The afternoon was hot, warm winds blew across the arid desert of the Badlands. The red orangish platues and mesas towered over the dry, cracked ground. Nothing could have lived under these harsh conditions. But four vultures swiftly flew across the clear blue desert sky, observing for any dead animal with their keen eyesight.
The carnivorous birds swooped down when they spotted the figure of a dead organism. The birds landed with a few flaps of their large wings, and began to feast on the carcass of a desert fox.
But the vultures perked their heads up when they sensed something. One of them turned its head to zoom its eye on an approaching figure. All of them stared at the anomaly, none of them moved from spots. The sounds of hoofsteps approaching came into their hearing. The birds took off when the hooded figure got too close.
A lone pony treaded on the miserable and burning land. The stallion wore a cloak to protect himself from the burning sun above, and from the harsh winds. He had a single saddlebag strapped on him. Meant for a single time to be carried. The stallion glanced his left and saw the gigantic plateaus scraping against the sky, then to the right where the large red rock wall followed him.
The pony stopped in his tracks when he sensed something. He looked up at the top of the rock wall, and saw a figure disappear from sight. He gazed at the area where the thing disappeared, to see if it would ever return but it didn't. He continued along the path, but stopped again when a few pebbles landed on his shoulders. The pony looked up again and saw another figure disappear from sight.
He shook his head in discontent as the anomalies were beginning to annoy him. The winds blew more rapidly and the temperature was starting to drop. The sun was beginning its descend from the sky. The stallion picked up the pace when he noticed daylight was fading away. He knew the most unlikely things could happen to him when darkness falls on the land.
The stallion stopped a third time, but this wasn't caused by another unknown figure or tiny pebbles falling on him. No... He had stopped next to an oval shaped carving on the rock wall to his right. He turned to face it directly, and carefully studied it. The carving was smooth and clear from the middle, but the lines were thick on the outsides. It was as if to appear as natural formation but it was also like a door.
The pony smirked and opened up his saddlebag. He grabbed the item with his mouth, and exposed it into the light. It was a small floating triangle with bizarre symbols engraved on it. The pony placed the triangle on the ground in front of the carving. Even though it was still floating a few inches off the ground). A shockwave was sent forth from the door. Large plumes of dirt sprayed upward.
The circular carved door began to glow and slowly rolled to the side. Dirt and dust rained down above the doorway from the inside.
A blast of wind shot forth from the inside when the door was completely open. The stallion peeked his head inside, but could not see anything by the pitch darkness ahead of him. He removed his hood, and a horn was revealed. Meaning he was a unicorn. The bizarre triangle floated back into his saddlebag.
The unicorn used his magic to illuminate his surroundings with his horn. The pony had light grey fur color, red eyes, and a jet black mane.
The walls were just as red like the ones outside, but it appeared to be structured and smoothed out. The unicorn slowly trotted down the dark path, as fear was beginning to grow in him by the darkness. The light he casted was not bright enough to light the entire way. He concentrated his magic to add more energy to his horn, but only ended with the same result.
He grunted when he started to tire out; adding to much energy to one thing is a tiring effort. The light from his horn was slowly fading away, he promptly trotted down the dirt path before he was engulfed in darkness. Figures suddenly began to appear around him. The unicorn let out a shocked gasp when something emerged from the darkness, but to his surprise it only turned out to be a stone statue of some sort.
The stallion closely observed its feature as it was unusual of its form. It stood on two legs, the body was very muscular and tall, the head was roundish, no ears, and the mouth appeared to be exposed with carnivorous teeth.
A truly intimidating and terrifying creature.
The pony hastily moved along, as the idea of the monstrous statue coming to life stormed his mind. But he only ran into another statue in a harsh bump. He rubbed his head from the pain, but jumped back when he stared into the jaws of another statue. It turned about it be another of the muscular creatures.
But suddenly, in the corner of his eyes a light shined in the darkness. The unicorn cautiously proceeded to the anomaly, but quickly as he felt the darkness beginning to surround him even more. The light got brighter as he came closer to him, it was depicting some sort of doorway.
