Tales of Those Forgottenby Sunwing1999ChaptersPrologueChapter 1: Starlight, Starbright...Chapter 2: Calm Before the StormPrologueI sat inside the coffee shop. Cradling a cup of coffee in between my blue-furred hands. I looked at the caffeinated substance inside the cup and swirled it around a little, before lifting it up to my lips to take a drink. I sighed lightly as the warm liquid made its way to my stomach. Black, just the way I like it. I looked out the window. A storm had started and the heavy rain pattered against the window loudly, permeating the silence that had fell upon the shop as I entered. I could see my blue bloodshot eyes in my reflection and the horn that topped my head, my mane being tucked under my wide-brimmed detectives hat. Yea, I'm a detective. Detective Aurora of the Royal Canterlot Army. I put the cup onto the table and stood up. My black coat falling down to cover my legs and stopped just above my ankles. I left ten bits on the counter and walked out the door with a quick wave in farewell. I was quickly assaulted with the torrential downpour and I lifted my jackets collar up to keep more of the rain off of me. I looked at my magic watch. Half way to the sun, and still no attack. I was on a murder case, the case itself had been going on for a month but I believe that it was planned long before as the murderer know where to be and how not to get caught every time. Each case had the MO. Stomach ripped open and all the organs despised of, every muscle in the ponies body. Gone. Nothing else was touched. It was peculiar to say the least. I walked past another pony that was dumb enough, like me to go out into the storm. The mare had a newspaper held over her head and she was running off to who knows where. I looked up and saw the lights of the barracks shine through the unrelenting deluge. I quickened myself so I too, could get out of the storm myself. I walked inside and shook myself off quick, taking off my hat I put it onto a hangar and began to walk up to the front desk. My mane, now not made prisoner by my hat was a bright green with white streaks moving through it at random intervals. People said I got it from my mother. I had never met her, personally. "No sleeping on the job Bolt!" I quipped. The stallion shot up from his seat. "I'm up! It's okay! I was not sleeping!" I chuckled quietly, resting my arms on the desk and leaning forward. Bolt was a green furred pony with a dark blue mane. He was wearing blue jeans and a vest that had 'Royal Canterlot Guard' on the front. He was an earth pony. "Your lucky it was me who found you, others would not have been so polite to wake you up before the chief came in." "Yes, thank you." He grabbed some papers off his desk and handed them to me. "Those are what you asked for." "Thank you" I replied and walked around the desk to go up to my office on the third floor. I had work to do. My office was, nothing special really. There was a trio of filing cabinets tucked off into one corner while a desk sat in the far corner of the room with papers sprawled all over it. I sat behind my desk, looking over various photos of the murder scenes, all looked the same. But one had a very defining factor. A scorch mark found on the third body, it was faint but it looked like a paw print. I believe it was a summoned creature. Summoning creatures in Equestria was a hard thing to do on itself, and finding a creature that is willing is even harder. But if it can be accomplished, anything could be done. When a creature is summoned from Tartarus it takes their soul. Not the physical body, that stays behind as a lifeless shell. Since the heat in Tartarus is so extreme summoned monsters have been known to... Combust to say the least. This brought me to the book I was given by Bolt. 'Summons from Tartarus' this book had everything on every creature there. All I had to do was look. After an hour of skimming pages I found the matching footprint. The creature it belonged to was... Terrifying. I was known as the 'Ridder-Monster' it was extremely agile, and. Extremely deadly. By eating the muscles and organs of its victims it is able to transfer their power onto its own body. Making it stronger in every way. The picture was. Just creepy. It's face held the complexions of a wolf while its body stretched back to two legs, each were bent the wrong way backwards and it's paws ended in large claws. Bipedal. Moving up the body further it had two long arms that ended in equally large claws. It's overall appearance was terrifying. There was a crack of thunder outside and I jumped out of my seat. Looking out the window I could almost swear I saw the gleam of eyes on the rooftops. Full of malice, that was when I heard the scream. I rushed downstairs to see Bolt. Or what was left of him lying in a bloody heap on the floor, through the rain I could see a wolf-like creature fleeing through a broken window. I grimaced slightly. I could hear other ponies pounding downstairs. But the damage had been done. "Everypony stay on the stairs! This is now a crime scene and I don't want you trampling all over it!" I shouted to those on the stairs then added. "You there, Storm?" I was answered with a 'yup' and a white unicorn with a red mane began pushing through the crowd to stand beside me. He wore a outfit the same as me. But his jacket and hat were blue, "What happened here Aurora?" "Another murder, seemingly the same MO as the last four." I said looking back to the body.... Poor Bolt. He was young for even a guard. "What bothers me though, Storm was how it happened in such a short time. I heard the scream and was down here within four seconds." Storm hummed something while putting his white-furred hand to his chin. His horn lit up a white colour and a blast of magic went out from it. Seconds later he replied. "Time slow spell, active in the surrounding area except this room." I nodded and put some gloves on. "Let's get to work." The first thing I noticed was the claw marks, etching into the floor with precise and fluid cuts. More evidence on it being the ridder. Walking over to the window I looked at the glass, reinforced. Nothing normal could have broken through and there was no blood anywhere on the glass. The murderer would have been injured from the shards. I plucked a clump of hair from the broken window. 