Source of all Evils

by Igris Crow

Chapter 6 : Fool

It has been a few weeks since Demise awakened. Wandering aimlessly the mountain castle halls.

There was nothing, not a single significant thing happening during those weeks. There were simply mortals being mortals, all trying to survive in this world where Death is a threat to all… but not to him. Death would not claim the soul of the Demon King for he could not take from what is equal or even higher than himself.

Demise would be often seen standing on one of the castle tower’s balconies, staring in contemplation at the sky. Nopony knew what went through his mind, not even the Princesses who would often interact with him.

At first it was only Princess Celestia who, in her misunderstanding, tried to befriend the ancient being. She thought that his behavior was due to him being lost in the past, a past where he was a King with a Kingdom. Oh how wrong she was…

The Demon King would sometimes think of the past, true, but he was simply meditating. Gathering his strength and absorbing, little by little, the energy saturating the atmosphere. Since there was nothing else to do besides that, aside from the usual slaughter he’d normally do but won’t to keep his reputation as a mysterious savior of the Princess of the Sun.

He did learn some things from his stay at the Castle of course, like how these “nobles” would sometimes gossip about him, saying that he was either a malicious entity who manipulated the Princess, or a benevolent being in the body of a monster. Some of these families even went as far as giving one of their daughters to him in hopes of acquiring his power over the Princess. Foolish mortals indeed.

Then there was this one pony, Blueblood who is apparently a distant relative of the Princess and a resident of the Castle. He would always complain about his presence in the Castle, saying that a plebeian like him shouldn’t live with someone like him. The Demon King let it pass each times as he, to his pleasant surprise, gained a lot of patience since his return.

Talking about the arrogant unicorn, he was currently on his way to meet with the gigantic pony, who was currently having his usual stroll around the Castle.

“You! I challenge you to a duel!” Blueblood suddenly shouted. Some of the guards stationed here turned their heads towards the unicorn, wondering if he had lost his mind. The castle guards were well trained after all and they would not dare take up arms against the giant pony, partly because of direct royal orders but mostly because of their instincts, screaming at them to run away from the monstrous pony.

Demise simply looked at him, amused and honestly relieved. It’s been a few weeks since he’s done nothing after all, he just wandered around the castle without even once doing mischief. If he was being honest, he practically wished for something to happen.

“I see. Very well, due to the fact that I’m in a good mood, I will let you choose the rules of this duel.” Demise said, honestly curious of how the unicorn will undoubtedly make the duel disadvantageous to him. Blueblood smirked.

“Ha! It’s to be expected that it goes by MY rules, I don’t see you plebeian knowing how a noble’s duel works. Meet me at the city’s plaza tomorrow morning. It’ll be a public execution of your credibility as my aunt’s savior! And don’t you dare be absent as it will prove your unworthiness of the title of savior!” The arrogant pony said before turning around and walking away.

The Demon King frowned, disappointed at the unicorn as he now knew that his defiance was not due to courage but foolishness as the pony did not once show the instinctual fear all living beings have of him. But it didn’t matter, he was after all quite tame these past few weeks and he wasn’t ignorant of the ponies doubts of him. He will show them, show them the power of a True Demon.

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She didn’t like this one bit. Her foolish nephew will get himself killed, and the duel was so sudden she didn’t have time to stop it. And now she was at Canterlot’s plaza, the very center of the city in which she resides with all the other “noble” ponies, sitting on a golden throne the ponies prepared before the start of the duel. She still wondered how they managed to make it in such a short time. And next to her was her sister who was sitting on an obsidian throne. Although she knew that the ponies were uncertain of her, she was still happy that they showed her the respect she deserves, if only they could start loving her too.

Then, there were the royal guards around them, keeping the ponies from disturbing the two alicorns. And finally there was the ponies themselves, all around the center of the city, merchants used this to gain more customers who wouldn’t resist buying snacks to watch the duel. Some ponies even made flags with either Blueblood or Demise’s face on them, waving them around to support their idols. And there were of course those who were betting on who would win.

