The Demon Within

Chapters

Foreword
Chapter 1: Slice of Life
Chapter 2: The Awakening
Chapter 3 The Society
Chapter 4: Unexpected Change
Chapter 5: The Training
Chapter 6: First Mission
Chapter 7: The long walk home
Chapter 8: Inspirations
Chapter 9: Proper Language
Chapter 10: The Spine

Foreword

Author's Note: As the name of this chapter suggests this one is meant to be back story and the next chapter will be the start of the story

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Perspective Strages

I tap my claws along the arm of the chair just outside the throne room. I had been planning this coup for a long time now, I was just waiting on my men to arrive.Today is the day I take the throne from Satan and claim hell for myself! The old man has been weak, all he cares about is the balance instead of trying to take over the world and amass an army to take down the forces of heaven. They have weaken since closing their gates, while we gained more followers and power. It is us demons who should rule the universe with chaos and darkness then their petty light and peace. I stand as my men arrive and ready my swords, they have long blades with one sharpened edge that curves slightly at the tip and my dark energy seeps from the guards. We blow open the door sending them flying into the darkness, creating large clouds of dust and decay. Before it clears two of the old bastard's guards rush through the smoke and jump at us with axes and spiked clubs. My men quickly step in front of me to parry then slash open their throats and and stomachs making quick work of them. We step over their bodies as they bleed to death, one of my men crushes one of their skulls under his foot probably out of pity. As we enter the chamber my men begin to rush the guards making sure to keep them off of me as I slowly make my way to Satan. I drag the tips of my blades along the floor as I walk down the bath, they make delightful cracking and snapping noises as they crush and cut through the piles of dead bodies that were damned strewn across the floor. I made it to about two yards or so from the foot of his throne and looked up at him. He sat there about two stories tall in a throne of bones, skulls, and various flesh of those unfortunate enough to end up down here. I smirked looking into his eyes that were filled with rage "Were you expecting me old man?"

His voice boomed out around us as he spoke "I have known you were going to betray me for a long time now, I was hoping for the longest time that the demon who I had dubbed as my right hand would be wise enough to correct his ways before making a mistake such as this!"

"WHAT MISTAKE?! TODAY I WILL SIT UPON THE THRONE AND LEAD THE ARMIES OF HELL TO TERRA AND THEN HEAVEN AND COMMAND ALL OF CREATION ON MY OWN!" I took a fighting stance and jumped up towards his face. He rose a hand to swat me down with but I swung my sword up and chopped off two of his fingers sending them falling to the ground making them smash the remains under them and send up more dust and debris. He yelled in pain and reared his head back as I landed on top of his hand to use it as a spring board to shoot myself to his face. As I got to about his chin he looked straight down at me and lowered his head so I was going for his mouth and shot out a column of flames, sending me down to the floor forcing me to crash on my back. As the flames poured on me I wrapped myself in a bubble of black fire forcing Satan to end his now useless attack. I stood up and smirked at him with scorch marks along my face and parts of my body, the few flames that remain begin to turn black then snuff themselves out. I pointed up to him with my left sword and yelled out "Get down here and face me like a true demon!" He chuckled at this and then stood.

"As you wish, but it is still your funeral." He shrank down to be six feet tall with an inch or two. He had a blood red body with pure black fur covering various parts of his body. His arms and legs looked that similar to a humans, his hands were the same and he regrew the fingers I had cut off.... bastard. He summoned dual dark green and red axes into his hands, the blades were held to the hilt via skulls and seemed to be leaking blood. We both dashes and swung at each other our blades colliding then bouncing off one another. This continued for the the next few minutes as we went around in circles, occasionally lobbing the head or limp off of some unfortunate demon behind one of us. I lunged at him aiming to stab him in the chest. He smacked my blade away with his axe, spun behind me, then slashes my back while giving a slight chuckle. I turn back to him ignoring the gash in my back as it bleeds profusely. I charge the energy in my hands as black flames begin to cover my blades. I slash them in his direction sending to lines of flames at him in an X shape. Satan slashed his blade vertically which sent a column of blood down the center of my attack making them cancel each other out. I dashed at him and we clashed blades catching each other. We pressed on one another to see who'd give out first but neither of us budged. Our blades clanked and made slight sparks along with smoke due to the now burning blood. As I looked into his eyes his gaze turned from that of hatred to an almost comedic calm while he began to swing his other axe around, not at me or in a threatening way but as if drawing something with the blood. During my moment of confusion he kicked my legs and made me fall on my face and jumped high and far back out of the now obvious circle. I appeared to be in a pentagram surrounded by a circle, as I tried to stand Satan stepped on the circle and magic rushed through out the symbol and forced me back down. The blood symbol sparked with black energies as the spell readied itself. "For betraying me and attempting to take the power of creation as your own, I banish you to live the rest of your days stuck in a living tomb." And with that he slammed his axes into the circle and the energies engulf my body and cover me, putting me in pure darkness with the faint sound of a soft heartbeat.

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Perspective Nurse Joy

The new unicorn child was just born, its a wonderful baby boy, and I was getting ready to cast the spell to tell us his name. I made my horn glow with a soft blue. I began casting the spell and in the middle of it a name came to me, Damian it said. "His name shall be Damian. I smiled to the mother as she held her new foal.

She smiled a bit then got a confused look on her face "Damian, that's an odd name for a pony"

"It just means he's very special" I reassured her.

Author's Note: I know my writing probably sucks right now but I haven't written anything in the past few years so please bear with me as I get the cogs turning again. With that I would also like to thank my friend Squishy for basically helping me write this, and tallestbrony for helping me out and helping me ponify this story. So may the Cheese be with you!

Chapter 1: Slice of Life

13 years later

Perspective: Damian

I laid my head on the desk in class waiting for the bell to ring so I could finally leave this wretched place for the day. I'm just a little taller then your average colt of my age, being an all dark shade of grey, almost black, with dark red hooves. I have a dark red mane and tail that turns a lighter red as it gets further from my body. I also have a bit more muscle to myself then most other ponies thanks to ...... after school activities. I live in the oh so big city of Detrot, and go to Detrot Public High School. Ever since I can remember I have been able to see and talk to the spirits of ponies who have died, along with a few other things similar to them. Its an odd feeling to know your father's grandfather better then he did. *Shrugs* Beside that, along with that comes with some odd abilities according to Max, who's basically my mentor in all this, I'm called a Titulari, whatever that means. Basically along with seeing, talking to, and generally interacting with the dead I can also take powerful souls and put them into my satchel, and from there use their power to do cool things. I don't have any yet but I've had my eye on this house that is supposedly haunted that a few ponys went into and died, according to how they died I would place my bet on some kind of illusion power.

RING

That's the bell, and with it our teacher gives us our homework assignments and excuses us from class. As soon as I can I get up, put on my satchel and run out to meet my friend Hammer by the school's exit. Hes an earth pony thats just a bit taller then me all white except for his hooves that are a faded blue that look almost purple. His eyes are a dark blue and his mane is white with streaks of blue similar to that of his hooves with a matching tail. When I get up to him we bro hoof with a loud KLOCK.

"So man how was your last class?" He asked as we exited the schools entrance walking down a path surrounded by grass and a few trees.

I sighed and lowered my head with my ears flat "Hell, like always" I raise my head and continue to walk and look up at the sun for a bit then continue on "Hey I wanna check out that haunted house tonight, wanna come with?"

He seemed fairly excited about the offer "Of course I do, your gonna fight a dead pony and then be like SCADOOSH!" He strikes a pose as he makes the noise "your powers are mine muahahahaha." He said then stopped in front of me and tilted his head "Whats hell again?"

"*Shrugs* I don't really know, Max just tells me its a terrible place that evil and corrupt beings go to and some seriously bad stuff comes out of it." I say with a somewhat confused look on my face. "And when you tag along seriously listen to what I say man, I don't want you getting hit by whatever this thing's got, I mean at least I have a chance to dodge." Hammer nods his head in a quick motion.

He jumps next to me and nuzzles me a bit and gives me big puppy dog eyes "Awww your all worried about me Damian, don't worry I'll show you how much I appreciate it on Thursday night." He rubs my side with his hoof a bit as he says this.

I push him over as I jump away "Gah! NO HOMO!" I shiver and rub my side off a bit which makes us both laugh as he gets back up and we continue to walk home. "It's like three right now right?" He nods in agreement with this. "Alright let's meet up outside the house at like seven." With that we separate and head off to each of our homes. Once I get home I set my bag off to the side and head to my room that to me is glowing this bright green. I open the door and get blinded by this light and stumble my way around until I grab the satchel that's making this bright light and throw it under a bucket and kick it down the hall then into the living room. Max fades into existence after I've with a slight smirk on his face. "Why is it so bright again?" I stare at him a bit annoyed.

"It's empty, think of it like your stomach it wants and needs to be filled"

"I guess I'll have good lighting then when I go into that house." I say as I get my school supplies out of my bag next to the door and begin to do my homework.

"Would a quick spar help you to prepare for tonight?" He floated through the couch then around the room.

"Nah, but you could teach me that floating through stuff that dead people can do"

"To do that I would have to kill you, you'd have to leave your physical body behind"

"Oh... then never mind..."

"Don't want to now because you'd have to die a virgin?" He got in my face and smirked at this

"Shut up you dead bitch, you've been dead for who knows how long; you probably don't even know what it was like!"

"I know it felt good"

"SHUT UP!" I punched him in the gut which sent him flying back and through the wall. "That's what you bucking get." He laughed floating back through the wall while rubbing his stomach.

"You got a mean punch kid, you're gonna need it with some of the stuff you'll end up seeing in your life" He smiled at me as I went back to my work. Once finished, I put it away and went out to my backyard where I sat down and begin to meditation. With my eyes closed and legs crossed I hold my hooves front of my chest keeping about a foot of space between them. I took long deep breathes as I focused my energy to this area creating a faint, small blue ball. I fed my energy into the ball making it grow until it was about an inch from each hoof. "Good now attune the energy to match that of your bag's" Max said as he paced back an forth behind me.

"I know, we've been doing this for months" I focused the energy to match my bag's and the ball began to turn green. Once the ball turned completely green I opened my eyes and smiled as I stood up and held the ball with one hoof. I walked a few more feet from my house then stood on my hind legs and grabbed the ball with my other hoof. I turned to Max and pulled away with both my hooves, this pulled apart the ball and made a wave of green energy burst out around me, knocking Max back a bit while shaking my windows. I smiled at Max, who smiled back, then pointed up to the setting sun. "Oh pony feathers, it's almost seven."

Max followed me as I ran into the house and kicked over the bucket to grab my glowing satchel and put it on. "Remember this spirit specializes in illusions so look for the mirage lines, it will save your life." I nod to him and run out the door and close it behind me as he disappears.

I run down the streets until I come up to this old decrepit house that looks like it's barely standing. The house itself wasn't built that long ago so architecturally it fits with the rest of the street, but about a year ago a spirit of a rather angry pony started haunting the place and wrecked it.Its windows are smashed in and the door is hanging off of it's hing while there's a number of large cracks and small holes in the walls. I find Hammer near the pathway and walk up to him giving him another bro hoof.

KLOCK

"So what's the plan?" He asked while looking back at the house with slight concern due to its grim demeanor.

"Well the plan is I'm going to kick open the door and do some kung fu ninja moves, your going to wait by the door and only enter the house if I fall unconscious or say otherwise, something tells me to expect a lot of traps from an illusion spirit."

"Great, so I only get half of the fight at best and have to wait outside to call for help like some sidekick. Gee willikers ghost guard do I at least get a snack?"

I shake my head at him in slight confusion "Wha.. what? No!"

"You suck as a super hero; not even bringing me an apple or some chips to save me from my hunger" He points at me with his hoof and then the bag on his back spits out an apple that lands perfectly in his hoof which makes him smile. "Aww, thank you backpack, I love you!" With that he starts chowing down on the apple.

This causes me to shake my head ... whatever. I walk up to the house and open the door peering inside. It is fairly dark, except for where the light from my satchel shines. I use the utter brightness of my bag to illuminate the dusty room, it seems most of the furniture was taken out of the house when it first became haunted. The room is fairly empty, with the exception of a few chairs, a chandelier, and a coffee table. I kept moving the light around until I shined it on a figure, it looked like a translucent stallion. I walked into the house and kept the light on him "Hey, are you the spirit that has been haunting this home?"

As I get closer he turns to me then puts his hooves up to his eyes being blinded by the light "Oh dear Celestia that is bright, TURN IT OFF! God it burns" I felt sympathy for the guy, it is bright as hell. "Yes I'm the one who's been here, it is my house, now turn that off!" He says as he floats up above the chandelier.

"Well that's good, cause I'm here to help, I'm here to take you to a new home where you don't have to worry about such bright lights and unwanted guests." I looked up to the chandelier that has started to shake back and forth

"Now why would I want that, if somepony enters my home uninvited, it is my duty to dispose of their mortal bonds, ESPECIALLY ONES THAT ARE TITULARI" Does he seriously know what I am? At that thought, the chandelier begins to fall towards me, so I run further into the room to avoid it. I look down to where I'm about to step and notice a shimmering outline on the floor in front of me. I quickly jump to the right and roll as the chandelier smashes against the floor. I get up and look back to where I would have been and see a giant hole in the floor filled with jagged, rusted pipes the would have easily killed me if I would have fallen in. I wipe the sweat off my forehead and turn back to him as he makes large shards of broken glass fly towards me. I dodge and roll only to get stabbed in my left leg, making me cry out in pain.

I glare at him then start to charge "You bitch you stabbed me, that hurt!"

"Buck you, you broke into my home!" I swung my hoof at him and landed a hit square in his chest, making him fly backwards until I grabbed his leg and gave him another punch in the face. He glared back at me as I held him down and continued to deliver blows to his face as I began to focus me energy in the hoof holding him. The leg I was holding began to glow blue then slowly started to turn green. In between blows he managed to yell out "BUCK YOU AND YOUR FAMILY! HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME!" His leg turned completely green and my bag opened itself and began to suck him into it until he completely disappeared.

I sighed in relief that it was now over and I came out with only a few scratches, I reached down to the shards of glass stuck in my leg and pulled them out one by one wincing the whole time. I walked out of the house up to Hammer with one eye closed and a small smile on my face "First one down and I was right, illusions and traps. It sucked"

"I can see that, want some help?" He pointed to my bleeding leg

"Buck yes I do" I sat back and extended my leg as some bandages popped out of his backpack and he wrapped them around my wounds.

"So how you gonna explain this if someone asks?"

"I tripped down some stairs" We laugh at the terrible excuse and then walk home once he's done tieing the bandages. I walk home and go straight to my room, falling on my bed. It doesn't take long for me to fall asleep.

Author's Note: Again to clarify this is the first chapter. And I hate to admit it but expect this to be about my normal length, I'll always strive for more but I'm not that talented. With that may the Cheese be with you!

