Flash's Demon

by Nicktendonick

Chapter 7 - The Judas Contract

Flash hovered just above the ground, protecting his baby brother from in the rain. A smooth gentle trip to their destination to make sure he didn’t cry. Flash kept the foal under the wraps of his blanket, turning around to the sound of grunts behind him.

“I said I’m fine,” Flash heard an adult stallion, his father, say some distance behind the boy.

“Honey, just let me push you out. We’re gonna be late.”

“I can do this myself,” Flash heard his father declare, before hearing another series of grunts.

It came from the large orange Pegasus with a mane that resembled Flash’s blue, or at least resembled what was left of that adult’s mane. An eyepatch over his right eye, most of himself in a body cast, Flash Sentry Senior was bound to a wheelchair that was stuck in the mud. Unlike every other pony around, he was not dressed in black. It wouldn’t fit over the body cast.

Through painful struggle, he tried to unstick himself from the mud. He could not. The tan female pegasus with the orange mane hovered behind him to try to lift up his wheelchair for him.

“Honey, just let me—”

“I said I can do this!”

His brother almost began to cry on instinct from their father’s growl.

“I know…I know” Flash muttered to his little brother, pulling out a binky in his pockets and placing it in the foal’s mouth. “Hey, it’s gonna be alright little bro. Dad’s just mad he’s gotta be in a wheelchair, he’s not mad at mom.”

“Honey, let me push you.” Flash heard his mother say, her wings flapping her behind her wheelchair-bound husband. The moment she tried, he protested.

“No, Ember! I don’t need your help!”

“We’re gonna be late to the funeral! I can’t go there without you Flash. I’m not even sure if they’ll let us in without you there.”

“I’m not going to be wheeled in like some cripple.”

Ember’s hoof met her forehead. “Flash, don’t do this, not here.” Ember pleaded to her stubborn husband “This is a funeral, nobody’s going to care about us here.”

“That’s not the point! I care! That fucking she-demon is not going to win! These casts are temporary, these burns are temporary, this wheelchair is temporary. I am not disabled, I don’t need to retire, and I don’t need anyone to help me! I am pushing myself Ember, end of story. If you’re so worried about—”

A thought popped into young Flash’s head. Shuffling his brother into one hoof, he turned around and called to his parents.

“Mom! Dad!” He shouted, interrupting his parent’s ‘conversation’. “Mom can hold Firsty and I’ll push if you two are having trouble. I’ve been training really hard, I know I can push it, Dad.”

Flash’s parents gave each other a silent look.

“No son, that won’t be necessary,” said Flash Sentry Senior

“Yes honey, everything’s fine,” said Ember Glow.

The boy saw them now whisper, no longer speaking to each other. Flash saw his mother’s wings flap faster and faster. He could make out whispering, but not what they were speaking about.

Flash’s baby brother began to cry once more. When Flash wondered why he sighed. The binky had fallen into the mud below.

Oh horseapples Flash thought to himself. At least mom has another.

Before he could turn around, he felt a hoof on his shoulder. He turned, and his mother was there, her glowing smile shining at her sons.

“Come on honey, let’s get going. There’s going to be some more rain later today, we need to find a spot with some cover before they’re all taken.

“I thought you said Daddy had to be there so the soldiers would let us in? I want daddy to be here.”

She fidgeted.

“Yes, um... “ Ember stumbled on her words. It took a moment, but she showed her sons a smile. “It’ll be ok honey. Daddy’s going to be catching up with us.” She said to her son. Mother and son looking at each other, Flash gave his baby brother back to his mother

As soon as she held the foal in her hooves, First Base stopped his crying. He just needed his mother’s touch. Flash thought, smiling.

“It’ll be ok. Your father will be meeting up with us soon, I promise. Now come-on Flash before we’re late for the funeral.”

“A funeral for whom?” an alien voice beamed into his skull.

Lighting flashed.

