Grave Dancer stared straight ahead, not making eye contact with the much larger pony standing over him. Instead, he kept his gaze focused on the pony's dark violet furred chest, not daring to raise his eyes. He had heard of what happened to those who looked into the eyes of this one. The results were not pretty.
"Do you know why I called you in here?" Grave Dancer stifled a sigh of relief. The pony's voice was only slightly deafening, which meant he wasn't in a bad mood.
"No," Gave Dancer said, then quickly added, "sir."
"You are falling behind in your studies. Perhaps I must send you back a level...To a Spawn, perhaps?" Grave Dancer winced and knew the pony grinned. His suspicions were confirmed when three drops of black liquid fell to the ground just in front of his hooves. Grave Dancer of course hadn't seen this pony's mouth, but a demon of that high level, a Moderator, was said to gain the feature of black liquid in their mouths. Gross, but respectable.
"N-no sir," Grave Dancer said. His voice shook, that certainly wouldn't gain him any respect from this Moderator. "I just need...more time."
"We cannot grant you more," the Moderator said, his voice getting a bit louder. Not good. "The end of your six month bonus is approaching, and if you do not have enough souls gathered, and sins coaxed, you will be forced back a level or..." More liquid dropped to the floor as the Moderator's grin returned. "The Master will deal with you." Grave Dancer shuddered at the thought. Meeting the Master was not desirable, even more so that it would be because of his failure.
"Sir, there must be something I can do..." Grave Dancer decided it was probably best to ignore how desperate he sounded, and hope the Moderator would do the same.
"Hmm." One of the Moderator's hooves raised, presumably to his chin in thought (if he had a chin. There was no telling with such a high level). "There is something; extra credit, and it's probably more...comfortable than the only other choice." Grave Dancer gulped. He didn't want to know what the other choice was.
"Extra credit, sir?" he said questionably.
"Yes," the Moderator said, lowering his hoof. "You will be sent out of Tartarus to a land chosen completely at random. To a planet in our base universe, or even another. It could be parallel, or completely different in every way. It could even be to a place where your form in considered common, or perhaps even a lesser species."
"If I do this, then I will be taken to the next level?"
"Yes. You are a demon of High Council member, Lust, correct? And your current level is Imp? Then your next level will be Low Incubus."
"Yes sir, I know." Grave Dancer nodded, though was careful not to look to high up.
"Then, do you decide to take the opportunity of extra credit?" Grave Dancer nodded again. "Very well. On arrival at your land, you are to search out the closest source of life and either reap their soul, or tempt them to your particular sin. While the sky is lit by your land's star or source of light your demon form will be disguised. Do you understand?"
"Yes sir."
Many more drops of black liquid splashed to the ground as the Moderator lowered his head. A bright red light began to spread throughout the room, stemming from the Moderator's head. Grave Dancer was surprised by this and took a step back, almost lifting his head but catching himself and keeping his gaze focused straight ahead. The light continued to grow in intensity until it was so bright Grave Dancer had to shut his eyes. Even then it continued to grow until it was glaring even behind closed eyelids. Grave Dancer felt himself fall to the ground as the world suddenly begin to spin (literally not visually) and grunted as he hit the smooth ground.
Then, all at once, the light went out. The ground became softer, and slightly spikier. Grave Dancer tentatively opened his eyes and blinked until the spots left over from the blinding light disappeared from his vision. He was in what appeared to be a forest, and he was near the edge. Past the few trees ahead he could see what looked like a grassy field, with a town that looked only slightly old fashioned laying close by. Squinting he could just make out colorful moving creatures. Well, finding the nearest life wouldn't be too hard, and his land didn't seem too bad. A little different from what he was used to (Tartarus wasn't the greenest place around, unless you counted the Envy demons), but not bad.
Grave Dancer pushed himself up onto his haunches and shook his head, getting rid of the lasting dizziness that had been inflicted upon from the teleportation. Ugh, couldn't the Moderator have made it a little smoother? Not that he'd say that to the demon's face, but still.
Standing up, Grave Dancer began to make his way towards the town. The sooner he finished his extra credit, the better. Nice as it may have been, he wanted to get out of this grassy land and back to the fires of Tartarus so he could rise to the next level. Lust had seemed ashamed the last time he had gotten raised a level, most likely because of his physical size. Lust demons were known to be big, powerful, and above all tempting to the eye, not small, weak, and barely able to bring even the most weak minded of mortals to sin. Embarrassed didn't even begin to cover how Lust felt about him.
