Fiend of the Applesby Eon SebChaptersI. 6 ponies II. 3 imps III. a Whole New WorldIV. The Gangs all hereI. 6 ponies I. 6 ponies Applejack was pacing in the barn waiting for the girls. They had been through so much together and, with Twilight now having a castle in Ponyville, she - no, all of them - needed to know about the secret that had kept this town alive despite what tended to happen around it. She had not been in contact with 'him' for a while because they had the Elements but the deal was still in place as much as she did not like it. He had always kept his word, "unlike those no good Flim-Flams". Now she just had to wait and hope her friends did not hate her after this. Meanwhile "So what do you think Jackie wants to tell us?" Pinkie was bouncing along next to the others without a care in the world. "If I knew that, I'd have just stayed home to finish my nap" Rainbow was flying along at a lazy pace and looked half asleep. She had been up until the early hours practicing again so was not in a good mood when Shy came to wake her. "I hope everything is okay with the farm." Fluttershy still got spooked some times due to the bat incident but was getting over it; much better than she would have a few years ago. "She told me it had something to do with the history of Ponyville. I'm so exited! I brought a stack of papers to record everything." Twilight had been collecting books to restore the library and an old story about the town would be a perfect addition to it. "I'm sure everything will be just fine, dears. Ah, here we are, so lets see what the fuss is about." Walking into the barn to see their friend pacing next to what looked like a complicated ritual circle was not what Rarity, or any of them had been expecting.. After staring for a moment Rarity cleared her throat "Um, Applejack darling. What exactly were you wanting to tell us?" AJ stopped pacing, saw her friends staring at the circle and sighed "Y'all know how nothin' seems to hurt the orchard permanently no matter what happens? Includin' beavers, bats and everything in between." -She waited till they all nodded before continuing.-"That's because the Apple Family made a deal along time ago and we keep to it. Year after year - generation after generation - we pay the price and our farms, our towns and our businesses survive all that comes at them." After she finished Jackie just waited and watched to see her friends response. The girls (other than Pinkie ) all had looks of confusion on their faces. Twilight gained a look of comprehension before her face paled in horror. "T-the only thing that could keep a deal like that going would be, gulp. A demon right?" When Applejack nodded, the girls went ballistic. "Was your family insane? What? Did they have to promise the souls of themselves and all their kids!?" Rainbow had seen a lot of movies and so knew the denizens of Tartarus were bad news. "How could you maintain such a ghastly thing, dear?" Rarity was holding her self up on shacking knees. She had heard many stories about gem hunters tricked by the flamed hooved fiends of the depths. Fluttershy, just hid behind Rainbow, and Pinkie "So who'd you make the deal with?" The others paused and gave her incredulous looks- "What? My parents had to make a deal with a demon to save me when I was a foal. He still checks up on me from time to time." the girls gained increasingly traumatized expressions as they thought about some of the time they had seen Pinkie 'talking' to herself. "Oh, don't worry. Murphy is really funny and actually a decent guy as demons go, as long as you don't piss him off. " AJ looked up at the name 'Murphy? That's who we have our deal with. I guess your folks learned of him from our family connection." Twilight had regained the ability to speak "Where you going to introduce him to us? Is that why there is a circle here?" "Yeah I was, but if Pinkie already knows him, that's one less introduction to make. You don't happen to have a surefire way to get him to show up, do ya? He tends to show up only when he wants to for me." Pinkie grinned, it was not as happy as normal, her hair went flat and she unleashed a noise that could only be described as a scream of the damned. The next moment her hair was back to normal and a dull pink pony in a hat and trench coat with cloven hooves walked in the door rubbing his ear. "What was that for? I was only on the other side of town. Anyway what did you want, Pinkie?" Murphy looked around taking in the scene before him including the terrified faces of 4 of the ponies and the circle "Sigh, You wanted to introduce me to your friends in a 'safe' manner right Jackie?"- 'Jackie' just nodded.-"and Pinkie here just called me to get me here faster. Great." Murphy turned to the girls who all took a step back and with a flash his outfit was gone revealing a pony who was such a dark shade of pink he almost looked red, when coupled with the ram horns, no cutie mark and the split hooves, his appearance left little doubt to what he really was. "Hello my names Murphy, Imp lord of Tartarus. Nice to meet you all". It was going to be awhile before they gained the courage to respond. Later After several minutes of staring, Fluttershy's head popped up from behind Rarity. "P-please don't eat us, Mr. Murphy, sir." Murphy looked at them for a moment before he fell over laughing. "Y-you actually think I want to eat ponies? My favorite food in the world is apples. That's why I made a deal with the Apple Clan - so I could have a good supply of them all year round." Murphy continued to laugh as the girls looked at AJ "It's true. We pay him a cut of the gross every harvest and he protects the farms and if we pay him extra he will protect any nearby town as well." The girls took in this information before looking at Murphy, who had finally stopped laughing and then looking at Pinkie. 'So Pinkie what deal did your parents make with him?" Pinkie just smiled with a hint of sadness "He gave me earth pony magic in exchange for my wings." the resounding cry of "What?" broke one of the windows and was heard on the other end of town. "Why would you ever give up your wings Pinkie" Rainbow was confused she had learned that Pinkie was in fact born a pegasus, that had been a sad story for all of them. But she never told them how she lost her wings. "Because she was dying."-the girls turned back to Murphy. Gone was the grinning fool from before. In his place stood a stone faced pony- "She had a lethal case of feather flu. The only way I could cure her was to replace her magic and that made the wings useless in the first place. So I took them so she would not have to deal with never being able to fly on her own while still having wings which look like they should work." The girls all paused to take in that sobering thought. After a moment Rainbow looked up "Wait. You said he was supposed to protect the town to right?"-After AJ nodded Rainbow rounded on Murphy-"Then where were you when Tirek attacked us!?" The girls turned to him for an explanation only to back up a bit at his haunted expression. "I was in the lower levels of Tartarus stopping a group of demons from reaching the door. I had to fight off an army of bats, a group of random chaos spawn and a crazy nacho with one eye! By the time all was said and done, the area was littered with bodies from both sides. I had lost many comrades and had to pull the eyes out of an enemy, break two down into their basic components and make one explode like a water balloon. " By this point the girls were staring at him as he continued to go in to detail about the carnage of the battle, Rarity passed out from fright along with Fluttershy. Pinkie's hair had gone flat while Twilight was crying as he described how his fellows were torn asunder by their enemy. Rainbow stole AJ's hat to throw up in just as he finished his story. 'So that is why I could not help you." Twilight looked at him "Why were you leading the charge against those maniacs anyway?" Murphy gain a snobbish look. "Because I'm the imp king. It's my job to make sure the creatures of the lower levels stay put." While the girls were just looking at him trying to absorb the massive amount of information they had just received, the door to the barn flew open and a trio of blurs knocked Murphy off his hooves. II. 3 imps II. 3 imps The girls blinked as Murphy was knocked over by - A group of foals?! "Hey kids, can you get off my lungs please?" The fillies quickly jumped off him after that, looking a tad sheepish. The three spoke in unison as they apologized "Sorry boss". At first, the girls had thought the CMC had ran in but once they saw the fillies clearly, it was obvious they were new - oh and they all looked like alicorns! This, coupled with the fact that they and Murphy were speaking in a language that made all of them nervous, just hearing it made them cautious. After several minutes of listening to them talk in a strange guttural language, Twilight cleared her throat to gain their attention "Hem, Hem" Murphy's head jerked up before he looked back at the girls "Children, turn around and introduce your selves to these young ladies."