Demons from the Past

Aldric watched the ponies, who were looking at him, intent on hearing his story. The ponies-no... friends, that he hurt, just because he was a selfish bastard. Turning his head, he looked at Blackwing, his companion, his brother-in-arms, his friend. His friend that he left behind to die, his friend he thought was dead for eight years. Aldric clenched his teeth and held back his tears. Breathing in, he sat down and exhaled.

"I suppose I should start, shouldn't I?" They just nodded, leaning forward. "Fine, I'll tell you why I don't like hearing the name Arya," Blackwing coughed, getting a glare from him before continuing, "and those marks on my back. Well, it all started eight years ago, known as a 'unknown monster attack, nearly destroyed Valwynn, the capital back where I'm from," he shook his head, "it was never a monster attack, Frederick just said that." Before he could continue, Twilight raised her hoof. Aldric looked at her, seeing a notepad and pencil. "Yes?" Twilight looked away from her notes.

"Who's Frederick?" Aldric nodded and was about to answer when Blackwing beat him to it.

"Frederick's the king, the one he," Blackwing pointed a claw at Aldric, "has had a grudge on for... how long Aldric, I've lost count." Blackwing finished with a smirk. Aldric growled at him before he continued.

"Yes, Frederick is the king from where I'm from. But before I tell you about the attack, I need to tell you about Arya, how we met and why I hate hearing her name. It all started ten years ago..."

A lone man stood outside a tavern, snow hitting his cloak. The wind howled at him, as if it was telling him to get inside before he froze. The man looked up at the destroyed sign of the tavern. Many of the words were gone, long since forgotten. The man stopped looking at the sign and turned his attention to the door. It was warm, inviting, and was able to keep people safe from the harsh elements. Slowly, he lifted his boot from the snow, and started walking to the door. Finally, he reached the door. He reached for the handle, feeling the cold on his hand, even through his glove. Twisting the door, it swung open, releasing a cold gust of wind into the tavern, the candles and fire flickering. All eyes turned toward him, and his green eyes swept across the room. He felt like this was somehow very cliché, but he shook his head slightly and closed the door behind him. Taking off his cloak, he hung it up with his fur hat on a post. Walking over to the fire, he stayed by it for a minute, before he walked to the counter, sitting on a stool. Still feeling eyes on him, he turned around, seeing if he could spot anyone suspicious, but he couldn't.

"Are you just goin' ta sit there, or are ya goin' ta buy somethin'?" The man looked at the bartender, a small man, possibly in his late forties.

"Just get me an ale," the man answered in a familiar voice, "on the rocks." The bartender just nodded, grabbing a glass from a hook before dropping some ice in it, then poured a bottle of ale into it. The bartender slid the drink over to the man, who dropped some coins onto the counter. "That should cover it." The bartender grabbed the coins and put them in a box, which he then locked. The man took a sip of the ale, enjoying the bitter taste of it. Hearing footsteps behind him, the man continued to drink his alcohol, pretending not to notice. He felt a hand grab his shoulder.

"Yous Aldric?" A man asked in a burly voice. Turning his head to see the speaker, the he looked at a big, burly man, with a mace at his side. He swished his drink around.

"That depends, am I?" He asked with a smirk. The burly man whistled, drawing two men to where the man was sitting, equally equipped with weapons.

"This bounty says yous is, this bounty of ten-thousand gold. Me and the boys are gonna split it, after we show them your head!" Before the three men could react, he threw his drink into the man's face, then kicked him into the fire. Then he grabbed the stool next to him and smashed it across another ones face. The last man looked at his two companions, one screaming and burning, the other knocked out cold.

"You," the last man jumped, "take down all the posters of me you find, and if I hear that you ratted me out, I'll slice your throat, you understand me?" The man nodded, shaking. Then he asked a question.

"Does th-that mean you're Aldric?" The man glared at him, before nodding slightly. Aldric grabbed the man and walked over to the door, throwing him out onto the snow covered ground. The man scrambled onto his feet and ran off into the night.

"Not bad," hearing the voice, Aldric whipped around, sword drawn, "whoa, easy." A woman moved the blade away from her face. "Can't go whipping that thing at every girl you see." Aldric glared at the woman before cracking a smile.

"No, only the pretty ones." Aldric watched as she turned away, blushing. "So, you're the one that was staring at me when I sat down." She turned back, surprised.

"How did you know?" Aldric raised an eyebrow.

