It was night. Rain hit the concrete road, autumn wind yawned through the shattered windows of long since deserted homes.
A figure dressed in red walked down the shadowed streets, searching for his quarry. A contractor, called to investigate this area due to the recent disappearances in the city, of both civilian and police alike. All that were seen were shadows, all that were found were pools of blood and wayward bullet holes in the walls.
The authorities did what they had done for generations. Assure the populace that everything was normal, offer an illusion of control and safety. But deep down in their hearts, everyone knew that it was all a lie. That there were unearthly things moving in the shadows, and all they could do was pray.
The red-cloaked man detected a trail, and rushed forward. There was a buildup of demonic energy close by, he could afford to be reckless due to his unnatural heritage, the kidnapped victim about to be sacrificed could not afford a moment’s delay.
As the demon slayer approached, he could make out the sound of crying. With inhuman agility he scaled the walls of the broken buildings in through the window the crying originated from.
An open window, he noted. Likely a trap.
There were five of them, chanting unholy verses around a bound girl on the floor, not even out of her teens. Innocent, afraid, her crying did not move the people who gave up their souls and humanity for power.
They didn’t even shout before their heads were pierced with a single well-aimed bullet each. It happened almost instantly, the red-cloaked man's precision evidencing his other-human nature.
The girl’s eyes widened, her fear allowing a cautious hope to take root. The contractor scanned the room with his guns pointed towards the darker corners.
“Hey, kid,” he spoke. “Try to stay quiet and low-key until I get you out of here, will you?”
He stepped towards her cautiously, expecting something to happen at every moment. When nothing did, he holstered his guns and went to untie the girl.
“You okay?” the man asked as he removed her gag. All she offered in way of response was to desperately push into his chest and whimper, hiding into the only source of safety she felt she had.
‘Okay, this one is probably not a demon in disguise this time.’
There was only a brief moment of movement before he was overwhelmed with intense pain all across his body. The girl was screaming again, this time in pain as well.
The demon hunter looked around. Blood was flowing from the fallen warlocks toward his location, into the distinct shape of a ritual circle. Flowing black and burnt red spikes came out of several points on the circle, going through all over his body, two of which pierced the girl.
A single true devil in human guise stepped out of the shadows, he could only be the one the warlocks sold their souls to.
The contractor choked out a spurt of blood. His eyes shifted from the grinning head of the cult downward to the now unconscious girl under the only arm he could still move.
His and the girl’s own blood joined the circle under their feet, its writing started glowing. The demon hunter felt himself getting weaker, more importantly the girl’s breathing was steadily getting shallower.
“The son of Sparda!” the fiend interjected maniacally. Its eyes weren’t focused, its smile crooked on skin stretched taught, like its guise was merely a suit made from someone's skin. The hell fiend approached with irregular steps and a hunched gait. Which made sense. Only a bottom feeder could slip through gaps in the barrier between the human world and the demon world, as the man in red had learned in the past. “I have prepared this trap just for you, you know! But now that you’ve gotten yourself caught in it so easily, I am actually disappointed! To think that your humanity made you so weak! Heh heh!”
As the Bottom Feeder continued gloating, the demon hunter considered his options quickly. He couldn’t move due to the mystical nature of the spikes holding him in place. While the spells were a hindrance, they weren’t really a risk to his life unless he’d be drained for a few more minutes. The issue was with the girl who only had, at best, a few seconds left.
The fiend might’ve been weak, but it was able to easily move between the two worlds. If it felt so much as a hint of danger to its life, then it could escape with speed honed through a lifetime of living as prey to far stronger creatures.
One solution was to simply let the fiend grow too big to fit through the gaps in the barrier between the two worlds, but that would require time which the girl didn’t have. The only option the contractor had was to tug back.
He dug deep into his being for the memory of a soul once bestowed to him when he was younger. All the while, the Bottom Feeder continued goading and laughing, and the girl was getting closer and closer to death.
The contractor gripped the spike going through the two of them, and seconds later, electricity started flowing into it. The circle beneath them was shorting out as the flow was being contested. However, not in the girl’s favor.
