Demon Holocaust

CHAPTER 4: "SCATTERED"

It was later that afternoon when Twilight and her friends stood at the window of the library, still watching the dozens of royal guards patrol outside in the streets. They were the only ponies out there, as all of the others had taken shelter indoors in case the changelings decided to return again.

After awhile, Twilight turned away from the windows, looking troubled.

"I'm surprised Princess Celestia hasn't written me back yet. She told me in her last letter that she would."

"Now, don't you be gettin' all paranoid, sugarcube," Applejack told her. "The day's not over yet. I'm sure she'll write back soon. She must be busy, with all that's goin' on."

"I guess," Twilight replied uncertainly. "It isn't like her to keep me waiting though."

There was suddenly a loud knock on the door, and the three Cutie Mark Crusaders, who had been sitting on the library floor nervously talking to each other, all screamed in unison.

"Princess Twilight?" a muffled male voice called from behind the door.

"It's one of the guards," Twilight said.

Twilight's horn glowed, and the front door of the library swung open to reveal a royal guard with a grim look on his face. He bowed upon seeing Twilight.

"I am sorry to bother you, princess, but I think you may want to come have a look at this."

As Twilight and her friends stepped outside of the treehouse, the guard motioned with his hoof off in the distance, to the mountain where Canterlot was located. There, up on the distant mountain, was Canterlot. And around the giant castle, clearly visible though it was so far away, was a ring of black storm clouds, swirling around the castle roof.

Rainbow Dash frowned, looking at the strange clouds.

"Something's up. I've never seen a weather pattern like that. And I really doubt that the Cloudsdale pegasi would schedule something like that...

"Look at it..." Applejack said. "It's only above the castle."

Twilight stared at the cloud a moment longer, a feeling of horror building up inside of her at the sight.

"We need to get to Canterlot. Now. Something is terribly wrong."

"Do you know what's going on?" the royal guard asked uncertainly.

"No," Twilight answered him, "but I'm sure it's bad. Celestia and Luna are probably in trouble, which would explain why Celestia didn't write back to me earlier. We need to get to Canterlot."

"Do you need us to go along?" the guard asked.

"No. I need the guards in Ponyville in case the changelings return. The attack earlier may even be connected to all of this somehow."

"Princess, with all due respect, I highly suggest you at least take a few of us. You don't know what you'll find up there."

Twilight though about it.

"Six," she said at last. "We'll need you to fly us up to the castle, anyways."

The guard nodded.

"I'll prepare a carriage."

***

Falling Streak trotted through the blood-stained hallways of Canterlot Castle as he waited for his guests to arrive, constantly stepping over bodies and body parts that littered the floor. After awhile, he made his way up to a large balcony where the fighting had not reached, and stepped outside, staring at the sun in the sky, the realization that he had finally won, that he was in control, hit for the very first time. He began laughing as he stared into the sky, the most powerful pony who had ever lived, the power of two alicorn princesses and hundreds of other ponies running through him along with the thought that he could raise the sun and moon whenever he pleased.

"I'm glad you find this funny, but to be honest, I don't think this is any laughing matter," a voice suddenly spoke from behind Falling Streak.

Startled, Falling Streak turned around, only to see a bizarre creature staring at him. The creature's head was sort of pony-like. On top of his head was a deer antler on the right and a goat horn on the left. One long fang protruded out of his mouth. Both of his yellow eyes were slightly different sizes. He had the tongue of a snake, the beard of a goat, and white bushy eyebrows. His right arm was of a lion, and the left was the claw of an eagle. His right leg was a lizard's, and his left leg was a goat's. He also had two wings on his back, one of a bat and the other of a Pegasus. His tail was dragon-like, and his body was long and thin, resembling that of a snake.

"Who... Who the hell are you?" Falling Streak asked cautiously.

"Me?" the creature asked, pretending to be insulted. "How do you not know who I am? I'm Discord."

"Discord..."

Falling Streak searched his memory.

"I've heard stories about you."

"Well, at least you've heard of me," Discord said. "Now tell me, where can I find my good friends, Celestia and Luna?"

Falling Streak grinned.

"On the moon."