Flash now stood side by side around many ponies in the cold rain. Soldiers dressed in their armor, mares all wearing black. His mother held his brother as he wailed, her wing making an improvised umbrella for her baby boy.

Three tombstones stood in front of him.

“Who are these ponies?”

Flash heard the alien voice again.

I don’t want to think about it.

“There’s one more headstone next to them now, isn’t there?”

I...I don’t want to see it.

“But I do.”

Flash felt a soft hoof across his face, pulling his face, and making him see.

The orange child buried his head in the mud.

I don’t want to see it I don’t want to see it.

A white mare grabbed his head and turned it up. The child tried to struggle her control away, but she gave nothing. The boy closed his eyes, holding them as long as he could to avoid seeing it.

“See it. Show me. I need to see it.”

No! I don’t want to! Please! Don’t make—

It was too late. Flash saw the name on the third tombstone.

Twilight.

Twilight.

Gone were the crowds, gone were the instruments, gone was Flash’s family. The only thing in the world was an adult orange stallion, collapsed in front of a child’s grave.

“Really, Twilight?! You live in Canterlot too? I go to the school near the big bell tower. What school do you go?”

“The Canterlot school for gifted unicorns! Well, I will soon! My big entrance exam is tomorrow!”

I’m sorry Twilight.

I wish I could have helped.
I wanted to help.
I know I couldn’t have helped. It was out of my control.
But I never forgot.
I wanted to be strong.
I never really had a reason for joining the paladins, I just... always wanted to be like my father. But after what happened to you… I then… I did.

I wanted to become strong, strong enough to affect the world around me, and I would use that strength to never let a tragedy like yours from ever happening again.

But look at me now. I’m in a prison of bastards. I have to follow that bastard of a father’s path, just so I could step out of his shadow, lorded over by bastard professors whose classes I can’t pass, and I’m imprisoned by a bastard demon. I don’t affect my world at all. I just ride the wave, worthless as a log floating in the ocean.

...Twilight... I’m sorry. If you were here to see this...what would you say...

“It’s ok, Flash.”

The orange stallion felt a hoof on his back. He turned to see the pony who did. Every part of him froze.

A lavender pony with a dark purple mane, a single red streak in the middle of her mane and tail. Her flank had a red star as her cutie mark. Flash trembled as he stared at the ghost of what could have been.

“Twi...light?”

An adult version of the purple filly he knew was by his side.

“I know how it feels to be powerless,” Said Twilight Sparkle “What happened to me, was neither of our faults.”

She reached out to slide her hoof across him and pulled him into a long overdue hug.

“It’s ok, it’s ok.”

Twilight held the hug, keeping herself up while still holding onto the poor stallion.

“I know how it feels to be weak, to have no power as the world turns around you. I felt it for so long. It’s a feeling nopony should feel.”

Flash said nothing, but she could tell by his reaction, that he fully agreed. She released him.

“I don’t want you to be weak. Take my hoof Flash.”

Within a blink, she was no longer by his side, but in front of him, extending her hoof to him.

“Come with me Flash… I will make you strong. All you need to do, is to take my hoof…”

There was no way Flash could disobey this mare. Flash reached out and grabbed her hoof.

His soul went up.

----=

Flash impulsively stretched his legs and yawned, as he opened his eyes and saw nothing below. He tried to understand what had just happened to him. He felt like he was thrown up, but instead of hitting a ceiling, he landed on the ground. And a strange ground it was. It felt like he was on solid glass, despite the abyss below. He turned his gaze skyward and saw chaos.

What looked like colors of every shade of red swirled around like a bad drug trip.

“Where am I?” He asked himself.

“You are in the astral plane, a world of spirits.” Answered a booming voice, catching Flash off guard.

“It is a place beyond the knowledge of mortals, as wide and chaotic as Equestria itself, as it does exist right over it. Now, as to where in that place, well, it’s in our little world.”

Four mares surrounded him. A tan pegasus, a white unicorn, an orange unicorn, and a lavender unicorn.

His mother, his captor, his crush, his friend.