The Bottom Feeder's laughter petered out before it started screaming in outrage. “No! You’re not supposed to resist! Be a docile prey and let me-”
A lot of things happened at once. In a fit of panic, the demon hunter increased his tug to finish it as soon as possible, while both drawing on his demon heritage and conjuring a Golden Orb from his essence to save the girl in the last moments she had left. The Bottom Feeder felt the jaws of the Dearg-Dul press forward around its essence, and attempted to step through the boundary between the two worlds without remembering to first stop its own tug.
All of these things happened through the ritual circle as a medium, which collapsed from the strain.
A clear night sky, an abandoned house near the edge of the city, an investment that didn't pan out. The sounds of the forest were briefly joined by that of a door's rusted hinges, followed by multiple steps on wooden flooring. Though what was strange was the rhythm of said steps. Rather than a succession of singular steps at an even pace, this sequence was of two steps in each pace.
The ones taking said steps were quiet otherwise. They were alien in appearance, as in, not human. Otherwise, signs of sapience were clear. From their clothing, to their human facial expressions and intentional, deliberate movements, to the fact that they were using tools, namely lamps to light the area and chalk to draw a ritual circle in the middle of the topmost room of the building.
"Alright boys," spoke the one in charge, "make sure you get the drawing right. Wouldn't wanna have another 'accident', now would we?"
The two lookouts in the room exchanged nervous looks, then pretended to keep watch while following what happened next. The one preparing the circle stood up straight, and with a confused look, asked, "Ugh, what accident, Boss?"
Boss blew out a tired breath. "It was a metaphor, kid. Means you better do yer job right, or you're gonna get it. Capiche?"
"Y-yea-yeah Boss! I'll get it right!"
The Boss shook his head in derision and walked off.
With the threat delivered, it didn't take long before the circle was complete. Not waiting for the Kid to check that everything was in order, the Boss moved forward with a wicked smile on his face.
"Alright then. Fire it up."
Nervously, the Kid started channeling his magic into the ritual circle, an ominous light emanating from the runes on the floor. The Boss' smile grew when it was apparent the spell was stable, but then evaporated when it sputtered and died out..
"What. Happened."
The Kid gulped and started stuttering. "I-I-I…"
"You-you-you what? Messed it up? Cause I figured that much out myself."
The Kid started shifting through the pages of the manual he'd been using, "I've followed the instructio-"
"Gimme that!"
Boss tore the textbook out of the Kid's grasp. It was no use, he wasn't familiar with the scribbles that made up magical theory. He scoffed and threw it in the corner. "Do it again, or I'll have rotten onions shoved in yer mouth." The Boss leaned closer, "An' I don't care if you had dinner or not before comin' here."
"Bu-bu-but Boss! The book says, if the ritual fails, we need to wait for the barrier between worlds to heal, or-or something terrible might happen!"
"Like what!"
"Like something comin' in through it!"
That seemed to give the Boss pause. "What kinda 'something'?"
"Well, it could be anything. Like living nightmares, or aliens from another world, or…"
"Aliens."
"Yeah, yeah. Or nightmares, or Sombra!"
The boss just stood there, looking at his underling in a deadpan. He rubbed his temples with his forehooves in exasperation.
His other underlings decided to voice in, "Ugh, boss? I don't wanna bring no aleuns into Equestria," said one.
"Yeah, me neither," said the other.
His shoulders dropped in defeat, the Boss droned out, "You know what? Forget it. I'll just keep hiding my salt in sugar bags. I don't know WHY I thought it would be a good idea to try using teleporters. Let's just go." He trotted towards the door, the two lookouts filing in behind him without much thought.
As the Boss was leaving, the remaining underling asked, "Ugh, shouldn't we-"
"Now, kid! Or do ya wanna taste spoiled onions for the rest of the week?!"
"Eep!" And with that, the house was empty once more, only this time with a teleportation circle written on the floor and a magic book in the corner.
Long afterwards, the circle comes to life then explodes. The red-cloaked contractor appears over a scorched center of the room.