Honestly, she still wondered how the ponies were able to prepare this in such a short time. She was certain her nephew challenged the Demon King yesterday, unless he prepared it beforehand which would be incredibly suspicious.

At the center, where the contestants would duel, stood Blueblood. Smirking proudly as he waved at the ponies. But, there was no Demon King to be seen. Blueblood scoffed.

“Ha! The coward actually did not come!” Blueblood shouted in arrogance. Celestia sighed, she really wondered where he got that arrogance from, certainly not from her. The ponies booed and laughed as they all assumed the supposed savior chickened out. But then, all felt it, even her. The sky became darker and darker as black clouds gathered in the sky, blocking the sunlight. Then they all heard a voice coming from every direction.

“Tell me. Who did you refer to as a coward?” The voice said, she instantly knew that it was Demise as she recognized the voice, but those who did not know him were trembling in fear, all of them turning to their Princesses for protection. She told them to not panic as it was the other fighter. Of course, this did not calm them in any ways, but they did become curious as to how an, from what they saw, earth pony managed to do such feats which could only be done by either powerful unicorns or even alicorns.

Then, a dark pillar of energy descended upon the temporary arena, sending out a dark shockwave that knocked some ponies on the ground. The dark clouds gathered at the dark pillar, using it to descend to the mortal world below. Even though the clouds were no longer here to cover the sun, the sky was still somehow darker than what a sunny sky would usually be like.

Some of the ponies couldn’t see past the curtains of the dark energy, but those who could, like the pegasus who had better eyesight, saw the dark clouds twisting and morphing inside the pillar before taking the form of the pony covered in scales they were all familiar with. Once the pillar of dark energy dissipated, they could all finally see the Demon King in his full glory, it impressed them all, except one.

“Hmph, I commend your mastery in illusions but they won’t work on me. There’s no way a plebeian like you to hold the power you displayed with your illusions.” Blueblood said, completely certain that what he saw was mere illusion, but oh how wrong he was.

All the unicorns here felt it. The darkened sky, the pillar of pure energy and even the being himself. Impossible amount of magic power, or at least something similar to it, was used to make all those events. It was as if the giant pony was the embodiment of dark energy.

“So? You spoke of rules in this duel, what are they?” Demise asked while assessing the magical capabilities of his foe, which was as expected infinitely small.

“No one will interrupt us and we can use all the tricks we want, a show of pity to you who can do nothing but use petty tricks. And it is not a duel to death in respect to my aunt who finds disgust in blood.” Blueblood smirked as he charged his horn.

Everypony waited in anticipation, they all waited for the Princesses to start the duel with a spell. Celestia nodded to her sister, they both shot a bright beam to the sky, and all hell broke loose.

The earth shook and trembled, the ponies were confused, the unicorns nearly passed out, and the alicorns frowned as they stared at the display of power. Blueblood didn’t even have time to unleash the spell he was charging. Much like how he appeared, a dark pillar rose but it was bigger and far more powerful.

Elsewhere, monsters became agitated. Deep in the forests, spirits and ghosts woke as they felt the power of their ancestors. Deep below the earth, where the remains of all who lived, woke back again into the world of mortals, the souls stolen from heaven and corrupted by this evil power now possessed the undead.

Back in the arena, the Demon King simply observed as he let his powers influence the world. He could feel it, the demon’s who were sealed were released, those who slept awoke and the mortals weak to temptation succumbed to his power. The ecstasy he was feeling from the liberation of his power was not unknown to him, and not unpleasant either. But he couldn’t let himself be drunk with power, so he focused on the foolish mortal that dared defy him.

“Foolish pony, to raise your magic against me. Know despair.” Soon after the Demon King said those words, a black mist blasted its way towards the paralyzed unicorn. Then, he fell unconscious while a dark aura could be seen enveloping his horn, effectively draining all the magic that was used to charge the spell Blueblood was about to use, turning the once white horn into a completely rotten and dark horn that looked like it would fall apart at any moment.

