A Soldier's Orders

by Animatorsnake

Tourist Arc: Ch.15 - Darkness & Fire, Emptiness & Lost

“It’s a good day to, murder all your friends and family! LALALALA-LA-LA-LAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” shouted Prakos, in a sing-song voice. “Where arrrre youuuu? Come out come out wherever you arrrrrrreee!”

The second Prakos began his onslaught of hunting everypony, Celestia and Luna immediately teleported those who were too injured back to the train station; this only included the Wonderbolts. Trixie who was equally injured as well said that she wanted to stay, deciding to not argue about it Trixie was dragged off to where everyone hid from Prakos. Since Prakos was in a very violent and dangerous state, it was unwise to leave him alone… that and Prakos could sense if other beings are near him or not. How is unsure but, because of this Celestia didn’t teleport everypony away and if she did Prakos would wander around the city finding them, causing more ponies to be harmed in the process.

Hiding on the roof some distance away from Prakos, the remaining ponies that stayed behind watched, eying each of Prakos’s moves… or in this case, unpredictable moves. Rainbow, out of the ponies who were on the rooftop was edging for a fight, but was held back by her farm friend. “Let me go Applejack! Let me at him, let me at him!” said Rainbow, struggling in her friend’s grip.

“Are you crazy,” said Applejack, making sure not to shout. “You want all of us to get killed. Cause I ain’t in the hurry to be ending my life so soon.”

“Your fellow element is right,” said Luna, joining the conversation. “While myself and my sister could handle this… ‘thing’, it is very unwise to do so in such a populated area. At first chance, we will bring this Prakos being as far from Manehattan to be dealt with.”

Rainbow stopped her struggling, slowly trotting off to see Twilight. Seeing the fiery demonic figure in the distance, once a friend one second and now this… Twilight stared sadly, both disappointed in herself for letting this happen… Disappointed to herself to what she’s forced Dark into. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry Dark,” said Twilight, whispering to herself.

Looking down at the cement roof, she felt a hoof on her; looking for the source of the hoof Twilight was greeted with a warm smile from her shy friend. At the same time, a familiar purple mane came to Twilight’s view as a hoof was extended to her. Reaching for both hooves, Twilight was carried by both her friends who began to ask her of her own health and condition.

“Are you alright darling?” asked Rarity, worry showing in her voice.

“I’m… I’m fine,” said Twilight. This was a lie, as Twilight felt like her whole body was alight with pain. From feeling the sudden shock-wave from the thunderbolt and with some of her old wounds slowly reopening; it was lucky that she was an alicorn now which meant she was more durable than she was in her old unicorn body.

“We thought something happened to you when princess Luna lost you in the Everfree Forest,” said Flutteshy.

“Yeah! How did you survive that fall, I mean it would had to be heck of drop without having one of your bones-” Before Pinkie could finish her sentence, a familiar orange pony stuffed a hoof in her hyper friend.

Twilight smiled, happy to know some things haven’t changed… but returned to her sad look immediately. Celestia took noticed to this and moved a hoof on her ex-apprentice’s chin. She then lifted her head up to look her in the eye... Twilight stared back with sadness and regret.

“Princess… I… I… I’m so s-s-sorry,” said Twilight, choking up. Tears slowly began to flow out, unable to hold in the suppressed emotions. “I don’t know what I was thinking or why I would do such… reckless, irresponsible, stupid choices!” Twilight continued by slamming her own hoof into the ground, but only made things worse causing a small wince to come out of her. Celestia immediately stopped her from continuing the same action and looked over her wounds; Twilight’s left wing had a sprain, she was riddled of bruises and cuts, but what caused Celestia to stop was the burnt mark that was across her right side to her neck. What truly worried Celestia more was not the physical backlash of pain, but the mental abuse from not fainting from all of the events that happened to her ex-apprentice.

“Twilight… I-” Before she could finish, everypony on the roof heard two things.

The flapping of two very large wings; and clapping… very very very slow clapping.

Everypony slowly turned to find the source of the clapping, until all gazes stared at the fiery figure. Prakos, grinning but had some of his sharp teeth protruding out used both of his wings to fly up where the group hid, at the same time amused with their attempts of trying to find from the demonic-looking being. Stopping his clapping, he hung in the air only the sounds of his own wings heard. He then approached the roof, landing with some dust moved by the sudden disturbance; moving one foot forward toward the group, leaving a trail of fire behind.

The first to respond surprisingly wasn’t Rainbow, but Celestia who teleported in front of everypony to face the malicious being. Both stared at one another, but Celestia was slightly unnerved from unable to see any pupils on Prakos. Before the sun goddess could speak, Prakos spoke or in this case chuckled causing everypony to feel a chill down their spines.

“Ahhhhh… This… this is amusing,” said Prakos, moving his gaze toward those behind Celestia. “To think it was a smart move to stay behind instead of teleporting to safety. Not the smartest move… though I must applaud on how… crazy of a plan it was.”

