Apple Bloom dropped a few more boards next to the base of the clubhouse. Scootaloo had flight lessons and Sweetie Belle was spending the day with her sister, so she was getting stuff ready to fix a few things latter. She wiped the sweat off her brow and grabbed the juice box she brought with her.
An odd noise drew her attention to the ground behind her where a strange vortex started to form. Suddenly a bizarre creature burst out of it. Long spindly limbs, and half of a wheel stuck to the back of its head. "AAA." It turned and looked at her but went back to working its way out of the vortex. Suddenly it stopped. It started to slide back in and panicked. Apple Bloom backed up against the boards but one of the creatures hands managed to blindly grab her before a sudden tug pulled them both in.
"AAAAAA." The demon was slammed into the ground and Apple Bloom curled into a ball as she was sent rolling. There was a loud bang from the demon just before she smashed through something and was sent airborne. She uncurled and looked down to see herself heading for what looked like a strange suit of green armour. It was open on top and she actually managed to land in it without getting hurt. She was still disoriented when the armour started to close up around her. She screamed again and there was a moment where she couldn't move, but then she was off and running like it wasn't even there.
She went around the room once before seeing the hole she came in through. She dove at the opening but the armour was too big and she couldn't dig through the rock. A noise drew her attention to a stone sliding away to reveal a doorway. She ran for it but before she got through, a demon stepped in front of her with a fireball in its hand. "AAAAAA." She didn't have time to stop so she braced for the hit but hardly noticed the impact or the snapping sounds. As she ran away from the screaming monster, a beam of magic from her back picked up something off the ground. The word 'Shotgun' flashed before her just as a pair of metal tubes on her back slid forward past each side of her head. This distraction stopped her from noticing the runes on the floor of the room at the end of the hallway until it was too late and she slid to a stop on top of it.
Suddenly she was somewhere else and with a different kind of demon in front of her. "AAAAAA." This time her panic cause her to fire the shotgun on her back, with each barrel pointed at the back of the demon's knees. The hell razer screamed and fell as she turned around only to find an imp standing there looking at her. "AAAAAA." The imp put its hands over its ears, causing it to shove a fireball into one. Apple Bloom fired again and another demon fell. She turned and ran away but didn't get far before another hell razer stepped out of a side tunnel and stood before her. Another scream and another shotgun blast cut it down at the knees like the others. Apple Bloom tried to run away but didn't have the traction to stop fast enough and ended up kicking the demon in the head a few times as it flailed about.
After lots of screaming in fear, a few twists and turn, and several more demons left screaming in pain, she finally saw some bright light and ran towards it. The tunnel leading out was extra smooth and slicked with something but she just kept her eyes on the light at the end. She was almost out when two demons got in her way. "AAAAAA." She fired and took a leg off of each but had no way of stopping and plowed through them before they fell.
Outside, the slide took a sharp turn down. "AAAA." She fired again and accidentally hit a revenant, causing it to loose control of its flight and crash into the huge mouth of a floating cacodemon. In a panic, it fired off its rocket launchers, causing them both to explode.
A 0 flashed in the bottom corner of her vision just before the shotgun barrels went away. Replacing the one on the right was a round thing with a gem at the front and a series of fins that slowly rotated around the whole thing. 'Cutting Laser' replaced 'Shotgun' in the corner of her vision.
Apple Bloom was sliding across a flat area heading into a tall building. And really didn't want to think about the red stuff that was replacing the water on this water slide. Inside she could see a little area that she might be able to get onto and tried to make her way over but only ended up slowly spinning around.
What she saw next caused her to gasp, it was a large room full of demons. "AAA-" The fins on her weapon started spinning faster as a solid beam of energy shot out. With her legs locked up in fright and her still slowly spinning from before, the beam swept across the room at about knee hight. By coincidence of the speed she was sliding and spinning, the beam settled on concentrating on the central support column and burned through it whenever an unfortunate demon's legs weren't in the way. "-AAA." She lost sight of the room at about the same time her laser ran out of energy.
The beam of magic from before pulled something off of a small platform next to the slide and the words 'Power Ballista' flashed before her. A long metal shaft tipped with barbed blades stuck out in front of her.
She was sliding backwards and so didn't know about a sudden drop off until she was in free fall. She screamed as she fell but still noticed that the shaft on her back was gone and being replaced by another.
