• Published 24th Jul 2012
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I Met a Pony In Hell (And We Kicked Ass Together) - shortskirtsandexplosions



So like, this pony and I met in Hell, and we totally kicked ass together. Also there's a hot chick

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Chapter Five: The One Where a Demon Speaks in Bold Font

Lyra grunted. She summoned a burst of energy through her horn and fired a steady green stream at the floor. The emerald light solidified as a brief force field, knocking us back so that we stopped falling. I stood evenly on my feet, holding the pony's weight in my grasp.

“Hooooo boy,” I wheezed as I pivoted towards the other side, facing Applejack's and Kelly's distant blood bath. My boots squirmed awkwardly. Just an inch to the left or right would trigger an impaling spike beneath us. “Hillary Clinton on a bicycle! This is the absolute shit!”

“What's taking you guys so long?!” Kelly exclaimed, sweatily launching her arrow over and over again. “We need help!”

“Are you fucking blind, woman?!”

“Shawn, I'm slipping!” Lyra shrieked.

“You are not!” I lurched, hissing for breath. “Shit, you are!”

“Raaaugh!” Applejack burst through a crowd of trolls, knocking several monsters across the platform as she bucked another creature's helmet off. “I've a good mind to make cider out of yer eyeballs!”

“One thing at a time!” Kelly shrieked. “Shawwwwwwn?”

“Working on it!” I grunted as I reached a dangling boot out. “Lyra, can I see what I'm friggin' doing, pretty please?”

“S-sorry!” She trembled in my grasp, concentrated, and highlighted the circles beneath us once again. “There, that should help you—Eeeek!”

I somehow jumped the both of us into a clear space, and then another. Each time, I felt like my arms would rip out of my sockets. I really wished Sisyphus had the grace to donate me strength along with the crazy-ass agility and swordsmanship I had been given. My ears rang with the losing battle of our two allies. The hulking crowd of monsters was pushing them back into the forest of sheathed spikes. At any moment, they would be reduced to impaled meat right in front of us.

“God, I wanna spill blood like nobody's business right now,” I snarled as I struggled with the weight of Lyra in my arms. Crazily, we had just about made it halfway across the field of green circles when I heard an explosion going off behind us.

“Dah!” Lyra clung to me. “Wh-what was that?!”

I looked behind me and saw a pool of flame across half the spikes. “Oh, that's cute.” I turned to frown at the archers on the broken pile of pillars ahead. “Do they ever fucking quit—?”

Just as I said that, they fired a smoking explosive straight at my forehead. It was my turn to emit a high-pitched shriek. Thankfully, Lyra lifted her glowing horn and erected a green force field in time to block the arrow. It ricocheted off the emerald barrier and blew up ten feet away, bathing more of the platform with plasma.

“Lyra!” I gasped, gazing down to see that all the green circles had vanished. “I'm jumping blind here!”

“I can't do two things at once!” she managed through hissed teeth as she fought to keep the shield intact. “They're reloading!”

“Nnnnngh...” I flexed my left side.

“Shawn, what are you—?”

I yelled for good measure, flinging my left arm loose while holding her weight by the belly with my right arm. Muscles spasming, I managed to unholster one of the crossbows and fire it at the murderous archers. Two bolts made it into one troll's neck. Two more archers remained, firing return volleys. Both arrows bounced off Lyra's shield and exploded too close for comfort. The resulting jolt forced me to re-grip Lyra with my left arm. As a result, I dropped my crossbow. It fell onto a spot of the platform right in front of us, only to be impaled by a wicked sharp spike just inches from my nose.

“Well, that sucks,” I grunted as the spike rolled back down.

“They're gonna fire again!” Lyra squeaked.

I looked at the burning floor of spikes around us, then at Kelly's and Applejack's fight, then at Lyra's energy barrier. “Lyra!” I exclaimed, holding her tight. “The shield!”

“What about it?”

“Can you aim it beneath us?”

“I think so! But what is that going to—?” I felt her gasp heavily. Quite frankly, I couldn't blame her. If I knew what I was about to do, I'd shit myself too. “Shawn, you can't be serious!”

“We'll be burned alive if we don't do something else!” I tightened my legs and pivoted to face the fight several feet away. “When I tell you to, fire up a shield below us!”