His appearance was… different. Where before he appeared for all intents and purposes as an average white-haired human, now he was quite, well, demonic. Dark hide, horns, glowing eyes, what appeared to be fire billowing in his chest cavity within steel-like exposed ribs. Also demonic wings.
In one of his arms was the girl, still unconscious. In his other hand...
His demonic face was already intimidating to begin with. The way he looked at the burnt red light in his hand was enough to send monsters running.
The Bottom Feeder’s soul was quite an ugly thing to behold. It appeared to the demon hunter that it had fed on quite a few humans before he put it down. Aside for the souls of the cultists who sold their humanity, the fiend also ate several dozen innocent souls, mostly children. As was expected of such a lowly creature, to target those that couldn’t fight back. It likely only showed itself when it did because its underlings seemed to have succeeded in doing the hard part of trapping the ‘Son of Sparda’.
The contractor wanted nothing to do with such a vile essence. He only kept it long enough to get back what belonged to the girl. When he was finally done, he crushed the demon into red orbs. It almost sounded like it screamed.
After that was done, he returned to his human form, all of his and the girls’ wounds gone.
The girl was physically well, despite the blood caking her cyan shirt, the two holes over her abdomen and chest, and her similarly blood-stained brown hair developing white highlights. It seemed her soul was contaminated with demonic energy. Whether she was still human enough to count as merely demon-like when she’d pass on, or whether her soul already was already gone and what was left was just a human-guised demon, was to be found out when she would wake up.
The man in red sighed, looked around the room then walked to a shattered window, stepping on a burnt book. It wasn’t raining outside, moreover he wasn’t in the middle of the city anymore. It was still dark out, so he was probably still on the half of the planet that was facing away from the sun. He’d go looking for civilization in the morning, right now he would look for a bed for the girl to rest in. He could also use a nap himself.
The contractor woke up with a start, he felt like someone was watching him. Someone aside for the now-awake little girl who was intently staring at him from her nook in the dusty old bed.
It seemed this was supposed to be an inn before it was abandoned. An inn for midgets, because all the beds were too small for him, also all the doorways were too low. So he needed to sleep on a few moth-eaten blankets on the floor. He also needed to commit to memory to not swear around the kid after she woke up, every time he forgot to lower his head through the doorways.
“So you’re awake,” the contractor greeted from his seat on the floor. He took note of her new ‘condition’, and added, “How are you this fine morning?”
He offered a laid back smile to reassure her. It helped a little, going by the way the girl eased a little more out of her blankets. She nodded shyly.
“Not one for conversation, huh? Suits me just fine. I’ll just get you to the proper authorities and I’ll be out of your hair.”
It seemed she found something disconcerting in what she heard.
The contractor shifted his head in thought. ”Don’t worry. I got rid of the ‘bad guys’. They’re not going to hurt anyone ever again. And once I get you to a police station, you’ll be safe and sound on your way back to your parents.”
The girl’s mood took a plummet. Tears in her eyes, she finally spoke, “...They’re dead.”
The contractor’s brow furrowed. Eventually, he asked her, “What’s your name?”
She sniffed. “Lilly.”
“Lilly, huh?” he smile again. “Nice to meet you. My name’s Dante.” He got up from the floor. “Now, I’m guessing you might feel like you want some time to… rest. But I don’t know where we ended up, and I doubt you’d want me to just up and leave so-”
He was interrupted when Lilly sprang with her hands forward to grab onto his coat. It seemed she didn’t like lunging into his care a second time after she was stabbed, so this time she stayed alert.
“...Wanna come along?” Dante asked her. Lilly nodded. He rubbed his chin in thought, “Alright. If anyone comes forward offended about the blood and holes in your clothes, mind telling them I didn’t do it?” She nodded again. Dante turned around, “Okay then. Let’s go.”
It was a sunny morning. The birds were singing, Lilly even said she saw a pony. Must be a horse farm nearby.
Everything was very bright. Almost like the surroundings were saturated in light.
As they approached the city, Dante started to notice something strange. There were no cars, but a lot of carts, carted by ponies of all things. What was even stranger was the way they were staring at the two of them. Almost like they were… Okay, one of them definitely shouted something out before running away, followed by all the other midget horses.
