Prologue

Inner Demons

All that my father wanted was a bad daughter that had the same gifts as my mother. Of course, I had these gifts and I could be bad, but I just wanted to be normal, I didn't want to be like them, live there forever, invading the dreams of others and doing harm to people. Not that it was the worst place in the world, the lower world had some tricks, but it was not the best place to live: bad and evil people arrive there all day — sometimes father made a few mistakes and good people ended up staying there too — furthermore, there was the hellish heat. If you haven’t guessed yet, I’m talking about Tartarus itself.

It was there that I, Octavia Melody, would live if I were living the life that my father wanted for me. But, as I wanted to be different, things happened differently. When I showed my mother that I didn't want to break into the people’s dreams just to get energy from their sex, my father sent me to a psychologist. The psychologist was a pervert — I could see why he had ended up in Tartarus. My solution was to punch him in the face and get out of there, cursing. My father didn’t like this.

And then he decided that until I was bad enough, and had the courage to enter the dreams of others for energy, I would be banned forever from Tartarus. I almost smiled when he told me this, but that day I turned my back and left.

But I knew that even though my father was a hated creature to everyone on earth up above, he just wanted the best for me. I love him, and mother too. But I have to admit that I prefer to just be known just as Octavia, the cellist from Manehattan, or Tavi. I keep my demon succubus powers to myself.

And there was this detail… As you may have noted, my father, who everyone calls Lord Dante, is the king of all demons and Tartar. He meets every day with Faust to discuss who goes to heaven, and who goes to Tartarus; he isn't the one that’s bad. In fact, my father just does his job: putting the bad people in the right place. The problem is that people don’t like it, they just don’t like to face the consequences. Even I don’t like to, but that’s the real world… the real underworld, I mean.

And there’s my mother, Queen Eisheth. She is the queen of the succubi, which in the world of Equestria can be male or female and they can seduce both sexes. My mother has an amazing beauty, a soft voice that enchants anyone, and black eyes that penetrate your soul. She managed to teach me two things: how to disguise myself, hiding my original appearance of underworld creature, and how to control my powers of succubus. Those two things helped me a lot in the upper world.

You may think them obnoxious and bad, but they were never so with the people of the underworld. They are like their subjects, so Dad always treats them well, even giving free banquets when some important person arrives.

My father loved me. I was his only daughter, the only child born in hell. But I didn't like to be seen as the succubus princess and future queen of Tartarus — that was another reason to not be me when you’re living in the hell. Everyone sees you as an important figure, an amazing person. But the truth is that no one would want to take my place — no one would even want to live in Tartarus, or even go there.

The last time I saw my father face to face was the day after he banished me, the day I was leaving. Before teleporting me to the world above, he said that I would regret it, and there was still a chance to rethink my decision. But I just smiled, gave him a hug, and said "do it".

Since then, my life has been great in Equestria, the land up above. I completed my studies and joined the Manehattan Orchestra, since my mother had taught me how to play the cello. I’m very well known; I've even played with the orchestra for the princesses, Celestia and Luna. Well, there was once a ball where a crazy girl messed up everything, but that is in the past, yet none of us were paid that day.

Of course, the world above was not a utopia. There were evil, annoying, ridiculous, arrogant, and many other types of people. Many of these types would eventually go to my old address, Tartarus.

But the person who matters most here is Vinyl Scratch. We met in college, when I was still becoming accustomed to this place, but she never suspected anything. I hated her at first. She was rude, perverted, and her electronic music was noisy and annoying to a calm person like me. She was more like the people from my home than she was like me.

But as my roommate, I had no choice but to learn to love her. Of course, my initial goal was to love her in a friendly way. But Vinyl had a different side, that she began to show me after she realized that I was going to "love and tolerate the shit out of her" (as she so eloquently put it). She could be annoying at times, but she was sweet and kind to me when she wanted. Despite all the swear words, loud music and loud snoring, I discovered that I had started to love her.

At first, I panicked. How could I love that “creature”? Well, that's what many people still ask me to this day. Even I wonder how that happened. But I discovered another side to that DJ; she could be sweet and kind, and she had the best chest to rest my head on; she could be affectionate, funny and give you the best sex in the world. It was what every woman wanted.

I love her, I tolerate her, but I feel sorry for having to lie to her. I can’t tell her or show her what I really am. Of course, she would just say, “Wow, Tavi, that’s awesome! By the way, can you get me some tacos?” She wouldn’t care about the fact that I'm a demon half succubus banished from Tartarus because I’m not bad enough.

But I would not want to hurt her with my succubus skills. Of course, I choose not to use them. Still, Vinyl is stubborn, and would probably insist on me showing her. And it would not end well. I didn't want to kill my girlfriend.

And all this story brings me to here. I had a comfortable apartment in the north of Manehattan, the most elegant part of town, and lived with Vinyl. And last night was another one of those nights when Vinyl seemed to have an excess of energy and decided to spend it all on me; not that I didn’t like it, I loved it, but the next day was hard, even more for me.

I moved on the bed, opening my eyes and rubbed against Vinyl’s neck; she was sleeping like a log. Actually, she always slept like a log. I smiled and gave her a kiss on the neck, getting out from bed and putting on just my underwear and a pink robe.

I headed to the floor below, where a little black ball stared at me, waiting, sitting at the foot of the stairs. It was Wub Wub, a small dog from the streets that Vinyl had brought home a few weeks ago. She had give him a name. Despite my reluctance, she convinced me to let him stay here.

He barked at me with his thin bark and shook his little tail, wanting to play.

“No, Wub Wub, I can’t play: I’m going to make lunch now,” I said and he stopped jumping up. He blinked a few times to me before going off to deal with his toy, a pirate fox, that Vinyl had been bought by her father from a pizzeria when she was a child. Vinyl called it The Ol' Foxy, and the little dog loved to play with him.

I shook my head and went to the kitchen. I opened the windows, breathing and feeling the fresh air; it was very different from my old “house”. I decided to make waffles, one of my favorite foods. I think that might be because they were the first thing I ate when I got here. And they are so much better than the underworld food. There, we just drink hot sauce (demonic organisms can consume the hottest things without feeling anything) and eat pepper muffins and anything else made of pepper. It was the same sort of meal every day, so I was impressed when I tried the foods of my new home.

I heard a knock on the door, dropped the waffles, and went to answer it, with Wub Wub barking, thinking that he would be able to scare someone with his weak barks.

“Hello, Derpy,” I said with a friendly smile as I opened the door and saw the blonde woman dressed in her work uniform and a letter in her hand. “What are you doing here?”

“There’s a letter for you! Here! It looks important.”

I looked at the letter; there was no sender. “Wait, Derpy, who sent me that?”

“I don’t know, but I need to go now!” Derpy turned and ran straight into Thunderlane, dropping her bag full of letters on the floor and making the man frown, but he helped her pick everything up and received her usual excuse, "I just don’t know what went wrong!”

I shook my head and went inside, being watched by Wub Wub, who was sitting on the sofa with a innocent look.

Who could have sent me this? I thought before being surprised by a pair of hands being placed around my waist. I smiled as I felt the kiss on my neck. “You didn’t have enough last night, Vinyl?” I turned to her, receiving a smirk.

“I can never have enough of ‘ya, Tavi!” Vinyl said before pulling me in for a kiss, stroking my back and making me purr happily.

“Stop it! I know what you want!”

“Round 3?”

“Yes, that. But I’m too tired for it today, Vinyl,” I walked to the kitchen, followed by her.

“Okay, okay, Tavi, but ya’ know it’s hard to resist your buns,” she smirked and I punched her shoulder, before turning my attention back to the waffles. She looked at the letter that I had put in the table. “What’s that, Tavi?”

“I don’t know, Vinyl, but I’ll take a look.” I put the dishes of waffles on the table and then approached Vinyl, who was analyzing the piece of paper. “Give me!”

She gave it to me and I sat in a chair, opened the letter, and began to read. My eyes widened and I let the letter fall to the ground. “Oh no…”

It was from Eisheth, my mother. My parents were going to visit me.

Chapter One: The First Problems

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You know that moment when you feel like screaming in panic, but cannot scream? That moment when everything stops and you internally despair, but can’t show it because you're hiding a terrible secret? For your sake, I hope you don’t, because it’s not a good moment. But it was the kind of moment I was already intimately familiar with.

I never spoke about my parents to Vinyl; whenever she brought up the subject I tried to talk about something else; this had already happened many times. I would never dream of telling her they were dead, because if I ever had, they would surely try to visit me in the world above the next day. I just didn't expect a visit to happen so quickly; it had been only six years since I came here at the tender age of eighteen. My father had said that he would visit me to see my progress at some point, but six years is a very short time for an immortal ruler of the underworld.

And my progress is: 0%… I’m screwed — really, really screwed.

“What’s the letter?” I finally snapped out of my panicked state and heard Vinyl. She looked at me, still chewing on waffles, and stared with curiosity at the letter that had fallen to the ground.

“Vinyl, don’t talk with full mouth! Sometimes I feel more like your mother than your girlfriend…” I rolled my eyes and then sighed, counting to three and trying to find an excuse to tell Vinyl. I picked up the letter and re-read it:

Hello my dear daughter,

It’s mom! I missed you so much, darling! Your father has things to discuss with Miss Death today, so I’m the one who is writing this… Well, I’m happy to say that we, me and your father, are going to come to visit you! Don’t worry, Infernus, our new personal postman (Cerberus ate the other postman, I really liked him but I think he liked cats...), will send this letter with magic right to… Derpy Hooves’ (I’m right?) postbag so no one will know this is from Tartarus.
Your father said that he wants to know if your skills have improved and if you are now ready to be a true demon. He wants to see that so much dear, but you know that even if you aren't ready for that I’ll still be proud of you. But your father… You know how he is sometimes…

I love you my sweet Octavia,
Eisheth.

I smiled. My mind was no longer in such a mess. I was still surprised, but I could imagine mother’s beautiful melodious voice narrating that letter. She loved to sing me to sleep; maybe that is why I’ve always loved music so much?

“So…?” I heard Vinyl’s voice calling me; I blinked a few times. “The letter — what’s all about?”

“Oh! Uh… nothing important, just stupid stuff from… someone.” I smiled nervously and she shrugged. Vinyl got up and left her dish in the sink. She leaned against the counter, picking up the phone, and read something.

I grimaced. “Neon calling you again?”

“Yep. And it looks like we have work to do!” Vinyl put down the phone, and looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “Hey, Tavi, don’t look at me like that. You know I don’t like guys. I like strawberry, not banana.”

I laughed at Vinyl’s analogy. “I know, but… he like women, and I don’t like to imagine a man practically eating you with eyes.” Vinyl laughed, but I was serious. “What? It’s true.”

Vinyl tried to reassure me. “I know, I know… but he’s with a girl named… I don’t know, when he told me her name last night I was drunk.” I shook my head at her. “What? You were too!” she added defensively.

“I wasn't! That’s not true!” I blushed and remembered last night.

“You know it’s true, Octopussy. You finished off an entire bottle of wine!” Vinyl stopped for a moment and then smirked. “And the results of that party were… sexy — you have to admit, Octopussy!” She went to the bedroom, grabbed a blue jacket, and returned to the kitchen. “I think you woke up the neighbors!” She started laughing.

I got up from the chair, still with the letter in my hands and put my dish in the sink. I gave Vinyl a playful punch on her chest; she laughed and grabbed my waist by surprise, making me squeal. “Vinyl, we’re not going to do this now.”

“Calm down, Tavi, I’m not thinking about that… well not right now, anyway.” She squeezed my bottom and gave me a playful smirk.

“Later, Vinyl. Later.”

She smiled. “Yes! Haven’t I always said I have the best woman in the world?” Vinyl kissed me, holding me tight.

“Just because of that?” I asked jokingly.

“No, no… well, maybe that’s a part of it. But you have those damn eyes, that cute mouth and that delicious butt. Could I have any better than you, Tavi?” I felt her breath against my neck and some little bites.

“Ummm…” I pretended to think for a moment. “Probably not, Scratch. I think you’ll have to stick with your ‘Tavi’.”

“And I’m very happy to, Buttavia.” She smirked and we were quiet for a moment. “You like your new nickname?” I gave her another punch. “Looks like you love it!” the DJ joked, then kissed the top of my head and released me from her embrace. “I have to go now, Buttavia. And don’t worry about Neon, he's on a leash now.”

I shook my head. “So a relationship is like a leash to you, Vinyl Scratch?”

“Yeah… uh… no, I mean for some men… okay, I gotta go.” She gave me another kiss, grabbed her favorite shades and was gone, purring “Hasta la vista, Buttavia,” as she walked out the door.

I sighed, went to the living room and sat on the couch. I hated lying to others, especially to Vinyl. Okay, I had lied to her from the start, but I still felt guilty about it. I closed my eyes for a moment, thinking about what I would do when my father arrived; thinking of all the lies I had told to my friends and Vinyl because of him. I snapped out of it when I felt a wet tongue lick my hand. I turned to my side and saw Wub Wub sitting next to me. He barked for attention.

“Come here!” I took him into my lap. “You know I’m screwed, don’t you?”

No response of course.

“You’re just a dog, but you’re the only one who I can tell about this…” I sighed while stroking the dog. “It seems that your grandmother and grandfather are coming for a visit, Wub Wub, and I… you know I love them; I really do — they’re my mother and my father, but I just… I don’t want to be the Princess of the Tartarus. I never asked for any of that.”

His ears twitched excitedly and he looked at me with shining eyes. Wub Wub rubbed his head against me, and looked like he wanted to comfort me. I smiled at the dog.

“I don’t know if you can understand me, but if you’re trying to comfort me then thank you little dog.” I sat with the animal on my lap for some time stroking him. For just a moment I wondered whether it had all been worth it to come to this world; perhaps I should have followed in the footsteps of my father and my mother; perhaps I should have avoided the confusion that I had brought into my life, and into Vinyl’s life too. But I remembered that I could never be happier than I was with her. I sighed a happy sigh.

I heard my phone chirp. Leaving Wub Wub on the ground, I went to pick it up from the dresser next to the couch. It was message from Vinyl.

Hey, Buttavia, looks like Neon got me a show tonight, so I’ll stay here in El Fuego today. I’ll spend my day with Dash and AJ. They finally had time to get their asses to this club. Sorry, I know we had plans. I’m free tomorrow, Octopussy, and I know you are too. How about something? Oh yeah, and Dash said we could go with the girls to Rainbow Falls and spend all Sunday there. You know, it’s hot these days cause of summer (not just cause of your buns). Think about it, Octopussy. >:3

I shook my head and laughed. Sometimes Vinyl acted like a man. Well, most of the time.

Vinyl, you’re a idiot, you know? Okay, Applejack and Rainbow need to talk with you anyways. And I need a little moment alone. Just don’t be drunk, I won’t be awake to get you. (And don’t say you never asked this for me when you were drunk!)

I sent the message and slipped the phone into my pocket just as the doorbell rang. Wub Wub barked at the door.

“Coming!” I called, and went to the door. Opening the door, my eyes shot open in surprise for the second time that day. Oh no, you can’t be serious… Why did it have to be YOU…?

“Octavia, we need to talk!” It was him, Frederick. Yes, he was the first person I kissed when I got here. Before I found out that he wasn’t what I really wanted. I had still liked him as a friend, but his behavior had ruined even that. The problem was that after I kissed him at the start of college — just a few months after arriving in this world — Frederick thought we were together or something. He seemed to have an addiction to me, even though he knew I was with Vinyl. Vinyl always said he was a royal pain in the butt. And I had to agree with that.

“Frederick… what you want now?”

“This won’t work anymore! It’s not me, it's you! You’re too… indecisive! You can stay with your filthy DJ. I thought I'd try men now; they may be less indecisive than you women!” Frederick exclaimed with his English accent, like a victim in danger.

I rolled my eyes. “Frederick please, we never had anything and you know that I…”

“I haven’t finished yet Octavia and you need to listen to me!” he pointed a finger at himself. “You and your DJ can go to…”

I shut the door in his face and went back to sit on the couch. I smiled while hearing his angry screams from outside. Frederick only stopped when he heard Bonnie’s voice telling him to shut his mouth.

“This isn't over yet!” He stormed off.

I relaxed on the couch, but I remembered my predicament when I heard Bonnie’s voice. She was only person I could talk to about something supernatural. Even if she couldn’t help me, she would listen. It was good to have someone listen to you sometimes.

Bon Bon. I need to talk with her…

It was time to talk to someone I considered my guardian angel. Maybe she could help me with that.

Chapter Two: A Talk with an Angel

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“Bye, Lyra!” I said as Lyra left her apartment to go to work. “So… you must want to know why I’m here, right? It’s about…” Bon Bon sat down on the chair in front of me, placing a cup of coffee in front of me and taking a sip of her own.

Bonnie wasn’t the most patient person in the world, but she was surely one of the kindest. She is a angel, literally; well, she was. She had been a cupid, one of the jobs an angel takes before becoming someone’s guardian. But no angel — neither guardian nor cupid — can ever fall in love. This law was imposed by Gaia when the world was created, and whoever broke it would pay a price: they would lose their halo forever. They become mortal and cannot go to the heavens anymore — or at least not until they pass away. This is a fallen angel.

Bon Bon is one of the fallen angels. She fell in love with Lyra Heartstrings, one of Vinyl’s many friends. Lyra was the girl whose love life Bon Bon had been assigned to oversee, but fate is a funny thing, and she ended up falling head over heels in love with the lyrist herself.

Bonnie wasn't an angel anymore and never had the chance to become a guardian angel, but I felt like she was my own guardian angel. She gave me support on those occasions when I was struggling and Vinyl was unable to help; I couldn’t be more grateful for that.

“You don’t need to tell me — it’s about you and your ‘inner demon’, that’s actually not THAT inner,” she joked, smiling. I didn’t said anything. “Oh, so it isn't?”

“No, it’s about my parents.”

She widened her eyes, “Oh… then it’s bad news?”

I sighed. “Yes. Well, it’s good in a way, but — argh! — it’s simply killing me! They’re coming here to visit me. And… don’t get me wrong, I really want to see them and spend some time with them, but I don’t see how this could work.” I lowered my head.

Bon Bon gave me a kind smile. “Don’t be like that, Octavia, this isn't the end of the world! Of course, your father doesn’t often come here because he’s always busy in Tartarus and everything. But he won’t compel you to use your powers, and if he does then…” Bon Bon stopped for a moment and realised why I worried. “Okay, I understand. I don’t want to have to be the one who tells you, but you need the truth, and the truth is that you’re really screwed. Dante only comes here for important events, and he will probably want you to show your skills.”

“Thanks for your reassurance…” I murmured and beat my head against the table.

Bon Bon laughed. We sat in silence for a minute. She looked at me after some time and then her eyes widened. “Oh!” she exclaimed, “There is actually a way you could spend time with them.”