"It was obvious, as soon as I saw those three men I knew they were bounty hunters. I'm surprised I didn't rule you out as one also, with those daggers in your boots and the hidden crossbow." She looked even more surprised. "You gotta know these things when your public enemy number one... what's your name?"

"I'm Arya," reaching down to her boot, she pulled out a knife and threw it right past him, "and you're welcome." Looking back, Aldric saw the man from earlier, on the ground, and with a dagger in his throat. Hearing the stomping of boots, he strained his eyes to see around five guards running towards them.

"I think we should be going Arya, like now!" Aldric jumped up and grabbed the low-hanging roof of the tavern and pulled himself up onto the roof. Reaching a hand down to Arya, she grabbed it and he pulled her up. "Wait... your daggers don't have your initials on them, do they?" Arya's eye widened and she looked back at the corpse. "Of course they do, I'll grab it." Jumping off, he ran to the corpse, yanked the dagger out, and jumped onto another roof. Feeling something whizz past him he sprinted forward, jumping from roof to roof. Looking to his left, he saw Arya running from roof to roof also. Then she fell over, screaming in pain. Aldric stopped, sliding on the slippery roof. Looking at the ground, he saw the group of guards, one with a crossbow raised in the air. Flipping the dagger over, he threw it at him, hitting him in the leg, making him fall over.

"Fuckin' hell!" Aldric jumped off the roof, landing by the guards. They turned around, weapons drawn. Aldric growled at them.

"Didn't your mom tell you it isn't polite to hit a lady?" Aldric dashed forward, grabbing the guard on the ground by his neck. He yanked the dagger out, then threw him into the others. Aldric ran and jumped on another roof. Looking left and right, he saw Arya on the ground, writhing. Sliding next to her, he put his arms under her and lifted her up. She hissed in pain, cursing under her breath. Hearing the guards get up, Aldric started running, dodging bolts as they flew by. Seeing a significant jump a few buildings ahead of him, he sprinted forward. Not daring to look back, he closed the gap between the jump quickly. As soon as he touched the edge, he jumped with all his strength. Seeing that he wouldn't make, he tossed Arya just enough to crash on the roof. She shouted some very colorful words at him as he fell onto the snow.

"Over here! Something crashed!" Aldric groaned as tried to get up. Someone pushed him back into the snow. "Try to get up and I'll carry your head in a bag." Aldric felt as his weapons were taken off him. "Get up."

"I thought you said not to, or you'll carry my head in a bag." For that comment, he got a kick to the gut. "What? Everyone loves a good joke." Aldric asked smiling. Another kick, harder than the last one.

"One more comment out of you and I will." Aldric complied, getting on his feet as rope was tied around his hands. Hearing movement above him, Aldric turned around smiling.

"Before you go, aren't you forgetting someone?" He watched the confusion on the guard's face before a yell and a grunt was heard behind him. The guard turned around, watching as Arya took out a dagger of his fellow guard. Aldric kicked him in the back, toppling the guard over. "Thanks, thought you weren't going to come back for a second, untie me?" Aldric felt as the dagger cut through the ropes and he moved his hands in front of him, massaging his wrists.

"So," Aldric looked at Arya, her boot on the guard's back, "what about him?" Aldric shrugged and handed her other dagger back, which she accepted gratefully.

"Let him go, I don't really kicking people while they're down. Knock him out and I'll do... something." Arya looked at him, before shrugging and kicking the guard in the face. Aldric walked over and lifted the guard over his shoulder. "Well this was definitely... interesting, to say the least." Aldric said, looking at Arya.

"Yeah... it kinda was." She said, looking back at him. They stared at each other for a good minute before Aldric spoke.

"You do realize how cliché this seems, don't you?" Arya nodded, looking forward. "Good, cause I don't want to be in a relationship right now... or ever, no offence." She shook her head, signaling none was taken. "Anyway, it was nice meeting you Arya, I'm going to drop this guy off somewhere, don't know where, but somewhere."

"And that's how I met Arya, not exactly on the best of conditions, but that's how most relationships start, am I right?" The ponies sat there, stunned. Aldric looked at Blackwing, who looked very tired. "Blackwing!" Jolting up, Blackwing hit his head on the roof. "Gods, if I knew I was this boring, I'd have taken a vow of silence." Blackwing rubbed his head.

"Well sorry, all this lovey dovey stuff is boring, tell me about those marks!" Blackwing asked, agitated. Twilight and the others shushed him.

