> Anger Management > by Black Hailstorm > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > The Fury of A Demon Prince > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today, was a special day for Equestria. It marked the birth of the first alicorn ever born into existence. And it also marked the birth of her crystalling. Princess Flurry Heart’s ceremony had been scheduled and Princess Celestia and Luna both were due at the Crystal Empire along with the Element Bearers and the newest princess, the Princess of Magic, Twilight Sparkle. And so prior to them leaving Princess Celestia and Luna both ordered their guards to keep an eye out for any trouble while they were away and they would be back only shortly. On the slight chance anything bad were to happen Luna did give Flash Sentry the order to use force to take care of it, while Celestia gave the newest commanding officer of the Royal Guard the authority to call them back if the crisis were dire. And by dire Flash knew she meant world ending, as the young captain had noticed the princess of the sun had been quite excited, however very low-key about the chances of her niece giving birth to another alicorn. All the guards knew how excited both royal sisters were no matter how calm they seemed on the surface. Even when they were leaving and as their orders were being given out all guards knew their princesses were happy about such a truly wondrous and special occasion. The slight twinkle in their eyes giving them away, to which Celestia merely smiled at before departing with her sister. Everything was going to go just perfect Flash had thought later the following day. But let's face it, it wasn't. No evil unicorn bent on regaining control of his former empire, no deranged centaur demolishing systems and ripping away the very magic that inhabited every living inhabitant of Equus, no Discord being.... Flash shivered, Discord. It was just going to be him, the Royal and Lunar guard watching over a serene and peaceful Equestria and listening in for any reports on how the newly born alicorn’s crystalling was doing. “Yup” Flash said with a peaceful smile as he stared out on the city of Canterlot. “Everything’s going to be alright for once.” That statement had been made four hours ago. Flash Sentry had never been so wrong in his entire life. Four hours. That’s all it took. He couldn’t take it anymore. Four hours of petting his bunny over and over and over again, and that was it. Tom couldn’t do it. He had to get rid of this anger somehow. He just had to or else he’d snap! He’d probably end up burning one of his skeleton butlers again. And this time he swore on his seven headed dragon that if that one particular butler decided to make puns again every time he lit something on fire or his hair started moving like an inferno Tom, swore that he would do everything in his power to, BURN THAT LITTLE SHORT, BLUE JACKET WEARING, BROTHER LOVING, SKELETAL JESTER- ALIVE! “Tom” Brian’s voice called gently from across the lengthy corridor. Tom glanced over at his coach and nodded his head with a forced smile that exposed all his pointy teeth meant for ripping into who knows what when irked. Okay take it easy. Tom said to himself, He's right you need to relax he agreed upon noticing some of the art he was now viewing in his home’s built in art museum beginning to go a bit on the burnt side. “Just breath in and out. Breath in, breath out” there. Tom reasoned petting his bunny gently, while Brian watched from the sidelines with a smile. “Feeling better there bud?” Brian, a human therapist and coach to the young demon prince asked. Tom merely nodded slowly as he pet Mr. Fluffy, the bunny. “Yeah” Tom said with a slight smile. This in turn made Brian smile. The young demon prince had been through a lot. Struggling with all the pent up anger he had was natural for him as a demon, even more so since he was the heir to a demon king, but it had only increased ten fold ever since the prince had lost his girlfriend to it. The fallout at the special dance that also only comes once every 667 years didn’t help anymore with Tom’s anger either so it had sent them back quite a bit in the progress they had made. But after two months of work and patience, Tom was slowly making a recovery and controlling his anger again. Perfect Brian thought. But now looking back, he probably shouldn’t have thought that. Because Brian seemed to forget an important thing that was a part of human life ever since he’d become this powerful demon heir’s caretaker. Every time you say something is good or perfect after a bad moment. Karma tends to come right out of its rundown apartment and kick you when your least expecting it. “Do you smell that?” a distant voice from within the large home asked. Brian raised an eyebrow in the direction of the door in confusion. “Was it that jacket wearing skeleton and his scarf wearing, pasta enormed brother again?” He always forgot their names even now. “Is it my spaghetti brother?” “No no. I mean it could be? Maybe it’s because we’re in a highly flammable house or it’s either because we’re staying with a demon prince but don’t you smell something....” Tom internally began to cringe as he knew what