Chapter 2: The Awakening

I woke up as the sun rose and smacked my lips a few times. I ran a hoof through my mane as I got up and went to the bathroom. I took care of business then showered. Once I got out, Max showed up, I punched him in the face which sent him back through the wall. "You warned the bastard didn't you"

He floated back through the wall rubbing his nose "Well I was hoping the warning would make him more of a challenge for you, and all you came out with was some light scratches."

"Buck you." I glared at him while I replaced my bandages and then put on my bag, that is now only glowing lightly green. Thank god its not nearly as bright as it once was. Luckily the wounds weren't bad enough to keep me from walking normally. I walked through my house, to the backyard with Max in tow. "Alright, now tell me again how I'm supposed to use this thing's power"

Max floated a few feet away from me "Well let's start with meditating." I nod and do as he says. "Good, now focus on the energy in your bag."

"OK."

"Feels different, doesn't it."

"Yeah, there seems to be a new variant of energy inside."

"That's cause you forced a soul into it last night, dumb ass" He gave a slight chuckle as I tried to glare at him through closed eyes, which in turn only made him laugh more. "Alright, focus" I nod and get back to it. "Focus on this variant, lock in on it and pull it out."

I visualize grabbing onto the energy with my right hoof and pulling it out, once I feel it has come out I open my eyes and look down to my hoof to see it missing. I scream out in confusion "WHAT THE HELL!? WHY IS MY HOOF GONE!?" Max smacks me upside the head. "What was that for?"

"Look at your hoof idiot"

I look down to see my hoof is back so I jump up and give Max a hug "Oh thank you thank you thank you!"

"Graah, get off of me!" He pushes me off of him and I fall onto my back.

"So why did my hoof disappear?" I ask as I get up and look at him.

"It was an illusion spirit you idiot, it's default ability is to hide itself"

"Ooooh"

"Yeah, now focus on the power again and this time try using that thing in your skull"

"But I want to see the rabbits George."

Max had a confused look on his face "Wha.. What?"

"Don't worry about it..."

".... Whatever, just get back to it."

"Right" I pull the energy back out, but focus on making my hoof turn into a blade. Once its out I look at my hoof which is now about a foot long blade. "Booya, I can now cut a bitch at will"

"Riiiiight, try cutting me then"

"You sure?"

"Defiantly"

I looked at him then back at my hoof blade. If he says so; I charged him and went to stab my blade into his chest, only to get a loud THUD

"See?"

The blade was penetrating his chest but nothing was happening. I pulled my blade out then pushed it back in. "The hell?"

Max smacked me upside the head again "He's an illusion spirit you idiot, he doesn't bend reality. That's still your hoof not a blade."

"Oh..."

"Idiot."

"Buck you." I looked up to the sun and realized it was now seven in the morning. I shook my hoof off to make it change back then ran through the house and out the door heading for school. I met Hammer about halfway to the school. I trotted up to him and gave him a bro hoof.

KLOCK

"Hey man, isn't that the bag you had last night?" He pointed at my satchel making me realize I forgot to grab my school bag.

"Grrtasfahgetsa *SIGH* Yes..." I lowered my head as we continued to walk to school. "I can't believe I forgot all my stuff at home."

"Yeah, and too bad you can't use unicorn magic to teleport back home and then to school so you can be on time."

"Seriously, the main downside to being what I am is the inability to use that kind of magic. You have any idea how long it took me to figure out how to hold a pencil?" This made Hammer laugh almost uncontrollably so I kicked him over. Unfortunately he didn't stop. After a few minutes he finally stopped laughing and got up wiping some tears away. "Buck you."

"Maybe on Thursday."

*Sigh* We started to run to make up for lost time. Once we got to school we parted ways, heading to each of our classes. I went about classes normally, only stopping every now and then to be questioned about the bandages on my leg. When lunch rolled around I met up with Hammer out on the field behind the school, normally used for various sports. He pulled a sack lunch out of his backpack then remembered I forgot my stuff and pulled another one out and tossed it to me. "Thanks man" I smiled at him.

"Don't thank me, thank Backpack"

OK...... "Thank you backpack"

He shook his head "No, like a pony."

I raised an eyebrow and stared at him for a bit, but he was completely serious "Thank you Backpack?"

He lifted his ear to his bag "She says your welcome."

"OK then..." I shrugged then opened the sack lunch to find a hay sandwich inside and began chowing down on it as Hammer did the same with his. We sat there and ate our food for a few minutes until I felt a chill roll down my spine making me stand up. "Whoa... did you feel that?" I turned towards Hammer to see his face contorted in confusion and fear.

"Yeah, what was that?" A loud crack made me turn my head out towards the rest of the field which began to split open. The length of about a football field and a half was opening. "WHAT THE HELL?!"

And with that Max showed up next to me as the earth continued to shake and crack "We got problems kid."

"No shit!" I pointed out to the giant hole opening out in the field. "What the hell is going on?"

"Remember those things I told you about? Demons, well your about to meet one, and he's big."

We both turned and looked at the figure that's now begining to rise out of the crack. It was huge. The thing had to be close to two stories tall. It had spikes on most of it's body with a pair of large horns on it's head. His torso was the largest part of him and began to shrink down as you looked downed towards his feet. He had to use his arms to stand due to his legs being to small to support him. The sky began to darken around him as he laughed watching everypony else run away in fear and confusion. At least I'm not the only pony who can see this big bastard. "Now where is the little one I am looking for?"

"Hammer I think you should leave."

"Yeah, me and my backpack will cheer for you on the sidelines.... damn it now I sound like a sidekick"

"Dude, GO!" He nodded and trotted off taking cover inside the school building. I trotted out in front of the giant demon and took a fighting stance "OI! Bi,g Spiky and Ugly! You looking for me?" He looked down at me and raised an eyebrow.

"HA! Here I thought I was going to need to destroy this city to find you and you come straight to me as soon as I get here. You made my job that much easier" He placed his hands flat down beside me while smirking. I winced from the smell of his putrid breath. The smell of sulfur leaking from his jagged, yellow teeth.

"Yeah..." I backed up a bit looking him in the face. "Well before you kill me I make one request"

"What would that be?"

"Well.. I challenge you to a ROCK OFF!" I jumped forward and had a big grin on my face as I heard Max facehoof. The demon sighed with a frown on his face. He flicked me with his finger that sent me flying across the field. I hit the ground and slide against the grass and dirt. I lay on the ground for a moment in a large amount of pain. My body is now covered in scrapes, cuts, and bruises; I can feel the blood begging to run down my leg as the wound reopened. I struggled to get up, my body shaking as it yelled at me to stay down. "Owwww, lets try this again." I charged my energy throughout my body to help dull the pain as I started to charge the demon. He brought his hand up then slammed it down. I jumped to the right barley dodging him and continued with my charge. As I was getting closer he decided to swing his hand in a sweeping motion. I dived down and tried to press my body into the ground as much as I could. His finger brushed across my mane making my eyes widen. Holy crap this guy is really going to kill me. Well I might as well go out trying then just running away like a scared little foal. Besides if I die then at least he will leave the city alone. I got back up and continued my charge until I was right under him and began punching his knees. I continued to deliver blows but they only made him laugh. He continued laughing as he lifted himself up with his arms then swung himself back. He swung his feet at me and kicked me in the gut which sent me flying all the way back into the side of the school building making me leave a small dent in the stone building. I slid down the wall till my flank hit the ground. I coughed up blood as my vision went extremely fuzzy. I guess this is it. My head fell forward as everything went black.

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Perspective: Strages

I was surrounded by darkness for what now had felt like an eternity. That heartbeat in the distance hadn't changed much, except now, now it was beating much faster. Faster and faster the noise went on. It continued like this for a few moments then it slowed down until it stopped. Was my imprisonment over has my cage died and shall I with it? I will not let this mortal kill me, I shall take control and release myself! I charged my power and shot my flames across this void as far as I could. I filled everything I could see with my fire. All I was able to see was my black flames as suddenly a bright light flashed, forcing me to close my eyes. I shook my head and opened my eyes to find myself looking at a field with a large demon in it. HA! I had done it! I am on earth. I was over joyed until I realized who the demon was. It was one of the old man's lackeys. He isn't known for much, he's actually pretty weak, just big and always wanting to impress the old bastard. I stood up and stared him down which made him only give me a confused look in return.

"STRAGES!? HOW?! I just killed your host's body, you should be dead along with him."

I shook my head "All you have done is wake me from my slumber. I shall now take over this world then make my way back to hell to take my rightful throne!"

"You will have to get past me first Strages before you can even hope to look at Lord Lucifer's throne."

"That'll be almost too easy for me" I smirked at him and summoned my swords only to have them fall out of my hands. The hell? I looked down to see I had hooves. HOOVES! WHY DO I HAVE HOOVES?! I inspect the rest of my body to find I'm now an all black pony lightly covered in small metallic scales that were lightly tinted with blood. My mane and tail were dark red. I attempted to pick up my swords again only to have my hooves make a klock sound. KLOCK..... KLOCK.... KLOCKLOCKLOCK "GOD DAMNIT!" This caused the fat bastard to start howling, laughing his ass off and almost falling over. "You know, you have made one grave mistake!" I walked to the side a bit staring him down.

He wiped a tear away from his face looking down at me "Oh, and whats that?"

"PISSING ME OFF!" I began to flare my fire across my body making it replace my mane and tail.

"LAAAAAAAAME!" I turned around to see an all white pony with blue hooves and blue streaks going through his mane and tail. I punched him in the chest which sent him through the doors of the building, probably knocking him out if it didn't kill him. I turned back to this demon and shot my flames at him, covering his body. He screamed in pain as he smashed his hands around and tried putting the fires out. I just smirked at him as he body slowly turned to ash that fell back into the hole he came from. As the remains of his corpse disappears the sky started to turn blue with fluffy white clouds.... disgusting. I fell down to my knees as I suddenly felt weak.

"The hell?, I did nothing, how can I be so weakened, was it all the power I used to get out here?" My flames started to disappear and my scales began to recede into my skin "NO! NO! I'M NOT DONE YET!" The world around me turned black as I began to hear that oh so similar heartbeat. Now the darkness was a tad lighter and along with the heart beat I heard soft breath then some shuffling.

Author's Note: I have to apologize for taking so long with this chapter, sickness along with a few writer's block hit me on this one but I assure you I'll be picking up speed in these next few chapters, MAY THE CHEESE BE WITH YOU!

Chapter 3 The Society

Perspective: Damian

I slowly came to and found myself laying in a bed with a hospital gown on.... why am I clothed? My vision was blurry at first but came back to me as I turned my head and saw in front of me a yellow flank with a black tail that has a white line going through it, and a cutey mark of what appears to be an archery target. It was hard to tell because her wing was covering a good part of it. She has wings that seemed to better suit a griffin, they stretched out to her flank and seemed to wrap on her back a bit. My eyes were immediately drawn to her flank, following the outline of her well toned curves as she shifts side to side. I admired her flank some more before I fully realized what I was doing and looked away as I started to blush. I turned my head away from her and began making noises as if I had just woken up.

She turned to me as I looked back to her. She had large beautiful green eyes. We stared into each others eyes for what felt like hours until she began to open her mouth. She was about to say something until somepony kicked open the door which made her jump around. It seemed to be some dark brown colt who was in a hurry "CC we got a problem in sector G" She nodded and followed after him. Ok.... so am I in a hospital or something else now? And I wonder if I'll get to see her again, what did he say her name was? Was it CC? I shrugged and got out of the bed to start inspecting the room. It had a bed, a small table next to the bed that had my satchel on it, and a large mirror. What was odd was that the room had no windows so the only light was coming from a small gem on the roof. I took off my hospital gown, put on my satchel, and looked myself over in the mirror, I was fine, not a single cut or bruise, even my leg was better. There was one new thing that put a big smile on my face. I got my cutie mark! I stared at it in the mirror, it had a black and red spiky bag that looked like it was eating some form of spirit. I get the spirit part, but why does the bag look so similar to the big guy that tried to kill me?..... Wait, what happened to that guy? Last I remember was he knocked me out then I woke up here, how long have I been out?

I kept contemplating these thoughts until I heard a lot of noise going on just outside the door. I stared at the door for a bit before I walked up to it and slowly opened it and walked out only to be ran over by some white blur. We roll for awhile but once we stop I get a good look at his face and it's Hammer. "Hammer? What the hell are you doing here? Where are we?"

"Damian? DAMIAN!" He wrapped me up in a hug so tight I wasn't able to breath. "I woke up and had no idea where I was so I freaked out and went looking for you, then some guards found me so I ran, then I hit you and now your here and we can escape cause I'm still being chased!"

"Can't... breath.."

"Oh, my bad" He let go of me, dropping me to the ground. I stood up and took in a few deep breathes before I started to look around us to see where we were. We were on a catwalk that lead to various rooms that I'm assuming are similar to the one I was in. Behind Hammer the building and walkway continued down, that two ponies were on. Behind me was the same except I could see the stairs leading down, just unfortunately for us two more ponies were coming up. To our right was a big open area. There were a few dummies set about, a circle marked in the ground for what I assume some sparring was, and a number of weapon racks containing wooden poles. I picked up Hammer and threw him over the railing "Wait wait, what are you doing? AHHHH!" He screamed as he fell. I jumped over the railing myself and focused my energy into my hooves to soften the landing so it only stung. I turned to see Hammer getting out of an inflatable raft that was being sucked back into his backpack. I looked around to see about twenty ponies had surrounded us. A lot of them looked to be about our age if not a little younger. They all took fighting stances while staring us down.

"Oh, OH? OH HELL NO! You gots yourself a fight now" I grab a wooden staff from a nearby rack and toss it to Hammer. He catches it and takes a goofy looking stance.

"It is on! Imma get all ninja comic book on your flanks" Alright one and a half Vs twenty, I got this.

They all looked to each other in slight confusion then charged at us while screaming. Me and Hammer jumped into the bulk of the group. I dodge slow punches and low kicks countering with blows of my own. With a bit of energy in each hoof I was able to get about a person down per blow. In the middle of the fight I look over to see hammer swinging his stick around hitting a number of ponies in the head. A lot of them just looked like lucky shots, especially since his eyes were closed for the most part. A hoof flew in front of my eyes that made me focus back on my part of the group. I punched that one in the head sending him into the ground then elbow the one behind me. We continue the fight and I come out without being hit while Hammer got punched and kicked at least twice. Once the dust clears I look over to Hammer and smile at him "Hell yeah, they didn't know who they were messing with. You gotta bring a better game if your gonna ponnynap these ponies!" Hammer walked over to me and we bro hoofed.

