Author's Note

This chapter is a crossover with Gilgamesh. Though it does effect the main storyline, not a whole lot.

Seeds sown -Gilgamesh-

I sat there in the empty demi-plane, staring at my talons, thinking about what Twilight had said to me. Why couldn’t I speak. I… I wasn’t lying, right? I stood up and started creating things within the demi-plane. A mountain twice as big as Mt. Everest in the distance, an ocean expanding around it, sky all around me, plants everywhere and finally, I created a dark gloom everywhere within the plane. I sighed to myself as, unbeknownst to me, my energy pulsed through the void pushing the negative and dark energy from the demi-plane. I was soon alerted to the possibility when a tear in space time opened up a few feet in front of me, a head popping out covered in a warrior’s helm.

“Huh. This a new,” the man muttered before seeing me. After staring for a few moments, the head of a large green canine appeared next to him. “Hello, I’m a lizard man from the dawn of time, and this is my heterosexual life partner,” he said, causing the canine to glare at him before rolling his eyes.

I looked before me and shook my head in confusion. “After all that has happened, I really shouldn’t be surprised, but somehow I am. Anyways, either get in or get out no halfway bull.” I stated to the creature in front of me while popping my talons. I created a chair for me to sit in and took a seat once more as I stared at the anomaly in front of me. The tear in spacetime widened allowing the man and the canine to fall in before gracefully turning in midair and landing on their feet and paws. The man was an extremely muscular, dressed entirely in armor with a naginata on his back and a red scarf around his neck. He was also at least two feet taller than me. I couldn’t remember the last time I had to look up to talk to someone. The canine was around the size of a lion and had some markings and small wings showing that it was more than just a mere large wolf.

“So, who’s home did I drop in on?” he asked.

“I’m Orcus, but who are you and how did you enter my realm?” I asked curiously.

He stood at attention like a soldier. “I am Valentinez Alkalinella Xifax Sicidabohertz Gumbigobilla Blue Stradivari Talentrent Pierre Andry Charton-Haymoss Ivanovici Baldeus George Doitzel Kaiser III. And my companion here is named Bob.”

The canine rolled his eyes again before reaching behind him, pulling out a sign that read “My name is Enkidu, and the idiot’s name is Gilgamesh.” The wolf then threw the sign at the man’s head, which bounced off harmlessly before shooting up into the sky and exploding creating a hole in the heavy, black cloud cover.

I raised an eyebrow and spoke, “And how did you get in here? Not to mention why?” I rolled a talon as if wishing for him to continue.

“Ah, well you see good sir,” he began in a British accent. “That would be a result of a combination of the properties of the weapon attached to my back, a small but no means insignificant Understanding of the inner workings of the entire multiverse, and study and replications of the innate abilities of one Pinkamina Diane Pie. Or, to put it in layman’s terms, ‘fuck you, that’s how.’”

I giggled at him and stood up making the chair disappear. “Well, now that is…” I paused for a moment and sniffed the air deeply. “Well isn’t this new. I smell human on you. Interesting, indeed…” I trailed off, pacing a bit as I opened a small window to peering into the void itself. “Very, interesting…” I chuckled.

“Oh, so I’m your first? Well, won’t that be fun. However, I need to ask you a question or two. But first,” he trailed off before reaching behind him and pulling out an iPhone. He began to look for something on it for a moment. “Uh huh… Uh huh… You said your name was Orcus, correct?”

I stared at him, finally noticing the blessing upon him. “Yes, I am Orcus, the Demon Prince of the Undead,” I answered with a bored tone.

“And according to Tv Tropes, the kind of person who’s likely to sit patiently on his throne, issuing out orders to his subordinates and not directly confront any adversaries until they pretty much come bursting through his imposing throne room doors,” he said before turning the device around so I could look at it, showing page titled “Orcus On His Throne.”

I chuckled and said, “Well, truthfully, when you dig in even further the books will tell you that the Orcus mentioned in the game itself grew tired of sitting upon his throne, eating his larvae,” I paused and summoned forth a fluorescent bug and dropped it down my throat then, continued, “and tried to begin another war.”

“Ah, I see. I never got around to Dungeons & Dragons. Too high a barrier of entry,” he said before tucking the device away. “Now, I don’t want to make assumptions based on appearances, but I’m going ot have to ask you a few questions. First of all, what is your relation to the Princesses of Equestria?”

“I treat the two sisters as if they were a new toy. I give them some respect, simply because they actually found a way to trap me,” I said with a laugh.

“I see. Well, I was going to ask why you had that relationship with them if your answer was in any way negative, but I believe you answered that question as well. So, I suppose my last question would be what are your end-goals for the Princesses, the ponies of Equestria, and the entire world in general?”