- The 3 fillies turned to face the girls and quickly went quiet, realizing just who was in the room with them. After a moment of silent staring, Murphy intervened "Right this little one on the left is Molly" The filly was pink with green eyes and a purple mane, she waved a hoof to the girls with a cute smile on her face.- "Next is her younger sister, Hellfire"- this filly was red with a flame colored mane and blue eyes with black sclera, and she was glaring at Twilight- "Last is their sister Moon" - This one was almost too familiar to the girls. She was black with a lavender mane and light blue eyes she looked like. "Wait Moon? As in Nightmare Moon?!" Twilight was just staring at the fillies in bewilderment. The black filly grinned at them. It was a strange blend of condescending and cute "Did you really think I was gone? I am the queen of shadows. You can't kill me that easily." As the girls eyes widened in horror, she continued-" Yes, I'm back and I will have my revenge! AH HAHAHAHAHAHA HA, Ha, Ha, ha, ha," she trailed off and fluttered to the ground (from where she had flown up to seem bigger), her eyes drooping the next moment she toppled over snoring softly. Murphy just shock his head "I told you not to try flying yet. It takes too much energy. You 3 are lucky you can stay up here at all." The girls stared as he put Nightmare on his back. Fluttershy spoke up "W-what did you mean about them being lucky?" Shy had a desire to care for all creatures even though she knew they were not safe. She did not want to imagine anything happening to the young, even demonic young. Murphy's face became downcast "Most demons were wiped out more than 1000 years ago by the sisters. I'm the leader by default as the oldest and strongest left alive." The girls were staring at him in shock again before he elaborated "I will be honest with you. My purpose is to care for the young of my kind and, due to the fact that we feed on negative energy, most of them are stuck in the spawn pit to stay healthy." He stopped to let them process this information, and wait for any more questions. The girls were taking their time to process the fact that the princesses had basically committed a near- genocide. They knew, intellectually, that the demons were and would always be evil. But it was hard to think of any reason to try and wipe another race out. Not wanting to think on this too much right now, Twilight looked at the red filly "Why are you glaring at me so much?" "Because you hit me with a giant rainbow of friendship. I have to go through puberty a second time now!" Twilight had to take a step back (both literally and mentally) to recognize this pony, of course the last time they met she was trying to make an army of teenagers. "Sunset? W-what happened to you?" What had been done to her friend to create the monster before her? The demon pony grinned "I'm not Sunset anymore. That little wimp is still on the other side of the mirror. I am Hellfire Shimmer, the imp of magic."- here, her grin became playful-"but don't worry. I have years before I'll become strong enough to do anything to you and, with the power the tree gave you, I'd have to be quite stupid to try anything now." "Hey" -the pink filly jumped up- "Leave Moony alone. Why do you two have to fight all the time?" She looked close to tears at this point. Fluttershy scooped her up without thinking "don't cry" The next moment, she dropped the filly with a neon blush after she felt a hoof somewhere it should definitely not have been. She turned to apologize to see a look on the filly's face more at home on an adult pony who had drunk a little too much cider. "Aw, you dropped me on my rump." Her eyes went big and teary again "Kiss it better, please?" Fluttershy took a half step forward before her brain stalled, realizing what she was about to do. Murphy was unamused. 'Molestia! No traumatizing our new neighbors. If we want to live in this town, we have to behave, so that means no molestation."-he turned to look at Hellfire- "No hypnotizing"- Finally he cast his gaze on Nightmare who was just waking up. " and no night-terrors . At least not where they can find out" The 3 fillies bowed their heads in shame before apologizing. The girls were still stuck on the name of the last filly however. "What the samhill kinda name is Molestia?" Molly turned to face the girls "I was separated from Celestia centuries ago, I'm all the things about herself that she locked away. Now, she doesn't have to hide them because they aren't there anymore and I get all those emotions from her to feed on. That is why we can leave the pit; because we have a direct line of negative energy from our counter parts " Twilight was rebooting her mind, trying to connect the dots between this, this pervert and her mentor. Meanwhile, AJ remembered one of his earlier comments "Wait. What did ya mean by new neighbors?" Murphy's smile could have made paint dry. "I just bought the house down at the end of Mane Street I managed to collect enough negative energy that I don't have to live in the pit anymore and I can set up a portal to home from there so get used to seeing us around, girls. Now, children lets go get the new house set up and get you 3 enrolled in school." The demonic family left, uncaring of the utter brain malfunctions they had caused the 6 greatest heroes of Equestria(who, when their brains rebooted, were going to be getting to the bottom of this mess one way or another). It took 3 weeks for things to go back to 'normal', but things had been quiet after the new family moved in. Murphy found himself as the only stallion at a meeting for single parents at the school through which he met Berry Punch, Ditzy Do and Love Tap. The girls had checked up on him several times, but no problems in town could be linked to them. However, the short-lived altercation between Murphy and the Flim-Flam Brothers was still talked about. No pony had ever seen a unicorn bucked through a wall before. Even Twilight could not find any fault in what Murphy had done this time. The next major incident involving the new family happened when the town bullies picked on the only filly of the trio to act nice. After making her cry, they were told to apologize, and were gone for an hour. When they got back, they proceeded to apologize to every one of their former victims (including and especially the Cutie Mark Crusaders) before solemnly promising to never bully again. They had been model students after that. The girls knew something had happened, but they had no proof so they sat and waited. The only other major incident involved Scootaloo's parents who, after a conversation with Murphy, sent her to live with her cousin Ditzy. When confronted, all he said was "I simply made my displeasure of the way they were treating their child quite clear to them. I have no idea why they now seem afraid of cacti?" His face was so deadpan that no one believed him, but you can't arrest some one for talking. Even with all these changes things were slowly getting back to normal in town. Until one day when Twilight received a very strange journal. Author's Note Text displayed in red is infernal AKA the demon tongue. III. a Whole New WorldSunset could only stare at the scene before her. Twilight had come through the portal with Spike and the next moment, a strange pink guy in a bucket hat had popped up and made her scream like a kid. She then proceeded to rant and rave at him while hitting him with the aforementioned hat. The next part in this train wreck was when Twilight mentioned his name. It was a bit hard to discern over her rant, but "Murphy" could be heard several times. Once they heard the name, several things happened. First, Applejack went paler then Rarity and hid behind said girl. Second, Pinkie's hair went flat. Finally, all of them to had a minor panic attack. Even Sunset, who had only heard about the 'Knife Party Incident' second hand, had slightly panicked. Pinkie quickly moved in once Twilight had calmed down and pulled