Demon Heart - To Save A Dying World

It was already late at night when they had departed for the answers they sought inside of the prison world, the princesses didn't expect the mysterious stallion, whose memory they had restored, to wake up any time soon, It was as if her had been sent into a coma. Memories played over and over again in his mind, some good, some bad. He himself knew he would not wake up anytime soon, even in his current state he could tell this.

A bright flash shone inside of the lunar princess's room, the room that Axel had been laid in, in his coma-like state he watched as his memories flashed by, but not so fast that they didn't show him every excruciating detail. The light shone brighter until it lit the entire room up, the sudden disturbance made the sleeping colt toss and turn in his slumber. A silhouette stepped out of the light, it's body was that of an alicorns, the figure stared intently at the sleeping colt, " Awaken, hero from beyond the walls of Tartarus," the figure said in a slightly booming voice.

Axel's body seemed to wake on it, No matter how much he wanted to remain in his slumber, his eyes slowly cracked open, " Whose wise pony waking me up at this time of night," his voice was raspy from just having woken up. He rubbed his eyes to wake up the rest of the ways, before focusing on the glowing alicorn, he seemed to just stare at the figure for the longest time, " Did I do something wrong?," he said in a confused tone, a bewildered look on his face.

The figure shook her head, " It is nothing like that, son of Tartarus, in fact it is quite the opposite reason that I am here," this got his attention, the look on his face went from confusion to a look of great interest, as if saying, I'm listening. She took notice of his expression and slowly nodded, " For the longest time I have been observing you and your race," again he looked confused, what was this strange alicorn talking about. " Yes, you demons truly spark my greatest interest, how some of you only want to destroy, and how some of you only want to live a life like those outside of your world, and then there is you, a demon who only wants the two worlds to unite as one peaceful world,". She stepped closer, though her features were still hidden within the light, Axel could still get a better look at her, she was tall, taller than Celestia, " I am here to make you an offer," her voice boomed, making him turn his attention towards the area that he could only guess was her head, " Since you were renowned hero in your home land. this task should be simple for you, there are other wolds like Equestria, everything has the same name and general appearance, yet they are different,".

This time he decided to speak up, " OK I get it, this involves me going to some weird world, just as long as there's no singing," he had irritation in his voice, likely from being awoken earlier than he wanted.

The alicorn nodded, " I don't think that will be a problem, you see there will be a great danger in this world I am to send you too, the offer stands as this, assist this world in the eliminating the threat, and in return, when I bring you back here, I shall restore one thing of great value to you,". His eyes grew wide, anything hes ever lost could be returned to him if he did this, " I understand if you wish to decline, but you must understand that the world I am to send you too, it needs your help, more than this Equestria ever will, so what do you say, Son of Tartarus,".

She carefully scanned his face, in all honesty Axel didn't know how to answer, on one hoof he could be helping others live in peace, and he could have one thing he held precious to him restored to his life, on the other hoof he'd be leaving the friends he made just recently. He thought deeply about the predicament before speaking up, " I can have, anything returned to me?," the alicorn simply nodded, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes and then reopened them, " I'll do it,".

The alicorn nodded, " I expected no less from the stallion who can face entire armies alone," with the flash of her horn a portal opened above him and began to suck him in, " And you make experience some changes upon arrival, but the things that won't change will be, your memory of yourself, and the memory of being of your choice, everything else, will be wiped clean until you return here, or find an artifact," despite the fact he was being pulled into a vortex, Axel still managed to hear everything she said.

" Then I guess this is goodbye, see you later!," he stopped resisting and allowed himself to be pulled through the vortex. He could feel his body being pulled and stretched as he traveled through the inter-dimensional portal, " No wonder mom told me to never go through things like this, this hurts like hell!," he could feel his consciousness slipping from him, everything was going black, at first it hurt , then everything went numb. After what seemed like an eternity of simply flying through the vortex with a great numb feeling, he could feel one thing, vertigo, he was no longer floating, no, now he was free falling towards an opening, his eyes finally shut as he hit the opening, everything was cold, "Maybe, I'll just take a nap for a while, I am pretty tired,".