“How? They’re demons; you know that Vinyl can’t find out about that.” I said clumsily, still resting my head on the table.

“Your bowtie has a spell, right?”

I nodded. My mother had put a spell in it so I always wore it. It kept people safe from my skills; it ensured that people could never see my wings or my tail or my cat-like eyes; it disabled my succubus skills. It was lucky that Vinyl found it sexy so never asked me to remove it. “Yes, sure, what about it?”

“They could use that spell on themselves and look like normal humans! Then you could spend time with them, and they could meet Vinyl, and learn to accept her. Mainly your father, of course. How about that?”

“I don’t know, Bonnie…”

“Oh, Octavia, don’t be so unsure of yourself; you’re not like that! Think about it! It could work, couldn’t it?” She smiled at me.

I scratched my chin. “I suppose it could work. But they would never agree to it! You know how dad is: stubborn as a horse, I told you many times.” I took a sip of my coffee. Despite my uncertainty, the idea held a certain appeal.

“You’re not the perfect demon daughter he wanted to have, but if he loves his daughter then Dante will have to accept you and the way you want to live.”

I widened my eyes. “Bonnie, you’re a genius!” I downed the rest of my coffee, and sprung up from the couch with a burst of enthusiasm. I hugged Bon Bon and she looked at me curiously.

“What is it? What are you planing?”

“My master plan! My salvation, Bonnie, my salvation!”

“But what is it?”

“You’ll see, Bon Bon, you’ll see. Now I need to go and practice my cello!” I smiled and went to the door. She shrugged. Bonnie knew that when I practice cello it’s usually because I’m sad, or happy, but at that moment I was just relieved.

“Good luck, Octavia.” I heard her say as I left. My parents could come here at any time, but I had a way to deal with everything they wanted.

“I just hope it works…” I murmured.

The sound of my cello permeated the apartment until late at night, when I lay down to sleep. I couldn’t remember going to sleep; it seemed like I’d just closed my eyes for a moment, and then opened them again seconds to find that my room was light and I could hear noises coming from the living room. Voices and barking and… something like a cat meowing?

I murmured a little before turning over onto my other side. Vinyl wasn't there; she was already awake and out of bed. That usually meant one of only three things on a Saturday: the world was ending, we had made love last night, or somebody was coming to visit — well, somebody she cared enough about to tidy up for.

“Oh, of course, we’re going to Rainbow Falls…” I remembered the trip Vinyl had planned with her Canterlot friends. That pink-haired one… I thought while I sat in bed and rubbed my eyes, stretching. I opened my eyes to see Wub Wub strolling into the room and looking at me. “I know,” I yawned, “I’m getting up.”

I showered, put on some decent clothes and went downstairs, to be greeted by smiles coming from Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Sunset Shimmer, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie.

“Hey, sleepyhead, you’re finally awake!” Vinyl came at me and gave me a kiss. I looked at her, confused. “Ya know Tavi, it’s almost noon now — we should hit the road.”

I shook my head. “Yes, of course. You’ve already packed everything?”

“Of course not, darling. I had to do that.” Rarity said stroking her cat. Opal glared at Wub Wub and hissed, but started purring again once Rarity resumed stroking her white fluffy fur. Cats are weird animals, I must say. Maybe that’s why Vinyl always liked cats.

“Vinyl! How rude!”

“You know she’s a lazy bitch. Can we go now?” Rainbow threw herself onto the couch.

I sighed. “Okay, let’s go.”

I told you how my parents could appear at any time and I wouldn’t worry or freak out about it, right? Yes, that’s what I said, but I said it because I hadn’t remembered that I was going on this trip to Rainbow Falls, which would be just about the worst possible time they could choose to show up.

I gulped. I didn’t have a good feeling about this.

Rainbow Falls was beautiful. I hadn’t been there since the day that the orchestra had played at the qualifying rounds of The Equestria Games. It was amazing how all the water there was made of rainbow, something that you’d normally only expect in a city like Cloudsdale. The sunset there had been beautiful; the night, even more so. We’d been able to see all the stars so much more clearly than was possible in the big city. Luna had excelled herself that night.

We spent most of the day on the water goofing off. By the end of the afternoon, we were laughing in the living room of the comfortable log cabin while Sunset Shimmer and Rainbow Dash told stories about the hijinks of their youth.

Vinyl hugged me from behind while we were sitting on the couch, and nibbled at my ear. “Remember what I said, Buttavia?” she whispered. I turned towards her and raised my eyebrow. She whispered into my ear, “you remember yesterday, we still haven’t had round three.”

I widened my eyes and gave her a punch, but then a playful smile. I stood up and forced a yawn. Rainbow was talking about some girl named Gilda she had known when she was teenager and how they had learned to drive together, and I chuckled at her story.

“Oh, Celestia, I’m tired. I’m going to go to bed, girls. I need to rest a little.”

Rainbow pointed at me accusingly.“You’re just making an excuse so you don’t have to tell a story!”

Vinyl stood up. “Nah, Dash, I’m tired too. We had a lot of fun today, but I think it’s time to hit the hay. Goodbye you weird people.” They laughed and turned their attention to Twilight, who was next in line to tell a story.

Vinyl and I headed out towards our hut where we would have some more privacy. But on the way, she suddenly scooped me up into her arms. “Vinyl!” I squealed.

“What? You don’t need to walk now!” She gave me a smirk. I started to kiss her neck and her smirk turned into a grin.

We arrived at the hut and she opened the door with a kick. I looked at her disapprovingly but she didn’t care. Vinyl threw me onto the bed and climbed on top of me.

“You’re an idiot, you know?”

“Yeah, but I’m your idiot! Now c’mere…” Vinyl smirked and I smiled back. Vinyl leaned in to kiss me as she ran her hands over my body and--

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

We looked at each other. “I’ll get it. Must be one of them asking for--”

“No, no, I’ll go. You need energy tonight so I’ll get the door.” I smiled nervously.

“Okay, Buttavia, hurry up then.”

I gave her a kiss and she squeezed my butt, making me blush. Vinyl seemed to love it when I was blushing.

I walked to the door while Vinyl lay in bed. I opened the door expecting something normal. But no, I'm Octavia, so that’s exactly why it was something else. I mean someone else.

“Hello, Octavia, my dear daughter.”

It was my mother and father in front of me. I felt light-headed and struggled not to faint.

Chapter Three: Parents

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I’m not quite sure how my face must have looked, but I remember that I just stood there holding the door, dumbstruck. My legs felt wobbly and I counted to ten while I tried to regain my composure. I didn’t want Vinyl to see this, so I stepped through the door, closing it behind me.

“Aren’t you happy to see us, Octavia?” my father asked with a diabolical smile. (Well, he was the devil himself.) His hair was a gray tone, and he had brown eyes that that glimmered with hellfire. Perhaps it was to demonstrate who he was to humans and to the creatures of the night. He was Dante, the King of all Demons.

“I…” I looked at my mother and she smiled at me. I wasn’t able to resist giving her a hug. “I missed you so much, mom.”

“I know, darling. I missed you too.” She ran her hand down my cheek and smiled. “You’re so beautiful, my daughter.” Her eyes and her smile could charm anyone in the world, or in the underworld, so it wasn’t a big surprise that my father had married her. She had a beautiful body, full of curves, and she had long black hair and dark purple eyes; I took after her. She was Eisheth, the Queen of Succubi.

Dante coughed. “And what about me?” He raised an eyebrow.

I gave him hug too, and then frowned at him. “What do you want?”

“Don’t you remember? Your skills! The whole reason you’re here was because of our little… incident back at home, years ago.” My father smiled. “So…? Your demon and succubus skills: how are they? How many victims have you had?”

I hesitated for a moment, but my mother gestured to encourage me. I gulped. “None. I haven’t killed anyone. I haven’t caused problems for anyone. I’m sorry…”

My father looked at me and then at my mother. I knew he was going to fly into a rage. 3, 2, 1 and…

“WHAT?!” His hands shook in the air and his eyes showed pure fire. There: Dante getting mad.

“Calm down, dear.” My mother rubbed his shoulders. “The doctor told you that you must not get mad like that. Remember?”

“Okay, okay, fine, fine. I’m cool. I’m fine.” He shrugged her off his shoulders, sighed and rubbed his temples. “So you haven’t learned anything?” I shook my head — I must admit I wanted to laugh a little seeing him like that. “Nothing? Zero? None? Nadda? Nothing at all?” I shook my head again and he buried his face in his palm.

“But…” I suggested, “I think I have an idea that might work for both of us.”

He smiled. “What’s that my dear?”

“Well, dad, it’s something you like very much: a deal. Everybody knows the devil will never turn down the opportunity to make a deal. The devil must be the mighty one, and he will be. He must be courageous and smart, and I know you are dad. So…” I looked up for a moment and saw that dad had conjured up two chairs using his black magic and my parents were sitting on them, drinking some kind of spicy drink. “Have you two even been listening to a word I’ve been saying?”

“Go on, darling, I think I’m starting to like this!”

“Okay, the deal is…” I heard a noise inside the hut behind us. “You two can come to my house tomorrow. And I know you know where my house is — you sent me a letter. You will stay with me for a year. I’ll show you my life and you will understand why I want to stay in this world, and not be the Princess of Hell. You will learn new things. I want to spend time with you two too. I love you both, that’s why I want you to accept my deal. Meanwhile, Sir Ganjir can take care of Hell, can’t he?” I stopped to take a breath after explaining everything so quickly. “So do we have a deal?”

“But what do I gain from it? What if I don’t like it?”

“Then I go back to Hell, and learn all I have to. I’ll be the Princess of Hell.”

He scratched his chin for a moment and stood up, “Perfecto!” he hugged me. “You know I love you, right?”

“But you know that this won’t be easy, right?”

“I’m the devil himself! I think I can manage! We can disguise ourselves and act like the…” Dante stopped and shuddered, “… normal humans do. Well, whatever, we’re going to do it!” Dante was really excited, I’d never seem him like this. It made me smile. My mother nodded while clapping.

“Now I think that it’s time for you two to go. I don’t think anyone would like to see the devil here,” I said, looking around to make sure nobody had seen us. We all hugged each other. “Tomorrow I’ll let you meet someone I know you’ll like, mom. Or I hope so…”

“Who is?”

“Someone really loud and perverted, but she can be lovely when she wants to.”

“Oh! I already like this person!” she said and smiled brightly making me laugh.

“Bye bye, my dear daughter, you’d better be serious. I don’t want to get into a really big rage again. You know how I hate when I have to do that, right?” Dante made a face like an innocent victim.

“Bye, mom; bye, dad.”

He snapped his fingers and the two were gone. They’d probably disappeared to one of their earthly hideouts or some place like that. I sighed and walked into the hut again.

“Who was that?”, Vinyl Scratch asked.

“Just… Twilight wanting to know where I put her book.”

“Okay…” She turned to the side to get something from her purse which she’d left beside the bed for some reason. “So let’s try something I brought for tonight.”

I widened my eyes. “Vinyl what’s… that?”

“Just a lil’ surprise, Octopussy, now c’mere.” She beckoned me seductively with one finger.

I didn’t think twice. Tonight was going to be a good night.

We had gone home early, which was torture on my legs, still aching from the night before; a wonderful night indeed.

We said goodbye to everyone, since we wouldn’t all get together until Remembrance Day; we were all very busy before that, which was a shame. But I really felt more confident introducing my parents to Vinyl without extra people being around.

As soon as we got home, Vinyl threw herself on the couch, crossing her arms, closing her eyes, and letting out a satisfied sigh. Wub Wub, pleased to see us, stood on the couch and started barking.

I raised an eyebrow. “Why so happy?”

“What? Can’t I just relax, Tavi?” she said with her eyes still closed, and stroking Wub Wub’s fur. He lay on his favourite part of Vinyl’s chest and fell asleep. “I’m tired, but…” She lifted Wub Wub off her and stood up, leaving him on the couch. “… I have work to do.”

“Working on a Sunday?!” I asked and Vinyl nodded. “I never knew what a wonderful and productive woman I had!” I joked and she gave me a frown. “But you can’t go.”

“Wait… why?”

“Because… I have important visitors today, okay? And they will be important to you as well, so you need to stay here. You can go to the studio to catch up next Sunday, but I promised them that they could meet you.” I sat on the couch and turned on the TV. Wub Wub climbed onto the couch and lay in my lap.

“Okay. But who are they? FBI, CSI, or the MIB or something like that?”

“MI- Vinyl, you watch too much movies,” I laughed.

“You may be right. Tell me, who are they?” She sidled up beside me on the couch and started stroking my hair. “Oh, come on! Tavi, you know I love you. Who…” Vinyl widened her eyes. “Oh no, you didn’t find out, did you?”

“What?”

“Oh Faust! You never told them about me and…”

*Ding Dong*

Wub Wub jumped out of my lap to bark at the door. “Coming!” I called, standing and walking towards the door.

I looked at Vinyl and she gave me a suspicious look. “Who is it? The European police? Interpol?” She looked left and right. “I was only banned from one city!” I crossed my arms and looked at her. “Okay, Tavi, so it was five cities, but no more. It could have been worse: my mom can’t go to Europe, and is banned from many restaurants in San Francisco and Japan.”

“Awesome example your mother sets you, dear.” I went to the door and opened it. I looked at my parents and buried my face in my palm. “Why are you two grinning like psychopaths?!”

“Aren’t you even going to say ‘hello’, dear?” my father asked, clenching his teeth.

“Firstly, hello. Secondly…” I gave an exasperated sigh. “… couldn’t you at least try to look normal?!”

“What? I think I look perfectly normal, little Tavia.”

“Me too. I thought people wore dresses in this world. They do, don’t they?” My mom asked, gesturing at her full length black evening gown.

“Yes, we do, but not like that. Or only for important events, mom. I thought you two knew more about this place. Don’t you two come here sometimes?”

They looked at each other. “No, not really.”

I opened my mouth to say something, but words failed me. I closed the door behind me, and paced up and down the little hallway outside our apartment, rubbing my temples and thinking about what to do. “Okay, so you two say that you were having a party at our mansion in… Trottingham and… and you had to get here early so you didn’t have time to change your clothes. OK?”

The both nodded.

“Now don’t be too formal. Just act like you do with me. And don’t, under any circumstances, talk about your tartar collection because it’s just weird and, I must say, a little boring.” My father looked offended. “What?”

“I must say, these people who don’t like to listen to me talking about my tartar — they don’t have any sense of what’s really good in life. I mean, who doesn’t like tartar?” he asked looking at me and my mom.

“Darling, I have to tell you… Cerberus, our old postman, our new postman, Faust, Miss Death — they’ve all told me it’s boring. Even I think it’s boring. I’m sorry.” She shrugged.

Dante folded his arms and sighed. “Philistines…” he muttered under his breath. I shook my head, worried whether this would ever work. “Continue please,” he said.

“Then are you two going to do what I say?” I asked. They nodded in response, “Okay. Then listen to me: she is… kinda crazy. When you get to know her, I mean really get to know her, which is probably about four seconds after you meet her, she can be REALLY exhausting and can ask very inappropriate questions. So you’d better brace yourselves.”

I turned to open the door but my father interrupted. “Wait? Who is she? A banshee? A valkyrie? Oh, she’s not one of the gorgons, is she?”

“Worse. I think Vinyl is already in your list.”

My parents looked at each other and my father smiled at me, as if he liked the idea of me being with someone who was on his list. “Five words, my dear: I'm going to like it.”

“I hope so…” I murmured. And then I opened the door to insanity; I just didn’t know it yet.

Chapter Four: Meeting with the Devil

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When I opened that door, there were many things I could have expected to happen. Of course, I couldn’t be sure what would come to pass — I was no psychic. The only thing of which I was certain was that it would not be good. On either side.

It wasn’t like I didn’t want to spend time with my father. But what was I thinking when I said a year? However, the deal had been done and I couldn’t undo a deal with my father. He never lets anybody out of one of his pacts. He’s the devil after all.

I just wished it could have been easier.

I opened the door and Wub Wub jumped off the couch, running to greet me, as if I had been out there for ages. The dog stopped and watched the visitors behind me with caution.

“Oh look, a Cerberus pup!” my mom exclaimed, smiling at Wub Wub. She always loved animals, dogs especially. Dante prefered cats, but he couldn’t put manticores in hell. He didn’t want to have to put up with the smell of fried manticore after all.

I looked at the couch where Vinyl lay, already sleeping. I sighed and rolled my eyes.

“So, who’s that? This is the one you said is already on my list?” My father asked looking at Vinyl skeptically. “What is the purpose of the blue hair? So she can be seen from Italy?” he mocked and I let out a giggle.

“Vinyl isn’t exactly the most reticent person in the world, dad.” I sat on the couch and shook Vinyl. She mumbled something I didn’t understand, but didn’t wake up. I sighed. “Okay, you really want me to do this the hard way, don’t you?”

I went to the kitchen, grabbed a glass of water and took it to the couch. I stroked Vinyl’s cheek and then threw the water in her face.

She woke up with a jump and took a few moments to realize what had happened. She opened her mouth, but closed it immediately without saying anything. Vinyl looked at me and then my parents. She scratched her head and blinked. “Okay, how long was I asleep? Is it already Nightmare Night and nobody told me?”

“Vinyl!” I snapped.

“What? I’m talking about those two people.” Vinyl stood up and stretched. After a few seconds her eyes widened. “Wait a minute… who are they?!” Vinyl asked, flopping down on the couch again.

I looked at my parents and they gestured for me to continue. “Vinyl, I know it’s been a long time coming, but I want you to meet…” I stood up and pointed to them. “… my parents.”

“Cool, Tavi. I was…” Vinyl stopped for a moment and her eyes widened once again. “Oh damn, Faust! So you two are… Oh!” She stood up and hugged my father. “Don’t worry, your clothes aren’t weird or anything, sir. I was just joking.” She gave a very nervous smile to my father. “And you’re a beautiful lady of course…” Vinyl looked at my mother. “Okay, now I know where Octavia got her looks. Geez.”

“Oh, you flatterer! I’m already an old lady,” Eisheth said, blushing, and my father looked at Vinyl strangely.

“Vinyl!” I tapped her shoulder.

“What? It’s true!”

My father coughed, “We were at a gala at our friends’ mansion. Sorry we’re dressed so strangely, Miss Scratch, it was for the gala.”

“Yes, for the gala!” My mom nodded with a smile.

“We’re happy to finally get to meet you. I’m Dante, and this is my wife…”

“Kate!” I interrupted my father. He looked at me, a little confused, and I mouthed “later” to him.

Dante looked at my mother for a moment. “Kate. My daughter has told us so much about you… you’re a DJ, right?” I don’t know how he knew that; maybe he had that kind of information on all the people on his list.

“Yep. Almost every night.”

