//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4 -  Negotiations 
// Story: Flash's Demon 
// by Nicktendonick 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 4 – Negotiations


Flash placed a second book on the stack.

Flash knew it wasn't much, but at least it'd mark how long they've been here. The day was almost over, and he had almost forgotten to start it. Something to mark the time. Yesterday was the day they were put in here, and today was the second day.

True to her word, the demon hadn't harmed them at all. Flash knew it wouldn't last, that the demon would stop keeping true to her word the moment she felt like it. After all, a demon was a demon, and demons were never to be trusted. Flash knew he had to be ready for when she would betray their deal.

Laplace had been a good pony to be stuck with. He quite enjoyed her company, and she was easy on the eyes. Flash made an effort to avoid gazing too long at Laplace’s figure. Aside from getting scared and possibly treasonous at first, she seemed more accustomed and level-headed than he initially thought, and smarter than he initially thought as well. He supposed she earned that red star of a cutie mark for a reason. As long as she didn't break into a panic like she did yesterday they might just stand a chance at escaping.

But until then, there wasn't much else to do. Wait, heal, talk.

“I suppose we should be grateful that she gave us food,” Flash said sarcastically.

And eat.

It was actually quite a lot of food. It was large tray filled with dandelion sandwiches. More than enough for two ponies, more than enough for 6, actually.

Laplace had a hollow laugh. “Eeyuup!” she said back, taking one of the dandelion sandwiches, falling on her flank and gobbling it up without any manners whatsoever. “These sandwiches are pretty good,” she said with her mouth full.

Flash on the other hoof, had a bit of curiosity as the gears in his brain turned. “Laplace, can you lift up the tray for me? I wanna see something.”

Laplace tilted her head. “Hmm? Why?”

“I want to see if the tray's from the castle kitchen,” Flash said back.

“Oh, I know that. It is,” Laplace answered.

Flash exhaled. “Then it means they know we're here. Unless she's able to make food all on her own.”

“I doubt that,” Laplace replied “If she wants to bargain with Shining, I'd expect she'd try to let them know first chance she got. That seems to be her M.O. Anyway.”

“Yeah...” Flash said, trotting over to the tray and taking a sandwich for himself.

Curiosity struck Flash. “Laplace,” he began. “I haven't seen you around the castle before. What part of the castle are you stationed in? I know I'm a little new to the afternoon guard shift, but I thought I met most of the guards.”

Laplace stopped eating for a moment and asked Flash a question. “You meet most of the guards?” She asked curiously.

Flash nodded. “Yea, most of them. I didn't meet the Earth Stallion that was with us, though.”

“I see, I see,” Laplace said. “Castle Cless, that's what his name was, the brown stallion. He's nice.” Laplace smiled. “He's a friend of mine, I've known him for a couple of years now. Anyway you first, then I'll go. What parts do you guard? I'm more curious about that honestly.” Laplace said.





And so, the two began to talk. While Laplace slowly applied her magic to Flash's right wing, the two talked about things big and small, compared tastes in music and even for a kick, took a look at “Repealed bylaws of ponyville”, another book here in the collection of tax laws.

“-And also it's legal for you to own alligators?” Laplace commented, reading the massive tome. “Wow, this one's actually pretty recent, like, like a few years ago recent. Someone must have really loved their pet alligator to get it repealed.”

“What were they thinking? Those things are ferocious! Especially a feral one!” Flash said back. “Have you ever seen those things? On a family vacation I almost got eaten by one of those! Who in their right mind would keep one as a pet?”

Laplace disagreed. “I don't know, I think a little alligator could be really cute.”

Flash gave her a disbelieving look. “I bet you five bits there's no such thing as a cute little alligator. Anyway, my turn,” Flash said, taking the book and flipping pages until he randomly stopped on one.

“Here's another. Apparently you can park your chariot inside someone else's tree home. But if it stays there for more the 48 hours it can be fined for illegal parking. And the owner of the home can charge rent if it's been there for more than 96 hours. But now, even if the tree is on fire the owner of the tree home can still charge rent. Unless you're a paladin... for some reason.”

Laplace had a little laugh to that. “My father used to be a Paladin,”

“He was?” Flash started to say.

