//------------------------------// // The Black Gargoyle // Story: Devil May Cry: A New Battlefield // by Lazy_ //------------------------------// Vergil stood dead centre in the decrepit colosseum, the ground in a one hundred metre wide circle around him was a dull grey/tan, not livening his dampened mood any more than it was already. The grey-scale colours probably weren't helped by the fact that in his current level of Hell, or 'Tartarus' as his new and forced boss had informed him it was called, was stuck in a permanent night-time state. And as much as Vergil did like the night-time, he thought it to be a pretty big inconvenience to not have any proper daylight at all. In-fact, he almost dreaded the day he got to set foot in whatever realm was Earth's counterpart in this universe. Maybe it would have been a good idea to borrow some sun-glasses from his brother at some point in the past. "Okay, Vergil. I see some potential in you and I want to see what you can do before I start feeding you any large amount of power." The disembodied voice of his boss echoed around the abandoned battle-site. The stone stands encircling him looked like they could hold thousands of occupants, which made him glad his boss didn't plan any surprise community events for him. "If you prove to be useful in your current state, I might be able to arrange a 'family reunion'. Then you can get your blade back. After all, it was handed down to you by your father, was it not?" Vergil didn't answer immediately. He grasped around his neck, half expecting to be able to pull up the charm that once hung there. Dante also had his half of the Perfect Amulet, and once he was once again in possession of Yamato, he could retrieve that as well. "Very well." He stated loud and clear. "Let the trials begin." Upon the sound of his words, demonic sigils lit up in a circle around him. Three scarecrows dropped down from the teleportation spells and turned their puppet-like heads in his direction, their slow but seemingly random body movements giving them a look of disturbed balance. "Hmph." Vergil harrumphed at the weaklings presented to him. And in response the mildly amused chuckle of his boss rang out through the air. "Well if that's the way you feel about it..." The dual-tone voice left it's sentence unfinished as a black mist enveloped the scarecrows. A sizzle emitted from each one as the acidic mist devoured their bodies. Their screams evaporated into the night incredibly fast, and were replaced by a brief period of silence. This was quickly filled by a burst of light entrapping Vergil, as he raised a hand to cover his eyes. This lasted but a few seconds, and after it stopped, he lowered his arm so he could see what awaited him. In place of the scarecrows hovered a Fallen, an angel cast down from Heaven. Vergil tilted his head down and observed his foe in depth. A light lance for a weapon, with large shield-like wings that looked to be very tough to break. It turned to him and through a small gap in it's partially closed wings he could see a strange structure, like a face. "A weak point." He said quietly to himself. The fallen angel gave a thrust of it's wings and flew upwards to a large range so that he could not hit it while it prepared to attack. "A Light-Opponent, too. Yamato would have made this much easier." He lamented on the loss of his blade. The Dark blade or Force Edge would have been able to rip the angel to pieces, but all he had was the Light-type gauntlets and greaves of Beowulf along with his Summoned Swords. Before he could think any further, the angel extended it's lance outwards and lunged at him. Vergil summoned Beowulf and timed his moved perfectly. He jumped at the angel and bounced of' it's lance, catapulting himself into the air behind it. The angel hit the ground and pivoted while sliding backwards, coming to a stop a few metres from it's landing point. Vergil had already planned for this outcome and had created two columns of summoned swords beside him. While still falling, he dispatched the blades using a blistering swords technique and sent them cutting through the air at his target. The angel raised it's wings in defense and caused each one to scrape a few metallic feathers away before shattering into splinters around it. When the swords stopped coming and Vergil landed on the floor in a controlled bounce, the angel lowered it's battered wings and readied it's light-lance once more. The white being charged at the demi-demon who was staring intently in a neutral position at the fast moving attacker. As the angel came close, Vergil extended his left gauntlet out and let the lance land perfectly into his palm. The connection of Light on Light caused sparks of whisp-like power to escape as the force of it pushed both combatants all the way to the barrier at the edge of the colosseum. As they traveled a large dust-cloud extended behind them, billowing out into a dull balloon of obscuring sediment and only beginning to calm as the two came to a stop. The angel looked surprised at Vergil's sheer physical strength and attempted to push further through him and pin him to the wall. The angel's strength wasn't enough however as he wouldn't budge. Vergil used his position and let go of the angel, it's own force letting it plough through the walls and into the grand-stand as he stepped aside to watch. Not wasting any time he summoned a spiral of swords around the stunned angel and quickly thrust them into it's weakened body. It attempted to use it's wings to shield itself once more but the barrage of razor sharp projectiles chipping away at them was too much. With a loud *Smash*, the angel's wings snapped and shattered, sending pieces of it's feathers in all directions. Realising it could no longer defend itself conventionally and could not fly away out of range anymore, the angel raised it's lance to face the calmly approaching Vergil. It prepared to thrust it's lance at him and smash him away, thus allowing some time for the regrowth of it's wings. However it was surprised for the second time when he disappeared in a blue blur and for a split second, was confused as it held it's guard from a foe in an unknown direction. *Crunch* The angel was smashed into the ground as Vergil reappeared above and behind