My parents sat on the couch. My father seemed mildly interested in Vinyl. My mother called Wub Wub to her lap and began to stroke the dog. “Octavia finally invited us to… spend some time with her. And we really wanted to get to know you. So…” Dante leaned in towards Vinyl, his face mere inches from hers. “Have you been treating my Octavia right?” At that moment I wanted to be an ostrich and stick my face down a hole and never come out again.

I could hear Vinyl’s gulp. Since when had she been worried about anything? “Of course! She needs to be treated like a… princess. Yes, a princess. Hehe.”

“Umm… good.” My father smiled at her and laughed. “As I was saying, we have good news for you: Octavia invited us to stay here for a year! Isn’t that exciting?!” he said in a tone that almost scared me. It was almost as if he had things planned. Bad things.

“Oh… that’s…” Vinyl looked at me. “… freaking awesome! I… err… I just need to talk with Tavi for a second… in the kitchen!”

I looked at her, confused. I hardly ever saw her looking so serious, but she was.

I stood up and followed her to the kitchen. Once we got there, Vinyl shut the door and stood in front of me, crossing her arms. “You don’t like them?” I asked.

“Of course I do! Why wouldn’t I? But me liking my in-laws and receiving them into my home without even knowing they were coming, that’s one thing. Letting them stay here not just for a day, or a week, but a whole fucking year? That’s another! We’re letting them stay here for a year? You know how long that is, right Octavia?” Vinyl asked me with a frown. Whenever she called me ‘Octavia’ I knew it must be serious.

“Vinyl, you’ve never met my parents, and after years I introduce them to you. Why can’t we just let them stay here?” I asked. I knew that if she sent them away then I’d have to go too. This might have been the worst idea I’d ever had, but it was the only solution I’d been able to think of at the time.

Vinyl looked at me for a moment.

“Vinyl, you’re an idiot. And that’s why I love you, but it’s also why you should let them stay. You’re the crazy one in our relationship, remember? You’re Vinyl Scratch and you can take anything life throws at you.” I ran my hand over her body to make sure she was paying attention. “So why would some in-laws be too much for you?”

“Okay, Octopussy, you win. I’ll take it, because it’ll protect my ego.”

“That’s it, idiot.” I approached her and gave a quick kiss on her mouth. “Let’s go — I don’t want to keep them waiting.”

I grinned at my parents. “Vinyl is really happy with the arrangements. But she needs to go now because… she needs to buy some things for me.”

“Wait, you said…”

“I know what I said, Vinyl. You remember… the things…” I said with a frown.

She sighed. “Oh, yeah, the things. How could I forget the things? I need to go! Bye!” In the blink of an eye she was out of there.

My mother looked at my father and me. “Kate?! Really? Do I look like a drama queen or something like that? That name is for rich and spoiled girls!”

“Mom, it was just the first thing that popped into my mind. What would you have preferred? Something more classy?” I said, sitting on the couch while rubbing my temples. “You can’t tell her, okay? Keep this a secret until I can tell her the truth.”

“It isn’t like I was going to tell Vinyl anyway.” Dante stopped and looked at the TV for a moment. “Oh! Look, that’s impressive! I’ve never actually seen one of these boxes when I’ve come to this world.”

“What do you do here?”

“You know… just take some air. You know how home can be… really hot. But I don’t have time to go exploring here,” my father explained.

“And this isn’t a box. It’s called a TV.”

“Wow!” my father and my mother exclaimed together.

I laughed. “You two have so many things to learn about this place.” I sat quietly for a moment. “You two will have to sleep here. On the couch. We don’t have a giant house like our castle back home.”

“It’s very comfortable, my dear, so that’s no problem.”

I smiled at them. “Don’t get too comfortable just yet. We have to go shopping later. You two can’t stay like that.” I gestured at their outfits.

“Why not?”

“Because you look like a king and queen from the dark ages. People will think you’re weird if you walk in the streets wearing a fancy black dress like that, and your elaborate suit,” I explained and thought for a moment. “You two will need to change big time if you’re going to stay here. You will have to look and act like people from this world.”

My father lay on the couch and smiled, putting his feet on the small coffee table. “Nah, that’ll be easy for us!” My mom nodded, agreeing.

We will see, my dear father… I thought for a moment. My thoughts were interrupted by the doorbell and I got up. “Wait here.”

I opened the door and my eyes popped open. “Neon what are you doing here like… that?”

Chapter Five: An Unexpected Situation

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“Hehe… long story, Octavia. So can I come in? It’s kinda cold out here… on my back,” Neon said, ashamed. And he had good reason to be — Neon was standing there without any clothes, and only a pillow to cover his privates. He gave me a nervous smile followed by a pout, begging to come in.

“Neon, just… just tell me why and… maybe… maybe I can let you in.”

He sighed and stomped his foot. “You love to see me suffer, don’t you?” I smiled. “Yeah, yeah… I know. Okay, where do I begin?” He scratched his chin for a moment, still holding the small pillow with the other hand, “Okay, so, yesterday night I got drunk and… I kinda slept with another girl. And Sassa got really angry at me this morning… She kicked the girl — Oh Faust, what was she called again?! — anyway, she kicked her out of her apartment and gave me a kick right in the ass. I didn’t even have enough time to get dressed!” Neon shrugged and giggled. “Sassa is so hot when she is angry at me.”

I looked at him for a moment and raised an eyebrow.

“What? She is!” he added defensively.

“I wasn’t disagreeing with you — I just want to know why you felt the need to come here. Don’t you have other friends around here?” I asked.

“Lemme see… nah.”

“Ugh…” I sighed and thought for a moment. Suddenly Vinyl turned up in the hall, back from her shopping trip, much sooner than I’d expected. Thank Faust… I mean… Tartarus!

“Hey, Vi!” Neon exclaimed happily. “Gimme a little help here, I need to…”

“What the… why is he standing naked outside our apartment? Really, Neon, no-one wants to see your butt!” Vinyl shook her head. “What the fuck’re you doin’?”

“I…”

“Please — just the quick version, for god’s sake!”

“Okay…” He took a deep breath. “I was kicked out of Sassa’s apartament ‘cause I… kinda slept with another girl and Sassa got really mad at me and she kicked me out. I didn’t have time to get dressed! And now here we are!” Neon smiled looking between me and Vinyl.

“And what d’you want?”

“Sassa will come running back to me tomorrow, as always and--”

“Because she’s idiot, of course,” I murmured.

Neon gave me a look of disbelief. “Continuing… I just wanted to stay here tonight. And maybe you can give something to wear? I ain’t the shyest person in the world, but, umm…” He looked down at his body. “... We don’t want all the ladies getting jealous of Sassa, do we?! C’mon Vi, ya’ know I’m your bro since… always! C’mon, you can do that!”

“Do I look like a man? Why would I have clothes for you?”

“Lemme think about that… more or less, yep,” Neon said with a smile, and saw that he had successfully annoyed Vinyl.

“Fuck you, Lights,” Vinyl murmured giving him a punch in the shoulder. He rubbed his shoulder with one of his hands and muttered a curse. Vinyl looked at me. “So, Tavi, I suppose we ought to help this poor reprobate. Your parents can stay in our bed and we can sleep on the couch.”

“Wait… you’re being hospitable?! Wait…” I approached her and took her shades, analyzing her red eyes. “Are you crazy? Have you got a cold? Are you a changeling?” I think I watched too much of that Changeling: The Movie… but I have to say, it was a great film.

“Tavi!” Vinyl snatched her shades back from my hands and smiled for a moment. “I just wanna be good to my in-laws. After all, I don’t think your father likes me.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know… He looked at me kinda funny.”

“How?”

“The way you do when I do something wrong or… rude or whatever you call it when I’m cursing.” Vinyl crossed her arms. I put my hand on my waist and looked at her ironically. “Yes! That’s it! That’s the look!” She pointed.

“I didn’t… ugh, Vinyl… if you want Neon to stay tonight, where he will sleep?”

“In the bathtub, of course!” Vinyl smiled with a mocking tone putting an arm around Neon’s neck.

Neon looked shocked and insulted. “I’m not staying in the bathtub!”

“Okay, let’s go, Octopussy, we have things to do…” Vinyl said and began whistling, walking past me into our apartment.

“Okay, okay, you win! Fuck…” Neon murmured. “I just hope it isn't wet!”

“I hope it is, Neon! You have to clean your mouth out with soap.” Vinyl turned and patted Neon’s head.

“Wait a sec, what did you say about… ooh!” Neon’s eyes were shining right now “Your in-laws are here?!” He approached Vinyl and tilted his head, giving a playful smirk. “Oh, yeah, Vi, they’re here! God bro, why didn’t you tell me?!”

“Because they just turned up today, and anyway I still wouldn’t tell you, Neon, because you know you’re a royal pain in my ass.” Vinyl added a little laugh at the end.

“I know this is all hilarious to you two, but if Neon really wants to stay here, he should come in and run to the bathroom.” I interrupted “I have to go out and buy some clothes with my parents anyway, so I suppose I can pick something for you too.”

“Why do you hate me?”

“You know why she hates you, Neon — same reason everyone hates you: you’re an asshole.” Vinyl laughed and Neon gave her a punch on the shoulder, that was answered with another punch back.

I rolled my eyes. “Just get inside Neon, please, before I change my mind.”

He mimicked a soldier, saluting and barking “Sir, yes, sir!”

I opened the door for him and he ran to the bathroom so quickly that my parents didn’t notice him. We found them watching something on the TV with their eyes shining. They were clearly very impressed with this technology.

“What’s up with them? It’s like they’ve never seen a TV before!” Vinyl laughed putting her shopping bags on the table.

“Don’t be an idiot, Vinyl, of course they’ve seen a TV before!” I chuckled nervously.

“Okay, I didn’t say anything, Tavi.”

I opened my mouth, about to speak, but closed it again when we heard a big “ouch!” coming from upstairs. We looked at each other. “Neon!” I sighed “I’ll check on him. I just hope he hasn’t broken anything.” I climbed the stairs to the bathroom and knocked on the door.

“Who’s there?”

“The girl who knocks, Neon…” I laughed a little at my own joke. “It’s me, Octavia, of course. What are you doing? Are you okay?”

“I may have broken a bottle of perfume and spilt a lot on the floor…” He opened the door a crack and peered out. “Is that a problem?”

“Neon!” I exclaimed “You haven’t even been here ten minutes and you’ve already broken Vinyl’s new perfume?!”

“How can you--”

“I can smell it from out here, you dumbass!” I facepalmed. “Okay, I’ll call Vinyl. She’ll help you clean up. And you will buy a new one for her. With your money.” Neon moaned and I smiled. “Everything had better be clean when I get back. I’m going out with my parents. Tomorrow you can give me some money too — for the clothes.”

“Seems I don’t have any choice anyway.” Neon stopped for a moment. “Also… are you having a Game of Thrones convention in your house? Your parents look like a medieval king and queen.” He giggled.

“Neon!”

With that I went back downstairs and explained the situation to Vinyl, who sighed angrily, knowing that she would have lot of work to do. After a little guilt-tripping, I persuaded her to go up to the top floor. She was followed by Wub Wub, who was curious about what was happening.

I went into the little living room and clapped, calling the attention of my parents. “What do you want, my dear? We’re having a good time here! C’mon, look at what this cat can do! It’s amazing!” Dante pointed at the TV. “Look! He talks!”

“Dad, it’s just television. It’s not actually real!”

“What?! But…” He looked shattered, like a kid finding out about Santa Claus. “So I wasted almost an hour of my life on lies?!” I nodded. “Okay… I know who I’m adding to my list! This talking liar cat! Top of the list! Top! Of! The! List!”

I interrupted his ranting. “Guys, we’re going to have to go out to buy some things for you two.”

“Now?” my mother said excited and I nodded. She got up and hugged me. “Let’s go shopping!” she exclaimed.

“Wait… we need to come too?!”

“Of course, I’m not going to choose your clothes without you two there to see what you like.” I adjusted my bowtie as I looked in the mirror.

“Ugh…”

“Don’t be like that, darling. It’s shopping! How can you not be excited?!” my mom exclaimed, kissing him in the cheek.

“Shall we go then?” I opened the door.

“Yay!” My mom ran to the door, smiling.

“Dad…”

He sighed. “Meh…” I gave him a questioning look. He stood up. “Yay!” he waved his hands in the air in mock excitement.

We all walked out the door. It was going to be a long day. Shopping.

Chapter Six: “Let’s go Shopping!”

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My parents should be ashamed — not me. But I was, of course. In fact, I had never understood why they always wore those clothes — they must be very uncomfortable in the heat of hell. Maybe they just wear them for status — to show who’s in charge.

But I must admit that the clothes their tailor makes for them are very elegant, and it would probably be very expensive to buy something like that here, if indeed anything like them still exists, that is. Yet that does not relieve my shame.

Leaving the building and walking the streets towards Carousel Boutique — just a few blocks away — I felt the weight of many people’s stares. It was pretty obvious that if they were going to a party they would drive. My father however was curious with the looks they received. “Why are they looking at us like that? Isn’t my disguise spell working anymore?” Dante raised an eyebrow.

I giggled. “They’re not really used to seeing people wearing expensive things in this part of the city. This isn’t really a rich part of town, and they also don’t see women dresses like that. It looks like a wedding dress!” I said, pointing at my mom. The people who walked behind her were trying to not step on the long trail of fabric behind her, muttering curses.

“Well, in hell that’s totally normal!” he exclaimed, gesticulating wildly. I made a signal for him to lower his voice. “That’s normal I said.” Now he sounded like a male Fluttershy speaking — much better.

“But here it’s not. And that’s why we have to see Rarity, my… well, she’s Vinyl’s friend really, but I became her friend because of Vinyl.” I stopped to think about how Vinyl had actually said she had lived with her. Before she’d told me that I wouldn’t have ever imagined it — in fact even now I hardly can. “She’s a stylist; she does amazing dresses but also has a boutique that sells not just dresses, but normal clothes.”

“They must be elegant!”

I facepalmed. “No! I won’t let you buy anything elegant! It can be…” I tried to think of a word between ‘elegant’ and ‘casual’. “Smart. But not elegant — it has to be something normal for your day to day life. If you two are going to stay here for a whole year, and you don’t want to look like two Game of Thrones fans going to a convention, then you have to buy something like that and look like normal people.” I smiled, remembering what Neon had said about them.

“Okay, fine. We’ll do whatever you think is best for us…”

“It’s not just for you two, it’s for me too. This will make me happy! I’d love to see my parents actually join my world.” I smiled and he looked at me for a moment.

He let out a slow sigh and mumbled “fine”.

“I’m not complaining, darling!” my mom said happily.

I laughed and shook my head. “I think Rarity will like mother. They both love… fashion things.”

“Well, you want to see us making new friends?” my father asked. I nodded. “Well then,” he said, “that’s a start — for her.”

“Don’t you want to make new friends, grumpy?” I asked, joking with him.

My father shook his head and scratched his beard, thinking for a moment. “Maybe I can? If it would make you happy, then I can try. It would be kind of nice to have someone else to play chess with. You know… Miss Death can be a big cheater sometimes!” He whispered, knowing that Death can be lurking around the corner when you least expect it.

I smiled. “I can play chess with you, if you make new friends.”

“Then I’ll do what… write a friendship letter?”

I didn’t pay any attention to my father as we arrived at the boutique. “Here we are — time to choose something you want.”

We entered and were received by Rarity’s smiling assistant, Coco. She answered the door and quickly went back to scribbling in a small notebook. “Rarity isn’t here, she had to go to an important uh… fashion show in Canterlot.”

“Oh, so that’s what she was talking about yesterday…” I said to myself and she nodded, not really knowing what I was talking about. She put down her notebook and turned her attention to my parents.

“So these are uh... Mister Melody and Miss Melody?” Coco asked, smiling. “You’ve never told us anything about them…”

“A long story, Coco. Too long to tell you now…” I looked at the two for a moment and then called them to see what they wanted. “Here, choose.” I gestured at the racks of clothes.

“Where do I find the tuche-…” I looked at him with a disapproving face. “Okay, I’ll look.”

After a long while, and some very nasty comments from my father regarding some of the clothes, and endless gushing from my mother about how the costumes were so glamorous, they finally picked something that they found acceptable.

I waited for them as they used the dressing rooms. Finally I heard the curtain of my mother’s dressing room open. I looked up and she asked, “How do I look?”

“Normal. That’s really good, mom. I personally really like this t-shirt saying ‘Rise Me’.”

“T-shirt?”

“Yes, that’s what you’re wearing right now! That’s what it’s called.” The sound of another dressing room curtain being opened took my attention.

“So how do I look?”

“Where on Earth did you find a top hat?”

“Oh, okay, spoilsport…” He took off his hat. “Better now?”

“Really good. Now we need to choose…” I performed a quick mental calculation. “Twenty more outfits like that.”

“Yay!” Eisheth exclaimed.

My father just sighed. “What wouldn’t I do for my dear daughter…?”

Later…

My normally dressed parents and I walked home carrying mountains of shopping bags — mainly my mom’s. I must say, she got more than I expected — way more than twenty outfits.

“This is simply divine! I need to get a dress from your friend once she’s back in town, and give her a giant hug! Like this big…” She flung her arms out to demonstrate, slapping my father’s face with her bags.

“Ouch!” He rubbed his face and pouted.

My mother smiled, taking his cheek with one of her hands and rubbing it, yet still holding the bags. His face went red and I laughed. “Sorry Dan, I didn’t mean it!”

“Okay…” My father was quiet for a moment until his belly rumbling interrupted the silence. “I really need something to eat. Do they have peppers here?” Dante scratched the back of his head.

My mom nodded. “Yes, I could do with a meal too.”

“Well…” I looked at the sun setting. “It’s almost night. We were at the boutique for longer than I’d expected.” It was a Friday, and usually Friday was Vinyl’s day to cook something Italian for us to eat before she went to work. “It’s time to you two to try something we call lasagna.”

“Lasagna?”

“Yes. But it isn’t the normal one. It’s Vinyl’s, and that means…” I sighed happily thinking about her mouthwatering food. “The best lasagna in all of Equestria. And also the best in hell, because… we actually don’t have it down there…”

“Does it have peppers in?”

“No!”

They both looked at each other with sad faces, opening and closing their mouths wordlessly like two goldfish in a tank.

“Don’t be like that! You two are going to experience the food of gods!” I said.

My father looked at me with suspicion. “Food of gods?! I already don’t like it!”

“That’s just… it’s just an expression. I just mean it’s really good food, and you two will eat it. Vinyl might even want a little help around the kitchen. Even if…” I started, thinking about how it could end up in disaster.

“How? We only know how to cut peppers!” My mom exclaimed with a pout.

“That’s why you two need to help her! If you two could learn how to cook something other than peppers, then perhaps, when you go to hell again, you could have a more varied diet!” I said as we entered the building. “I think a lot of the people there would appreciate it. It’s always nice to change your routine a little.”

