He came from the Sky

The Red Fight

They all just stared, none moved nor make a sound. They just stared, how could they have predicted this... this to have happened to the home that they all knew and loved. Even Discord seemed to have all his words and jokes caught in his mouth, sure he had done his fair share to this town already... but nothing to this extent.

What broke the silence in the end was the sound of Fluttershy whimpers.

Rainbow Dash was the first to walk forward, towards the blazing town. Bodies of the ponies that she had known scattered the floor, all twisted in ways a pony should not be. She felt the need to vomit and ran off to do so in private.

It was when she looked up from where she had just lost what food she had in her, she saw him for the first time.

He seemed to laugh about something and talked in a strange language she has never heard of before.

Perched on top one of the few remaining buildings, a signal claw before him with the head of Mayor Mare clenched in it. She slowly approached him and heard him humming a tune and then... POP! That awful sound sent shivers down Rainbow's spine, she did not dare look to see what had become of the former Mayor's head.

"So the Rainbowed one is the first to approach me... not surprising... No, not surprising at all." He said to her without so much as a glance towards her nor did he make any effort to do so.

"Ho..w...How could you do such a thing?" Rainbow despite asked a question she was pretty sure she would not like the answer.

"Oh this?" He gestured to the town, he still did not turn to face her. He had a lazy air about him at the present moment.

"Sorry about that, you see I just got so bored waiting for you all to arrive that I just couldn't help myself... You should have seen this little orange one, she was all like -Rainbow Dash and her friends will stop you! They'll defeat you with the Elements of Harmony!-" He said with a very accurate voice of Scootaloo. This hit Rainbow more then sight of the town destroyed, she felt what spirit she had completely torn from her soul.

Twilight and the others arrived at this moment to see their friend looked worst then ever and the demonic creature above, lay on his back without a care in the world.

The sight of her friends was just enough for her to face him, but before she could another member of their party had decided to intervene.

Discord had appeared just behind Niracria with a giant tennis racket and slammed it straight down onto his face. "I'm all for having some fun and ruining things for others but even for me there is a limit!" Discord seemed to be beyond jokes now and had a very serious expression on his face.

However Niracria's body suddenly bursts, blood splashed over the six ponies. "Oooooouuuu, so you must be the one that they call Discord! So glad to finally meet you in person, though I must say you are not as much fun as I was hoping you would be. From what your mind was telling me up until this point, you have a very..very delicious mind, one filled with so much need for mischief." He hovered right behind Discord, his black wings flapped lazily, his tail seemed to be eager to take a bite out of Discord, if that was even possible.

Discord tried to act but the tail quickly lunged and dug into his shoulder. A sharp point that had not been seen on the tail now clearly visible seemed to start to change into something a little more wicked. It became barbed while it was lodged in Discords shoulder, the pain caused him to scream, a sound that no living thing should be capable of making.

"Aaaaww, Immm sawy di dat hurt?" Niracria said in a babyish voice. "Here, Niracria make you all better now."

With that said one of Niracria's claws started to pulse with energy, until there was a form of electricity radiated red. Niracria slowly moved his deadly claw towards Discord's wounded area, but Discord is the Spirit of Chaos and there is no way he will be taken down this easily.

Discord quickly turned and managed to smack Niracria's head, which soared through the air and hit the ground with a sicking crack.

"HA! I did it! Yesssss! I had thought for sure he would have been a bigger challenge but boy was I ever wrong..." Discord did a little victory dance.

"Ya you are right, what a weakling!"

"Ha yes! Weakling!" Discord turned to the other's who all had looks of horror on their faces. "Well it had to be done, I had no choice" but they shook their heads to this, Rainbow Dash slowly lifted a hoof and pointed right above Discord.

And their stood on his head was the red haired demon, as unscathed as can be. Before Discord could do anything, a red electric shock went through his body.

But he did not scream, not this time Discord was a little more prepared. With a snap of his fingers he disappeared, Niracria did not seem disappointed though. In fact his smile started to grow even larger, Discord appeared right behind him with a glass of chocolate milk and threw it directly at his head.