KLOCK

We hear a loud cough as we look over to see two male ponies both wearing goggles. One was all dark blue, had dark green eyes and a black tail and mane. The other ones body is chartreuse, a puce mane and tail, and maroon eyes. Sadly I only know these colors due to Hammer. The blue one had a cutie mark of a white knife, and the green one had a white sword for his cutie mark. Something tells me these guys will be tougher. They stare us down and snort as they make light blue weapons in their hooves, each one seems to make their cutie mark appear in their hoof. I turn my head to see Hammer getting ready to fight "These guys look easy"

"Riiight, you lead, I got your back buddy"He nods and starts to charge the two swinging his staff wildly. They easily dodge him then both hit him in the back of the head knocking him out. He lasted as long as I kinda expected. Alright, now it's my turn "I'mma take a note from Max and try to be smart." I focus my energy on the ghost I caught and fill the room with a heavy fog. I hide my presence in the fog and focus on the two bright blades in their hooves. I slowly move to the one on the left until I'm behind him. I tackle him to the ground and start to deliver blows to his head. The first few make contact unguarded but he quickly moves his hooves up to block my punches. I continue hammering away at him forgetting about his buddy. His friend creeps up behind me and hits me in the back of the head making my vision turn to black as I fall over.

I wake up in another bed and hospital gown again... seriously why do they keep dressing me? I look around to see Hammer in a bed next to me still asleep. This room is larger, but not by much, and has a dresser along with two tables, one for each bed, and one large mirror in the center of the room. I hear the door open and turn to see the same mare from earlier. She walks up next to me and smiles a bit "Hi, sorry about earlier, I was supposed to greet you when you woke up but I had to take care of a problem."

"That's nice, why are you guys holding me and my friend prisoner?"

"We didn't capture you, we rescued you, our agent was trying to explain that to your friend there but he started to freak out and ran around looking for you, then the two of you practically hospitalized a whole group of our trainees"

"Oh.... sorry about that, Hammer made me think you guys kinda ponynapped us."

"Yeah.. no, we rescued the two of you after that demon attacked Detrot and put Hammer back together after you turned and punched him in the chest, he's lucky he survived that."

"I turned? Turned into what?"

"A demon, Strages to be exact, he was the right hand man of Satan for a few thousand years until he was banished about thirteen years ago."

"Satan is the ruler of hell right?"

"Exactly, as expected of a titulari."

"How do you know that?"

"Well I'm part of the Statera, it's our job to know."

"The what?"

"Statera, we're an old society of people that are able to deal with souls, demons, and angels"

"Ok, that's nice, so what happened to that demon that knocked me out?"

"Well once you turned Strages turned him to ash."

"Wow..." I looked down at the end of my bed trying to process all this new information. So I have a super powerful evil demon inside me, how the hell do I keep it from coming out and killing everypony?

My train of thought was interrupted as Hammer woke up and jumped from his bed and yelled out to her "HOW LONG HAVE WE BEEN ASLEEP?!"

She stared at him with one eye wide in confusion "Two days and three hours"

Hammer fell onto my stomach and sobbed into me "WE MISSED THURSDAY! I WAS GOING TO SHOW YOU SUCH A GOOD TIME!" He continued to put on his best performance of crying into my stomach.

I turn to look at her "He's just j..."

Before I could finish her wings shot up in a wing boner knocking Hammer back into the bed he was in "OH MY GOD YOUR GAY! THAT'S SO AWESOME!"

THE HELL?! I stare at her in disbelief with my mouth hung open. Seriously the first mare I have general interest in thinks I'm gay, I'm going to kill Hammer. I continue staring as Hammer comments from his bed "Woah, your wings are huge, are you part griffin?"

She shook her head "No, I'm not sure who my father is but we know he's not a griffin, and my name is Cecidit Spes, you can just call me CC"

Hammer stood up next to me "Well I'm Hammer and backpack filled me in on the conversation, and he's Damian" He pokes me in the cheek with his hoof.

"Well it was nice to meet you two, you make a cute couple, and I hope you'll let me watch next Thursday"

"Anytime, I'll let you know when we start."

She squealed and hugged the both of us then ran to the door and opened it "Oh and by the way, the guard out here will escort you guys where you need to go." After that she ran out the door.

I continued to stare where she was until Hammer closed my mouth for me "I hate you soooo much"

Hammer smiled and laughed a bit "Hey at least she want's to watch"

"BUT SHE THINKS I'M GAY NOW!"

"Eh, we'll fix that later, grab your bag and let's get going." He started to leave the room as I got out of the bed and took the gown off. I put my bag on then walked out the door and looked around. I'm not sure if we were in the same building but all I could see was a bunch of corridors and doors. I see Hammer standing next to the guard and he nods to me so I begin to follow him down a few corridors. We walk for about ten minutes and the place just feels like a maze of stone hallways. He finally comes to a stop in front of a door and nods for us to go in. We enter the door to find an older pony standing in front of a projection screen. He had a grey buzz cut mane, a scar across his left eye and his body was a dark green.

He stared us down while he marched back and forth in front of the screen. He carried himself in a very militaristic manner. "RECRUITS!" He yelled out at us as we just kinda stared at him confused. He then pointed at the two of us "I SHALL REPHRASE THIS FOR YOU TWO PEA BRAINS! GAY LOVERS! TAKE A SEAT!" We quickly run down and sit in a chair. Holy crap this guy will rip us a new one if we don't listen to him, this sucks. He nods to a pony who turns on the projector that starts up a movie that seems to be made to explain the basics of hell, heaven, and the spiritual plain that exists around all of us. I raise my hoof while sitting up a bit getting the older pony to look down and yell out "YOU GOT A QUESTION FAGGOT?!"

"No sir, it's just that we know all this, my mentor Max explained all this to me and I passed it on to Hammer."

He waved his hoof at the person next to the projector who turned it off as he quickly marched down to us. He put his face right in my as a vein popped out on his neck "Your one of them damn titulari aren't you boy" He spoke softly with an annoyed tone to himself.

I backed my face away from his as far as I could as I nodded slightly "Yes sir."

He started to scream out as he turned away "DAMN CC! ONLY TELLING ME THESE BASTARDS SEXUAL LIKES RATHER THEN THE INFORMATION THAT I NEED!" He storms out of the room cursing to himself as he exits through a door in the back. Me and Hammer look at each other then shrug. The door we entered in opens as the guard from earlier motions for us to follow him again. We followed him through the halls yet again, only this time as we got closer to our destination the more guards we came across. We finally came to a room that had wall to wall guards, I swear some of the guards were standing on other guards. I guess this guy really likes his protection. Two guards standing by the door look at the guard who escorted us here and nod at him. He trots off as we step towards the door. The pony to the right of the door put his horn in a hole while the pony to the left placed his wing on a glass screen. Some lights shined on each part then the door in front of us and a few behind that one opened up. We walked through the hallway of doors into a big room. The room was rather large and had a desk placed in front of a window.

To the left is a couch placed against the wall with a lamp next to it. To the right was a rather large bookshelf filled to the brim. On the desk were various papers and files. The chair behind the desk swung around to reveal a rather tall white earth pony with a blue main, red eyes, and glasses look at us from across the room "How are you gentlemen... HAMMER?! What the hell are you doing here?"

"BONZU!" Hammer yelled excitedly as he ran towards this colt and dived at him. Bonzu ducked which sent hammer flying over him and through the window.

SPROING

Hammer flew back into the room with a big smile on his face. Bonzu looked over his shoulder and out the window "Giant trampoline, nice."

"Yea, backpack loves me."

"I know, she tends to love the youngest."

"You're just jealous."

"What ever, so I take it you guys are the new recruits."

I walk closer to the two of them "I take it we really don't have a choice in this."

Bonzu got a big smile on his face "Nope, so welcome to Statera, you two are now official members and will be tasked with taking care of unruly demons, angels, and spirits. We will of course train you to better use your natural abilities and so you may be able to defend yourselves. Good luck out there."

Author's Note: Hey if you like my story I highly recommend you check out my blog, for I'm starting the brony point system, and for those of you who follow man of war don't worry this is tallest approved. Shout out to Tallestbrony and Squishy for being the first to use the brony point system by picking out the colors for the two ponies that knocked out Damian and Hammer, and like always May the Cheese be with you!

Chapter 4: Unexpected Change

He still had a smile on his face as I raise an eyebrow. "So we are now recruits in some super secret organization that deals with the spiritual plane?"

He nodded his head "Yea, but we are more of a society, we take care of our own and treat them like family"

"Like leaving without a word for about eight years?" Hammer frowned at him, who is this guy to him?

Bonzu sighed and turned his attention to Hammer "Look I'm sorry about not telling you anything, but I had to leave to take over this position when dad died."

"He died in a carriage accident, how is this related to that?"

"He died doing this, he sacrificed himself to stop a powerful demon from entering earth." He says flatly.

"But.."

He was stopped short as Bonzu interrupted him. "We had to lie to you to protect you from a lot of things out there that would love to devour your soul."

"Why would I need protection, I can barely tell if a spirit is nearby."

"I'll explain it more, but in private, it's a bit of a family matter." I stared at Hammer, wanting to say something but I just don't know what to tell him. What could I say, the look of sadness and betrayal on his face made my heart sink. I have known Hammer since we were young foals, and here he was having his world flipped upside down and I don't know how to help him. "Damian," Bonzu was now staring at me "Why don't you leave me and Hammer alone for awhile, the guards will escort you to the mess hall where you can eat and get acquainted with some of the ponies who will be overseeing your training."

I nodded then turned to Hammer "I'll be saving a seat for you"

He nodded while in a slight daze "Yeah." He sat down on a cushion that fell out of his backpack.

I turned around and walked out of Bonzu's office, through the hall of doors, and into the room of guards. There was a guard wearing sunglasses waiting for me. He nodded to me then guided me through the corridors of the building. We continued to walk for a few more minutes until we came across somepony almost completely covered in dark clothes. He looked about my height and size, he just had on a black coat that went past his flank with a hood, long boots that covered his legs, and some kind of mask that covered most of his face. The small part that wasn't covered was shining bright blue, similar to the weapons I saw the two ponies make earlier. Why is he shiny? Given, with what I have seen thus far I guess it's not that weird. I shrugged and continued to follow the guard around a few more corners.

BOOM

It sounded like something nearby exploded so I stopped and began to turn around until the guard stopped me"What the hell was that?" I asked completely confused.

"Don't worry about it, we need to get you to the mess hall so I can hand you off"

"Thanks for making me feel so special, but what do you mean don't worry about it, something EXPLODED!"

"It's normal, he's actually having a good day today."

I stared at him with my mouth hung open and completely confused, how the hell are explosions normal, "Ok..." Satisfied, he turned around and continued to lead the way. Apparently, this place is way weirder then I thought, this is going to take a lot of getting used to. We finally came to a pair of double doors with Mess Hall etched into the stone above them. The guard left as fast as he could, Ok.... are the doors going to explode or does he just hate showing somepony around. I opened the door and walked inside, the cafeteria was very large and looked very similar to the kind at my school. There was an area to get trays and line up for food, and tables and chairs covered pretty much everywhere else. The tables were filled with different kinds of creatures, from zebras to ogres, to griffins and so much more, some I can't even recognize. I wandered around aimlessly for a bit just starring at all the different creatures in here. I mean, I've only heard about ogres, but even then they were supposed to be mean and generally dislike ponies, but some were sitting at the same table as them. "Woah......." I continued to stare as ponies talked, laughed, and ate. I lost myself in the large crowd until someone called my name out.

"DAMIAN!" I turned towards the voice to see CC waving and calling me. "OVER HERE!" She had to yell so her voice was above the rest of rooms. I trotted up to her with a slight smile on my face. If I get to see her this often I think I can get used to all this stuff pretty quick. She handed me a tray and had me get in line in front of her. "So how do you find everything here?"

"Well since all I've really done is apparently piss off that old pony and meet Bonzu, kinda weird. I mean the strangest thing that happened until about a few days ago was Hammer's back pack, but now I'm surrounded by races I've only heard about and some I don't even recognize."

She giggled a bit "That's usually the biggest thing to affect the newbies, you'll get used to it all in time. How is Hammer doing, I know Bonzu is his brother and hasn't seen him in a long time, plus the whole thing about how his dad died."

I sighed while looking down at the ground "He seemed pretty shook up about it, I know Hammer though and he'll be back to his old self in no time."

"Are you sure?" She asks with a concerned look on her face "All of that is a lot to take in, plus everything else he's about to see"

"He's always been able to make the best of a bad situation, you can kinda depend on him to be the strong one during hard times." I smiled a bit remembering some of the things me and him had to go through. This in turn made a small smile appear on CC's face. We continued to follow the line until I got up to the lunch mare.

"Vegetarian or carnivore?"

I slightly raised an eyebrow. "Uhhh vegetarian ?"

"Good, glad I didn't have to call the guards over, hate it when we get the looney ones." She tossed some tube shaped thing onto my tray then shooed me away with her hoof. I waited for CC who got one to then went over to an empty table with her. I took my seat and set the tray down then leaned over and sniffed the tube. CC gave me an odd look.

"Have you never had a burrito before?"

"A what?" I kept staring it down then poked it with my hoof.

"A burrito it's Pomexican food."

"We don't have that in Detrot."

"Boy you don't know what your missing out on, they are delicious." She picked it up with her hoofs then slide about one fourth of it into her mouth. What I would give to be that burrito. I stared at her in awe until she bit it off and began chewing. Oww.... note to self, don't imagine self as food for a mare again... just ow. I look at my burrito and pick it up then shrug. I put it up to my mouth then took a bite out of it and start to chew. OH MY GOD! It is delicious, it's got rice, beans, cheese, some kind of pepper and hot sauce. I devour the rest of my burrito, accidentally biting my hoof when its gone.

"Ow!" I shake my hoof a bit and look down in embarrassment as CC starts to laugh. She smiles at me and wipes her face with a napkin.

"Why don't you go get another, you were out cold for two days." I nod as my stomach growls slightly, still feeling empty. I take my tray and get in line. I tap my hoof then entire time, getting very impatient. Once I got to the front I threw my tray down in front of the lunch mare.

"Vegetarian, food tube, now"

"Kaaaaayyyy....." As soon as she put the burrito on my tray I ran off to sit next to CC and took it in my hooves and held it up.

"BURRRIIITTTTOOO! Your beans and rice make my tummy feel so nice." She laughed as I ate it with speed and vigor.

She laughed with a hoof up to her mouth, cause its so damn cute. "I hope your this enthusiastic about training."

I licked some remnants off my plate then looked up at her "By training do you mean like the kind of stuff I did with Max? Fighting techniques, spiritual focus, that kind of stuff?"

"Mmm, sort of, you will be learning some fighting styles, mainly those of a weapon you seem most comfortable with. Like me, I use a bow."

"Cool, how good are you with it?"

"Good enough to be the instructor".

"Awesome."

"Yeah, we will also teach you how to make your weapons like how Knife Edge and Swift Blade did when they had to knock the two of you out."

"About that, why did they make their weapons when they just knocked us out?"

"To intimidate the two of you."

"Oh... yeah that didn't really work"

"I know."

I frowned a bit and turned to look at the entrance as it opened. Hammer walked in and started looking around and seeing all the ponies, he had the same look of amazement on his face I assume I had. I got up and ran over to hammer "DUDE! You got to get a burrito, they are awesome"

"A what?"

"Burrito, its a food tube of tastyness"He opened his mouth to say something but his backpack spat out a plate with a burrito on it that he caught with his hoof.

