Author's Note

Just a one-off thing I came up with when I saw a cover image for a random anime I've already lost interest in. (Don't remember the name...) Got a single idea in my mind and from that image, I wrote this in a few hours...

Comments, Questions and Concerns are always appreciated. Edits are always appreciated.

Addendum: No longer a one shot for simple reason that I wanted to write more of it. Also, I'm not good at once-shots, I realize this...

The Haven Incident - Chaos

For the longest time, the defence of Equestria has come down to the princesses using their almighty power to fight off evil, and either purify them with the Elements of Harmony, or more often than not banish their opponent to Tartarus. There have been some exceptions, true, but most of the time, all combat the princesses have seen have followed this practice.

But what happens when a new enemy breaks that mould?

December thirty-first, the very last day of the third year of the two sister’s reign, that mould was broken. For on that fateful day, in the middle of the town of Haven, the reality which the Equestrians faced was irreparably destroyed. In the middle of town, amidst hundreds of ponies going about their daily lives, a rift between worlds was torn open. The rip consumed no less that thirty unfortunate souls, now forever lost to time. What came out of that tear, would consume the lives of the entire town.

Demons, creatures of the underworld hell bent on consuming the souls of every living creature in this new hunting ground, poured from this hole in the fabric of reality and dispersed across the world before the Guard could be dispatched to react. The town of Haven was lost in a gruesome slaughter, foals ripped to shreds before their parents, then would be soon joined by the broken bodies of their friends and families. By the time the princesses themselves had responded, there was nothing but red snow and ruins. The following are the early hours of what became known as the Haven Massacre, and how the appearance of one soul from the rift forever changed the lives of the ponies.

~~~

The day was bright and sunny, even despite the weather reports of a snowstorm being prepared to blow in from the north; carried on the wings of pegasi for one last white out before Winter Wrap-up.

Hybrid Theory, a unicorn and scholar, had come home for a few days to visit with his family for the first time in almost eight months. Continuous experiments and lessons at the University of Canterlot had kept him busy and away from home much more than he’d liked and he’d intended to remedy the situation with a couple days of relaxation.

Lieutenant Blue Steel, a pegasus Royal Guard on protection assignment from Canterlot for the next six months. Already well into his years, Steel had suffered a wing injury a few years back and was permanently grounded. He’d been declared unfit for active duty in the Castle, so instead opted to take up town protection jobs as the need arose.

Green Apple, an Earth Pony mare who’d helped to set up a local farm for the town in order to try and alleviate some of the welfare payments the town could no longer afford to the Crown. She’d come into town in order to sell the last of the year’s harvest, not really expecting to make very much given that most ponies were already stuck at home with their families and with full tables. Her appearance and setting up had been a great boon to the towns ponies and many thought that she’d been the savior of their settlement.

Finally, Georgia Nine-tail. A visiting Griffon merchant hawking her much more exotic wares from her home land. She was already in the process of closing up shop, having made not much money in the first place as nopony ever wanted to associate with her kind after a set of rumors had been leaked regarding her diet and what she liked to gorge herself on. A social outcast amongst the ponies, Georgia always believed that no one would ever really miss her in Equestria if she just never came back; her sales supported such a claim in her mind.

These four individuals, completely unaware of each other’s presences or even their importance in coming hours, went about their way completely oblivious to what fate was about to befall them. It was just after afternoon work breaks, about three in the afternoon or so, when the tear had formed.

Hybrid Theory was the first to recognize the feeling of reality shifting around on itself as an unidentifiable source of magic suddenly appearing. His head swivelled in confusion as his horn lit up with a detection spell, making attempts to try and find the source of the strange feelings in his soul. Temporarily detoured from his original goal, his horn lead Hybrid back towards the center of town where he noticed a strangeness in the air before him.

“What in the heavens?” he muttered to himself, otherwise unheard by anyone who’d happened to pass him by. His looks seemed to draw the curious gazes of a few other ponies, who all noticed the strange effects in the skies as well.

The sky seemed to gyrate, flow in patterns unaccustomed to by the locals and warping their perceptions of space as it existed and increased in strength and frequency. Hybrid was soon joined by a much larger group of ponies, one or two guards as well who’d armed themselves with their spears in preparation for anything. Or so they thought.

