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Prologue3,217 words
Chapter 1: Liberation2,752 words
Chapter 2: Repentance3,195 words
Chapter 3: Acceptance3,299 words
Chapter 4: Jubilation3,174 words
Chapter 5: Declension2,892 words
Chapter 6: Deception3,068 words
Chapter 7 - Confusion2,821 words
Chapter 8: Destruction2,896 words
Chapter 9: Exposition2,871 words
Chapter 10: Revelations3,232 words
Chapter 11: Revelations II3,593 words
Chapter 12 - Contention2,852 words
Chapter 13: Retention2,860 words
Chapter 14: Acclimitization3,029 words
Chapter 15: Lamentation2,658 words
Chapter 16: Altercation2,959 words
Chapter 17: Unification3,036 words
Chapter 18: Exploration2,531 words
Chapter 19: Reincarnation2,739 words
Chapter 20: Confederation2,382 words
Chapter 21: Renunciation2,724 words
Chapter 22: Diversion2,411 words
Chapter 23 - Delusion2,198 words
Chapter 24 - Dominion2,668 words
Chapter 25: Conclusion1,094 words

Chapter 11: Revelations II

“Hello?” a small, dark-skinned child called out.

It was nighttime, and he’d just crawled out of a large wooden box. He was very confused, and more than a little scared. What if the new world didn’t like him? What if all his friends were dead? He noticed the moonlight shining out of an opposite window to the strange room he was in, and gazed in rapture at the sight of the shining sphere. He could hear faint breathing on the other side of the door, but was afraid to call it out again – what if it was some kind of Guardian? Unfortunately for him, the thing jerked awake.

“Who – who goes there?” it asked gruffly.

“I, um – my, my name’s Azazel,” the dark child stammered, instinctively hiding from the newcomer. There was a moment of silence, and Azazel heard the shuffling of paper.

“Yep, yer’ on the list. Gimme a sec, I’ll go summon the Princess. Don’t wander off, now!” the thing on the other side admonished, and Azazel heard footsteps as it left. Oddly, it was making a lot of footsteps – did it have lots of feet?

Princess Luna swallowed nervously as she approached the cell. She had not thought to collect information on Azazel, as she had been assuming the more… human children would escape first. A foolish assumption, yes, but there was nothing to be done now. Hesitantly, she approached the room containing the Chest.

“Hello?” she called out.

Immediately, two small red eyes opened and gazed up at her. For a moment, Princess Luna fell silent as she beheld the child before her.

Her first impression, in all honesty, was to blast him with a beam of lunar magic. Luna had seen plenty of demons in her time, and this was most definitely a demon. And yet… there was something in his face, the guiltless innocence of a child, that made Luna reconsider. This was a part of Isaac… but what part? His sinful nature? His own self-loathing? None of the Basement Children had ever specified just what it was Azazel represented. The Bible was no help on this matter either, as Azazel was biblically a ‘scapegoat’ who, as a fallen angel, was punished for teaching humanity the sinful art of self-beautification, among other things. Princess Luna realized she was staring at the demon child, and hastily made to introduce herself.

“Greetings, young one. I am Princess Luna, the Royal Princess of the Night, Raiser of the Moon and Guardian of Dreams. I have been expecting you,” she stated. She’d never been quite able to match Celestia’s warm, motherly tones when greeting strangers, but Luna thought she’d made a good attempt.

Azazel smiled up at her, revealing his jagged, pointy teeth. “Are my friends here? Cain, and Samson, and Lazarus? Maggy told me they were here… wherever ‘here’ is,” Azazel added, looking around curiously at the moonlit room.

Luna bit her lip, thinking about what he had just said. For starters, she had only recently come to realize that the Children had some means of communicating while inside the Basement, even though Isaac and the others had explicitly stated that no two had ever met in person – until now, that was. Secondly, she was remorseful every time a child mentioned their absence from the world – and Azazel seemed to be under the impression that the Basement was the entire world.

“Yes, they are here as well. To answer your other question... You are free, Azazel. You have escaped the Basement, and I am taking you to meet your friends right now,” Luna continued, unlocking the door. There was a dry flap of wings, and to her surprise Azazel flew out, his bat-like wings rustling as he perched on the window.

“I have so many questions…” he murmured, his bloodred eyes gazing up at the moon. Luna trotted over to him and gazed up at tonight’s creation, fondly looking over some of her favorite stars.

“And I shall do my best to answer all of them. But first, if you would follow me?” she asked, holding open the door to the hallway beyond. Azazel swallowed nervously, and nodded.

