The Devil You Know

Sunset Shimmer trotted carefully down the narrow passageway that led deep inside Canterlot mountain. The soft light from enchanted torches that lined her path created mesmerizing patterns in the mountain's crystalline walls. The soft rumble of the waterfall running off the mountain echoed through the passage, the noise growing in volume the deeper she went. Moisture clung to the walls and steps, making her tread carefully, lest she trip and fall. Arriving with a broken neck at the bottom of the passage would be preferable to the mocking she would receive, having tripped over herself on the way down.

Her thoughts lingered on that mare who had breezed through Starswirl’s gambit like it was nothing. Sunset had never felt so humiliated in her life! She was the Knight Commander and the princess’ personal protege, and yet Celestia had just swept her aside like a common servant, in favor of this, this archivist!

Eventually, the passage opened out into a vast cavern, covered in jagged white stalactites. To one side was a tunnel that streamed daylight from outside, filtered through the water thundering from above. On the other side, a rough podium had been cut into the bedrock that dominated the cavern. Sitting upon it was a enormous pile of gems of every size and colour, taller than a two storey house. Such was the value gathered here it could have funded the war effort for months.

Yet the one she had come to see was missing.

“Commander Shimmer!” came an angry shout, and a green earth pony stallion with a darker seaweed coloured mane trotted up to her. “I’ve had it! No more!” He tossed his leather apron to the floor.

Sunset frowned, “Shamrock, just calm down and tell me what happened.”

“That beast tried to eat me again!” he huffed, his voice a strange mixture of angry and terrified. “He’s always looking at me like I’m a snack.”

“Malice!” Sunset called. “Is this true?”

The mountain of gems shifted, revealing a row of lime-green spines, emerging from the pile like a row of shark fins. They slithered along until the scarred purple snout of an enormous wyrm emerged from the pile. Smoke billowed from its nostrils as it tilted its head to eye them both with a baleful green eye the size of a shield.

“Is what true?” came a male voice that rumbled through the cavern like an earthquake.

“That you tried to eat him?” she said, looking comical facing down such a beast.

“Tried and sadly failed,” he said, his voice sounding mournful. “Alas, he was too quick for me.”

Shamrock bolted for the passageway leading up and out, wailing as he ran.

“Damn it, Malice,” Sunset fumed, “That’s the third stablecolt you’ve tried to eat in as many months.”

He rumbled a chuckle, black smoke snorting into her angry face. “I cannot survive on gems alone, mistress. You keep me trapped here for too long; my fangs ache for the taste of flesh.”

“But he was the best one we’ve had. He was actually competent!” she huffed, with an exasperated sigh.

The wyrm let out a bellowing laugh, “In more ways than one, it seems. Sometimes, I wonder if you get these stallions more to service your own needs than mine.”

Sunset looked away, trying to hide her blush. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Malice grinned, revealing his maw of sword-length teeth. “These tunnels do carry sound, you know. There’s nothing worse than the echo of your amative moans assaulting my ears. Disgusting.”

Sunset felt her cheeks burning hot.

“I do wish you would go someplace else to have a stallion blow away your cobwebs.”

“That’s enough!” she hissed, her horn glowing a bright red.

The wyrm cringed slightly, but his smile remained. “You ponies have no sense of humour.”

“I didn’t come here to bandy words with you,” she said, the glow from her horn fading. “Tonight, we go to war.”

A gasp rose from him. He emerged completely from the pile to his full terrifying height, the sound of shifting gems cascading around him like a thousand panes of shattering glass. “At last, I will be free of this damp prison! Where must we go, mistress?”

“Ponyville. The Celestial Knights will assault the infestation there,” she said, levitating a heavy leather saddle over from a small wooden hut that was nestled in the corner of the cavern.

His tail flicked, rising from the gems like a breaching whale. “Ponyville? Why must we fight over a pile of ash? War is not exciting without an audience.”

“Are my knights not a sufficient audience for you?” she asked, her eyes narrowing.

“They die too quickly,” he sighed, flopping back down onto his bed of gems. “Why do you taunt me with such false promises? If I wanted to watch you ponies die pointlessly, I could just wait here for the Umbra to come. At least I would have snacks.”

“The Princess has ordered us,” she said, feeling her irritation grow.

“So? The coward chooses to sacrifice us for her vanity then?” he snapped.

With that, he found his head grasped in a red glow and slammed against the floor. “I suggest you remember whom it is you are speaking of!”

“Forgive me, mistress,” he said without the slightest hint of sincerity. “But it is a waste of our potential, is it not?”

Her tail flicked, the thought of wasting her soldiers’ lives for the sake of some runt fool’s errand causing her anger to rise. Did Celestia have so little faith in her?

“You think so too, I see,” he said.

“You’ve been cooped up here for too long. You’re imagining things,” she said as she mounted the saddle onto his muscular neck.

“Am I? Do I detect a sliver of doubt in your mighty princess?” he asked, his tail swishing from side to side in the gem pile.

“Enough. You want war? You want blood? There will be plenty of both before this night is through,” she growled before tilting her head. “Besides, should you survive, you’ll have a front row seat for the spectacle.”

One of his eye ridges rose, “Oh?”

“You are not the only monster being unleashed tonight.”