If you lost your brother, what would you to get him back? What would you give to hold him once more? I will find my brother, even if I have to tear the whole damn Multiverse apart to do so.
You know when you're forced into retirement after serving in war only to find your brother had gone missing a lot can be put into perspective for ya. Like just how far you'll go to get him back. My Brother met the merchant and became a Displaced, he's all I've got so I made a deal with the Merchant and jumped in to the Multiverse after him. But don't think I'm not prepared, I've read the stories and I know what's out here so I made sure to be ready.
To all you Displaced in the Multiverse, beware for I will find my brother and if any of you try to stop me I'll kill you without remorse or regret.
*NOTE for this story:
This story may change from Teen to Mature depending on how it goes.
Authors Note: Hello Everyone; most of you that follow my stories and read the comment section will know that for the past several months I've hinted that I've been working on several stories behind the scenes, stories that up till now I've kept hidden and only hinted at. Well that time has ended. Today I'm announcing officially announcing the first of four new stories that I've been working on for several months. This is the first to be released as it's the most ready for audience viewing. The Second will be released after I have completed the first arc of my story Lost Dreamer. The final two will be released at some point after the second one but I have not yet determined when.
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy this new story.
Sincerely, Walter D. Arceaion
Eris growled as she stood in the line of the anime convention; she didn't even want to be here but her brother had gone missing last year and this was the last place he had been. As Eris stood waiting in the line she felt her left eye socket acting up and she rubbed it through the eyepatch she wore, as she stopped rubbing the socket she finally reached the front of the line and she stepped through the entrance immediately heading to the area set up for shops and began walking around. She had spent months looking for her brother till one of her old army buddies sent her a letter explaining where he had gone. At first she thought he was crazy or at least making fun of her but after she contacted him and he explained the evidence she decided to at least humor the old bastard.
As she looked around she spotted her target and carefully walked up to him pretending to peruse his wears till she was noticed. "Ah, welcome!" He said with the gruff cheery tone that the Resident Evil Merchant was known for. "I can see from your eye that you're looking for something specific." he said as his tone becoming mischievous.
"Where's my brother?" Eris growled receiving a surprised look from the merchant. "I know you know where he is so I'll ask again, where is my brother?" She said coldly and for a moment she felt a flash of heat run through her missing eye.
The Merchant looked around however no one was really paying attention to them; after he saw no one looking he leaned to Eris and smiled. "I'm surprised you had the nerve to track me down." He said with a smile.
Eris grit her teeth and glared at the merchant. "Just give me back my brother, please." She asked her voice breaking at the end.
The Merchant looked at Eris for a moment before sighing and leaning back. "You really love him don't you?" He asked receiving a nod from the worn out woman. "If you were able to find me so easily then I'm sure you know where he went." He said causing Eris to seemingly break, her shoulders slumped and she seemed to deflate entirely in sadness.
"He always did want to go to Equestria, 'a world far happier than here', he always said." She replied sadly.
The Merchant nodded. "I can't bring him back but, of course, I could always send you to him." He said his trademark smirk returning to his voice. "Of course you might end up in the Equestria he went to or another but it's still a chance." He commented.
Eris seemed to ponder for a while before pulling out her card and placing it on the table. "I'll look around and see what you got." She said as she moved away and looked at the merchants wears. As Eris looked she thought about what would be most useful in her potential new world and after considering she moved to the weapons looking at them and finding four items she felt would prove a major advantage in any fights. The first she grabbed was Ea: Sword of Rupture next she took Caliburn: Golden Sword of the Victorious and its scabbard Avalon: The Everdistant Utopia; they were all from the anime Fate/ Series. Finally she grabbed the massive double helix sword of the Fierce Deity from Legends of Zelda Majora's Mask.
After grabbing the sword she moved to the ranged weapon selection and smiled as she saw her two favorite weapons in the entire Fallout series; the Hécate II anti-materiel rifle and Ranger Sequoia, both being the most famous weapons used by Veteran Desert Rangers. As she picked up the weapons she instinctively cocked the rifle and pulled the cartridge out to check it and finding it empty reached for a magazine before realizing where she was and quickly placing the cartridge back in its place and sliding the bolt in.
"You know, we do have a set of Veteran Desert Ranger Armor in the back." The Merchant called out happily causing Eris's face to go redder and she quickly moved to the counter and set the items down on the counter for the Merchant to ring up. "Will that be all or would you like a few more items?" He asked with a smile.
Eris frowned before looking around the shop and seeing a few more things she would like to get. "Yes, how much for that Veteran Desert Ranger Armor you mentioned and the Berserker Armor on that stand?" She asked pointing to the iconic armor that was displayed on a mannequin. The Merchant smiled and went over to remove the armor from the mannequin it was on before bringing it over to her and then disappearing into the back to return with the Ranger Armor and a small jar.
"I have one more item that I think you may find useful." He said with a cocky tone as he set down the jar showing what looked like a white marble however it had the ouroboros symbol from Fullmetal Alchemist on it. "Since you are buying so many weapons and that rifle is rather long range I give you, The Ultimate Eye!" He said with a flourish. "Figured that you must have lost your eye or something given you're not wearing a costume and still have an eyepatch on.
Eris stared at the eye as she unconsciously rubbed the cover of her left eye. "Yeah, lost it during one of my tours..." She muttered off handedly. "Part of why I was forced to retire." She said before shaking her head and snapping out of it of her trance. "Fine how much will all this be?"
The Merchant smiled as he took the card and swiped "It let see here that'll be... 3,009.46$, would you like anything else?" He asked with a smile.
"Maybe something to store the extra armor in but aside from that, no I'll be wearing the Berserker armor out." She said.
"Ea is the Key to the Gate of Babylon, all your weapons and armor will be stored within its Vault though you still have to manually put the armor on." He said as he placed everything except the Eye and berserker armor in bags and passed everything to Eris with a smile. "Changing rooms are in the back, I hope you enjoy your purchases." He said as Eris took the bags and grabbed the armor and eye with a nod as she went and entered the indicated room.
As Eris entered the room she quickly strapped the chest plate and legging on before knelling down and pulling on the boots. As she rose she grabbed the gauntlets and pulled them on before reaching for the jar and unscrewed the lid to it. As she grabbing her new eye and pulled it out she examined it carefully before taking a deep breath and flipped her eye patch up. As she reached for the eye she quickly realized she should have done this when she wasn't wearing the gauntlets and cures herself as she struggled for a moment before finally managing to grab her old glass eye and popping it out with grunt.
Before she placed the new eye in she examined it one more time before sighing and lifting it up to the empty socket only for tendrils to shoot out of it and in to her where they dug in to her severed nerves causing her to scream as the eye pulled itself in, small arcs of red lightning shot out of her face like the Homunculus had in the anime when they were regenerating. Eris screamed as she felt the eye enter her socket where the pain began to spread out from just her eye to her whole body causing her to collapse in agony till she finally passed out, the last thing she saw before she lost consciousness was a glowing red transmutation circle that looked like the one for Human Transmutation.
Twilight frowned a she walked through the Everfree forest, there had been a massive magic disturbance last night and She had tracked where it originated to the ruined of the Everfree Castle. As she reached the castle she felt the magic from last night thick in the air as well as something else, it was almost a sense of dread. Twilight grit her teeth and pressed on crossing the rope bridge and entering the castle.
As she walked through the ruins feeling for the source of the disturbance she began to smell something like wet iron and when she reached the old throne room her eyes widened as she realized what she had smelled, it was the smell of blood.
Twilight quickly ran over to the mess and examined it staring in shock at what she found. What looked like an extremely powerful spell matrix had been carved into the ground of the throne room and lying at the center was the body of a woman. The woman was covered in blood however her pale skin and mane seemed to shine through the dried crimson. The woman also wore a suit of heavy armor and around her left eye was an eye patch. Strapped to her waist was a ornately fashioned scabbard with its sword still sheathed in it while on her back was a second massive sword that was made of two separate blades twisted together into a double helix that seemed far too large to be used properly.
Twilight paled and ran to the woman kneeling down and looking her over in fear as she felt for a pulse and found one though it was very faint. Quickly she rose and turned only for somepony to grab her, in shock she turned and looked down to see the mare had woken and somehow grabbed her wrist. The woman looked at her with a half focused silver eye before her grip slackened and she closed her eye again as her arm went limp. Twilight knelt down and took a deep breath before grabbed the half dead mare pulling her up and wrapping an arm around her turning back the way she came and heading toward Ponyville.
Chapter 1 - Meeting royalty and the Mother of all Exposition Dump
Twilight paced back and forth in worry outside of a room in Ponyville General Hospital, at her side Spike sat in concern as he watched Twilight pace. "Twilight you need to sit down, the princesses said they would be here as soon as they looked at the spell matrix you mentioned and there's nothing we can do for the mare till they get here either." He said in a shaky voice.
Twilight went to respond but was cut off when she was slammed into by a bouncy pink wall. "Twilight!" Pinkie yelled happily before she was dragged of by Applejack.
"Give her some space Pinkie." Applejack said as she looked to her distraught friend. "You alright there sugar cube?" She asked in a kind voice.
Twilight slowly got up and looked at the apple farmer in concern. "I don't know." She said in a shaky voice.
"The Princesses will be here in a bit; they went to get the others." Applejack said in concern as she looked at the door the mare Twilight found was in. "Something fierce must ‘a happened cause they are mighty riled up." She said in concern.
As Applejack said this Princess Celestia and Luna both turned down the hall they were, the doctor that had helped treat the mare and the other three Elements with them. As they neared Twilight stepped forward and Celestia hugged the distraught mare. "My faithful student, I'm glad to see you are safe." She said quietly as she rubbed twilights back. After a moment Twilight pulled away and stood back from the princess who looked over the six mares before her. "At present we do not know anything as to what has been happening." She said calmly.
"The Magic circle Twilight found was not one we are familiar with." Luna said calmly as she looked at the door in concern. "We hope that the mare that Twilight brought in may provide some answers."
"About that your majesty," The doctor interrupted. "I would believe I may be able to shed some light on our... patient." He said calmly.
"Anything you can tell us will be of value doctor..." Celestia trialed of and the doctor sighed.
"Doctor Cure All." He said as he rubbed his forehead. "First off I would like to say that despite the similarities to us, she is not a pony." He said receiving raised eyes from everypony present. "For starters while she has the physical appearance to a pony she has no hooves or tail on her body." He explained. “Aside from this her metabolism is different from ours as well, I don't know what she is but that doesn't particularly matter at this moment." He said calmly. "As for her injuries, we could not find any recent one however her body is rather... concerning." He said as he rubbed his face.
"Can you elaborate doctor further on what you mean?" Celestia asked in a concerned voice.
Doctor Cure All sighed and nodded. "First off when we attempted to remove the armor we had a significant trouble, it was almost as if it was sentient and was refusing to wouldn't let her go." He explained. "After removing the armor we found that under it was what we thought to be a sort of skin tight covering to protect her body however we could not find a way to remove it and any attempt to cut it was met with failure as we could not pierce the material. The material converting her body is black and has several red lines like marking that move from her feet to shoulders and neck; they appear like circuit boards in those new computer thingies." The Doctor said calmly.
"Was there any tears or damage to the clothing?" Luna asked curiously.
"None that we could find." The doctor replied. "After failing to remove the clothing one of the nurses suggested the use of a medical scan spell to see any injuries and from the scan we found even more concerning things." He said as he removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes as he opened the medical file showing the princesses the scans results. "First off her internal are similar to our bodies and scans on the muscle and body itself revealed that they were in a state of near exhaustion however; we found arcs of some type of magical electricity running through the body. Wherever this electricity passed the damage was almost immediately healed. We also found that in her chest was a strange stone like object that seems to be embedded into her body however it’s literally connected to her, almost like it was grown within her. We have confirmed it’s not any sort of tumor or other anomalous growth meaning that it’s meant to be there."
"Could you get a blood sample and if so was the blood on the ground hers?" Twilight asked in concern.
The doctor nodded. "We did get blood samples and I can confirm the blood that was on you when you arrived was entirely hers." The doctor said with a kind smile however it soon faded. "Princesses I can understand how this can be concerning however I fear these is something far more problematic." He said calmly earning a raised eye from the group. "Using the Medical scan we were able to examine the woman’s body and what it showed..." The doctor shuddered. "From what the scan reviled she has several runic symbols carved into her body and from what we could determine they were done at a young age. She couldn't have been any older than seven when it was done and the scars were filled it with what we identified as stone. While we could not get a sample due to the covering the scan determined it to most likely be obsidian." He said drawing gasps of shock and looks of digest from the group. "Furthermore the symbol around her right eye that we assumed to be a tattoo was made the same way and at the same time, her left eye shows signs it was forcefully removed no more than a year ago but the eyes is still there and the only abnormality to it is that in the place of a pupil it has a strange symbol on it." He explained.
"Thank you for your assessment doctor, is there anything else?" She asked Doctor All.
Doctor Cure all nodded. "One final thing, whoever did those runic carvings on her knew exactly what they were doing and whatever they were trying to do I fear was a success." He said in a warning tone. "Furthermore Given the physical state of her body I'm inclined to believe that she has some form of military background or training as she is in near peak physical condition and as side from the runic scars her body is convert in old burn marks, small scars most likely form projectiles as there was fragment still in her skin and slash marks from bladed weapons that are likely from past fights." He explained as he turned and began to walk down the hall. "I don't know what happened to her or how she ended up as she did but I know she's been through Tartarus and back so please be careful." He said over his shoulder.
As Doctor Cure All left Celestia and Luna looked at each other before turning to the door. "Twilight, you mentioned she woke for a moment and saw you?" Celestia asked receiving a nod from the worried mare. "Then I ask you to come in with us, your presence may help keep this individual calm." She said.
"If you think it will help Princesses then I'll do my best." Twilight said hesitantly as she walked forward just as a scream pierced the air drawing fearful looks from the group before Twilight and the princesses ran into the room.
Eris groaned as she woke up and looked around finding herself in what looked like an empty void. With a groan she rose slowly and looked around seeing that the void wasn't exactly empty but rather there seemed to be shadowy humanoid like beings walking around in a stupor. Eris slowly walked over to one of them and as she reached out the shadows seemed to sense her presence and turned to her causing her to take a step back as more began to look at her. "W-what's going on?" She asked in a shaky voice as the shadows began to walk toward her. The one in front of her that she was about to touch raised its hand and for a moment made contact with her; in that moment memories flooded through her and she gasped as she tried to pull away in fear of the foreign memories. "NO, I DIDN'T WANT THIS!" She screamed causing the shadow to stop as Eris fell to her knees. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know." She said as the shadows drew closer. "I didn't know!" She repeated as the shadow one more touched her and memories flooded her mind.
Eris screamed in terror as her eyes snapped open and she shot up looking around the room she now rested in just as a purple anthro unicorn and two Alicorns rushed in and gawked at her. Eris took a deep breath as she looked around realizing she was in some sort of hospital, for a moment she simply sat there in the bed before turning to the window and looking out at the small town below her. Slowly she got up and walked to the window the ponies outside of the window catching her attention till she heard a throat being cleared and she realized who was in the room with her. "Oh, sorry about that. I was… distracted." Eris said as she turned and put on a smile as she closed her left eye as to hide the Ouroboros symbol on it.
"It's quite alright young one; could you please tell us your name?" The white Alicorn, Celestia, said.
"Before I do I need to ask if the name Janus Murphy Helsing sounds failure to either of you?" She asked calmly.
Celestia looked at Luna who shook her head and Celestia turned back to Eris. "No, it doesn't, why do you ask."
"Because I am Eris Karma Helsing and I'm looking for my brother." Eris replied as she returned to the bed she had been in and sat down on it. "Well I assume you have some questions so ask and I'll answer." She said calmly.
The two Alicorns looked at each other as Twilight stepped forward and looked at the Eris. "Are you alright, you screamed and when I brought you here you were almost dead."
Eris forced a smiled and shook her head with a sigh. "Yes I'm fine and wouldn't be the first time I've been at death's door anyway." She said before seeming to space off for a moment. "Though given current events I wouldn't be surprised it I'm not at his door for a very, very, long time." She said with a grimace.
"As ominous as that sounds we have a few important questions to ask but first we would like to know if you could tell us what this is." Luna said as she stepped forward and handed Eris a paper with a very specific circle on it.
As soon as Eris saw the image she grabbed the paper and examined it closer, the look on her face darkening further as she turned to the two Alicorns her eyes sending shiver down their spines. "Where did you get this?" She asked darkly.
"We found it in the same place we found your body, you were actually in the center of it." Celestia said in concern. "What is it?"
Eris looked around the room before taking a deep breath. "This is an Alchemical Transmutation circle and not the kind of Alchemy that is used for mixing potions and such but true alchemy, the kind spoken of in legends and myths." Eris said as she looked at the paper. "This circle in particular is a forbidden type of alchemy. It is the most dangerous thing to exist in this world right now. I recommend you destroy it as soon as you can." The three ponies looked at Eris in concern causing her to sigh. "You better pull up a chair, there’s a lot I have to explain." She said with a sigh.
The Three ponies looked confused but nodded and walked over to a small table set in the room and pulled the chairs out so that they were facing Eris. "Alright, now can you please explain all this?" Celestia asked in a patient voice.
Eris nodded and took a deep breath. "First I want it known I am not from your world, or this dimension for that matter." She said earning a raised eyebrow from the group before her. "I am what’s known as a Dimensionally Misplaced, or Displaced for short. In my world we have these grand festivals and celebrations that center around fictional stories and games, these events are called Conventions and a lot of people that go to them often decide to dress as their favorite characters. At the conventions there is a chance you could meet a being known as the Merchant, a creature know as a Void Dweller who is so powerful that he can send people to other worlds, dimension or realities transformed into the person they were dressed as." Eris explained as she looked out at the window. "A year ago my brother disappeared at one of these conventions, at the time I was serving my fourth tour of duty in the military ao I had no idea he was missing till after my tour was completed I was forced into retirement due to injuries sustained in the field. When I returned home I went to see my brother only to find he's been missing for six months." Eris balled her fist and looked at the princesses. "I spent the next six months tracking where he could have gone and it all leads me to a convention, when I went there I managed to find and confronted the merchant; the bastard had made him a displaced so I decided to jump in and find him."
Celestia nodded. "So that's why you asked if we knew the name but if he wasn't sent here then where is he?" She asked.
"Displaced don't all go to one world; instead we follow the Multiverse Theory meaning that he could be anywhere out there." Eris explained with a sad sigh.
"How will you find him then?" Luna asked in concern. "I am sorry to say this but we don't have the capabilities to send you to other universe."
"We Displaced can create what is known as a Token, an item that both identify who we are and where we stand in the moral spectrum." Eris explained. "These Tokens can be used to summon the Displaced that makes them, I will find my brother eventually but even if I do I don't even know if he'll remember me."
"And why is that?" Twilight asked.
"When we are displaced our bodies change to become the person we were displaced as." Eris said with a sigh. "The Lucky ones, like me, are able to retain all our memories from before we were displaced. The unlucky forget about their life before being displaced and become the character they turned into. Some of the ones that forget are still lucky and only get a few quirks of their characters personality or just forget a few small details but then there are those who forget everything or have their entire life rewritten to fit their new existence."
"So who did you go as?" Twilight asked curiously. "If you were displaced then it means that you went as someone right?"
Eris shook her head. "I didn't go dressed as anyone but rather I purchased all my items from the Merchant after he told me where my brother went." She explained. "Of course I didn't get out of this unscathed, I'm not human anymore but rather a fictional creature."
"And what might that be?" Celestia asked as she leaned forward.
Eris looked down at herself and sighed. “I'm a Homunculus." She said sadly. "The items I purchased were from all different franchises and games, if you want I can explain each one but that's up to you."
"We would like to know, this is all new and anything you tell us will be kept private." Luna said in a kind voice.
Eris nodded still looking down. "The first Items are from a series known as the Fate/ Series. The Items are known as Noble Phantasms and they are weapons of extreme power. The first item I purchased is Caliburn, Golden Sword of the Victorious. It is a powerful weapon and whoever wields it is guaranteed to never lose in battle, ever." She said with a faint smile. "Second is the Scabbard of Caliburn known as Avalon, The Everdistant Utopia. Avalon has the power to heal any wound and when it is paired with Caliburn it becomes even more potent."
"Would you allow us to examine these items?" Luna asked excitedly.
"No." Eris said sternly. "Noble Phantasms can only be wielded by their owner, anyone else trying to use it is more likely to die touching them due to the raw power they contain. The Only exception is if the Noble Phantasm accepts the one who touched it as worthy to bear its power where it will then bind itself to the individual till death." Eris explained. "Finally I have access to what's known as The Gate of Babylon, a requiem containing every Noble Phantasm to ever exist. In short I have an armory of weapons, armor and items that are powerful enough to destroy worlds locked away in a pocket dimension that only I can access."
The Princesses looked at Eris in concern however this only caused her to giggle. "It's quite alright princesses, I won’t harm you or any pony unless I'm threatened." She said in a kind tone causing the princess to relax.
"You said that this was but the first, we assume there are more." Luna said in concern.
Eris nodded. "The next I will talk about is the armor I wear and I recommend you not touch it or even try it on." She said in a warning tone. "That armor is an ancient relic forged by dwarves known as the Berserker Armor. It is a dangerous and cursed relic that is feared by many." She said as her tone darkened. "The Person who wears the armor and syntonizers with the dark magic contained within it becomes unstoppable, it inhibits the person’s ability to feel pain and even fear." She said calmly, the princesses looking more concerned as she kept talking. "Humans are incredibly strong beings however we are limited by our pain; it's a warning to prevent the body from destroying itself however without it we become truly powerful monsters. Furthermore any injuries that would prevent the wearer from fighting are fixed by the armor impaling itself into the wearied to support and reset bones however this comes at the cost of destroying the wearer’s body and eventually they will simply bleed out."
"Why would you take such a dangerous relic!?" Twilight yelled causing Celestia and Luna to look at the mare shocked and Eris to sigh.
"Because it wouldn't affect me like it would others for a few reasons." Eris explained sadly. "Frist, I'm a trained soldier and have served in several rounds of battle. I know how to control my bloodlust and that's what the armor uses." She explained. "Besides that the armor would only be able to enhance me and I'll explain why later." She said before looking back to the princesses. "Now the next item is from a game franchise and was used by a being known as the Fierce Deity. The Sword is a double Helix blade 78' inches long and very powerful." She explained.
"Is it cursed or dangerous in any way?" Celestia asked.
Eris shook her head. "No, it's just a magic sword that sends waves of magic out when swung. The waves are strong enough to classify the weapon as an anti-siege weapon since at its full power it can destroy castle walls." She said with a shrug.
