Seasons of Darkness

Derrick knew not if day or night passed by with the endless torment of this broken world, if hours passed by or remained trapped in a web that ensnared his time in a frozen tease. His tendrils made friendly chatter with what must have been every waking minute of his self-discovery and hard work, though now the various screeches and hums of those weightless limbs started to annoy his focused mind.

He took a deep breath and wiped the sweat out of his eyes before taking another rusty nail he found to be less decrepit than the others in the bookshelves, and commanded the tendril in his left shoulder to shape into a hammer and pound said nail into a plank.

"All right, Mr. Dark Knight," Derrick remarked with a sly grin, looking up to the deadly stalactites dripping with the same black ooze he saw on Celestia. "Lets finish up here and go to the next one."

"Yeah, uh," Violent Haze murmured as he took the remaining two rolls of vine Derrick passed him, trying to recall the next trap to the last detail while mostly staying focused on the stalactites not falling apart and skewering either of them. "The next one is supposed to be the boulder we found and had the princess levitate onto the cliff to be an emergency in case we don't trap the Gorger with this one, right?"

"Damn straight." Derrick said with a quick nod. "If we can't make that thing holy, then we'll make the next sponsor for pillsbury."

"Pillsbury?" Violent Haze raised a brow at the young immortal, who responded with a wave of his hand.

"Figure of speech, but we can talk about it if we get out of here alive."

"One can hope that we will be lucky," Violent Haze said with a sigh. “I truly do hope that you know what you are doing.”

"Look," Derrick sighed, patting the ground with mere centimeters from the tightened old rope. "I'm not the best guy for this sort of thing, but engineering is something I don't doubt myself."

"Well one can only hope," Violent Haze groaned to the human. "But if we fail then the last thing we'll see are the corpses the gorger has already consumed."

As the sweat dried and the flow of thoughts ceased, Derrick frowned to himself. "An entire life of assholes, and I get stuck with this one." He said with a tone that would imply disgust, as if trying to be heard by some mystic force that would take pity on him.

"Anyway, how are we going to lure that monstrosity into this area when it strictly guards the gate?"

Derrick snaked a smile at the armored pegasus and began to chuckle, the menace in his eyes glowing behind the redness they took hold.

"That thing likes to eat it's food fresh," he remembered, said smile widening more. "So we'll give it fresh meat that it won't be able to resist."

There was a confusing moment, and then it became angst and anger spouted from the depths of the pegasus' mind.

"You are out of your mind." Violent Haze whispered loudly, his gaze averting from Derrick to his princess, who was carefully studying her surroundings so as not to trigger any trap.

He turned back to Derrick and scowled with a hoof thrust towards the alicorn. "I refuse to take part in this idea. We would be putting her in danger should we---"

"I'll be the bait." Derrick interrupted tactfully, his eyes turning back to the humming alicorn sitting at the entrance of their trap. "I'm not risking her anyway. I just found out that she's my family."

A low growl rolled out of Violent's throat. "That doesn't make it any easier on me when you ARE the key to helping us leave this place."

"And we will get out of here." He reassured the pegasus while making the finishing touches to the last piece of rope they were lucky to find in average condition among most of the scrap that laid around them.

Both boy's attention to the trap after taking a few steps away to gander at the full contraption the human was surprisingly capable of building in silence without the gorger noticing or hearing their handiwork. Having known engineering was quite a feat in his exciting life before Equestria, but to build something of this caliber with rope, broken woods, nails, and fragment's of magic from the real princess was enough of an accomplishment to make him almost pat himself on the back.

Violent Haze was even surprised by the intricate design and wondered what his friend could really do with some metal and an actual area for building.

"Look-" Derrick pointed down to the rope that was tied across the entrance. "The moment he trips over that, the vibration will be just enough to shake the sticks from pushing the bookshelves away from one another. The sticks with either snap or fall off and the shards of woods nailed to the bookshelves will stick that fucker like a shiv while the weight pins him down, giving us enough time to make a run for the entrance and get back to the others."

"Once it's free though, it will hunt us down." Violent reminded, gazing over to his mare as she approached them.

Derrick sighed with the stallion and scratched the back of his head.