was coming next. “Cooking?” the other voice said with the intention of making it sound funny. Tom’s right eye twitched. The voices were getting closer. Those two brothers better not show up here, they’d been a thorn in his side for the past few weeks and didn’t help quell the prince’s anger at all. If they came in now all the work Brian had worked for would be ruined and that would only make Tom angrier. Luckily Brian seemed to be moving to stop this from happening due to his own curiosity. Unluckily the skeleton brothers were faster. “Your Hot-headedness” the shorter skeleton winked. “I see you’ve been practising your red colors today haven’t you?” Tom’s eye twitched again. He’d begun petting the bunny rapidly at this point unaware that just below his feet red burning flames had begun emanating from the ground. The shorter skeleton proceed to continue with his skit. With that normal grin of his the shorter skeleton continued. “Tom. I didn’t know you had such a burning passion for art.” Brian also now took notice of this ‘burning passion’ and instantly began shaking his head for the older of the two to stop. “Yans right? Please stop” Brian internally begged, hopping he didn’t just mess up this skeleton’s name and also hoping he’d notice how quiet Tom had gotten. But he didn’t. In fact Yans continued with his puns for the next two minutes unaware of the eerie silence but completely aware of the burning smell that now surrounded Tom, which only encouraged the joke loving skeleton to roll pun after pun off of that. Finally it was his brother who ended up delivering the final blow that would ultimately set Tom off once and for all. “Whew is it hot in here?” The taller skeleton of the brothers asked. And in truth it was. In fact Brian had begun to sweat a bit because of the heat Tom was emanating. But to Tom who had just heard horrible pun after horrible pun while trying to focus his attention on art that was in all honesty rather boring, this only sounded like another bad joke at his expense. But if anything that wasn’t the sad part. The sad part was The Great Warrior as the taller one liked to call himself was only asking a question, not making a joke. That made no difference to Tom though. Upon hearing those words escape the tall one’s bony mouth, all three of Tom’s eyes turned red, then the entire art room ignited like a furnace. With everything catching on fire and flames gushing out of the ground like geysers Brian immediately began to rush out so he wouldn’t get burned as he quickly snatched up Mr. Fluffy along with him and shooing the two brothers out before they cause anymore trouble. And the sad thing was, the one who loved spaghetti so much and had asked the question was just doing that. Asking a question. With the entire art room of his home now burning crisply to the ground, all Tom could do was see red. Images of his past with Star Butterfly began flashing through his mind, every chance he’d had to make something right only ending up ruined by someone or something else. Images of all the times these two skeletons had just suddenly appeared in his life and only made his anger even harder to control. Images of that stupid guy, Marco, who ruined his one chance to get back together with Star flashed briefly into Tom’s head and it only made the demon prince grit his teeth and began violently hissing evil whispers so profane that the walls around him began to rot. And then just as soon as it all began, everything...stopped. Tom’s eyes lost their alluring red glow. His flames subsided, the demonic tongues he’d been speaking ceased, the walls stopped burning, art stopped charring, nothing no longer melted, everything had stopped rotting. And that’s when Tom’s mouth formed into one of realization as he recalled something that had made him begin this boring act of staring at art to begin with. The one thing Brian told him before he hastily made his way out, no doubt to wait for him to calm back down. “I need to channel my anger into something else.” Tom muttered to himself. “Art didn’t work. Dancing didn’t help” he still had to pay for the seven dance schools he’d laid waste destruction after one of his classmates had accidentally shoved him during practice one time. And that’s when insight hit him. “Another dimension!” “Another dimension!” he repeated. Digging his hand into his pocket the demon prince pulled out a ruby encrusted handle fashioned customly for his whistle. His servant whistle that is. Blowing on it, not a second later did a troll appear before the prince in a butler’s suit. “Yeeeees?” the troll stretched. “Farquad open a portal within the fabric of space for me. I’d like to go somewhere where I can....vent” he said after a few seconds of thought on the right word. “But of cooourse your highness.” Digging into his pocket and pulling out a pair of gold encrusted handle- scissors the troll cut a hole within the fabric of space and watched as an image began to form within it. “How about this place your majesty?” Tom looked through the portal and stared at the dimension he was being shown. “What is it called?” “I believe it is called. Equestria sir.” “Equestria? Equus like horses?” “I am not sure sir but I would