Dante did a double-take. “Wait. Did that horse shout? As in, in a language?’
Not knowing what else to do, the two continued down their way to the city. The closer they got, the more ponies they found. All talking their strange language, all wearing clothes and/or doing something else humans are oft to do. Some of them dropped newspapers, a lot of them picked up their children or valuables and made a run for it, and exclusively all of them either ran, hid, or stood frozen still and stared before either running or fainting.
“Are we in Gulliver’s horse land?” Lilly asked.
“Who’s Gulliver?” Dante asked, bemusedly watching a few of the tiny horses running pointlessly in literal circles. He shrugged and kept going, hoping they’d find something that could help him make sense of what was happening.
Eventually, they came upon a mob of armored ponies holding spears. They barked orders in their foreign language as they circled the two, pointing their weapons threateningly.
“I don’t think they like us,” the man pointed out insightfully to the girl in his care, who was drawing closer to him fearfully.
The supposed officers were shouting at them both, likely some request to surrender peacefully. While Dante was aware it was usually a good idea to comply with the local authorities, he wasn’t certain they would treat the girl properly.
“Strange creatures, strange language… It seems last night we were brought somewhere strange.”
How he was supposed to get them both back to Earth, he was not certain. He traveled between the human world and the demon world in the past, never anywhere else.
It didn’t take long for the ponies to get impatient and make a decision for him. They started attacking.
“Hold on tight,” he told the girl as he wrapped an arm around her and jumped over the alien horses. Either the soldiers would try to thrust their spears at the two of them as they sailed past, or the ones with horns would send out bolts of energy at them somehow. The contractor was definitely not dealing with humans, but neither were they demons, so Dante had no interest in killing any of them.
Landing on a nearby rooftop, the contractor kept low to stay out of their line of fire. Before he could move to the other side of the building, the sound of beating wings drew his attention to some of the horses flying towards them, spears held tight and anger on their faces. Dante sighed and just ran towards the forest, losing the pursuers in the thicket.
Safe again after about an hour of running, the contractor let out a breath in exasperation up in his hiding spot in a tree, Lilly held safely in his lap.
“Okay, here’s the plan,” he started. “We got here through demon magic, we’re going to get back through demon magic as well. All we need to do, is find a portal and figure out how to make it send us where we want.”
‘This shouldn’t be too hard. I did manage to find a way out of hell after all. Getting back from here can’t possibly be harder than that… wherever we ended up.’
He puts a finger in his mouth and tests the air current, in a jest to figure out which way the closest rift in reality was. He found one towards the South-West. Assuming the cardinal directions were the same in this strange world.
He heard the girl’s stomach grumbling for food, much to her embarrassment.
“But first, we should probably get something to eat.”
Elsewhere, in the castle Canterlot, the ruler of the realm received disturbing news.
The night prior, Princess Celestia and her sister sensed an alien presence arrive in the world. Princess Luna attempted to scout out the anomaly through the dream realm, but only managed to gather the location, Manehattan.
Now, the older royal sibling was reading a report of two strange creatures being sighted in said city, who escaped before they could be detained.
"Well done, my little pony. Keep up the good work."
The guard saluted and trotted away, leaving Celestia to ponder the new development.
Princess Luna soon arrived in the throne room in a flash of light, "Sister, I have been informed of what has happened. What shall we do?"
Celestia considered the description of the two alien individuals. Both bipedal, furless, similar to apes in appearance. They wore bloodied and worn clothes, and seemed to communicate in an unknown language. One of them appeared to be a child, while the other was a male equipped with a large sword on his back, capable of at the least jumping thirty strides high and running over three times as fast as a pegasi guard could fly to pursue.
Its weapon was troubling. While the stun spears their soldiers were equipped with were clearly designed to deliver a single paralysing strike, a massive hunk of metal could only be intended for cleaving into flesh and crushing bone. However, it appeared the alien did not wish to use its- his weapon even when surrounded with spears. He didn’t act on the threat, he merely took his charge and left. Either he wished for the child’s safety, or he didn’t want to declare himself a mortal enemy of an entire race, which he potentially had as little prior knowledge of as they did of him.
