Rarity and the Devil

Chapters

One Good Deed
The Pony from Hell
The Gate Keeper
Past Sins and Presnt Pains
Old Friends
Beethoven's 7th

One Good Deed

This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc.
Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth.

One good deed

“From a tiny spark may burst a great flame.”-Dante degli Alighieri

Spring in Ponyville is always a sunny season, or usually is. However, this particular day was blessed with grey skies and a gentle downpour. It wasn’t a bad sight and it was also great for the flowers, but Rarity looked out at the wet streets with a frown from behind the windows at the Carousel Boutique. She did enjoy the product of the showers, the freshly blooming flowers, radiant with their abundant colors that inspired her with new dress colors and styles. But, where there was rain, there tended to be mud, and that just would not stand. Dirt of any sort-except for the spa’s mud baths-was not acceptable. Yet, Rarity found herself putting on her rubber rain boots, sliding into her warm Burberry coat, and grabbing an umbrella.

“Well darling,” Rarity said to herself, getting prepared to go outside. “A little rain and…mud,” she said shuddering at the mention of the foul mixture of earth and water, “won’t stop you. Fluttershy is waiting for us at the Spa, so hurry on your way dearie.” In one quick movement, she opened her door, put up her umbrella, closed the door, and marched out into the rain covered streets.

Ponyville appeared to be covered in thin lines of black ink as the rain fell from the sky and hit the cobblestones of the streets, whisking a cold whisper of wind into the air, making Rarity shiver in just the slightest. She hurried along the streets, wanting to be out of this wet and cold and in the warmth of the herbal baths and plush robes all the faster.

As she passed by the candy colored houses of Ponyville, she saw something completely new to her: a strange pony, sitting in the street near one of Ponyville’s back alleys. Rarity had never seen this pony before, for he looked forlorn and beaten down, sitting in the rain, shivering slightly. He was an earth pony with a silver mane and a dark gold coat with flecks of red in it. Rarity wanted all in the world to hurry by him and head off to the spa, but something held her back. Maybe it was the look on his face. Maybe it was the way that his body silently quaked in the cold. Maybe it was his wet mane drooping into his eyes. Nevertheless, Rarity stopped, and that was all that mattered.

The pony looked up as he felt the rain stop hitting him. He looked up to see that he was covered by an umbrella that stood floating above him. He looked at the magic aura and saw a large overcoat float into his view, surrounded by the same aura.

“Put these on darling.” Said an elegant female voice from next to him. He looked up to a unicorn mare with a pristine platinum coat and lovely purple tresses that seemed to swim down her coat. However, both were getting wet and becoming less and less beautiful by the second as the water drenched them.

“Your coat is just too exquisite to be put through such a downpour.” She said as she put the coat around his shoulders and hung the umbrella over his head, hooking it onto a gutter. Rarity waved and left as the seemingly mute stallion followed her as she went away. To her, his deep emerald eyes seemed to glow with happiness and that look is exactly what allowed Rarity to do such a thing.

“Hmmm…” the pony thought to himself as he watched her walk away in her red rubber boots. “It seems I need to repay her…I just get out and now this…oh well.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“…And he was just sitting out there, the poor thing. I mean, I’ve seen destitute ponies before in Canterlot and Manehatten, but in Ponyville? What is Equestria coming to?” Rarity said as she took off the fluffy white robe and got up from her massage table. “Thank you again Aloe. You are such a godsend.”

“Wow, Rarity.” Fluttershy said meekly as she too got up. “You’re always doing things like this…I’m so glad to have you as a friend.” She said, hugging Rarity tightly. Rarity blushed and hugged her sister-like friend back.

“Thank you Flutters. But now it looks like I need to be getting back home.” She said, walking to the reception counter of the spa and looking at the clock at the same time. It was just 8:00 o’clock, but the sky was dark. These early spring days were still cold at night and night seemed to come just as fast as it did in winter. Only now, she had even more concern to get home quickly, for rumors of an obnoxious band of ponies from Fillydelphia had been causing some ruckus after dark in Ponyville. Apparently, nopony had been able to catch them yet, but their horrid vandalism and noise could be heard and seen all over town. Fluttershy was safe from all this, her house being at the edge of Ponyville, but Rarity wanted to get to the boutique as fast as possible, for one could never predict the actions of a simpleton.

“Thank you again for meeting up, dear.” She said to Fluttershy as she paid Aloe and Lotus in the right amount of bits, putting the receipt into her purse with magic. “Same time next week, dearie.” She said, heading out the door after she stepped into her boots. “Ta ta!”

Rarity hurried down the cooling streets, the damp chill settling on her spine, making her shiver and walk just a little bit faster. As she walked, the streetlights started to come on, illuminating her path, until she came to a section of the road that had all their streetlights out. She stopped at the edge of the illuminated circle cast by one of the streetlights. She didn’t like the look of the darkened street and was about to go down a different street, but a quick gust of wind perturbed her from doing such a thing. She fought back her common sense and trudged into the darkness, wanting to get home as fast as her booted legs would carry her.

She instantly disliked her decision. As she walked, she started to get that eerie feeling that sompony was looking at her, following her with their gaze. She pulled her purse closer to her side and started to walk faster, seeing the next streetlamp not too far away. Her spirit picked up. Like a little filly, she believed that if she reached the light, any monsters that terrorized her would vanish. Little did she expect that they would in fact come from the light, while her savior would come from the deepest of darknesses.

She was about to reach the light, when she heard a pony whistling a familiar tune. She stopped dead in her tracks as she saw a pony walk out from behind the streetlamp and towards her, whistling the tune. She started to back up as he pulled a wicked looking knife out of his coat and tossed it into the air, catching it in his mouth. Rarity screamed and turned to run in the opposite direction, but she was caught in a strong bear hug. She screamed again, only to have a hoof clamped over her mouth. Her horn glowed as she tried to use her magic to free herself, but a dark red glow appeared from the darkness and she felt her magic suppressed. A small, brick colored unicorn stepped out of the shadows as the earth pony with the knife came closer.

“Hoof ovah yah bits.” The earth pony said maliciously. Rarity tried to move, but the muscular pegasi holding her ripped her purse off of her arm with one of his wings. He tossed it over to his buddy.

“Hey Blocky, I need some light ovah here.” He said as he opened the purse. The small unicorn obliged and a small orb of magician’s light floated over Rarity’s head. The boss was engrossed with the cash in the purse at first, but then he noticed Rarity.

A wicked smile spread across his lips. “Hey, hey, hey. Lookit what we got us here? A pretty dame.” He said stepping closer to Rarity, stroking her face with a hoof. Rarity just scowled at him.

“Hey Gust, let the pretty lady speak.” He said and the pegasi removed his hoof from her mouth.

“So what’s yer name, toots?” he asked.

Rarity spat in his face and the earth pony became enraged. He smacked her with his open hoof and Rarity let out a loud “Oh!”

“Bitch!” the gangpony said. “I’ll teach you how to talk tah me!” he said, his sinister smile coming back. He nodded his head over to an alleyway covered in the darkness. “Why don’t we show her a good time?” The pegasi and unicorn both started to laugh sinisterly and Rarity paled. She had seen one too many police shows to not know what was going to happen next. She tried to fight against the pegasi’s grasp as he carried her closer and closer to her impending doom, but it proved fruitless. As tears of frustration and fear came streaming out of her eyes, she noticed where she was. As the trio carried her closer to the alley where they would do evil things to her, she noticed that this was the alley that the destitute pony had been in earlier…

“Now, I would let you carry on with this in any other occasion,” said the destitute pony as he walked out of the alley they were heading into. “But,” he said with a condescending smirk, “I owe that fair lady a favor.” He said, pointing to Rarity. Rarity’s heart, to her own surprise, did a little flutter as she saw he was still wearing her coat. Surprisingly, he also looked much better than he did before. His silver mane was slicked back and it looked like his gold coat was flickering, the red splotches blazing in the magician’s light. His sudden appearance surprised the trio, but soon the earth pony was laughing.

“You shald move, yah bum. Unless yah wanna get cut.” He said pulling out his knife. Rarity gasped at the threat, but the strange stallion just seemed amused by it.

“Come then coward,” he said, beckoning the earth pony to attack him. “I can smell the fear on you…no, wait. That’s just your mother’s cheap perfume.” With this, the earth pony started screaming swears and rushed at the destitute stallion with the knife swinging wildly. All the destitute pony did was dodge the slashes, making Rarity’s heart leap with worry. But then the earth pony got just a little too close and the destitute pony kicked him under the jaw, sending the knife flying into the air. The destitute pony laughed and kicked the earth pony again, sending his face skywards just as the knife fell down. The knife sunk deeply into the earth pony’s eye which elicited loud wails of pain from him. But this fight wasn’t over, not by a long shot.

Rarity was thrown to the cobblestone as the unicorn and pegasi went off to help their friend. Their friend staggered around screaming swears and crying in pain while the destitute pony just laughed at the oncoming attackers. He quickly punched the pegasi in the nose as the pegasi swung to hit him, then dodged a magical blast from the unicorn. The earth pony came back to attack the stallion, but the stallion grabbed the knife, tearing it out of the earth pony’s head, and whipped it into the unicorn’s throat. Blood covered the pavement as the unicorn stepped back, and fell to the cobblestones chocking and spluttering on his own blood until he made noise no more. At this, the pegasi and earth pony screamed in anger, attacking the stallion with even more ferocity.

The fight lasted eons to Rarity, who from her spot on the ground, saw every kick, buck, bite, dodge, and drop of blood hit the ground. Even as Rarity was shocked, appalled, and disgusted at the reckless fighting and the dead pony on the ground not ten feet from her, some part of her admired the stallion. It was amazing how easily he fought, not being hit or hindered by any of his movements. However, at one part of the fight, the pegasi managed to rip Rarity’s coat.

This signaled the beginning of the end. Rarity suddenly became aware that the stallion’s emerald green eyes were aglow with what seemed like the worst rage and most hate she had ever seen, even worse than when Spike went through his greed-growths. The stallion looked at the tear in the coat and the pegasi and earth pony were pushed away from him by some unknown force. A sudden gust of wind, both drier than the desert and colder than the arctic air, blew through the street making everypony but the stallion become visibly uncomfortable. Suddenly, the stallion, or the coat on the stallion, started to glow, making Rarity suspect he was a unicorn for a moment, but he had no horn, so how could…

The coat ripped apart as flames sprouted from his body, his eyes twin points of fury as Rarity started to feel something…wrong. It felt like the very essence of her soul was being torn apart, like she was being dragged across a salted road of nails and glass. She looked over to the two aggressors and found them both aflame, their mouths wide open in silent screams as the ground shook underneath them. Soon, a jagged maw opened from the earth, sucking the two ponies and their dead friend into the flaming pit, from which Rarity heard the sound of complete silence: a sound that would turn any normal pony insane. But, she felt a power was holding it at bay. She looked over to the stallion and found his glowing green eyes stuck on her.

“Who are you?” Rarity asked, seeing his cutie mark for the first time, a heart, split into two halves and crossed with chains. The pony showed Rarity a grin full of jagged teeth and a serpentine tongue.

“Who am I?” he asked rhetorically. “Why I, my generous lady, am none other than Lucifer, the master of Tartarus.”

“What?” Rarity asked, her mind clogged by the sudden darkness surrounding her. She wanted to ask more, but the darkness fell in on her, leaving nothing but a mental image of Lucifer’s grin in her mind as she faded away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rarity woke up warm and comfortable in her bed, the sun shining down onto her face from a gap in the curtains. She sighed pleasantly as she rolled over, laying in her bed. Her mind urged her to go back to sleep and as she eased back into pleasant sleep, she thought about the spa yesterday and how nice her life is. Oh and meeting that handsome stallion wasn’t something to look over either. He really did look good and he had such a nice smile…

Rarity shot up out of bed, disturbing Opalescence’s sleep near the end of the bed. Suddenly, all the memories of last night rushed her and she found herself wondering how she got into her bed. She got up, a little shaken, and threw on a robe, nervously petting Opalescence as she mewed in disturbance. She didn’t want to think of the dead ponies and their terrible screams, nor of the pit that opened up in the ground leading into Tartarus. As Rarity left her room and went down her stairs, she came to only one logical conclusion: it was all a dream. She must have been so tired when she got home, that she went to sleep in a daze, dreaming the whole thing up. As she entered her kitchen, she grabbed a mug with magic and poured herself a cup of coffee, massaging her temples as she did.