Grave Dancer felt discouragement begin to set in and quickly shoved the thoughts away. No, he could win Lust's appreciation, he just had to get to the next level. Then the next and the next and the next until he was as high as one could possibly go. Then Lust wouldn't feel ashamed by him, and the others wouldn't laugh.
"Hi there!" A squeaky voice forced Grave Dancer back into reality. He was much closer to the town now, but no one should have noticed him yet (wait, were those ponies in the town? No pony then.) Looking around, Grave Dancer saw the one who had spoken. Something that resembled a pony, but much smaller and with gossamer wings that looked much too big for its dandelion furred body. Two antennae sprouted from its forehead and its cyan mane and tail were much too long and puffy.
"Wh-what are you?" Grave Dancer said, a bit shaken by the strange creature. Even freshly hatched Spawns didn't look so...odd (though this was coming from a demon mindset).
"I'm a Breezie, silly!" the creature laughed, fluttering around Grave Dancer's head a few times.
"A Breezie?" he said, raising an eyebrow. The creature halted in its fluttering.
"You can understand me?" it asked in its earsplitting squeak of a voice, landing on his snout and peering into his eyes. So this creature must not have been understood by the normal dwellers of the land. That explained its odd accent. Demons could understand most languages, however, which was the only reason Grave Dancer suspected he himself knew what it said.
"Yes," Grave Dancer said, swiping at his nose with a hoof in an attempt to get the creature off. It complied, hopping back into the air and smiling pleasantly. It was too nice, and made Grave Dancer want to gag.
"That's cool!" the Breezie gasped, continuing to stare at him. "It's been so long since I got to talk to someone! All the other Breezies left me behind, but I don't mind! Now I have a friend!" It looked like the Breezie was about to land on his snout again so Grave Dancer quickly stepped back so he was out of reached. "So what's your name? And why're your eyes so funny?"
"My eyes?" Wasn't he supposed to be disguised during the day? Or did it only work on certain creatures? Had the Moderator really not told him that? Oh well, this creature seemed to air-headed to care anyway.
"Yeah! They're all black with red, it's really funny!"
"Uh...it's...magic. Hard to explain." The creature seemed satisfied by the answer and nodded.
"What's your name?" it asked, trying once more to land on his nose only to be stopped once again by Grave Dancer ducking so it flew past him.
"I'm..." Grave Dancer looked around for something to use as a name. His gaze fell on the clouds. If the Breezie wasn't affected by the disguise, then it could probably see his bat-like wings. "Cloud Dancer." Yeah, that sounded okay. He had never been very good at deceit, so just coming up with that had been difficult.
"Pretty!" the Breezie laughed, it's own wings flapping just enough to keep it from falling immediately, and just a tad less than what it needed to stay at her current height. It stopped when it was at Grave Dancer's flank. "I guess you really are a pony," it said smiling at Grave Dancer's mark. "What does it mean?" It poked the mark with one of her hooves, it's wide grin not leaving it's face. It's carefree reaction was a bit odd, since Grave Dancer's mark was a bit...odd, for a normal pony at least. It was a horned pony's skull, with a long black tongue curling out from the nonexistent lower jaw. Blood dripped out from the bottom of the skull, almost seeming to stain Grave Dancer's otherwise perfectly white coat.
"It means..." Grave Dancer stopped. He didn't really know. Demons were born with their marks (not called cutie marks by them) and never really found out what their true talent was. In fact, it was usually just a symbol or vaguely demonic line. Grave Dancer had one of the more detailed marks. The Breezie looked at him, it's smile becoming one of curiosity.
"Do you not know?" it asked, flying up to his face. Grave Dancer's expression hardened.
"It doesn't matter. Tell me who you are." The Breezie was about to ask more, decided it was pointless and shrugged.
"Okay," it said, "I'm FeatherLily."
"Right...Boy or girl?" FeatherLily seemed a bit surprised by this question because she didn't answer right away.
"Um...huh?"
"Are you a boy or girl?" Grave Dancer said it a bit more forcefully this time. It didn't matter if it was a weird question, he still wanted to know.
"Um...I'm a girl." FeatherLily managed to land on his nose again and smiled when Grave Dancer didn't swat her away immediately. Well, at least her gender matched her voice. Grave Dancer had met some femininely voiced males in the past, and vice versa with females. "So, what brings you to Ponyville, Cloudie?" Grave Dancer blinked, then remembered his fake name.
"I'm just visiting, and it's none of your business why." At least she had given him the name of the town.
"Okay." Grave Dancer finally shoved her off his snout and began to walk towards the town once more. He thought FeatherLily had flown off, but his hopes were smashed when she spoke once more. "So...Why're you an alicorn but with bat wings?"