Murphy into a hug. The next minute, she had her phone out and was taking a selfie with him before posting it. The screams of terror coming from the school caused the girls to quickly check the post to see the caption "Twinsies" under it (most likely leading the school to think there were now two mentally unstable beings outside). AJ had taken one look at Pinkie and started to hyperventilate! Rainbow finally had enough "Okay what's up with you?" Applejack took a moment to compose herself before answering "Oh nothin much. Just trying to process how much the monster that killed my aunt and uncle looks like one of my friends!" She went back to hiding as the girls, including Twilight, stared at Murphy in horror. After a moment of no one talking, Murphy spoke "What? Those skin puppets tried to ritually sacrifice their own niece to me when they summoned me. I may have a black heart, but I do not harm children. It goes against the very purpose I was made for, so I decided show my displeasure with their actions, by rearrange their faces and turning them inside out." This, surprisingly, did nothing to calm the girls down. Rarity, after taking a moment to process the utter wrongness of what she had just heard, noticed that Pinkie was still hugging this, this thing "Dear, how can you stand to be near that abomination!?" Pinkie just grinned "He saved me years ago from a bad illness, the end result of his actions lead to why I was in therapy for most of my younger years and had that relapse back in middle school. Yeah, he caused me to have a very strange view of the world, so I can see why he would react the way he did if someone tried to kill a member of their family in front of him." This made the girls pause. They still felt his actions were wrong, but looking at them from that perspective, made it slightly less horrid. Sunset, however, was focused on small parts of his story. But that was impossible. The Princesses had killed all of them. "How are you alive?" Murphy looked at her for a moment before his eyes flashed red . "Ah, you mean the rainbow massacre. I was in the pit caring for about 400 eggs and 200 larva at the time. I had never truly appreciated the soft spot you ponies (or people) had for children until that moment. " Sunset could only nod, and try to get the image of this guy dressed as Nanny McFilly out of her head. Twilight was looking at him with a stern expression. "What's with the big discrepancy in your attitude? Back in Equestria, you seemed quite polite, if annoying. Here, you're being an ass!" before rethinking what she said and amended "Sorry, cranky." "That is because if I don't behave in your world, then some giant crystal artifact will blow me the fuck up!"-all the girls gasped at that, though Twilight looked confused.-"Sorry. I'm normally far more composed. That subject just makes me a little bit,- no, make that absolutely livid." at the end of his statement a set of ram horns sprang from the side of his head. Pinkie was next to him in an instant taking another selfie. (this one read me and my demon bro) While Twilight back-paddled "H-how? The portal shuts down magic." Murphy held out his left hand which ignited in a bright red flame . "My power is not from Equestria .The portal has no effect on me. Now, if you will excuse me. I'm going to see who I can sucker into a deal. " Murphy used their brain fart from seeing his power to run into the school and hide as a student. 'This is going to be fun." While the girls were scrambling to find him, Murphy had checked out the students, he had narrowed his list of targets down to 2 people, "Lets see I can't do anything to Sparky's boy toy, not without eating rainbows. So that leaves." "Demon! Come out and face Trixie!"-Murphy loved his power of causality.-"You will give me what I want." Sunset ran around a corner "Thank Faust for Trixie's love of speeches." She pulled around the last turn just in time to hear the end of Trixies 'request' "You will give Trixie great and powerful magic!" Murphy paused as if waiting for something. When Trixie just stood with her hand outstretched, it took all of Murphy's practice to keep his smile friendly. Sunset realized what was about to happen but, as she headed to interrupt them, she slipped on a banana peel, hit a wet floor sign, and ended up head first in a trash can. She got her head out just in time for the girls to catch up with her and hear Murphy's response. "Then we have a deal." When they shook hands, Trixie was enveloped in ethereal energy cascading red and black swirls surrounded them for a moment, when the energy dissipated, the two were locked in a staring contest. "You know what to do, magician." Trixie, unlike her normal behavior, nodded before heading on her way like nothing was wrong. Murphy turned to the girls with a smug grin "See you at band practice, girls" and with that he was gone no smoke no noise or flame or anything just gone. The girls knew they were in trouble, now they had the sirens AND what ever the heck he did to Trixie to deal with. And, to make matters just that much worse, How did he know they started a band? Edge of town Murphy walked out from behind a tree laughing his ass off. "I haven't had this much fun since I tricked Gary into thinking the breezies stole his pants. Ah, I miss tricking that moron" -Murphy paused to look around before pulling a map out of his hat- "Lets see. If I'm right, the door should be just over here." It took a bit to find it, but there it was. Layered with more warning signs and half dead wards than any other place in the country stood the door to Tartarus (well the one for this world) . Murphy could feel the powers holding the door shut. Sadly, no one had thought to make the same protection stop the door from being opened from this side. With a mighty groan and the rush of stale air, the door was opened for the first time since humanity forgot magic. Murphy felt his power grow as, for the first time in his life, he left Tartarus completely. In the pony world, he had to leave most of his power in the pit to help keep the imps fed. With the negative energy from the human world, however, he could leave the eggs to incubate (The larva were killed by Tirek to gain power). "Ah, it's good to be free. Guess I should check that everything is 100% before I go though." Murphy followed the path. Right past the screaming heads, left at the blood fountain and right past the skinless corpse of a centaur. When he stepped into the pit, he paused to admire the large ball of red and orange magic in the room which was feeding all the eggs and, right on time, he watched the trail of negative energy from the human world connect with the ball causing to grow stronger then it had ever been. "Fixing that old thing was my best idea yet. it took time, effort and lots of bodies, but now all I have to do is wait."- After checking the eggs, he could only sigh- "For about 200 years, it seems. Damn. I forgot how slow these things are to grow. One of the downsides to immortality, I suppose, is that you tend to forget how long certain time periods are."- He turned back down the path, already planning the best way to gather a surplus of energy without getting caught- "Now lets see how the girls are doing, and check up on my little magician." Murphy's dark laugh filled the silence of the deep and 3 muses felt like something had driven a truck over their graves. IV. The Gangs all hereTrixie had gathered her 2 minions to show off her new powers. She could make any illusion she wanted, teleport, levitate heavy objects with seemingly no effort and even transfigure objects with a snap of her fingers. Her dream of being a stage magician was closer than ever before, but she just could not get it right. Oh, her friends were telling her it was amazing, but that's why they were her friends; they were toadies. But she knew it wasn't right because every time she tried to summon up the bravado and confidence she had used for most of her life, it just drained away, she had to actively think to talk in 3rd person now. That had been a reflex for over 3 years! Had that demon done something to her? Her memories of what happened after she took his hand were fuzzy. She knew about getting her magic, but had something else happened? She was about to pull her hair out when they heard a knock on the door. Lavender jumped up and answered only to stare at the strange guy. He looked very professional, but something seemed off. Oh, there it was. He had ram horns!? Trixie barged up to him. She had not her usual bravado, but she had plenty of anger. "You - what did you do to me? I can't perform like this!" Murphy just looked at her for a moment "Hi. Name's Murphy. You know, the guy you made a deal with and forgot to set the price. What?! Did you think I was going to do just give something to you? That's not how this works, young lady. Be glad I only took some personality quirks and not your ability to feel pain or something equally as lethal." Trixie tried to scowl at him, it looked more like a pout "But I need those to be a good magician. There has to be some way we can fix this?" Murphy just pinched his nose "Fine. Give me something in exchange for the magic and something to put your emotions back to normal and we'll be square. Keep in mind it has to be equal to what you got in order to count."