“If we were to teleport away, you’d probably lay waste to our ponies,” said Celestia, staring sternly toward Prakos. “I will not stand for this, so surrender now or face my full fury!”

Prakos placed one of his claws upon his chin, contemplating what Celestia has said. “To be honest your not wrong, I’d probably torch everything in my way… However...” said Prakos, his grin growing wider. “By simply not running, you bore me with your selfless actions… So what if I were to say, that I didn’t want to fight you… that I would simply fly off and annihilate this whole city… nothing but ashes and dust remaining.”

Everypony held their breath not wanting to anger the psychotic being, who would simply stop attacking them… for the lives of a whole city. Celestia’s rage shone through her eyes, but keeping in check unless she wanted to cause an incident where they stood. Prakos, opened his maw letting his flaming tongue slither out; Rainbow who had no patience for the threats being thrown rushed straight forward.

“RAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!” screamed Rainbow, flying with both hooves pointed at Prakos.

Prakos stood with both arms crossed until flying upward, leaving a cloud of dust behind. Continuing to taunt her, Prakos left his arms crossed dodging effortlessly at Rainbow’s attempts at catching or attacking him. Everypony watched fearful of what their friend was doing, after some seconds of staring Celestia and Luna shook their previous thoughts away and flew toward Prakos.

Prakos continued to dodge until he began to laugh crazily, stopping mid-flight to flex a claw at Rainbow tauntingly. “Tis the best you got my feathered horse?” said Prakos. “Or are you simply as slow as a tortoise?”

Being called slow, Rainbow’s eyes began to twitch feverishly. “Slow? SLOW! THAT’S IT!” screamed Rainbow, using every ounce of energy to crash into Prakos. “I’LL SHOW YOU SLOW!”

Sighing from being bored of her attempts, Prakos lifts one claw up right before Rainbow made impact with him. “I grow bored of this… DIE!” said Prakos. Sending his claw downward, Rainbow begins to waver to the ground but is caught by Prakos; he then stares off to the port, with a quick movement of his arm he tosses Rainbow’s lifeless body at the ocean, lobbing her as if she were a pebble.

Rainbow’s friends watch until Fluttershy screams in seeing her oldest friend being thrown. “RAINBOW DASH!” screamed Fluttershy, flying with all her might to save her friend.

Prakos left Fluttershy to where he thrown Rainbow returning his focus onto his next target. Now eying the two alicorns in the air, Prakos pointed his right claw with his index finger. The finger he pointed with was directed at what everypony assumed was Celestia… but Celestia saw it wasn’t her being Prakos’s next target. Celestia slowly turned her head seeing who was next in his list.

Luna looked around to who could possibly be Prakos’s next interest… until she looked at herself. The realization hit everypony so quick… they weren’t quick enough to realize Prakos flying right in front of Luna. Placing his sharp finger in between her eyes, Luna stared into the eyes of madness as a drop of sweat slipped off her forehead. “You-are-next,” said Prakos, speaking each word in syllables.

Elsewhere at Canterlot Castle, a certain purple baby dragon was pacing back and forth in the courtyard he was left in to wait… however not alone. With him were Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor of the Crystal Empire, who just arrived some while ago to see Cadance’s aunts, Celestia and Luna about the whereabouts of Twilight after her sudden disappearance at the Everfree Forest. Since being told that they left for a disturbance at Manehattan, they left with a large amount of the royal guard, and Twilight’s friends to find the source of the problem; leaving Spike to be in charge… or in this case, to give a message to anypony who wished to speak with the princesses. Luckily only Cadance and Shining were the only two who wanted to see Celestia since news of what was happening at Manehattan hasn’t spread… yet.

Spike continued to pace until Cadance spoke to calm the young dragon. “Everything will be fine Spike,” said Cadance, but was shortly interrupted by the worried dragon.

“Fine? Fine! I was left, no, ditched when news of Manehattan in possible danger was heard. Now I wasn’t told what was going on but, it was enough for both Celestia and Luna to go, take nearly the whole guard, and even Twilight’s friends! Now explain to me how that’s fine!” shouted Spike.

Cadance kept quiet, unable to calm Spike; Shining who saw Spike’s agitated response tried to respond toward him, in his own way. “Spike I can understand your frustration for them not bringing you with them, but your still too young and I doubt Twilight would of wanted you to come especially if what you told us is true,” said Shining, placing a hoof on Spike’s shoulder. “This has nothing to do with your age or size… they need someone to stay behind if anything were to happen while they were gone. You are of course my sister’s assistant.”

Spike looked up at Shining, a genuine honest smile appeared on Shining. Spike sighed, deciding to not argue and feeling slightly tired from the past days events. Rubbing his forehead with one claw Spike walked to the balcony; staring off to the distance, Spike looked toward where he assumed Manehattan to be. Cadance and Shining followed behind to comfort the baby dragon, but made sure to keep their distance at the same time.

“I hope your right,” said Spike, his anger subsiding. “I don’t know half the things that go through Twilight’s mind… and I practically been with her my entire life.”