“Hm…” I said as I rubbed my chin, “well as I cannot tell a lie, and it would be pointless to try to walk around the subject… Unlike my game counterpart I... “ Once again I found myself unable to speak. “FUUUCK!” I screamed out as a large blast of black energy shot from my hand and the mountain behind Gilgamesh was disintegrated into nothing. Rather impressively, he didn’t even flinch.

“... Well, I’m confused. What was that about?”

I stood there breathing heavily for a moment. “I am in a blood pact, as a way to make the game more fair, that states that I cannot lie. However, even if I don’t think I’m lying, it will stop any lie. Apparently, what I was about to say was a lie,” I answered.

“Well, let me make this easier for you. What were you trying to say?”

“When I first escaped from that cage, I planned on turning the bearers to my side to make it so that, that stupid friendship, harmony and love laser of doom could no longer be used against me. Then I would turn this world into nothing, but undead,” I answered, unsure of what had changed.

“I see. And that has become a lie because… what?”

“I don’t know,” I said with gritted teeth, “Twilight asked something that made this happen as well. This is... just… FUCK!”

“I see. One last question, do you feel that you still want your original plan to come to fruition if maybe not in the exact way you intended it? I.E., the whole ‘destroying friendship, turning the whole world into undead’ thing?”

“I care not for…” I was stopped once more. “Most of the creatures on this world. I don’t see them as people and haven’t for the six thousand years I have been here. I made the start of my empire once. What was known as the Crystal Empire at the time. All those undead, it was beautiful. Then I was blasted by the elements and Celestia and Luna had to turn it into a smoking husk because they could not reverse what I had done. It’s not often that they fight undead that can think on their own and breed like locusts.” I chuckled.

“I see. So in the end you do still want to take over and enslave Equestria, turning into your own necropolis empire,” he said before placing both hands on my shoulders. Then he did something that I never would’ve expected from him or really anyone else.

He bit me. He actually bit into my face and tore a chunk of flesh from it. The next moment the piece of flesh was burnt to a crisp by what I could only describe as some kind of flaming breath. “Then we’re gonna have a fucking problem now, aren’t we?” he said, his voice reverberating with power as his eyes glowed red. He then punched me in the face hard enough to send me flying.

I landed a decently far distance away and stood up with a growl, my face pouring black ichor from the wound. Then, I chuckled darkly, “It’s been so long since I’ve seen my own blood, or even felt pain.” I cracked my neck and my body changed. Now, I stood around fourteen feet tall, my wings grew more ragged and a dank stench surrounded me. However, the biggest difference was that my head was now nothing but a skull. I summoned my mace and brought forth a dracolich. “My turn,” I said with a laugh as the creature flew towards him.

He smirked in response. “Henshin,” he said before he radiated an intense light. When it faded his form had changed. Though he was still clad in armor his helmet no longer had a faceguard. Instead a red cloak covered his head, showing off the kabuki style face paint and horns coming from the sides of his helmet. There were also many little changes but the two most significant ones were that he now stood twelve feet tall and he had four extra arms. Each hand held an unique and ornate blade, and I could sense unique readings of power from each one.

Then, to top it all of, music began to radiate from him. His eyes shined red while his mouth stretched into a psychotic smirk. “Ready to die?”

The dracolich breathed a dank black fire at him, roaring as it did. I screamed with a laugh in my voice, “I can’t die, I’m already dead.”

A tornado of wind blew away the dracolich’s breath before a stream of fire came and incinerated it to nothing. Gilgamesh then took to the air with his own pair of red dragon-like wings. “You wouldn’t be the first undead I’ve erased from existence,” he boasted before firing a building sized beam of heat from his eyes.

I simply laughed and took the beam. “Oh, hitting a demon with heat. Sorry, not made of ice.”

“Just testing the waters,” he replied. “Toke wo tomare!” he shouted. He seemed to be expecting something to happen, but whatever it was, it didn’t. “What the… Oh, I see. No time here. Well, I have other options,” he said before he exhaled for a moment. He then inhaled and it was like a black hole had suddenly appeared, sucking everything in towards it, me included. I appeared behind him and blasted him with the spell Demise Unseen, expecting him to die instantly and create a relatively powerful undead with the single spell.

He turned to face me, smiling. “Was that supposed to do something?” he asked before quickly dispersing his weapons into nothingness, then grabbing both my arms, my wings, and my head. “Holy,” he said before I was hit by the unmistakable searing pain of Holy Magic from each one of his six palms.