The unbearable heat came just as quickly as the tear did; a rip in the fabric of space and time appearing in the strange space before everyone gathered, pony and griffon alike. And with the heat came the abominations. The aberrations of unimaginable torture spilling out from the wound in reality with nasty, snarling grins and whoops and hollers of victory as they were let free into an all new hunting ground, ripe for the taking.

The guards acted as quickly as they could, throwing up shield spells to try and contain the hellish creatures to lighting their horns and weapons up in spellfire and enchanted ammunition to try and beat back the invaders before they could escape into the world.

It was all for nought, however, as the hellspawn ignored the blasts, the arrows, the shields and tore ravenously into the bodies of the guard ponies, sinking their teeth deep into their flesh and tearing out massive chunks to begin their feasting. The crowd had quickly been set upon by these foul beasts, women and children unspared in the invasion as entire families were set alight by imp fire and then set upon by hellhounds hungry for dinner.

Then the large ones came. Massive creatures of darkness, of hell flames and death stepped through, one foot at a time with a hand on the edge of reality to help pull themselves through. Other, gargantuan hell beasts with horns bigger around than most stallion’s bodies piled together (of which there were soon many) shoved themselves through the rip, trying to be the first of their kind in order to establish as much hunting territory belonging to them as they could in the early seconds of arriving.

As the creatures continued to pile out through the hole, the hole grew larger and larger, flames of hell, black and blue and red and white, began to leak out and instantly evaporated the snow, before setting the very ground alight. With the arrival of a lake of fire, came the “Aquatic” creatures. Sirens cross-bred with succubi emerged from the rift, giggling and laughing away as they chattered, their words an incomprehensible song that lured the surviving male creatures of the new world to their doom.

Then a break in the line and those who somehow survived wondered if it was done, if this was the end. But it wasn’t. Not yet. For with the break followed a procession of demons, all chained together at the neck, at the arms, and the legs, at the hips. The chains went on further back, entire legions of hellish beings appearing chained together and wailing their eternal pains as a massive stage coach was dragged from the tear. The coach had been very clearly build from the bones and bodies of the dead, even still being build with new bodies of ponies collected and strapped to the vehicle kicking and screaming.

It wasn’t clear what rode in this dastardly vehicle, but it was clear that it was something to be feared, revered and loathed. Even without knowing what was in it, there was an aire of superiority, of confidence and power.

Across the small, desecrated plaza, a bubble of energy burst, leaving six mares looking worse for wear from the trip, with a single purple alicorn at the center looking absolutely livid. All six mares, each a variant of the three main pony races, found themselves in what could only be called hell on Equus.

Holding in their lunch, the alicorn fired up her horn with the combined power of her friends and began the task of defending her country, her world, her soul and the souls of everyone still alive.

With the combined energy of their Friendship the alicorn fired off a massive burst of rainbow magic and cast it over a wide area of effect, with the carriage the primary target. The charge went on for seconds before the energy died off completely. The six ponies, looking quite drained, dared to look up at their handiwork, expecting everything to be right again, however lost their lunch when they found that absolutely nothing had changed.

Their energy collectively spent, an order came from the carriage and six demons were set upon the ponies. The alicorn, fearful for her and her friends’ souls, fired up the most powerful shield spell she knew to try and save themselves, and prepared herself for the worst.

Her shield was useless. A creature of Tartarus shot out it’s claw, aiming it for the purple one’s throat and simply pierced through the shield and raked it’s razor sharp fingers across the side of her head, causing the fires of hell to erupt throughout the pony’s head and into her horn. The disruption nullified her magic and her shield quickly broke apart like glass.

The other girls were about to suffer under the hands of their own approaching demons, when a flash of the purest light intervened and shredded the demons about to lay their hands, claws or teeth on their bodies.

The purple alicorn was temporarily freed of her pain, however she had been rendered unconscious in the attack and fell limp to the ground, caught by an unknown bright yellow magical field.

“I’m so sorry, my faithful student.” the owner whispered to the youngest alicorn and teleported her away from immediate harm. A second flash, this one blue, and the other five mares disappeared to safer spaces. Both newcomers turned to the fight at hoof full on, both glaring razor sharp daggers the likes of which most demons associated with their lords.