“Didn’t she hatched you Spike?” asked Cadance.

“She did… and without her I don’t know what would become of me,” said Spike, staring at the vast sight before him. “Please come back Twilight.”

Meanwhile at Manehattan…

“LOOK OUT!” shouted Applejack, pushing her friend Rarity out of danger.

A fireball the size of a ball came whizzing pass where Rarity was previously standing; right before Rarity was about to be burnt to a crisp, Prakos chose Luna to be his next target. When Prakos has suddenly appeared before Luna, the lunar princess fired a shot of pure magical energy, only to have it deflected toward a lamppost. Prakos stared where the shot went and looked back at Luna, grinning psychotically at her. “Well aren’t you the feisty one,” said Prakos, grinning. “I’m going to have fun tearing your limbs apart!”

Luna shuddered, teleporting away but only for Prakos to appear where she teleported before. Repeating this over and over Luna came to a conclusion that either Prakos could teleport too… or something else that made him to catch up with Luna. “H-h-how?” said Luna, shocked.

Prakos raised both claws up into Luna’s sight, shaking them tauntingly. “Mmmmmagic!” said Prakos.

Prakos formed a fist with his right claw and before Luna could react he made impact; Luna was sent crashing to the ground but stood back up, only to receive another devastating blow. Prakos tossed two ball-sized fireballs, exploding on impact on Luna. After the smoke cleared Luna was slightly scorched, but showed signs of clear injury. Celestia teleported immediately to her sister’s side, while putting up a bubble shield just in case.

“Luna are you alright!” said Celestia, staring at the large scorch mark on her side.

Luna coughed, raising her head to see her sister. “I’m… fine, Tia...” said Luna, coughing. “Still… how was he able to catch up with me?”

Celestia looked up where Prakos was flying, juggling some miniature fireballs. After seeing both her friend and one of the princesses being attacked, Rarity glared at Prakos and trotted toward him.

“HOW DARE YOU! I don’t know what gives you the right to do such things, but Twilight tried befriending you! I know she has lied to you with a few things… but that gives you no right to attack everything in your sights!” shouted Rarity, finding a word to insult Prakos with. “YOU… you… you… RUFFIAN!”

Continuing to glare at Prakos, Prakos stops his staring contest with Celestia and turns to face Rarity. Starting to regret her actions Rarity begins to sweat profusely but, stands tall where she is. With a small smirk Prakos raises one claw up forming a fireball on the palm of his claw; staring back at Rarity his smirk grows to a crazed smile. “You got guts lady… but you got the balls to talk back with a burning face?” asked Prakos, calmly. With a quick toss, his fireball is sent flying towards Rarity, who stands as solid as a statue until her friend Applejack pushes her out of the way.

Staring back where she once stood, a large scorch mark is left in it’s place. “Th-thank you Applejack,” said Rarity, her body limply falling to the ground. “I… I didn’t know what I was thinking.”

“It’s alright, but next time… try not to get yourself in trouble,” said Applejack.

Nodding, Rarity stands back up with the help of her friend, Applejack. Pinkie who was carrying her friend Twilight and Trixie watched from a safe distance from another roof across the roof where all the commotion was happening. After watching her friend Rainbow tossed, and seeing Luna not landing a hit on Prakos caused the usually bouncy mare to shake from not excitement… but fear. Looking down her slightly unconscious friend, Pinkie places her down beside Trixie against some chimneys. “Hey Twilight you okay,” said Pinkie, nudging her friend on the head.

Twilight groans lightly in response, weakly staring up at her pink friend. “Pinkie? Where… where is everypony?” asked Twilight, looking around. “What happened? Why’s Trixie unconscious, and… is something wrong?”

“Well…” said Pinkie biting her lower lip. Looking to the side, Pinkie looks back at the fight between Prakos and the princesses. She then stares back down at her friend, pleading awaiting an answer whilst looking as confused as herself. Sighing, Pinkie responds the best way she could without upsetting Twilight. “A lot of bad things are happening… but don’t worry, the princesses are handling things. I’m sure everything will go back normal.”

Twilight glances down at her own hooves, a frown slowly forming. “If that’s so… then why didn’t they tried teleporting us to safety?” asked Twilight.

Pinkie smile falters readying to respond when a loud explosion is heard; checking what the explosion was she sees Celestia facing her, covered in bruises and scorch marks. What truly caught her eye was the lifeless forms on the ground surrounding the two figures; Applejack was splayed out on Rarity both unconscious, while Luna’s left wing had some of her feathers burnt, her front hooves were beaten and bruised, possibly broken. Celestia who was showing signs of exhaustion looked toward Pinkie, screaming one line toward the terrified pony.

“RUN! RUN WHILE YOU CAN, AND DON’T STOP!” screamed Celestia, firing a beam of pure magical energy at Prakos.