The unicorn reached the light source, and it turned out to be coming from a hole above a large and ominous door. The barrier was marked with ancient and mysterious symbols. There were carved figures of ponies at the bottom of the door, and they were staring at an archway in the center of it, taking up rest of it.
But the archway displayed a light beaming from it, with creatures exiting out from it. The stallion observed these strange things, but then the light from the hole above casted down upon him.
He looked up and saw nothing forced it to move, the light moved by itself. The pony did not know what to do, the light seemed to shine on him for some reason. There had to be a purpose. But then his mind came up with an idea. He opened up his saddlebag, and the triangle floated out and landed in front of the door.
The floating device placed itself in an open triangular spot high above the door. All the figures suddenly glowed and the barrier slowly began to open. The pony smirked and entered the bright doorway. He looked back when he heard the door closing, and the triangle floating back toward him.
He proceeded forward, with the surroundings brightened with more lights above, revealing a massive archway like the carving had depicted.
"This what the Ancients talked about," the unicorn had a grim voice. "A gateway to another world, where the unimaginable thrived." He smiled wickedly at the gateway, its appearance and power made the pony approach in awe. "The Ancients could've saved themselves, but they were fools"
The unicorn placed a hoof on the first step of a large flight of stairs to it. The broad rails to the sides were also marked with strange images of creatures. He continued upward and stared at the wide opening. The gateway was not active, just a rock wall on the other side of it.
"She was right... It has been dormant since the Ancients discovered it. It just waits for someone to bring it back to life," the unicorn said to himself. "Mother's stories weren't fantasy or fiction... They were real."
He remembered the stories his mother would tell him about ancient civilizations and strange beings in his childhood. But unlike most stories that children were told about, like super heroes, knights, angels, anything that resembled greatness, heroirsm and peace, he was told about strange creatures, gateways to alien worlds, gods coming down from the heavens.
The unicorn reached the very top of stairs. He raised both eyebrows at its striking appearance up close. But he gasped out loud and grinned widely when he saw the images of two demonic-like figures on columns to the sides, they pointed a finger in the direction where anything exited out of the arch.
"The civilization from the otherside," he looked at the column. "How surprising they look. Mother never really told me about their appearance. But..." He took out the floating device from his saddlebag. "It is time to finish what has been started."
The triangle flew, and hovered in between both columns of the arch. It began to hum and the tip of it opened up. Lightning that was in a dark orange color struck the device from the ceiling of the gateway. Then suddenly, more lightning began to strike at a stunning pace. The triangle glowed, the ground began to shake.
The portal was coming back to life.
"This world needs judgement!" The unicorn yelled as the gateway was beginning to activate. "There is too many mistakes! Too much evil! The race from the otherside will come here and wipe away all away who don't deserve to live... Just like the Royal Guard did to my mother."
The portal glowed with power, a crimson red vortex revealed itself in the archway. The booming sounds of wind and thunder echoed from the portal, and lightning could be seen raging in it.
The pony laughed maniacally. "They're going to arrive, and see I am worthy to be invited to their domain."
The vortex swirled with its dark appearance, but suddenly a creepy whispering echoed. A red orangish aura swirled in the air, then the same orange lightning striked the ground. The unicorn was blown back by the blast but he got up immediately. His jaw dropped as he was stunned to see a tall, greyish creature in front of him. It had ten red eyes, the body was long and muscular, and had long, sharp claws. But beneath the thing was glowing symbols of stars and other bizarre markings.
"Are you one of them?" The unicorn asked, seeing how the creature reflected the appeance of the figures on the entrance door.
The creature only hissed and growled at him as a reponse. It got on all four limbs and pounced him. The unicorn was caught off guard, and struggled to get the beast off of him.
"What are you doing!? I am the one who set you free! I am your ally!" He shouted furiously.
The creature opened up its mouth, exposing a set of carnivorous teeth. The unicorn used his magic to shoot an energy projectile at it. The creature was thrown off of him, but it recovered and stood up, then manifested what appeared to be a fireball in its hand. But it actually was a plasma projectile.
The thing threw the plasma ball at him, the pony dodged to the right and shot another energy projectile at it. The demon was impacted by the attack. It screeched and squealed in pain, but approached the pony with arms bent forward.
