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// The Ponies from Lauren's Pen 
// Story: Doom: Hell in Equestria 
// by The card holder 
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Heading out of town, Grimm took in a breath of fresh air. It had been a while since he could smell the world without the constant edge of blood and ash. It was relaxing, but at the same time, it was... unnerving. He still had occasional urges to rip and tear, but he was able to suppress them. He knew he wasn't exactly right in the head, but he figured that he couldn't do much about it. The fact that he felt like he was being followed didn't help much. He wondered if it was possible that something could've followed him out of Hell...

'Nah, if it was a demon, they would've attacked me already.'

Still, he checked behind him every once in a while, always being answered by just some bushes rustling in the wind. This continued until he came across what he recognized as Fluttershy's cottage, where he decided to head back into town. But when he turned around, he saw a flash of purple ducking into a bush. Looks like he was being followed. 

"Alright, whoever's there, you can come out now."

At first, nothing happens. Then, three fillies walked out of the bush. Grimm recognized one of them from Rarity's boutique, but the other two were new.

"So, mind telling me why you were following me?"

The yellow, red-maned one spoke up. "We jus' wanted t' know what you were..."

"Well, I can answer that for you right now. I'm a human." He began walking back to Ponyville, and he heard the three following him.

"A human? Didn't Lyra keep goin' on about 'em?"

"I think so... So, how are we supposed to get our cutie marks from this?"

"I dunno, maybe he'll have an idea." Grimm felt his leg being tapped, and he turned to see the orange pegasus filly looking up at him. "Would you know any way we could get our cutie marks?"

He read about how ponies got their cutie marks, something about discovering their natural talents, but that was as far as his knowledge went on the matter. "Nope, not at all." The three look disappointed at his words. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get them one of these days."

By now, they had arrived back in Ponyville, and the three young ponies went off to try yet another idea for cutie mark acquisition. Grimm, meanwhile, headed back to the library.  All of the shades were drawn over the windows, and it was very dark from what he could see. Partially out of habit, he took his helmet out and put it on before turning on the night-vision function. Opening the door, he saw the silhouettes of about seven ponies, all of which seemed to be looking in his direction. 

Suddenly, the lights bursted on, and the helmet's night-vision automatically kicked off. He now saw that the seven ponies included Twilight and her friends, as well as a green unicorn that he hadn't seen before.  Above them was a banner reading "Welcome to Ponyville, Grimm!", written in very festive lettering. All at once, the ponies yelled:

"Surprise!"

Removing the helmet, he remarked, "I thought the party was delayed."

Out of nowhere, Pinkie Pie jumped in front of him. "Oh, it was! But then Twilight said that you'd like it if we had it today, although not many ponies wanted to come, except Lyra here," she points to the green unicorn, who waved, "because I think you scared the whole town, kinda like how Zecora did a while ago, except this is different, because you'reoneofthose'human'thingsandnotazebra,andI'msuretheauthorwantedtomovethissceneupsohecouldgetitoutoftheway,and-"

Holding up a hand, Grimm silenced the pink pony. "Calm down, it's fine." He looked at all the ponies present, all of which were looking at him expectantly. "I guess I don't mind if we have the party now."

All of them let out a cheer, before they separated. Applejack and Pinkie went to one of the tables set up with food, Fluttershy did her best to simply sit and talk with Rarity, Dash went over to Applejack, and Twilight and Lyra approached Grimm. 

"Grimm, I'd like you to meet Lyra, another friend of mine." Lyra offered a hoof, and he shook it. "She's rather... interested in humans, and she said she wanted to meet you." The whole time, the green unicorn in question had a wide smile on her face. While Twilight headed off to do something else, Lyra looked at Grimm more. It was a bit unsettling. 

"So... uhh... you were interested in-"

"Humans?" Lyra's outburst nearly makes Grimm jump out of his skin. "Yeah, I always knew they- err, you, were real. Nopony ever believes me, though, but now that you're here, they have to believe me!"

"Umm... yeah, I guess." She then proceeded to assault the human with questions, most of which are very mundane ("How do humans stay balanced on their hind legs so well?" "What do you use your hands for?" "How do humans survive without magic?"). Funny, he had went through Hell and back, twice, and yet this unicorn made him feel more unsettled than anything he ran into there.

Eventually, the mare arrived at a question that Grimm had figured would end badly. "So, what exactly do humans eat?"

By this point, he was more annoyed than unsettled. "Vegetables, fruits, meat, grains-"

"Wait." Lyra's expression went dark. "Did you say humans eat... meat?"

"Well, yeah." He then became aware that everyone had stopped talking amongst themselves and were looking at him. Most of them look horrified. After a few tense seconds, he understood why.

"But we don't eat ponies." Half of them sigh with relief, while Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy still looked uneasy. He took this opportunity to excuse himself from the barrage of questions, heading to a table with various bottles and cups on it.

'I need a freaking drink...' Grabbing a bottle, he doesn't even look at it before chugging it down. It burned his throat like he expected, but it wasn't an alcoholic burn. Looking at the bottle, he saw a label reading "Pink Brand Hot Sauce". 'Huh. Hadn't done something like that since I was in college.'

Behind him, Pinkie Pie saw Grimm down the entire bottle of hot sauce, and he barely even reacted! She hopped up to him, pointing at the bottle. "Did you just drink all of that?"

"I guess I did, yeah. Why, were you planning on having that bottle?"

"Nah, it's okay." She rolled a mini-fridge full of bottles of hot sauce out of seemingly nowhere. "I've got plenty where that came from! I love this stuff!" she said before popping the lid off a bottle and chugging the whole thing.

"It is pretty good stuff." The two looked at each other, and their expressions turned serious. In that moment, an unspoken challenge was issued between them, and with one last look of confirmation, they both start grabbing bottles of hot sauce and downing them in one gulp. Everyone else at the party soon saw the duel between pony and human, followed by ponies rooting for both involved. But the two didn't notice this. All they noticed were the bottles of hot sauce, and each other. They were battling for honor, and nothing would break them out of it.



"Okay, ready?"

"I don't think this is such a good idea..."

"C'mon, Sweetie Belle, you want t' get your cutie mark 'r not?"

"Fine..."

The Cutie Mark Crusaders were ready to start running through a patch of trees tied to each other, in a "9-legged race" of sorts. They somehow hoped to get their cutie marks from this, despite the fact that they were all trying for the same thing at once. 

"Go!"

The three fillies started running at once, leading to all of them tripping and falling over their own legs. After they untangled themselves, they began placing blame on one another, none of them noticing the bushes rustling. Except for Sweetie Belle, who only managed to get the attention of her friends after hitting them over the head.

"Ow!"

"What'd you do that for, Sweetie Belle?"

"Look!" She pointed a hoof at the bushes, and the trio started getting up. After five seconds of rustling, a very tall... creature of some kind walked through. It looked like one of those minotaurs that they had read about in school, only pink. They stared at each for a while, neither one moving, until Scootaloo broke the silence.

"...Hi?"

The creature roared in response, causing the three fillies to scream and run in the opposite direction. Looking back, Applebloom shrieked again before ducking as a green fireball hit a tree behind her. They continued running, wanting desperately to escape this monster.