assume as such, yes.” Tom pondered over this for about two seconds before shrugging. “Whatever helps me get rid of this stress. Tell the inhabitants of this town that I’m here due to health issues and require they evacuate their city before I arrive. If not they can leave while I’m burning things to the ground.” The troll nodded and in an instant was through the portal. Upon his return the troll informed Tom the deed was done, but failed to inform him that no one had really payed any attention to the butler in the process. Tom entered the portal expecting the town to be empty by the time he was there, but instead he got something else. How long does it take to stir up trouble? It really depends on the situation one is in. For some it can take little to no time, within one second out the door the world is crumbling at their feet. For others it takes time to figure out how to cause a mess and how they want it to go, and for few (if you're like me) you don't really care about how much of a mess you cause you just care about the fun you're having while doing it, so trouble comes natural to you. In this case however it took twelve seconds. Twelve seconds was all it took to stir up chaos. That’s all you really need to cause panic. Even less so if you’re a human that suddenly draws a gun in a convenience store or mall screaming "Where are the nachos?!" For Tom it took merely his presence and the glowing red of all three of his eyes to show the inhabitants of this world that he did not come as friend, but foe. That had taken four seconds. The rest of the eight were spent with him allowing his anger to take over him entirely, throwing flames onto houses or business establishments and listening to the screams and panic of ponies of all ages as the demon prince released his hell fire upon this world. It was, satisfying to say the least. Tom had to admit he never felt more alive as he watched a candy store get burnt from the roof going down, watching the store clerk come out at him infuriated only to see the very color drain off his face when the stallion got a good look at Tom was even more funny than the demon prince had to admit he’d like to have felt but regardless doing this was diminishing the burning hatred he’d felt for these past few months. Burning down these homes that he’d plan on rebuilding once he was done with their destruction. Besides he’d already warned the inhabitants of this town that he’d be destroying their homes for the greater good of them and his own sanity. But then again it didn’t seem to occur to Tom that when he had said this in a demonic voice that chilled the very bones of most of the inhabitants of Canterlot and made four other mares faint, it never occurred that amidst the fear he was causing none of them would register he was doing this because it was good for his own health’s sake. Perhaps Brian was right. Maybe channelling his anger into something else that didn’t remind him of everything that set him off would help him have better control of this volcano waiting to burst. Maybe if he got everything under control again he’d finally have another shot with Star even. Or better yet have enough control to kick those two boneheads out of his realm for good. “Yeah” Tom thought with a slight smile that only made what he was doing to someone’s home look even more morbid than it should be. But just as soon as his smile had appeared, it was soon erased when he felt a bolt of magic hit him in the back and ruin his suit. The flames coming out of Tom’s hand stopped, but the flames that were now licking and burning four other homes had not. Tom stopped, turned his head in a 180 degree angle and looked at his attacker. A unicorn guard wearing gold armor stood with a scowl on his lips followed by several other ponies of different races. Pegasi and Earth ponies were the dominant of this group, but the unicorn seemed to be its current leader. “Ace!” the head unicorn said to a pegasus just beside him. “Get Flash over here quick. Tell him we’ve got trouble and this needs to be dealt with before the princesses get back.” The light blue pegasus saluted with a wing and took off, Tom watched with little interest. At this point Tom was starting to get a bit confused. Did they not get the message that he was here to enact in something that would mean he would be destroying a part of their town? His butler had informed him the message was received if that were the case why were their soldiers now coming out to face him? Turning the rest of his body around so that it followed his head, Tom raised a brow at the group of guards glaring at him. “Did you not receive the message?” Tom asked. Archaic looked between himself and his comrades as if this creature were mad. “What message?” Tom’s third eye narrowed. “The message about my arrival and the destruction of your town? I sent one of my men to inform your people that I would be coming here to-” That was all the royal guard needed to hear before they would attack. Not wasting a second after that sentence had been spoke Archaic’s horn tingled and sent a blast of concentrated magic right at Tom which the demon prince barely managed to dodge. He ended up losing his hand. Silence befell the