My father's-  Flash was about to say next, before he cut himself off. He didn't want to go down that road. Instead, Flash just stayed silent, and Laplace joyfully continued on.

“Um, yea. My father was one of the Paladins here some time ago. He wasn't the strongest, but he was really magically gifted, and he knew the captain, long before Shining Armor took over a few years ago.”

“And your mom?” Flash then asked.

“Oh...” Laplace said, her voice growing a little weaker. “Umm... she's complicated. It's a long story.”

“Complicated?”

Laplace slightly sighed. “Well...”

To Flash, it looked like Laplace was weighing if she should or shouldn't. It drew a mental red flag.

“Well, we got the time if you wanna tell it,” Flash said.

Laplace continued to think about it. “Well...um...if I tell you, you won't think any less of me? Right?”

That was a odd question, Flash thought. And another red flag.

And now that he felt the itch, Flash knew he had to scratch it. “Of course Laplace.”

Laplace shrugged and resided herself “Well If we think it's a good idea, I guess we're gonna- huh? Is that the door?”

They heard an unlocking sound. Turning, the saw the double doors unlock and slowly open on their own with a loud creak. The lights outside the tax room were on. But only for a small part of the demon's library. It was an illuminated path of lights. Natural curiosity took control of them both, Flash got to his hooves and helped Laplace up and together they walked towards the now opened doors.

“Flash, what is it?” Laplace asked.

“Um...” Flash knew the answer. And that answer was trouble.

Maybe we should go take a look.

No duh, that's exactly what you need to do.

Double duh, that's exactly what that demon wants you to do.

Whatever it is, it's not going to be good. The moment we step out there something terrible is gonna happen to me.

Flash looked at Laplace. Despite moving first, she was a step behind and keeping one step behind Flash... despite him slowing his pace.

She's... not going to...is she?

…

...Celestia damn it.

“Let me take a look,” Flash said, not a single hint of his mental process showing.

“Thank you!” Laplace replied. Stopping  to let Flash take the lead into the unknown.

Flash sighed. ...Damn chivalry. Why do girls keep doing this to me?

Flash trotted through the doors into the library, a set of lights illuminating a path for him, leaving darkness to both sides of him. After trotting a few cautious feet, a massive dark imitation of a dragon's claw came out of nowhere.

“Perfect! I needed one of you for this! So nice of you to volunteer!”

“Son of a bit-” was all Flash had time to say before he was snatched by the claw.

“Flash!” Laplace shouted as the double doors closed in front of her.

“I knew iiiiiiiitttttt!!!” was all he could yell as he was pulled into a darkness unknown.





After two minutes of travel inside the darkness, Flash was plopped out landing softly with an “omph!” Immediately, Sunlight hit his eyes. “Ahhh, so bright,” Flash muttered as he shielded his slowly adjusting eyes. “Couldn't they just turn it-Wait?! Sun?!”

He was close to the cell bars he noticed earlier, and behind those, the cell bars was a mural from which the setting sunlight shone through.

“The sun! Sweet Celestia's sun!” he said with a joy in his heart.

Looking at the figures behind the bars, he immediately stopped his youthful act. In front of him stood a unicorn stallion of strong stature wearing a unique decorated armor for both show and battle. His coat was a strong white, his mane blue like an ocean with a steak of the sky's color.

Flash knew this unicorn well. Almost all of Equestria did. Shining Armor. Hero of the crown, captain of the guard, the strongest and highest ranked of all paladins; if he’s around, something serious was going down.

Flash gulped.

To his left was another pony. A mare with a cream colored coat and a dual mane of blue and pink, on her back was a warhammer that was far too big for her to wield. Flash noticed the armor she wore indicated she was a paladin of the Solar Guard, the division of paladins Shining Armor's personally led.

“Captain Armor!” Flash shouted.

“Don't worry, we're gonna get you out of there.” Shining Armor said to Flash.

“See? There's your proof of life. Flash Sentry is fine, not harmed at all,” A shadowy mare began to trot from the darkness of the cell, “Perfectly fine, so are the others. They're just... kinda not available at the moment. I assure you, none of my prisoners are hurt.”