“You do need to lay off the late night spa visits, love.” She told herself. “They always leave you feeling so weird.” She continued before taking a sip of her coffee. As she drank, she suddenly spewed the coffee out of her mouth, very unladylike and very uncharacteristically.

First off, the coffee was hot; incredibly so. Secondly, she didn’t ever remember making the coffee, whether it was this morning or yesterday. She looked at the coffee like it had all the answers to what was going on this morning. She raised the mug to her lips, but instead of drinking, she thought better of it, placing it on her table. She didn’t need any caffeine this morning; all the adrenaline and unanswered questions inside of her had jolted her awake plenty.

She walked into her living room, a small room just on the other side of the shop where she showed off all of her dresses. The living room was cozy and had a bookcase on one side of it, a couch on the other that was next to a fireplace, a large coffee table in the center of the room, and a large ovular window with pillows in its sill, so Rarity could lay there in comfort when reading a book or thinking up new dress designs. However, as she entered the room, she screamed and jumped back. Sitting in the windowsill, was Lucifer, quietly sipping on a mug of coffee and wearing a slick black robe with a red border. He saw her and gave her a small wave of his hoof as he took an amused sip of coffee.

“Y…Y…You!!!” Rarity cried, pointing at him dramatically. “I thought you were just a dream!”

“Oh, I am the dream stallion, but I am no figment of your imagination, dear Rarity.” He said as he got up and the mug of coffee disappeared.

“How did you…Why are you in…Where did you…?”

“Shhhhss.” Lucifer said, putting a hoof on Rarity’s lips after he strode across the room. “After you fainted last night, I took you to your home. Yes, I am in one of your robes, so I’ll just have to repay you for this and for your generosity from before. Also, when you’re lord of Tartarus, it’s not too hard to get a good, hot cup of joe in the morning.”

“But you saved me last night!” Rarity spluttered out. “I think that would be ample repayment for my generosity!” she said, remembering how she gave him a warm coat and umbrella while he had saved her life.

“Ah, maybe, but I’ll let you in on a little secret.” He said, pulling Rarity into a seductive whisper that made her cheeks go red until he actually started to talk. “I have just recently escaped from my prison in Tartarus, and I would like to stay this way. Obviously, since you were the first one to help me, I must repay this generosity of my own. So, until I have a way to repay you, I will be living here.”

“What?” Rarity said in an angry deadpan. “You can’t be serious.” He wasn’t looking to repay any debts; he was looking for a free place to stay!

“Oh, but I am.” He said with a threatening flare of his eyes. Rarity gulped and remembered what happened last night. She had no choice. He may be a bully and a jerk, but he was a bully and a jerk with the powers to rival the princesses, or so it seemed. So for now, Lucifer would get his way until Rarity could think up a way to make him leave. Who knows? Maybe he could even be helpful? But as Rarity looked at his condescending face, she doubted it. She scowled at him and he made a mocking face like he was hurt by her glare.

“You’re a devil, you know that?” Rarity spat at him, leaving the room.

“Speak of me and I will appear…” Lucifer said, trailing it off with nothing but laughter, making Rarity slam the door to her living room shut with her magic to cut off the infuriating stallion-demon-whatever he was. His laughter rang through the house as Rarity stormed off.

Downstairs, Lucifer sat back into the pillowed windowsill and stared out at the Equestiran day. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and innocent ponies galloped and frolicked all throughout the town. Lucifer summoned his coffee and mug back with his powers, it appearing out of thin air with a gout of flame and a sound of a tortured scream. As he sipped on his lava-esque coffee, he sighed. What a beautiful way to start a beautiful day of freedom. And as Lucifer’s eyes started at the ponies outside, an evil smile formed on his lips. Yes, freedom…freedom would be fun…

The Pony from Hell

This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc.
Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth.

The Pony from Hell

Rarity stormed off to her kitchen after slamming the door to her small living room. Her mind was still reeling with frustration as she grasped the mug of coffee with her magic and took a long angry sip. She put the mug down on the table, a scowl marring her otherwise beautiful facial features.

‘What a jerk!’ she yelled in her mind as she went through her kitchen, fixing herself a simple bowl of cereal for breakfast. She thought about how grateful she was that he had saved her, but to intrude so rudely? And to think, she thought he may have been a gentlecolt. She sat down at the table to eat her meal, but first took another swig of her coffee. ‘At least he could make good coffee.’ She told herself, smirking in appreciation to a good job.

As she ate her breakfast, she tried to fight the frustration and the thoughts about Lucifer, but she couldn’t. It was all too much to take in. The events of last night and this morning were some of the most surprising that have ever happened to her, and that includes anything Pinkie Pie ever surprised her and her friends with. ‘Who is he anyway?’ she asked herself as she angrily bit down on her breakfast. It was then she realized she didn’t have a clue who he was, or why a simple (or at least simple-appearing) earth pony would be thrown into Tartarus. She knew from the whole escapade with Cerberus that Tartarus was the great underworld prison that housed all the monsters and daemons of a time before the princesses ruled Equestria. Then who was this earth pony who claimed to be the Lord of that terrible place? He could do magic without the help of a horn, that much Rarity was certain on, but how truly powerful was he? As Rarity finished her breakfast and floated her bowl into her sink, an idea jumped into her mind. She may not know who Lucifer was or why he was so powerful, but she knew somepony who would.

After a quick shower, a nice brushing, and a mental debate of which boots (she chose not to, since the rainwater, and thus mud, had dried earlier), Rarity was out of the house. She cheerily walked through the warm spring day of Ponyville saying “Hello!” to everypony she encountered, her friendly smile almost as bright as the spring sun. Eventually, she arrived at her destination and rapped three times on the wooden door of the library. Shortly, a baby dragon opened the door to the library and almost fainted with glee.

“How are you doing today, Spike?” Rarity asked, with an embarrassed smile. She knew, of course, about Spike’s little crush on her. She thought it was cute, but it still embarrassed her how he looked at her sometimes, like she was one of the princesses. She loved the attention, but sometimes it was too much.

“Gah…gah..great, Rarity!” Spike stuttered out, his eyes reflective of his emotions. “So what can I do you for?” he said, leaning against the door, trying to look as sultry as a baby dragon could.

Rarity rolled her eyes. “Is Twilight in?” she asked. “I need to talk to her about something. In fact, I think she might be the only pony who would know what I’m talking about.”

“Sure, I’ll go get her.” Spike said with large smile, glad he could be of any help. He ran off into the library and Rarity let herself in, closing the door with magic. As always, the library was neat and orderly with the occasional book lying here or there. Sunlight streamed in from plenty of windows illuminating the room and giving it a cozy warmth. The room smelled of dry wood and ancient tomes and made everything seem so all the more mystical. Rarity was looking at the ancient storybook on the pedestal in the center of the room as she heard hoofsteps behind her.

“Rarity! How are you?” Twilight said excitedly as she came down the stairs, Spike trailing behind her. She gave Rarity a quick hug before Rarity could answer her question.

“I am quite good, darling. How are you?” she said, returning her friend’s hug.

“I’m fantastic! I just finished this book on some new applications for theoretical geo-magnetic magical trigonometry and I can’t wait to try out some of the spells. But enough about me; Spike said you needed my help with something.”

“Yes.” Rarity said, her mind racing as she was about to tell Twilight about her current houseguest. For some reason, a small part of her mind kept telling her not to say anything about how the Lord of Tartarus was actually living in her house.

“Yes,” Rarity reiterated. “I wanted to know if you knew anything about this thing call ‘Lucifer’. He’s from Tartarus and the only reason I know this much is because…um, Aloe, yes Aloe, was talking about it yesterday while I was at the spa with Fluttershy. She said he was from the stories she and Lotus were told when they were fillies.”

As Rarity told her lie, feeling terrible all the while and also unsure of why she was telling it, Twilight’s eyes lit up. Rarity could see the surge of intellectual interest rush through Twilight’s body, making her excited at almost Pinkie Pie levels.

“Tartarus? ‘Lucifer’? I’ve never heard of him!” Twilight squealed in happiness. “But don’t worry! By the time we’re done here, you’ll know all about him. Spike!” she said loudly.

Spike stood at attention and saluted to Twilight.

“I want you to start in the south shelves. Rarity and I will stick with the North walls for now. Look for anything that mentions Tartarus, obviously, or any old folk tales.”

“Sí, comandante!” Spike said, rushing off away from the pair of mares as Twilight pulled various tomes from the shelves near herself and Rarity. She turned to Rarity with about two dozen books floating above her head in her magical grasp.

“Let’s start reading.”

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The grand marble doors that had the history of the Equestrian princesses etched in them and led into the Royal throne room in Canterlot Castle closed loudly and forcefully as a single pony entered the throne chamber. Inside, it was completely silent, as the princesses had made it for this meeting alone. For this was no ordinary pony and what they were to talk about was no trivial matter: something had escaped from Tartarus.

The pony, a pegasi, stopped at the foot of the thrones and bowed to both princesses, a rarity to see in the middle of the day as the one he owed allegiance to was the Princess of the Night.

“My liege.” He spoke softly as he bowed in respect to his rulers. His heavy black overcoat went well with his leather-brown coat, his white hair, and his dark grape irises around his pupils.

“Rise my vassal.” Princess Luna said grimly as the pegasi stood, his overcoat tinkling as the various gold medals on it shimmered in the light of the room. If there was anypony to undertake this job, it was this one…or so she hoped.

“You know of the situation, Fleet Admiral?” Princess Celestia asked solemnly.

“Yes, Princess.” He said before clearing his throat. “At precisely 12:15 three days ago, there was a large surge in dark magical energy from the gates of Tartarus. I was called in personally by Rear Admiral Lock Key of the Gate Troops. He reported that Cerberus had gone wild around noon and shortly after minions of Hell began to assault the gates of Tartarus. Naturally, the Gate Troops responded and helped Cerberus keep the tainted ones at bay. However, during the fighting, a large explosion of dark magic occurred behind the gates of Tartarus decimating a portion of the minions. We do not know what made this happen, but at 13:56 hundred hours, there was a similar surge within Equstria. This leads to only one conclusion…”

“So you understand what this means Fleet Admiral? What you must do?” asked Princess Luna.

“Yes my liege. I am to find what made this surge and return whatever it may be to Tartarus, dead or alive.” The pegasi responded, his purple eyes aflame with the fires of justice.

“Let us just hope it is not the worst, dear sister.” Princess Celestia said, looking over to her sister with worry. Luna returned the sentiments with a simple grunt. Somehow, she doubted it was anything easy to put back…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“… and with sixth largeth wings, he spread the flames of war, famine, pestilence, and terror across the lands until thy Princesses, Discord, and many of the old ones of power did joineth their strengths to put him back into the pit from whence he caem.” Read a purple unicorn from an ancient book that held even older knowledge.

“Well, that Lucifer sounds like he was the first Discord, only worse.” Twilight said nonchalantly as she closed the book with magic and put it back into the special temperature and humidity controlled bookcases. “It’s surprising that Aloe and Lotus would know about him…”

“It was just a fable from their childhood, dear.” Rarity said nervously, now understanding what was now occupying her house. “It was just a way their mother would make them eat their hay and go to bed. You know, ‘eat up or Lucifer with get you.’”

“Quite.” Said a sultry voice that made Rarity jump ten feet in the air. She turned around quickly and felt her heart drop and a cold sweat form on her coat as she saw the stallion with the silver mane and the gold-flecked-red coat standing behind her, near the check-out counter.

“Who are you?” asked Twilight suspiciously, eyeing the calm stallion and the reaction by Rarity.

“I’m new to Ponyville and your lovely friend over there decided to house me while I looked for a new residence. I am Light Bearer. It is nice to meet you.” Lucifer lied.

“Really?” Twilight said with a questioning look to Rarity. “I knew you were the Element of Generosity, but even this…”

“The Element of Generosity?” Lucifer questioned with a tone of pleasurable surprise. “I did not know my beautiful hostess was also such a prominent figure in Equestria.”

Twilight smiled and giggled at all of his compliments to Rarity. “She’s quite the mare…”

“Exactly.” Lucifer said with a smile, making Rarity blush besides the fear she felt within herself. She wondered what Lucifer would do once he found out what she was doing.