She splashed down into a pool of blood, but the armour kept her supplied with air and was light enough to let her swim to the surface. "Ewww." She got to a shallow area at the edge just as there was a 'thunk' and a large splash behind her. She turned around to see a metal pole, like the one on her back, sticking out of the pool. She backed away from the rippling waves it was somehow making, until she was standing on dry ground. A quick shake left her thankfully rather clean.
Looking back the way she came, she could see the top of the building she went through. Suddenly it started falling and the ground shook. "Uh oh." She ran away before anypony could blame her. Some things flashed in the top corner of her vision but she ignored them as she looked for where to go. By the time the shaking stopped she was in a narrow ravine that ended with a series of stairs leading up to a building. After thinking about it for a moment she decided it would be her best chance to get back home.
When she finally reached the top, there before her was a demon that would tower over any other demon she had seen so far. She actually started to lean back a little as she looked up at it. Then it took a step towards her. She went from stunned to panicked and fired the power ballista. The barron of hell's advance was stopped as a large shaft was buried into its right thigh. She was frozen in fear as the demon roared in pain. It summoned a fireball in its left hand, drawing Apple Bloom's attention and shifting her body just in time for the ballista to fire again. It roared again and dropped the fireball on an imp that came over to see what was going on. Apple Bloom watched the flaming imp run off and saw several more getting close. The barron's roar was half whimpered as it gestured to the first bolt and again to the second bolt before flat out whimpering as it staggered around a little. Apple Bloom turned to run but even more imps were behind her. The ballista fired and three imps were pinned to a wall, over a fire. For a moment she felt that she had achieved a 'shish kabob', whatever that meant.
Apple Bloom turned and ran towards the barron of hell, who was still whimpering and dancing with a shaft in each hand. Inside, the building was just open space with things piled around haphazardly. A fireball flew over her head and she started running again as the magic beam on her back collected things.
"AAAAAA. Letmeoutletmeoutletmeout." Apple Bloom screamed as the imps continued to throw fireballs at her and the barron of hell limped its way around the relatively cramped space. Then she saw it, a bit of bright light shining through the back wall. She dove for the small hole and crawled through just as two imps jumped at her and got stuck in the hole as they both reached out to grab her. Her heart fell as she saw only a small piece of ground with no way out. Her only hope was a cave that she might be able to hide in.
It was then that the barron noticed the hissing noise and looked around at the large number of hell barrels, many of them on fire. There was a roar of terror before things were smashed out of the way in a desperate attempt to flee.
The Doom Marine stepped into a new area and a series of helpful objectives flashed in his HUD as he surveyed the landscape. A number of floating islands over the void and some solid ground in between.
He dealt with the welcoming party by punting one imp into another and hitting them both with a rocket. A flash of light cause him to look up and see one of the islands breaking up in a fireball. Even before the shockwave hit, his HUD flashed an update.
'Destroy the supply depo' was marked complete.
'Defeat the barron of hell taskmasters' was marked 1/4
Apple Bloom's scream was drowned out by the explosion as she skipped off the ground and into the cave. She slammed into the wall and was too dazed to notice the runes on the floor or the change in scenery.
When she finally got up the nerve to leave the cave she immediately realized that she was somewhere else. She was on a stretch of ground sticking out from a cliff. To her left was a rocky area that looked to have a path going down. She took another look around but everywhere else was the edge of the cliff.
She started making her way towards the path when a demon stepped out from behind a boulder. The demon turned towards her and she fired. The bolt missed, passing between its legs and striking a rock in the ground. The shaft came up so fast that it knocked the hell knight off its feet. It let out a high pitched shriek and grabbed its crotch as it fell to the ground crying.
Apple Bloom considered trying to run past the fallen demon but some stomping noise caused her to freeze. The stomping picked up its pace and the ground started to shake a little as it got closer but she didn't see anything on the platform with her. Something slammed into her. Actually it impaled itself on the bolt in front of her and took her with it as it kept running.
The invisible demon roared and lifted Apple Bloom into the air. "AAAAAA." She fired, but instead she launched herself backwards through the air. There was a moment of calm as she arced through the air, away from her attacker. Then she looked down at the nothingness far below her. "AAAOof." She hit solid ground with a small bounce and was stunned for a moment. Her invisible attacker didn't fair so well, judging by the bolt tumbling down into the void. She shook some sense back into her head and looked around but only found one way to go.
