Embodiment of Rage

Twilight and Applejack stood slack-jawed, staring at the beast in front of them. I took one look at them and shouted to run, hoping they'd heed my word immediately. However, when I got up and looked down, they still hadn’t moved, so I decided to take drastic measures. I slapped them both across the face and shouted once more, “RUN GODDAMMIT!”

Twilight and Applejack bolted, with me a bit too far behind. I remember something that was said back on Earth, something along the lines of ‘when faced with an enemy that wishes to kill you, run first and leave your friends behind.’ That was exactly what was happening now, fucking ponies.

I however, with my enhanced speed, managed to keep pace with the demon, so that I was always in front of it, just as it was always behind me. We kept running until we exited the Everfree. There, stood Fluttershy, Rarity and the ‘CMC’. They each took one look at the demon and screamed.

I knew that with this many, and the children, we could not outrun the demon for long, so against my better judgement and instincts, I turned to face it. Twilight and Applejack ran to their friends before Twilight turned around and exclaimed, “Why are you stopping?!”

“We cannot outrun it with children, they will simply fall behind and fall victim to it.” I responded. They all looked horrified, but knew that we either ran and left the children to die, or stood our ground and probably died as well.

“What exactly is ‘it’?!” Twilight shouted in fear.

“That, Twilight, is a demon. One of many kinds of demons. I never expected them to show up here, but now that they have, this world is doomed.” I turned to face Twilight, which proved to be a big mistake. The demon leapt forward and swung its axe overhead, attempting to cleave me in half vertically.

I leapt back in time to its deadly swipe before shouting, “Twilight! I need my bow!” I spared a brief glance towards Twilight who appeared to be hesitating. “For fucks sake Twilight! Bow! Now! OR WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!” I shouted at the top of my lugs, while simultaneously dodging the demons’ swings.

Twilight looked to her friends, “Can we trust him?” Was all she asked. I looked back, extremely surprised, and surprisingly hurt.

“Are you fucking serious?! Now isn’t the time!” I shouted, turning my attention back to the demon, just in time to dodge another swing, only barely as it managed to scrape a large gash on my chest.

“Girls, can we trust him?” Twilight asked again, this time with a little more urgency in her tone.

“Ah don’t think now’s tha' time t' ask tha', but ah do.” Applejack responded, concerned for my life. At least one of them is...

“I do! I do!” Pinkie shouted as she bounced up and down, seemingly acquiring back her usual eccentricness.

“If Applejack and Pinkie trust him then I do too, even though we’ve not properly met, he is currently risking his life to save us.” Rarity added.

Fluttershy however, was too afraid to do anything, let alone talk. She simply whimpered. “Fluttershy, what do you think?” Twilight asked. Apparently she didn’t fully understand the dire situation we were in.

“FUCK'S SAKE PEOPLE, HURRY IT UP!” I shouted, absolutely terrified for my life as I continued to duck and weave through the demon's unrelenting attacks. Only now, I'm getting more tired and sluggish, he's nicked me more than once already.

“Yes! I trust him!” Fluttershy shouted, well, what would count as a shout for her.

Apparently that was all Twilight needed, so she summoned my bow from whatever dimension she kept it in and threw it towards me. I thrust my left arm out to grab the bow in the air. However, at that exact moment the demon swung its axe, and severed my arm from my torso, blood spewing forth from the wound.

I screamed and howled in searing pain, the feeling of having a limb severed was one I’ve only felt once before in my life, but that's a story for another time. The pain was agonising; It's like a sting that just keeps increasing in intensity and never stops.

My now severed limb fell the floor, the bow still clutched tightly in its grasp. The gathered ponies screamed in fear, shock, and sorrow. Tears streamed from my eyes from the pain, while I stared in shock at where my arm used to be, clutching at the gushing wound. I tore my eyes from my shoulder and stared at the gloating demon looming over me. “I’m going to fucking kill you.” I said simply, voice filled with utter rage.

My eyes shone with a fury I’ve not felt for a thousand years. With my remaining arm I dove for my bow, ripping it from the clutches of my severed arm. I stood up, bow in hand, panting from both pain and pure wrath.

With a pained scream, the power that the bow held was unleashed in all its glory. The ponies gasped as my arm slowly regenerated, starting with the bones, then the muscles and finally the veins, arteries and skin. Now, much more quickly, the gashes from the manticore and demon healed across my body. However, with that, I am even more wrathful and ready to enact my revenge.

“You. You are now in my world. A hell most different from your own.” I said quietly, my voice as cold as ice, but brimmed with fire. The Embodiment of the Marauder armour donned my body, and my ethereal companions appeared, ready to attack at a moment’s notice. “Hold him still.” At my order, my companions rushed forwards and attacked mercilessly.

