//-------------------------------------------------------// the three -by thatguy45- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// 1 //-------------------------------------------------------// 1 The beast lives out of the raging storm in the dead of night the ravenous, blood-sick creature’s searches for its sacrifice through the hideous darkness, it lurches, driven by death itself only the satisfaction of slaughter will cause it to return to the darkness from which it came Scootaloo sat there, staring in to her reflection. She wondered what brought her here, to this dark basement, where she mercilessly killed somepony every night. She contemplated, just what it was that compelled her to do this, until her victims life drained out of their eyes. She sighed. The guards were getting close to finding this hideout. Like they did the last five. She would have to leave this city soon. But until then, she would reap, reap until the last smile died on this world. Sweetie belle sat in a pool of blood. Not her blood of course. Some helpless victim from manehattan she thinks. It’s been an exceptionally long time since she had a good time, and the thrill of torture no longer pulled at her. Maybe some fresh blood would help. Apple bloom sat in her lab, smoking a homemade cigarette. Her last test subject died of yellow fever, toughing it out even though he knew that he was going to die. She had to gag him to keep from screaming all the time. The drug’s seemed to keep him alive, albeit in constant pain. She got up and chuckled. It was time to move on, and let this lab be found, just to see the fireworks. As she walked into the other room the dead reporter sitting in the corner tugged at some heartstrings. It reminded her of her time as a filly, trying to find her special talent. She missed her friends. In the nine realms of hell, there were three demons that inspired fear like no others. They were the king’s enforcers, and what they said was law. When a demon, tormented, or other beast did something that wasn’t liked, they were carried off one of the three towers. The tower of pain, surrounded by the impaled bodies of tormented who fell out of favor of the patriarchs, they were brought there. None who entered came out again. The tower of minds, was the largest and cleanest, at least on the outside. Many who enter leave, but never in the same state of mind. The demons who enter to drop off the offenders, always left with a look of fear on their faces, and ALWAYS acted obediently for the next few cycles. And the last was the tower of disease. It smelled of death, and was situated on the edge of a cliff so the bodies of the dead and broken could easily be gotten rid of. The screams of the ones brought there were always heard long before the source was seen. The three masters of these castles were never seen, and many rumors surrounded them. All that was truly known was their names. Cataclysm. The master of destruction. He supposedly once led thousands of demons on to victory against many realms and lands. Despair. The name alone caused those who knew to shudder. She was a shadowy figure, and drew many men to death’s cold embrace. She loved to interfere in the lives of those she saw as worthy. And finally pestilence. The only one who was a member of the four horsemen, and the only one who was a true demon. It is said that he is truly a mass of tentacles, whose very touch caused the most deliberating diseases to attack the burdened. His influence has destroyed entire countries. They are some of the most violent members of the demon race and personify the commonly held belief of what hell really is. Death. That’s what it felt like. Over and over again. Cataclysm could only watch in awe as a portal opened up right in the middle of his bed room and sucked him up. The pain of being eaten was ever prevalent. The darkness was all consuming. It felt like his shattered and immortal soul was being torn to pieces. And suddenly it was over. He felt the pain subside, and he slowly opened his eyes. He saw that he was in an orchard with a large and distinct red fruit hanging from the branches. He slowly (and painfully) got up and looked around. And suddenly he felt something. It encompassed him and almost brought a smile to his face. Almost. He looked up and saw a bright yellow light in the sky. It had been millennia since he felt Apollo’s golden embrace. And he was quite shocked. Most of the fallen were not allowed to appreciate the sun’s warmth, after the uprising. He opened his arms and sighed. After a few moments of just standing there he put his arms down and scratched his chin. There was but one thought on his head. ‘Where the flying fuck am I?’ he sniffed the wind. He smelled the distinct smell of an apple pie, and nearby. No more than 50 km to the south. He turned on his heel and started walking. When he got to about ¾ of the way he started to hear happy yells and soon came across a strange creature hiding behind a tree. It appeared to be a human from the waist up, but the legs were abnormally long and resembled horse hooves. Actually it more resembled a Minotaur Then a human. It hadn’t noticed him yet and had a strange smile on her face. The last few times he saw something hide it was usually cowering in fear. It just felt unnatural for something to be hiding and smiling. He scratched his chin and took a step forward, accidentally crunching a twig. The creature turned around and screamed, obviously frightened. He couldn’t reassure her, because his tongue was cut out a few millennia ago. All he could do was stand there as four more of the creatures ran into the clearing. Two of them were obviously older than the others. The one at my feet scrambled over to the largest one who grabbed her and gave her… a hug? Weird. Haven’t seen one of those in bilennia. I thought they went out of style. I scratched my chin and shrugged. The orange-brown one yelled something unintelligible at him and took an offensive pose. A challenge to duel maybe? He narrowed his eyes and gripped the blade of his axe, mountain splitter. If it was a duel she wanted, he would gladly accept. Pestilence had a large blade stuck in his side. And it hurt. He guessed it had something to do with his appearance. After all being a grotesque mass of vaguely humanoid shaped tentacles in a trench coat was quite unnerving. Especially if said mass of tentacles suddenly appeared in the middle of a bustling metropolis. Full of very, very, very interestingly shaped creatures. The first thing that ran through his head was what their biology was. He was very interested in how they stood up right. But that was neither here nor there. He got up and looked around, noticing that he was standing directly in the sun and he wasn’t burning. Huh. He shrugged and started whistling as he casually strolled towards what he assumed to be where the ruler lived. No