"That?"

"Yea that." I lead him over to the table CC was at and we took our seats. He took a bite out of a burrito and a big smile crossed his face as he devoured the rest of it. His backpack spat out another one that he ate just as fast.

He smiled and turned towards his backpack "Thank you Backpack, I love you."

"Hope you stay that way, apparently we have to do a lot of training."

"So I finally get to learn how to fight."

"Yea, and by the sound of it they'll hook you up with a specialized tutor once you've found your weapon type."

"I wonder what I'll end up specializing in." Me and CC looked at each other then began to laugh and fall over "What? Seriously whats so funny?" I got up and wiped a tear from my eye as CC did the same.

"We will also run you guys through a few courses to see if there are any non combat roles you would be able to fill as well. You will also be put through classes that teach you the language of the old."

"Language of the old? The hell is that?"

"Well, Damian, it's as it sounds. It is the language used by ancient spirits and is also the language spoken and written in heaven and hell."

"Oh, guess we will need that then."

"Yea, so are you guys all set?" Hammer and I look to each other then nod. She got up and lead us out of the cafeteria then down a few halls. She lead us to a door that had the picture of a book and pen above it. "Your first two months will be spent learning the language, that way you guys aren't too tired from training to stay awake in class."

"Wait, so you guys saved us from a demon to take us out of school, to put us in school? This sucks." She glared at me then smacked me upside the head. "Owww, the hell?"

"This is just as important as the physical training, plus its a dead language. So be happy that your getting to learn something most ponies don't even know exists."

"Yes CC."

"Good. Now get in there and be nice, we will have some guards escort you two around until you get used to our buildings."

"Alright, but when did you become our moms?" She raised her hoof at me while staring me down. "Sorry, sorry." She put her hoof down and had a small smile on her face then smacked me again and pointed at me. "Ow" She turned around and left. Hammer and I looked at each other then sighed. We turned and headed through the doors, inside the room was just a large classroom with a very large chalkboard and a ton of desks. In front of the chalkboard was a purple mare with light green mane and tail. She wrote some weird looking things on the board then turned around to speak to everypony in the class.

"Welcome to Latin one O one, I will be your teacher for the next two months and my name is Senex Verba."Hammer and I took our seats then I raised my hoof. She looked at me with a small smile on her face "You have a question?"

"Yes, whats with the unpronounceable name?"

"It is my name in Latin" she replied flatly now losing her smile.

"Whats Latin?"

"What your about to learn" I raised my hoof again "Yes?"

"Do I have to learn Latin?"

"Do you want to live?"

"Yes...."

"Then there's your answer." I sunk in my seat frowning a bit as Hammer started to raise his hand. Before she had the chance to call on him his backpack spat out some book. He looked at the title then lowered his hoof and had a content smile on his face.

I glared at him and whispered "You cheater"

"Hey it's Backpack's fault not mine." The smile on his face got bigger.

"Now class I'm going to pass out some books and supplies. From here on In you all are going to be speaking as little English as possible. Tuum mentes aperire et nobis incipiunt"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2 Months Later

I have got to hand it to Senex Verba, she was able to teach me a language almost as old as time in the span of two months. Hammer had backpack helping him almost the whole time so he is still a bucking cheater, but I am grateful of CC forcing us to take those classes early, especially since some nights I was up till about two in the morning studying. Given it was only the clock in my room saying two in the morning, it's really easy to lose your track of time when there are no real windows in this place. They said they had to keep everything sealed just for the rare times when we get guests who aren't a part of the society. I smiled at Hammer as we walked down the hall "It's pretty late and I hear we have training tomorrow so I'm gonna hit the sack."

He nodded to me "Sounds like a plan."

We parted ways and I waved a hoof back at him "Nox."

"Nox." He waved back and headed off to his room.

I trotted off to my room and fell on my bed as soon as I entered. With a grateful sigh I got comfortable and fell asleep quickly.

Chapter 5: The Training

I found myself in some dark room until a bright light flashed in my eyes. I put a hoof over my eyes then moved it away once my eyes had adjusted. I was in a room filled with various contraptions, there looked to be a stone table about the length of a pony that had straps in the corners and a small grated hole in the center. In the corner there was an iron mare that was open so you could see the spikes within, they were already stained with blood. Hanging from the ceiling were various rusted hooks, some contained chunks of dripping meat and flesh. A door towards the back of the room slowly opened. CC walked through the door and smiled at me. It's good to see her, hopefully she can tell me where I am and how to get out of here. She giggled slightly and began to walk next to the iron mare, and through no action of my own I followed her. My hoof reached out and opened the mare then shoved CC in impaling her on the spikes in the back of it, some of her blood and brain matter landing on me. The metallic spikes were sticking out all over her body with a few coming out through her head, with one knocking her eye out. Somehow she still wasn't dead and her face stared at me in horror and disbelief. Why am I doing this? Whats making me do this to her? I'm not this kind of pony. CC screamed out as my hooves reached out and slowly closed the mare on her, her screams now becoming quieter due to the blood pooling in her neck. I backed away from the maiden and watched her blood leak from it and onto the floor staining it a dark crimson.

I jolted up in my bead covered in a cold sweat. The hell was that? Hopefully it's just stress getting the better of me. I turned the gem in my room on with the switch on the wall then looked at the clock, it was four in the morning. I might as well get something to eat then head over to the training grounds. I went into the bathroom and took care of business. Just before flushing I looked down into the toilet to see it was completely filled with blood, it bubbled slightly then an eye rose from the bottom and looked up at me making me jump back. I shook my head and rubbed my eyes then looked back into the toilet to find it to be completely the normal. "The buck is going on.... get it together Damian, your just tired is all, yea." I flushed the toilet then washed my hooves and left my room. I walked down the hall rubbing my head, what the hell was that all about? When I got into the cafeteria I found it fairly empty. Kinda expected at the time, there were only a few creatures in right now, including that one pony I saw when I first got here. He was still completely covered in clothes from head to hoof. He wasn't glowing like last time, I guess today is another good day. I got a tray and went up to the lunch mare.

"Meat or veggies?"

"Veggies." She threw some fried hay onto my tray so I went and took a seat. I ate slowly mainly due to wondering what the specifics of the training would be, and who would be my special instructor. I would love if CC could be, but I don't really see myself as somepony that can stay in the back of a fight. For some reason if I ever picture myself in a hardcore battle i see myself charging the line with some form of blade while screaming like an idiot, and maybe yelling something cool like THIS IS EQUESTRIA! Although CC did mention something about going through some training to see if we could fulfill some other role as well, I wonder what she meant by that. I shrugged then finished my food. I left the mess hall and headed towards the room I was supposed to receive training in, it took about twenty minutes for me to get to it. It was another pair of double doors and above them was a picture of a pair of weights. I walked through the doors and saw that it was the same room me and Hammer fought all those recruits in.

TWANG

THUNK

I guess somepony is practicing their archery. I went under the catwalk and found an opening in the room that lead to the target range. I looked around the room and found CC shooting at an archery target on the far left, her target was at least twenty yards away. She was standing while holding a slightly transparent blue bow, and for some reason she had on a pair of goggles. As she drew the string back an arrow materialized in the bow. She let go of the string which sent the arrow flying through the air and into the bulls eye of the target. I trotted up behind her as she continued to hit her mark again and again. As I got a few feet from her she stopped firing but kept staring at the target "Announce yourself or take one to the knee."

"Geez that's a little harsh when I was coming over here to be all like HOLY CRAP YOU CAN SHOOT and stuff"

She turned around with a small smile on her face and made the bow disappear "Oh, hey Damian, what are you doing up so early?"

"I.." I began to say until her face had gaping holes in it and she was missing her eye. I shook my head and blinked my eyes a few times then looked back at her. She was perfectly fine.. weird "I couldn't sleep..."

"That's too bad, luckily today is your first day so they are gonna try to break you in slow."

"That's good to hear, so willing to give me the basic rundown for what's going to happen today?"

"Well..." I stared at her with big puppy dog eyes "fiiine, your gonna mainly do some conditioning, then they are gonna teach you the basics of turning your energy into a weapon or shield"

"Cool, are they not going to go over the process of using you energy to null some pain or anything that's more of an internal application of spiritual power?"

"No, that's actually a fairly advanced step. It takes most people a really long time to use their energy on themselves like that, seems your ahead of the curve."

I blushed a bit then kicked some of the dirt on the floor "Aww its nothing, plus I owe it all to Max. Speaking of which I haven't seen him since I got here, any reason for that?"

"Well our compound here is heavily fortified with spells and enchantments to keep any and everything out that isn't supposed to be here."

"Compound? The hell I've been in the same building these past two months, your telling me there's more?"

She nodded while giggling slightly, covering her hoof with her mouth. GAH the cuteness. "There's quite a number of buildings similar to this one and bigger."

"Bigger? Jesus, how can they build a place that's bigger?"

"With enough space."

"Do you guys own like a quarter of the planet?"She giggled again, placing her hoof over her mouth once more. So cute.

She shook her head a bit then smiled as she looked over her shoulder "Hey Patches" She waved a hoof to somepony behind me. I turned around to see that pony covered in black clothing. He took all the clothes off of himself and placed them next to the door. He was about as big as me with an odd colored coat that was a combination of various colors, all of which where kinda lighter as if they were parts of a corpse. He had a short black messy mane and tail to match. He walked towards us and as he got closer I noticed all the stitches on his body connecting all the color together. His cutie mark was that of a needle and thread. "So did you come in to say Hi or just to practice."

He smiled at her and spoke with a deep voice "A bit of both, today's been good so I'm hoping to force some of it out so it lasts longer."

She nodded "That's good to hear, well your spot is set up for you, add more if you want but you have to replace them yourself once you start." She pointed to an area down the range that was secluded and covered in scorch marks. There was a group of what I could best call small ogre targets set up as if they were surrounding somepony. Patches walked into the middle of the targets and took a readied stance. He suddenly began to glow a bright blue then his body exploded sending piece of him and the targets everywhere.

"THE HELL!? HE JUST BLEW HIMSELF UP!"

"Calm down Damian, just watch." My mouth hung open in astonishment, he just killed himself and shes telling me to calm down. She grabbed my head and forced me to look at where he exploded. I watched the area as his body parts began to roll or crawl back to that area and put themselves back together. I fell over onto the floor staring at patches who is now perfectly fine.

"I do not have the words to describe how confused I am, nor how messed up that looks. He just killed himself, then put himself back together."

CC giggled and helped me get back up "That's just Patches, he kinda does that." She leaned in and whispered in my ear "He is able to do that because of the amount of spiritual power he has. It's too much for his body to bear so it explodes, he has been getting better about when it explodes but he can't control it all the time. His body is dead, and most of the pieces aren't his, so after he explodes he uses his power to bring the pieces back together. If his spirit ever becomes aware that he is no longer alive he will die."

"Oh..." I looked down at the floor. That really sucks, I wonder how long hes been here, or if he even realizes any of that. I suppose he has to kinda stay in a blissful ignorance to stay alive. I back up and sit against the wall to watch Patches explode and put himself back together for the next two hours. I hear ponies enter the other room so I get up and go into the room. I see a large group of ponies gather in front of the old pony that played the video for me and Hammer. I go into the middle of the group and look around for Hammer. I found him towards the front and we gave a brohoof before looking to the old stallion.

"LISTEN UP MAGGOTS! I AM YOUR BASIC TRAINING INSTRUCTOR! THE NEXT FEW WEEKS MY WORD IS LAW! YOU WILL BE PUSHED TO YOUR LIMITS, I WILL BREAK YOU! I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND AND I AM NOT HERE TO HELP YOU! MY JOB IS TO SEE IF YOU HAVE THE PHYSICAL CAPABILITIES TO BE PART OF STATERA!" Everypony stomps their hooves and takes an upright position including Hammer and myself. He walks up and down the rows of ponies inspecting everypony he walks past until he comes up to me and Hammer. "HOLY CRAP LOOKS LIKE THE GAY LOVERS DECIDED TO JOIN US TODAY!" I sighed and lowered my head as Hammer kept his head up and grew a smile on his face. "AM I GOING TO HAVE TO SEPARATE YOU TWO BUTT RUTTERS SO YOU CAN ACTUALLY TRAIN?!"

"*sigh* No" I raise my head back up.

"THAT'S NO SIR!" He smacked me in the back of the legs making me fall over. I attempt to stand back up as he places his hoof on my back pushing me back down. "DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"

"Sir Yes Sir!" He gets off of me and lets me get back up.

"Good, now then FOR THE REST OF YOU MAGGOTS, IF YOU CANNOT GET THROUGH MY TRAINING YOU WILL BE SENT HOME WITH NO MEMORY OF THIS! IF YOU SOMEHOW PASS, WHICH VERY FEW OF YOU ARE EXPECTED TO DO, AND THEN FAIL, YOU SHALL BE KILLED!" He walked back up and down the rows with a small smirk on his face. "IF YOU WORRIED YOU MAY NOT LIVE LEAVE NOW!" After this a small group of ponies left the training area. We looked back to the old stallion "PUSSIES! ALRIGHT FAGGOTS RUN LAPS!" With that we all started to run for the next few hours then he had us all do various workout exercises, some with weights, others with him sitting on our backs or stomachs. We spent the rest of the day doing basically the same routine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One Week Later

I walked into the training grounds about ten minutes late to see a group of unconscious ponies. I raise an eyebrow as I see the old stallion wearing a pair of glasses while watching Hammer and some other pony fighting in the middle of a large circle. He looked over to me then yelled out "CATCHER! YOUR GETTING SENT TO THE NEXT INSTRUCTOR, ESPECIALLY SINCE YOU CAN'T TURN OFF YOUR DAMN POWER!" I nodded and headed into the room that he pointed to. Inside the room is a small group of ponies sitting in a circle meditating and making small balls of energy form between their extended hooves. The instructor walks around the circle starring at all of them then sees me. She is a light brown pony with a blonde mane and tail wearing a pair of glasses. She had a cutie mark of a black and white circle with a small white circle in the black part and a small black circle in the white part.

She got close to me and spoke softly "Hi, you must be Damian, my name is Patience, right now everyone is focusing on energy control so they make manipulate it later." I nodded slightly

"I see that, Max had me do a lot of that while I was in Detrot."

"I heard, we normally hear stories of titulari having the dead of their kind teach them."

"Well I didn't get much of a choice he kinda forced himself into my life ever since I can remember."

"He probably showed up when you were young so he could protect you from various demons, soul eaters, and spirits."

"Oh... never thought about that." She had a small smile on her face and nodded slightly.

"Well come back here tomorrow we'll be making weapons."

"Alright, thanks Patience." I left the room and training grounds then headed for my room. I opened the room then immediately collapsed on my bed and passed out.

