Dark Iron Kingdom

Fifteen years had past since my creation of the portal now called "The Gateway to Paradise". It was a spectacle that seemed to spread far and wide across the land. The impossible made possible as some would call it though I did not care for the fame it afforded. Or the lamentable fact that this device more or less overshadowed the grand wedding that had taken place that day.

But I suppose it was for the best in all honesty. For between the grand wedding and my little stunt a possible scandal had been successfully glossed over. A scandal involving a certain princess who gave birth a little over two months later. To twins even...just as Life had mentioned to me nearly a year prior.

And so thus began my truly extravagant slog through not only fatherhood but princehood as well. A tale that includes such joyous moments like finding out both of my children were attuned to one side of the life and death cycle. And the fact that while my little vampiric daughter that was attuned to life had little trouble consuming normal blood, my son however was different. He needed a source of death energy to survive and I was, or well specifically my blood was, the only one close by for as far as we could tell. To be blunt he regularly tried to drain me dry in his infant years before Death was better able to stabilize him. I still have the scars of his little bear trap like mouth up both of my forelegs...the little fiend...

But at least helping raise my two children while difficult there was at least joy to be found. My other title however...was different. For you see I became a...prince...as a result of my union with Twilight. A dreadfully fanciful title that made me cringe every time somepony called me by it. But that was not the worse of it oh no. What truuuuly made my life ooooh so complete was the crippling amount of extra responsibility as a public figurehead.

I regularly became bombarded with delegates, envoys, other royals, somepony's 2nd cousin who got stuck in a spare broom closest, and scores of others whom dropped by in greetings or to ask me for something. Often times in it was the latter of the two. And often times I had to hold back an ocean of sarcasm as I either accepted or told them the polite way of relocating themselves from my presence. Preferably off the nearest clif-dock...into some body of water...yes...that. But regardless of such unpleasantries this went on for the previously mentioned fifteen years until something I would have never expected to happen, did.

The day started with the usual delegates et al. before I managed to pry myself away for an few hours of privacy. Well more like an hour of privacy before my daughter "Growth" as we ended up calling her barged into my alchemy lab. To which she was accompanied shortly afterwards by her best friend "Blaze Runner" the great grand daughter of an old friend "Break Runner". He was an earth pony train engineer that helped me out a great deal in the past with the Rogue Faction Wars and became like family to me. But I digress from the matter at hoof, namely the two little devils that not so silently slunk into my alchemy lab.

"How many times do I have to tell you to knock before you enter hmm?" I mildly growled out while trying to concentrate on some new experiment.

"Sorry dad we had to book it from some guards we got good with a few buckets of spiders," She said nonchalantly as she went to work raiding my blood cylinder storage unit or as she called it my "mini fridge"...

I in turn gently put down my tools before rubbing my left temple with a hoof. "You tormented some of the castle guards with buckets...of...spiders..." I said as evenly as I could while attempting to not imagine the sheer horror those poor souls endured.

"Well they weren't reeaalll spiders. I mean who would want to carry a bucket of those? They were constructs Blaze here made. They look and act like the real thing though," She replied while jokingly offering a sip of her pilfered blood cylinder to Blaze Runner only to get sour look in return.

I however just gave both of them a withering glare as I tried my hardest to keep my voice still even as I said, "Young Lady...It is not proper to torment the castle guards... Why can you two not do something less destructive with your time? Like for example not putting life like...spiders...all over somepony...

"What? Only one of them wet themselves," Growth said before Blaze Runner interjected.

"No...I think the other one wet himself too...something about colthood nightmares made reality or something," she said looking only the slightest bit regretful.

"What? Really? I mean the first one freaked out waaay more. I mean she started screaming and rolling around on the ground for a good fifteen seconds before chasing after us, " Growth replied after taking another sip from her blood cylinder.

Needless to say it did not take long of their banter back and forth before my muscles tightened with fury. Red and black lightening crackled all over my body and I was just about to begin yelling at the both of them before I heard a familiar and somewhat muffled voice say, "X axis locked."