"Ah," said Discord. "You see, here's the problem with that. A nice pony named Fluttershy once did something to me... what was the word... Oh, yes, 'reformed' me, and I'm afraid for banishing two princesses, I'm going to have to take you back where you belong."

With a snap of Discord's claws, chains suddenly appeared on Falling Streak's legs and tightened, causing him to nearly fall over.

Falling Streak stared at Discord in surprise.

"I though you were a villain."

"Change of plans, you know," Discord said in a bored voice. "Now, where was I? Oh, yes-"

Falling Streak's horn glowed, and the chains on his legs flew off into the air and violently exploded, showering Discord with sharp shards of metal.

Discord stared in shock at Falling Streak, who now looked mad.

"Those chains should've stopped you from using magic," Discord stuttered. "How did you do that?"

"Do you know who I am!" Falling Streak shouted furiously. "I'm insulted that you thought your petty magic trick would work on me! I am the most powerful unicorn in existence! I possess the power of two of your alicorn princesses, plus I don't even know how many other ponies! How do you think I was strong enough to get the two princesses to the moon in the first place!"

"Hmmm..." Discord said. "Perhaps I should've thought this through."

Discord snapped his claws, intending to disappear, but Falling Streak's horn glowed and he didn't move.

"I don't think you're going anywhere," Falling Streak said calmly.

With a flash of light, Discord was suddenly hurled back into the wall next to the opening out on the balcony, and Falling Streak was rewarded with the sound of crunching bones.

As Discord stood up again, in obvious pain, Falling Streak levitated the bits of metal from the exploded chains into the air, and hurled them at Discord. Discord snapped in time to prevent most of the metal from hitting him, but he was weak, and some struck him in the face and body, drawing blood.

Falling Streak unleashed a stream of energy at Discord, blowing off the lion arm. Discord unleashed an unearthly scream of pain and slumped to the ground.

Standing over his fallen enemy, Falling Streak thought.

"You're really powerful. Almost as powerful as Celestia herself, I'd say. However, I'm now stronger than anypony, or any... thing. I think I'm going to steal your power, too. You can never be too powerful, am I right?"

Discord snapped his claws suddenly, and Falling Streak gasped in surprise as a pink cloud appeared above his head, and struck him right in the face with purple lightning. While the bolt didn't even do a bit of visible damage, it distracted him long enough for Discord to snap once again, turning part of balcony that Falling Streak was standing on into a trap door.

Despite the huge amount of pain Discord was in, he managed to grin.

"Oh dear, I guess you can't fly, can you?"

The trap door opened, and Falling Streak fell through the bottom of the high balcony and disappeared from sight. After a couple of seconds, Discord heard the dull thud as the unicorn hit the ground far below.

Discord stood back up, clutching the place where his lion arm had once been with his claws. He was in terrible pain, and blood had ran out of the charred stump, coating nearly an entire side of his body.

Stumbling back into the castle through the opening out to the balcony, Discord knew what he had to do. He had to escape, as he doubted that the strange unicorn he had dropped from the balcony was dead, and if what the unicorn said was true about putting Celestia and Luna on the moon, Equestria was in danger. He had to escape, he had to go warn Fluttershy, warn Twilight-

There was a flash of light from a behind Discord, and he turned around in time to see the unicorn he had dropped appear behind him. The unicorn was grinning.

"Now, Discord, you couldn't have possibly have thought it would be that easy."

"Oh, I didn't. But I'm rather disappointed you got back up here so quickly."

"Yes, I've been causing a lot of trouble lately. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to kill you now. But you have been a worthy opponent, I'll admit- and by that, I meant you actually put up a fight, unlike the two princesses."

Discord tried to snap his claws again, but a stream of energy knocked him to the ground before he could.

Falling Streak stood right over the helpless Discord, grinning in anticipation, and his horn glowed, and all of Discord's life energy and power began to flow into Falling Streak. It was only when Discord was on the very brink of death when Falling Streak stopped, gathered energy in his horn, and blew Discord's head off, spraying the floor behind the neck stump with brains, blood, and bits of bone. Discord's two yellow eyes both shot off in different directions, still attached to the nerves. Blood spurted out of the stump of neck where Discord's head once rested, and gradually slowed, flowing a good distance across the castle floor, carrying bits of brain as it did.