his opponent, before performing a Starfall to crush it into the ground. The angelic victim's body was mashed into the floor and it's legs and arms spasmed in pain. It didn't take too long for the shocked angel to recover. In a desperate bid to escape, jumped up dizzily, stumbling in circles as it slowly trudged a small amount of distance between it and Vergil. It's efforts were all in vein however as Vergil fully charged a Kick13 and let loose into the back of the angel's weak abdomen, smashing it's skeleton to pieces and launching it across the colosseum. The angel was still for a moment before it began to crawl away from it's attacker, blatantly outmatched. It was stopped in it's tracks as it's outstretched hand came into contact with something leather. It let it's weak arm fall so it could support itself as it looked up to follow the long blue and amber coat upwards, past the grey vest and to the silver haired head atop the figures shoulders. Vergil stood calmly and resolutely in-front of the angel, with a readied blistering swords technique active by his sides. A short moment of silence followed before the crystalline blue blades plunged into the angel, one after another. A quiet fell across the battle stadium and Vergil stood victorious. A cool wind howled over the building as a vortex formed beneath the shattered fallen angel. It's body disappeared from existence, leaving the eldest son of Sparda all to himself. Beowulf de-summoned from his arms and legs and he relaxed in his stance, closing his eyes to gather some quick meditation time and cool his nerves after the battle. For a moment, nothing happened. Only the cold wind flowing through the colosseum and the occasional thin cloud of dust clipping his back at intervals due to stronger gusts. After a few more seconds the clopping of hooves could be heard approaching him from behind. He opened his eyes to find himself in an almost sleepy-like state after the extended use of his powers. How much had his battles with Dante and Mundus really drained him? "You fight well." His boss commented as Vergil pivoted around to face it. "Since you've introduced yourself already and have proven yourself more than capable in general combat, I'll introduce myself now." "That's it?" Vergil placed his comment inbetween his bosses sentences before it could continue. "Excuse me?" The boss asked, confused as to the context of his interruption. "Could you elaborate." "Your trial, was that it?" "Trial? Ha! Like I perform real trials. I was going to use those scarecrows as a warm up for you, and throw in the angel afterwards. Then call that a warm up to prevent any questions about giving you a singular opponent arising, but since you're so stubborn I just gave you the angel anyway. In reality I just wanted the angel gone. They have no place in my realm, rebelling from Heaven or not." The boss then began to continue with it's introduction. "I am the Nightmare, ruler of this layer of Hell, mare of the night, bringer of fear and the embodiment of night-terrors." She exclaimed rather melodramatically. "Nightmare, huh? That's definitely true. In more ways than one." He said, rolling his eyes. Nightmare just laughed and swiped gently with her hoof. "Maybe I was wrong to think of you as some sort of statue, you do have a sense of humour after-all. However small it is." She smirked. Vergil cocked his head. "I do have a sense of humour, I just know when it's the right time to use it, unlike my brother. Speaking of him, the way you're acting currently represents him almost identically." "Is that a bad thing?" "Yes." "Humph. Well, I just thought that since we both have a lot in common then maybe I could try to be a little more light hearted with you." Vergil was intrigued by this comment. She knew something, he could tell. What was she hiding? "What do you know about me?" He questioned. Nightmare just pulled up a predatory smile, flashing her teeth before she explained. "The demon world, Hell, Tartarus, whatever you wish to call it, was sealed off from interaction with any other world by your father two-thousand years ago. Even the most powerful of demons under Mundus such as myself and the lord of Chaos Discord, were not able to manifest out of here conventionally. Even though Discord somehow found a way, but that's beside the point. Like you I spent a long time hungering for power but could not find it, I have no family I associate with, and I would rather I complete my goals by myself, even though I need other's to help me. The only difference is you don't want to associate with you family, and I can't, because I have none." Nightmare finished with a neutral expression on her face, like her good mood had just been wiped away. She gave a short sigh before continuing. "We're not so different, you and I." "Family is a strange thing." Vergil commented, feeling at his neck again to once more notice the absence of his mother's amulet. "You treasure it so much, yet loosing it is inevitable. Losing my mother was so painful, and for a long time I didn't want to admit it but... her death still haunts me. My brother, after he defeated me I realised the irony of our fighting. It was always bound to end in tragedy, one way or the other. In my want for strength he was just like another obstacle to me. Even now that lust remains..." He left a pause as he collected himself. Nightmare's perked up ears remained attentive to listening. Vergil held his hand out in-front of him and stared over it at Nightmare's big blue reptile-like eyes. He curled up his fingers and clenched them shut like he was crushing something in his palm "... I need more power!" Meanwhile... "So..." Rainbow Dash started, speaking after the purple alicorn walking ahead of her. After her sudden shake-fest everypony collectively decided Rainbow Dash was in need of some down time. It was true, she had been working herself flat for the past few weeks, getting her fitness into new heights. She was practically on par with a semi-professional athlete now, and could likely compete in the Running of the Leaves and win relatively comfortably, even over AJ. But as a consequence she hadn't been getting much sleep, even if what she did get was deep, giving her a well rested feeling when she awoke. So Twilight decided