I found myself back in that torture room that I had dreamed about before, but this time on one of the metal hooks was CC's head. The spike jutted out of her forehead and her eyes seemed to follow me around the room. Why am I back in this nightmare? My body moved towards the table to find Hammer tied down to it. Next to the table was a small metal tray on wheels with various knives and saws on it. I picked up a scalpel then ran it's blade down Hammer's stomach and chest causing him to scream out in pain. I set the scalpel down then pulled open and stretched out his wound, tearing his flesh in the process. Hammer just kept screaming and screaming as he wriggled around trying to break free. With each scream more blood poured from his body. I reached inside him and pulled out his organs letting them then hang from his sides. Once I came across his heart I pulled it out and watched it beat in my hooves. It stopped quickly as I then pushed it into Hammer's mouth and down his throat.I jolted awake in a cold sweat. I looked around to see I was in my room so I checked the clock, six a.m. I got up and went to the bathroom and took care of business. I left my room and shook my head trying to get that nightmare out. Seriously, why am I have such messed up dreams lately? Maybe it was something I ate. I headed to the training grounds then into the meditation room to find Patience there meditating.

"Hello Damian, class doesn't start for another hour."

"Yea, I know, just couldn't sleep so I thought I might get some meditation in."

"It's good to see a young pupil who understands the importance of having ones mind and soul be at peace." She said as she smiled.

"You say that as if your some old pony" I gave a small chuckle and took a seat next to her then began to mediate.

"Well I am thirty two."

"You don't look a day over nineteen Patience."

"That's very sweet of you Damian, but I'm not going to give you any special treatment for it."

"Damn and here I thought by being nice I could just skip all this training." We both laughed slightly then went back to meditating. As we continued for the rest of the hour a few ponies came into the room and joined us. Once the room was filled with all the ponies from yesterday Patience got up and cleared her throat.

"Alright class, today we are going to learn how to turn our spiritual essence into weapons. Now as you might imagine this is going to be building on what we have been doing for the past week. So to start you need to focus your energy out and into your hand like so" She raised her hoof to show a light blue glowing ball in her hand. "Then you take it and stretch it out and feed your energy into it. Once done it will turn into the weapon best suited for you." She stretched out her ball and it turned into a rapier. She then pointed the thing blade at me and smiled "Your turn Damian."

"Alright" I took a deep breath as everyone stared at me. I stood up and made a ball of energy form in between my hooves then stretched it out while feeding energy into it. I grasped the handle and found it to be a longsword. I smiled and stared at it while turning it in my hand. It was just a transparent light blue sword. "I was always fond of the look of swords over other blades."

"Well that's good looks like from today on Swift Blade is going to be teaching you from today on. Now everyone else try and make your weapon form. Come with me Damian." I nodded and followed her out of the room. "I'm going to send you to Swift early. I'm going to be holding the rest of the class for the next few weeks that way they can get more accustomed to bringing out their spiritual power and using it, you seem to have a natural grasp for it."

"Ok" I followed her through the training grounds to a room with various logs a few hanging, and some dummies holding swords and shields. There was the pony who knocked me out the first day I woke up here. He looked at me then raised his eyebrow.

"So your weapon is a sword?" I nodded as he stared me down. "Show me" I stood up and made the sword appear in my hoof. Just as it appeared he lunged at me with a sword in his hooves. I was barely able to move my blade in the way of his making me stumble and fall on my back. He placed the tip of his blade at my throat. "Are you prepared to die?"

"I am prepared, but not willing" I smacked his sword away with mine making his cut up my neck and chin. I jumped up and charged at him swinging my sword down towards his head. He blocked my attack and smiled at me.

"Alright, I'll train you, Patience, take him to the infirmary to get him fixed up." I followed her off as I continued to bleed. I began to feel dizzy and fell over blacking out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two weeks Later

My training has been going well so far, Swift has taught me a lot. I'm now one of the best swordsmen in all of Statera. That first day with Swift has left a scar on my neck and chin, but just the other day I was able to repay him with one just over his eye. I walked into his training room when all of a sudden I was hit in the back of the head and I blacked out. I woke up later finding myself in a dimly light room while tied to a chair. An ogre stepped into view. He was tall, at least eight feet. His body was green and seemed slimey, he also had a short lizard-esk tail. He had a small piece or armor on each of his upper arms and then around his wrists. He had a piece of chain mail over his chest while holding a rather large metal hammer in both hands.

"Welcome small one" He smirked at me revealing yellow cracked and jagged teeth. His voice was very deep and had a thick accent to it.

"Who the hell said I was small?" He swung the back of his hand at me smacking me across the face.

"Your pony, thus you small"

"Ow, why did you smack me?" He punched me square in the face causing my nose to bleed."BUCK!" He punched me in the stomach knocking the wind out of me. I gasped for air as he smirked and swung his hammer at me hitting me in the side of the head with a loud crack. Then everything went black. Water splashed on my face waking me up. My entire body was sore and my head was throbbing. I could feel the bruises and cuts left from his blows. My left eye was swollen making it hard to see, I looked down to see that he had pounded on the rest of my body while I was out. I was covered in bruises and bleeding slightly from various places. I looked up to see him smiling at me again. He held his hammer in his hand proudly.

"Looks like Bertha put you out for while small one. She always do me proud. Now prepare for this one have power to it." He took a readied stance and began to make his hammer glow with a light blue tint. Awww buck, he can empower his stuff, this is really gonna hurt. He swung it at me nailing me right in the stomach. My eyes bulged out of my head as I coughed up blood while trying to scream out in pain but couldn't. The little vision I had went fuzzy as he stared at me with a smile then continued his onslaught. "PONY!" I jolted awake still tied down to the chair. My eye was still swollen as I looked to see him holding a pair of hoof cuffs. "Today is fun day, today Vlad get toys." What the hell does he mean by toys? He swung the handcuffs and caught me across my face. They left a rather large bruise on my already swollen head. He brought it back around to hit me in the jaw. He began to laugh as he picked up a wooden stool and broke it over my shoulder knocking it out of its socket. I screamed out in pain only to make him laugh a bit more. "Sorry small one, let me fix that." He shoved it back into the socket making me scream out more. He slapped me across the face a few times to see if I was awake. I tried to move my head away from him which made him chuckle. He picked up a small knife then began cutting the swollen parts of my body. They began to bleed profusely as he started to slap parts of my face with the blade. He caught me above my eye that I could still see out of causing me to keep my eye closed. He continued to beat me with very objects for the next few hours. This treatment continued for what felt like the next few days. I awoke to find myself in a hospital gown and in a hospital room. I tried to move my legs but found I was still tied down. I tried to force my way out of the bindings but was too weak.

"Calm down or else they'll have to knock your out with a shot." I turned my head to see CC in the doorway.

"Why the hell did they knock me out and torture me?" She wouldn't look directly at me and held her head fairly low.

"It's part of entering Statera, every member had to do it, including me and Patches." I sighed and looked down relaxing back onto the bed. "Just rest and wait for Hammer to have his share, once he recovers you both will start being assigned missions."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two Weeks Later

I stood in Bonzu's office with CC waiting for Hammer to show up so we could be assigned our mission. Hammer walked into the office with bruises across all his body. "Hey, how did it go?"

"He decided to go a little easy on me since I was training with him, I got my cutie mark now since I found out I use hammers, but you'll have to wait for the bruises to fade."

"That's awesome, can't wait to see what it looks like."

"Its probably like mine just with a Hammer in front. Now let's get started." Bonzu commented and moved around some papers on his desk. "First off, CC, your being moved from alpha group to theirs as punishment for allowing the two of them to hospitalize those trainees."

"Awww, but that imp got loose in sector..." CC lowered her ears while frowning.

"I don't care, they took out twenty ponys, besides they need an old hand to show them the ropes. Also Patches will be helping you out." She perked up a bit at that. "Now the second matter is getting Damian and Hammer out of here, don't worry it'll be quick and CC will inform you on the mission while your in route."

"What do you mean she'll...." I was stopped short as something hit me in the back of the head knocking me out.

Author's note: Damn I took far too long with this chapter. I blame anime expo and comic con. Well shit is finally started so hopefully I'll be faster. Shout out to atomiczoo for having Damian get beat with hoof cuffs. With that May the Cheese be with you!

Chapter 6: First Mission

I awoke to find myself in a grey jacket with a saddle bag on my back along with my satchel, why am I clothed? I looked around to see that I was on a train with CC sitting across from me and Hammer next to me in our own private room in the train. Hammer is sprawled out over his half of the bench,snoring lightly as he sleeps as CC is laying with her legs tucked under her. I rubbed the back of my head while staring at CC.

"Why did they knock me out?" I ask as I remove the jacket, laying it on Hammer as he sleeps.

"Your still new so you can't be shown the location of HQ yet."

"Well that sucks, how long till I get to know?"

"Probably after you've proven yourself to the society or wait long enough."

"Okay.... that kinda sucks, well whats the mission?"

"Shouldn't we wait for Hammer?" She asks as she brushes her mane out of her face with her wing.

"Nah, his backpack will probably fill him in on it."

"Okay... well, anyways, it seems a demon is running around with an artifact that has the ability to freeze anything it's aimed at."

"Aimed at? like a bow?" I ask as I raise an eyebrow.

"Kinda, more like a beam of magic."

"Okay, an artifact can be imbued with spiritual power?"

"Yea, there are a lot of weapons from lore that exist and practical magic is not the reason behind them." CC explains as she looks out the window, not really caring about the subject.

"Alright, little odd but makes sense I guess, so where's Patches?" I ask as I look for him.

"He's in a storage car in case he explodes."

"Will everypony else be okay?" I ask nervously as I glance around. I suddenly don't feel so safe in here.

"We have made sure he is all the way in the back in his own car and you can actually walk about three cars ahead and find no pony."

"Oh alright, where is the demon?"

"The last town he was terrorizing was Leafton, our information tells us that some of the residents survived and are hiding, so part of our mission is to rescue the citizens."

"OK.... aren't we supposed to be like some kind of huge secret and people aren't supposed to know about us?"

"Well yea, that's why we need to be fast, plus I know you had stealth training for a reason." She says flatly as she shoots me a look.

"Yea, but that covers only so much, how the hell are we supposed to keep what attacked these people a secret?"

"After we move them, we tell them it was a tornado."

"Why the hell would they believe that?"

"Ever had that feeling of deja vu?" She asks as she gives me a smug look.

"Well yea, but what does that.."

"That would be Statera, we have a very old spell that is able to replace portions of a pony's memory." She says matter of factly.

"So your telling me our group is known for erasing pony's minds?"

"Damian don't look at it that way."

"How can I not?!" I stood up looking her in the eyes. "How can you expect me to just allow the society to run around messing with pony's minds?"

"BECAUSE IT"S BETTER THEN THE ALTERNATIVE!" She stood up making me sit back down. "It is far better then letting innocent defenseless ponies find out about the horror that plagues our planet. Would you want every pony in every town huddled in their homes due to fear of things that they can not see?"

"... I didn't think of that..."

"I know you didn't, just try to remember the big picture before you mouth off Statera Damian." She sat back down and gave a sigh of relief. "You should rest up, we have about a week's trip to Leafton." I sighed and relaxed back into my seat. She is right, I might as well rest up while I can.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One Week Later

I stretched out across my seat waking up. I looked across to see CC in the seat next to me. She was still asleep, laying across the seat. Her wings covered her like a blanket, wrapping around her body tightly. *Sigh* I wish I could get close to her. That reminds me, I turn my head to see Hammer in the seat across the aisle from me. I get up and punch him in the shoulder. Hammer jolts awake "What was that for?"

"Fix it, tell her I'm straight." I say as I poke his ribs.

"Eh, I'll do it later, I'm tired." He says as he swats my hoof away and gets comfortable on the bench. I sighed and punched him in the leg. "What?"

"Fix. Now." He leaned over to look at her then sighed looking up at me.

"But she's asleep." He whines as he rolls over.

"I don't care fix it." I say as I continue to poke him.

"But... *sigh* you're not going to stop pestering me are you?"

"Nope, now fix it. NOW." I say firmly as I glare at him.

"Fiiiiine. Just let me go bathroom first."He says as he gets up and starts to leave. As he began to walk towards the restroom the train came to a stop, causing Hammer to roll down the hall until he hit the door. "Ow, that suuuucked, why didn't they warn us they were going to stop?" He yells from down the hall.

I point my hoof at Hammer with a small smirk on my face "Karma bitch!" I yell, waking CC up. DAW! Cute sleepy face! DAH, MEUM COR!

"Hey Damian, we there yet?" She asks sleepily as she stretches out.l

"Yeah, the train just stopped."

"Alright, lets grab Patches and go."

"OK, by the way, how did we get a train to go to Leafton if it was destroyed for the most part?"

"We didn't, we just took a train to a station a few hours outside of Leafton."

"Oh, ok, Hammer go get Patches, I'll be outside with our luggage." Hammer nods and gets up heading to the back of the train. I picked up everyone's stuff and got off. I set our stuff down next to me and stared up at the sky while taking in a deep breath. Ahhh, it feels good to be outside again. I looked to the sun to see it was about five, or at least I think it was five, I spent far too long in that compound. I noticed some black smoke rise in the distance, I followed the trail to see it wasn't that far off. CC got off the train and stood next to me while picking up her stuff.

"That would be Leafton, you best prepare yourself for seeing the worst. Demons are rarely kind, and those that are tend to be the ones who only kill."

"Only kill?" I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Let's just say you don't want to watch a cult of ponies that worship a pain demon summon one. They like to drag out their victims torment. They feed off of the pain people experience and gain power from it."

"That's horrible, we can't allow that to happen to any pony."

"That's why we exist Damian. It's why we do what we do." She walked up beside me and rubbed my back to help comfort me. I sighed, relaxing a bit until Patches and Hammer walked off the train and picked their stuff up. Everypony checked their gear then we started to head off towards Leafton. As we got closer to the town the cloud of smoke got larger. After a few hours we walked up a hill where we were able to see the town from. Most of the buildings were either destroyed or had giant holes in them. A few of the buildings are on fire but there's something really odd about it all. There were giant spikes of ice sticking out of the ground and buildings.

"CC, why are there icicles?" I point out to the large piles of ice.

"The artifact shoots out ice in various forms. It's been noted that some ponies have even gotten it to shoot ice in the shape of objects."

"Oh, that would have been nice to know so I could have prepared for that when I packed" I stare at her a little annoyed.

"Damian, we didn't pack" Hammer chimes in.

"..... Who's side are you on?"

"Backpack's" He says with a smile on his face.

"*Sigh* whatever, lets just go and find the guy that did this." We moved quickly down the hill staying low hoping the demon isn't expecting us. We heard some dark laughter so we decided to sneak behind a house to get a good look. I leaned my head out to look. There was this figure with small spikes along its form. It was bipedal with an all black figure that had spikes along it. It had two large lumps where I assume it's chest is, and its face curved upwards ending in large curved horns. The face of it had a small nose and mouth that show dagger like teeth. It had hair coming out of the horns that was a dark red. It's arms went down to about it's waist that then turned into claws. Just above one of the claws was a silver bracelet that seemed to be having frost falling from it. I tilted my head and raised an eyebrow and whispered out "Is that what a small demon looks like? And whats with the lumps?"

