When Twilight had said that back on that road in the Everfree, Fenrich assumed it would be another fifteen, maybe thirty minutes before they reached the timberline and perhaps half as long before they were at the town proper.

By now, the group had left the forest but only just, and were now making good time towards what could only be Ponyville. But while the town was what he considered five minutes away, the damage had already been done. The sun was no longer at its apex in the sky and was already halfway towards the horizon's edge. Considering how long it took for the celestial sphere to get to that point Fenrich had estimated that there was roughly five more hours of daylight left. And while he preferred moving around during the dark, it also meant he had five hours before Sombra could also use the cover of night to escape from whatever hole he was really hiding under. Thanks to all this he was now trying very hard to see if he could use the legendary skill, the 'Zetta Beam', on the back of Twilight's head. No luck yet though, she was still there.

"Ok, so I'm bad at judging distances from the skies," Twilight huffed, averting Fenrich's death glare by eyeing her own wings "my wings are still relatively new."

"Relatively new?" Valvatorez parroted, raising a disbelieving eyebrow at the alicorn mare, and the limbs in question "What, did they just appear out of thin air one day when you weren't looking?"

A magic spell? He had asked for the short story but surmising everything that happened to her was because of a spell gone awry was a bit pathetic, or perhaps it was intentional. He decided that if his lord was curious he would pursue the matter, with this in mind Fenrich looked over to his lord in an attempt to gauge his expression.

With the exchange of glances changing from his lord to Twilight, the demon decided to shrug it off and accept the simple explanation, it didn't really matter anyway. Humans from their dimension were able to create artificial demons through science, who's to say a pony couldn't grow a pair of wings thanks to a magic incantation. With the matter dropped the four continued on their way to the small town in the distance. Once they were closer to town Valvatorez and Fenrich were finally able to make out the inhabitants they would be dealing with.

That was just the tip of the iceberg though. The ponies were all some unnaturally bright shade of anything-but-normal colors, some could be seen flying around just over the roofs of wood and straw houses while others stood near stalls on the streets with random commodities floating close to them. Above the skies was what appeared to be a living rainbow flying around wildly through clouds, dissipating them in the process, before flying off to the skies outside of town. Taking a deep breath, the demons steeled their nerves as they reached the outskirts of the town proper and the first of the locals noticed them.

The stroll through Ponyville had become one of the most uncomfortable moments in the entire groups life. Twilight and Spike were walking at the front of the group leading two demons towards the castle to apprehend a penguin-esque demon she met, who they considered to be a dangerous criminal. Fenrich, who was walking next to his lord, trying to act as a barrier for his exposed leg, couldn't help but wince at the archaic architecture of the buildings or the brightly colored equines that inhabited them as well as the lack of fear energy in the air ever since they left the forest, it would not be advantageous if things went south. Valvatorez was trying to cover up his arm by draping his cape over it, thus leaving the now apparent tears in his back visible. The only constant between the four was the wary looks they were all getting from the townsponies as they passed through. While Twilight and Spike were friends to either one pony or the next, the same could not be said about the taller and vastly more intimidating duo walking not three steps behind her towards the castle. Mercifully the discomfort subsided briefly when they reached the castle of the friendship princess.

"Well, here we are, my castle..." Twilight said despondently, the last part being no louder than a whisper.

"your castle?" Fenrich replied as he took in the structure before him. Calling it a structure though was a bit generous, it appeared to be a massive crystalline tree that towered over the other buildings here. At what would have been the canopy was arguably the 'castle' comprised entirely of amethyst crystal with golden balconies and roofing. Atop the crystalline structure was what appeared to be a rendition of a starburst, much like what appeared on the banners, and looking vaguely familiar "Does that make you royalty or something?"

With Fenrich giving her a scrutinizing gaze (or more scrutinizing than before) she reached out with her magic to open the massive doors, hoping to end this ever increasing awkward situation. With the doors fully opened, Twilight motioned to the two with her hoof to follow as she strode into the crystalline foyer, closing the doors magically behind them.

before anything else Twilight noticed that the black prinny was not waiting for her in the foyer, which was good...or bad...or'-gah! That wolf demon's got me second guessing my self!' she sighed, raising a hoof to her forehead. With the stress ebbing as she did her breathing exercise, one thing was still clear, she had to find him but leaving those two alone was just asking for something to go wrong. With that in mind she turned to the one and currently only living thing in the castle she trusted and whispered "Spike keep an eye on them until I get back, I'm going to go find the black prinny."