The larger one, white furred and sunfire in her mane and tail, erupting like a volcano from the gaps in her Sun-enchanted armour let her eyes burn white with the fires of her celestial object. Her mere gaze roamed over most of the lesser demons assembled and burned them away in holy fire, freeing their corrupted souls and returning them to the void for punishment.

The smaller one, black in fur and armoured in a set that sent shivers of fear down the spines of ponies who recognized it, let her swirling mass of mane and tail roam around her, casting shadows the likes of which no beast of Tartarus had ever encountered before. Blue eyes and slitted, they roamed over the new field of carnage with a vengeance and swore eternal damnation to all creatures who’d been caught in her watch.

With a roar, both alicorns reared up and channelled the power equal of the gods into their horns and hooves, before bringing them down. A crashing wave of pure magic erupted from their hooves and washed over the assembled hellspawn all at once. Most of the nearby lesser demons were instantly vaporised, but many of the upper class demons remained hearty and prepared themselves for a good hunt. These two sisters would prove to be plentiful for their needs.

A word was shouted, the origin unclear to all not from the tear. It’s language in-comprehensive to the ponies, but even just hearing it made those still alive feel the pain of damnation run through their bodies as the single word reverberated throughout their soul.

Silence fell, and the demons all lowered themselves to their knees, bowing their heads through either fear, or respect towards the carriage. The curtains stained red with blood shifted and as they did so, the very sun itself dimmed from a bright white to a crimson red. The eldest Alicorn looked confused at her sun for a moment, trying to figure out what had just happened but put the thought aside when the curtain flaps were pushed aside and a single, solitary figure appearing in heavy plate armour and carrying it’s helmet.

Both Alicorns gave pause, letting gasps of air escape from their muzzles as they noticed how the figure managed to operate perfectly, seemingly without a head. Their eyes went back down to the helmet in the figure’s grasp, and a single word silently echoed through their minds.

Accepting the enemy as it was, the pair of alicorn sisters prepared for the fight of their lives. A fight that if need be, they’d give their lives for the sakes of their little ponies. In the younger one’s heart, she felt nothing but joy at the taste of entering into a potentially fierce skirmish with a powerful foe for the first time in over a millennia. The older one silently prayed that if she died, that her little ponies wouldn't suffer because of her failure.

The younger one lit up her horn in a dark blue magical aura and a set of swords, twelve in all, appeared in a crescent arc behind her head. It had been a very long time since she’d used this set of celestial weapons and yet, she didn’t let it show as she held the weapons expertly in her magic, her mind equally split controlling all twelve as though they were merely shadows of each other; move one and the rest followed suit.

The older one did the same with her own magic and summoned forth a trio of extraordinarily large weaponry. Two of which rested stowed on her back, the third held firmly by the hilt in her magic to the left of her head; the massive greatsword reflected the light of the corrupted sun from it’s surface and purifying the reflected light back into it’s true, white light.

On her back rested a massive great hammer forged from chunks of metal retrieved from the very ore of the planet and refined into the purest metal to ever exist. Crossing it at the haft was a similar axe of the same make and metal, the both of them enchanted to channel pure holy sunfire into every single strike.

The Dullahan responded in kind, merely placing his free hand on the pommel of his own great sword while a pair of glowing red eyes blinked into existence from the darkness in the helmet.

The Warrior Princesses acted first, charging with yells of rage and power and swept their weapons through every demon between them and the enemy commander. The enemy responded by tossing his helmet up into the air above everything. His now free hand let him properly draw his weapon and armed himself appropriately for the coming challengers.

Almost as though in slow motion, the dullahan took three steps forwards and yet, seemed to have moved across the entire field of battle. This took the princesses by surprise, yet they did not falter and instead met their foe with the business ends of their weapons.

Time resumed, and the opponents no longer faced each other. Instead, the three weapons held by the older one each crumbled to dust at the owner’s hooves. Yet she received the long end of the stick, as her sister let out an ear shattering howl. Turning towards her sister the eldest sister’s eyes went wide as she found her younger on the ground, half of her horn missing from her forehead and all twelve blades buried blade down in the dirt around her sister; they’d only narrowly missed causing harm to her hide.

The princess of the sun turned back to the enemy and watched wide eyed as he put his sword away and caught his head in a single motion. She turned back to her sister’s health and watched with mourning eyes as the blue princess, now returned to her normal form and with mane and tail lying flat against her head, cradled the end of her horn and wept to herself.