Thankfully, Luna didn’t have to worry about many ponies seeing Azazel – it was the middle of the night, after all, and she did not receive many petitioners. Even now, ponies were still nervous about approaching her – though, really, that was more her fault than theirs. She had made it very clear, early on, that she would not suffer through endless ridiculous requests like her sister – if a petitioner was to arrive at her court, they had better have a serious issue.

They entered the throne room, and Luna did a double-take – Eden was standing in the exact center of the room, gazing directly at them.

“Hello, Eden,” Luna called out.

True to form, Eden slowly nodded and made no other comment. Once their eyes fell upon Azazel, Eden smiled slightly, and left the room, their hairstyle changing to what oddly reminded Luna of the pictures of ‘punk-rock’ she’d had to peruse when she returned from the moon.

“Eden is weird,” Azazel remarked once the snow-haired child had left, and Luna stifled a giggle – finally, someone had said it.

Luna had been about to send a guard to see if there was extra lodgings available for Azazel, but she was interrupted by the soft opening of the castle doors. Shiftily looking about him, Samson slipped into the room, freezing when he caught sight of Luna.

“Uh…” Samson trailed off, and Luna approached him sternly.

“And just where have you been?” she asked.

Samson swallowed nervously. “Uh… taking a night walk?” he answered, giving a guilty grin.

Luna narrowed her eyes. “And perhaps more importantly… where is the guard I assigned to you?”

Samson looked around, as though hoping the guard would pop out of a doorway and say 'Here I am!'. “He’s… uh… resting?” he tried.

Luna snorted, and Samson hung his head. “I hope you had a good reason for making me worry so,” she chastised, and Samson jerked his head up.

“I did!” he answered, standing upright for a moment before looking away. “I mean, um, I… no. I didn’t. I’m sorry.” In response, Luna pointed a hoof in the direction of his bedroom, and Samson glumly trod in that direction, muttering “Hello, Azazel” as he passed by the two of them. But as he stepped through the door, Luna could have sworn she caught a smile on his face before he left.

Ordinarily, Luna would wonder what Samson could be hiding – normally the only one who was out at night was Cain, and he was unlikely to ever be accosted anyway, owing to his luck. However, she still had to deal with Azazel. Luna turned back to the demon child to say something else, but her words fell on empty air – Azazel had already followed Samson. Luna sighed, and trotted after them – with any luck, they’d pretend to be sleeping, like normal children.

Of course, this was not to be. Luna heard the two talking almost as soon as she approached, and cast a quick spell on her hooves to make herself utterly silent. Carefully, she pressed an ear to the door, hating herself for spying on her children but seeing no other option.

“-you were doing? She cares about you, can’t you see that?” Azazel asked.

Samson groaned. “I know, Zazy! I know, and that’s why I hate it. But we have to do this, otherwise we’re gonna be up to our goddamn necks in problems!”

Azazel gave a small ‘hmph’, and Luna judged by the sounds that he had crossed his arms defiantly. “You can do it with her, you know! Instead of all this secrecy. She’s a princess, surely she would help!”

Samson snorted with amusement. “Yeah, right. If she’s anything like our last Mom, the second she sees us getting hurt she’ll ban us from doing anything.” There was the sound of someone shifting, and Luna adjusted her position by the door – Isaac had woken up.

“Wuzzgoinon?” he asked sleepily, and there was a moment of silence.

“Nothing, Isaac. Go back to bed,” Samson said after a moment.

“Ah… okay…” Isaac bemusedly answered, and turned over in his bed.

Samson and Azazel waited for a moment to make sure he was asleep again, and resumed their conversation. “So, anyway, what were you up to? Were there Items out there we needed?” Azazel asked.

Samson chuckled. “Nah, this place is completely different from the Basement. I’ll fill you in tomorrow so Luna doesn’t trip over herself explaining stuff, but I wasn’t out looking for an Item. Well… not one of our items at least. I was getting an Invisibility Cloak,” Samson informed Azazel.

“What’d you need that for? Unless… oh my God, Samson, you can’t be serious,” Azazel moaned, slapping a claw to his forehead.

There was silence for a moment, and Luna decided that this would be a good time to intervene. She opened the door and stepped into the room, both children staring at her in shocked silence. “You know, if you needed my help with something, you were more than welcome to ask,” Luna began, almost enjoying the flabbergasted look on Samson’s face. “And no, I shall not ‘ban’ you from doing this thing. If it is important enough that you children are working together, then I as your mother think it is important enough to warrant my assistance as well.” Finished, she took a seat on the floor in front of them, casting a soundproofing spell over Isaac – Samson and Azazel noticeably relaxed as she did so. “So, my children, what do you need help with?” Luna asked, looking up at them.

