' but a scratch." She dismissed the concern with certainty, and continued to stare Berial down with hatred she had not used since her time as Nightmare Moon. Celestia nodded and returned to her own stare.
Berial looked at the guards re-loading their weapons and made a lunge for them, as he decided that it would be much easier with them around. Most of the guards were able to get away from his punch okay, but one young stallion tripped over his hooves and fell flat on his face as the punch made it's way towards him. Luna charged up a powerful spell as her sister took action.
Celestia teleported from next to her sister and to in-front of the young guard, holding her halberd in a strong magical grip. The rock fist hit the weapon with a loud clang and the force of him continually pushing down on the weapon made Celestia's hooves dig into the ground. She grunted as she fought to keep Berials attack from crushing her body into the floor. Sweat beat down her face and she turned to the guard with a stern expression.
"Run." She put it simply, and the guard hastily nodded and picked himself up, running for his life. She turned her attention back to Berial as he put more and more pressure against her magic. Suddenly her halberd began to creak and groan under the stress, and with a crack and a flash of light, it snapped and exploded. Sending Celestia flying backwards into the retreating guard, and Berial stumbling the other way. Berial recovered quickly and was about to ttack when Luna's magic burst blasted him over and he toppled onto his side.
Meanwhile, Celestia was regaining her bearings and she sat down on something un-even as her eyes rolled around in her head. She sat for a second until she heard a voice. "Umm- er, princess?" She looked behind her and realised that she was in fact sitting on the blushing young guards open pelvis, legs trapped open by her rump.
"Oh..." She replied with a blush of her own and stood up on her wobbly hooves. The guard jolted up onto his own hooves and hid away a little. Celestia looked down at the pieces of her halberd and sighed nervously. She picked them up and offered them to him.
"Keep it, as a souvenir." She said even more nervously and the guard took them, placing them carefully into his saddlebag.
"Th-thank you. P-princess." He said shakily as he continued to blush. He then turned and ran. Celestia exhaled as she mused. "-That's going to be all over the news this week.-" She turned back to Berial, whom was fighting Luna. "-Handsome young stallion, though... wait, did I just...-" Her thoughts were interrupted as Luna was tossed into the air by Berial and landed by her side, skipping back to get rid of some momentum.
"You finished day-dreaming about that colt yet?" She asked with a wicked grin.
"Y-you saw that?" Celestia stammered, embarrassed.
"Handsome one, eh?" Luna replied. Celestia realised that if her sister knew about it, then it could easily get leaked through her mischievous antics. "Maybe you should get together, I know I wouldn't mind being with a stallion like him." The dark blue alicorn teased. "Oh, I am definitely setting that up for you, sister." She laughed a little.
"You will tell no-pony about this. You hear hear me? No-pony!" Celestia reacted with some frustration, thrusting her hoof angrily at Luna. "Anyway we have a demon to fight, and I have no weapon. I can't purely rely on magic."
"Maybe you could use that sword in the beast's chest, if you can get up close." Luna suggested, now back to a serious manor.
"Good idea. You distract him while I go for the sword, yes?"
"Sounds like a sound plan to me. Hyah!" Luna took off into the air with her scythe trailing behind her, dashing away in a blue flash. Berial swung at her but she dodged. Weaving and twirling like a dancer in the air. Celestia gathered her energy and ran at the behemoth, getting closer and closer.
Once she got close enough, she gave one last thrust of her wings and catapulted herself into the air. The swords black handle presented itself to her as she got enough height, and she grabbed hold hold it with her magic. The blade was jammed into the skin nearly all the way to the guard, and Celestia had to pull incredibly hard to remove it, and when she did the sword un-jammed and Celestia flew quickly out of range of Berial's flailing arms.
She hovered a short while away and as Luna flew past, Berial turned to follow, leaving the left side of his head exposed. She took the chance and surged toward the weak spot with the strange sword. She used the sword like a lance and speared into his temple, causing him to stop chasing Luna and start thrashing around. Celestia grabbed onto the sword and held on as Berial swung this way and that to remove her.
Now it was Luna's turn, and she reeled back her scythe as she flew in at the other side of his head. Swinging with great strength, she hacked into Berial's right temple and he stopped moving to scream out in agony. He raised his hands to his head to try and crush the alicorns, but they saw it coming and moved out of the way, causing him to slam the weapons into his own skull.
Tonnes of lave shot out from the wounds and Berial fell to his knees, clutching his head as the the spurting lava caused enough pressure to launch the weapons back out of his skull and into the magical grasps of the sisters again. They took their final chance and covered themselves in heat proof magic shields, before diving in at the demon.
They collided with his skull and tunneled all the way through, somehow they managed to swap weapons while they were tearing through the hot brain and rip a huge hole inside his head before exiting on the other side. Exploding from each temple in a fiery blaze. Their weapons trailed magical energy, the sword with Luna and the scythe with Celestia.
