> Ponyhammer > by Vect > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A disturbance in the hospital Demonic taint An unexpected acquaintance Requesting authorisation ... authortisation, confirmed. Welcome Trixie silverstar. Please input your request. Hosptial camera feed 81 requested. Requisiton accepted Hospital camera 81 initialising: Video feed damaged, resolving... video quality restored. Video initialising. The video opens up to a dark, sparsely furnished room with a meager bed in the middle and a small bedside table. The bed is occupied by a red pony with a blonde mane who seems to be asleep and restrained to the bed. The table has only one object, a picture of a pony resembling the one in the bed in the act of kissing another pony. The backdrop of the picture is that of a beach with a beautiful blue sea and frothy waves breaking on the beach, there also appears to be two foals with a striking resemblance to the ponies in the picture. The pony being kissed is a handsome brown colt with with a blonde mane, he has a scar on the left side of his face and his blue eyes are shining with the reflection of sunlight. After a couple of seconds a door opens and the colt from the picture enters looking extremely bedraggled. “Hey Pacific it’s me, Ace. Come on we’re gonna get you out of here before the pawns of celestia get onto us” whispered the colt. Muffled moans are heard from pacific “Hey come on gal we ain’t go all day, wake up” he hissed. Ace appears to slap pacific in an attempt to awaken her, as the sound from the slap ends a new sound fills the room. The sound of a demonic screech so piercing it could never be created by a mortal being “What the...” exclaimed the brown colt. In an instant pacific has torn her restraints away and is violently flailing her arms around in a fit of rage, inadvertently knocking over the picture and shattering the glass. Ace turned to run but the newly possessed Pacific quickly grabbed him and tore him asunder. A cloudy essence rose from his body and was quickly drawn towards Pacific like a moth to a flame. Pacific proceeds to crash out of the room and screams are heard as people run in terror. Moments later the video cuts out “And you say that’s all you have of the incident lieutenant” I inquired. “Yes Trixie, the power cut out as the beast awoke and the camera in the hall was scheduled for replacement. It should have been replaced the day before but shortages are everywhere these days, and it wasn’t considered essential” replied the clearly unnerved lieutenant. “Hmm i see, have that video delivered to the ordo hereticus, and see your regiments counsellor. Dwelling on what you saw alone is a sure road to heresy lieutenant. You're dismissed” I declared. The lieutenant hurried away, clearly disturbed by what he had seen. Sometimes i forget how hard it is for regular ponies to handle scenes like that. After a moments thought about the situation I suddenly realised that the sun outside had set and that I had an arrangement to meet with an associate of the ordos on the matter of a place to stay. Not wanting to be late I quickly grabbed my hat and set out to meet my contact. The winter night was cold and dark as one might expect in a place like Ponyville. I made an effort to try and move as discreetly as possible as chattering ponies aren’t exactly beneficial to my line of work. After a walking a few streets away from the hospital I turned a right to make my way down an alleyway. The alley was dark and damp but I was in a hurry and a bonus was that I was less likely to bump into any nosy ponies on a route like this. However I feared that no matter what precautions I took there was one pony that I wouldn’t be able to avoid. Halfway down the alleyway my fears were realised as I bumped into the pony that every inquisitor dreaded, Pinkamena Diane Pie. “Hey Trixie, what are you doing here again? You come for my party tomorrow? Oh boy you’re just gonna love it we’re gonna have cake and beer and wine and-” exclaimed the pink pony. “Stop, I’m here on official business, I don’t have time for your antics Pinkamena” I interrupted. “Oh but come on Trixie you’re always so serious, I know what you need. You need a hug” proclaimed Pinkie. I stuck a hoof out to stop the encroaching pony and got ready to explain what would happen if she further impeded inquisitional business when all of a sudden she begun to violently shake. I immediately expected her of being possesed by a demonic entity and swiftly unsheathed my sword. However the shaking didn't last more than a few seconds before she stopped and quickly proclaimed in a rather alarmed tone that we both needed to get moving. “Yes, I do. Now if you’ll get out o-” I began to say, however before