Celestia looked at Luna in concern before turning to Eris. "That is not just a magical sword." She said calmly.
Eris shrugged. "It's my least dangerous weapon given it can only destroy a castle. Then again I guess you could say that the danger of my weapons depends on knowing that what I have is actually really weak compared to most other Displaced." She said with a sigh. "The Last items are a pair of weapons I would rather not discuss."
"And why is that?" Luna asked.
"Because they are weapons that you wouldn't understand, you have nothing like them in this world." Eris explained with a sigh. "I honestly only got them because they are familiar to me, as is the armor that come with them." She explained.
"And how dangerous are they?" Celestia asked.
"Unlike my other weapons and armors the items for I'm referring to don't have any special or magical powers." Eris clarified. "They are just weapons my world uses and as such I'm most familiar with them but don't mistake them for weak, like I said the Double Helix Sword is my weakest weapon."
"We see." Luna said with a frown. "So what is next?"
Eris smiled. "Me." She said simply before sighing. "Originally I was what's known as a Human; and don't pretend you don't know because I know you have a mirror that leads to a world full of us." She said as she looked at the sisters. "Anyway, as I said originally I was human but... let's just say that was changed when I came here. That Circle you showed me is what's known as a Human Transmutation Circle, it is used to create what's known as Philosophers Stone."
"Imposable!" Twilight said drawing the attention of Eris. "The Philosopher's Stone is a myth, it can't exist."
Eris rose and walked toward Twilight with a dark look, as she reached Twilight she leaned forward and looked Twilight in the eyes as she opened her left eye showing the Ouroboros Tattoo. "Impossible you say?" She asked in a sad tone. "Remember this young Twilight Sparkle, nothing is impossible." She said darkly as she reached up to her chest and thrust her hands in to it slowly pulling it apart earning a disgusted and shocked look from the princesses which quickly morphed into just shock as she showed the hole she made in her chest. Resting inside the hole was a glowing red stone that pulsated with an eerie glow. "Four point eight five billion souls trapped in a single container that is my very heart." Eris said. "A philosopher’s stone is made from the souls of living beings and I have four point eight five billion trapped in me, all of them trapped, scared and confused." She said as she released her hands from her chest allowing the hole to close up with a crackle of red lightning. "Each of their lives I've seen as if I lived it, each of their emotions I fell and in turn they feel mine." Eris said darkly.
"A Homunculus is an immortal being made from the Philosopher's Stone. One singe soul controls the body while all the other souls serve as a means to keep them alive." Eris said in disgust. "Accelerated regeneration, immunity to disease, never hungry or thirsty, and 'blesses' with power beyond imagination." Eris listed off with each step back to her bed before turning and sitting down with a completely false smile on her face. "All at the expense of a planets worth of people." The Princesses and Twilight look at Eris with horror as Eris sat down. "I didn't know this would happen when I made the deal, I just wanted to find my brother. She said in a completely miserable tone.
"I'm so sorry." Luna said sadly. "If there's any way we can help... We certainly will try."
Eris shook her head. "Once a soul is inside a philosopher stone it will begin to lose its individuality. Eventually they will simply assimilate into a faceless nameless mass of souls trapped inside me, stripped of any memories or individuality." Eris sighed and shook her head. "So, what are you going to do?" She asked the two princesses.
"First we will have the Alchemical circle destroyed; such horrors cannot be allowed to be done here." Celestia said.
"And what of me?" Eris asked.
"You are free to go, it is obvious that you have no ill intent, wish to cause my ponies trouble or harm them and the answers you have given us will suffice however know that we will be watching you." Luna said kindly. "While you have shown that you are willing to cooperate you are still a very dangerous woman and we cannot simply let you run around and do as you please."
Eris smiled. "Glad to see I got a sensible Celestia and Luna and not one that was obsessed with destroying evil or something." She said happily. "But before you all leave I would like to speak to you both alone, without Twilight." She said calmly.
Luna and Celestia looked at each other before turning to the Unicorn in thought. "Twilight, you can go back out and be with your friends." Celestia said. Twilight nodded and left leaving the Princesses with Eris.
Eris nodded and looked at them calmly. "What I tell you now cannot be told or even hinted at to any living creature." Eris said calmly as she looked at the two Princesses. "And I want you to Pinkie Promise this.” She said calmly earning a confused look from the royal sisters.
"What do you mean?" Celestia asked confused.
"In will say no more till you have that promise." She said calmly.
The Princesses looked at each other. "Very well, we Pinkie Promise that we will not say a word of what we are to discuss to a single living creature." Luna said calmly however as soon as she agreed both her and Celestia felt as though something was hovering over them.
Eris nodded with a small smile. "I want you to think of the world as a tree and every action, every choice creates a new branch, however if this world is a tree then all the branches must come from a single point." She said calmly. "The main trunk of the tree is the original and unaltered timeline where everything went exactly as it was supposed to; this is called the Prime Timeline and is the progenitor of all choices and actions."
Celestia frowned. "I don’t understand what you’re trying to imply."
Eris nodded. "My world didn’t just tell stories; we recorded events occurring in other world, one of which was this one." She said calmly. "You must be wondering why I purchased so many weapons and effective turned myself into a one woman army, the cause is because I've seen the Prime Timeline and I know what will be happening in the future." She said earning shocked looks from the Princesses. "However just like how we see the original timeline we also see many of the branching paths that could happen. I know what should happen in this world however that does not mean that things won't go wrong."
"What have you seen to that would lead to acquiring the weapons and powers you did?" Luna asked in concern.
Eris sighed. "I can't tell you the future, knowing such things could change the fate of this world however I will say this; there are things in the future, things that if changed could benefit this world but there are also thing in this world that if changed will doom it."
The two princesses nodded in understanding and turn to leave however before they do Celestia turns and looks at Eris. "I know you said you wouldn't change anything but I have to ask, will Twilight be safe?"
Eris was silent before sighing and looking away. "Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic and so much more." She said calmly. "She will rise higher than any pony before her but at the same time fall so much further." Eris said calmly. "I can't tell you anything about her, not till the very end."
"Why not?" Celestia asked as a small hint of fear entered her voce.
"Because her destiny is both completely malleable and set in stone." Eris replied. "No matter what she does, no matter what you do, her destiny is forever set to end in a single path."
Celestia seemed to want to say something however she simply sighed and nodded. "Will you protect her?" She asked in concern.
Eris smiled. "Do not worry Celestia, no matter how dark the sky may grow the sun shall always rise again. All you have to do is trust in your students decisions and back her, no matter what." She said kindly.
"Thank you Eris, get some sleep, I’m sure you're still tired." Celestia said and exited the room with Luna following. Eris sighed and lay back into the bed before closing her eyes.
Luna calmly stood watching the dream of her subjects till she felt a ripple and she turned to see a massive set of double doors marked with the symbol she had seen on Eris's eye, calmly she approached the doors and paused before opening them and stepping into the dream of her newest charge.
As she stepped through she found herself on top of a massive hill and splayed out before her was a battle field. Luna watched in shock as explosions ripped the ground apart and soldiers seemed to fall to the ground from weapons that shot farther than any she had seen before. "Wind speed eight miles per hour coming north by north-west." A voice said beside her causing Lona to turn and see a woman lying on her stomach.
The woman wore a camouflaged like attire with a helmet and in her hands laying on the ground on a stand was one of the long slender weapons however it was vastly different from the ones held by the other soldiers. "Let's see..." She muttered quietly as she seemed to look over the filed with a small telescope mounted on the weapon. "Target located." She muttered as she stopped and repositioned her weapon and then pulled back a pin causing a sound to come from the weapon. As the woman lined up the shot Luna sensed magic building around her and she saw two runes glowing through her clothes, one was carved into her left arm and the second was on her hand. As Luna squinted at the runes she noticed they were the runes for focus and accuracy. "And you’re dead." She whispered as her finger moved and the weapon kicked back with a bang.
Luna watched in shock as she saw a small piece of metal flu from the pipe like end of the weapon and fly through the air before finally striking a man dressed in a different colored uniform resulting in him falling back with blood coming from a hole in his head. Luna watched for watched felt like hours as the woman repeated this process several more times till she packed up her equipment and moved to another location and continued.
Luna sat and watched as the woman casually took the lives of soldiers for hours by the time the battle had ended the night had passed and the days light had already shone on the battlefield of countless dead for hours. "Hey Angel, if you're still there command said to pack it up and return to base." Came a voice over a radio the woman had set up.
"I'm on my way." The woman said as she sat up and packed her gear up. "You know you are really weird Luna." She said as he turned to the Alicorn who jumped in surprise.
"You're aware of me?" She asked receiving a nod from the woman.
"Yeah, I'm a bit of a lucid dreamer, been one for years so I knew you were here since the start." She said as she began to walk away. "Sleep never came easy to me, maybe it's because if how I grew up and had to always be looking over my shoulder, maybe it's because of my time in the military and all the wars fought in; either way I don't sleep that much anymore but when I do I eventually become aware I'm dreaming."
Luna nodded a she followed the woman. "So who are you?" She asked as she examined the woman.
"Oh Luna we met only a few hours ago, I'm Eris." She said as she turned and booped the mares nose. "This is what I looked like before I became a Homunculus, though I will admit I like my hair longer she said as it shifted reaching the small of her back like it did in the waking world.
"What is that black suit you were wearing when we met; it doesn't seem you are wearing it now." Luna asked as she eyed the woman beside her.
"Homunculus wear that, it's like built in clothing." Eris explained. "I could change it from the skintight wet suit I have it as now to anything I want but I can’t exactly remove it since it’s a part of me." She said and Luna nodded.
"So tell me, how did you come to have runes carved into your flesh?" Luna asked causing Eris to stop and frown and she looked down at her marred hands. "Believe me it wasn't by choice." She said in a colder tone. "My birth parents were a bit... crazed. They carved them on me when I was about seven. The symbol carved around my right eye is the Eye of Horus, it's said to be the 'all seeing eye', there is an Enhance rune on my neck, on my upper back is an Shield rune and my lower back has a Endurance Rune carved into it." She said calmly before looking at her arms. "There is a rune of Will on my left shoulder, a rune of Focus on my left forearm and my hand has a rune for accuracy. My right shoulder has a rune of Energy, my right forearm has a rune of Revenge and my right hand has a guard rune on it. Then I have a rune of Swift on both my legs."
Luna looked at Eris in shock and disgust. "And all this when thou were seven!?" She asked in horror.
Eris nodded. "Yup, and that was just the start, my parents were into a lot of occult and supernatural however when we were born they thought me and my brother would be the embodiments of Karma and Murphy’s Law. They did a lot of horrible things to us but I made sure I took the brunt of the torture, I'm the older sister even if it's just by a few years and I wouldn't let those psychos touch my brother." She said angrily.
"Did no one notice, or even care?" Luna asked in concern.
"Someone finally did, I was sixteen and my brother was almost fourteen when social services managed to get us away from them but the damage was done, at least for me." Eris sighed. "When we were taken we were determined to be in need of special care due to the trauma we had so we were placed with a family that was trained to help us. My brother recovered quickly since he got less of the punishment from those psychos but I... never really recovered. As soon as I was old enough I join the military to get away from all the pain."
"And this is how you fight?" Luna asked as she pointed to the corpses behind them.
"I was a Sniper, we specialize in long range combat but that doesn't mean I can't fight with other weapons. I'm good with swords and other melee weapons but in our world such tools have long since fell out of style for more effective ones."
Luna sighed. "Are those weapons you mentioned but did not show like the ones you used?" She asked calmly receiving a nod from Eris.
"Luna, whatever you may think of me, be I a threat or simply something to be weary of, do not let fear cloud you and your sisters judgement." Eris said calmly. "While I do not wish conflict between us I will not hesitate to defend myself and if you try to attack me I won't hold back." Eris warned before sitting down and looking at the field before her. "We Humans are such destructive and contradictory creatures. Primitive, chaotic and violent; but there is still good in us, even if it's not much." As Eris said this as the dream world seemed to shake and Eris sighed. "Looks like I'm waking up, I'll be out of the hospital today, I'm looking forward to looking around this world."
"If you ever need to speak to somepony you may come to my sister or I, we will help you as best we can." Luna said kindly.
Eris nodded. "Same to you Princess, I know a lot about your past and if you ever need someone to listen to you or to simply vent to come to me." She replied with a smile as the world shattered and Eris woke up.
Eris stood at the window in her room watching the ponies moving to and fro in the morning light. As she watched she heard a knock coming from the door and took a deep breath before turning to the door. "Enter." She said calmly as a stallion in a lab coat entered.
"Good morning Ms. Helsing, are you ready to get out of here?" He asked with a kind smile.
Eris chuckled. "Indeed, never was a fan of hospitals." She replied receiving a nod from the stallion.
"The princesses filled out the necessary paperwork yesterday; still with the condition you came in, I'm surprised you can even move let alone leave. I know you will most likely not approve but I recommend you take a few weeks before any strenuous activities however I doubt you'll follow my advice."
Eris smiled. "Thanks doc but we both know I'm right as rain."
The doctor sighed. "Indeed and that is what I find most peculiar, you are completely healed."
Eris frowned. "Let's just say that I'm... special and leave it at that." She said quietly. "Can I get my armor and equipment back?" She asked.
The doctor nodded. "It's in the next room, the princesses looked at it and seemed rather concerned but told us to not touch it and to return it as soon as possible."
Eris nodded. "Thanks doc, I guess I'll be seeing ya." She said as she exited the room with a smile and quickly entered the next room seeing it was a small storage room and her items were sitting on a table. "Right, let's get you back in place you annoying armor." She muttered as she picked up the armor and began to put it on. Once this was done Eris looked at the other items at the table. The first was Caliburn which was still in its scabbard Avalon, Eris quickly took the scabbard and fastened it to her belt with a small smile before turning to the other items. "Where did you come from?" She asked as she picked up a satchel that had a very interesting design on it.
"New California Republic?" She asked as she opened it and found a note.
Hello Eris, how's your stay in Pony Land so far; assuming you haven't been stoned yet. Anyway, even though you're already there I wanted to give you a final gift. I'm sure you know the myth surrounding your name and a certain item that’s tied to it. Within this bag is your most powerful item, perhaps even more than EA. With this Item I also give you a prophecy, one you will fulfill even if you don't want to.
When the Warden of Sin is felled by the greed of Lust the Apple of Temptation shall consume the World in fire. The seven Sins shall rise as the virtues of mortals are corrupted. The Sun shall consume the Moon as the Moon drowns the Sun, and the Immortal shall fall to their Darkness.
As Eris finished reading the letter she reach into the bag and froze as she felt the item inside, with a great amount of hesitation she pulled the item out and her eyes widened in fear at what she now held; it was a Golden Apple of the Hesperides.
Twilight yawned as she sat in the waiting room, as she sat there trying to not fall asleep she heard the clanking of armor and turned to see Eris walk into the room dressed in her armor and with her weapons on her back and at her hip. As Eris entered the room she went to reception and spoke with the nurse there before turning and waving as she walking away. "Hey Wait!" Twilight yelled causing the armored woman to stop and turn to Twilight seemingly confused.
"Ms. Sparkle, I was not expecting to see you here." Eris said in a kind tone causing the lavender mare to blush.
"Well-I thought that maybe you would like me to show you around Ponyville?" She asked as she shuffled her feet.
Eris seemed to consider her question before sighing and nodding. "I suppose, I will be staying here at least for a few day while I decide what to do." She said earning a smile from the mare.
"Alright, the Princesses wanted me to make sure you feel comfortable at least." She said happily as she followed the armored woman out of the hospital.
As Eris exited the hospital she took a deep breath and sighed. "So where to first?" She asked the mare beside her who seemed to pause and thing. "You don't know do you?" She asked in a deadpanned voice causing Twilights ears to lower.
"Well... I kinda moved here recently so I'm still getting use to it." She said sheepishly.
"Oh, sounds like there's a story behind that." Eris said with a smirk. "How long ago did you come here?"
Twilight crossed her arms and stroked her chin in thought. "I'd say about a week?" She answered in thought.
"Tell me about your friends Twilight." Eris said earning a smile from the mare.
"Oh Well there's Rainbow Dash, she's a Pegasus and really fast. She claims to be the fastest pony in Equestria but I haven’t done any test on that yet." Twilight said excitedly. "Then there's Rarity, she runs a boutique and makes amazing clothes. Then there's Applejack, She's hard working but a bit too stubborn. We actually had some problems with that recently." She continued with a frown. "Then there's Pinkie who loves parties and is really weird. And lastly is Fluttershy, who is Ponyvilles animal caretaker."
Eris nodded. "And what adventures have you gotten up to?" She asked earning a bigger smile form Twilight who began to regale Eris with the adventures she and her friends had gotten up to while pausing to explain and show her certain places in Ponyville like the Town hall and other important buildings.
Eris Prov
As Twilight told of her adventures I just kept smiling and listening, originally I had been hoping to get Twilight to tell me more so I could find out when exactly in the show I am but it seems Twilight is easily prompted with the right subject. I may have to talk to Celestia about having Twilight be quieter about her adventures but that will be later. From what she could tell they were still in the very early season one right after the Griffon the Brush-Off Episode. I actually frowned at that thought. 'It's for the best I didn't appear sooner, if I met Gilda after what she did to Fluttershy I might have thrown off future events since Gilda is an important friend to Rainbow Dash.' I thought as I continued to listen to Twilight. However as I was listening I saw more and more ponies heading in a certain directing.
"Is there a festival or something going on Twilight?" I asked snapping the mare out of her story and causing her to look around in confusion.
"Hey what's going on?" She asked a mare with a pink coat.
"There’s some big traveling magician set up in the town square!" They said excitedly.
"So what?" I asked earning a raised eye from both Twilight and the mare. "Miss, you are a Unicorn, Ms. Sparkle here is a Unicorn and the personal student of the Princesses. I don't see how you can be excited for another Unicorn."
"Well... they say she is the most powerful Unicorn in Equestria." The Mare countered with a smirk.
I sighed and rubbed my eyes. "Okay, let's say for a moment that she is the most powerful mare in Equestria, why would she be here instead of working for Celestia? Furthermore why would she even visit your town?" I asked in a very calm voice, the voice I use when I talk to particularly slow or stupid cadets who just got out of basic training and were about to have their head shot off by a sniper.
Fortunately for me the mare finally seemed to start thinking and when she opened her mouth she closed it again and seemed to stand there in thought. "So... she's lying?"
I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose. 'How in the seven circles of Hell can ponies be so stupid? Oh, wait, it's Ponyville; they are as intelligent as the plot requires of them.' After a moment I look at the mare in front of me however it seemed our debate had drawn attention. "She is a Showman, or as you call them Show mare, it's their job to pretend and make grand claims so that they can draw in crowds. They make great spectacles and boast great feats so that they can make the crowd excited and pay for their shows."
"Come one, come all! Come and witness the amazing magic of the Great and Powerful Trixie!" A Voice yells from the center of town and I sigh before turning to Twilight.
"Well, let's go see this mess to be." I say earning a frown from Twilight.
"You could be a bit nicer." She said causing me to roll my eyes.
"Twilight, this is a world built on magic." I say exasperatedly. "It's so magical that your sun and moon are moved by magic so excuse me for looking down on a boastful show pony who is only trying to feed their ego."
I say as we reach the town square just in time to see an explosion of smoke and a mare dressed in a wizard hat and cape step out of it. Causing the Audience to ooh and aah with excitement. "Welcome peasants; now watch in awe as the Great and Powerful Trixie performs the most spectacular feats of magic ever witnessed by pony eyes!" She yells as fireworks go off.
"My, what boasting!" I hear a mare say and I turn to see a rather stylish mare.
"Indeed she is quite the braggart." I say as I approach the mare and the group that is with her who I recognize and the other Elements. "And you must be Twilights friends, I've heard a bit about you from her." I say kindly as I point at Twilight.
"Indeed we are, and I imagine you are Miss. Eris Helsing, Twilight has also told us a bit about you though some of the claims she made sound too ludicrous to be honest but given your appearance I suppose they may be true." Rarity said as she bowed to me the others nodding or waving except for Pinkie who is looking at me closely before smiling and running off.
As we walked I saw Twilight shifting nervously and I looked to her in concern. "Is something wrong?" I asked.
Twilight looked up at the show mare on the stage and back to me uneasily. "There's nothing wrong with being talented, is there?"
"Nothin' at all, except when somepony goes around showing it off like a school filly with fancy new ribbons." Applejack said with a frown as she watched the mare on the stage.
Rarity nodded. "Indeed, just because one has the ability to perform lots of magic does not make one better than the rest of us."
"Especially when ya got me around being better than the rest of us." Rainbow Dash said before laughing nervously as Applejack glared at her. "I mean- uh, magic shmagic. Boo!"
"Well, well, it seems we have some naysayers in the audience." The show mare said arrogantly as she turned to the elements. "Who is so ignorant as to challenge the magical ability of the Great and Powerful Trixie? Do they not know that they're in the presence of the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria?
I sighed and shook my head as Rarity blew a raspberry at the mare. "Just who does she think she is?" She asked causing Twilight to cringe and flinch away for the group.
As I watched the mare I felt like I recognized her and then it hit me. 'Oh this is when Trixie first appeared, this will not end well.' I thought as I frowned at Rainbow who had shot in to the air and flew into the face of the show mare.
"So 'Great and Powerful Trixie' what makes you think you're so awesome, anyway?" Rainbow growled.
Trixie smirked under her wizard. "Why, only the Great and Powerful Trixie has magic strong enough to vanquish the dreaded Ursa Major!" She yelled as she used her magic to shoot off more fireworks wowing the audience and slowly Trixie used some illusions to weave a picture with her magic. "When all hope was lost, the ponies of Hoofington had no one to turn to, but the Great and Powerful Trixie stepped in, and with her awesome magic, vanquished the Ursa Major and sent it back to its cave deep within the Everfree Forest!"
"That settles it." One of the children yelled happily.
"Trixie truly is the most talented, the most magical, and the most awesome unicorn in Ponyville." Another yelled.
"No, in all of Equestria!" The first countered as he looked at the second
'Oh hello stooge one and two, how I forgot about you.' I thought with a sigh as I saw the fat and skinny ponies of stupidity.
Trixie stood on the stage laughing. "Yes it's true, my enthusiastic little admirers. Trixie is most certainly the best in Ponyville!"
As she boated I swear I heard crickets chirping as the ponies in the audience began to realize how full of herself Trixie was.
"Don't believe the Great and Powerful Trixie?" The show mare asked with a giggle. "Well then, I hereby challenge you, Ponyvillians. Anything you can do, I can do better. Any takers, Anyone Hmm? Or is Trixie destined to be the greatest equine who has ever lived!? She declared arrogantly as fireworks exploded and I grit my teeth.