'interesting..' I thought. As I put the hair into a bag. "What have you found, Storm?" "Concrete evidence that this thing is not a pony." I turned around and walked across the entryway to him, he was sitting infront of a monitor that showed camera footage. "Watch this." I looked at the grainy footage on the screen. Bolt was sitting at the desk, doing paperwork when he looked up. He got up from the chair and began fumbling for his sword, then the footage went from being grainy to being completely unseeable. But the sound still played. There was a low, inhuman growl and the sound of claws beg drug across the floor. Bolt was screaming for help and the creature roared. It was like nothing I ever heard. It started really high pitched but almost like a wave it went low and back to high. Like it was laughing. Bolt screamed again and there was a crash. The footage went black and cut to where Bolt was lying on the ground in a mauled heap and the image of the ridder-monster retreated from the window. "A spawn from Tartarus, you were right, Aurora." "Get Celestia over here." Author's Note Thanks for reading! I'll see you in Chapter 1! Chapter 1: Starlight, Starbright...One week before current events Starlight I sat on the roof of a local store, running a whetstone along my glowing sword. The shhk sound of the stone running along my sword the only sound to be heard in the usually bustling city. The ridder-monster had been summoned again. I was so close to getting there. But was yet, so far. I cursed lightly as I had let the opportunity slip through my fingers so easily. I was a warrior of the light dammit! I should protect innocents! Summoning the creatures in Tartarus was unavoidable, sadly as nothing could stop the souls from being ripped from the creatures body to do the bidding of its summoner. That was where ponies like me came in. Demon hunters. The job was... Gruelling sometimes and extremely difficult. But this summoner, knew what they were doing. Putting the sword back into the sheath on my back I ran and jumped from the roof, letting my wings catch the air and blowing the hood of my cloak from where it covered my face. I had all white fur and an all white mane with shining red eyes. I had made the excuse that I was albino to sneak into the population of Canterlot. Hence the cloak. I lighted onto the ground and began to trek across to where the ridder was desummoned. There was something I had to see. I knelt next to a pile of a nasty colour of green goop on the ground surrounded by multiple scorch marks. Accounts from those that could speak in Tartarus said that the desummoning process was quite... Painful, hence the green goop. It was blood of the ridder. Producing a vial from my cloak I scooped up some of the goop and stood back up. Sighing the I flipped my hood back up and walked out of the alley. The murders were getting out of hand. I knew it, the Council of Light new it. But bystanders should not be getting pulled into this war. It all started four thousand years ago. When some ponies fell from the light, and chose to follow the path of darkness. They made their own type of magic that was soon forbidden by law. Most of the fallen ponies were killed or captured. But they infected the minds of many. The war started. Now, four thousand years later it's still waging. But in secret. But everything points that it may be back to full scale. Equestria may never be the same place again. Present Day The rain pattered against my cloak, running down from my hood and onto my face. Grabbing a newspaper from an abandoned stand I held it over my head in order to negate some of the rains effect on my soaked cloak. I walked past another pony crazy enough to be out in the rain. The pony had a long black trenchcoat and a wide brimmed had that covered the mares face. Looking back at the pony disappearing into the darkness the I couldn't help but be suspicious. 'Hmm, trenchcoat, hat that covers their eyes. And out in something like this? Could be the sumoner. Ditching the newspaper I spread my wings and followed the mysterious pony. Using the rooftops for cover. The pony led me to a Royal Guard barracks, peculiar place for a pony so shady... The pony appeared in windows leading upstairs and entered a room, throwing some paper on a desk and sitting in a chair behind said desk. After watching the pony for a few minutes, and realizing that the mare was just a mere detective. I turned around when a loud clap of thunder sounded. Making me jump slightly. Then came the unmistaken sound of a Tartarus portal being opened. How did I miss the marks? Jumping off the rooftop before the ridder crawled through the portal and saw me as it's next victim I unsheathed the sword from my back. There was a crash as the horrible creature jumped from the rooftop and sprinted towards the barracks. It must have seen the detective! Sprinting over to the barracks I was about to crash in when the ridder-monster crashed through the window, doing a quick roll and went off into the darkness, against my better judgement. I was going to give chase. The ridder moved through the town at an astonishing speed. I could barely keep up with its dark form as it wove through the streets towards some unseen objective. Then it stopped, sniffing the air. It looked back in my direction and snarled, it's wolf like lips baring blood-stained teeth. It ran it long claws along the cobblestone. Creating deep gouges. I had been spotted. Stepping out into the open street I faced the monster, sword held out at my right side. "Ready to die?" I intoned, running the tip of my sword against the cobblestone. The creature growled before, surprisingly answering. "You. Will. Die. Warrior of the Light." It spoke in a gravelly voice, eyes shining in the moonlight as the rain again increased in intensity creating nothing but a silhouette. I smirked before dashing quickly at the monster, who swung it's right paw at me. Swinging my sword I cleaved off its paw and it let out a screech. Sliding under it I swung at one of its mangled legs and was rewarded with a spray of its hot blood along with a second screech. The sword given to demon killers was designed specifically to kill spawn of Tartarus. Doing a flip I whirled back around to face my wounded foe. "Impudent runt!" It roared at me before it abruptly set on fire, it's wolf like eyes filled with malice. Lunging at me with its one good arm it rammed a fist into my chest, sending me flying into a stand and setting my cloak on fire. I ripped her cloak off before too much damage could be done and turned to face my foe before getting sharp claws raked across my chest and sending me flying to the right. I let out a whimper while clutching at my now profusely bleeding chest. "Let me show you the power of Darkness!" The creature let out a loud roar, shaking the windows of the street and new limbs grew out of the previously cut off ones. Now standing up to its full height it leaned over me. Baring its teeth it prepared for the killing blow to my neck. That was when a glowing arrow was sent through its head and suck into the ground next to my head. It let out an agonizing screech while clutching at its eye. "How the fuck are you not dead?" I screamed at it before through my pain i grabbed my sword and decapitated the beast. Then all I saw was black. Aurora Celestia arrived quickly pushing her way though guards to get to me and Storm. "You called, Aurora? You found the murderer killing my ponies? Who are they?" "Not they, but it." I replied as I showed her the screen capture of the ridder retreating through the window. Celestia mumbled something under her breath before running a hand through her mane. "I never thought I would see them again." "Excuse me, Princess?" "I locked those things in Tartarus years ago, how did they get through Cerberus?" "They didn't get through anything, Princess, they were summoned through means of magic." "But summoners have been gone for centuries! How could one turn up now?" "I don't know, but scorch marks at the scene of the crime point to it being summoned, nothing else could have done that. Storm sighed as he walked outside. I didn't say anything. Sometimes he needed some air. What