The Daemon of Trotschester

Chapters

The Dropout
The Daemonhost
The Conspirator

The Dropout

Chapter 1.

At her parents’ Tudor style house in west Fillydelphia, a young unicorn named Lumina Brightmantle was venting her frustrations to a fillyhood friend, a young pegasus mare by the name of Kiwi Glitter. They sat around a table and a pot of tea, having not even unpacked Lumina’s extensive luggage. Lumina had recently been failed out of school.

Lumina pounded the table and snapped, “How dare they!”, she rubbed her face, holding back tears and sniffling."

“Lumina?”, quipped Kiwi Glitter, worried.

“Of all the reasons I could have been dropped, those insensitive bigots chose my one failing, a failing of infirmity, on which to judge me? Could they not see that my talent in other magic should overshadow my lack of innate levitation?”

Kiwi Glitter scoffed, “You won’t hear me arguing, I always said you should go into a trade school like me, I’m not even an earth pony and no one has given me any trouble for it at school.”

Lumina pretended to wipe the tears that she never cried, “Kiwi Darling, perhaps I should have heeded you, but you must understand, my talents lie in magic, and there is simply no better place to learn magic then at Celestia’s Academy for gifted unicorns. If I wanted to BE somepony, I HAD to go there.”

“I never bought into it,” said Kiwi, “and I’m glad they flunked you. Just look at the name of that academy and you’ll find a solid bit of racism runs through that place. Maybe through all of Canterlot.”

Lumina gasped, “Perish the thought of it! Celestia’s Academy is supposed to be a school for magic, and as you know, mentioning “for unicorns” is just a formality, since unicorns are the only ponies who practice magic.”

Kiwi Glitter raised an eyebrow and set her tea down with both hooves, “Well.... you say that, but then what do you call an earth pony’s power over animals and plants? Or when a pegasus stomps out thunder from the sky? We call that magic as well.”

“Ahh yes, the “other” magics, druidic rites and such, but I suppose what is meant here is that at Celestia’s Academy you learn SPELLS! Spells are the domain of unicorns only, Kiwi.”

Kiwi Glitter leaned back and looked away, clearly a bit uncomfortable, “I still don’t buy it, I’ve seen zebra magic, and sure enough those are spells being cast, incantations and everything, I just think that horn on your head lets you cast spells without all the mucking about with reagents and incantations.”

Lumina held her tea far out with one hoof and rolled her other in the air, “Ah!...No, I can’t fault you for that thought, you don’t have a horn, you would not know what it is like. I have seen a few rituals, potions and magic of that sort, but it just is not how a unicorn operates. It also is not what is taught at the academy.”

Lumina was visibly distraught, and looked pensively out a window, hardly touching any of the small cakes that sat before them.

Kiwi Glitter sighed, “Lumina, I know it’s been two years, and we haven’t seen each other much since you’ve been at the academy, but I always thought of you as my best friend, and I know this is cutting you up inside, but I think there may be another way to be the magician you always wanted to be.”

Lumina perked up for a split second, then thought forward a bit, and visibly deflated.

“Kiwi, I am NOT going into agricultural studies... I can’t even levitate things, I would be useless as a farm hand.”

“Lumina no! I wasn’t trying to be half hearted and push you into something I know myself, I really think there’s a way for you to be a great magician! Something you were born to do! You can learn ritual magic, with the hocus pocus, the goofy outfits, the smoke and fire, I think your horn not working like everyone else’s is a sign, Lumina!"

Lumina pursed her lips and looked up, “Hmm... that is not a small insight you have made here Kiwi, I had wondered about such things myself, but I had only had a smidgen of contact with ritual magic at the academy.”

“I thought unicorns didn’t practice ritual magic?”

Lumina smirked, “Well, unicorns of the imperial schooling do not, but the academy has a few secrets, dark secrets, and I think you may have just given me an idea...”

Kiwi Glitter was visibly worried, her eyes became intensely focused, and her expression became nearly a sneer.

“Lumina no! I know what dark magic entails, and I don’t want you having any part of it.”

Lumina pointed her hoof at Kiwi, “Do you Kiwi? Do you really have any knowledge of dark magic beyond the imperial propaganda?”

Kiwi Sighed, “Guess I don’t really. “

Lumina pushed off from the table and trotted over to her bags, her parents’ house had been the first place she had gone since her expulsion, and Kiwi had gotten here before Lumina’s parents, who were still at work. Lumina opened up a suitcase and piled the clothes out of it, revealing a massive, leather bound tome.

“Oh no... Lumina!”

Lumina rolled her hoof in the air and turned her head, “Relax, Kiwi, when I knew I was getting expelled, I just felt I needed a little souvenir, one that looked expensive, there’s a strong value for such things on the black market, you know.”

“Lumina that’s stealing! Don’t you know what the royal guard would do to you if they found you with that?”

“Spank me? The royal guard tends to hand out only the lightest of punishments to criminals, the courts are known to be very lenient and even try to “reform” criminals. I might have gotten a desk job out of a “heartfelt” apology on my part.”

Kiwi Glitter pushed her hoof into her eyes and somehow squeezed her eyebrow together, “I guess you are right, but there’s a big jump in punishment from slap on the wrist to “thrown in the dungeons” or “encased in stone forever”, and stealing a book of dark magic might just put you into the big leagues!”

“Bah, hardly. Now, what I am thinking of doing WITH this book, maybe, but not just stealing it. I had not planned on using it myself, but since you mentioned ritual magic, now I just feel as though it is my destiny to master these arts.”

“Lumina....”

Lumina opened the book, causing Kiwi to flinch slightly. Lumina hoofed through the pages quickly, until settling on one page.

“Ahh, here we go, Daemon Summoning, the perfect spell for a beginning ritualist.”

Kiwi Glitter jumped up, “Daemon summoning! That should be the LAST spell you ever try!”

“Now Kiwi, Daemon Summoning makes sense to start with, as the spell binds the Daemon to your will, and Daemons are ancient creatures with great knowledge of ritual magic themselves, so what better way to learn than to have a tutor?”

“A diabolic tutor?! Really? She’ll just trick you into casting spells that destroy you and set her free, free to eat foals and drink blood and whatever other horrible things Daemons do!”

Lumina brought the book over to the table and began reading its presumably foul contents, “Nonsense, Daemons are just spirits from another world, and the incantations in this book should be fine for binding them, we will just have to be clever in how we word our pacts.”

“Oh Lumina, no, this is all just so wrong...”

Lumina kept reading, “Trust me on this, Kiwi, I feel the pulse of destiny calling me...”

They continued to bicker, but when it became clear that Lumina was not backing down from this lofty goal of true sorcery, Kiwi became complacent, deciding that she could at least temper her old friend’s ambition, or provide some common sense along the way. Kiwi reasoned that if things got too bad, she could always fly away and warn someone.

Lumina’s parents, Briddlewald and Sierra came and consoled their young dropout, and were happy to host Kiwi, an old friend for dinner, at dinner time, however, Lumina made a statement that shocked Kiwi, but thrilled her parents.

“Mother, Father, I’m not going to let this setback ruin my chances of success, with your permission, I’d like to move into the family summer house in Mane, and begin my own magical research.”

Brindlewald clapped his hooves together, “Oh sweety that’s wonderful, I was worried you would be in a state of depression for weeks, or just fall back on shop keeping or some other peasant’s trade.”

“Nonsense, father, I realize that what I may lack in... levitation, I make up for in knowledge of magical theory and raw genius, I already have some theories on enchanted wagons and the like that may make me rich! “

Sierra chimed in, “How wonderful, your brother was already planning to take over the family business, so it is great to see you branching out. Ooh, sweety, while you are at the summer home, perhaps you can fire up the family’s lighthouse, the enchantments there were made by your great grandmother Lumina, after whom you are named.”

“A wonderful idea, mother, perhaps I can find the inspiration I have been looking for while I am there.”

Lumina grinned wickedly, but only Kiwi seemed to suspect anything amiss, or otherwise Lumina’s parents mistook that wicked grin for enthusiasm, spite, or some other positive emotion that would drive their daughter forward.

The very next day, Lumina was packed up and on a carriage ride to Mane, where the family’s summer home lay next to an old lighthouse, Lumina had heard that the town of Trotschester had grown up a bit, but in her heart she still expected it to be a rustic community of fish loving yokels. Kiwi, for her part, was still by her side, and Lumina could not have been happier seeing her old friend there. Kiwi had already graduated from trade school, having learned basic weather management for agriculture, and didn’t think finding a job in Mane would be hard during the winter.

Their carriage rolled up to a gated house, a two story building up on a rocky bluff overlooking the sea, a lonely house, with no friends for miles save the lighthouse that loomed over it. Lumina stepped out to unlock the gate, then re-entered the carriage as they were drawn through the long driveway, a snaking path through brown, tangled trees.

When the carriage finally approached the house, a peel of thunder rolled in from the sea, greeting the new residents. Kiwi looked nervously about as the carriage ponies began unloading luggage.

Kiwi Glitter kicked the dust off of a nearby credenza, “I have a bad feeling about this, Lumina, I don’t know if your “destiny” is really a good thing after all. Do you think famous tragedies were the work of “destiny”?”

Lumina had begun dragging luggage around with her teeth, but stopped for a bit to remark, “Oh Kiwi, be brave, the work I have planned here will make me a great master of magic, and who knows, maybe there really is something of value in that old lighthouse, for one thing, every sorceror needs an ivory tower to work in, and that one will do very nicely for me!”

“Lumina, can we at least get this place heated up and cleaned before you try anything?”

Lumina checked out the scenery, quite a few cobwebs, she thought, “Well, heated yes, but what would be the point of the spell I’m planning if we needed to do the cleaning ourselves? “

The carriage ponies that were unloading luggage raised an eyebrow, but ultimately made no mention of the strange debate going on around them. Lumina tipped them handsomely and made mention of needing a pickup for supplies in town tomorrow. They signed the orders for a return trip, took their down payment and left, perhaps in a bit of a hurry.

Lumina walked over to a large fireplace, a cozy study right out of stereotype, bear skin rug and all. Lumina loaded some logs into the fire and then opened up her favorite book, while Kiwi started a fire.

“Oh this is going to be wonderful, Kiwi” said Lumina while she hoofed through the ages of her accursed tome, “And it seems so dreadfully simple I can’t imagine how anything could go wrong.”

Kiwi Glitter smacked her head against the rug, “Lumina, I know you are all set on going through with this, but have you considered at least practicing some of the other spells a bit before trying the big one?”

“Kiwi, I don’t think you understand, this IS the easiest spell in here, spells for creating dark mirrors to other worlds, charming handsome stallions, or stealing someone’s youth are all much, much harder than mere Daemon summoning.”