All their eyes went on Flash's bandaged wing. Shining Armor's glare moved from it, and back to the shadow mare.

“Oh...heh-heh...um that was an accident. He did that to himself. We're not an idiot who goes flying into a chandelier at full speed. Those damn things hurt. We remember last time when one of you sent us sent flying into one... so actually, we'd say it's your fault, cause you're the guys who put those bloody things there in the first place.”

She was not paid any attention.

“Soldier, state your name,” Shining ordered.

Flash hesitated.

“Oh come on, we told you it was Flash Sentry,” bemoaned the demon.

He glared at the demon before turning to Flash. “Soldier, state your name, rank, and unit.” He commanded again.

Flash obeyed. “Flash Sentry Junior sir.” He said. “Private, Royal guard, recruit division B.”

After a quick check of a paper, the cream colored paladin had, Shining nodded and asked his next question. “Good. Soldier, how's your condition? Has she coached or told you to say anything at all?”

Flash looked at the shadow mare.

“Ignore her. She's not going to lay a hoof on you.” Shining said. “If she wants anything, she won't be doing anything to you. So ignore her and please answer my question.”

“Hey! Don't ignore us!”

“Ignore her and tell me the truth,” Shining said once again.

The shadow demon's face scrunched like a filly as Flash answered.

“She hasn't said a thing about this. She hurt my friends, I saw her turn one of the guards with me into stone, but she hasn't told me what happened afterward to him or what she did to the rest of them,” he began “I only know about me and another guard, Laplace. We were captured and she hasn't hurt either of us.”

“Laplace?” Captain Armor said curiously.

Flash replied. “Yes, she was one of the guards that was with us.”

“When did you meet her?” questioned Shining. “When did she tell you her name? Do you know her rank or division?”

“Uhhh...” Flash was a confused by why he'd ask that, but he answered none-the-less. “Well, no. I well, met her yesterday when this all happened, and I found out after she captured us.”

Flash mentally shrugged it off and got to the thing he wanted to say. “Can you tell our families that we're ok? I don't want my little brother or my mom to worry. I know Laplace doesn't want her family to worry either. We're being held inside one of her rooms, it's a room filled with old equestrian laws.”

Shining Armor closed his eyes. When it came time for a rescue, he knew where that was.

“Alright. I'll let your mother know, as well as Laplace's family,” Shining Armor Said.

The shadow mare had a chuckle. “It's a pity that you're lying to him, that's a very good idea if that was true. We're sure Laplace's family and Flashy's family would love to know how their little ponies are doing, maybe you should let us out, that way they can be face to face again? Let them have a hug maybe?”

Shining Armor winced, so did the cream colored paladin. “We're not letting you out of here, demon,” spoke the defiant solar guard paladin.

“Ouch. So harsh, so harsh,” The shadow mare responded. “You know you catch more flies with honey than vinegar right? We're hurt, really hurt.”

The shadow mare trotted over to Flash.

“Seriously, Flashy here would be screwed if we treated him the way you treat us. But unlike you monsters,” Said the monster “We're treating our prisoner really well. He's been quite cozy in our library, just waiting for his boss to do the smart thing and give us what we want. We have been a very, very gracious host. In-faaaact...”

With a light of the shadow mare's horn, she materialized a sandwich... one of the sandwiches from the room he'd guess.

“We even share our food with our guests! See? Watch him eat it.”

Flash looked and had no idea what to do with the telekinetic sandwich floating in front of him.

The shadow mare leaned towards Flash “Eat it, You're gonna make us all look bad,” she whispered

Flash had no response. He wasn't sure if to be confused, to be hungry, or what. Just a “uuuhhhh...”

“What? You think we've enchanted it or something?” The shadow mare said, “Like we slipped a spell inside that sandwich to release hydrochloric acid so when you eat it the acid will dissolve your insides in a heinous, crazy painful and gory death?”

Flash just looked at her. “...well … now that you're being really specific about it...”

The shadow mare groaned, and with a telekinetic snatch and teleport it vanished out of view. The shadow immediately faded away as Flash heard the sounds of chewing.

“You're an idiot,” said a singular voice from above. “Seriously, the castle chef is great. He even makes a basic sandwich taste fine. Worth missing reading a book.”