"You monster! How foolish of you are to attack me!" The pony shouted. He charged his magic for another round.
"ENOUGH!" A demonic and hellish voice yelled. "He does not need to die... Yet"
The creature stopped its approach, and stared at the portal to the left side. The unicorn forgot about the demon, and also stared at the gateway. He could hear the flapping of wings coming from it, then it appeared...
A gigantic gargoyle-like monster flew out of the portal, circling around them a few times, then landed itself between the demon and pony. The pony was utterly terrified by the appeance and size of this flying beast. It also looked liked a dragon by body shape and wings, sharp claws at the feet, its skin very dark and deathly. The monstrosity lowered its long neck, and came face to face with the pony.
The unicorn was mesmerized by its head, which was a strange skull with horns on it. He stared into its dark, empty eye sockets. Its mouth opened and revealed the face of an elder creature at the tip of its tongue. The pony was completely disgusted and bewildered of it.
"And who are you?" The face asked, it's voice echoing in unison with demonic tones. "My, my... A unicorn... I thought they never existed, just like the Humans thought of us. " The face tilted to its right, shaping the expression of curiosity.
"I-I... I am... Shades," the union stuttered in fear.
"Shades?" The winged demon questioned. "Shades? Is that your name?"
"Y-Yes...?"
"Well, then, Shades... I see you have run into one of my children," the beast looked at the demon next to it below. "The Imps can be quite agressive if startled." It let out a muffled evil cackle.
"I see, but..."
"BUT WHAT?" The face turned back at him with a deathly glare.
"Uhmm... What is your name?" The unicorn asked with a wince.
"My name? I shall be the one asking the questions and you will answer."
"Okay... But I have an opened the gateway for you. The Ancients stopped your 'children' at the dawn of time. But you are free now, and I wish to journey to the world you come from," the unicorn said. "This world, Equies, sickens me."
"Oh, you wish to go where it all began... Well, then, to the pit of Hell you go to!" The Maledict retracted its tongue back inside it's mouth.
"What are yo- Ahh!!" The pony screamed as the Maledict bit down on him, and flung him into the portal.
Shades continued to scream as he went down the inside of a large vein or instestine. Eventually there was a bright flash, and he found himself on a floating rock platform. "W-Where am I?" He asked himself, not recognizing the location he was in.
All he knew that a crimson red and dark sky floated above an endless void of darkness surrounding him, with gigantic floating, burnt rocks everywhere.
"This what you wanted?" The Maledict asked, his voice booming from every direction. "An escape from your world Equies?"
"Yes, but-" Shades was cutoff by the massive demon.
"You expected a place of peace, a haven from Equies?"
"Yes! But this doesn't look like a haven! It looks more like... Tartarus." Shades cringed as he heard loud moans and wails of despair and torture. The floor glowing with fires of rage and pain.
"Yes... This your Hell, your Tartarus. Whoever told you about the otherside of the gateway being a paradise is wrong. Your world will fall, thanks to you of course," Maledict laughed at him loudly. "But you shall be rewarded for opening the portal."
Suddenly, large rocks descended from above and formed a bridge, with floating candles accompanying to the sides. Then the loud whispering was heard, and two light green auras swirled in the air. Lightning striked the floor from the auras, and two large muscular creatures were created. Each one having a different characteristic and appearance.
Shades eyes widened and his heart race as he recognized the two demons: they were the statues in the dark.
"This is your reward," Maledict announced. "My two Hunters will take care of you in your stay." The Maledict began to laugh, but his voice started to transform deeply demonic and devilish.
The Hunters stomped thier way across the rock bridge, towards the damned pony. Shades backed away, but, "Woah!" He almost slipped off the edge of the platform. "Stay back! I'm warning you!" Shades yelled at the demons. The Hunters continued their approach despite the words the unicorn said.
One of them stopped and formed a fireball, and floating it upwards. The demon then flung it at the unicorn. Shades dodged it, but stumbled as the projectile had some blast radius to it. He charged up his magic and shot an energy beam at them. The Berserk Hunter on the left was struck, and was unaffected.
"I warn you to stay away!" Shades yelled angrily.