Kiwi Glitter raised an eyebrow, and her left ear flitted about, “Wait, those are the other spells in that book? Those sound terrible!”

“Well, it IS Dark Magic, Kiwi, not exactly rainbows and flowers now is it? Besides, it is all in how you use it, we do not HAVE to do evil things with this magic....” Lumina smirked and leaned in, nearly touching her friend face with her own, “Though I saw the look on your face when I mentioned charming handsome stallions.”

Kiwi Glitter’s face got red, an impressive act considering her face is covered in lime green fur, “Ha Hem, keff keff, me? No... well, what type of charming are we talking here?”

Lumina’s voice became a bit huskier and she put an arm around Kiwi’s withers, “Oh, just putting yourself in the best light, dear, it is not mind control, nothing so immoral, just making a stallion more honest with themselves.”

“Well.... I don’t see the harm in that then.” Kiwi coughed.

“Perfect, then tomorrow we will pick up some supplies we need in town, and tomorrow night, we will perform the summoning. Who knows, perhaps this Daemon himself will be a handsome stallion?”

Kiwi Glitter gulped loudly, then slept uneasily by the fire. Lumina stayed up a bit reading, then fell asleep in her chair. Neither of them had even unpacked when morning and the carriage ponies arrived.

“Heh? Oh would you look at the time, Kiwi, wake up, we have work to do.”

The two mares traveled in silence, Lumina busy checking her list of reagents, and Kiwi looking out the window, worrying about the future. The two carriage stallions couldn’t help but notice the oddity of seeing Lumina, a unicorn, writing with a pencil in her teeth.

The carriage stopped in Trotschester, a quiet ocean town. With all the stallions out at sea fishing or harvesting kelp, the only life in this town were the odd craftsponies plying their trades in shops, or mares shopping for their households. At this time of year, Mane was practically livable, sunny and warm by local accounts, but still cool and refreshing by the standards of a Fillydelphia native. The smell of the sea was everywhere.

Hopping off the carriage, Lumina tipped the carriage ponies and shot them a wink, then trotted off with a swagger. She was feeling particularly excited today, and for the moment, perhaps even a bit playful. Kiwi then exited and followed, but not before one of the carriage ponies shot her a wink. Kiwi blushed and galloped off after her friend.

The first carriage pony looked over at his friend, “Did you notice how the unicorn didn’t levitate her pencil to write things down? “

“I guess I missed it.", The first carriage pony stated.

“Or how the pegasus has a fruit on her flank?”

“You think they’ve got a lot of Earth pony in them?”

“I think they might soon have a lot more!”, chuckled the first carriage pony.

The carriage ponies laughed and knocked their hooves together, then trotted off to gossip about the two very lonely mares stuck in that house alone.

Meanwhile, Lumina had purchased a small cart and begun filling it with an increasingly suspect array of ingredients. Generally only those who traded with Griffons had any need to visit a butcher’s shop.

Lumina was feeling a bit uneasy about this request, “Oh it is for chum you see, we like to watch the fish.”

The butcher raised an eyebrow as he handed Lumina a bucket of fresh blood. That was what buckets of blood were for.... he hoped.

The butcher leaned over the table, “Why do you need all them candles made with tallow?”

“Oh! I was planning on having some guests over, and the tables are so dreadfully drab.”

Lumina could not stand the butcher’s disapproving gaze, and she withered under it like a wilting flower in the sun. The shopkeeper looked out the window at the carriage the two had come in on. He noticed the two rowdy carriage ponies, young single stallions from in town with a reputation for drunkenness and seedy moral character. The shopkeeper sighed and then handed Lumina a box of specially prepared fish guts, small tubes of them, meticulously cleaned, with the ends tied off on one side. Certainly not like corn-sausages which were tied on both ends.

Lumina held one in her hoof, “What are these for?”

The butcher put a corn sausage inside one of these tubes and then wiggled it around slightly, pushing it back and forth in the air.

Lumina gasped, and blushed, “Oh! No no, well, ..”

She looked back at her carriage stallions, felt sick for her reputation, but then decided she’d rather have someone view her as... such... then really look into why she had been to a butcher.

“I ahh... I might as well take these, since you never know when you might ah... need to pack some sausages.”

She blushed, but took the sausage covers, then hurriedly ran about on her shopping, dodging wary glances as she assembled her list:

Fresh Blood-1 Gallon

6 Silver Candle Holders

Real Fat Candles

A silver knife

Holly Leaves

Nightshade

Various Glass Bottles

A Cauldron

Eye of Newt

A Griffon Claw

40 lbs of hay

30 Kiwis

10 Bananas

Firewood

Laundry detergent

What? Her list of reagents had to include a few necessities for around the house. The carriage ponies returned Lumina and Kiwi Glitter to their house, and leaned up against the door while politely asking if Lumina and Kiwi needed any help inside the house.

Lumina shot down this notion, but mentioned needing a pickup again in 3 days for supplies. Perhaps a little disappointed, the carriage ponies trotted off. Lumina wasted no time in jumping right to laying out her spell.

“This is it, Kiwi, this is our time for glory! Soon I will be the mightiest sorceress in all of Ponydom!”

Kiwi Glitter was working on carving some symbols into the ground, “Perhaps... Now the angles on these lines have to be very precise, right?”

Lumina snapped, “Yes! The circle of blood must have the channels the blood fills in carved in precise geometric relation! The circle of blood is what keeps the Daemon trapped within while I bind it. If you screw this up, the Daemon could run loose and eat us!”

*gulp, “Well good thing I went to trade school” Kiwi said, “There’s plenty of geometry in weather vane construction.”

Lumina settled down, “Excellent. Now we need two opposed Equestrilateral triangles right here and here.”

“You mean equilateral?”

Lumina re-read the instructions “Hmm... I guess that would make a bit more sense. I am glad you are here, Kiwi!”

Kiwi gulped again.

Later that night, the two initiates to the dark arts stood before their ring of burnt leaves, with the EQUI-lateral triangles bound within it, filled with blood which was getting a mite bit un-fresh by now, with their six silver candle holders burning real animal fat at the point of each triangle. Kiwi Glitter wore a hood and held a silver dagger.

Lumina began, “Arise! Arise from the dread realm of discord! Oh ye Daemon! Full of wickedness and wrongness, hear our cries! Grant unto this unworthy mare your presence, in the name of Dol Equinarus the ever living I command you! Bael Dornath Kuro Nargath Samiel Kuro Nargath! Bael Dornath Salheed Dogerad!”

Nothing happened.

“Okay Kiwi, give me the knife, I need to cut myself.”

“What? Why?”

Lumina looked away, “The ritual needs the blood of... well...you know....”

Kiwi Glitter laughed, “Oh come on! You gave me so much shit about those stallions and your telling me that you never...”

Lumina stamped the ground, “I am from a proper family Kiwi! I always had to look out for my bloodline, I could not just risk my breeding with any random stallion at the academy.”

“You know, I just think after all the advice you’ve given me with men, maybe you might of actually...”

Lumina snorted, “Well of course I’ve DATED, Kiwi, charmed a few stallions in my day, had a few candidates for a husband I may have considered, maybe fooled around a bit, but I never slept with any of them. I suppose we could always use your blood if you think me impure.”

Kiwi Glitter chuckled, “Yeah no, I’m not qualified at all.”

Lumina gasped, clearly shocked, “Kiwi you didn’t! Who was the lucky stallion?”

Kiwi Glitter’s ears went flat and she lowered her head, “Ah heh, I can’t really remember a name, drinking hard was kind of a team sport at Manehattan Ag and Tech.”

“How dreadful! Well, at least it was just a one off experience.”

Kiwi’s face reddened, Lumina raised a hoof to ask further questions, then just decided that whatever happens at freshman year of technical college stays at freshman year of technical college. With a sigh, she took the knife and cut herself.

As the drops of keh heh... virgin blood fell upon the meticulously laid out altar, for a moment, there was a heavy pause, doubt, and embarrassment. Then fear! A terrible rush of smoke rose up from every candle, and a darkness filled the room, neither pony could see anything except the glowing sigil upon the floor. A horrible emptiness filled the room, then a feeling of vertigo as the bottom of the altar seemed to drop away, leaving both ponies embracing each other in terror. With a flash, the smoke cleared the room, and standing in the middle of the circle, was the Daemon.

Larger than a Griffon, taller than Celestia, it stood on two feet like a Diamond Dog, and loomed over the two terrified ponies. Its shoulders were broad and thick, and its torso and thighs were covered in hard, red scales like a dragon’s. Its belly was bloated and fat, and its face was a solid metal mask twisted into an expression of pain and hate. It wore a metal hat, with flat, unnatural horns twisting out from under it, and in its hand it held a massive wooden club covered in large round bulbs of metal. It also had a wicked sick mustache and funny looking wooden sandals.

The Daemon looked around, then turned its face towards the pair of would be spellcasters, and took one huge step towards them. Lumina wet herself in terror, but was then comforted by a ping of relief as the Daemon hit an invisible wall and stumbled backwards, then began exploring the confines of his ethereal prison.

Lumina looked up, stunned, “Oh... my ... Celestia.”

Kiwi Glitter’s jaw dropped, “What... is that?”

Lumina completely lost it, “Why, it is a Daemon, why would it not be a Daemon, he he ha ha, that is what this spell does, summon Daemons, yes sir here it is ah ha ha ha.”

Kiwi Glitter looked at her friend nervously, “Lumina, maybe we should... undo the spell?”

Lumina stamped, still clearly in shock, “No! We have come this far, no sense wasting a perfectly good Daemon.”

The Daemon seemed to notice the two ponies talking to each other, because at that point it began to speak back to them. The dark tongue of Daemons was a terror to hear, not the high, neighing rhyme of pony-speech, but a harsh, stuttering tongue, choppy and straightforward. The two ponies slowly turned their necks towards the Daemon, shivering, as blood shot out of the ground and into Lumina’s face.

Lumina and Kiwi flailed around for a bit, then came to their senses. Lumina straightened the most this time, for in her mind, she heard the meaning of the Daemon’s tongue.

The Daemon’s mien was inscrutable, “Hey, Hey can you hear me?”

Lumina opened her mouth, her horn glowing, and spoke, some force of the spell made the jump between Daemon speech and its would be master.

Lumina spat out blood, “Yes, yes I hear you, oh Daemon.”

The Daemon chuckled nervously, “Ahh, well, I seem to be trapped in this... magic circle and I assure you I am not a Daemon.”

Kiwi Glitter pressed up against her friend, “What’s it saying? Is this part of the spell?”