Flash felt something hit his head. Looking up, bread crumbs tumbling out of the mouth of a mare high above him, standing on the ceiling as easily as one would stand on the floor. 

While perplexed by her defiance of the laws of physics, Flash recognized the mare’s voice: that other mare’s voice when Paladin Conduct hurt the demon. After finishing what was left of the sandwich in a single bite, she hopped off the ceiling and spun, landing on the floor without missing a beat

“Seriously, we don't know how he does it,” said the mare “Shining, what was his name again? Please give this guy a raise, you seriously need to keep him from getting snatched up by some company. That month where he took a vacation, oh that substitute chef didn’t even come close.”

Flash examined her character. Her curvy silver tail was very long, almost going all the way down to her hooves. Her mane glistened like a river of molten silver, flowing across the side of her face. Her hooves were a dark black, her coat was a snow white. She lacked a cutie mark, but it only showed off her flank even more.

So this is my captor's true form? She's... Flash found her hot. Very, very hot. She's someth-

Woah.

But it changed the moment she finished chewing and opened her eyes and looked at him. Her pupils were slit like a dragon, but that was not what make Flash step back. The demon's eyes were cracked, as if her eyeballs were made of glass. Her open, drake eyes had cracks and lines stretching from the iris and extending all the way out. And they were slowly growing.

She really is a demon, Flash thought.

The demon had a smile on her face as she placed a hoof on Flash's shoulder. “Really, why would you think we'd kill you Flashy? We told her to tell you we're keeping you in good condition for a trade." 

The demon skipped back like a filly. "And besides all that, why hurt you when is so much fun to keep you alive anyway? You've been so much fun to watch. We haven't had this much amusement in years."

Turning her attention now to Shining Armor, She began pacing, trotting left and right.

“And to you, Shining, if you kill a prisoner they aren't worth stuff anymore, and we really want stuff. Plus their corpse rots, it makes a nasty smell, goddamn flies start bugging me and getting in our books it's so not worth it.” she bemoaned “Save as a undead of course, but eh...they're stupid, and we'd rather not become a filthy necromancer anyway.”

The cream colored Paladin frowned at that.

“You two assholes should believe really believe us. If we wanted to do something to him we would have already done it. I mean, we could douse him in some potion that causes physical deformities, poison his food and water and watch him waste away...” she said to everypony's dismay. “We don’t even want to buck him in the face, despite what he’s done against us.”

“If anyone deserves to be bucked, it’s you.” Said the cream colored paladin.

The demon mare smiled acting as if she didn't get the cream paladin's meaning. “So true! Everyone deserves to be bucked by their one true love!” The demon giggled before fixated her eyes back on Shining. “So, Shiny, why don't we get started?”

“I couldn't agree more,” Shining Armor said sternly. This was Flash's cue to stay silent. He knew better than to ruin the best chance to get out without incident. He mentally zipped his lip.

And so, negotiations began. “I gave the night watch my list of demands. We hope to see you've filled them all out already.”

Shining said nothing as he turned to the cream colored paladin. “Bonbon, can you bring out the float?”

“Yes sir,” said the cream colored paladin, walking out of sight.

The demon watched the paladin walk away. “Bon Bon huh? Very cute mare, is she the one you’re mounting on the side when that whore of yours isn’t looking?"

Shining didn't give into the bait. “Bon Bon and her girlfriend are very happy together.”

The demon's ears lowered. “Really? Oh poo. You take all the fun out of our insults Shiny.”

Sharply, Shining shot back. "Dealing with you is never fun," 

The demon pouted. "Well... is to me. I love it when you come to visit, Shiny."
"You're so much fun to be around, Shining," she said, smiling. 

The two looked as the solar paladin returned, pulling a large float by her teeth. On the float was a box that was nearly the size of a large stallion. 

"We're also so happy you listened to reason and gave us what we wanted, you're a real keeper, Shiny, you know that?" the demon said.

With what he needed to have this quagmire dealt with, Shining Armor went straight to business. “I saw your demands. I'll give you this for all of them.” Shining told the demon.