that instead of letting Rainbow go and do her own thing, probably working herself silly in the process, they would go down town and spend some time out. At least until Celestia was due to arrive in Ponyville with all the members of the Royal War committee. "... can you just say that one more time? Slowly." Rainbow reminded the lavender princess. "Ugh, fine, once more. We're going to head down to the market, and buy some lunch. Then we're going down to the spa for a quick touch up before making our way to Sugar Cube Corner where..." Rainbow sighed as Twilight began to slip back into her quick speech. "... we'll find Pinkie, there we can test out some of her new muffins. Got it?" Twilight finished, looking to her friend with a naive smile. "Why don't we just go to Pinkie's place for lunch and then head off the the spa? Hit two coconuts with one stone?" Dash suggested, dreading the boring couple of hours Twilight had planned for her. "Because we need to get through as much time as we can. Can't have you sneaking off to wear yourself down, can we?" The princess said with a smug expression. Rainbow Dash grunted hard under her breath, holding her head low. She would abide to her friend's plan for now. "What I want to do in my spare time is my choice, if I want to do extra training then I should be able to do that, right?" "Right." Twilight confirmed. "However it wouldn't be proper for me- as a friend, to ignore the damage you are doing to yourself. That violent shiver could have been a muscle spasm after damaging your muscles one too many times in a week. How could I just let you take it too far?" "How far is too far?" Rainbow inquired, much to the lavender alicorn's amusement. Twilight gave a small giggle at Dash's inquest. "Just the fact that you don't know how far is too far is worrying in itself." She commented, beginning to slip into her lecture mode. "If you've actually damaged something and it's causing spasms then there is something irritating the muscles in your body. Not sure what could do that to your entire muscular system though." "Then maybe it was just a one off thing that didn't mean anything." Rainbow Dash argued her point, glancing to her long time friend as she did so. While she was conversing, she failed to notice an earth pony and a unicorn rounding the corner of an alleyway, who were also looking different ways. "Besides, I've done intensive training over longish periods before and-" "Rainbow look out!" Twilight called as she looked up to see the outer pony of the pair heading straight for Rainbow. Rainbow along with both the unsuspecting ponies glanced up at Twilight for a moment, before turning to notice each other heading towards each other as they were inches from colliding. Of course this was far too late to react as both were still walking forward. Their muzzles smacked into each other and both recoiled away, trying not to fall onto one another. Rainbow stumbled back while the earth pony collapsed back onto her rump in a panic. Rainbow lifted her head with a light scowl to see that her partner in accident was doing the same. She was about to get in the earth pony's face and start yelling before she was beat to it by the mare. "What the hay was that?" She shouted, taking Rainbow back a little. But all of a sudden she found her emotions changing rapidly to one of anger. Usually when she got angry over something she would just become very offensive as opposed to being defensive, but her expression strangely turned very dark and primitive. Like something out of a horror story. "Oh I'm sorry, I wasn't aware that little miss Stressy was incapable of looking where she was going!" Rainbow retorted immediately with an extra aggressive tone. Both unicorns among the 'debate' gave each other a worried glance and exchanged a shrug before turning their attention to their respective friends. "Rainbow, come on." Twilight pulled her cyan friend away from the argument. The expression on the pegasus' face was rather foul, with a clenched jaw and partially narrowed eyes. "What!?" "There's no need to argue over a small accident like that. Plus you weren't looking in front of you either, so your argument is kinda' obsolete." Rainbow turned back to the earth pony mare who was now engaged in a heated discussion with her own friend. "None of you were looking where you were going." The white unicorn stated in a 'matter of fact' tone. Rainbow realised she recognised both mares she had just encountered. It was the one and only Vinyl Scratch and her marefriend cello player Octavia. "That's not the point, Vinyl. Did you hear what she called me? 'Little Miss Stressy!?" Octavia exclaimed in what sounded like a mixture of confusion and outrage. "-Her bitch of a marefriend...-" She thought, her expletive sounded oddly under-toned with the anger flowing in her system. Dash saw something strange on the floor- a shadow, her own shadow. The pony in the shade was not a smooth coated pegasus with the spiky yet stylish mane, it was... different. She could see the wings ending behind her body even though they were folded. Because the 'feathers' were long enough to extend just past her hinds, she saw the tail while looking. The tail looked like it was made of curved spines and the mane too looked more like a collection of the lethal structures. And the subtle curves her toned body contained seemed to no longer exist. The body lines weren't smooth like her's were, this... monster's body was sharp and streamlined, made for agility. She stared at her shadow in shock, not noticing she had stopped dead in the middle of the street, with her friend as well as Vinyl and her argumentative partner looking at her curiously. "Rainbow?" "Twilight..." After seeing that Twi was watching, she wondered if she saw Rainbow's 'shadow' too. However when she tried to explain what she had just witnessed she found herself lost for words. Instead she decided to use her shadow as an explanation. Looking back to the shade on the floor, she saw that her shadow was perfectly normal. She stared once more at her shadow, gawking in disbelief. How could it have just changed? "Rainbow Dash are you really okay? Is something bothering you?" "My shadow it... it changed!" "Your shadow 'changed'?" Twilight asked curiously. The two marefriends