Mephisto and the Pony

Ariel's head was pounding.  His limbs were weak, he was starving and dehydrated, he managed to spit on the stone floor in front of him.  His vision was hazy, everything was intense and bright.  He slowly got to his feet and rubbed his mouth with the back of a hoof.

He looked at the stone walls, stone ceiling, and stone ceiling, and stone floor.  Everything was decorated with golden furniture and colorful banners and paintings, depicting monsters, and landscapes. Ariel was in a small room with one wood door, which he tried.  It opened, and just outside was a noble Ariel knew from Canterlot.  The noble said nothing.

"Where am I?"  He breathed.

The noble said nothing.

Ariel looked out into the grand hall before him - long golden tables piled high with food and drink in golden cups and bottles, at least three hundred poines (mostly mares), and a throne at the end.  Ariel had never been in The Castle, except for open court.

The noble looked at Ariel, but said nothing.  Ariel eyed him, suddenly feeling much better.  He smiled and stepped out, and the noble shouted.

"Please make way!  The host is making his entry!"

Everypony turned and looked Ariel, who meekly waved.  There were whispers, some of them that Ariel could make out, he would never repeat.  He blushed.

Everypony gasped and Ariel jumped a little, when a bang rang out and in a puff of smoke, the silver alicorn sat upon the golden throne.

"Mephisto!"  Some said.  "Mephistopheles!"  Others cried.

Quite fell over the hall, and Mephisto said "Everyone is here!  The feast can soon begin!  Vanity we celebrate, my favorite!  Of sins!"

Mephisto turned his attention to Ariel.  "Guest of honor, step forward!"

Meekly, he took a step out into the middle of the hall, where he stood still.  Nothing happened, until laughter filled the hall.

Mephisto smiled.  "I mean, come and take your place by my side."

Ariel squeaked slightly and quickly sat down next to Mephisto in a large golden chair that had been procured.  He looked left and right at all the others seated on this table, but none of them looked back.  As soon as he did, everypony in the hall took their own seat and the hall became filled with laughter, talk and noise, then some singing.  The noble from Canterlot caught Ariel's attnetion.

"What happened to you?"  Ariel whispered.

"Mephistopheles brought me here!"  He answered cherrily.

"What about your wife?  Your foals?"

"Egh."  He said simply.  "A little tough love never hurt anypony."

Ariel looked horrified, and Mephisto said "I brought him here when he challenged me.  He decided to stay."

Ariel gave a confused look.  "How did that happen?"

Mephisto shook his head.  "It was awhile ago.  I don't really remember."

"I... see."

After that, Ariel became caught up in the conversations of others, laughing and feasting himself.  The room became warm as time passed, the festivities started to die down.  When they did, Mephisto drew himself to his full height and proclaimed

"Come with me my little ones, lets revel, for the free!  Raise your glass and praise the fact, how easy life can be!"

Silence fell as everypony looked at Ariel.  "Everything you look at could be yours."  Somepony said.

"By your hand i'm truly graced."  Ariel said into his cup.

Everypony cheered and laughed at once, and Mephisto's face seemed to darken for a moment.

The entire crowd suddenly shouted "In the splendor of the night, You've found company!"

They continued to shout, even as Ariel shouted back  "I feel that life has only just begun!"

Over all the noise and everything he had to drink, he remembered years and wandering and drugs, alcohol and its pain, but mostly, the last time he saw Helena.  Her memory seemed to clear his head for a moment when he thought of her.  He looked a Mephisto's smiling silver face, and everything faded.  He felt more than a little drunk.

"In the splendor of the night,"  Ariel began,

"I accept the deal!"

Nothing happened, but Mephisto gave the faintest smile...

"With one point we have to modify!"

The smile faded.

"Should I ever wish to linger on, in a state of still, only then I'm yours the day I die!"

Mephisto smiled brightly at Ariel.

The feast continued long into the night.

...

Finally, Ariel grew weary and the drink grew low.  Everypony seemed either tired or drunk, with a few dancing on the tables and yelling at each other.  Ariel turned to Mephisto and said

"I must rest. my travels have left me weary."

"Of course they have.  Your room is through the door at the other end, up the stairs, to the left and at the end of the hall."

"Well.."

"Yes, Ariel?"

"I dont want to stay here."

Mephisto nodded.  "Eager to resume your travels?"

"I am."

"I was going to give you a present up there, all alone, in your room.  For you to enjoy."

Ariel blushed.

"Instead, Ill leave you a boon for to find, out there, alone, in the snow... A diffrent kind of light to warm your way."

Ariel smiled.  "Snow?  Where are we?"

"Outside of the crystal empire, on top of a mountain near it and just before a small village."

Ariel's eyes went wide.  "Oh."

Mephisto gave him a look.  "That's no trouble, is it?"

Ariel shook his head as he got up from his seat.  "Not at all."

"Good."  Mephisto resumed eating in silence.

