Mephisto and the Pony

Mephistopheles watched Ariel go, his grin growing.  He watched Celestia for a long time, before finally she spoke.

"How far you have fallen.  Even the dead find no peace from you."

He laughed at her.  "You mean, the murdered!"

Celestia's eyes narrowed.  "You shall pay for this."

"Theres a judgment again!"

Celestia looked back at the mares.  "Lets us go, my little ponies.  Allowing you all to see that was... a bad idea."

The mares all marched out of Mephisto's castle, leaving him alone.

...

Ariel had not made it far from the castle when he saw Mephisto waiting for him.  He approached the alicorn timidly, and said "Hi Mephisto."

"Greetings, my little pony.  I have a suprise planned for you - its time we allowed ourselves to focus n the problem at hand.  Mares make things so..."  His hoof drew circles in the air, trying to find the right word.  "Complicated."

Arielo nodded.  "I noticed.  Who were all those mares?"

Mephisto shook his head.  "I dunno.  If i tried to keep track of everypony Celestia failed, I would drive myself insane."

Ariel started to walk past him, and to his surprise, Mephisto started to follow.  "What are you doing?"

"My new plan requires my presence.  Therefore, I shall be with you to ensure nothing goes wrong this time."

Ariel nodded and resumed his sad march to the Village.  He didn't notice that Mephisto left no shadow, and left no hoof prints.

...

Mephisto stood on top of his castle, his voice so loud and monstrous that all in his castle could hear him.

"The fortune is smiling at our first effort!  Let me lead you and you will be safe!  Voice of the people, voice of me, voice of glory!  To the infinity!"

...

Mephisto started talking to Ariel in a very strange way.  He was whispering in the stallion's ear, and it was a little disconcerting.

"You know just who I am.  Don't be so distant.  Cause when your lost, I am solely there, to share your grief."

"Actually, you keep saying that, but you have yet to really prove it.  If you want my soul at all, your going to have to try harder."  Ariel said, irritable.

"Wailing your sorrow is only my way to comfort you.  Your lonely, I name, your solitude."

"I am not that solitary."

"Now tell me all about your pain, down to the detail.  Don't say its love, your fragile heart, breeds my comtemt.

"What?  That is not true!"

"Chase the heathen call, we belong, you and I.  Unison in all you deny."

Ariel shook his head.  "About what Clestia said - who are you?"

"I am the thorn in your side, that seeks accomplishment.  I am an angel, the light sent.  The spore of your pride!  The master of all, I am the urge of the flesh."

Ariel nodded slightly.  "I see."

The two walked in silence as the two approached the village.  As soon as they did, Ariel noticed the nopony asked about the red alicorn, or even seemed to notice him.  "Whats going on?  Why cant they see you?"

Mephisto chanted "They cannot behold my glory."  Ariel strode to the middle of the market and sat down on his romp.  Mephisto casually stood next to him as ponies dodged around and by them.

"Whats the plan?"  Asked Ariel.

"That."  Said Mephisto, pointing his wing at some mare, who was busy at a stall for spices.  She was a gray earth pony, with long purple mane and tail, styled in waves.

Ariel looked between her and Mephisto.  "I don't understand."

"You will.  All I need you to say are these words, and all will be revealed."  Mephisto whispered to Ariel as he watched Rarity.  She seemed so innocent, so pure, yet so energetic and down to earth.  She was perfect.  He decided he liked her, but somewhere he felt the strangest resistance to the situation, and them some doubt.  He ignored it. After all, this was Mephisto's plan, not his.  Who knows what the self-proclaimed master of all had in store?  It was best not to make assumptions.

Ariel did as he was told, and approached her.  He said to her "Excuse me miss..."

She tuned around with a smile, but it vanished when she saw him.  "For the last time, its Margurate- who are you?"

The world seemed to stop as he said "I've come to soak my sorrow in halo black,  as black as the seal on my soul."

The mare bolted straight up and her eyes seemed to lose focus.  "What?"  She asked.

Mephisto leaned forward to whisper in her ear.  "Oh come all ye faithful, beneath the moon.  Into the void as one, marching on!"

She smiled at Ariel, then stepped a little close.  "Ariel..."  She whispered.

Something in Ariel reacted to her whisper, something primal and foul.  He smiled as his hoof went over her shoulder and they walked away together, leaving Mephisto behind.  He smirked.

...

Ariel and Margurate lay under a rock formation, maybe a mile or so from the village.  They lay hoof in hoof, Margurate giggling every so often at some joke Ariel told her.  Suddenly he seemed to sober up and blatantly said "Love is real pain."

Margurate seemed to consider this for a moment, before saying "An eternal revolution in our minds."

Ariel shook his head.  "When the lights are down..."

Margurate giggled.  "What does that mean?"

"Your so far away."

"In the silence of the darkness we unite."  She said suddenly.

Ariel nodded, then crawled over to her to lay his head on her torso.

"What can protect me from the past?  Or the things that I have done?"

Margurate poked his cheek with a hoof.

"She tried to tell me.  Then she was gone."

Margurate shook her head.  "What would she want you to do?  Spend eternity miserable, or to move on?

She giggled again.  "Seriously, you never heard that anywhere before?"

Ariel smiled.  "Maybe in death, we'll live the love we never had..."

Through his connection to Ariel's mind, Mephisto could feel his emotions, from self-hate and regret, to lust for knowledge, to lust for... other kinds of knowledge.  It was easy for him to pull the strings, and slowly but Ariel and Mephisto formed the connection, an abstract version of the connection between Ariel and Margurate.  All he was waiting for was Ariel to have that one moment, where he wished it would last forever.