beside them glanced nervously at each other before the still aggravated earth pony began to walk away. "Okay, I'm off. Lets go, Vinyl." Octavia stormed away, grabbing her embarrassed DJ marefriend's hoof and leading her away with her. "Tavi' slow down." The unicorn tried to reason, but the earth pony showed no intention of stopping. "I'm so sorry." She turned and said quickly to Twilight. "It's fine." Twilight responded. She watched the two walk away, conferring quickly between each other before tuning back to her pegasus friend looking slightly confused. "Come on now Dash, you're probably just really tired. Let's forget about this and go get lunch." Rainbow sighed deeply, letting her wings go limp and touch the floor. "Fine." "And here we are!" Twilight exclaimed as she brought Rainbow Dash over to the cafe. Rainbow looked up skeptically and inspected the cafe bit by bit. The walls were tattered and the dull cream paint was falling off in places, in short, the walls needed a serious repair. The only two things that weren't grimy and horrible were the windows and the the name board. "Old Crunchy's Munchies?" Rainbow read the name of the cafe. Twilight wrapped a hoof around Rainbow's neck and pulled her close. "Yeah, this is one of the places I discovered by accident while walking through Ponyville when I first got here. Brilliant place, is it not?" "Yeah..." Rainbow droned sarcastically. "... Brill'." "Oh have faith. The place isn't nearly as bad as it looks, it's actually pretty nice inside and the service is real good too." Twilight explained as she trotted slowly towards the door. "Come on in!" "For the last time Nero, I have no clue who your father is!" Dante threw his hands up in the air as Nero quickly made his way from walking behind the devil hunter and stopped in-front of him, causing Dante to stop as well. "Then how do you explain it, hmm? Inherited power from Sparda himself, the ability to use Yamato in Sparda's style, and white hair, was all just some random coincidence!?" Nero exaggerated his point by shrugging his shoulders, thus highlighting his confusion in the matter. "Look, I'm not saying we aren't related. I'm saying that I don't know for certain who your father is. It definitely isn't me and my brother died a long time before he was interested in having a family. So your father is probably Sparda. If that's any consolidation for you." "So we're step brothers, is that it?" "Well, probably- yeah! Pops did spend a long time out in the field at times, I wouldn't be surprised if you were the result of a one night stand." Dante finished his point and side-stepped around his probable younger step-brother and continued on. "Look, that weird colourful lookin' town looks to be about half a K' away. We're not far now. We can discuss this when we're not searching for my sword." "Enough about your sword!" Nero spun around as his temper flared. "Can you not take anything seriously? Ever!?" "Hmm. Though come to think of it you might be my brother's son. You certainly have his attitude." Dante joked, holding back his laughter through a cocky smile. Trish took the opportunity to interrupt stopping an apocalyptic event before it happened. "Can you two stop arguing?" She walked in-between them both. "Dante: Shut the heck up before me and Lady make you. Stop mentioning your sword too, we're sick of listening to you garble on about it. Nero: Chill out a bit. Once we find Dante's sword, then you have our permission to punch him again. We need to get it back if we're to progress any further." "You mean we need it back to shut Dante up, right?" Nero replied angrily. "Same thing." Trish shrugged it off. "Wha- hey!" Dante looked a little hurt. He put on the best sad puppy impression he could, but to no avail. The girls laughed while Nero finally managed to put a smile on his face. Trish turned away to rejoin Lady who was leaning against a tree along the path, waiting for Dante and Nero to stop bickering. "You know you never told me how you and Dante met. Like, what circumstances?" Trish stated to the human as she leaned to her right hip. Lady let out a small chuckle before starting. "It was all the way back at the Temen-Ni-Gru incident, he'd just slain the first gatekeeper, Cerberus." "Cerberus... you mean the big three-headed-ice-dog-thing, correct?" "That's pretty much it. I've... we've all seen the Devil Arm of Cerberus, those three-handled Nunchuks we used to put out the forest fire. But I never saw the demon in person. In-fact, come to think of it, I've never seen any of the demon's Dante got Devil-Arms from." Lady left her statement open and Trish was about to fill the space when Lady continued in her place. "Except his brother, I guess." Trish raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "You know I never saw Vergil out of his Nelo-Angelo form. What was he like?" "Well... where do I start? He was... not a very pleasant person, that's for sure. The first time I saw him was when he had his second battle with Dante. In the portal activation room, 'Lair of Judgement' I think it was called. Da- Arkham told me Vergil had controlled him before faking his death. Of course this was a lie, and he was just using Vergil's lust for his father's power to make obtaining it for himself easier. As for Vergil's personality, he was very collected and calculated, never showing much emotion other than... sadness and anger." "Wow, sounds like he was a fun person." Trish said sarcastically. "Part of me want's to feel sorry for him. He saw his mother die in-front of him and blamed himself, namely his human side for not having the strength to protect her." "And that's why he wanted his dad's power, correct?" "Yeah. He wanted, needed the power so badly he would kill his own brother to get it. To him, Dante was just another hurdle on the track. And when they defeated Arkham and Vergil finally got Force Edge, Dante defeated him anyway." "So two years of searching and hunting for a single goal only to have it yanked away from him at the final moment? Damn, poor guy. How'd Dante defeat him? He was stronger than Dante, was he not?" "Yeah he was significantly more powerful than Dante, but he wasn't as adept with that style of blade as Dante was. He got the sheer power of Force Edge and thought he