My spider shot webs at the demon, holding him in place, while my wolf ribbed at his calf muscles, making his legs useless. The boar impaled his tusks into his legs, while my ferrets ran up his torso, and each ripped at his triceps. The crow and bat each took an eye from the demon, making sure that caused great pain to the beast. “Enough.” After the demon was fucking rekt by my pets, I ordered them to fall back, which they did. “He’s mine, leave.” I said darkly, my companions disappearing back to whence they came.

Using my new hand to steady the bow, with my right hand I pulled back a magical arrow and shot at the demon. The arrow pierced its knee, making the demon fall. I drew back another and pierced its other knee, now it cannot walk. Another two arrows were drawn and shot, cleanly severing the demon's arms. Now it cannot crawl, it is at my mercy, but there will be none.

The demon screamed in, what I assumed was a mixture of rage and pain. I walked slowly to the downed creature. I used my magic to conjure a large knife in my right hand as I walked towards the downed soldier. It attempted to crawl away from me, but with no arms, and useless legs, all it could do was shuffle slightly.

I grinned manically, the pure hatred I felt towards this demon was rivalled only by the hatred I felt towards the Blood clan. But that, alas, that’s a story for another time.

As I stood over the demon, it attempted dismally to bite at my legs, but I simply stomped on its head, making it eat the dirt beneath us. I ground my foot into the back of its skull for added pain. I knelt down with my foot still on its head as I whispered into its ear, “You, you have angered me greatly, caused me immense pain. It’s time to suffer. Curse yourself and your weakness for pissing off the wrong Nephalem.”

I reached my arm up high, ignoring the shouts of objection that the ponies were throwing my way; for I was too consumed in rage to care. I brought the knife down into the demons back and straight through its spine. Once the knife pierced the demon, I twisted it side-to-side to inflict more pain. The demon roared in pain again.

I pulled the knife out and reached high again. “You!” I brought it down again in a different spot on its back. “Fucking! Asshole!” With each word I stabbed him again and again. Blood spewed out and made a bigger pool on the floor while also splashing onto my body. From its severed arms, the arrows in its knees and the stab wounds on its back, there was a significant amount of blood on the ground.

I grew bored of only stabbing the demons back, so instead I moved to its legs. The demon was barely alive at this point, but I had far more anger to vent unto it. I lifted up one of its legs and proceeded to snap its shin-bone between my knee and elbow. A sickening ‘crack!’ resounded. The demon barely had any fight left, it couldn't even scream any more, all it could do was whimper. I didn’t even know demon could whimper, but I'm glad I know now. I let the leg drop before reaching for the other. I repeated the process, but after snapping its shin, I pulled as hard as I could. It took some effort, but with extreme strength, the muscles and tissues slowly ripped apart.

After I ripped its first leg off, I then pulled off the other. At this point, I'm pretty sure the demon had already died, but just to make sure, I walked back in front of it, stomped on its head for good measure, and stabbed it in the back of the skull. To complete my vengeance, I tore its head off its shoulders. It was much harder to do than the legs, but as I pulled, I felt the muscle fibres snapping one by one, making it much easier until it came off completely. Leaving its torso with no limbs attached, with said limbs lying only a little distance away from where they were previously attached.

As I stood up, I dropped the demons head onto the ground. I stood over the bloody corpse – although since it was already red, the blood wasn’t easy to tell apart from its normal skin colour – and panted. The fury dissipated as I stood there, staring at its corpse, leaving only fatigue and weariness. It was then I heard Twilight's voice call out from behind me.

“Julian…” she said quietly. I turned to look, and what I saw was a bit dis-heartening. Twilight, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie and Rarity all stared at me in shock and fear. Tears streaming down their faces, with pools of vomit on the floor. Luckily the ‘CMC’ weren’t there. I later found out that Twilight had teleported them away just before my arm was cut off.

The sight of them staring at me in fear hurt me far more than I would've expected. “Give me the bow.” Twilight said, fear, caution and authority filling her voice. Not once since I’ve met her had she used this tone with me, and the fact that they now distrusted me hurt as well.

I looked at the bow in my hand, before looking at the rest of my body. The demons blood – and probably some of my own – covered every part of my being that wasn’t clothed. Obviously my clothes were absolutely coated in blood. Even my hair was, at which point I jokingly mused if I would get it permanently dyed that colour. However, now was not the time at all to be thinking of jokes.

I looked back at Twilight. Contemplating my options.

Give her the bow, or don’t give her the bow.