Now that Spike was dutifully watching the demons from a safe distance away Twilight took to the air and turned toward the two with the most regal look she could muster "wait here and I'll go get him." and with those words she took off through one of the hallways, leaving the three in an almost awkward silence. After a few minutes Twilight returned to the foyer wearing a discontent look on her face as she flew towards another hallway mirroring the previous one, only to fly back with a completely disheveled look.

Valvatorez trembled where he stood, in utter disbelief of what Twilight had just said "what do you mean 'he's not here', this is where you said to meet him wasn't it!?"

"Can't say I'm surprised really," Fenrich replied calmly "it's what I would have done in his situation, though with a little less shoddy acting and a few more half-truths to make it sound more convincing."

Twlight froze, which being in the air still meant she nearly fell to the floor. And while she was able to recover and land on her hooves, her mind was still racing as realization after realization dawned on her "b-but if he's not here then does that mean you-"

"Were telling the truth him about him being a criminal?" Fenrich said in a haughty and condescending tone "I believe at this point it should be obvious."

With the compounding evidence against him, the suspicious behavior he engaged, and now not being present like he said he would made Twilight reach the same conclusion about the black prinny "oh this is bad, this is very, very bad," she said, starting to pace trying to think about what to do next. after a deep breath she turned to her assistant and in a calm but still commanding tone said "Spike, we have to send a letter to Celestia."

Both demons were taken aback at this out of nowhere decision, or rather the fact that this presumed pony princess had connections to the angels. unconvinced from what he heard, Valvatorez was fist to speak up about Twilight's claim "Celestia? You have connections with Celestia?"

Now it was Twilight and Spike's turn to be surprised. Neither of them expected the demons to know the sun princess "well...yeah, of course I do but, how do you know the princess?"

After about a minute or two of awkward silence it was thankfully broken by a familiar exasperated sigh "it seems we have a bit of miscommunication." Fenrich said in a stately manner "You see where we're from there is a place called Celestia, but you're talking about a person aren't you."

"Well...technically an alicorn like me, I was her personal student until recently," Twilight responded, motioning towards her wings and horn "she's one of the ruling diarchs of Equestria and is even responsible for raising and lowering the sun, and has done so for more than a thousand years. I was also her personal student, chronicling the magic of friendship until recently." she continued on, praising her mentor in an almost giddy fashion and loosing Fenrich's interest with every word spoken. Once her nostalgic rant was over she regained her serious demeanor and returned her attention to Spike "Spike send her a letter detailing the situation. Give a summary of everything that's happened since we entered the Everfree."

"You got it Twilight." at this Spike rushed off into the castle with surprising speed, only to return a moment later with a piece of parchment and quill in hand. Twilight then started helping in Spike's recounting of the past hours events, including their first encounter with the prinny, the run-in with Valvatorez and Fenrich, and even the two saving them from a pack of timberwolves, as well as the speculation from Twilight that the now missing demon could be a dangerous threat to Equestria, with Spike deftly writing them down on the parchment paper. Once the note was finished Spike rolled it up, raised it in front of his mouth, and let loose a stream of green flames that engulfed and ultimately incinerated the letter, watching the ashes fly away on some unseen wind.

Fenrich watched as the letter the small dragon had just finished writing went up in flames. But instead of discontent or aggravation, the dragon and horned pe-...alicorn watched in satisfaction as the ashes blew away, implying what just happened was supposed to happen "an odd delivery system," he mused, eying where the smoke lingered from the flames "I take it his flames are enchanted?"

"That's right," Twilight confirmed "anything burned by that green flame will be sent to the princess."

"Interesting," Fenrich said, already wondering what the limitations are, or even if there were any to begin with. Still, before he tried using it on something a little more sentient, there was a more immediate matter that needed addressing "and how long before we get a response?"