matter where he went the native inhabitants just screamed and ran away. He then heard one of the things yell towards a group of what appeared to be soldiers. They looked at him, did a double take and pulled iron swords out of their belts. They approached him slowly and yelled something at me. The language was alien, but it had a certain reminiscence to it. He decided that they weren’t worth his time and continued walking. The blue colored on next to him stabbed at him and surprisingly it landed. He looked down at the sword wound and squinted angrily. The guard looked on in horror as the blood leaking from the wound melted the blade and started working its way up to the handle. The guard let go just in time as the blade disintegrated the solid iron sword. One of the guards (who had wings) flew up into the sky and flew towards the castle. Pestilence just watched with curiosity as the Pegasus (he presumed) flew away. He smiled. This was going to be a fun day. He turned around towards the frightened guards. He grabbed the on the left and just held on. After a few moments the affects were obvious. The guard started to convulse as the thousands of diseases that inhabit pestilences body are released upon the guard. It took only a minute before the guard started to cough up blood and stop breathing. The others looked on, bewildered, than ran. He chuckled and started walking toward the castle. After five minutes of walking he got tired of it. He raised his appendage (because he doesn’t have hands) towards the sky and shouted in daedric, “Plague! I summon you! Rise for your rider!” the second those words were left his lips a cloud of insect appeared in the sky and took the vague shape of a horse. Plague touched down on the ground and pestilence jumped onto its and started riding towards the castle. He was certainly quite fast, fast enough that most of the inhabitants didn’t notice him. The ones who did, however were left with an image they wouldn’t forget. For they saw a tremendous black cloud, with a great red eyed creature riding it. Despair opened her eyes. She was in a large forest. She looked around, scowled and sighed. It was obvious that she wasn’t in hell anymore. Maybe in one of the higher levels, but not where she remembered being last. The first thing she noticed was that she was naked. The second thing that she noticed was that her cane was missing. She looked around, got up and scowled again. She closed her eyes and focused on her cane. It was 200 hundred meters away in a house made out of a tree. She scowled for the third time. The inhabitant of this “treehouse” was apparently a rather large purple female half-horse half-human. She was running around the tree house looking through books after books. She noticed that there were two other beings in the abode. One of them was a rainbow haired one who looked like a member of the same species as the other one, and the second one was a tiny baby dragon who looked quite bored. The rainbow haired one was too busy looking at the purple ones ass too really care what was happening. Despair scowled. She called out mentally, ‘cane! Enough of this foolishness! Return!” the cane started rumbling and shot through the roof. Two of the three inhabitants of the house followed. How did she not notice they had wings? She scowled. The purple one was falling behind but the rainbow one was catching up. She grabbed on to the cane and wouldn’t let go. The cane was going at 25% the speed of sound. Despair was almost impressed. The cane quickly reached her and she grabbed out of the air. The equine creature was still holding on to the cane for dear life and slowly opened her eyes and looked at me. She jumped back and yelled something at her. Despair stood there and cocked her head. She lifted the cane toward the startled creature and said in daedric, “mind sync!” the eyes on the top of the cane opened and shot a bright light towards the creature hitting her in the forehead. And with that the memories and experiences of the Pegasus flooded her mind. She learned the language and all the history and sciences that the Pegasus, rainbow dash, knew in moments. Which admittedly wasn’t much. The only down side was that everything despair knew, was filtered into the Pegasus mind. The upside to that was that she knew so much that it would pretty much put you into a coma. She scowled as the Pegasus fell to the ground with a dazed look in her eyes. She willed clothes to appear on her body and walked off, knowing that by the time the other one reached the Pegasus she would be long gone. Gabriel was bored. Ever since the Great War, things had been boring. He decide to move to equestria to get his mind off the countless humans and demons he and his squad slaughtered, and it helped for a few millennia. But it gave way to boredom quickly after that. He made good relations with the ruling caste in that world, and he could probably call upon them for aide, in case a new war was started. He founded a few cities. Destroyed a few enemies. Eventually he decided to retire to his castle, graciously built for him by the pegasai. He sat at his throne made of polished marble, and was an imposing sight to the many servants he had. Of course they were paid and could leave at any time, but most were too scared of him to go even near the front door. He sighed and got up. His personal servant, bountiful flame, looked at him and nodded. Gabriel often left the castle to wander the blue yonder. He opened the great golden doors of his sanctuary, and looked down. His home was situated at the very edge of oblivion, at that special place where you’re not quite in orbit but just high enough that there was no air. The sanctuary had hundreds of enchantments all over that filtered air in and kept the things in the palace inside the palace. He opened his arms and fell off the side into the sky below. As he was reaching terminal velocity he opened his wings and flew. In Gabriel’s opinion there is nothing like flying at this speed. He was going so fast that he almost missed it. It was a rainbow going vertically. It was rainbow dash. Chasing something. He squinted and saw that it was a black cane with a skull on the front. He instantly knew that it was a demonic artifact. Rainbow dash latched on to the cane and it ducked down suddenly. Gabriel held back for now but he definatly felt daedric influence. After a few minutes he headed for the site where the cane touched down and saw rainbow dash lying on the ground twitching. He landed and picked her up. She was alive, but in a coma. After a few moments a purple alicorn landed and saw him holding her. She rushed up and asked in equestrian what happened. He explained what I knew. She took her friend and flew back the way she came. He flew towards canterlot, because it seemed that princess Celestia should know about this daedric influence in her lands.