***

The carriage was flying off in the direction of Canterlot castle, carried by four Pegasi royal guards. It was almost at its destination. Inside the carriage were two more royal guards- unicorns- and Twilight and her friends. Twilight had made all of her friends put on their Elements of Harmony before leaving, just in case.

"What do you think we will find there?" Rarity asked anxiously. "Do you think it's Discord again?"

"If it is," Twilight said grimly, "he knows what's coming to him."

"I have a really bad feeling about this, guys," Pinkie spoke up.

Twilight looked at her, concerned.

"Pinkie Senses?"

Pinkie shook her head, confused.

"I don't know what it is!" she said. "It's just a bad feeling. I don't think we should've gone here today."

The last sentence chilled them all, but Twilight spoke up.

"We have to though, Pinkie. Something bad's happened. I... I think something happened to Celestia. That's probably why she didn't answer my letters."

"I know... I just have a feeling we're going to regret-"

"We're here," one of the guards interrupted, looking out the window of the carriage. A second after he said those words, they all felt the carriage touch ground as the four Pegasi landed it.

Stepping out of the carriage, Twilight and her friends saw that they had landed in front of the gates at the castle which were wide open. Everything was gloomy due to the massive swirling cloud above them, making it feel more like early evening than afternoon, and giving the day an ominous tone to it.

All around stood citizens of Canterlot, all looking scared, but none had dared to venture part the castle gate.

Twilight and her friends hadn't looked through the gate yet to see what was beyond in the courtyard, yet they watched the four Pegasi get their spears out of the back.

"Stay back, everypony," one of the unicorn guards called out to the worried crowd. "We'll handle this. No one is allowed past these gates."

At those words, the crowd began muttering.

"Didn't see what we saw-"

"That battle-"

"Have no idea-"

The guards finished getting their weapons out of the carriage, and the group of twelve turned to the gate, and were immediately horrified by what they saw beyond it in the courtyard.

With the crowd watching them, the guards, Twilight, and her friends ran through the castle gate to investigate the carnage, Fluttershy letting a terrified scream as she slipped on the bloody grass and nearly falling over.

The entire courtyard was covered with bodies and body parts. Pools of blood were everywhere, along with insides and pieces of bones. The bodies lying about looked like they had been killed in almost every way possible, from being torn completely apart to stabbed to death, from blown-off heads to getting strangled.

Twilight was the first to speak after a minute.

"L-look at the bodies! Aren't these the same ponies from Ponyville? The ones that the changelings took?"

"They are!" cried Pinkie Pie, her voice unusually high. "I recognize a lot of them!"

"Changelings..." one of the guards muttered, motioning to a dead one that had a spear driven through its head.

"Do ya... do ya think the changelings brought the ponies here and then killed them, along with the guards?" Applejack asked to no one in particular.

"I don't think so," another one of the guards said in a strangled voice. "It... it looks like the ponies and changelings fought together..."

"How could this happen though!" Rarity gasped. "How could the changelings make all the ponies they took fight for them?"

"Remember what Chrysalis did to my brother?" Twilight asked. "Maybe she's behind this. Maybe she put a spell on all of the ponies. But even so, this doesn't make sense... The changelings feed off of love, and yet... They helped the ponies... Kill all of the guards..."

"Maybe... We should go back and get the rest of the guards," Fluttershy suggested weakly, then, unable to take the sight of the gore any longer, turned and threw up. The sight of the vomit, along with the sight of slaughter, was too much for Rainbow Dash and Rarity, who also threw up.

"There's no time to get the rest of the guards," said Twilight, who although was badly shaken, managed to hold in her breakfast. "We need to get to the bottom of this now, before it's too late."

Of course, it may be too late already, she thought in her head, but didn't speak out loud.

The royal guards turned to Twilight.

"Princess Twilight, with Celestia and Luna missing in action, you are the highest-ranking one here. What should we do first?"

"We need to find out whoever was responsible for this," Twilight said immediately. "We search the castle first, in case they decided to stick around."