I didn't really want to intervene in the cannon story telling but with how this was going so far I'm honestly getting angry now. It’s one thing to see it in a cartoon but actually living this crap is just pissing me off.
"Hmm, how about you?" Trixie asked as she points to Twilight who gulps and looks around scared. "Well, how about it, hmm? Is there anything you can do that the Great and Powerful Trixie can't?" Trixie asked with a smirked as she glared at Twilight who began to stutter and back away in fear. "Well, little hayseed?"
"That's it; I can't stand for no more of this!" Applejack yelled as she stomped forward earning surprised looks from the ponies around her. "Can your magical powers do this? She asked as she pulled out a lasso and performed several high level tricks that required coronation and skill as she finished the tricks the crowd cheers and Applejack grinned as she turned to the mare. "Top that, missy." She said proudly
"Oh ye of little talent." Trixie said as he brushed off the obvious skill. "Watch and be amazed at the magic of Trixie!" She said as she lit her horn and the rope came to life and quickly wrapping around the surprised mare causing the audience to laugh. "Once again, the Great and Powerful Trixie prevails."
"There's no need to go strutting around and showing off like that." Rainbow Dash said arrogantly.
"Oh?" Trixie asked as she raised and eyebrow causing me chuckle. 'Ah old memes.' I thought as I looked at the eyebrow.
"That's my job!" Rainbow Dash yelled proudly. "They don't call me "Rainbow" and "Dash" for nothing!" She yelled as the audience cheered and she shot into the air doing several incredible tricks before landing with a rainbow covering her.
"When Trixie is through, the only thing they'll call you is loser." Trixie sheered causing some in the crowd to look rather shocked as the mare took the rainbow around Rainbow and grabbing the mare before spinning her around and shocking her with lightning. "Seems like anypony with a dash of good sense would think twice before tussling with the Great Trixie!"
"What we need is another unicorn to challenge her." I said as I looked at Twilight. "Someone with some magic of her own."
"Yeah, a unicorn to show this unicorn who's boss!" Rainbow said as he too looked at Twilight.
"A real unicorn to unicorn tussle." Applejack said with a nod as she too looked at Twilight who was shrinking in on herself.
"Enough, enough, all of you!" Rarity said with a dramatic flare. "I take your hint, but Rarity is above such nonsense. Rainbow Dash and Applejack may behave like ruffians, but Rarity conducts herself with beauty and grace." She said calmly
"Oh, what's the matter?" Trixie asked arrogantly. "Afraid you'll get a hair out of place in that rat's nest you call a mane?"
Rarities eyes seemed to catch fire for a moment as she glared at Trixie. "Oh, it. Is. On!" She yelled as he stomped forward and began to circle the mare. "You may think you're tough with all of your so-called powers, but there's more to magic than your brutish ways. A unicorn needs to be more than just muscle. A unicorn needs to have style!" She said as she took the curtains off the stage and wrapped it around herself before with a flash she appeared in a gorgeous dress. "A unicorn is not a unicorn without grace and beauty." Trixie seemed to actually growl at Rarity as her horn lit however before she could do anything I decided to step in.
Beside me a small golden portal opens as I activate the Gate of Babylon and drew a dagger that looks heavily bent. As Trixie shot her beam of magic at Rarity I leap forward and block it with the dagger. "I've had enough of this farce!" I say in a cold voice as I glare at the mare.
3ed Person Prov.
Trixie looks shocked for moment before her face contorts and she growls. "How dare you block Trixie’s magic!" She yells as she fires another beam at me however the blast was again deflected by the blade Eris held.
"I've stood by and watched this farce go on for too long." Eris said again in a cold voice. "In this enter crowd there is probably only one pony that could stand up to you however she has enough modesty to not need an ego boost by picking on weaklings like you. That and she's afraid that by doing so she would be showing off and the ponies here would hate her." Eris said coldly. "Like they hate you." I said with a smirk.
"If that's true then why do you face the Great and Powerful Trixie?" Trixie asked arrogantly. "If you can't win then why challenge The Great and Powerful Trixie?"
Eris smiled. "I said that there was only one Pony who could beat you but I'm not a pony. I'm A HOMUNCULUS!" She declared proudly as she stepped forward and pointed at herself with a grin, a small golden gate opening beside her and she placed the blade inside it. "That dagger is known as Rule Breaker: All Spells Must Be Broken; it is a C+ Devine Ranked Anti-Magic weapon." She said calmly as she walked away from the terrified show mare. "If you want a true challenge then I'll give you one." She said calmly as she reached the edge of the stage.
"I challenge you Trixie to use your magic to create what I create." She said as she clapped her hands together making it look as if she were praying. As she clapped her hands together a ringing sound echoed through the surrounding area and as it dissipated she calmly knelt down and placed them on the ground. As she set her hands on the ground red lightning arced around her and slowly the ground began to rise forming a beautifully decorated pillar that was inscribed with indicate writing.
ᚤᛟᚢ ᚲᚨᚾ'ᛏ ᛞᛟ ᛏᚺᛁᛋ ᚠᛟᛟᛚᛁᛋᚺ ᛋᚺᛟᚹᛗᚨᚱᛖ.
Trixie watched in shock as Eris finished the pillar and then jumped down. "Well foolish mare, do as I did." She said calmly.
"Fine, so Trixie can't do that!" She said in a huff. "But then again I don't need to rely on cheap tricks to do something." She said boldly.
Eris smiled. "Cheap tricks you say?" She asked with a smile. "This cheap trick as you call it is Alchemy, true Alchemy. With this power I can do anything; I could build entire cities, make clothes for the poor, forge the greatest weapons and armor for armies this nation over. I could transmute lead to gold, craft Mythril into artifacts of power or even fashion Oricalcum itself." Eris smiled proudly. "You on the other hand can't use Alchemy; you can't even out class Applejack or Rainbow Dash. Instead you resort to cheap tricks that proven you have the equivalent magical prowess of perhaps a seven year old.”
Trixie quickly regained her arrogant look as she glared at Eris. “Humph! Trixie doesn’t have to answer to such an-”
“You said anything we can do, you can do better,” Eris interrupted as she took a step forward and leapt back on the stage glaring at Trixie. “Applejack’s roping skills were purely physical, and she jumped through her own lasso several times without tripping up, a feat that even with my skills and coordination would be extremely difficult and I wouldn’t have done it as flawlessly as she did. You however, couldn’t even emulate her act properly and instead hog tied her and shoved an apple in her mouth. Furthermore I’d really like to see you try and craft weather that’s even half as cool as Rainbow Dash’s.”
Rainbow Dash looked stunned. "She thought it was cool!" She half whispered in excitement.
Trixie just stood there fuming as she glared at rainbow Dash. “Oh please, as if the Great and Powerful Trixie would stoop so low as to use her talents for such a useless thing as weather work. It would be an insult to all unicorn-kind.”
“Is that so?” Eris asked coldly as she glared at the mare. "You think the job the Pegasus do is useless?" She asked as she shook her head in disappointment. "As an Alchemist I respect the flow of life and the nature of the world. Seed to soil, Flower to seed, One is all and all is One." Eris said angrily as she glared at Trixie. "Your thinking is so flawed and egocentric that it's disgusting." She said in anger as many of the ponies seemed confused by what she had said.
“You know I never really understood people like you Trixie.” Eris said as she appeared to slowly calm down. After taking a deep breath she turned and looked at the ponies before the stage. “There are two types of entertainers in the world, the ones like you, and the ones like AJ or Rainbow Dash over there.”
Trixie laugh as she glared at Eris. “Indeed there are; the one like Trixie the Talented and the hacks who think that entertainment is flying or twirling some stupid rope.”
Eris shook her head and looked back at Trixie. “There’s the kind that build up a person’s hope and the kind that tear it down,” Eris corrected the unicorn. “When children see Applejack doing her tricks or some feat of heroism, or Rainbow Dash performing her stunts they may say how amazing those ponies are but it also gives them hope that one day they can grow up to be just as incredible. That is because they see someone who rose to success through hard work and merit, sure they brag and go on about their accomplishments but if what they say is actually true and backed up by their actions then it can give hope for the future. They don't need to trod upon some’s dreams to prove they're better because they can prove their merits through action and let others see that.”
As Eris talked she smiled however as she finished speaking her eyes hardened and she turned to glare at Trixie. “Then there are people like you.” Eris said coldly as a scowl formed on her face. “What really makes me despise people like you Trixie is that you could take your magic act and spread joy just like Rainbow and Applejack, you could make people believe they can be amazing as well but all you seem interested in doing is tearing other ponies down in order to build yourself up. You’re a parasite that feeds off the pain she creates, that relishes in belittling and mocking other creatures as you use cheap tricks and illusions to tear down everything they are proud of and built through work and skill. But in doing this you set a precedent.” Eris said as he turned and looked at Twilight with a sad glare. "Some People are naturally gifted and those gifts should be shared and explored but you make others not want to do that because it could make them look like they are arrogant or showing off like you."
As Eris finished her speech Trixie was grinding her teeth in anger. “You would dare to compare the Great and Powerful Trixie to some kind of parasite!? Trixie refuses to even address such a creature, if anything you are the parasite wasting flaunt yourself.”
"If that's all you got out of my little lecture then you truly are lost in your own Pride." Eris growled and for a moment every pony stood shocked as the armor Eris wore groan and creak as if it were alive and Eris quickly placed a hand behind her neck stopping something from rising up and covering her head. "Leave this place Trixie; you are neither welcome nor desired." She said darkly. "If you don't I'll do something that I'll regret."
Trixie glared at Eris for a moment before smirking. "Do your worst, Trixie will overcome any magic!"
Eris grit her teeth before she suddenly seemed to relax, her posture changing form one of anger to calm, poised and relaxed as she begins to smile darkly. "Very well, if you want to be so prideful..." She said calmly only for Trixie to smirk at her arrogantly and every pony saw that Eris's right hand was now glowing brightly with a strange symbol. "Trixie Lulamoon, thou are condemned for the Sin of Pride." Eris said in a cold voice almost devoid of emotion; as soon as the words left her lips the entire world seemed to freeze around them as if the universe itself was focused solely on her worlds. "For your Arrogance and Hubris I sentence you to forever feel the suffering your actions cause to others. This curse shall be branded upon you, and may be undone." She said and as soon as she finished Trixie screamed causing every pony to watch in shock as she quickly grabbed her right arm as if it were in pain. After a second Trixie quickly pulled off her right glove to find on her forearm a branded circle of two snakes with an eye like design at the center.
"That Brand is forever a part of you Trixie, as long as you are filled with Hubertus and Arrogance, as long as you hurt ponies you will be forced to feel their pain and suffering." Eris said coldly.
"Trixie thinks you're a monster!" Trixie shouted as she held her arm in tears.
Eris looked at Trixie with what seemed to be contempt. "A Monster you say?" Eris asked in a sickly sweet tone. "I'm not just a monster Trixie, I'm a Human; and Humans are the monsters that make other monsters cower in terror. We are the beings that bring fear to the Dragon Mother Tiamat herself." Eris said so coldly that Trixie was shaking as she looked up at the demon before her. "But then again, I'm not the one destroying the lives of ponies for a simple ego boost so who is the bigger monster?" Eris asked darkly as she turned and began to walk away only to stop. "Just so you know there is a way to remove the mark upon you but I've never seen anyone do it."
"Then how does Trixie do it?" Trixie spat in anger.
"To remove a Brand of Sin you must give up that which you were branded for." Eris said calmly. "Those marked with the brand of Pride must give up their pride and humble themselves, only then can their mark begin to heal." As Eris finished speaking she continued to walk away.
As she left Twilight looked at the show mare with concern before quickly running after Eris. As she ran after the woman many of the ponies walked away from the show mare glaring at Trixie or muttering under her breath that she got what she deserved. "That was mean Eris, you should apologize to her." Twilight said as she reached the woman.
"Until she learns humility that mare will never accept an apology Twilight, People like her are cruel, not because they have to be but because they can and so they will." Eris said coldly.
"What was it that you did to her anyway; I've never seen magic like that?" Twilight asked in concern.
Eris stopped and looked at Twilight for a moment before looking away and continued walking. "My birth parents were sick fucks who believed in a lot of cult shit." Eris said calmly. "Everything from my name to how I was raised was so that they could use me as they wanted. When I was seven they carved twelve runes into my body. Each Rune has a unique ability that I can use."
Twilight seemed to freeze as Eris spoke but quickly covered up her shock. "So what did you do?"
"I rendered Judgement, it's something I've done only a few times before and normally I can control it but that mare set me off." Eris said coldly. "There are seven sins of mortals; Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, wrath, and finally Pride." Eris explained as she turned away and continued to walk. "One of my runes is the Rune of Revenge and when it activates I... well you saw what happens." She said solemnly.
"You curse the person with one of the seven sins?" Twilight asked receiving a nod form the woman.
"Yes, the punishment shall always fit the crime." Eris said before chuckling. "Of course I'm not immune to my own power either." She said as she absentmindedly rubbed her eyepatch. "Wrath is a terrible curse to endure." She said darkly as they reached a park where she sat down tiredly on a bench. "Just so you know, I normally don't do that." She said a she trialed off.
Twilight was silent before looking at the human beside her. "Are all humans like this?" She asked.
Eris shrugged. "Nope, I'm unique... well my brother is the same but other than him I've never seen anyone else with my kinda power." She said. "And even then his power is different than mine. I'm Karma, the great equalizer of life. To me every one no matter their status or importance is the same, one life is just as valuable as another but that also means that one life is worth only one life to me."
Twilight frowned. "So what’s your brother?"
"Causality, he is the manifestation of Causality itself." Eris replied with a sigh as she leaned back and looked up at the sky. "You see the entire world is bound in an endless chain of events, each event is caused by the effect of another event and as such each event lead to more causes and thus, more effects. This repeats in an endless cycle until the concept of 'Evil' fulfills its original intent." Eris explained. "But nothing is written in stone and Fate can be defied however this only triggers unpredictable effects that more often than not barely effect the inevitability of the predestined timeline's general design."
Twilight sat thinking about what Eris had said before looking to the human turned Homunculus. "So your brother controls the concept of Cause and Effect?" She asked somewhat confused.
Eris yawned. "No he changes the likelihood of events, I guess the best way to describe him in a simple term is Murphy’s Law on a bigger scale, if something can happen it not only will but the results of what happened will have an effect in the long term."
Twilight sat quietly as she thought about what Eris was saying. In a way it made sense, Eris was there to balance everything out with impartial judgement while her brother was could affect the probability of events and the outcomes of said events. Twilight turned to ask Eris another question however a quiet snore caused her to pause and see that the woman had fallen asleep. "I wonder if she'd let me run a test on her power, if it judges a ponies sins then maybe she can judge them for their virtues too." She muttered as she sat there waiting for Eris to wake up.
Chapter 4 - To Free a guilty Princess and Chain an Innocent One
Dreams are a strange thing; they are fickle and flighty bowing only to ones subconscious whims. That's why they are so random and unpredictable, why they can manifest our greatest moments of joy or reveal our deepest guilt. At the moment I was trapped in the latter, my guilt. I'm well aware of the fact I'm not a perfect human being, because of the power I control I have a somewhat twisted personality and due to how I was raised I certainly don't have what one would call a normal outlook on life. I spent my entire life doing one of two things, making sure that no matter what I was invaluable to those I worked for and protecting my brother from our twisted parents. The things I did as a soldier were not often morally right but as long as I was payed I would do just about anything, after all it's much easier to do something when a higher up tells you to do it. Of course... there comes a time in every soldiers life when they are forced to question their superiors commands and when that happens things can get rather messy.
Eris stood before a pile of corpses, each of them wearing the insignia of a US soldier. "What have we done?" A man beside her asked in horror as he turned to her. "They were our men, ma'am we just killed our own boys!" He screamed. Eris grit her teeth as she turned to the corporal of their squad. "Give me those damn orders." She commanded in a cold voice causing the man to shake in fear as he handed her the orders and she read over them. "Send a message to Captain Renald, inform him of what happened and tell him we have a traitor." She ordered coldly as she walked away from the group.
"And where are you going Ma'am?" one of the troops asked.
Eris grit her teeth. "I'm going to go kill a bastard." She said coldly before she ran off toward their command post. As she ran her hand tightened on her sniper as the rune on her right hand glowed brightly. As she reached the command tent she quickly threw the sniper down and drew her side arm before she entered the tent and fired. The Staff Sergeant screamed as the bullet ripped into his shoulder and he fell backwards. "YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" She screamed as she stomped toward him. "YOU'RE A FUCKING TRAITOR AND A COWARD!" She screamed as she fired on the Staff Sergeant again sending a bullet through his knee and shattering his knee cap causing him to collapse on to his stomach.
"Wait no!" The Staff Sergeant screamed in fear as he manages to turn onto his back. "Please, spare me! I'll be court marshaled and you could get a promotion for it!" He begged.
"Plead all you like, your life is forfeit." Eris said coldly a she looked down the sights of her M9. "Now go to hell." She said coldly only for a gunshot to ring out in the tent causing Eris to freeze as she felt blood begin to drip from her right eye. Eris grit her teeth as she saw the Staff Sergeant had managed to pull his own M9 out and had shot her, Eris glared at the man as his grin turned to one of terror as she pulling the trigger and fired but not before a second bullet hit her in the chest and sent her back.
As Eris lay there she felt the energy of her Rune discharge and she screamed as she felt the power latch on to her and a brand appeared in what felt like her damaged eyes socket. "FUcking HEll!"She screamed in pain as she felt the Seal form before she passed out. By the time her squad had returned and medics could treat her she was nearly dead from blood loss and her right eye had to be removed, none of the medics figure out how she had a brand in the socket of her eye.
Eris groaned as she slowly opened her eyes to see the sky overhead. For a moment she was confused till she remembered what had happened earlier that day and sighed as she leaned forward and looked around the park before realizing someone was laying on her. "Who- oh..." Beside her sat Twilight who had her head laying on Eris's shoulder as she lightly snored. Eris groaned and simply sat there and watched the ponies around her. After watching the ponies around her for a time she felt the mare at her side begin to stir and she turned to look at the mare who sat up and looked around confused till she realized she had been sleeping on Eris's shoulder and blushed in embarrassment.
"Uh- Sorry I fell asleep on you!" Twilight said a she quick shot up and looked away.
Eris shrugged. "Its fine." she said as she went back to watching the ponies around her. "This world sure is peaceful." She said quietly. "No noise from cars, clean air, and kind people... well kind ponies." She said with a chuckle. "I can see why so few Displaced make a real effort to try and return home." She said as she stood up and looked at the sun which was showing it to be evening.
It may look peaceful but it’s really not." Twilight said as she looked up at the sky as well. "We'd best get to my home, the nights coming and it's really dangerous at night."
Eris frowned. "What happens at night?" She asked.
Twilight motioned for her to follow and they began to move back into the town where Eris saw ponies moving about quickly putting up barricades and barring their houses, the ponies who owned stalls in the market were already packing up and moving as fast as they could to get both their wears and carts hidden. "I guess you could say that during the night is when monsters come out." Twilight said. "Demons, Undead and all manner of evils come out and attack ponies. It all started shortly after Princess Luna turned into Nightmare Moon. In those days Ponies were very cruel to Luna, she was seen as the lazy princess who did nothing but the truth was that every night she and her Night Guardsmen would march across Equestria and fight monsters to keep everyone safe." Twilight explained sadly as she and Eris walked through the town toward the Library. "Eventually all the abuse, neglect and scorn Luna received became too much and she snapped turning into Nightmare Moon and her Night Guard became the Thestral Ponies." As Twilight finished explaining she entered the library where Eris saw Spike running around setting up barricades on the windows and other entrances.
As she and Twilight entered the Dragon turned to them in fear. "Hey close the- Twilight!" Spike shouted as he ran to the mare and embraced her. "I was afraid I was going to have to seal you outside!" He said as he hugged Twilight tightly till he noticed Eris standing there and pulled away to look at her. "So you're this Eris Twilight was talking about?" He asked as he looked her up and down with a frown.
"Hello Spike, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." Eris said as she put a hand out for him to shake. Spike frowned as he took it and the two shook hands as they had a silent conversation before Spike nodded and smiled slightly. "Nice to meet you Eris." He said as he turned back to the preparations he was doing. "Hope you're in for a long night." He said as he went back to setting up barricades. Eris moved to help spike as the sun began to set and Twilight began to cast a spell that once done made a barrier around the entire library.
As they finished setting up the defenses Twilight smiled and turned to Eris. "Thanks for your help." She said to Eris who waved her off and walked over to sofa set up for reading.
"It's fine." She said as she lay down. "I assume you don't have a guest bedroom so I'll be on the couch."
Twilight looked embarrassed but nodded before turning and heading for the stairs. "Oh I almost forgot!" She said as she turned and looked at Eris. "I want to test your magic tomorrow; if you can curse someone with those sins you told me about maybe you can curse them with the opposite." She said excitedly.
Eris frowned as she sat up and turned to the young unicorn. "Twilight, I'm not letting you test on me." She said firmly causing Twilight to look confused.
"I don't understand, your magic could be used to help so many if we understood it!" Twilight said completely baffled by Eris refusal.
Eris frowned. "Twilight, I will say this once and only once, nothing good ever came from tampering with the seven sins of humans or their opposite, the Virtues." She said coldly. "Despite what I said about how the sins are the worst in humanity the Virtues are far worse and before you say anything, listen to someone who knows from experience." Eris turned away and lay back down. "The worst crimes have always been committed in the name of the Greater Good, its leads to World Wars, genocides and crimes so despicable that I would never speak them; all committed by humans because of good intentions." She said darkly as she rolled over. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions Twilight Sparkle, remember that."
Twilight opened her mouth but the retort died in her mouth as her shoulders slumped and she walked up to her room. As she left Eris closed her eyes and fell into a dreamless slumber.
"Eris wake up!" A voice whisper yelled as something shook her.
"Five more minutes’ commander, then I'll go on patrol." Eris mumbled and rolled over however she was shaken more forcefully causing her to groan and sit up looking around confused for a moment till she saw Twilight with a concerned look on her face. "Oh...um...Twilight, why did you wake me up?" Eris asked with a yawn.
Twilight look of concern turned to guilt for a moment before she handed Eris a scroll. "The Princess sent this a little while ago." She said as Eris took the letter and frowned as she read it.
Eris, if you're getting this letter then it means that I have managed to work the courage up to face my greatest fear. I ask you to come to Canterlot as soon as you can; you have insight on certain topics that I am in desperate need of right now. Sincerely, Princess Celestia
Eris frowned as she read the letter before getting up and walking over ty where she had propped her sword up. "Twilight, are the trains working at this time?" she asked receiving a nod form the mare.