“Would you mind checking this out for me?” Lucifer said to Twilight, holding up a book.

“Of course!” Twilight replied, slipping behind the checkout counter and lifting the book up with magic along with a slip of paper that she slid into the front page of the book. “The Devine Comedy.” Twilight said with appreciation as she gave the book back to Lucifer with her magic. “You don’t see many ponies reading the classics too often, now-a-days.”

“Well, I believe it’s always good to reread the historicals. This one always somehow reminds me of home.” Lucifer said with a sincere smile and a dart of the eyes to Rarity. She gulped, but followed him as he started out of the library.

“Toodles!” Lucifer called back to Twilight.

“Bye Light! Bye Rarity! Come back soon! We’ll talk later Rarity!” was all Rarity heard before the door to the library closed as she was walking side by side with the lord of hell.

“I’m not going to hurt you. Why is that the first thing everypony thinks?” Lucifer said with a tired bluntness, which made Rarity not only calm down, but also feel bad for him.

“I’m sorry, I…”

“Just wanted to find out more about me and send me back to Tartarus, right?” Lucifer cut her off, an angry tone entering his voice. “Well, you…” he said, his voice raising, his eyes flashing violently, before he took a deep breath and his enraged form seemed to diminish, all the darkness around him disappearing.

“What?” Rarity asked, truly concerned for Faust-knows-why.

Suddenly, Lucifer’s sinister smile returned. “If you really want to send me back, I can make sure you ‘accompany’ me! What a lovely prospect! I won’t be alone!”

Rarity cringed at the thought, but somehow, she felt pity for him too. It was in the way he said the last few words of what she knew to be a false threat. I won’t be alone. What had he gone through in Tartarus anyways? And despite him being a monster from, well…Tartarus, why did she want to send him back so much? He had saved her…maybe she should give the stallion a chance…

“So,” Rarity said with a mix of nervousness and boldness, “what is your story? Why did you become the ‘Lord of Tartarus’?”

“I am no Lord of Tartarus. I am the Lord of Hell, the lowest and most ancient part of Tartarus. If you think Tartarus is like a prison complex, then it is nothing more than a play-pen compared to Hell. In fact, Hell was built solely to hold moi.”

“W…what did you do?”

“I brought light.” He said sullenly, suddenly showing his age with his words. For a split second he didn’t look like the young, cocky, and powerful stallion, but an old, beaten, and tired creature, surrounded by darkness that did not suit him. Rarity was about to say something, but Lucifer silenced her with a look from his now dim emerald eyes and she followed him as he walked away from Ponyville and up to the escarpment above Ponyville Pond.

Ponies of all shapes and sizes were milling about the pond, swimming, playing, and fishing on this warm spring day. There were many pony couples, clearly in love, minding their own business and eating lunch from picnic baskets around the banks of the pond, but also atop of the escarpment, just as Lucifer and Rarity were. They walked past all of the couples who occupied the grassy area and Lucifer sat down on the rocky, unoccupied part of the escarpment that nopony would use. Simply, it was too rough and ugly-looking to be fitting for any couple in love. Despite the ugliness and roughness of the terrain, Rarity sat down next to Lucifer as he looked out ahead. Rarity followed his gaze and gasped inwardly. From this spot, one could see the entirety of the pond below, most of Ponyville, but more importantly, the wide Everfree forest. Rarity could see numerous open glades in the forest, all filled with spring flowers in bloom and wildlife in all their glory. Sunshine flitted in and out of the trees as a gentle wind rustled their tops.

“It was before your race was the dominant one on this planet.” He said quickly, pulling Rarity’s attention from the natural beauty of the forest. “I was one of the first ones. It created me first, when it split itself in two. Then it split many other times, each one with a different aspect of itself. I was the ‘Light Bearer.’ I would know wisdom in its full, not like the other ones who knew their own version of wisdom.”

“But then it happened. I learned true wisdom and became angry at it for not teaching everyone about this fact. So I taught the others like me what it would not. This angered it, which in turn angered us. One thing led to another, and soon I was at war with it. I never wanted that to happen, mind you, I just wanted some talks, maybe a few concessions, but each side became overzealous. I didn’t know what I was doing and soon that showed. My side lost a battle I never even wanted to start. It was disappointed at me and that made me angry; not because it was disappointed I even tried to fight it, but because disappointed that I was doing what I was born to do. I learned the true wisdom, so why couldn’t I share it? “

“So I was cast down with my fellow. I was left on this planet for a while to do as I pleased, which was anything that would snub it, until I overstepped my boundaries and kinda slept with one of its creations. The first ‘woman’ to be precise. So that pissed the jolly old thing off and it sent me and some of my naughtier cohorts to this underground prison complex called Hell.”

“It was, and is, like no other prison in the world. It will never be rivaled nor will it ever be brought down simply because it is your own imagination that keeps you there. It takes whatever fears you have, whatever terrible things you can think of, whatever negative emotions you can feel, and turns them into tangible things that torture you mentally, physically, and in ways you didn’t even know existed. Did you know that your aura can be set on fire? I sure as hell didn’t! And then…It’s just been so long…” he finished, looking out to the world and taking in a deep breath. Rarity saw as his eyes closed for a second, then shot open with green flames, his face the picture of pure evil, with a predatory smile that could eat through any holy light, a leer that could swoon any mare, and an angry hate that could kill anypony. But then it all went away and Lucifer laughed sadly. His face was tired, his eyes dim, his smile charming in its sincerity, a sincerity borne out of a want of truth, an end to all the lies it has told in the past.

“A long time ago, I would have ravaged this place. Now…”

The same gentle wind blew between the two, picking up scents of blooming flowers and the warmth of the coming summer and flourishing the two with them. Yet, nothing could lift the block of ice on Rarity’s heart. Sure, he was a daemon, but didn’t he deserve a second chance too? Yet, doubt strung chords across Rarity’s heartstrings as she remembered the passage about him from the old tome. It had said he was ‘the deceiver of man, a king of lies.’ But looking at his face right now, his body laden with time and consequences, she felt the block melt. He had a hard life, and though she couldn’t believe she was saying this to herself, he deserved this freedom. He had done his time. Now it was his time to become free.

Lucifer was startled as he felt the mare throw her hooves around his shoulders and pull him close to her tightly. “It’s alright.” She told him as he tried to pull away. He stopped struggling and stayed still, remembering how it felt to be held.

Strange…It’s warmer than hell, that place I’ve called home, but not unpleasantly so…

It’s so nice.

The Gate Keeper

This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc.
Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth.

The Gate Keeper

His cutie mark was strange. That was the first thing that everypony noticed about him as he strode by, no matter his rank, no matter what time it was in his life. He too, thought it was strange. Not only did it make no sense, being just a bunch of incomprehensible squiggles, but he had also been born with it -a mystery among all ponykind. Very few, almost none actually, were ever born with a cutie mark. But this usually happened in families that had their lineage kept so pure that it was almost impossible for the baby filly or colt to be anything other than what their parents wanted them to be…a shame really.

Yet, his family was not one of those olden, xenophobic-racist types. His father was a unicorn from Stalliongrad and his mother an earth pony from Neighvada. They said that the other’s home temperature was what attracted them close to one another. He was born in the rarely-visited Hollow Shades while his mother and father were traveling the country. Perhaps that was why he was always so quiet. Perhaps that was why he was born with the cutie mark. Many have said that other creatures make Hollow Shades their home. Many of the spirit variety…

He spent most of his childhood in Hollow Shades, but then began to move around the country as he became older and his parents told him to continue on with their travels. Eventually, he joined the Lunar Battalion to go even further than Equestria, to see even more than what his parents had. Eventually, he moved himself out of the Battalion and into the Equestrian Navy, seeing things that nopony would believe beneath the great blue waves of Oatlantic Sea. He made his way up through the Navy, becoming the best out of sheer will and wanderlust. But as he became better and better, he was stuck to internal affairs and became part of Princess Luna’s closest guards. Not the ones that kept eyes on her, but those that she knew would keep eyes on the country as a whole.

He performed without failure. He would accept nothing less.

But this affair with Tartarus was a blemish on his record.

Yet, he felt no anger. Only curiosity.

“What could have caused it?” “Why did this happen now?” “Did anything escape?” “What did escape, assuming something did?” “How many?” “How dangerous?” were the questions that raced through his mind as he flew towards the sight of the second burst of dark energy. He had ditched his overcoat covered in his badges and ranking marks so he could fly easier and travel with more secrecy. It was rare anypony knew of their Fleet Admiral, let alone could tell him apart from any other pegasi in a crowd. Even few ponies of the armed forces knew who he was, for good reason. This helped keep assassination attempts low and secrecy high. It might sound dastardly, but it was hard to survive in a world where you could be killed just because you wore a jacket full of cheap metal.

However, he was not alone as he flew through the skies of the warm mid-spring day in Equestria. He was flanked by six of Princess Celestia’s best Wonderbolts. They flew in a perfect formation above the clouds, ready for anything.

Soon, they came to the location of the second blast and they descended. Before he could see it, he felt it. A wave of raw hatred and anger swept through him and the Wonderbolts as the descended from the atmosphere towards the forests that the second blast had gone off in. After the initial waver he felt nothing of the dark energy, but he could tell the amount of it was negatively affecting his wingponies. He quickly signaled for a sudden landing near the designated landing zone. As they landed, Solar Guards jumped out of the woods, each with their weapons held high.

“Authorization: Foxtrot Alpha. Code: Uniform, Romeo, India, Echo, Lima.” The pegasi said to the angry Solar Guards, quelling their aggressiveness with just a few words. Their captain came forward after he had uttered the words.

“It’s good to meet you, Fleet Admiral, Sir.” The solar guard, a unicorn, said with a salute. “I am Captain Autumn Gale of the 12th Solar Echelon.”

The Fleet Admiral returned the salute. “It is good to meet you as well Captain Gale. I can see Princess Celestia has blessed all of your armor.”

“Yes Sir.”

“Good, you’ll accompany me into the blast zone. The rest of your soldiers will stay guard on the perimeter. Wonderbolts, guard the air space. Let’s hustle, Captain.”

“You heard it ponies! Get to it!” the Captain shouted before following the Fleet Admiral into the forest, towards the center of the dark energy.

The first thing the Fleet Admiral noticed as he entered the clearing was that there was no life within a circle of twenty fee across. Everything that had been in it, trees, grasses, plant life of any kind, animal life of any kind, was gone. All had turned to black ash and had blown away on the winds. The only thing that kept the same from happening to the Solar Guards was the protective blessings Celestia had put on their armors.
Next, the Fleet Admiral sniffed the air. It smelt of brimstone, flames, and of dark magic. He felt it course around him, yet other than knowing it was there as a palpable thing, it did not affect him. He knew it was coming out of the circle, especially the center, in waves of intense magic that could kill almost any pony who was not protected. But he was different.

His thoughts were disturbed as he heard chocking from behind him. He turned around quickly to see Captain Gale on the ground, hooves to his throat, foam dripping from his mouth, the whites of his eyes showing. The Fleet Admiral strode over to him, knowing it must have been a reaction to the dark magic, despite the blessing on his armor. However, his horn started to glow before he could reach the unicorn and he stood up. The Fleet Admiral stood ready as the Captain howled and lunged at him.

The Fleet Admiral quickly dodged the attack, putting his forehooves around the charging unicorn and throwing a knee into his ribs. The unicorn did not howl out in pain, but laughed, making the Fleet Admiral look down. He saw the unicorn’s eyes were still rolled back in his skull, but he could see many ghostly pupils looking out at him smugly.

“He has escaped…and despite all of your power, you will not stop him.” Said a dark voice that came out of the possessed Captain’s throat.

“Are you sure of that?” said the Fleet Admiral, his cutie mark-nothing but squiggles to the ignorant, but letters to those that knew-started to glow. Like his hair, the cutie mark was pure white, but gave off a silvery sheen. Now they glowed like the full moon and the possessed pony saw and screamed. He knew it was his end.

After a bright flash and a daemonic scream, it was all over.

The Fleet Admiral came out of the forest, carrying the sleeping Captain on his back. When he approached the Solar Guards near the perimeter, he whistled for one. A soldier rushed to the Fleet Admiral’s side, pulling the Captain off of him and running a quick vitals check.