“Okay…” they both said despondently.

“I’m sure you two will love helping her. After all that idiot needs some help…” I murmured.

I just hope everything has been cleaned up now… at least I did my part, picking up clothes for Neon.

After some of Vinyl’s jokes, and my father complaining about how his beautiful new shirt got all dirty because of the sauce, and my mother chattering about how easy all this cooking stuff was, we finally sat at the table. Vinyl, still wearing her apron written 'Wub the Cook', served the food.

“Buon appetito!” She took off her apron and flung it away, not caring where it landed, before sitting at the table.

My father looked at his food and looked back at me. Vinyl raised an eyebrow. “What’s that? You don’t like it?”

“No… uh… I’m… just waiting for it to cool down before I eat it.”

What a good liar my father is…

Vinyl shrugged.

Meanwhile my mom was loving it. She finished her plate in minutes, then disappeared to the kitchen to help herself to a second portion. Reluctantly, my father ate it. He clearly liked it, even though he’d never admit it, grumbling and shaking his head disapprovingly.

I smiled. It was a start.

After we’d all finished, my mother volunteered to wash the dishes. Meanwhile, Vinyl was upstairs to deliver the clothes and and a plate of food to Neon, who had stayed in the bathroom.

“Mom, just make sure to not break anything… okay?” I called through to the kitchen.

She nodded happily. “Of course I will!” She shook her hand to the side, still holding a dish, and dropped it. My father started clapping in amusement at the scene and I facepalmed. My mother laughed nervously. “Don’t worry, I’ll clean this up!”

My father rubbed his hands together. “And I’ll watch the TV… right?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll watch the TV!”

I helped my mother to pick up the pieces of her mess and decided to wash the dishes myself. I should have done that from the beginning really…

By the time I had finished, my parents were already asleep — Vinyl had showed them to the bedroom. Wub Wub liked my mother so much that he’d even decided to sleep with them. Well, he liked almost everyone who stepped into this house — even Neon!

“God, they’re weird,” Vinyl murmured as he arranged herself in the mirror, getting ready for work.

I pressed the ‘mute’ button on the remote control and looked at her. “Who?”

“Your parents. Like… who doesn’t bring clothes when they’re coming to stay somewhere for a whole year? And he didn’t like the lasagna, you know!” She walked over and sat beside me.

“Of course he liked — everyone likes your lasagne!”

Vinyl laughed and gave me a kiss. “Later, Octopussy.” She got up and left the apartment. My only choice now was to try to get to sleep there on the couch.

Later…

The next day I was due to perform a special show in Manehattan Square. And I knew it would go terribly, because I wasn’t going to sleep at all that night. Even from downstairs, I could hear Neon’s snore…

I sighed for the tenth time, I think.

My parents had magic to deal with this sort of thing. And they probably thought it was me snoring, and wouldn’t ask anything.

Maybe… *snore* Yes, is official, I won’t sleep tonight… Ugh…

I rolled over and tried to sleep. Tried.

Interlude: Something Wicked This Way Comes

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Everything was quiet in the night of the upperworld, but in the underworld a monster with bright eyes laughed proudly with his goons, sensing the prize that was within reach of his claws. The underworld would be unprotected.

“I always knew those vampires would finally join us!” exclaimed one of them happily.

The boss slapped his head. “Shut up, Banzai! You’re going to wake those stupid demons up…” He looked around, confirming that no-one was around. “We must go now. Vampires don’t like to be kept waiting — even more so when they’re waiting for their prize too.”

“We’re going to team up to take over the underworld?” asked Banzai.

The boss facepalmed. “No, you stupid, we’re going to get the king in the upperworld! He and his wife are there to pay a little visit on their daughter. Nosferatu told me. I know that even if we have our differences, we’ve both lost someone important because of that damned demon king.” He bit his lip remembering his beloved.

“But… why are we stealing the Red Rock, sir?”

“Without it the underworld can be invaded, and souls and people can get out. I’ll be saving people from hell — souls can escape and take over a new body. I’ll be the hero finally!” The boss smiled. “I want to see Dante devastated — like I was when he was gone…” Fenrir gazed wistfully into the distance, lost in his memories for a moment.

A female goon stepped forward and meekly asked, “B-b-but do you think this will work, Fenrir?”

Fenrir looked at her for a moment, angry at the interruption. “Are you retarded or what?! Of course it will! The vampires are finally in our side — we can work together in peace now. With two powerful species finally working together, this will make us…” He confronted the woman, staring straight into her eyes. “Invincible. Do you understand now, Kana?”

Kana gulped with fear. “Y-yes, I do.”

“That’s good.” Fenrir smiled. He led his goons to Hell's Gate where a vampire was waiting for them, eager to see the Red Rock and to finally go home. She wore a long black gown and the neutral expression on her face hid her fangs well.

“Finally! You’re back and…” The vampire looked at the Red Rock in Fenrir’s hands. “You’ve brought the prize. Now I don’t need to use my powers to hold open that damned door. Ugh…” She stretched, weary from her duties.

“Yes, you can relax, but it will still be some weeks before we have the results. Once they’re in, we can finally begin our work.”

The vampire led Fenrir and his goons through the gate and along the winding passages. Fenrir stopped and regarded the large staircase in front of them. The vampire looked at him. “King Nosferatu will be very happy to hear that.”

“Meh, I know. But he knows who will end up with Dante.”

“But… Dante is immortal, right?” Banzai asked, climbing the stairs, following the vampire and his boss.

“No, not immortal — just very long-lived. He will perish eventually, unlike us. Vampires and lycans don’t need to make their children princes and princesses, and you know why?” Fenrir looked at Banzai. “Because they’re not going to be kings and queens. We live forever and we don’t need other people to make our own work. And that’s why, my dear Banzai, demons are actually the weakest of the Night Creature species.” Fenrir laughed. “They’ll simply die if something too big happens to them.”

“And what will you do?”

“Something big, something good. You’ll see — and no-one will stop me. You know that no-one really likes them,” Fenrir mocked. “Even his own daughter didn’t want to stay there. He’s a disgrace to the Night Creatures.”

“Don’t you think you’re being a little arrogant? Dante takes care of a whole realm to accept the souls of bad people that died. At least give him credit for that,” the vampire said. Fenrir gave her an angry look.

“He’s nothing to me! Nothing. We were friends, but what he did was something I could never forgive…” Fenrir looked at his goons. “Let’s go — Nosferatu is waiting to lock the portal. He doesn’t have all night!”

Transforming into their wolf form, Fenrir and his goons ran to catch up with the vampire. They arrived in the upperworld, stepping out of a rusty metal doorway of what appeared to be small shed or a hunting shack. Nobody walking in this part of the forest would could possibly expect that it was the gateway to the underworld. The vampire locked the door behind them, but it would probably be opened — or destroyed — by the floods of desperate people and souls who would escape, wanting their normal lives back.

“We did it,” Nosferatu said quietly, looking at the big black wolf in front of him.

Fenrir transformed back. “Yes. I did. Did you bribe the angel?”

“Yes, he won’t warn Faust,” Nosferatu said, inspecting the Red Rock that Fenrir had placed in his hands. “I feel proud, you know. We have peace, and we going to see our ‘dear’ old friend again in a few weeks,” he smiled, showing his sharp fangs. “And we broke one of the principal rules.”

“What’s the matter? We don’t need to worry about that!” Fenrir laughed and gave a playful punch on Nosferatu’s shoulder. “C’mon, we need to celebrate, right?” He turned to his goons.

Still in wolf form, they wagged their tails in excitement.

“I’ll buy the blood and you get the wine. How about it?” Fenrir raised his eyebrow and Nosferatu thought for a moment.

Nosferatu smiled. “You’re right — we’re kings! We don’t need to worry… I’m in!”

Fenrir slapped the vampire on the back. “That’s the spirit, my friend!” He looked at his goons. “Let’s go!” He transformed back and howled then ran towards a particular part of the forest — their home. His goons followed him, with the two vampires hot on their trail.

No-one suspected anything yet, but something wicked was coming.

Chapter Seven: Lemme show you the song of my people

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I couldn’t sleep. By the time I finally managed to close my eyes for a moment, morning had already broken and the first rays of sunlight had begun to slip through the curtains. Tired though I was, at least I was warm, with my DJ’s body against me. I could no longer hear Neon’s snores… perhaps he was awake already. I didn’t pay too much attention to that, and closed my eyes again — sleeping in wouldn’t hurt anyone…

But then my eyes flew open. “I have orchestra today!” But is it a good idea to let my parents stay here? I thought for a moment. Vinyl will be here with them. They must keep it cool. It isn’t like they don’t know how to do anything. Okay, so they don’t know what what this is, or what that is, but they’re not stupid — they should be able to figure stuff out without asking Vinyl. She would say that they’re weirdos or something.

I sat on the couch. My back ached and a pair of hands reached around me, pulling me down. “Ugh… Tavi…” Vinyl murmured with a slurred voice, “Stay here… It’s warm.”

I shook my head and stroked her messy blue hair, hearing little moans of enjoyment. “I have to go to Orchestra today, Vinyl.”

“But your parents…”

“What? They aren’t little kids — they can take care of themselves!” I exclaimed.

“Yeah, yeah, so you say. But ya know Tavi… they’re weird. It’s like they’re from another world or something,” Vinyl laughed as she rubbed her face against the pillow, she really was a ‘lazybutt’ like Lyra liked to call her sometimes.

“Tsk tsk, don’t watch too many movies, Vinyl,” I giggled. “You will get along with them. And if you think that my father doesn’t like you then why you don’t try to make friends with him?”

“Nah… I don’t know. I’ll see if I can do that.” Vinyl rubbed her eyes and yawned. “… After I finish sleeping.”

I stroked her hair one last time and rolled my eyes. “Dear Faust, Vinyl, you’re lazy.”

“And proud of it!” she murmured, rolling over to bury her face in the cushions.

I smiled and stood up with a yawn too. It would be hard to play today without falling asleep. I stopped, seeing Neon walking down the stairs with a smile on his face, and this time wearing clothes. “So Sassa isn’t mad at you any more?”

“Yep, she’s forgiven me — same as always. I do something wrong, she gets mad at me, and then we get back together again. It’s like a cycle — a force of nature — it’s a beautiful thing really. This time we beat our personal best though! Just a single day! Not even 24 hours actually!” He laughed. “And thanks for letting me stay here.”

“Yes, well, this is the last time.”

“Why?”

“You snore like hell, Neon. And now I need to go to work almost asleep on my feet!” I put my hands on my hips and scowled at him.

“What can I do? It’s not like I do it deliberately.” Neon made a sad face.

“Then go see Doctor Whooves or someone like that. And then I can let you stay here again. Really, I don’t know how Sassaflash can sleep!” I exclaimed wondering how she could get up the next day and go to teach the gym class at Canterlot High.

“She has her tricks. Usually I get her so tired she falls asleep right away, if you know what I mean.” He raised his eyebrows and smirked. “There’s this one thing that she really likes where I take my--”

“Too much information, Neon, too much information! Now go. She must be waiting for you.” I grinned ironically at him.

Neon shrugged. “Seeya soon, cellohead.” With that he walked to the door and left.

I sighed and I remembered what I had to do. I went up to my room where my mother and my father were still sleeping peacefully, thanks to their sound-blocking spell. My mom held Wub Wub close to her, something that the little dog would love.

I didn’t really know the best way to wake them up, so I simply shook my father. And after many tries, he finally woke up with a jump. “Stop right now, Fenrir, you bas…!” Dante looked at me. “...tard?” He coughed and smiled. “Good morning, my dear daughter, what brings you up here?”

“I have work to do. And you two will stay here, alone. Do you think you can manage to cope on your own?”

“Of course, I’m not completely incompetent you know! Many of the things around your home are the same as we have in Tartarus — chairs, tables, doors — I’m sure we’ll manage!” He smiled and rose, adjusting his red robe.

“Dad, are you sure you can keep the secret?”

“Everything will be just fine!” he promised. I opened my mouth to say something else, but my father interrupted me. “Fine, fine and fine. Everything will be fine! And you don’t have to worry about anything while you’re out. It's not like we’re going to be sitting around playing trumpet while Vinyl is trying to do her DJ things.” He laughed while looking at himself in the mirror.

I sighed and giggled at my father’s weird example. “If you’re sure, then I’m going.” I approached and leaned over to kiss his cheek. “Bye, dad.”

He didn’t say anything for a moment. “Err… Bye.” He smiled at me and I smiled back.

I went downstairs and got ready, and then left the house. This was sure going to feel like a long day after such a sleepless night. Lucky for me I had “coffee power” on my side.

I was right — thanks to coffee, I had somehow managed not to fall asleep and crush half the orchestra’s string section by dropping my cello on them.

Opening the door I sighed, glad to be back home, and saw my mother reading a book and my father sitting on the couch, looking deep in thought. I raised an eyebrow. “Welcome back, Octavia!” my mother exclaimed without taking her eyes from the book. “This book is so good!”

“This is…” I took the book from her to see what she was reading. “… a dictionary, mother.” I gave her it back. “It doesn’t have story…” I facepalmed and laughed.

“Oh… that must be why your girlfriend asked me why I was reading it.”

“What’s happening with dad?” I left my cello leaning against the wall and sat on the couch.

“Bad things are happening, I can feel it!”

“Do you have Pinkie Sense too?” I smiled, remembering the day at the Equestria Games when Pinkie said she was feeling that a team would lose by seven goals. She’d been exactly right. Since then Rainbow and Applejack have always asked her for game results. I keep asking myself if that girl might have some kind of magic in her body…

“I don’t know what is that, but if it tells you what will happen, then yes.”

“Don’t worry, we’re here to relax and visit our daughter, remember?” my mother asked, leaving her book on the coffee table and stroking his hair.

“But I don’t like this feeling!”

“What feeling, old man?” we heard Vinyl’s voice asking. Her hair was wet, probably straight from the shower. I bit my lip.

“He just doesn’t know how to relax darling, that’s all,” Eisheth said.

“Oh yeah? So…” she sat next to me and smirked, “I’ll play you the song of my people tonight! I know you two are old, but that doesn’t matter. And Buttavia is going too!” Vinyl caught me suddenly and gave me a kiss.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Me and Neon have got a gig at Cloud Kicker’s party. You lot are coming — you need to have some fun and relax with some beats!” Vinyl put her shades and did a little dance.

“But…”

“Nah, you’re going. And you can’t do anything to stop me!” Vinyl stood and smiled proudly. “We’re going at ten o'clock. Also the chef here made something special for you, Tavi.” I raised my eyebrow. She went to get something from the kitchen. “Here we have fat beets and dropped bass for your dinner.” She smirked.

I shook my head and sighed. “Vinyl, that pun isn’t funny.” I looked at my parents. “She makes this at least once a month, just for the pun.”

“Anyways, you have to eat and get ready!” She left the plate on the kitchen table and walked past me again, slapping my ass and making me blush.

“Vinyl!” I sat down at the kitchen table to eat. “This will be a long night… again.”

Later…

Neon was the kind of guy who got a lot of women, but Cloud Kicker made him look like an amateur. She just got all the girls she wanted, in one night. In the past she’d even spent a night with Vinyl!

Neon was not there to try to compete with her, but to help Vinyl with the DJing some of the time, and give her a chance to enjoy the party. It was the least he could do to make up for last night.

I watched everyone dancing while I drank a smoothie. My father sat beside me looking at my mom dancing. “You don’t want to go up there?”

“I don’t really know how to dance to this kind of music.”

“I think you just… jump.” Dante shrugged. “I’m going! I’m not going to stay here all night, and neither should you. Why don’t you go and dance with Vinyl? You need to… ‘relax your bones!’” He smiled as he nodded his head to the beat.

“Vinyl told you that, right?” He nodded. I got up. “Okay, let’s go.”

What followed was a lot of drinking, which would no doubt lead us all to have a lot of headaches the next day. But at that moment I didn’t really care, having already finished off three alcoholic smoothies. The only person I could blame was Vinyl Scratch. Oh, Vinyl…

My head ached when I woke up to see Vinyl at my side, sleeping with a beer can in her hands. I frowned and looked at the ground where my mother lay sleeping like a stone in an air bed. I rubbed my eyes and got up, feeling my aching legs.

“Good morning, dear. Or should I say good afternoon?” My father appeared with a coffee cup in his hands and a smile on his face. “You slept well last night, maybe because you didn’t the night before.” He laughed a little. “Here, this shall make your head better.”

I grabbed the cup and took a sip. “Thank you.” I looked at him for a moment. “You look… worried.”

“I am. Something is wrong and I know it. Vinyl can say it isn’t, but I know it is. And I think you may be telling the truth soon.” He looked around making sure nobody was listening. “I brought you home using magic, but I don’t think anybody saw.” Dante walked to the kitchen and I followed him, drinking the coffee.

“Well, if you say that no-one saw you then I suppose that’s fine. But do not use magic again. So, why do you think that?”

“I don’t know, it just feels like something’s wrong. I don’t know if it’s something here, or back home. But something just isn’t right. My demons senses are… very high right now.” He looked at me. “But I’ll try not to worry about that now. And you should be working, right?”

My eyes flew open in realization. “Oh, my sweet…” I looked at him, “Crap! It’s afternoon!” I gave him a kiss on his cheek. “Thanks, dad!” I rose and walked upstairs.

“Any time, my little Octy.”

Chapter Eight: The Signal to Go

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It was a long day at work, and as soon as I got back to the apartment, I tore into Vinyl for her actions the previous night. Eventually I found myself lying on the little outdoor couch on the balcony with Vinyl beside me, trying to apologize. “At least I got paid, and for doing almost nothing!” she said laughing sheepishly and I frowned.

“Exactly, if you didn’t need to do anything, why did you have to make us go with you? I almost missed my appointment this morning!” I stopped and looked at her; she was trying to suppress a giggle. “Laugh all you want — I don’t care.” I crossed my arms and stared at the floor of the balcony upstairs.

“Yeah, Tavi, but you didn’t miss it, did you?” Vinyl kissed the top of my head and stroked my sides. “Don’t be like that. Anyway, your folks needed to relax! And they liked it!”

I lay in silence for a moment. “Okay, okay, you’re probably right. They did need to unwind.”

“Hehe, I’m always right!” Vinyl boasted with a smirk.

I scowled at her and she looked away, but then I giggled. “You’re stupid, Vinyl.” I sighed, closing my eyes and clinging to her.

“You know…” Vinyl broke the silence, “I think you should try to go out and spend a little time with your father while I play my gig tonight. I’ll be back at ten and then, you know, we could do something if ya’ aren’t tired.” Vinyl smirked.

I raised an eyebrow, “Firstly, I’m still not happy with you. And secondly, what about my mother?”