I didn't know about Storm needing 'air' was that he was going to bring a mauled mare back to the barracks with green goop splattered all over her and on the verge of death. Way to got Storm! Medical ponies rushed to the albino mares body and did checks on her pulse and various other organs before announcing she could be saved. I walked over to Storm. "What the fuck dude? Did you just find a mare mauled in the street and think of bringing her here?" "No, come with me." Storm out a hand on my back and led me to an area with no ponies around it. "She killed the ridder-monster, Aurora." "You're not kidding, are you?" I asked as Storm shook his head. I sighed and kicked some rubble on the ground. It was definitely hard to believe. But Storm was not known to lie either... Storm shifted slightly and re-positioned the bow that he had over his coat to so it fit under. "I'm going to go see her." Several hours later the albino mare was considered stable and was finally far from dying. That's good, I guess. I walked into our small medical ward where she was hooked up to our various machines making sure she stayed living. Upon hearing me enter the mare turned her head to the door, her piercing red eyes bore a hole through me. "Glad your okay, you gave some ponies quite a good scare." The pony just continued to look at me. Not speaking. I sighed audibly and pulled a chair up beside her hospital bed, sitting down and leaning back slightly. "Who are you?" I asked, it was a simple question. A three year old could answer it. But this mare just didn't budge. "You know, its common courtesy to at least tell the name of yourself to those who save you." "I need to get out of here" I was almost taken aback at the finality in her voice. "You just got here, stay and heal up. The ridder gave you quite a thrashing" "You know about that monster?" "Yea, me and my partner Storm were assigned to the case to try and find out who the murderer was. Turns out we found it was a spawn from Tartarus. Not the best thing. Good job on killing it, by the way." "It is not dead. Creatures summoned from the pits of Tartarus are merely shells of what they really are. If anything it would only take a few extra days to summon. If that." I leaned forward slightly at the mares apparent knowledge on the subject. "How do you know so much?" "I don't, really. Just a lucky guess." "Look, I am a detective. I know when somepony is lying their face off to me. You are no exception. I need to know everything." "No." With that the pony shot out of the medical bed and took off across the room to the window. Unsheathing her sword she swung it at the glass and it shattered into millions of pieces. She was gone before I could even bat an eye. Author's Note Not so sure about this chapter... Definitely going to be redoing it along the road here as I get better :/. Chapter 2: Calm Before the StormStorm I sat in the chair of my office. Drumming my fingers against my desk and occasionally glancing out the window at the dark streets of Canterlot. I sighed heavily as I looked back over the case files... None of it made sense. A strange all-white pony, disappearing into the night after an onimous conversation with Aurora. 'It is not dead' that one phrase kept repeating in my mind as I asked Aurora to recollect their conversation. To me, I didn't make much sense. Why would the spawn from a hell like Tartarus be showing themselves now? Then it hit me, not like a freight train. More like a rampaging rhino. I kicked back and my wheeled chair sped towards the cabinet. I put my arms out to stop my movement and I ripped the cabinet open and began to quickly look through all the files that contained strange murders, homicides. Anything. After gathering a sizeable amount of files I wheeled back to my desk and began looking at the pictures taken at the scene. But was quite rood lay interrupted by Aurora. "Wow Storm, never seen you work as hard as you just did!" "Can it, Aurora I'm on a roll here." I replied. She walked up to my desk and sat in one of the visitors chairs on the other side of the table. "Whatcha got?" She asked. I turned some of the pictures over to her that I had been examining. "Well, you said that the pony had known an unnaturally large amount about the creatures that reside in Tartarus. So I was looking at all the strange murders that occurred over the past year, and came up with these." I pointed at each of the pictures that displayed rather gruesome scenes. Not something the likes a pony-kind murderer would make. "The murderer was never found. But there was also never a repeat of the same murder twice. Never the same MO." I smiled as Aurora looked up at me with wide eyes. "So what you are saying is..." "Yes. Somehow that white pony has got to be connected to everything. Whether she is our enemy or our friend." "Huh, I thought you were bullshitting me for a second there but I can see all the logic." She paused for a few moments. "We need to find where that pony went. We need to know what is happening, it's gotta be the only way to get answers." I nodded slowly. Looking back out at the dark streets. The rain had started again and slowly pattered against the glass. The weather called for more rain than we have had in quite a while. There was still a couple ponies running around in the streets. Probably now seeking shelter from the coming Storm. "I'm going for the night, Storm. Don't tire yourself out too much there, buddy." "I'll try not to." I could almost hear her smile and the sound of her steps began to grow farther away with the distance she went. ??? I grabbed my cup from my coffee table and threw it at the wall. It exploded in a shower of dust and debris. "What do you mean the ridder is dead?" I roared as I grabbed another cup and threw it at the head of the unicorn in my room. The unicorn caught it in their hand with impossible speed and dropped it on the floor. "I mean what I said, mentor. The ridder was killed by a hunter that goes by the name of Star." I scrunched up my face in anger and punched a wall, my hand going through the drywall. Both me and my trainee had both been augmented by demonic powers in order to serve out Masters better. "That ridder took so much magic from me... Even just contracting it took more than the usual effort." "We could always use mine. Mentor." "No, I forbid you to open gates that you are not able to properly control yet. I care too much about you to think of the consequences of something going wrong." I pulled my white-dusted hand from the drywall and patched it up with a repair spell. I looked into the mirror and saw my face. I looked tired, my mane unkempt and shaggy and my eyes had noticeable bags under them. "Send a message to the Masters, Scarlett. We must see when the proper time to act will be." Scarlett bowed and walked out. I wiped some dust from the mirror and stared at myself again. "The time will come soon. Equestria will be like the old days again. The ponies will known the word fear again. Learn to live in fear of mine and the Masters names. They will fear Sunset Shimmer." 