"Yes, what's wrong?" She asked in concern.
"Celestia has asked for my help immediately concerning some information I gave her about my items, that's all." Eris said smoothly feeling a bit sorry for lying to the mare. "It's nothing to be worried about. Now I'll be back as soon as I can but I might stay for a few days depending on what she wants."
Twilight frowned but didn't object as Eris moved to the window and looked out to see the sun was just starting to rise. As he moved toward the door and began to remove the heavy barricades covering it and unlocking it Twilight walked over and pulled the human into a hug. "Be careful, mornings may not be as dangerous as the night but they are still dangerous. “Eris nodded and pats the mares head before turning and exiting the library.
As Eris left the safety of the library she took a deep breath of the misty morning air and began to jog for the train station. As she ran through the quite town she saw a few ponies heading to their stores and jobs carrying swords and moving just as quickly as her. Eris nodded to these ponies who returned hers with a respectful nod or wave.
As she reached the train station she saw she had arrived just as the ticket pony was raising the window and getting situated in his chair. "I'd like one ticket to Canterlot." She said as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a few bits she had grabbed before leaving Twilights house. The Ticket pony didn't say anything as he took the offered bits and set a ticket on the counter and sliding it over to her.
Eris nodded in thanks and walked onto the platform waiting for the train, she didn't have to wait long as from the morning fog she saw the trains heavy light and as it rocketed into the station and slowed she saw that there were a few ponies already on board. Eris stepped forward and showed the Ticket Master her ticket and he punched a hole in it and waved her on board. Eris nodded and moved inside quickly taking her seat as the train waited for a few minutes before blowing its whistle and pulling out of the station quickly picking up speed before shooting of toward the mountain city in the distance.
The train ride was relaxing and Eris found she quite enjoyed the ride as she moved through the country side. A few times Eris swore she saw movement in the thinning morning mist but no matter how hard she looked there wasn't anything to be seen. With a sigh she sat back in her seat and closed her eye the sway of the train car lulling her back to sleep.
The sound of the trains whistle as well as its breaks caused Eris to snap awake and as she awoke she saw that she was at Canterlot. With a groan she headed for the doors and as the train stopped she quickly jumped off and looked around the platform till she saw a pair of guards in golden armor spotting her and approaching. "Are you Eris Helsing?" One of the guards asked in a cold tone.
Eris eyes the guards, her hand slowly reaching for the sword at her side. "I am, is there a problem?" She asked calmly.
The Guard shook his head. "No ma'am, Princess Celestia has requested we escort you to the palace." He said calmly causing Eris to relax slightly and move her hand away from her sword.
"Thank you." She said as the two guards turned and lead her through the crowds and to the castle in the distance. As Eris followed her escort she looked around at the beautifully sculpted buildings. It looked like most of Canterlot was made from old marble that had no doubt been taken form the mines under the city, the city was opponent in every way with houses having gold trimmings as well as having other precious metals used as decoration. As they reached the gates of the palace Eris looked up at the massive sprawling castle seeing that it was truly a beautiful building.
The walk through the actual palace wasn't as long as she had expected, in fact it was rather short. Eris wondered if there was perhaps some sort of spell or enchantment on the building to make it easier to traverse. Eventually the guards stopped and opened the doors to a small sitting room and ushered Eris inside where she saw Celestia dressed in broken and damaged armor sitting at a small table with pot of tea and two cups and saucers set out. At the moment Celestia was looking out the window at the setting moon and fading stars. "I use to love the night you know." She said as Eris took the seat opposite of the Princess. "It was comforting, gentle and kind; even if Luna had to go out and fight the monster she still made it feel so safe, as if all those monsters and demons were but distant fairy tales." She said sadly as she turned to look at Eris. "Cream and sugar?" She asked as she floated a tray over to Eris that was laden with small pastries and other amenities.
"I'm good." Eris said as she took a sip of the tea and found she rather liked it. "Are you alright Princess?" She asked a she eyed the broken armor adorning the solar princess.
Celestia sighed and leaned back in her chair. "I'll be fine in a few hours Eris; last night was a rather difficult night." Celestia replied as she looked down at her tea. "The monsters almost breached the walls of Manehattan last night."
Eris was silent as the solar princess sipped her tea. "I assume you didn't call me here so early for tea and cakes, from what you letter said this is a very serious matter."
Celestia nodded as she poured herself more tea. "Ever since Luna has returned things have been... difficult for me." She said slowly. "The Luna I knew was a fighter and a Patron of all arts. She would often question all my decisions and while I found it annoying when I was younger I've come to realize that she did so to make sure I did what I did for the right reasons." Celestia sighed and looked down at her tea sadly. "When she was banished I was so foolish and the nobles took advantage of my good nature and naivety." Eris nodded silently listening as Celestia spoke. "When Luna returned I did everything I could to get her to open up, I tried to get her to start paining again but she saw no point to it calling it a waste of time, she detested any actions of violence and has refused to allow the Night Guard to be reformed. When I asked her if she planned to reopen her school for dark magic she almost went into a rage about the evil and corruption of dark magic, and she even grew angry when I said that I still used it."
Eris was silent as she listened and when it became apparent that Celestia was done she looked down at her tea and took a sip. "And as her sister you are concerned for her?" She asked.
Celestia nodded. "She won't even question my actions anymore, following them blindly without question. Yesterday I decided to see how far she was willing to go and so I sent her on several errand that are normally reserved for maids and she didn't even blink when I asked! She didn't question why I had her scrubbing the guard bath house or why I had he draw my bath or even why I had her reorganize the entire castles library; she didn't complain, slake off or even try to take a break!" Celestia yelled in exasperation as she turned to Eris with tears in her eyes. "I know you said you would not get involved or tell of the future but I must- no, I need to know what happened to my Luna! I need to know if she is always going to be like this or if it can even be fixed!" She pleaded in a desperate tone.
Eris was silent as she looked at the tea before her. Celestia tone, the way she begged for help, it was so familiar to her own worry and pleading when she first lost her brother. "From one sister afraid for their younger sibling to another I will tell you what you wish to know Celestia." Eris said before she took a sip of her tea. "But I fear that what you learn may break you." She said calmly as she looked up and at the celestial mare. “In the future, that I know, Luna just dealt with some issues, and then she was back to 'normal'." Eris’s face darkened as she thought for a moment before speaking again. “No... it is perhaps more appropriate to say that afterword she was the perfect little princess for you and did everything you wanted." Celestia looked shocked as Eris looked Celestia dead in the eyes scanning them. “That’s what’s going to happen.”
The world seemed to fade away as Celestia sat in shock thinking on what the being before her had said. As much as she wanted to call Eris a liar on what she had just said she just couldn’t; there was a terrible and undeniable ring of truth to Eris’s words and on top of all this Celestia couldn’t deny that such events were more than possible given what she had seen of her sister so far. By the time Celestia finished processing Eris’s words, she noticed that Eris had had kept watching her as if she were studying her. “Eris... please, is there any way to save Luna?" She asked in desperation.
Eris looked away from Celestia and sighed. "If what I believe happened is true then I don't know." Eris said sadly before taking another sip of her tea. "Tell me Celestia, what do the Elements of Harmony actually do?" She asked calmly.
Celestia looked confused but answered anyway. "From what I understand they are used to dispel evil." She said calmly. "The Elements of Harmony are an ancient set of artifacts that can imprison and banish entities with ill intent. I assumed from what you've said you know something I do not, and I feel that your sudden topic change is not random."
Eris smiled darkly. "The Elements of Harmony cannot kill in a conventional sense but as you said they can be used in other ways." Eris sat her cup down on its saucer and pushed it away from her since it was now empty. "Even with magic you can't just reform someone to being good instantly, that's not how real life or the real world works and even if you did then it would most certainly be against their will. So that right there should be an immediate and major red flag that something is not right." She said a she clasped her hands together. "The Elements didn't physically kill Luna but they did mentally ripped her apart and created a brand new Luna, now weather they used the original as a template or not is something even I don't know but from what you have said I believe that that is what has been done."
Celestia sat in her chair as her eyes widened as her brain pieced together what Eris had said and what she had done by sending Twilight to use the Elements of Harmony on her sister. "What have I done?" She asked in shocked horror as she leaned back in her chair, her eyes tearing up. Suddenly she looked at Eris, a desperate look in her eyes. "There must know a way to save Luna, you must know of a way or at least have some idea how to!" She cried desperately.
Eris shook her head. "I don't, however I have a few ideas and theories." She said earning a desperate and pleading look from the princess. "First it is possible that the original Luna is still there, locked away and unable to get free; if this is the case then someone with a strong enough magic might be able to break through the Elements effect and free her. Second is that Luna may be simply under a sort of mental conditioning or brainwashing, if this is the case then simply break the brainwashing and she is free however if either of these are true then there will be some real mental scars up there." Eris said as she tapped her head for emphasis.
Eris paused and seemed to be in thought for a while before continuing on. "The third option is that Luna is truly gone however since she recognizes you as her sister she must have her original memories still which I might be able to use to help her but it will come at a price of sorts." Eris said before leaning back in her chair and clasping her hands under her chin. "However I've spoken with Luna a few times in my dreams and... while she's not what I expected in some ways she is still very much the pony your sister was. Are you sure you want to move in this direction?"
Celestia hesitate but nodded. "I don't want some obedient fake construct for a sister or a sister who is only half there." Celestia said calmly. "I want my sister back, both the good and the bad!"
Eris smiled and nodded. "There's the right answer." She said a she stood up. "I assume Luna is awake?" She asked receiving a nod from the distraught Princess. "Then... no better times like the present." Eris said with a sigh.
"Before you do... can you tell me what you plan to do?" Celestia asked in concern.
Eris frowned. "I will be using one of the artifacts in my position to break the mind control and then using my power I will brand her with a sin." Eris explained causing Celestia to frown.
"Twilight sent me a letter about your power to brand ponies with a mark as well as about these sins you judge." Celestias frown deepened as she eyes Eris. "I don't approve of such magic, but I suppose it has its place; it just seems a bit too extreme in my opinion. If you would be so kind as to tell me which brand she will get and what is needed to remove it." Celesta asked as she stood and half glared at Eris who sighed.
"If I had to guess which brand she will receive I'd say she will be brand with the sin of Envy." Eris said a she stood as well and followed Celestia as she left the room. "As for her having the brand removed, well I'd say she simply has to stop being envy’s of what she was branded for. So basically she just has to stop being jealous of you which she does anyway."
Celestia nodded. "So she will be fine." she said with a sigh before turning to Eris. "What is the artifact you plan to use?" She asked receiving a smirk form Eris. "You'll just have to find out." She replied as they entered the throne room to see Luna sitting tiredly on the throne, the last petitioners of the Night Court leaving or scheduling another appointment.
As Celestia and Eris entered Luna looked up and smiled as she rose and stepped down the dais to approach them. "Sister, it is surprising to see you here this early." She said before turning to Eris. "And Ms. Helsing, tis a pleasure to make th-your acquaintance once more." She said openly trying to speak in a more modern way.
"Hello Luna, is night court done?" Celestia asked receiving a nod from the younger sister who moved to speak however Celestia interrupted. "Excellent, in that case I need to speak to you about something with Eris in private." She said a she quickly took Lunas hand and pulled her out of the throne room. "Where is the best place to do this?" Celestia asked a Eris who hurried behind them.
"Outside in the gardens should be fine." She yelled forward as Celestia quickened her pace and Eris followed her through the condors before coming out into the castles gardens and startling the gardeners who were busy with the days’ work. As they reached the outside Celestia slowed down and turned to Luna happily.
"Goodness sister, it must be exciting news for you to have dragged me along." Luna said calmly as Eris came to join them her breathing a bit labored from the unexpected exorcise.
"Celestia before we do anything I want to check and make sure you're right." Eris said as she took several deep breaths. Celestia nodded and Eris stepped forward and removed the eye-patch she wore. As he did this she looked at Luna closely before nodding. "There are powerful magic’s at work on her and they all center around her mind."
"What does thou mean?" Luna asked looking confused at Celestia. "Sister what's going on?"
Celestia frowned and looked away as Eris recovered her eye. "Princess Luna, when the Elements of Harmony were used on you they did more than destroy the Nightmare, they made sure you would never cause trouble again by 'reforming' you. However that's not what really happened, rather they enslaved you and stripped you of free will." Eris explained. "Your sister doesn't want this, she wants her sister back, not a copy of her sister or one who is only brainwashed to be the perfect little sister." As Eris spoke her left eye had begun to glow blue with magic as wisps of blue energy began to gather around her. "There are many types of Noble Phantasms, one such type is known as Anti-Mind and it is this type I'm using now to free you." She said as the power grew and took the form of water. "EX-Rank Noble Phantasm, Saraswati Meltout: Benzaiten's Five-String Biwa, Anti-Mind configuration!" Eris yelled as the magic shot toward Luna and enveloped her in water before a pillar of light shot into the sky and Luna screamed.
The ground under Luna was blown apart causing a shallow creator to form with Luna floating in the pillar of light. The magic seemed to tear into the lunar princess as she screamed and her eyes glowed with pale light. Eris grit her teeth as she focused on the magic affecting Luna's mind, her magic and will fighting the corrupted magic that held control over the princesses. "Stupid Elements; fight my magic all you desire but at the end of the day your spell will be broken." Eris said as she grits her teeth. "After all you're just some washed up relic, and I'm using a fucking EX-Rank Noble Phantasm! Compared to me you are a mortal fighting a GOD!" She roared as a web of magic appeared on Lunas body and a loud cracking sound was heard before the web of magic covering Luna broke apart and shattered, the magic shards scattering as if caught in a wind. Eris took a deep breath as she staggered backward a step before she regained her balance and turned to the now unconscious lunar princess who was floating in the water like Noble Phantasm.
Eris smiled and lowered the princess to the ground and Celestia knelt over her sister. "Is she going to be alright?" She asked as looked at Eris.
Eris took a deep breath before flopping onto the ground. "She'll be fine, but like I said I doubt she will be able to recover for a while. Mental magic’s always leave some kind of an imprint and I imagine she is pretty scared form her experiences." Eris explained. "If you want I can place that seal on her now or when she is awake."
Celestia looked at Luna and bit her lip. "Do you have to place the seal?" She asked as she turned to Eris.
"That was the agreement Celestia." Eris said a she removed her eye patch and looked at Luna. "What is Lunas full name Celestia?" She asked receiving a confused look for her.
"Luna Selene, why do you ask?" Celestia asked however Eris ignored Celestia and stood before looking at her.
"And what's your full name?" She asked
"Celestia Helios, but why are you asking?" Celestia asked growing more concerned.
Eris said nothing for a moment, only closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "Luna Selene, thou are condemned for the Sin of Envy." Eris said in her cold voice almost devoid of emotion tone; just as before, the moment Eris said the world condemned the entire world froze around them. "For your Jealousy and Spite I sentence you to feel and suffer the poison that such thoughts bring. This curse shall be branded upon you, and can never be undone." As Eris finished speaking she turned to Celestia. "And you Celestia Helios, your Slothfulness and lack of Ethics resulted in the creation of the Sin of Envy and as such thou to are condemned for the Virtue of Diligence, till the time you learn to take responsibility for the mistakes you have committed and work to amend the wrongs you have done you shall be bound to the fate of the one who bares the Sin of Envy." Once Eris was done speaking Celestia grit her teeth as she felt a searing pain on the back of her neck and as she reached up to gab where it was she felt a brand forming.
"Well, that's not very fair." She said as she took a deep breath.
Eris looked at Celestia for a moment before sighing. "Look, I know you don't understand right now but remember that I've seen what you do in the original timeline." Eris explained. "Call me a monster or extreme or that I'm cruel but everything I'm doing is to make you a better person. My curses are used to make a person truly change their ways and become a better person."
Celestia frowned. "I can understand that but why did you curse me?" She asked.
"Two reasons," Eris said as she raised two fingers. "The first is that even one thousand years later you still haven't changed, you're sill slothful and prefer solutions that will delay the problem." Eris said as she lowered a finger. "The second is that I believe that this will help you and Luna's relationship in the long run." She explained a she lowered her second finger. "Now I would recommend that you take Luna to the medical wing and get her cheeked on, I'll be there in a moment. I need to catch my breath." She said.
Celestia sighed and picked Luna up before heading back to the castle; as soon as Celestia was out if sight Eris turned and walked over to a small bush where she had seen a small glint of metal. As Eris bent over to examine the bush she saw that inside the bush was a bracelet with an engraved sword. Eris frowned and picked up the bracelet before the voice of a woman entered her mind. "My name is Evangel Lucretian. I am Seraphim and I stand for all that is good and just in the world. If you also hold these ideals tap this bracelet twice and hold the sword aloft and I will come."
Eris frowned and looked at the bracelet closer this time bringing up to her right eye. "Well, looks like I found a token, this could prove interesting." She muttered as she looked at the bracelet.
Eris groaned as she opened her eyes and looked around finding herself standing in a golden throne room, a faceless crowd gathered on either side of the crimson carpet she stood on that lead to what looked like a crystalline golden throne.
Upon the throne sat a man who looked to be in his late twenties; he wore fine robes of blue and red that covered little and jewelry of gold. His skin was pale and his crimson eyes bore into her as if he were staring into her soul. "So, you're the one using my treasures?" The man on the Throne asked as he rose and walked toward her. "And now you dare to enter my domain?" He asked as he stepped forward, a golden portal opening beside him as he drew out a very unique sword. It had an abnormal shape that wouldn't match what one normally classified as something like a sword. While it had a grip, handguard, and was the same length as a longsword, the section that should contain a blade had the shape of a cylindrical, drill-shaped pillar made up of three independently rotating segments engraved with crimson cuneiform lettering that spun slowly in an alternating direction like querns, the middle segment spinning clockwise and the top and bottom segments spinning counterclockwise.
Eris took a small step back before a golden portal similar to the mans appeared beside her as she drew out a massive sword that was made of two separate blades twisted together into a double helix, the sword of the Fierce Deity. "Gilgamesh, King of Heroes." Eris said her tone cold as she looked at him. "To what do I owe this... honor?" She asked in a cold voice.
Gilgamesh examined Eris for a moment, the shadowy figures around them watching, their gaze falling on Eris making her shift uncomfortably. "You are not ready." He said as his eyes fell on the sword at her hip and he took a step back as he returned the weapon and stepped back till he once more till he sat back on the throne. Slowly the world began to fade and Eris frowned as she lowered her sword. "What do you mean I'm not ready? She asked. "What am I not ready for?" As the world faded away Eris grit her teeth. "What am I not ready for Gilgamesh!?" She roared in anger.
"When you have proven worthy to draw your sword we will meet again, till then you are not worthy to stand in my presence. Gilgamesh said as the dream ended and Eris shot up in her bed, the dream of Gilgamesh sitting on the throne still running through her mind.
Eris simply sat in her bed rubbing the sleep from her eyes for a moment before getting up and heading for the bathroom linked to her room. As she entered the bathroom the covering on her body crackled with red alchemical energy and pulled back till it formed into a pair of wrist and ankle bands while she turned the shower on and sighed as she felt the water running down her body.
It had been two days since she had broken Princess Luna free from the Elements control and during that time she had mostly fallen into a pretty basic routine. First was a shower and breakfast before she went down to the guard training area and running herself through several practices before cleaning her equipment, after she had eaten and trained she would head to the medical wing to check on Luna's recovery.
Eris sighed as she thought about Luna, the Lunar Princess was still unconscious but the doctors here were woefully incapable of treating her injuries sighting that due to her not suffering any physical injuries she was fine. The fools didn't know a damn thing about mental health or psychology and when Eris had been told by one of them that 'such things were considered pseudoscience' she had nearly strangled the fool. Thankfully Celestia was able to intervene before she actually killed him.
Eris sighed as she turned off the shower and grabbed her towel. While Eris couldn't be sure why she was able to, she knew for a fact that she was starting to gain a lot of knowledge; things she knew about but not in detail becoming clearer, things that she should not be able to know. It had started off small, with almost unnoticeable things like her ability to read things even though she shouldn't have been able to due to not knowing the language but recently memories and basic knowledge had begun to make itself known to her. While she couldn't be sure what had caused her sudden increase of knowledge she assumed it had something to do with her link to the Gates of Babylon.
As Eris thought about this she stopped and raised her hand opening a small golden gate however she didn't summon anything through it rather she simply looked at it with a neutral expression. The Gate of Babylon was perhaps the most dangerous power in existence however it was just that, a power. While it was controlled by the Key of Babylon, which was considered a Noble Phantasm it was not a Noble Phantasm itself. Eris let the power she used to keep the portal open disperse and watched it close, her eyes now focusing from the closing portal to her hand and then trailed up her arm till she walked to the mirror and looked at herself.
Even a quick glance at herself in the mirror was enough for her to know that this body was not the one she had before she was displaced but who had she been displaced as? Eris frowned at this thought, when Eris had gone to the convention it had not been as a character and each item she had been displaced with had come from the Merchant himself. It was obvious that her body was heavily influenced by the Ultimate Eye she had bought and as such it was that of a homunculus from Full Metal Alchemist however that hadn't been the only changes she had noted.
During her stay in Canterlot she had spent a lot of time training with her equipment and several things had been made apparent quickly. First off her strength and skill with a sword had been significantly increased and her style of combat had changed mirroring closer to that of Guts from the Anime Berserk but she also had the skills and powers from the Fierce Deity most likely due to the fact she had purchased his sword. While Eris had avoided using her guns near the ponies she had still pulled them out and she found her aim had improved as well as her military training showing she had inherited the skills of the Veteran Desert Rangers from Fallout New Vegas. This left her in a rather odd position. "And now I'm having visions about Gilgamesh, what did he mean I'm not ready?" She muttered as she stood in thought before an idea came to here.
Eris turned and quickly walked out of the bathroom, her outfit changing to its wet suit configuration as she entered her room and headed to the table she had her weapons laying on and looked at the sheathed Caliburn. Ever since she had gotten to Equestria there were a few items she had been careful too not mention or use, Caliburn was one of them, she hadn't even tried to draw it but what if she couldn't.
Eris reached out grasping the sword and looked over it carefully before placing a hand on the hilt and giving it a tug only to feel resistance, the blade not even budging. "Is it stuck?" Eris muttered as she pulled a bit harder only for it to still not move. 'I can't draw it?' She thought in bewilderment as she set it down and then sat down in the chair she had beside the table.