The Doom Marine threw an imp off the edge just before a roar caused him to look up and see a long metal pole falling past. The specter slammed into the imp as they both continued falling. Several minutes latter he made his way up to the outcropping it must have fell from. This time he found a shaft sticking out of a rock next to two puddles. He looked around for a moment before scratching his helmet.
Apple Bloom peeked around the corner and saw an empty stretch of ground with a set of stairs at the end. She checked the area and gulped before quietly making her way over. She was about half way across when she heard it, a roar from above followed by a thud behind her. She spun around and saw a hell knight starting to run at her.
"AAAAAA." The power ballista fired and suddenly a long shaft put most of it's length through the hell knight's left knee. It cried out and fell to the ground as Apple Bloom backed away, with the ballista whirling away to prepare another shot. The hell knight staggered to the canyon wall and pulled itself onto its feet. Apple Bloom's continued panic caused her to fire again. This time the shaft pinned its right knee to the stone wall and held it there even as the hell knight lost the ability to remain standing.
Apple Bloom turned and ran. Up the flight of stairs, turn around, up another flight of stairs and onto a flat area that was thankfully demon free. There was a small gap in a wall that she could fit through and in she went. There was only a small outcropping on the other side but at least there was something between her and anything that might be following her and that would give her a chance to calm down and catch her breath. After checking to make sure she wasn't going to be immediately attacked, she took a deep breath and sat down. And accidentally fired the power ballista. She watched the large bolt arc through the air. "Oops."
The Doom Marine used the body of a hell knight to block a shot from a cacodemon. Before he could retaliate, there was a roar behind him and he turned to see a fat mancubus pointing its arms at him. He grabbed his gauss cannon, but suddenly the cacodemon was pinned to the mancubus by a long shaft. As the cacodemon flailed about, it was chewing on the head of the mancubus, who in turn panicked and fired both cannons at its attacker, killing them both. The resulting series of explosions sent the bolt back into the air where it clipped a revenant and sent it crashing into the ground. The revenant looked up in time to see an armoured foot coming down.
Apple Bloom was looking down at a canyon with a rock arch over the exit at the far end. She peaked over the edge. It wasn't too far down, but she probably wouldn't be able to get up if she needed to go back. She bit her lip and her ears went back as much as the armour would allow. She glanced back the way she came before she stepped up to the edge, and after a moment's hesitation she jumped.
She was still on a little ledge above the canyon floor when she heard a noise. Past the archway was a bunch of imps throwing fireballs at something as they ran by. She crouched down and waited for them to leave as she glanced at the 1 in the corner of her vision. A barron of hell roared as it passed by. Apple Bloom flinched and a second latter the baron's knees were pinned together before it fell down out of view. She stayed still and watched the words 'Incendiary Lemon Cannon' flash in her vision before another tube came up beside her. This one had the word 'Aperture' on it and a drawing that looked like Sweetie Belle's eyes up close. There was a series of bashing and crunching sounds before the baron's screams suddenly stopped, but she couldn't see what was happening. The imps started running into the canyon.
"AAAAAA." Her cannon started firing as she shifted back and forth, looking at all the demons running at her. The modified fruit all too readily gave up its acid payload and saturated the area. The imps cried out as their skin and eyes burned. Then everything caught fire. She tried to get back up the wall while flaming imps ran around in a panic.
The fortunate ones ran back towards the arch where The Doom Marine put them down. With crushed skulls and limbs ripped off, he tore through their numbers. At the end of the canyon was a small creature wearing armour and with a weapon mounted on its back. It was desperately trying to scale the wall to no effect. He grabbed it by the back of the neck and it let out a small feminine scream as the weapon fired on reflex. Turning her to face him, she curled up and whimpered as he surveyed the swath of carnage she had started. He looked back at her for a moment before giving her a thumbs up then holding out his fist, and after a bit of hesitation she reached out and bumped it. When he set her down and she fell to all fours, the mounted weapon suddenly made sense.
She looked up at him. "Um.. C-can you help me get home? Please!"
A new objective appeared on his HUD 'Find the portal to Tartarus'. A quick check of his map showed that it wasn't far away and he was already planning to go that way. He looked down and nodded at her before walking off.
She quickly trotted up beside him. "T-thanks. I'm Apple Bloom!" She waited for a moment without a response. "Don't talk much? That's ok, my brother don't talk much nether."
Things were quiet as they walked along. She avoided the fallen demons that he ignored as he stepped on or in them. At the arch was just an intersection to more canyon, and the direction they went got narrow until it was a twisting path between the two walls.