5000 years before current events The sounds of battle echoed through the fields surrounding the pits of Tartarus. Swords clashed and shone in the moonlight and flashes of technicolored light shone and illuminated dark battleground. Roars would occasionally drown out the other sounds of battle as the smell of burnt flesh and blood flooded into my nostrils. Gripping my sword tight I met the battle axe of a demon from Tartarus. The demon spit white hot flames at me but a shield quickly erected itself and the flames washed over the sphere surrounding me and a blast of magic exploded against the creatures chest, sending it careening back into the lines of the forces of Darkness. A white unicorn ran up to my side. "Star! The mages are sending orders to all still fighting that we are to fall back to the forest and meet the enemy there!" An arrow whizzed across the enemy lines, my shield briefly flaring up to protect it. "The mages are running out of magic energy and can't keep it up for much longer. Neither can our amulets." The pony, Striker said as he enclosed his own amulet in his palm. I nodded, the war had been going on for days. Each side not gaining or losing too much ground, but the demons just kept coming. The pits of Tartarus were seemingly endless. "I'll get my remaining fighters and pull them back. I hope we have a plan or else we may not win." As the unicorn began to spread the message I called to my personal team to fall back. Only five remain from the twenty there once was. "If I may ask miss. What's our trump card here?" A white earth pony asked me, as he blocked a blow from a red demon, his name was Hatflip if my mind is not mistaken. "I wouldn't be able to tell ya, our retreat into the forest should have given us an advantage, most of the spawn from the pits are too big to fit between the individual trees but the Council must not have taken brute strength into count," I replied quickly before lobbing the head off of a skeleton. "Also, what the fuck is with these skeletons? Was there a necromancer imprisoned here?" "There was a few, actually." Hatflip replied as he matched my blow with another skeleton but a sword flipped through his guard. His shield flared up but shattered once the sword came in contact and the skeletons sword embedded itself into Hatflips's head. Instantly ending his life. My vision grew red with rage as another one of my company died before my eyes, throwing a knife through the skeletons head I caught Hat's body before it impacted roughly with the blood soaked ground and set him down gently. Mumbling a quick prayer before closing his eyes and taking the sword from his skull and tossed it away, laying his own across his stomach. I let a single tear fall before I stood up slowly before I looked back up at the other blood soaked ponies fighting for their freedom before I once again, joined the fight. Starlight I woke up suddenly. A thin layer of sweat covering my entire body. 'Why do I keep having this dream?' I dropped my head into my hands and rubbed my eyes to get rid of the slight blurryness from just waking up. Removing my hands I glanced at the clock to see it was 4:30am. "Uhhhh, I've been up for two days straight just give me a break!" I frustratedly said to the empty room. As I plopped back down on my bed and tried to get back to sleep, only to decide twenty seconds later that it would be a fruitless effort. Standing up I sleepily shambled over to the light switch and flicked it into the on position, a couple seconds later and the room was illuminated in orange light. It wasn't much, not by a long shot. A small closet sat at the far end of the room across from the light switch and my small bed lay a few centimetres next to the entrance of the closet door. A bookcase with a couple books sat to the right of the door leading out and a small bathroom was a couple paces after that. Walking it to the bathroom I looked into the mirror at what my current state of morning messiness was. My mane stuck out in different places and there was more than a few feathers out of place, adding to that there was still a bit of dried toothpaste in the corner of my mouth from before I went to bed that night. My eyes were bloodshot and there was still bags under them so I ran some cold water over my face and wiped my hands on my pink top. I, personally though pink contrasted well with my white coat. Fixing my mane so it didn't stick out everywhere and instead ran down to the small of my back, then preening my feathers quickly I stepped back out of the bathroom to change into some clothes for the day. After some slight debating I picked a tank top that showed my cutie mark above my left breast. A sparkling star. I put another shirt on over that and made sure my wings were comfortable through both, then I slipped on some navy blue jeans and strapped my sword onto my back.. For the finishing touch I through a jet black cloak on and made sure that I could quickly pull my sword out in a tight situation and admired myself in the mirror. "Hmm, maybe a little bit too heavy on the black... Ah fuck it." I waved my hand at the piece of glass and went to go make some (very) early morning breakfast. Storm I downed my twentieth cup of coffee as I looked at the wall I had tacked stuff to and the connections I made. It all seemed to click into place last night. That white pony, the murderers, the spawns of Tartarus. It all seemed to all connect to the ancient battle of light and dark. The demons and corrupted denizens of the planet had tried to fight their way out of the prison and plunge the world into darkness where the Light itself was their prisoner. But the armies of the Council of Light had fought back, suffering many casualties they were able to seal all the prisoners back into the pits once all the mages banded together in one last ditch effort to teleport the foul beings back and seal it off with ancient magic. But magic can degrade. Just like anything else magic has a time limit and everyone knew it. Now, almost five thousand years later that timer was beginning to reach its end, that's how the creatures are becoming more prominent and summoners are beginning to become more frequent. The wards must be weakening around the prison and they might soon break. "So, that's my theory." I finished as Aurora looked at me like I sprouted a third eye. "You must be fucking joking." "No! Aurora you have to listen! Princess Celestia has to see this!" "You're grasping at straws, Storm, and you know it as well as I do. You are telling me a fucking fairy tale meant to scare little fillies and colts to drink their medicine. Come back to me when you have concrete evidence that some sort of otherworldly cataclysm is going to happen. Get some sleep and when you get some sense back I'll be in my office trying to gain some IQ points back," I sighed heavily as Aurora walked back out and I looked back at the pictures on the wall. Maybe I was just grasping at straws after all... I heard the fairy tales dozens of times too, but to some they may not be just that! I balled my fists and looked out at the brightening day. I needed more answers and I knew just the pony to ask... Author's Note Sorry about the long wait, I have no excuse except for the fact that I had immense writers block and I am terribly sorry. In another note I would like if someone could edit for me, as I could always use the second pair of eyes looking over everything, thanks a ton and please leave comments and tell me how to improve!