"But why can't I draw it?" She asked as she looked at the blade in confusion before her eyes widened and a golden portal opened beside her as she attempted to draw out another very specific blade. Reaching into the gate she felt around, her frown deepening till she finally felt a blade however as they tried to draw it out from the portal she found she couldn't. Closing her eyes she concentrated before speaking. "A++ Rank Nobel Phantasm, Excalibur: Sword of Promised Victory." She muttered as she tried once more to summon the sword only for nothing to emerge from the gate. "A+-Rank Nobel Phantasm, Failnaught: Fantasia of Lamentation." She said as a glow enveloped the room and a bow with six fringes and ten spike line protrusions formed in her hand.
Eris frowned she dismissed the bow and closed her eyes in concentration. "B-Rank Nobel Phantasm, Clarent: Radiant and Brilliant Royal Sword" She muttered as she reopened her eyes and nothing happened. Eris's frown deepened before she spoke again. "C-Rank Nobel Phantasm, Clarent: Radiant and Brilliant Royal Sword" She said and for a moment nothing happened before arcs of red energy appeared from the portal as a sword that could only be described as more dazzling than any silver appeared in her hand.
Clarent was an ornate and sparkling white silver sword adorned with splendid decorations and with accents of red however despite its radiant appearance it seemed to be dull and worn down like it hadn't been properly tended to and the feeling she got just from holding it showed the sword didn't like being summoned to her and was unwilling to give her access to its full power. Of course it wasn't rejecting her either, it just didn't seem to think she was worthy of it. "Well, at least know I can access the weapons of the other Knights of the Round Table but I can't access any of Artoria's weapons'." She said to herself as she looked at Clarent. "Then again you’re meant to be a B-rank and I could barely summon you at C-Rank." She muttered in frustration. "Is it because I'm incompatible with you or am I not worthy to wield you?" She asked in confusion. Eris had the sudden feeling that Clarent was shrugging its metaphorical shoulders and she sighed. "Look, I'm not even going to pretend that I'm worthy to wield you now but perhaps I'll prove I'm worthy one day." She said as she allowed Clarent to fade away and picked up Caliburn, strapping it to her side before leaving her room and heading for the dining hall.
The walk to the dining hall of the castle was a rather quick one and as Eris entered she saw Celestia sitting at the head of the table sipping a cup of tea while a piece of untouched cake sat beside her. Eris smiled faintly and walked toward the Princess, taking a seat beside her. "Princess, how was last night?" She asked calmly as a maid came out and waited for Eris to tell her what she wanted. "Just my usual Ms. Day." She said kindly receiving a nodded from the maid.
As the maid walked away Celestia turned to Eris and smiled, sliding a cup of tea over to her. "It was rather tame compared to the past few days." She said. "The Monsters around Manehattan were recently exterminated."
Eris nodded. "Well that's good." She said as the maid returned with a plate of eggs and toast. "I'll be heading back to Ponyville today, I'd like to make sure that the Human Transmutation Circle was removed and I did tell Twilight I'd be back soon so I guess I should return."
Celestia nodded. "Very well, though I feel a bit sad." She said causing Eris to look at the princess in confusion. "Our morning chats have been rather productive." She said with a small smile.
Eris smiled as well and chuckled. "Well Princess, if you ever have need of my services then you know how to contact me." She said as she ate her food the two sitting in a companionable silence till Eris finished her food and rose from her seat turning to leave.
"Oh, before you leave I have one more thing to speak with you about Eris." Celestia said causing Eris to stop and turn to her. "When we first met you told us a great deal about the items you have in your position however there is one thing you didn't tell us; those weapons you wield, the Noble Phantasms, where did they come from?" She asked.
Eris's looked at Celestia with neutral look for a moment before replying. "They are the weapons of once great heroes who long since died, powerful relics though some could be considered to be more. I should also warn you Celestia that many of the Noble Phantasms are somewhat sentient as they often have an imprint of their past wielders personality or in some cases choose who is worthy of them."
Celestia seemed taken aback by Eris comment before nodding. "I suppose such powerful items would indeed be sentient to a degree." She said before looking directly at Eris. "Then I suppose I should warn you what I've found might cause some... disturbance." She said before taking a breath. "After what you told both I and my sister we looked into your weapons and I found reference to a certain items you have in ancient legends and myths. The item was a golden sword named Excalibur, and it was known as the Sword of Kings." She said.
As Celestia said this Eris's eyes widened as she felt the emotions of several weapons at once, all them the weapon from the Knights of the Round Table were agitated at what she had heard. Eris took a deep breath before turning to Celestia. "Alright, you have my attention what do you wish to know?" She asked in a measured tone, her message clear despite not saying it.
Celestia frowned but nodded. "Is it possible for more than one Excalibur to exist at the same time?" She asked.
Eris shrugged her shoulders. "I can tell you now that the one I possess is the Original Excalibur but that doesn't mean that this world doesn't have something that is at least similar to it." Eris said doing her best to not deny the possibility.
Celestia shook her head. "I'm not referring to your sword and this sword existing at the same time." Celestia said hesitantly. "I'm referring to multiple existing at once." She said causing Eris to freeze her eyes widening as she felt every one of the weapons of the Knights of the round table fly into a rage however Clarent's rage almost over took her and she grit her teeth as she tried to regain control.
'How dare they not only make a fake but make multiple fakes!'
Eris was barely able to retrain her anger, even though she had no connection to the Knight of the Round table or King Artoria she still felt anger that such a sacred weapon had been corrupted. "Celestia… I'm going to warn you now that if there is more than one Excalibur in this world and they did what I think they did be very carefully how you tell me because what you just said threw eight Noble Phantasms into a rage." she said in a warning tone.
Celestia visibly gulped as the circuit like pattern or Eris's clothes began to glow red. "The legends tell of six Excalibur's." She said as Eris clenched her fists, eyes glowing white for a moment before she closed them and took a deep breath.
"Celestia, what I tell you now does not leave this room." She said in a serious voice, all warmth and kindness it often held vanishing replaced cold sternness. "Excalibur is not some simple magic sword or Divine Construct." She said coldly as she turned to look at Celestia fully. "It is the pinnacle of holy swords, strongest among them whose equal is only the strongest demonic sword Gram. It is one of the ultimate god-forged weapons and the Last Phantasm forged by the planet."
Eris paused and looked down at the blade strapped to her side and took a deep breath before continuing. "It is sacred; a legend weaved purely out of hope, not a myth or inhuman work. It is the crystallization of the prayer named "glory" and everything etched in the hearts of those who are scattered at the sword's radiance; the nostalgic, sorrowful, and hallowed dream of those who were placed on the bloody hell called a battlefield, of all warriors past, present, and future fully exposed to the fear of death and despair, and who still cling to the desire to be exalted."
As Eris finished explaining the truth of Excalibur she looked at Celestia, her eyes causing the princess to freeze in fear under their gaze. They were ancient, not the eyes of the young woman who sat with her and drank tea but rather the eyes of one who had lived for far too long and seen the passing of time. "The sword Excalibur, the Sword of Promised Victory is not one that can be copied, nor can there be multiple of it." Eris explained in a cold dark voice.
"For there to be six is a perversion of the very nature of a fragment of the world and a corruption of the very nature of Excalibur itself." She said as she turned away from the shaking princess. "Be warned princess, if you come into contact with one of these fakes you may risk being corrupted by its power and as this is a corrupt form of Excalibur I do not know what it could do."
Celestia took a shaky breath before reaching for her teacup and taking a drink in an attempt to calm her nerves. "Is it possible for versions of your weapons to exist here on Equestria, if they are legendary weapons from your world? Could such things be here as well?" She asked in concern.
Eris didn't turn to looking at the princess before responding. "Yes it is entirely possible and I'd advise caution if you go looking for them. While I may have the original Noble Phantasm, any legendary weapon no matter who wielded it is dangerous and some in the wrong hands could even bring doom to the world." As Eris finished speaking she walked toward the doors, stopping only once she reached them.
"I apologize for bringing such concerns to you; despite this I do hope you can have a good day." She said as she opened the doors and exited the dining hall.
As the doors to the dining hall closed Eris took a deep breath and headed for the main gate and exiting out to Canterlot. The trip to the train station was rather peaceful and Eris nodded to the few morning ponies heading to their jobs and the guard patrols returning to the castle after the night. Unlike her trip through Ponyville when she came here most of the houses weren't boarded up and the ponies didn't carry weapons seeing as they were in a fortified city and the guard patrolled the nights keeping the monsters away.
That was a concerning subject, the 'monsters'. Eris stopped and looked up at the morning sun rising on the horizon before continuing to the station. From what she had learned from over hearing guards most of these monsters were undead or the rare demon but there also seemed to be other creatures, something the guard called the 'Old Ones.' Eris didn't like the sound of them and she especially didn’t like that no one seemed to know where they came from.
Eris's thoughts were interrupted as she reaching the ticket counter and paid for a ticket to Ponyville before stepping onto the platform and waiting for the train. With a sigh she sat down on one of the benches and began to wait however as she sat her eyes began to droop and she soon fell asleep.
Eris sat quietly behind a table in the holding cell she had been placed in after she had been taken in to custody. As she sat the sound of the door unlocking was heard and she looked up to see the Colonel in charge of her units operations. As The Colonel entered he sighed as he sat down on a chair in the room and looked at Eris. "Well this is a fine mess you got yourselves into." He said as he threw a file down on the table between them. "I've already talked to your squad and so have the higher ups, the story matched for all your men which is fortunate for you since I'd say that a court marshaling and firing squad would be what you'd receive." Eris was silent and the Colonel sighed. "Look Eris I'm sorry, I did everything I could but the brass needs someone to blame so you're taking the hit since you pulled the trigger."
Eris frowned as she reached for the folder and opened it. "By order of General Tomas L. Louis, Specialist Eris K. Helsing of the 444th Special Operations Division, Code Named Reapers Enforcers, is here by Discharged due to injuries received on honorable service..." Eris trailed off as she read the discharge orders and grit her teeth. "This is bullshit." She said as she glared at her CO who sighed.
"Look kid, it took everything I had just to get you this." He said calmly. "The brass can't have it getting out that we not only had a traitor but one who was actively selling out our troops in such a high position; they just want to sweep it under the rug and forget about it which means they got to get rid of the people who know the truth." As the Colonel explained this he could hear Eris's teeth grinding in anger and he sighed. "Look most of your squad will be receiving the same discharge orders and I know this will not go well in the end but for now I'd like to congratulate you even if I can't do it officially." He said as he stood and placed a hand on Eris's shoulder. "You did a great job even if the brass won’t admit it; they're all too prideful to do it anyway so take it from me, you did good work out there." The colonel placed his cap back on and smiled at the woman before him. "Besides, a small condolence for you and your squad is that it's gonna be a damn pain in the ass to put a team that's even half as good as you and your boys were together again and I just recently resigned due to the bullshit so they're in for a major shit storm." He said as he turned and began to leave before stopping. "I probably shouldn't say this but the 999th Special Operation Division Heavens Sent is working on this case so don't worry, it's at least in good hands. Just pack your stuff up and get ready for civilian life."
Eris stood and raised her hand in a salute. "Sir, thank you for everything." She said coldly, she was still angry but the Colonel could tell it wasn't directed at him. The Colonel smiled as he turned back to her and returned the salute before he exited the cell leaving the door open. Eris sighed and looked down at the file before picking it up just a as whistle was blown and her eyes snapping open.
Eris looked around confused before seeing the train and remembering she was about to leave for Ponyville. With a sigh she boarded the train and made her way through the nearly empty car before finding an empty seat and sitting back down. After all the passengers board the train lurched forward and slowly began to accelerate, however Eris simply sat silently waiting for her stop. It wasn't a long trip and she wasn't exactly keen to fall back asleep so soon after her previous... dream. So she simply sat in silence watching the scenery go by without much of a care.
After a while the train began to slow as they pulled into the Ponyville train station, with a yawn Eris got off the train and headed out into the town. As she walked her clothing began to spark as it transformed form her skin tight wet suit to a pair of black pants with red circuit markings and comfortable hoodie with he same color and pattern, pulling the hoodie over her head she casually walked through the market and after crossing a bridge headed for the entrance to the Everfree forest.
As she approached the forest she took a deep breath and kept going, not even paying mind to any of the forest creatures that she passed or that followed. As she walked deeper into the forest she carefully followed the path she felt would take her where she needed to go and eventually she found the old bridge crossing the chasm that lead to the Castle of the Two Sisters. Eris frowned as she saw the castle and carefully entered the ruins.
The door to the entrance was knocked down and signs showed it had been done recently by a large group. Eris nodded her head in satisfaction before closing her eyes and returning her armor to its wet suit configuration and then allowing her berserker armor to manifest around her, the sword of the Fierce Deity appeared on her back and in her hand the Ranger Sequoia was summoned. Eris gripped the ornate pistol and raised it to where she was looking down its sights before calmly entered the castle. Her head was on a swivel as the gun pointed in front of her and as she walked into the main hall of the castle she saw the massive transmutation circle on the ground.
With a sigh she cautiously approached the circle and looked it over seeing that parts of it were damaged making it no longer functional however this wasn’t good enough and as she dismissed the raised the Ranger Sequoia she drew the Fierce Deities sword from her back and allowed it to change up. The two blades began to glow as power built up in it and after several seconds it glowed brightly. Eris took a deep breath and walked to the center of the circle and raised her sword in a reveres grip before slamming it into the ground carving into the ancient stones as if it were butter and released all the magic stored in her blade. For a moment nothing happened before with a resounding crack the ground all around her fractured and broke apart creating a creator around her, erasing the floor and any evidence that the transmutation circle even existed.
Eris sighed as she withdrew the sword from the ground and placed it back on her back before turning to leave. As she walked toward to entrance she of the castle she was unaware a portal opened up behind until a scream was heard causing her to turn around and draw the sword in shock as a pegasus like creature shot out of the portal along with a human and crashed into one of the stonewalls before falling and landing on the ground. Eris sighed and walked over to the strange being and looked down at him her arms crossed as he groaned and barely managed to see her before passing out. "So this is how we first meet." She muttered grumpily.
Red groaned as he slowly came to, his head pounding and ears ringing as he rubbed his forehead in a feeble attempt to stave off the headache. “How much did I drink last night?” He slurred before glancing at his hand and find it covered in traces of blood. “Probably a lot,” He said as he let out a strained groan and pushed himself off the ground in spite of his bodies’ protests. As he finally stood and properly surveyed his surroundings he grimaces at the dark, unending expanse of gnarled vines and twisted trees that greeted me from all sides. “Okay, why am I in the Everfree?” He asked before his ears perked at a sudden noise from behind him.
Red turned preparing to face down whatever hungry Manticore dared think it could have pounced on him however he was instead, met with the sight of a woman dressed in dark armor which reflected the warm glow of the billowing campfire before her, and sitting beside her was a human.
“Cador?” Red groggily mumbled causing the boy to glance up. As Cador saw red he nearly fell to the ground having darted over to the injured Pegasus and burying himself into the tall man’s chest crying his name in what sounded like relief.
“Oh, good, you’re awake.” The woman said staying seated and keeping her eyes on the fire and the hunk of food cooking within its embers.
“No shit,” Red said with a moaned as he attempting to take a step closer only to stumble to my knees.
“Whoa-whoa-whoa! Careful!” Cador exclaimed, pulling Red back to his hooves. “You shielded me when we fell; you really shouldn’t move. E-Eris said you might even have a concussion.”
“That so, huh?” He asked with a wince of pain and dizziness. “Greeeaaat…” He said as Cador helped support his weight and lead him over to the fire where Red managed a muttered thanks to him before finally collapsing by the campfire with a tired sigh.
As Red sat down at the campfire it flaring skyward in a glorious plume of smoke that looked suspiciously like an upward pointing claw.
“Classy, Iggy,” Red whispered, shaking his head in exasperation as he turned to observe his new campfire buddies.
Cador was still eyeing the now-peacefully crackling fire apprehensively, but the woman simply stared blankly at it as if she hadn’t even noticed the gesture.
However, once she realized Red was looking at her, she turned and met his eye. “So did I fall out of the sky or what?” Red asked the silent woman before him.
“You did,” she answered simply as she picked up a stick and began to poke the flames absent mindedly.
“Right. Thanks for keeping the kid safe while I was passed out,” Red said, gesturing to Cador.
“No problem.” The woman assured, nodding quietly. “Are you okay? You don’t seem to be too injured despite your fall.” She observed.
“I’m a quick healer,” Red replied with a cheeky winking. “Are you Eris then?” He inquired to the silent woman.
“I am,” she confirmed. “You?”
“Redsopine, but you can just call me ‘Red,’” He answered, extending a hand.
After a moment’s hesitation, Eris extended hers as well, but the moment her fingers brushed against Reds, his hand combusted causing him to yelp and swiftly retracted it, willing the fire away. “Sorry about that,” Red apologized smiling awkwardly looking more like he wanted to scream at something, or perhaps he was.
“Sorry,” He apologized to Eris again. “My powers are a bit wonky even at the best of times, so...?”
Eris blinked owlishly and tilted her head. “You don’t have to hide them, you know.” She said after a moment of silence.
“Um, what do you mean?” Red inquired, his face showing panic for a second before changing to a brief glance he shot at a confused Cador.
Eris glanced at the boy as well, blinking in realization. “Oh, I... see,” she emphasized with little subtlety before shrugging. “Never mind then.”
Red was silent, his eyes becoming unfocused as he seemed to be talking with someone else. Eris was silent leaving him be for a time however eventually she cleared her throat. “If you don’t mind,” Eris said snapping Reds attention back to her. “I’d like to know more about what happened to you. The young one, Cador, told me that he and you were attacked?” she said, raising an eyebrow at the end implying the question.
“Uh-huh,” Cador confirmed, nodding as he sat opposite the both of them. “W-We were on our way to the coliseum, and then the guards attacked us. And— and then this weird, er, thing!” He went with. “Appeared. And a monster came out of it and attacked us too!”
Eris looked at Red quizzically. “It was a portal,” He clarified. “Not sure what kind, and I couldn’t see through it.”
“And the monster it heralded?” She enquired.
“Some nut job in a lab coat. Dude almost killed us, ranted about me being a cheater—whatever that means—and then created another portal and threw us through it,” He elaborated with a dramatic flourish.
“Why did he do that if he aimed to kill you?” Eris asked calmly
“Another portal formed and whoever came out of it saved our skin.” Red stated.
“Did you happen to see them?”
“No,” Red replied and both He and Eris glanced at Cador, but he merely shook his head.
Eris hummed contemplatively and returned her gaze to the fire and Red seemed to fall into deep thought however he was once more drawn out of it by Eris speaking. “You said your assailant threw you through a portal, correct?” she questioned.
“Yep.”
“And you, Cador, you spoke of a coliseum?” She asked looking at the kid.
“Uh-huh.”
“Hmm... alright, let me ask you both this, do you know where you are? What land you’re in?”
“Equestria?” Red guessed.
“Correct,” Eris confirmed.
“Wait, what?” Cador asked, scratching his head in confusion. “Where are we? I-I’ve never heard of Equestria before.”
“It’s my home, kiddo,” Red clarified.
“I assumed as much,” Eris said, pointing at Reds muzzle. “Although, I doubt this Equestria is your Equestria.”
The second her words registered Red groaned and held my face in my hands. “I dimension hopped again!? Oh, come on! Can’t it ever be a normal teleportation portal for once!?”
“I take it that crossing worlds is not uncommon for you?” she supposed.
“I wish it were.” Red lamented as his head fell into his hands which rested on his lap.
“Dimension... hopped...?” Cador nervously repeated. “W-What does that mean?”
“It means your attacker ripped open a hole in time and space and carelessly tossed you through it.” Eris explained bluntly. “This world you’re in right now? It’s not yours. Not just the location, mind you but the entire. world.”
Cador swayed a little, but after giving his head a small shake he protested. “But that’s impossible! Wh-What are you saying? That there’s really other worlds?”
“Correct.” Eris replied as she picked her stick up and poked the fire again in a casual manner.
“But I-I can’t— H-How could that— My sister; I— Wh-What am I supposed to do!? I-I-I need to get back!” Cador screamed, starting to hyperventilate. “My sister needs me!”
“Cador, it’s okay,” Red comforted. “We’ll get you back, no problem.”
“How!? I-I-I don’t even know where we are, o-or how we got here!”
“It doesn’t matter how,” Red deflected, attempting to ease Cador’s woes. “We’ll find a way to get you back to your sister; hell, we’ll find a way to help your sister while we’re here!” He promised confidently. “How does that sound?”
Cador was utterly floored by that declaration, muttering, “Y-You will?”
“Yep.”
“Wh-Why?”
“Eh, I like helping people,” Red said, shrugging casually. “And I promise that I will help you.”
For one glorious second, Cador looked genuinely relieved. Unfortunately… “You shouldn’t make promises you may not be able to keep,” Eris advised tactlessly rendering Reds attempts to mollify Cador annulled, as he immediately started shivering with tears welled up in his eyes again.
“Look, Cador, I—” Reds voice suddenly cut out as he hastily slapped his hands against his mouth but small tongues of flame reached through his hands making him collapse to the ground in agony.
Eris and Cador both realized something was wrong, and while the latter jumped away in fear and confusion, the former standing and partially drawing her sword from her back and stared down at the writhing Red warily.
“R-Red?” Cador mumbled, grimacing in shock.
“Red?” Eris began hesitantly, letting her sword go and allowing it to return to its sheath. “Are you alright?”
Red wiped at his mouth and took several gulps of air, barely suppressing the urge to vomit before slowly nodding, an affirming, “Yep.” following after.
While Red rubbed his forehead looking as if he were trying to massage away a headache Cador turned to Eris. “Is he okay?” He asked worriedly.
Eris met Cador’s eye for a brief second before walking over to Red, looking him over with a faint frown. “Are you sure I shouldn’t be concerned?” She inquired, reaching a hand out.
“Heh, I wouldn’t bother.” Red grunted dismissively. “I don’t, I barely even know what their deal is half of the time,” He added, taking the offered hand however the moment their hands touched, Red's glowed like magma and he ripped it away from her, leaping back and glaring at her through draconic pupils.
"DO NOT TOUCH US!" A loud, ear-grating voice screamed from Reds mouth. “FILTHY VERMIN! HOW DARE YOU TOUCH OUR FLESH!"
Eris blinked and straightened up, regarding Red with disdain. "You should treat your host better Fire Demon." she said in an emotionless tone as she lowered her hand and returned to her spot opposite from Red and sat down on the ground. "Though I had no idea my touch was horrendous." She replied.
"Every mortal's touch is horrendous!" The Fire Demon snarled, utterly unconcerned as to the blackened, melted flesh dripping away from Red's arm to reveal a twisted, malformed dragon's claw. He then clenched said claw and snarled, "But yours is especially infuriating."
"Oh? I wonder why." Eris asked in a rhetorical voice as she shook her head slowly, knowing that this conversation was pointless. "In that case, I shall refrain from touching you again. Is that agreeable Demon?" She asked as she looked at the puppeted Red with a raised eyebrow.