“And an increase in food? We want what you fancy pants are eating. We want fancier food, cooked fresh for us and whenever we want food you'll have the chefs make them.”

“No, the chefs don't work that way. They don't make food to your order, or ours. We eat when they want to make the food, not the other way around.”

“They would for the crown, so that's what we want and what you're gonna give us.”

“I'll talk to the chefs to see what I can do, but no promises,” Shining said.

Hah! Like you actually would. Another dead end. The demon sighed, knowing what that meant. “Of course.”

“Anyway, what you'll get for them is in here,” Captain Armor said. “We’ve weakened the barrier a little. You should be able to extend your search magic and explore it yourself.”

“Good to know at least something is reliable then,” the demon said as Flash watched a trail of red aura extended from the demon's horn and traveled to the float. The paladins opened up the case for the red magic to slid inside and search the float's contents.

“Oooh, oh so glad you got that... oh that too, yes, We've been looking for one of thos-OH!” She gasped in excitement, “There's a novel in there! Is that the newest Daring Doo novel?!”

“Yes, a brand new copy just like you asked,” answered Shining.

If Flash didn't know any better, the demon was getting giddy like a fangirl. She floated up to the cell bars in and smiled at Shining Armor.

“Oh, it's so perfect,” she exclaimed in joy “oh how we love yo-...”

The demon's expression instantly changed.

“-what?”

She landed, and Flash watched her red magic glow brighter inside the package. Her breath was picking up as her magic searching the contents with double intensity.

Oh crap... Flash thought. The yellow veins grew in size across her eyes. Whatever it was, he knew this was bad.

“Prison Break, you only have the books 4 and 5 here. We already have the first three and there's six total. We said the rest of the books, you only gave us two. And... and...”

Flash watched the demon's red aura grow brighter inside the contents, the float shaking violently now.

“What the heck!” The demon exclaimed, her angry was growing “this isn't all the things we asked for! There's books missing, magazines missing, there's no bromine. There’s not even one bit of it! Assholes! Not even the bromine! Liquid. Bromine! It was on the top of the list! We would have taken it in any form but why didn't you at least get that?”

Shining was steadfast and did not flinch “Bromine is dangerous, we are not giving you that. We've had this discussion before. Not bromine, not gunpower, not methane, not Heart's Desire, not Poison Joke. We are not giving you any of those or any any other dangerous substances.”

“We had a deal!” The demon stomped her hoof twice for emphasis and glared at Shining, the cracks inside her eyes burning bright with each ounce of swelling anger. “We give you a list, you give us what we ask for, then we release your idiots. That was the deal! This isn't everything! We told you to give us ALL of it! There's no choose this or that, but everything! We're not skimping out on our part of the deal Shining! We give you everything you want and in return you give us everything we want.”

“You're not getting everything. This is all we can afford to give you.”

The demon called Shining out on his bullshit. “Horseshit. And spare us that bitching that you can't do without your bosses knowing or money or any other secrecy horseshit.”

“Fine. What I gave you is all you're gonna get. Good behavior will get you more things, including those novels, later.”

The demon was motionless, but Flash could tell anger was brewing in her broken eyes, growing wilder with every passing second.

“You're trying to cut us huh?” She accused Shining.

"I'm making a fair trade," Shining responed.

She growled at him.

“You're trying to cut us!” She shouted. “We gave you my list of demands and you're gonna deliver on all of them! We valued for what each of your people are worth. And that value increases with each day as you're having to call extra aid and expend more bits as well as pay the salaries of each of our captives as to keep the cover of your standard excuse, ‘special military exercises outside of Canterlot. We've done the math, we know what each of these guards are worth and you're gonna give us every bit they're worth. Or maybe we should start taking off their limbs? Oh, that'd be a great expenditure, paying for their disabilities, paying their families to keep silent. Given standard life expectancy of the current past ten years and the sheer new-ness of each of these youthful guards, you're going to be shelling out a lot of bit for the most foolish of reasons. And that amount? You're going to have to trust us on that amount. We've done the math, you don't want to hear the math.”