"Showing resistance, are we?" Maledict's voice had changed dramatically. "Your resistance is futile... Here's another of one my children."
Another green aura formed above, and spawned a third Hunter to the right side of Shades. "HOLY!" Shades screeched as the demon was a meter away from him. The Hunter swung a claw at him, but unfortunately merely missed. This hunter was literally a flaoting torso, with firing raging where its legs would have been. It was the Helltime Hunter.
It threw one of the many plasma balls that orbited around it, and it blew up next to the unicorn. Shades was blown by the blast, and landed at the edge of the platform. He could hear the two demons' thundering footsteps behind him. He slowly got back due to the pain, and stared at three towering monsters before him.
"There's isn't a way to win this, isn't there?" Shades sadly asked himself, knowing defeat was the inevitable. "What a fool I am to open the gateway... I should have listened to her and never should have treaded on the sacred ground."
The Hunters were within striking range of their mighty claws. One of them raised a fist in the air, and positioned it over the unicorn. Shades closed his eyes, and shed a tear in the corner of his left eye.
"Forgive me, mother... I have failed you..."
The Berserk Hunter slammed its fist on the unicorn, instantly ending him from existence. The rock the unicorn was on crumbled by the impact of the Hunter's powerful hand. It fell down to the dark void below; forever falling into darkness...
The Maledict laughed as his children brutally murdered the ignorant unicorn. He was on the otherside of the portal, perched above the large flight of stairs that led to the portal. "Foolish mortal... Hell is not a place of peace, or heavenly." He looked down and lowered his long neck at the single Imp, and opened up its mouth to expose Betrguer's face. "You shall go and explore this new world," Maledict ordered. "Watch the civilizations of this world, then destroy them once you know their ways."
The Imp disappeared by an aura forming above it and lighting striking down on it.
"As for you three." Maledict referred to the Hunters in Hell. The muscular demons stared at a portal that formed in front of them, they knew what they had to do. The demons entered the portal and exited out of the archway on the otherside. "Go and destroy the mortals who live on this world."
The Hunters complied and made their way down the stairs, then disappearing from sight. Maledict let out a hellish laughter as he knew Hell will soon be unleashed. "This may not be Mars or Earth, but it shall soon be ours..." He leaped off the top of the stairs and swooped down below and pulling up, seeing a large hole above. The monstrous gargoyle could see the bright roundish moon above. It bursted out of the hole with stunning speed.
The Maledict flapped its wings across the night sky, landing itself on a towering plateau. "And I see the first signs of civilization of this world," Maledict revealed Betruger's head to speak, noticing faint lights on the horizon. He glanced to the right, and saw the three Hunters traveling on the broad dirt path below.
"Go my children, go! Bring this Hell to the world called Equestria!"
******
"Cadence! I'm home!"
"Shining Armor!" Cadence pulled her husband into a hug as he entered their home. "Glad to see you didn't get off late like last time."
"That depends if your aunt doesn't have any work for me," Shining Armor referred to Princess Celestia, who was his boss. "Man, I'm tired."
The couple closed the door of their home, which actually was a large single room in the Royal Canterlot castle. Shining Armor had barely got off of work from being the captain of the Royal Guard. He yawned and rested himself on the bed, with his armor still on him.
"I'll be back," Cadence announced, kissing him on the cheek, then making her way to the front door.
Shining Armor picked his head up with a confused look. "Where are you going, love?"
"I need to talk about a few things with my aunt Celestia. I'll be back shortly." Cadence closed the door of their home and disappeared.
"Alright, I'll be waiting." Shining Armor got off his bed and trotted to his closet, which was also Cadence's, and began to unstrap his armor off of him. He opened up their double-door closet and placed the pieces of his armor on specific shelves. The stallion yawned when he was done, he shut the closet doors closed, and let himself collapse on the bed again.
"Man, patrolling the castle ground and cities really gets you tired," he mumbled to himself. "I wonder what Cadence has to talk about with Celestia?" He rolled himself supine and stared at the ceiling, thinking about many thoughts in his mind.
But suddenly, loud whispering entered his ears. Shining Armor shaped a confused look and got up from the bed. "Hello? Cadence is that you?" He asked tentatively, unsure if Cadence was talking to him. "Hello?"