young demon as he stared at his detached and slight burnt hand now laying on the ground. Archaic and his men proceeded to circle around the demon while he just stood there dumbfounded at his hand getting lobbed off. Now if the guards had allowed Tom to finish speaking they would have heard him say, “I would be coming here to burn a part of your uninhabited homes down, then rebuild them once I’m done venting. It's for a health precaution that I can't go into detail on.” And for a demon prince who knew his fair share of spells it would be an easy feat to return the Canterlot the way it was once he was done rampaging. But after being interrupted and attacked twice without being given the chance to fully explain himself something broke within Tom. Something...snapped. It was sudden really. One second Archaic and his guards were getting ready to subdue Tom, the next moment Tom’s eyes turned read, his detached hand came to life jumped back onto his wrist. An act that made three members of the Royal Guard stop their advance before slowly Tom’s head began to do a donut, slowly going in circles and watching every member of the royal guard till finally. Everything exploded in a burst of fire and agony. The ground shook with such a force that several of the pegasi guards that had been evacuating innocents now carried them to safety. Then the next thing Flash Sentry saw as he was just receiving news of what was going on was half of Canterlot erupting into a pillage of flames. The world around Flash as he knew it was going in embers, and the only thing he did was stand at the castle’s gates with Speedy, the pegasus that had given him the news. Both watching in awe and horror as this creature tossed aside the Royal Guard as if they were a bunch of amateur fighters who hadn’t had one good fight throughout their entire career. And as Flash Sentry watched the members of the guard collapse from the force of the explosion, he had to wonder. Were they really prepared for this? The thought was there for only a few seconds as Flash came back to reality upon hearing the whimpers and groaning of his comrades. Steeling himself the pegasus ordered Speedy to gather the Solar Guard so that they could prepare for battle. For once it was up to them to protect Equestria from a strange force while the princesses were away and by jove while Flash was on duty he wouldn’t let another city fall like how several houses just had. The ground beneath Canterlot was warm and on fire. The world around the army of the two sisters crackled with the sound of charred wood falling to the ground, and the groans of their already defeated comrades. But if anything to Flash Sentry the smell of burnt wood in the air only made the stallion lead his comrades in arms towards their target. In the center of all the destruction and burning homes, charred ground and destroyed markets, was the demon prince himself Tom. Tom, however, said nothing. His eyes remained red, but everything else that surrounded him, including the crater he had created with that outburst, showed that Flash and the other guards needed to be on their hooves at all times. One wrong slip up and Tom would send them all to a not too painless grave and burn the rest of this city to the ground before making his way back home. At this point he was no longer in check of his actions, it was time he release all this pent up frustration once and for all and start afresh. Doing it would make him feel better. After all, this was a way for him to channel his anger towards something else aside from art or dancing. If defeating these imbeciles that dared to surprise him when he already was in a bad mood would alleviate some of that anger, well then so be it. The Solar Guard, twelve members in total, and the ones that went with Celestia whenever she left the castle for other countries were the elites of both Royal and Lunar. They were the ones who defended the princess and were tasked with making sure that anything the Royal Guard couldn’t handle would go to them while anything the Lunar Guard couldn’t handle would go to the Solar Eclipse . But in this case, Eternal Flare captain of the Solar Guard decided to give Flash the opportunity to take command. Though the Solar Guard were more skilled than the other separate guard types, they were not as familiar with this sort of thing as the Royal Guard were. Since Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends always handled these types of issues the Solar Guard and even more so the Lunar Eclipse were used less than necessary to a point where the two advanced militaries nearly dissolved completely. Their tasks eventually ending up more focused on protecting the princesses in general than protecting the public. With that being said Eternal Flare had no choice but to step down as the one in command and give Flash the chance to debrief them on what they were facing, since the Royal Guard faced stuff like this almost every other day, it would seem he was in charge for now. And perhaps it was just as well. Tom while still within his two foot deep crater had not made a move to attack. The demon prince would attack when attacked and strike when struck. His anger had not festered