“I don't think the shield's strong enough to handle anything like—”

“Look, will you just fucking get ready?”

“Ohmygoodness! Ohmygoodness!” The shield briefly disappeared as Lyra squinted her eyes shut and channeled a bright strobe into her horn. Meanwhile, at a stone's throw, the archers fired their explosives.

“Now!” I jumped over the barren floor of death. “Do it—!”

“Nnngh!” Lyra looked like she was giving birth. A solid glow of green stretched out beneath me. My boots made contact, and the spikes immediately answered from the other side. The shield billowed, rippled, but stayed awkwardly intact. Flames and explosions erupted behind us as I made a mad dash across the emerald carpet. We glided towards the fight. The world was a fucking sweatbox of metal and mayhem. Finally, we were less than three feet away from the edge of the spikes.

And that's when Lyra's magic decided to fail. It didn't immediately rupture. Instead, it pushed up at us like a trampoline. Quite comically, Lyra and I were flung forward like turds out of a shit cannon. The world spun and spun. My only anchor was the sound of Lyra's scream, and even that faded as I felt her body being launched from my arms. Quicker than a blink, we sailed towards the heart of the fight. Lyra landed first, using a field of magic to cushion her fall. I had a few more milliseconds to spare. As I plummeted, I saw several monsters' heads tilting up to gawk at me. Without a second thought, my hand went back to my sword and I came out with the damn thing swinging.

When I landed, it was like coming down a bloody water slide. Bodies ripped in half around me, bathing me in ink-black juices. I stood up from my landing and spat some of the blood out of my mouth. My cheeks were hurting from what had to have been the most Jack Nicholsonesque of grins. “Haaaugh!” I shouted victoriously. “Willy Wonka's here! Come get your golden tickets, motherfuckers!”

Several orcs and trolls didn't know what to think. I realized it was because I was instantly decapitating half of them. I ripped my way into the crowd like a serrated cyclone, plucking their limbs like petals off of a Georgia O'Keeffe painting. Somewhere, a maniac was laughing hysterically, and he sounded vaguely like me on a Saturday night.

“What in the hay is that ruckus?” I heard Applejack breathlessly exclaim.

“Oh, it's just Shawn,” Kelly grunted while retracting an arrow.

I remembered the archers. “Kelly!” I impaled an orc, kicked him off the length of my sword, and spun to point at the long-range offenders. “Atop the crumbled pillars—”

Right as I said that, a smoking arrow exploded behind Kelly, missing her by about a hair. “Augh! Sonuvabitch!” she spun and instantly flew her arrow through one of the archer's eyes. She yanked at her cord, pulling him by the socket so that he collided with his buddy.

I smirked at that, only to have a scimitar graze my shoulder. “Aaaugh!” I reeled, shocked at how warm my insides felt. After three or four solid days of disemboweling trolls, it was suddenly nauseating to smell my own fluids. Needless to say, I spun around and took the fucker's scimitar by removing his shoulder. “Try that again, smartass!”

He didn't. However, his buddy did. A growling orc kicked me hard in the chest.

“Ooof!” I fell back and slid to a stop at the edge of the field of spikes. I saw a pair of green hooves standing beside me. “Oh hey! You're still alive. Cool.”

“Where's Applejack?!” Lyra sweatily exclaimed while firing green bolts at various creatures, holding the surging crowd back. “I haven't seen her since we landed!”

“She can't be that far from Kelly.” I stood up and froze at a sight before us. “Awwww poop.”

No less than a dozen orcs and trolls were charging with several spears outstretched. The living phalanx roared as they bore down on us with a combined war cry.

“Lyra—”

“I know!” she shouted and erected a billowing shield directly ahead.

The monsters' weapons struck the barrier all at once. Their combined force managed to push the shield back, which then shoved both Lyra and myself back as well. Slowly, we were being shoved towards the spikes from which we came.

“Nnnngh... Can't... C-can't hold it!” Lyra whimpered. “Shawn—!”

I pulled out my remaining crossbow. “Gimme some room on the bottom!”

She raised the lower half of the shield by two feet. I aimed underneath and fired a steady stream of metal bolts into the monsters' ankles. My projectiles ate into their flesh above their plated boots. Half of the monsters stumbled while the other half leaned on their spears. I had managed to halt the charge before we were sent to a meaty death.

