Around the time Applejack turned five, Dante got the first mission call he felt AJ could handle herself on, one where they could fight as a team rather than her being strapped to his back. This was something he'd been looking forward to, as he wanted to see how far she'd developed, and how she'd do in a live battle rather than practice. If anything, however, Applejack was even more excited than he was, as he'd told her that he'd let her know when he felt her ready to fight demons herself.
It started out as an ordinary day until the phone rang. Bringing his foot down on the desk, Dante bounced the handset into his hand before holding it to his ear. "Devil May Cry," he said into the receiver in a bored tone. "What can we do for you?" He listened carefully to the voice on the other end. "Demon swarm? Alright, describe the demonic creature you see the most of." Dante listened to the descriptions. "Sounds like you've mostly got an influx of Seven Hells. Have you looked over the price sheets?" He listened for a time. "Alright. Then you know how much I charge. We'll be there in an hour." He slammed the phone back down on the receiver. "Applejack! Get your gun!"
"Gonna be strapped to your back again?" she asked morosely. "I'm getting a bit big ta enjoy that."
Dante smirked. "Not this time. It's just the Seven Hells, from the sound of it. I've taught you how to deal with those, and you saw all of them while we were in Temen-ni-gru. So get Nevan and Cerberus, too."
Applejack grinned widely. "Yee-haw! Time to buck some demon hiney!" she shouted, donning her hat before snatching Cerberus up in her tail.
"Just one restriction though," Dante cautioned. "No devil trigger unless you get overwhelmed."
"But Pa!"
"No buts, Applejack!" Dante scolded. "You're still young. Devil Trigger puts a rather large strain on your magic, to the point of exhaustion, and you don't regenerate your magical reserves as fast as I do. No Devil Trigger unless you're overwhelmed, and if you're forced to use it you find me immediately." Seeing Applejack getting ready to protest, he shook his finger at her. "That's final, Applejack. You either promise to abide by this or stay strapped to my back."
Applejack sighed. "Alright. Ah promise."
Dante smiled before reaching out to ruffle her mane. "I'm only so strict because I'm worried about you. I don't want you overworking yourself and becoming demon chow." He glanced to the guitar strapped to AJ's back. "Nevan, keep an eye on AJ's reserves. If they start getting low, make her pull back."
"I'll keep an eye on her," Nevan promised.
"Alright then," Dante concluded. "Let's go!"
Once they arrived at the city under assault, Dante and AJ went separate ways. Dante went straight for the larger concentrations of demons, while Applejack headed for the buildings marked as evacuation points, focusing on taking out those demons approaching civilians. Her preferred tactic was to balance rapidly damaging a large number by spinning Cerberus as she charged through, using Nevan to keep them back from her, using Beowulf to knock them into a tight group, finishing off by sniping Hell Wraths with Artemis, using the explosives on their backs to obliterate entire groups at a time. The strategy proved highly effective.
Taking a quick glance into the first building, she saw that there weren't any casualties yet. Breathing a sigh of relief, she stepped inside. "Howdy y'all!" she said happily. "Applejack of Devil May Cry demon hunting services. Don't you worry none, we'll have these demons wrastled outta here quicker'n a greased pig can slip through a fence!" Seeing their confusion, she sighed, pushing her hat down. "We'll...we'll get it done right quick."
"Pony..." one of the little girls said, reaching out to pet her.
Smiling, Applejack allowed the caress. "Don't worry little lady," she said reassuringly. "Pa and I have got this." She blinked. There was something familiar about the little girl's hair ribbon...
Suddenly shivering, she turned away. "Gotta get back to work!" she said quickly dashing back outside.
Once outside, she saw that a Hell Vanguard was approaching the building, its reaper-like form enhanced by the glowing blue scythe it wielded. "That wasn't reported," she mumbled, dodging the first sweep.
While normally such a foe would prove exceptionally difficult for a new fighter to handle, Applejack had two advantages that the Vanguard couldn't handle well. First off, she was tiny, barely coming up to the beast's knees, which made her an exceptionally difficult to hit with a sweeping weapon like a scythe. Her second advantage was that one of her primary weapons was a scythe half the time. From training to wield Nevan for combat, Applejack could read scythe combat with ease.