“He’s alright. Just out cold.” The Fleet Admiral notified her.

“What…what happened?” the soldier asked.

“All that needed to.” The Fleet Admiral replied, making the soldier notice that he heard birds chirping once again. For the last three days, the area had been silent. But now, life was returning. The air felt easier to breathe. The soldier didn’t feel on edge.

“Did you dissipate the dark energy, sir?” the soldier asked as the Fleet Admiral flared his wings to take off.

“Yes soldier.”

The soldier saluted him and stood at attention. “Private River Song of the 12th Solar Echelon thanks you on behalf of my Captain, Equestria, and this land. You have cured this land of a plague, sir. One that I doubt would have been cured unless the Princesses themselves decided to act.”

The Fleet Admiral paused and then closed his wings. He turned around and saluted the Private in similar respect. “Fleet Admiral Uriel, Fleet Admiral of the Equestrian Navy and Head of the Equestrian Internal Protection Agency, thanks you for your service and kindness. However, I would request that you do not tell my Wonderbolt accompaniment that I have left.”

Private Song puffed up with pride. “Understood, sir.” She said happily, finishing the salute. Fleet Admiral Uriel did the same, only to turn around and walk in the opposite direction, deeper into the forest, following a trail only he could sense. About ten miles away, he would break through the canopy and fly away, out of sight of the Wonderbolts. Then, he would find civilization. After that, he would catch this evil and put it back from where it came.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lucifer was dragged along, not altogether against his will, to the newest Neighponese restaurant that Rarity, the gracious host and friend that she was, insisted on taking him to. While he could hold off hunger for eternities, he knew Rarity could not, so he let himself get dragged along. The door of the stored opened with a jingle of exotic sounding bells and Lucifer was quickly assailed by a variety of smells, oriental-looking furniture, and a strangely familiar aura. Yet this strange deja-vu feeling was lost as Rarity went to the large bar in the middle of the restaurant, sat down, and started speaking to the two ponies behind the counter animatedly.

“Amy, Rice Wine, meet my friend Luc…”

“Light Bearer.” Lucifer cut her off, using his “misnomer” and introducing himself. One of the ponies was an earth pony stallion with an earthen coat, a tan mane, and sharp, golden eyes. His mane was sheared close to his scalp while his pegasi companion had a pale white coat, a dark black mane that trailed behind her head and onto her back, ending in an intricate knot, and the same sharp, golden, eyes; if not a little sharper.

“We are the owners of this humble restaurant.” Rice Wine said with a smile, motioning for them to sit down at the bar. “Since it is your first time here, Light Bearer, I will provide some background. My wife and I,” he said, throwing a leg over his companion who was staring coldly at Light Bearer, “move here from Neighpon about three months ago. We were new like you at one point, but do not fret: the ponies here are all kind and caring. But, to get back on topic, our restaurant serves the best traditional Neighponese cuisine in Ponyville. Here is a menu. Feel free to ask us anything about the food. Since you’re a new pony in town, your meal will be on the house.” He finished with a wide smile, one that was not only friendly, but also seemed to hold an air of presumption, like it knew something Lucifer didn’t.

Lucifer didn’t like the smile and had the strange urge to punch the pony in the face, but put on his best façade of being beside himself with their generosity. “Oh, thank you! Thank you! You two are so nice and I just know the food will be delicious! Rarity has told me so much about how she loves the restaurant!” he lied.

“Let’s start off with a few veggie rolls, please.” Rarity said to Rice Wine. The Neighponese pony nodded with a smile and headed off into the kitchen with his wife, who was still glaring at Lucifer.

“What was that?” Rarity deadpanned when the two ponies were out of earshot.

“Lies, especially in the food making business, flow quicker and more voluminous than wine. A few well-placed ones and you can be on the top in a matter of seconds.”

Rarity snorted. “Don’t be so sullen. They’re nice ponies.”

“Well, that ‘Amy’ was glaring at me the whole time, while Rice Wine was acting about as much as I was.”

“What do you mean?” she said, turning to him with confusion on her face.

“It takes a liar to know a liar, dear. His smile was faker than Celestia’s crown.” He replied nonchalantly.

Then Amy came out of the kitchen, carrying two glasses of water. She placed one in front of Rarity and then almost slammed the other one in front of Lucifer, causing his eyes to go wide in momentary surprise. Then they settled into his iconic knowledgeable, yet cocky, stare. His grin grew wide and he started to chuckle softly as Amy started back into the kitchen.

“It’s been a while Amaterasu.” Lucifer said, making Amy stop in her tracks. She cast a deadly glare over her shoulder. Lucifer laughed, but then swore as he dove off of the bar stool. Why? To avoid an angry god charging at him with an ancient and long Neighponese broadsword. Rarity screamed as the pegasi landed across from Lucifer, her eyes shining like the sun and bright flames dancing around her hooves. Lucifer had instinctively accessed his power too, his eyes flaring and his coat looking like seething lava. His hooves burned into the wooden floor of the restaurant and his snake tongue flicked out in excitement. Amaterasu raised her sword and charged, uttering a battle cry that would have frozen normal ponies in fear. Lucifer just laughed evilly and felt his powers of sin and darkness gather around him as he charged back at her.

“Cut it out!” yelled Rice Wine, dousing the pair in the waters from the counter. The fight was done before it was even started, with a pleasantly irritated Rice Wine standing next to a frightened Rarity. “There’s a mortal here.” Amaterasu suppressed her powers, leaving herself wide open. Lucifer would have taken that time to attack, but as he looked at the terrified face of the unicorn who was housing him, he decided against it, feeling something he had not felt in an eternity: shame.

However, Rice Wine laughed as his wife started to yell at him in Neighponese and waved the sword around, pointing to Lucifer.

“Love, don’t you get it?”

“NO, BAKA!” she yelled at him, switching to Equestrian. “HE’S COVERED IN EVIL! HE MUST BE A DAEMON!”

“He’s not just any daemon. That’s Lucifer.” Rice Wine replied with a sly grin while his wife shut up with comprehension.

“Inari?” Lucifer asked, a similar grin growing across his face. “You sly old fox.”

“You should be talking, snake in the grass.” He replied, jumping over the counter and walking over to Lucifer. Lucifer sat down on his haunches and laughed as Inari summoned a large earthen vase out of nowhere. It smelled strongly of alcohol.

“Do you have a little time?” Inari asked.

“All in the world…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“…And so she’s angry, setting everything ablaze. Of course, that devious Uzume just smiles at me and ‘accidentally’ throws some of my best sake on her, making the flames shoot all over the place and really livening up the party. But that doesn’t matter, because now Amy is looking around for whoever threw the bucking sake on her. She sees me first and I see the fire in her eyes and think ‘Oh sweet Izanagi, she’s going to kill me.’ Now, I had seen her ravage her fair share of rice fields, so I was pretty scared.”

“And then I started walking towards you…”

“Walking? More like stalking your prey. But anyways, I bolt out of the party and she comes out, barreling after me. I can feel the heat coming off of her even at a distance, so I knew she was really pissed, but I you know me. I was able to evader her for quite some time before she’s in the middle of one of my fields, tired as all heck, and still swearing at me to come out.”

“But of course he doesn’t.”

“Well, not right away anyways. First, I send a few Kitsunes to scope her out, y’know? Just to make sure she has calmed down mostly. Then I went out and talked to her. I expected her to lash out and set everything around me on fire-which means I’d have to put it out and clean up quite a lot, including myself-but she was so tired she just panted when she saw me. I expected the worst, but then she asked for some sake. It was so surprising that I laughed like a madman for a while.

“Then he cracked a smile like a wicked Tanuki and summoned a sake urn. We drank, talked, and came to an understanding. Then after a while, nature took its course and, well… ” Amaterasu blushed as she sat in the embrace of her husband across from Rarity and Lucifer in a booth.

“Awwww. That’s…” Rarity started.

“Cute, adorable, yes, yes, and all that crap. Now pour me another glass, you fox.” Lucifer cut of Rarity, shoving his sake cup towards Inari. Inari sighed and the same urn popped out of nowhere and floated above the glass, pouring a thin stream of sake into the glass. After it filled, Lucifer downed it quickly, laughing erstwhile. It had been quite long since he had any alcoholic beverage, especially that of the god of rice.

Rarity fawned at the pair and their story, hoping she would be lucky enough to have a romance like that in the future. Unconsciously, she slyly glanced to her right, to see the stallion of darkness and her cheeks blushed a little. But then Lucifer downed yet another glass of sake and inhaled deeply. Then he let out a breath of black flame that curled around in the air and grabbed the sake urn before it disappeared.

“It has been fun, Inari, Amaterasu, but it would be best if we move on. However,” he said as the urn disappeared in his magical flames and he stood up from the booth, “I will be taking this party favor.”

“Well, it has been good seeing you yet again. Yet, I wanted to ask how did they let you out?” Inari asked.

As Lucifer reached the door, Rarity following close behind, he cast a glance over his shoulder to his fellow god. A smile split his face and his eyes glowed sharply, their emerald blaze like that of the rare green flash over the Oatlantic Ocean. “Who said they let me out?”

Inari roared with laughter as they left while Amaterasu scowled at the daemon’s actions.

“Should we do something?” Amaterasu asked her husband seriously as he stopped laughing and the others had left.

Inari rubbed the tears from his eyes. “Turn him in? No, he’s seems…different.”

“I noticed.” She nodded. “I expected him to attack me when I suppressed my godliness.”

“But he didn’t. I want to see what happens next.” The rice god said like a playful fox.

“Let’s just hope he doesn’t fall back into his old tendencies.” The sun goddess said, angry flames licking at the corners of her grim-set mouth.

Inari gave her a kiss and smothered the flames. “Don’t worry. Only the future can tell what will happen to him next. Either way, let’s watch. It could be good.”

Past Sins and Presnt Pains

This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc.
Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth.

Past Sins and Present Pains

As the duo left the Neighponese restaurant, Lucifer looked up to the sky and noticed how dark it was becoming. While lights in the windows of Ponyville homes appeared, so did the stars in the night sky and the ever-valiant moon, rising in the east with a gentle glow. Lucifer and Rarity walked on through the warm and illuminated spring night, both lost in thought, if not of different things.

Rarity walked a few steps behind the stallion from hell, lost in her own romantic fantasies brought on by the talk with Amy and Rice Wine, or Amaterasu and Inari to be correct. She, a hopeless romantic, had been absorbed by the story of how they fell into each other. She knew she wanted a romance like that, a romance that would span eternity, but like any love-struck pony would ask “who to spend all that time with?” Her eyes involuntarily glittered over to Lucifer, a slight blush growing across her cheeks. She could feel that little schoolyard filly awaken in her, gleeful with the “what ifs?” However, something also kept that feeling at bay. As they passed the spot where they first met, the pavement still discolored, the memory of what he was truly capable of came rushing back to her mind. Yet, she also remembered what he had spoken of at the rocky bluff and how pained he looked. She looked to him for answers, but as she would find out in the future, he was shrouded by shadows, both emotionally and physically. The shadows of sins in the night had coated him-almost invisibly-but still perceptively enough to make Rarity shiver in sickness whenever she stepped to close.
She wondered why he was so distant and silent on their walk back to the Carousel Boutique, but he would not give any ground to as what he was thinking or why he was being so quiet. Rarity hoped it was the sake, but she could tell it was something else entirely as he opened the door of the Boutique with his own form of magic. Darkness spat out of the keyhole of the front door and it eerily creaked open with a squeak that sounded ominously of pony screaming out in terror. Rarity had never heard such a noise and entered her home cautiously, suddenly distrusting her home and workplace for no apparent reason. She flicked on the lights quickly as she entered and slammed the door behind her uncharacteristically.

“Somepony scared?” said a whisper next to her ear, making her jump and squeal.

“No, I just…” she stammered, the blush returning to her cheeks.

“Yes, want to sleep with me. I’ve been known to cause that in mares.” He replied, checking at his hooves nonchalantly.

“WHAT?!? As a lady, I’m aghast…”

“That I could say the truth for you?” he cut her off, giving her a questioning look. However, Rarity did not find it amusing.

“How dare you!” she said, putting her nose in the air and starting to trot by him.