- After watching her fumble for an answer for a while, Murphy sighed-"Look how about this I will give you back the personality quirks, but in exchange they won't work unless you're performing. Sound fair?" Trixie half extended her arm before pulling back "Wait. Why should I trust that you'll keep your word?" This was the wrong thing to say as, the next moment, all 3 of the girls were having trouble breathing or standing. The room was filled with such an oppressive feeling rage, interlaced with so much raw desire to kill that Fuchsia lost control of her bladder. Murphy was sheathing "Never accuse me of lying! I am a devil! We ALWAYS keep our word! Just make sure you keep yours or you won't like the outcome"- The next instant the pressure disappeared and he was back to smiling- "Now then the deal?" Trixie took his hand in a with a slight shake in her arm, once that had been cleared up he continued "Now, as for paying for your magic I don't mind using an installment plan." Lavender's head tilted to the side "Uh come again?' "I'm willing to let you pay in installments for the magic. You two can get in on this deal to if you want."- After some deliberation, the 3 agreed to the plan. After all, how bad could the payments be if they were in chunks? "Great. here's a simple contract." Trixie read through the whole thing VERY carefully (even looking over the fine print with a powerful magnifying glass). Suddenly her personality shift was very helpful (in that she could think much more logically). Everything seemed in order until she got the point of what they would pay in "How are we supposed to gather negative emotions?" Murphy snapped his fingers and summoned an arm band with - an equal sign? "Just wear one of these and walk around it will soak up the negativity around you and send it to me. I'll visit on occasion and give you something extra if you gather a high amount in a month. So what do you say?" The 3 looked at one another for a moment before answering "Where do we sign?" Murphy could only grin. Things were looking up for him for the first time in a long time. Back in Equestria Molly, Moon and Shimmy were sitting in their temporary room, reevaluating their opinion of their hostess. Moon spoke up first "Okay, you two agree that that mare is just as scary as Murphy. Right?" They both nodded, but Molly was in some kind of daze. Due to Murphy going to the human world, he needed someone to watch them. Thus, they were staying with Love Tap, Button and Gibson. While they got along well with Button and Love Tap was okay, Gibson had annoyed them, to the point they locked him in a room with Molly for an hour. When Love Tap found them and saw the condition Gibson was in, they got a lecture that made the boss's normal punishment seem heavenly. After that, they had been on their best behavior (which was still bad) They had learned that the late father of their 2 new playmates (things) had died due to an accident at work involving an electrical surge. Murphy was not going to have a happy reunion with his friend when he got back because Hellfire had cracked during the lecture and let slip his power of causality to try and get her to back off, leading to their current fear of her. Molly blinked out of her daze "I hope he comes home soon. I want to see these two fight. It should be entertaining." and with that happy thought, the girls enacted their plan to cause some head aches wherever Murphy had run off to. Human world: Pie household The girls were trying to enjoy their slumber party when the house was shaken by a massive sneeze by the sound of it. The next moment there was a knock on the door, when they opened it they almost melted at the sight of a little girl in yellow pajamas holding a rabbit plushy. Only Twilight and Sunset were unaffected. Twilight just pinched her nose before talking "Hi Molly. When did you get here?" Molly just smiled cutely for about 5 minutes. She stopped the moment she saw Sunset, who Twilight finally noticed seemed to be going through a mental shutdown. Her eyes were glassy and unfocused her body was shifting from side to side on reflex and she was just staring at the girl-"SUNNY!" The next moment, the girls felt a breeze and turned to see that the girl had tackle hugged Sunset. They thought it was cute until they saw the look of utter despair on Sunsets face. Sunset's brain had started to go numb on reflex the moment she recognized that pink terror. She had come to this world to get away from that thing (and gain the power to defeat it). With dawning horror she realized the arsenic cherry on this well disguised cow pie. "She's young now. She can get away with anything. If she's caught, anyone older then her will be blamed and she'll be put in therapy before going on to the next victim. I'm dead!" The next moment, 2 other girls ran in and started yanking on Molly. "Damn she's dug in like a tick. Get off my food source, you greedy bimbo". One of the two newest girls was red skinned wearing a black and red night gown (Rarity was horrified at the near overdose of red) "Sister, let go of her. You can have fun later." The other was jet black wearing a navy blue set of footie pajamas which looked adorable. The look was ruined by her angry scowl however. 5 minutes later, they had managed to finally pry Molly and Sunset apart after Moon used her knowledge of Molly's tickle spot to make her give up. Twilight retook control of the situation right after she made sure Sunset was coherent. "Okay, what are you 3 even doing here? We have enough problems with your 'parent' here as it is." The humans in the room were just confused. After watching the girls pull Twilight off to the side (most likely to ask why she was interrogating children), Sunset noticed that one of the girls who was not the pink terror had sat next to her, before she could start talking the girl hugged her. It was nice and confusing. "Uh thanks but why are you hugging me?" The kid gave her a deadpan look "Am I really that hard to recognize bacon-head?" With that she went back to hugging her big sister/mother. Sunset's eyes widened. She knew that voice all too well. After all, it had been bothering her since she came to this world, it had been her only companion - especially after her failed attempt at gaining magic. She had never told anyone about the voice and one of the reasons she was so distraught after the rainbow was because she lost her oldest friend and was forced to see everything she had done wrong. She knew now that her 'friend' had been encouraging her actions but it was hard to stay mad at someone who had been there for you for several years. No mater what happened, she had been there. Sunset scooped Hellfire up into a tighter embrace and just sat there. Demon or not, she could not just ignore this part of herself any longer. Meanwhile, Twilight had been explaining her behavior to the girls. So far, it was not going well. As much as they believed that Murphy was a danger, it was hard for them to think the same of 3 little girls. Then they felt it, something in the room was radiating heat. when they turned around they watched in fascination (and slight terror) as the girl which was hugging Sunset started to grow. In less then a minute, she had reached the same size as Sunset, where she thankfully stopped. Sunset on the other hand started to grow a bit herself. By the time she stopped, she had gone from looking 16-17 years old to looking around 30! Sunset let go of her counterpart to see the girls staring at her (when had they gotten shorter?). She quickly realized something had changed after looking at herself in the mirror and doing a quick mental calculation she realized what had happened before turning to the girls with a sheepish grin. "I have some explaining to do, right?" Her only answer was a group of confused nods. This was going to be very awkward.