She dodged the Vanguard's first swing by rolling forward under it, coming up inside its swing range. Drawing Nevan, she swept her scythe blade upward, aiming at the Vanguard's wrist bones. As she'd planned, the skeletal hands separated from the arms. She knew that wouldn't last long, but while it did last the Vanguard wouldn't be able to teleport, as that ability came from the energy of the scythe. Putting Nevan back on her back, Applejack primed Beowulf before delivering a rising uppercut to the Vanguard's chin. While keeping herself between the Vanguard and its weapon, she delivered blow after blow to the creature, pushing it further and further back before finishing it off by pinning it to a wall with her forehooves and using both hind legs to buck its head clear off, causing it to dissolve into blue smoke.
Landing back on the ground, Applejack looked around for someplace to catch her breath. Spying a divinity statue, she raced over it to relax. "Wonder what one of these is doing all the way out here?" she asked idly as she lay across the base. She knew she was safe here.
As she relaxed and caught her breath, she felt the demonic essence she'd collected from the monsters she'd slain flow out of her and into the statue. It then seemed to wait, as though asking what she wanted. She glanced down at Beowulf. "Pity these babies can't hit somethin' further away," she found herself saying.
The statue glowed, and the energy flowed back into the gauntlets. Feeling the shape the energy was taking, Applejack grinned widely. She couldn't wait to show Dante her new trick.
As Dante fought his way through the demons in town, a minor worry was constantly niggling at the back of his mind. He'd thought Applejack was ready for this, but he hadn't expected the swarm to be this large. Even as he easily fought off wave after wave as he made his way through town, he kept glancing around, hoping to see the flare of orange that was Applejack's Devil Trigger so he'd know she was still there...and hoping not to see it as it would mean she was being hard pressed.
"You worry too much, Young Master!" Agni spoke up.
"Applejack will be fine!" Rudra agreed.
"I hope so," Dante muttered. "I mean, it's just Seven Hells-" He caught his breath as he saw something he didn't expect. "That's not good."
Three Hell Vanguards were converging on a building marked as an evac point. It looked mostly empty, but they wouldn't be converging on it if there weren't any victims inside. Hoping it wasn't going to turn out to be a bunch of rats, Dante charged forward, triggering his Devil Trigger.
Training Applejack in building up her magical reserves had greatly increased the amount of time Dante spent in Devil Trigger on a regular basis beyond what he normally would. As a result, he could now maintain his Devil Trigger state for quite some time, more than long enough to take down the three Hell Vanguards. As he delivered the final blow to the third, however, he crashed through the wall of the building. "That's going to be problematic," he muttered to himself. He glanced around to see who was inside.
A small boy looked up at him in fear and hope. "Are...are you an angel?" he asked.
Dante scowled in disgust, gesturing at his demonic form. "Do I look like an angel to you?" he demanded angrily.
"Ah dunno, Pa," Applejack said, finally catching up to him. "Ya do kinda look like yer about to say 'Fear Not'!" She smirked impishly up at him.
"You shut up," Dante scolded as he shifted back to human, though he couldn't stop a smile of relief from crossing his face. "How are you handling your first solo battles?"
"Pretty good," Applejack replied. "Managed about a hundred or so Seven Hells, and took out a Vanguard all on mah own."
"Nice!" Dante complimented, holding out his closed fist for her to bump with her hoof. "This isn't a normal incursion, though, if we've already encountered four Vanguards. I'm definitely charging the mayor extra."
"They seemed ta be going somewhere specific," Applejack pointed out. "They're all heading more or less towards the center of town."
"Then lets see what they're looking for," Dante agreed, leaping up to a rooftop. Applejack spun Cerberus like a helicopter blade to follow.
Up on the rooftops, they saw a massive pool of blood seeping up out of the fountain in the town square. Dante easily recognized the demons coming up from the blood pools. "Abyss," he grunted, naming the beasts he had faced within the Hell Gate above Temen-ni-gru. "How did they get up here?"
Applejack blinked. "Wait...they're weak to light, right?"
"Yeah," Dante agreed, "but it's not safe to let you get close enough to them to use Beowulf-what are you doing?"
Applejack had raised herself to her hind hooves, cupping her fore hooves to one side. "Make sure ah say it right, Nevan, like ya told me." She grinned as light energy began gathering between her fore hooves. "Ka...me...ha...me...Ha!" Throwing her fore hooves forward, a beam of light shot out towards the fountain, growing as it accelerated towards the blood pool.
As it impacted, a massive burst of light erupted, cleansing the blood pool and incinerating the Abyss beasts.