CC sighed quietly "That's a lesser demon Damian, and those are her breasts" she said in a hushed tone.

I turned to her slightly confused "There are female demons?"

Thwack

I mouthed ow while staring at her "The hell?"

"Everything has gender's Damian, spirits, angels, demons, especially demons and we are lucky she's not a succubus or else Patches would be out of this fight."

"Ok, two things, whats a succubus, and why would he be out of this fight?"

"Well a succubus is a demon temptress, basically she seduces men then steals their soul during intercourse. And they only go after straight men, and lesbian women, so she'd work her magic on Patches and he wouldn't be able to resist it."

"Well if that's the case then I would be useless in the fight too."

"No if it was an Incubus then yes, because those are the ones that go after women and gay men."

"CC I'm not g"

KRA-BOOM!

My sentence was interrupted by the house we were hiding behind exploding. We jumped around to face the demon, she was smirking at us while pointing the bracelet at us. "You Statera should know that if your going to sneak up on someone, especially a demon you do it quietly."

"Well there goes the element of surprise, thanks Damian." Patches says as he glares the demon down.

"Wait how is this my fault?"

CC smacked me upside the head again "You were the one that had to ask question, now take your stances as if your not newbies and have had proper training." She says as she read up and made her bow appear and lowered her goggles over her eyes. Hammer did the same only making a very large hammer appear in his hooves. I looked to patches who just put a monocle over his eye.... seriously? He's going to get all fancy on us for a fight?

"DAMIAN MOVE!" CC yelled out as she tackled me to the side. The demon had shot a beam of ice straight at me while I was distracted. It flew past me and exploded against the hill sending ice shads everywhere. "Stop being distracted, I will not save you a second time today!" I nod at her and get up then make my sword appear before me.

"HAMMER! GO HIGH!" I yell out as I begin to run towards her focusing my energy into my body so I can move faster. As I get closer to her she shoots a beam after beam at me, so I dodge to my left then right. Once I get about two yards from her I jump high into the air. She looks up at me then looks around trying to find Hammer. Her eyes widened as she got hit in the stomach with an arrow from CC. She looked down just in time to see Hammer get up to her and smack her up into the air towards me. I slashed down at her cutting her from shoulder to hip. I then kicked her down towards Patches who jumped on top of her as soon as she hit the floor. I landed with a roll to get away from patches as he exploded himself on her trying to focus his blast downward. Once he pulled himself back together I walked up to the now small smoldering crater to see the bracelet with a pile of ashes around it. "Patches, remind me to never let you sit on me.... or near me, that's scary dude."

"It only looks that bad because she was a lesser demon, the only reason she did this much damage was because of the bracelet." He picked it up, but as soon as it was in his hoof it attached itself to him. CC walked up and hit him upside the head causing one of his eyes to pop out... ewwwwwwww.

"You idiot, it binds on contact, now it will never come off."

"You say that now but you forget who I am CC" Hammer sticks his leg out and blows it apart around the bracelet. His arm comes back together with the bracelet still attached. ".... seriously?"

"It's a cursed object idiot, it stays till death, think of it like your first form of marriage."

"Awww I wanted to have it, ice powers are awesome." Hammer says as he walks up to us.

"Part of the mission was for us to bring it back without it getting attached to us, the boss isn't going to be happy about this."

"I'm sure he'll be fine" Hammer said with a small smile.

"Your only saying that because he is your older brother, he still has to view this as a partially failed mission so someone is going to be punished."

"Well that sucks" I said while looking to Hammer "By the way, since when did you get buff enough to knock someone that high? I was just expecting you to hit her over or something like that, not send her flying."

"Vlad, it was part of his training, he made me buffer then most members due to his special work out."

"Cool, after spending my time with that prick I don't think I even want to sign up for it."

"Don't hate too much man, he was just doing his job, yea he enjoys it too much but it's still his job." I shrugged at him.

"Well let's try to find the survivor's and take them over the hill, by the way boys, be nice." We all nod to her then the three of them begin to walk off into various buildings calling out to anypony still alive. I looked back down to the ash pile and stared at it for a second or two.

Bitch was fucking weak, she deserved to die

The hell was that? I looked around to see the empty town. That was weird.... I better not be going insane, I swear if I do before we get CC to know I'm not gay I'm going to kick Hammer's flank from here to the pit. I entered the closest house to me and started calling out like the others.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two hours later

Well we were able to gather about twenty ponies outside of town. CC and Hammer were both able to calm them all down and focus on CC. She smiled softly at everypony and spoke gently "Now if you all could focus on me I will begin to help explain everything that just happened." She rose her hoof and made a fairly large ball of energy appear and begin to float up into the air above her. Once it reached about three feet above everypony it shot out small darts that hit them all. Their pupils got large then went back to normal as they looked around in confusion. "Hello mares and stallions of Leafton, I am sorry to inform you a wild tornado ran through your town destroying it. We are very sorry for your loss and will pay for your passage to your new homes, along with the shipping of your possessions, now if you will kindly follow me to the train station you can be on your way." She turned around and we began to lead them back to the train station. During the walk back plenty of ponies began to figure out who was lost and many of them just swore at CC for not doing her job as a pegasus. I glared at a few of the stallions that did it getting them to tighten their lips. Once we got to the station the entire town boarded the next train that came shortly after CC gave them instructions on what to do once they reach their destination.

Author's Note: Well sorry for taking so long with this one. I actually wanted to be faster with this but my doc's office took about three month's to prep me for surgery which I then had. Funny thing about recovering from testicular surgery, you don't want to do anything cause sitting hurts like hell. Well regardless May The Cheese be with you!

Chapter 7: The long walk home

I brush my mane back and sigh as the train began to take off. I turned to CC and asked "So what now?" She leaned over stretching out then stretched out her wings showing just how big they actually are.

"Well first we check with our informant to see how this lesser demon got out of hell with out us knowing, and then how it got the Gelu Orbis."

"Is that seriously it's name?" I ask as I give her a blank stare.
"Hey don't look at me!" She protested "I didn't name it."

"Still a lame name" Hammer chimed in. CC's response was to smack us both upside the head. She looked to Patches and gave him a small smile.

"Patches, the blower please." Patches nodded quickly then began digging through his bags until he pulled out a red party blower. Why the hell do we need a party blower?

"Why a party blower?" I tilted my head while raising an eyebrow. "Seriously, aren't we supposed to speak to an informant, not throw a six year old a party." CC smacked me upside the head again.... oww.

"It's more then a normal party blower Damian, sometimes when a demon wants to posses somepony, they do it not by taking over the host body, but by waiting for somepony to use an item they have crafted, and in this case it would be the party blower." She said as she pointed a hoof to the blower now in Patches' mouth. OK.....

"Two things; One aren't things made by demons supposed to be all messed up and evil looking? And two, how is a party blower going to help us?" I raised an eyebrow while asking her.

"Well if you were a demon and wanted to posses ponies without them knowing would you make it obvious?" She tilted her head to the side.

"Well I suppose not."

"Exactly, and this is a special case, the pony that was possessed by this demon impressed it to the point it left his body and let him continue his work with a few demonic abilities. One of them is he is bound to this blower, so we use it to summon him."

She began to walk off with Patches so I began to follow after them. We walked about ten minutes from the train station so nobody was able to see us. CC nodded to patches so he blew the blower. It unraveled and the long strips of confetti at the end wiggled about then it curled up. All of a sudden a pale white earth pony with a long brown hair and a cutie mark of a pony's silhouette on a pole appeared before us, standing up with his gigantic fully erect cock out and blasted a load all over Patches' face.

"OH MY GOD!" Patches screamed out in horror as his face was covered in the white goo, then exploded, sending chunks of himself and this pony's goo everywhere. The pony fell on his back as his member became flaccid.

"That.. was... supposed... to be in." He said in between breathes. He continued to pant as he started to fall asleep.

FWOOSH

"AAAAAaahh!" Hammer screamed out as he got flung by one off CC's wings, landing in a nearby tree while I face hoofed. Figures when we need to call an informant CC knows it'd be some gay pony that comes to jizz on us. I am never going to touch that blower, EVER. As CC tried to calm down and Patches tried to pull himself together. I went over to help Hammer out of the tree but his backpack somehow pushed him out of it as I got there, "Thank you backpack."

"W-well that was interesting." CC said with a large blush on her face. I lowered my head and sighed. "Too bad it happened to Patches though, I bet Damian or Hammer would have enjoyed that more."

THUNK

I fell flat on my face and sighed more.

"Kill me now."

"Not until I get out you pile of shit."

What the hell was that? "No need to be embarrassed Damian" CC said with a small smile on her face as I shot my head up and quickly looked around.

"Did you guys not hear that?" I tilted my head while looking to the three of them, Patches huddled up and shaking. Hammer and CC just stared at me with confused faces.

"Hear what dude?" Hammer rose an eyebrow as he asked.

"Nothing, it must have been my imagination." I said as I stood up looking around again. Seriously what the hell is that? "So what do we do now?" I asked as CC tried to calm herself down while Patches continued to comfort himself. Well I guess those two are useless, maybe Hammer will know. I look to Hammer with a small smile on his face "Do you..... you have no clue what we should do either do you."

"Not one" he said as he shook his head from side to side with the same smile.

"Alright, honesty, good man." I nodded a bit then noticed on the side of Hammer that he had his cutie mark. "Dude! I think your cutie mark is visible now, come on show me."

"Oh hell yeah!" He jumped to the side and struck a pose sticking his hip out at me. His cutie mark was a circle with four ancient looking pillars going around the inside of it while two battle hammers crossed behind it.

"That's pretty cool looking man, wonder why the pillars look so old though..." We both shrugged then bro hoofed.

KLOCK

We turned around to see a surprisingly calm CC, and slightly calmer Patches.

"Well now then, since that's taken care of we can now start heading to our destination. We need to walk to a nearby town and rent a carriage to head back home, it should take about two weeks." While listening to her I got nudged by Hammer and he pointed to something that was sticking out of her bag, it looked like the corner of a magazine.

"That's nice and all but why are you so calm now, and whats that?" I asked as I tried reaching for the corner only to get my hoof smacked away and it pushed further into her bag.

"T-that's none of your concern." She stammered starting to blush, ok that's too damn cute, I have to find out now. Me and Hammer looked at each other then nodded. We looked back to CC and started chanting.

"Gay sex gay sex gay sex gay sex gay sex BUTT RUTTING!"

FWOOSH!

Me and Hammer fell over laughing as her wings stood straight up getting her face to turn bright red. I wiped a tear away from my eye as I looked up to see CC fly off to a nearby cloud and hide whatever it was she was doing.

"Awwwww, I wanted to watch!" I yelled out up to her making me and Hammer laugh a bit harder. We both laugh for a few more minutes then stand back up wiping away tears and getting out our last few chuckles as CC comes down from her cloud looking calmer.

"Do it again and I'll make sure you both don't get to remember the trip back home." She says as she stared Hammer and I down, causing him to jump into my hooves and cling to me. I look at him and raise an eyebrow. He returns the look with an audible squee and smile. I move my hooves apart and drop him on the ground. I begin to follow Patches and CC as they walk off, Hammer quickly catching up to us. We walk for about thirty minutes when we come across a trail that leads into the nearby forest, so we follow it for a few minutes until we come across a fork in the road. In the middle of the path to the left is a minotaur with black fur and red horns.

"Anyone play the fiddle?" He spoke with a very deep and almost ominous voice that made a chill run down my spine.

"N-no" CC stated with a shaky voice,if I didn't know any better I'd swear she was scared. "W-we'll just go this way" She said as she started down the path to the right. As she walked her knees seemed to shake, I hope she's alright. I walked up next to her and rubbed her back with my hoof.

"What's got you so shaken?"

"Don't worry about it Damian, let's just keep going." She continued to look straight ahead while trying to hide her face. Now I'm really worried, what has Statera's best archer this scared? I opened my mouth to speak but stopped when I started hearing music. We all stopped and looked at one another.

"Ok, so I'm not the only one that hears that right?" They all nod at me in response. "Where the hell is that coming from then." Patches walked off towards a bush and pulled it apart to reveal a unicorn holding up a speaker box. His mane is striped with blue and light blue that's about shoulder length and is scruffy. He has an all black coat with neon red eyes and his cutie mark is that of the speaker box. He gave us all a big grin then ran down the path still holding the speaker box up with his hooves as the music blasted from it. We looked to one another then started chasing after him. He runs really fast for carrying that thing and being on his hind legs. As we started chasing he changed the music.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One hour later

I fall over while panting,"How... does he... run... so fast?" I fall to my side and lay there panting loudly. Seriously we just ran full speed for an hour straight and he kept ahead of us the whole time while only on two hooves. Everyone collapsed around me nodding and breathing heavily.

"I think... we should... rest.... for a while." CC says between breathes. Everypony nods in response except for Hammer who starts snoring. I crawl closer to CC to lay my head just beside her wing. As I close my eyes I see a small smile cross CC's face which brings one to mine. Sleep came quickly to me.

"Damian..." I found myself in a open field laying next to CC, we were huddled together and I had my arm around her.

"What was on your mind?" Well this is blatantly a dream, might as well enjoy it.

"Just this." I said as I kissed her with a smile on my face. She happily returned the kiss then playfully nibbled my lower lip. I smirked slightly as my cheeks turned red. I leaned over and gently bit her neck making her blush and moan softly. Suddenly I bit down hard, causing her to bleed into my mouth. I felt her warm blood run across my tongue putting a salty yet metallic taste in my mouth. She started to scream out in pain and tried pushing me away.

"DAMIAN! Sto-" She tried to finish as she began to choke on her own blood. She continued to fight me until I ripped a large chunk of her neck off with my teeth. I chewed and swallowed the chunk of flesh then began to eat the rest of her body as her eyes stared at me in fear.

I jumped up covered in a cold sweat. I looked around to see the sun had set and that everypony was still asleep. I sighed to myself trying to calm down and decided to meditate. As I meditated I noticed a very dark and very powerful energy within me. It must be that demon CC told me about, what was his name again Molestia?

"It's Strages you fucking idiot!"

What the hell, so you can hear my thoughts?

"No shit Sherlock, I'm kinda stuck inside you."

Who's Sherlock?

".... fucking ponies."

Fine be that way, I just will ignore you then.

"....."

You suck.

"Fuck you."

Screw this I'm going back to my meditation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

4 hours later

After everypony finally woke up we had a quick bite to eat and continued down the path to the nearby town. We entered the city of Roam and went to the nearest carriage station. CC talked her way into getting us a cheap carriage that would take us to just past Canterlot. We piled into your standard brown carriage with wooden seats. We gave the driver specific instructions to be able to pull over on the drop of a hat, of course we neglected to inform him it was so Patches could explode without destroying his cart.... that would have been an interesting conversation had CC not used the spell every time he exploded. Most of the trip was spent in silence, no pony seemed upset they all just wanted to enjoy the silence. After about of a week's worth of travel we all got out of the carriage and did some stretches.