I. 6 ponies I. 6 ponies Applejack was pacing in the barn waiting for the girls. They had been through so much together and, with Twilight now having a castle in Ponyville, she - no, all of them - needed to know about the secret that had kept this town alive despite what tended to happen around it. She had not been in contact with 'him' for a while because they had the Elements but the deal was still in place as much as she did not like it. He had always kept his word, "unlike those no good Flim-Flams". Now she just had to wait and hope her friends did not hate her after this. Meanwhile "So what do you think Jackie wants to tell us?" Pinkie was bouncing along next to the others without a care in the world. "If I knew that, I'd have just stayed home to finish my nap" Rainbow was flying along at a lazy pace and looked half asleep. She had been up until the early hours practicing again so was not in a good mood when Shy came to wake her. "I hope everything is okay with the farm." Fluttershy still got spooked some times due to the bat incident but was getting over it; much better than she would have a few years ago. "She told me it had something to do with the history of Ponyville. I'm so exited! I brought a stack of papers to record everything." Twilight had been collecting books to restore the library and an old story about the town would be a perfect addition to it. "I'm sure everything will be just fine, dears. Ah, here we are, so lets see what the fuss is about." Walking into the barn to see their friend pacing next to what looked like a complicated ritual circle was not what Rarity, or any of them had been expecting.. After staring for a moment Rarity cleared her throat "Um, Applejack darling. What exactly were you wanting to tell us?" AJ stopped pacing, saw her friends staring at the circle and sighed "Y'all know how nothin' seems to hurt the orchard permanently no matter what happens? Includin' beavers, bats and everything in between." -She waited till they all nodded before continuing.-"That's because the Apple Family made a deal along time ago and we keep to it. Year after year - generation after generation - we pay the price and our farms, our towns and our businesses survive all that comes at them." After she finished Jackie just waited and watched to see her friends response. The girls (other than Pinkie ) all had looks of confusion on their faces. Twilight gained a look of comprehension before her face paled in horror. "T-the only thing that could keep a deal like that going would be, gulp. A demon right?" When Applejack nodded, the girls went ballistic. "Was your family insane? What? Did they have to promise the souls of themselves and all their kids!?" Rainbow had seen a lot of movies and so knew the denizens of Tartarus were bad news. "How could you maintain such a ghastly thing, dear?" Rarity was holding her self up on shacking knees. She had heard many stories about gem hunters tricked by the flamed hooved fiends of the depths. Fluttershy, just hid behind Rainbow, and Pinkie "So who'd you make the deal with?" The others paused and gave her incredulous looks- "What? My parents had to make a deal with a demon to save me when I was a foal. He still checks up on me from time to time." the girls gained increasingly traumatized expressions as they thought about some of the time they had seen Pinkie 'talking' to herself. "Oh, don't worry. Murphy is really funny and actually a decent guy as demons go, as long as you don't piss him off. " AJ looked up at the name 'Murphy? That's who we have our deal with. I guess your folks learned of him from our family connection." Twilight had regained the ability to speak "Where you going to introduce him to us? Is that why there is a circle here?" "Yeah I was, but if Pinkie already knows him, that's one less introduction to make. You don't happen to have a surefire way to get him to show up, do ya? He tends to show up only when he wants to for me." Pinkie grinned, it was not as happy as normal, her hair went flat and she unleashed a noise that could only be described as a scream of the damned. The next moment her hair was back to normal and a dull pink pony in a hat and trench coat with cloven hooves walked in the door rubbing his ear. "What was that for? I was only on the other side of town. Anyway what did you want, Pinkie?" Murphy looked around taking in the scene before him including the terrified faces of 4 of the ponies and the circle "Sigh, You wanted to introduce me to your friends in a 'safe' manner right Jackie?"- 'Jackie' just nodded.-"and Pinkie here just called me to get me here faster. Great." Murphy turned to the girls who all took a step back and with a flash his outfit was gone revealing a pony who was such a dark shade of pink he almost looked red, when coupled with the ram horns, no cutie mark and the split hooves, his appearance left little doubt to what he really was. "Hello my names Murphy, Imp lord of Tartarus. Nice to meet you all". It was going to be awhile before they gained the courage to respond. Later After several minutes of staring, Fluttershy's head popped up from behind Rarity. "P-please don't eat us, Mr. Murphy, sir." Murphy looked at them for a moment before he fell over laughing. "Y-you actually think I want to eat ponies? My favorite food in the world is apples. That's why I made a deal with the Apple Clan - so I could have a good supply of them all year round." Murphy continued to laugh as the girls looked at AJ "It's true. We pay him a cut of the gross every harvest and he protects the farms and if we pay him extra he will protect any nearby town as well." The girls took in this information before looking at Murphy, who had finally stopped laughing and then looking at Pinkie. 'So Pinkie what deal did your parents make with him?" Pinkie just smiled with a hint of sadness "He gave me earth pony magic in exchange for my wings." the resounding cry of "What?" broke one of the windows and was heard on the other end of town. "Why would you ever give up your wings Pinkie" Rainbow was confused she had learned that Pinkie was in fact born a pegasus, that had been a sad story for all of them. But she never told them how she lost her wings. "Because she was dying."-the girls turned back to Murphy. Gone was the grinning fool from before. In his place stood a stone faced pony- "She had a lethal case of feather flu. The only way I could cure her was to replace her magic and that made the wings useless in the first place. So I took them so she would not have to deal with never being able to fly on her own while still having wings which look like they should work." The girls all paused to take in that sobering thought. After a moment Rainbow looked up "Wait. You said he was supposed to protect the town to right?"-After AJ nodded Rainbow rounded on Murphy-"Then where were you when Tirek attacked us!?" The girls turned to him for an explanation only to back up a bit at his haunted expression. "I was in the lower levels of Tartarus stopping a group of demons from reaching the door. I had to fight off an army of bats, a group of random chaos spawn and a crazy nacho with one eye! By the time all was said and done, the area was littered with bodies from both sides. I had lost many comrades and had to pull the eyes out of an enemy, break two down into their basic components and make one explode like a water balloon. " By this point the girls were staring at him as he continued to go in to detail about the carnage of the battle, Rarity passed out from fright along with Fluttershy. Pinkie's hair had gone flat while Twilight was crying as he described how his fellows were torn asunder by their enemy. Rainbow stole AJ's hat to throw up in just as he finished his story. 'So that is why I could not help you." Twilight looked at him "Why were you leading the charge against those maniacs anyway?" Murphy gain a snobbish look. "Because I'm the imp king. It's my job to make sure the creatures of the lower levels stay put." While the girls were just looking at him trying to absorb the massive amount of information they had just received, the door to the barn flew open and a trio of blurs knocked Murphy off his hooves.