Pinkie slowly began to step back, until she lifted Twilight up but when she was about to reach for Trixie, she stopped for a moment’s hesitation until running with only Twilight. Prakos watched the two ponies run, until focusing his attention toward Celestia. Celestia traced back to what had happened in the mere minutes that felt like hours to the sun goddess; thinking back to how this all had slowly start crashing down around her.

Some minutes before the sudden explosion happened, Prakos was having a one on one with Celestia, both returning either a shot of magical energy or a fireball toward their opponent. Luna who stood on all fours attempted to fly up and help her sister when she saw something in the distance. Sitting from the docks was Fluttershy who had an unconscious Rainbow Dash who had her head placed on Fluttershy’s legs; the shy mare from Luna’s view was crying and did her best to resuscitate her friend and from how she’s reacting, Rainbow is fine. However from seeing from her distance, Rainbow Dash had injuries far worse than anypony else, not only did she had her wing or both wings broken, but possibly a broken rib and concussion from crashing 40 or more meters from a roof to the ocean.

After done being distracted, Luna didn’t react quick enough when a claw grabbed her by the neck. Looking up, Prakos, who had trapped Celestia temporarily within a cage made of strange blackened stones; the noises of her attempts of breaking the stone can be heard from the inner part of the cage.

“It’s not polite to ignore someone when they’re trying to get your attention… and I can say, your definitely not being very attentive,” said Prakos, his grip tightening on the lunar princess. “Sadly though, your so called… ‘bravery’ is impressive I must say… for a mare who’s going to die. Now maybe you could of lived, and maybe I would of spared you… sadly...” Prakos began to chuckle to himself, his maw opening wider to such impossible lengths Luna could see the fiery veins flowing the demonic blood within Prakos. “Finding a version of me that’s merciful would be impossible, because… I’m one of a kind.”

A noise began to grow within Prakos, and within each passing second was another second closer to Luna’s demise. Luna struggled to get free from the tight grip, but was only responded with another chocking gag from herself. After the noise grew louder, a light appeared within Prakos’s maw and before Luna could utter a noise… the last thing she saw was a bright, powerful light. At the same time, Celestia was free from her stone prison, until she saw what was being witnessed before her; Luna was being engulfed by a hellish flame that was so hot that Celestia could feel the heat from where she stood, while the surrounding area the flame touched or was near either melted or was left with a blackened scorch mark that was dark as night.

Once finishing his merciless attack on Luna, Prakos drops Celestia’s younger sister on the ground creating a loud thump from her burning body. Celestia teleported immediately beside her sister, putting out the flames with her magic and hooves, not caring for the pain she’s feeling from touching the demonic flames. Leaving the white alicorn distracted, Prakos turns to face the voices coming behind two chimneys on the roof across where he stood. “Seems I forgot about miss chatterbox,” said Prakos, grinning dementedly.

Before he could step one foot forward, a familiar stetson came to his view. Standing in his way between his next target was the farmer pony that saved the unicorn who was watching from safe distance, levitating what appears to be a pipe with her magic. “I won’t let you hurt anymore of my friends! Move one step forward n I’ll buck you so hard, you’ll be wishing you never came foot in this world!” said Applejack, standing her ground before her first… and probably final encounter with a demon.

Prakos stopped his grinning; crouching down until he met eye level with Applejack, Prakos placed one claw toward her stetson tauntingly poking it. “So the dense apple farmer is going to stop me,” said Prakos, snorting. “If you wanted to die early… you should of just asked.”

With a swift move of his other claw, Prakos smashed Applejack on her side, sending her flying until Rarity tried catching her put slightly losing some control from the sudden output of force that sent Applejack flying. Once laying her down on the ground, Prakos sighed to himself slowly rising to the air, with both arms outstretched from toward both his left and right; keeping both wings in the air while outstretching them outward.

“I had enough of these… hopeless attempts of stopping me. If these are the heroes and gods of this world… I hate to imagine what this world’s realm guardian is like,” said Prakos, facepalming himself to show his disappointment. “Now you promised me a fight Darkness… all I see is a bunch of horses thinking they have some kind of control in their lives… Well? Their wrong… sadly wrong; there will always… always… be someone… ‘something’ out there that has a control over them all… and even ‘they’ are controlled themselves… it’s an endless cycle… So how do you end such a cycle? Brother?”

Suddenly, Prakos expression changed; before was one of madness and an eternal fire… now was not replaced but combined with a bottomless emptiness and darkness that would consume everything in it’s path. A voice, that both sounded of Prakos and another… shadowy figure combined both voices together to create one resounding voice that echoed the skies… catching the attention of Celestia from saving her sister.

“By wiping out all those that bear the mark of the created,” said the combined voices of Prakos and Darkness.

Prakos unleashed a powerful psychic blast of fire, spreading everything until it consumed Rarity, Applejack, Luna, and Celestia. Once the explosion had subsided, Luna was left with some of her feathers burning; Rarity was unconscious whilst clutching her friend Applejack tightly around her body, her back burning from the explosion. Celestia, who had a higher durability against the extreme heat, was still left dazed and covered with some scorching imprints on her hide. Prakos flew down to the ground, his voice returning to normal while laughing at the destruction around him.