A little girl was roaming around the woods, just south of her families ranch, her golden hair flowed in the wind behind her as she ran through the forest, a small puppy following her, her freckled cheek glowed brightly with a red blush as she giggled, " Phew, Big Macintosh sure was right, nothin beats a good nap besides a nice run, ain't that right Winona," the puppy yipped in response. The two were enjoying their peaceful play moment, when they heard a crash in the woods, " did ya hear that girl, a tree must've fallen or somethin, cause that was one heck of a noise it made, lets go check it out girl. The little girl and the puppy ran through the woods towards the direction the noise came from. As they drew closer they hear the sound of groans, where ever that noise was, there was somebody who needed help too, " Cmon girl, someone needs help," she took off as fast as her legs could take her, she saw Winona run ahead, " Wait for me girl!," but Winona had already found what they were searching for, she let out a few small barks to get the girls attention. " Winona don't go runnin off like that again, what if somethin had happ-," she was cut off by what her dog had lead her too.

A young boy around her age, lay underneath a broken piece of tree, his hair as black as the night sky, his face, marked with a gruesome scar over his left eye, and on his right hand, a mark that looked to be a star in a circle, " What do ya know Winona, it's a unicorn and he looks hurt," the young girl pushed against the log with as much strength as she could. No matter how hard she pushed, she couldn't get the log off, " Oh this is hopeless, we gotta go get Big Mac," before she could run off she felt the log she was pressed against lift up, the boy who was trapped underneath the log, was lifting it on his back, " Whoa," was all the apple girl could say.

Axel shook his head and rubbed his eyes, " Ow my head, mom always did say trees can hurt you," he was still in a daze from having the tree fall on him after crashing into the ground.  He was about to stand up, when he felt a pair of eyes focused on him, he turned around to see the blonde headed girl, right up in his face, the sudden startle made him fall back and hit his head on a rock," Ow!, that hurt" the girl couldn't help but giggle at the sight.

" Are ya OK, that looked like it hurt a lot," she cleared her voice of the giggles, " My names Applejack, what happened to ya?," she asked him curiously.

He rubbed the sore spot on his head, " I don't actually remember, I guess I was climbing a tree and things went bad, I don't remember, but I do remember everything else, my names Axel,".

She looked at him for a moment, " Axel, that's a funny soundin now, I like it," she slapped him on the back which made him wince, " Oops I'm soory, I forgot that, that there tree hurt yer back,". As she softly rubbed his back, she started to stare at the mark on his hand, " Yer a unicorn right?, I could tell cause granny says, that all unicorns got funny lookin marks on their right hands,".

He slowly looked at the mark on his hand, " I know what this mark is called, but i can't recall the name, wait I'm a unicorn," with a quick memory flashing through his head of him performing magic, he made the revelation that he was indeed a unicorn, " Yeah I am, but I always thought unicorns looked like horses,".

Applejack only shrugged, " From what granny says, we're all named after some kind of horse, anyway what are we gonna do with you, I can't bring a boy home, Big Mac will have a fit," she stood there thinking for a moment, she gasped in realization, " That's it the club house, you and me can talk there for a while, cmon lets go I wanna know all about ya!," she grabbed his hand and took off in the direction of her club house.

The day seemed to go by so fast, it was already sunset, in truth they had done nothing but talked all day, Axel told Applejack about how he was from some far away place, and that he came to Equestria under the request of someone important, and Applejack told him all about her life on Sweet Apple Acres, and all about the town of Ponyville. Applejack looked outside to see the sun setting, " Uh Oh, when I get home Big Mac is gonna chew my hide out for being home late," she looked rather nervous.

Axel turned his head in confusion, " I could always walk you home you know, I mean it's the least I can do for a new friend," he smiled as he spoke.

At first Applejack was about to decline, she was going to say that Big Mac would throw a fit, but it was better than him chewing her out for being late, " Well, alright then, I mean what are friends for," she smiled back at him.

They started to walk out the club house, until Axel stopped, " Just one question, which way is your home," in all honesty, with the rate that the sun was going down, it was hard to tell what direction home was. " Eh, It cant be that far, lets get going," although they had just met earlier that day, Applejack felt that she could trust her new friend, just by looking in his crimson eyes she could tell he was a trustworthy individual, and something else about him, he had a strange scent to him, something that most others would be frightened by, but It only made Applejack more curious about him.