"I don't expect it to be very long," Twilight said, she was confident that Celestia would consider this a matter of grave importance and respond accordingly with a plan to swiftly resolve it. that didn't help alleviate the still tense atmosphere that seemed to permeate the room. deciding that standing around doing nothing was something she couldn't stand watching Twilight offered the two demons a suggestion "why not take a look around the castle in the meantime, I'll let you know when I get a reply."

Before either of the demons could reply to Twilights offer their attention was turned towards a banging noise coming from the front doors. Curious at what was causing the noise, Fenrich calmly began walking towards the door, ready to see what foolish local would try and barge in and interrupt their princess and her guests. To his relief no pony stood at the doorstep, although a group was forming a safe distance away from the castle, wearily eying him and what was at the door. That being four familiar blue penguins fumbling together into a salute and all at once said "prinny squad reporting in dood."

Fenrich smiled at what was standing before him 'finally, we'll be able to get something done around here.' he thought before he turned his attention back towards the cannon fodder with beaks "perfect timing, I have new orders for you," he said in his calm but malicious tone. Now that the prinnies were focused, made evident by the beads of sweat falling off of them, Fenrich eyed each of them intently "I want to look at the energy radar, whichever of you has it can stay here in the castle..." the prinny on the far left did a silent cheer and waddled past Fenrich into the castle "the rest of you, go back to the ruins, retrieve the B.A.S.E. panel, and set it up here in the castle."

With the three remaining prinnies running off towards the Everfree Fenrich and the remaining prinny returned to the foyer where Valvatorez had returned to trying to cover up all the damage to his suit, resorting to simply covering his entire body with his cape, while Twilight and Spike watched inquisitively. Deciding that his lord couldn't get into any trouble at the moment, Fenrich turned his back to the group and instead faced the primy and extended an arm. After a moment of rummaging through it's fanny pack the prinny produced a rectangular metal object large enough to cover both of his hands if they were laid flat. There was a large display screen in the center of the device and numerous buttons and knobs of varying sizes on each side of the monitor. Pressing one of the buttons made the device hum to life displaying on the screen various shades of color, ranging from reds and oranges to greens, blues, and even some blacks, on a somewhat distorted topographic map of the room. With a twist of a knob the map expanded to show the entirety of the town with small dots of varying colors moving around amongst the shades of other static colors.

With Fenrich calibrating the energy radar, the prinny sitting nearby in case he was needed, and Twilight and Spike eyeing him with a look full of curiosity, Valvatorez was becoming well and truly bored waiting for Celestia's response. He was used to making things happen rather than waiting for them to happen, but what could he do with his clothes in tatters and no leads to go on. Exasperated that nothing was happening he turned toward his proprietors, giving them concerned looks that belied the still many questions they had "Twilight I want to ask you some things."

"why do all of the ponies here have some sort of tattoo on their flank? is it some sort of coming of age ritual?"

Twilight couldn't help but giggle at the question "they're called cutie marks and it's not really a coming of age ritual. A cutie mark represents what our individual special talent is," she answered, turning to reveal her own flank "for example mine is my specialty in magic."

"Fascinating..." Fenrich sarcastically added as he gave the knob another twist, watching the map expanded to include the ruins and losing the moving dots in the process.

"Anyway..." Twilight huffed "a cutie mark is unique for each pony, since everypony's special talent is different."

"So no two ponies will have the same mark correct?" Valvatorez asked, more out of clarification than anything.

Twilight thought about the question and tried to find a time where she had seen two identical cutie marks on different ponies "as far as I know yes. That's not to say it's impossible but the odd of it happening are incredibly slim." she concluded, both the initial question and her recollections "Now then, what else did you want to know?"

This caught Twilight off guard. She was expecting another simple question about the ponies themselves or perhaps a question about her or even about Ponyville in general, not on princess Luna, not yet anyway. Thinking fast Twilight tried to turn the conversation away from the sensitive matter "er...aren't you curious about the different types of ponies living in Equestria...? Or why I live in a castle? Or even why I have a baby dragon as an assistant?"