“She can stay here, can’t she? She’ll be okay on her own for a couple of hours. I just think you should try to spend some time with him. You two don’t look… close. It’s like you’ve never had a chance to be with him alone and… talk about stuff.”

I sighed. “I’ve tried. Years ago, I tried. But you’re right… again. We’ve had some fights in the past,” I sighed. “We aren’t really the closest, but that was a long time ago. Maybe we’ve each changed since then? Maybe we should try to put the past in the past…” I stopped when I felt a hand gently stroking my hair. “I can do this.”

“You will, Buttavia. I think he has some stuff to tell you too.” We rose together and she smiled at me.

I giggled. “I didn’t know I had a personal adviser at home.”

“Nah Tavi, I’m just trying to make you happy. Since he’s been here I’ve seen that look in your eyes — you look worried for some reason.” Vinyl said with a coquettish smile. “So… some good advice… how many points do I receive?”

“Idiot…” I leaned over and gave her a kiss.

“I know. I just don’t want to see you end up like my family,” Vinyl said, hugging me. Her father didn’t really approve of Vinyl’s life choices and how she behaved — working as a DJ, being a lesbian — those were just two of his complaints. And as always Vinyl didn’t care. Vinyl would have liked to be closer to her family, but her father didn’t make it easy. “Now I’ve got to get ready to rave.” She gave me one last kiss and went inside to get changed.

I stood there for a moment. I really needed to have a little talk with Dante. And stop calling him Dante and start calling him ‘dad’ or something like that. I needed to forget the past; after all, that was one of my reasons for inviting them to stay.

And I knew just the right place to take him.

“Why are we here? And why isn’t your mother here too?” my father asked with a raised eyebrow, looking around. It was night and the whole city was lit up with twinkling lights; everybody in the city was talking about what would be happening soon: Remembrance Day was coming. The park was no different, there were lights everywhere, and people preparing decorations in different colors.

“I just wanted to talk with you.”

“About what?”

“I know that you’re still thinking about the past, just like I do…” I said. He looked at me.

“You mean our disagreement? When I sent you here?” he asked. I nodded. Dante sighed and stared his feet while walking. “So we are here to talk about what an idiot I was, right?”

“What? No! We’re here so I can tell you how sorry I am for not being the person you wanted me to be. Or the demon.” I looked at him, still with his head down. “You shouldn’t think you’re an idiot. You’re not. You were just sticking to your beliefs, dad. And it’s thanks to you sending me here that I have the most wonderful life now.” I smiled at him and he smiled back.

“I’ve been here for days now, but… I-I felt like you hated me for doing that.” He let out a long sigh. “You know, our deal… it can be broken now — if you want to. I don’t care if you can’t, or don’t want to be a demon, or use your succubus skills on people. I know that our castle back in hell can be a little…”

“Lonely?”

“Yes, lonely. Your mother and I were… alone. I missed you.” He bit his lip and looked away. “You can’t even imagine how many times I cursed myself for sending you here. It was wrong of me.” We came to a bench, and sat down. After a few moments of silence he looked at me. “You can hate me now if you want. Because I didn’t want to do that. We missed you; even Cerberus missed you.”

I giggled. “He liked to play with me.”

“Yeah…” We both let out wistful sighs. “And I missed the sound of your cello. Maybe you could play for me some day?”

“I can. And I don’t hate you, I could never hate you. And I won’t go back on our deal. I never used to break my promises as a kid, did I?” He gave me a sad smile. “You’re still sad? Do I have to say that I love you, dad?”

“No, it’s just… I never said I’m sorry. But here it is… I’m sorry for everything. The fights, the psychologist, the forced training, sending you here… I’m sorry for it all. Even if you found somebody here to love, and somebody who loves you, and you have a good life, I’m still sorry. And I’m glad you don’t hate me, even if I deserve it.” My father looked at me curiously. “Now where is my award?” he joked.

“Here your award,” I said laughing and leaned in to give him a hug. “Don’t worry, I love you, daddy.”

“I love you too, my little Octy.”

After some time talking and walking around and showing him some new food, we were back at the apartment. My father had loved cotton candy — he said he had actually already tried it. I wondered how.

We walked into the apartment; everything was quiet and the lights were off. Strange...

“Dear, we’re back!” my father announced, walking into the living room. He got no response. “Dear?” he called again.

I raised an eyebrow. “Where’s mom?” I asked, looking around. “Did she—”

A noise drew our attention and a cloud of black smoke appeared magically before forming into a man's body. My father’s eyes widened. "It can’t be…” He approached me and put his arms around me protectively. “Octavia, stand back.” He pulled me back. “What do you want here?”

“What lack of courtesy, Dante!” the man exclaimed pretending to be offended. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen you. No ‘welcome’? No ‘how are you’? No friendly hug?” He approached my father and grinned. My father lunged at him, but his fist went straight through his body. “Silly demon… black magic — you can’t hurt me! I’m not here, not exactly.”

He walked around us, glaring at us like a shark observing his prey. His eyes, two yellow shining eyes, scared me. It was as if he could kill someone with only his stare. “So that’s the little demon?” He smirked at me. “So cute to see father and daughter together. Shame that mommy isn’t here to see how you two forgave each other. Bleh!”

“What have you done with her?!” Dante roared.

“Calm down. Hold your horses, Dan. Your wife is safe in my cove at the Long Claw Woods. The vampires and my fellow lycans are taking good care of her. She will be quite alright if you do everything that’s asked of you, and don’t try anything stupid.” He produced a chair with his magic and sat. “I’m here to tell you that Hell’s Gate will open next week. Souls will posses bodies and demons will at last have their freedom! I’ll be a hero!” He clasped his hands together and smiled. “But to be hero, or to be powerful? They’re both good options, but I choose the latter. Well, I and Nosferatu do.”

“What do you mean, you bastard?” my father fumed.

“I mean that we can give you the Red Rock back, in exchange for taking your powers. You’ll still be able to return to hell with your wife, and live your pathetic little demon life, much as you always have. I would just be happy to see you suffer, die — but Nosferatu convinced me to give you options.” He smirked and crossed legs. “But if you choose not to give up your powers, then the Red Rock will be destroyed, and you can say goodbye to your precious love, Eisheth.” He gestured to his side where a mirror appeared and showed my mother tied up in a chair, surrounded by wolves.

“No! Don’t you lay a hand on her!” my father screamed. “I… I’ll give you my powers, Fenrir.”

“I knew you weren’t an idiot!” Fenrir exclaimed getting up. “Just don’t make us wait. Nosferatu hates to wait. And I’ll come after you if you don’t come soon.” He gestured at me. “And if I find out you have some kind of plan, then she’s next. Meet us at the woods. Then everything will be alright.”

“You will pay — Faust will find out.”

“No she won’t, because I’m smart, and we already solved that little problem.” Fenrir laughed showing his wolf-like fangs. “See you later, friend.” He snapped his fingers and disappeared.

Everything was quiet for a long time until we heard a voice. “Wow, I don’t know what that was, but it was… spooky scary!”

We turned to see the owner of the voice behind us. “Vinyl?!”

Chapter Nine: And the Truth will set you free

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It might have been nice to have a bit of preparation for that. Though actually no amount of preparation would have helped. There’s not really any preparation you can do to break the news to your girlfriend that you’re a demon from hell, who came here because she wasn’t bad enough for her father. My father would have told me that I should just have been honest about who I was from the start — been proud of it.

Well, now I’d have to be — even if it was with just one person.

I looked at my father, then at Vinyl, and gulped. “Vinyl, we… I need to explain something to you — something really important. Let’s go to the kitchen.”

Vinyl shrugged. “Yeah, you could also explain what that was and… did I do something wrong? If I did, then it wasn’t me!” Vinyl exclaimed with a nervous smile and I giggled.

“No, Vinyl, you didn’t. Now come with me.” We walked to the kitchen and I sat on the chair, staring my hands like they were special, like they could get me out of this mess, but I was just avoiding look at Vinyl eyes. Even hidden by her classic shades, those eyes could intimidate me now. I sighed and finally looked up at her. She had curiosity in her eyes — I could see it.

“So, what’s all this about?” Vinyl asked, getting beer in the refrigerator and opening it. She took a sip. I was surprised that she didn’t come home already drunk.

“Umm… where should I begin…?” I murmured to myself. “Vinyl, I have a big secret. One I’ve had since we met. Actually, since I arrived here — you’ll understand that ‘arrived here’ later.” She rose an eyebrow. “And I’m sorry if you feel fooled, or get scared and want to run away and never see me again. Maybe that would be better, maybe you—”

“Tavi, you can tell me. I won’t run away. I’m weird and you can’t have any weirder secrets than some of the stuff I’ve got in my past. And you already know most of that stuff. C’mon, tell me.” Vinyl approached my chair and stroked my hair with one of her hands, making me smile.

I took a deep breath. “Vinyl Scratch, you have been in love with… a demon. I’m a demon. I- I came from Tartarus and no one must know this. My father is actually the King of Hell. My mother the queen of succubi. And I would be a princess right now if I were there. But he exiled me — sent me here to learn to be bad. I wasn’t exactly the best daughter, and our relationship was kind of strained. We’ve never really been the closest.” I sighed and smiled. “But now everything is fine. He doesn’t hate me. But that’s why I’m here; that’s how we met — because I was banned from Tartarus because I didn’t want to be the demon they wanted me to be. I wanted to run away from them, and I chose here.” I looked at the ground not wanting to see the expression I imagined Vinyl would have on her face. “But at least I have you… if you don’t want to run from me now.”

Everything was quiet. The kitchen, the house, even outside was quiet. Manehattan city never slept, but tonight it was doing a damn good impression of it. This just made everything worse and even more weird.

Then Vinyl finally broke the silence. “Tavi you… are you crazy? Good joke, kinda silly, but still pretty good. You could do a book like that, you know — it would have to be better than that thing with the vampires and that girl!” Vinyl laughed mockingly. “So… who was the guy that was talking to your father and simply vanished in a… kinda magic thing an—” Vinyl’s eyes widened and she looked at me.

“Now you see what I’m trying to tell you? Do you believe me now, Scratch?” I asked with a serious face. “I won’t lie to you anymore, because I need to… ‘save the day’ or something like that. Well, at least help my father to.”

“Oookay. So… you were really serious there, huh?” Vinyl looked at her beer for a moment. “I’m not drunk yet?”

“Vinyl…” I murmured between my teeth.

“Okay okay, hold onto your demons there. You are a demon that came from Tartarus for all those reasons and I just fell in love with you?”

“Yes, Vinyl, if the last few years have been true, then yes.”

Vinyl scratched her chin and then a huge smile appeared on her face. “You know what Buttavia? That’s awesome! Imagine what everyone will say when I tell them that I have a badass hot demon girlfriend!”

My eyes flew open, and I jumped up in panic, rushing over to her and covering her mouth with my hand. “No, no, no! You can’t tell anyone about this. People can’t know about the supernatural world. There are demons, angels, lycans, vampires, and sirens out there. They can’t be discovered or people will think them to be monsters and try to kill them.” I let her go and grew quiet for a moment. “And I’m also succubus,” I added. Vinyl smirked at me. “Don’t you even think about it, Vinyl! I could hurt you!”

“In what way? Well, I would love it if it’s bon—”

“Octavia, we need to talk.” My father entered the kitchen, interrupting Vinyl with an even more worried look. “Did you?” He looked at Vinyl.

“Yes, my Tavi here just did, old man. Or I mean eternally ageless man, or something like that?” Vinyl laughed.

“And she said my jokes are silly,” I murmured. She looked at me with a frown and then hugged me from behind. “Vinyl, what are you doing?”

“Look old man and see how bad she is. To me at least. I can’t even hug her and she is already asking why.”

My father rose an eyebrow and shook his head. “Sorry, but we can’t stay here joking and playing around.” Dante sat and put his hands on his head and closed his eyes. “I don’t even know what we will do…” he murmured. “Fenrir will trick us — I know that — he always does.”

“Fenrir? Isn’t that that big bad wolf?” Vinyl asked. “Oh, oh, the man was Fenrir?! Of course! I didn’t know he could be a human! That’s super badass.”

“Vinyl…” I pointed at my father, showing her the state of him without my mother around. “My mother is gone. Fenrir and Nosferatu — and yes, before you ask, the vampire — have her. He wants my father’s powers.”

“But Fenrir is a disgrace. A total disgrace!” my father exclaimed, thumping his hand against the wooden table in anger. “If he lays one claw on her I will find a way to kill him… slowly, with my own hands…” he murmured. Once again he had fire in his eyes. I could see how he was devastated, but at same time wanting to put an end to Fenrir. Suddenly he rose up with a smile. “Amaka!”

“So is he an African demon or something? What is ‘amaka’ old man?” Vinyl asked, holding her laugh.

“Amaka is a powerful Lycan enchantress. But she lives far away, in the Sand Mountains. She betrayed her pack and they banished her there. But she is the only lycan that knows how to put an end to Fenrir — or any long lived or immortal creature.” He smiled with happiness.

“So you mean you’re gonna kill the badass wolf?” Vinyl asked and he looked at her irritatedly. “Sorry, I mean the totally not cool wolf. She can give you something to kill him?”

“Yes. I only know that this will need an exorcist.”

“An exorcist? But isn’t that… bad for demons?” Vinyl asked once again.

“A supernatural exorcist I mean, and I know only one who can do it.” Dante smiled. “She actually knows you two.”

“I’ll go with you. I need to help you find mom; I don’t want to see her hurt, nor you. And if it needs me to use my demon powers, then I will.” He gave me a huge smile, which made me happy. He was finally truly proud of me.

“And me? I’m not going to stay here twiddling my thumbs while you two get to have all the fun! Supernatural fun must be awesome, I can only imagine who that exorcist is. If it’s Twilight, I’ll just die.” Vinyl started laughing once again, but my father didn’t find anything funny in that.

“Well, no. It isn’t her. It’s someone even more unexpected. But that can wait.” My father walked to the window and looked at the full moon. We all heard a distant howl, something unusual in the city. “Fenrir…” Dante murmured. “We will be going tomorrow. First thing in the morning.” He walked to Vinyl. “And don’t you wake up late or we will go without you, DJ. Got it?”

“Yeah, yeah, old man, I can do the thing. Don’t ya’ worry. I’m a professional at waking up in the morning, you need just to look at my face to know that!” Vinyl mocked with a smirk.

“Vinyl I think you shouldn’t be—”

“Have you GOT IT?” My father asked, this time louder. Vinyl widened her eyes and gulped, nodding. “Okay. I’ll sleep now.” With that he walked upstairs and we hear a door thud shut loudly.

We looked at each other. “He really doesn’t like me. See?”

“Vinyl, you need to grow up. This is a serious situation here — my mom can die if we can’t save her. All you can do is joke around. What do you expect? We’re supposed to find this enjoyable like you?” I put my hands on my hip and tapped my foot on the floor.

“Nah. You know what I want? To sleep. With you, Buttavia. Even more now I know all this! I’m badass too, for having you. And to be able to see your cuteness!” Vinyl looked at me and I made a mad face. “And that’s one mad face I love, lil’ demon.” She yawned. “Well, I’ll hit the hay now. Why don’t you come with me?” she asked me with a seductive smile.

“I told you — don’t even think about it.” I bit my lip. This could be good, but… still she would get hurt. In the bad way.

“Okay. So could you just come here and keep me warm?” she said from the living room.

I smiled and shook my head walking over to her.

I finally had a good night’s sleep, but dreamt of a smiling shadowy figure visiting me. I really didn’t know who it was or what it meant, but maybe I didn’t want to know.

Chapter Ten: You Gonna Carry that Weight

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The sound of birdsong and the first rays of sunlight crept into the living room, tickling my senses, and waking me from my sleep. I yawned and stretched, looking at Vinyl snoring — thank Faust and my father she wasn’t as bad as Neon. But my attention was drawn to the figure in the kitchen drinking something. It was my father, already awake and ready to go.

I rose and went to join him, looking at him and waiting for him to say something — to even acknowledge my presence — but he was immersed in his own thoughts. I sat on the chair in front of him and after a long time I finally asked, “are you alright?”

Dante blinked for a moment and then looked at me. “Yes, I was just thinking about what we have to carry now. It’s a big weight. And we’re going to carry that weight,” he answered and took another sip of his coffee.

“I know, and I’m going to help. Vinyl is too.” I stopped and remembered last night. “Do you really like her? Or were you just making a scene when you came here for the first time?”

My father played with his hands and stared at me, then chuckled. “I was mad and worried, it was just that. And, like you said, she can be… ‘impossible’, right?” I nodded. “That’s why I was tough with her. I can get a little out of control when someone tries to hurt someone in my family. I’m sure if someone tried to hurt her, you’d be just the same — I know that; I know you got that from me.”

I smiled; it was true. I was protective over Vinyl, or anyone I loved. “Yes, I would. And it isn’t just you who is worried, I am too. I do not want to let Fenrir do something to my mother — I love her. And I really don’t want to lose her to a monster’s game. Do you have any idea of how we can put a stop to him?”

Dante nodded, agreeing with me. “Well… I remember hearing something about a type of sword made by Faust and Miss Death. They’re really close, you know. I think that they made it to demonstrate that anyone — even a powerful supernatural god — can be ended. It has some kind of spell that makes the person who gets hit by it become mortal. Maybe that’s why he fears it so much. Some people say that four such swords exists.” He snapped out of his reverie and looked around. “Now, I’ll wake up Vinyl, and then we will pack everything up. Do you need to do anything?”

I thought of saying no, but then I remembered I had to speak with someone. “I need to go talk to someone. It will be fast, I promise. I just need to speak about something with her.”

He thought for a moment. “You go. We’ll pack up.” He smiled at me and I did the same, then he walked upstairs.

I sighed and rose up, got ready to go out, and then headed to Bon Bon’s apartament.

“So why did you need to get me out of bed at this time in the morning? It’d better be something important,” Bonnie said rubbing her eyes sleepy. Bon Bon’s eyes widened in sudden realization. “Oh yes, your father! So… how is everything going? Did your plan work?” she asked with an excited smile.

I grimaced. “More or less…” I sighed, taking a sip of the tea she had given me. “You know all the supernatural gods, right?”

“Yes. Nosferatu the Vampire, Classy Note the Siren, White Wing the Angel, your father and mother, and Fenrir the Lycan. Why are you asking?”

“Well… everything is going fine and my parents are staying here for a year,” I said and she smiled. “But, well, there’s just been a little problem… Fenrir kidnapped my mom. He wants my father’s powers. But he’ll probably double-cross us when we see him, so I’m going on an adventure to find some way of tricking him.”