could kill Dante using it, but he didn't have the skill. Had he used Yamato as his primary weapon... we might not be here to tell the tale, that's for sure." Lady finished as their male counterparts finally managed to walk the couple dozen steps in their direction without swinging sharp pointy objects at each other, or Devil Triggering and punching the other twenty metres away into a tree. "Oh, you guys kissed and made up?" Lady asked, but got no answer. Nero pointed his lethal death gaze at her while Dante just smiled mischievously. "Please don't try to kill each other, I don't think this world would survive a fight between you two." "Yeah? Well it's not my fault Nero's such a whiny bi-" *SMACK* "... I'm serious, Twi!" Rainbow raised her voice in exclamation to further underline her point. Twi looked around rather embarrassed at her friend's loud demeanor. "Rainbow, quieten down." She said after swallowing a mouthful of hay-fries. Though the big mouthed pegasus didn't seem to be taking her advice very seriously. And as a result, they were both getting strange looks and glances from different groups of ponies around the main room. "It just... changed!" "Rainbow! Calm down!" Twilight almost yelled at her, replicating her tone perfectly. Dash visibly flinched at the princesses loud tone and shrank back into her seat a little, exchanging nervous glances with a few of the dining room's other occupants. "Twilight, don't you think that's a little loud?" She asked, rubbing her hooves together. "We're getting weird looks." Twilight face-hoofed hard with a frustrated grunt backing the motion, making the cyan pegasus cock her head in confusion. "Right..." Twilight started, dropping her hooves on the table with a quiet 'thud' that vibrated their trays of food and nearly made some of both their fries fall from their containers. Rainbow glanced at her's to ensure none had fallen on the floor. "So you claim that you're shadow 'changed'? How so?" "How? Why would I know how?" Rainbow shrugged along with her question. Twilight sighed, closing her eyes for a second, to open them with a new idea. "Ok, do you know what it changed into?" "It was kinda' like me, I guess. But with aggressive edges, really big pointy wings and, like, the mane was all sharp like spines or horns or something like that. Yeah, It was just like me but more scary." She explained rather vividly, like she could remember every detail but wasn't sure what it was she was remembering. "I'm not sure about details, It was just a shadow after all, I couldn't see colour or texture or anything." "Like you're scary in the first place." Twilight joked. Rainbow narrowed her eyes at the princess, trying to get her to take it seriously. "Fine jeez!" Twilight gave in and was about to go back to her questioning when something stuck her. She gained a smile for a brief second. "Rainbow, I'm going to perform a spell on you, is that ok?" Rainbow looked a little puzzled for a moment, but after a few seconds she shrugged dismissively. "Eh, why not." Twilight lit up her horn and focused on the mare in front of her. Shifting her magic to Rainbow's body, she took in the biological state of the pegasus. Everything was perfectly fine from head to hoof, not a single muscle, nerve or tendon was out of place, she was sound in body, but what about in mind? Focusing her 'third eye' on Rainbow's psyche, she intensified her magic onto the pegasus' brain. There was a small rise in epinephrine being released by her brain, so she was genuinely affected by seeing a 'change' in her shadow, as it was stressing her out a little. But other than that, everything in her brain was working as it should've been. She detected nothing out of place. Twilight was by this point doubtful, and a thought ran through her that the mare really was just stressing herself out and needed to relax for a couple of days. "-May as well check her magic. No point leaving a job half done.-" Twilight took a deep breath before shifting her magic into Rainbow Dash's very being. This was a much more complex procedure than checking the mind and body. And unlike them, it actually required her to achieve quite a lot of concentration. Thinning out the background noise and movement, she closed her eyes as this part of the spell did not require sight of the target as magic cannot directly be seen, and sight is just a distraction. As she shifted into Rainbow's magic, the product of her soul, something to her felt... off. It was like the feeling of walking into a dark room and suspecting something was hiding behind a corner. There were lines of magic, all close to each other to form ever constantly shifting 'waves' of energy that formed strings of colour-magic which connected all parts of her together. There was the Harmony within her, purple, pink, red, orange, blue and green, representing the elements of harmony. These were the factors pf magic that personified in her personality. Having more of a certain one would make that particular trait stronger in their personality. In Rainbow Dash, red, or Loyalty, was notably high, while she had slightly above average pink and orange, laughter and honesty. The rest were roughly average. Then there was the second side of her, the negative aspects of her personality. They represented the exact opposite if what the elements of harmony did, and the same colours represented each opposite trait, though slightly duller. These were present in their very small quantities on comparison to the harmonic elements that ran at their side. Like other parts of the pegasus, these seemed completely normal. "-Then why am I getting this weird paranoia?-" She thought. There must have been something there that... When she saw what she was looking for, she stopped in her metaphorical tracks in confusion. She noticed something hiding behind the streams, both of them. It was like a distortion of the colours. She shifted around the streams of magic to see if she could get a better angle and see exactly what it was. But no matter what angle she looked at it from, the haze always seemed to be behind the streams... hiding... waiting. It flowed just like the harmony and chaos did, except it acted funny. She could compare it to an imitator trying to follow something else as closely as possible to look as close to identical as possible. "-Now that's definitely not normal.