PrologueI sat inside the coffee shop. Cradling a cup of coffee in between my blue-furred hands. I looked at the caffeinated substance inside the cup and swirled it around a little, before lifting it up to my lips to take a drink. I sighed lightly as the warm liquid made its way to my stomach. Black, just the way I like it. I looked out the window. A storm had started and the heavy rain pattered against the window loudly, permeating the silence that had fell upon the shop as I entered. I could see my blue bloodshot eyes in my reflection and the horn that topped my head, my mane being tucked under my wide-brimmed detectives hat. Yea, I'm a detective. Detective Aurora of the Royal Canterlot Army. I put the cup onto the table and stood up. My black coat falling down to cover my legs and stopped just above my ankles. I left ten bits on the counter and walked out the door with a quick wave in farewell. I was quickly assaulted with the torrential downpour and I lifted my jackets collar up to keep more of the rain off of me. I looked at my magic watch. Half way to the sun, and still no attack. I was on a murder case, the case itself had been going on for a month but I believe that it was planned long before as the murderer know where to be and how not to get caught every time. Each case had the MO. Stomach ripped open and all the organs despised of, every muscle in the ponies body. Gone. Nothing else was touched. It was peculiar to say the least. I walked past another pony that was dumb enough, like me to go out into the storm. The mare had a newspaper held over her head and she was running off to who knows where. I looked up and saw the lights of the barracks shine through the unrelenting deluge. I quickened myself so I too, could get out of the storm myself. I walked inside and shook myself off quick, taking off my hat I put it onto a hangar and began to walk up to the front desk. My mane, now not made prisoner by my hat was a bright green with white streaks moving through it at random intervals. People said I got it from my mother. I had never met her, personally. "No sleeping on the job Bolt!" I quipped. The stallion shot up from his seat. "I'm up! It's okay! I was not sleeping!" I chuckled quietly, resting my arms on the desk and leaning forward. Bolt was a green furred pony with a dark blue mane. He was wearing blue jeans and a vest that had 'Royal Canterlot Guard' on the front. He was an earth pony. "Your lucky it was me who found you, others would not have been so polite to wake you up before the chief came in." "Yes, thank you." He grabbed some papers off his desk and handed them to me. "Those are what you asked for." "Thank you" I replied and walked around the desk to go up to my office on the third floor. I had work to do. My office was, nothing special really. There was a trio of filing cabinets tucked off into one corner while a desk sat in the far corner of the room with papers sprawled all over it. I sat behind my desk, looking over various photos of the murder scenes, all looked the same. But one had a very defining factor. A scorch mark found on the third body, it was faint but it looked like a paw print. I believe it was a summoned creature. Summoning creatures in Equestria was a hard thing to do on itself, and finding a creature that is willing is even harder. But if it can be accomplished, anything could be done. When a creature is summoned from Tartarus it takes their soul. Not the physical body, that stays behind as a lifeless shell. Since the heat in Tartarus is so extreme summoned monsters have been known to... Combust to say the least. This brought me to the book I was given by Bolt. 'Summons from Tartarus' this book had everything on every creature there. All I had to do was look. After an hour of skimming pages I found the matching footprint. The creature it belonged to was... Terrifying. I was known as the 'Ridder-Monster' it was extremely agile, and. Extremely deadly. By eating the muscles and organs of its victims it is able to transfer their power onto its own body. Making it stronger in every way. The picture was. Just creepy. It's face held the complexions of a wolf while its body stretched back to two legs, each were bent the wrong way backwards and it's paws ended in large claws. Bipedal. Moving up the body further it had two long arms that ended in equally large claws. It's overall appearance was terrifying. There was a crack of thunder outside and I jumped out of my seat. Looking out the window I could almost swear I saw the gleam of eyes on the rooftops. Full of malice, that was when I heard the scream. I rushed downstairs to see Bolt. Or what was left of him lying in a bloody heap on the floor, through the rain I could see a wolf-like creature fleeing through a broken window. I grimaced slightly. I could hear other ponies pounding downstairs. But the damage had been done. "Everypony stay on the stairs! This is now a crime scene and I don't want you trampling all over it!" I shouted to those on the stairs then added. "You there, Storm?" I was answered with a 'yup' and a white unicorn with a red mane began pushing through the crowd to stand beside me. He wore a outfit the same as me. But his jacket and hat were blue, "What happened here Aurora?" "Another murder, seemingly the same MO as the last four." I said looking back to the body.... Poor Bolt. He was young for even a guard. "What bothers me though, Storm was how it happened in such a short time. I heard the scream and was down here within four seconds." Storm hummed something while putting his white-furred hand to his chin. His horn lit up a white colour and a blast of magic went out from it. Seconds later he replied. "Time slow spell, active in the surrounding area except this room." I nodded and put some gloves on. "Let's get to work." The first thing I noticed was the claw marks, etching into the floor with precise and fluid cuts. More evidence on it being the ridder. Walking over to the window I looked at the glass, reinforced. Nothing normal could have broken through and there was no blood anywhere on the glass. The murderer would have been injured from the shards. I plucked a clump of hair from the broken window. 'interesting..' I thought. As I put the hair into a bag. "What have you found, Storm?" "Concrete evidence that this thing is not a pony." I turned around and walked across the entryway to him, he was sitting infront of a monitor that showed camera footage. "Watch this." I looked at the grainy footage on the screen. Bolt was sitting at the desk, doing paperwork when he looked up. He got up from the chair and began fumbling for his sword, then the footage went from being grainy to being completely unseeable. But the sound still played. There was a low, inhuman growl and the sound of claws beg drug across the floor. Bolt was screaming for help and the creature roared. It was like nothing I ever heard. It started really high pitched but almost like a wave it went low and back to high. Like it was laughing. Bolt screamed again and there was a crash. The footage went black and cut to where Bolt was lying on the ground in a mauled heap and the image of the ridder-monster retreated from the window. "A spawn from Tartarus, you were right, Aurora." "Get Celestia over here." Author's Note Thanks for reading! I'll see you in Chapter 1!