"Yeah I know, but we either try and find help after escaping or we stay here and wait. I doubt Nightmare Moon is going to leave me, but I really don't want anyone getting into a fight with that thing."

Having known the Dark Moon Queen for the months they shared, Derrick knew for a fact that the mare's psychopathic obsession would downright boil and explode should she find him in here with that monster trying to devour. And he knew better than to think that his own mother would be better for situation when she was an emotional volcano that bursts at the sight of someone giving him a dirty glance.

He shivered at the thought of seeing Raven come unglued and show what a mother's love could really be, especially she is the goddess that erected half of the entire universe.

Derrick turned his attention back to the dark cavern that led to another section of the dark realm and listened carefully after silencing Violent with a firm press of his hands. It was faint but he could hear growling, followed by many footsteps coming closer with no visible light in said cavern.

He could only assume the worst.

His bright and shiny expression of an engineer proud of his handiwork instantly furrowed with fear. . . and anger.

"It's almost here." He said, turning to his cousin and friend. "We need to hide now."

It never ceased to amaze the dark rulers how attached Nightmare Moon was to Derrick or the fact that obsession was far over the top compared to her sister's when it came to Discord. The group remained in dim light from their horns with their new friend Zelda guiding them through the caverns with the use of her amazing ability to see in the dark. Everyone was on high alert and worried for the man they grew fond of overtime and thought in frantic silence if he was still alive, injured, or possibly another meal for the beast that was drawing closer by the sounds of his roars echoing across this realm of nothing.

Raven pursed her lips as she tried to sense a magical signature that was similar to her son's, but the dark magic that built this monstrosity was seeping all around them and masking everything with it's bitter energy. She was at a loss of using her powers and sighed in defeat after a solid hour of sensing nothing but said energy and decided to tone down the light from her horn before drawing any unwanted attention.

"So how did you come across this thing?" Sombra asked quizzically, looking up to the beast as it sniffed out Derrick's human scent.

"It was in the old castle and recognized Derrick." Nightmare Moon answered, surprisingly with lack of distaste towards the creature but rather grateful that it was guiding them to her mate. She was getting more frantic by the minute and showed it with each shuffle of her hooves or the shaky ruffling of her feathers.

"And the other mare you encountered?" Raven asked, never taking her eyes off the path ahead.

"She said she served you, teacher." The alicorn replied, looking to the mare. "She called herself Lilith."

It was in those words a gasp escaped Raven's lips, and she bolted her gaze to her student with critical eyes as the group behind them watched what was about to happen unfold. Nightmare Moon expected some form of explanation about the unicorn, but she didn't expect hatred to fill the mare's frightening eyes as they found a shred of light after making their way out of the cavern.

"Where is she now?"

Nightmare Moon looked to the ground and shook her head. "I don't know. I left her here to come get you. Where she is now is beyond me."

"Buck!" Raven whispered, confusing the goddess.

"Teacher?"

"Nightmare Moon, listen to me." The empress ordered as she leaned into the mare, forcing those cat-blue eyes to gaze into hers. "If you see her, do not let her near Derrick. She is a liar and a traitor to our kind, so if you see her I want you to kill her without hesitation. She is a dangerous mare and she is not going to help you or Derrick, she is most likely going to try ending him."

"What?" Nightmare gasped.

Raven scoffed at the idea of that mare still breathing and decided to explain the reason behind her orders.

"She was his caretaker, but she chose to serve Faust and aided her in sending Derrick away, though at first she tried to kill him. However, thanks to his magic it was impossible to touch him."

"But his magic is slowly awakening, which means his power is probably weaker than when he was an infant." Sombra pointed out, his wife agreeing with him as they came to a particular room with empty bookshelves.

"Which means he's in worse danger now that he's alone." Discord added as he walked ahead of everyone, trying with his own sensory to try and feel if Derrick was near.

Nightmare Moon growled and shook her head of those thoughts. "We have to hurry and find him. He has to alright, he is the son of the empress."

Just then the roars of the gorger echoed once more and the entire group turned to the direction it came from. They backed away slowly with their magic at the ready until Discord yelped from falling over and landed in a circle made with pages that were weighed down with rocks. The group turned back around to see he was alright but the reason behind his stumbling vibrated and caused a serious of reactions that soon cracked and creaked.