i managed to finish the air around us began to shimmer. “Pinkamena you need to go, quickly” I shouted. Pinkie turned to run but before she could move the shimmering stopped and a purple rift appeared behind us, signalling its presence with a high pitched whine. I quickly turned to face this new apparition but before I could react a black skinned daemon emerged and the purple swirling portal quickly closed in on itself. The Daemon was a truly horrific sight, with burn marks all over its body and numerous scars crisscrossing the beasts chest. Its eyes were a dark red and it’s claws looked like they could gut a pony in an instant. The mere sight of the daemon was sufficient enough to cause Pinkamena to cower in fear. On top of it’s already sufficiently intimidating claws it sported another weapon, a golden blade wrought in the warp forges of Nightmare from the toughest metal in this universe and the next. Such a weapon could cut through any material known to ponies and so i only had my wits to keep me alive in this confrontation. I quickly ignited my power sword and got ready to defend against the daemons attack when all of a sudden it began to shimmer. I slowly sheathed my sword and waited to hear what the daemon had to say. After a few moments the daemon began to speak in perfect equestrian. “Trixie Lunastar, your meddling in the affairs of the gods will not be tolerated. Further damage to the affairs of the cult of nightmares will lead to only one conclusion. Be warned” croaked the daemon. With its job complete the daemon shimmered out of our realm back to whence it came. I turned to Pinkamena about to chew her out for getting in my way but i soon realised she had already disappeared. How she managed to seemingly teleport around at will I doubt I will ever know. But that wasn’t my business, and I was content to keep it that way. I hurriedly left the dingy alley and continued on my way to sugarcube corner, unfazed by the daemons threats. On my arrival a few minutes later I sat down at the table I had been told to wait at and bided my time. After about 5 minutes a hooded pony came and sat at the table. “So you’re the one that i’m staying with during my time here I presume” I asked. The pony slowly pulled down her brown hood and to my surprise it was none other than the princesses protege herself, Twilight Sparkle. “Correct” Replied the purple mare. “Well i can say i didn’t expect to see you here, surely there must have been a mistake” I replied. “Oh there was no mistake” said Twilight, “The princess knew that there was a great danger stirring here in Ponyville, possibly greater than either of us could imagine. Thus the princess decided that you would need a bit more protection than usual whilst you stayed here”. “Yes, it would seem to appear that way. At any rate we must head to your dwelling as soon as possible. It isn’t safe to speak out here, nor is it safe to be a pony at all I would wager” I stated. “Agreed, let’s get moving then” acknowledged the hooded mare. As we both exited our seats and began to walk towards twilights tree I heard something in a bush not 5 meters from where we had been sitting. I swiftly pirouetted around and stared at the bush from where the offending sound had come from, unaware of what I had heard Twilight simply waited. After a few seconds I just attributed it to my paranoid mind and began once again to walk towards Twilights tree. Half way towards the tree I once again heard the same noise, this time from behind a wooden fence. Unwilling to put it down to paranoia again I quickly vaulted the fence and instead of landing on grass or concrete like one would expect, I landed on a pony. The pony quickly rolled away from me and jumped over the fence into the neighbouring street. Unwilling to let a potential cultist get away unimpeded I quickly followed. “Celestial inquisition” I thundered as I jumped the fence “Lay down your weapons” When I landed i could make out no sign of the pony who I was chasing and so I quickly pulled down my auspex. With these on the invisibility spell of the what I could now see was a unicorn was useless and I began to give chase. After reaching the end of the street and turning left I saw nothing but trees and fences. I was just about to jump one of the fences when I heard a muffled scream from behind me and quickly realised Twilight was in trouble. I rushed back over the fence and returned to where I had left her with my sword at the ready, but it appeared that my presence was unnecessary. Clearly her attacker hadn’t been briefed on the power that the element of magic held and he had payed the price for his insolence. As the dust slowly blew away Twilight began to lead the way once again towards her home.