“Set patrols along the edge of the Everfree Forest. When the two visitors come forth, we shall seek an audience with them personally. If they prove hostile, we will detain them. If they act reasonably, I’m certain we can come to a mutual understanding.”
The younger royal furrowed her brows. “This is troubling, sister. We do not know what they are capable of.”
“No, we do not. We don't know how dangerous this being is, if it poses a threat, or what it even wants. Which is why I would argue this deserves our immediate attention.”
“I agree," Luna retorted. "I merely wished to make sure you’re aware of the risk involved, after the millennia of peace you’ve led in my absence. After all, since my return, you’ve yet to take anything into your own hooves, so I was beginning to wonder whether you remember how to deal with threats.”
Celestia would offer a retort in turn, but decided better of it. “Do you truly think this will devolve into bloodshed?”
Luna made a shrugging motion with her wings. “Frankly? I do not know. But is it not wiser to go in prepared?”
The white alicorn remained silent, considering her sister’s intuition. It was true that a millennia of peace has dulled her senses, so perhaps it would be better to forego appearing as non-threatening as possible in favor of facing the armed, unknown element, equipped with their own weapons.
A compromise. “Very well. I will retrieve my armor. I trust my spear won’t be necessary.”
Luna shook her head, “If it becomes evident it will be necessary to bring down mountains, I believe we should at least try to imprison the strangers first. Besides, do you even remember how to swing it properly?”
“I am a little rusty,” the older sibling smiled.
Being in agreement, Celestia sent a letter with instructions to the royal guard, then teleported to her Aspect to gather the parts of her strength she’d kept separate from her being.
It was a massive creature, easily three stories tall while still on all fours. Its roar was loud enough to be heard for hundreds of feet easily. Its claws and fangs were as long as Dante's Rebellion and sharp enough to cut foot-wide grooves in stone. Its hungry eyes were monstrous enough to bore holes into a sane man’s soul, though Dante had no trouble doing the beast in with a single lightning-quick decapitation. Its pelt was stronger than marble, but it was no issue at all to the demon hunter.
They made camp inside the cave which the monster had formerly owned as a lair. While the food was getting done, Dante successfully fashioned a crude bag and a couple of cloaks out of the beast’s pelt.
Taking in the way Lilly was digging into her meal despite her initial apprehension, Dante decided the weird chimaera was delicious despite lacking any condiments. Or maybe she was just really, really hungry.
Actually, it became quickly apparent that the girl had either attained a demonic metabolism, or she was absorbing the beast into energy similarly to the way Dante absorbed Red Orbs.
After a while, thee girl stopped eating abruptly, staring into space. She was evidently still shell-shocked, unable to process something. Dante had personal experience on the matter.
He put aside his morsel and leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. He really wasn't any good with talking about sensitive subjects with others. "You should know, your parents probably wanted you to be safe." He looked to the girl and found her green eyes focusing on him intently, desperate for something. Keeping up an even smile, he looked away to the campfire and went on, "I don't know what happened, when and how they died. So I can only ask you what you think they'd want. All I know is that parents generally care about their kids, so it's a safe bet they'd be happy to know you're alive and well.” He could hear the girl crying again. He figured that meant he was doing something right, so he kept going. “If you want to honor their memory, then live your life in order to make up for their deaths as well... then again, each at their own pace. Take it one step at a time."
He stayed silent for a few minutes until Lilly stopped crying on her own. The devil hunter realized that the girl probably needed someone to be at her side, but he'd rather not get involved with her any more than necessary.
When she calmed down enough, Dante got up and stuck his sword in the stone floor. He put some of the leftovers into the makeshift bag he made and threw one of the two cloaks over to the girl. "Ready to go?"
Lilly wiped her tears and nodded, though her tears didn't slow down. Dante picked the girl up to ride on his back. She held onto his neck, her face buried in his scruff as she continued to mourn her loss.
The contractor tied the bag on top of the girl, took his sword in his hand and started walking. He intended to get the both of them out of the forest by nightfall.