"Damian, Hammer, look at that." CC said as she pointed to something with a slight sound of disbelief in her voice.

CRACK

Chapter 8: Inspirations

I awoke to find myself in my bed with a blue coat on. Ok, seriously, why the clothes? I get out of bed and take it off as I look to the clock to see that it's noon. I stretch out then a bit before doing a few sets of sit ups and push ups. After about thirty minutes, I get up and wipe myself off with a towel. I toss the towel aside as I was about to leave, but stop to see something at the bottom of my door. A box with a paper base that has a bow on top. I open the box and... OH MY GOD! Two chocolate covered strawberries, I love strawberries, this is awesome! I quickly pick up and savor the delectable treats. I toss the box into the trash and walk down the hallway, savoring my treats with a smile on my face. As I continued to walk down the hall, I begin to hear the beat of some strange music.

I woke up this morning with a bad hangover

And my penis was missing again.

This happens all the time.

It's detachable.

Detachable Penis.

What the hell? I stop and look into the room where the music was coming from to see a light brown stallion earth pony, with a green mane and tail, sitting there, listening to his music.

"Hey, what pony made this song? It's hilarious." He looked up at me and raised an eyebrow.

"Pony? Dude this is made by a prepurgian band." My face scrunched up slightly as I looked around trying to figure out what the purge was..... screw it I got no clue.

"Cool, whats the purge?"

"Seriously? How fresh are you man?"

"I just completed my first mission." I say with a weak smile.

"Oh that's right, your that special newbie, whats your name again, Damian right?"

I nod slightly "Yea, what's yours?"

"Fleet Foot, nice to meet ya" He stuck a hoof out so I gave him a bro hoof.

Klock

"So Fleet Foot, what is the purge?"

"Well since I'm feeling lazy, and they always have a class for that here, the basics are it was a giant human war with themselves and then the unfamiliar, which are an alien race."

"Wait wait, Aliens? What happened to the whole we were made in god's image thing going on in the bible."

"Ok, I know you read it and I know you know of humans, and that it was written for humans, especially when there were a whole lot more around then now." He stated rather matter of factly. "But talk to Dusty Scrolls about that later, right now we need to get you educated." He quickly turns me around and pushes me out of his room. He then began to drag me down a few hallways to one of the archive doors. It has a musical note symbol etched above the door. "Alright, now Damian, you are going to go in there and meet a stallion, he will send you on the wildest trip of your life. One of passion and self discovery, one that will connect to your inner being and soul. It will bring forth all your emotions and make you be able to express yourself freely and creatively."

"Ok, cool.... so how high are you right now?" He gives me a blank stare in response then kicked me through the door.

Holy Crap. I can't even see the end of the room. The walls are all lined with shelves completely filled to the brim with vinyl discs of all sizes. Down the hall of music a ways was an all white unicorn with brown dreads and a green, red, and yellow tam on. He was smoking a very large white cigar and had another one held in place with his ear. He had on a pair of shades and headphones while bobbing his head to the music he was making. As I got closer to him, he paused and smiled while looking at me. He floated his cigar of now obviously not tobacco towards me.

"Hey man, want a hit? It's got the Frakenstien shit, the Deer shit, the Green Monster, the Bling, and the Bling Bling."

"Noo, if I were ever to get high, I don't think I would want to be that violently high." I stared at him while shaking my head slowly. He just shrugged in response and took another drag.

"Then why you here bro?" He said after blowing a plume of smoke into the air above us.

"I was told I need to be educated in music." He stopped smoking and gave me a serious stare that made his glasses lower to slightly reveal green blood shot eyes.

"How many prepurgian bands do you know?"

"Uhh... none I guess." His jaw dropped as he stared at me.

He pulled a chair out from behind his mixing board then tossed me in it and began to run me down the hall.

"WE NEED FIFTY CC's OF SOUL STAT!" He yelled out as he ran me to the end of the hall. What the buck is he gonna do to me?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

8 Hours Later

Wooooah pony, I have so much to study. We just spent the past eight hours going over all kinds of music from probably the very beginning... of like... time, to like stuff we make today. The entire time though he kept smoking those cigars, I swear he went through like twelve of them. He also said I should come back at least once a week so I can study more.... pony I hope I can remember that. I gotta tell Hammer about this he woul........ dude I am sooo hungry. I quickly make my way to the mess hall and get in line. As I get up to the front, the lunch mare just stares at me.

"You want like six plates huh?" I nod quickly in response so she just gives me six hay sandwiches. I run to a table and begin to devour the sandwiches as if I were to never eat again. Oh sweet Jesus these are good. As I continued to eat, a dark yellow earth pony with a black mane and tail came up to me and nudged me.

"You Damian?" He asked while starring at me, flaring his nostrils slightly.

"Yeah pony," I started to laugh as I noticed his colors, "are you CC's older brother and found out I'm not gay?" I asked as I continued to laugh and fell over on the bench. He picked me up by the chest and stared in my face.

"Listen here you piece of shit I'm...." His face went from really pissed off to slightly confused. "You're high aren't you."

"What are you talking about dude, I've never done any drugs.... but I am still hungry. We should totally get some snacks." He sighed heavily then tossed me onto the table. As I started to sit up he put a blade to my throat, apparently his weapon of choice is a naginata.

"Now then you demon child pile of trash. If I ever get the sense your loosing control, I will personally see to it that all of Alpha Group rips your souls to shreds."

"I'd like to see the bitch try!"

"Yea what he said." He looked at me in confusion again then looked around the room.

"What?" He sighed then smacked me across the table with the blunt end of his pole. He then stormed out of the room fuming. Wonder what's got him so pissed off. You know, this doesn't really hurt that much. I rub my side slightly as I get up and leave the mess hall. As I walk through the doors, a great idea hits me, I should totally get a guitar and learn how to play it. I head down to the reacquisition chamber as quickly as possible. It took about thirty minutes but I finally made it to the door with a checklist above it.

I walk inside to see the room split in half by a stone wall. In the center of the wall was a single teller's desk like how you would see at a bank. Behind the desk was a zebra mare wearing way too much make up. I walked up to the desk as she filed her hoof, not really paying attention to anything else.

"Hey hey hey, hey," I repeat as I lean against the desk, trying to get her attention.

"Mmm look honey, I'm not gonna give you no pot or munchies, OK?" She lifted her hoof up and swished it around then pointed it up as she spoke with a very Equestrian accent.

"But I don't want to plant anything." I say slightly confused.

"Whatever honey, what are you here for?" She asks as she goes back to filing her hoof.

"I wanna play a.... uh.... why did I come here again?" She stops filing her hoof and gives me an annoyed look.

"Alright normally I wouldn't eve deal with your while your this high, but I'm having a good day so I'mma try to keep it good and spread the love. So I'm gonna hook you up with a guitar and if you don't like it, you can come back when your sobered up and get something else." She began filling out some forms then turned around and handed me a black guitar through the window. OOOOOO it's shiny. I take it and smile at her.

"Thank you, so much."

"Mhmm..." she goes back to filing her hooves as I run to my room with the guitar. I jump onto my bed and set the guitar in my lap. I start to attempt to play a few chords, but... I sound... terrible. I forgot I don't know how to play. I run back to the RC to see the mare working on another hoof.

"I need a how to play guitar book."

"Ok honey." She fills out more papers then gives me a book on how to play guitar.

"Thanks!" I yell out to her as I run to my room with the book.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2 hours later

Huh, who ever thought playing guitar would be this hard, whatever. It's gonna be so worth it. It's gonna make me one sexy bitch. I look to the clock to see it was already ten. Damn, time just flew by today. I should probably go to the meditation part of the gym and at least get an hour in. I set the guitar down in the corner of my room and stretched out, cracking my legs. Ahhhh yea, that felt good. I walked through the halls to the gym, passing by the cafeteria when I saw a brown blur run through the double doors while yelling

"WOOO! MILES IS BACK!" OK, that was weird, whats got him so excited about miles, we've been using that type of measurement for a long time. I shrug it off as I walk in to the meditation chamber, finding Patience meditating alone.

"Hello Damian." She says as a smile crosses her face.

"Gonna get some late night meditation in?"

"Yeah, I've yet to meditate today so I might as well get some in before bed."

I sit down and start to meditate, letting the quiet room fill my head. We sit there for about thirty minutes until Patience gets up to leave the meditation chamber. I kept meditating until I felt that very dark energy inside me again. I wonder what would happen if I used it like how I do souls... hmmm. I reach out towards it and feel myself grasp it in my hooves; it was hot, and burned slightly. I feel it enveloped my body and fill me with power. I open my eyes and look down at my hooves and legs.

"AHHHHHH!!" I scream seeing my legs and hooves are now covered in dark metallic scales that seem to have dried blood on them.

"What the buck?!"

"What the fuck?.... wait did you just seriously say buck?"

Author's Note: Shout out to CrossroadCat for picking the prepurgian song Damian would here, and sorry for taking so long on this one guys, I blame Borderlands 2 and my new job. But as always, may the Cheese be with you!

Chapter 9: Proper Language

I quickly run to the door of the meditation chamber and locked it; accidentally snapping the lock off. "BUCK!"

"Ok, seriously? I'm going to teach you how to speak properly cause this pony shit is getting annoying."

"Buck you Strages, I'm all demonized and your bothered by my speech." I yell back as I begin to pace about.

"I'll admit, I'm slightly shocked as to the fact that this happened. But the way you cuss is so fucking annoying that I have to fix it now if I'm going to stay sane in here."

"Why would I care if you are comfortable?"

"I know your having trouble sleeping lately and trust me child, I could make that a lot worse"

"Please, you wouldn't do that, cause if you did that it would make me ineffective in combat thus getting the both of us killed." I argue, getting a deep chuckle in response.

"Or due to the lack of sleep it would cause you to have no will to resist me and I could control your meat suit all I want."

".... Fuck you"

"That'll do pig, that'll do."

"Fuck you!" I say as I sigh and shake my head. So now I have to curse like a demon or else the nightmares get worse, fantastic.

"I think you mean Fan Fucking tastic."

...... Sure. I sigh as I looked down at my scaly hooves. How am I going to fix this?

"Why would you want to fix this? You are now the most powerful being in Statera. You could do whatever you want, even make that girl you're fond of be yours."

That does sound pretty good, but I won't do it. I may be stuck with you but I will never be like you. As stupid as it sounds, I'm your prison and I'm going to make sure you can never get out and hurt anypony ever again.

"Do you truly believe you can win her over by yourself? She believes you're fond of men and would never find her attractive. And by the looks of it, your friend Hammer could probably beat you in a fight, if he had the mind to."

That may be true, but I know if I spend enough time with her I could show her the true me and she would accept me. Hammer... is a child, he would never do that nor have the mind to. There is no way I would ever take advice from some demon, especially one that's been imprisoned in some.....

"UNFUCK YOURSELF YOU LITTLE SHIT! I am not just some demon! I am Strages, Destruction Incarnate, I alone have ended civilizations and brought platoons of angels to their knees!"

THUD

Suddenly a dark force lifted me up and flung me into the wall, leaving a small crater. I slide down onto my flank, groaning in pain as cracks run out from the crater. I rub the back of my head and feel something wet. I bring my hoof around to see a good amount of blood on it. Hey, my hoof is back to normal, still covered in blood, but it's normal. I stagger up and make my way to the door. I jiggle the knob only to be reminded that I locked it..... fuck.

SMASH

I quickly make my way to the medical wing, leaving the now destroyed door for somepony else. As I walk down the hall I see a brown griffin, a chimp, and a goblin all walking towards me. As I got closer I noticed that each of them have white arm bands on that have a red alpha symbol on it..... oh joy.

"Look, it's the demon shit." The griffin remarked as they all stopped and circled around me. When the hell did Statera get punk ass gangs? "You..."

"Let me guess, you're all going to make some random threat like your pony friend and just say how your gonna kill me if I show signs of the demon breaking free blah blah blah." As they all give me annoyed looks I took this chance to fake myself standing there and just slipped past this griffin.

"How dare you, you disrespectful ingrate! I'm going to break your bucking face!" Shrieked the chimp as he made these two curved blades appear over his knuckles. As he swung the blade threw my illusionary knee I begin to run down the hall, gaining their attention.

"Go eat a fucking banana and calm down you damn dirty ape!" I yell back to them as I continued to run. I laughed slightly until I felt an arrow graze my knee.

"Buck!"

"See, you bucking idiot, this is why my pistols are better." Pistols?

BANG

I felt a small ball of energy fly just over my horn and make a good size hole in the wall in front of me. Well fuck that noise. I turned the corner and ran the rest of the way to the medical wing. After about ten minutes of running I stop in front of the doors with a plus sign above it and caught my breath. Once my breathing was under control I pushed the doors open and stepped inside. Instantly my nostrils become filled with the smell of moss and trees as I stepped onto the dirt floor. I look up to the two large oaks in the back of the room and smile as I approach them.

"Hey guys, sorry to bother you so late, but I need some help." The two trees then began to shake slightly as parts of their roots come out of the ground, revealing their legs. The front of their trunks begin to splinter apart as they stretch their arms out, revealing their faces inside the wood.

"No trouble at all Damian, it is common for our members to come back at night and be wounded. Just lay down and show us where you were injured." I lay down between the trees and tilt my head forward then lift the back of my mane up. "Hmmm, how did you get these Damian? We know your group just recently returned but you have been back for over a day now."

"Uhh... lets just say it's from intensive meditation."

"I see..." The treant places his hands above my head and a small green ball of energy appears. He feeds the energy into the back of my head and slowly starts to close my wounds. He continues this for what feels like forever. Man I wish we could heal faster. "Damian.."

"Yea?"

"There is a very dark presence lingering over your wounds, care to explain?" The treant asks carefully. Well shit.... if I explain what actually happened I'll probably be put to death. On the other hoof I could lie out my ass and see if he believes me.... I got this!

"It was the goblin! He shot me!" I lie with a big smile on my face.

"In the back of the head?"

"Yea, cause he sucks like that."

"Then how are you still alive?"

".... cause I'm awesome"

"Right." He totally bought it. "Well we're all finished here, so why don't you head on back to your room and try to get some rest."

"Don't worry, I plan on it." Best fucking liar ever.

"You are the worst fucking liar I have ever seen."

"Shut the fuck up!" I snap back

"Excuse me?" He raises and eyebrow as he looks down at me. Fuuuuuck, I said that out loud didn't I?

"Yep."

Fuck you, you're not helping.

"Never mind I was talking to... myself."

"I haven't heard that word in a long fucking time" the treant mumbles to his friend before I leave the room.

"You know, you're kinda a fucking bitch. Why didn't you turn and kill those fuckers?" Strages says as I trot down the cold long corridors.

"Dude its fucking late and I'm really fucking tired, so fuck off." I groan back.

"Don't be a fucking cunt, you could have killed them, that's good, it would have made them stop bothering you."

"Killing coworkers doesn't seem like the most optimal thing to me, besides Bonzu would have been fucking pissed." I remark as a historian passes me by giving me an odd look. He then stopped and turned around looking at me in extreme confusion.