Wide eyed concern quickly overrode my fury before I galloped over to a special safe in my alchemy lab. I then pricked my leg on its blood seal before the device opened effortlessly. Inside the safe was the white paradise crystal in all its partially material phasing glory. The sight of it however did not fill me with joy. No, it only served to make my heart sink further.

Apparently sensing my concern Growth piped up and said, "Is something up, dad?"

I nodded several times while still wide eyed. "Something may be wrong with the Gateway to Paradise. I am releasing the restrictions on both of your armors. You are to use them as you see fit until I deem otherwise. Now quickly please follow me and I shall explain what I can in what little time we have," I said as I projected a mental command with my magic to disable the restrictions on both Growth and Blaze Runner's armors.

Afterward I took a deep breath and mentality activated my armor. Then in less than a second later the black ring around my neck began to expand and project out the dark iron plates that made up the bulk of my armor. It soon sealed off most of my body from the outside world as the plates snapped into place.

This was something I had not had to use in decades minus special ceremonial events. It is a heavily modified version of what my original armor was. It still utilized the Dark Iron material to lessen my vampiric powers so I did not cause unintentional harm unless I commanded it not to do so, but I made it more durable and better able to channel Death Energy. I had indeed hoped to never require its full use, but existence rarely cares for such desires.

As for Growth and Blaze Runner's armors on the other hoof, their armors were either slightly different in the case of Growth's or drastically so in Blaze Runner's case. For Growth's armor it was more or less a copy of mine with a few changes. One it helped her channel Life Energy instead. And two it also possessed several pockets for specially bred fast growing vine and plant seeds.

Now for Blaze Runner...her's was a mad science/engineering project gone wrong or right depending on who you ask. Being as she was mortal it enhanced her strength and endurance, but that was often standard for mortal users. What was not standard was the literal cannon that was able to be summoned on her back. And as an aside the cannon was amusingly dubbed "The Angry Filly", a small sister version of an old train artillery cannon called "The Angry Mare" that is still in use today. And please do note, I had little say in the armor's construction...it was not my fault...this time...

But without a second thought I undid the suppression fields, again normally used to lessen our abilities for safety of others, that Growth's and my armor generated. For it was one of those times that being at full strength was perhaps needed. But regardless of that as soon as the fields dropped all three of us galloped out the door of my alchemy lab.

Needless to say it did not take long before I heard again that now dreadful voice coming from the Gateway to Paradise, "Y Axis Locked".

Growth in response as we rushed said, "What in Tartarus...is going on? Why are we...in such a rush...to get to...the Gateway...to Paradise? I thought it was...supposed to be...active...on Nightmare Night...when...the sun...went down."

I bit my lip in response thinking how much I desired to withhold as to not frighten them but ultimately spilled everything, "The Gateway has...been activated...and indeed this is...Nightmare Night...at nighttime. However...what is being failed...to be realized...is that I am...the only one...that normally activates it. And to make matters...worse...the only way...I know...to activate it...is by using...the paradise crystal. And that crystal...is currently locked away...in my alchemy lab...in a safe...to which it...still resides...after I checked...not but five minutes ago," I huffed out as I increased my pace.

The only reply I got out of either of them was when Blaze Runner growled out, "Oh shit..." And while I normally would have scolded her for using such obscenities I unfortunately was not one to judge this time as I was mentally stating all sorts of linguistic foulness...in rapid succession...

In turn we barreled down through the castle until we started making our way through the courtyard outside. But soon our travels were hindered when the second bad omen of the night reared its ugly head as it were. The castle guards were in conflict with some unknown hooded force that were actively attacking them. And while normally I would have jumped into the fray if you will, but this time I could not allow us to be delayed given our current urgency.

So with a whispered apology to the unfortunate guards I grabbed both Growth and Blaze Runner and focused on the space directly in front of me. Then not but a second later one of my Death Gates snapped open before I leapt forward into it. We were then quickly transported on the opposite side of the engagement with only minor discombobulation from Growth. She rarely enjoyed me doing that to her as her affinity to Life did not agree with my magic. But regardless, we bypassed that little skirmish only to hear a significantly larger one coming from Ponyville itself.