-" She mentally commented. With that, she retreated from staring into Rainbow's soul and performed the counter-spell to pull out from her third eye. Opening her real eyes Twilight snapped back into the real world to see the pegasus in question chomping on a bunch of hay-fries, completely unaware of the gravity of her situation. Twilight mused on the possibilities. "-If there's some sort of foreign magic in her that's causing odd things to happen to her, then what else could it do? It appeared mostly docile when I was trying to view it, and even in such a calm non-material state it can cause vivid visual hallucinations. If it were to materialise itself, it, whatever it is, might just be able cause physical changes. That's bad, that's very bad.-" She concluded. She was about to stop Rainbow's munching when it hit her. "-Demons...-" Her eyes dilated with the sheer amount of new possibilities a possession could bring. None of them good. "Rainbow, we need to go. Now." She launched up onto her hooves nearly as fast as the pegasus could herself. Dash looked up in shock, taken by surprise with a bunch of fries still half chewed in her maw. She swallowed them whole and made a confused expression before she was hauled from her seat by the princess' magi, being peeled away from her lunch as she reached out to try and grab one last clutch of fries before she left. Though this was to no avail, and she was forced to leave without. She gave Twilight an dissatisfied look. "What the hay, Twilight?" Rainbow asked, still in confusion as she was floated through the door, several heads in the diner following them out. "Make a big scene, why don't ya'?" "I'm sorry, Dash but this is serious. I need to get you to my castle, if what I fear is correct then the sooner the better. I'm not prepared to take any risks." Twilight dismissed Rainbow's attempt to get her to calm down with a genuine look of concern for her friend. After all, a demon might be hiding in her soul, waiting to possess her at the best moment. And if it realised that it was in danger then it wouldn't be long before it could try something. "Err, you can put me down now..." "And here we are!" Lady said to the rest of the group as they showed up to the gates of the colourful little town. Dante looked super skeptical, leaning on a hip and scratching his chin. They all beheld the suddenly silent town as doors slammed shut and the miniature colourful horses all rushed into their houses, away from the demon hunters and their terrifying looking weapons. "Asides from the scaredy-cat locals... Hmm... looks quite nice actually. A bit 'in your face' with the colour, but still pretty snazzy." He complimented, nodding his head as he did. "I heard from them that there's a big crystal palace thing somewhere around." Nero stated. "Maybe we'll find them there?" Trish shrugged at the suggestion. "We don't know, you're the one who's acquainted with them." She deduced the situation down to the fact that Nero must've known enough about them to be able to locate the ponies they needed. "You know there's a castle thing where their so called 'Princess of Friendship' lives. You can can take us there, can't you?" "I know it's there, I don't where where in there it is." Nero corrected. Lady walked up to make a suggestion. "Maybe we should ask one of the inhabitants for directions?" She said, looking between them both quizzically. "That would be a good option if they hadn't just run away from us all on sight." Nero commented, steering the conversation away from the idea. "I guess, seeing as it's a landmark, it would be pretty recognisable. From what I heard it's supposed to be unmistakable. Big and shiny n' stuff." "You mean that castle?" Nero was interrupted by Dante who was pointing over the rooftops to their left, where several blue/purple spires were peaking over the houses, reflecting enough light to be eye-catching to anyone looking in their general direction. The group followed his pointing and went silent as they realised they'd managed to miss a blatantly obvious landmark. "Yeah... I guess." Nero answered, scratching the back of his head. "I guess we know where we're going now." Trish and Lady turned to each-other and nodded in unison and agreement. "Lets get going then." Lady said, adjusting Kalina Ann with a bounce and walking a few paces ahead to signal the rest to catch up. " That fountain at the end of the street looks to be in a junction. We can turn off and make our way there from that point." All were in agreement for once, and they actually managed to get there with no problems. No arguments, no fights, nothing. Mainly due to the fact that they were in a new enviornment, and Dante was mostly taking the time to look around what little of the town they could access through that street. Most of thee turn-off's lead to alleyways and dead end groups of houses that head nice areas of lawn which all interconnected to make one big grassy area at the front of them. Of course Lady and Trish thought the town was amazingly cute, and even though they had only been walking around that area for ten minutes or so, they were already growing quite an attachment in their positive opinion of the place. Dante and Nero both had different opinions of the town. Dante thought that, though weirdly styled, the town was overall a nice looking place. While Nero appeared to be mostly indifferent about the settlement, he thought the same thing as supposed step-brother about the obnoxious colours of some of the houses. Most were painted in shades that were light on the eyes like white or faded yellow. But there were the odd houses that seemed to have been coloured pink in an attempt to get the job done after losing or running out of the other colours, is what they came to a conclusion on. Coming to the end of the street that they originally planned on heading down, still with all the inhabitants hiding in their houses, They heard the sound of talking and hoofsteps fading in, approaching the same fountain they were too coming up to. "Ssh, hear that?" Dante stopped the group as they all silenced their sounds to listen. "Yeah. Sounds like some of our rainbow ponies are on their way." Trish commented, getting