She hurled what appeared to be a phone book at the paladins. Inches before the book hit the iron bars it bounced off what appeared to be thin air. For an instant one could see a glowing interlocked hexagonal pattern shining at the point of impact, vanishing as quickly as it appeared. The book bounced off the inner wall of the barrier. The book fell open, revealing a mess of equations that most tenured professors, or even the most brilliant university janitors couldn’t solve.

“There’s the math; peruse at it your leisure, but your jarhead’s probably too empty to understand it.”

She walked up to the bars and stared down the leader of Equestria's top paladin.

“...And that's aside from the fact that your stupidity will be ruining the lives of ponies who don't deserve any of this. We honestly skimped on what they're worth, we're not asking for their full value. We're actually giving you a great deal Shiny, and it's best you start taking that deal before lives become ruined forever. You're giving us all of this.”

“You're not getting all of that.” Shining Armor stared into the demon's eyes, both parties refusing to back down.

“You really want these ponies to die, huh? We seriously can't believe you, Shining. Why in the world do you want these ponies to die? We thought Equestria doesn't leave a pony behind, and you personally pride yourself on doing everything you can to save a life. So why aren't you doing everything you can to save them?”

Shining said nothing and continued his glare.

“What, did these ponies do anything to piss you off? Is that why you want them dead? Were you having an affair with those girls and need to silence them before your whore found out? Uh...maybe you were mounting Flashy instead? You really want him to die huh, Shining? Dead ponies tell no tales, eh?”

Flash knew this was getting bad. Instinctively he slowly began to back up away from the two colliding forces. And then, to keep with his act of stealth, Flash sneezed. Nabbing the attention of both colliding forces.

Looking at Flash and smiling, the demon mare spoke. “Oh don't worry we won't kill you, Flashy, we like you. we won't ever do that... we just won't ever let you leave, that's what. In fact, we'll strip away your mind and twist it into somepony who won't ever want to leave. We'll be spending the rest of our lives here together in my cage, thanks to stupid Shiny's stupidness,” she said childishly. “We will be killing the rest of your friends, though, but you won't even remember them after we're done feng-shui-ing your brain.”

The demon's smile did not leave her. “What do yo think about that Shi-AH!”

When she turned to face Shining Armor, it seemed his heavy stare had not relented. The shock of turning into his face and the closeness made the demon flinch, moving back and falling on her flank with an “Woah, woah, way too close...” and a hoof on a rushing heartbeat.

With the advantage and the demon now on the defensive, Shining took the offensive. “Where are the rest of them? Where are my guards? No more games. Where are they?!”

The demonic unicorn rolled her fractured eyes as she got up off her flank. “If you need to know, aside from Flash and his gal-pal, the rest have been turned into stone. They fought back, we didn't feel like they deserved to have fun with us. Well, except for Condi. We didn't turn him into stone...”

“She means Paladin Conduct.” Flash quickly added.

“Right, Sterling Conduct, that asshole who put his big long thing inside us last year. We really wish we meant sex, but no. he got blood all over our carpet, again. And those stains aren't coming out you know. Including the ones, he gave to us yesterday. We spent all last night making sure he paid for what he did to us.”

The demon unicorn leaned in towards Shining Armor. “Let us show you...” With the light of her horn, she brought out a float her own, with...

“Sterling!” The paladins shouted together.

Sterling Conduct was unmoving and unconscious. His coat was covered in blood, all of his armor was dented and bruised. And his front left leg was bent in the opposite direction.

Flash could smell the blood off him. Conduct had been bleeding, badly. “No, scratch that. He's still bleeding! She was beating him this whole time?”

“He ended up breaking his left leg earlier.” The demon nonchalantly said before moving to what she was really focused about. “Did you know that after we beat him, he still spat in our face! It was so gross! After we told him he lost, told him he was our hostage and we wouldn't hurt him any further, we ceased beating him, floated over to him and try to help him off his ass, and what do we get for that, he literally spits in our eye and then stabbed us right in the throat! Right when we're trying to be the better pony and show him some mercy nonetheless! And well, since he didn't want my mercy we metaphorically took him to the woodshed and proceeded to show him none. He deserved what he got... But don't worry, he's not dead, I’m not that merciful to give him an escape. He just got what was coming to him. Though him breaking his leg was a wonderful accident, we wouldn't do that to a pony on purpose... though... granted, when we realized it was broken we made sure to have some... extra fun with it. We suppose now we know how much one can make a broken leg twist, heh-heh.”

