)"Iron Author Competition 2023 – Glimpses of The Demon"
Year of The Curse 2702...
“So, if you don’t have much of a garden, where do you get all this nice food?” Twilight Sparkle asked curiously, studying the demon across the table from her. “I understand the meat, but what about the rest?” The girl continued. Watching as her ear flicked at the question, yet no other acknoledgement was made. She didn’t want to possibly upset her, yet… she had to know. Things didn’t add up!
Sunset Shimmer stayed quiet, toying with a potato as she spun it around between her claws and the table’s surface. After a moment of silence, she tossed it up and stabbed the potato with her wing, not caring to do anything other with it. Without even looking at Twilight, she answered, “from a farm. Where else?”
The human girl blinked, then frowned lightly.
“But, the barrier? I thought you couldn’t leave your realm. You also said that no one comes here of their free will unless they are ‘seeking fortune and glory’.” She pointed out.
“Well, yeah, that’s still all true.”
Twilight leaned forward, placing her elbows on the table. Her curiosity over the beastly girl just kept growing. “Then how do you get things from a farm?”
At continuing to be questioned, Sunset grumbled, folding her arms. Her wings shifted down as she tilted her head to the side.
“I made a... deal… with their ancestors. Their farm is the closest settlement to the barrier. So the wolves, well…”
Year of The Curse 1480...
The young man walked cautiously through the woods. His parents had always warned him not to traverse this way, that deep in the woods lies a dangerous monster who had wrecked their world and land generations ago. That her army would is in wait to snatch any foolish man to enter her territory.
But those were just old granny tales, meant to scare children and keep them behaved. As long as he was careful, there would be no problem taking this path. It was a shortcut to his delivery, and he was already running late as it was. The young farmhand shivered at that reminder. He did not want to keep Miss Locks waiting, ...not again. And he made sure his package was secured this time.
Traversing past several tall trees, he noticed to his right a small clearing. It looked beautiful, and peaceful. A doe and her fawn stopped by a moment to graze as he continued on, and he couldn’t help but to smile.
“This place isn’t so bad. Bet they were worried about nothing!” The boy chuckled to himself, feeling happier from the nature around him.
A snap to his right. He turned his head, but nothing was there. ‘Was probably just those deer again’, the young man thought to himself.
Then, a dash of movement ahead of him. He slowed down, mouth slowly fading down from a smile to a worried look. He took a step back, only to hear the quick rustle of leaves behind him as well. Then, just as quickly as the woods had come alive around him, everything lay still.
“Ah, carrotjuice,” he muttered in panic, “Why don’t I ever listen?”
And then he ran.
The woods ran after him.
The farmhand dashed to his left, desperately holding his basket of goods close as he twisted and turned through the forest. Dodging trees and hazards to the best of his ability. “I just HAD to jinx it, DIDN’T I?”
His exclamation combined with his panicked breathing caused him to stumble, and he dropped the basket. It rolled to his side, still intact. That’s a plus, right?
Attempting to scramble back onto his feet, he was instead slammed down by something strong, forcing his breath to leave.
Growls surrounded him from all sides. He tried to turn his head to look, and caught glimpses of… were those wolves? Yeah, yeah those were wolves. He was so screwed. Yet, whatever was holding him down clearly wasn’t a wolf. The boy could see the wingspan of wicked, mangled bat wings above him, and sharp talons against his back. Colours of red and yellow flickered in the edge of his vision.
Then, it spoke.
“Not everyday someone chooses to enter this domain.” The creature spoke. It had a clear feminine tone to the voice, and yet something about it was still.. Off. Dark. A subtle hiss seemed to follow its words. “What was so important to you that you chose to come through here? I’m sure fellow humans have warned you of the dangers.” The boy gulped, trying to catch his breath, though it was noticeably difficult in his panic. He struggled to speak in his fright, but was stopped by the beast’s fiery-themed tail. “Don’t answer that, I don’t care.”
She – presumably, she – got off his back, and tugged him to his feet. He now got a good look at what attacked him. There were indeed wolves all around, some already tugging at his basket, much to his dismay. If he somehow survived this, he wasn’t going to survive Miss Lock’s rage.. Shaking his head, he turned his attention to the being.
The demon was moderately tall, just over the height of a teenager. Her hair of brilliant red and yellow, like the tail he had already encountered, was a shaggy mess. It somehow still looked scarily beautiful. Her skin - fur? Scales? It was hard to tell – was a light red, bordering on orange, though some parts were noticeably deeper than others. It donned ragged clothes: a two-toned orange-brown hoodie, and torn up deep magenta pants. The clothes reminded him of tales of scavengers of the past, who took what they could after the Great Burning. His great-grandfather had found one such, which hung on their wall (it was a shirt with a cute cat that had a weird pink square body and shooting rainbows out its bum). Clothes of their current time looked much different than the odds ones before, like the ones the demon had on. Moving on…
Her claws were sharp and wicked, while also looking considerably comfortable. She had long fangs, and strange, stretched and tufted ears. They also appeared torn. But none of that was really scary to the boy. No, what scared him the most? Was her eyes.
Sharp cyan stared him down above the darkest black he had ever seen. Its eyes seemed to glow, literally and figuratively, but he wasn’t sure with what. That terrified him.