Chapter 1: Starlight, Starbright...One week before current events Starlight I sat on the roof of a local store, running a whetstone along my glowing sword. The shhk sound of the stone running along my sword the only sound to be heard in the usually bustling city. The ridder-monster had been summoned again. I was so close to getting there. But was yet, so far. I cursed lightly as I had let the opportunity slip through my fingers so easily. I was a warrior of the light dammit! I should protect innocents! Summoning the creatures in Tartarus was unavoidable, sadly as nothing could stop the souls from being ripped from the creatures body to do the bidding of its summoner. That was where ponies like me came in. Demon hunters. The job was... Gruelling sometimes and extremely difficult. But this summoner, knew what they were doing. Putting the sword back into the sheath on my back I ran and jumped from the roof, letting my wings catch the air and blowing the hood of my cloak from where it covered my face. I had all white fur and an all white mane with shining red eyes. I had made the excuse that I was albino to sneak into the population of Canterlot. Hence the cloak. I lighted onto the ground and began to trek across to where the ridder was desummoned. There was something I had to see. I knelt next to a pile of a nasty colour of green goop on the ground surrounded by multiple scorch marks. Accounts from those that could speak in Tartarus said that the desummoning process was quite... Painful, hence the green goop. It was blood of the ridder. Producing a vial from my cloak I scooped up some of the goop and stood back up. Sighing the I flipped my hood back up and walked out of the alley. The murders were getting out of hand. I knew it, the Council of Light new it. But bystanders should not be getting pulled into this war. It all started four thousand years ago. When some ponies fell from the light, and chose to follow the path of darkness. They made their own type of magic that was soon forbidden by law. Most of the fallen ponies were killed or captured. But they infected the minds of many. The war started. Now, four thousand years later it's still waging. But in secret. But everything points that it may be back to full scale. Equestria may never be the same place again. Present Day The rain pattered against my cloak, running down from my hood and onto my face. Grabbing a newspaper from an abandoned stand I held it over my head in order to negate some of the rains effect on my soaked cloak. I walked past another pony crazy enough to be out in the rain. The pony had a long black trenchcoat and a wide brimmed had that covered the mares face. Looking back at the pony disappearing into the darkness the I couldn't help but be suspicious. 'Hmm, trenchcoat, hat that covers their eyes. And out in something like this? Could be the sumoner. Ditching the newspaper I spread my wings and followed the mysterious pony. Using the rooftops for cover. The pony led me to a Royal Guard barracks, peculiar place for a pony so shady... The pony appeared in windows leading upstairs and entered a room, throwing some paper on a desk and sitting in a chair behind said desk. After watching the pony for a few minutes, and realizing that the mare was just a mere detective. I turned around when a loud clap of thunder sounded. Making me jump slightly. Then came the unmistaken sound of a Tartarus portal being opened. How did I miss the marks? Jumping off the rooftop before the ridder crawled through the portal and saw me as it's next victim I unsheathed the sword from my back. There was a crash as the horrible creature jumped from the rooftop and sprinted towards the barracks. It must have seen the detective! Sprinting over to the barracks I was about to crash in when the ridder-monster crashed through the window, doing a quick roll and went off into the darkness, against my better judgement. I was going to give chase. The ridder moved through the town at an astonishing speed. I could barely keep up with its dark form as it wove through the streets towards some unseen objective. Then it stopped, sniffing the air. It looked back in my direction and snarled, it's wolf like lips baring blood-stained teeth. It ran it long claws along the cobblestone. Creating deep gouges. I had been spotted. Stepping out into the open street I faced the monster, sword held out at my right side. "Ready to die?" I intoned, running the tip of my sword against the cobblestone. The creature growled before, surprisingly answering. "You. Will. Die. Warrior of the Light." It spoke in a gravelly voice, eyes shining in the moonlight as the rain again increased in intensity creating nothing but a silhouette. I smirked before dashing quickly at the monster, who swung it's right paw at me. Swinging my sword I cleaved off its paw and it let out a screech. Sliding under it I swung at one of its mangled legs and was rewarded with a spray of its hot blood along with a second screech. The sword given to demon killers was designed specifically to kill spawn of Tartarus. Doing a flip I whirled back around to face my wounded foe. "Impudent runt!" It roared at me before it abruptly set on fire, it's wolf like eyes filled with malice. Lunging at me with its one good arm it rammed a fist into my chest, sending me flying into a stand and setting my cloak on fire. I ripped her cloak off before too much damage could be done and turned to face my foe before getting sharp claws raked across my chest and sending me flying to the right. I let out a whimper while clutching at my now profusely bleeding chest. "Let me show you the power of Darkness!" The creature let out a loud roar, shaking the windows of the street and new limbs grew out of the previously cut off ones. Now standing up to its full height it leaned over me. Baring its teeth it prepared for the killing blow to my neck. That was when a glowing arrow was sent through its head and suck into the ground next to my head. It let out an agonizing screech while clutching at its eye. "How the fuck are you not dead?" I screamed at it before through my pain i grabbed my sword and decapitated the beast. Then all I saw was black. Aurora Celestia arrived quickly pushing her way though guards to get to me and Storm. "You called, Aurora? You found the murderer killing my ponies? Who are they?" "Not they, but it." I replied as I showed her the screen capture of the ridder retreating through the window. Celestia mumbled something under her breath before running a hand through her mane. "I never thought I would see them again." "Excuse me, Princess?" "I locked those things in Tartarus years ago, how did they get through Cerberus?" "They didn't get through anything, Princess, they were summoned through means of magic." "But summoners have been gone for centuries! How could one turn up now?" "I don't know, but scorch marks at the scene of the crime point to it being summoned, nothing else could have done that. Storm sighed as he walked outside. I didn't say anything. Sometimes he needed some air. What I didn't know about Storm needing 'air' was that he was