“There're still too many of them—” Lyra exclaimed.

“Comin' through!” Applejack's voice drawled.

We both watched as the thick crowd of combatants split apart like crashing waves. Applejack came galloping through them, headbutting several with her armored plates. She grit her teeth and shoved the last clump of flailing bodies up and over Lyra's shield like a ramp. At the last second, she spun and bucked the airborne victims for good measure. Lyra and I watched as many orcs and trolls flew above us, landing helplessly in the field of spikes. Their bodies were immediately impaled in several places, filling the air with a spray of black blood.

“Goddam,” I muttered as I pulled myself back up with the sword.

“Just like corrallin' sheep back home!” Applejack spat before returning to the thick of the fight.

“Excuse me, but how in the golden fuck is that anything like corralling sheep?”

“To the left!” Lyra shouted.

I blindly swung my sword and slashed one charging orc's chest while parrying the axe-swings of two trolls. “I'm waiting for an answer!” I shouted above the fight.

“Shawn, look alive!” Kelly slid up and aimed over my head.

I ducked.

She turned her arrow into a disc, fired it, and flung it across the throats of both trolls, slitting them. They fell ineffectually to the floor while Kelly retracted her projectile.

I stood up, groaning from the fresh splatter of blood over my torso. “If you had let me handle that, things would have been a lot less juicy.”

“Oh shut up,” Kelly marched over and stood beside Lyra and I. “Fight's almost over.” As she said that, I realized that the only noise now was the clopping of Applejack's metal horseshoes. Most of the monsters around us were either dead, dying, or fleeing. As frenzied as everything had become, it was just as quickly returning to eerie silence. “It could have finished a lot sooner if you hadn't taken your sweet time.”

“You can take my sweet time and suck it!” I frowned. “Miss Projectionist and I had to cross the Sea of Instant Castration to get to you morons!”

“If you weren't too busy bitching earlier, you wouldn't have taken so long!”

“Oh, I'm sorry!” I kicked a groaning, gutted orc beneath us before stabbing my sword down through his skull. “What a charming little vacation we're all on—for me to ruin it with my senseless bitching! Golly! Where's the gift shop? I wanna know where I can buy a cute rainstick just like the one you've got up your ass!”

Kelly pointed into my chest. “What I'm trying to say, Shawn, is that we'd get things done a lot faster if you at least tried to be more agreeable!”

“Y'all still goin' at each other's throats?” Applejack marched back, panting. She retracted the armor around her muzzle in time to frown. “Reckon enough blood's been spilled without you two addin' to the harvest?”

“I'm sorry, AJ,” Kelly said with a deep groan. “I'm just tired of Sir Lame-a-lot here and his neverending mouth.”

“Your mom never got tired of my neverending mouth.”

“Oh fuck off!” Kelly turned to snarl at me.

“What's the matter?” I grinned wildly in her face. “Am I not bonding enough with you guys?! Isn't this what you wanted?”

“That's not what I meant and you know it!”

“Then why don't you educate me?!” I unsheathed my sword from the orc and let the blood drip to the floor in open sight. “What am I supposed to learn from all this beauty, captain, my captain?!”

“Everyone, quiet!” Lyra shouted.

The air grew still and cold. Applejack shifted nervously in her armor. I stared at the fresh carnage around us. Kelly was sighing.

“I apologize, Lyra, AJ, everyone,” she muttered. “I should be thankful that Shawn and Lyra backed us up when they did—”

“No! Shhh! Do you hear that?” Lyra exclaimed, raising a hoof.

We all glanced around the place. Slowly, a deep bass hum rose from the distance, like a never-ending howl.

“Horseapples...” Applejack stammered, her green eyes bright. “I know that sound.”

“Oh shit,” Kelly breathed.

“What is it?” I asked.

Kelly and Applejack stepped past us and stared out towards where the remaining monsters were retreating. At the opposite end of the platform, perpendicular to our escape route, a bright red glow was intensifying. The escaping monsters came to a stop, merging with another band of nightmarish soldiers that formed in the distance. In the center of the group was a bright figure, the source of the crimson glow. His color matched the very same crystals that broadcasted Sisyphus' words to us on the other side of each chamber's door. Even from a great distance, I could see a plume of otherworldly flame emanating from his skull and shoulders.