“You’re going to try to scam Fenrir?! A god, a Lycan, a…”

“We know what he is, but Eisheth is my mother — she was the one who raised me, who taught me to play a cello, and to love music. The one who sang to me with her beautiful voice when I needed to sleep. I love her. That’s why we need to do this.” She sat in silence for a long time, staring at her own tea cup. “And… I don’t know if I’ll come back from this. I hope to… actually, not ‘hope’, because if I say that I would be lying. I just… need to believe in that to stay calm and not freak out about this.”

Bonnie scratched her head and then looked at me worriedly. “Well, you’re my friend, so you have my blessing. If anybody can do this, you two can. And you will. Everything will be fine, Octavia.” She gave me another huge comforting smile and I smiled back. “I admit that… Fenrir is powerful, really powerful. But I know that your father must have found some way to do this — he must have a plan, because gods are immortal, or at least very long lived.” She explained what I always knew.

“He told me tales about some kind of magical sword or something with a spell on it. A spell that can make beings mortal again. I don’t know where that sword is, or even if it truly exists, but…” I sighed, “we going to look for some enchantress that might know. Maybe she does, maybe she doesn’t, but we going to the mountains to find her anyway.”

“You know that’s dangerous, right? Manticores, timberwolves, and a lot of other dangerous animals and creatures live around there. You’ll have to pass through the Everfree Woods, and that’s one hell of a dangerous place too.” Her face had a scared grimace.

“Well… when I was kid my father always told me demons did not have to be scared of anything — they need to be scared of us, unless they want to end up at our home.” I smiled. “Finally I can put that advice towards something useful.”

“Maybe he’s right. I wouldn’t like to be anywhere near an angry Octavia, and I don’t think any normal humans would like it to imagine being there either.” We both giggled. “I just hope you get back alright. Who will come to me with all her problems if you don’t get back?” Bonnie said and winked at me.

“Oh, Bonnie, you’re just too kind to me.” I took a last sip of my tea and got up. “Thank you for everything. I hope you have a good Remembrance Day next week,” I said when she got up and hugged me.

“You’d better come back, because I need someone to talk about her own crazy girlfriend to calm me down and help me remember that I’m not the only one living with a crazy girl,” she joked.

“I will. If my father is right, I will.” I smiled and walked up to the door. “Bye, Bonnie. Goodbye.” Then I walked out.

“Good luck, Octavia.”

“Everything’s packed, right?” my father asked Vinyl.

“Yeah, yeah, old man. That knife, food, blankets, flashlight, Wub Wub’s dog collar, Ol’ Foxy, my shades, some notes, a map, a lighter, and a comic.” Vinyl said with a smile. We looked at her with raised eyebrows. “What? Why are ya’ two looking at me like that?”

“Comics?” we asked simultaneously.

“Yeah, I don’t wanna be bored in the woods. It can be really boring there. I went camping once. It was awful. Never again.” I remembered that she’d mentioned that trip before. Neon got a snake bite that day — in not a very good place. That must have hurt.

“Okay, then we have everything we need,” my father, said arranging his jacket in front of the mirror. “I’ll use black magic to teletransport us next to the Everfree Forest. If everything is okay, we can get to the far side of the forest, or at least the middle by sunset.”

“Dark magic?” Vinyl asked.

“Yes, dark magic. Do you doubt my magic?” My father frowned.

“Of course not, old man, hehe.” Vinyl coughed. “So can we go? Look how impatient Wub Wub is getting.” Vinyl pointed to the little black dog sat on the ground, who was looking at her curious about what was happening.

“Okay, come stand next to me,” he requested. I picked up Wub Wub, and Vinyl came with me so that we were all gathered together. “Magnum teletransportatus… I think that is the spell…” he murmured.

After an second a big bright ball of energy appeared in the room. Then everything was black, then purple, then red for a moment. Then we were standing in front of the Everfree Forest with animal sounds. The sun was already overhead, like it was already afternoon.

I peered up at the sky. “Why is—”

“Teletransportation seems to take such little time, but actually hours can pass in the non-magical spectrum. You will learn that one day, maybe,” my father explained, interrupting me. “Now we need to go and find some place to set up a campfire and stay the night. And remember: if you see a cockatrice, don’t look at him. I don’t have any magic to deal with the results of staring at those chickens.”

After a long time walking we came across a little meadow and made a campfire just like my father had suggested. We passed the time talking about random things, and then Vinyl decided to take a walk with Wub Wub, who had been yapping around us, desperate for attention, giving my father and I some time alone.

My father didn’t stop looking at the flames, as if something important was in there. “What are you thinking now?” I asked.

“About how Fenrir is stupid — it wasn't me; it was my father. I didn’t killed him; actually he almost killed himself…” Danter murmured still staring the fire. “I remember when he jumped at the flames, trying to avoid my father’s sword. I was only young back then, but I saw everything, and did nothing to stop him, so now he says it’s all my fault.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Someone really important to Fenrir. He was his fiance, Koda. He was a Lycan too. It was back when Lycans and Demons lived together in peace, but Lycans hated Vampires. But then,” he sighed, “that Lycan betrayed us and tried to kill my father. A war started in the Supernatural Nation. Faust watched everything, weeping about what was happening. Miss Death awaited us in the Dead God’s Graveyard. But we never came there.” He stopped and looked at the moon. “And then after that, Fenrir started everything that is happening now.”

“I’m sorry for that…”

“You didn’t start any of this — he did.” He sighed once again and lay on his mattress. “I’m tired. I need some sleep… good night, my dear Tavi.”

“Night.” With that I sat staring at the full moon and thinking about the days ahead. And then I murmured something to remind myself that I could do it. “I’m gonna carry that weight.”

Chapter Eleven: Winterville

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The wind howled in our ears while we walked through the forest, looking to the sides and searching for any danger that might appear. From night to day, the weather suddenly changed to a cold wind. My clothes did little protect me from the absurd cold and my gloves certainly didn’t do much better. Even with Vinyl trying to warm me, giving me yet another jacket, I was still cold.

Imagine now how my father was feeling, coming from a place with no winter, spring, or autumn, a place of eternal summer, hotter than any place in Equestria. He looked really thrown by this. After all, where had that winter come from so suddenly?

Vinyl let out a big sigh. “Ugh… how much further to the end of this damned forest?”

My father paused. He glanced back over his shoulder and looked at her. “At least half a day’s trek. We stay in Winterville tonight. Well, maybe longer with all this snow. And if we can’t make it there by nightfall,” he looked at me and gave me a weak smile, “then we’ll have to sleep in middle of all this ‘winter wonderland’. Won’t that be perfect?”

“Winterville?” I asked with curiosity. “I never ever have heard of that place; does it have eternal winter or something?”

“Actually, yes. You may be asking how I know of it… well, when I was young, it was one the places I would visit with my friend when I snuck out from hell.” He giggled like a teenage demon. “It was really good. I never ate anything there, but the food smelt really good. Still, it was really cold. When I got back home my father always asked why I was wearing such woolly clothes. Good old times.”

“Very old,” Vinyl murmured with a smirk. I looked at her with a frown. “I mean, it’s always awesome to be really old. Like… imagine how you can be… awesome being old. Look… like an old king must be awesome!” she exclaimed. My father continued walking without paying attention to her.

I facepalmed and looked at Wub Wub, who was following us with a smile on his face. “See how stupid your owner is?”

“Hey, I’m not stupid! Your father is… he hates me.”

“He is worried and you keep doing and saying dumb things. That’s why he doesn’t pay you any attention,” I said, receiving a little laugh from her. “What did you expect me to say? Am I supposed to pretend you’re doing and saying super intelligent things?”

“I don’t want to get attention from him. But… he is my father in law. You know I could get used to just sitting around with the old demon there and drinking beer and doing that sort of stuff,” Vinyl murmured with a smile while looking at Dante, who walked looking at the sky as if something was going to fall, apart from the snow. “Oh, look, great, now we have even more snow.”

I could hear my father muttering a curse, but he was interrupted by Vinyl looking at me with a weird face. “What are you doing?”

“So…” she started. I could hear the beginnings of a laugh in her voice. “Talking about that old demon that is your father, what did you inherit from him? What are your powers? You can use something on me?” Vinyl smirked.

“Vinyl! I already told you that — I can’t use them on you, only my succubus ones, which I wouldn’t,” I said. She pouted and gave me those puppy-dog eyes. “I don’t know how to use my demon powers anyway. Just the disguise one, the one I’m using right now.”

“So that means you could easily use the succubus powers on me when we bang, but you don’t?” she asked. My eyes widened and I gave her a punch on the shoulder. “Hey! What I done now? I done nothing!” Vinyl exclaimed. “I’m just saying, what’s wrong? He must know we have sex. Everyone does that. You don’t need to worry so much.” She smirked.

“Oh you! Stop!” I pushed her to the side, blushing. “I hate when you start doing that. Like you need to flirt with me when we’ve been together so long!”

“Well, a truly romantic woman needs to conquer the heart of her love every single day,” Vinyl joked. She picked something up from the ground then looked at me. She had a little flower in hands. “Look how romantic I am, Buttavia.”

I took the flower from her hand. “You’re the very embodiment of romanticism. You’re just like Shakespeare. You are so very romantic, Vinyl, that I think I want to marry you right now. But in fact, that’s really sweet.” I leaned over and placed a kiss on her cheek. “Are you not entertained yet, Miss Scratch?” I asked.

“Actually… no. I’m not, but I will be. Maybe you could just pretend to use your succubus powers one day or dress like one. How about it? What does a succubus dress like anyway?” Vinyl looked straight at me and shifted her blue eyebrows, giving me another smirk.

“Vinyl you… I won’t even answer that — you know what I am going to answer,” I murmured putting my arms around my own body, trying to warm myself.

“Yes! That’s a ‘yes’ and I know it!” Vinyl stopped and did a little dance. “Right?” I just continued walking. “When you say nothing, that means ‘yes’. See? I’m going to have the best present of all!” Vinyl took the little black dog from the ground in her hands and whirled him around, celebrating. The dog didn’t understand, but he barked in excitement. “Now I’m not feeling bad about all this walking actually,” Vinyl put an arm behind my neck, cradling Wub Wub under her other arm. “Actually this really is a winter wonderland. Look at how beautiful the snow is, and…” She looked at all the white ground and smirked. “So Tavi… do you wanna build a snowman?”

“Vinyl?” I called her with my best ‘hey sweetie’ voice.

“What?” She looked back at me.

“Could you please do me a favor and… let it go?”

“Are ya’ going back there with me?” she asked smiling.

“Ugh you’re impossible…” I moaned and Vinyl laughed.

We continued walking. And walking. And walking even more. Stopping sometimes because of Vinyl or Wub Wub. Finally we saw a light and heard the sound of people walking. We arrived in Winterville before Dante predicted. Finally we could get out of the winter storm that came from the little vile and pass the night there just sitting around a fireplace drinking hot cocoa and rest in a warm bed. In preference with Vinyl next to me. And-

“Eyah!” screamed an excited female voice. “Welcome!” We all looked at her. She had a huge smile on face, white hair, and blue eyes. She really reminded me of Pinkie Pie somehow — maybe it was her intense excitement levels. The happy woman was accompanied by a big black husky that looked even more excited than his or her owner. “I’m Wind Cracker! And this is my cute lil’ boy…” Wind stroked the dog’s head and he barked. “… Steven!”

“Steven? Do you have a bird named Pearl too?” Vinyl interrupted. “Are you sure that’s a good name for a dog? Like really, Ste–” I gave her a punch on her shoulder. “Ouch! What? I’m giving my opinion here!”

“Sorry about Vinyl. She doesn’t think about what she says. Steven is sweet name. Wub Wub is good too, but weird, so your dog has a better name than ours.” I kindly smiled at her and Steven barked like if he knew what I said.

“Wait we… Wub Wub’s got a cool name! Rainbow and I named him! It’s super awesome. I couldn’t name him like… Beethoven. After all, he’s not that big dog that saves people in snowy places,” Vinyl mocked and raised an eyebrow. “You do remember what you wanted to call him, don’t you?”

“He would be named after the great Ludwig van Beethoven if you and Miss Dash hadn’t named him after a… beat.” I crossed my arms and frowned. Vinyl smiled. “You don’t even need to say it… I know it already,” I murmured and blushed, referring to the fact that I knew she would say she loved that face. We looked back at Wind, who was watching us with a weird smile. “Er… sorry about that. It’s just… you know. Hehe.”

“Nah, Tavi, she’s enjoying it.” Vinyl hugged me from behind and glared at her angrily. She just giggled softly. “So… Windy, have ya’ got some place for us to pass the night? It’s freaking cold out here.”

Wind scratched her head. “Hold on a sec… Oh, oh, oh! You’re that DJ! Vinyl Scratch, the great and famous DJ PON3?!” Wind asked, approaching Vinyl and observing her.

“Yep, the one and only!”

“Ooooh! I like your music. Here we mostly just have… country music and such, but I enjoy your music!” Wind hugged her, a hug that looked like it could break ribs. Vinyl’s eyes popped open. “And because of that… I think I might have a place for you three! Follow me!” She released a now winded Vinyl and led the way quickly towards an illuminated building with the sound of music emerging from it.

My father looked at us and we looked at him. We all shrugged. But by this point we had to stay somewhere or we would end up with hypothermia.

As we drew near, we saw it had a big sign that said The Barn. I could hear voices and upbeat music coming from inside and see the shadows of people drinking and dancing. After some time observing the place, we stepped in.

“Wow, I think AJ would like this a lot!” Vinyl said, raising her voice to be heard over the clamour of the room.

“I find it quite… amusing,” my father said, shaking his head and smiling — an expression that I hadn’t seen him make all day.

“So, you’re a hillbilly or something, old man?” Vinyl mocked and my father frowned.

“I am not… that. I just enjoy it.” He looked at the the bar where a barmaid was watching a fight between two drunken men with a smile. “I’m going to get a drink. I need to let go of all this stress for a moment.”

We watched my father going up to the bar and then I noticed Vinyl was looking at me with a smirk. “What’s that about?”

“You see? Your father knows what’s what! He knows that drinking solves everything!” Vinyl exclaimed and started laughing. “And you should—”

“Hey, could you do it?!” Wind’s voice was heard once again.

“What? You… it’s you. What do you mean by that? Do what?”

“Drop it to us! The Barn is my own saloon here in Winterville. I really wanted to give the customers some different music for a change.” Wind pointed at a mixing deck that looked like it had never been used. It was all clean and perfect. “I bought that waiting for some DJ to come here, but… well, when you live somewhere that just has winter all the time, people don’t really want to visit very often. So you’re the first DJ we’ve had,” she explained with a sad pout. “But you’re here now!” Wind exclaimed loudly. Vinyl jumped at her sudden loud squeal. “You can do it for me, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, I can. If you can let us stay somewhere here?”

“This place is also a hotel. See? Even your dog can stay here too!” She pointed to some stairs that led to a second floor. “You can stay. So you will do it?”

“Does this face looks like a ‘no’ to ya’, baby?” Vinyl said with swagger in her step. “These people sure won’t know what’s hit ‘em.” She said smiling with pride.

“Then it’s all yours!” Wind said excitedly with a fangirl-like smile. She grabbed a microphone. “Hey people!!! We have a visitor here!” Everyone stopped dancing. Even the music stopped. All eyes turned to Vinyl, who had already climbed up to the little stage. “We have Vinyl Scratch, the DJ PON3, bringing you a whole new sound! Enjoy it!”

Just as Wind jumped down from the stage, Vinyl started playing her music. I smiled and started walking up to the stairs. I looked back at the bar where my father sat drinking cider. He’s going to be fine…

Just as I was about to head up the stairs I heard a shout. “Hey, don’t even think about sneaking off, Tavi!” My eyes widened to hear Vinyl’s voice. She can’t tell me what to… “Here you go people, see my beautiful girl!” she pointed at me.

I waved, saying a little and weak, “hi,” and walked back up to the stage, standing beside Vinyl, who was jumping up and down. “What are you doing?” I whispered, nodding my head, pretending I was enjoying the music.

“Remember that day where we got all hungover?” I nodded. “You really need to do that. Not everything, but just drink and dance. Because we’re on… hold on…” She shifted a few dials and the music transitioned into a new song. “… We’re on an adventure, and, ya’ know, you need to let go of that stress just like your father is doing.” She smiled. “C’mon, jump with me.” She said and let out a big laugh.

I shook my head and laughed. “You know how much I hate you, don’t you, Vinyl?” I joked.

“I love you too, Tavi,” Vinyl said and got back to work. From time to time she talked with the audience, who seemed to be loving the music. Meanwhile I started to get into my ‘let’s just do it now and not even complain’ mode and started jumping.

After some time, Wind climbed back into the stage. “Hey people! Have you liked this?” Some people shouted. Wind gave Vinyl a punch in the shoulder making her smile. “It’s been fun, but it’s time to go!” The audience groaned audibly. “But someday DJ PON3’s gotta be back. Righty, Vi?”

Vinyl took the microphone. “Yeah. You’re all awesome… winter people!”

After that we got off the stage and Wind pointed to the bar. “My friend here can give you free drinks — you deserve it!” Wind said strolling behind the counter and taking a look at the purple-haired woman. “Right, Goodie?”

“But she–” Wind gave the woman a mad look. “Okay, okay, here.” She poured a beer and a glass of wine. “The elegant lady likes wine, am I right? Well I hope so. This is our very best.”

“Yes, thank you.” I accepted the glass and took a sip.

Vinyl murmured something and sipped at her beer. “So… what’s the name of your friend?”

“Good Drink, DJ. You can just call me Good. And you are Vinyl Scratch, the great DJ PON3 from Manehattan.” Good stopped and watched Vinyl with a little smirk appearing on the corner of her mouth. “Wind talks a lot about you. She knows everything about you. Where you live, where you’re going to play your next show, all the names of your tracks, all that kind of stuff!” she said with a mocking tone, looking at her white haired friend. “Aren’t you her number one fan, Windy?” Good smiled a malicious smile to her friend who was blushing as red as a tomato, trying to avoid Vinyl’s look. Vinyl somehow managed to avoid laughing.

Wind pushed her aside and turned back to Vinyl. “Hehe, yeah I kinda… I really enjoy your music, like I said before. But I’m not some kind of crazy chick that does all that weird stuff. I totally don’t have posters of you in my room!” Wind exclaimed looking angrily at Good Drink who stifled a laugh.

We looked at each other and Vinyl looked back at Wind. “What can I say? Nobody can resist this!” Vinyl pointed at her own body with a smirk and I raised an eyebrow and frowned. “What? You couldn’t, Tavi!” Vinyl said taking another beer.

“Wait a second…” I murmured between sips. “Where is my father?” I asked her, worried.

“No need to worry, umm…” She scratched her chin for some time. “Octavia. Octavia Melody. Wind told me that too! Beautiful name, I have to admit. Anyway, the weird old man is sleeping. I sent him to a room. He fell asleep, totally drunk. You know, he talked about a lot of odd stuff. Like really, your dad is freaking funny!” Good said, laughing.