“Come on Flash.”
“We need to go”
“Follow us”
“Let us help you.” They said to him.

Flash tried to resist, but he soon found it impossible to. The four mares dragged him across the twisted landscape that surrounded them. Within a moment, they led him to a long red carpet. His eyes watched the carpet before it reached its end. There was a throne.

“Thank you, girls, we’ll handle it from here.”

He heard two voices, looked up and saw one mare. Laplace was sitting on a silver throne. Her eyes bearing a purple tint. Laplace’s pure white coat remained, but her hooves had become a blood red, the same red that colored strands within the center of her white mane.

Flash saw one more thing. A red scar in the middle of her forehead, just below her twisted horn.

“You…”

“Yes, Flash—us,” Laplace replied.

If this was some part of his dream, he really couldn’t understand why she was here. And why she was talking to him. So, he did the easiest thing possible: ask.

“Why am I here? Especially if you’re in this, is a really weird dream.”

Laplace chuckled on her throne. “Yes yes, a dream,” She said with a smug smile. “Call this a dream, but it’s our dreams that lead us to forge our reality.”

“So what does this dream mean then?” Flash asked back.

“It means great things are going to happen to you.” She leaned back and swept her right forehoof outward, inviting him closer “Come closer Flash. We have business to discuss. A… proposition, between you and us.”

“Huh?”

Laplace chuckled to herself. “We’ll make this easy for you. Flash Sentry Junior, We want to make a deal with you. A simple little deal, between just you, and us.”

He said nothing. He stood there, looking up at her. She grinned. Without a protest from Flash, she continued to speak.

“We want to help you. You’re a pony who’s been burdened with a great deal. Much of it not your fault. We understand. Much of our own fate, like yours, was not our own creation but that of others who conspired against us. Truly, we are kindred spirits, Flash.”

I’m pretty sure that’s not the case, Flash would have said, but the royal guard instead silenced himself and kept it in his thoughts.

“So, simply,” continued Laplace, “We want to give you power, to overcome your burdens. We want you Flash, to be the greatest you that you could possibly be.”

It took Flash less than a second to answer. “No thanks. I learned better than to make deals with demons.”

“Oh, Flash, you haven’t let us finish. Don’t say no just now, it’s quite rude.”

“I’ll pass,” Flash answered before he turned his head to the sky.

“I’d like to wake up now, if you can hear me, uhh... me,” he tried to command to his subconscious. He wasn’t sure how being aware in dreams worked, but with a demon in said dream, he considered it a question he’d ponder another night.

Laplace pouted, placing her hooves on her sides “A mare is pouring her soul out to you, and you just walk away?”

Flash’s answer was to turn around and walk away. But Laplace would not let that stand.

Seems so, eh Flash?
Seems like we need to change that.

A shadowy figure jumped in front of Flash. The shadow took the form of Twilight Sparkle, her horn lit up and gripped Flash in a purple magic, turning him around and sending him back to Laplace. Her job done, Twilight faded away.

“At least let us finish before you say no.”

Flash shook his head. “I’ll pass on whatever three wishes you have for me. Besides, these problems of mine aren’t things you can just wish away or blow up.”

Laplace’s smile stayed. “Oh Flash, We know that. It’s more than that. Those types of problems, that’s actually what we’re good at. It’s anything you want we will provide. We’re not one of those genies you read about in books, we don’t have a limit or a sinister drawback. We’ll use our magic and help you however you can, and as many times as the way you desire it.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes indeed!” Laplace exclaimed. “All of it, Flash, will be about making you the glorious stallion you were destined to be.”

“You want to to do all these things for me, huh? Out of the goodness of your ice cold heart, you want to grant me my every wish and whim?”

Laplace ignored the insult. “Of course.” She said nodding to him. “That’s how demon contracts work after all.”

“A demon contract?!” Flash stepped back.

When Flash stepped back, she leaned in. “Yes! A demon contract! A magical contract forged so strong that not even Tartarus could break it.”