enough to a point where he would begin a senseless slaughter to a world he himself had been so willingly ready to enter. “Situation?” Flare asked the captain upon arrival. Flash froze upon being addressed. Briefly the stallion looked over to see if his partner, Archaic, was around but only managed to see the unconscious unicorn guard get carried away by two other pegasi of his own platoon. “Captain Flash Sentry” Flare said with a tap of her hoof. “I asked you a question. Situation?” Flash snapped out of his momentary lapse and immediately lifted a wing in salute to his superior. “A creature who we presume escaped from Tartarus has attacked the Capital. When confronted Archaic made the decision to daze him but only ended up enraging it even more. And the rest you know Mame.” Flare glanced over at several unconscious ponies clad in gold armor laying on the ground not too far away from Tom’s crater. “I see.” A few seconds passed before Flare turned her attention back to the demon who’d been mumbling things in a language that could only be assumed as old as time itself. Her eyes narrowed. It’d been a long time since she and her own force had the chance at facing such a strong opponent. The last threat the Solar Guard were allowed to face was Tirek, and he had wiped the floor with them. This time things would be different this time around Flare thought as her eyes narrowed. With a loud snort the unicorn mare turned to address the soldiers in front of. “Soldiers” the unicorn called to her fellow guards. All who belonging in said squad stood erect with raised ears. “An enemy has attacked the capital of our crown. The princesses are not here to defend us, and for once Princess Twilight and her friends are too far away to reach us. “Therefore it is up to us to defend our home from any and all harm before they return from Princess Flurry Heart’s ceremony. Do you understand?” the mare barked. “Sir yes, sir!” her troops barked back. “Good! Now let’s show this thing what happens when you mess with The Crown’s military!” And with that said the Commander of the Solar Guard, Eternal Flare took off at a fast gait towards Tom. All under her command following her stead ready for battle. Meanwhile Flash watched from the sidelines with his own troops. He had been told to standby in case they needed support and that was what he would do. With the battleground set and fallen soldiers being carried away Tom remained in his crater patiently. He was still mumbling things to himself and now the grass that surrounded part of Canterlot’s streets had begun to wilt and wither, if anything this just made Captain Flare even more alert. Twelve members of the Solar Guard, twelve all skilled and highly trained to protect the princess of the sun if there were ever to be a serious threat that the Royal Guard could not handle on their own now stood before the demon prince on all sides approaching the crater. Four of each race was in this squadron. Four unicorns, Eternal Flare included, four earth ponies, four pegasi all cautiously approached Tom who seemed to be ignoring them. That is till one of the guards stepped on a soft ball of dirt and crushed it under their hoof, creating a small cracking sound that made Tom go quiet. Flare raised her hoof for her men to stop and they all did. Tom had stopped moving. It was almost like a staring contest. Not a single soul moved from their exact spot, not even Flash and his men moved as they watched their superiors crouch into the pit that could mean their doom, Discord however who was watching all of this from the skies was happily chewing on a bowl of popcorn and drinking spoon from a glass of chocolate. A full minute passed and Tom still hadn’t moved, his three red glowing eyes were now focused on Captain Flare and that was just fine with the powder white unicorn. Using her raised hoof, Flare waved it back and forth in classic military procedure telling her troops to close in on him. Four pegasi gently flapped their wings and advanced a few inches then stopped when they saw their captain quickly flick her tail. A minute passed and Tom didn’t make a move, he was still focused on Flare, perhaps he was soo angry he couldn’t focus his attention on more than one pony at a time Flare thought with an internal snicker. She signalled again and this time the four earth ponies moved in closer to bridge the gap. The same flick of her tail and they stopped as well. The final group to move forward was the unicorns, and from the distance Flash watched all of this with great interest. The Therapist strategy. A move where like a therapist questions would be asked and the therapist would wait and study their patient’s responses to said questions, only in the Guard it was move then wait, move then wait, all while observing the enemy. By the time Tom was surrounded Flare was the only one that hadn’t moved up yet, and by then the unicorn had believed it was already too late. Blowing a strand of her platinum gold and violet hair out of the way, Flare nodded to her team while making sure Tom kept his eyes on her. And so the Solar Guard attacked. A powerful pressure surrounded Tom and prevented his movement, while different pairs of either strong