"You said it right," Nevan purred as Dante face palmed.
Applejack giggled. "It's a new upgrade ah got from a Divinity Statue for Beowulf," she explained happily. "It's actually called the Ray of Light, but Nevan said it looked so much like that Kamehameha thing from that one show that I should say that instead."
"Beowulf normally has highest damage point at point of impact," Cerberus explained, "with a minor shockwave extending beyond the point of impact. The Ray of Light, however, gathers power to itself as it flies, increasing power and area of effect at point of impact with range."
Dante smirked. "How much demon essence did that cost you?" he asked.
"Uhh...all of it," Applejack replied nervously.
"A hundred Seven Hells and a Vanguard?" Dante asked. "That's pretty che-"
"No, all of it," Applejack explained. "Everythang ah built up in Temen-ni-gru, and what I got here...includin' what ah got fighting that big blue guy in Hell."(1)
"You mean when you fought Arkham?" Dante asked, surprised. When Applejack nodded, Dante crossed his arms. "Well, that's a bit more reasonable."
"Not much use in enclosed spaces, either," Applejack muttered. "Inside a building, ah'm better off with Artemis. ...still pretty cool though, right?"
Dante grinned. "Way past cool," he assured her. Hearing a whistle through the air, he held up his hand to catch the sword flying towards him.
"What's that?" Applejack asked.
"It's...it's Force Edge," Agni gasped out.
"Sparda's sword," Rudra added in awe. "It possesses a large portion of his power."
"Wait, I saw his sword in the portal," Dante pointed out. "It was all purpley."
"That was his mortal remains," Nevan explained. "The resting place of his soul. He hid his blade elsewhere, enchanted to find its way to the son that chose the Earthly path. At least, that's what he told me when he worked the seal the first time."
Dante chuckled. "Can't surprise you, can I old man?" he said ruefully. "Well, this is probably what the demons were after. Now that I've got it, they'll probably back off."
"Yup, they are!" Applejack called out, pointing. The demons that had infested the city were dissolving.
Dante grinned. "I'd call this mission a success. Come on, AJ! Let's go collect our fee."
(1) Yes. the Ray of Light upgrade cost all the red orbs Applejack gathered in DMC3...upwards of a million, bare minimum, including stylish points.
...have to balance that cool new move somehow.
that's pretty cool but really?
a kamehameha?
5823910
I thought having a light based beam projectile would fit Beowulf and Applejack's fighting style. The moment I envisioned it, though, I realized it was the Kamehameha, so I had to have her say it.
5823924 that's awesome
Wow...
Very cool that Applejack is staring to get a little solo experience, soon she'll be killing gigapedes.
Carry on!
I'm fine with this, she's part saiyan anyway *squints at blonde mane and tail and super strength*
5823984
Not to mention the green eyes.
Hey are you going to cover the events in the anime?
5823994
As stated several times in the comments, no.
The only major pot device of the anime is Dante's father/daughter relationship with the girl he's hired to guard. That is either invalidated or would get in the way of Dante raising Applejack.
If the girl appeared in any of the games, I'd consider it. But she doesn't.
5823924 Between that and the Tails reference, this chapter was good
Ah, so the Force Edge that was left in the portal summoned by Temen-ni-gru wasn't the actual sword, despite it being such in the canonical game. Weird.
And it's funny that I read this chapter after playing a little bit of Dragon Ball Xenoverse. :P
5824079
In the game, Virgil took it with him into Hell, so it found its way back into battle.
In this story, it was left behind, but Force Edge was still needed. So I had to tweak.
It was easier to tweak where Force Edge really was than the physics of the seal.
5824086 Uh... You're misremembering things, Tatsurou.
In the game, Dante took Force Edge from Vergil after Dante proved superior in their final fight. Vergil didn't hold on to it as he dropped into the deepest reaches of Hell where he was captured and changed into Nelo Angelo by Mundus.
If you pay attention during the ending scene where Dante's opened his shop, Force Edge is there, in his shop.
5824099
I just recently watched that ending scene in order to write that part of the story. Virgil is holding Force Edge when he lets himself fall into hell, and then uses it and Yamato when he goes off to "fight the devil". And it's not hanging in the store when Dante has fixed up his shop. It's Rebellion that's hanging on the wall.
5824122 Just rewatched the scene myself. Vergil quite clearly drops Force Edge (and his amulet) after Dante's final slash.
Skip to 13:24 to view the scene where Vergil drops the sword.