Niracria's wings flair out and wrap around his body, forming a sort of cocoon, upon being hit be the glass there was a massive explosion. The entire area that the red haired demon had been in was nothing more then a giant black crater. Smoke still rose from the center most section so you couldn't be quite sure if there was anything left still standing.

When the smoke fully cleared out, there he stood upright in all his unholy glory, that smile of his still incredibly large.

"My... You certainly know how to play. But the question is... do you know how to win?" Niracria tilted his head and swiped his claw in gesture saying that he wanted more.

Discord did not know what to do, so far a head on approach got him nowhere but nearer to his own grave. So maybe if he can't beat the creature with brute force, he'll try to outwit him, certainly the creature can't be so flawless as to have a brain to go with his power.

Niracria merely smiled when Discord slowly approached him, "You do realize that everything that you thought I both read and saw. But if you want to play a game of intelligence then be my guess... I'll be even so kind as to stop reading your mind while we play this little game".

Discord had the opportunity he needed, he may not be able to destroy him, but maybe he can convince him. With a snap of Niracria's claws a table and two chairs at opposite ends appear, on the table was a deck of cards and what looked to be colorful chips.

"Joker's the Name, Poker is the Game." he says with an uncontrollable laugh, "Ooooooh I looooove this wooorrlld, Heeeheeehaaaaahahahee".

Discord feels a chill run through his spine, something which doesn't happen commonly with the Spirit of Chaos. Taking a seat at the table, he waits patiently for the game to commence, though he has never played poker before he hopes that it wont be to hard. 'Seriously Discord my friend get it together we can't beat him if we are even nervous just to sit at a table with him'.

"Twilight my dear, would you be so kind as to shuffle the deck a serve each of us five cards?" Niracria asks in a false kindness sort of way.

Twilight slowly approached the table and with her magic shuffled the deck, as she does this she takes the opportunity to observe Niracria up close. He frightened her greatly and as every second passed she felt as if her very mind was on the brink of madness. It took almost everything in her to not go insane.

When Twilight served the final card she backed away and went right by Discord's side, she saw that his wound had a sickly green look to it. She turned her head away from that awful image and tried to pay attention to what was taking place at the table.

Niracria had had three aces and a king. Discord was running for a straight, he had the queen, the knave, nine and ten of spades, all he needed was the eight...

Discord called for one more card and drew the diamond eight, and Niracria said to the Spirit of Chaos, "I believe you've got it straight, so deal me one for the time has come to see who'll be the king of this place." but as Niracria spoke he slipped another ace.

Discord did not see what Niracria did and raised the stakes.

Discord placed down his hand revealing that Niracria's suspicions were correct, Niracria then let a mighty shout, "My hand WINS"!!!!

Discord just stared in shock, he had lost, the creature was both intelligent and powerful. could such a creature even exist?

He then noticed Niracria's face became serious, "You have no idea! This semi-perfect world of yours has never even seen the likes of, I must say that I am pretty terrible," he smiled, almost as if it were a complement, "but my Lord has got me beat when it comes to ruining lives, in fact he was ruining all of your puny lives to begin with. Yet none of you would have known it, because he ruining the lives of others became so common it's considered to be a normal part of life."

Discord was going to say something, but then he saw red, and then black...

Rainbow saw Discord's body suddenly burst, all his blood and intestines rushing out of him. It was almost like they wanted to get out of his body, she turns her head to look up at the red sky. Was it the day? Was it the night? These questions did not seem to matter and yet matter all the same.

She's had enough, they've tried talk, force and wit, yet all seemed to fail. So maybe she could beat him at a race? Convince him to go as an agreement of who wins or loses. But she thought back to the forest where she indirectly met the demon called Niracria.

"Where does everyone, or should I say everypony, get off by calling me a demon now? Or thinking it in most cases... Well sorry to disappoint everypony but sad truth is in the Immortal world I am what you would call a Deva-God."

"A what?" Twilight asked.