"Come on." Derrick whispered behind a large rock as he heard a yelp, too frightened to think about the difference in the culprit's tone compared to the gorger's.

The rope was tripped and the trap had successfully activated with a serious of yells following before the echoing crash of the bookshelves and dust blowing all over the area. He peeked over and waited for the dust to clear up before taking a good look at his catch and realized that it was not one large, grotesque figure trapped, but actually a certain spirit of chaos slithering out the tiny crevice of the shelves after shrinking himself to snake size.

"I hate this place." He recognized that voice and watched his friend instantly grow back to normal size and point a talon over his shoulder to the trap. "I take it we're close since Derrick does build things."

"Discord!" Derrick said loudly as he appeared from the rock, startling the entire group before yelled his name together and rushed over to him. They had a series of questions to ask, but not before two very worried mares crashed into him, one giving him nuzzles and kisses on his cheek while the other stole his lips and refused to part from him until it was time to gasp for air.

"Oh thank the stars you're alright." Raven cooed with great struggle in controlling her emotions, her wings almost crushing the man as she took in the sweet touch of his form. "We were so worried that something happened to you."

Raven was half wrong about something happening to him, and it was when she finally gave him enough space to breathe that she saw on his shoulder a horrifying mark that healed from the front all the way to his shoulder blade. She had thought his magic was strong enough to heal him with nothing left to show, but it was now clear to her that he was still to adolescent in his magic for it to fully heal him.

"Derrick." Nightmare Moon sighed, planting kiss after kiss on his lips until she felt it was adequate love to let him go.

"Thank god you're all here." Derrick said with joy, hugging his mother and mate before feeling the embrace of Black Hole Sun's wings and her loving nuzzles.

"Now that we found him, can we leave?" Sombra asked, but his attention was thrown from the group taking turns talking to the man to the pair of ponies standing at the rock where Derrick had hidden himself.

He immediately flared his magic and targeted the mare smiling at them.

"Everyone back up." He ordered. "Celestia's here."

Instantly the entire group turned their gazes to where Sombra was looking and saw that he was not playing a joke or hallucinating. It was indeed the sun goddess and she was standing there with a grin and a stallion holding her hoof while she using her magic cover her eyes and hide the black ooze leaking from them.

Everyone got into a protective circle around Derrick and prepared to unleash their might on the mare until he crawled out from under his mother and bolted between them.

"WAIT, WAIT, WAIT!" Derrick yelled frantically, waving his arms at them. "She's not the Celestia we know. She's the real Celestia and she's trying to help us!"

Everyone stopped building their magic and tilted their heads at the man.

"HUH!?" They replied in unison.

Nightmare Moon was the first to express her anger and confusion after stepping forward to meet her mate eye-to-eye.

"Derrick, she tried to kill you back in Equestria." She reminded, her anger melting into concern and hurt as she took his hand in her wing. "How can you look at me and say that she's not the enemy after everything she did to you?"

"Because she's the real Celestia and she's been trapped here for a thousand years." He answered calmly, kissing the mare on her nose as she calmly listened. "Moon, I know it sounds crazy but the Celestia we know is a fake ruling over Equestria. The Celestia behind me is the real one and she wants nothing more than to help me."

Nightmare Moon didn't take his words in well and shook her head whilst raising her magic. She was hurt beyond words and presumed that somehow the alicorn brainwashed her mate, and was determined to break whatever spell he was under even if it meant killing in front of him.

"Lies!" She barked. "That horse is the bane of your life and she's clearly poisoned your mind. Now move aside so that I can end her spell over you!"

Derrick felt his entire body cringe at the thought of her killing his cousin while the rest of the group watched with distance between them. What made it worse was-though he knew Celestia was not his enemy-he couldn't provide the proof that would confirm his statement about her.

"Moon!" He wrapped his arms around her neck, forcing her to stay still. "Don't do this. I swear that she's the real Celestia. You have to believe me!"

"Lies!" Nightmare roared, trying to escape his grasp.

She focused her attention on the worried mare as her stallion in armor got in front to protect her. "You will pay for poisoning his mind. I will kill you with all my might and end your spell over him!"

The struggle was on with the two lovers at opposite side of the situation, both struggling desperately while the mare in question looked up to a nearby cliff and listened.

