Chapter 2
I'm Back

(Third Person POV)

Over the one thousand years the devil hunter spent inside stone, the entire kingdom moved the capital of Canterlot to the side of the highest mountain. The old castle was not repaired from the fall of Nightmare Moon. The roof of the throne room is still missing and many heavily damaged parts of the castle was worn away and covered in overgrowth of the forest that sprang up around the former capital known as the Everfree Forest. This is the longest day of the year and according to the legend, one thousand years on the longest day; the summer sun celebration where the stars will aid the mare in the moon’s escape.

With Celestia’s disappearance, there was one unicorn who knew that Nightmare Moon will return. Her name is Twilight Sparkle who is the Alicorn ruler’s apprentice. Along with five other mares, they make their way to the center of the forest and through many dangerous obstacles to the former capital. Each obstacle pertained to each of the mare’s personalities and talents and luckily they made it to the castle in one piece.

The six mares made it to the old throne room and see a statue surrounded by the Elements of Harmony. They marveled at both the old broken castle and the statue. “Woah, look at that” the mare with the rainbow mane stood in awe. The sixth element is held in the hands of the statue depicted by a stallion on his knees, holding the element close to his chest. It looked like he wore a trenchcoat, pants, and boots. The long hair blocked his face. The cream colored mare eeped when she saw the sword impaled through his chest. “It looks like it's a statue to show that stallion who gave his life to keep the elements from Nightmare Moon” the lavender unicorn evaluated the grotesque statue.

“Even so, those must be the elements we’ve been looking fer” the blond-maned mare with a brown stetson hat and southern accent pointed out. The mares crowded around the statue, picking up the heavy stones that represented the elements. They placed the elements close to the lavender unicorn in a pentagon shape. The rainbow-maned tried to pull the sixth element from the hands of the statue. “Rainbow, what are you doing?” the purple-maned unicorn with an English accent spoke. “I’m trying to pry this rock from this statue’s hands, but nothing’s working!” she whined. “Now that’s odd” Twilight scratched her chin in confusion “That element must be just part of the statue, but according to the old legend, when the five elements are together, a spark will cause the sixth element to be revealed.”

A dark blue and purple mist slipped through the opening of the castle and snuck around the mares and to the elements, snatching them away and materializing into the infamous Nightmare Moon.

Nightmare Moon (Tabitha St. Germain)

All six were shocked to see the demonic mare right in front of them. Her fur is black, she has teal eyes with pupils that resemble a snake’s. She wears a black dress that is knee length covered in dark blue armor. As her boots and gauntlets, they are black and white with a lion design. Those boots and gauntlets are Beowulf, one of the legendary devil arms. The sword in her right hand is large, the hilt of the blade is shaped like a bone and in the center looked like a ribcage and a skull whose jaw is open with red eyes. the two bones on the sides of the center extended out to resemble a handguard. The blade goes thin halfway up and gets thicker at the top. Nightmare’s horn glowed, levitating the elements in the air close to her and with one swing of the sword, the stones shattered into pieces while letting out a fit of maniacal laughter. “You little foals, thinking you can outsmart me?” she boasted “Without your princess and your precious elements, the night will last...FOREVER!”

The sound of rock crumbling broke her out of her fit of laughter and caught the attention of the rest of the mares. “LOOK!” the pink poofy-haired pony pointed to the statue. The element on the statue’s hands, shattered and cracks formed at the hands, spreading throughout its body. Glows of yellow light shined through the cracks. “No” the mare in the moon deadpanned “It can’t be. He should’ve died a thousand years ago!” This worried the group of mares, not only Nightmare Moon is afraid of whatever is breaking out of that statue, but he must be worse than the mare in the moon. The pieces of stone flaked off of whoever is trapped in the stone, the trenchcoat turned red, revealing strange devices in two satchels on the lower part of the trenchcoat. Half of the right sleeve seemed to be cut off and the stallion in stone wearing dark grey gloves. He had pale skin and a white mane. When all of the stone on his body broke off, his arms fell to his sides and he fell to the floor. He caught himself with both the handle of the sword through his chest and his hands. He shakily pushed himself to his feet and placed his hands on the sword, pulling it out like a splinter, blood pouring out onto the floor. He threw the blade of the sword down onto the floor, the hilt sticking straight up and lifted his head up to look at what’s in front of him.

“It’s you, the Son of Sparda...Dante” Nightmare deadpanned.

Dante (Reuben Langdon)

He observed her figure with his sapphire blue eyes and smirked at the demonic mare. “Nightmare Moon, it’s been a long time” he spoke “I knew the first thing I would see would be you. It’s been a thousand years since we last danced; where does the time go?”

“I missed you almost as much as I missed Equestria.”

“I see you took good care of Rebellion and Beowulf. Now be a good princess and give those back; they DID originally belong to me, of course.”