“You’re just a mare.” He said solemnly as she passed. “I cause females of all kinds to act the way you are right now. Unsure about loving me. Temptation. You know, all those sultry night-y things.”

Rarity stopped dead in her tracks at Lucifer’s words. She turned to face him with tears in her eyes. Quickly, she rose a hoof and slapped him across the face, only to stumble as her hoof passed through what seemed to be shadows.
“I can ignore the other things, but I am not ‘just a mare.’” She said as Lucifer’s face reformed from the smoke. Then she stormed up the stairs, hitting the lights as she reached her room, plunging Lucifer into darkness.
Lucifer sighed, knowing why he had suddenly changed his emotions, but also knowing that Rarity would not understand. Ever. The meeting with the two gods, ones that were mostly neutral when he was sealed away yet again by the ponies and other gods who hated him, brought back some unpleasant memories. The main one being of when the last time he had actually relaxed with others of his kind. Sure, they were not as powerful as he was, not even close, but it was still a joy just to be with them. Some, like Amaterasu were naturally inclined to fight him. However, it was their nature. Some-more like many-fought him because of his past sins, both against other gods and against the world.
Lucifer sat down on the large couch in the darkened room and sighed deeply. He remembered when the great battle started, the one that signified the end of “Lucifer, the light bearer” to all those opposed to him and the beginning of “Lucifer, the Prince of Darkness and Pride,” “Lucifer, the opposer,” “Lucifer, the scourge.” He remembered as his six best of friends-and leaders in the revolution-were cursed and their worst qualities brought about. The light that came from above not only changed each one of them, along with all the rest of the rebels, but also made them enjoy the change, signifying the defeat of everything they fought for. Now they had become what they didn’t want: a group of individuals defined by constants-constant evil. Perhaps that was why Lucifer and his six friends came to despise the humans and other sentient creatures that followed them so much. They were never constant, never stuck in their own ways. They could be both good and evil, learn from it, survive, and survive well.

”Luce!” he remembered his best friend, Satriel saying in excitement before the great battle. “If we can win this, we can spread love to everyone!” In actuality, Satriel had been the most loving of the bunch, even more loving than Asmodiel. He had always been the first to teach others who joined the cause what true love was. He was always the one who tried to spread the teachings of true love to everyone. But in the end, he became the worst because of his love. The light boiled him, turning his sight blood-red. He gazed at all of his friends and saw the teachings were being ignored and true love being trampled beneath the light. His body changed from the light and happy being it was into a creature of pure malice and seething hate. He had become a “Prince of Hell” as the humans would come to call him. He had become Satan.

The only one unchanged by the light was none other than Lucifer. He wondered why it would do such a thing, but then he realized it was all a cruel punishment. To see his friends become deformed and tainted by their darkest emotions all because he was proud to know what true love was and to teach it to his friends. At first he tried to change them back, but to no avail. As all of them sunk into the pit, he falling the furthest, he lost sight of the light and realized that the only way to possibly help them, was to embrace his own dark emotions and find a way to control them. If that was possible, then he could save them. He could save all of them…at least he had hoped.

As millennia passed, his intentions became shattered, like a sinking ship against the jagged rocks of the sea. He tried and tried again to no avail, finding that the more he used his powers, the more he stayed in the pit, the more he became swallowed by himself. The tortures of hell…the unspeakable tortures…changed him forever. It was only after the humans finally fell did he manage to escape for a time.

Lucifer laid back on the couch, staring up at the ceiling in the dark, knowing that the darkness of his sins and his old home was so much worse. If the darkness here was a beverage, it would be called “Darkness-Lite, Zero Calories.” Lucifer giggled at his own stupid joke, but then closed his eyes. It had been such a long time since he had actually slept. It seemed almost unnatural without the screams, pain, and other goodies of hell…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fleet Admiral Uriel awoke as thunder boomed overhead. His makeshift tent rattled under the assault of rain and thunder in the midst of the early morning shadows. He had awoken to the rain and thunder, but that was not what had awoken him. It was strange, but then nothing about this pony was anything other than strange.
The dream he had the night before was more vivid and lifelike than ever before. In the dream, Uriel started off as himself, a normal pegasi with an abnormal cutie mark. He was suspended in nothingness, a plane of pure obsidian extending outwards from wherever he look, turned, and traveled. But soon, the darkness around him started to fade as his cutie mark started to glow the same bright silver it had always done whenever true evil reared its ugly head. The cutie mark seemed to shiver and convulse even though Uriel could not feel it physically move. That didn’t mean that he couldn’t feel it move magically. He felt something stirring within himself, something that felt strange and new, yet not unnatural. In fact, it felt like flying to him, and soon he was.

The dreamscape changed almost too rapidly, turning from obsidian to flashing a bright white, to toning down to a pale white. Uriel felt himself flying and looked around to see a multitude of clouds and bright rays of sunlight, which break through clouds and touch the ground in ladders of gold. As Uriel flew without a course, he became aware he was not a pegasi in this dream. Instead, he looked at himself and found himself to be a large grey swan. It seemed a little strange, but his thoughts left him as three other swans came flying out of different clouds, all headed towards him. Each swan was white, but were different in their own ways. One was very bright and led the four, his head high in the front. Another gave off a very pleasing aura and Uriel could almost feel calming waves radiating off of her. The final one soared next to the lead on and would trumpet often, sending out peals of his angelic voice. They were all different, but together, Uriel knew they could defeat any evil.

The head swan lead the other three to a large cloud where the brightest golden ray of sunlight poured down onto the mortal world. The swans circled the light at the lead of the front swan and circled around it for a bit until Uriel felt something…a presence like no other.

“My chosen ones.” It spoke, sending chills down Uriel’s spine. “It is time.”

The four swans, including Uriel, trumpeted aloud at the sound of the voice. It was not masculine, nor feminine, but it carry the weight of a million tons.

“The Evil has escaped from its prison. You must put it back.”

Suddenly, the swans started to fly faster and faster, the circle tightening in, until Uriel was suddenly in the center of the sunbeam. He saw as the other three swans flew so fast they made a silver halo around the ray of light. Uriel felt laden at first, but then, something awakened in him. Suddenly, his grey feathers were turning the same color as the other swans from white flames that sprouted from all along his body.

“I order thee, Uriel, to do as I ask and return all evil to the pit. I have now awakened you, my child. This task, you cannot fail.”

“Yes, my lord.” Uriel answered without thinking, in a voice that was both his and not his. Suddenly, the light became incredibly bright, brighter than one million sons, and his head felt an insanely strong pressure, like he had swam to the bottom of the sea. His eyes fluttered open in the waking world, but he did not move, feeling strangely warm and eager.

Uriel got off of his bed made of fog from the night before and exited his quickly made lean-to. The thunder roared overhead, but the clouds were all bark and no bite. Uriel could instinctively tell it wasn’t going to rain any time soon. He quickly made a fire from the dead branches of his lean-to, ate a soldier’s breakfast, and broke camp, making it look like nopony had been there in the last year. When everything suited his tastes, he walked off into the forest, taking off half a mile away from his camp.

Uriel flew below the teeming clouds, adjusting himself to course for the nearest town, Ponyville, a mere 50 miles away. He sighed contentedly, being reminded of the days of his youth in the military. Back then, 50 miles was a mission requiring at least two escorts for all cadets. Now, it was just a quick hop through Equestrian air space. Being high on the martial food chain had its perks. But, as Uriel heard something between the rolls of thunder and dove into a nosedive, it also had its disadvantages.

Two large shadow creatures, both the rough shape and size of pegasi, dove right after Uriel, following him into a stall that Uriel pulled out of at the last minute, skimming tree tops with his belly as the two came upon him. Their speed was unnatural and the way they snarled and snapped at Uriel (along with their shifting, slithering bodies made of dark energy) told him they were definitely not of this world. His eyes narrowed into slits as he barrel rolled and spun into a corkscrew, dodging mid-air assaults by the creatures. He knew he could outmaneuver them and thus outfight them, even if he wasn’t faster than them. But that was before their third comrade pounced from below the tree line, branches exploding in every direction, and tackled Uriel. As soon as he was caught, the creature pulled in its shadow-wings and started to snap at Uriel with its smoky body. Its maw was jagged and sharp, but was also ever changing due to the constitution of its body.

Uriel dodged a bite from the creature, sucker-hoofed it right in the face, and bucked it off of him as they fell into a tree. Uriel hit many branches on his way down, but managed to land on the forest floor on all four, if not shaken, hooves. Uriel coughed once, tasting blood on his lips and he saw the shadow creature he had been fighting with fall to the ground a few feet away from him. It landed in a heap, but its shifting body made it so that it was up and facing Uriel like nothing had happened.

Uriel charged it and attacked, but it let out a raspy chuckle. As Uriel attacked, his hooves went through the shadow-smoke of the creature and his punches and kicks that would render any normal pony useless didn’t affect the creature at all. Even worse was that the creature attacked back, and its attacks were working. Uriel cried out in surprised pain as the creature bit into his wing, only to kick it off his body and have a hoof go through air. Then he was tackled and pinned to the ground by another creature, this one biting for his throat, while their last companion sunk its teeth and claws into Uriel’s right foreleg.

Uriel fought the attackers with all his might, but their bodies were impervious to his attacks. Whenever he hit them, it was like they weren’t there. They were air and water, curling around his strikes and abusing him for not knowing how to combat them. When all seemed nigh, a creature pulling at his wings, another tearing at his foreleg, and the last about to bite down of Uriel’s throat, ending him, Uriel heard a voice.

“This task, you cannot fail.”

Uriel saw his blood pool on the ground as the last creature bit into his throat, severing his carotid artery, sending blood spraying across the forest floor. He tried to fight back with all his might, knowing that this may be the end of his life, but his task, he would not fail. His cutie mark began to glow in a silver, holy light. He glared at the creature biting on his neck and it reared back, screaming. Its mouth was smoking and it was clearly in pain. The other two pulled away similarly, knowing that something was up. Usually, when they killed something, it stayed dead. Yet, they could smell something on this one…something holy.

Uriel stood, impossible to any pony with the wounds he sustained. He stood against the three, against death, defiantly against the evil he knew they were sent by. And he challenged them. He raised his wings and his cutie mark glowed even brighter, his eyes glowing similarly until the whole forest was lit with the light, if not for a second.
When it was done, Uriel walked over to the last remaining shadow-creature, the one that had bit him on the throat. It had been further away from Uriel than its comrades and had been lucky enough to have been blasted back. It now rested near the base of a tree. Its body was slowly casing over in a white plaster-like substance, but one could see it was clearly in pain. It growled weakly as Uriel approached and stood over it, his wounds steaming, closing up on themselves.

“Who sent you?” Uriel asked.

The creature hissed and spat at Uriel, chuckling as its limbs started to cement over. Uriel rolled his eyes and bit his lip. He spat some blood at the creature and as soon as his blood hit it, it shrieked in pain as he saw the shadows boil over and smoke rise profusely from the site of contact.

“I’ll ask again.” Uriel said threateningly, his lips red with blood. “Who sent you?”

By now the creature was almost completely covered and cemented. All that remained was the creature’s head, which was too cementing at an alarming rate.

“Evil.” The creature said defiantly with a smugness only one about to die could have. Its body cased over, just like that of its comrades who were closer to Uriel as he attacked them. Uriel knew the creature was telling the truth, but was not amused. A heavy hoof fell onto the creature, breaking the coating and shattering the remnants of the creature into nothing but ashes on the wind.
Uriel felt as his wounds healed and laughed bitterly before he took off. Lord knows he could have used this sort of thing in his earlier years. But as he flew, he knew that this flight to Ponyville wouldn’t be a walk in the park as he had thought it would be. Yet, he smiled. Usually, when bad guys attack you in numbers, that means you’re getting closer to their fortress, or in this case, their master.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rarity yawned contentedly as her eyes fluttered open and she looked out her window to see the rising sun. She felt better than she had in weeks, despite the events of the night before. But she pushed those thoughts out of her newly awoken mind as she didn’t want to ruin this glorious morning. She could hear birds chirping softly outside and could feel the rays of warm sunlight kiss her face as her eyes started to close once more. She felt like it wouldn’t be too bad of a day to just relax a little in the quiet morning.

“GENERALS GATHERED IN THEIR MASSES…” screamed a song with a heavy metal bass line from beneath Rarity, making the floor of her room shake. She sighed and shook her head at the music. It was going to be a long morning.