The whispering grew louder, and even if the lights were on, everything became pitch darkness.
BOOM
Shining Armor fell off the bed when he heard the sound of a lightning strike outside the room. He galloped to the front door and opened it.
"What is going... What in the...?"
He stared at wide, glowing marking on the marble floor. It appeared to have multiple red stars in circles, and the skull, or head, of a goat with vicious teeth and a long morbid tongue. Shining Armor was bewildered by the sudden sound and symbol. He frantically checked both ways of the broad corridor, and saw nopony responsible for it. "Who? Or what did this?"
"Hissssrrrr...."
"Huh?" The Royal Guard captain heard a strange hiss and growl. He heard something moving around, but couldn't tell where it was coming from, even if there wasn't really a place to hide in the wide open corridor.
"Hello? Who's there?" Shining called out.
But one thing Shining Armor did not know. One fatal thing, was the demon, the Imp, crawling on the high ceiling, and entering his room silently from above. Yet the stallion took off to alert security about the marking in front of his room, plus the loud sound of lightning.
The Imp peeked its head from above, behind the doorway to make sure the unicorn was gone. It pulled away from the door and crawled against the ceiling inside the room of the unknown life forms. It quietly crept, but stopped when it heard the sounds of hooves approaching from the outside. It remained in place, the ceiling was dark enough to conceal it from view.
"Shining Armor," Cadence called his name in a lovely, chanting tone. "Honey, why is the door ope-- What is this!?"
Cadence noticed a symbol glowing on the floor. She cocked a suspicious look by its appearance. "Oh, this better not be auntie Luna playing a prank on me," she mumbled to herself, knowing Luna did commit a few mischievous tricks on her family members once in awhile.
Cadence rolled her eyes and entered her room, but was surprised to see Shining Armor nowhere in sight. "Strange... Where is he? Hmpf, he must've gone to the bathroom or kitchen." The princess trotted to their bed, and took off her slippers and tiara. "Well, I guess I'll wait for him here."
She lied down the bed and pulled the sheets over her. Cadence stared outside the tall, elegant windows next to the bed. Seeing the rest of Canterlot below, and Luna's moon hovering in the starry sky. Cadence noticed two guards on a catwalk that connected between the castle tower they were in and the other adjacent to it. But then another pony appeared, she raised a suspicious eyebrow at them.
"That looks like... Shining Armor!" She noticed her husband down below, but then him and the two guards rushed to the tower she was in. "What is he up to?" Cadence hauled herself out of bed, and promptly left her room.
The Imp above stared at the alicorn, watching her behavior, moves, everything. Like the Maledict had said. Its mind suddenly flicked on to kill when it believed it had enough information about the being. It crawled down and exited out of the room. It still stalked her by keeping itself to the ceilings. It followed the alicorn down the corridors, also observing and recording its surroundings with its head.
The Imp stopped moving when the pink creature entered a room, but was accompanied with two guards at the entrance. The demon hissed in annoyance, but saw one of the guards stray off and head into a hallway. The Imp knew it was an easy kill.
It followed the earth pony guard instead, all its eyes locked on the prey. The pony stopped at the end of the hallway, where he stepped onto a balcony. The Imp dropped from the ceiling without sound, and continued to crawl on all four. The guard yawned and rested his head on the rails, letting laziness take control of him. The demon rose up when it was directly behind him.
"Hisssrrr..."
"Huh? Who's there... HOL-"
The Imp pounced the guard before he could scream, and began to tear into him. Its claws ravaging the guard, boring into his body and ripping every organ. Blood splattering on the demon itself, and the balcony too. The Imp continued its rampage on the pony, making the guard not even a pony anymore. Just a pile of dead meat and blood everywhere.
The demon retracted itself from the guard, satisfied. Its whole front body stained with crimson red blood. The Imp jumped onto the outside walls, and began to crawl upwards to the roofs of the castle. Leaving a trail of bloody hand and footprints. It reached the top and saw three pegasus guards having a conversation about something. All their backs were turned against it.