“You… MONSTER!” screamed Celestia, her rage directed toward Prakos.

“I prefer the word… demon, but that works too,” said Prakos, shrugging.

Celestia’s eyes began to blaze alight ready to strike… until a familiar squeak was heard by both beings. Turning their heads they saw Pinkie, staring terrified of what has become of her friends and the surrounding area. Slowly stepping back, she went to carry her friend Twilight and began running when Celestia told her to run; now focusing to the main issue at hoof, Celestia tried her best to intimidate Prakos, only for a chuckle to come out the psychotic demon.

“What is so funny demon?!” said Celestia, angered by Prakos’s actions.

“Funny? FUNNY!? I’M HAVING THE BLOODY TIME OF MY LIFE… and you ask, what’s funny?” said Prakos, walking toward Celestia. Approaching Celestia nonchalantly, he stands an inch away from her, keeping his eyes on the alicorn’s own. With a maniacal grin Prakos responds, his tone of voice showing hidden malice within it. “When my creators created me, I was made for one thing… one purpose...”

In a flash Prakos’s eyes changed from their original white… to a darkened purple, staring straight at Celestia… possibly her very soul. “To bring destruction to all in my wake,” said Prakos, his voice devoid of his original psychotic tone. Celestia reeled back in the sudden change, but found herself to be held in place by one of Prakos’s claws. Celestia found herself shaking suddenly and also sweating profusely, but not from the heat coming from Prakos… but from the gaze of his sudden change of his eyes’ colors. A sudden fear overcame Celestia causing her to tremble until her whole body fell down on the ground. After leaving Celestia in a complete wreck, her mind broken completely… for a time; Prakos stared off where the pink mare who carried the third princess, who was called Twilight ran off to.

“Where art thou princess of friendship… Your demise is near… So shall the rest of this world will end in a blaze of destruction… Consumed by my madness,” said Prakos, his eyes turning back to it’s original white.

Prakos stepped toward where Twilight and Pinkie were hiding behind the chimney, and was expecting it to be empty of anypony… Prakos was sorely wrong. Leaning against the chimney, was the bleeding form of Trixie who apparently had her wound reopened from excessively moving and from the events that had played out before. Trixie exhaustively glanced at Prakos, trying her best to show her anger… only to cough out some blood; Trixie returned her gaze toward the sky, feeling herself slowly slipping away.

“Is this how it ends… The ‘Great and Powerful’ Trixie will die not in battle, or to leave some great legacy… but on a roof of some random part of Manehattan… Alone… and… forgotten,” thought Trixie, beginning to tear up. “I don’t want to die… not like this… not like this...”

Trixie felt herself slowly slipping away… at first the light began to fade… darkness slowly shrouding her vision… then her body… then her mind… Her final thoughts spoken in her mind… only for it to not be heard by anyone… so it seems.

“Farewell Equestria… I may have made some mistakes in this world… but maybe the next… I can change,” thought Trixie.

There’s no reason for you to die this way… after all… You may have some use… to us.

A voice came to her mind… that was when Trixie realized, if she beginning to die… then why could she be able to clearly think properly; it then came to her, Trixie wasn’t dying… she was being saved.

Meanwhile some distance from the docks, Pinkie carried her friend Twilight until she encountered some royal guards ahead of her. Once explaining what has happened, they immediately prepared to send a large squadron of the royal guard to stop Prakos while those remaining would escort both Twilight and Pinkie to safety. Sighing that they finally were able to get away, Pinkie felt a pang of guilt for leaving her friends behind… but remembered the state Twilight was in.

Twilight was currently strapped to a medical bed, having some needles and bandages nearly covering her whole body; her faint but slow breaths were the only sign that she was still alive, giving some relief to the party-planning pony. “Don’t worry Twilight… we’ll be back in Ponyville soon,” said Pinkie.

Right before Pinkie could place a hoof on her friend’s mane, a guard came rushing in, urgency seen on the guard’s face. “ELEMENT OF LAUGHTER! THERE’S AN EMERGENCY HAPPENING NEAR SOME BLOCKS FROM OUR POSITION!” shouted the guard, making sure to not wake up Twilight while making clear how bad things have gotten.

“Wha-what you mean?” asked Pinkie, spooked from the sudden appearance of the guard.

“That… ‘thing’ you mentioned… this Prakos… he… his…” said the female guard, gulping in a deep breath. “His rampaging right through every single member of the royal guard as if they were pillows! We need to get the princess out, pronto!” Pinkie immediately listened to the guard, helping to move Twilight to the train station, also making sure her friend is fine too.