"Moon, stop it!"

"Let go Derrick!"

"She's not our enemy!"

"Let go now!"

Just then Celestia shrieked at the two lover to move and appeared in a flash with her barrel turned to Derrick and the group watching in shock as they anticipated her to take advantage and attack the two. They were wrong however, they were met with the blind alicorn using all of her strength to shove them away before a large force crashed to the ground with her completely pinned by it's foot.

Agony, writing agony of unimaginable proportion boomed out of her voice as the weight of their biggest problem cracked her ribs and wrapped it's tentacles around her barrel before opening it's drooling maw. The situation became clear to the group that Celestia just saved their favorite pair and was now about to succumb to death with it's mouth showing the various bones and flesh stuck between it's teeth.

"The gorger!" Violent Haze yelled, charging the beast to save his mare.

Derrick jumped to his feet after seeing what just happened and grabbed the largest rock he could find before throwing it at the monster.

"Let her go!"

His rock hit where he intended and forced it to release Celestia as the pain rang in his one large eye. He ran with his magic enhancing the rate of his speed to meet with the desire of catching the alicorn before she fell to the ground. He made, but barely, with all three of his tendrils extending can catching the mare while the rest of ponies dropped their thoughts and went on the offensive.

Raven was the first to rush in and leap with a flap of her wings to kick the beast on his cheek before using said wings to create a gust that pushed her son to a safer distance between them.

"Chrysalis, get Derrick out of here now!"

The changeling queen nodded and helped Derrick to his feet with the groaning mare in tow in his tendrils. She jerked him to the cavern by his arm and forced him to make a run for it while the others stayed behind to fight off the monster long enough to get their dark lord to safety.

However. . .

"Going somewhere?"

The voice was recognizable, and Derrick had thought she came to help but found a sharp pain in his stomach and malicious eyes looking up to him while Chrysalis gasped at what just happened. Out of the darkness came Lilith at lightning speed with her actions shattering Derrick's hopes in a bloodcurdling scream from his throat before pulled her horn out of his gushing flesh and kicking him into a wall.

The scream was heard by the group with only a moment of time of seeing what happened as Lilith used her magic to throw Chrysalis into the group to keep her busy with fighting the gorger that was now back on it's feet and ready to devour them all.

"Derrick!" They screamed with no choice but to fight the monster that was upon them as their struggling friend coughed blood and fell over.

"Lilith." He spat blood between breaths, unable to understand why he wasn't healing as quickly as he should. "What are. . . doing?"

"Finishing what I started." Lilith answered between giggles, her horn glowing a blue ooze as it dripped. "Had to find a little something first to keep you from healing. Should last about five minutes."

Derrick looked down to his stomach to find that the same ooze was in his wounds and burning greatly inside at a level of pain that kept him from standing back. He hoped his tendrils would protect them, but they lying flat on the ground shrieking in pain too as his body stung all over

"Funny thing about your kind," Lilith mused, making the man scream by pressing her hoof into said wound. "This venom can only be found here in this realm, and it only works on humans that possess magic. Tried it on so many ponies before your mother sealed me in that book. Didn't even faze them."

She pressed harder on his wound and delighted in his pain as it rang across the dark realm.

"Now I can finish what I started."

Derrick looked over to his friends for help, but all they could do was defend themselves from the gorger when their magic wasn't harming it. Hope was becoming slim and death was knocking on the door as Lilith lowered her head and slowly pushed her horn into Derrick's chest. He tried to stop it, but the strength was gone due to the poison and life was getting number by the second with his vision going blurry.

"Farewell dark lo-"

Just then another roar was heard and a figure appeared to Lilith's side before she was hit across her face with a bone-cracking kick that knocked the spit out of her mouth and sent her flying into the wall Chrysalis was still still lying against.

The sheer surprise of this mare standing up astounded the man after he looked to the pony that was now standing over him protectively and throwing caution to the wind with a blinding fury and care and love. Her was magic was at the ready, both the dark she gained through study and the light she was born with as Lilith stood back up and spit the blood that formed in her gums.

"You." She seethed.

"YOU WILL NOT TOUCH HIM AGAIN!" Celestia roared, charging the unicorn.

To Be Continued. . .