Lumina pushed Kiwi away and cleaned some blood from her ears, “Yes, it is part of the spell, the caster is supposed to be able to talk with the Daemon to make a pact, I guess you can not understand it?”

Kiwi Glitter shook her head, “It just sounds like dog barking to me. Lots of it, slow and horrible.”

The Daemon put a finger up and coughed, “I uh.. couldn’t help but overhear you talking to your friend there, you, uh, really small unicorn.”

Lumina stomped, “Silence Daemon! I am your master now and you shall do as I say!”

The Daemon looked around, “What? Look there’s been some sort of terrible mistake I’m not a Daemon, I’m just a chemist from Tennessee.”

Lumina stepped right up to the edge of the spell circle, “Enough of your tricks! You will make a pact here and serve me! Obey!”

The Daemon was fidgeting quite a bit by now, “Well... I kind of have a job to get back to on Monday, so I could ...maybe... serve you until then? Can you let me out of this circle?”

Lumina reared up on her hind legs and brandished her front hooves, swatting the air repeatedly. Her horn burned with a sickly, chlorine-yellow light, “No! You shall serve me for a year and a day, then return to your wretched realm of Ten Essy. The name of Dol Equinarus compels you!”

The Daemon stepped back, “Look, I’d really love to help, and you seem nice but, if I don’t get back to work on Monday, people are going to start wondering where I went, and my job is gonna have a hard time getting done.”

Kiwi Glitter calmed her friend down, and whispered into her ear, “What is he saying?”

Lumina threw her mane to the side, having embraced her facade of bravery, “Foolish Daemon tricks, I read all about them, trying to convince me that the spell did not work, that he is not a Daemon, that he has places to be, he tried to bargain for going home on Monday.”

“Oh well, how does this thing here work?”

Rather matter of factly, Lumina stated, “I can keep him in that circle as long as I want, but he can only leave once we have made a deal, and then he is bound to that deal.”

The Daemon gagged, “So wait? I have to cut you a deal or else I’m stuck here? What if I starve?”

Lumina chuckled, “Then you starve. Cut me a deal Daemon, and you will be free.”

The Daemon stammered, “Well, how about I just help you clean up the place, I mean it is pretty dusty in here, and I imagine being a ... unicorn... wizard... doesn’t make it that easy to keep this place clean.”

“Ha! You will have to do better than....”

The glow of the circle completely faded.

Lumina’s face sank, then sank worse. She remembered that Daemons were bound to the letter of their law, and she had just told him if he cut her a deal, he would be free. He had cut her a deal.

Kiwi Glitter quickly picked up on her friend’s panic, and looked up to the Daemon in fear.

He stepped out of the circle.

Both ponies ran from the room as fast as they could, bumping into each other and tripping on themselves as they left. They ran out of the lighthouse and into the open area on the way to their house. They were running clear for the gates, when they saw a carriage pull up to the house. Oh no, not these two, not now. They decided to change their heading to run towards the two carriage ponies.

The smaller, brown carriage pony announced himself, “Hi I’m Clodhopper, and this is my friend Granite, we heard some screams, did you two have a problem here?”

Lumina stuttered and said, “No! no.. No, everything is fine, just.. ahh, working on the lighthouse”

Granite, the larger, gray carriage pony spoke up, “We saw a red light coming from the lighthouse and came to check if you’d lit something on fire.”

Lumina , slowing down, said, “Oh, no, no we were just testing out some ... ways to light up differently...”

Kiwi Glitter interjected, “Red sky at night, you know?”

Clodhopper reared up, “Oh that’s a great idea! Red beams would make a lot of sense that way. Did you think of that miss...”

“Ahh... Kiwi, Kiwi Glitter, and I am Lumina.” Lumina said, “We’d love to stay and chat but I am afraid we absolutely must get going now, ahh, very busy, nothing to see here.”

Granite asked, “Well, you two mares sure seemed to be awfully hysterical out here, did something go wrong?”

Lumina grimaced, “Oh, we ahh, spilled some... things.”

Clodhopper raised an eyebrow, “Like...”

Kiwi Glitter spat out, “Umm... smelly things, yes, uhh, toilet problems you know.”

“Oh geez.”, Clodhopper said, clearly unable to hide his disgust.

Lumina looked at Kiwi with her mouth hanging open and her eyebrow raised, then snapped her face towards the two carriage ponies, “Yes! And you can see why we would want just a bit of time to clean up, maybe a few days and you could come back and visit?”

Granite pushed the cart back a bit, “Yeah sure, for your pickup in two days, getting supplies in town?”

Kiwi Glitter nodded, “Yup. I’ll see you then.”

The fact that Lumina had wet herself became obvious as she walked away, and the two carriage ponies looked at each other and felt no need to inquire further. Toilet troubles indeed. They did not imagine the toilets at a lighthouse were in very good condition.

Clodhopper and Granite were clearly a bit put off by this bizarre encounter, but then again, old houses weren’t known for their plumbing. As in, having it at all. Clodhopper finally spoke up, “You know, when mares are living together long enough they tend to get visited by aunt Luna at the same time.”

Granite put the thought together, “Oh Geez, you think that’s why they wanted us to visit in three days? They time this stuff?”

Clodhopper chuckled, “Yeah, mares can be pretty gross some times, don’t let the lady act fool you. That old house is probably a stinking shithole right now too. Anyway, dibs on the pegasus. I love that funny robe she was wearing, it makes her look like a wizard.”

Granite shrugged, “Fine by me, I always liked unicorns better.”

“You sly diamond dog you...”

The two carriage ponies trotted away, hardly looking back on Kiwi and Lumina. Lumina sighed a breath of relief and wiped her head, but the embarrassment she felt was soon replaced by a well remembered dread.

Kiwi Glitter looked back at the lighthouse, “So... why did the Daemon get out?”

Lumina sighed, “I ...may have been unspecific with my wording and let it choose its own deal.”

“Oh...shit.”

Lumina snapped her head towards Kiwi, ears down, “Well! Look it is not that bad, he mentioned cleaning the house! Maybe we can... compel him into cleaning, and he never mentioned finishing and escaping back to the Daemon realm.”

“Maybe he doesn’t want to leave”, Kiwi said flatly, still staring at the lighthouse.

Luminas heart sank. She looked at the lighthouse, no light shone forth from it, but somehow that made things much more intimidating.

Lumina puffed her chest out, “Kiwi, I made this mess, and I shall deal with it, you do not have to come with me if you would rather not.”

Kiwi Glitter looked at her friend, “No, I was in on this myself as well, I had better help make this right.”

The Daemonhost

Chapter 2.

The two ponies walked back into the lighthouse, peeking around corners, waiting for an ambush that never came. They found the Daemon in the same room they had left him in, checking on various tomes and tools.

He had taken off a mask that he was wearing, and apparently a helmet as well, for instead of the twisted metal horned face, beneath it was the true face of the Daemon. Foul, grub-like in complexion, with the hair on his face piled around his mouth and lumped into a bushy beard, but leaving his cheeks and forehead oily and bare. Liquid dripped off of his slimy, toad like face and into his ... mouth hair.

The Daemon, closed the book he was flipping through, “Oh, hello, I noticed you ran off, I’m sorry for scaring you, I just didn’t want to be in that circle any more, and I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. You can still understand me, right?”

Lumina turned her head slightly and perked her ears forward, “I understand you, Daemon, but... what is your game here?”

The Daemon held his... hands in front of him, “No game, I’m just really confused. I didn’t really think magic was real, and now apparently I’ve been kidnapped by some sort of really inept unicorn wizard.”

Lumina raised her hoof, then quickly put it on the ground.

Lumina still looked skeptical, “Yes, magic is real, I had heard that your kind were the masters of their own form of magic.”

The Daemon wiped his face hair, “I was never into magic, though I knew a few people who liked to do... uh... Wicca? I don’t know if they ever actually did anything, but now I’m not so sure. I myself am a chemist.”

“A chemist?”, Lumina asked, “What manner of sorcery is that?”

The Daemon moved his hands around in front of him, “Ahh well, you mix things together and get different results? I mostly made things to help with medicine.”

Lumina raised an eyebrow and a hoof, “Like a witch doctor?”

“Yeah sorta, if that’s what you have around... here.” The Daemon looked out a window, “I guess sometimes when visiting family I’d cook up some bubbling foam or smoke makers.”

Zebra magic! Now we were getting somewhere, Lumina had worried that the Daemon would be some foul creature wanting to pulp her bones and eat her flesh, but now this toad faced monstrosity seemed more like the ugly wooden masks that the Zebras made, probably just a monkey-toad spirit of some kind, and not a terrible fiend at all.

Lumina actually smiled, and perked up her ears, “Oh how wonderful! Like the zebras make, so people came to you for entertainment and treating diseases?”

The Daemon flatly stated, “Well no, I mostly just worked at a company making painkillers.”

Her heart sank. Pain-killers? Something that kills with pain? She had only heard of such spells in the darkest of rumors, but this creature brought it up so matter-of-factly, like it was just a common, every day career. For him, maybe it was.

Lumina lowered her hears right back down and turned slightly away, “Ahh.. yes painkillers, well, who would not need more of that? A good job for a Daemon I’m sure.”

The Daemon chuckled and put one hand behind his back, “Ha, well, it paid pretty well, but it took a lot of my time. I’ve been thinking, that year and a day might not be such a bad time after all. I’ll just think of it as a vacation, and to hell with the consequences.”

Whew, he’d planned to leave in a year, thank Celestia, she had wondered if he’d be here forever.

The Daemon wiped some blood from his scales, “Umm... is there any place I could take a bath?”

A bath? What did Daemons even bathe IN? Tears? Blood? Feces? This was a strange request, but she thought it best to just try and dodge the question of what KIND of bath.

Lumina blew out a puff, “Well, we ahh, have a bath in the main house you could use.”

The Daemon smiled, “Sounds great, umm... so what do you call yourself?”

“Ahh, I am Lumina, and this is Kiwi Glitter.”

The Daemon held out one hand in the air in front of him, “Charmed, I’m Samuel Nielson.”

Samiel? She didn’t think it was pronounced that way, but she’d read that name before... oh this could be bad... maybe it was a common Daemon name, he was just named AFTER a really scary Daemon, like all the Marehomads in Saddle Arabia? Nills son though... That was a much more questionable surname. Son of nothing? Best not to think about it...

Lumina left his hand alone, and walked off, “Oh well thank you Mr... Nillson, ahh... follow me.”

The ponies and their Daemon walked out to the main house, the Daemon carrying his mask and helmet under one arm, then hefting that enormous club of his with one hand... it must have been 5 feet tall and as thick as a pony’s neck. He lifted it as though it were made of paper...

Kiwi Glitter shoulder bumped her friend, “So what was he saying?”