"No, not really." Valvatorez answered flatly "Pegasi are the ones that can fly and are the more agile, unicorns can use magic through their horns like our witches can through a wand, and the normal ponies are physically stronger thanks to having no extra appendages. Anything else that could be considered important will come up if the plot demands it." Valvatorez said, summarizing what he saw as they entered the town the previous hour. "As for you, your basicly an enhanced combination of the three types, as is this 'Celestia' you mentioned, isn't she." he seemed to be correct in his assumption as Twilight was wearing a rather nervous look "That being said, it is only logical to think the other diarch is an alicorn as well, one who is most likely capable of impressive feats in this world if they're anything like their counterpart. So I'll ask again: who are they?"

The seriousness in Valvatorez's eyes proved that he would not be dropping this issue and trying to change the subject again would most likely end the same way. Out of options Twilight relented "alright, the other ruler of Equestria is Princess Celestia's sister Princess Luna. She's in charge of raising and lowering the moon every night as well as watching over the dreams of everypony sleeping and ridding them of nightmares, she's also responsible for weaving together the constellations in our night sky millennia ago and is beloved by the young fillies for what she does." she noticed that Valvatorez looked a bit surprised and even Fenrich was watching her intently (if only out of the corner of his eye), maybe this would be enough to satisfy his curiosity.

"I'm not convinced." well ponyfeathers. "Even to an outsider like me, one of those sisters is getting a better deal than the other and if they've been around for more than a thousand years like you claim then where is the animosity? There's still something your skipping isn't there. " Valvatorez pressed, more demanding an answer than asking for one.

"Save lying to the professionals princess, you're embarrassing them." Fenrich interjected before returning his attention back to the radar, pushing another button and pressing on the black dot in the center of the map, one he knew represented himself and his energy signature.

'Could he have been anymore condescending?' Twilight thought, shooting a glare at the back of the werewolf's head only to once again sigh in defeat "a thousand years ago Princess Luna was overcome by jealousy towards her sister and became the corrupted fiend known as Nightmare Moon." she somberly said, recounting the legend of her fall as well as remembering her past experiences "As Nightmare Moon she tried to make the night last forever so that the ponies would appreciate her work as much as they did Celestia's and even tried to usurp the throne in the process. In the end...she was banished to the moon, giving her the nickname 'the mare in the moon'." she could once again see Fenrich watching her from the corner of his eye andValvatorez seemed to be deep in thought about what he just heard. Even Spike looked dispirited after hearing that and he knows how it ends. Not wanting to end on that note Twilight hastily added "But she returned a year ago and was happily reunited with her sister." thanks to her, her friends, and the Elements of Harmony but It's probably best to not mention that to them yet.

"I'm not sure how I feel about one of you ponies having control over the moon, even if it isn't our moon," Fenrich said "so long as it isn't defiled with an alien civilization or any graffiti I suppose it's fine. Besides, an eternal night sounds like a paradise to us demons." he made a mental note to leave a prinny here in case such an event does happen in the future. With all the naïve locals to terrify and an endless night to do it in, it would make this place a decent vacation spot. Breaking out of his daydream he returned to the task at hand, pressing another few buttons causing the screen lost all of it's color and instead started letting off a pinging noise and lighting up at the center. Now that the radar was locked on to his specific fear energy signature Fenrich once more imputed another button command to locate any general fear energy sources in the map area and displaying them with a beacon and a ping. He watched as the radar picked up one...two...three...four...five...six...seven...eight...NINE readings?!

Before Valvatorez could inquire further, a loud burp was heard echoing through the room. First the demons turned to the prinny who only shook it's head, rapidly denying that the rude gesture was his doing. Moving on down the list they turned towards Twilight and Spike where they found a plume of smoke between them materializing into a sealed scroll in mid-air. Twilight quickly caught the scroll with her magic and carefully removing the seal and began excitedly read the letter. The excitement quickly faded the longer she looked at the parchment being replaced with confusion, concern, and most notably fear "what...? how? but... this doesn't make any sense,"

The sun shined through the stained glass widows of Canterlot castle's throne room, reflecting the vibrant colors off the marble flooring. Any pony who saw such a spectacle would have been captivated by the sight of it all. Sadly, there was only one pony in the room and her attention was focused elsewhere, and had been for quite some time. Celestia sat in her throne, reading a letter that appeared from thin air, rematerializing itself from ashes.