“And give up the one thing that trumps even Celestia? You the Son of Sparda should go back to hell! If you interfere, I won't hesitate to kill both you and the element bearers.”

He danced in place and threw a few punches in the air, “Fine; have it your way. Time to party!” he looked towards the six frightened mares “You fine ladies should find a place to hide; this could get a little messy.” They all nodded and ran out of the exit to the room.

Mission 1-Rematch of the Duel Devils
Deja Vu is the word of the day

(Boss 1-Nightmare Moon)

The mare in the moon dashed towards the demon hunter to try to slash him to pieces, but in a flash, he tore Force Edge out of the ground to block the attack, sending sparks flying in all places of the room. The impact slightly threw him off balance, catching himself by his left arm on one of the pillars “Looks like my little nap made me rusty” he quipped. They kept throwing attacks at each other and each one being parried and blocked. Dante was whooping and hollering, he was enjoying the fight. This annoyed Nightmare to her core as her attacks got faster and more precise, but the demon hunter got even faster as he switched to his Trickster style. He bent in different directions, the sword just missing him by inches. “Aw, what’s the matter, baby? Can't you hit me?” he joked. She growled in frustration “Stand still demon, and I’ll make your death quick!”

“I don’t do requests, and we are both demons FYI” he smirked as he spun around his sword at a helicopter speed, reflecting the flurry of energy bullets flying out of Nightmare’s left hand. The bullets impacted all over the room, sending glass, rock and dust everywhere. Her horn glowed a bright blue, shooting a large beam of magic at the half-demon. He disappeared in a flash, and reappeared behind her. He knocked Rebellion out of her grasp and used his left palm to crack her armor, sending her flying across the room, sending a pillar crashing down. He winced and rotated his arm “Goddamn pins and needles” he muttered. Force Edge disappeared and he picked up Rebellion off from the floor and held it up to the moonlight. “Rebellion, daddy’s back” he spoke to it.

He saw the mare in the moon get back up from the crater in the wall, obviously furious. She dashed towards him, aiming the gauntlets towards the half-demon. He drew back Rebellion to perform Stinger and dashed extremely fast toward the enraged demoness, the tip pointed at the gauntlets. The impact created a massive shockwave that shattered the rest of the windows in the room, both recoiling back from one another. More cracks surfaced on Nightmare’s armor.

(Fight Over)

“What’s going on?” she cried. “Without my Devil Arms to keep you empowered, your devil trigger will whittle away and your campaign will die off, leaving behind the mare I used to love” he explained, malice could be heard on every word he spoke. Behind him were the six mares from before, now having necklaces that reflected their cutie marks, but the lavender unicorn had a tiara. “Hey Nightmare” he called. “What, you swine?” she growled. “You are lacking in one thing: Friendship” he explained. “Who needs friendship when you’ve got magic more powerful than Celestia herself?” she boasted.

He chuckled lightly "Friendship IS magic." He jumped high up into the air as a rainbow beam of magic shot out from the six mares behind him who are now wearing necklaces resembling their cutie mark and element, only the lavender unicorn had a tiara. The rainbow magic circled around the wicked mare, who is now losing her mind.

"NO! I WON'T GO BACK!!!" she screamed "YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!"

She let out an ear-piercing scream as her body exploded, sending pieces of her armor flying everywhere. He was filled with both relief and sadness as the day had finally came where Nightmare Moon is no more, but he lost the mare he once loved a thousand years ago. His train of thought was interrupted as the unicorn wearing the tiara tapped his shoulder, making him jump and turned to them. They were giving him looks of curiosity and astonishment, mostly from the rainbow maned Pegasus.

"Who ARE you?" she gleamed in awe.

"Well, you heard it from Nightmare Moon, I'm the legendary Son of Sparda, Dante" he bowed in a goofy manor. The lavender unicorn seemed even more excited than the rainbow one. "Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshmohmygoshmohmygosh" she shook with excitement "It's YOU! It's you from the legends in the history books!"

He raised his arms out in opposite directions "The same" he smirked "I have an obvious question to ask."

"What are you going to ask?"

He spun around "Just what the fuck happened in the last thousand years?" he asked.

"Maybe my mentor can answer that for you. I'm sure you remember Princess Celestia."

The half-demon looked up through one of the holes in the ceiling where the moonlight shined through "To be honest, I never thought I would see Sunbutt again; she really let the place go" The purple haired mare scoffed at his pet name he gave the solar princess a millennium ago. "How could you give her such a name you rude beast!" she scolded. "Don't get your panties in a twist; we spoke like that to each other years ago" he explained, holing his hands up in the air. "Oh we both had fun in our youth, funny how time flies" a motherly voice spoke. The sun began to rise and the light, pouring through the back of the room. In a flash, the solar princess appeared from the morning twilight. Princess Celestia.

