I serve the lord of...

Chapter four – reasonable talk

“That fire is not staying here!” Shining yells.

He is standing nose-to-nose with his fillyfriend, each trying to stare the other down.

“And I said, no!” Cadance screams right back at him.

This has been going on for quite a while now. Ever since that thing had been locked away, Shining has been trying to get the blue fire away from Cadance. And at the same time she has been insisting it stays with her.

At the same time princess Luna sits on Cadance’ bed looking at the couple.

If they go one more circle of this meaning less banter I might go mad. She thinks to herself.

“That fire of yours has drawn some sort of demon to it, it’s dangerous! It needs to go somewhere safe!” This was the twelfth time Shining made that argument.

“He has been captured, there is no need to worry anymore!” argues Cadance for the twelfth time.

“Enough! The both of you! This yelling competition of yours has gone on for long enough! If you two can’t work it out now then lets come back to it when all the excitement has died down a bit! In the mean time we can talk to our guest, if he’s awake,” Luna said, successfully breaking up the argument. But if the looks being exchanged by the couple were any indication, this is far from over.

“Princess Luna, have discovered anything from the fire?” Cadance asks while the three of them make their way to the dungeons.

“Yes, actually. The fire seems to be magically linked to thine magic signature, the link goes quite deep which might explain why thou are so possessive of it,” Luna explained.

Cadance frowns and crosses her arms, “I’m not that possessive,” she mumbles.

*Snort.

The princesses look back at Shining Armor, who quickly looks away.

“There was something off about it though,” Luna continues, “the magic it uses is nothing like we’re used to here, it’s like its not from this world, and the only thing keeping it here is you.”

“But what would this demon need with it, if it’s directly linked to me then what could it use it for?” Cadance asks.

“I don’t know, but lets find out shall we.” Luna looks to be a little too happy about this.

They walk up the cell where ‘he’ is being hold, keeping a safe distance from the bars.

He sits in the middle of the cell, with his legs crossed and eyes closed. His arms are chained to the back wall, with long chains that allow for a little bit of walking around. His armor is gone, safely stored in Shining’s office.

“Hello, um, demon. What is your name?” Luna asks.

No reaction.

“You were asked something, prisoner!” Shining spat at him.

No reaction.

They stand around for a couple of seconds.

Slowly Cadance walks over the bars.

“Cadance. What are you doing?” Shining asks nervously.

Cadance just gestures him to be quiet.

She kneels down at the bars.

“Hello,” she says quietly.

The demon immediately opens his eyes.

She gasps. His eyes glow a bright cold blue, like the fire.

Cadance looks back at Shining, he looks really nervous; he has his hand on the hilt of his sword and his horn is glowing in preparation of spell, should things go south.

Luna looks more intrigued, her arms are crossed and she keeps a close eye on ‘him’. Seeing Cadance looking at her she nods for her to go on.

Cadance turns back to ‘him’.

“Who are you?” she asks.

“I do not remember my name,” he says, his voice is strange but for some reason it’s strangely comforting.

Cadance looks back again; apparently it didn’t have the same effect on her companions. Shining has widened his stance and Luna is frowning.

Turning back to him. “I will just call you Dem then, is that okay with you?” she askes.

No reaction

“Okay, um, why are here?” she asks.

“I came here because there is something of mine in this castle, it called me here.” Dem answers.

“Was it that blue fire?” Cadance asks.

“Yes,” Dem answers.

“What are you?” Luna suddenly asks, making Cadance jump.

Dem gives no reaction.

Luna sighs and nods to Cadance.

“Um, what are you?” Cadance asks for Luna.

Dem remains quite for a while, but just when Cadance wants to ask another question. He answers.

“I’m not sure what I am now, but I do know that I wasn’t always this. I know that I, at one point, had regular none glowing green eyes, pale pink skin and brown hair, no horns. I know that I could feel pain and fear, but not anymore,” his voice didn’t waver. He didn’t look away. He just said his thing.

“Do you where you came from,” Cadance felt somewhat sad by the story, and she wants to know more about this odd being.

“Just fragments, I believe it’s a place called Zundert, it’s small town but that’s about it,” Dem said.

“Memory loss can be treated, maybe we can find something for you,” Cadance says trying to be comforting.

“If you think it necessary, go ahead,” Dem says as he closes his eyes again. He is done talking.

“Well that guys seems nice,” Shining said sarcastically. “And what was that about trying to help him. He broke into the castle hospitalized three of my guards one of them might not make it! I don’t see why we should waste resources on this thing!” he exclaimed at they turned to leave.

“Because, if we know what he is and where he came from we can prepare to stop it from happening in the future, and because I want to know more about him.” Cadance says.

Luna trails behind deep in thought. She stops after a couple of paces to get a quick magic scan of Dem. She is going to figure out what he is and why he was so drawn to that fire that he broke into the palace for it.

“Shining, are you alright?” Cadance asks softly as she walks into Shining’s office.

He sighs, “no, I was just looking at the medical reports of the guards that were injured during Its little break in,” he says, not looking up from the papers in front of him.

“Is it bad,” Cadance asks as she walks over and pulls up a chair next to Shining.

“It’s pretty bad. The first one got kicked in his chest. His chest plate was bent so far that it prevented him from breathing. The medical examination says that he has eleven broken ribs the rest are all bruised, and a collapsed lung, he can make a full recovery but it will take time.

“The second one got punched in the side of his head, he has a broken jaw, and a large fracture in his skull, his left eye got destroyed, he will be partially blind. I’ll have to honourably discharge him.

“The last one got jump kicked in the chest hard enough to send her flying sixty feet down the hall into a wall. She has thirteen broken ribs the rest of them bruised, a cervical fracture, a fractured skull, and a spinal fracture in her lower back, and an externally fractured wing. If she even makes she will never fly or walk again.”

Cadance wiped a tear from her eyes; she is on the brink of crying.

“That guy is dangerous, that fire drew him here and this happened. Do you really want it to be in your room, the next time something comes for it, it might not go like this. The next time ponies could really die.” Shining said looking worriedly at his fillyfriend.

Cadance nodded, “Okay, move it somewhere safe, somewhere where we can study it away form other ponies,”

“Still want to know more about it, about that thing in the dungeon?” Shining asked.

“Yes, if this happens again I want to know more about it, about what we can do stop it,” she says, resting her head on Shining’s shoulder.

Shining goes back to his paper work, writing apology letters to the families of his injured guards.

In the dungeon, Dem is thinking.

Now he doesn’t just need to get to that fire, now he also needs to get his armor back.

He can feel the pull of both of them.

He takes a deep breath, feeling the magic in his body flare up, letting it out sends hot air and embers down to the floor of his cell.

He opens he eyes and smiles.