a harrumph from Nero. "That may have been more literal than you first thought it was going to be, Trish." The younger son of Sparda relied, earning a round of confused looks and reactions from the rest of the group. "From the sounds of the voices, that's Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle coming up to us. Rainbow's hair is pretty much just that. A Rainbow." The demon hunters nodded in acknowledgement. "Sounds a little panicked, though. Wonder what their in a rush about?" "Well I'm not sure if you've noticed Nero, but there is a sizable demon problem here at the moment." Lady sarcastically commented with a roll of her eyes. Nero just shrugged. "Maybe they've discovered something dangerous and need to report it to someone?" "Maybe." Nero admitted, as it was kind of obvious really. What else would they be so worried about in a demon pandemic? "We may as well wait." Dante said, walking up to the fountain and sitting down on the structure, kicking his legs up and relaxing. "Might make things quicker if we can get some info' from some of Nero's cuddly friends." "Alright." Lady nodded, taking up a place at Dante's side and relaxing in her own reclined position, trying her best not to get totally soaked in the process. "It's chill time." Twilight cantered along as fast as she could possibly muster, with the in-pain and semi-conscious Pegasus held in her magical grasp. Not long after realising the possibility of Rainbow being possessed and leaving the diner, Rainbow collapsed in the street. This made Twilight very worried, since there may have a sentient and malicious being hiding in her magical flow ever since her 'shiver' back in the friendship castle. If it had detected it had been discovered, this could have been it acting and trying to take control. She checked Rainbow's magic again when she fell unconscious, but this time whatever was in her magic wasn't hiding. It was attempting to merge with it. Becoming one with her soul! This was definitely bad, and she needed to get her to containment and contact Princess Celestia as soon as she could. However she wasn't sure she could reach the castle in time to get the proper spells and equipment to keep Rainbow contained if her body ever was taken by a demon. Ponies head's followed them as she ran past. She wished that one of them could help instead of just standing around and watching, being generally useless. But what could they do? Twilight was the Princess of Magic, for Celestia's sake, and if she couldn't fix it then nopony in Ponyville could. Maybe Discord, but he was away at that time, and she wouldn't trust him with Rainbow's life anyway. She kept on running as Rainbow stopped talking, and her muffled attempts at words descended into painful groans and moans. Her small amount of anger at the uselessness of ponies turned quickly into confusion as she reached the end of a street near the town center, the fountain spewing out water in an ironically serene manor. Not only had ponies completely disappeared, but there four tall figures of different standing around, waiting for something. One of them she thought she recognised at first glance. Tall, very dark purple longcoat, huge ornate sword, white mane... "-!!! That's Nero! And he has his friends! Maybe he can help!-" She realised as her panting tried body approached the fountain. "Nero!" She shouted, her lungs barely containing enough air to say the name when running as fast as she was. The figures all turned to face her and Nero specifically began to walk forward to meet her. His arms outstretched and a smile on his face as he happily made his way in her direction. "Hey, Twilight!" He shouted calmly. "Look, I was wondering if you guys could help? I mean, me and my friends are-" Twilight nearly barged through him as she failed to stop in time during such a panicked state. Nero dodged quickly out of the way as Twilight skidded to a stop a few metres past him. "Woah girl, what's with the rush?" Dante laughed as he got up from his lazy-boy position. Twilight whipped her head around to look at the red coated demon hunter. "The rush? My friend is possessed! That's what the rush is!" She yelled at him. Dante's expression turned immediately serious and he broke into a brisk walk in her direction, with the rest of the group leaping into action and making their way to the limp and shaking form of Rainbow Dash. By this point, a few brave ponies had the nerve to peer through open windows or doors they had knocked ajar to be able to see what the commotion was, and who was 'possessed'. "What is she possessed by?" Nero asked as he kneeled by Rainbow Dash, Twilight laying her gently down on the floor. The rest of the group gathered around her. Twilight was at this point starting to shake to at the idea of losing her friend to a demon. She severely hoped that the demon hunters could help. "Err, a demon I think. I-I'm not really s-sure what it is." She stuttered. Nero looked to her and placed a hand on her shoulder as Dante's flashed in an amber glow, a yellow orb shaped like the smug face of a human being appearing in it. "Twilight... calm down. We've got this. Ok?" Twilight nodded along to Nero's soothing and paced back, falling to her rump and watching the demon hunter's work on one of her closest friends, totally unable to help. For once in her life she felt completely powerless. The felling of uselessness and guilt crept through her as tears began to form in her eyes. She watched Dante lower the orb to her friends body. "W-what is that?" The stammered through her tears, trying to find some sort of information to calm her down. Dante never took his eyes from his work as the orb began to float over Rainbow's body. "Soul orb, made with alchemy by ancient human tribes, not very many left around these days." The orb began to glow with a brightening light as most of the demon hunter's stepped back, Dante stayed to oversee the procedure. "They have the power to recall lost souls. If you're friend really is being possessed then this should , bring her soul back to control for long enough to get her to containment. But..." Twilight's head rose at the 'but', what was the catch? "That's if the demon possessing her is relatively weak. If it's a major demon and not a minor demon, the probability