By the time he had finished taking in her appearance (which wasn’t too long at all, despite how time seemed to move differently during it), the wolves had carefully opened his package and brought it to the girl’s feet. Er, talons? ‘Whatever.’
Leaning down, she nodded. “This’ll do.” Then she turned back to the farmhand. “Listen, I’m taking this. Normally, I’d kill you too to add extra food to our pile, but I’m feeling… generous today.” She grinned, an awful, hungry grin. Her eyes danced with barely kempt fire.
“G-generous?” The boy asked. He was dead either way, so may as well.
The demon’s grin seemed to stretch wider as she nodded. “Oh yes, so generous that I’ll make a deal with you right now to ensure your survival!” She placed a wing around his shoulders as she lifted up what laid inside his delivery: lush, fresh vegetables and fruits from his family’s farm. He watched as she juggled with carrots, his specialty, which were so nice, perfectly ripe and beautiful, the leaves atop a gorgeous, vibrant green, and the carrots themselves shining near golden in the light. A sad whimper escaped him at seeing such careless treatment now.
“You’ll get to go home right now, back to your farm, or whoever owns this. On one condition.”
A gulp. “Which is…?”
“You and the farmers, and those after them all, continue to deliver parts of your harvest to me. And in return, I won’t send these wolves after you! Miss a payment, and well, that’s your problem then. Saying no will also sign not only your death warrant, but those of your family and loved ones too!”
Oh. It wasn’t just his life at stake. ...Though he had no idea what a warrant was.
And then there was a claw outstretched in front of him. “Well?” She asked. “Do we have a deal?”
Twilight’s mouth stood slightly agape, her eyes moving from Sunset to the delicious, verdant if she wanted to go so far as to say, vegetables that lined the plates of the table. Then,
“Sunset!”
The demon looked alert at the near yell of her name, staring in minor surprise at the purple girl.
“That wasn’t much of a deal, that was blackmail! Death threats!”
Sunset Shimmer grinned sheepishly, “Ohh, uh, was I supposed to clarify that earlier?”
The studious girl facepalmed. “If you’re really wanting to start over a new leaf, make friends and lift your curse? You can’t be continuing with stuff like that!”
“Well, what do you suggest I do then?” The fiery-girl’s wings shuffled, trying to look nonchalant at the mention of her curse.
“First off, if you’re going to continue with this route of getting things other than meat – which I do suggest, keep a healthy balance eheh – maybe pay them?” She gestured with her hands, then pointed towards another room which they both knew lead to the basement, where copious amounts of bits and gems were.
Sunset blinked. That… made sense. She sighed, then chuckled self-deprecatingly. “I’m really not used to anything like this. What I can remember from before is just.. leading a force of destruction – BEING that force. Any tiny thing would just set me off, and explode into a series of more explosions, and after they happened I just…” She groaned, “It’s really, REALLY difficult to know about the curse, to know I need to be good make friends whatever, and then that.. otherside of me just comes out and I can’t stop it. It’s so.. just, I mean-”
A hand rested on her own. When did Twilight get up? And since when was Sunset shaking?
“Vexing?” the girl suggested cautiously.
“….Y-yeah, vexing.” She agreed. “I’m trying my best, I really am.”
“I know,” Twilight replied, “I know.”
Year of The Curse 2703
Twilight followed behind Sunset, taking in the hallways she’d never been before. The castle of Sunset Shimmer’s, despite the damage and disrepair, was huge, and magnificent. If imposing. They went by banners of alicorns, wielding weapons and bearing battle scars. Of ponies frolicking in fields that were on fire, not noticing except for the ones nearest. ...Of tombs, stretching on forever. Twilight was never certain of the reason Sunset avoided this area, but she was beginning to understand. This wasn’t Sunset’s domain.
This was the demon’s.
Finally, they ended at a doorway. It looked like it had once been grand, yet it seemed… different. Dangerous. Twilight could feel the presence of something cold around her and she shivered, sticking closer to the girl in front of her.
Sunset took a deep breath, then faced Twilight Sparkle.
“This is it. Beyond this door, lies part of the key of what started all this. My greatest mistake.” She murmured the last part, running a claw across the handle before settling on it. “You ready?”
“Are you?” Twilight responded, failing to hide her apprehension.
“...As I’ll ever be.”
The door creaked open.
The crown, what was left of it, at least, shone brilliantly even in the dark room. The gold framing barely held a piece of a magenta gem that sparkled. It was just one small piece, one tiny remainder of what once was, yet it still managed to be alluring with the little magic that it held. Twilight gently placed it back down, looking at Sunset. The demon was sticking close by the door, sullenly and on edge. She knew this room held bad memories of what had happened in the girl’s past.
And after seeing it all for herself, Twilight Sparkle knew what she had to do.
“I’m going to find them.” She stated confidently in Sunset’s direction. The girl in turn looked shocked.
“Find them? How? Those have been lost at least 200 years! They could be anywhere.”
Twilight watched as the demon’s tail wavered nervously, her wings telltale-ing alongside it. And then the purple girl smiled.
“With the Magic of Friendship by my side, of course!”