A solid half of Red upper body now coated in a sheet of dark crimson scales, and his entire right arm had been replaced with the twisted, malformed dragon's claw and from his back wing could be seen growing. His original flesh had been discarded during the transformation having fallen to the ground as nothing more than blackened, melted gunk.
“‘Agreeable’?” The Fire Demon repeated via Reds now-fanged jaw. “What would be agreeable is if you were to die!” The Fire Demon spit back.
“Red, stop!” Cador shouted. “She helped us; don’t—” Cadors call came too late however as the Fire Demon now in control of Red had already launched himself forward. Only to be swatted away like a fly. The Fire Demon skidded against the ground for a second before righting himself and crouching on all-fours, snarling like a deranged beast.
Eris, meanwhile, shook her stinging wrist. “Ow." She muttered though her reaction to the pain was more amusement than actual pain. "Your scales are durable, I’ll give you that.” She said calmly as she looked at the Demonic Red.
“Just wait till you feel my claws.” The Fire Demon screeched, sending his power to Reds legs.
“Mhmm. Well, if it’s all the same to you, I’d really rather not fight.” Eris acknowledged, holding her hands behind her back and staring at Ignis coldly.
“And I’d rather you stand still and let me spill your guts out!” Ignis spat at her.
“Red, please stop!” Cador yelled as he rushed between Ignis and the demonically possessed Red. “She helped us; you can’t just— Y-You can’t just…” he trailed off, quivering under the intense hatred that radiated from Reds’ draconic eyes. Ignis let out a startled yelp as his body seized up and he began to struggle to move. The Demon glared at Eris with nothing but pure virulence as he stood in place truing to charge at her and only able to stand there and huff out fire and smoke from his mouth like a faulty flamethrower.
“Seems your host is quite angry with you.” Eris commented after realizing what was going on.
“Shut up!” The Demon roared with pure hate
“‘Host’?” Cador repeated, puzzled.
“That’s not your friend, Cador,” Eris said, keeping her gaze focused on Ignis. “It’s one of the demons within him.”
As Eris said this Cador's eyes widened and he finally passed out.
“Pathetic whelp,” The Demon sneered.
“‘Pathetic’?” Eris repeated, raising an eyebrow. “Being overwhelmed by having everything you’ve ever known and cared for be ripped away from you… you call that pathetic?”
“Weakness is pathetic!” he replied, struggling fruitlessly to drive away Reds influence again and failing miserably. “Being overwhelmed by anything is a weakness, so yes! It is pathetic!”
For the span of a heartbeat, the area around the two beings was consumed by what could be called a torrent of rage, it was blinding all-encompassing, endless and for a moment the Fire Demon possessing Red was sent reeling in pure terror roaring at the top of his lungs, draconic flesh rapidly burned away any remains of Red's body.
Eris closed her eyes and took a slow, steady breath and as abruptly as it began, the feeling ended, and the Demon froze. “W-What?” he muttered as he tried to blink away his confusion however Red seized the chance to take back control.
The Demon shrieked in protest but unfortunately he had been caught entirely off-guard meaning all he could do was desperately cling to Reds body and flail as, scale-by-scale, he was ejected from the pilot seat.
Realizing he wouldn’t be able to fight Red off, the Fire Demon turned his fiery gaze to Eris “If you had even the slightest hint of intelligence, you'd stay away from us! I know what you are! And I know what you carry!” He roared in pain as his claw began to evaporate away, revealing Reds burnt, bleeding arm. “You will not stop us! You will not stop me!”
Eris looked confused for a second before her face darkened. “So, you know about that, do you?” she asked darkly, standing and stepping away from the fire. “That must be why...” She sighed quietly “I’m sorry, Redsopine. I did not mean to incur your demon’s wrath.” She apologized. “Once you get control back, come visit me in this world’s Ponyville,” Eris urged, standing and stepping away from the fire. “I will help you get home, but evidently, I’m going to need to tell you some things before I do.”
And with that, Eris turned and walked away, disappearing into the thicket of the Everfree Forest. The moment Eris's presence faded, Red collapsed to the ground in a writhing, twitching mess.
After a minute or two to recover enough to sit up Red rose and cough his guts out. “Ignis... fuck. You.” He wheezed out on his hands and knees before he finally amaged to get up and weakly stumbled over to Cador who was still unconscious. Red knelt beside him and rubbed his hands together, stopping once the telltale hum of Pegasus magic could be heard.
One tiny pulse of static later, Cador was shocked back into the waking word with a yelp and after fully regaining his senses, he met Reds eye and practically threw himself away from him, beholding me with nothing shy of terror.
“Sorry you had to see that, kiddo,” Red apologized awkwardly. “You okay?”
“No!” Cador screamed, voice cracking. “I don’t know what’s happening, where I am, or what I’m going to do! I-I just wanted to fight… I just wanted some stupid Bits for my sister; I didn’t want…” Cador curled up into a ball and started sobbing.
“H-Hey! Cador, look, I know everything is going haywire right now,” Red said in acknowledgement and as gently as he could which he was ashamed to admit wasn’t much. “But I really meant it when I promised I’d get you home and your sister fixed, okay? And I always keep my promises.”
“H-How am I supposed to believe you?” Cador whimpered. “I don’t even know who o-o-or what you are!”
I sighed and sat in the dirt myself. “Sometimes, I have a hard time knowing that too, kid.”
“What was that?” Cador eventually squeaked out. “Wh-Why did you try attacking Eris? She— She helped us, a-and you…”
Red inhaled sharply and let it out softly. “Yeaaahhh, about that? That… wasn’t exactly… Me.”
“She said that too,” He replied, wiping his eyes dry only for them to tear up once again. “That you were possessed or something.”
“How freaked out would you be if I told you she was right?” Red asked skeptically.
“Wait, seriously!?” Cador squealed, scurrying even further away from Red.
“Hey, you think this head got so thick and big from ego alone?” Red jokingly asked as he pointed to his own skull. “Heh-heh. I mean, it probably did, but my roommates don’t help.”
“Ugh, that’s a long story.” Red replied with an exaggerated groan, trying to hide an uncomfortable wince. “Let’s just say that I found a few, er, creatures. And after some magical hijinks, they all got stuck inside me. One of them—the asshole,” Red snarled. “Had an issue with Eris and wanted to make sure we all knew it.”
“So, he… Mind-controlled you?”
“Yeah, basically.” Red replied looking like he wanted to say something but reconsidered it at the last second.
Cador gulped and a small stretch of silence passed between the two, disturbed only by the creatures of the Everfree and subdued crackling of Eris’ fire. Red turned his gaze over to the fire hoping at least see the remains of whatever she had been cooking but it had been charred beyond salvation and scattered across the ground due to his Fire Demons actions.
“Good going, Iggy. We’re low on magic, and you ruined the only good meal around for miles,” Red growled however seconds later a low, irritated sigh, came from him and he began to cough out a cloud of dust.
Red stood up and turned to is companion. “C’mon Cador, let’s get out of this dumb forest,.” He said as he extending his right hand. only just then noticing that over half of it was still covered in patches of half-formed, blood red dragon scales, and the nails seemed longer and sharper than usual. Cador still took his hand regardless but seemed a bit angry as he looked at the arm. After helping Cador to his feet, Red shifted his cloak to hide his mutated arm.
“Great.” Red said as he gave Cador a comforting pat on his back and observed the area. “Seems this is the way back to town, and I think we’ve had enough surprises for one day. You?” He asked as he looked at the kid beside him
“I just want to go home,” Cador mewled, hanging his head low but proceeding forward anyway.
“Yeah. Yeah, me too, kid,” Red whispered. “Let’s go.” He said as the two walk side-by-side along the forest path.
Around a quarter of an hour later, Red and Cadon finally arrive at the forest’s edge, both bearing a few mosquito bites but were otherwise unharmed. Red let out a long low sigh and smiles sadly at the sight of Ponyville. “It’s good to be home,” He mumbled as he started walking forward, relieved that this Ponyville has the same layout as his own. “C’mon, Cador. If there’s one place we need to head to, it’s the library.”
“I’d rather find a place to lie down and sleep,” Cador’s reply in a tired voice.
Red chuckled. “Lucky you. If the librarian is who I think it is, she’ll practically beg for the chance to rent you out the spare room.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I ain’t kidding, kiddo. Knowing her, she won’t even charge you Bits. Just be ready to answer a two hour long questionnaire or something when you meet her.” Red warned slyly.
“Huh?”
Red just smirked and continued walking, leading Cador past Fluttershy’s cottage and into Ponyville proper. A few minutes later the two neared the Library and Red hastened his steps however as they approached it they stopped at the sound of voices coming out through the open windows.
“—Come on, Twilight, it’s not like I didn't tell you about the Displaced!” A voice that sounded like Eris yelled.
"You said that Displaced came from Earth not from alternate version of our own world!" A voice that sounded like Twilight retorted back.
"Because I didn't know! I mean, I know a lot about the Displaced but not everything!" Eris retorted with a huff.
“Are you kidding me!?” Twilight retorted in anger earning an amused short from Red.
"I mean seriously Twilight; they just showed up out of a tear in reality while I was making sure the Human Transmutation circle was destroyed. They literally fell out of the sky, how do I prepare for something like that; how would you prepare for something like that?” She asked.
“I’ll tell you how I would have prepared for something like that!” Twilight retorted however before she continued Red hurriedly knocked on the tree house’s door, interrupting the conversation and causing the two voices to stop. After a moment Eris open it allowing Red in, Cador hesitantly following behind only for Red to vanish in a flash.
“Hey Er... son of a bitch.” Red said as he suddenly found himself in a cell with a large group of armed guards all pointing there spears at him.
“Well now, how many demon incursions into the library is it now?" A board voice asked as a Guard stepped forwards.
"Ten at this point sir." A second guard said.
"Busy month since the princesses Protégée moved in." The First guard said with a sigh. "Now just sit there while the princess arrives to judge your fate.” He said as he turned back to his desk to do what sounded like paper work.
Red sigh as he hat down in the cell and leaned back against the wall only to be shocked. "Well, fuck." He said with a groan.
Meanwhile at the library Twilight stood in shock as she watched the Pegasus be teleported away. "Oh god damn it Red." Eris muttered under her breath as she face palmed. "Right so I forgot to mention, that Red has a contract with four demons." She said with a groan.
"You could have warned me about that!" Twilight yelled angrily.
"Well I forgot that this world is one where Demons are actively seen as evil and not neutral." Eris replied with a sigh. "So where did he go? Please don't tell me he just go sent to Canterlot." She said as he looked at Twilight.
"Um... no, he was teleported to the towns guard." Twilight said as she shuffled her feet. "But because he tried to get into the library only Celestia can release him and even then he won't be able to walk free."
Eris groaned as Cador looked on in confusion. "What's going on?" He asked.
"Right so explanation time." She said with a sigh. "This world is in the middle of a massive demon infestation, well technically it's an undead and demon infestation but that's not the point."
"How could something like this happen?" Cador asked in concern.
"I can answer that." Twilight said in a sad voice. "Due to repeated wars, plagues and other events depleted the worlds overall population leading to an overabundance of souls that were trapped in a state of non-reincarnation. Due to the low population birth rates were extremely low and as a result This surplus of souls had nowhere to go and so they were pulled back into their old bodies resulting in the rise of undead beings."
"Okay, so the undead were a result of an overabundance of souls and not enough births for them to reincarnate in but would the population raise over time and eventually level out the ratio making is so that the souls would be reincarnated again?" Cador Asked as Twilight finished her explanation.
Twilight shook her head. "You would think that but no matter how many undead we defeat they are always reincarnating, this means they can never be defeated." Twilight said in a depressed tone. "No one knows when the demons really appeared but the first recorded appearance of them is about 2000 years ago, which is around the time that Equestria was formed."
Eris frowned as Twilight said this however didn't comment and Cador simply nodded in understanding. "So I guess we should go talk to the guard and release Red right?" He asked.
"That would be a good idea." Eris said before sighing and rubbing her temple "Besides Ignis might do something and I'm not taking responsibility for any collateral damage he causes."
Celestia sat upon her throne pretending to listen to a noble who was wanting land to build something, probably another mansion, and was proposing several 'logical' ideas for obtaining the land by removing an orphanage. As she sat there hardly paying attention to the Noble a letter appeared before here and fell into her lap, with a sigh she unfurled it expecting to see a report from Twilight however instead it was a letter from the Captain of the Ponyville guard stating a demon was currently in captivity for trying to enter Twilights library.
Celestia frowned at this and stood looking over the throne room. "Court is adjourned for the rest of the day, if you wish to speak with me please reschedule with my assistant, Raven. If your problem or concern is time sensitive then please give her the details and she will decide what weather this is needed to be addressed today or at another time." She said as she stepped down from the raised platform her throne sat one and walked out of the room, ignoring all the complaints of the nobles behind her.
As she exited the throne room she took a deep breath before in a flash her armor appeared around her and she looked to the nearby guards. "I'm heading to Ponyville, hopefully I won't be gone long but if I am then I'll spend the night at my students home." She said as she headed for where the chariots were kept.
Red sat in the center of his cell looking completely board out of his mind till he felt his stomach gurgle. "Fuck." Red said with a groan as he looked over the where the guards are ignoring him. “Hey, any chance I can get something to eat?" He asked. "I mean within the past two days I’ve fought in a war, died and was brought back to life, thrown through a dimensional rift, got a concussion, had my arm screwed up by a uncooperative roommate and now I’m jail doe doing nothing.” he said grumpily. "The least you all could do is get me some food." The Guard watching him didn't respond however as Red was about to speak again the one at the desk doing paper work looked up and directly at him.
“Never heard that story before but to answer your request for food, the answer is no. Just sit there and wait it won’t take longer than a few minutes for the Princess to show up and judge your fate.”
“Less than that captain should we begin now or do you need his name?” A voice asked as princess Celestia walks in.
Red grinned seeing Celestia standing across from him just outside the cell. “Hey sunny butt you should ease up on the cake.”
“Why you, how dare you talk to the princess like that.” The guard beside her yelled in anger as Celestia just sighs.
Celestia merely sighs and orders, “Leave him be. If he’s speaking so rudely, it’s obvious he’s not the one in control. Is he?” she asks me, thinking she was asking one of my roommates.
Still smirking, Red raise an eyebrow in contrast to Celestia's narrowed ones. After a moment though, he just roll his eyes and explain, “See? That’s where your wrong, Sunny-Buns. I am in control; I just don’t care for authority that’s not myPrincess.” That gets a blink out of Celestia which soon turns to an expression of some mix between amusement and exasperation.
“Then I suppose that makes you a rather rude pony,” She finally comments, her tone growing steely.
“I get that a lot.”
“Mhmm. And pray tell, why should I believe you’re that body’s true soul as opposed to one of the parasites I sense within you?” She questions, sneering disbelievingly. “I know your kind, Demons, and I most certainly know better than to expect honesty of you.”
“You wound us, Princess,” Gelu answers, and Red recoil slightly, coughing at the icy fog creeping out of both his nose and mouth.
“You know, you guys aren’t helping when you do shit like that!” Red snap.
“You’re really not,” Celestia concurs. “I would recommend not hurting my subject anymore than you already have, lest you know my ire.”
Both Ignis and Gelu are about to respond, but Terra swiftly stops them, urging, “Don’t rise, you two! This isn’t our Celestia; she doesn’t know us!”
“And so we should excuse her pathetic attempt at threatening us!?” Ignis roars.
“I’m saying we must earn her trust first, and that can’t happen if you two do nothing but harm Red!”
“Speaking through him does not hurt him,” Gelu argues.
“Yes, it does. Every time,” Red deadpan.
“Is, uh, he talking to himself?” One of the other guards asks Celestia.
“No, he’s talking to them,” She explains, frowning. “Are they threatening you, my little pony?” She asks Red. “I can help you; I only need to know what magic binds you to them.”
At this Red groans. “Okay, Princess, look… I’m not your little pony, alright? And the idiots I’ve got swimming around in my head are just that; Idiots.”
Red says as he bang my head against the prison bars after speaking however he simply rubs his head slightly at the attack. “See? Idiots. I die; they die, but they still like making me bang my head against things.”
“I take it such abuse is a regular occurrence then?” Celestia responds in the same warm, motherly tone my Celestia uses. It peeves me off as much as it calms me down.
“Oh, you’ve no idea,” Red sneered. “I’d be happy to give you the full backstory behind how I ended up with them in my head all the time, but, uh? I don’t really have the patience for that,” He admitted chuckling. “And neither do they. We barely have the patience for this,” He grumble, lightly rapping his hand against the bars. “So, as much as I hate not whining about how screwed up my life is, could we hurry this along? I’ve got places to be, friends to save; wars to fight… you know. The usual.”
Celestia blinks again. “Wars… To fight?” she echoes.
Red facepalms. “Look, do you know Eris? That name ringing a bell?” He asked.
“It does.”
“Okay, good. She should be able to explain my situation. But since she’s not here yet, I'll just say I’m not from here.”
“From this world, you mean?”
red blinks this time. “Uh? Yeah, basically. How’d you know?”
“Eris has informed us of several things,” Celestia reveals calmly.
“Ah. That’s how.” Red clicks his tongue and taps his hoof. “Sooo…? About letting me out?”
“Out of the question!” a guard exclaims.
“At least,” Celestia continues, giving said guard an assuasive look, placating him. “Not until we know for sure you’re not lying. As I’ve mentioned, for all I know, you could be yet another demon merely pretending to be that pony.” Red groan at that.
“I’m guessing we’re not welcome here, huh?” Umbra’s voice suddenly pipes up, echoing throughout the room as the lights flicker for a moment.
Celestia and her guards all look about for the source of the sound; meanwhile, Red hang my head, wincing.
“What is— What is he doing!?” Ignis shouts. “Where did he go!?”
“Do you intend to break out, Demons?” Celestia asks, glaring me down and reaching for the sword at her side.
“Yeah, uh, he’s already broken out,” I say, looking above her and snorting at what I see. “And is currently trying your crown on.” After Red said that, the guards look up and go wide-eyed at the sight of a shapeless, shadowy demon sitting atop their Princess’ head.
The aforementioned Princess, however, stills and cautiously reaches up toward her mane, feeling something ethereal flow around her hoof before forming into a ball of soft, fluffy fur. A gentle purring reaches her ear as the fluffy mass rubs endearingly against her hoof. On instinct, she gives it a small scratch, and the purring fades briefly so a young voice can plead, “Ooh, can you keep doing that? It’s been too long since someone last gave me an ear scratch!”
“W-What in the world?” Celestia mutters, pulling the creature down from her head and holding him before her.
The Demon is an odd, cat-like creature with a pitch black coat, the odd streak of deep indigo and dark gray barely visible through the smokey shadows bleeding off of it, and though it is somewhat larger than an average adult feline, it is clearly still a kitten. Its eyes are a soft, shimmering gold—the same shade of the crown it had stolen and now wore—and the Demon gazes up at Celestia with a look of purest innocent, aided by its happy smile.
“Hi! I’m Umbra!” the demon chirped, his tail swaying slightly. “How are you?”
“Um? Good?”
“That’s good. I’m good too; although, uh? Why is my host locked up, Princess?” He asks, feigning confusion. “Is my kind really not welcome here?”
“Err…?” Celestia hums, sharing a glance with her guards. They merely shrug back, at as much of a loss for words as she is, so Celestia returns her attention to Umbra and clarifies, “Unfortunately not, little one.”
“Awww, why not?” Umbra whines.
“Um, you are a demon, correct?” she checks.
“That’s what every creature back homes calls us,” he answers, blinking. Umbra then puts on a pout and adds, “It kinda hurts sometimes, being called that. Demons are mean, but I’m not mean!”
“You’re not mean?” Celestia asks, narrowing her eyes at the fluffy, demonic kitten in her hands.
“Yeah!” Umbra assures. “I mean? I try not to be… I don’t like being mean,” he mumbles, glancing away.
“And yet you force your host to bang his head against the prison bars?” she accuses.
“That wasn’t me; that was Ignis!” Umbra explains, pouting again. “He’s the mean, scary one!”
Terra barely holds Ignis back from responding.
“If that’s the case…” Celestia begins warily. “Why are you traveling with him?”
“We kinda have to,” Umbra elaborates, giving his tail a frustrated flick. “Our homes are being invaded by a bunch of crazy monsters, so we have to work together to fight ‘em all back.” Umbra then blinks and as innocently as he can, asks, “Do you have to fight against crazy monsters too?”
Celestia glances away this time. “In a sense, yes.” She confesses looking back at Umbra, searching him for even a hint of dishonesty or maliciousness and ultimately finds none in those bright, golden eyes of his. “I can’t tell you how often I’ve had to fight against demons, the undead, and all manner of other abominations… Or how many reports I receive detailing the deaths of my little ponies and the attacks we’re forced to endure almost every night.”
Umbra gasps, exclaiming, “That’s horrible! I’m so sorry you have to deal with all that stuff, Princess.”
The hardness in Celestia’s eyes doesn’t quite go away, but Umbra did wrangle a small smile out of her. “You need not apologize, little one; I know it is not your will that brings such hardships upon us.”
“Well, regardless, I’m still sorry,” he says. “And on behalf of all my kind, I apologize for all of the pain they’ve caused you and your ponies.”
Oh brother…! Red groans upon noticing tears forming in Umbra’s eyes.
“And on behalf of my kind, thank you,” Celestia says, her smile growing a touch brighter. Celestia then sighs, adding, “And I apologize as well for imprisoning your host, but surely you understand why we had to do such a thing, I hope?” she ends softly, gently petting Umbra on the head.
Umbra purrs in response, nuzzling her hand before conceding, “Yeah, we understand, Princess.”
“Eh, don’t worry about it, Sunny-Buns,” Red finally says speaking up again. “Back home, most creatures were pretty terrified of me anyway, avoiding me for being what I am and all that junk. I get it.”
Celestia looks at me, finally coming to understand I truly am in control. “Still, I am sorry we had to imprison you as well. I’m sure once Ms. Eris arrives, she will be able to clarify things just as you said.”
“I hope so because I’m hungry,” Red admit bluntly. “Seriously, would it kill anyone to give me a sandwich or a doughnut right now?”
Celestia looks at the guard closest to her left. He looks back, blushes, and whines, “Hey, don’t look at me; I haven’t restocked the fridge yet!”
“Well, best restock it fast then; I’m in real need of healing here,” Red says, raising my burned and slightly scaled arm up and giving the guard a wave with it. “You want this looking normal, ya gotta get me some grub I can chow.”
The guard blinks. “Why?”