The sun set quicker than the two eight year old children could anticipate, Applejack wasn't afraid of the dark by any means, but she was afraid of what was in the dark, and the howls in the distance only reassured that fear. She stayed as close as possible to Axel for comfort, " Say Axel, can I uh, can i hold yer hand, so we won't get lost that is," he gave her an assuring smile, and a nod, and held his hand out to her, which she firmly grabbed with no intent of letting go of it, " Thank you kindly Axel," he could only smile in response. As they walked Applejack couldn't help but feel that they were being followed, she frantically looked around while being lead by Axel, and for a split moment, she thought she saw  glowing green eyes not to far from them in the bushes, " Um Axel, do ya think we could hurry up, I don't like this look of this here place,".

Axel looked at her, " Yeah, this place is kinda scary, I've never been a big fan of the dark, let's get moving," they picked up the pace, now jogging, yet still Applejack could feel those green eyes on her back.

Soon a light came into view, it was the lantern that Granny Smith puts on the front porch every night, "Axel  I see it lets go!," she was about to start running for the light, when suddenly something jumped out of the bushes at her. Axel reacted quickly and pulled her out of the way, Applejack was utterly shocked, " Now why did ya go and do that!," all he did was point. Her eyes locked with the same glowing green eyes she had seen before, they had come face to face with a timber wolf, she wanted to scream but nothing came out. Axel on the other hand, was bravely holding onto her, albeit he desperately wanted to run away, he couldn't risk her life because of cowardice.

" Applejack, stand back you'll get hurt," he moved her behind him and picks up a stick, he turned to face the wooden beast, their eyes locked. Sweat ran down his forehead as he waited for it to make a move, he went to take a step back, when suddenly the wolf pounced on him, if he hadn't stuck the stick between the wolves mouth it would have surely chomped into him, instead the wolves claws dug into his shoulders. He glanced at Applejack who was frozen in fear, "don't worry Applejack....I'll protect you", the symbol on his hand began to glow, just like his horn did back in his world," he looked the wolf in the eyes, feeling the stick crack between it's jaws, " I'm a unicorn huh, then let's see what kind of magic i can do!". The glow on his hand sparked while attempting to cast a spell, and in the process one of the sparks hit the stick, igniting it. The sudden flames that engulfed the stick in the wolves mouth made it yelp in pain, and let go of the stick, " Whoa, I made fire with magic," Applejack was shocked as well, she had heard that unicorns could do many things with magic, bu never make fire out of thin air.

Only one thing stood between Applejack and the ravenous timber wolf, a single boy who cast aside his fears to protect his new friend, " So you don't like fire huh, then you really should get going cause I'm fired up," he started to wildly wave the burning stick at the wolf, forcing it to back away, but that wasn't what Axel wanted it to do, in order for Applejack to be safe, he needed to run it off. He pushed all his strength that he had to his arms, pulled back his arms, and swung it at the wolf, striking it in the head, and snapping the stick over its head, as well as setting a small part of its face on fire, which in turn made it bark and yelp in pain as it scurried off. Axel began to fall back onto the hard ground before he felt arms grab him.

" Yer heavier than you look ya know that right," Applejack said as she struggled to hold him up, he assisted her by managing to stand on his own two feet. The two of them shared a long stare before one spoke up, " Ya saved me,"*she hugged him and didn't let go for the longest time,she felt like she wanted to cry, she was so happy that she was alive, and that it was her friend who kept her alive.

" I wasn't strong enough," he said.

Applejack looked at him with a confused look, she felt him grab her hand and lead her to the front porch of her home, " What do ya mean, ya scared that critter off,".

He looked at her with a somber look, " Yes but I was so scared, I need to be stronger, so I'm leaving, I'll be back i promise, but only when I'm ready to protect you for real," Applejack felt like she was going to cry again, but this time the tears were of sadness, but before she could shed a tear, he spoke, " I promise I'll be back, I don't ever want to lose my friends, and your my friend, just wait for me, uh here," he took his black shirt and ripped a piece of cloth off it and tied it around her arm, " This way you can remember me until i get back,".

Applejack wiped the tears from her eyes, " Do ya swear you'll be back, " she looked into his eyes and only found sincerity as he nodded, " Then I'll wait, no matter how long it takes for ya to get back,". He pulled her into a hug and kissed her head before turning the walk off.

" Remember one last thing, I will always be there to save you, no matter how far I am or how long it takes, I will always be there for you, cause your my new best friend," a large smile grew on Applejack's face as she turned away and started to walk up onto the porch. As Axel walked off into the forest, he spoke to himself, " I'll be back for you Applejack, I promise.