She would finish this, she had to be sure of it. Already there was too much lost and she would not risk the fate of the world if she did not finish this fight and get the moon under control herself. No longer with her own great-weapons, she instead took possession of the Zodiac Blades and gave all twelve a firm flick to clean off whatever stained their glossy surfaces.

She pawed at the ground, digging up a divot in which to set her hoof for a sudden start and lowered her head, her horn to be leading the next charge. The enemy saw this and prepared as well, resting a hand on the pommel as before and lightly tossing his helmet into the air before catching it. It was taunting her, promising to do the same thing to her as it did to her sister.

Then the light tossing stopped and the eyes of the dullahan went wide, if the size of the glowing orbs in the blackness were any indication. The Dullahan even seemed to look hesitant, afraid, of the older princess. As it should, there was a reason why she’d lived so long after all. Baring her teeth menacingly, the white alicorn began to circle around the dullahan, expecting him to follow suit however stopped only an eighth of the circuit when she noticed how the dullahan was no longer watching her, instead seemed to be watching whatever was where the princess had been standing.

The eldest princess of the sun stood up straight, keeping her weapons at the ready for any dastardly trick it may have had up its sleeves, and divided her attention long enough to look towards the direction of the dullahans fear. A quick look showed that even the demons, lesser or greater, it didn’t matter, all seemed to be inching away from the rip in space with pure terror on their various faces.

Her eyes shot to the tear and let her gaze settle on a single, solitary bipedal figure approaching the tear with one arm blazing to the shoulder in blue hell-fire and the other clenched in a fist with the strangest arcane symbols glowing on his bare, tanned and hairy skin. It was covered in a set of clothing, from chest to hoof, be it a pair of black pants, the grey T-shirt over which hung a pendant of some kind, over all that was an open blue jacket, the sleeves rolled up to the elbows on one arm and completely shredded to the shoulder for the arm which burned. On it’s feet were a set of fully enclosing shoes, looking to be made of a rather sturdy material even if each shoe looked to be stained in what the alicorn supposed was blood.

A look at its face as it stepped through the ripple showed that even its eyes seemed to be glowing with whatever magic it possessed; it’s right eye looking to be burning from the socket while the left remained completely shut even though small slivers of holy light seeped from between cracks in the lids defences. Everywhere this pure light touched, the ground was restored to it’s former, harmonic state and the hellish environment banished. If the light in that being's eye could do that to the ground, surely it could easily banish the hell spawn just the same.

Then a thought struck the alicorn. It’s eye was closed for a reason, the light kept away from the world for a reason. Perhaps that light wasn’t as safe as the princess had thought?

A sudden word from the dullahan, and every demon capable of some kind of ranged offensive attack raised their arms and fired everything they had at the newcomer. The newcomer remained indifferent to the onslaught of fireballs, corrupted arrows or other fiendish spell as he raised his left arm defensively. The symbols glowed momentarily before leaping off his skin and forming a simple, full body shield.

The older alicorn wanted to shout out, tell the creature that shield magic wouldn’t save him, but held her tongue when the barrage of attacks rained down on the creature, striking the shield and disappearing without so much of a fizzle of smoke.

The alicorn carefully crept back towards her sister who’d still remained curled up on the ground, still mourning the loss of her horn and her magic in order to try and nudge her out of the line of fire. She received protests, but eventually managed to drag the blue princess back towards a rough sense of safety with her magic; making extra careful not to accidentally jostle her sister and lose the end of the magical instrument.

Back in safety, the princess of the sun looked back up to the strange warrior who’d instilled fear into the entire legion of demons, wondering what magic he commanded that allowed him to seemingly consume the power of the demons; power which her ponies and her had proved to be ineffective against in defending. Power in which even the Elements of Harmony had failed to purify.

The elder’s mouth hung open as the creature raised its burning arm and summoned up a massive fireball, churning magma in the exact same appearance of the demons who’d only just fired upon him, and held it aloft over his head, the ball easily casting a blinding light over the demon army assembled, as though a miniature sun had been reigned under the creature's power and harnessed for his purposes.

The Dullahan chose now to attack, throwing his helmet into the air and pulling his weapon from his side to charge at the new challenger.