Samson was still looking at her with the utmost expression of shock on his face, and Azazel… Azazel was giving her the most heartbreaking, teary-eyed smile his tiny little face could muster. Finally, Samson took a deep breath, hopped off his bed, and took a seat across from her.

“Okay,” Samson began. “I guess I can tell you. But not a word to Isaac, understand? It’s critical that he does not know about any of this, and I will tell you why,” he promised, his fingers making the shape of a cross over his chest. Luna didn’t know what the gesture meant, but she assumed it was something like a Pinkie Promise, and nodded. Samson took another deep breath, and began.

“What Isaac knows is that we each represent a part of him: His kindness, his rage, his protectiveness, his wit, his intelligence, and so on. What he doesn’t know, at least not yet, is that there were a few of us created that didn’t exemplify any of his characteristics,” Samson began. “One of these was Eden. You see, every time one of us… dies… we start over in the Basement anew. However, we get a brand-new soul each time, with one of our personalities and memories. And all those souls have to go somewhere, so they go to Eden. None of us know what it’s like in Eden, except for Isaac – apparently he’s been, and left. He said it was ‘nice’,” Samson grumbled, and Luna smiled at his aggravation - she too, wished Isaac would be more specific. A thought occurred to her, and she frowned.

“But if you get a new soul each time you die… are you really Samson?” she asked, and Samson looked at her.

“For all intents and purposes, we are all figments of Isaac’s imagination. What does it matter which particular bit of ghost I got? I’m still Samson, and that is how I plan to stay,” Samson asserted.

Luna could argue the point, but she was far too curious to hear the rest of the story, so she merely nodded.

“Another ‘character’ that doesn’t represent anything is the Lost. They’re just escapees from Eden, each armed with a single coin, and aren’t really important. Finally…” Samson trailed off. He looked around the room, and brightened as he apparently spotted something. Luna watched as he crossed to the wall of the room that had been covered by Isaac’s drawings, and Samson carefully selected a particular few, laying them in front of Luna. “This, we call the Blue Baby. He’s…” Samson trailed off again.

“God,” Azazel spoke up, and Luna looked at him in surprise.

“Come again?” she asked, and Azazel cleared his throat.

“He’s literally God, down there. He controls everything, he started all of this,” Azazel explained. “Dunno if he’s the real God from the Bible, but all of us fear him as if he was.”

Samson nodded. “He’s the only one of us to have become a Guardian aside from Isaac himself.”

Luna raised her eyebrows. “Isaac was a Guardian?” she asked. Guardians were typically huge monsters, like the Duke of Flies or the Four Horsemen… or Mom.

Samson nodded again. “An angelic form of Isaac guards the Cathedral, and once he is defeated, those of us who picked up the Polaroid may access the Chest and fight… Him. But we’re getting off topic… Anyway. The only time Isaac ever met this guy, the poor kid was too shocked to speak. You can tell by the name given to Him that Isaac has no idea what to make of His appearances – and given that Isaac created our entire world using only his imagination, that’s a pretty impressive feat.”

Luna looked over the name given to this ‘Blue Baby’ – Isaac had simply labeled it with three question marks. “So this… God… I assume that you do not want him to escape the Basement?” she asked, and Samson nodded once more.

“But if he tries to get out here, there’s no stopping him. He makes the rest of us look like… well, like little kids. He’d kill all of you in an instant, if it weren’t for one thing,” Samson remarked, looking over at the sleeping Isaac.

Luna followed his gaze. “Isaac? But how is he keeping such a powerful entity at bay?” Luna asked curiously.

“Ignorance,” Azazel simply answered. “Isaac, for all his imaginative power, knows so little about the Blue Baby that it cannot use much of its power against him, or us. It’s just as trapped as we were…” Azazel shuddered for a moment before continuing. “And it is mad as hell about that.”

Luna swallowed nervously. She’d read the stories of the Biblical God. He could be nice, helping His people to understand the world He was giving them. On the other hoof… He’d murdered entire villages, committed genocide, and been as cruel and unforgiving as Satan himself. The Bible stated that it was all for the greater good, but Luna most certainly did not want to face this being either way. “So, what is your plan to confront it?” she asked.

Samson smirked. “In His hubris, he gave us the weapons we needed to destroy Him for good.” Samson crossed over to Isaac’s backpack, and pulled out a familiar yellow-and-white triquetra.

Luna reeled as the implications hit her: She had imagined all along that Isaac’s ‘Mind’ artifact was simply a replication of the true thing made semi-real, as so many of his Items had been. But this was no mere imaginative mockery of one of the Godlike Artifacts, those legendary triquetras whose stories had been told throughout Equestrian history. This was the real thing. “Then, Eden…” she stammered, and Samson nodded.