of this overpowering the demon is pretty slim. Let's just hope we're not dealing with something stronger than the Seven Hells or a Scarecrow." Now even Dante picked himself up to backpedal with the rest of the demon hunters and Twilight. Twilight had no idea what 'The Seven Hells' were, but she knew that the demon hunters probably did. And if even a weak demon was strong enough to possess a pony as strong willed as Rainbow then she didn't want to know what a strong demon was like. Of course she had seen the massive fire coated Berial that Nero had led them to, and she'd seen the Scarecrows first hoof, but those were the only demons she had ever saw. If demons were variable like most monsters were, then she could expect some to look utterly horrible. The orb descended into Rainbow's body, and the light it was emitting enveloped the pegasus, causing all present to cover their eyes. The sound of slamming could once again be heard as those ponies who were watching retreated back into their homes, to where they thought they were safe. The light continued to shine for a short moment as all waited for the process to be complete. And as soon as it began to die down, Twilight looked to Dante. "Is it done?" She asked in a hurry. "It should be, but-" He was cut off short as Twilight rushed past him at incredibly high speeds to rest by her friend. "We don't know if it worked!" He got up and headed to peel Twilght away from the possible danger. Before he could get there though, 'Rainbow Dash' looked up at the crying, pleading Twilight, her once striking magenta eyes were now replaced with burning red orbs and her cocky smile turned slowly upwards into a toothy twisted grin. Twilight reeled back in shock at her friend's new transformation, unable to react fast enough to an attack coming from said 'friend'. She yelped loudly as the possessed pegasus leaped up and kicked her in the chest, turning her into a living missile, and sending her flying past the demon hunters. Nero looked back to Twilight to see her picking herself up from the ground, dazed and hurt, but obviously okay. He turned back to the form of Rainbow Dash, who now stood grinning madly at them while the burning red eyes darted around them, sizing them up. The orb hadn't worked, and the pony that stood there was no longer Rainbow Dash. Instead it was the soul of a demon under a pony's skin. "So..." It's quavering voice echoed off' the streets. "The legendary son of Sparda, Dante... we meet again." It forced through Dash's lips. All eyes were now upon Dante, who glanced at all the demon hunters with a shrug. Meanwhile, Twilight had picked herself up and she looked to the shell of Rainbow Dash in a mixture of fear and distraught sadness. "Rainbow Dash! What happened to you!?" She yelled at the shell of the pegasus. "Twilight, I don't think that's Rainbow Dash anymore." Nero corrected. "You're gonna' have to run your name by me again, I don't seem to recognise you. Probably because you were low enough to possess mortal beings instead of working your power up yourself and earning strength like the rest of us, instead of usurping a catalyst." Dante countered. The demon in Dash's body's grin never faltered like it was permanently stuck that way. "Maybe this would bring back a few memories..." The demon stated as it's possessed body emitted an explosion of black demonic sigils in a devil trigger blast. The shadow of the body extended out and broke away from it to become it's own entity. Then, like some sort of acidic ghost, another form rose up from the darkened ground where the shadow once was. It rose up to it's full height, not much larger than the original bod of Rainbow Dash, but much more demon-like. It's fur was replaced with a dark blue leather like texture, and the joints at the 'hips' and 'shoulders' were much sharper and protruded from the body like miniature spines. The wings were twice as large, as the feathers had been replaced too, with long structures that had a central core of the leather material and ended in sharp metal edges. They ended just past the flanks even when folded. The shape of the body was very aggressive in places, having a sharper curve of the chest and in the limbs. The mane was coloured in the rainbow pattern like Dash's were, but they consisted of spines which fell over the face and burning red eyes in a brushed down fashion while falling behind to the centre of the back very similarly. The tail fell in the same way, and it looked like the mane and tail had been re-purposed to provide a shield from attacks. The face still had the same manic grin that Fake-Dash had, but the teeth were sharp and predatory, giving the grin a very freaky and disturbing vibe to it. And to top it off, a black mist floated off' the new form, being carried away on the wind. Twilight recognised the form immediately as the one Dash had described her shadow had resembled back at the run-in with Vinyl Scratch and Octavia. And there was no doubt in her mind that it was the demon that had possessed Rainbow Dash's body that had caused the changing of her shadow. "Oh my..." She gasped. "What about now?" The new form spoke in unison with Fake-Dash's, creating a sinister chorus that resonated in the air with eerie vibrations. "Okay, yeah I think I get you now." Dante admitted as he removed his hand from his chin. "Doppelganger, right?" Both figures broke into a twisted laughter before the shadow devil trigger form began to walk slowly forward to come side by side with the original body of Fake-Dash. "Yes... I have come for my revenge. And this time I will be victorious as this form is more powerful than yours. Your counterparts will not be able to help you." The demon hunter's drew their weapons, Trish summoning the sword of Sparda, Lady drawing Kalina Ann and Nero with the Red Queen. All blades and barrels were pointed at the demonic duo that faced them down, leaving Dante to give an amused laugh before his arms flashed amber to leave the curved forms of Agni and Rudra held within his grasp. Lowering himself into a stance with the rest of his friends, apart from Twilight who darted behind a wall and into an alleyway for cover. "Well then..." Dante started as the blades burst into a torrent of flames and swirling wind. "...Let's dance!"