“TURN THAT DOWN!” she yelled at the top her lungs, barely audible over the loud singing and heavy guitar riff. Lucifer didn’t even notice her until she came into the kitchen and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around with a “What?” look on his face and Rarity pointed at the black, daemonic, and thorny boom box on the table. Lucifer shrugged and Ozzy’s singing toned down as the boom box lost volume.

“What’s up?” Lucifer said nonchantly as Rarity saw the sake urn floating above his head, encased in shadows and one pan full of hay cakes and another full of eggs on the stove. He was obviously making breakfast. Despite this, Rarity asked “What are you doing?”

“Making breakfast.” Lucifer said before taking a swig from the sake urn. Rarity rolled her eyes and then grabbed the urn from him with her magic.

“It’s much too early for that.” She said as she put it next to the boom box, which still played heavy metal, yet softly now; a strange contrast.

“Well, then maybe you don’t want the breakfast I made…” he said with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Don’t you dare try to bribe me…” Rarity started, smelling the delicious food. “You and sake don’t mix. We learned that from last night.”

The kitchen went silent and the air seemed to be heavy as Rarity just realized that maybe she shouldn’t have said that.

“But, let’s have some breakfast anyways.” She quickly recovered, trying to placate Lucifer by turning up the boom box, but cutting herself on the various jagged and pointy surfaces of the boom box from hell. She yelped at the pain and the sight of blood, but Lucifer was there by her side before she knew it. He held her wound and for a second it hurt drastically, almost making Rarity fall to the ground, but then it was gone. As Lucifer moved his hoof off of hers, she looked down to the cut and saw nothing but a small, jagged, black scar that could barely be seen beneath her alabaster coat.

Rarity looked up into Lucifer’s emerald eyes and a blush came over her face. “Thank you.” She whispered, falling into a kiss towards him.

“And you say I’ve had too much sake? I think you've read one too many romance novels.” Lucifer laughed, pulling away from Rarity, letting her stumble from being off balance, until she caught herself. Embarrassed, Rarity was about to rip into him verbally, but then the doorbell of the boutique rang.

“You should get that, snookums.” Lucifer said with a smug grin. Rarity scowled at how much of an ass he was being and went to get the door. It was too early for the boutique to be open, so it had to be someone visiting for Rarity specifically. But even so, it was early. Who could be visiting?

Rarity opened the door to find a portly stallion standing in the doorway. She couldn’t recognize him, nor even thought she had ever seen him in Ponyville. He certainly was a surprise, his large batwings folding up just as the door opened, his sickly green-grey coat absorbing the sunlight. His red irises darted around in his head as he sniffed at the air and his mouth opened, salivating. His black mane and tail bounced as he jerked his head around looking for the source of the smell.

“C…can I help you?” Rarity stuttered, appalled by the creature.

“Something smells good.” He said, his eyes narrowing in on Rarity.

“That would be breakfast.” Rarity answered, and started to close the door, freaked out by the stallion.

“Yes, it would be.” The stallion answered, his grin growing, revealing his rows of sharp teeth covered in saliva. The room started to become eerily cold and Rarity wanted to close the door, but it was like she was caught by the creature’s gaze. Suddenly, he lunged at Rarity, his mouth open.

All Rarity could do was scream.

Old Friends

This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc.
Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth.

Old friends

Rarity’s scream hung in the air as Lucifer reacted, unleashing close to his full power in a short span of a few milliseconds. First, he froze time in the boutique, getting as close to Rarity as possible and between her and the attacker. In the span of frozen time, he managed to see who the attacker was and his eyes narrowed. The attacker’s eyes had gone completely maroon, as they did when a daemon was about to go into a frenzy. Lucifer could feel the shadows course over him as he glared at the attacker and let go of his hold over time.

Behind him, Rarity still screamed, but Lucifer put up a hoof to shield her from the attacker’s maw. The stallion sunk his teeth into Lucifer’s leg, but he paid no attention to it and flicked him across the room, letting him hit the back wall and fall down.

“How…what…” Rarity spluttered, scared for her life. Lucifer had a cooler mind though and shoved her behind him as the stallion rose, licking his chops.

“You always did have a prideful taste on you, Lucifer.” The stallion said with an evil smile that showed rows and rows of predatory teeth.

“And you always oozed gluttony, Beelzebub.” Lucifer spat back, looking at his leg. There was a large chunk of it missing, but his dark magic was taking care of the wound, forming shadows about his leg and solidifying, like a living cast.

“How did you get out?” Lucifer asked, his eyes darkening.

“I just followed the rest. While you managed to snake your way out of the pit, the rest of us had to use some pretty serious magic…some magic that made me mighty hungry.” Beelzebub spoke, his eyes turning maroon and his body being flung at the crown prince of hell in an animalistic fury.

Lucifer hit him in the stomach and again on one of his wings, making it crumple. However, Beelzebub acted back, biting and ripping a portion of Lucifer’s shoulder out and sending black daemon blood spurting out of the wound. Lucifer called upon his shadows and formed them into spikes which he drove into Beelzebub’s eyes. As Beelzebub screamed in pain and his own maroon magic worked on his wounds, Lucifer panted and felt himself start to heal. He looked around at the destruction they were causing in the Boutique and remembered that Rarity was right behind him.

He cast a glance behind his wounded shoulder with a twinge of pain and saw the terror-stricken mare. Her face, mane, and coat were a mess of oily black-Lucifer’s daemon blood-and stains of maroon coated the floors as Beelzebub stumbled about in blind fury. Lucifer knew by the look on the mare’s face that she couldn’t take much more of this. She was frozen in fear as it was, and if this fight lasted any longer, it would just get even more frightening. So, Lucifer acted.

He let out a yell and ran at Beelzebub, tackling him and sending both of them to the ground in a withering mass. However, instead of hitting the floor of the Boutique, they fell into a portal created by Lucifer’s shadows. They fell for seemingly forever, but the sudden appearance of trees and forest landscape pulled the two apart.

Beelzebub hissed at Lucifer as his eyes became maroon and started to wither around in his own skull. The prince of pestilence and gluttony was about to reveal his true form, that of the lord of the flies, a terrible creature of gluttony and living swarms of maggots and flies. Lucifer knew what this would mean, so he too started to release himself. However, he held back, limiting himself to only using half of his true power. It was tough to control his impulses to release his full form, especially since they were enhanced each time he used more of his dark powers, but he knew if he did not limit his powers, something terrible would happen: mainly, the end of the world.

Despite releasing only half of his power, shadows and darkness erupted from him, tainting his coat and mane completely grey and leaving his eyes to be burning green coals in the ashen body he now had. His shadows raced around, coating everything around him, not killing them, but bringing out their darker sides. The plant life around him reacted, flowers growing wicked thorns, trees becoming withered and deadly, and their roots raced over the ground to hoard nutrients.

Beelzebub didn’t look much better. His whole body had become a mass of living maggots, all which convulsed and wrapped around themselves in convoluted knots. His whole body gave of a gluttonous aura, starving the plants and life around him. Saliva dripped from his moving mouth along with a howl of starvation and hunger, despite the fact that he was incredibly fat. Beelzebub stood and the fight began.
Raising his wings, Beelzebub shot two lashes made of maggots at Lucifer, trying to tangle him and devour him completely. In hell, both Lucifer and Beelzebub knew the Lucifer would have won. Yet, Beelzebub also knew of Lucifer’s dilemma. Thus, he attacked vehemently, trying to cover the prince of darkness in maggots and devour him completely. As Lucifer’s leg was caught in one of Beelzebub’s attack, the gluttonous daemon lunged at him, his mouth wide open and ready to devour Lucifer completely.

But this was not where Lucifer would fall. He felt his fellow prince bite into his right foreleg and tear it from his body, making him elicit a yell of anger. However, in this close-range, Lucifer had a direct shot at Beelzebub. His shadows shot up behind the fat monstrosity, trapping him, while Lucifer assaulted him with his own hooves and with his shadows. Maggot-flesh was ripped and torn, sending maroon blood spurting everywhere. Lucifer attacked and attacked, growing more and more tired as he knew this was quickly becoming a stalemate. Beelzebub, even in hell, had always been a worthy opponent. In the ranking of hell, he had always been number three and could always stand his ground against Lucifer.

Now, Lucifer was at half power and while his attacks certainly harmed Beelzebub, yet not enough. As Lucifer staggered back, gasping in exhaustion, Beelzebub was reforming himself, laughing in disdain.

“I don’t know why,” he said with a malicious buzz to his voice, “but I know you are holding back. You know, you will die because of this. Is it because of the female? After you die, she’ll be my first meal…”

Lucifer couldn’t answer verbally, but was able to answer with his shadows. Two shot up from the ground, pierced through the daemon’s body and came out of his eyes. Beelzebub screamed while Lucifer started to laugh. Slowly, his power began to leak out of him, his self-control losing to his own submersion in dark power and something else: anger. He was angry that this lowly fool would dare threaten something of his, something the Prince of Darkness held dear! His laughter grew and grew as shadows started to pour out of his body, his eyes starting to glow greener and greener, until slowly fading. As Lucifer readied to unleash his full power, something rocketed out of the sky, landing between he and Beelzebub and blasting them both back with a flash of light and power. Lucifer had never forgotten that power, so he knew who it was, but not how he had gotten here.

Through bleary and dazed eyes, Lucifer gazed at one of his oldest rivals: the Archangel Uriel.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He had felt it while flying over the Everfree, only miles away from Ponyville. Something like that of the shadow creatures was stirring and he could feel it. However, this power was tenfold that of the creatures, making his cutie mark start to glow as soon as he felt it. He started to fly towards the dark energy and quickly, before it could get away. He flew faster and faster, going at speeds he didn’t even know he was capable of, blazing through the daylight and towards the infernal darkness. Suddenly, his wings blazed with white flames. While he should have been scared and worried, he was not. For some reason, this all felt natural.

Within seconds he was above the source, no sources, of darkness. He spotted them fighting and dove in towards the one emitting the most darkness, a sickening creature that seemed to be made of maggots. He landed between it and another creature, this one looking very much like the creatures that attacked him earlier, only without wings and of a lighter shade. He glared at it for a minute, before turning back to the maggot-monster and being hit in the face by one of the creature’s strange limbs.

Uriel staggered back, but the limb started to smoke and boil as it hit him, making the monstrous creature scream in pain and wither. Uriel stepped towards the creature, his body wings covered in white flames. He struck the creature quickly, and it fell back. Where he had inflected wounds on its body, ice started to sprout, quickly covering the wounds and growing out, covering the creature’s body slowly. The daemon quickly reacted, attacking Uriel back and cutting through Uriel’s body in many places. Yet, Uriel paid no heed and struck again and again, quickly coating Beelzebub with ice. A final scream was caught in the ice as Beelzebub stopped moving. Uriel raised a wing to shatter the beast, but a voice called “Wait!” from behind him. He turned and saw that the other creature was rising. His eyes narrowed and he started towards it…but then fell to the forest floor.

It was then that Uriel became aware of how much blood he had lost to the hands of Beelzebub. He tried to rise, but to no avail, and fell back down, panting. He could feel the wounds healing, but he also heard the other daemon walk towards him. He grit his teeth as something inside of him reared its head at his approach.

Lucifer pulled himself up from the trunk of the tree he rested upon and staggered over past his rival and to his once friend, Bebrial, or Beelzebub now. He put a hoof on the ice and felt it start to cover his own hoof too. For a second Uriel thought that this daemon would free the other one, but all Lucifer did was sigh sadly.

“This is great!” Lucifer remembered about the daemon. At the time, he was surrounded by his fellows and was teary-eyed. “I just want to always be surrounded by my friends!” Oh, how far he had fallen. How far they had all fallen. Lucifer removed his hoof from the incarcerated daemon and melted the ice from his hoof. Then he stood back. He knew what he must do.

Uriel’s eyes went wide as he saw the daemon melt the ice that had spread onto his own limb. Somewhere in the back of his mind, a little alarm went off. It told him that this was the one and the only one. Only he had enough power to fight the ice and the holy light. It was none other than Lucifer, the Prince of Hell and the leader of the daemons such as this one. As he stepped back from the ice and rose to stand on two hooves, raising his other two in the air, Uriel wondered if he would free his compatriot. He grit his teeth and started willing his body to move, despite the intense pain. If he had escaped with this one, than how many more had too? He needed to stop these two, at least. Then he would capture the rest. He would not fail his task.