Celestia, seeing all of this happening, feared the worst. As she was about to run to see how his nephew was doing, she was abruptly stopped by Demise himself. She looked at him, ready to scold him but found herself confused instead as she stared at the unusually angry face of the Demon King, well, more angry than usual. She looked at where he was staring, and saw her little ponies yet they acted strange.

Then, countless ponies from within the crowd that gathered to see the duel were enveloped in a green flame before turning into black insect-like ponies with green transparent wings. Changelings. The guards that accompanied her and her sister here went into a battle stance, already surrounding the Princesses and the Demon King like a shield to protect them from the impostors.

“Interesting.” Celestia heard Demise say behind her, she didn’t really know why he’d say that and she didn’t have time to think about it. Her little ponies were probably captured by the changelings right under her nose for who knows how long.

“These fiends!” She snarled as she flew up to charge a power spell filled with her anger. But she didn’t notice the green object flying straight at her from above.

“Sister!” Screamed Luna in her royal voice.

“Argh!” Celestia was hit by the object and fell back to the ground, nearly falling into unconsciousness. The object that hit her was revealed to be none other than the changeling Queen herself.

“HAHAHA! Stupid little princess, to be so blind as to not notice than none of your subjects were ever here to begin with!” Chrysalis said as she flew above the surrounded ponies and Demon.

“Insect, do you truly believe you can defeat me?” Said the Demon King as he glared at the changeling queen. Chrysalis stared at him and laughed.

“It’s useless Demon! No matter how much power you may wield, you are surrounded by thousands of my children! I admit that your display of power was quite impressive but it’s nothing against the might of the Changeling Hive powered by weeks of absorbed love!” She said as thousands upon thousands of changelings flew in the air, filling the sky with countless flying changelings.

The guards that were still themselves trembled in fear, losing their hope as they stared at the army of changelings who definitely looked taller and more ferocious than they were supposed to be. Luna glared at the changeling queen, not wanting to fall without a fight, her sister next to her.

Demise though, didn’t seem to be bothered by the situation. And then, he laughed, a laugh that sounded deep and ominous. All those present here listened as the laugh echoed, the Princesses looked at him like he had gone mad or something.

“Foolish mortal, it is YOU who are surrounded.” He said, then the ground shook and the sky darkened. Chrysalis, confused, looked at the horizon and the plains down below.

She saw, as the sky became darker and darker, the vast green space split apart. From the cracks on the ground came hundreds… thousands… millions of unknown creatures. Some looked like the reanimated fossils of monsters from ages long forgotten, others looked like undead ponies and the rest did not even look like the living or the unliving, simply animated rocks or moving lava.

She looked up and saw dark clouds appear, much like earlier, they covered the sun yet they also swirled in a way that it looked like a typhoon. And, from the eye of the storm came dark lightning and abominations. What looked like miniature dragons as well as dragons themselves descended. On them were monsters that wielded swords and bows as well as wands that seemed to store lighting inside of them.

The mountain top cracked and exploded, the rocks that fell somehow did not fall on the city’s buildings, always landing either on the changelings or on the streets. To her horror, the rocks came to life, moving like living beings and marching towards her and her little children.

“Behold the might of the Demons, and fall into the pits of the underworld where you will all feed my people with your souls!” The Demon King declared as purple and dark smoke exploded from his body. And from it rose a giant monster made of this dark smoke, two glowing red eyes shone from within the amorphous body of darkness, and then…

ROAAAAR

Author's Note:

Sorry for the delay, I got caught up with school work as well as other personal business. I hope you can forgive.

So this chapter, as you can see, has already started the changeling attack. I’m sure you’ve noticed that it’s going off the canon timeline and it’s intentional. I won’t really include the main 6 since Ponyville will still continue to have it’s usual canon story with slight changes. Also, the main 6 did not have their moment in the Everfree Forest and did not discover the Elements too, but they will still hang around from time to time since I’m sure you’ve noticed that all the focus went to Demise x)

And yes, I just made him summon an army of millions, gotta make him more and more OP and if you’re unhappy with that then don’t worry, I have some plans for our Demon King…

Welp, see ya later then, hope you enjoyed it