going to bring a mauled mare back to the barracks with green goop splattered all over her and on the verge of death. Way to got Storm! Medical ponies rushed to the albino mares body and did checks on her pulse and various other organs before announcing she could be saved. I walked over to Storm. "What the fuck dude? Did you just find a mare mauled in the street and think of bringing her here?" "No, come with me." Storm out a hand on my back and led me to an area with no ponies around it. "She killed the ridder-monster, Aurora." "You're not kidding, are you?" I asked as Storm shook his head. I sighed and kicked some rubble on the ground. It was definitely hard to believe. But Storm was not known to lie either... Storm shifted slightly and re-positioned the bow that he had over his coat to so it fit under. "I'm going to go see her." Several hours later the albino mare was considered stable and was finally far from dying. That's good, I guess. I walked into our small medical ward where she was hooked up to our various machines making sure she stayed living. Upon hearing me enter the mare turned her head to the door, her piercing red eyes bore a hole through me. "Glad your okay, you gave some ponies quite a good scare." The pony just continued to look at me. Not speaking. I sighed audibly and pulled a chair up beside her hospital bed, sitting down and leaning back slightly. "Who are you?" I asked, it was a simple question. A three year old could answer it. But this mare just didn't budge. "You know, its common courtesy to at least tell the name of yourself to those who save you." "I need to get out of here" I was almost taken aback at the finality in her voice. "You just got here, stay and heal up. The ridder gave you quite a thrashing" "You know about that monster?" "Yea, me and my partner Storm were assigned to the case to try and find out who the murderer was. Turns out we found it was a spawn from Tartarus. Not the best thing. Good job on killing it, by the way." "It is not dead. Creatures summoned from the pits of Tartarus are merely shells of what they really are. If anything it would only take a few extra days to summon. If that." I leaned forward slightly at the mares apparent knowledge on the subject. "How do you know so much?" "I don't, really. Just a lucky guess." "Look, I am a detective. I know when somepony is lying their face off to me. You are no exception. I need to know everything." "No." With that the pony shot out of the medical bed and took off across the room to the window. Unsheathing her sword she swung it at the glass and it shattered into millions of pieces. She was gone before I could even bat an eye. Author's Note Not so sure about this chapter... Definitely going to be redoing it along the road here as I get better :/.
Chapter 2: Calm Before the StormStorm I sat in the chair of my office. Drumming my fingers against my desk and occasionally glancing out the window at the dark streets of Canterlot. I sighed heavily as I looked back over the case files... None of it made sense. A strange all-white pony, disappearing into the night after an onimous conversation with Aurora. 'It is not dead' that one phrase kept repeating in my mind as I asked Aurora to recollect their conversation. To me, I didn't make much sense. Why would the spawn from a hell like Tartarus be showing themselves now? Then it hit me, not like a freight train. More like a rampaging rhino. I kicked back and my wheeled chair sped towards the cabinet. I put my arms out to stop my movement and I ripped the cabinet open and began to quickly look through all the files that contained strange murders, homicides. Anything. After gathering a sizeable amount of files I wheeled back to my desk and began looking at the pictures taken at the scene. But was quite rood lay interrupted by Aurora. "Wow Storm, never seen you work as hard as you just did!" "Can it, Aurora I'm on a roll here." I replied. She walked up to my desk and sat in one of the visitors chairs on the other side of the table. "Whatcha got?" She asked. I turned some of the pictures over to her that I had been examining. "Well, you said that the pony had known an unnaturally large amount about the creatures that reside in Tartarus. So I was looking at all the strange murders that occurred over the past year, and came up with these." I pointed at each of the pictures that displayed rather gruesome scenes. Not something the likes a pony-kind murderer would make. "The murderer was never found. But there was also never a repeat of the same murder twice. Never the same MO." I smiled as Aurora looked up at me with wide eyes. "So what you are saying is..." "Yes. Somehow that white pony has got to be connected to everything. Whether she is our enemy or our friend." "Huh, I thought you were bullshitting me for a second there but I can see all the logic." She paused for a few moments. "We need to find where that pony went. We need to know what is happening, it's gotta be the only way to get answers." I nodded slowly. Looking back out at the dark streets. The rain had started again and slowly pattered against the glass. The weather called for more rain than we have had in quite a while. There was still a couple ponies running around in the streets. Probably now seeking shelter from the coming Storm. "I'm going for the night, Storm. Don't tire yourself out too much there, buddy." "I'll try not to." I could almost hear her smile and the sound of her steps began to grow farther away with the distance she went. ??? I grabbed my cup from my coffee table and threw it at the wall. It exploded in a shower of dust and debris. "What do you mean the ridder is dead?" I roared as I grabbed another cup and threw it at the head of the unicorn in my room. The unicorn caught it in their hand with impossible speed and dropped it on the floor. "I mean what I said, mentor. The ridder was killed by a hunter that goes by the name of Star." I scrunched up my face in anger and punched a wall, my hand going through the drywall. Both me and my trainee had both been augmented by demonic powers in order to serve out Masters better. "That ridder took so much magic from me... Even just contracting it took more than the usual effort." "We could always use mine. Mentor." "No, I forbid you to open gates that you are not able to properly control yet. I care too much about you to think of the consequences of something going wrong." I pulled my white-dusted hand from the drywall and patched it up with a repair spell. I looked into the mirror and saw my face. I looked tired, my mane unkempt and shaggy and my eyes had noticeable bags under them. "Send a message to the Masters, Scarlett. We must see when the proper time to act will be." Scarlett bowed and walked out. I wiped some dust from the mirror and stared at myself again. "The time will come soon. Equestria will be like the old days again. The ponies will known the word fear again. Learn to live in fear of mine and the Masters names. They will fear Sunset Shimmer." 