“‘Cause regeneration ain’t cheap, and thanks to my jerk of a roommate who caused this,” Red snarled, flexing the razor sharp claws and savoring the guard’s subsequent gulp. “Some of my internal organs are looking pretty similar too. And, uh? It kinda hurts. Like? A lot.”
“Go,” Celestia commands, giving a nod to the guard in question and two others. They then nod back and run out the door. She then returns to petting Umbra, seemingly on instinct, and speaks to me again, “Ignis, was it? The one who hurt you?”
“Bingo,” Red replied.
“Hmm,” she hums. She intends to say something more, but before she can the door opens again, and in strides Eris.
Eris tosses her hair back over her shoulder and takes stock of the assembled guards, Celestia, and lastly, me. “Well, looks like you beat me here, Tia; how ya doing?” she asks, closing the distance between them and finally noticing Umbra still held in the Princess’ arms. Her eyes widen at the sight of the panther demon, shining for just a split second, but Umbra merely smiles innocently at her, even giving her a little wave of his paw.
“Fine,” she answers. “So, Celestia? If you don’t mind, could you let Red out?” she requests, gesturing to me. “He’s a Displaced, like me.”
“And as for the creatures inhabiting him?”
“Demons? Yes? What kind? Not sure, but definitely not the kind to go on a rampage without reason.” She coughs and deadpans, “You know? Like, say? Someone attacking him? Locking him up? Starving him…?” she ends, noticing my still malformed arm.
Celestia gives a slight cough and double-checks, “You’re sure they’re no threat to my subjects?”
“Not unless they make themselves a threat to him. And I trust you enough to ensure that won’t be the case.” Eris adds, allowing a small smile.
Celestia smiles herself and chuckles. “I thought as much from our conversation,” she says, glancing my way. “It’s good to know I truly can trust you. Also a bit refreshing to have a pony not bow and show only respect to me.” She titters again, but it soon devolves into a sigh, followed by a whispered, “I wish others would be so open.”
“Yeah, I know; I’m awesome, can you let me out now?” I ask impatiently.
Celestia nods, saying, “Of course. Guards?”
“You’re sure about this, Your Majesty?” the guard holding the key inquires.
“I am. This being is no threat, he's free to leave.”
“Even though he’s a demon host?” one of the other guards ask, eyeing Umbra with a look of concern.
Catching his gaze Celestia says, “Oh, hush. How could something this cute be evil?” she asks, holding up Umbra who played along by giving the guards his most adorable pout. “You’ve no need to fear, my ponies; nothing will happen while I am here.”
“While you’re here?” Eris inquires, raising an eyebrow.
Celestia nods. “Given the hour, I intend to stay the night at my student’s house.”
“Twilight will be happy to hear that,” Eris notes. “and panicked, considering she hasn’t prepared for you.”
“Yes, I’m aware,” Celestia grumbles.
“Ahem! Still imprisoned over here,” Red whine.
Eris and Celestia both look at him, unamused, but the latter returns her gaze to her guards, assuring. “Eris, Twilight, and myself will all be in the vicinity, so if Mr. Red attempts anything, he will have to face all of us. And trust me, my friends…”
Umbra, who had spent most of the conversation nuzzling against Celestia and purring his heart out, suddenly stills and falls silent when Celestia’s grip tightened around him, not enough to hurt him, but the meaning obvious.
“I will not let any demons bring harm upon you this night,” Celestia vows, looking down at Umbra and giving the panicking cub an icy smile that rivaled even Gelu’s causing Umbra to gulp.
“Told ya, Shadow-Cat; not everyone’s gonna fall for the ‘cuteness’ act.” Red said snickering.
“It is not an act!” he shoots back. “I am cute!”
“That you are,” Celestia concurs, loosening her grip and going right back to petting him.
Though initially thrown off by the sudden change in attitude, Umbra quickly rolled with it, savoring her gentle touch and repaying it with yet another happy purr. He did, however, discreetly return her crown back to her head with a swish of his tail.
The guards, meanwhile, share one final look with each other, clearly still hesitant, but before too long, one of them—the one who had been doing the paperwork for this little event, sighs and accepts defeat. “Alright, guys; you heard the Princess. Release the demon host,” he orders, massaging a headache as he returns to completing his paperwork.
The key-bearing guard slowly steps toward my cell door, flinching at the little wave Red gives him, and finally inserts the key into the door, unlocking and opening it. “You’re free to go.”
“Aww, thanks, dude,” I say, booping his muzzle as I step out, a free—relatively speaking—pony once more. Stretching out my arms, I nod at the other guards, notice Umbra poking his tongue out at me, blow a raspberry back, and finally give Celestia and Eris my full attention. “So, where we headed now?”
“Back to the library,” Eris answers, doing her best to avoid eye contact with me. I wonder if that’s because she knows Ignis is currently trying to melt me from the inside-out so he can lunge for her? “I’ll explain more about the Displaced there.”
“And about my ticket home?” I inquire, raising an eyebrow.
“Obviously, that’ll be another thing we’ll discuss,” she assures. “Although, you should know returning won’t be quite as simple as you may think.”
“Always a damn catch…” I snarl under my breath, facepalming. “Anything else?”
“Eris?” Celestia interjects. “Is there any chance you know how to prevent his, er? ‘Roommates’ did you call them?” Without waiting for an answer, she requests, “Can you perhaps help Mr. Red control them?”
“CONTROL US!?” Gelu and Ignis shriek, and though Red keep his jaw shut, the echoes of their fury ring clearly throughout that tiny room.
After shooing away the demons’ ambient rage, Eris rubbers her chin in thought and says, “I’ll see what I can do, Princess.”
“Wait, seriously?” Red blurt out. “You know how I can keep these assholes from…?” Red doesn't finish that thought, seemingly unable to.
“So long as you’re willing to let me train your pathetic ass up before I send you on your way,” She begins, turning and walking back toward the door. “Then? Yes. I’ll help you keep them in check,” Eris promises, sparing me on last solemn glance before exiting the guard station.
“Uhh…?” he mumbles, gaining everyone’s attention. Umbra gulps again before flowing like water out from Celestia’s arms and back into my shadow, promptly rejoining his fellows in panicking about just what Eris could do.
I smile. “Whelp? Thanks for releasing me, Princess,” I say to her. “And thanks for not trying to kill me, guys,” I add to the remaining guards. “That was nice of ya’ll. … Bye,” I end unceremoniously, exiting the building as well, enroute for the Golden Oaks Library.
“When the others return with his requested meal, please have them come to the library,” Celestia orders the guards who immediately salute and voice their understanding. She then swiftly follows me into the dark, chilly night.
Twilight quietly pushed the Library door open, allowing the group to enter, and turned back to shut the door with a tired sigh.
Cador wasted no time fleeing to the nearest corner, trying to seem as small and insignificant as he could; Eris and Celestia, meanwhile, stayed at each other’s side. Red merely strode forward and plopped himself into one of the chairs with a relaxed sigh.
Hearing their entrance, Spike poked his head out and began descending the stairs, looking the two newcomers over before turning to Twilight. “Hey, Twi? You need anything?”
“Not yet, but thank you, Spike,” she said, giving a warm smile.
The young dragon nodded, smiling back before glancing over at Cador. When nothing seemed suspicious about him, he turned his sights toward the other new occupant and shivered unconsciously. “So, uh? Is he the demon guy?”
“Guilty as charged, chum,” Red confirmed with a salute.
“Uh-huh,” Spike hummed, taking an instinctive step back and toward Twilight. “You don’t seem very demonic.”
“Um, thanks?” Red asked as Twilight gave Spike a look that clearly said Shush! and turned toward the possessed being.
“Sorry about all the hassle in getting you here,” she began, approaching the center of the room. “Anyway, I’m Twilight Sparkle… But, er, I guess you probably already knew that,” she realized, coughing awkwardly. Twilight shook her head and bowed slightly. “Regardless, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Likewise. Name’s Redsopine,” he clarified. “And that’s Cador,” he added, nodding to the boy. Red then reached a hand out. “Nice to meet you, Ms. Sparkle.”
Twilight looked at the outstretched hand in confusion, but Eris interjected, “They don’t shake hands here, Red.”
“They don’t?” Red asked, nonplussed before shrugging. “Well, whatever.”
Though confused, Twilight elected to ignore that brief moment, resuming, “Moving on, from what Eris has told me, you both have had a rather… ‘Problematic’ day?”
“That’s putting it mildly,” Cador muttered, flinching.
“With that said, we would like to hear more about how you came to be in our lands,” Celestia requested, sitting down on a sofa set up around a small table and fixing Red with an inquisitive stare. “If you don’t mind, of course.”
“Depends on whether or not you’re ready for an overly complicated backstory spanning several different universes and involving multiple eldritch demons,” Red casually replied. “Although I doubt anypony, except Eris there,” he said with a nod toward her, “will understand half of what I'm talking about.”
“‘Universes’?” Twilight squealed, her eyes shining with scholarly excitement. “As in universes, plural?”
“Universes, plural,” Red confirmed, resting his head in his hand.
“And demons too? Of the eldritch variety?” Twilight asked, her excitement growing.
“Mhmm.”
“Multiple demons though?” Spike asked, wringing his claws anxiously. “Just how many of the things do you have inside you?”
“Four.”
Cador and Spike both gawked at him, and the latter bluntly asked, “How do you deal with that?”
“Relentless belligerence and constant denial,” Red said, choosing to refrain from speaking of his other coping methods in front of the minors.
Seemingly having not heard Spike, Twilight stood there for a solid minute, shivering slightly in her effort to hold back both a lengthy squeal and what was surely a hundred-or-so questions.
Noticing this, Celestia commented, “That must be rather horrible for you to endure. It may not be much, but would you like a beverage? Perhaps a snack?” she inquired, shooting Spike a look as well.
Red’s stomach let out a loud gurgle at the offer. Whether that was because he was genuinely hungry or one of his roommates was manipulating his body, he didn’t know. Either way, the sound was all the confirmation Spike needed to swivel around and volunteer, “I-I’ll go make us some lunch. Or dinner, I guess?” he ended, remembering the lateness of the hour.
The baby dragon wasted no time sprinting out the door and as far away from the demonic entity as he could. That act seemed to snap Twilight back to reality, and she quickly said, “Sorry. Spike didn’t mean any offense, a-and neither do I, for the record,” she assured. “It’s just… It’s not every day a creature comes to our land, possessed by demons—”
“Yet also retains their freedom and sanity,” Celestia concluded.
“Nah, no offense taken,” Red assured, putting up the usual façade of indifference. “I get it. Besides, if you didn’t offer anything, I’d have probably raided your fridge in the middle of the night,” Redsopine commented before noticing their unamused stares. “What? I haven’t eaten in two days; I’m famished.” he whined, earning an eye roll from Eris and an excited look from Twilight.
“So they don’t replenish your metabolic energy, hmm?” Twilight murmured, her horn flaring to life and summoning all manner of quills, scrolls, and books. She then drew up one of said scrolls and made some notes to it, muttering, “That’s Question Eighty-two Thousand Three hundred Twenty-two answered.”
Red shot a panicked look Celestia’s way, and the Princess of the Day turned to give Twilight a warm smile, whispering, “Twilight...?”
“Yes, Princess?” Twilight reflexively responded, looking up from her research material monsoon.
“Hold off just a little longer, if you please,” she requested in a motherly tone; though Red suspected she was barely not giggling at her student’s antics. “We’d like to learn how he came to this world first, after all.”
Twilight glanced at everything surrounding her, blinked, then blushed, setting them all onto the table and whispering a quick, “Sorry,” before sitting opposite Red.
“Again, no problems.” Red assured. “Now, about how I got to this Equestria?”
After roughly an hour of explaining things, Red leaned back in the couch and yawned. “And that's how I ended up in your Equestria with Cador.”
“A truly horrifying story,” Celestia commented, her gaze distant as she thought over everything Red had told.
“The Anziek, huh?” Eris hummed to herself, rubbing her chin in thought. “Can't say I've heard of them, and if I have, I certainly haven't heard of this ‘omniversal war’ they're apparently waging.”
"Well, yeah. They're a thing," Red confirmed grimly before sending a sideways glance to Spike, who had returned mid-explanation with a plate of succulent rose-and-parsley crumpets. Needless to say, the dragon was absolutely terrified to learn of the Anziek, but unlike Cador, he had at least managed to remain conscious during Red's recollection.
Regardless, Red winced internally and put on his trademark devil-may-care grin. "Luckily, they're also nowhere near this universe."
"Th-They aren't?" Spike asked, his voice cracking and dripping with desperate wishing.
"Eenope," Red reaffirmed, glad to see the entire room collectively relax.
"But they will come eventually, will they not?" Eris guessed.
"No, 'cause when I get back in my A-Game, I'm gonna wreck their—" Red shot Spike another look before course-correcting, "I'm gonna send all those monsters packing!" he declared, acutely aware of his roommates’ current silence.
Celestia rubbed her chin in thought with the faintest of hmms. Afterward she spoke up again, inquiring, “Might I ask for clarification regarding something?”
"Sure thing."
“Your ‘roommates,’ as you call them… What is their relationship to the Anziek?”
"Nothing really." Red answered aloofly. "They just know the Anziek are getting more powerful by the day and that their homes are on their radar. So they came to our world, latched themselves onto me, and turned me into their little superweapon for destroying the things," he half-lied.
"And yet they control and harm you regardless?"
"They know they can get away with it," Red murmured, looking away.
The room fell silent for a moment, but both Eris and Celestia could have sworn they heard the rumble of quiet laughter at the edge of their hearing. They weren't mistaken either; Red refused to show the scowl this time, but it enraged him to no end to hear the siblings sinister snickering echo in his head like thunder.
"If I may, I have a question as well..." Twilight finally spoke up, checking the massive wall of notes she had taken during Red's story.
"Total shocker, that," Red quipped, taking the last remaining crumpet. "What's on your mind, bookworm?"
"I know this might be a sensitive topic," she began warily. "But could you explain exactly how they all…” Twilight waved her hoof in the air for a second, searching for the words. “Got in you,” she finally decided on.
Red took a slow bite of his crumpet and swallowed, answering, "Painfully."
"O-Oh... Ummm?"
"If you're wondering about the specifics, then I'm sorry, but I can't tell ya."
"You can't!?" Twilight shrieked, her eyes bulging in shock.
"Nope. Sorry," Red apologized with a shrug.
"Is that because they won't let you explain?" Celestia wondered.
"Pretty sure they wouldn't be happy about that, no. But it's also because, well? I'm not entirely sure what I should or shouldn't say, given the whole multiverse thing," Red said, taking another bite of his crumpet. "Either way, I know for a fact my Celestia and Luna would be furious to know I spilled what I do know to you girls."
"So, wait! Does that mean nothing you've told us is the full story!?" Twilight yelped, rapidly drawing up every note, book, and scroll. "All of it was only half-true at best!?"
"Relax, bookworm, everything I told you was true," Red assured while Spike patted the panicking Twilight's back. "The war, the Anziek; my roommates… All of it,” she swore. “There are just some things I'm probably not allowed to say and don't want to risk saying anyway."
"Oh. Oh." Twilight did her breathing her exercise, calming down slightly, if still frustrated at not knowing everything. Thankfully, Red took pity on her and continued around the last of his crumpet, "I will say you were wrong about something though."
"About what?"
"The food thing." Red swallowed and said, "They don't substitute my nutritional needs because they're too lazy or evil to do so; though I wouldn't put it past them," he added under his breath. "Rather, it's because they convert anything I eat or drink into fuel for their own magic."
"Really!?" she squeaked, writing the information down. "Fascinating!"
"But... They're demons?" Spike said, nonplussed. "Literal demons! Don't they have, like, unlimited magic or something?"
"I don't know; evil elemental demons need to eat too, I guess," Red said with another shrug. "Of course? It is a bit annoying though; having to eat for five creatures makes me one hungry boy..." he groaned, eyeing the last half of Eris' own crumpet.
She caught his eye, blinked, then proceeded to eat the last of it in one big bite, much to his saddened pout.
"Fuel their magic, you say?" Celestia said, equally as curious as Twilight.
"Now, that's something I definitely don't know the specifics of," Red preemptively clarified. "But basically, yeah. They can also draw in the ambient magic around me as well as use my own pool of mana."
"Wait, your magic is separate from theirs?" Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow. "I would think, if they're technically incorporated into your entire physical being, that their magic pools would have become one with your own?"
"I literally just said I don't know the specifics," Red deadpanned, drawing an embarrassed blush from Twilight. He then shook his head and grinned, saying, "Regardless, their power is indeed separate from my own. Probably for the best though; my magic isn't exactly… Great."
"Though you can't say they use this magic wisely," Eris jibed, ignorant to the infuriated growl her words drew from Ignis. "If they truly wanted to use you as a soldier, the last thing they would want to do is waste whatever power they have actively tormenting you. And yet…?"
Umbra tried to seize control, but Red pushed him back, saying, "Yeah, I know. But don't worry, they know I'm their meal ticket. It's why whenever I get so much as a paper cut, they clamber over each other to heal it back up."
"Only for you to clamber over yourself trying to cut yourself even more," Gelu sneered in his mind.
"So their magic can induce accelerated physiological regeneration?" Twilight asked, eyes sparkling with wonder.
"If that's the nerdy way of saying I have a healing factor? Yeah. I have a healing factor."
Twilight squeed and wrote that down, following it up with several dozen more annotations regarding the fact. Eris, meanwhile, simply asked, "To what extent are their healing abilities?"
"Depends. Lost a wing in one of my first battles, and they healed it in under a minute. Lost an arm in another, and it took over a month." Red grimaced and said, "At this point, I think they heal me however fast or slow they want just because they can. And then of course,” he continued on. “There was this one time where they managed to—"
Red's body seized up, and through his mouth came Terra's voice. "My apologies. Our host was about to make a rather terrible joke—one even we couldn't stand. Please pay him no mind." He then returned control to Red who gasped for air and snarled, "Screw you, Gramps. Screw you…"
The others all shared a glance at the momentary interruption, but Twilight was the one who broke it, asking, "How easy is it for them to do that to you? To take control like that?"
Red met her eye for all of a second before looking away, remaining silent. Though he didn’t remain as such for long; the awkwardness was simply too much to bear, so he swiftly stood up, yawning and stretching out his wings from beneath his cloak.
Twilight’s somber expression was then replaced with a look of confusion as she squinted at Red’s wings, now noticing their mismatched appearance.
“Would you mind if I raid your fridge?” Red asked her, hoping to postpone that particular conversation for just a while longer. "Spike's food was great and all, but I’m still hungry. Plus? I kinda need to eat enough to regrow an arm so I can get rid of this one," he said with a chuckle as he waved his still dragonian arm.
Twilight looked as confused by the arm as she had his wings, asking, "I…? I didn't even notice it was like that!"
"Yeah, well? You were a tad distracted looking at those papers of yours," Red acknowledged, drawing an embarrassed chuckle from her. "Regardless though, not everyone is going to be so quick to overlook this stupid thing."
"I'm surprised they haven't healed that yet." Celestia admitted, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. "Especially since you've been sitting there for so long, and they've certainly been feeding off the ambient magic of myself and Eris, have they not?"
"Wait, what?" Twilight blurts out.
"Yeah, well?" Red quickly began, once again stopping Twilight from questioning further. "Why would they get rid of this when it makes it easier for Iggy to control me at the drop of a Bit?" he countered with a scowl.
"No— No worries, Mr. Redsopine,” Twilight said, trying to keep up with the pace of the conversation. “The kitchen is through that door; just please don't eat Spike's gems."
“Yeah, don’t do that, would ya?” Spike pleaded, deadpanning. “I’m saving ‘em for a rainy day.”
"No promises, kiddo," Red claimed with a wink before walking into the kitchen.
Once Red left the room Eris turned to Celestia, a dark look in her eyes. "One of his demons knows about me," she said calmly. She then lowered her voice and added, "And he fears me."
“They’re also afraid of us knowing too much about their host,” Celestia added, looking toward the kitchen doors. “I wonder what injury they stopped him from telling us about; it must have been particularly noteworthy if they were so bold as to possess him in front of us.”
“I take that more as a sign of just how apathetic they are to their host,” Eris countered, crossing her arms and frowning at the floor. “Which, in turn, makes me ever gladder I came across him before they thought to destroy his mind entirely.”
“‘Destroy his mind’?” Twilight and Spike both echoed, the former’s voice cracking.
“Don’t tell me you didn’t think they could do that if they wanted to,” Eris responded, raising an eyebrow.
“Though that begs the question of why they haven’t yet done so,” Celestia interjected.
“Sadism is my bet,” Eris sneered. “Thankfully for us all, I offered to train him, help him learn how to control them or fight off their own attempts.”
“You have?” Celestia asked.
“I have. Not sure how well it’ll turn out, but…” She shook her head and sighed. “He’s not our enemy; he’s a victim.”
“And his demons?”
“Hard to say. They’re definitely demons, but from what I’ve seen, they’re a far cry from your world’s version.”
“They can still control him at will.”
“Which, as I said, is why I plan to teach him how to fight ‘em off.”
“I know, and I thank you for that,” Celestia said, gracing Eris with her trademark sunny smile. “Regardless of what world he’s from, I wish only the best for that pony.” She then frowned, somberly. “Even so… Do you think he’s a threat? That they would make him a threat?”
Eris snorted. “They could try. And if they worked together and actually cooperated, they might stand a snowball's chance,” she laughed. “As it stands now, he’d have a better time knocking down brick walls with a wet paper bag. And that’s assuming they don’t tear each other part first.”
"Hey, Sparks!" Red suddenly yelled from the kitchen. "Who's the meat in the fridge for!?"
"That'd be mine," Eris yelled back. “Don’t. Eat it.”
A moment of silence…
"I'm gonna eat it anyway!" he declared, barely biting back a laugh.
"I'd rather you didn't," she countered, her tone turning venomous.
"Thanks for the snack, Eris!"
"You will regret this," Eris vowed neutrally.
"Don't care," Red replied back. The sound of the fridge closing echoed from the kitchen and was quickly followed by a wicked giggle and the clattering of Red eating his stolen meal.
Eris grit her teeth in anger before taking a deep breath and forcing herself to calm down, doing her best to also ignore Spike’s subdued snickers.
Celestia also had to hide a snort but was far more successful in her endeavor, and once Eris had truly calmed down, the Princesses said, “Getting back on topic, I'll take your word that Redsopine is no threat. However? I'll still have a few undercover guards keep an eye on him. If nothing else, they can alert us should his demons attempt something heinous."
“Sure, whatever,” Eris said with an indifferent shrug. "What you choose to do is your own business, but I’m still training him.”
“Of course. For how long do you intend to do so?” Celestia inquired.