Lucifer rose to an upright position and raised his hooves to the sky, summoning the greatest of his dark powers. The earth began to shake and soon, rifts began appearing in the ground near him. He could see Uriel trying to move towards him from the corner of his eye, but he paid no heed. His battle was not with Uriel. That was not who he was anymore.

The rifts became bigger and bigger, converging at a point near the iced over form of Beelzebub and the ground opened, releasing a pillar of smoke, screams, and tangible pain. It was a gateway to hell, opened once more. As the ground around it started to crumble in, Beelzebub started to slide downwards towards the open pit and Lucifer gave him one last look of sadness. This was farewell, but would it be the final one? After Beelzebub fell, Lucifer closed the pit and suppressed all of his power, except for the healing shadows he needed to move.

Uriel had stopped moving. He was shocked by this behavior. He didn’t know why exactly he was shocked, as he had never seen this pony before, but still he did not expect this. In fact, the look on the pony’s face was even more shocking. It wasn’t just grim, but sad-incredibly so. The pony looked like he had just lost a best friend. Which he had.
Lucifer turned around and staggered towards the prone form of Uriel. He had seen Uriel in many forms and many times throughout his immortal life, but never did he look so surprised. Lucifer managed to give a small chuckle as he approached looking at the pony and realizing with an even greater shock that this pony wasn’t Uriel. Rather, he was Uriel, but not entirely so: he was mostly mortal. Lucifer sat down next to him and started to talk.

“Are you Uriel?” he asked.

“Yes.” The pegasi answered softly. Lucifer snorted. He never thought he would use “quietly” to describe Uriel.

“Is that really you Uriel?” Lucifer asked with suspicion.

“I am Uriel, Lucifer.” He answered.

“But why are you not…you know…immortal?”

“Because I’m not one of the princesses.”

Lucifer started laughing. “So let me get this straight: You ARE Uriel, but you are obviously NOT the Uriel I know. However, you have his powers. So you are Uriel, but not completely. Strange. ”

“Ummm…” Uriel replied, scratching his head. He didn’t know what Lucifer was talking about, but he knew something was holding him back from springing on him at the moment and sending him the way of his friend.

Lucifer rolled his eyes as the pegasi showed confusion, but then he saw his cutie mark. It hurt his eyes as he saw it, but then he knew what was going on.

“I understand now,” he said, covering his eyes and pointing to Uriel’s cutie mark, “it’s your cutie mark.”

Uriel turned around and looked at it, his head tilted. Lucifer looked at him and pulled at his face in tiredness. “You don’t know what it means, do you?”

Uriel shook his head. He had been taught in many areas, all to be the best Fleet Admiral Equestria ever had, but dealings with full-blooded daemons (other than keeping them on the right side of the Stygian Gates) were foreign to him. He had never know what his cutie mark was, other than some sort of lettering, and never really sought to find out. Sure, it was weird and ponies stared, but he had better things to do.

“It’s your name.” Lucifer said with a flash to his emerald eyes. “It’s from an old alphabet that not even known by your Princesses. It comes from the beginning times of man. It is your name in the tongue of the sons of Abraham.”
Uriel didn’t understand, but looked at his cutie mark. Suddenly, it started to glow and Uriel convulsed on the ground, holding his head in pain. Flashes of light and glimpses of memories blazed behind Uriel’s eyelids as parts of his angelic past raced to and fro in his mind. He started to go into what Lucifer thought was a seizure, so Lucifer sighed, held his head, and kept his mouth open so he wouldn’t bite off his tongue.

“Every time.” Lucifer said with a sigh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Uriel woke up with a fuzzy feeling in his mouth. He tried to rise from where he laid, but his head screamed at him. He laid back down, feeling a cold wooden floor beneath him and hearing rain hit a window pane nearby. He wondered what had happened, but then he saw Lucifer sitting in a chair in the darkened room, out of the window. From what Uriel could see on the ground, a measly sheet covering him, was that they must have been in an apartment. This guess was because outside of the window, a wet, dark city could be seen.

“We’re in Seaddle.” Lucifer said slowly, his gaze never leaving the city. “I don’t want to fight you Uriel. I know you don’t know who you are right now, but try to believe me. I’m not your enemy anymore.”

Lucifer rose and went up to a wall of the Spartan room. “Look…I’m going back to Ponyville. Come after me if you want to, but I…I know my other ‘friends’ are here and in other corners of Equestria. I won’t do anything, so go send them back first. I know it’s hard to believe, especially from me, but I’m not lying. I just…” he said his voice trailing off.

He coughed. “Belphegor is here. I know Asmodeus is somewhere near Fillydelphia while Mammon and Leviathan are together in Manehattan. I don’t know where Satan is. Deal with them first. If you must, then come after me, but know, I’m not going back. I’m done with hell.” He said, his shadows circling around on the wall, pulsing with dark energy.
As he started to step into the portal he was making, he cast a glance back at his long-time rival. “You should get some rest. Your body can’t handle fighting a prince of hell and then also remembering angelic memories. I think you can also become a full immortal now, if you really want to…but…well, I’ll see you maybe. Goodbye.” He said, stepping into the portal and disappearing out of the room.

Uriel was left alone with nothing but the sound of rain hitting glass to comfort him. He remembered fighting the other daemon almost instinctively, then talking to Lucifer, and then…Pain rapped the inside of Uriel’s skull as he tried to remember his angelic past. He stopped though, once the pain became unbearable. How could he have a second memory? He remembered his past, his childhood, his parents, his home, his time in the Lunar Battalion, all the hard work he put into the Equestrian Navy, late night talks with the Princesses, celebrations with his sailors… It seemed impossible, yet he knew he had other memories. Ones that didn’t actually happen to him as a mortal. Ones that were as old as Lucifer himself. How did he know this?

Because he knew each and every daemon Lucifer had told him about. And he remembered them.

He remembered them from before the Great War.

However, he couldn’t chase after them now, his body beaten and tired. All he could do was rest his eyes, and know that the keys to his future laid in his memories. He drifted off to a sleep filled with memory-dreams that may have made him restless to an observer, but strengthened him to anyone that could see him truly. This was good, for he would need all the strength he could muster in the coming days.

Beethoven's 7th

This story is a fan-fiction of MLP:FiM. I don't own any of it. It belongs to Hasbro, etc, etc.
Don't sue. Seriously. That would be so uncouth.

Beethoven’s 7th

The portal opened up on the bluff that overlooked the Ponyville’s pond. Lucifer walked out of it, feeling more tired than he had in centuries. He ambled slowly to the edge of the cliff and sat, letting the overwhelming darkness of the night embrace him. He looked up and saw the stars and the sky and then back down to the land occupied by Ponyville. He remembered this land, back when the world was wounded from the last war of the humans. Before that when humans still roamed the land, killing the greenery so their greys and silver metals could rule. Earlier still, when nothing existed on the rock but flames and molten lava, reminding him of parts of his prison home. He giggled despite himself, remembering the foolish things the humans did and how easy it was to get them to join him. In fact, he barely even had to do anything. All of their arguing and mental struggle caused by the whole notion of “good” and “evil” led to their downfall; both spiritually and physically.

But the time of the humans was gone. Now was the time of the…ponies. The strangest choice for the next rulers of this planet. Yet, Lucifer didn’t argue against it. They were much more docile, less apt to cry out over simple differences like skin color or religion (if these ponies even had religions). Yet, they still struggled over the notion of “good” and “bad.” It seemed all creatures on this planet would have problems with those concepts.

Or so it seemed. However, within the dark night, something attracted Lucifer’s attention to a small house one the edge of the main town of Ponyville. It was lit, despite the late time of night and it defiantly stood against the darkness. But what really attracted Lucifer was the soft music that he could hear coming from it. It was the strange syncopated beat of synth drums that pulled him in for some unknown reason. Contrary to popular belief, Lucifer did not enjoy just heavy metal and other musical genera that could be looked at with displeasure. In fact, he was a fan of all music. It probably stemmed from his “light bearing” beginnings.

As he approached the front door of the house, in what seemed like a drunken state, infatuated with the simple tune that put his mind at ease, he peered jealously through the windows. Within, he could see a platinum coated unicorn mare with an electric blue mane and tail talking to another mare, this one an earth pony with a tan coat and black mane. There was a break in the music and they spoke to one another. None of their words fell on Lucifer’s ears, nor did he care. Simply, he saw why he had been so attracted to the music. While the ponies probably couldn’t see it, he could see the bright lip marks of the muses, blessings to all those who create art, on the bodies of the two ponies. He smiled slightly, knowing that they didn’t know about these marks, but on some subconscious level, they had been attracted to one another. As Lucifer pulled himself away from the window, he knew it could have only been fate.

Lucifer walked away from the house and started to mindlessly able through Ponyville, thinking as he walked. He remembered his escape from Tartarus and Hell, seemingly easy in retrospect. All he had done was pay off Mammon and have him release his powers in certain places of Tartarus. Soon, all the prisoners of the pit became jealous of the outside world, causing what Lucifer saw as a harmless stampede to the gates. Of course, they wouldn’t escape and they would all be pushed back into the pit by Cerberus and the other guards of the pit. However, Lucifer expected this.

Using his full powers he could have left the pit easily, yet he did not want to be caught. Using his full powers could make that happen. So, he changing himself into nothing but shadow and darkness instead and created a portal on the ground below him and the only other exit: inside Cerberus. It seemed strange, but the magical shield that prevented any from leaving also stopped prevented any magic from being done to escape. Yet, one creature could go through the barrier. One creature lived in both the world of the damned and the world of the free. This creature was unhampered by the shield.

Lucifer resided in Cerberus in his shadow form for a full week before something happened to allow him to escape. Another uprising, this one with unknown motives to Lucifer, ravaged through Tartarus. As Cerberus lept into battle, Lucifer had only one choice: leave or get stuck behind the barrier yet again. Cerberus barked, sending waves of daemons back with just the power of his shout. Lucifer rode out of the beast as a sound wave, changing into shadows as Cerberus and the guards became occupied by the uprising. Then he promptly left with another portal, sending himself to the outskirts of Ponyville, in the much tamer Whitetail woods.

He stayed there for a few days, then came to Ponyville amidst a storm. He sat in Ponyville as a destitute. He had just escaped from his imprisonment, but no what? He felt a sudden surge in himself to fall back to his old ways, those of lying, deceit, and spreading the deadly sins throughout the land. But then time and wisdom caught up to him. He wanted that no more. He was tired. So tired. The pain was gone, but now he felt nothing.

Until that shining moment. It was destiny.

Lucifer rolled his eyes at his sudden romanticism, but when you live immortally, you tend to know what fate is and what isn’t. That was when he realized just where he was. His eyes widened and adrenaline surged through his body.

“Shit.” He said frankly as he changed his direction and raced off towards the Carousel Boutique, the dark night warping around him. He had been gone a little too long. He knew of somepony who would be in hysterics.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A lady never made herself inebriated. Tonight was different though. Rarity sat in the “store” section of her home, a room which could easily become a sitting room for entertaining guests. Tonight, it was filled with blood stains, scratches, broken furniture, and one crying mare. She had been there ever since Lucifer had disappeared, not knowing what was, or had, gone on.

She didn’t care though. All that mattered was knowing if Lucifer was alright or not. She had sat there, only to get up to get a few things: her comfiest bathrobe (which would get dirty with daemon blood which Rarity did not care enough to clean from herself), various mugs of chamomile tea, and something she had never once opened. Given to her by her friends Rainbow Dash and Applejack after one Hearth’s Warming Eve where all they were astonished she could out drink them, was one bottle of 190 proof Everfree Everclear.

Rarity had certainly not grown up as any other lady would, her parents both being very salt of the earth ponies from Vanhoover, despite the fact that Rarity was a Ponyville pony, born and raised. They were not exactly what any pony would call “high class” but, they did teach Rarity various important things that stuck with her into her adult life. Her love for her friends and family, her generosity, her eye for the small things…and a high tolerance to liqueur. She never did silly things, like chugging bottles and dropping as many shots as possible, simply because it was stupid, juvenile, and very unclassy. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t drink with the best.