II. 3 imps II. 3 imps The girls blinked as Murphy was knocked over by - A group of foals?! "Hey kids, can you get off my lungs please?" The fillies quickly jumped off him after that, looking a tad sheepish. The three spoke in unison as they apologized "Sorry boss". At first, the girls had thought the CMC had ran in but once they saw the fillies clearly, it was obvious they were new - oh and they all looked like alicorns! This, coupled with the fact that they and Murphy were speaking in a language that made all of them nervous, just hearing it made them cautious. After several minutes of listening to them talk in a strange guttural language, Twilight cleared her throat to gain their attention "Hem, Hem" Murphy's head jerked up before he looked back at the girls "Children, turn around and introduce your selves to these young ladies."- The 3 fillies turned to face the girls and quickly went quiet, realizing just who was in the room with them. After a moment of silent staring, Murphy intervened "Right this little one on the left is Molly" The filly was pink with green eyes and a purple mane, she waved a hoof to the girls with a cute smile on her face.- "Next is her younger sister, Hellfire"- this filly was red with a flame colored mane and blue eyes with black sclera, and she was glaring at Twilight- "Last is their sister Moon" - This one was almost too familiar to the girls. She was black with a lavender mane and light blue eyes she looked like. "Wait Moon? As in Nightmare Moon?!" Twilight was just staring at the fillies in bewilderment. The black filly grinned at them. It was a strange blend of condescending and cute "Did you really think I was gone? I am the queen of shadows. You can't kill me that easily." As the girls eyes widened in horror, she continued-" Yes, I'm back and I will have my revenge! AH HAHAHAHAHAHA HA, Ha, Ha, ha, ha," she trailed off and fluttered to the ground (from where she had flown up to seem bigger), her eyes drooping the next moment she toppled over snoring softly. Murphy just shock his head "I told you not to try flying yet. It takes too much energy. You 3 are lucky you can stay up here at all." The girls stared as he put Nightmare on his back. Fluttershy spoke up "W-what did you mean about them being lucky?" Shy had a desire to care for all creatures even though she knew they were not safe. She did not want to imagine anything happening to the young, even demonic young. Murphy's face became downcast "Most demons were wiped out more than 1000 years ago by the sisters. I'm the leader by default as the oldest and strongest left alive." The girls were staring at him in shock again before he elaborated "I will be honest with you. My purpose is to care for the young of my kind and, due to the fact that we feed on negative energy, most of them are stuck in the spawn pit to stay healthy." He stopped to let them process this information, and wait for any more questions. The girls were taking their time to process the fact that the princesses had basically committed a near- genocide. They knew, intellectually, that the demons were and would always be evil. But it was hard to think of any reason to try and wipe another race out. Not wanting to think on this too much right now, Twilight looked at the red filly "Why are you glaring at me so much?" "Because you hit me with a giant rainbow of friendship. I have to go through puberty a second time now!" Twilight had to take a step back (both literally and mentally) to recognize this pony, of course the last time they met she was trying to make an army of teenagers. "Sunset? W-what happened to you?" What had been done to her friend to create the monster before her? The demon pony grinned "I'm not Sunset anymore. That little wimp is still on the other side of the mirror. I am Hellfire Shimmer, the imp of magic."- here, her grin became playful-"but don't worry. I have years before I'll become strong enough to do anything to you and, with the power the tree gave you, I'd have to be quite stupid to try anything now." "Hey" -the pink filly jumped up- "Leave Moony alone. Why do you two have to fight all the time?" She looked close to tears at this point. Fluttershy scooped her up without thinking "don't cry" The next moment, she dropped the filly with a neon blush after she felt a hoof somewhere it should definitely not have been. She turned to apologize to see a look on the filly's face more at home on an adult pony who had drunk a little too much cider. "Aw, you dropped me on my rump." Her eyes went big and teary again "Kiss it better, please?" Fluttershy took a half step forward before her brain stalled, realizing what she was about to do. Murphy was unamused. 'Molestia! No traumatizing our new neighbors. If we want to live in this town, we have to behave, so that means no molestation."-he turned to look at Hellfire- "No hypnotizing"- Finally he cast his gaze on Nightmare who was just waking up. " and no night-terrors . At least not where they can find out" The 3 fillies bowed their heads in shame before apologizing. The girls were still stuck on the name of the last filly however. "What the samhill kinda name is Molestia?" Molly turned to face the girls "I was separated from Celestia centuries ago, I'm all the things about herself that she locked away. Now, she doesn't have to hide them because they aren't there anymore and I get all those emotions from her to feed on. That is why we can leave the pit; because we have a direct line of negative energy from our counter parts " Twilight was rebooting her mind, trying to connect the dots between this, this pervert and her mentor. Meanwhile, AJ remembered one of his earlier comments "Wait. What did ya mean by new neighbors?" Murphy's smile could have made paint dry. "I just bought the house down at the end of Mane Street I managed to collect enough negative energy that I don't have to live in the pit anymore and I can set up a portal to home from there so get used to seeing us around, girls. Now, children lets go get the new house set up and get you 3 enrolled in school." The demonic family left, uncaring of the utter brain malfunctions they had caused the 6 greatest heroes of Equestria(who, when their brains rebooted, were going to be getting to the bottom of this mess one way or another). It took 3 weeks for things to go back to 'normal', but things had been quiet after the new family moved in. Murphy found himself as the only stallion at a meeting for single parents at the school through which he met Berry Punch, Ditzy Do and Love Tap. The girls had checked up on him several times, but no problems in town could be linked to them. However, the short-lived altercation between Murphy and the Flim-Flam Brothers was still talked about. No pony had ever seen a unicorn bucked through a wall before. Even Twilight could not find any fault in what Murphy had done this time. The next major incident involving the new family happened when the town bullies picked on the only filly of the trio to act nice. After making her cry, they were told to apologize, and were gone for an hour. When they got back, they proceeded to apologize to every one of their former victims (including and especially the Cutie Mark Crusaders) before solemnly promising to never bully again. They had been model students after that. The girls knew something had happened, but they had no proof so they sat and waited. The only other major incident involved Scootaloo's parents who, after a conversation with Murphy, sent her to live with her cousin Ditzy. When confronted, all he said was "I simply made my displeasure of the way they were treating their child quite clear to them. I have no idea why they now seem afraid of cacti?" His face was so deadpan that no one believed him, but you can't arrest some one for talking. Even with all these changes things were slowly getting back to normal in town. Until one day when Twilight received a very strange journal. Author's Note Text displayed in red is infernal AKA the demon tongue.
