Demon's Crest: Harmonic Affinity

by Dragonborne Fox

Intro

Demon’s Crest: Harmonic Affinity

Written by Dragonborne Fox

Eons ago, many fiends fought tooth and nail for sacred objects called ‘crests.’ These objects, six in total, are said to grant the owner unimaginable power through a seventh said to appear when the six were brought together. Eventually, the fiends became extinct, save a notable few fiends who forgot about the crests much like time did. Humans perished as well, and a species of equine—ponies—took over in their stead, rebuilding the world as they—and a few other nations consisting of zebras, gryphons, and the like—saw fit.

The Ghoul Realm, aptly renamed Tartarus by the ponies, served as little more than a prison for beings who had done unimaginable wrongs. Tirek was a prime example of this, having been re-banished after being defeated by the ‘most powerful magic of all’ despite having absorbed all known magic prior.

Things weren’t all that peaceful after that, however. The Tree of Harmony—the very thing that held the beloved Elements of Harmony—had been destroyed, and the Elements themselves were nowhere to be found. There was no known culprit; nobody even really knew what had happened or why.

‘Who was responsible for such a thing?’ Many asked as they were told of the horrible news. There had been no answers, no leads, no anything regarding the incident.

At least, until the newest princess, one purple alicorn named Twilight Sparkle, was brought a most peculiar book by a purple-and-green dragon by the name of Spike. The two stood in the Friendship Castle, a marvelous building made up of crystal a deep violet-blue in hue.

“Twilight! You gotta check this out!” Spike cried, holding the book above his head. The cover was made of black leather, a most unusual choice for such a book, and it had a series of aged, dull yellow pages between front and back. Surely, the book had been old, perhaps a few centuries at least.

“What is it?” Twilight asked, horn lighting up in purple. A similar aura grasped the book entirely, and it lifted out of Spike’s little hands and flew to her. The book had no title or author—if it did, then those were simply no longer on the book's cover.

“Owlicious gave it to me. I don’t know where he got it from,” Spike explained, scratching his head with a single digit.

Twilight opened the book slowly, and she found nothing pertaining to its origin on the first page, for much of the writing had been made illegible. She shot a glance at Spike. “What does this have to do with the current situation everypony’s going bonkers over?” she asked, blinking.

“Nothing that I know of. I only read the first two pages,” Spike answered, shrugging his arms.

Twilight sighed, and flipped to the second page. It was basically like the first page, except with black smudges dotting its frame here and there, and a big smudge making up the lower left corner entirely. The third page had nary a word on it. The alicorn sifted through the book quickly, finding either ink smudges, illegible words, or empty pages throughout.

“Why would a book contain something that can’t be read?” the mare asked, sifting through the book again. “Hay, why doesn’t it even have a title?”

“I’m not sure. It looks pretty old, though. I think it didn’t age properly,” the little dragon stated, walking until he stood at Twilight’s side.

“You could have a point. I think we should send it to Celestia and see if she knows anything about it,” the winged unicorn agreed with a nod of her head. Spike ran off somewhere, and Twilight turned around to follow him in a collective trot.

“Who knows? Perhaps we should keep the book or something,” the small reptile said as soon as he was done running back to the alicorn with a piece of paper and a quill in his hands.

“I dunno, Spike. It’s practically half-empty and unreadable,” Twilight pointed out, sighing afterwards at that fact alone. “It didn’t even give me a hint of what it was supposed to be.”

“Alright, if you say so,” Spike replied, blinking as the quill and paper were enveloped in a purple aura that pried them from his hands and caused them to float to the alicorn. She began to write on the paper with the quill, hasty but calculating movements making sentences and the like describing the situation involving the book.

The quill stopped, and Twilight rolled the paper up. She then returned it to Spike. “You know the drill,” she sighed flatly.

The dragon nodded, and took a deep breath before exhaling green fire all over the paper. As the paper burned, wisps of smoke emanated from it and seemed to have flown away in a nonexistent breeze of some kind.

Just then, a howl mixed with a shriek permeated the crystal hallway. Twilight turned around to its source, a beast with a horned head, sharp beak, wings of feathers making up its forelimbs, and bulky back legs ending in fearsome talons. The whole thing was dull brown, save for the tips of the feathers, which were a stark light grey in color. Its beak and talons were yellow, as were its narrowed and piercing eyes. It had a lion’s tail, so thin in comparison to the rest of its bulky frame.