Princess Celestia (Nicole Oliver)

Everypony bowed except for Dante and the lavender unicorn who was beaming with happiness and ran over to her in joy "Princess Celestia!" she shouted gleefully. The solar princess pulled her into a hug and broke it seconds after. "I knew you could do it" she smiled.
"I knew Nightmare Moon was going to return and the one who originally pointed that out was Dante since he could sense the demonic magic resonating from the moon" she explained while pointing to him who had his pinky in his ear, scratching and making a face of relief.

"It was Dante's assistance that your friendship could be used to purge the evil of Nightmare Moon and the ability to let true friendship into your heart" she explained some more "If only another one would as well...Princess Luna." her mention of the former lunar princess made Dante quickly turn his focus where Nightmare Moon used to be, only to see a young mare tensing up and quickly getting to her feet. Her blue dress was tarnished and slightly torn in some parts. Her blue mane was untouched however. Celestia slowly walked over to her little sister while the half-demon stood there with his arms crossed and a hateful look in his eyes. She kneeled down to Luna's level with a tired and sympatheic look on her face. "It has been one thousand years since I've seen you like this. It's time to put our differences behind us; we were meant to rule together. Will you accept my friendship?" She stood up and held out her hand to her younger sister. Tears formed in her eyes and she rushed into her older sister's arms sobbing "I'm so sorry! I missed you so much!"

"I missed you too."

The half demon scoffed and turned the other way. The sound got the lunar princess's attention and she broke her hug with her sister and she started to run towards him. "Dante! It's been-"

"Don't you 'Dante' me" he growled "Tia may have forgiven you for what you tried to do a thousand years ago, but I won't have it."

"B-but-"

"NO BUTS! You kept two of my devil arms from me having it corrupt you, tried to coup Tia while influenced by that said power, caused a civil riot within the two guards, tried to kill me and when that didn't work, you sent your entire guard on my ass. You think I would forgive you, let alone trust you after all that, you're better off alone the rest of your life."

"Dante! I'm sorry!"

He walked away from the group and towards the entrance to the castle. They all heard the splintering and metal clanging from him kicking the massive heavy doors open and walking out into the forest. Luna tried to chase after him, but she was stopped by Celestia putting her hand on her shoulder. "Don't little sister. We have forgave each other because we didn't spend a thousand years in stone; the incident is still fresh in his mind."

Twilight walked over to the two rulers, confused. "With all due respect your highness's, but what exactly happened between Dante and you, Luna?"

Tears streamed down the lunar princess's face. She swallowed and began to explain, sitting down on a broken piece of pillar.

"One thousand years ago, we had to deal with a few problems when Equestria was first founded. When Dante came, he fought off evil that was once beyond our comprehension. I found two magical artifacts and it told me to keep it from him and it'll give me power; I heard a voice coming from both of them. Over time, I started to fall in love with him. We spent many nights stargazing. We...beded...once" her face was bright red "We were going to be hitched and then...the weapons consumed me...my jealousy for Tia consumed me. Now he doesn't trust me anymore."

"Don't worry little sister; he will eventually forgive you. It took me a long time and many years of regret and understanding to forgive you and you spent the same time on the moon with your own thoughts and memories to think about."

The purple haired posh mare had a confused look on her face "You and Dante were once engaged?" she asked, shocked. She nodded.

Twilight blinked at the revelation "That was never mentioned in any of the history books" she mentioned.

"Talk to Dante; he'll give you the whole story" Celestia explained "Right now, he needs some time alone." She leaned in closer to whisper in her ear "Just don't tell Fluttershy what he does to Timberwolves, Hydras, and Manticores when he's angry. Now, we should return to Ponyville and wait for him; he'll find his way, he always does" she concluded before consuming everyone in a bright flash of white light.

In an unknown part of Equestria, far away from Ponyville, inside a pitch black room. All except for a grey flame lighting in the center.

"So, Nightmare is dead, most unfortunate" a voice echoed throughout the room. The voice was male.

A female voice spoke and a light blue flame lit up next to the center flame "The Son of Sparda was the one who killed her."

Another female voice spoke from a purple flame across from the blue flame that sounded a little more unstable "The Elements of Harmony have awoken as well, most convenient."

A grey flame sprung up next to the blue and spoke like the rest "So, that means the plan will be set in motion?"

The gray flame responded "Of course, when the time is right, each of you will strike. Do not fail me like Nightmare. Failiure of killing the Son of Sparda and/or the bearers of the elements will result in death."

The three flames responded in unicen "Yes Master."

All of the flames flickered away one by one, leaving the room pitch black once more, a silent chuckle resonated throughout.

Author's Note

Finally this chapter is up. It's kind of difficult regulating time writing this with both school and work.

Let me know what you think in the comment section below. It shouldn't be too long before the next is up.

Quick Edit: Just wanted to add this fine piece of music to the last scene to make it pay more homage to Tenchu 3.