“It's the incubus,” Kelly said in a pained breath.

“What?” I squinted at her. “Like the band?”

“No, idiot. It's a demon warrior, one of the residents of Tartarus. We heard Sisyphus say on one of those crystal-thingies that this whole test is meant to bring glory to the demon horde.”

I pointed past the glowing figure with my sword. “You mean to tell me that all this time we've been fighting their pets?”

“Does that really surprise you? We've been cutting through so many of them. Only in big numbers do they really threaten us. Besides...” Kelly gave me a nervous glance. “Would you expect an audience to actually take part in their own blood sport?”

“No, I guess not,” I said. “Not unless they were really, really badass—” I blinked at my own words. I pivoted slowly to gaze once again at the distant figure. “Awww hell.”

The incubus marched slowly, burningly towards us. When the retreating army came upon his figure, he rewarded their cowardice with a massive backhand. Two orcs instantly snapped in half, their torsos collapsing like burst balloons. I saw a flicker of two bright eyes, and the demonic figure stood tall, occupying the height of eighteen feet, easily.

“He's the nasty feller who took Fluttershy from us,” Applejack said in a wavering voice. Her legs buckled at the thought. “Kelly and I barely made it out with our skin intact.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Lyra scampered to the center of the group and gazed anxiously at all of us. “Let's head for the door!”

“Right,” Kelly began to run. “Come on, Applejack! Pretend this is the Kentucky Derby!”

“I'll just make like I know what yer talkin' about!” Applejack galloped alongside her.

I joined the group in the heavy sprint for the door up ahead. “Just keep moving!” I exclaimed. I glanced over at the distant figure in mid-stride. “We should be able to make it so long as he doesn't suddenly sprout wings and fly!”

The incubus suddenly sprouted wings and flew. Trailing fire, he soared through the air and came down before us in a violent ground-smash. The whole platform shook as we fell on our backsides. The hairs on our bodies curled from the heat of his unholy presence, and our beating hearts were serenaded by the roar of his distant lackeys charging to rejoin the battle.

“Well done, mortals,” he spoke with what sounded like three roaring voices at once. I saw orange flames spitting from his eyes just above a grinning face. “You've endured many trials to get to this holocaust.” The fires along his neck and shoulders intensified as he flexed his blood-red wings. “My name is Babellyon the Consumer. Know my name and know it well, for you shall be screaming it for eternity.”

“Yeah...” I hissed and struggled wincingly to my feet. “I miss the orcs and trolls right about now.”

“AJ...” Kelly murmured.

“On your mark, Kelly,” Applejack said as the armored plates once more covered her body.

Lyra breathlessly stammered, “What are you two—?”

“Now!” Kelly fired her arrow high.

“Babellyon” merely caught the projectile, sneering. What the incubus didn't see was Applejack—already airborne—lifting up and biting onto the metal wire with her teeth. Suddenly, Babellyon was being jerked forward from his grip of the arrow.

Kelly was already pulling two daggers from her belt and flinging them at the monster's wrist. The twin blades embedded just inches above his metal bracelet. With a growl of pain and anger, he let go of the arrow. As he reeled, Applejack charged the leg he was balancing on and kicked it with both rear hooves.

Babellyon fell hard on his backside, letting loose an undignified grunt.

“Okay!” Kelly shouted as she coiled her rope in mid-run. “Get to the door, AJ! Just like last time!”

“Damn!” I shouted with a grin as Kelly and I joined the charge. “Do you ever get sexier, girl? Is it even possible—?”

An orange orb flew ahead of us and landed just before the door, exploding and forming a solid wall of fire. The four of us skidded to a stop, gasping. Without a choice we spun around to once again face the demon.

Babellyon was standing back up. With a hacking breath, he spat another orange orb into the red palm of his hand. He held the flaming “grenade” and leered down at us while his forces ran from a distance to join him. “Do you think I would fall for that trick twice? You cretins are becoming predictable!” He flung the glowing orb.

All four of us flinched, but we didn't catch fire. Instead, the flame erupted against the door behind us, covering the steps with searing plasma. We were trapped, forced to face him.

Babellyon grinned even wider, cracking the joints in both his knuckles and neck muscles. “I am going to enjoy sucking the skin off your bones.”