"Let's continue, shall we? Now then, the day I lost Arya. Most of it is blurry, but I think I can explain most of it."

A herd of deer stood in a clearing, grazing on the grass, ears twitching for signs of danger. Suddenly, a buck raised its head, turning to look at some trees. Something launched out of the trees, heading straight for the buck. It tried jumping out of the way, but it was all for naught. The arrow pierced the buck's neck,narrowly avoiding the jugular. It walked a few steps before toppling over, the blood spurting out of the wound. The other deers ran away, back into the brush. The buck watched as something came out of the brush, walking towards him. Scrambling slightly, the deer cried out in pain. The thing stood over the buck, taking out a small knife. Putting the knife to deer's throat, it whispered something before shoving the knife into its throat. The buck finally succumbed to its fate, falling limb. The thing yanked out the knife, watching the blood flow from the wound. Sunlight shone through the trees, hitting the thing's face, revealing Aldric. Aldric put the knife next to the arrow wound, cutting out the flesh around the arrow. Scraping the flesh off the arrow, he put it back into his quiver. Putting his arms under the deer, he lifted it up and began walking back the way he came.

"I'm still surprised we ran out of food, I went hunting last week. I guess Arya and I go through more food then I realized... and I'm talking to myself again. I do that a lot, don't I? Who am I even asking that question to? Myself? Whatever, I'll just get this back to the house and I can actually talk to someone besides mys-"

"AAAAAH!" Aldric stopped, looking around for the source of the scream. It sounded familiar, almost like it was Arya's. "ALDRIC HELP!" Eyes widening, Aldric tossed the deer off and sprinted back to the house. Drawing his sword, Aldric jumped over a log and landed in a dirt road. Looking to his left, he saw the house in the distance, so he started running towards it, "LET GO OF ME, HEEEE-," Aldric ran faster, closing in on the house.

"Nononono, ARYA!" Aldric yelled, busting down the door. The house was ransacked, tables flipped, furniture destroyed, and Arya was on the floor, in a puddle of blood. "NO!" Aldric yelled, sliding next to her side. He grabbed her hand. "Come on Arya, stay with me." Arya's eyes fluttered open

"Al-aldric? Is that you?" Arya asked, which he nodded furiously to. Arya smiled slightly and opened her mouth again to talk but Aldric stopped her.

"Shhh... don't talk, I can heal you and we can leave." Arya shook her head, coughing up some blood. "What?"

"It's a trap Aldric, you have to run, leave me." Aldric shook his head, putting his arms under Arya and lifting her slightly.

"Fuck. That. I will get you out of here," Arya went limp, "then we can start somewhere else, right Arya?... Arya?" Something hit the backside of his head, causing him to drop Arya back into the puddle of blood. "Fuck!" Turning his head, he saw two guards, swords drawn. "You did this... you did this!" Aldric raised his sword but the guard closest to him kicked it out of his hand.

"I'm guessing you are Aldric? You are to come with us so you can be publicly executed for," the guard pulled out a list, "treason, damaging property, killing guards, disrupting the peace, attempted assassinations," Aldric drowned out what the guard was saying, looking back at Arya, feeling his rage grow. Aldric began shaking, his eyes glowing a deep crimson. His hands transformed into mangled claws, fire sprouting out of the tips, "and assault, do you plead guilty?" The guard brought down the list, staring straight into Aldric's eyes. Aldric grabbed the guard's head and crushed it, throwing away the corpse. The other guard drew his sword and slashed at Aldric, but when the sword hit him, the building exploded into fire, burning away everything. Aldric roared into the sky, then ran towards Valwynn.

Two guards stood outside the gates of Valwynn, looking extremely bored. The guard on the left leaned his spear on the gate, stretching.

"Why do we always get the boring missions? Go guard the gates, go wash the dishes, clean the bathrooms, I'm sick of it. Why don't we ever get anything exciting?" The other guard shrugged.

"Probably because you always get us in trouble, if you hadn't decided to... do you hear something?" The guard on the left looked at him, before hearing it too. Crunching noises, growling, coming from the woods. They both leaned forward to see what was causing the noise. Two red eyes glowed from inside before exploding out, smashing into the gates, which promptly exploded. The two guards fell to the ground, heads rolling away.

Aldric stopped, looking out the window of the library. Fearful of what the ponies might think of him, he didn't turn around until he felt something press up against him. Looking down, he saw Fluttershy hugging him.