Lumina looked back at the Daemon, “Ahh he was just, ahh describing his charming Daemon career, and has decided to stay for a year and a day... the uh... standard Daemon summoning duration.”

Kiwi Glitter smiled, “Oh! That’s good, he’s not actually here forever. Have you asked about learning any magic from him? He doesn’t seem really angry.”

Lumina blinked, “Oh! It had slipped my mind. I’ll ask in a bit.”

They reached the house, and introduced the Daemon to the area, it was lucky they had such high ceilings, he nearly hit his head on a number of fixtures, and had to bend down a bit. He took off his sandals when he came in and left them by the door. How curious, only royalty tended to wear sandals, or those that were very dressed up. Lumina noticed that the creature was not actually scaled, but wearing a sort of armor, perhaps dragon hide? Maybe this creature was extremely wealthy, Lumina guessed pain-killing just as legendary of a magic on his world as it was here.

Lumina showed him to a large metal bathtub, sitting up on little legs. She mentioned getting some water from the reserve, as this close to the sea, all the water came from rain, and was always just a little bit salty. He had no problem with it, apparently Daemons bathed in plain old water, and soon he had gotten out of his clothing and into the tub of cold water. When Kiwi came back with a pot of boiling water she nearly dropped it.

She saw his cutie mark.

Lumina followed in soon after, and her jaw dropped.

She saw his cutie mark.

The Daemon itself was grotesque without its armor on, nearly completely hairless, covered in slimy, white flesh like a grub, his hands were not the clawed things of griffons, dragons, or diamond dogs, but long, wiry things like a spider wearing an octopus was attached to each wrist. His body was a twisted mockery of nature, if what they were seeing was even a “he”, it had fat, pancake nipples and hairy udders up on its chest, with a fat, distended belly like a pregnant mare, or possibly just a big toad. What really got their attention was the mark upon his shoulder, a cutie mark... well, in the wrong place for one thing, but the creature’s nipples were in the wrong place so maybe this made a bit of sense... ugh.

His cutie mark was not just colored fur, but painted into his skin, it had two components to it, a chain of wire beset with barbs that was wrapped around the shoulder, and above that... a skull.

They looked at each other. They couldn’t help but make the connection between that barbed wire and pain, and between that skull and death. Painkiller indeed. The Daemon noticed the two mares standing around and looking at him, and addressed them.

“Oh, sorry I guess I might be shocking to look at, I didn’t think I’d be that big a deal, you were walking around naked anyway, at least I didn’t think that would be a big deal.”

Lumina closed her previously dropped jaw, “Oh... no don’t mind us, I... for one, was just admiring your cutie mark. Very... grim.” She recoiled and pawed at the air.

The Daemon looked at his shoulder, “Oh man, I guess that might be scary, my ah... cutie mark?... I got that more than 20 years ago.”

Lumina was perplexed and worried, “Ahh.. in your younger years... you uhh.. had a natural inclination for... death and pain?”

The Daemon looked away, “Well... yes I used to be quite the rebel, but I never did anything really wrong I guess, not by... my people’s standards, just, hung out with a rough crowd. I cleaned up, became a chemist. Umm... so I notice that you have a mark on your... butt... when did you get that?”

Lumina looked at her own cutie mark, a series of yellow lines pointing outward in a ring, “Oh... I was just a filly, maybe 8 or 9 when I got my cutie mark.”

The Daemon laughed, “Wow, strange, my parents would never let me get something like that, I had to wait until I was 18 to get mine.”

18 years old and no cutie mark? Lumina imagined that Daemons, perhaps, lived much longer than ponies, or at least matured much slower. Still, he mentioned his parents “letting him” get something like that. Perhaps for Daemons getting their cutie marks was more of a vision quest than simple fate? She’d heard of some ponies having rather bizarre experiences when getting their cutie marks.

Kiwi Glitter elbowed Lumin, “Lumina, what’s he saying?”

Lumina frowned, “We are discussing his cutie mark, he was a late bloomer so I hear, getting his at a ripe old age of eighteen.”

Kiwi Glitter dropped her jaw, and raised both eyebrows, “Eighteen!? How the Tartarus old is this thing anyway?”

Lumina pursed the edges of her lips, “Hmm... Ahh probably best not to ask. Daemons are reputed to be rather ancient.”

Kiwi Glitter elbowed Lumina and pointed at the Daemon, “Well, ask him about... I don’t know, what can he teach us?”

Lumina’s ears perked up and she snapped her...hoof... err... against the other, “Oh yes... Mister Daemon... err.. Nillson, my friend here is wondering about the great reputation your esteemed Daemon kind have for knowledge.”

The Daemon put down a wash cloth, raised one eyebrow and smirked, “Well... I... guess... honestly I can probably see that, this place seems to be stuck in maybe Victorian era technology, maybe earlier, so I’m not sure your kind are quite as... advanced as people are on my world.”

Lumina looked a bit worried, “Oh, well, I suppose the magic of the Daemon world is much stronger than ours.”

The Daemon scratched his head, “Magic... I guess some of what we do might be viewed that way... honestly on my world unicorns had a reputation for being extremely magical creatures.”

Lumina smiled, “Really? I suppose it makes sense, unicorns are the greatest at magic.”

The Daemon sighed, then looked truly worried, “I’m just worried about this “summoning” you pulled off. There are a lot of scary stories on my world about people being abducted by aliens, but I never imagined that aliens would be... tiny unicorn wizards. It isn’t even that off from the stories, you have the huge eyes and little bodies that aliens are supposed to have”

Lumina actually felt bad for a little bit, thinking about the Daemon’s perspective, she HAD just ripped him from his home... but was this all just another Daemon trick? She had to remember what she was dealing with here.

Lumina sighed, and dropped her ears and began to slink away, “Well... enjoy your bath, we will be... downstairs preparing a meal.” She noticed her own uncleanliness, “I uh... had better get cleaned up a bit myself too.”

The Daemon smiled, “Oh thanks, I could sure go for a meal.”

Lumina and Kiwi cleaned themselves off with a bucket, rather than spend more time in the bath room with the Daemon. The two mares then went downstairs and gathered some food from the pantry for the night’s meal.

Kiwi Glitter became more vocal when alone with Lumina, “Oh my Celestia, Lumina you’ve made a serious mistake. That Daemon may be polite... but... look at his cutie mark!”

Lumina put her hoof to her eyebrows, and closed her eyes, “Now now, he IS a Daemon, so yes, pain and death are likely things that he... revels in from time to time.” She shrugged and grimaced, “For all we know that is just hum drum life for him, no different than kiwi farming or raking is here.”

Kiwi Glitter frowned, “Yeah, well, what are we going to do when he shoots a pain-beam out of his ... face... and then we fall over dead?”

Lumina looked deep in thought, “I... do not think that is going to happen. Whether he pretends to it or not, I do think this Daemon is bound... to an extent. I think the only thing we have to fear is getting flustered and asking him to do something for us that could be... misinterpreted.”

Kiwi Glitter looked unamused, “So you’re telling me, this is like the stories of Arabians binding genies inside of lamps? Don’t wish for an assload of gold?”

Lumina stuck out her tongue, “ Bleh, oh lord... no... perish the thought, that old joke... well... it actually may have been based on a true story if binding genies is similar to binding Daemons.”

Kiwi Glitter hardened her face, “Just watch what you say, I’m still uneasy about this whole thing.”

Lumina put a hoof up and smiled, “Oh do not worry, Kiwi, I am a brilliant word smith, I will not slip at the tongue...again.”

Kiwi Glitter rolled her eyes and then began setting the table.

The Daemon was already at the table, wearing large poofy pantaloons and a simple button up shirt, both apparently cleaned with him in the bath. Lumina and Kiwi brought out a plate of sliced Kiwi fruits, some bananas, and a large covered plate of steamed and spiced hay.

The Daemon sniffed deeply, and smiled with his eyes closed, “Mmmm, that smells good. I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.”

The room went utterly silent, as both Lumina and the Daemon contemplated the meaning behind what had just been said. Lumina stared with her mouth agape, Kiwi, for her part, served herself some kiwi fruit slices.

The Daemon waved both his in front of him “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it, it’s just a turn of phrase.”

Lumina grimaced and chuckled nervously, “No no! Ahh, I’m sure it is just, culture... differences... ahh.. let us know if anything here is not to your... liking.”

Kiwi Glitter lifted the cover on the spiced hay and began serving the Daemon a plate of it.

Kiwi Glitter noticed her friends dismay, “What did he say?”

Lumina dropped her ears and neck, winced and said, “Oh.. well... he... mentioned that he was very hungry... ahh... hungry enough to eat a horse.”

Kiwi dropped her silverware and turned to the Daemon. He put his hands up in front of him and began to stammer.

“No no... I... I wouldn’t want to eat you! I... I’ve never even eaten horse before... It’s just something people say... because... you know... that’s a lot of meat to be eating.”

Lumina sighed, “Mr Nillson, she well, she can not understand you, I am sure it will be all right.”

The Daemon was clearly embarassed, “Yes... ah...” he said. He stared at his plate and his face filled with apologetic determination.

The Daemon began to push hay into his mouth and chew on it. He winced for a bit, tried chewing harder, then finally spit it out and began eating all of the kiwi fruit in front of him.

Lumina looked a bit worried by this emotional display, she’s seen griffons do the same thing, “I... see you have some trouble with our food, is there... something else you would like to eat?”

Kiwi Glitter turned sharply to Lumina and gave her a worried glare.

“Ahh... maybe some more fruit?”, Lumina asked, offering a plate of kiwi fruits.

The Daemon sighed, “Yeah... umm... I could use some more fruit...ugh veganism... boy this is gonna be a healthy year.”

“Healthy?”, Lumina asked, cocking her head.

“Well, where I come from a uhh... vegetarian diet is considered really healthy” the Daemon said.

Lumina looked a bit more hopeful, “Oh... so you will not be needing any... meat... while you are here?” She really did not want to be frequenting the butcher’s.

The Daemon though for a minute, “Somehow I think there would be trouble for it. Just... I can’t eat hay. What do you guys normally eat besides... grass?”

Lumina rolled her eyes upwards a bit and put her hoof on her chin, “Well there are... kiwis, bananas, cakes, ahh... bread, tomatoes, clovers, potatoes, squash, umm... milk sometimes? Lettuce? Eggs maybe?”

The Daemon put his hands on his chin also, “Hmm... I think if you have milk and tomatoes I can work something out. Do you guys have any oil for cooking?”

“Yes... certainly.”

The Daemon smiled, “Well, then I think I have an idea. Maybe I can do some good while I’m here. Maybe teach you two some... magic. Oh this might actually be fun...” Lumina was less than reassured by that statement.