A cold voice suddenly called out from the far side of the courtyard.

"Oh there's no need to look, I'm afraid. I'm right here."

The group of twelve turned, startled, and saw a blue unicorn with purple eyes advancing towards them. The unicorn was not even bothering to avoid the bodies or pools of blood. As he got closer, Twilight was both startled and sickened to see that the unicorn was the same one who had visited the library that morning.

"You!" she shouted. "Stand back, girls-"

"We'll take care of this, Princess," one of the royal guards said, the six of them stepping in front of Twilight and her friends. "This is our duty."

The unicorn turned to the gates to the courtyard and his horn glowed, and suddenly, the grass along the perimeter thickened and stretched up high into the air, the blades curling around each other, blocking the view of the ponies outside of the fence and at the gate.

"This is going to get messy," the unicorn said thoughtfully. "And I believe those ponies have already seen enough for one day."

"I know who you are!" Pinkie Pie suddenly shouted, trying to peek around the royal guards. "You're Falling Streak!"

The unicorn named Falling Streak chuckled.

"Indeed I am, but at the same time... I'm also not. But I do find it impressive that you remember that."

"This has gone on long enough," one of the unicorn guards said. "Give yourself up now, or we will put you down. And after seeing everything you've done, we would not have a problem putting you down."

Falling Streak laughed and continued to slowly advance towards the group of twelve, and that's when both unicorn guards gathered energy in their horns and fired it at Falling Streak. Falling Streak met the two beams of energy in midair with a single beam of his own, however, and the energy from the royal guards were forced right back into their own horns at a deadly speed, blowing their heads off.

Rarity, who was close to one of the guards, was instantly sprayed with flecks of blood and brains, screamed, and frantically tried to wipe the mess off of her white coat.

One guard's body fell towards Fluttershy, who was hit directly in the face with a spurt of blood from the guard's neck stump, and she let out a high-pitched scream and threw up again.

At that exact moment, before Twilight could stop them, the four remaining unicorn guards ran at Falling Streak, leveling their spears at their enemy. Before they could reach him, though, the unicorn's horn glowed, and one royal guard's veins were torn right out of his body through the surface of his skin. Blood sprayed in all directions and his mutilated body fell.

The remaining three royal guards made contact with Falling Streak just a second later, but their spears shattered upon contact with the unicorn's body.

"Good try," Falling Streak said, but not good enough."

One royal guard was lifted into the air, and Falling Streak shoved a hoof through his chest, pushing his mangled heart out of his back. The guard coughed up thick red blood all over himself before he dropped.

The last two guards were lifted into the air, along with two large splinters of wood from their spears. The splinters of wood jabbed each guard in the right eye before they could close them, right in the pupil, and were forced deeper. Blood and juices ran out of the wounds as their right eyes began to crumple from the pressure of the splinters and they screamed. Falling Streak forced them deeper into their eyes, and now blood and jelly was running like tears down their faces, and with one last magical push, the two guards convulsed and died as the splinters entered their brains.

All of this had happened so fast, Twilight and her friends hadn't had time to react, and now Falling Streak turned to them.

"So," he said in a conversational tone as if nothing had happened. "You wanna stop me? Be my guests."

"We end this now, girls!" Twilight shouted, afraid but also determined. "What this monster has started, we are going to put a stop to! Positions!"

Falling Streak didn't show the slightest sign of fear as the six ponies lined up, their crystals around their necks- the same crystals that had banished the demon so long ago. He was ready this time. He wouldn't be banished again.

"Now!" Twilight shouted. The alicorn's horn glowed, and her eyes began glowing, and the six ponies lifted up into the air.

Now, Falling Streak thought to himself and his horn glowed.

Twilight and her friends were about to unleash the stream of rainbow energy upon the evil unicorn when Twilight noticed his horn glowing, and noticed his magic floating around her and her friends. Seized with sudden terror, she shouted.

"Do it now! Now! He's going to teleport us!"

Before the stream of energy could be released to obliterate Falling Streak, there was a bright flash as the six ponies vanished, having been teleported elsewhere. Standing in the sudden silence below the black swirling cloud in the courtyard, Falling Streak laughed.