"Naturally," a young male voice responded with a hint of confidence in his words "you know as well as I do that Equestria is nothing like the Netherworld, I wouldn't be here if the situation wasn't dire."

"Right..." Celestia replied somberly before putting on a smile and regaining her motherly tone "it is still nice to see you again, despite the circumstances." true it had been a while since the last time she met with her guest, she even cancelled the day court when news about a strange two-legged creature was demanding an audience with her, in hopes of being able to catch up and enjoy the day unhindered. Those hopes were dashed however when recent events in the Netherworld were brought to her attention. Donning her regal composure and tone, Celestia once again addressed her guest "My former student, Twilight Sparkle will want to know about this, about who escaped from Hades, it does involve her after all."

"It was because of her and her assistant Spike's actions that Sombra was vanquished, and subsequently sent to Hades."

"There's more," Celestia added, referring to the letter to help with pronunciation "according to Twilight, she has already met demons from Hades, they said there names were 'Valvatorez' and 'Fenrich'."

Her guest was visibly taken aback by the added comment and the two very familiar names; who wouldn't recognize the leaders of the Rebels of Hades, the group that single-handedly overthrew the corrupterment, stopped a program created by God, and overall became the enemies of the entire universe. From his shock came small restrained chuckles, and the chuckling quickly grew to uncontrollable laughter "of course those two would be here!" finally reigning in his laughter and regaining some of his composure he closed his eyes, smiling whimsically "I wonder how they would react seeing me here as well?"

Celestia could tell that her guest wanted to find out the answer to that question desperately but felt like the opportunity wouldn't present itself, like a filly wanting to prove herself to her idol, but believed she could never measure up. And with not so much as a second thought Celestia decided to present that 'opportunity' to her guest "we can go and see them you know, it would let me tell Twilight what's going on face to face and-"

"Eh, don't bother," he said, waving his arm dismissively "Valvatorez especially won't stand still if one of his prinnies is on the loose, and no doubt Fenrich already has some scheme to catch him, besides..." the guest trailed off, instead focusing on his arm he had only a moment ago been waving "I...don't know how much longer I can stay here..."

"I see..." Celestia solemnly replied, derailing her chance to intervene, as she once again eyed her guest. He had started looking worse physically ever since they started talking, his legs were trembling and his eyes had become little more than an empty gaze, it was as if his body was suffering from severe exhaustion. And while the sudden tiredness had derailed Celestia's efforts it had not deterred her "you know, whenever the former netherworld president stayed here for more than a day, he always mentioned taking a power nap seemed to revitalize him." this caught her guest's attention, any sign of fatigue on his face was once again replaced with surprise only this time the surprise remained as Celestia continued "We have many guest rooms here in the castle, and it is will be dusk soon," to emphasize this point her horn began to glow a golden aura as she looked outside to watch the sun, her sun, slowly inch its way to the horizon "why not stay the night and we can go tomorrow."

"Didn't you hear me." the guest protested, even tightening both of his hands into fists in frustration "What makes you think that...that damn prinny instructor wouldn't move on before nightfall!?"

"Because," Celestia said smiling wryly, unperturbed by the sudden outburst, as she conjured up a quill and parchment "if he is with Twilight then I know exactly what I can do to keep him there. Besides..." Celestia continued, her smile fading and her tone becoming more serious "if they're as resourceful as you claim, Twilight will need them to overcome this".

Valvatorez watched, still covering his damaged clothes with his cape as twilight once again looked over the note in a blank stare. Seeng that she was not going to recover anytime soon Valvatorez decided to break her out of her stupor "well, what is it? What does Celestia want you to do that's got you so terrified?"

With a slight flinch Twilight sighed and slowly walked over to Valvatorez with the letter floating in front of her in her magic, heading towards the demons grasp "read for yourself..." she said in an quiet submissive tone.

Now curious about what was on the note as well, Valvatorez took the note from Twilights magic. Fenrich curious as well about the letter walked over and began reading over his lords shoulder, the prinny tried as well but was shooed away by a glare from Fenrich. In unison the two went wide eyed at what Twilight's mentor had proposed. "WHAT!"