“Eden possesses the Soul, hiding it from detection simply by spreading its power out over the billions of souls contained within. And there’s one more piece to this puzzle, the last one we need in order to stand a chance of putting Him down permanently,” Samson continued.

“The Body,” Luna answered, and Azazel nodded.

“Together, they are the Trinity: the power to know anything, do anything… and be anything. This Trinity is represented in turn by their chosen carriers: Isaac, whose imagination created an entire world of torment for him; Eden, whose soul is so bright that it needs to be hidden deep within the darkness; and Him, who would cling to the last remnant of His once-great power – his raw physical abilities,” Azazel concluded.

“But He does not have the Body on him, as he didn’t think he needed to,” Samson continued. “It’s simply in the Basement, waiting for somebody to pick it up. The rest of us were ordered to make a few quick passes through looking for it, and then haul themselves up here to meet up with those of us that are already here, but nobody’s found it yet and we’re running out of time,” Samson added.

Luna raised an eyebrow. “Running out of time? Why?” she asked, and Samson snorted.

“Think about it. Seven powerful demons want Isaac dead. Once he defeats them, who’s going to come after him next?” Samson asked, and pulled out another picture. Luna’s heart sank as she read the caption.

“Satan,” she whispered. Samson nodded slowly, with the air of a patient teacher.

“And once he’s defeated, that only leaves one last adversary in the way of Isaac’s freedom,” Samson added, pointing again to the picture of ???. “We need to get those artifacts… and we need to start training Isaac up for the battles ahead. So far, he’s survived through a combination of sheer dumb luck and ingenuity, but that’s not going to hold out forever, even with the rest of us helping.”

At this moment, there was a short tap on the window, and Samson immediately crossed over and opened it, the moonlight shining into the room. Thankfully, Isaac was still under the effects of Luna’s sleeping spell, and did not stir. Luna watched bemusedly as Cain climbed into the room, but then a thought occurred to her.

“This tower is several stories up… Cain, did you climb up here?” she asked.

Cain gave a small smile and nodded, and Luna debated on whether or not to bother lecturing him. “So, what’re we doing?” he asked as he took a seat in between Samson and Azazel. “I see Azazel’s joined the party, are we catching him up on life out here?” Cain asked, and Samson guiltily waved his hand in a so-so fashion.

“Well, actually…” he started, but trailed off as Cain gave him a look. “We told her,” he muttered, and Cain stared at Luna in surprise.

“So – you know everything?” he asked Luna.

Luna shrugged. “Only that you are up against what for all intents and purposes appears to be YHWH himself-“ she began to answer, but was cut off by a small scream from Azazel, whose hands had immediately clamped over his ears and whose face was now scrunched in pain.

After a moment of shaking, Azazel finally took his hands away from his ears, breathing raggedly. “Please – don’t – say – His name – again,” Azazel panted, and Luna worriedly nodded. It seemed demons from Isaac’s time had much the same affliction as the demons she’d met – they could not bear to hear the true name of their Creator.

“My apologies, I wasn’t thinking,” she soothed, sweeping Azazel into a hug. From the looks Samson and Cain were giving her, Luna could have just murdered an entire family of puppies. She gave them an apologetic look as well, and continued hugging Azazel close to her as the fallen angel cried into her chest.

“So, is there anything else?” she asked, and Samson shrugged.

“That’s about everything. My mission was to find an Invisibility Cloak, go down there, and use Isaac’s D6 to find and steal the Body, along with some rope so that I could go up floors and not have to reset.”

Luna smartly nodded, gently setting Azazel on a bed before standing up. “You’ll need far better than a Cloak to avoid detection down there, and I have just the thing. As for rope… I shall see what my guards can find,” Luna offered, and Samson gratefully nodded as he followed Luna out of the room.

For a moment, Cain stared at them leaving, then shrugged and climbed into the bed next to Azazel. “Hell, that was easy,” the Wanderer muttered, and Azazel chuckled.

“I think I’m going to like it here,” the Scapegoat sang softly, gazing up at the starlit ceiling of the room.

Cain smiled at the reference - ancient even by their standards. “Yeah, you will. This place is nice, and Princess Mom is a lot better than the old Mom. I just wish Lazarus could have as much fun as Samson or Isaac does…” Cain sadly remarked, gazing over at Lazarus’ sleeping form.

The Follower had been asleep the entire conversation, never once stirring nor waking despite their volume. By all accounts, Lazarus was simply too tired to enjoy himself – his anemic condition meant he would undergo periods of fatigue very frequently. Azazel looked over at Lazarus thoughtfully.

“Maybe we could do something for him. Like a… like a celebration, or something,” Azazel wondered out loud.

Far away, in the sleeping heart of a small town, a certain pink pony stirred and grinned in her sleep.

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