A red glow formed around the unconscious paladin, a force picking him up by his broken leg and lifting him in the air.

“Anyway, we're done playing with him, so you can have him back now.” The demon said, staring at Shining Armor. With the flash of the demon's horn, Sterling Conduct was whisked away in a flash of light and reappeared on the other side of the bars, crashing on the floor. “So, care to change your mind on trying to rip us off like a dirty little rat? If you get everything we ask, we'll look the other way on your insolence.”

Shining Armor said not a single word.

“Still ‘no’?” She asked him.

She got nothing in return.

“Still ‘no’, eh?”

“Always ‘no’, demon,” was all Shining said to her.

The demon softly growled under her breath, then barked at Shining. “We know your exploits, Shiny! You know ours. You know how strong Paladin Conduct is... so tell us, if we can do this to him, just imagine what we'll do to a bunch of rookies when we're pissed off.”

The demon mare poked her head through the gates and got nearly face to face with Shining Armor, her glowing, cracked eyes stared into Flash.

"Oh, wait, we forgot, you don't have to! Remember when you first locked us up in here? How long did it take for those burns on to heal? Or for your fur to grow back? Or for all those guards we hurt? You do remember what we can do right... or do we have to remind you what I'm capable of?”

The demon mare's horn slowly lit up before she was covered in a light, coming out as a pink unicorn. A badly hurt pink unicorn, covered in gashes, red blood that tainted a purple mane that had red and yellow streaks... all with a broken horn.

Shining Armor's eyes went wide with terror.

“Shining...” the pink unicorn muttered weakly in another voice.

The pink unicorn struggled to stay on her hooves before her left leg snapped in the other direction and she fell to the ground.

“Shiiningggg!” The pink unicorn howled in pain as she fell to the floor. “Shininnnnng! Help me!” she continued to shout in agony, extending one hoof out as if trying to goad him into grabbing it.

At first, he didn't realize what she was doing. Flash Sentry looked at Shining Armor, and didn't like a single thing he saw. Bad memories, bad memories rose to the surface of Shining Armor's mind. It then dawned on Flash Sentry like a lighting bolt... or more appropriately, like an explosion.





“What the hell was that?!” A young orange colt as he laid on the floor, his ears still ringing and his mind trying to process what the heck was the loud sound was that knocked him to his floor and blew out his window. What had just happened to him?

Flash Sentry slowly got back on his hooves after, after whatever that shook him off his feet. As he looked to his bedroom window, he noticed that his window frame was just as broken apart as the window glass. The young colt flapped his wings and hovered above the broken glass and poked his head outside the river.

He saw fire and smoke. Canterlot was burning. Out in the distance, he to another part of the city was up in smoke, a nearby clock tower burning with a hole in it. What was more, he saw half of a building in the middle of his street only feet from his front door, as if it was torn from its foundation and tossed around like a foal's toy. He saw three royal guards sprawled out in little craters on the city walkways. None were responding, none of them were moving.

“What in the world?” He said to himself. “What's going on?”

Before he could say anything else, there was another massive explosion roared in the distance, Flash Sentry saw a large mushroom cloud rise up as he felt the sonic wave of the explosion. His ears popped and he fell back on his bed, barely missing the broken glass below him as he bounced off his bed and onto the hard floor. Flash got himself back up and prepared to see what this explosion had done to his hometown. But before he could, he heard the door to his bedroom slam open.

“FLASH!” He heard. Turning around, Flash saw his mother and his baby brother in her hooves, his brother crying non-stop.

“Mom!? What's going on!?” Flash asked his mom.

“Basement! Now!” She said.

“But mo-”

Another explosion rocked their home.

“Into the basement now! It's the safest room in the house!” She shouted “NOW!”





“...yesterday afternoon, our peaceful city of Canterlot was attacked by a malicious, dark force. A powerful demon had broken through our defenses and entered our precious city. This demon, after being discovered made an attempt on the life of our dear Princess, princess Mi Amore Cadenza.”