Berial's screaming stopped immediately as they flew outwards and away from the towering figure, who started to fall forwards onto his front. The lifeless corpse crashing down onto the ground with a huge plume of dust kicking up around it. The two sisters looked down to behold their work and saw the dead body of what was once a demon.
They both landed beside each other and sat down on the grass next to the colossal corpse. They handed each weapon back to it's rightful owner. Except that Celestia didn't own the dark coloured sword that she held before her. Now she had time to rest, she thought more about those demon hunters that Twilight mentioned.
Who were they? And the thing that worried her most... what have they brought with them?
These thoughts were interrupted by a bright light emitting an immense magical report towards the sisters. They tried to look and see what was causing the light, but could only determine that it had originated from the carcass of the dead demon lying in the field. Celestia Picked herself off the ground, leaving her battered sister to rest and observe curiously.
"Be careful sister, we don't know what that is!" She called after he elder, who just carried on walking, putting up a tinted magical barrier to shield her eyes while she walked. As her horn flashed, the dark wall appeared and floated in-front of her face. As she got closer she realised that the object was also travelling at her as well, albeit slowly. As a result she came near in no time, coming to a stop next to the floating miniature star.
She frowned heavily and cocked her head while Luna watched nervously, biting her lip. Celestia felt the sudden urge to touch the object, and so she reached her hoof out toward it. It levitated onto her gold clad hoof and as it made contact she felt something she had not felt in a long time: A magical connection. The last time she had been subject to a direct magical connection was when her soul was bound with the magic and power of the sun. And when this object's magic fused with her's and the connection was made, she felt another soul's power added to her's. Before she knew it, a flash had erupted from her and the object was gone. Instead she could feel new objects adorning her form. She disabled the magical visor and turned her head to see.
Connected to her wings were two demonic-quiver-looking-things. Their ornate beauty was added to the brutal lines and scary designs that covered their surface. And out of the holes protruded red claws, handles peeking out from darkness and into the world, just waiting to be used. A slightly worrying sadistic grin spread across her face and in a sudden moment of energy, she decided to test out her new toys. Besides, she felt the need to exercise her inner youth and cheeky quirk.
She darted as fast as lightning to the corpse of Berial, covering the distance in an insanely fast time and came close enough to prepare her attack. Just before the two bodies came into contact, Celestia's hooves glowed gold with infused magic and she pounded up at one side of the dead demon, flicking it into a lean. She threw herself onto her forelegs and bucked upwards with great strength, kicking Berial up into the air, giving him a good 30 feet of height before she leaped after him in a hazy multicoloured blur. The insane hang-time gathered by the two seemed to defy gravity itself as Celestia slowly came to common altitude with the massive body of dead rock.
"First, I take control!.." She began. Wings spread, hovering and grinning wickedly, she used her magic to clutch one of the red claws attached to the quivers and whipped it through the air to make contact with Berial and crackle with demonic energy, making it pause in the air for a short time.
"And then I hold in place!.." She continued in epic fashion as she thrust her wings and began to make an arc over her once opponent's corpse, flinging consecutive spines into her once opponent's body. A space was left in-between two smaller arches for her next trick. "Until..." She took out a cluster of deadly thorns and aimed them carefully, judging the power of her move. "... I slam down!" She crossed them before turning away and throwing them over her head, the wind disturbance making her ethereal mane trail behind her majestically. The blades hit their mark exactly on target.
"And then with great speed..." Using a rocket spell she propelled herself in-between Berial and the ground, rapidly throwing blade after blade as she went to create the start of her penultimate move. Her twirling body trailed colour and whisps of spinning air as red blurs shot up at the corpse until she came close to the ground, ready to begin moving back up the other side of Berial's carcass. "I thrust through!" She began throwing the spines in doubles as she ascended again. "Over..." She finished her cluster attacks and completed the main shape she was looking to make. "... and over!" She threw a quadruplet of spikes into the centre of the shape before letting herself fall to the ground with a small puff of dust.
"Until we finish!" She jumped forward to gain momentum...
"And in the end..." She began to tumble forward over herself...
"We're all satisfied." Her wings opened and her body's momentum was broken. Her mane and tail however kept going to create a magnificent trail of magically charged rainbow blowing on the currents of air behind her.
"You are set free." She completed her work of art by flinging a rose at the centre blades and having it hit it's target with professional accuracy. They exploded in a shatter of crimson glass and metal, before the shape followed: A love heart. From the notch at the top the explosions followed the blades around to leave a thin cloud of smoke behind where the heart once was. Sfter the show had finished, Berial's heavy body came clattering back down to earth with a huge crash. The quivers disappeared from Celestia's back in a flash of light and she smiled.
"I think I'll keep those, just in case." She turned to see the awe-struck Luna. Jaw collecting dew on the grass.