“Sweet Celestia...” Lyra whimpered.

“Okay...” I marched forward with my sword. “I get it. Boss fight. Guess the dude with the sword is up first.”

“Don't be stupid, Shawn!” Kelly shouted. “This guy's beyond us!”

“Come on,” I frowned up at the monster as I held my blade high. “If you two whackjobs survived this dude, then so can I.”

Babellyon snickered with a deep bass sound. Flicking his bracelets, he produced two lengths of huge, rust-iron chains and let them slam down on the ground with heavy thuds.

I bit my lip at the sight. “Then again...”

“Hraaaaugh!” He spun around and flung both metal ropes at me.

I dove straight to the side. The metal platform split apart behind me from the sheer strength of the chains' strikes.

“Hnngh!” He lunged and threw the lengths again.

I jumped one lash of chains, ducked the other, and tried charging his leg with the sword. “Yaaaugh—”

He merely kicked me with a wave of his toes.

“Oooof!” I fell back and landed in the center of the group.

“Shawn!” Lyra gasped at my side.

“Fuck me, that's a smelly foot!” I struggled to get up. “I dunno how I feel about a lack of deodorant in Hell...” Just then, I saw Kelly blurring past me. “Kelly! Yo! That wasn't meant to be a battlecry—”

Nevertheless, she kept running, gripping her titanium bow at her side. Babellyon flung the chains at her. Not only did she dodge them with an athletic twirl, but she pinned one rope to the ground with an arrow shot. Fearlessly, she ran up the length of the chain, perched on his wrist, and yanked her wire. The arrow broke free, flew up past her, and swiped across his burning forehead.

“Aaaugh!” Babellyon jerked back, gripping his bloodied face. “Accursed insect!” He whipped his fist out from beneath her.

Kelly was already backflipping, looking no less sexy than usual. As she came back from the reverse somersault, she yanked once again at her arrow. It returned, this time grazing the incubus' muscular shoulder.

He roared again, filling the air with thunder and the smell of leaking sulphur. He flung his chains at us in blind, angry fury. Kelly barely had time to land before she was dodging to the side. Lyra erected a shield to protect herself and Applejack. I was rolling to the side and trying to catch my breath.

The world shook from each slash of the chains. The nearby flames were sweltering. I could hear the bootsteps of the massive battalion coming closer and closer at our rear. Just then, one of his chain-strikes landed right in front of me. Thinking on my toes, I stabbed the sword down and pinned the chains to the platform like Kelly had earlier. Anchoring the angry demon by my grip, I shouted, “Kelly! Applejack! Anybody!”

“I got this one!” Applejack shouted. She flashed Lyra a look as she began galloping. “Care to gimme a boost?”

“Be careful!” Lyra squeaked as she made a green platform out of thin-air. Applejack landed on it, and Lyra shot her skyward.

“Whewwww-weeee!” Applejack spun once, aimed her sharp horseshoes down at Babellyon, and landed smack-dab in his chest.

“Aaaugh!” He shouted as he was shoved backwards, landing on his spine with his right arm still attached to the chains I had stuck to the platform. He tried to get up, but Applejack wasn't done with him.

“Nnnngh!” She bucked him hard in the nose, the chin, and ended with a heavy kick to the nipples for good measure. “Take away Fluttershy, will ya?!”

“Rghhh-Horsemeat! Babellyon grabbed the pony's tail in his left hand. With a grunt, he mercilessly tossed her high into the air.

“N-no!” Lyra shrieked. “AJ!”

I watched in a panic. I'm not the least ashamed to say that the first thing I thought of was her distance from Kelly's collar. “Kelly—”

“Shawn!” She was sliding over to me. “Grab my waist!”

“Thought you'd never ask.” I kept one hand gripping my sword hilt while my other arm went around her midriff.

“AJ!” Kelly fired the arrow up at the midair pony. “Anchor!”

Applejack caught us out of the corner of her green eyes. She opened her mouth wide and caught the arrow at the end of its throw.

“Nnngh!” Kelly pulled hard on the coil while I held her in place. With our combined weight, we acted as a fulcrum, swinging Applejack back so that she glided safely towards the floor at the end of the wire. She skidded across the platform, tumbled, and slid to a grunting stop next to Lyra.