“Yea, no.” Flash deadpanned. “I am not becoming your servant.”

Laplace chuckled. “You wouldn’t. We would.”

“...what?”

“We…” Laplace began, pointing her own hoof at herself. “...are pledging all our unique talent as the infamous Demon of Canterlot, to you Flash Sentry Junior. As your servant, everything we can do will be at your disposal, and we shall be there to serve at your every whim for as long as our contract holds. That is the nature of a contract, to obey one’s master. And we are more than willing to do all of this, for a single, simple thing in exchange.”

Flash knew what she wanted. “So you’ll do everything I want and give me all my deepest desires if I sell my soul to you, huh? Sorry, but I’m quite attached to—”

“Oh no no,” Interrupted Laplace. “That’s not a part of the deal. We have no interest in devouring your soul. If we did we would have munched on it first chance we got. Between you and us, we think pony souls taste terrible anyway.”

“Then what do you want?” Flash asked. “What simple, single, easy little thing are you trying to con me into doing for you? If I know one thing, it’s not worth the price.”

“Oh, Flash, you make it sound like a bad thing,” Laplace said back. “It’s a something quite dear to us. It’s the only thing we’ve ever wanted: Our freedom. We want to be free.”

“You want me to free you from your cell, back in the library?”

Laplace nodded. “Yes.”

“You want me to betray the kingdom I vowed I’d give my life for?”

Sitting upright on her throne Laplace pouted, her head tilting a bit to the side. She crossed her forelegs and replied to Flash. “Letting an unjustly held prisoner go isn’t betrayal. When we tried to kill Cadance all those years ago and nopony died. We’ve served our time. Our wonderful ruler and Shiny will never let us out, especially when that bitch Cadance has Shiny wrapped around her hoof. We will spend all our days in this cage, thanks to them.”

She levitated off her throne and landed near Flash. “We’re going to give you everything you want, all of your commands we shall do. And in exchange, you get us out of this cell. No fine print, no nothing, just that.”

She trotted in a circle around Flash.

“One needs to be brave. They need to take that single leap of faith to accomplish that dream that burns within their soul. As someone once said many times, “courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality.”

“So Flash, we ask you... do you have what it takes to make your dreams into reality?”

Flash opened his mouth. Flash was almost going to say yes.

The thought simmered in his brain.

Flash realized part of him wanted to say yes.
Flash realized, a good part of him liked the deal: A deal with a demon. A vile, murderous, demon.

Flash panicked, and instinctively fled skyward.

Like a lightning bolt, he shot into the air, flying as high as he could, the strange, distorted streams of colors above him got closer. He readied to break through the strange cloudline...until he realized it wasn’t a cloudline. It was a barrier.

Instinct kicked in and he jammed on the proverbial air brakes, just inches from crashing into the barrier. He closed his eyes as he tried to stop at full speed. Flash indeed did hit the invisible ceiling but the impact was nothing more than a little love tap. Not flattened against a barrier in the sky, he opened his eyes and stared through the barrier.

What was on the other side of the barrier, stared back.

From Flash’s point of view, blurred entries stared back at him. Only a few looked like ponies, the rest took strange forms of equines, entities with tentacles spreading out all their forms, and bipedal creatures with leather wings.

“What the hell…” Flash watched the distorted entities. He could make mouths on some, speaking to each other, while others watched him like he was a beast in a zoo. The entities were filled, from what he saw, with a child-like wonder, each examining him from top to bottom, discussing to their fellow creatures what they were looking at.

Flash flapped a little away from the crowd of whatever it was that was watching him. He looked across his ‘audience’ again, looking for something familiar in this line-up of the bizarre. He did, finding a particular, a pink, pony-like blur among the ‘crowd’ watching him. When it noticed Flash was paying attention to it, the pony began shaking its head rapidly, before pulling, what seemed from nowhere, a small white sign for Flash.