...

Ariel burst awake, struggling to get away from Margurate and the deep shame he now felt.  He stumbled over rocks, the ground, and himself to get pressed up against the rocky outcropping in the middle of nowhere.  He screamed at himself on the inside, on the outside he wept and curled into a ball, wishing it all would end.

"Ariel?"  Asked a sleepy Margurate.  "Come back..."

Slowly, he sat up, allowing shadows to obscure his face.  He didn't want her to see the tears.  Eventually, she got up as well, climbing up from the nest she had managed to build herself.  She looked at him in confusion.

"Whats wrong?"

"Only the sound of your voice made me believe that, that you were her."

"...What?"

"Once I believed that I could find, just a trace of her beloved soul."

"Your dead girlfriend?"

"Once I believed she was all, then she smothered my beliefs."

"That's... awful."

"One cold winter's night, I may follow her voice to the river."

"The river?"

"Leave.  Leave me for now and forever... leave while you can."

She bolted upright.  "But Ariel!"

"Somewhere in time I will find you and haunt you again, like the wind sweeps Equestria."

"Ariel!"

"It'll happen when the cold in my heart leaves.  And quietly Ill go to sleep..."

She got on her feet and took a step towards him.  "But... I love you..."

"How could that first recur?  When memories linger, on an arc?  What made me think you were her?  Helena is dead to all!  Nothing can bring her to life, don't pretend Ill be loving you!"

She turned away, hurt.  "We could start over..."

"Like ice on a lake of tears, Ill take you through."

She turned back to face him, strange determination in her eyes.

"Life fades in anew, with someone like you!"

Ariel stood back up, and turned his back on her.  He troted into the wilderness, into the cold, and away from that village, and Margurate.

He walked for what seemed like hours, until finally mountains had risen around.  His stomach growled, and he considered where he might more drugs.  He shook the thought away.  He had done a lot of thinking since his departure.  Suddenly, a pitch red form landed next to him, causing snow to jump away from him like it was afraid.  Mephisto's face was twisted with rage, but he spoke calmly and assuridly.

"What are you doing out here?"

"Im about to tell you."

"Shouldn't you be back at home with that mare?  I mean common, she loved you!  Honestly, I felt it!  ...Good job, by the way.  I was expecting courtship, long years of seeing each other, but you!  Couldn't have done it better myself.  I chose well!"

"If my soul could revive from my carnal remains,  what does it matter to me?"

"What?"

"If it all fades to black, if i'm born once again.  How could I be condemned for the things that I've done?  My intentions were good."

"When has Celestia ever cared about a pony's intetions?"

"How I wish there was a heaven."

"Look, I can't just spill universal secrets and stuff..."

"Sentient reason counters all."

"I can say that that, is not true."

"In the concept of time?  To Celestia, to Luna?  We're like a grain in the sand."

"Yes, but we can be so much more.  Now, I have a plan-"

"We strive for the flame, as if death was our aim, cause we cannot understand."

Mephisto shook his head.

"You don't know any univeral secrets, do you?"

"Of course I do!"

"Our lives are just a fragment.  Yours especailly."

"Ariel."

"There may be more than we can see..."

"That's the spirit."

"Mephisto, leave me."

"Kay.  Ill be back though, got lots of schemes just waiting to used."  With that, he jumped up and flew away, into the clouds."

Ariel walked further.  Into the mountains, into his own mind.  Slowly, words formed in the back of his head.  He knew what he had to do.

He looked up at the sun, pain bearing in his eyes.  And he spoke.

"Once my life was plain and clear.  I recall, once my ignorance was bliss.  Nightfall came like a serpent's kiss to my troubled mind."

He leaned back and spoke to the snow.  "Why?  Why my princess, have you abandoned me?  In my sobriety, behind the old facade, i'm your bewildered child!"

He could barely hear himself.  "Take me cross the river wide."

He looked back up, suddenly enraged.  "Promises were made on my soul!  Ice cold winds swept my heart away!  Bring me back to you!"

Something crunched in the snow behind him, and he whirled around to see Princess Celestia.

"There you are!"

She looked at him with pity.  "I can give you words from her, if you choose to accept them."

"Oh this'll explain everything."  He said dryly.

She cleared her throat, and Helena's voice came forth.  "I remember a song.  Like in a dream, When septermber was long, and winter unreal."  And Celestia vanish in light.

Ariel screamed into the stones around him.  "Why have you abandoned me?!  Just take me across the river!"

He sobbed against the ground.  "That river.."

It started to rain around him, the rain melding with the white slushy snow.

He felt a hoof on his shoulder, and he looked up to see Princess Twilight.  He shrugged her off and backed away, and she seemed hurt.

"What have I done?"  He cried.  "What would you have done?"

Twilight looked at him.

"Your right, your right... I did it to myself.  But what was i to do?  Reject the second best thing that ever happened to me?"

She gave him a expectant look.

"I left her with a warning.  Without protection.  Cause our nature has its way with lust, and with her back against the wall... she crumbled.  I see her shame in my desire."

Twilight nodded.

"Just a minuet more could have saved her life..."

Twilight shook her head.

"And a part of myself.  It took place all too soon."

Finally, she spoke.  "You know what you must do."

"Some of these wounds will always bleed..."

Twilight turned her back and walked, in the direction of Mephisto's castle.