Just then, Babellyon stopped fucking around. He jerked his right arm, yanking the chain out from under us.

“Aaugh!” Kelly and I tumbled in opposite directions. My sword slid away from me. I fumbled to reach for it when I felt the air turning twenty degrees hotter. Looking up, I saw that Babellyon had spat out another fire bomb and was tossing it our way.

“Look out!” Lyra galloped half of the distance and fired a green bolt. It deflected the bomb, but not by much. The burning sphere flew over our heads, singing the tips of Kelly's hair. It landed with a heavy explosion, sending chunks of rusted metal flying every which way. And then one piece of shrapnel flew into Kelly's leg.

“Aaaah!” she shrieked, a truly horrifying sound in the midst of so much hell. Her leg armor split in two, revealing a burning gash as she leaked red juices all over the platform. “Nnngh-Christ!” She curled over in a fetal position, clutching herself.

“Kelly!” Applejack shouted, galloping over. “Talk to me, sugarcube—!” Her charge was suddenly lit up by a bright red glow.

“Heheheh...” Babellyon was already juggling another bomb. “I think I will seer your putrid flesh together.” He reared his arm back to toss the explosive and render Kelly's body to ashes. “You should make a fine codpiece for when I stand upon the ashes of your loved ones.”

I was suddenly between his legs, shoving the length of my sword into his red calf.

“Gaaah!” He limped backwards and dropped the bomb. A wall of flame erupted behind him, effectively blocking the charging battalion. Up until then, his reinforcements had been twelve seconds from ending this battle short. Angrily, he sneered down at the one responsible for the sudden delay. “You crazed fool! Do you actually think you can maim me?”

“No...” I glared up at him, holding my sword high. “I just really, really hate the word 'codpiece.'”

“Raaugh!” He tossed a length of chain at me.

I dug my sword into the ground, pole-vaulted the swing, ducked another slashing rope of chains, and swung at the bracelet on his wrist. With a splash of sparks, his right-handed lash of chains detached from his limb. He made a grab for me. I jumped, kicked off his knuckles, and slashed at his other wrist. The last length of chains was effectively sliced loose. Frustrated, he stomped at me with his foot. I merely back-flipped and came to a sliding stop, squatting protectively in front of Kelly and the two ponies.

“Ha!” I sneered. “Not so tough without your S&M gear, are you, ya melon fuck?!”

“You're only prolonging your torment!” He stood tall, flexing his muscles as the flames on his muscles multiplied intimidatingly. “Soon my minions will join me, and we will paint this labyrinth with your entrails—” His villainous monologue was cut short by a metal bolt sailing straight into his mouth. He gripped his throat and gurgled on his own blood. “Gklllkrtkkt!”

I lowered the crossbow, frowning. “Eat a dick, Lucifer.” I took a breath and turned towards the crown. “Lyra, Applejack, how bad is Kelly—?”

A giant foot slammed into my side.

“Aaaugh!” I tumbled ten yards across the platform, so far that I felt the sparks of pain shooting out of my collar. They lasted for an agonizing ten seconds, during which I curled over, spat up bile, and wished I was fucking dead. When the electrical jolts finally stopped and I heard Babellyon's heavy footsteps, I opened my eyes and looked across a blurry world of tears.

He stood over me, grinning. The flames behind him were dying, opening a path for his army of trolls and orcs to sweep in and finish us for good. But all that mattered at that moment was the thinning distance between the two of us. I could smell his putrid breath as he spat demon blood over my person and smirked, his fangs trickling with crimson.

“Your skill is half as exceptional as your guile. The glory of Tartarus can only benefit from this exercise.”

I coughed, wheezed, and whimpered, “Go sit on your mommy's lap and rotate.”

“Hmmm. Not the best last words.” The incubus reached into his throat like a sword-swallower and produced a long vaporous blade of pure fire. He held the magical weapon in his grip. “But I suppose they'll do.” With a snarl, he flung the bludgeon of flame into my vision.

My tears evaporated as I stared into the hellfire. While I began burning, all I could think of was how short and pathetic my mortal existence had been. I wondered if all lives were comical prologues to eternal damnation. In some silly way, I knew it made sense. Then, on account of the flames, I knew nothing, not even how to scream.