I grunted in the agony of the positive energy that pulsed its way through my undead flesh. My flesh withered slowly as I growled at him, unable to physically match his strength I tried to move my tail to fire a spell from it. However, the only thing that happened was that it simply fell off, turning to dust as it made its journey. I looked to him and headbutted him, unfortunately all it did was cause and indent in my skull. I continued to wither. “Before you kill me, at least tell me what you meant by ‘my first’ when you first came here,” I said hoping to buy myself some time.

He smiled and let me go before a spell of magical chains appeared and held me down. “Does the word ‘multiverse’ mean anything to you?” he asked, his glowing red eyes and reverberating voice now gone?

“The multiverse theory, that is pretty much proven by you and myself as I am not from Equis and you came in through a personal backdoor. I understand the concept, somewhat. However, beyond that I have never looked past what has happened,” I answered, as I tried to think of a way out, my magical resistance doing nothing against his form of magic.

“Well, add to that the Parallel Universe Theory as well. Did you think this Equis is the only one? Do you think your Earth is the only one? Countless versions of both, a near infinite amount! And in many of them, people whisked away from their homeworlds with new forms and abilities. People like you, and me.”

I looked at the chains and huffed as I found no way out of the current situation. I popped my jaw a bit and thought of my next words carefully. “The last thing I remember from before I found myself here was being hit by a truck. At first I thought I was in a coma, as I felt no pain. I still somewhat believed that until you bit me,” I said thoughtfully as my wounds stitched themselves together. “Also, the Parallel Universe theory would make sense intertwined with the Multiverse. You see, I’m fairly good with numbers. Do you know what a googol actually is?” I asked.

“Let’s see, if I remember correctly, it’s ten to the power of one hundred. Are you actually going somewhere with this, or are you just stalling for time so you can give me a reason to kill you?”

“No. There is reason for my statement. It was once stated that if the universe was a googol kilometers wide that there would only be enough information in that universe that the same person, exactly the same person, would be repeated four times. So, Parallels do make a lot of sense.” I answered. “Also, I gave you enough reason to kill me when you entered, this was made very clear. Though, I have already died once. That truck really hurt,” I continued. “So, there are many in a similar case as me? Whisked to a completely unknown world.”

“Oh, like you wouldn’t believe. Though, to be honest, you’re one of the few I’ve met that died before it happened. Most get whisked away after buying something from a shady vendor at a con. But now, I have one question before I decide whether or not to kill you right here and now, and I assure you I can make it permanent. You said Twilight asked you something earlier, didn’t you? How exactly have you been interacting with her?”

I clicked my teeth together and answered, “I took housing in the castle in the everfree, after fixing it up of course, and walked to her crystalline castle. I spoke to her originally fully intending on keeping my identity and purpose hidden. However, Discord came to speak to her as well and after revealing my nature and wetting himself, he left. I made a blood pact with her stating that I would help her and her friends at any point during the game. I also decided to train them, originally this was because I did not want weak allies. Twilight asked me why I was working so hard to train them while we were alone. I tried to tell her what I thought was the truth and couldn’t speak. You asked me what I thought of the princesses. I answered for Luna and Celestia, but I don’t rightly know about Twilight.” My rambling trailed as the glowing orange orbs that were my eyes dulled.

His smile widened. Then he began to chuckle before he threw his head back and laughed. This continued on long enough that I began to get irritated. After about a minute he finally calmed down. “I see. So that’s it. The seed has been planted, and you don’t even realize it.”

I sighed and changed my face back to the fleshy version. I looked up at him with a cocked eyebrow. “What seed?” I asked. Unbeknownst to me, my naivety and inexperience oozed from my words and stance.

He giggled at that. “Orcus, I think I have a proposition for you. But first, please explain the ins and out of these ‘Blood Pacts,’ if you please.”

“How detailed an explanation do you wish?” I asked, unsure of what I was even doing anymore.

“How effective are they, what kind of limitations do they have, any loopholes, the standard stuff anyone intelligent should know before they sign a contract.”

“The effectiveness of a blood pact changes from individual to individual. Pacts made with demons or angels can be subverted by one with enough power. However, pacts made with a god, such as myself, cannot be subverted regardless of power. Limitations and loopholes are similar. Take the pact involving lying, a demon or angel under this pact would be able to tell a lie they thought was truth, but mine won’t even allow that. Loopholes in a blood pact are filled up by the magic involved thus my magic filled all presented loopholes. It’s not like a court case where how something is written changes things. It became an absolute because of those involved,” I answered. “Also, one pact cannot conflict with another. Well, ‘can’t’ is iffy. One made with a god cannot conflict, however one made with a lesser power would cause the instant death of the ones involved in the pact and a mass exodus of the magical energy involved. Basically, boom.” I added.

“I see. So I’m going to have word this carefully,” he muttered. “Very well Orcus, I will spare your life and leave, allowing you to go about your merry way, if you make a Blood Pact with me and make sure none of the things I ask for conflict with the other pacts you’ve made.”