The horns, two in total, were curving upward on its head, and there were elongated ears at the sides.

Spike shrieked in surprise, watching as Twilight flared her wings as wide as they could go. Her horn lit up in purple, and the monster let off another shrieking howl before it flared its own wings. They were a little bigger than the alicorn’s set of wings, and it began to flap them quickly. Twilight flapped her wings too, and before long, both beings were airborne.

Twilight fired a blast of energy at the beast, and to her surprise, the bulky brute dodged with ease and grace—something that should not be possible for it, considering its unusual frame. The beast roared again, briefly shielding itself with its wings before spreading them again, firing an array of feathers at the alicorn. Twilight dodged, one feather barely making a cut on her left cheek, before the feathers impaled themselves into the wall behind her.

The alicorn shot a glance at the anomaly, eyes widening as she quickly realized the feathers were razor-sharp as knives. She glanced back at the beast, only to find it rushing at her whilst preparing those talons it possessed. Twilight’s horn flared up, and she vanished in a flash of light.

The beast stopped, flapping its wings whilst darting its head every which-way to figure out where its opponent had gone off too. Twilight reappeared above it, firing another blast of energy at it. It hit the beast right on top of its head, and it roared before flapping its wings uselessly as it descended to the ground. A white aura bathed it as it slowly turned to stone then and there.

“What was that?” Spike asked as the beast began to crumble into naught but dust. Twilight couldn’t answer, for she didn’t have an answer.

Comments

[PhycoKrusk]

I’m not ready to vote yet, but I am interested.

And, I admit, was surprised to see someone writing a Demon’s Crest crossover.

[Dragonborne Fox]

5117212 I understand. I will work on this when I'm not working on my novel; updates will be irregular. I hope you can wait a hefty long time or something.

[metroid_freak]

Alright, metroid_freak here, commin’ at ya with his first review in quite some time. Only got one shot at this so we’re gonna do it right (hopefully).

Ahem!

Here we have a Demon’s Crest/MLP crossover, written by DragonBorne Fox. It’s not complete as of this review but we’re gonna see how it’s progressing thus far. Now, I am not familiar with Demon’s Crest but I’ll do my best to do this story justice.

Eons ago, many fiends fought tooth and nail for sacred objects called ‘crests.’ These objects, six in total, are said to grant the owner unimaginable power through a seventh said to appear when the six were brought together. Eventually, the fiends became extinct, save a notable few fiends who forgot about the crests much like time did. Humans perished as well, and a species of equine--ponies--took over in their stead, rebuilding the world as they, and a few other nations consisting of zebras, gryphons, and the like, saw fit.

Right off the bat, we’re treated to some good old-fashioned Apocalyptic Doomfire (dibs that for my next red and black alicorn OC name). Of course, seeing as it’s a crossover with something called “Demon’s Crest”, it certainly fits. I like the mirroring going on here; crests=Elements? Guess we’ll find out as the story progresses. I also like the world-building here; to the point but still an effective hook. Grammar is on-point as well, though I might omit the third use of ‘fiend’; the narrative flows much better and we still know who and what you’re talking about.

One crest to rule them all and in the darkness, bind them.

Or something.

The Ghoul Realm, aptly renamed Tartarus by the ponies, served as little more than a prison for beings who had done inexplicable wrong. Tirek was a prime example of this, having been re-banished after being defeated by the ‘most powerful magic of all’ despite having absorbed all known magic prior.
Things weren’t all that peaceful after that, however. The Tree of Harmony--the very thing that held the beloved Elements of Harmony--had been destroyed, and the Elements themselves nowhere to be found. There was no known culprit; nobody even really knew what had happened or why.

More explanation and history lessons; the collision of these two universes feels…natural? They seem to work well together as Demon’s Crest evolves into the MLP universe. Again, just an early impression. Also, not sure if I like the word “inexplicable” here. I might’ve gone with “unmentionable”; just gives off more apocalypse-level “they were huge assholes to everyone and deserve to rot forever in the Pit” vibes.