or weak hooves came at him from the sky or ground both hitting him hard. Each strike that met Tom’s body only brought about a painfully smacking sound that began to leave bruises on him. It wasn’t until Flare raised a hoof to get her soldiers to stop when she believed Tom had had enough did the mare order her fellow unicorns to maintain their hold on him. Tom on the other hand was now beginning to shake. Until he heard, “Had enough?” The demon prince looked up at the captain. She repeated herself again. “Had enough? If you have I want you to fix this mess you caused and go back to wherever you came from. Otherwise” -the pressure on Tom’s body doubled and the demon was brought to his knees. “My soldiers will make you submit. “We don’t take too kindly to outsiders, villains like you coming into our homes and destroying them so if you agree to leave we’ll spare you otherwise we can do this all day.” Flare said with a slight grin. It felt good to not be on the losing end for once, especially since their pathetic defeat at Tirek’s hands. “So? What’s it going to be?” she asked crossing a front leg against another and putting some of her weight against a fellow soldier. Tom didn’t reply. His head was now bent towards the ground and from the Solar Guards standpoint they’d won. The rampaging demon had been defeated. But in reality it was only just the beginning. The wilting grass and few nearby trees that had been dying stopped dying and began gaining their color again. This made Flare smile. But then again, when she suddenly began feeling as though the temperature in this atmosphere had risen, her smile disappeared instantly. Flare’s eyes widened as she could suddenly see up ahead coming off the circumference of the crater her and her soldiers stood in was a wave of heat that slightly distorted the view of their surrounding area. And before she even realized what she was doing, the mare had begun barking orders to her soldiers too retreat and get out of the crater before it was too late. But the captain had messed up. It was already too late. One spark caught Rapid Vortex’s attention as he began following his comrades out of the crater, luckily for him he managed to halt himself just in time before that spark caught fire and lit the entire ground like a barbeque. A wall of flames rose from the ground blocking off the two armies view of each other and threatened to touch the sky themselves as these flames prevented the Solar Guard from escaping. And that’s when Flare heard it. Laughter. Tom’s voice slowly growing darker, and darker, and darker and more menacing with every chuckle as he slowly raised his head like in one of those cliche horror movies. But by the time his head was fully up and in sight, revealing all forty two of those sharp shark-like teeth, the flames had begun dancing to his will and his laugh now echoed across this fiery tomb he had now trapped them in along with him. “I wanted one thing” Tom stated as he shrugged off the force that had kept him earthbound. “All I wanted, was to come to an uninhabited town, and release some of my pent up anger because my coach said it was good for me. To channel my anger into something else.” The flames grew hotter as Tom paused and then continued to speak. “All I wanted was to get this done, go back home, and actually relax, but what do I get instead?! A bunch of colorful unicorns, pegasi, and normal horses telling me I’m doing nothing but causing trouble!” A strong flap caught Tom’s ears and he snapped his head around to look behind him and see one of the female pegasi trying to escape through the opening above, but Tom merely smiled a smile that fit the devil himself. A snap from his fingers and the flames closed in around the pegasus as she tried to make her escape and arced shut. Willow Right came crashing back down to the crater with most of her feathers burnt off and the rest of her body heavily covered in smoke. When Willow fell, several of her comrades charged Tom but the demon merely snapped his head in their direction and glared them down, slowly growing in size as those glowing red demonic eyes of his paralyzed them with fear, before promptly passing out. With the other nuisances dealt with Tom turned his attention to the leader of the group that had done his body much harm, even though that pain was now gone that didn’t mean he’d forget it anytime soon. Flare braced herself, along with the four other remaining members of her guard. “Stay back” Flare warned, but Tom proceeded towards her regardless. Desperately glancing over to her comrades hoping to see any were still capable of fighting Flare noticed one particular unicorn trying to save the others of his guard by teleporting them and himself out while Tom was distracted, but as Flare watched Chromosphere attempt this, she realized it was no use as the flames seemed to prevent him from even using his magic. “Hey” a demonic voice called to the captain, making her fur and mane stand up on end. Slowly Flare’s eyes turned to face the demon prince that had just defeated her team like they were foals, and he was a fully grown stallion and when she finally met his demonic eyes and saw the flames burning within. The only thing