I could see several houses on fire and ponies were running away from the same looking unknown attackers from before. Though luckily it seemed Twilight activated her pony controlled arcane golems from many moons ago to fight back much of the onslaught. This however was a hard battle for some reason and what little hope I had burned away when I heard the Gateway to Paradise echo out "Z Axis locked".

With little time left we all bolted towards the gateway at full speed, but before we got into view of the mystic archway a familiar voice popped into my head. "Blood Moon...why are you opening a portal to Tartarus?", Death stated with much more than a just hint of worry.

"WHAT?!" I blurted out loud as well as in my mind.

But that was all I could state before we soon got a grand look of what these hooded attackers had done to my beautiful device. The usual white glowing runes on the archway were replaced with burning orangish red ones that seethed with fury. The very ground around around us had become burnt and withered as if directly effected by it. This however was not the worse of it, oh no. For what was, was that we arrived too late to stop the disaster that unfolded before us.

"Dimensional anchor locked. Gateway activated," the disembodied spoke over the chaos of the battle around us. Time slowed to a crawl before a terrifying thundering boom blasted out from the archway and yanked me back to reality. The sheer force of the portal that tore itself open into our world lifted us off our hooves and threw us backward. We then crashed through one of the nearest buildings before much of the building itself was blown away.

My vision swam as my ears had begun to ring. But luckily the massive amounts of adrenaline flowing through me allowed me to shake it off and locate my two equally dazed and armored young mares.

"What in Tartarus was that?!" Growth yelled over the horrible howl of newly opened portal not far from us.

"Tartarus is exactly what that is! We do not have time to waste! We need to close that portal and NOW!" I yelled back in reply.

Blistering heat and an aura of crushing despair soon surrounded us as we dig our way out of the rubble. The portal to Tartarus while spiritual in nature was emanating such a strong force that it was heavily disrupting the material plane we resided in. However even as my eyes watered and my armor began to scorch me I looked at the portal itself and discovered a single figure rushing directly towards it.

It was a fool's mission I mused as they would never be able to make it to the portal alive. But then a horrid realization soon showed itself...they did not intend to. In turn I scrambled my thoughts trying to find a way to stop that apparent madpony, but this proved mostly fruitless except but a single...reckless option...

"Blaze Runner activate your cannon!" I shouted.

"What?! Why?! My eyes are watering too much to aim at anything!" she yelled back.

"There is no time to discuss this! Just do it!" I yelled out before I saw her armor begin to form The Angry Filly.

The plates on her back shifted and contorted forming the barrel of a cannon. And upon completion a small filly with gritted teeth and burning eyes, tail, and mane displayed on both sides of it. It was usually amusing to say the least but I had little time to admire the artwork. So without an ounce of grace I grabbed one of the two shells Blaze Runner stored on her back and loaded the cannon. Then afterwards with no small amount of protesting regarding as I quote "I can't see shit you fucking lunatic!" from her I pointed at the most reasonable target I could determine.

But before I could do anything I heard the madpony running towards the portal bellow out, "The world shall tremble at our wraith my love hahahahaaaaaa!" And I could honestly say that I did not like the sound of that so without much delay I fired.

In turn the cannon belched out a barrel full of flame as it made an echoing thunder crack. However, this was all that I could notice before I had realized I made a grand oversight...I forgot to have Blaze Runner activate her stabilizers. As a result of this blunder she was violently thrown backwards into the poor fool behind her...namely me.

What happen next became a blur as not only did I get thrown through more rubble, but the cannon shell seemed to hit its mark. To elaborate, I knew that I would never be able to damage the archway itself. It was made to withstand forces of supernatural levels and a cannon shell would hardly scratch it. As well I could not get a bead on the madpony running towards the portal either. But what I could target was the probable Tartarus crystal that was keeping the portal itself open.

In the end The Angry Filly's cannon shell did its job and caused the Tartarus portal to collapse in on itself. This joy however was short lived when Death had told me that somepony had managed to cross the veil between worlds. And the charred skeleton of some unknown mare near the archway only served to confirm this.