“Well, that’s a bit of a turn around. I completely thought this was the end for me. I mean hell, I didn’t even realize how much I was weakened before you came. I shouldn’t be able to feel pain at all regardless of damage and in my other forms my blood still ran black. Well, not like I have much of a choice. I like not dieing.” I rambled.

“Very well then,” he said before whistling, calling Enkidu over. I had honestly forgotten about him. “RUUUUUUUUUULE NUMBERONE!” he announced dramatically as Enkidu held up some signs for visual aid. “If you ever do complete your goal of turning all of Equis into your own personal Undead Empire,” he began, Enkidu changing to sign to a chibi picture of me ruling over a hellish wasteland. “You must immediately alert me to your doing so,” he finished, Enkidu changing the sign to a chibi Gilgamesh popping out and stabbing the chibi me in the back as I died.

I interrupted quickly, “Don’t try to make rules now. My magic is bound currently and the pact has yet to be started.”

“What? I’m just laying out what we will be agreeing on. What’s the problem?”

“Truthfully, I just hate repetition. It will need to be said again if you wait too long... ah fuck it do what you will,” I grumbled.

“Ok then. RUUUUUUUUUULE NUMBERTWO!” he announced as I groaned. “Should you so desire you may call upon me to help aid you in battle, so long as the goal you are trying to achieve is to save the lives of the Princesses or anyone they would want to save.” Enkidu held up a sign of a chibi me and Gilgamesh ready to battle, standing in the way of some evil looking creatures as some ponies cowered behind us. “So basically their subjects, their allies, and their friends and family.”

“Ok, that doesn’t conflict with anything,” I stated.

“And finally, RUUUUUUUUUULE NUMBERTHREE!” he said. “With the exception of the first rule, you and I cannot harm each other,” he said as Enkidu held up a sign of a chibi me Gilgamesh having a slap fight with a big red no circle covering it. “So, do we have a deal?”

I huffed and began some introspection. He stated, ‘when I create my empire’ I could think of a way to defeat him by that point. Secondly, having him help would take away the issue of if an equestrian tries to harm Twilight or her friends thus allowing me to keep true to both pacts. Third, he is smart enough to think of a way to prevent direct backstabbing. I looked at him and said, “those rules are fine for the most part however there are two things I would like to address. First, the third rule does not prevent us from sending others to do the backstabbing for us. Secondly, I would like to add that along with you coming to help me, I offer a similar standing to you. The difference is that I will come whenever you ask for help. Now, can you unchain me, this is very uncomfortable.”

“Alright, that’s fine. To be honest, I intentionally left out the part about making sure we couldn’t send other to kill each other because I wanted to be able to send someone else to kill you if I felt you were being too big of a problem,” he said with an unsettlingly cheerful smile. “And I’m also quite surprised you offered to lend me a hand as well. Just trying to make the sides even?” he asked as the chains dispersed.

“No, while I do prefer to be fair about things, it’s more fun that way, I honestly respect you. You showed me you had enough power to do what you said. Though I am in a weakened state, it seems as if even if I were more powerful you may still be able to handle me,” I answered and rubbed my wrists. I stood up and summoned a knife. I held the knife out to him and said, “you stated the rules and have enough power to start the pact therefore, simply slit your palm. I’ll do the same. Then, we’ll shake on it.” I continued.

“Sounds good!” he said and extended his hand. I passed him the knife and waited. He spun the blade in one hand, tossing it back and forth between his six hands, before finally quickly slicing one palm. “Your turn,” he said as he handed it back.

I ran the blade across my hand and black ichor once more oozed from the wound, though this time I felt nothing. I gripped his bleeding hand and said, “I agree to the terms presented.” Magic flowed from him to me and then back from me to him as the pact was made.

He chuckled. “Well, this should be an interesting project on the backburner. But now, me and my companion must be off to find more adventure, as is our way. But first,” he pulled out a medallion and flicked it at me. I caught it and observed it was brown with a red insignia that looked similar to the one on the end of his scarf. “You can use that to call me for help when the agreed upon conditions are met. And, I have one last thing to tell you before we go.”

I shrunk instantly into my six foot form clothed in my white suit and stuck the medallion in my jacket pocket. “Ooo, now I feel fancy,” I said with a chuckle. Then, I looked to him and asked, “and that is?”

His mouth stretched into a shit-eating grin. “This universe, and all the other Equestrias, are based off a little girl’s T.V. show. Have fun with that,” he said before returning to his base form, cutting open a hole to the Void, and jumping in with his friend.

I watched the hole closed took a deep breath and uttered one word audible to all traversing the void close enough, “FUUUUCCCCCKKKK!!!!”