“What was he was talking about?” I asked with a frown, taking another sip of my wine.

“Well… a wolf and how things could be less difficult.” Good scratched her head. “I wonder what a wolf has to do with that?!” She started laughing again. “And then the best part was the part about vampires, demons and some kind of bigger werewolves. Like if that was real.”

Vinyl looked at me and smiled, wanting to laugh. “My father can be really… crazy when he drinks too much. Hehe.” I smiled nervously. “Well…” I looked at a clock hanging in the wall. “I think it’s time to…”

“No, no, no… you should stay here like I said. It isn’t really cool to drink alone.” Vinyl leaned a little to the side and whispered through gritted teeth into my ear. “Especially when a crazy fan girl is right in front of you, staring into your eyes like she’s waiting for something from you.”

I giggled and shook my head. “You’re impossible, Vinyl. But I’ll stay here, of course. As you insist… please, Good, could I give some more wine?”

Good was resting on her elbows gazing at me with a stupid smile on her face. “But of course, my lady!” she said, standing up straight and pouring another glass. “Here, enjoy,” she smirked.

“Yes… er… thank you.” I drank some and they stayed in front of us. We looked at each other and nodded, like if for the first time we were agreeing on something. “Feel free to get on with your work or whatever. Don’t mind us. Good isn’t this place closed now? Isn’t it time for you to go?” I asked, looking around trying to avoid her stare.

She turned and looked at the clock. “Oh yeah! Thank ya’ for saying.” She took off the apron she had around her neck. “Bye to you all. And to you too, Miss Melody.”

“Uh… bye.”

With that she walked out from The Barn. Vinyl looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “Oh, Faust, she didn’t make what I think she was making to you, did she? She just… I think it’s better I don’t see her here in the morning,” Vinyl murmured angrily, pouring herself another beer.

I smiled weakly and stroked her face. “Oh, Vinyl,” I sighed, “you don’t need to be so protective of me.”

“Yeah, yeah. Now–” She downed her drink. “Don’t we think we should get up there and sleep, or… just relax.”

“That certainly sounds like a the most delightful idea, Miss Scratch,” I said, finishing my glass and giving her my best ‘bedroom eyes’. I stood up, watched by her and the curious eyes of Wind, and started climbing the stairs. “Are you coming?”

Vinyl widened her eyes and took a moment to understand what was happening, but then rose, excited with a can of beer in her hands and a big smirk. “Oh, Tavi, of course I’m coming!” she said. She called Wub Wub and started following me up the stairs with a big smirk on her face.

I just smiled.

I woke up in the morning with a wine bottle at my side, a beer can on the ground, a dog at my feet, and Vinyl holding me from behind. Well, I could easily live here if I woke up like that everyday, I thought, snuggling into the body of my DJ, and closing my eyes again slowly, until-

“OCTAVIA AND VINYL, COME HERE!”

I opened my eyes. It was my father calling. I sighed. Couldn’t I feel normal again just for one morning? Well, of course not. I’m Octavia Melody and that’s why I can’t… I looked back at Vinyl and I shook her. “Wake up sleepyhead, looks like Dante… I mean, dad wants to tell us something,” I murmured and waited some time. Nothing. I shrugged and let her sleep.

I rose, trying to not wake up Wub Wub, who rolled to the side. I put my clothes back on and left the room, bumping into my father in the hall, with an absolutely huge smile on his face. I raised an eyebrow. “Why are you so… happy like that? Did you catch a cold yesterday?”

“Of course not! But... I have an idea. An amazing plan!” he exclaimed.

“I thought we already had a plan…” I murmured.

“Yes, we’ve got… part of one. As soon as we get there tonight we–” he started, but I frowned and Dante looked at me in confusion. “What is that face?”

“Tonight?” I asked.

“Yes! We can be there tonight since I remembered exactly where it is, and I can teletransport us there, talk with her, and the exorcist, find out where the sword or something that can kill Fenrir is and… voila!” My father clapped his hands excited with his own plan. “Now, where is our key?”

“Key…?”

“Vinyl, of course.”

“I think our or your key is sleeping right now.” I pointed to the door I’d just come out of. “And I think that your… key better not be disturbed right now. I think we all should relax a little more. Whatever your plan is, I know it will work. But I really need to rest now, father.” I pouted, feeling my aching legs and arms.

“No, I must tell you everything, c’mon.” He walked into the other room and, patiently waited for me to catch up. “So, my plan is for Vinyl to get the sword and ‘give’ it to Fenrir. But when she is close to him…” he made a little wolf toy with his magic, and a little sword, and then he plunged the sword into the wolf's chest and the wolf disappeared. “Bam! It’s over. And I am almost completely certain that our precious object is the sword that everyone told us about, and if my night contacts are right, Amaka has the sword hidden with her!”

“Then… that’s all?” I asked.

“What were you waiting for?”

“Actually, I was waiting for the part where Vinyl doesn’t have to get herself in middle of all of our mess,” I murmured, looking to the side, and trying to avoid the mad and confused look from Dante.

“She stepped up when she decided to come here. She asked what was happening, you answered her, and here we are. She is a part of this now. If Vinyl hadn't asked, or you hadn’t answered, then she couldn’t have to be involved, but she did, and you did, so she is,” Dante said in a voice lacking emotion. “It’s not that I don’t like her, after all, as you can see, Vinyl is our key, but—”

I gave a long and peeved sigh, interrupting him. “I already know you don’t like her. You don’t need to lie.” I rose up from the little chair I was sitting on. “I just don’t think she needs to take part in this plan. She isn’t a demon or any weird creature like us. She doesn’t need to risk her life to fight our battle. This is our fight. I love my mother, but I do not think that getting Vinyl involved will help us get her back.” I walked to the door and before leaving, I turned. “Everything has its time. And everything has a right person to do it. Vinyl isn’t that person. I will not let her fight this battle, no matter what you say. I am sorry…”

I left the room, but I couldn’t help hearing my father muttering curses.

“Damn…” I murmured.

Chapter Twelve: What a Twist!

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I sat on a little couch in my room thinking about how that discussion had been foolish. I just didn't know what was happening to me… all that stress over such a stupid thing. Maybe Vinyl would just love to march in and save the day — she’s sure crazy enough. If she wanted to do it, I wouldn’t try to stop her… even though I loved her, I was tired of all these discussions, stress and emotions. In the last few days, everything that had happened had been absolutely ridiculous.

I looked at Vinyl in bed, with Wub Wub lying on her feet. How could she treat everything that was happening as ‘cool’ and normal? I don’t even know anymore. I sighed and got up. We had to go.

I shook Vinyl, but she just murmured something that I didn’t understand. After some time, she got up with an angry look. “Are you serious?! I was having the most beautiful of all dreams about a succubus. I was almost getting there… she was actually… but then I think that’s why she was calling my name,” Vinyl said while stretching. She turned back towards me. “Why the long face? You were supposed to curse at me, or give me a punch, or just give me a little smile, but you’re speechless. What’s happened?” Vinyl asked, moving to my side and stoking my leg.

“Long face? Well… nothing. Just thinking.” I rose and she gave me a sleepy look. “Don’t even thinking about going back to bed! We have to go, Sleeping Beauty!”

Vinyl rose with a long sigh. “Why I am here exactly?” she asked.

“I think it’s because you wanted to?” I said with a little laugh. I’d been asking myself the same question.

After doing our morning routine and packing our bags, we went downstairs, only to see my father buying a liqueur — at this time in the morning! — and adding in some pepper, which he’d gotten from who knows where. He turned to us with a smile. “Vinyl!” He got up, walked towards her and simply hugged her.

Vinyl widened her eyes. “Oh my gosh, have I done something wrong? Why you are talking to me like this and… hugging me? Please don’t kill me or send me to hell! I’m too young to die!” Vinyl begged, ignoring the fact that Wind Cracker was there — reading a book, but still able to overhear us.

“Vinyl!” I pointed at Wind, who kept her eyes on her book.

“Oh yeah, but she’d never imagine that I meant it literally.” She shrugged and Dante let her go. “So, old man, explain now what the hell’s happening? Have you gone crazy? Because I know you don’t like me… let's be honest here.”

Dante pretended to be surprised and offended when Vinyl said that. “Moi?! How could I hate you, Miss Scratch? How could I hate you when you’re going to help me? Unless someone wants go in your place,” Dante said putting an arm around Vinyl’s neck and pointing at me. I muttered a curse. “I will explain everything on our way to Amaka’s place. But if—”

“If you insist, then I am going to do it. Because I can’t let Vinyl. And I will not sit through another lecture from you about that,” I said with determination. The room went quiet, with even the sound of turning pages stopping. “Now we have to go,” I said, gathering up Wub Wub in my arms and turning to the door. “Let’s go.” I looked back at them.

Vinyl stared at my father with a smirk. “I have no frickin idea what you two are talking about, but… you know she makes a better leader than you do, right?”

“Shut up, DJ!”

“Now that’s the old man I know and love!” she exclaimed, receiving a sigh from my father.

Before we left, we thanked Wind for all her hospitality. The look in her eyes seeing Vinyl leaving was just… tragic. Well, too bad for her — I didn’t really like her. Not that I was jealous or anything — I just didn’t get on well with her, that’s all.

Our journey to Sand Mountains began quietly. From one hour to another, all the snow and cold wind left us to be replaced with hot sun and still air, and dry soil. Just a few scattered flowers that somehow managed to cling onto life in this parched environment. So that was the reason why this place was called the Desert of Roses. The most surprising thing was how the weather could change as quickly as it had, but the cold was certainly better than this. This wasn’t just a weird place, but a scary one. Why did the creatures here have to look so odd? I swear I saw a jackalope.

“So…” Vinyl began, “Why are you two giving each other the silent treatment? This is really boring. I don’t wanna die without someone talking. This will be like the most boring thing ever, if it happens. I think maybe the worst way to die is in a desert, going to see an enchantress, to get a sword to kill a big bad wolf called Fenrir, and no one says a damned thing!” Vinyl exclaimed staring at me and Dante disapprovingly.

We both sighed.

“He wants you to kill Fenrir,” I admitted, “but I don’t—”

“What?! Why not?! That would be awesome!” she exclaimed and my father looked at me with a smirk. “I could put it on my business cards: Vinyl Scratch, DJ extraordinaire, slayer of wolves, Savior of the… you know… the supernatural place… I dunno the name, but that would be cool!” Vinyl gave a friendly punch on the shoulder of my father. “You can count on me, old man.” She winked.

“See, my dear Octavia? What we have here is one determined Vinyl, and she will do it, no matter what you say!” he said with excitement. “Finally, she’s going to do something useful. Don’t you want to see her doing that? It would be a whole new thing for her!”

“Vinyl…” I murmured after a sigh. “Okay, we can do what you want. Who am I to try stop Vinyl Scratch?” I asked and she puffed out her chest proudly. “But if we get back alive, I think I’ll have to buy a dog house. And it isn’t for Wub Wub.” I gazed at Vinyl’s eyes behind her purple shades.

Vinyl shook her hands like she was in fear. “Look how scared I am, Buttavia!” Vinyl joked. “Everything’s gonna be just fine. And fine means good. So you can already stop being so overprotective about me, it isn’t like if I see a snake I’ll try to catch her. I’m not Neon after all,” Vinyl laughed a little more as we finally arrived at Sand Mountains.

“Wait a second… this isn’t a mountain.”

“It used to be, but then it got transformed into a sea and then into a giant forest,” my father explained. “Amaka must be in the middle of it, we will be there very soon.” Vinyl looked at me with a confused look, and I looked at my father with a very similar expression.

“A sea? That’s— Who could be powerful enough to do this?” I asked.

“Amaka herself… when she was younger and more powerful of course. When it was a mountain her pack would come to visit and stay for some time in the land, but when she got banned, she decided to create a sea here with a little island for herself. However she couldn’t maintain it for too many centuries, just years or… well, when Amaka was banned, another powerful magician cursed her and she’s just long-lived, so that’s why her power is draining away every single day she gets older.” He stopped, looking around and admiring the beautiful forest full of flowers in every tree. “Just to keep her life forces, to stop the spell from draining her, she had to unmake the sea, but she couldn’t build the mountains once again. Then she just left it like this.”

“Is your power going to… run out some day?” I asked and he nodded.

“I’m not immortal — as I said — I’m long-lived, so yes, my power will start getting weaker every single day until the day it runs out and I die. The same will happen to your mother, and to you.” Dante pointed at me. I’d never really thought about that day, but I was long-lived and Vinyl was not. What would happen to her?

“So…” I looked to Vinyl. “You mean I am going to live for years and even centuries, but Vinyl will not?” Dante looked back at me with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes. It’s natural. Everything in this life comes and goes. We can’t do anything about it. It’s just the rules, and neither Miss Death nor Faust can change that. Gaia made the world just like that and that’s the way it will be until the end of days,” he said simply, but it was true. I gave a look at Vinyl.

“We have an entire life in front of us. Why worry ‘bout that now, Tavi?” Vinyl smirked at my father. “Well at least we two have an entire life to live. Meanwhile, old man…” She shook her head and tutted. “He’s gonna—”

“Dante!” Vinyl was interrupted by the shout of a happy feminine voice, surprising us all. It was a old woman with white hair and a kind smile on her face. This was probably Amaka. “I got your letter! My helper has arrived and I’m here in the forest just to gather the last thing we need to perform the mortalization spell… rat paws! They’re disgusting… eck.” Amaka said as she revealed the little paws on her hand. She looked at us with curiosity. “Oh! This must be your daughter — she’s really beautiful.” She walked towards me and cupped my cheek with one hand.

I smiled nervously before pushing her hand away. “You must be Amaka. Nice to meet you. This is—”

“Oh, your famous DJ girlfriend! Your father told me everything about you and her and… this li’l cute doggie here.” Amaka stroked Wub Wub’s head with one hand. He barked with happiness. “Don’t worry, I have the sword already and this here.” She pointed at the little rat paws “These disgusting things are the last thing we need for the spell. My helper is over there trying to fix what she broke. She can be really… muddled if I say so.” She giggled. “C’mon! Your little dog can play with my manticore cub, Scar! Just follow me.” As soon as Amaka said that she transformed herself into a Lycan and ran down a forest path.

“Letter?” I asked my father.

“I wanted to get organized. Her new helper found the sword in The Abyss, so we don’t need to worry fighting a giant dragon. The dragon is actually there to protect his award,” Dante giggled as if something was funny. “It’s funny because his award was for eating a lot of muffins and cakes. So it’s a giant golden muffin award! Imagine that! Why would a dragon eat muffins?!” He laughed some more.

We raced after Amaka to her house, a little old shack made of wood. She transformed again. “Here we are!” She opened the door. It was small on the outside, but cavernous inside. Bottles of potions were everywhere and the manticore cub, Scar, was sleeping on a big couch. The place had books scattered liberally — on tables, chairs, shelves, and the floor. They were probably a lot of sorcery books. “Derpy, did you clean up the mess you made?” she called as she walked in.

Vinyl and I stared with widened eyes at each other. “Derpy?!”

“Wait a– heck, I was expecting another person not… Derpy Hooves. She’s our friend. She doesn’t look like a exorcist… c’mon just look at her… she is simply adorable!” Vinyl exclaimed pointing at the blonde woman with a shy smile on her face. “Well… what a twist!” Vinyl exclaimed with a smirk. “But for why do we need an exorcist if—”

“It’s always handy to have an exorcist when you’re trying to extinguish the immortality of a supernatural creature. Not just one, but two,” Amaka said as she threw the rat paws into a big kettle and the liquid inside of it reddened. “Ta da! There it is!” She looked towards Derpy who said something in another language as if she were casting some kind of spell on the sword. “Did you make it?”

“Wait… yeppers! Here it is!” Before she could pass the sword to her, Derpy let it fall on the ground. “Oops, sorry.” She retrieved it and Amaka finally accepted it with an excited smile.

“I still can’t believe that it’s Derpy,” Vinyl murmured. “Really did you—”

“Shhh! I need total attention. I can’t put too much of it into this sword or whoever touches it will die too!” Amaka exclaimed looking towards Vinyl angrily. She took out a little bottle and scooped up some of the liquid, carefully putting one single drop of it on the sword. “Finally, it’s done! After many hours of work, it is done!” She smiled and looked at Derpy then hugged her.

“Oh wait….” Derpy murmured, “so you are a demon?”

I facepalmed. “It’s a long story. I can tell you later, but only if you tell us how could you be an… exorcist that also helps a magician in middle of a magic forest.” I said and she smiled to us.

“Now I have to go.” Derpy starting walking, but on her way she crashed into a little table and dropped a bottle of potion. She looked at Amaka with a nervous smile. “Ooops… I just don’t know what went wrong this time… sorry, hehe.” Derpy walked out.

I looked at Vinyl and she still looked shocked. “I just– I don’t even know what the hell is happening anymore. Who’s next? Rainbow? Rarity? Soon somebody will be telling me Fluttershy is half-bat!”

“You never know,” my father said with a grin.

“Now as you’re all here and you are going to do a favour to the whole world tomorrow, how about a dinner tonight? You can help me out with it! We have rats and fish today!” Amaka exclaimed.

“Eck, hell no!”

“Vinyl! I—”

Amaka laughed. “I’m just kidding. This might be your last dinner, so it has to be something good! I may be old and live in a forest, and I also can be a little bit crazy sometimes, but I still make good food. We’ll have hamburgers today.” Amaka licked her lips, “Meanwhile make yourselves feel at home. I have magic to help me with the cooking.” She giggled and went out to what was probably her kitchen.

“Well… this escalated quickly. Tomorrow we will do it?”

“Yes. Tomorrow night everything will be fine. Everything will be back to normal and this stupid adventure and war in the supernatural world can be over forever,” Dante murmured, sitting back in a couch, with a determined look on his face. “Tomorrow we will end this thing.”

Chapter Thirteen: Rescue in the Midnight

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Dante gazed out through the window of Amaka’s guest room. To a stranger looking back, his absent expression would have betrayed none of the determination I could tell he was feeling. The room was illuminated only by the full moon and the light of a single candle. The fresh night air wafted through the small opening in the window, carrying with it the sound of a distant howl. Dante nodded with a cynical smile.

I sat in a little wooden chair thinking. Amaka’s house might have been in middle of the forest, but it was quite cozy. She had everything she needed there: a place to make her potions and spells, her own library, a large kitchen, a research laboratory, even a pool room! Amaka had said she’d created it with one single spell only thinking about her dream house. Even the guest room looked good — with two beds, a large window, a snooker table, an antique piano in the corner, and a big dog bed that actually belonged to Scar, but where Wub Wub was currently relaxing having spent some time playing with Scar, the manticore cub.