A couple blocks from where Pinkie is, Prakos appeared before the squadron that was going to “handle” Prakos… only ending up to be annihilated in a blink of an eye; all the guards were found either having some of their bones broken, scorch marks covering their whole body, or to be dangling from the top of roofs or broken windows. In the far distance Prakos could see a barricade made by the royal guard, spotting some of guards to be holding spears, swords, and bows. In the far back behind those ponies were some unicorns and pegasi, who were apparently awaiting a command from their sergeant. On top of the very barricade was a gruff earth pony who looked older than the other guards, whilst showing signs that he’d been through worse in his lifetime. “Await for my command!” shouted the elder guard, raising hoof up.

Prakos continues his calm walk toward the barricade, keeping his wings tucked behind, but preparing a fireball for any attacks they may sent toward him. As the elder guard watched carefully at Prakos’s movements, right before Prakos began his attack, so to catch him off guard. Awaiting this chance, Prakos prepared to flung a fireball when the guard commenced his plan. “NOW!” screamed the elder guard.

From atop the roofs above Prakos were some pegasi and unicorns, who unleashed a torrent of water and ice. After the relentless ambush attack, standing still in his frozen prison was Prakos, encased in ice. While seeming to win the victory… smoke started to rise where the ice was; within the ice Prakos was slowly melting it from his own body heat. The second the ice around his head melted away he spoke, preparing for a blast of demonic fire toward those who attempted such an attack.

“TONIGHT, WE’RE GOING TO HAVE FRIED HORSE!” shouted Prakos. In a blaze of fire, both the ice and those who were hidden on roofs were engulfed in an intense heat; right after Prakos finished his attack, the guards who were standing by the barricade charging forward.

“FOR THE PRINCESSES AND EQUESTRIA! CHARGE!” screamed the elder guard, following behind with the charge.

While all fifty royal guard members charged forward with sword and spears raised high, some of them stayed behind to prepare to fire a volley of arrows. Prakos stood motionless until he surrounded himself in a cloak of fire; with his claws ready to charge back, Prakos screamed with a monstrous noise that temporarily paused the charge until charging himself. “MAY YOUR DEATHS APPEASE ME! COME FORTH MY MADNESS AND CONSUME MY ENEMIES IN MY ETERNAL FLAME OF DESTRUCTION!” shouted Prakos, pointing both claws forward. Coming out of Prakos claws are two massive fireballs the size of wagons, unleashing both simultaneously toward the charging force.

The resulting impact of the two giant fireballs cause all the windows some blocks from the explosion to shatter, and anypony who heard the explosion had to shield their eyes from the immense light coming from it. While most of the main force was taken, some were still able to stand tall as reinforcements began to flood into the battlefield from all directions. Arising from his own attack, Prakos began slashing and punching through all opponents, whether it be flesh, bone, or metal… all either were sent to the concrete ground, or shot with demonic flames.

The archers who were stunned by the light of the explosion refocused themselves, firing their volley of arrows. As a shower of arrows rained down upon Prakos, he opened his maw once more to incinerate all the arrows to ash. Watching their attack easily stopped Prakos flew forward, bombarding through those who were in his way. In the far distance Prakos could see the pink silhouette of his target; with his one claw Prakos fired a volley of miniature fireballs, causing tiny explosions around the silhouette forcing her to stop.

Pinkie looked back where the shots came from, only for her eyes to dilate to the sight she saw. Behind Prakos was a path of destruction unlike anything that any pony has ever seen in the last centuries; buildings were burning, the streets were covered with ash and the lifeless bodies of ponies, the sky which was engulfed with smoke looked as if it were set on fire. Prakos flew closer and closer with each passing second until the guard who was helping Pinkie move Twilight to safety shook the element of laughter. “MISS PIE! Get the princess to safety, I’ll slow him down!” shouted the guard, using her magic to pull out her sword.

“Bu-” Pinkie didn’t had the time to respond when a small fireball whizzed pass her. Quickly with haste, Pinkie grabbed hold of Twilight’s medical bed and began pushing her to the train station.

“Be safe,” said the guard, staring at the slowly disappearing figure of Pinkie. Facing Prakos, the guard placed all hooves tightly to the ground, getting to a ready stance while keeping her sword ready and tight with her magic grip.

Prakos finally arrived where Pinkie was… only to stare down; before him was a female unicorn who wore the same royal guard armor like the many previous guards he crushed single-handily. The unicorn guard had a clear blue mane with yellow visible at the tips of her mane, which was the same for her tail too. She had a light purple fur, that was close to white; her eyes were surprisingly a darker shade, which being green. Her sword was unique too, the hilt instead with the symbol of the sun but a flame… intriguing Prakos; the metal gleamed from the light of both Prakos and the fire around the two. Prakos was happy to find an interesting pony in his time in Equestria; kneeling down he pokes the guard’s sword with his one claw.

“Well hello there, now whom am I speaking to?” asked Prakos. “Let me guess it’s something silly lllliiiike… Sparkly Sunshine.”

“My name isn’t Sparkly Sunshine… Now face me in combat!” shouted the unicorn guard. The unicorn guard uses a spell to light her sword in flames while sending blasts of flames toward Prakos; Prakos brushes the flames away but the second the guard was about to strike her sword, Prakos grabbed it. The sword, hilt and blade began to melt away, only leaving the handle to remain.