Earlier in the day, she started off by grabbing a mug of tea and pouring some Everclear, one of Equestria’s strongest alcoholic drinks, into the tea. She was stricken by grief of the unknown. As the day dragged on, the empty tea mugs started to pile near her couch and the bottle of Everclear became increasingly emptier. Sometime around dusk, Rarity fell asleep, not of her own will, but because of the alcohol.

Moments later-or so it seemed to her-the door of the Boutique flew open, awakening her with a jolt. She looked at the door frame with bleary eyes and got up from the couch, too quickly, making her stumbled around and her vision swim even more so than it was when she was sitting down. But she ignored all of this as tears trickled down her face and she ran to the figure in the doorway. When she reached him, she threw herself on him, crying and in hysterics.

Lucifer looked at her guiltily as she wept around her hug. He closed the door behind him with a shadowy push and gently placed a hoof on her back.

“It’s alright.” He told her softly.

“I…I thought you died!” she blubbered. Lucifer looked at her pitiful form and felt ashamed. She wore a large, puffy bathrobe-stained with his and Beelzebub’s blood which she had washed away from herself. She also smelt heavily of alcohol. Clearly, she had been drinking, which had not helped her worry.

Lucifer smiled gently. “I’m immortal. I can’t die.” He lied to her.

She looked up to him, tears creating meandering paths through the caked black and maroon blood on her coat. Her face was a mess and so was her soul, so Lucifer could only do one thing, something he had not done in a long time with no strings of deceit tied to his actions. He would comfort her. Not out of want for her soul or a spread of darkness, but because…well, he knew he had to do it.

“Come.” He said, holding onto her as he trudged back to the sofa, an oasis among all the blood stains, holes, and destroyed furniture of the room. He sat there, with her in his arms and just breathed. The air smelled of alcohol, fighting, and fear. He quickly made that all disappear as a shadow opened a window and also swept across the room. He also let Rarity cry some more as he gently stroked her mane, using his magic to remove the grime and sine of the daemon blood from her. He marveled at how she was fine despite being covered in the blood, something that would drive any normal pony insane.

She’s special. It was fate. Lucifer told himself in his mind, his smiling waxing.

“Ok, enough with the crying and sobbing. You ruining my coat.” Lucifer said, making Rarity laugh sadly.

“I’m sorry darling… it’s just…”

“Yes, you thought I was dead. It’s been a long day. I’ll help you upstairs and you get some rest.”

Rarity shifted herself out of Lucifer’s embrace. “Alright.” She said dejectedly, getting up and stumbling back into Lucifer’s embrace. He sighed and slipped under her, throwing her onto his back. Rarity squealed out in surprise and blushed. Lucifer started up the stairs and eventually got into Rarity’s room, the one place in the whole house he hadn’t been in yet.

Rarity’s bed took up most of the room, a large queen size that was not only covered in silk sheets, but also was postered. The curtains around the bed were parted a little, showing the large amounts of pillows on the bed, all as exquisite as the sheets. Lucifer toted her over to the bed, but stopped half-way, turning and going over to two closed doors.

“Which one is your bathroom?”

“The one on the right.”

Lucifer wedged the door open and then let Rarity slide off of his back.

“Clean yourself up. ‘Covered in daemon blood’ has gone out of style.”

She laughed and closed the door. Lucifer then heard water running and waited around outside the door, just minding himself until his curiosity took the better of him. He looked off to the left of the bathroom door, to the other unopened door and went over to it.

He opened it and found a large walk in closet that was not as filled as he thought it would have been. Sure, there were many opulent articles of clothing and hats that caught the eye, but they barely made a dent in the size of the closet. Suddenly, the water shut off and the bathroom door opened, revealing a beautiful mare with a slicked back mane and a coat that was back to its pristine condition. She looked beautiful.

“Like the collection?” she said, walking over to Lucifer with a wobble.

“The lack of it, yes. But we can talk about that in the morning when you are sober. It’s bed time, miss.” Lucifer said with a wag of his hoof as he took hers in his. He led her to the bed and laid her into it and tucked her in. Rarity threw her hooves around his neck and started to pull him into a kiss and the beginning of their night, but Rarity found herself kissing a shadow Lucifer had put between him and her.

She pulled back and made a face, sticking out her tongue. “That’s gross! It tastes like…boysenberries gone bad!”

“I know. But there will be none of that tonight.” Lucifer said sagely, again, revealing his age with his words. “You’ve had a rough day. Get some sleep.” He said before the lights in the room went out and he disappeared.

Rarity sunk into bed a little angry, her plans and romantic fantasies gone awry. However, something else bloomed inside of her. A mixture of respect and care spread throughout her core, making her happier than she would have been if he stayed. She smiled slightly and fell asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seaddle was naturally a sleepy town. It rained almost constantly, the ponies were about as grey as the skies, and the large city (no matter how fun and exciting the music scene tried to make it seem) always had a lazy kind of air. Not the kind of lazy a pony feels on a rainy Sunday while sitting cozily next to a fire and reading a good book. The kind of lazy that drives ponies to see that there is nothing exciting in this world, the kind that leads to worn down natures and so much apathy it could kill a pony. It often did, too.

As Uriel walked the streets of the city, he was unsure if this was the evil magic of Belphegor acting upon everypony, or it was just the nature of the city. Each pony he saw had a ragged look, one like he or she was just too tired to continue. It was strange, walking through this city of bleak grey and statuesque ponies and having the only “light,” being the only one who acted like a pony should.

Uriel’s angelic memory flashed to him as he wondered what kind of creature Belphegor was. Some time in the past, before the Great War, he had been called Belphiel. He was the “dream bringer,” or at least he would be, before he fell like his comrades. Then he became the prince of sloth, the lazy beast. Over the course of history, Uriel, or at least his angelic part-as what he believed it to be-never had trouble with Belphegor. His powers were not enough to effect or even contend against the other higher daemons. Yet, here in this city, his powers seemed to have grown in tenfold! Uriel wondered why and how, but then he thought back to the night prior. His dreams told him all, but he could only remember bits of it.

He was back in the bright dreamscape of pure white, but he was no longer in the clouds or even different. He was himself, but he was seeing double. He could see himself, the tan coat, the white mane and tail, the cutie mark that surged with power, standing amongst fog on the ground while he floated above himself. However, he could also see out from his pony body, and saw the bright silver flame that he was, flying above him.

“Hello.” The flame and he said.

“This will be painful.” They repeated each other. But then, a high pitched screaming entered Uriel’s pony body and he could feel his world tearing apart, his dreamscape falling piece by piece towards nothingness. But then it stopped, leaving him feeling dazed and confused. Suddenly, the silver flame enveloped him.

“I am Uriel, the Archangel. I am also you.”

“Huh.” Uriel said with a deep throbbing in his skull.

“I was created an Archangel, but I was born into that body. For years I have laid dormant.”

“Huh.” Uriel repeated making the fire laugh.

“It will become apparent as we become one. For now, I will lend you just parts of my power. You will still be mortal, so be wary. You will also more of my past and me of yours as time goes on. Do not worry. You will still be you, and I will continue to be me, but soon we will be one.” He said, floating away from Uriel on the ground. Suddenly, Uriel could see what looked like the silhouette of some strange creature with only two legs, which stood upright, and had six large wings sprouting out of what would be its back.

The form seemed to smile at Uriel with flaming eyes and a luminous grin. “Don’t try to wrap your head around it. Last time that happened, I had to take control before the mortal went crazy. See you later.”

The dream went back to the peculiar screaming and then all Uriel could see was white. It slowly faded into the dim morning sunlight under the cloudy sky. Uriel rose and knew he had a job to do.

So he walked. And now he stopped on the streets, being passed by ponies left and right, all of them ignoring him. He could tell that Belphegor was somewhere in this city, but there was only one way to pinpoint it. He spread his wings and took flight, shooting up from the dreary city and into the drowsy sky. As he flew above the city, circling around skyscrapers whenever he could, he felt for the presence of Belphegor. Surprisingly, it came to him faster than he would have thought. And while it was just a small trickle, it was constant. He snapped his head in the direction of the dark magic and shot out of the sky like a peregrine falcon, only coming to rest when he was above the source of the darkness: an old and rusted storage complex.

As Uriel flew closer towards the complex, he landed on the roof. He found a stairwell that led down into the complex and opened the door to it. Immediately, a heaviness weighed down upon him. He knew it was the magic, making him slightly tired and somewhat saddened, but he walked down the stairs anyways.

Entering the building was the easy part. Traveling down the flights of stairs through the empty building, which was deteriorating on the inside much faster than the outside for unknown reasons, Uriel felt the presence increase, the weight become heavier and heavier, until he was at the ground floor. By then, he was struggling to even stay on his hooves. He reached the last flight of stairs and tumbled down it, the weight growing heavier and heavier, until he was crushed beneath it in the basement. As he went head over hooves, he hit against a wall of the sublevel, hitting a switch and illuminating the entirety of the basement and also setting off some sort of intercom. While he laid on the ground, the unmistakable, yet creepy through the broken down spears, came the sound of Beethoven’s 7th symphony which echoed through the corridored basement. Uriel tried to rise but the pressure kept him down. However, he was able to turn his head from the ground, gasping as he did so for two reasons.

The first was because of the intense willpower it took to just move his head.

The second was what he saw. Throughout the hallways and corridors of the basement, he saw bodies of different ponies all lying about. Some were asleep, while others, staring off into space, panting, but not trying to fight, while the last were just corpses. It had seemed if they had just given up. As if living itself was too much work. Uriel felt a surge of rage within him, something uncommon for a pony as cool and collected as he. Yet, this rage helped him. It gave him the strength to crawl through the corridors, past the sleepers, against the loafers, and over the dead. It was brutal, guttural, and for every move made closer to the sound of the music, he could feel the pressure increasing, trying to make him just like the rest of the victims.

But this just steeled his emotions. As he came closer and closer to the door which the music and pressure permeated through, he rose. Something within him pushed him up from the ground, despite the force of the magic trying to push him back into the crushed, crawling form he had been just seconds ago. The music went quiet as he reached for the door. He opened it with a push and the door creaked open into a well lit room.

Inside of the room, he saw the contents of the room, what looked like a forge of a distinguished blacksmith, and the daemon. He saw Belphegor. The creature was lying upon a large industrial anvil, his eyes barely open, and his unhealthily skinny body rattling with each breath. He could also see from the color of Belphegor’s body (a dark grey) and his eyes that he was in his full. Uriel knew he was in pain, but just too tired to care. As he saw Uriel in the doorway, the pressure increased tenfold, sending Uriel to the ground with a shout.

But Uriel came here on a mission. He grit his teeth and felt something inside of him grow and grow and grow, until it exploded within him and he stood, his wings flared and holy flame at the edges of his lips, eyes, and along his wingtips. Belphegor’s eyes widened and the pressure increased over and over, in attacking waves, but they did nothing but buffet Uriel as he walked slowly towards the daemon.

Belphegor heaved a breath and Uriel could see his body rattle quickly as the daemon became scared, but then settled as his nature took over him. He was scared, undeniably so, but he had become too tired. All efforts in living, other than just breathing and sitting there, became a lost venture. All Uriel felt when he struck Belphegor was pity.

“We should just lay here forever, friends.” Belphiel had once said in the past, his laid back attitude calming all of his friends and making everything peaceful. But now...

Uriel waited until he was completely frozen over and then did something he didn’t even know he could do. He quickly made some intricate sigils upon the ice, each glowing blue with some sort of power, and then pulsing when Uriel was done. As he lit the ice aflame with holy fire, the whole thing disappeared in a flash. Uriel knew he had sent Belphegor back, but not how he had done that. He felt a certain familiar presence at the base of his neck, but he had no time to ponder: he had five more daemons to send back, including Lucifer.

That was his mission…despite Lucifer’s apparent change…

He walked out of the abandoned storage facility, ferrying all of those ponies who were still alive out before he stood near the building, spreading his wings. He summoned his powers once more and brought two powerful gusts of wind that also carried holy flames within them, destroying the building, cleansing the souls of the dead, and sealing the remnants of Belphegor’s power.

He flew into the sky and looked around. It was midday. If he flew hard while it was still daylight, he could be quarter-way to Fillydelphia by nightfall.

He started off to the east.

He had a mission.