Ariel found his (wobbly) way though the hall, out the double door, past the spiral staircase, and through a large stone door.  He emerged out into whirling winds, pitch darkness, and howling gales.  The cold instantly bit through his naked body.

"Huh.  Already I'm wishing for more."

He took a step out onto the open drawbridge and marched onward, into the cold.  He followed a dim path, through the snow, through the wind and the cold, looking everywhere around him for Mephisto's promise.  As the city came into sight, his limbs weary, the cold thoroughly punched through his body, the shivers violent and the edges of his fur frozen, his eyes rapidly dotting from side to side, all over the edge - he bumped straight into another traveler.  He hastily stepped back as the traveler didn't react at all, clad thick in a cloak and long cape, his face obscured, his breath audible even over the howling gales.

"I'm so sorry!  I was looking for something, and I - well, it doesn't matter.  What are you doing out here?  This is not the time for a leasurly stroll."

The traveler said nothing.

"Come with me, well head back to the village, find lodging, and Ill make sure your okay.  Okay?"

The traveler said nothing.

"Um, hello?"

The traveler pulled back her hood to reveal Helena.

Ariel's eyes went wide, his voice caught in his throat, his limbs went rigid, he peed a little.

Helena smiled at him.

"I am breathless..."  He managed to wheeze.

Helena's raspy voice met his own.  "I have been looking for you all these years... um, I tried to find you at the train station... I looked in ponyville, but I was too late, then you went to pother towns and I never knew and I..."  Tears leaked form her eyes and her ears flicked back.  She pushed her head to her chest and allowed the tears to flow.  "You look... good."  She finished.

Ariel dashed forward and wrapped his hooves around her warm, dry body.  He kissed her deeply, his breath heavy and wet.  She kissed him right back, her hooves finding his ruffled, thin, and messy back.  After a long moment, Ariel pulled away and looked deep into her eyes, seeing the fire, the need that she still had for him.  All these years?  He thought.

She started to speak again, but he silenced her with a hoof.  She lay her forehead across his thin, receding chest and closed her eyes.

Is this it?  He thought to himself.  Am I so perfectly content that I'll never want to leave this moment?

"Need I say..."  He whispered over the snow.

"How could you find me here?"

Helena answered "I was on the train, and then this-"

"-you of all have crossed my way..."

"Yes, Ariel."

"Unexpectedly, from where?"

"Ariel..."

"I feel like I am dreaming!"

"Me too."  She sighed.

"Hold me close..."

She squeezed him tighter, but she seemed hesitant, reluctant.

"Now Helena, tell me all.  The years weve been apart... Did you hear the moutain fall?  My once broken heart..."

A single tear dripped down from Ariel's eye, onto Helena's cloak.

"If i'm dreaming, don't wake me..."  He sobbed into her back.

Helena pushed her head up to look him in the eye.  "Ariel, lets find shelter before we freeze.."

Ariel pulled away from her, just a little, feeling the cold bite across his chest and his belly, then completely came off of her.  He pressed his body against hers and they took a unified step forward, towards the outline of the village.  They started walking together, at a very slow pace.

"I tried to catch up to you,"  Helena started.  "I was always too slow... you took all our money, you know."

He gave her a cheeky smile, and before she knew what had happened, he licked her from chin to nose.  She blushed and licked his ear, and his voice caught in his throat as he shook his head side to side.  She giggled at him.

"There is still a little left-"

"Oh, thank the stars,"  She exclaimed with a glance at his side, "you certainly didn't spend it on food."

He looked down, and several responses came to his head.  But what good would it be for his relationship if he continued his life of lies and apathy?  This was a new beginning, for them both.  Right?

"Um, most of it went to hallucinogenic drugs, and... uh, that's pretty much it."

Helena rammed her head against his side, causing him to stumble but not fall.

"What?!  I leave you alone for a week and you degenerate into a complete miscreant?!"  Her anger broke.  "Ariel..."

"I cant lie... I'm not sorry.  I saw much, but not much of it was any good."  He sighed.  "I'm no closer to my answers."

Helena was silent for a moment.  "Has it made you reconsider... anything at all?" She asked hopefully.

Ariel was silent.  "Completely."  He said suddenly.  Helena gave her brightest smile yet.

"What about you, Helena?  I don't think you've aged a day..."

Helena blushed a little.  "I have connections.  Investments to cash, old friends with old favors... I didn't spend a day on the road."  She looked down.  "Tell me more about you.."

"There's not much to say."

"We're... there any mares?"

"Not one."

Helena looked up and smiled again.  "I mean, uh, it must have been so lonely for you.."

He looked her square in the eye.  "Crushingly."

Helena looked forward.  "I was so lonely...I would have done anything to get you back.."

Ariel's gut clenched.

She gave him a cheeky smile, then instantly shook her head and looked disappointed.  "Ariel, what were you thinking?"

"That I would do anything for the truth."

"Ariel..."

"Don't wanna talk about it.  Lets... just get to the village."

They walked in silence, and for some reason Helena's ears were flicked back in...something.

I still got it, thought Ariel.