‘Who was responsible for such a thing?’ Many asked as they were told of the horrible news. There had been no answers, no leads, no anything regarding the incident.

Saying “No anything” makes sense here but I would actually italicize “anything”; by doing so (making it stand out), it sounds much more purposeful and less like a typo.

At least, until the newest princess, one purple alicorn named Twilight Sparkle, was brought a most peculiar book by a purple-and-green dragon by the name of Spike. The two stood in the Friendship Castle, a marvelous building made up of crystal a deep violet-blue in hue.

“Twilight! You gotta check this out!” Spike cried, holding the book above his head. The cover was made of black leather, a most unusual choice for such a book, and it had a series of aged, dull yellow pages between front and back. Surely, the book had been old, perhaps a few centuries at least.

“What is it?” Twilight asked, horn lighting up in purple. A similar aura grasped the book entirely, and it lifted out of Spike’s little hands and flew to her. The book had no title or author--if it did, then those could have been erased or faded away.

“Owlicious gave it to me. I don’t know where he got it from.” Spike explained, scratching his head with a single digit.

The most interesting fact out of this exchange was that, of all creatures, Owlicious was the one to retrieve the book. If that was intentional (which I suspect it was), then you have my attention. It begs a lot of questions; did he just happen to find it while hunting for midnight snack-rodents? Or did he power through Hell itself like Dante? Whatever the reason, it should be interesting.

The book being blank/illegible is also great because it’s gonna drive Twilight crazy.

Twilight opened the book slowly, and she found nothing pertaining to its origin on the first page, for much of the writing had been made illegible. She shot a glance at Spike. “What does this have to do with the current situation everypony’s going bonkers over?” She asked, blinking.

More questions! Why is everyone going bonkers? What’s driving ponies to drink this time? Also, no need to capitalize "she" after asking her question.

So, Twilight gets mysterious book, confusion ensues.

Spike nodded, and took a deep breath before exhaling green fire all over the paper. As the paper burned, wisps of smoke emanated from it and seemed to have flown away in a nonexistent breeze of some kind.

Just then, a howl mixed with a shriek permeated the crystal hallway. Twilight turned around to its source, a beast with a horned head, sharp beak, wings of feathers making up its forelimbs, and bulky back legs ending in fearsome talons. The whole thing was dull brown, save for the tips of the feathers, which were a stark light grey in color. Its beak and talons were yellow, as were its narrowed and piercing eyes. It had a lion’s tail, so thin in comparison to the rest of its bulky frame.

A wild…thing appears! And rather conveniently after sending the letter, hmm? The last time I saw something like that beast was either Devil May Cry 3 or 1. More questions!

Spike shrieked in surprise, watching as Twilight flared her wings as wide as they could go. Her horn lit up in purple, and the monster let off another shrieking howl before it flared its own wings. They were a little bigger than the alicorn’s own wings, and it began to flap them quickly. Twilight flapped her wings too, and before long, both beings were airborne.

I actually really like how Twilight’s first reaction is “Let’s dance, baby!”

The alicorn shot a glance at the anomaly, eyes widening as she quickly realized the feathers were razor-sharp as knives. She glanced back at the beast, only to find it rushing at her whilst preparing those talons it possessed. Twilight’s horn flared up, and she vanished in a flash of light.
The beast stopped, flapping its wings whilst darting its head every which-way to figure out where its opponent had gone off too. Twilight reappeared above it, firing another blast of energy at it. It hit the beast right on top of its head, and it roared before flapping its wings uselessly as it descended to the ground. A white aura bathed it as it slowly turned to stone then and there.

What was that?” Spike asked as the beast began to crumble into naught but dust. Twilight couldn’t answer, for she didn’t have an answer.

The fight scene was easy to picture; I imagined it in a similar style to the Season 4 finale. That stone transformation spell was interesting, although I wonder if it’s not just a side-effect of being defeated. Did Twilight want to vaporize it or did she just want to subdue it for possible study later on? Still, just in case said finale wasn’t convincing enough, we have re-established Twilight’s rep as a badass. Purplesmart demands all the street cred.

And with that, we have the prologue in the books. It’s solid and interesting thus far, although it leaves a lot of questions to be answered. The real test of the author’s mettle will be answering those questions and leaving no stone unturned.

Expect more as the story progresses!