The demon exposed its jaws of carnivorous teeth. The slaughter was only beginning...
Author's Note
My first Doom story. Yup, Maledict is in Equestria with his Hellknight Hunters. But I'm confused if I should call Maledict a "he" or an "it"? Or should I just use both words? Someone tell me what I should correctly use.
Random idea: Berserk Hunter versus Snowflake pony (Or Roid Rage. Whatever you prefer)
"Hisssrrr..."
The Imp growled at the three pegasi guards. All ten of its eyes locked on to each one of them. It swiftly crept toward them, not a single sound or warning. The demon stood up on two legs and walked at its targets.
"Hey, do you think we're gonna see any action soon?" A guard asked.
"No. Nothing ever happens when patrolling the castle," the second guard sighed. "All we do is just stay on the rooftops and see if any trouble happens, which is rare..."
"You guys sound depressed!" The third guard said, who was a mare. "So who cares if trouble doesn't occurs! At least we know that means everything is safe."
"I guess you're right on that, but... Hmm?" The second guard turned around at a sound he heard. "Hmm..."
"What's wrong? Did you hear something?" The mare asked her friend.
"Yeah, Star... Let me see." The guard cautiously approached the area where he heard the sound. He slightly smiled inwardly as he suspected something might finally happen to make his job interesting. He reached the source of the sound, but saw nothing.
An empty rooftop.
"Hey did you find something?" Star, or Starry Light, shouted at him, since he had gained some distance between them.
"No! It's a false alarm. It was probab- Ah!!!"
"Sky!" Both guards shouted as they saw a tall figure ambush their friend. The two of them rushed to rescue their comrade, but the when they got to his position, he was gone.
"Where did he go!? The stallion asked, deeply concerned.
"I-I don't know! He was just here when... There he is!" Star pointed at a figure dragging their friend across the courtyard down below. The guards leaped off the rooftop and swooped down to the thing.
The Imp had managed to knock out the single guard. It dragged him by holding him from the left hind leg, but dropped him when it noticed two life forms approaching it. The demon took a fighting stance and formed a fire ball in its right hand. It threw the projectile at one of the pegasi.
"Lookout!" The stallion yelled, seeing a glowing ball coming at them. "Mov- Ahh!" He was struck in the chest by the plasma ball.
"Thunder Wave!" Star saw her friend spiral for the ground. She dived at full speed to catch before death met him on the ground. Thunder was approaching the ground fast, Star picked up her pace to save him.
The Imp got on all four and leaped on a wall, climbing upward, then disappearing on the other side.
The mare caught her friend barely just a few meters above the ground. She landed and slowly placed her friend gently on the ground.
"Thunder? Are you alright? Thunder?" she asked.
"I... I'm alright," Thunder grunted. "Just... Urgh, hit..." He suffered burn damage to his chest, some fur had been burnt off from the attack. The armor he wore was easily penetrated by the demon's projectile. "I'll be alright... Go check on Sky."
Star hesitated to leave him but complied to what her fellow guard said. She galloped to the body of Sky, and saw he had a few slash marks on him. "Sky?" She nudged him to get a response. "Sky? Are you alright? Sky? Sky!"
The guard, Sky, made no response to her words.
"Sky! Sky!?"
Star shook his head to try to wake him up, but the worst seemed to occur. But then Sky grunted and cracked open an eye.
"W...What happened?" He raised his head to meet her eyes. "Where did that thing go?"
"Sky! You're alright!" The mare wrapped her fore hooves around his neck in joy. "I thought you were... Dead."
"Ow! Ow!" Sky yelped in pain. "That's where it hurts!"
"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!" Star immediately released her fore hooves from him, noticing she was damaging him.
"No, it's not your fault," Sky said with a meek reassuring smile. "It's just that I think I'm..."
He removed a fore hoof from his belly and exposed a large slash mark. The Imp had used its sharp claws on him, the wound looked grave.
"...Damn."
"We need to get you medical help!" Star frantically announced. "Plus Thunder, because he got hit by a fireball that monster threw at us!"
"Alright, let's get some help."