"It's not your fault Aldric, it was those mean guards." Aldric looked at her, smiling slightly. Feeling something press up on him, he looked at Pinkie Pie, who was also hugging him. The others joined the hug besides Rainbow and Blackwing. Aldric felt very uncomfortable with all of the hugging. Aldric coughed, indicating that this was getting awkward. They released him, faint blushes on their cheeks.

"I mean," they all looked at Aldric, "that's all I can really remember from that day... all I remember is screaming... and fire. Then I finally got to the throne room and got sent down to Hell. Don't remember how exactly, but I know the why part. That's where I got those marks," Twilight raised a hoof, "yes?"

"What's this Hell place?" Aldric shook his head.

"Hell is a place that you should never speak of, that's what it is. The place is plagued with demons just wanting to kill you. The place is run on a hierarchy of sorts. Satan runs the place, surprisingly a nice demon, then his generals, then every other demon. If you don't follow their orders, then you die. Humans that get sent down their are tortured until they die. The demon who was my torturer was a demon called Azzinoth. Also, whenever I say a demon's name, that isn't their real name, only a fake name of sorts. If you call a demon by it's real name, you gain control of it. Azzinoth was one of the baddest torturers in the place. Apparently, I was his favorite to torture, because he likes to break the person. He likes to see them beg to stop, then he kills you. I was his favorite because I didn't break. My will didn't break, because under all of the torture, revenge is was kept me going. Then he finally broke. Angry that my will wasn't breaking, he ripped my eye out," the ponies gasped, Fluttershy fainting, "but even then, I didn't break. Now let me tell you about demons... and angels too.  Demons and angels hate each other, they are on the opposite sides of a line. Demons are evil, malicious beings that love to burn things. Angels love order, they live above the clouds in a place they like to call Sanctuary. Angels and demons always have hated each other and will go to war on the flip of a coin. Thing is, only angelic and demonic weapons can kill either of them. That means, no normal weapon can harm them. One day, I broke free of the bondings that held me in place and killed Azzinoth with his own weapon. Then I decided that since he took my eye... I would take his. I ripped out his eye, which is now in the place of my eye. And... that's basically it, are you happy Blackwing?" Blackwing  shrugged to the question and got up, stretching.

"It definitely a cool story," Pinkie started, "but did you have to put in such a big wall of text?" Aldric looked at her, confused.

"What do you... you know what, I'm not even going to try Pinkie." They all laughed at that besides Twilight, who was looking at her notes. "Twilight," Twilight looked at Aldric, "can I see those notes?"

"Sure, here you go," she used her magic to levitate the notebook to Aldric, "I decided to write it all down because," Aldric lit the notebook on fire, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?" Twilight leapt towards her notes, which Aldric pulled away from her.

"I never said you can write down my life story, this story never leaves this room, understand," they all remained silent, looking at the gathering pile of ash on the floor, "I'll take your silence as a yes. Good, now then, I'll be going." Aldric started walking towards the door, but Blackwing blocked him.

"You aren't leaving until I see that eye, I need to see if your story is true." Aldric deadpanned, before grabbing Blackwing's beak and lifted it so they looked into each other's eyes.

"Your mistake," Aldric opened his left eye, letting Blackwing stare right into the blue ball of flame. Blackwing began shaking, trying to leave Aldric's grip. Finally, Aldric let go, closing his eye, "there, happy?" Blackwing slowly stepped back, letting Aldric leave the library. When the door slammed shut, everypony let go of a breath they didn't know they were all holding. Rarity went over to Fluttershy, trying wake her up.

"That was an... interesting story. Why do you think he doesn't want everypony to know his story?" Rarity asked.

"Maybe it's because it will spoil the story," Pinkie said, getting everypony's attention, "what?" Rainbow laughed slightly.

"Pinkie Pie, you are so random." They all laughed at that besides Blackwing, who was looking at the door.

"I'm going to go after him," they all turned towards Blackwing, "later girls." They all waved goodbye to Blackwing as he left the library. Blackwing saw Aldric at the edge of the Everfree. Blackwing walked towards him, to try to comfort him. Suddenly, Aldric turned around and started running back to Ponyville. "Aldric! What's wrong?" Aldric stopped next to Blackwing and drew his sword.

"Baloth," Blackwing's eyes widened and his head turned back towards the Everfree, "Warn the town, evacuate the town, now." A massive roar ripped through the air, coming from the Everfree. A manticore flung out of the forest, tail and head missing. Aldric readied himself for the coming battle.