//------------------------------// // 07: The Soul Eater // Story: My Little Pony: The Seal of Death // by Azrael the alicorn //------------------------------// Discord watched from his prison, the cave in which he, Sombra and Chrysalis had just walked right into. The tunnel seemed to last forever and it didn’t took long for the draconequus to get bored. “Why exactly are we here?” asked the spirit of chaos. Even Chrysalis was bored. She just wanted to go back in her land and rest after such long day and take care of the changelings who got injured during the last battle. “Yes, what there is of so special in this cave?” she asked. Sombra grinned. “You’ll see soon enough”. Not long after, they finally reached the end of the tunnel. The cave was enormous; somepony could build up many cities and empires inside of it. There was some sort of natural light, probably thanks to reflections from the crystal in the ceiling. The ground was also full of sand. Chrysalis and Discord couldn’t help but wonder why that cave was so big. And then they saw it. It was simply the biggest creature they had ever seen in their entire life. It had a snake-like body that was long enough to cover six miles and was as tall as the biggest mountain. It’s mouth looked like some cross between a worm, a spider and a snake. It lay on the sands, lifeless and defeated, yet still capable to inspire awe and fear. Sombra didn’t wasted time explaining the nature of the beast. “This is the Soul Eater. Long ago the alicorns, curious of what the afterlife could look like, decided to focus their efforts to investigate, trying to find a path. Sadly, from a portal they had opened, this magnificent creature come through. The Soul Eater was certainly quite the power to behold; not even the combined efforts of the alicorns were capable to stop his hunger for souls. In a few days he brought the all-powerful race to his knee. It was then that Death arrived, defeating the monster and trapping his remains in this cave.” His horn gleamed in dark light and he commanded all the souls he took from Canterlot, Ponyville and Cloudsdale into the semi-opened mouth. “And now is time to wake him up and make of him my own pet.” Slowly the beast’s body started to light up, lines of cold blue began color his grey scales. His eyes opened up, revealing two circles, whiter than snow, in a sea of darkness. The Soul Eater rose from the ground, shaking of the dust from his enormous body, and released a thunderous and blood-chilling roar. In his mouth it was possible to see what looked like the faces of all the innocents souls he devoured screaming in agony. It was pure nightmare fuel for Discord and even Chrysalis. Once the titanic creature stopped roaring he watched Sombra with his emotionless eyes. “You liked those souls, do you?” Sombra said, sneering. “Well, there is more of that to come. Now listen.” When the dark tyrant told the Soul Eater what to do, he crawled out of the cave at top speed. Both Chrysalis and Discord couldn’t help but exchange a glance, thinking what kind of monster Sombra had just unleashed into the world. --- Azrael, the princesses, and the Mane Six were flying in the air towards the Crystal Empire. Those who didn’t have wings were held up by magic. It was the fastest way to get there and also the only one, because during the battle the train station had been wrecked. Suddenly Azrael stopped, feeling that something horrible had just happened. To not waste their energy, the group descended in the ground. “What’s going on Azrael?” asked Princess Celestia. “Sombra has just awakened a being that should have stayed dead,” whispered the angel of death. Before that anyone could ask what he meant a magic window opened, showing the arrogant face of the dark tyrant himself, “I can see that you heard of my recent action, Azrael,” commented Sombra while chuckling. “What do you mean, Sombra? Explain yourself!” demanded Celestia. “Why tell you when I can show you?” said Sombra, showing the Soul Eater marching towards an unknown destination. “What is that thing!?” asked a shocked Rarity. “The Soul Eater, a being summoned accidentally by the Alicorns and who’s only objective is to devour all the souls he meet,” Azrael told them while glaring at the dark tyrant. Celestia was by no means happy either. “What does this mean, Sombra? Do you want to break your promise?” “Afraid of my little pet, are you? There is no need to be so nervous about him; the Soul Eater will not hunt you. Yet,” explained