Star carefully helped Sky get up and walk to any other guards nearby, since they were by themselves in the courtyard. Thunder managed to get up on his own, he covered his wound from any exposure to anything, and the pain. The three of them regrouped and proceeded to get help immediately.
But one thing followed behind them, one certain creature: The Imp.
The demon silently crawled next to the bushes, its demonic senses indicating it where they were. The guards continued on without wariness of the dangerous threat. The ponies were approaching two large metal doors at the end of the courtyard. The mare grabbed one handle and Thunder pulled the other.
The door slammed with a thundering sound when the trio entered. The Imp could only back away into the shadows as it was not allowed to murder anything as it remember the specific orders of the Maledict. It climbed the wall and awaited for another time to attack.
But then a stray guard passed by it, not knowing the presence of the Imp. The Imp could only expose its rows of carnivorous teeth as it had all eyes on the pony.
This was going to be pleasing for the demon.
*****
"Come on! Something's happened!"
Shining Armor rushed back to his quarters with two guards. The guards were confused, the captain just ran up to them and randomnly told them to follow him. But by the look on his face they knew something was wrong and had to be dealt with. The guard on the left behind Shining Armor glanced to the guard on the right, who stared back at him with bemusement, then back to the captain.
"Uhmm, Captain?" he asked. "What's the problem or the situation?"
"Something just happened! Something that I think is bad!" he replied.
The guard on the right rolled his eyes when the captain's response was short and lacking definition. The three approached the door where Shining Armor came from, until it burst open by a pink alicorn with a suspicious look on her face. Shining came to a screeching halt when his wife unexpectedly appeared with a single guard behind her.
"Cadence?! What are you doing out here?"
"I should be asking you the same thing. What are you doing out here?"
"Cadence, didn't you hear or at least see something strange by our room!?" he asked frantically.
Cadence nodded her head. "I did but I'm thinking it's my aunt Luna." Shining tilted his head in perplexity at Cadence's belief it was Luna behind the bizarre activity occurring.
"Honey, since when does your aunt, which is also my boss," he announced quickly," decide to play some silly trick on us?"
"He's got a good point, ma'am," the guard behind the princess commented.
Cadence had to admit Shining Armor was indeed correct. Since when does Luna ever play a prank on her own family members? Sure she has done some pranks, but that was very rare. Something had to encourage her, to motivate her. But that motivation nearly did not exist. Something else was responsible.
"Let's get back to see what that thing on the floor is," Shining Armor said, leading the group back to their quarters.
When they arrived the marking was still glowing vibrantly. The three guards twisted bemused looks at the savage icon. Tiny traces of black smoke rose from the marked area like if it was smoldering. One of the guards came up to it and tapped a hoof carefully against it.
"It's not hot at all," he said, amazed to see the marking was not burning or heating at a high temperature.
"Hmm... Let me see." Another Guard pony approached it and rubbed his armored hoof against it. The marking did not fade away. Not a single piece was capable of being swiped away from it. "Well, it looks like it's tattooed against the floor, Captain."
"This is really weird," Cadence slowly shook her head. "Where did this thing come from?"
"I don't know," Shining Armor said, "but I don't think it's not going to go anywhere."
The ponies stared at the symbol in perplexity for a while. Shining Armor suddenly heard Cadence yawn. He could see her trying to keep her eyes open and her balance steady. "Let's deal with this tomorrow. I want all of you guards to resume your nightly patrols."
"Understood, Captain. Rest well," a guard said before departing with his two other companions. The royal couple entered their room and closed the doors to rest for the night. The three guards trotted calmly back to their positions, but one them suddenly stopped letting the two go ahead.
"Hey, you alright?" the pony on the right stopped and asked, noticing him looking down with concern.
"Yeah I'm fine, but where's Silver Stone?" he asked. "He was with me, but then I went with princess Cadence and I didn't see him come with us."
"I bet he's somewhere patrolling," the Guard pony on the left assured. "Come on, let's get going."
The three continued on, but not that far from them laid the dead body of the pony Silver Way. So close they were to discovering his terrible fate. And an unlikely intruder wandering though the castle in the murky shadows.
Time will soon reveal the two horrifying anomalies.
*****
Three brute, malicious giants stomped down the orange-red dirt road under the night sky. The Hell Hunters.