“However long it’ll take,” she replied, already planning to wreak her vengeance upon the irritating food thief through her training. “He’s powerful, no doubt, but right now, he’d likely die if he went against one of your world’s demons.”
“The library’s always available too if you need to practice magic,” Twilight offered without hesitation. “As am I.”
“Thank you for that, Twilight. But I'll be taking him into the Everfree to train. It's safer there for everyone involved, and definitely more friendly than the Castle or the town would be,” she explained calmly. “At best we'll probably be here only at night for sleep or early in the morning. Plus, you have your other duties to attend to, don’t you?” Eris added, smirking.
Celestia smirked slightly herself at how sad Twilight looked to be reminded of that fact, but her grin soon turned into a thoughtful frown once more. “You claim Red is no threat to you or this world, but… What of his allies? Or these Anziek he spoke of? These destroyers of worlds…?”
Eris frowned as well, leaning back into the couch and pondering on the matter. “Depends on how powerful these allies would be. But as for these monsters he spoke of…” Thinking on it merely resulted in an uncomfortable shudder running down her back. “Anything that’s world ending to a being like Red and his demons…? I doubt it’s something I could fight alone,” Eris forced herself to admit.
“…I see,” was all Celestia said.
Awkward silence descended upon the Golden Oaks Library once again, but thankfully, it was mercifully shooed away by Spike saying, “But you’re not alone though.”
“Pardon?” Eris yelped, ripped from her sullen reverie.
“I mean, you’ve got us!” he acknowledged, smiling confidently. “If those Anziek things come knocking, we’d help you fight ‘em off. And Red said he’d help fight too, and he seems pretty strong! I-I guess it would be hard to win, but… Not impossible. Right?” Spike mumbled, fiddling with his tail.
The three girls all blinked at Spike, but Twilight soon broke out into a teary smile, swooping him up in a tight hug, assuring, “Of course we’d win, Spike. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”
“Hey, I’m supposed to say that you!” he playfully whined, hugging her back.
“Let’s promise each other that then, ey?” she giggled.
Celestia shared in the smiles, glancing back to Eris and finding her torn between shock at Spike innocent optimism and her own experienced cynicism. In the end, however, Spike’s smile was far too sweet for her to heartlessly crush. “Y-Yeah, Spike,” she began, choosing her words carefully. “It would be hard, but like you said, not impossible.”
Spike’s smile only widened, and Eris couldn’t help but smile a bit herself as a result.
“That said, however,” she continued. “I would need the aid of other powerful Displaced. There are some out there I'd ask for aid if the time for such a battle came, but…” she trailed off.
“How can we help you?” Celestia asked, placing a comforting hand on Eris’ shoulder. “Is there anyone you need assistance contacting? Favors you need doing?”
“I’ll get back to you on that last one, but as for the first…?” Eris rubbed the back of her head in thought before one name in particular came to mind. “One Displaced I’d like to reach out to is Edward Elric, the Crimson Sage.”
“Ooh, who’s he!?” Twilight asked, a fresh set of scrolls and quills already at the ready.
“A Displaced, like me. Only a millennia older, and even more powerful.”
“More powerful?” Celestia gawked.
“Surprised?”
“Considerably.”
Eris rolled her eyes, smiling all the same. “Well, what do you expect from someone who can access the full Vault?”
“But you said you can’t do that?” Twilight acknowledged, tilting her head in confusion.
“Yes, I’m well aware of that,” Eris grumbled, her mood souring.
Twilight winced. “S-Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she assured, eyes still downcast. “I understand I just haven’t proven myself worthy of the Vault’s power. Yet,” she emphasized more to herself than the others. “But I will. I got access to the Gate of Babylon after all, and not even Elric can attest to that; his is false,” she ended, forcing a small chuckle. “I’ll prove myself worthy…” she whispered.
“Many of these subjects still confuse even me, but I’m nevertheless willing to help you however I can,” Celestia promised, watching Eris carefully.
“Yeah, Eris,” Twilight said, smiling encouragingly. “What do you mean you need to prove yourself worthy? Is it similar to the Elements of Harmony, maybe? Can we help you do it?”
Eris remained taciturn for a moment, but soon, their words drew forth a small smile from her. Though she was having fewer and fewer reasons to smile as of late, she truly did appreciate the ponies’ apparent knack for always getting a genuine one out of her. That said, however…?
“Thank you for the offer, girls, but for now it’s my problem to deal with,” Eris maintained, waving her hand dismissively. Deliberately ignoring their worried expressions, she added, “If it becomes necessary later, I won’t hesitate to seek your assistance, but for now, we have greater problems to worry about.”
Though Celestia was troubled to see Eris so stubbornly shouldering her burdens alone, she more than respected her decision. “Alright then. Just know we really are here whenever you’ve need of us.”
Eris met her eyes and nodded, glad Celestia wasn’t pushing the issue. “I understand. Thank you again.”
Twilight was still concerned for Eris, but even she could tell the Displaced wanted the matter dropped. Thus, she did exactly that, against her better judgment, instead asking, “What should we all do now?”
“Well, I don’t know about you lot,” Eris began, rising from the couch and stretching. “But I need to focus on Red’s training.”
“And I should get going myself,” Celestia remarked, standing as well. “I’ll need to update the guards of these recent developments as well as Mayor Mare. The poor girl’s probably still worried that the ‘vagabond’ we caught is another demon in disguise,” she lamented.
“You do that then. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a student to beat on,” Eris muttered grimly, striding for the kitchen doors but pausing before she entered. She then turned and looked at Spike, asking, “Oh, and, ummm…? C-Can I get that crumpet recipe?” she asked, a faint blush rising to her cheeks.
“Huh? You— You want my crumpet recipe?” Spike asked, dumbfounded.
“Yes. Please. Thank you,” she said through grit teeth.
Spike’s eyes twinkled with delight, and he hastily nodded. “Oh! Sure, I can give it to you, Ms. Eris! Whenever you want it, just say the word.”
“Thank you again. Those things were delicious,” she confessed. Twilight and Celestia joined Spike in smiling merrily at her, resulting in her blush deepening. “Stop smiling!” she barked, turning about and entering the kitchen proper just as they all burst out laughing.
Luckily, Eris had a target for all her embarrassed frustrations in the form of Redsopine, staring at her midway through polishing off her plate of food. “Uhhh…?” he hummed, leaning away from her.
Eris’ eyes flashed and she declared, “I told you, Redsopine. You shouldn’t. Have. Done that,” she seethed, leveling a smirk eerily similar to Ignis’ own.
Red blinked. “D’oh crap!” he blurted out, scrambling from the chair and making a break for the backdoor.
A dark giggle escaped Eris as she became cloaked in a shadowy aura, her crimson eyes shining through the ebony, and she lunged for him, grabbing him by the muzzle and dragging his kicking, screaming body out through the same door he hoped to flee through and toward the Everfree Forest.
“Oh yes,” her voiced rumbled through the air eldritch fury. “You will regret your filthy food thievery immensely!” Eris guffawed.
“Is it too late to say sorry!?” Red squawked, still thrashing about in hopes of escaping her hold.
“Yes!” she shot back.
And with that, the Displaced vanished into the dark of the night and the vines of the Everfree.
Eris sat in silence in the center of a clearing as around her the sound of leaves and bushes rustling from something moving could be heard. With a sigh Eris's eyes snapped open as she drew back her arm and released a simple blunted dagger earning a yelp from the bushes. "Nice try Red but you are still as loud as an Ursa." She yelled earning a grumble from him, the two had been training for months and while he had improved somewhat he was still sloppy, uncoordinated and unable to actually attack her.
"This is ridiculous!" He said as he rose from the bush. "I mean no offense but this is genuinely not working and I need to move on." He said with a grumble. "I mean as we speak my world is being destroyed by those monsters."
Eris sighed and stood. "I'm not going to argue with you on that point." She said as she approached him. Go get Cador and have Twilight send a message to Celestia, I'll meet you all at the Castle ruins." She said as she turned and headed in the direction of the old castle.
With a sigh Eris shook her head as a figure wrapped in a cloak approached her. "So he couldn't learn from you just yet." He said with a chuckle.
"Shut up you bastard, it's not my fault that your younger self is too headstrong and stupid." She replied as she turned and flicked him in the forehead.
The cloaked figure sighed as he rubbed his forehead. "Yeah, I deserve that." He said with a chuckle. "Still, he will learn, it's just a pity so many had to die for me to learn my lesson."
"You sent him here didn't you?" She asked, receiving silence at that causing her to sigh. "Not much I can do now but give him a few years and a few failings and he'll grow up." She said as she looked over her shoulder at an older version of Redsopine. "He has a lot to learn." She finished as she entered the clearing around the old Castle ruins. "Now let's get a portal going." She said as she took a deep breath and raised her hand which glowed with black magic as her eyes turned white. "Second Magic: Kaleidoscope." As Eris spoke her voice took on an echoing quality to it and before her and the older cloaked being beside her the air fractured and broke revealing a mirror like portal. "Set his next location now my fool of a student." She ordered and the cloaked being nodded before he placed his hand on the portal and it shimmered for a moment.
"It's done, the rest is up to him." Redsopine said as he lowered his hand. "Now I best be leaving, I don't want my younger self seeing me." He said as he turned and with a smirk and salute vanished into a portal.
Eris took a deep breath as she looked at the portal before lowering her hand and looking around before with a sigh she walked over to a small pile of sticks and twigs before she set them up in a pile near the portal. "Rank A Noble Phantasm, Laevatein: Sun-Like Sword that Becomes a Calamity" She muttered as a golden sword that seemed to drench the surroundings with bloodlust appeared in her hand and then subsequently stabbed into the center of the wood pile, setting the of wood aflame. Sitting down on a broken piece of masonry with a sigh she looked toward where Ponyville was. "Now I wait." She muttered, leaning back and relaxing.
It didn't take long for Redsopine to return with Cador, Twilight and Celestia following behind. As they neared and saw the mirror-like portal they all froze except for Red who simply walked over to Eris. "So this is it then, will I see you again?" He asked, receiving a smile from Eris.
"Perhaps, but only when the time is right." She said as she stood and pulled the sword from the fire, returning it to the Gate. "but now I feel you should be on your way." She said as she gestured to the portal and Red stepped up to it alongside Cador. "Good luck Red, don't be a stranger, and try not to be too reckless. Rushing into a situation can make it worse if you don't know what will happen." She warned as he jumped into the Portal closely followed by Cador.
As the portal closed Eris looked up at the sky with a sigh. "Lovely weather on this planet." She said with a smile as she looked to Celestia with a smile and Twilight, who was taking notes on everything she could about the portal. "How have things been going with the guard?" She asked Celestia who frowned.
"Manehatten is holding but they are stressed again." She replied. "I've redeployed many of the guards stationed in Baltimare to Fillydelphia. As a result the South West area is less protected but I need to get this Demonic incursion dealt with before they spread too far out." She said, causing Twilight to stop and listen as Eris nodded in thought.
"Has Luna recovered yet?" She asked. "With the both of you I'd imagine the situation would become much easier."
Celestia sighed at this causing Eris to raise an eyebrow. "She is awake but... in her current condition I fear she would not be able to protect herself." She said, causing Eris to frown. "While she has regained her mind and wishes to join the battle at the moment she can't do more than offer me a second opinion. Her mental state is still fragile and while she won't say it I can tell she is hurting."
Eris nodded. "Have my suggestions been able to help?" She asked, receiving a nod from Celestia. "I've not sheltered her from any of her duties nor have I tried to force her to stop her work. Reinstating the Night Guard and with their ranks made up of mostly Thestrals has helped her tremendously. She sends her thanks for freeing her."
Eris smiled. "The road to recovery for her is a long and hard one, she will relapse many times and she will never truly recover or be the same." Eris said as her smile faded. "Believe me I know." She said darkly as she walked past them. "Come, let's get out of this forest and enjoy ourselves for a while." She said as she continued to walk down the path to Ponyville.
The Three walked for the rest of the day out of the forest with them exiting just as Celestia lit her horn to begin lowering the Sun. "I will be returning to Canterlot, be safe my student." She said as she hugged Twilight and then stood looking at Eris. "As for you, look after her and be safe. I'd hate to lose more friends, especially one who could live for some time." She said as with a flash she disappeared.
Eris sighed as she looked at Twilight who was hurrying down the path from the woods into town and toward her home. "If it were so easy Celestia, if only." She said she followed Twilight reaching the Library moments before the shield activated.
Eris sat in the darkened recesses of the library listening to the sounds of screams and banging coming from outside, beside her Twilight sat shaking as she listened to the monsters outside. "It's never been this bad." Twilight muttered in concern as Spike paced.
"Somethings wrong." He said as they heard yet another monster banging on the shield outside. "They should have been gone by now." He said as he moved closer to the barricaded window and looked out. "Twilight, they're everywhere in town!" He called out in fear. "It's like an army of them!"
As Spike yelled this Twilight slowly rose and approached the window looking out to see the monster, her eyes widening in fear. "I've never seen this many, do you think the royal guard was defeated somewhere?" She asked, receiving a worried look from Spike.
"If that's true then we're trapped here until Celestia can send somepony to help." Spike replied in concern. "Or till she raises the sun in..." Spike looks up at the clock on the wall. "four hours.'' He finished in a defeated tone.
As Twilight and Spike talked Eris stood up and walked toward the door, her armor beginning to creak and groan as she grit her teeth. "Spike, Twilight, no matter what, don't come out of the library." She said as she stepped up to the door and grabbed the handle, the Berserker Armor now fully materializing around her encasing her arms and legs in its steel grip, as she removed the barricades on the door and calmly opened it stepping out into the horde of undead and demons.
Eris prov
As I stepped out of the library and into the night I sighed as I walked into the sea of monsters before me. As soon as I was out of the safety of whatever wards where in place they all had turned and looked right at me, their eyes glowing with hatred, that's fine, my eyes were probably reflecting what they were showing.
Slowly I reached for the Double Helix blade on my back and drew it, the sound of metal scraping against metal being the signal for the monsters to charge me. I grit my teeth and closed my eyes before I relaxed my mental focus allowing the armor's wrath to consume me. I felt the armors call and like a starved animal I was awash in the blood lust of war, for a moment I struggled to keep control before the armor overcame me and I lost myself.
3ed person prov
The sound of a roar echoed across Ponyville as a figure in plated armor charged towards the horde of monsters, their sword glowing as they swung it unleashing a helix wave of greenish blue magic that carved through the creatures before them. The Monsters roared in reply as they charged the person and all watching stared in awe as the women didn't even flinch at the charging mass before her. Instead she leapt forward intent to meet them head on and as they reached her she dodged their strikes before grabbing a demon by the horn and swinging him around without hesitation knocking other demons and undead away before she threw the demon into the air and drove her sword down its throat and then swinging forward cleaving the beast in two as she used the momentum to bring the blade down on a charging monster cleaving its skull in half as well.
As she did this a minotaur undead charged from behind her pulling its arm back to deliver a massive blow however the warrior women nimbly dodged the attack letting go of her sword as four glowing portals opened up around her. "Rank D Noble Phantasm, Maria the Ripper: The Holy Mother of Dismemberment!" The Women roared in a demonic voice as from the portals four strangely shaped knives shot out and moved with terrifying precision as they slashed the monster's arm apart before coming to float beside their mistress. The monster roared in agony as he glared at the women only for its eyes to be pierced by two of the blades as the women leapt forward, the other two blades in her hands as she swung them at the monster's neck severing its head.
Another group of monsters charged, one of them looking like an undead Pegasus who was flying ahead of the group, the warrior didn't even seem to be concerned as the knives returned to the golden portal and from it she drew that looked like an L shaped weapon which she pointed at the Pegasus as she drew a second smaller version of the weapon covered in golden engravings.
As the portal closed the armor seemed to melt into shadows which quickly dissipated revealing a strange set of armor covered by a brown duster and a helmet with glowing red eyes. The warrior didn't even flinch as she raised the second weapon and two loud bangs were heard as flashes of fire were seen from the strange weapon and the Pegasus in the lead suddenly fell to the ground as their wings were blown apart. The warrior lowered the smaller weapon and sheathed it at her hip as she took the bigger one in both hands and without hesitation fired releasing several much louder bangs from the weapon. Every bang was flowed up by a spray of blood from one of the charging enemies as heads and limbs were turned into sprays of blood while holes were blown into the monster's bodies.
One of the larger demons like monsters that managed to survive the onslaught reached out for the women as he neared only for the armor once more to be covered in black shadows and change back to the steel plate, only this time there was no helmet. Without hesitation the woman charged forward grasping the hilt of the sword on her back and as they neared she pulled the blade off slicing the monster. When the two stopped their charge the women didn't even turn as the creature fell apart, bisected down the middle. As the warrior stood in the center of the demonic army she didn't even seem concerned as monsters charged at her from all sides, in fact it seemed as if she were smiling as she attacked again. The woman moved with near unnatural speeds, her silver hair flowed behind her as she seemed to weave through the monsters as if she had no care.
With a roar the monsters charged her in an unorganized wave and any watching could have sworn they saw the women smile as strange symbols across her body began to glow and she leapt forward becoming a blur of movement as she expertly dodged the attacks of the wave appearing to not even be winded as she did so. As the women moved expertly through the attacks a light began to shine and ponies looked up hopeful of seeing the dawn approaching but instead they saw the the glow of thousands of swords floating in the air, finally the warrior women leapt into the air floating up to the center of the cloud of blades both her eyes glowing, the left a golden glow while the right a crimson red, with the light of twin suns as she looked down at the army of abominations below her. "Rank B+ Noble Phantasm, Sword of Manjushri Daishintou, Love Blast, Heavenly Demon Rain!" The Women cried out as the swords began to fall from the sky impaling the monsters.
As this happened the onlookers watched in awe as this warrior slayed what seemed like an endless horde of monsters with ease however as the rain of swords ended and the women began to fall to the ground a beam of red energy shot out from a monster and hit the warrior sending her back and into the ground.
Those watching from behind shuddered windows and warded homes watched in fear as from the demon hoard one who was far taller and looked to be a horrible abomination between Dragon and Demon walked forward. "So, you are the one causing such trouble to stall our master's arrival." The creature growled out. "You seem to have not been much." He laughed.
"You have seen nothing." A voice replied as from the rubble the warrior stood revealing herself to be the strange pony like creature that the Princess's apprentice had living with her. "As for you, I never expected to see an Apostle here." She said with a dark look in her eyes as she looked at the monster. "Let me show you just what I am capable of." She said as she shot forward a grin on her face.
"Rank A Noble Phantasm, Gram: Sword of the Sun!" She roared as she leapt into the air, as she leapt a longsword with a golden crossguard and grip appeared in her hand and she grinned as she swung it. The monstrous demon moved to block the attack but as he raised his arm the blade easily carved through his flesh causing him to scream in agony.
"Impossible, none can pierce my scales!" He roared as he looked at his arm that was already slowly regrowing.
"The Noble Phantasm, Gram: Sword of the Sun. Once wielded by the hero Sigurd, it was originally an enchanted sword wielded and pulled from the trunk of a mighty tree by Sigurd's father, Sigmund." Eris said calmly causing the Demon to look at the blade with what appeared to be fear. "Later, it was shattered from clashing against Gungnir and reforged into a cursed demonic blade that was capable of killing even a dragon after that, it became renowned as a demonic sword of both glory and ruin said to be the strongest demonic sword that can only be equal to the strongest holy sword Excalibur." She finished her grin turning predatory. "You apostles think you are undefeatable but I will tell you this, you and your master have their days numbered." She said as she shot forward her blade coming down again however this time it was stopped by the demon who had drawn his own massive blade from his hip and managed to just barely block her strike.
"I will not die to some mongrel mutant pony!" The demon yelled as he swung his massive blade again sending Eris skidding back. The demon didn't wait for her to regain her bearings and shot forward, embedding the sword in her chest. "DIE!" He roared as he split her in two at her chest and stomach. Eris's top went flying while the lower half fell to the ground. The Demon took several deep breaths before standing and laughing. "Was that all?!" He roared and laughed harder. "That was all too easy!"
"Oh but this is just the start of this fight." Eris said as her lower half dissolved into ash and Eris stood once more, her lower half still regenerating but she still walked forward "Noble Phantasm Conversion Rank A, Gram: Dawn of Ruin." She said as the sword in her hand changed, splitting into what appeared to be two Ulfberht Swords, one green and the other Red. Eris calmly walked forward both swords held out to her sides she set a stunning appearance, the blood coating her armor and cape flowing behind her she looked to be a dark hero walking out of a story book, her glowing gold and crimson eyes looking into the soul of the being before her.
The Demon roared as he charged forward without hesitation and swung however Eris simply raised her blade meeting the strike and blocking it with her red sword as she calmly turned, pirouetting behind the demon and sending her second green sword into his back severing the spine in the center of his back causing the demonic monster to fall, catching himself with his hands, barely able to turn and see the sword change again to now appear as a beam of green fiery light.
"Noble Phantasm Conversion Rank A+, Bölverk Gram: Heaven's Wheel of Destruction." Eris said calmly as she released the energy which shot toward the demonic monster. "Burn in hellfire, Apostle." Eris said calmly as she turned her back on the being who closed his eyes and lowered his head as the fire enveloped him, burning him to ashes. Eris raised her hand out to her side and the fire flew back to her and condensed into its original appearance as a steel long sword.
Around her the demons and monster hoard looked upon her in fear as she looked at them however before they could do anything the sky at last began to lighten and the first rays of the sun began to light the world causing the gathered hoard of creatures to scream in fear before collapsing into dust or in the lesser demons case simply die, their bodies unable to handle the light of the sun. In but a few moments all that was left in the center of the town was Eris, who stood calmly, the sun at her back and gleaming sword in hand till it returned to the golden portal. Eris turned and walked back to the library, walking slowly and carefully, like she was injured however no injuries were seen.
As she neared the Library she saw Twilight standing at the door in shock. "I need a nap after that." She said tiredly as she passed Twilight only to collapse to the floor behind her. Twilight turned in panic to Eris as Spike ran to her side and knelt down looking her over and feeling her neck for a pulse before sighing.
"She's just asleep." He said in relief as he turned to Twilight. "So... that is the power of a displaced." He said a low whistle escaping him as he looked at Eris's passed out form. "Gotta say it was cool." He said with a smile.
The morning after the fight where Eris risked her life was a quiet one with many of the residence working to rebuild anything damaged by the undead and demonic hoard as well as the fight that occurred. A few of the ponies stopped by the library to thank the warrior but were all turned away by Twilight who explained that she was still sleeping off her exhaustion from the battle. It wasn't till dawn had long since turned to day that a group of royal guards arrived at the train station from Canterlot and made their way through the town to the library, a grim look on their faces as they stopped and their commander knocked at the door and were let in by Twilight.