Where it pulled it from, he’d never know. From this realm of chaos, he wasn’t sure if he even wanted to know. But his soul wouldn’t disobey the temptation it provided. He flapped closed to the barrier, moving closer to make sense of the two red letters on the sign.

But before he could the tell what it was trying to tell him, another entity, a bright gray phantom-like entity with only half a body and a pointy hat ripped the sign away from the pink pony, before grabbing the pink blur by what seemed the mane to rip it away from the crowd. The pink entity gripped the barrier trying not to be pulled away, struggling to keep its spot. When it made eye contact with Flash once more, it mouthed words. Or more accurately, tried to, before it was finally yanked away, and the pink mass was thrown away from the barrier. More faces filled took the free spot to get a glimpse at Flash. That was until the gray half-pony slammed its face against the barrier, its phantasm form stretching across a part of the barrier, its red ruby eyes glowing, bearing down at Flash. He retreated a foot, his instincts set off an alarm, one too late for him. He began to turn around only to feel familiar shadows wrapping themselves around his wings, and eventually encasing his whole body. The shadow of the Demon of Canterlot appeared from the shadow blinding Flash.

“You all go away!” Laplace’s shadow shouted “He’s inside our barrier! He belongs to us! Shoo, vermin!”

To defend him against the staring eyes of those beasts, Flash felt Laplace’s binding shadows drag him back to the astral ‘ground’. “Please excuse those worthless spirits,” Laplace said, speaking again through the shadows, “They’re nothing more than moths to a flame, attracted to our brilliance, a brilliance that they could never achieve.”

When they reached the bottom, the darkness released the pegasus back, safely on the ‘floor’, with the demon Laplace.

“The same force that binds me here within this barrier, keeps those entities out. There is no freedom in here, nothing but this. This cage, this bubble, this little world of ours. We’re tired of it Flash. We’ve been here for so long, too long. We want out. Whatever it takes, we shall be free once again. And that is why we are here for you. We desire our freedom, you desire your success. Our goals intertwine, and we can help the other achieve what they desire the most.”

Flash once again turned away, the righteous side of his brain taking control once again. “I’m fine on my own. I am a soldier of Equestria, demons like you are my enemy.”

Laplace frowned. “There is no Equestria here. When was there ever an Equestria here? There’s just you and us, no crown or country, no right or wrong. What you say is an excuse and you know that, Flash.”

Flash stopped. “No. Thanks. Laplace.”

“Are you going to walk away from it? We’re giving you the perfect chance to get all you desire. And you, being here, is the perfect chance to reclaim our stolen freedom. We can save each other Flash. We just need to be good to each other.”

“No, it’d be me committing treason against my own kingdom and unleashing a demon upon Equestria. I don’t want your ‘good’, I don’t think anypony does.” Flash spoke. It doesn’t matter how great it is, I’m not taking your bait.

“You don’t want to be good? You want to be pathetic? Aren’t you tired of watching the mare you love sleep around with everypony but you? Aren’t you tired of flunking every class you take? Aren’t you tired of all these things that are binding you to this fate just because you’re the son of a-”

“Stop it!” Flash shouted, interrupting the demon mare.

Flash rubbed his temple with his hoof. “Look, you’re right, things aren’t going too well for me, but it doesn’t matter. Things will get better, I will make them better by myself. I don’t need your help. I’m doing things the right way, and the right way works. I’m not taking the easy way out. I’m not selling my soul, and I’m not giving in. Leave me alone, Laplace.”

Flash turned around and once again, began to walk away.

“Fine then.”

A door came into being in front of Flash, light glistening from the hinges. “This is a door back to our library,” Laplace said, walking up to the stallion’s side. “You take it, this will be the end of things. We’ll keep you fed and taken care of until Shining Armor negotiates your release, he’ll have your memory wiped of this entire incident, and not only will you forget our encounter, you will never hear, or see of us again as long as you live.”

Flash walked up to the door. Laplace followed like a predator.

“But before we let you open that door, we want you to ask you one last thing.”

Flash closed his eyes in annoyance. “Shoot.”