The rest of the night passed without incident, though there was much gossip between Kiwi and Lumina, and the next day the Daemon spent his whole day cleaning up the house and asking about the local environment. He had asked some very strange questions about rocks, plants and other things, but ultimately, the ponies seemed more than willing to avoid him, and he they. Before their trip to town, however, the Daemon named a list of items that he would need.

Oil, Potatoes, Flour, Eggs, Milk, An absurd number of random spices, salt... the list went on. This seemed like cooking supplies, Lumina had expected a list of foul Daemonic reagents for spells... Well, there was the brimstone but... well, with Daemons that was a given.

As their carriage rolled into town, the carriage ponies pulling it struck up a conversation.

Clodhopper asked, “So, Kiwi, did you two get your latrines all sorted out?”, he grinned smugly.

Kiwi Glitter smiled back, “Oh, yeah, we only had one more incident, the lighthouse is still unworkable though.” She made a silly face and shrugged.

Clodhopper laughed, “What a shame. I didn’t think that lighthouse was really needed anymore, the port has moved quite a bit since that old relic was made.”

Lumina stopped staring out the window, and began to lecture, “Well, we are not just restoring the lighthouse to provide light for ships, but to study HOW the light was automated. My grandmother apparently built the enchantments for that tower, and I wanted to learn how it had been done.”

The other carriage pony, Granit, looked back and asked, “So you are an enchantress?”

Lumina giggled, “Ahh, no... not yet, I am studying enchantment but have not quite mastered it.”

Granite smiled, “Oh nice, off from school for the summer? What school are you going to?”

Lumina thought for a bit, on how to answer. “Oh... um... Celestia’s Academy.” She frowned.

Granite’s ears stood up, and he looked at Clodhopper, “Wow really! Clodhopper we’ve got quite the wizard here, and doing some self study on summer break no less.” He elbowed his friend and winked.

Clodhopper nodded, “Yeah, real classy school that is, all the big wigs send their kids there. What about you miss Kiwi? Where are you studying.”

Kiwi Glitter pawed a hoof in the air, “Oh I already graduated, Manehattan Ag and Tech, got my associate’s in weather management for agriculture.”

Clodhopper jumped a bit while pulling the carriage, causing it to bump around, “Woo wee, I heard that place was quite the party school! Did you pick up all your learning there?”

Kiwi Glitter laughed, “I learned enough, truth be told I think college is a scam, but trade school had enough hoofs-on training that I learned plenty, now I’m just taking a break before finding a job on a weather team somewhere. I’m not bad at farming either.”

Granite scoffed, “That’s not bad, done with college in 2 years? I bet you’d rake in more bits than carriage pulling.”

“Nah, it’s a government job, so it pays peanuts, but I could some day maybe get into private weather control for farming, which is where I think the money is.” Kiwi was now leaning out the front window of the carriage.

Clodhopper looked back at her, leaving steering the carriage to Granite, “Well now ain’t that something. You know, my family has a shell farm not far from here, maybe they might need some weather guidance.”

Kiwi Glitter raised both eyebrows and smiled, “Ha, wow, I might be glad to look into that while I’m here.”

Granite clearly looked a bit jealous, “So... Lumina... what about you, what plans are you up to around here besides fixing up that lighthouse and studying?”

Lumina looked back from the side window, “Oh I... wanted to get my mind off of school for a bit, maybe look into industries that could use my... enchantments.”

Granite looked back, smiled and winked, “I already think you are enchanting.”

The carriage went silent for an uncomfortable amount of time.

Clodhopper broke the silence, “HA HA ha that’s a good one Granite, come on, lady you got to admit you set that one up.”

Lumina grimaced, “I guess I did... well... we have quite a busy day finding materials here in town, and we have quite a late start today. Could you pick us up in maybe 3 hours?”

“Oh.. yeah of course. I guess we’re here then." Clodhopper said.

Perhaps a bit dejected, the carriage ponies delivered their passengers and watched the two mares trot off to go shopping.

Clodhopper elbowed his friend a bit roughly, “Wow, real smooth, ya jackass.”

Granite pushed back, “What! I thought it was a good line. Flattery and all.”

Clodhopper shook his head, “Uhh, damn dude, I think we may have just struck out, well at least Kiwi seems to like me.”

Granite chuckled, “I don’t know dude, the whole, ‘my dad owns a clam ranch’ pickup isn’t really any better.”

Clodhopper pushed his friend, considering they were tied to each other, not a particularly violent action, “Shut up, it was working. Maybe I’ll still score the pegasus on my own, besides, we actually do need a cloud puncher on the clam ranch.”

“Sure you do.”

Kiwi and Lumina had by now begun collecting their supplies. With dread, Lumina realized she would need to return to the butcher’s. She avoided most of the butcher’s scrutiny as she purchased several pounds of Salt Peter, then decided to buy some meat just to appear to have something to preserve. The butcher raised an eyebrow and pursed his lips in an accusatory manner. Most ponies didn’t frequent a butcher’s shop.

Lumina nearly shouted out, “Oh! I have a ... Griffon friend that is coming to visit and I just HAD to keep some meat in stock, you know... Griffons and their... meat.” She looked around outside.

The butcher packed up and salted some meat, but never quite looked at Lumina like she wasn’t up to something.

Kiwi Glitter stared him down, “Oh come on man, you kill animals for a living, stop giving us such a hard time.”

The butcher straightened up a bit and got to his work.

The pair had many other things to pick up, mostly groceries, and for their own needs they erred on the side of fruits. Why the Daemon needed so much brimstone... they wouldn’t hazard to guess, but at least that rumor had proven true. Daemons and their brimstone.

By the time the carriage had brought Lumina and Kiwi back to their house, it was already well into the afternoon. The carriage ponies didn’t even ask if they could come in. Lumina had run inside with a few valuables, leaving Kiwi Glitter to unload a bit more.

Kiwi Glitter stopped her loading for a bit, “Hey, Clodhopper?”

Clodhopper looked up, his expression deliberately aloof, “Yeah?”

“Hey, we still have a lot of cleaning up to do, and Lumina doesn’t really like people to see her work... so I don’t think I can invite you guys in tonight.”

Clodhopper sulked, “No, I understand, I mean, we were just having our fun.”

Kiwi Glitter walked over to him, “Oh, I understand, it’s just, Lumina is going to have a...tutor here, a foreigner, and I don’t know if she’ll ever be comfortable showing him off.”

Clodhopper returned to his feigned aloofness, “Huh, that would explain the meat you guys bought. Is she being tutored by a griffon? I didn’t think they knew anything about magic.”

Kiwi Glitter didn’t skip a beat, “Well, they do know a few things... it’s complicated. Either way, I don’t know if having you guys over for dinner will ever happen.”

Clodhopper smirked, “Yeah. I understand.” His cool act wasn’t working.

Kiwi Glitter waited a bit, then turned her head sideways, and smiled, “Though, I WOULD be interested in checking out your family shell farm, if that job is still open.”

Clodhopper’s dour expression immediately changed to one of livelier spirits.

“Oh you bet! I’m sure my dad could use another hand, do you know anything about shellfish?”

“I’m sure I can learn” Kiwi said.

Kiwi began unloading a box of salt peter and meat from the butcher’s, but fumbled it a bit and dropped a box of sausage covers on the ground, which popped open, the sausage covers popping up a bit like a jack-in-the-box. Clodhopper raised an eyebrow and grinned. Kiwi Glitter lowered her ears flat, then grimaced and gathered up the freight.

Kiwi Glitter winced, “Ahh... meet you here tomorrow then?”

Clodhopper returned to feigning coolness, “Yeah sure. It’ll have to be a bit before lunch, we’ve got a few more pick ups around town.”

Kiwi Glitter hurriedly ran off. “Okay! See you then.”

Clodhopper made a smug grin to his friend.

Granite rolled his eyes, “Oh stuff it. No! No puns on that you know what I mean. Aww Tartarus, this is gonna be a long trip back to town isn’t it? At least I don’t need daddy’s money to get the mares.”

It was a long trip back to town, full of much ribald ribbing and innuendo.

When Kiwi got back inside, the smell of flour was already strong in the kitchen. She sauntered in to find the Daemon busy making some kind of oily snake bread with a wine bottle to roll it flat.

Daemon: Now don’t worry about dinner tonight, I’ve got that all taken care of, and thanks for the supplies, tomorrow I’ll show you some real magic.

Lumina smiled, “Oh wonderful, what type of magic will this be?”

“Fireworks.”

Oh... now this was the good stuff, Lumina thought to herself. Perhaps that’s what all the brimstone is for, Lumina thought. Daemons were known for their love of fire, and nothing said “sorceress” like shooting burning green flames of hell fire from your outstretched hoof.

Lumina grinned wickedly, “Oh how wonderful, I’d always wanted to perform great works of fire, these sparkles on my cutie mark mean I MUST be destined to be a great fire worker.”

“Ahh.. wait is that what those things are?” The Daemon asked.

Lumina continued, “I imagine they must be. Is there anything I need to get ready for tomorrow?”

The Daemon thought for a bit, “Ahh... yeah, get the mortar and pestle ready, and set up a scale, maybe get some buckets of water in case things go wrong...”

Lumina had never dropped her wicked grin, “Of course, teacher, I’ll get right on it.”

Kiwi Glitter didn’t like the enthusiasm for... fire working that her friend had, but she had other concerns. She was busy thinking of that burly carriage pony’s well muscled body, and also maybe getting her hoofs on some tasty dune flowers at his family’s beach. Food was definitely on Kiwi Glitter’s mind by this late at night.

Some time later the Daemon set out a meal, and while it certainly smelled good... both the ponies here looked at each other a bit nervously, wondering exactly what was going to be under the lid.

The Daemon swaggered, “Here we are my little... ponies...” Something about that didn’t sound right to him.

The Daemon looked briefly confused, but then revealed a steaming plate of... something. It was like hay, tangled up and stringy, but smelled of baked goods and cheese, and had been smothered in tomatoes and other spices. He began serving some of it onto their plates, and their mouths couldn’t help but water.

Lumina looked at it closely, “Well, this certainly smells good, but... what is it? There’s quite a lot of ...cheese... here.”

The Daemon smiled, and nodded, “Oh, yeah, the cheese is the best part” He put his hand to his lips and then popped it out, putting on an accent “try a-some, it’s called fettuccine.”

The two mares poked at it for a bit, then ate. Their shocked faces briefly stunned the Daemon, his face pursed in worry.

Lumina dropped her fork, “Oh my..”

The Daemon looked worried, “Is there something wrong? Is this something you can eat?”