First of all, thank you for letting me know about the potential danger to Equestria tis criminal from another world could pose. However while it may come as a surprise to you, I was already made aware of his presence an hour ago, from the successor of an old friend of mine.
In fact, I had planned to come see you in Ponyville tomorrow to tell you personally about this very situation, and even introduce you to the visiting dignitary.
And while my plans haven't changed, I did not know you have already come in contact with two demons already.
My guest says they can be trusted, but having the opinion of somepony else would put my mind at ease. As such, I would ask that you to introduce Valvatorez and Fenrich to your friends and to also tell them that I will want to see them tomorrow when I arrive.
You are going to need their help, as well as the demons to overcome this ordeal just as they will need yours and your friends, for I fear what you face now could very well be more dangerous than Lord Tirek himself.

And should the two in question read this, then I officially welcome you to Equestria and hope that you get along with my former pupil and her friends.

Twilight watched as Valvatorez's and Fenrich's faces contorted from their inital shock to disbelief and anger respectively. Although the looks on their faces were probably good indicators, she still had to ask whether or not they would be willing to help. Tentatively she asked that all-important question "well...?"

After reading the letter, and reading it again just to make sure he wasn't missing something Fenrich closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose, and let out a long sigh as he walked up to Twilight "let me just point out the obvious flaws in your princess' reply;" he said in a calm, composed manner that belied his actual feelings as he raised a finger at each of his points "one: how could you, let alone your friends help us in hunting down a criminal other than becoming more victims?" Twilight began to respond but was cut off before she could get a word in edgewise "Two: what makes Celestia's guest trustworthy, he knows us but mentioned nothing about himself, how do we know he is not out to get us, most demons have lists of enemies longer than their bodies." instead of a verbal response, Twilight's expression changed to a look of concern as she pondered the latest statement "And three: what possible reason could we have to stay in this town, knowing that our target isn't here?"

Twilight stammered trying to think of something, anything that could keep the werewolf steward here "um...well..."

Everyone present in the castle turned to the source of the sudden voice, and to the surprise of everyone it was Valvatorez, pointing his index finger towards the demon servant "there IS a reason we cannot leave town yet," the sudden revelation caught Fenrich off guard. At this Valvatorez extended the arm that had been pointing at the two sideways, revealing the exposed pale skin and the torn cuff still somehow in place "my suit remember, we were going to ask Twilight if there was a decent tailor in town who could repair my suit." Valvatorez paused for a moment and brought his hand up to his forehead as a thought crossed his mind "In fact, repairing my suit is even more important now, someone in the Netherworld has learned about the prison break Fenrich."

Fenrich was amazed that his lord had picked up on something a subtle as that. If someone knew them, and Celestia knows about the situation already then that someone would have had to be from the Netherworld, or worse their Celestia. In either case he could not allow his lord to be seen wearing tattered clothes. How could he have forgotten that? Perhaps his disdain for working with these ponies had stalled his logical thinking momentarily "your right as always my lord, but that still leaves my other two points."

"And I can answer them," Twilight stated confidently "first off, my friends and I know Equestria far better than you guys, we live here after all. On top of that, we're no strangers to dangerous situations and when push comes to shove we can handle ourselves pretty well."

Fenrich merely scoffed at the response "That last part remains to be seen," while he would admit having locals to help coordinate searches in specific areas, the prinnies could do just as well and handle their own in a fight despite their lackluster appearance "and what about your princess' informant? Do you think you should blindly trust the word of a demon? Because your princess does not seem to think so."

"No, I don't." Twilight replied frankly "But that doesn't mean I should turn them away without even meting them either, besides Princess Celestia has enough faith to introduce whoever it is to me," Twilight's smiled at the prospect of meeting a friend of princess Celestia and her smile turned wry as she noticed the hole in Fenrichs theory "and the fact that he trusts you means he can't be all bad."

Another scoff, this one a little deeper than the last "you obviously don't know how the Netherworld works do you."