"Who says that anymore?"

"Shut up." I stuck my tongue out at him and give him a raspberry. He gasped and stormed off insulted.

"You ponies are so fucking gay." Shut the fuck up. I go down some stairs then round the corner to my get to my room and see those three assholes by the door to my room. The goblin is trying to pick the lock while the fucking monkey and bird keep a look out.

"Hey there he is!" The griffin shouts out as he points at me. "Get him!" I take that as my que to run.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck FUUUUUUCCCKKKK!" I yell as I run down the halls trying to find a place to hide. I turn a corner and check one of the doors to find it unlocked so I run inside and shut the door behind me and lock it. I press myself against the wall next to the door and hear the three of the stop outside the door.

"I think he went this way."

"Well lets go, we can't lose him." I sigh in relief once I hear them run down the hall. I take a moment to look around and see a bunch of posters of seductive males..... griffins, ponies, orcs, a bald tall monkey.....and I think one is either like a landscape with a tree..... or treant porn.

CLICK

"Why is the door locked? I didn't lock it when I left." CC?! Fuck! This is her room... you know seeing all the gay porn I should have figured that, but still! As I hear her fumble with her keys I dash for her bed and slide myself underneath and try to condense myself as much as possible.

She enters the room and walks around mumbling to herself. She moves a little quickly and she seems to be opening drawers then quickly closing them and moving things around a lot. She stops next to the bed and her legs seem to be shaking. Did those fucking pricks stop her and threaten her or something?

I back up and begin to panic as she reaches under the bed trying to find something as a long odd shaped pokey thing presses into my back? I turn a bit to see somewhat impressive pile or porn and dildos. Her toys seem to range from all shapes and design, including different species... I think one of them has barbs... ow? As she continues to reach I quickly grab one and slide it to her hoof. She picks it up, giggling, as she gets on top of her bed.

Her breathing starts to become labored as the bed rocks gently back and forth. I try to keep my breathing quiet while attempting to ignore my growing urges. As she starts to moan I see my hoof begin its descent. NO! Now's not the time! I wrestle my hoof to above my horn as the bed now begins to rock harder.

I feel a tingle on my forehead. Ok, I know what happens when you enter puberty, I saw the slideshow at school, they never mentioned the face, only the lower extremities. I place my hooves over the tingling sensation to find it be my horn. This is... new. Being titulari and not being able to use it I kinda forgot I had one... and now I have..... I have..... I have..... no fucking clue whats going on.

"Ha!"

Shut the fuck up, like you know what's happening.

"I do, and this is going to get fucking hysterical in a moment."

"AHHHhhh!" CC lets out a scream of pleasure as a clear fluid sprays from the top of her bed to the floor, followed shortly by her dildo. It seems to be covered in the same substance and looks rather slimy.

"Here it comes."

Here what comes? Suddenly a scent fills my nostrils and fogs my mind. I feel... as if...

PEW

I bite my lip to keep myself screaming in pain. My horn just fucking shot me! What the fuck!

"Bwahahahahahaha oh dear god that was great, I knew it was gonna happen but ah fuck, that was just too perfect. You fucking idiot!"

Owwwww.... whyyyy? Magic?

Author's Note

Sorry for taking so long everyone I have to blame this partly on new video games and a job at walmart, then the rest is on my lazy ass. I will be trying to pump these out faster but shit doth happen and a few writer's blocks for this chapter didn't help. And if you are wonder, yes, this chapter was kinda an excuse for me to write fuck as much as I fucking wanted. Hope you all had a happy holiday and a fun new year. May the Cheese be with you!

Chapter 10: The Spine

Once CC had woken up and left her room, I sneak into her bathroom to find some gauze to bandage my hooves with. Since when could my horn actually do magic? I never even had a spark come out of my horn before. Whatever, I wrap my hooves up as quickly as possible, trying to get out of here .

"By the way, that was great. Please do let me know the next time you're going to do something like that again."

"Fuck you Strages."

"Damian?"I turn around to see Patches giving me a rather confused look. "Why are you in CC's bathroom, and why are your hooves wrapped up?" Well... shit. Need to think fast.

"I uhmm.. saved a fire from a baby...." Fuck, bad lie.

"You saved a fire... from a baby?" He asks as he raises an eyebrow while tilting his head.

"Yea... the baby was really wet so I needed to save the fire."

"I'm lost, was it a fire spirit or something?" He asked in confusion as I edge past him and out of CC's room.

"Yea, totally, I gotta go." I yell back to him as I run down the hall. I run around somewhat aimlessly as I try to think of where to go. The medical ward was where again? Two stories up then five doors down, make a left and go eight doors.... no, twelve-

"Damian!" Hammer yells out as he pops out from some random room. "Dude! I just found a bass guitar! SLAPPA DA BASS!" He yells as he whips out a bass and gives it some smacks.

"AAAAAH! What the fuck Hammer?!"

"What?" He asks innocently.

"What do you mean what?"

"What's a fuck?"

"Why did you.. I... *sigh*... it means buck."

"Oooohhh.... well did you hear where our mission is taking us?" He asks as he sets the bass on his back.

"No I didn't even know we had a mission."I admit as he begins to walk down the hall. I follow after against my better judgement. He should know where the medical ward is.... maybe.

"Well I did, and it's on The Spine."

"What's got us going all the way out to The Spine?"

"By the sound of it, it seems to be a mountain spirit trying to extend to the mountain range to the east and west of The Spine. Not very smart, seeing how the west is water, but I guess that's why we're going."

"Yeah, I see how that could be a problem. Water spirits tend to get bitchy." I rub my chin with my hoof as I think about.... ow, my hoof. Anyway, it sounds like a really powerful spirit if it can do that. My bag starts to glow, and I can feel a hunger growing inside me. This mountain spirit would make me stronger if I get him.

"Burrito?" Hammer asks as he offers me one. I blink a bit and realize that he brought me to the cafeteria.... when-

"Hey Damian, where have you been?! I went to your room to take you to the mission debriefing and you weren't there." CC says as she walks up behind me and takes a seat.

"Well I was doing stuff...."

"Like?"

"Like saving a fire from a wet baby!" Patches yells as he trots over to us. Oh fuck you Patches.

"Well that does explain the bandages on your hooves," CC says hesitantly.

"Good thing you were here Damian, that baby could have caused a lot of trouble." Hammer says with a dumb smile on his face before chowing down on two food tubes.

"Well anyways, when are we leaving for the mission?" I ask CC as I turn to her .

"Patches and I were thinking we could go now-"

"Does that mean we don't need to be knocked out anymore?!" Hammer and I ask as we jump up and smile.

"Uhh... sure." CC says hesitantly, but me and Hammer don't care. We jump up and hop around the table in joy. No more concussions! No more random clothing! NO MORE BABYSITTING TO LEAVE! "Why don't you two lead the way then."

"We will, cause we are awesome." Hammer and I say together as we lead Patches and CC out of the cafeteria and strut down the hall. We walk through the corridors, up and down stairs, and pass dozens of guards, smiling to each other the whole way. We turn down the final corridor and see the giant stone double doors. The Statera emblems almost shine to us as we-

THWACK

Four Hours Later

I wake up in a carriage next to Hammer sitting across from CC and Patches. My bag is on and surprisingly nothing else, well that's good at least, I'm not clothed again. I look over to CC to see her giggling.

"What's so funny?" I ask as I raise an eyebrow at her.

"*snicker* Nice hat." She says as she leans over to flick the propeller on the beanie I am apparently wearing. Her and Patches burst into laughter that wakes up Hammer. He looks around the cabin, then sees me and starts to laugh as well. I feel burn as a large blush covers my cheeks... why? I open the window to the carriage and throw the beanie out before crossing my fore hooves as I sit back, scowling a little. Everypony else continues to laugh for the next ten minutes until they finally collect themselves.

"Well, now that everypony has calmed down, can I get a better explanation on who we have to stop?"

"Well our sources tell us the spirit's name is Niger Mosa. He was the spirit of a pre-purgian mountain." Patches tells me as he relaxes back into his seat.

"Well the purge happened over four thousand years ago, why is it deciding now to act out?" I ask as I tap on the window while watching the scenery go by. It seems we were traveling fairly quickly through the forest. From this position all I can tell is that it's about mid afternoon.

"As amazing as our information network is we still can't read peoples' minds Damian," CC points out.

I nod then relax back into my seat "I suppose everypony has their limits, even giant powerful organizations that somewhat run the world." I smirk at her slightly as I put my hooves behind my head.

"Hey we do not run the world," she defends. "We just guide it slightly while protecting it." She then smiles pleased, with her answer. We travel for a few more minutes until the carriage comes to a sudden stop. We all get out of the carriage and stretch bit as CC walks over to the carriage driver. "Thanks for bringing us all the way out here Steady Reins," she says with a smile.

A stallion's voice replies to her. "T'was my pleasure CC. Though it may be mah job, I still always enjoy getten Statera members where they need to go."

"Well thanks again, best of luck with your date, Pickles is a good guy, you two should get along fine." Once CC is done talking we start heading off.

"So our driver is gay?" I ask as we begin to walk down a path.

"Yes he is Damian, but you have Hammer and he's going on a date with Pickles tomorrow. Shame on you, asking about another stallion right in front of your boyfriend."

"But I.. we aren't...." I turn to Hammer and start gesturing to him. "Fix it!" His response was a simple apple filled smile as he continued to trot on. I sigh and I hang my head in defeat, for the moment... I hate him so much. We continue to walk in silence for about an hour until we come across a wall.... *looks up* mountain, very big mountain. "Is it just me or is this not supposed to be there?"

"No this mountain range isn't on any map..." CC says cautiously as she stand and readies her bow. Hammer, Patches, and I take our stances and ready our weapons. We slowly move forward as we hear a loud rumbling, followed by a slight earth quake. Without warning the ground suddenly shoots up into the sky.

CC and Hammer begin screaming as we all hold onto the ground for dear life. Once the earth stops moving, I look around and realize we are now as high as the mountain itself. A giant figure made of stone rises up from the tip of the mountain and glares down at us. He's looks to be made of large chunks of earth and is holding a large hammer that seems to be made of earthen spikes. He slings it over his shoulder and smirk's down at us. CC and Hammer put on their goggles as Patches put on his monocle. He stands roughly eight feet tall.

"Salve Statera et grata ad meum novum domum." He says as he wrings his hand on the handle of his hammer. "Quid venistis hic?" His voice was rather loud and deafening, shaking the air along with it.

I stand up straighter and stare him down with my sword drawn. "Ventum est eo rogatum ut reverterentur ad aridam naturam. Vos es destruens bestiae, ostentantes chaos ac inquietat."

He narrows his eyes and takes his hammer into both hands. "Redeunt ad suam naturam terra? Studeo reddere quod ablatum! Cum patriam amisi vobis homines, non aliam te!" He leaps up into the air and comes crashing down between all of us, slamming his hammer onto the ground. Large pillars of stone pop up and throw each of us into the air. CC spin back with a flap of her wings and starts to take shots at him.

Tink Tink Tink

Each of her arrows seems to just bounce or slide off of his stone body. I twisted myself around as I fell through the air to get a better look at the situation. I was still a bit of a way from the ground, so I begin feeding energy into my body to help brace for the impact. This is going to suck so much.

THUD

KABOOM

"Owwwww *groan* that sucked." I stand up to see patches pulling himself back together and Hammer charging at Niger Mosa. He swings and hit him directly in the chest. He just laughs as Hammer stares up at him, confused and dumbfounded. He smacks Hammer away with the back of his hand, sending him flying into a near by fallen tree. I charged at him and begin hacking away with my sword.

Tink Tink Tink Tink

Each of my hits seemed to just slightly chip away at his earthen armor. He chuckles some more as he looks down at me. He knees me in the stomach and drops me to my knees. I look up to him as he swings his hammer like a golf club, sending me flying down the mountain.

"Damian!" CC yells as I hit the ground and bounce slightly. I slide against the ground until I hit a log that stabs me in the back with an extended branch. I cry out in pain as I pull the branch out of my back.

KABOOM

Tink Tink Tink

THWACK

KRABOOM

I hear everypony fighting, and losing. We can't beat him, I don't think even Patches is able to hurt him. What do I do?

"Give in, use my power to crush your foe."

I can't do that, if I give in to you you'll probably kill all my friends and just run wild.

"Aaaah!" CC screams out in pain as a spike made from earth shot out of the ground and went through her leg, then nicked her wing causing her to fall to the ground and crash. I hold my breath as I watch her fall to the ground, wincing when she slams into the hard floor.

Fine.

"Excuse me?"

Give it to me! Just whatever the catch may be, make sure I don't hurt any of them. Strages chuckles at this.

"It's not up to me."

I reach deep within myself and grasp the dark energy."AHHHHHH!" I scream out in pain as I can feel my body writhing and convulsing. I look over my body and see my skin bulge as dark, bloody metallic scales burst through. Four claws push through my fore hooves and start to wiggle around a bit. I feel my teeth sharpen as they graze my tongue. Why the fuck did I not feel this before?!

"I made sure you wouldn't feel the change that time. I figured you would never attempt to change in a fight if you knew what it felt like.

"Graaah! FUCK YOU!" As I shout I can hear what sounds like Strages yell with me. Every pony stops to stare at me. Even Niger Mosa stops to stare at me as he holds Hammer in the air, both of their mouths hunging agape.

"Quia cum potuit convertere Statera mannis in daemones?"

"Damian?" CC says nervously as she backs away from me. It pains me to hear that kind of fear in her voice, especially when it's because of me, but I need to do this. I need to protect my friends and make sure they make it out alive. I summon my sword only to find two black curved blades spawn in my hooves. For every step I take toward CC and Patches, they took two back.

I dash at Niger Mosa and slashed him across the chest. His stone chest cracks deeply, giving way easily beneath my power.

"AHHH!" He screamed in pain as he lets go of Hammer. I slam the handle of my other sword down onto his shoulder, separating the two chunks of stone from one another, forcing him to drop his weapon. I smiled as I let go of my left sword and grabbed his face with my hoof, the claws digging into his head.

"That's it Damian, show them all your new power and destroy him."

I hold the spirit there for a moment as I try to clear my head. Killing him would be easy. The others are already scared of me, why not? The way CC looked at me... no! I can't give in like that. They were scared, but noponies ever seen this before.

"Immo! Dimitte ergo me, ut dimittas me!" The spirit yells as I hold my hoof out and let the green energy begin to build. I glance over to my arm and blink a few times when red lines form around my hoof. They wisp away from my.... fingers and fade away with the green energy, sometimes making strange text. The spirit lets out one last yell as he quickly begins to glow green. Once his whole body is a bright green, my bag sucks him up, adding him to my powers.

"Heh.... hehe, I got-"

THUNK

I recoil back as one of CC's arrows buries itself into my shoulder. I look over to her and blink as she holds her bow to me.

"CC..."

"St-stay back demon."

Author's Note

Sorry, stuff happened and I got lazy. Here's a chapter. This is totally not TB right now.