Lumina ate some more, and talked with her mouth still full, something she never did, “Oh yes... this is... wonderful... I’ve never eaten something so good. I.. now see why you could not bear to stomach mere hay if this is what people eat on your world.”

“Oh well... that’s not why I don’t eat hay but sure.”

Lumina went on eating, “No really, this is... fantastic. I’m actually worried about a story I heard of people in other worlds avoiding eating anything, for fear of ruining the taste of their home food forevermore. I worry that if I get used to this type of food I’ll never be able to eat hay again.”

The Daemon thought for a bit, “Ahh... well I could see that happening.”

Kiwi glitter picked up on the conversation from Lumina’s side of things, and dropped her fork...

“Oh, no... it’s not cursed or anything, it’s just... well hay is kind of bland, don’t you think? I mean, I could teach you how to make this type of food” the Daemon said.

Lumina actually wondered if she didn’t already have a gold mine on her hoof, I mean, sitting up in dark towers lording over the peasantry with her diabolic powers was one thing, but... a series of chain restaurants that sold magically addictive food might end up being a lot more profitable, not to mention socially acceptable.

The Daemon smacked his large round belly, which jiggled. “I would warn you though, this food can be pretty fattening if you eat too much of it.”

Lumina dropped her fork immediately. Kiwi didn’t quite understand, but had already finished her meal and was leaning back in her seat lazily. Ironically, rubbing her stomach.

Kiwi Glitter interruped, “YAAaawn. Oh boy, I really feel sleepy all of a sudden.”

Lumina was in a bit of a panic, “Ahh, well, maybe we had better lay off the ...fetish eeny for now. Kiwi, ahh, apparently eating too much of this food can make you fat, like our friend here.”

Kiwi Glitter’s eyes went wide, as she began patting down her bloated belly.

The Daemon waved his hands around, “Well, not just one meal, you’d have to eat this stuff, well, every day for years. It took a lot of meals to get the way I am now. Ha ha.”

Lumina thought back to some stories of Zebra culture, where in those primitive tribes only the best merchants or kings could afford to get fat, so fatness was considered attractive. This Daemon appeared almost proud of his weight, maybe... it meant he didn’t have to work? She could see that making a bit of sense, what with his skill at cooking, and apparently his knowledge of fire and pain, this might be a sort of lord among Daemons she had here. She actually was glad to think of that, rather than frightened.

The Daemon took up the remaining plates, and whisked them off into the kitchen.

Kiwi Glitter looked at the Daemon leave, then turned back to her friend and blew her bangs back, “Oh man. I think I just gave into temptation. If that’s what food is like in the Daemon realm I might just get captured by this guy.”

Lumina snapped, “Kiwi! Harden your will! Remember, this is just one of the many magics I talked about, this food obviously has a sort of charm magic on it. One I intend to learn for myself.”

Kiwi Glitter put her hooves and wings behind her back, “That reminds me, speaking of charming, I was planning on heading out to Clodhopper’s family farm tomorrow.”

Lumina lowered her ears, “Oh Kiwi, why? Those two carriage ponies seem like such rough brutes.”

Kiwi Glitter scoffed, “What, and I’m a proper gentlemare? He seems like a pretty straightforward guy, and all that carriage pulling has made him pretty strong.”

“leh sigh”, Lumina said. “Oh Kiwi I suppose we are from two very different worlds. Very well then, I will stay here alone with the Daemon tomorrow and learn ‘fireworks’.”

Lumina returned to the kitchen, but the Daemon had practically cleaned everything by the time she got there, apparently his grubby little hands made scrubbing things down very easy, that and all the soap they had gotten from the butcher’s.

The Daemon looked at some extra fettucine, “Its a shame we are gonna have to throw all this food away, I guess you ponies don’t have an ice box or anything like that here?”

“An ice box?” Lumina asked, raising an eyebrow, “Is that some sort of magic tool?”

“Sure... hmm maybe if I build a forge I could try casting some metal tubes... at that rate I might as well just build a still... hmmm.... Do ponies have alcohol?”

Lumina answered, “Well, yes we make barley wine and apple cider.”

“Heh heh, maybe if I can get the things I need I can show you some REAL liquor...”

Lumina didn’t much like the sound of that. Apple cider was plenty strong enough for her taste. She couldn’t imagine the disaster that would happen if she tried Daemon liquor.

The Daemon stretched his arms above his head, “You know, I could see having a really good time here. Back on my world, I used to go to camping events where we would try to re-create old medieval style villages and the like. We would make our own forges and armor, it was great fun, but here, I just really feel the difference in a real renaissance setting.”

Lumina looked confused, “Ahh, you used to... play make believe?”

The Daemon began moving around swinging his hands in the air, “Well... used to play the big fights up too, that’s what this armor is for, live action battles, but I’ve gotten a bit too old to actually get out there and fight. I still love the costuming and crafting though.”

Lumina scratched her head, “I can not say I entirely understand the sentiment.”

The Daemon sat down, “Well, we just created these other worlds because we got bored some times, so lots of us just went out together to, as you say it, play make believe.”

Lumina finally got a notion, but she didn’t like it, the impossibly tasty foods, the bizarre appearance, the playing make believe with false worlds, the weird games with exact wording, this creature sounded less and less like a Daemon and... more like the Fae... the bad kind... She was not sure if that was any better, but it might go one step towards explaining things.

The Daemon looked right at her, “I’m just frankly still overwhelmed and a bit overjoyed to be here, I mean, how many people get to go to magical worlds and spend time with unicorns?”

Lumina hardly considered unicorns a rarity, but then again, how many people got to spend time with Daemons?

The trio eventually came to need their rest, and the Daemon had to sleep in the master bedroom, since only such a massive bed would fit him at all. Lumina and Kiwi decided to sleep by the fireplace as they had done the previous night.

Kiwi Glitter asked “Lumina?”

“Yes Kiwi?”

“Things are sure changing quite a bit around here, aren’t they?”

“They most certainly are.”

“Do you think we are just going to end up living here in Trotschester?”

“I do not know, Kiwi. Probably for as much as a year, while the Daemon is here, I am not certain I could take him anywhere else and keep him hidden. I am not sure if I can keep him hidden as it is.”

Kiwi Glitter rolled over on the ground and spread out her lime green wings. She stared up at the ceiling.

“I was really thinking about Clodhoppers farm. This would be the first real job I’d ever had, it just feels like I’m growing up, and then right in the middle of it all is this Daemon business.”

“Oh I know, but Kiwi, the Daemon is MY business, you do not need to concern yourself with it if you would rather not.”

“It DOES concern me though, what if someone finds him around here, and they know I’m staying here with it?”

Lumina looked a bit worried, but stern, “Well. I do not really know what people would do. The Daemon has not been running around eating people or drinking their blood.”

Kiwi Glitter laughed, “No.. he hasn’t. Part of me wonders if I shouldn’t be learning some magic myself. You talked about a charm spell, but I think if I just learned how to make fettuccine I could charm myself any stallion I wanted.”

Lumina laughed, “I can see that. Well Kiwi, let me take a crack at this, and I will let you know if I find something I think fits you, for now, I guess just enjoy your time with Clodhopper.” She smiled at her friend, “I have to admit he really is quite fit.”

Kiwi Glitter laughed, “Yeah...”

Lumina rolled over, “You know Kiwi, I really think things are starting to go our way.”

Kiwi Glitter laughed again, “Yeah...”

The two mares drifted off to sleep, and the next day, when they lazed over to the dining room, the Daemon had already prepared a fine meal of sliced fruit and... flat bread. Rolled up flat bread filled with fruit preserves and... puffy milk? The table was all set up with some fresh squeezed fruit juice. Kiwi groggily set up at the table and began serving herself some food. The Daemon was already seated there with a terrified Clodhopper.

Kiwi Glitter shouted, “Wait! Clodhopper?!”

The Conspirator

Chapter 3.

Kiwi Glitter and Lumina had stopped in the middle of the room and were staring slack jawed at Clodhopper, who was seated at their dinner table, apparently about to snack on some rolled bread and fruit preserves. Lumina tried to put on a serious face.

Clodhopper blushed and knocked his hooves together, “Ahh, hello Kiwi, ahh, nice familiar you have here.”

“That isn’t mine!”, Kiwi shot back.

“Ah, well, its still a nice...err... toad monkey, Lumina”, Clodhopper corrected.

“Toad Monkey?”, Lumina scoffed, “This is a mighty Daemon lord.” Lumina rubbed her hoof on her chest and tossed her mane, clearly proud of herself.

“Daemon Lord?” Clodhopper asked, with an eyebrow raised.

Kiwi Glitter smacked Lumina and gave her a death glare. Lumina looked right back at her and sneered.

“You can call it what you want, but this thing sure makes some good food.” Clodhopper said, with mouth partly full.

Kiwi Glitter pulled out a seat, “Clodhopper, don’t take this the wrong way, but I really expected you to be freaking out right now.”

Clodhopper laughed, and slicked back his mane, “Yeah”, he said smugly, leaning back in his chair, “Most stallions are more nervous when a mare comes on as strong as you did, but I guess I’m too cool for that.” He grinned and put his hooves behind his back, clearly hiding his nervousness.

“She means about the Daemon!” Lumina spat.

Clodhopper raised an eyebrow, “Lady, whatever that is, its no Daemon, and I’m not impressed by your fancy magical minion.”

Lumina was furious, “I am a powerful sorceress and this Daemon is teaching me the dark arts!”

The Daemon looked back at Clodhopper and rolled its finger around its ear. Clodhopper laughed terribly hard and Kiwi hid her face in shame.

Clodhopper wiped a tear from his eye, “Seriously, I can tell a creature of discord when I see one, this is a fishing town, we sell a lot of meat to Minotaurs, Griffons, Manticores, even Dragons.”

Lumina stomped her hooves repeatedly on the ground, “oooooo.” She said.

Kiwi spoke up, “Clodhopper, as much as I hate to admit it, Lumina really did summon that thing, and I’m pretty sure it’s a Daemon.”

“You’re shitting me.” Clodhopper said.

“Nope”, Kiwi said.

“It doesn’t look like a Daemon”

“I even made the circle myself for summoning it.” Kiwi answered.

“Damn, that’s pretty impressive.” Clodhopper said.

“Ha ha, now you see the truth about my skills.” Lumina returned her hoof to her chest and beamed smugly.

“No I meant that a pegasus could get their hoof into magic, you’re quite the dabbler, Kiwi.”

Lumina snapped. She dropped her head in bitter defeat and pulled up a chair.

“All I wanted was some respect for my magic.” Lumina said.

Clodhopper leaned in, “Lumina, seriously, it’s cool, I mean, you’re what? A sophomore at magic academy? You’ll summon something better with practice. Maybe you’ll get a manticore next time?”