The devil hunter walked around for a while in the Everfree. A long while. He couldn't even tell the time of day due to the thick canopy. Eventually he got frustrated with how long it was taking. Fortunately, the girl had tired herself out and fell asleep holding onto his back.
The forest wasn’t normal, his senses were being thrown off. Not like he could do anything without waking up the girl besides continue walking, and try keeping it in a straight line.
‘...If it wasn’t for the kid, I’d just tear straight through the damn place…’ he internalized. And considering the many demonic souls he’d assimilated through his career, he could very easily burn and tear the ancient wood to oblivion.
Soon enough, he could hear the familiar growl of hungry wolves. He tightened his hold on Rebellion.
Out of the thicket stalked a group of yet another supernatural creature, massive wolves made of dead wood. Eerie green glow coming from the gaps where their eyes were supposed to be, thick sap flowed out of their maws in hunger.
‘They probably smelled the dry blood on our clothes,’ the man reasoned. ‘I should probably finish this quickly, otherwise we’ll be here all day dealing with every hungry animal in the forest.’
Dante leaned forward, readied his sword arm, and rushed forward. In the blink of an eye, the wolves were sent flying, cut clean through into multiple pieces. The devil hunter humph in annoyance.
As he kept walking, he heard wood hitting on wood, and turned around. He found the broken pieces of the wolves gathering together into three, very much larger pieces. Dante suppressed a groan.
“Are you going to just keep coming back?” he complained as he gathered energy into his sword and swung it once, hard. The energy he gathered shot forward in a wave, scattering the assembling pieces into the thicket, then he turned around and started rushing in the opposite direction.
Lilly remained silent, despite her breathing no longer being as rhythmic, evidencing she was awake.
“Sorry for waking you up, kid, but I decided to try and hurry this along.”
The girl hummed in confirmation, and just settled in for the ride.
Lieutenant Scarlet Sweep was bored. She’d been posted at the edge of the Everfree, ordered to stand guard waiting for a couple of strange creatures to exit.
She and her squad were sent here via teleport at noon, and have been eagerly waiting for some action for about two hours. After two hours, their anticipation devolved into boredom. I was nearing sunset now, and their boredom had turned into frustration. Of course, they wouldn’t make it obvious. Outwardly, they were as professional and stalwart as any of the Royal Guard. It was just that, waiting immobile in the halls of Canterlot Castle was different from waiting on duty for some strange and possibly dangerous creatures to appear. It was a tense wait, one that wore down on them the longer it lasted.
Their orders were to send a dragonfire message as soon as they sighted the targets, which they received descriptions for, then try to delay them for as long as possible. The orders were also to not risk their own safety unnecessarily, but they were trained for this. It was their duty to risk their own well-being in service of the country.
Scarlet straightened her posture. She didn’t know what they were dealing with, but she wasn’t going to-
“Over there!”
Her train of thought was cut off by one of her subordinates shouting out, pointing at an area above the forest canopy. There were birds flying away.
Actually, more and more were flying off, progressing towards their area.
They could hear a distant crashing sound, then another, closer. Another, this one accompanied by distant splintering of wood.
There was distant roaring. Her subordinates mumbled nervously. The crashing of trees and animal cries drew closer.
“Hold your position!” Ordered the lieutenant, sending the dragonfire message. “We only need to wait for the Princesses to arrive! We’re not letting these things get through!”
A chorus of affirmations rang out as the two dozen soldiers fell in line behind Sweep. They were few, but they would stall the creatures for as long as they could.
Sweat dripped down the lieutenant’s brow. The noise reached a peak as it arrived near the forest’s edge. This was it.
Out of the canopy… a bipedal creature came running with a child of its species saddled on its back, a few dozen beasts hot on its trail.
“Wait, what?”
Noticing them, the biped appeared to increase its speed and ran right past the barricade before anyone could react.
Deciding the bigger threat to Equestria was if such a large group of creatures suddenly decided to move their territories outside the forest, Scarlet gave the order, “Forget the parent! We need to contain the Everfree beasts!”
They held their own for a total of ten seconds before Princess Celestia and Luna appeared in a flash of light and took control of the situation. By then, the two-legged parent was nowhere to be found.