As before, time seemed to slow down for the white one. The dullahan looked to only take two steps this time before he suddenly stopped suddenly, mid-charge halfway through his run. A quick, curious look between the competitors showed that the male wasn’t even paying attention to the charging suit of armour, but instead had his shield arm holding the orb of unholy magic while his flaming arm was pointed to the sky, a finger stretched outwards mimicking a crossbow and pointed at the helmet.

What was the point of that? Shouldn’t the fighter worry about the advancing enemy, instead of focussing on the clear distraction of the head toss? Perhaps this opponent was still somewhat new to combat, still undisciplined and prone to distractions?

Then a single bead of orange light appeared at the end of the finger of the outstretched hand. A digit raised upwards, as though giving a sign of approval, suddenly fell and the bead of light was shot forward, streaking through the corrupted skies and pierced through the helmet; through and through it went before the bead dissolved into emptiness.

The dullahan didn’t move. The army didn’t move. The creature didn’t move save for turning back to address the assembled and returned the ball of hell itself to the burning hand.

Then the dullahan did move. In fact, it moved to incredibly that the princess wasn’t entirely sure if what she saw was correct or a trick of the heat. The dullahan fell to its knees, dropping its weapon where it laid and keeled over and then remained prone. Prone and unmoving. The helmet fell from above, and with nothing to catch it, clattered to the ground without an indication of life ever once inhabiting it.

Already the legion was moving. In all directions, away from the slayer of their lord and towards all corners of the globe. Towards her ponies, her loyal subjects and beyond, Equestria’s allies.

The warrior turned audience went to beg for help, to prevent the fleeing of the demons but it seemed that the creature had the exact same thing in mind. Bringing the full size of the sphere down from above, the ball was pushed deep into the ground and with it, cracks of red light snaked outwards towards the fleeing demons. Every demon that a crack caught and touched, exploded into oily black ash which simply fell into a small pile on the ground.

Whatever magic this was, the princess felt a tinge of jealousy mixed in with her gratefulness at the creatures willingness to help. If only she’d had the power to save her little ponies. If only she’d had that power to save her ponies, save her student.

The cracks continued to travel outwards in all directions for another couple dozen meters, then eventually stopped and simply ceased their glowing. The demons fleeing had been destroyed, even if a small handful of them had managed to safely flee to safety. They could be taken care of, as long as she could procure the services of their apparent savior to assist in the hunt. If not, then who knew what havok, what chaos would ensue.

With the fight over, the figure turned back to the rip between realities and the white one’s heart sank. If it’d planned to leave now, then what hope would her country have to survive the ones that got away? What hope would her planet? The ruler of the Sun began to approach the creature, her voice cast out over the field of senseless slaughter towards the savior. Her words a jumbled mess of pleadings, beggings and promises of whatever it wanted, just as long as it stayed to help defend her reality.

The creature stopped at the threshold to the divide and looked back over his shoulder. He smirked, a corner of his mouth raised enough that one could see the pearly whites of his teeth and the ruler had to shutter when she noticed the incisor in his mouth. What if he was worse? What if he was the ultimate hunter? What if by destroying his competition so easily, he’d claimed the world for his own hunting grounds? With power displayed, how could anything hope to ever survive?

Then it raised it’s bare arm, and reached out to the tear between world. A small glyph appeared on the back of his hand and arm, glowing a bright blue, almost white. With a swipe downwards, much like a timberwolf sharpening its claws on the trunk of a tree, the wound in space was healed and reality restored. Or at least as restored as it could be with the remains of such a massacre left behind. As the wound was healed, so too was the corruption of the sun and the redness in the skies was washed away, replaced with the planned blue skies and white burning sun.

The being turned to the worried princess as doubt riddled her mind and she wondered how she was to defend against such a predator like the creature before her. What plans did he have? What was his motivations?

Then he smiled. It wasn’t a sinister, “I’m going to enjoy hunting you all” kind of smile but instead it was a calm, caring smile as the hell fire on his arm and in his eye reduced to embers before fading away to nothing altogether. Even the glowing glyphs on his arm, and the light in his closed eye, disappeared.

With a warm voice, the being spoke for the first time. And his words, the princess found her worries washed away. With his words, she knew that everything would be alright.