Lumina just looked stunned. “No, I shall not, since I was expelled and had to move here.”

“Wow, they expelled you for summoning this thing? I knew it was silly looking but...”

“They expelled me for levitation!” Lumina snapped.

“Seriously? I thought all unicorns could...” Clodhopper stopped himself.

Lumina began to cry.

“Lumina...” Kiwi and Clodhopper spoke.

“Even with the dark arts I can not scare a single peasant.” Lumina observed, sadly.

“No, I mean, its scary, I guess, giant hairy toad monkey, making breakfast, I mean, way to put him in his place.... musta been really... magical... to do that.” Clodhopper unconvincingly said.

Lumina groaned.

The Daemon brought out more breakfast rolls and sat next to Lumina.

The Daemon pushed a plate in front of her, “From what I gather, you just bombed out of magic school and your first plan was summoning a Daemon?”

Lumina nodded.

“First off, that’s really stupid and you could have died. Second, I told you I’m not actually a Daemon, maybe you messed up.”

Lumina sniffed back her tears, “Nonsense! We followed the spell perfectly, I will not fall for your deceptions, Daemon!”

Kiwi and Clodhopper looked at each other, Kiwi chimed in “I dunno Lumina, this WAS your first time, maybe you summoned this guy by mistake.”

“No! My incantations were flawless! I aced all my incantation classes! Let us go to the tower and I will show you that everything was correct.”

Kiwi groaned, but despite her complaints, breakfast was interrupted by a trip to the lighthouse. The Daemon remained behind to prepare some glassware for its own inscrutable purposes.

Clodhopper leaned in towards Kiwi on the journey and whispered, “Is she always this high strung?”

“No.” Kiwi responded, “I think she might be having a nervous breakdown.”

“Why?” Clodhopper whispered back.

“We were pretty scared of that guy when we first saw him, though I guess without his scary mask and all the smoke it’s not so bad.”

Lumina ignored the whispering and led everyone back to the ritual chamber.

“Behold!”. Lumina motioned to the room with a circle of very old and stinky blood in it.

Clodhopper scratched his chin. “Well, I hate to say it but I think I can already see what you guys did wrong here.”

Lumina gawked, “What? How?”

Clodhopper cleared his throat, “Everypony knows that binding evil monsters requires the eldest sign, which is formed from Equestrilateral triangles, not equilateral.”

The tension in the air was quite thick. Kiwi Glitter began to back up towards the door.

“Kiwi...” Lumina began, her voice cold as ice.

“Now Lumina, I think that things worked out umm... better this way don’t you think?” Kiwi nervously explained.

Lumina had her head down and was shaking. Her horn began to glow and she let out a terrible screech. Then she turned away and closed the book of summoning with a loud thud. For a moment the group stood there stunned and speechless.

“Lumin...”

Lumina turned around and let out a terrible laugh. A really, really, fitting laugh for a wicked sorceress, more of a cackle with great volume.

“You know what?” Lumina began. “You ARE right, Kiwi! A REAL daemon probably would have killed us all, but this toad monkey is MUCH better.” Lumina cackled.

Clodhopper and Kiwi looked at each other nervously.

“Once this Daemon teaches me fireworks, I shall finally have the respect that I deserve! None will be able to deny my power! My cutie mark shows how brilliant I am, and all things happen for a reason! This must be my destiny!”

Clodhopper and Kiwi looked at each other nervously. Again.

Clodhopper shrugged, “Ahh well. I guess the rumors about this place were true.”

Lumina snapped back a bit, “What rumors?”

Clodhopper explained, “Well, they say back in the day, this place used to be home to a great and evil enchantress, who would live up in the lighthouse and... I don’t know, do some evil things, create brambles and bad luck, I wasn’t really sure on the specifics.”

Lumina collected herself and trotted forward, “Hmm. My parents did mention that grandma Malevola used to live up here and research enchantment.”

Clodhopper laughed, “Yeah, case closed then. I mean really, who names their daughter ‘Malevola?’ I take it you found some dark and devious books up in Grandma’s old tower and summoned this guy?”

Lumina frowned, “Well, it was not as though the Daemon was just chained up here and I released it, Kiwi and I summoned him ourselves, and I bound it to my service using the dark arts!”

Clodhopper sat on his haunches and crossed his arms, “Really? You seem pretty easy going about this whole situation then. I mean, not a lot of evil enchantresses just let their Daemons answer the door.”

Lumina gasped, “Evil? Why must I be an EVIL enchantress, why can I not simply be, the powerful and respected sorceress of the light house?”

Clodhopper cringed, “Well... powerful and respected sorceresses tend to... I don’t know, control the weather, bless crops, cure chicken pox, summoning Daemons is pretty much a one way ticket to the bottom of the popularity bin.”

Kiwi Glitter chimed in, “Actually, I’m kind of wondering how this all worked out, why didn’t you just run away when the Daemon answered the door?”

“I used to deliver food. A giant toad monkey is hardly the strangest thing I’ve ever had answer a door.” Clodhopper explained.

“Seriously?” Lumina asked. “What could be more frightening than him?”

“Three stallions wearing thongs and lacey saddles”

Kiwi and Lumina looked at each other and frowned.

Clodhopper explained, “Well, I was a little bit put off when I saw him, but he had a plate of fruit cakes and didn’t seem all that angry. That and my Dad always said, ‘an evil pony runs when no one is chasing them, and hides when no one is looking for them’. I figured, how evil could you be when you’ve got this guy answering the door?” “Plus for a while I thought you guys were actually up to something, and I might have to stop you.”

Lumina laughed. “What, praytell, did you think you could do against my Daemon and I?”

“Punch you.” Clodhopper said. “That’s like, rule 1 for dealing with spellcasters.”

Lumina raised a hoof, then thought for a moment and lowered it. “Yes, I suppose that might have worked.”

Lumina went to a window and looked out over the sea. “Do you really think there is a place for me in this town, Clodhopper?”

Clodhopper walked up next to her, and looked back at Kiwi, “Listen, I know you are in this whole, funk about failing at school but... tons of people in this town never went to school at all.”

Lumina looked back at him with an expression of angry indignity.

Kiwi spoke up before giving her a chance to talk, “Yeah Lumina, just think of how lucky you were to get this far, most ponies don’t have parents that can just ...give them a house?”

Lumina sighed. “I suppose I have been acting fairly spoiled today. Truth be told I may just be jealous that you have made a friend in this town before I did. I made few friends at the academy as well, I have not really made any since leaving Fillydelpha.”

Clodhopper raised a hoof, “The name’s Clodhopper Clamhandler, pleased to meet you.”

Lumina smiled, and shook his hoof. “Lumina, I am charmed.” She kissed his hoof and bowed.

The group giggled and walked back to the main house. They joked about spellcaster stereotypes during the walk back and entered the building giggling. The Daemon seemed confused that they were all in a better mood and looked at them like they were crazy. The ponies saw the massive kitchen in the manor now filled with glass bottles, strange powders, and of course, brimstone.

“Ahh, Lumina, I think I promised to check out Clodhopper’s family farm today, will you be fine on your own?” Kiwi asked.

Lumina looked back at the Daemon.

“I think I will be able to entertain myself here, go on Kiwi, we must both attend to our careers.”

Kiwi hugged Lumina, then trotted off with Clodhopper.

Lumina looked back at the Daemon. What these odd kitchenwares had to do with fireworks she couldn’t imagine.

“Are you ready to begin?” asked the Daemon.

“Yes”

The Daemon shifted its weight onto one hip and crossed its arms. “This might be harder than it looks, I can’t just wiggle my fingers and chant some magic words and make magic happen. The ‘magic’ here is mostly just mixing things together the right way, and knowing the right stuff.”

“I remember. What is our first spell?”

“Making smoke. It is by far the easiest ‘spell’ I can teach you, though not the most useful.”

“Okay. so what do we mix?”

The Daemon was apparently boiling some logs in a pressure cooker, with a small hole in the top. He also had some mortars, pestles, a flour crank, tons of stuff that didn’t seem particularly magical.

“While that charcoal is being made, lets grind up all this powder, we need this incredibly smooth.”

Hours passed, spent grinding and re-grinding powder, sifting it and then grinding again. After a time, the log boiled down and fell apart, then was also laboriously ground into powder. A pail was filled with the powder, and lunch had come and gone. Lumina seriously wondered where this was going. Maybe this was a test of patience? You must earn your right to knowledge, start at the bottom? Who knew, Lumina thought, she was just exhausted, the Daemon did the work of 10 ponies with his fiddly squid hands.

Earlier, Kiwi had walked off with Clodhopper, making the significant trek out to his family farm.

On the journey she asked, “So Clodhopper, why does a clam ranch need someone to keep the weather in check?”

Clodhopper chuckled, “Well, the clams mostly come out at night, but it’s easier to just whip up some dark clouds and trick ‘em.”

“Oh, that’s easy.”

He tilted his head to the side and lowered his ears, “Well.... there might be a bit of clam harvesting in the job description also.”

“I can handle that.”

Clodhopper sighed, “You know, it kind of gets to me how easy going you are.”

“Why’s that?” Her expression was plain, but she made eye contact while walking.

“Well, Lumina is just so... intense, you seem so different I have a hard time imagining how you two got along.”

Kiwi shrugged, no easy feat while walking on all fours, “We grew up together, she was always there for me, and honestly, her place was always nicer than mine.”

“You came from a poor family?” Clodhopper asked.

“Poor for Fillydelphia, but I didn’t have many brothers or any sisters, so my parents could still send me to school.”

“What about Lumina, it seems like she’s pretty loaded.”

“Yeah I don’t even know, that’s all old money. Her family seems to have always just been rich.”

Clodhopper lowered his head. “I guess everything I’ve got came from my family too, Granite calls me out on it some times.”

Kiwi laughed a bit. “Yeah sorry, maybe your farm is really posh, but I just don’t think of you as the rich type, most rich kids don’t deliver food or pull carriages for spending bits.”

Clodhopper grew a bit idignant, “Well, that’s not how I was raised, or at least not how I was allowed to act, my parents always made sure I had a job, figuring I needed to know how to work if I was gonna take over the farm.”

Kiwi raised an eyebrow, “Sounds like you have a big family, d’your parents just decide you were gonna take over from birth?”

“Pretty much, or at least once I got my cutey mark. With a big hoof boot on my ass they figured that meant I could stand to spend my time wading in muck for clams all day.” Clodhopper lamented.

“Ah, did you get that for wading in muck?” Kiwi asked, a bit confused.