They turned a corner and came across a mancubus in an open area a short ways away. Apple Bloom flinched at seeing the large demon and fired her cannon. It tried to roar at them but caught the lemon in its mouth instead. It bit down and chewed a couple times before it started laughing at them. Its laughter quickly turned to panicked grunts as it tried to wipe its mouth with its cannons. Its head burst into flames and it actually managed to turn around and run away from them before tripping over a rock and falling off an edge.
They stepped into the open and saw a short, wide bridge connecting to an area with a large building carved into the rock face. He put his rocket launcher away and pulled out his plasma rifle. Apple Bloom watched as the one weapon disappeared and another replaced it. She turned to the tube attached to her back and concentrated for a moment. The tube went away and was replaced by what kind of looked like a unicorns horn as the words kinetic blaster flashed in her vision.
Things were quiet as they made their way across. Of course it wouldn't last. They were partway across when a noise drew their attention up to where some imps were jumping down from the tops of the cliffs. The three imps landed on the bridge and started running at them.
The Doom Marine ran at them and started firing at the one on the right. Apple Bloom turned to the one on the left and fired a burst of three rounds. The first hit it in the gut, causing it to stop an double over. The second hit it in the face, knocking it back. The third hit it between the legs, causing it to fall to its knees and let out a high pitched shriek. The Doom Marine took a running kick at it like a football and the pitch went higher as the imp went over the edge. He put his arms straight up to celebrate but Apple Bloom heard a noise behind her and turned around to look up.
An imp had jumped down and was almost on her. "AAAAAA." It didn't even have time to cover its ears before a stream of magic bolts slammed into it. It stopped falling and was sent back into the air where it bounced off the rock it had jumped from.
There were some crunching sounds and she looked over for a moment before looking away again as he finished off the last imp. After waiting a moment for the sounds to stop, she ran over to the other side of the bridge and they continued on their way. Nothing happened as they approached the building, but Apple Bloom was worried about what was on the other side of the huge doors while he fiddled with some red and yellow things on ether side.
The doors opened and Apple Bloom gasped. At the end of a short hallway was a huge room with dozens of demons waiting for them. Her cannon fired its last lemon but it hardly mattered. "Need something bigger. Something bigger!" The words 'BaleFire Grenade' flashed in the corner of her vision before the thing on her back kicked her backwards as it fired its only round. They watched the disturbing ball of green fire arc through the air. He grabbed her by the scruff and ducked out of the doorway. A moment latter a massive explosion shook the ground and a huge jet of green fire shot past them.
He heard a puttering sound and was confused for a moment before looking down at a hyperventilating Apple Bloom. But the sound was coming from a chainsaw mounted on her back, upside down. With the teeth coming out the bottom, going up the tip and back along the top where they met a pair of round bars sticking up.
He reached down and gave her a nudge. She looked up at him and he patted her on the shoulder. Then she started to calm down.
Approaching the door again, they found that the room had been cleared out. Walking down the hallway and into the room, they saw that only scorch mark outlines were left to show that demons had been there moments ago. It was a large round room with three more doors, one in front of them and one to each side. They got to the center of the room when the side doors opened and the last two barron of hell taskmasters stepped out.
The Doom Marine grabbed Apple Bloom by the tail and threw her at the barron on the right. He fired a rocket at its face and then went after the one on the left. Being thrown at a demon caused her to panic and start screaming as the chainsaw revved up. His throw was good but the demon staggered back from the rocket and Apple Bloom fell short of its chest. She came down, back first, onto something fleshy. The saw teeth bit in and started to pull, but the guard sticking up stopped her from running off as her legs flailed in the air.
The chainsaw screamed, Apple Bloom screamed, the barron screamed. A ways away, an imp with strips of human flesh wrapped around the stumps of its legs, cried over a bowl of eyes cream.
Something let go and she flipped around, landing on her hooves, but only managed a few slippery steps before the saw grabbed something else that fell on her, pressing her against the floor. Her vision was red and she couldn't hear anything over the noise, leaving her with no idea what was going on.
Finally the pressure let up just as the saw sputtered to a stop. She got to her hooves and ran but still couldn't see where she was going. She heard her kinetic blaster firing and watched the number tick down, but couldn't tell if she was hitting anything. Something grabbed her and she struggled to get away but whatever it was just held her tight as it ran around, almost like it was pointing her as something. When nothing bad happened she started to calm down and stopped firing. After that she was tossed to the side. When she got up and shook her head, her vision had cleared up enough to see again. She looked around and saw that the one barron had been knocked down and she looked away just before it was finished off.