III. a Whole New WorldSunset could only stare at the scene before her. Twilight had come through the portal with Spike and the next moment, a strange pink guy in a bucket hat had popped up and made her scream like a kid. She then proceeded to rant and rave at him while hitting him with the aforementioned hat. The next part in this train wreck was when Twilight mentioned his name. It was a bit hard to discern over her rant, but "Murphy" could be heard several times. Once they heard the name, several things happened. First, Applejack went paler then Rarity and hid behind said girl. Second, Pinkie's hair went flat. Finally, all of them to had a minor panic attack. Even Sunset, who had only heard about the 'Knife Party Incident' second hand, had slightly panicked. Pinkie quickly moved in once Twilight had calmed down and pulled Murphy into a hug. The next minute, she had her phone out and was taking a selfie with him before posting it. The screams of terror coming from the school caused the girls to quickly check the post to see the caption "Twinsies" under it (most likely leading the school to think there were now two mentally unstable beings outside). AJ had taken one look at Pinkie and started to hyperventilate! Rainbow finally had enough "Okay what's up with you?" Applejack took a moment to compose herself before answering "Oh nothin much. Just trying to process how much the monster that killed my aunt and uncle looks like one of my friends!" She went back to hiding as the girls, including Twilight, stared at Murphy in horror. After a moment of no one talking, Murphy spoke "What? Those skin puppets tried to ritually sacrifice their own niece to me when they summoned me. I may have a black heart, but I do not harm children. It goes against the very purpose I was made for, so I decided show my displeasure with their actions, by rearrange their faces and turning them inside out." This, surprisingly, did nothing to calm the girls down. Rarity, after taking a moment to process the utter wrongness of what she had just heard, noticed that Pinkie was still hugging this, this thing "Dear, how can you stand to be near that abomination!?" Pinkie just grinned "He saved me years ago from a bad illness, the end result of his actions lead to why I was in therapy for most of my younger years and had that relapse back in middle school. Yeah, he caused me to have a very strange view of the world, so I can see why he would react the way he did if someone tried to kill a member of their family in front of him." This made the girls pause. They still felt his actions were wrong, but looking at them from that perspective, made it slightly less horrid. Sunset, however, was focused on small parts of his story. But that was impossible. The Princesses had killed all of them. "How are you alive?" Murphy looked at her for a moment before his eyes flashed red . "Ah, you mean the rainbow massacre. I was in the pit caring for about 400 eggs and 200 larva at the time. I had never truly appreciated the soft spot you ponies (or people) had for children until that moment. " Sunset could only nod, and try to get the image of this guy dressed as Nanny McFilly out of her head. Twilight was looking at him with a stern expression. "What's with the big discrepancy in your attitude? Back in Equestria, you seemed quite polite, if annoying. Here, you're being an ass!" before rethinking what she said and amended "Sorry, cranky." "That is because if I don't behave in your world, then some giant crystal artifact will blow me the fuck up!"-all the girls gasped at that, though Twilight looked confused.-"Sorry. I'm normally far more composed. That subject just makes me a little bit,- no, make that absolutely livid." at the end of his statement a set of ram horns sprang from the side of his head. Pinkie was next to him in an instant taking another selfie. (this one read me and my demon bro) While Twilight back-paddled "H-how? The portal shuts down magic." Murphy held out his left hand which ignited in a bright red flame . "My power is not from Equestria .The portal has no effect on me. Now, if you will excuse me. I'm going to see who I can sucker into a deal. " Murphy used their brain fart from seeing his power to run into the school and hide as a student. 'This is going to be fun." While the girls were scrambling to find him, Murphy had checked out the students, he had narrowed his list of targets down to 2 people, "Lets see I can't do anything to Sparky's boy toy, not without eating rainbows. So that leaves." "Demon! Come out and face Trixie!"-Murphy loved his power of causality.-"You will give me what I want." Sunset ran around a corner "Thank Faust for Trixie's love of speeches." She pulled around the last turn just in time to hear the end of Trixies 'request' "You will give Trixie great and powerful magic!" Murphy paused as if waiting for something. When Trixie just stood with her hand outstretched, it took all of Murphy's practice to keep his smile friendly. Sunset realized what was about to happen but, as she headed to interrupt them, she slipped on a banana peel, hit a wet floor sign, and ended up head first in a trash can. She got her head out just in time for the girls to catch up with her and hear Murphy's response. "Then we have a deal." When they shook hands, Trixie was enveloped in ethereal energy cascading red and black swirls surrounded them for a moment, when the energy dissipated, the two were locked in a staring contest. "You know what to do, magician." Trixie, unlike her normal behavior, nodded before heading on her way like nothing was wrong. Murphy turned to the girls with a smug grin "See you at band practice, girls" and with that he was gone no smoke no noise or flame or anything just gone. The girls knew they were in trouble, now they had the sirens AND what ever the heck he did to Trixie to deal with. And, to make matters just that much worse, How did he know they started a band? Edge of town Murphy walked out from behind a tree laughing his ass off. "I haven't had this much fun since I tricked Gary into thinking the breezies stole his pants. Ah, I miss tricking that moron" -Murphy paused to look around before pulling a map out of his hat- "Lets see. If I'm right, the door should be just over here." It took a bit to find it, but there it was. Layered with more warning signs and half dead wards than any other place in the country stood the door to Tartarus (well the one for this world) . Murphy could feel the powers holding the door shut. Sadly, no one had thought to make the same protection stop the door from being opened from this side. With a mighty groan and the rush of stale air, the door was opened for the first time since humanity forgot magic. Murphy felt his power grow as, for the first time in his life, he left Tartarus completely. In the pony world, he had to leave most of his power in the pit to help keep the imps fed. With the negative energy from the human world, however, he could leave the eggs to incubate (The larva were killed by Tirek to gain power). "Ah, it's good to be free. Guess I should check that everything is 100% before I go though." Murphy followed the path. Right past the screaming heads, left at the blood fountain and right past the skinless corpse of a centaur. When he stepped into the pit, he paused to admire the large ball of red and orange magic in the room which was feeding all the eggs and, right on time, he watched the trail of negative energy from the human world connect with the ball causing to grow stronger then it had ever been. "Fixing that old thing was my best idea yet. it took time, effort and lots of bodies, but now all I have to do is wait."- After checking the eggs, he could only sigh- "For about 200 years, it seems. Damn. I forgot how slow these things are to grow. One of the downsides to immortality, I suppose, is that you tend to forget how long certain time periods are."- He turned back down the path, already planning the best way to gather a surplus of energy without getting caught- "Now lets see how the girls are doing, and check up on my little magician." Murphy's dark laugh filled the silence of the deep and 3 muses felt like something had driven a truck over their graves.