“Are you happy with your life? This path you take right now. The one you said before you’re taking. Is it working?”

“Yes, it is.” Flash reached for the door.

“Is it really working Flash, or are you just trying to justify passing up your best hope for fixing it?”

There was a moment of silence as before Flash grabbed the doorknob. “…mostly,” Flash said before he turned the doorknob. “It’s mostly working.”

Flash stared at Laplace for a solid minute. He turned his attention away from the mare and back to the door.

“So,” asked Laplace “That’s it? We’re done? Not even a goodbye?”

Flash didn’t look back as he said “Yea, that’s it. We’re done.” He opened the door.

A small grin came from Laplace’s mouth. “Stubborn,” she said “Like father, like son. Pity.”

Flash stopped in his tracks. His hoof rested on the half-opened door.

“What did you say?” It was dead cold, Laplace didn’t need to know what she did to understand she stepped on a landmine. She could hear the anger building in his breath, a lit fuse primed to explode.

Instead of walking away, thrown into the landmines, there can’t be any mistakes.
Perfect words need to be said, this is our last chance.

“You heard us. You’re just like that stallion. You need to change, Flash, because before you know it, Flash, you’ll soon become him.”

“I am not my father…” The angry stallion held it in. Unlike his father, he not would explode, Flash told himself.

“Yet can’t see you’re following the very same path as he did?” Laplace said calmly.

”I am not him.” he fumed, shutting his eyes tight. I do not explode. “I’m taking my own path, and it’s going to lead to great things.” Flash opened his eyes.

“It doesn’t look like that to me. It looks like you’re making the exact mistakes he did. How does it feel Flash, really, how does it feel to trick yourself into doing exactly what he did thinking you’re not? You’re going to wind up exactly like-

“I AM NOT MY FATHER!”

Flash’s anger exploded in front of Laplace. The furious pegasus’ wings beat like a storm, the anger that had been bound, unleashed itself.

“I don’t abandon my family! I don’t fuck up like he did! I don’t throw everything away for fucking nothing! I’ll never do what that goddess-damned fuck did! I am not him and I never will be!”

Before Laplace knew it, Flash was close enough to bite her face off. Laplace bit her lip.

You better know what you’re doing girl, we only got one shot here...
...it just has to be done right…

“Can’t see you’re following the very same path as he did?” Laplace said calmly.

“I am not! I’m doing things my way, and I won’t make his mistakes!”

“You’re doing exactly what he did. You’re him!”

“I AM NOT THAT BASTARD!” Flash howled, eyes shut as he reared his hooves in anger.

When Flash opened his eyes, he did not see the lighting rod for his anger. He saw a mirror, showing another pony. He saw an older pegasus decorated in a paladin’s armor, a stallion with a blue mane and orange coat.

Where there was anger, there was now fear.

“I’m not him...I’m not him…”

In the mirror, he saw his father reflected back to him.

Flash’s wings gave out, he fell on his flank. The Mirror image of Flash Sentry Senior mimicked Flash Sentry Junior as he hit the ground and stared at the mirror in horror, unable to look away.

“Oh Celestia, I’m not him…” Flash muttered to himself, pushing himself by the hooves away from the mirror, and away from Laplace.

“It’s what you fear the most… you becoming him… don’t you know Flash… you’re almost there?”

“I want to wake up now…please, Celestia, I want to wake up now...”

Flash’s eyes desperately looked all around him for a way to wake himself up, to exit the nightmare he was in.

“You can’t run from this forever, Flash. What makes you think you can avoid this fate?” the demon trotted closer to the fear-filled foal, “You need help. Our help. We’re the only one who can save you.”

“I need to get out of here, I need to get—” The door!

Flash’s eyes caught the door. It would take him away from this nightmare. Flash clamored onto his hooves and made a mad dash for the door, and away from the Demon of Canterlot.

Before he could reach for the doorknob, she re-appeared and blocked his path.