With that taken care of, he looked around to see what happened to the other barron but only found a pair of legs and a blood trail leading to a closed door. He walked up to his improvised weapon and gave her a nudge before making his way over to the last door. With the last key in place, the door opened to reveal a bizarre room that was covered in runes. As they approached, the runes seemed to twist and rearrange themselves until a dark portal opened in the middle of it all.
Apple Bloom hesitated for a moment. "I-is that t-the way back to Equestria?" But he kept walking and she quickly followed. Together they stepped through the portal into the dark world beyond.
Even taking a moment to adjust to the darkness didn't seem to help. There was a loud sniffing sound right next to them and before they could react, their world became pink and slimy. The Doom Marine backed up but was lightly bumped to the side by... a very large and oddly affectionate dog, with three heads and a pitch black coat. Taking a few steps away and wiping some of the slobber off, he was able to see that the area wasn't as dark as he first thought.
Apple Bloom moved to the side as well and looked up at Cerberus. "I remember you. Does this mean that I'm back in Equestria?" One of the heads just tilted to the side. "Can you show-"
A roar drew their attention to the portal as the barron of hell taskmaster dragged itself through. The Doom Marine pulled out his rocket launcher but Cerberus had already attacked. A sets of jaws clamped down and the barron was shaken like a ragdoll. With the roar reduced to a whimper, Cerberus happily walked away with his prize.
The Doom Marine looked around. It was a hellscape, of that he was sure, but unlike the one he was used too. There were no rivers of blood or tormented bodies on display, no demons running about looking to cause problems. There were demons, but the ones he could see were chained up or locked in cages. Whatever evil existed in this place, it was not enjoying it's stay. He looked back at the portal and a world full of evil that needed to be destroyed.
"Wait! Where are you going?" Apple Bloom ran up to him as he approached the portal. "We're finally out of that place."
He reached down and patted her on the helmet before continuing on. The portal winked out, moments after he went back through. It was a minute latter that Cerberus returned and gently picked up Apple Bloom in his mouth before carrying her to the entrance.
A hell knight stood guard at a doorway. Strips of human flesh were wrapped around both knees. Inside, several summoners were holding open a portal to another realm. On the other side of that portal the forces of Equestria, lead by the princesses themselves, were cutting down the demons that came through, while trying to find a way to close it. Another group of summoners were working on opening a different portal. They had located the new doom slayer and would take their revenge.
Apple Bloom stood outside the schoolhouse. Applejack told her to get her special armour but wouldn't let her fight. When she insisted that she could help, she was told to keep the foals safe at the school. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo stood beside her. Miss Cheerilee had given up on trying to get the three inside and was looking after the others.
With all of the noise from the fighting, they didn't notice the portal forming on the ground behind them until it was already open. A summoner flew at them, but Apple Bloom fired her shotgun and it suffered the same fate as many other demons. They jumped out of the way as it crashed into the ground. They kept their eyes on it as they got up and so didn't have time to turn around when three imps came up from behind and grabbed them. The imps ran back and jumped into the portal that was quickly closing.
The summoner watched the portal close up before it could crawl over to it. Then it heard a terrifying sound. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY STUDENTS?" It looked over and whimpered, suddenly afraid of what an enraged adult earthpony could do to a wounded demon.
Before they hit the ground, Apple Bloom twisted free and fired. The imp didn't have feet to land on and was left flopping on the ground. Another loud bang caused the one holding Sweetie Belle to let go and fall to the ground without shrieking in pain. The third one looked up in time to see an armoured fist.
The Doom Marine watched the imp stagger backwards and drop the little pony before he stepped up and grabbed it by the throat. He threw the imp into the wall, then kicked it through the wall. What lay beyond were two familiar but slightly different suits of armour. One had a bump in the forehead while the other had small wings and jets on the sides.
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo walked up to them and easily slipped into the armour.
The imp on the ground saw this and then curled into a ball and started to cry.
The Doom Marine turned and grinned at the hellscape.
Slayers Testament: The Little Pony II
The second encounter with little ponies brought about new and intresting forms of pain to demon kind. It was then decided that acess to the Rainbow Realm of Torment be forbidden, for fear of what a third encounter with such creatures may entail.