Clodhopper pantomimed a few hops, “Yep. I was hopping clods one day, ran out through the muck to pull my sister loose when she got stuck. Turns out my special talent is moving fast in muck and more than that. I can gallop on glass or trot through quicksand if I want.”

“Wow that’s amazing!” Kiwi giggled, “I’d heard of a lot of good cutey powers, but really I have no freaking clue what my special talent is, I got mine while planting random bushes”

“Hmm, maybe your special talent is more metaphorical, your cutey mark is sliced open, maybe it means, like, there’s more on the inside?” Clodhopper opined.

“I doubt it” Kiwi said, I make a mean fruit salad, I’m pretty sure I just got ‘fruit master’ stamped on my destiny like so many other ponies.”

“Well, you know what?” Clodhopper asked “No one in my family can make anything out of fruit worth a damn... actually that reminds me.”

“What’s that?” Kiwi asked.

“You’ve never been to Innsmuzzle have you?” Clodhopper asked, his ears flattening.

“No, why?”

“Well, a lot of ponies in Innsmuzzle look a bit strange, by city folk standard.” Clodhopper seemed quite a bit embarrassed.

“Strange how?”, Kiwi asked.

“Well, they’ve just got that....Innsmuzzle look. You’ll know it when you see it. There’s a bit of Donkey blood in the family lines around my home.”

They traveled on in a bit of awkward silence, but the farm was now in view.

“There we are.” Clodhopper pointed, “Come on, let’s hurry and meet my folks.”

Soon Kiwi walked on a ramshackle wooden boardwalk into a massive field of muck, a sandy wetland many miles across, carefully flattened into a field, with rows of clams and oysters in place of crops. It was low tide, and uncountable shellfish jutted out, sharp and pointy in appearance. Here and there one clam or another seemed out of place, more colorful than the ugly brown of the average shellfish.

The smell of ocean salt was overpowering, and everywhere just smelled like a fishing pier. Several fish actually floundered about in the muck, gasping for air in pockets of water too shallow for their needs. Kiwi felt a terrible sense of.... rottenness in the atmosphere, a rather abrupt change from her previous sense of security on that winding road.

Clodhopper himself effortlessly cantered along the creaking, rickety timbers that had grown green with age, while she quickly tired of the feeling and took flight to follow him.

Soon, they came up to manor larger than the estate Lumina’s parents had her shacked up in, more like a pile of flotsam had been hammered into the shape of a house, a long dock simply transformed with distance gradually into a warehouse and then just a regular house. Several ships were docked in this makeshift marina, and from the look of it, some of the boats acted as extra housing.

The air was deathly silent. No wind moved through this plain, and no clouds were overhead. A tall, wiry pony with eyes slightly too big and ears slightly too small walked out of the manor towards Kiwi and Clodhopper, then shouted out as they came.

“Oye, izat you Clawd Happper?”

“Yeah!” Clodhopper yelled, “I’ve got a farm hand with me!”

“Izzat rayt?” The now clearly somewhat toothless pony spoke back.

By now they were walking up to shake hands.

“Ayem Chadder ‘ead, ann welcome ta Innsmuzzle.” The pony reached out an arm, his hoof was scaling a bit, and Kiwi could have sworn that a barnacle was on his hoof. He was starting to go bald in odd patchy bits, and his jowls flopped at the side of his neck. Kiwi visibly winced, then reached out a hoof.

The grimy farm pony shook Kiwi’s hoof vigorously, then went in for a hug while she showed a grimace to Clodhopper, who chuckled.

“Ahh yerr real perrty, jess layk Clawd Happer aintcha?” Asked Chowderhead.

“Ahh... uh... yeah?” stammered Kiwi.

“Yeh, Claude’s Mam is genna lauv yerr rayt auff the back.” Chowderhead laughed. “Grab yeself a muckrake and snag some a da oystas out ‘attaway, Claude, get yerself a big bucket, yer mams already getting supper on.”

Clodhopper nodded and threw a giant wooden bucket on his back, “Sure thing uncle Chowderhead, we’ll be back before dark.”

Kiwi grabbed a muckrake, and Clodhopper grabbed a second, then took her to a lonely stretch of farm. Kiwi flew to keep up with him, but Clodhopper trotted along a reef of oysters, their sharp shells crunching effortlessly beneath his hooves. The area was practically a reef of oysters.

“Geez, we should have brought a shovel.” Lamented Kiwi.

“Hah yeah! Or a hammer!” Clodhopper said, and set down the bucket.

“Clodhopper, is your whole family like..”

“Oh no, Chowderhead is just getting on in age, he had a bad case of hoof rot 15 years ago. Still, I guess that can happen in this line of work, what with the constantly mucking about.” Clodhopper sighed. “I can understand if you don’t want to work here.”

“No no, it’s fine. I can make do...” Kiwi began raking oysters, checking for empty shells and shoveling live ones into the bucket. She hovered in place, never daring to set hoof in the muck.

“You are a strong flyer, can you carry a lot of weight while doing that?” Clodhopper asked.

“Yeah, but I’m not real fast.” Kiwi said.

“Heh, oysters aren’t real fast either Kiwi.”

Kiwi smiled and they finished their work quickly. Clodhopper was carrying what must be 15 gallons of oysters on his back. Kiwi stared a bit, the strength of earth ponies always amazed her, no matter how many times she saw it in action.

When they got back to the main house, Clodhopper left the bucket of oysters on the porch, wiped his hooves and walked in. “Memaw! I’m back home and brought Kiwi!”

Kiwi stopped and stared as rudely as possible, this was actually a one story building, with huge arches like a cathedral, or maybe just a massive flipped over boat, and a gigantic long table ran through the middle of the room, with at least 15 of the fuck ugliest looking ponies Kiwi had ever seen in her life sitting down waiting for food. The salty dogs looked like they’d just crawled out of the briny depths 10 minutes ago, but it was Clodhoppers mother that shocked her the most.

She looked like a mermare.

Her mane was a bit scaley and her face uncommonly long, and her tail clearly had little fins in it.

“Hello there Kiwi, Clodhopper’s told me so much about you. Have a seat.” said Clodhopper’s mother.

Kiwi was shocked, but sat down at a bench anyway. Clodhopper sat down next to her. Her fear was palpable.

“I’m Hydrangea, and for now I run this farm. I heard you could kick up a storm if we needed one?”

Kiwi noticed everyone looking at her, “Umm, charmed, I’m Kiwi.”

Everyone laughed, and various supporting slaps came from the peanut gallery assembled before the altar of dinner.

Bowls began being filled.

“I hope you don’t mind a few clams in your chowder, deary, we all eat a bit of seafood around here.” Said Hydrangea, smiling widely with a slightly serrated grin.

Kiwi gulped, and a huge bowl of potatoes, clams, celery, and carrots came sliding in front of her. This chowder was pretty heavy on the clams. “Eat up.” Hydrangea winked.

Kiwi looked around nervously at the other ponies, who greedily devoured their meals. Clodhopper spooned it carefully into his mouth and slurped down his meal one bit at a time. Kiwi nervously took a few bites, cursing some part of herself too cowardly to speak up, but had to admit it tasted good. She’d heard of ponies with a taste for meat but... never imagined she would be one of them. Some part of her wretched, but didn’t want to seem out of place.

Meanwhile, Lumina had had just about enough of this stalling. They had carefully placed the powder into a bucket, and buried it up to the rim outside near the cliffs.

“Daemon, I command you to tell me what we are doing here! The sun is nearly set, and you promised we’d see some smoke. What kind of spell takes all day to cast?” Lumina, clearly had just lost her already pressed patience.

“Heh, this is the magic of my world.” said the Daemon. He wadded up an oily rag, lit in on fire, and heaved it at the bucket. Lumina followed the rag quizzically along its path, then she fell over, clutching her forsaken eardrums, a terrible ringing had replaced all sensation with a swimming, cloying pressure that overtook her senses. She stumbled back to her feet to see the Daemon laughing. Her eyes felt like she had just stared into the sun. Dirt and pebbles rained down on her and the Daemon. A pillar of black smoke wider than her house and taller than any building had formed where the bucket used to be. It continued to jet up into the heavens, and a huge hole in the ground remained where once had been a bucket and a much smaller hole.

Lumina could form no words. She simply stared in awe at the terrible destructive power she had just seen. The Daemon looked at her and spoke, but she could hear nothing. The power of magic had already spoken.

Miles away, having finished off her bowl of chowder, Kiwi looked around the room nervously. Clodhopper smiled at her.

Then a terrible sound rang out, fast as being right next to a lightning bolt as it struck the earth, but faster than the low rumble of distant thunder. Everyone in the room fell silent to look awkwardly in the direction it had come from.

“Boy, a sound that loud is like ta wake the dead!” One pony in the room joked, soon the laughing returned and ale replaced chowder.

Kiwi walked outside and Clodhopper followed. She saw smoke out near the lighthouse and looked back at Clodhopper.

“Yeah, she’s up to something all right.” Clodhopper mused.

“Clodhopper, I think I need to check up on her.” Kiwi said.

“Yeah, we’ve walked a long way to get here, it would be pretty late by the time we walked back, and I wouldn’t want you out in these woods alone at night.” Clodhopper stated with no shred of pride in his voice. “It can be kind of dangerous.”

Kiwi read his expression, which was stern and straightforward.

“Fine, stay with use tonight, but I have to go check this out and we need to move quickly.” Kiwi said.

“Fine by me.” We’ve had a leisurely stroll all day.

Nearby however, that great sound stirred stranger, older, forces to action. An ancient being of unimaginable power lay miles away, partially buried on some secluded beach. The being was sleeping, its dreams troubled by voices of ancient times, for such a creature remembered a time when ponies had barely mastered language, and it had seen the faceless horrors of the darkness rove across all lands in a time before mortals came to rule. Time could not kill that which did here lie, and it dreamed that in strange aeons, even darkness may die.

This old one had set its wrath upon mortals and gods alike, and a fate worse than death awaited those who angered it, at its gesture, the sun itself would move. The thunderclap of Daemon magic rippled across the air on that secluded beach, and the old one’s eyes snapped open. It looked up at the setting sun, shook itself free from the sand and rose.

The old one fixed its gaze upon the pillar of black smoke in the distance.

“Kibitz, prepare me some strong coffee.” Spoke the great elder.

A massive, stately unicorn with a gigantic mustache approached the great old one, “But my lady! ‘Tis nearly night, and you need your sleep!”

The eldritch horror chuckled, “Oh Kibitz, I was napping for hours here, my circadian rhythms are already off, but I have a feeling I may need to stay awake for quite some time. Once, here, I sealed a great evil, perhaps not as bad as Discord, but a terror nonetheless.”

“My lady?”

Celestia looked out at the pillar of smoke. “I fear the ancient evil survives.”