On the edges of the blackened horizon, waves of dark storm clouds were casually forming and moving toward the Badlands. The Hunters continued to drudge forward, nothing was going to stop them. As they marched on, the Berserk Hunter actually took its time to observer its surroundings, which was VERY unorthodox, since none of the demons wasted a single second to scan their environment and instead rush to their objective or prey immediately to end it.
The muscular and hulking demon glanced up to the starry sky. It could see countless of bright white and blue stars with a small segment of the galaxy above. This was nothing like its home. The home that was Hell. This place was full of life and adventure, so much to see and learn, so much wonders and curiosity; a place of full of bright colors of day and night.
But Hell was nothing more than a godforsaken pit of darkness and suffering. The damned that were cursed to be there and never see the light of joy and life. Only the screams, crying, wails of eternal punishment dwelled there to be seen. Scarred with symbols of true evil.
True evil never dies.
Creeping out of the vast array of stars, two stars appeared unique out of all them. There was blue star on the left and a red one on the right. It was the planet Earth and Mars. They may look beautiful down below in the countries of this planet, but they did not know the morbid truth of what civilization occupied both planets, and the horror that was destroying the Red Planet.
No matter. It was all pleasing for the demons.
The three Hunters continued their march. The desert seemed endless, it just continued on to the very distant horizon. The red-orange dirt path was the only road to somewhere. The Invulnerability Hunter gurgled a bit when it felt its carnivorous mouth run dry but it managed to hydrate it again quickly.
The Berserk Hunter suddenly stopped when it heard a sound from the left. The muscular demon turned its huge body to the left, and saw a small desert fox digging into a hole that appeared to belong to some other desert creature. The Berserk Hunter glanced around to find an object of a decent size. One that was merely large enough to outsize the fox.
The demon made a surprised grunt when it spotted a small boulder casually resting next to a dried brush. The Berserker Hunter made its way to the rock. The other two Hunters stopped when they noticed one of them wasn't travelling on with them. They watched with some curiosity as their companion randomly grabbed a small boulder.
The Berserk Hunter lifted the heavy object into the air, locking its eyes and senses at the animal. The demon threw the boulder at the desert fox, it slammed itself onto the animal with a murky plume of dirt. The Berserk Hunter eagerly watched the area of impact and patiently waited for the dirt to clear.
Perfect.
The boulder had the animal crushed underneath its heavy weight. And shockingly, the boulder actually made a tiny crater around itself. Crimson red blood spilled silently from under the boulder. Not a single trace could be seen of the fox.
The Berserk Hunter let out a roar of triumph with a fist held up high in the air. The two other Hunters slowly turned around with unamused looks (even though it wasn't visible) as their companion simply slayed a desert fox for no apparent reason.
Murdered victim number two for Hell.
An hour later the three demons at a new location. They were out of the desert to be precise, somewhere more thriving. The land was no longer dry as a bone and parched from its life. They were in an unknown valley, this could be easily determined by the dark silhouette mountains to the east and west. The Hunters were at fork in the road.
There were two paths to take; one heading to the left down a creepy, dark plant infested road and trees that appear morbid with the branches of their stumps corrupting the path as they rested upon it. The path on the right appeared normal. It led farther into this strange land, but the lights of a small town could be seen miles away down the path.
Which one to take? Which path will guarantee a quick route to the Hunters' objective?
The three Hunters motioned their heads to the left and right in unison. Each of them determining which road to take.
"Separate. One will go alone while the other two travel together," the Maledict spoke to them.
One of them took a step to the left, followed by floating a figure. The other Hunter took a step to the right. The Helltime Hunter and the Berserk Hunter proceeded down the path that lead into the Everfree Forest, as for the Invulnerability Hunter that stomped down the right, heading straight for Ponyville.
Destruction and rampage would soon engulf these two places of interest.
Author's Note
Yay! I updated the story since it has been a loooong time! ...Don't kill me...
But does anyone know what the planet the country of Equestria or any of the other countries are on? I wanted to use the planet's name somewhere in this chapter but I did not know what it was called. And I didn't want to make up a name because I'm not good at that.
Answers?