5000 years before current events The sounds of battle echoed through the fields surrounding the pits of Tartarus. Swords clashed and shone in the moonlight and flashes of technicolored light shone and illuminated dark battleground. Roars would occasionally drown out the other sounds of battle as the smell of burnt flesh and blood flooded into my nostrils. Gripping my sword tight I met the battle axe of a demon from Tartarus. The demon spit white hot flames at me but a shield quickly erected itself and the flames washed over the sphere surrounding me and a blast of magic exploded against the creatures chest, sending it careening back into the lines of the forces of Darkness. A white unicorn ran up to my side. "Star! The mages are sending orders to all still fighting that we are to fall back to the forest and meet the enemy there!" An arrow whizzed across the enemy lines, my shield briefly flaring up to protect it. "The mages are running out of magic energy and can't keep it up for much longer. Neither can our amulets." The pony, Striker said as he enclosed his own amulet in his palm. I nodded, the war had been going on for days. Each side not gaining or losing too much ground, but the demons just kept coming. The pits of Tartarus were seemingly endless. "I'll get my remaining fighters and pull them back. I hope we have a plan or else we may not win." As the unicorn began to spread the message I called to my personal team to fall back. Only five remain from the twenty there once was. "If I may ask miss. What's our trump card here?" A white earth pony asked me, as he blocked a blow from a red demon, his name was Hatflip if my mind is not mistaken. "I wouldn't be able to tell ya, our retreat into the forest should have given us an advantage, most of the spawn from the pits are too big to fit between the individual trees but the Council must not have taken brute strength into count," I replied quickly before lobbing the head off of a skeleton. "Also, what the fuck is with these skeletons? Was there a necromancer imprisoned here?" "There was a few, actually." Hatflip replied as he matched my blow with another skeleton but a sword flipped through his guard. His shield flared up but shattered once the sword came in contact and the skeletons sword embedded itself into Hatflips's head. Instantly ending his life. My vision grew red with rage as another one of my company died before my eyes, throwing a knife through the skeletons head I caught Hat's body before it impacted roughly with the blood soaked ground and set him down gently. Mumbling a quick prayer before closing his eyes and taking the sword from his skull and tossed it away, laying his own across his stomach. I let a single tear fall before I stood up slowly before I looked back up at the other blood soaked ponies fighting for their freedom before I once again, joined the fight. Starlight I woke up suddenly. A thin layer of sweat covering my entire body. 'Why do I keep having this dream?' I dropped my head into my hands and rubbed my eyes to get rid of the slight blurryness from just waking up. Removing my hands I glanced at the clock to see it was 4:30am. "Uhhhh, I've been up for two days straight just give me a break!" I frustratedly said to the empty room. As I plopped back down on my bed and tried to get back to sleep, only to decide twenty seconds later that it would be a fruitless effort. Standing up I sleepily shambled over to the light switch and flicked it into the on position, a couple seconds later and the room was illuminated in orange light. It wasn't much, not by a long shot. A small closet sat at the far end of the room across from the light switch and my small bed lay a few centimetres next to the entrance of the closet door. A bookcase with a couple books sat to the right of the door leading out and a small bathroom was a couple paces after that. Walking it to the bathroom I looked into the mirror at what my current state of morning messiness was. My mane stuck out in different places and there was more than a few feathers out of place, adding to that there was still a bit of dried toothpaste in the corner of my mouth from before I went to bed that night. My eyes were bloodshot and there was still bags under them so I ran some cold water over my face and wiped my hands on my pink top. I, personally though pink contrasted well with my white coat. Fixing my mane so it didn't stick out everywhere and instead ran down to the small of my back, then preening my feathers quickly I stepped back out of the bathroom to change into some clothes for the day. After some slight debating I picked a tank top that showed my cutie mark above my left breast. A sparkling star. I put another shirt on over that and made sure my wings were comfortable through both, then I slipped on some navy blue jeans and strapped my sword onto my back.. For the finishing touch I through a jet black cloak on and made sure that I could quickly pull my sword out in a tight situation and admired myself in the mirror. "Hmm, maybe a little bit too heavy on the black... Ah fuck it." I waved my hand at the piece of glass and went to go make some (very) early morning breakfast. Storm I downed my twentieth cup of coffee as I looked at the wall I had tacked stuff to and the connections I made. It all seemed to click into place last night. That white pony, the murderers, the spawns of Tartarus. It all seemed to all connect to the ancient battle of light and dark. The demons and corrupted denizens of the planet had tried to fight their way out of the prison and plunge the world into darkness where the Light itself was their prisoner. But the armies of the Council of Light had fought back, suffering many casualties they were able to seal all the prisoners back into the pits once all the mages banded together in one last ditch effort to teleport the foul beings back and seal it off with ancient magic. But magic can degrade. Just like anything else magic has a time limit and everyone knew it. Now, almost five thousand years later that timer was beginning to reach its end, that's how the creatures are becoming more prominent and summoners are beginning to become more frequent. The wards must be weakening around the prison and they might soon break. "So, that's my theory." I finished as Aurora looked at me like I sprouted a third eye. "You must be fucking joking." "No! Aurora you have to listen! Princess Celestia has to see this!" "You're grasping at straws, Storm, and you know it as well as I do. You are telling me a fucking fairy tale meant to scare little fillies and colts to drink their medicine. Come back to me when you have concrete evidence that some sort of otherworldly cataclysm is going to happen. Get some sleep and when you get some sense back I'll be in my office trying to gain some IQ points back," I sighed heavily as Aurora walked back out and I looked back at the pictures on the wall. Maybe I was just grasping at straws after all... I heard the fairy tales dozens of times too, but to some they may not be just that! I balled my fists and looked out at the brightening day. I needed more answers and I knew just the pony to ask... Author's Note Sorry about the long wait, I have no excuse except for the fact that I had immense writers block and I am terribly sorry. In another note I would like if someone could edit for me, as I could always use the second pair of eyes looking over everything, thanks a ton and please leave comments and tell me how to improve!