Prakos dropped the sword as it melted into a pile of slag; before the unicorn guard could react Prakos slams the back part of his claw, sending the mare to land onto a wall. Leaving the guard to her own injuries, Prakos flew straight toward Pinkie, laughing psychotically as he burned everything in his way.

Pinkie who rushed quickly to the train station met with a slight obstacle; a small rock enough so to cause any object with wheels attached to it to swivel and tumble into the ground. Twilight’s medical bed was luckily only swiveled, but reached out of Pinkie’s grasp, rolling away from her. With Pinkie left on the ground from the bed suddenly moving from her hooves attempted to move back on all hooves… until she felt something clutch her mane. Pinkie found herself being tugged on her mane and lifted in the air, as to who doing this… was met with a voice that terrified the usually energetic mare.

“The ‘optimist’… first to run… last to die… I will enjoy your death,” said Prakos, leaning in to whisper into her ear. “Especially your screams.”

Before Pinkie could scream, Prakos began to squeeze tightly her neck making her gasp for air. As her face slowly begins to change colors, Prakos continues crushing her windpipe… until the noise of her neck began to crack… leaving the sound of a large pop heard.

Prakos stares at his latest kill… or what seemed to be a kill; though Prakos’s attacks would of killed any average being, many of the ponies he’d encountered are extremely durable and managed to survive… only leaving them broken, both body and will. Dropping her body, Pinkie seemed to completely fine… from the outside, but Prakos had cracked any bones around her head… and her neck… was swollen and had some small cuts from Prakos sharp claws; luckily should would survive though would have trouble breathing in the far future.

“And that makes…” said Prakos, thinking back to the countless ‘possible’ corpses he made today. “...Meh it’s probably at least above fifth… Maybe sixty? Seventy? ...Oh well, what you think brother?”

Prakos’s only response was silence, but not in his mind. Laughing to himself, Prakos continued to speak to the voice that he could only hear. “Yes yes yes, we’re not done yet… but you sure I can’t at least mangle her up in some way. At least maybe those eyes of hers… I could make seem like an accident,” said Prakos, pleadingly.

The voice was strict within Prakos’s mind, sighing to the unheard answer to Prakos’s suggestion. Cracking both claws, Prakos made his way to Twilight’s bed, the princess sleeping soundly… unknowing the plans she will be apart of.

“If she must live… she’ll live to be our pawns… We will find you a body, and then… we’ll be rid of this… ‘Soldier 3112’… Forever,” said Prakos. With one claw Prakos reached for Twilight… the world shrouding into darkness between the two.

Back at the docks were all of this started, Celestia was half conscious staring at the lifeless body of her sister, Luna. Crawling after Prakos had left to chase the element of laughter and her ex-apprentice, Celestia used all ounce of strength to reach her follow sibling. “L-l… L-Luna,” said Celestia, through clenched teeth.

Before the sun princess could touch her sister’s mane… a very familiar boot stopped her from making contact. The boot was standing on Celestia’s leg but after being relentless attacked by Prakos’s methods of attack, the princess was unable to feel anything from her hooves to her legs. This didn’t stop the psychotic demon to send his boot crushing what remained of her bones, Celestia winced a little feeling the pain a few moments but returned to her neutral expression.

Celestia looked up expecting the demon having possibly harmed more of her innocent ponies… what she saw made her eyes dilate. Slung over the demon of madness… was Twilight, who was trying her best to breath through her wounds. Celestia with renewed determination tried her best to save her old apprentice. “LEAVE! HER! ALONE!” said Celestia, blood pooling of her mouth. Celestia was biting her the insides of mouth so hard that blood began to spill out, but ignoring the pain only focusing on trying to save her ex-apprentice.

Prakos, with a grin kicked the sun princess, sending her body to skid and almost falling off the roof. Laying Twilight down, he placed two of his claw’s fingers to his mouth, closing his maw to create a noise… Prakos was whistling for somepony… but whom? Celestia returned to her full height but was swaying from forcefully moving her body through what limits they could handle with her injuries. The sun princess saw something that made her mouth open in shock; when there should be two figures, Prakos and Twilight… there was now three. The third was the one pony that nopony expected to be standing… it was Trixie. Her wounds were healed, none of her original exhaustion still on her, she was summoning something… before her and Prakos was a portal.

“What… what is she doing? Why is she helping this… this! DEMON!” thought Celestia, watching everything happen before her. “Is she and that demon planning to use Twilight as some hostage… WAS THIS THEIR WHOLE PLAN! WAS THIS… THIS… DARK’S WHOLE PLAN THE WHOLE TIME!”

Prakos looked at Celestia but… instead of his usual grin or psychotic laughter… Prakos was frowning or what seemed to be a neutral smile with his large mouth. Trixie finished the spell having no need to hold it knowing it will dissipate once one or two beings were to cross over. Prakos whispered toward Trixie… when the mare eyes widened a few seconds… only to return to their emotionless look; Trixie trotted over to Celestia, leaning into the speak into her ear.