"It means the stupid creatures within one dimension but on multiple planets have taken up my name and worship as a god. Where a regular god only has worshipers on one planet I have them on many. Yes yes I know what you are thinking. How in the blaze is this guy worshiped? As for the answer to your question, I still ponder over it. I was merely carrying out my Lords wishes and being that I cannot die, that planets that I visited to fulfill my missions have started a little cult... which grew into a religion."

Niracria actually seemed irritated by this prospect, and started to radiate energy.

Rainbow decided to use this opportunity to try to see just really how fast he is, "How about we make a deal? I'll race you on any terms you want and if I win you leave, got that?" she try to keep up her tough attitude to try to help raise moral, she knew that the others weren't doing to good.

"Hmmm, I must say the offer sounds seriously tempting, but whose to say that I will willing accept those terms if I were to lose?" He inquired with a gleam in his eye showing that this seemed to really excite him.

"You were talking about some lord that you serve and by that sounds of it you are loyal to him, right?"

"Of course! I'll never betray my Lord...never!" His attitude seemed to sharply change from sadistically playful to bitter anger.

"Then I am trusting you be loyal enough on his name that you will agree to these terms." Rainbow smiled despite the situation, this creature lacked every sort of empathy or any of the Elements of Harmony, except loyalty.

"You're On! So this is what the race will be... five laps around the planet, if I win then all of you must start running so that it may be fun to chase you down and kill you, but if, if I lose, I will leave without much more of a fight."

"That sounds good... Wait What? Five laps around the PLANET? You're not serious right?" she just looked at him with hope that he was joking.

"Ah right, you mortals, never managing to break their worlds own limits, how sad. But Huzzah! I'll make it fair, you only have to fly to that mountain region and back five times. GOT IT!?" he seemed to be in a real sour mood now.

Rainbow nodded in acceptance, even with the burn of been told that she was too slow to race him on equal terms. She got into a race stance and Niracria joined her on her side, she saw him dig his two front claws into the earth. His wings extended to his sides, one hovered just above her but not in a way that it will hinder her flight, strange red marks started to appear on his wings while he built up energy to take off. Twilight stepped in front of them acting as the starter, using her wings as the signal of when to take off.

Everything seemed wrong in that moment, ponies everywhere had died, her home was in ruin and her friends were going through trauma. Yet she felt amazing, this was what was missing, the blood pumping, the threat of failure and more. She loved it!

And Twilight's wings come down... Rainbow Dash speeds ahead not a moment later.

Twilight just looks at the spot where Rainbow was before she turned her attention towards Niracria who has yet to take off. "What are you doing? Why aren't you flying off?" He just smiles at her before saying, "Until you and your friends move I will not be allowed to without breaking that deal with the rainbowed one." Twilight just stared at him, not understanding what he meant.

"You see when you break through the time and space barrier it causes an almost... warp hole like effect... and a massive vacuum that will pull everything in, so I think it's best that you move out of my forsaken way! Understand? Mortal!" He seemed to be very irritated and likely to lash out at her.

"For your information, I happen to be immortal as well." she says before she walked towards the rest of her friends.

"HA! The little pony thinks she's immortal, just like that white one with the wings that I had killed prior to our little social hour." Horror visibly showed both on Twilight's face and the way she slowly walked to her friends, she then puts up a barrier and nods her head at him.

With that, Niracria takes off...

Rainbow Dash was already half way there when the whole worlds visible image bends and warps. It was quickly followed by that same feeling of being dragged but this time it was a lot stronger. Like a LOT stronger!

She couldn't help but be pulled in and blown almost all the way back to where the race began, she also noticed that where Ponyville had originally been was nothing more then a gaping hole.

She turned back realizing that this was no longer a game and that though she had been ahead, it took him less then a second to shoot pass her.

The sonic rainboom may be her only chance at winning had she done it to begin with, but she was foolish and now her chances to win the race are slim. With a final push she blasts forward as a colorful trail looms behind her, now everything was at stake and she was to blame for she took it easy.