the mare could do was swallow her fear as best she could and bulk up her pride as she suddenly watched a stray flame from the burning walls grow a hand then smack Chromosphere out cold along with the rest of her team.. Turning her attention back to Tom she gulped and attempted to ignite the magic within her horn, but upon feeling a painful feeling jolt up her thaumaturgic instrument the mare stopped and came face to face with the glaring Tom. Captain Flare of the Solar Guard swallowed and asked, “W-What do you want? Money? Power? Equestria? Why do all the bad guys want to take over-” two fingers slowly moving up and touching the mare’s muzzle gently to silence her was all Flare needed to know she had to shut up. “I told you what I want” Tom stated bluntly as his third eye began to narrow in unison with his other eyes. “I want to release this frustration I’ve been holding for quite sometime now. And it looks like” -he smiled at her before gently patting her cheek in a loving yet more ominous manner- “you and your soldiers are providing it.” Captain Eternal Flare never got to say anything else after that. Because shortly after those words had left Tom’s mouth she was engulfed in a dark smoke that shortened her breath and knocked her out. Flash Sentry has always believed himself to be a good guard, and has alway had trust and faith in Equestria’s military forces. But upon seeing twelve of Equestria’s most trained forces go down in less than twelve minutes with only just a few scratches on the demon child’s clothing and no bruises or marks the pegasus stallion began to feel a slight sense of dread when those walls dissipated and the smoke cleared. Tom watched Captian Flare cough out a ball of smoke before she passed out, then he turned his attention to Flash and his tantalizingly waiting group of soldiers. Discord who had now grown greatly interested in what was happening was now on the edge of his couch watching all this happen thankful for once he had not accepted Fluttershy’s invitation. Especially since what happened between him and Shining Armor the last time they’d met. Eww, touchy topic Discord whispered. Aside from this though things were looking great, he’d always thought of showing Celestia and Luna just how weak their supposed guards were, but here someone or thing else was doing it for him! And the best part was he could act like he had no idea what was happening when all of this was over! Being full of glee was beyond how Discovered felt as he bit down on his eagle claw in apprehensive excitement and agitation at what the outcome and climax of Tom’s actions would be. Sure he could always alert Twilight and the others, but it was rare for him to get this kind of treat without the princesses knowing about it. For now he could just enjoy this while it lasted. And from the looks of it things were about to end real soon. Eight minutes. Eight minutes was all it took for the demon prince to release all his festered up anger upon the attacking Royal Guard. They’d put up a fight. Flash Sentry himself had made sure he’d thrown in a good few hits here and there at Tom before being grabbed at the throat and almost for a second being choked to death before the angered demon seemed to calm down rather abruptly and release him at the last second as dozen of spells were being sent the attacker’s way. But ultimately it had all been for naught. Those eight minutes had been the toughest eight minutes of Flash’s life. He remembered spitting on Tom’s shoes when the demon had finally beaten them, only to come right up to the only standing pegasus of his troops and tell him he appreciated their help with his issues. That had been a mistake. Tom’s eyes went red again and in an instant he began hissing those things in a strange languague so loud that Flash Sentry had had the unlucky chance of hearing them while the rest of his allies were either in too much pain to make heads or tails of the world or passed out. Flash Sentry to this day will never admit crying after that battle even now. In fact no one in all of Canterlot will admit to any of that happening as of now. The moment Tom left back to his own world and Discord just happened to appear a good hour later, he asked them what happened. When a crying Flash wouldn’t explain he found someone else who would. And after hearing all about it, despite having watched it all from the skies, Discord fixed the town with one snap of his claw and asked Flash to erase all the towns folks memory of this ever happening. “It would be their little secret from Twilight and all the others” the draconequus had promised him. And to this day Flash still won’t breathe a word of his forces defeat at the hands of an angry teenager demon prince. Nowadays he just makes the drills tougher for him and the rest of the Royal Guard. Flare is no different either, mention a single word about fire and she’ll be on you like Shrek on onions. Nopony breathed a word about it when the princesses came back acting like nothing happened. And if you ask Flash now he’ll still deny anything of any sort of “weird” event happening the day of the crystalling. But if you ask Discord? Well, that my friend is another story for another day.