“I am here to inform you that Princess Cadance is still with us. Her injuries are severe, and she has not woken, but she is alive. It is thanks to a young cadet that I can say that neither our beloved Princess, nor any other souls were lost yesterday. Our attacker, this demon, has been slain by our faithful paladins. My citizens, please do not worry, the danger that has threatened our home has been vanquished and shall never hurt another soul...”





“...that was her?” Flash Sentry's mind thought. “She...”




“The demon of Canterlot welcomes you to her library!”




Oh shit she really is the demon of Canterlot! She's the demon who attacked the Canterlot school for gifted unicorns and almost killed Princess Cadance all those years ago! Why isn't she dead! They said they killed her!

The intimation of princess Cadance curled up on the floor writhing in pain. She gave a pained whimper, a whimper which soon broke out into a chuckle, and then a full blown laugh. Princess Cadance howled hysterically as the imitation's broken horn it up, and with another flash, she transformed into another pony.

“Do you remember yet B.B.B.F.F?” said a child's voice.

A young female unicorn, to be more precise. She had a lavender coat with a darker hair, Flash noting that she was the same age as Flash's little brother. Purple eyes and with a cutie mark with that of a star. Flash looked to Shining Armor and at first saw nothing. Flash knew the last form, Princess Cadance, Shining Armor's marefriend. But this new girl, Flash was curious. Why did she choose it? Looking deeper at Shining Armor, he saw cracks in the knight's steel demeanor. He didn't like what he saw. Behind Shining's mask there was a pain, what seemed like memories recalling themselves and impaling him with javelins. But despite it all, he stood tall.

The cream-colored paladin also didn't show any reaction, but Flash could tell she didn't know this filly. It made Flash wonder, who was this child, how did she Shining Armor and this demon both know he... Flash's immediately stopped as the answer hit him like a freight train, demolishing every fragment of his brain's thought process as the image of the purple filly imprinted itself in him. He knew exactly what she was getting at.

The demon, on the other hand, was paying no attention to anyone but Shining Armor. Like the little child she was pretending to be, the purple demon rolled onto her back and continued to speak in the voice of a little filly.

“Do you want me to remind you what I'm capable of, or do you finally remember? I would love to go into more detail, but I only will if you don't remember B.B.B.F.F.”

Shining Armor said nothing. He wanted to speak, a thousand words he wanted to speak, but he knew he couldn't give in. Just let her “game” pass.

“I'm not going to stop until you answer me,” The demon said, in the mocking form of a little purple child speaking in a mocking but cutesy tone “You've been giving me the cold shoulder all day, and I don't like it one bit. You're such a terrible big-”

“That's enough!” The cream-colored Paladin had enough of this game, stomping both hooves and getting everyone's attention. “We get your point!”

To the paladin, the demon filly just glared. “I wasn't asking you, you stupid mud-born whore! I was asking the best-est big brother in the whole wide world if he remembers what I did to his-”

“I get it,” Shining Armor interrupted. If words could kill, his would have.

That was enough for the demon. Still masquerading as a little filly, she flipped back up on her hooves and floated in the air. From the filly's body spoke the demon's regular voice as she floated close to Shining Armor. “You remember? Good, that's very good. We're glad you're well aware of what we can do. For your insolence, We'll be giving you a second list of demands. Wasn't gonna at first, but your stupidity has forced our hoof. We suggest you think very, VERY carefully before you fucking try to cheat us again. The next time you do, you won't be getting any ponies back, just limbs."

The lavender little filly landed, kicked up her tail, turning around and walked towards the darkness. Flash saw her eyes cracked with yellow lines. Her trotting form slowly gaining white stripes running down her body as she slowly began to shift back into her original form. With a laugh, she spoke in the voice of a little filly. "We'll talk again soon, B.B.B.F.F.”

Laughing like a little filly, the demon jumped into the darkness of the library, a red telekinetic aura consuming a motionless Flash and bringing him into the darkness too. The last thing Flash saw of the outside world was the cream-colored pony shaking Shining out of his trance. Just before the darkness consumed him entirely, he heard Shining Armor shout to him.

“I will get you out of there! I promise!” 


Chapter 4 – Negotiations – End