IV. The Gangs all hereTrixie had gathered her 2 minions to show off her new powers. She could make any illusion she wanted, teleport, levitate heavy objects with seemingly no effort and even transfigure objects with a snap of her fingers. Her dream of being a stage magician was closer than ever before, but she just could not get it right. Oh, her friends were telling her it was amazing, but that's why they were her friends; they were toadies. But she knew it wasn't right because every time she tried to summon up the bravado and confidence she had used for most of her life, it just drained away, she had to actively think to talk in 3rd person now. That had been a reflex for over 3 years! Had that demon done something to her? Her memories of what happened after she took his hand were fuzzy. She knew about getting her magic, but had something else happened? She was about to pull her hair out when they heard a knock on the door. Lavender jumped up and answered only to stare at the strange guy. He looked very professional, but something seemed off. Oh, there it was. He had ram horns!? Trixie barged up to him. She had not her usual bravado, but she had plenty of anger. "You - what did you do to me? I can't perform like this!" Murphy just looked at her for a moment "Hi. Name's Murphy. You know, the guy you made a deal with and forgot to set the price. What?! Did you think I was going to do just give something to you? That's not how this works, young lady. Be glad I only took some personality quirks and not your ability to feel pain or something equally as lethal." Trixie tried to scowl at him, it looked more like a pout "But I need those to be a good magician. There has to be some way we can fix this?" Murphy just pinched his nose "Fine. Give me something in exchange for the magic and something to put your emotions back to normal and we'll be square. Keep in mind it has to be equal to what you got in order to count."- After watching her fumble for an answer for a while, Murphy sighed-"Look how about this I will give you back the personality quirks, but in exchange they won't work unless you're performing. Sound fair?" Trixie half extended her arm before pulling back "Wait. Why should I trust that you'll keep your word?" This was the wrong thing to say as, the next moment, all 3 of the girls were having trouble breathing or standing. The room was filled with such an oppressive feeling rage, interlaced with so much raw desire to kill that Fuchsia lost control of her bladder. Murphy was sheathing "Never accuse me of lying! I am a devil! We ALWAYS keep our word! Just make sure you keep yours or you won't like the outcome"- The next instant the pressure disappeared and he was back to smiling- "Now then the deal?" Trixie took his hand in a with a slight shake in her arm, once that had been cleared up he continued "Now, as for paying for your magic I don't mind using an installment plan." Lavender's head tilted to the side "Uh come again?' "I'm willing to let you pay in installments for the magic. You two can get in on this deal to if you want."- After some deliberation, the 3 agreed to the plan. After all, how bad could the payments be if they were in chunks? "Great. here's a simple contract." Trixie read through the whole thing VERY carefully (even looking over the fine print with a powerful magnifying glass). Suddenly her personality shift was very helpful (in that she could think much more logically). Everything seemed in order until she got the point of what they would pay in "How are we supposed to gather negative emotions?" Murphy snapped his fingers and summoned an arm band with - an equal sign? "Just wear one of these and walk around it will soak up the negativity around you and send it to me. I'll visit on occasion and give you something extra if you gather a high amount in a month. So what do you say?" The 3 looked at one another for a moment before answering "Where do we sign?" Murphy could only grin. Things were looking up for him for the first time in a long time. Back in Equestria Molly, Moon and Shimmy were sitting in their temporary room, reevaluating their opinion of their hostess. Moon spoke up first "Okay, you two agree that that mare is just as scary as Murphy. Right?" They both nodded, but Molly was in some kind of daze. Due to Murphy going to the human world, he needed someone to watch them. Thus, they were staying with Love Tap, Button and Gibson. While they got along well with Button and Love Tap was okay, Gibson had annoyed them, to the point they locked him in a room with Molly for an hour. When Love Tap found them and saw the condition Gibson was in, they got a lecture that made the boss's normal punishment seem heavenly. After that, they had been on their best behavior (which was still bad) They had learned that the late father of their 2 new playmates (things) had died due to an accident at work involving an electrical surge. Murphy was not going to have a happy reunion with his friend when he got back because Hellfire had cracked during the lecture and let slip his power of causality to try and get her to back off, leading to their current fear of her. Molly blinked out of her daze "I hope he comes home soon. I want to see these two fight. It should be entertaining." and with that happy thought, the girls enacted their plan to cause some head aches wherever Murphy had run off to. Human world: Pie household The girls were trying to enjoy their slumber party when the house was shaken by a massive sneeze by the sound of it. The next moment there was a knock on the door, when they opened it they almost melted at the sight of a little girl in yellow pajamas holding a rabbit plushy. Only Twilight and Sunset were unaffected. Twilight just pinched her nose before talking "Hi Molly. When did you get here?" Molly just smiled cutely for about 5 minutes. She stopped the moment she saw Sunset, who Twilight finally noticed seemed to be going through a mental shutdown. Her eyes were glassy and unfocused her body was shifting from side to side on reflex and she was just staring at the girl-"SUNNY!" The next moment, the girls felt a breeze and turned to see that the girl had tackle hugged Sunset. They thought it was cute until they saw the look of utter despair on Sunsets face. Sunset's brain had started to go numb on reflex the moment she recognized that pink terror. She had come to this world to get away from that thing (and gain the power to defeat it). With dawning horror she realized the arsenic cherry on this well disguised cow pie. "She's young now. She can get away with anything. If she's caught, anyone older then her will be blamed and she'll be put in therapy before going on to the next victim. I'm dead!" The next moment, 2 other girls ran in and started yanking on Molly. "Damn she's dug in like a tick. Get off my food source, you greedy bimbo". One of the two newest girls was red skinned wearing a black and red night gown (Rarity was horrified at the near overdose of red) "Sister, let go of her. You can have fun later." The other was jet black wearing a navy blue set of footie pajamas which looked adorable. The look was ruined by her angry scowl however. 5 minutes later, they had managed to finally pry Molly and Sunset apart after Moon used her knowledge of Molly's tickle spot to make her give up. Twilight retook control of the situation right after she made sure Sunset was coherent. "Okay, what are you 3 even doing here? We have enough problems with your 'parent' here as it is." The humans in the room were just confused. After watching the girls pull Twilight off to the side (most likely to ask why she was interrogating children), Sunset noticed that one of the girls who was not the pink terror had sat next to her, before she could start talking the girl hugged her. It was nice and confusing. "Uh thanks but why are you hugging me?" The kid gave her a deadpan look "Am I really that hard to recognize bacon-head?" With that she went back to hugging her big sister/mother. Sunset's eyes widened. She knew that voice all too well. After all, it had been bothering her since she came to this world, it had been her only companion - especially after her failed attempt at gaining magic. She had never told anyone about the voice and one of the reasons she was so distraught after the rainbow was because she lost her oldest friend and was forced to see everything she had done wrong. She knew now that her 'friend' had been encouraging her actions but it was hard to stay mad at someone who had been there for you for several years. No mater what happened, she had been there. Sunset scooped Hellfire up into a tighter embrace and just sat there. Demon or not, she could not just ignore this part of herself any longer. Meanwhile, Twilight had been explaining her behavior to the girls. So far, it was not going well. As much as they believed that Murphy was a danger, it was hard for them to think the same of 3 little girls. Then they felt it, something in the room was radiating heat. when they turned around they watched in fascination (and slight terror) as the girl which was hugging Sunset started to grow. In less then a minute, she had reached the same size as Sunset, where she thankfully stopped. Sunset on the other hand started to grow a bit herself. By the time she stopped, she had gone from looking 16-17 years old to looking around 30! Sunset let go of her counterpart to see the girls staring at her (when had they gotten shorter?). She quickly realized something had changed after looking at herself in the mirror and doing a quick mental calculation she realized what had happened before turning to the girls with a sheepish grin. "I have some explaining to do, right?" Her only answer was a group of confused nods. This was going to be very awkward.