My father glanced at his watch. “It’s midnight right now. Let’s go. The sooner we get there, the sooner we will end this.” He rose from the bed and walked to the door, opening it and being received by Amaka with a smile, as always. She looked really happy most of the time. I think Pinkie Pie and Amaka would go really well as friends. Or maybe they would make a big mess… okay, maybe it’s better not think about what would happen if they met, I thought remembering how I had met Pinkie, and it wasn’t with the help of Vinyl.

“You’re already going?! But I’ve just made a chocolate cake… with ice cream on the top. You can’t simply walk away at the best part!” Amaka exclaimed as she entered the room carrying a dish with a slice of cake on it and gave it to my father. “C’mon, it’s cake. I want to see him dead of course but… it’s cake. You can’t go into battle on an empty stomache, can you?” Yes, she and Pinkie would definitely be best of friends.

“Sorry, Amaka,” my father began with a kind smile, “maybe we can have cake to celebrate when we end this. I can even bring Eisheth here. I think you would be happy to see her again and I know she would be happy to see you. But now” — he walked through the door — “we must go. Thank you for everything, Amaka.”

“I would ask Faust bless you, but I don’t think you want that. So I will just wish good luck on your rescue,” she said as we walked downstairs. “The sword is right there,” Amaka pointed to Vinyl with a smile. She was practicing attack movements with it while Scar watched her with his dark blue eyes, curious.

My father walked to Vinyl and took the sword from her hand. “Hey! I was just practicing. I’m going to do it, right?” Vinyl said, puffing out her chest. “But I don’t think we even need that dumb cursed sword! My bass cannon—”

“No, you’re not — I am. I know my own plan, and that is me getting this sword while someone else distracts Fenrir, making him turn his back so I can hit him with the sword, killing him. That’s it. None of this involves you.” I pointed at her and after a second I heard a funny laugh coming from Dante.

“You think Fenrir is an idiot? He might look like one, but he is not. He is a Lycan and his species have the best senses after Vampires. He could hear you coming from half a mile away, and probably smell you too.” He stopped and crossed his arms, but then gave me a grin. “Of course, if you think you can do it… I will let you. I believe you are strong just like me and your mother. You can be stronger than him if you want to.” Dante walked to me and gave me the sword. “I’m sure you can do it.”

“Oh, but… oh, go to heck with it!” Vinyl snort crossing her arms and looking away.

I smiled and walked to her. “You look like a kid that didn’t get her Christmas present, Vinyl. Silly.” I leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek. I heard Amaka let out a little ‘aww’ so I turned back with a expression full of curiosity and a blush on my face. I looked back at Dante who was playing with Scar now. “We must go now” — I turned to Amaka — “I promise we will come back and eat some cake.” I gave her a kind smile and she answered that with a tight hug. “Uuugh, Amaka you… you’re breaking my back…”

“Oh, sorry, hehe. Oh! Here’s a thing…” Amaka turned back to get something from the table. “A flower. But a special one — it’s the lucky daisy. Like the name suggests, it’s supposed to give you luck.” She put the beautiful green flower behind my ear. “It also makes you more beautiful,” the old woman said as we walked to the door.

I blushed. “Thanks.”

“Thank you for everything, Amaka. Before I get back to Tartarus, I’ll be sure to have some cake because I know you bake the best around here!” My father winked at her. “Now let’s go. I’ll teletransport us there and we will do what I said. We just need to seem as trustworthy as we can, but lie.”

“Good luck, you will all need it.” Amaka waved with a kind smile, but then her eyes widened. “Oh, and don’t forget to—” Before Amaka could say anything else a big glow appeared just like the first time Dante had teleported us. It was a weird feeling — I felt faint, with the black from my vision becoming first white then every colour of the rainbow, with odd images and stars everywhere. It was not the best sensation to feel.

With a “fiuu” sound we fell to the ground. It was probably the worst part of being teleported. Vinyl growled something and got up with Wub Wub in her arms, looking around. “They sure have a big place here, right? A spooky castle in middle of a forest. Is there any better way to enjoy your night?” She joked and my father rolled his eyes, standing up. I giggled and shook my head at Vinyl.

‘Stop complaining. It could be a lot worse than this,” I said as Vinyl walked beside me and gave a laugh that echoed through the place.

“Yeah, it sure could — like an old pizzeria full of furry looking animals trying to kill you and get you stuffed into an animatronic suit!” Vinyl exclaimed and I rose an eyebrow. Vinyl grinned at me. “What?”

“You’ve been playing too much of that silly game with Pinkie and Rainbow Dash, haven’t you?”

“It isn’t a silly—! It’s…” She started, but stopped when her shout disturbed a group of bats nested in a scary old tree beside the castle entrance. The bats flew at us. My eyes popped open and I let the sword fall. I grabbed at Vinyl’s arm, pulling her down to the ground to protect her from the aerial assault, closing my eyes and covering our heads with my hands. What could I do? It was an instinct.

I opened my eyes when I heard Vinyl laughing at me. I gave her a little punch, blushing and then picking the sword up from the ground.

“Now you’re scared, huh, Tavi?” Vinyl gave one last laugh and gave me a playful kiss.

We became silent as we listened to the wind and looked around the place. It wasn’t the nicest place — an old castle in middle of a forest with legends about giant wolves, a death garden full of twisted scary-looking long-dead trees, and bats watching us with their glowing eyes, as if they were waiting for something. I could hear the howling of wolves getting closer as we approached the castle.

From outside it was bad, but from inside it was worse. I would have preferred to meet Fenrir in middle of the forest — at least there would be no pictures hanging on the walls that seemed to be staring at you and plotting something. There was a large portrait of Fenrir there — he was smiling proudly in his human form. We all stopped to look at it. Everything was silent there.

Wub Wub let out a bark, making me jump as I was so focused. He jumped out of Vinyl’s arms, dashing up the giant old wooden staircase, leaving footprints in the thin layer of dust covering the ornate stair carpet. “Wub Wub, where the hell d’you think you’re going?!” Vinyl exclaimed beginning to run after the little dog. She stopped and looked at us. “Are you two staying here, or are you going to do something?”

My father shrugged and so we followed the dog’s path. The castle was full of empty suits of armour, and decorated with the mounted heads of animals like deers and elks on the walls — probably the kinds of animals that Lycans hunt. The next room however had nothing to do with the Lycans — they only had new things there: a big table with wine that… wasn’t really wine, red curtains, a golden carpet, more pictures — everything new. Given that the alliance made with the Vampires was new, I would judge that this was their dining room.

We passed through a lot of rooms, going upstairs and downstairs to finally find out what Wub Wub was wanting to show us. We looked at it through a window, trying to hide: the place where Fenrir and Nosferatu were. A big old hut where not just they, but some other Vampires and Lycans were talking, guarding or just joking around in the case of the stupid ones. It was the voice of my mother that had helped Wub Wub find them — Eisheth was talking with Fenrir in an angry tone and Fenrir didn’t seem to like it. His patience seemed to be wearing thin that night.

“Okay,” Dante whispered. “It’s a big place, and that means we have room to fight. I’m going to do some negotiations with Fenrir. Use your magic to hide the sword — you can finally show your true form. You know what to do after this, right?” he asked me and I nodded, taking off my bowtie. Suddenly wings and a pointy tail appeared with not a glow, but black smoke. “Great,” my father said with a smile. “You look good.”

Vinyl stared. “Wow…” That was the only thing that came from her mouth. I giggled and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

He turned to Vinyl. “The Vampires might look loyal, but they are not. The first opportunity they see, they’ll betray him and leave without saying a word. We don’t need to worry much about them. Just don’t get bitten, Vinyl.”

“Sure, old man. Hey… being a vampire would be cool, no?” Vinyl looked at me with a smirk. “Our love story would be better than—”

“Complete that phrase and I will punch you, Vinyl,” I said slowly to make it clear. She shut up and tried to hold in her laugh. I sighed and smiled at her silliness.

“Shall we go?” I asked.

My father nodded determined and finally walked up to the door and opened it.

“Where is this— Oh, Dante, my friend! You know what they say: ‘speak of the devil…’,” Fenrir said in a cheerful tone before turning back to Eisheth who was tied to a chair to one side of him. She growled, but as soon as her eyes came to us, my mother gave us a loving smile, though a weak one, Fenrir having already taken her powers away. “And we have a family reunion tonight. Maybe this will bring peace to everyone for once.” He smirked at my father. “So… give it to us. As my dear friend here has taken your wife's power, I will have yours.”

“But first: the Red Rock…” my father said, clenching his teeth, his eyes following Fenrir's actions.

“Oh, but of course!” Fenrir exclaimed. Then we heard a click coming from the door behind us — it was locked now. “Now that no one can go away running away, here… take it.” Fenrir levitated the Red Rock with his magic and put in my father’s hands. “It’s all yours, Dante.”

Vinyl nudged me. “Those Vampires won’t stop looking at me like that… I’m getting nervous…” she whispered.

“And what about my wife?” Dante asked.

“Meh… here… have her. I was getting sick of her constant whining anyway.” He untied her and pushed her off the chair, making Eisheth to fall in the ground. She was looking older and frail, and even though she wasn’t wearing the necklace that usually gave her her disguise, she was missing her wings and fangs. My father helped her get up. “Now you have your side of the bargain.” He knelt on the ground, closing his eyes.

Vinyl nudged me again. At her prompt I sneaked slowly behind Fenrir, sidling up to a Lycan who looked at me with suspicion. I gave him a smile. “Uh… I think Brad is calling you, hehe.” I pointed at a guard who was almost sleeping.

“Brad? His name is… Dingo!” he exclaimed.

“His name is Dingo Brad Alaska. That’s his name. How can I know more than you?” I said and he shrugged. He walked away and finally I could do it: I used my magic to draw the sword, while everyone was paying attention to Fenrir reciting his last words before he could take my father’s powers.

“Fenrir!” a Vampire exclaimed and I raised the sword quickly but nervously, holding onto it tight. “She has the sword!”

“Huh?” Fenrir turned to me with a mad look and then to my father. “You didn’t just do that…” Fenrir snapped his fingers and suddenly Vampires and Lycans pounced towards Vinyl. But she was agile and strong enough, dodging and beating up her opponents with the help of the brave little Wub Wub. “And you!” Fenrir turned shouting. He waved his hands, casting a spell in my direction. I closed my eyes and pointed the sword in front of me, trying in some way to deflect the magic.

I heard my name being screamed — Vinyl — but after second, I felt nothing. After a minute, nothing. I opened my eyes and I was alive. I was okay. The fight had stopped. Everything was silent now, because a body was lying on the ground. Vinyl, she saved me… I widened my eyes and automatically ran to her. “Vinyl… why did you did that?”

“See what love brings?!” Fenrir said and laughed at me. “It hurts. At least now you know that. Now…” he turned to my father, not paying any attention to me.

Tears started rolling in my face, but I didn’t care if I looked pathetic. Wub Wub came to my side licking my hand, like he was trying to comfort me. I rested my face on Vinyl’s chest for a moment, hearing nothing. “Why… you know I love you… so why did you do that to me? To us?” I whispered, sobbing and ignoring the fact that Fenrir had begun to draw on my father’s powers, to get what he needed. “I know you can be idiot sometimes. You can drive me mad with your craziness, but that’s what make it count. That’s why I love you… I loved you…”

I closed my eyes, but I felt a hand going through my hair. I opened my eyes in surprise. “You really thought I (cough) would stop annoying you so soon, Tavi?” Vinyl said in a weak voice. I couldn’t help giving the tightest hug I’d ever given her and a kiss — not a normal one, but one that made me feel butterflies in my belly. When we finally separated, I shook my head.

“Why you did that?!” I exclaimed.

“Did I ever said you look mad when you’re beautiful, Octavia?” Vinyl asked with a smile, making reference to my favourite TV series. “And I love you too. But I think you have a butt to kick, right?”

I nodded and gave her a last kiss. I took up the sword, watching my father fall on the ground, weak without his powers. Fenrir had finally gotten all of it. “And now your little—”

“No, Fenrir! (cough) She wasn’t part of the deal!” Dante exclaimed, his eyes flicking towards me.

“Shut up!” Fenrir shouted as he turned to me. “You—”

But I was faster than he was — one strike sent the sword straight through his heart. Everyone gasped and my father smiled, saying a little “yes” as his powers spilled back into his body, and he rose like a whole new demon.

Nosferatu growled and walked towards me. “Don’t take another step. Get out of here and never come back, or you will go the same way he did,” I said slowly and Nosferatu stopped, looking around. His minions were beginning to back away. “If you come back, I’ll not be afraid to use my powers and this sword against all of you, one by one. And give Eisheth’s powers back!”

Nosferatu gulped. “Eh… very well, we are going now.” Nosferatu said some words in a odd language and a blue glow appeared around his body, radiating towards my mother’s chest.

“Let’s go!” Nosferatu announced to his followers. They followed the Vampire leader. Before he walked out the door, he turned to my father. “Well played, Dante. Very well played.” With that they ran through the fog, disappearing into the night.

I gave a large sigh, letting the sword fall down and glanced at Fenrir's body with a satisfied smile. “I think it’s over now.”

“Yes it is.” My mom walked to me and gave me a hug. Soon my father looked at us and joined us, and then Vinyl did the same. “I think we’d better go home now. I need one more week with my daughter before we go back to hell after all this mess.”

“I agree with you, Eishe,” Vinyl said with a smile. “Eishe… cool nickname, right?”

I giggled. “You’re so silly, Vinyl…”

“Oh, but that’s why you love me! You said it!” Vinyl exclaimed.

Finally, peace.

Epilogue

View Online

Some months after the rescue…

I was sitting with Vinyl and the girls on our couch as we watched my father tell stories — telling them about our little adventure, but in a way so that they wouldn’t know what had actually happened.

It was cold; it was winter. My parents hadn’t liked the idea of coming back for New Year’s Eve but they’d come anyway. Dante had given up on the idea of forcing me back to hell again and the surprise was: he would soon have another heir. I would have a little brother or sister — I admit I was excited about that. Maybe the solution for everything had always been there.

“And so… bang!” My father exclaimed and Fluttershy jumped in surprise, making Pinkie Pie laugh at her. I could understand why Fluttershy hated the story. “I killed the wolf with the help of my daughter — actually a lot of help. Octavia has some skills with a ‘gun’.” He smiled at me, “Who knew that all that could happen in mere days?!”

“Y–you really did that? You…” Fluttershy started with her usual low voice. I smiled nervously, trying to not admit that I’d literally killed a giant wolf. Knowing how much she loved animals, she would faint or feel sad for him. I couldn’t say anything — she didn’t know that this ‘wolf’ was a monster.

“Well, you see… father is just exaggerating!” I tried to explain. “We never killed the wolf. We just sent him away, shooting at the sky so he was afraid and ran away. That’s all that happened.”

“But he said that the wolf was dead! Your father is lying then!” Rainbow Dash said glancing at Dante, who just shrugged from his armchair.

“I knew he was! I know when someone is lying,” Applejack added.

“No, uh…” I scratched my head for a moment. “He did die. A bear killed him. He had a terrible fight, but unfortunately the bear was stronger than him.” I finished with a little laugh.

“Meh, I could do it! And with the bear!” Rainbow said proudly.

“Yeah, sure ya’ could. Someone who ran away from a dog could easily take on a huge wild bear without a gun.” Applejack raised an eyebrow giving a little giggle as Rainbow crossed her arms making a pout.

“I already told you that the dog was rabid… okay?! I could have taken him on if he wasn’t!”

“Oh you wouldn’t hurt a dog or a wolf or even a bear… right, Dash? Even if it was attacking you?” Fluttershy asked.

Rainbow’s eyes widened and she laughed nervously. “Eh… Of course not! Animals are friends! My name is Rainbow ‘Naturalist’ Dash!” Rainbow exclaimed receiving a smooch from Fluttershy, making her smile proudly again. Applejack shook her head at Rainbow’s actions.

As we went on with our stories and talks, Dante got up to go to the balcony. He seemed much happier since my mother’s news and I could understand why. I followed him with a smile seeing him sitting on the couch there and observing the stars with a smile. “You’ve made me very proud, you know right? Even if you don’t want to be the princess of Hell or whatever,” he said without looking at me as I sat beside him. “It’s your life after all.”

I didn’t say anything, I just gave Dante a little hug. He looked at me confused. “You’ve already told me that before, you don’t need to… worship me.” I giggled.

Dante blinked for a moment looking at me. “Oh, but… you give me such happiness. You’ve proved that any supernatural creature can have a normal life here. Sometimes, before visiting you, I’d thought of staying here. But a king has his duties — I can’t leave Hell forever — it would be a mess! You know how people there can be mad, crazy and other not so good things,” he said sharing a laugh with me.

“You must be really happy now, right? With that amazing news from mother,” I said remembering how he’d arrived here all ‘oh my gosh what I am going to do?’ with a giant smile on face.

“Oh, I was! And I am! But it was quite surprising to me and your mother looked so crazy about it.” Dante laughed. “She jumped around the castle and said that we had to see you as soon as possible to tell the news. But I must admit: I’m nervous about it…” He scratched the back of his head blushing.

“Why? You were such a good father to me and…” I sighed. “You are awesome, dad. Even with everything that happened in the past, it’s in the past. I bet he or she will love to be a prince or a princess. Just because I didn’t want to, doesn’t mean they won’t!” I exclaimed.

He nodded. “But it has been such a long time since I took care of a kid… it’s hard work, you know. Fun of course, but tiring. I’ll have to bring him here to meet you! You’ll need to learn to yourself, after all.” My father smirked.

I rose an eyebrow. “Learn to… oh, you!” I gave him a playful punch on the shoulder. “I’m not planning anything like that yet.”

“Oh, but I would so love a grandson or granddaughter!” he exclaimed playfully. “I would feel even more proud to have another little demon, but from you.”

“Maybe later,” I said between a laugh. Much later… “Father, I-”

“Hey, let’s go! Only three minutes until midnight!” we heard Pinkie screaming from inside. She came jumping onto the balcony full of her usual happiness and smiles.

The girls, my mom, and Vinyl came outside to wait for the fireworks. “Hey, Buttavia, thinking about life again this time with your father? Neeerd.” Vinyl mocked me and I gave her a punch.

As midnight came we watched the fireworks and set off some of our own, wishing everyone a happy new year. But what a year! It’s not every year that you tell your girlfriend that you’re a half-demon half-succubus. Maybe next year it would be time to tell the girls?

“You know… remember when I said I’d give you a surprise some day for being so good to me?” I asked Vinyl. She nodded. “Well, you always wanted to see me dressing like a true succubus, right?” I whispered. Her eyes popped open and she flashed me a huge smile. “Guess what’s going to be your new year’s present!”

“I’m liking where this is going,” Vinyl said, “but wait!”

“What?”

“Next year you’ll turn me into a vampire, right? Pleeease!”

“Oh, Vinyl…”