"Nor do you about Equestria," Twilight countered, earning a malicious glare for her efforts. Figuring that pursuing the issue more would not be a healthy thing to do she decided it was time to change topics "also, about your suit Valvatorez, one of my friends designs clothes for a lot of wealthy and influential ponies across Equestria, she even has clients come to her boutique here in Ponyville to place special orders, I guarantee there's nopony more qualified who can repair, or even remake, your damaged suit."

Valvatorez had gone wide-eyed at what Twilight had said, not entirely believing her but really hoping that she was right "are you serious? There's someone that talented here!? AND they're someone you know!" he said as he rushed up to Twilight and hoisted her up to his face. Realizing that the mare he was holding was very uncomfortable with being so close to his face 'I'll admit my breath has become a little fishy smelling from the sardines but it's not THAT bad right?' Valvatorez let go of her and with a cough, regained his composure and tied to continue speaking in a calm and dignified manner, his excitement and curiosity still shined through in his tone however "I must meet them, to see if their skills are truly capable of repairing my attire."

Despite being thoroughly disturbed at the fangs in Valvatorez's mouth, Twilight was excited at how enthusiastic he had become at her mention of Rarity's shop, it meant getting him there would be easy. Still...those fangs he had were bugging her. Deciding that thinking more about them would cause her to go on a wild tangent she made a mental note to watch him whenever they were at Sweet Apple Acres and resumed doing less thinking and more talking "then how about this, I'll take you to meet her and convince her to repair your suit," 'which shouldn't be too hard, considering how rare an opportunity this is for her.' Twilight thought "in exchange will you be willing to meet the rest of my friends afterward?"

A sudden chill ran up Fenrich's spine, a reflex he acquired after the few times his lord made dangerous promises. Knowing exactly what to do, he moved to prevent him from getting distracted by a trivial deal "my lord I really think you shouldn't-"

"Alright, if she can repair my suit then you've got yourself a deal." too late...

"Great," Twilight said, elated that he was so willing to go along with this "I promise you won't be disappointed."

"Hmhmhm...as a proud and noble demon, I will hold you to that Twilight." Valvatorez stated with a satisfied and challenging smirk on his face.

"About that..." Twilight started. Now that she was talking to the black-caped demon without fear of imminent fighting breaking out, now was probably the best time to mend some broken bridges between him and her. With that in mind she bowed her head low and said as sincerely as possible "I'm sorry if I insulted you when we first met."

"That, that I insulted you when we first met," Twilight corrected "It really was my first time seeing demons that looked so much like humans in Equestria."

Valvatorez closed his eyes a he contemplated what he had just heard, not the apology itself, he had already decided whether or not to forgive her, but what she said afterwards. Being the first demons to be seen in public meant that incidents like this were going to happen again unless precautions are taken. Although, since he was in the presence of royalty in this land it meant knowledge could be spread relatively easily should it be provided. Satisfied with his answer to the information (or lack thereof) on demons in this land, the vampire instructor opened his eyes and stared back at Twilight, not with the rage it appeared she expected but instead with a calm acknowledgement "apology accepted Twilight. That being said, to prevent this from happening in the future you really should read up on demons. Might I suggest the 'Guide Book for the Forsaken' or 'Netherology 101' for a beginner like yourself, I'll even loan you a copy once we can return to Hades," he said, smiling at the prospect of another world learning about the proud and noble demons. The smile turned devilish as another idea entered his head "or if your feeling brave, you could have me educate you personally."

"Thank you Valvatorez," Twilight said, relaxing the moment she finished speaking. She then turned to her assistant who, up to this point, had been watching the three from a safe distance away in case negotiations broke down and with an upbeat tone asked him a favor "Spike, could you prepare some rooms for Valvatorez and Fenrich? It looks like they'll be staying the night."

"Sure thing Twilight, they'll be ready before you get back." Spike replied, smiling confidently as he waddled towards the stairs and up to the guest rooms "Say hi to Rarity for me."

With accommodations taken care of, Twilight opened the castle doors and started making her way outside, Valvatorez following suit, and Fenrich begrudgingly doing the same as Twilight motioned towards the two "follow me, Carousel Boutique is this way!"

Disgaea: A Promise Mared

by Tyrant Chaos

Chapter 3: An Unforeseen Turnabout