“You’re going to become just like him if you don’t change. If you reject my offer, you won’t have any other alternative.”

Flash said nothing to the demon blocking his escape. He was thinking. In his head, the choices fought in his brain.

“Flash, stop and think about this,” she told him. “We’re on your side, Flash. We want to save you. But in order to do that, you need to be sure. Absolutely sure.”

Flash knew saying no be the ‘good’ thing, but what good was there in leading a miserable existence? Did that wasted life even have any value? He knew what one path would offer him. But the other, the other offered him a chance, if nothing more.

“You… you still have doubts. We can’t have that. We need you to be absolute in your decision. To make a contract with us, and save your soul, or to reject our offer and become your father, rotting in his shadow.”

It could lead to risk... or something great. He remembered what he was once told by a very wise mare.

“Flashy, you can’t just play it safe and listen to what everyone thinks is best. I know what your mom said, and she is right. But sometimes, you can’t always play things safe and follow what other people tell you. Sometimes you need to break away and choose your own path. To take a leap of faith to get what you want. It’s a risk, it’s always a risk, but sometimes, you need to just go all in, and put your faith to the test. How bad do you want this, Flash?”

“In order to forge a contract, we need a willing partner,” Laplace said “Somepony who will go all in. If you’re not willing to put everything on the line, like we are, then this is all for naught.”

How bad do I want this? To break away...

Laplace stepped aside. “The choice is yours, Flash.” The path to the door was there, the glistening light half-open, Flash could see the library through the brightness. “I won’t stop you, I won’t say anything more. If you take that door, then there’s nothing more we can do for you.”

Upon instinct, Flash reached for the door.

“But remember, the one question I have for you. Are you happy with your life?”

He did not answer. Words tried to come, thoughts tried to be a devil’s advocate to the demon, but none would form.

“We know you’re not. No matter what you tell yourself, you know the truth: You know you’ll never step out of that shadow your father cursed you with. You’re never going to have the mare you love, and these classes you’re failing are not going to get you anywhere. You’re going to grow old in that uniform you hate. You will be stuck, miserable, imprisoned, and alone... and you know it.”

“Flash… are you happy with your life?”

…

...

“...I hate it. I hate my fucking life.”

Flash slammed the door shut.

“What do I need to do?” The stallion turned around to the demon.

Laplace’s smile became a mile wide. “What you just did.” Slowly, she walked up to the stallion, a purple glint in her eye as she spoke.

“Despite everything I saw and heard, I knew, from the very first moment I laid eyes you, Flash, that you’d be my knight in shining armor. I knew, from the bottom of my heart, that you’d be the one to set us free.”

She floated in front of him, she grabbed his forehooves, a perfect smile on the mare’s face. Her crimson eyes locking with his blue eyes.

“You’ve made an excellent decision Flash.”

A massive magical rune revealed itself underneath the two as the demon’s horn lit up. Her magic slowly flowing into the center of the rune, spreading out, a dim light soon spreading to the entire spell circle.

“Just let the magic flow into you, Flash. Can you feel our magic?”

Flash closed his eyes and nodded.

“Good. Are you ready Flash? Once we begin, there is no going back.”

“I don’t want to go back. Someone once said, ‘Sometimes you need to break away and choose your own path. To take a leap of faith to get what you want.’”

Laplace smiled. “Good. Then let us begin…”

Laplace’s horn lit up, charging a magnificent white, and she began to speak.

Flash felt Laplace’s magic flow all around him. The moment her magic seeped inside his coat, the words not of his own came upon him effortlessly.

The runes below them lit up, glowing even more intensely. A slow stream of purple magic wrapped around Flash’s body, while Flash’s yellow magic swirled around Laplace. The two streams brushed, and Flash felt the nature of the words change within him. With the magic guiding them,

Flash’s eyes shone like rubies as the demon’s magic filled his soul.

Laplace’s eyes turned golden, as Flash’s magic penetrated her very being.

The two stood on their hindlegs, their hooves pressed against each other.