“Whatever thoughts you have… We… or in this case, Prakos has no plans of taking Twilight,” said Trixie.

Celestia was shocked; why would a being this powerful not want to keep one of Equestria’s royal hostage, it was a simple thing a villain like him would do… unless… “He has no plans that involve Equestria,” said Celestia, muttering this to herself and Trixie to hear.

“Correct,” said Trixie, nodding in agreement. “I don’t know what he wants… but I can say this or rather this is what he wants me to tell you...”

Celestia listened carefully, wanting to know this demon’s true intentions… what she heard only made her heart race. “Prakos… Darkness… Soldier 3112 also known as Dark Armor… They’re different minds within one body… but one of the three are fake… with out of the three being good the rest… pure evil. They want freedom but, were only made to kill their whole lives… Freedom... that’s all they want… So this is a message and warning to you… and he, Prakos said, ‘Blood will rain, darkness will consume everything, madness will rule… A royal will die… A king will rise to rule the throne of corpses… One will survive… All… will be left to the hands of destruction.’” said Trixie.

Trixie began to step away from Celestia leaving her to own thoughts; before the sun princess could think what she was told… another voice spoke… it was Prakos’s turn to speak. “One more thing,” said Prakos, catching the sun princess of guard. “My brother has something else that needs to be questioned… of your rule of course. He has decided to who shall receive… our rage.”

Celestia was confused, by what Prakos meant ‘our rage’. Trying her best to speak, it came out as a whimper but nonetheless she spoke. “Wh… What do you mea-”

Prakos interrupted Celestia, getting to his point. “Someone… Somepony, must be chosen as sacrifice… Who shall be blasted with this,” said Prakos. Behind Prakos was a fireball… but was burning with a purplish color and light. Celestia could see the malice and demonic energy coming from it… knowing making contact would mean two things… death… or a worse fate.

“Eternal scarring, both physically, mentally, and spiritually,” thought Celestia.

Celestia gulped wondering who is she to choose… that was when she put two and two together… From the docks was Fluttershy, tending her friend Rainbow Dash who was okay… And then… there was Twilight, right before her very hooves, covered in injuries knowing that another hit would surely kill her. Celestia was to choose between her own student and one of her friends, the kindest and sweetest of the five. It was her… or the life of her student… the life of Twilight. “Your decision?” asked Prakos, holding the flames calmly.

Celestia convulsed not wanting to choose… but knowing if she didn’t Prakos would probably torch both mares. With a strained breath, Celestia raised both eyes toward the colored flame. “I choose-”

The answer was never heard…

Several hours after the incident in Manehattan… Somewhere far, yet familiar…

Trixie sat staring at the far outstretching land, only seeing hills, barren land, and canyons as far as she could see. After going through the portal, she found herself staring at a sight so beautiful; it was sunrise… making the date… Trixie couldn’t think what today’s date was, too busy with the events that played out yesterday. Dark turning into Prakos, Prakos nearly killing everypopny… and now her being seen betraying all of Equestria… right in front of Celestia herself. Trixie placed both hooves down on her eyes, crying out what guilt she felt… when she felt something touch her.

Turning to face who had stopped her sobbing… she saw two things… a black helmet… and the faint glow of she assumed to be Dark’s flashlight which came from his torso. “Hey… you alright?” asked Dark. “I found you sitting her… Where’s Twilight?”

Trixie wiped the tears away, happy to know she still had somepony or rather… somebody watching her back still. Trixie opened her mouth to speak a very overused but necessary line.

It’s… It’s a long story.

Author's Note:

Now I'm both proud, confused, disappointed, and mostly... relaxed that this BLOODY, FREAKING, CHAPTER... *inhale* *exhale* is done.

I have zero idea what I was trying to write here, at one point I knew, another I was a tad questioning myself, another point I began slamming my head against the wall... and now... I really don't care... Well I do but, I don't care if it's judged or not, I finished it and that's good for me. I will check for spelling, grammar, and story mistakes in my spare time... considering it was meant to be shorter, but since this story is labelled gore... well... yeeeeeeaaaahhhhh.

Hoping the next arc won't be so awkwardly posted because this is the end of this one. So we got antagonists (I think) and a lot of future questions to be answered... See you soon, on the next part of ASO.

Update (06-09-2023): So those who have read the blog - June2023News to those who don't know - I'm giving ASO a quick end to write the rest in a different story with some slight changes - read the blog to get the whole picture - just know this isn't cancelled, so expect something new in... the undetermined but persistent future.

Comments

[Jankrieg34]

Why is this on hiatus again?

[Animatorsnake]

7796942 Recently was on Hiatus actually, and as to why; I'm focusing on another story (my latest one) called "Insanity Has A Price" or short for IHAP. When I finish the first arc of IHAP I'm continuing the next arc of ASO.