Also, during the shop scene, Force Edge is resting against Dante's table, not hanging on the wall.
5824165
Okay, valid point...
But in story I already established that it was left behind as part of the seal. I needed to get it back into Earth somehow, and it was easier to tweak the exact location of Force Edge then how the seal could work without it.
5824202 Hardcore fans would foam at the mouth about this, saying that Force Edge wasn't part of the seal between worlds, it contains Sparda's power, and that Yamato is the sword that is important for sealing worlds and such.
5824211
Then they would have foamed at the mouth back when they reenergized the seal.
Besides, I established now that it wasn't actually Force Edge that was part of the seal, but Sparda's mortal remains...
Which technically means there were two Force Edges, one that Sparda wielded, and one he turned into when he died.
Well it's better than Black Mage's Kamehameha which depletetes the world's supply of love every time it is fired.
5824543
Black Mage uses the Hadouken.
5824552
...Must be the MvC version then.
5824011 that and also Dante was really boring in the anime.
5824725
And the anime is not as good as the games.
How did Applejack get her accent back?
5829780 She's an Apple. 'Nuff said.
5833709 Oh.
Beowulf gives Streetfighter moves.
Therefore, it should be a Hadouken, especially if it is done fast. If it takes quite a while... That is when Kamehameha fits.
5834456
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/216112/megas-cmc
Megas can Combine with other robots, but is not pretty.
Heh.
One thing I don't understand about these stories is how the ponies retain their traits from Equestria. Applejacks accent, for example. How is she retaining it despite not growing up around people with said accent?
6991821
Because I made a point in several of the stories that memories of their Equestrian lives are only suppressed, not erased. Her voice is comfortable with the accent as she grows up, because her body remembers a lifetime of speaking with it.
I'm rereading this story... and I just saw this reference:
I'm surprised I didn't notice this sooner as Sonic and the Freedom Fighters were a large part of my childhood... Dang I miss that show.
7286002 I caught that, too. btw Why did he start with Devil May Cry 3? I'm not familiar with the series if that's a title-case.
7361295
The chronology of Devil May Cry as far as what order the events happen in is 3, 1, 4, 2.
Is it even possible to collect that much? I can see having 100k in four, as you don't use Red Orbs for upgrades in that one, but one million?
8626626
Keep in mind, you normally don't collect Red Orbs from bosses and final bosses. But since I'm calculating it in-story as 'collected demon essence'...
Applebloom
As Rainbow Dash would say awesome
8626626
Pretty Sure if you used did every battle, all with SSS ranks, and all optional missions and orbs, you could reach up there.
5824011
I'm currently rereading this, and saw this review. Considering Patty apparently calls Dante in DMC5, are you going to try and add her in when you get around to doing the side story?
9522023
Nope. The plot I've built so far has completely invalidated the plot of DMC5...though the plot devices of DMC5 have completely justified this story.
9522368
Saw this comment and had a random idea come to me for the big final pwny story
In a endless void we see twilight opening her eyes
Twilight: my head last I remember was cuddling with nefarious wait no I mean Samus?
She looks around seeing her friends but they looked different
Twilight: what going on?
I think I can answer that question princess
Twilight look to see discord
Twilight: what do you mean discord
Discord: oh all in a minute but first
He snaps his fingers waking up the rest of the mane 6 (skipping the ponies reactions)
Twilight: why are we here discord
Discord: see twily I made a mistake sending tirek to a powerful place and as such need to break the dimension and send you and other ponies to other worlds to get stronger. I already explained this to you before but since you six played such a important role to Equestria you don't remember. so I sent you six here to ease the flow of memories so they don't destroy you I have copies doing this to the others as well. but one final question before I start do you want to help save the world.
Twilight: I in might be a good chance for more experiments.
AJ: to sound like my uncle for a sec this will be fun.
Pinkie: might be able to actually go all out. I'm in
Shy: as long as you pay us I'm in.
Rd: as a avenger I can't leave these people alone to be killed without doing something I'm also in
Rarity: my father taught me to always protect the innocent so I to will accept
Discord: "smiles" excellent now this might hurt for a minute but it be worth it (snaps fingers)
Rest up to you tats if you use this
Pic's gone.
9849846
Fixed.
9849849
Thx.
9566406
Good idea... probably not enough to be recognizable as this in the final form, but the base concepts seem appropriate.
She pulled a 'Tails'