the unicorn/alicorn, making the group take a breath of relief. “But I can’t say the same for the city he’s about to rush into,” he added, turning their breath into a gasp of horror. “So you can go to the Crystal Empire with no worries at all. But then Manehattan would be doomed. Also, you could not blame me if you decide to try to stop the Soul Eater. Even though I’m sure that by doing so you’re going to waste much precious time … and lives.” With that said the magic window closed, ignoring all the insults that Rainbow Dash spat out. “Can you tell us more about that monster, Azrael? Do you think we can stop him?” asked Twilight Sparkle. “The Soul Eater was and is a being powerful enough to fight the entire alicorn kind. A direct fight with him would be our downfall. I think that it might be possible to beat him using the elements of harmony,” he explained. “I bet there is a but,” said Pinkie Pie. “But, that would take so much from the elements that it is possible they would stop working for days—perhaps even weeks. There is only one way to stop the Soul Eater: bring him back to the cave and seal the entrance.” “That sounds good, but exactly how are we going to do so?” asked Twilight Sparkle. “Somepony shall have to lure him back there. I thought to give this duty to you, Rainbow Dash. I know you’re the fastest pony there is. If you want, of course.” “Thanks of the compliment,” said the multi-color pegasus. “And yes, I totally want to do it!” “Once you will have lead him back inside the cave Fluttershy will join you into distracting the Soul Eater.” “No way! I can do the job by myself!” boasted Rainbow Dash, causing the other pegasus to look at her, worried. “We can’t take any chances, Rainbow Dash. For when you’re going to reach the cave you’re going to be very tired. Also, Fluttershy is just as capable to go as fast as you,” insisted the male alicorn, causing the yellow pegasus to blush slightly to the compliment. Rainbow Dash grumbled while nodding with her head. “Once the Soul Eater will be inside, I, Celestia, and Twilight will work on the spell to seal the entrance. Right before shutting it we will warn you two to get out of there.” “What about me?” asked Princess Luna. “You shall proceed towards the Crystal Empire and prepare with Cadence and Shining Armor to assemble our army,” answered Azrael, conscious of how much the ruler of the night wouldn’t liked that. “You will help much more doing that. We have little time and it takes time to gather all the people in Equestria,” insisted Azrael, trying to not sound harsh. Luna did not seem the least happy about it, and Celestia knew it, so she tried to cheer her up. “You don’t have to feel useless, my sister. No one here doubts of your power but now we must act, or else who knows how many innocents are going to get eaten by that monster?” Luna knew she was right. “Fine then, I’ll go. But please, be careful my friends!” she said, saluting the group, before to fly off to the Crystal Empire. --- “That things sure is huge, but I doubt it’s that fast!” commented Rainbow Dash while watching at safe distance the colossal monster. Azrael has used his power over the souls to show her where the Soul Eater and the cave were so she wouldn’t need to wonder about the direction to take. The angel of death also kept hammering down how much dangerous the Soul Eater was and how fast he could go. Rainbow Dash was pretty confident that she would had a problem with that big worm. The only question was how to get his attention without getting to close to that big mouth. The multi-color pegasus got an idea: she flew high in the sky and then right down at top speed, releasing a powerful rainbow nuke. “Ouch!” yelped Dash, getting up. The monster’s hide was pretty tough. She suddenly noticed that the Soul Eater had stopped on his tracks. She turned around and she felt her blood cool, noticing that the creature had turned his massive head up and was staring at her with emotionless and nightmarish eyes. Suddenly, she didn’t feel that arrogant anymore, especially when the Soul Eater opened his mouth and tried to eat her. She managed to avoid the bite, making it bite itself. The creature roared in annoyance rather than pain and Rainbow Dash took that time to get a good distance between them. The Soul Eater took only few seconds to almost reach her. The pegasus started beating her wing with all her might, trying to hold back the feeling that this time her speed would not be enough to save her.